The four kids just stared back at the two men in front of them. What in the world were they talking about, there was no possible way that Peter Pettigrew was in the room, they had to be lying.
"You're both mental!" Ron once again voiced what they were all thinking.
"This is Ridiculous" Hermione stated
"Pettegriew is dead!" Harry said
"Yeah you told me yourself professor Lupin that he killed him!"Daisy pointed at Black, the mans eyes flickered over to her and he looked deeply disheartened.
"I meant to" he growled "but the little rat got the better of me.....not this time though!"
Black lunged forward at Ron with his arms stretched out in front of him. The ginger boy yelled in fear but luckily Lupin was able to hold him back and pull him back.
"Sirius NO" He kept his arms tightly wrapped around him until he calmed down "wait, you can't just do it like that they need to know we have to explain"
"We can explain afterwards" Sirius hissed trying to get out of Lupins hold.
"They have a right to know and you know it! Ron had kept as a pet for twelve years! there are still some parts of the story that even I don't understand! And the twins. You owe Harry and Daisy the truth Siri"
Black had stopped struggling against his friend though his eyes were still firmly fixed on Scabbers, there was a moment of silence where Sirius seemed to space out until he turned his head back to Lupin and softly nodded.
"All right then" Remus said "tell them whatever you want but make it quick Remus, I want commit the murder I was imprisoned for......"
"Harry can we please just go I really don't like this"
"I'm with you Daisy those two are nutters" Ron said, he grabbed Daisy hand and began to limp towards the door, taking Daisy with him. The other two were about to follow but Lupin had jumped forward and grabbed Daisy by the wrist.
"Ah! Ron!"
Remus' face fell when Faisy screamed, it hurt him greatly to know that his own goddaughter was afraid of him.
"Not so fast you two are going to stay here and hear us out" Lupin said.
Ron pulled on Daisy's wrist to get it out of Lupins hold and hugged her tightly so her back was towards Lupin.
"Just keep a tight grip on Pete Ron"
"HE'S NOT PETER, HE IS SCABBERS" the boy yelled at them, trying to stuff the rat pack in his pocket but scabbers was fighting to much.
"There were witnesses that saw petteigrew die" Harry began "A whole street full of them"
"They didn't see what they thought they saw!" Black shouted.
"Everyone thinks that Sirius killed Peter" Lupin said "I believe it myself until I saw the map tonight. The map never lies so that must mean that Peter is alive and Ron is holding him"
Harry and Ron locked eyes both agreeing silently that these men were both out of their minds. In their minds their theory made no sense at all. How could Scabbers be Peter petteigrew?Then Hermione spoke in a trembling voice.
"But profesor Lupin it can't be true, Scabbers can't Petteigrew, it just can't be true"
"But why can't it be true?"
"Because people would know if Peter Petteigrew was an Animagus. We learnt about animagi in class in transfiguration class and I looked them up in the library when I did my homework, the ministry keeps tabs on witches and wizards who can become Animagus, there is a register showing what animal they become and there have only been seven animagi this century and Peter name was not on the list"
Lupin began to laugh when Hermione had finished her speech. The other three kids were just admiring their friends attention to detail and her intelligence.
"Right again Hermione!" He told her "but the ministry never knew that there were three unregistered animagi running around Hogwarts"
"If you are going to tell them the story, get a move on Remus I will not wait much longer" Sirius growled out from the coner.
"All right but you will need to help me I only know how it began"
Out of no where there was creaking sound heard through the shack and the door inched open by itself and all six of them stared at it. Lupin walked forward and looked through the door.
"There is no one there..."
"Harry I'm scared, this place is haunted" Daisy whispered.
"It's not" said Lupin still looking around outside the door "the shrieking shack has never been haunted, the screams and the howled that the villagers tell others about were made by me"
Lupin sighed and ran his hand through his hair.
"That is where the story begins actually, with me becoming a werewolf, I was a very small boy when I was bitten. My parents read everything they could get their hands on but there was no cure. It seemed impossible that I would be aloud to attend hogwarts when I turned eleven. Other parents most likely wouldn't want their children exposed to some one like me"
"But then Dumbeldore became headmaster and he said that there was no reason that I should be allowed to attend his school" He turned to look at the twins "I told you two months ago that the whomping willow was planted the year that I came to school. The truth is that it was painted there because this house and the tunnel attached to it were built so that I would have a place to come once a month to transform and the tree was there to stop anyone getting close to me"
They couldn't see where the story was going but they listened intently, the only sound apart from Professor Lupin's voice were the destressed squeeks coming Scabbers.
"My transformations in those days were awful, they very painful and there were no humans around so all I could was bite and scratch at myself. The villagers heard me and the believed my howls of pain to be goahsts and Dumbeldore encouraged the rumours and even for these many years that there have no sound from within this Hosur the villagers do not dare approach it"
"But apart from my transformations I was the happiest I had ever been because for the first time I was around other children and I had friends. Sirius Black....Peter petteigrew and your father Harry and Daisy James potter. My friends could hardly fail to notice that I disappeared once a month. I made up all sorts of stories. I told them my mother was ill and I had to go home to see her but of course, like you girls, the figured out the truth"
"But they didn't desert me at all instead they did something that would not only make my transformations not only bearable but the best times of my life. They became animagi"
"My daddy too?"
"Yes, indeed" he smiled down at his goddaughter "It took them the best part of three years to work out how to do it. Your father and Sirius figured it out in their third year but it took Peter until his fifth and then they managed to do it"
"But how did that help you?"
"They couldn't keep me company as humans so they did it as animals, werewolfs are only a danger to people so they would sneak out every month under the cloak and join me in here as animals"
"Hurry up, Remus"
"I'm getting there Sirius and eventually we mad the map and singed with our nicknames that came form the animal that were were"
"What sort of animal-" Hermione cut Harry off and he glared at her.
"That is still really dangerous! what if you would have slipped and bitten one of them!"
"Hermione!"
"A thought that still haunts me" He said heavily "but we were young, thoughtless and carried away"
"All this year, I have been battling myself wondering weather I should tell Dumbeldore that Sirius was an Animagus but I didn't because I was too cowardly so in a way Snape has been right about me all along"
"Snape?" Black said finally taking his eyes off of the rat and looking at Lupin "what has he got to do with it?"
"He's here Sirius, he's teaching here as well"
"Professor Snape went to school with us he had been telling Dumbeldore all year thar I am not to be trusted. He has his reasons though, Sirius here played a trick on him which nearly killed him, a truck which involved me"
"It served him right" Black sneered "sneaking around trying to find out what we were up to....hoping to get us expelled"
"That is no reason to try and kill someone you idiot" Daisy scowled at him.
"Severus was very interested in where I went every month" Lupin told them "we were in the sane year at school and we didn't like eachother and Snape has seen me with Madame pomfrey one night and Sirius thought it would be amusing to tell Snape how to get past the whomping willow and Snape tried it but your father, who had heard what Sirius had done went after Snape and pulled him back risking his own life in the process but Snape had seen me and was forbidden to tell anyone by Dumbeldore"
"So that's why he hates you" Daisy spoke up "because he thought you were in on it?"
"That's right!" Sneered a cold voice from behind Lupin.
Snape suddenly appeared at the door as the invisibility cloak slipped off him, his usual evil sneer was now one hundred times darker than the children had ever seen it, His wand was held straight up towards Lupin in a threatening manner.