hermione screamed. black leapt to his feet. harry looked at though he had been shocked with ten thousand volts.

"i found this at the base of the whomping willow," said snape, throwing the cloak aside, careful to keep this wand pointing directly at lupin's chest. "very useful, potter, i thank you..."

snape was slightly breathless, but his face was full of suppressed triumph. "you're wondering, perhaps, how i knew you were here?" he said, his eyes glittering. "i've just been to your office, lupin. you forgot to take your potion tonight, so i took a gobletful along. and very lucky i did... lucky for me, i mean. lying on your desk was a certain map. one glance at it told me all i needed to know. i saw you running along this passageway and out of sight."

"severus —" lupin began, but snape overrode him.

"i've told the headmaster again and again that you're helping your old friend black into the castle, lupin, and here's the proof. not even i dreamed you would have the nerve to use this old place as your hideout —"

"severus, you're making a mistake," said lupin urgently. "you haven't heard everything — i can explain — sirius is not here to kill harry —"

"two more for azkaban tonight," said snape, his eyes now gleaming fanatically. "i shall be interested to see how dumbledore takes this... he was quite convinced you were harmless, you know, lupin... a tame werewolf —"

"you fool," said lupin softly. "is a schoolboy grudge worth putting an innocent man back inside azkaban?"

BANG! thin, snakelike cords burst from the end of snape's wand and twisted themselves around lupin's mouth, wrists, and ankles; he overbalanced and fell to the floor, unable to move. with a roar of rage, black started toward snape, but snape pointed his wand straight between black's eyes.

anger bubbled in elara.

"give me a reason," snape whispered. "give me a reason to do it, and i swear i will."

black stopped dead. it would have been impossible to say which face showed more hatred.

elara stood there, paralyzed, not knowing what to do or whom to believe. she glanced around at her friends. harry and ron looked just as confused as she did, and ron was still fighting to keep hold on the struggling scabbers. hermione, however, took an uncertain step toward snape and said, in a very breathless voice, "professor snape — it wouldn't hurt to hear what they've got to say, w-would it?"

"miss granger, you are already facing suspension from this school," snape spat. "you, potter, lestrange, and weasley are out-of-bounds, in the company of a convicted murderer and a werewolf. for once in your life, hold your tongue."

"but if — if there was a mistake —"

"KEEP QUIET, YOU STUPID GIRL!" snape shouted, looking suddenly quite deranged. "DON'T TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!" a few sparks shot out of the end of his wand, which was still pointed at black's face. hermione fell silent.

something in elara was tightening. for an authority figure, snape was acting like a madman, insulting students and harming another professor who did nothing to provoke him. snape was really holding onto a grudge formed over sixteen years ago. snape was acting like a child with anger issues, there was no doubt about it.

"vengeance is very sweet," snape breathed at black. "how i hoped i would be the one to catch you..."

"the joke's on you again, severus," black snarled. "as long as this boy brings his rat up to the castle" — he jerked his head at ron — "i'll come quietly..."

"up to the castle?" said snape silkily. "i don't think we need to go that far. all i have to do is call the dementors once we get out of the willow. they'll be very pleased to see you, black...pleased enough to give you a little kiss, i daresay... i —"

what little color there was in black's face left it.

"you — you've got to hear me out," he croaked. "the rat — look at the rat —"

but there was a mad glint in snape's eyes that elara had never seen before. he seemed beyond reason.

"come on, all of you," he said. he clicked his fingers, and the ends of the cords that bound lupin flew to his hands. "i'll drag the werewolf. perhaps the dementors will have a kiss for him too —"

maybe it was the way snape was treating professor lupin and expressing his desire to subject him to the kiss, because before elara knew what she was doing, she and harry had crossed the room in three strides and blocked the door together.

"get out of the way, you two, you're in enough trouble already," snarled snape. "if i hadn't been here to save your skins —"

"professor lupin could have killed me about a hundred times this year," harry said. "we've been alone with him loads of times, having defense lessons against the dementors. if he was helping black, why didn't he just finish me off then?"

"don't ask me to fathom the way a werewolf's mind works," hissed snape. "get out of the way."

"YOU'RE PATHETIC!" elara yelled. "JUST BECAUSE THEY MADE A FOOL OF YOU AT SCHOOL, YOU WON'T EVEN LISTEN — "

"SILENCE! I WILL NOT BE SPOKEN TO LIKE THAT!" snape shrieked, looking madder than ever. "like father, like son and like mother, like daughter! i have just saved your necks; you should be thanking me on bended knees! you would have been well served if he'd killed you, potter! you'd have died like your father, too arrogant to believe you might be mistaken in black — now get out of the way, or i will make you. NOW GET OUT OF THE WAY, LESTRANGE!"

elara made up her mind in a split second. the tightening sensation in her stomach had snapped. before snape could take even one step toward her, she had raised his wand.

"expelliarmus!" she yelled — except that her wasn't the only voice that shouted. there was a blast that made the door rattle on its hinges; snape was lifted off his feet and slammed into the wall, then slid down it to the floor, a trickle of blood oozing from under his hair. he had been knocked out.

next to her, harry still had his wand raised. both ron and hermione had also tried to disarm snape at exactly the same moment. snape's wand soared in a high arc and landed on the bed next to crookshanks.

"you shouldn't have done that," said black, looking at elara and harry. "you should have left him to me..."

"oh please, i've been dreaming of doing that since first year." elara said breathlessly to black, who, oddly enough, cracked a small smile.

"we attacked a teacher... we attacked a teacher..." hermione whimpered, staring at the lifeless snape with frightened eyes. "oh, we're going to be in so much trouble —"

lupin was struggling against his bonds. black bent down quickly and untied him. lupin straightened up, rubbing his arms where the ropes had cut into them. snape really had acted like a child and it disgusted elara.

"thank you, you two," lupin said.

"i'm still not saying i believe you," harry told lupin.

"then it's time we offered you some proof," said lupin. "you, boy — give me peter, please. now."

ron clutched scabbers closer to his chest. elara watched with heightened interest. the fact that ron's rat is supposedly an intrical part in a mass murder case and betrayal was both confusing and intriguing.

"come off it," ron said weakly. "are you trying to say he broke out of azkaban just to get his hands on scabbers? i mean..." he looked up at harry, elara and hermione for support, "okay, say pettigrew could turn into a rat — there are millions of rats — how's he supposed to know which one he is after if he was locked up in azkaban?"

"you know, sirius, that's a fair question," said lupin, turning to black and frowning slightly. "how did you find out where he was?"

black put one of his claw-like hands inside his robes and took out a crumpled piece of paper, which he smoothed flat and held out to show the others. it was the photograph of ron and his family that had appeared in the daily prophet the previous summer, and there, on ron's shoulder, was scabbers.

"how did you get this?" lupin asked black, thunderstruck.

"fudge," said black. "when he came to inspect azkaban last year, he gave me his paper. and there was peter, on the front page on this boy's shoulder... i knew him at once... how many times had i seen him transform? and the caption said the boy would be going back to hogwarts... to where harry was..."

"my god," said lupin softly, staring from scabbers to the picture in the paper and back again. "his front paw..."

"what about it?" said ron defiantly.

"he's got a toe missing," said black.

"of course," lupin breathed. "so simple... so brilliant... he cut it off himself?"

"just before he transformed," said black. "when i cornered him, he yelled for the whole street to hear that i'd betrayed lily and james. then, before i could curse him, he blew apart the street with the wand behind his back, killed everyone within twenty feet of himself — and sped down into the sewer with the other rats..."

"didn't you ever hear, ron?" said lupin. "the biggest bit of peter they found was his finger."

"look, scabbers probably had a fight with another rat or something! he's been in my family forages, right —"

"twelve years, in fact," said lupin. "didn't you ever wonder why he was living so long?"

"we — we've been taking good care of him!" said ron.

"not looking too good at the moment, though, is he?" said lupin. "i'd guess he's been losing weight ever since he heard sirius was on the loose again..."

"he's been scared of that mad cat!" said ron, nodding toward crookshanks, who was still purring on the bed.

"this cat isn't mad," said black hoarsely. he reached out a bony hand and stroked crookshanks's fluffy head. "he's the most intelligent of his kind i've ever met. he recognized peter for what he was right away. and when he met me, he knew i was no dog. it was a while before he trusted me... finally, i managed to communicate to him what i was after, and he's been helping me..."

"what do you mean?" breathed hermione.

"he tried to bring peter to me, but couldn't... so he stole the passwords into gryffindor tower for me... as i understand it, he took them from a boy's bedside table..."

it seemed absurd, but it was beginning to fall into place slowly. why would an innocent man spend twelve something years as a rat?

"but peter got wind of what was going on and ran for it." croaked black. "this cat — crookshanks, did you call him? — told me peter had left blood on the sheets... i supposed he bit himself... well, faking his own death had worked once."

"and why did he fake his death?" harry said furiously. "because he knew you were about to kill him like you killed my parents!"

"no," said lupin, "harry—"

"and now you've come to finish him off!"

"yes, i have," said black, with an evil look at scabbers.

"then i should've let snape take you!" harry shouted.

"harry," said lupin hurriedly, "don't you see? all this time we've thought sirius betrayed your parents, and peter tracked him down — but it was the other way around, don't you see? peter betrayed your mother and father — sirius tracked peter down —"

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" harry yelled. "HE WAS THEIR SECRET-KEEPER! HE SAID SO BEFORE YOU TURNED UP. HE SAID HE KILLED THEM!"

he was pointing at black, who shook his head slowly; the sunken eyes were suddenly overbright.

"harry... i as good as killed them," he croaked. "i persuaded lily and james to change to peterat the last moment, persuaded them to use him as secret-keeper instead of me... i'm to blame, i know it... the night they died, i'd arranged to check on peter, make sure he was still safe, but when i arrived at his hiding place, he'd gone. yet there was no sign of a struggle. it didn't feel right. i was scared. i set out for your parents' house straight away. and when i saw their house,destroyed, and their bodies... i realized what peter must've done... what i'd done..."

his voice broke. he turned away.

"enough of this," said lupin, and there was a steely note in his voice harry had never heard before. "there's one certain way to prove what really happened. ron, give me that rat."

"what are you going to do with him if i give him to you?" ron asked lupin tensely.

"force him to show himself," said lupin. "if he really is a rat, it won't hurt him."

ron hesitated. then at long last, he held out scabbers and lupin took him. scabbers began to squeak without stopping, twisting and turning, his tiny black eyes bulging in his head. "ready, sirius?" said lupin.

black had already retrieved snape's wand from the bed. he approached lupin and the struggling rat, and his wet eyes suddenly seemed to be burning in his face.

"together?" he said quietly.

"i think so", said lupin, holding scabbers tightly in one hand and his wand in the other. "on the count of three. one — two — THREE!"

a flash of blue-white light erupted from both wands; for a moment, scabbers was frozen in midair, his small gray form twisting madly — ron yelled — the rat fell and hit the floor. there was another blinding flash of light and then —

it was like watching a speeded-up film of a growing tree. a head was shooting upward from the ground; limbs were sprouting; a moment later, a man was standing where scabbers had been,cringing and wringing his hands. crookshanks was spitting and snarling on the bed; the hair on his back was standing up.

he was a very short man, hardly taller than harry and hermione. his thin, colorless hair was unkempt and there was a large bald patch on top. he had the shrunken appearance of a plump man who has lost a lot of weight in a short time. his skin looked grubby, almost like scabbers's fur, and something of the rat lingered around his pointed nose and his very small, watery eyes. he looked around at them all, his breathing fast and shallow. elara saw his eyes dart to the door and back again.

"i think i'm going to be sick," elara muttered, taking in the sight of the grown man.

subconsciously, harry slipped his hand into elara's and squeezed it.

"well, hello, peter," said lupin pleasantly, as though rats frequently erupted into old school friends around him. "long time, no see."

"s—sirius... r—remus..." even pettigrew's voice was squeaky. again, his eyes darted toward the door. "my friends... my old friends..."

black's wand arm rose, but lupin seized him around the wrist, gave him a warning took, thenturned again to pettigrew, his voice light and casual.

"we've been having a little chat, peter, about what happened the night lily and james died. you might have missed the finer points while you were squeaking around down there on the bed —"

"remus," gasped pettigrew, and elara could see beads of sweat breaking out over his pasty face, "you don't believe him, do you...? he tried to kill me, remus..."

"so we've heard," said lupin, more coldly. "i'd like to clear up one or two little matters with you, peter, if you'll be so —"

"he's come to try and kill me again!" pettigrew squeaked suddenly, pointing at black, and elara saw that he used his middle finger, because his index was missing. "he killed lily and james and now he's going to kill me too... you've got to help me, remus..."

black's face looked more skull-like than ever as he stared at pettigrew with his fathomless eyes.

"no one's going to try and kill you until we've sorted a few things out," said lupin.

"sorted things out?" squealed pettigrew, looking wildly about him once more, eyes taking in the boarded windows and, again, the only door. "i knew he'd come after me! i knew he'd be back for me! i've been waiting for this for twelve years!"

"you knew sirius was going to break out of azkaban?" said lupin, his brow furrowed. "when nobody has ever done it before?"

"he's got dark powers the rest of us can only dream of!" pettigrew shouted shrilly. "how else did he get out of there? i suppose he-who-must-not-be-named taught him a few tricks!"

black started to laugh, a horrible, mirthless laugh that filled the whole room.

"voldemort, teach me tricks?" he said.

pettigrew flinched as though black had brandished a whip at him.

"what, scared to hear your old master's name?" said black. "i don't blame you, peter. his lot aren't very happy with you, are they?"

"don't know what you mean, sirius —" muttered pettigrew, his breathing faster than ever. his whole face was shining with sweat now.

elara looked suspiciously at peter. he was acting more than incredibly nervous for an innocent man. harry, ron, elara and hermoine had been in the presence of sirius black, who now seemed to be just an alleged mass murderer, and a werewolf for maybe an hour now and none of them were on the verge of collapsing (maybe ron, but his leg was broken).

"you haven't been hiding from me for twelve years," said black. "you've been hiding from voldemort's old supporters. i heard things in azkaban, peter... they all think you're dead, or you'd have to answer to them... i've heard them screaming all sorts of things in their sleep. sounds like they think the double-crosser double-crossed them. voldemort went to the potters' on your information... and voldemort met his downfall there. and not all voldemort's supporters ended up in azkaban, did they? there are still plenty out here, biding their time,pretending they've seen the error of their ways. if they ever got wind that you were still alive, peter —"