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HERMIONE under the stress of school work—quit divination, as she believed that professor trelawney was a fraud—and slapped malfoy, as he had made fun of hagrid and buckbeak's upcoming execution.
evelyn had tried to calm the girl down while she helped malfoy by giving him an ice pack.
a few days later, the quidditch game between gryffindor and slytherin had begun.
"so, after that obvious and disgusting bit of cheating—"
"jordan!", professor mcgonagall warned.
lee jordan was the commentator for every quidditch match, most likely because he was the best friend of the weasley twins, thus meaning he was the only one that could really tell fred and george apart.
"I mean, after that open and revolting foul—"
"jordan, I'm warning you", professor mcgonagall said more sternly this time.
"all right, all right. flint nearly kills the gryffindor seeker which could happen to anyone. I'm sure", jordan sarcastically commented.
though the slytherins were trying to cheat their way to victory, harry—who now has his firebolt—was quicker than ever.
after racking enough points, harry had caught the snitch and earned gryffindors a long desired victory. since gryffindors had scored more points than hufflepuffs at their previous game, gryffindors took the quidditch cup for the year.
—✼—
exams were rolling around the corner and all students were as stressed as ever. especially hermione since the girl was taking 11 courses.
to make matters worse, when ron, harry, hermione, and evelyn had snuck out to hagrid's hut, hagrid was an emotional mess.
the execution of buckbeak was coming up very soon and hagrid was having a hard time even thinking of parting with the creature.
"ron!! look at this!! I found scabbers!", hermione exclaimed while she brought over the teapot that scabbers was indeed hiding in.
"merlin's beard!! I thought you were dead scabbers!!", ron said as he held the rat who was desperately trying to escape.
"anyways hagrid, I do hope you'll feel better. we've got to go", hermione said as the four exited out the door.
a black dog suddenly appeared, alarming the four of its presence. it pounced on ron, dragging the boy under the whomping willow.
ron, evelyn, and hermione quickly followed, along with crookshanks who surprisingly knew the secret knob to press to still the flailing tree that the three thought were going to eat them.
the three then maneuvered under the tunnel and realized that they reached the shrieking shack that was located in hogsmeade.
ron was left on the floor as he shook his head. the three were confused until they turned around, seeing the one and only, sirius black.
"s-s-sirius b-black", evelyn breathed out.
harry gripped onto his wand tightly. never had he felt more of an urge to hex a man. after all, the person who betrayed his parents and led voldemort to him was sirius black.
"harry, listen—"
harry immediately disarmed sirius black, forcing the man to fall onto his back and onto the floor.
suddenly, professor lupin had appeared, disarming harry and making the four alert.
"professor, what are you—"
professor lupin immediately went to go hug sirius. he seemed to be on the verge of tears as the two adults embraced each other.
"listen harry, there's been a grave misunderstanding!", lupin said, making the four wary.
just as if things couldn't become more confusing, professor snape busted in, pointing his wand at both lupin and sirius. ron's rat tried to escape, but ron held tightly onto his pet.
"lupin and black, I should've know", snape spat.
"severus, please! there's a misunderstanding. sirius is innocent!!", lupin argued, causing snape to retaliate.
"expelliarmus!!"
harry had had enough and casted a spell on snape, not only disarming the man but sending such a great force at him that his back hit the wall of the shack and he fell unconscious.
"professor snape!", evelyn worried as she kneeled beside the man.
"professor lupin, please explain to us what's going on", hermione said desperately.
lupin sighed as him and sirius started their explanation.
"you see harry, I'm a werewolf—an animagus—as probably ms. gardener and ms. granger had figured out already".
lupin knew the two girls were bright, so he didn't exactly expect any less.
"you see, I needed severus's potions to keep me tame. which is why you and ms. gardener saw me drinking the concoction severus had brought me the other day", lupin explained.
"your father—james potter—along with me, sirius, and peter pettigrew were very close knit friends. in fact, we were so close that your father, peter, and sirius all turned into an animagus for me since they knew I was infected with lycanthropy. your father was a smart boy, harry. he had found out my identity when he figured that I was missing every full moon", lupin grinned, seeing how much harry truly resembled his father.
"and so sirius became a black dog, peter became a rat, and james became a stag. we were actually the original creators of the marauder's map. hence the names moony (lupin), padfoot (sirius), wormtail (peter), and prongs (james)".
"but that still doesn't explain how he's innocent!", ron said, flinching as sirius glared at the boy.
"and how did professor snape even know you were a werewolf?", evelyn asked.
"when we all went to school together, severus was...", lupin hesitated.
"we basically bullied him and played pranks on him", sirius quickly said, making lupin awkwardly smile at his friend's straightforwardness.
"a-and so severus knew that something was wrong when we often disappeared around the same time each month. so he one day followed us and sirius decided to play a mean joke on him as consequence for following us and seeing our animagus forms", lupin explained.
"harry", sirius started, making harry flinch.
"I would and would never betray your father. he was my comrade, and...in a way...I as good killed them", sirius finished.
"what happened?!", harry asked, fed up with no one getting to the point and telling him the real truth.
"your mother and father were wonderful—powerful—wizards. they knew they were the next target for voldemort", lupin began.
"so in order to hide themselves forever, they used a fidelius charm. a charm where it conceals information within a person. the chosen person is known as a secret keeper. and your father, had trusted me to be the secret keeper", sirius interrupted.
"but we both knew that someone close to us was secretly giving information to voldemort, as he knew our very next moves. I had suspected remus. I'm sorry, I was wrong", sirius apologized, looking over at lupin.
"it's alright sirius, the truth is out now".
"peter was the one that was actually secretly giving information to voldemort. dumbledore had offered to be the secret keeper, but james was adamant on picking me. and since I had suspected remus, I suggested james to change the secret keeper to peter, so that lupin would be caught off guard. however, my assumption was false, and it had led to the downfall of your parents", sirius dejectedly explained.
"and that rat that you're holding, is peter pettigrew!", lupin said, pointing his wand at ron's rat.
"what?! that's utter bull crap!", ron protested. "scabbers has been a family pet since over 10 years!!"
"and the timeline perfectly lines up", lupin said.
"that night, peter killed the 12 muggles and loudly accused ME of the deed. he cut off his finger and faked his own death, counting as the 13th kill. he ran away into your family while I was left to go serve in azkaban for 12 years!!", sirius scowled.
"I had only escaped when I saw on the news cover that the weasley family was in egypt, and I saw peter on ron's shoulder. I had to turn into a dog so that the dementors couldn't detect my canine guise", sirius further explained.
indeed, ron's rat had a missing toe. but he was still reluctant to believe sirius, until lupin had casted a spell that made ron's rat turn into a man.
suddenly, everything clicked. the black dog that harry had seen throughout the year was actually sirius. people said that while he was in azkaban, he kept on chanting "hogwarts", and that was because he wanted to track down peter pettigrew. not only that, but that was also why crookshanks was always trying to catch scabbers. and if memory served them correctly, scabbers became thin and scared not when the cat appeared, but when it had heard the news that sirius black had escaped akzaban. he was scared, because he knew sirius was coming for him.
"s-s-sirius! remus!! p-please, we're still friends right? just like before!!", peter fearfully exclaimed.
"peter you coward! I can't believe that you'd betray lily and james for the dark force!", sirius spat.
the four children were utterly speechless and disgusted, as peter had begged for mercy.
not sparing another moment, they had coiled him up with rope and exited out the way they had came in from. snape's body was floating—with a swish of the wand—as he was still unconscious.
as soon as the kids and adults stepped out, lupin suddenly remembered that he didn't take his controlling tonic, making him uncontrollably turn into his werewolf form.
"RUN!!", sirius commanded as he turned into his dog form and tried to fend of lupin.
as harry, hermione, ron, and evelyn carried snape's body and ran, dementors started showing up, as they had located sirius black.
out of nowhere, a dementor showed up, causing evelyn and hermione to accidentally drop snape's body.
ron, hermione, and evelyn felt themselves weaken as they fell onto the ground unconscious. though harry had tried to fend off the dementor with his patronus, he felt his soul being sucked out as his vision turned pitch black.
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