except that his 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. 

Harry looked around. Both Ron and Hermione had 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. 

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"You shouldn't have done that," said Black, looking at Harry. 

"You should have left him to me...." 

Harry avoided Black's eyes. He wasn't sure, even now, that he'd done the 
right thing. 

"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. 

"Thank you, Harry," he said. 

"I'm still not saying I believe you," he 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. 

"Come off it," he 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 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's 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 clawlike 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. 

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"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 for ages, 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...." 

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"He's been scared of that mad cat!" said Ron, nodding toward 
Crookshanks, who was still purring on the bed. 

But that wasn't right, Harry thought suddenly... Scabbers had been 
looking ill before he met Crookshanks... ever since Ron's return from 
Egypt... since the time when Black had escaped.... 

"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...." 

Harry's brain seemed to be sagging under the weight of what he was 
hearing. It was absurd... and yet... 

"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." 

These words jolted Harry to his senses. 

"And why did he fake his death?" he 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 

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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 over bright. 

"Harry... I as good as killed them," he croaked. "I persuaded Lily and 
James to change to Peter at 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. 

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"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. Harry saw his eyes dart to the door and back again. 

"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, then turned 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 Harry could see beads of sweat breaking 

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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 Harry 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 
