Just Like Magic (George Weasley)

Five.

The Hippogriff that attacked Draco the first day of school was sentenced to Death at the end of April. It happened a few days before my birthday, actually. On my birthday there was a Quidditch game. Slytherin VS Gryffindor for the cup.
   
Draco kept on Harry's tail the entire game, making sure he didn't miss the snitch. After a few fouls, and a penalty given to Gryffindor because Fred and George blasted a Bludger at Marcus Flint, Gryffindor ended up winning the game when Harry caught the Snitch before Draco could.
   
It was the dirtiest match that I’ve ever watched in since I've been at Hogwarts. The Slytherins were doing everything they could to trip up the Gryffindors. Cornering them in tight sports, trying to knock opposing team members off their brooms, Beaters using their clubs to try and hit the other players and then act like they thought that a person was a Bludger. It was awful to watch, honestly.
   
The rumor around school was that the Gryffindors had a big celebration in their Common Room that night. And they deserved to, since they won fair and square.
   
June was at the Castle now. The Weasley twins were in the library a lot preparing for their O.W.L. exams. Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge was here with someone from the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures to execute Buckbeak. I was preparing to see Hagrid in a terrible sad mood for the rest of the remainder of school.
   
Nadine and I decided to go for an evening walk to clear our heads after finishing our exams. We saw Harry walking with Ron and their friend Hermione Granger. Something was bounding towards them, as quiet as a shadow - a big, pale eyed, jet black dog. Harry reached for his wand but it was too late. The dog made an enormous leap and hit him on the chest. It rolled off of him and made for Ron, clutching his leg with its jaw and dragged Ron away into the hole of the trunk of the Whomping Willow. I told Nadine to go get Professor Lupin and I took off towards the tree. I got there as Harry and Hermione entered the tree themselves and I followed with them.
   
We all went through the tunnel together. Ron and that dog were nowhere to be seen. We got out at the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmeade. We ran upstairs to find Ron laying on the floor in a room. We all dashed towards him. Harry asked him, "Ron, are you okay?"
   
"Where's the dog?" I ask.
   
"Not a dog," Ron moaned. "It's a trap! He's the dog! He's an Animagus!"
   
Ron pointed over past us, and we turned to see Sirius Black staring the four of us down. A mass of matted, dark, long, curly hair flung around his face as he shut the door. If he hadn't been moving, you'd think he was a corpse. The waxy skin was stretched so tightly over his skin.

"Hi dad." I say, my tone is hard.
   
"Hello, Penelope, darling. Look at you. You're so beautiful." He says, a smile on his lips. "You look like your mother."
   
"Don't you talk about my mother!" I scream. I couldn't control myself. I took my wand out, ready to defend us all.
   
"EXPELLIARMUS!" He croaked, pointing Ron's wand at us and our wands went flying out of our hands. "I'd thought you'd come and help your friend," he said hoarsely. His eyes looked to both Harry as he continued. "Your father would have done the same for me. Brave of you, not to run for a teacher. I'm grateful. It will make everything easier." Harry went to charge at Sirius, but Hermione and I were able to hold him back.
   
"If you want to kill Harry you'll have to kill us too!" Ron cries out.
   
"There will only be one murder here tonight," said Black, calmly.
   
"Did you not get enough last time?" Asks Harry, "when you had my parents killed?"
   
He lunged at Black again, somehow able to free himself from our grasp. Black's head hit the wall as Harry pinned him to it. Ron, Hermione, and I began to yell. Black's free hand had found Harry's throat. I crept forward up to them slowly and once I was close enough I swung my leg, knocking him onto his back. That's when Harry pointed his wand right at his heart.
   
"Going to kill me, Harry?" Asks Black, a smirk evident in his tone.
   
"You killed my parents," Harry said, his voice shaking slightly.
   
"I don't deny it, but you don't know the whole story."
   
"The whole story?" Harry asks.
   
The sound of footsteps came from downstairs. Someone else was here. Hermione noticed it too and she screamed, "WE'RE UP HERE - COME QUICK - SIRIUS BLACK!"
   
The door burst open as Lupin entered in a stream of red sparks. His wand was raised at the ready. His eyes flickered over to all four of us students. Lupin then shocked us all with one word. He pointed his wand at Harry and said, "Expelliarmus!" And Harry's wand went flying across the room. We stood there shocked at what we just saw. Then Lupin spoke in a very tense voice. "Where is he?"
   
Harry looked to the three of us standing far from the adults in the room and he came over to us as Lupin continued to speak. "But then, why hasn't he shown himself before now? Unless he was the one. Unless you switched without telling me."
   
Black nodded at Lupin.
   
"Professor," said Harry, "what is going on?"
   
Lupin then looked down at Black, lowered his wand, and then sized his hand and pulled him to his feet and they embraced like two brothers. My jaw felt like it had dropped to the ground. "I DON'T BELIEVE IT!" I scream. "I trusted you! You’re my Godfather!"
   
"Penelope, darling, you don't understand," Lupin started, "just listen to me. I haven't been his friend, but I am now. Let me explain."
   
"NO!" Shouted Hermione, "Harry, don't trust him! He's been helping Black get into the castle, he wants both of you dead too, he's a werewolf!"
   
It was silent and everyone's eyes were now on Lupin.
   
"Well, 1/3 there, Hermione," Lupin says, calmly. "I have not been helping Black into the castle, and I don't want Harry or Penelope dead, but I won't deny that I am a werewolf. How long have you known?"
   
"Since Professor Snape assigned the essay," she says, sternly.
   
"He only assigned that essay so people would find out the truth about you," I say, giving Lupin a cold stare.
   
"He did," Lupin agrees, nodding. "You know, you two really are the brightest witches of your age. But everyone already knows, at least the staff do." Lupin picked up our wands and handed them back to us. "See, now you're all armed," he puts his wand in his pocket. "And we're not. So will you please allow us to explain what's really going on."
   
"If you're not helping him how did you know we were here?" Harry asks.
   
"I was already watching the map when Penelope's friend Nadine came to warn me. They watched everything," he says, cooly. "I helped make the map, Harry. I'm Moony, Sirius is Padfoot, and your dad, Harry, is Prongs. The important thing is, I was watching it carefully because I thought that you might sneak out to see Hagrid tonight, and I was correct. But you were accompanied by someone else."
   
"What?" Asks Ron, "no we weren't."
   
"I couldn't believe my eyes," Lupin says. "I thought the map was malfunctioning. I watched Sirius pull two of you into the Whomping Willow."
   
"One of us," said Ron.
   
"No, two of you" Lupin corrects. "Do you think I could have a look at your rat?"
   
"What's Scabbers got to do with this?"
   
"Everything, could I see him, please?"
   
Ron hesitated, but eventually he did give the rat to Lupin. "That's not a rat." Croaked Sirius.
   
"What - what do you mean?" Choked Ron. "Of course he's a rat."
   
"No he's not," says Lupin "He's a wizard."
   
"An Anmigaus," added Sirius. "By the name of Peter Pettigrew."
   
"Impossible!" I exclaim, "Peter Pettigrew is dead! You killed him!"
   
"I thought so too, Penelope," says Professor Lupin. "Until I saw him on the map."
   
"Maybe the map is wrong," says Hermione.
   
"The map never lies!" Exclaims Sirius. "And we'll prove it."
   
Lupin went on to tell us the story of his time at Hogwarts. How he came to the shack every month to turn into a werewolf, and how his three best friends turned themselves into Animagi to accompany him. Sirius the big black dog we saw earlier, James Potter a big, beautiful Stag, and Peter Pettigew a small, brown rat. Very similar to how Ron's rat Scabbers looks now. Together they were Moony, Padfoot, Wormtail, and Prongs. He ended his story by telling us that Professor Snape was in their year as well, and he has been making him Wolfsbane potion this entire term so his transformations aren't so painful anymore.
   
Professor Snape was now bursting through the door. He had his wand out ready to attack if needed. He threatened both Lupin and Sirius, but Harry blasted him backwards knocking him out cold. Hermione and I were aghast. "Harry!" She squealed, "you just attacked a teacher!"
   
Ron started insisting that the rat wasn't a man, that's when Sirius pointed out that Scabbers was missing a toe, and that Peter Pettigew had cut off a finger when Sirius cornered him after James and Lily died so he could fake his death. He told us how Hermione's cat Crookshanks has been helping him the entire time. He tried to bring my dad the rat, and when that failed he brought him the Gryffindor tower passwords that were stolen from Neville Longbottoms's bedside table.
   
Harry was having a hard time believing this story. He said that Peter only faked his death because he knew Sirius was about to kill him like he killed his parents. He yelled, "HE WAS THEIR SECRET KEEPER!"
   
Sirius explained then that he persuaded Lily and James to put their trust in Peter because Sirius or Lupin was too obvious of a choice. When he arrived at Peter's hiding place the night that they were killed Peter was gone. So he went to the Potter's house and saw they were dead and Harry was crying loudly. Lupin was now growing sick of the story telling. He held up the rat and performed the spell, saying if the rat turned into Peter that they weren't lying. And he was right. The rat turned into a man right before our eyes.
   
"S-Sirius," the short, fat man said. "R-Remus...M-my old friends." Lupin explains to him what we were just talking about. Peter plays dumb. "You really don't believe him? Do you, Remus? He tried to murder me. He's come to try again. You've got to help me, Remus!"
   
Peter ended up turning to us kids, looking at us pathetically. He ran to Ron, saying "haven't I been a good pet to you, Ron? Haven't I?" When Ron told him to get away and kicked at him with his good leg he turned on Harry and I. "Penelope, I knew your mother, Isabelle. Oh, you look just like her. She was always very kind to me. And Harry, you look just like your father, too. James was my best friend. You must know I would never betray them."
   
"You get back from my Goddaughter and her friends before I let Sirius kill you!" Lupin warns him in the harshest, most stern tone I've ever heard him use.
   
Peter cowered back slowly. Then he tried to make a break for it, but Lupin and Sirius stopped him. They got the confession out of him. He said he didn't mean to sell out James and Lily, but that Voldemort was going to use his own methods of persuasion on him if he didn't. No one believed it. When Peter asked my dad what he would have done in that situation, my dad got very offended.
   
"I WOULD HAVE DIED!" he screamed at Peter. "I WOULD HAVE RATHER DIED THAN BETRAY JAMES AND LILY!"
   
Harry stopped them from killing him. He said that we still needed him alive in order to clear Sirius's name, and then the Dementors could have him. Lupin and Sirius agreed to that notion, and I have to agree, it was very smart of Harry to come up with that on the fly like that.
   
We left the Shack then. Crookshanks led the way down the tunnel back to the castle. Harry and my dad were helping Ron down the way. Lupin had Peter in hand and he was also pulling Snape behind him with magic. We were all silent as we walked. Once we were out of the tunnel a cloud shifted. My dad took Harry and I aside.
   
"When I am cleared, I'd like the three of us to live together. If you'd like."
   
"Of course," says Harry. I just looked at him. I didn't know what to say.
   
"Your mother is free to join us, too, if she's not seeing someone else," my dad says, a light smile.on his face.
   
"Um, my mother is dead."
   
His face drops.
   
"She got sick when I started school. She didn't last very long after that."
   
"I see," he says, nodding. He seemed to pull himself together about this quickly. I guess he's gotten used to being away from her. "Are you living with your Grandparents?"
   
"Yes," I say, nodding. "I'm sure once you're cleared they won't mind. I'd love to catch up with you. We have a lot of time to make up."
   
He smiles again as he says, "That we do, my dear."
   
I couldn't take it anymore. I didn’t care that he was all dirty. I hugged him tightly. He hugged me back just as tight. I started crying. They were all wrong about my dad. I was no longer an orphan. My dad wasn't a murderer, or insane. He was innocent. I felt like I could breathe again. I felt so much better. All of the guilt I had been feeling for being related to him was now gone. He was my dad, and he loved me. And dammit I loved him.
   
I think that's why I always felt so guilty that he was my dad. Because deep down he was my dad and I still had this biological love for him I couldn't control. Now I didn't have to feel bad for loving my dad anymore.
   
"I'm so glad you're not actually a murderer," I tell him as we hug.
   
He chuckles at that, and he lets go of me and I wipe a tear out of my eye. "I've thought about nothing but you two for the last 12 years. You kept me sane while I was in Azkaban."
   
Suddenly there were dim shadows on the ground and were were all bathed in the moonlight. Lupin started to shake. "Oh no," I say, "He didn't take his potion tonight. He's not safe."
   
"Run." Black whispered. "Run now."
   
Harry couldn't run, he couldn't because Ron couldn't run. My dad disappeared from mine and Harry's side as Lupin's transformation was nearly complete. While my dad was trying to calm Lupin down, Peter transformed back into a rat and took off. My dad and Lupin both took off. My dad was now back in his dog form. From the distance we heard a loud whine. My dad was in trouble. We all ran towards it and we found them wrestling each other. Snape had come to now, and he told us to get behind him, to which we all listened, except for Harry who took off again after my dad and Lupin.
   
Snape made us all go back to the castle then without Harry.

________________________
Here's part 5!

They can be father and daughter now!

It hurt to have to write that scene where she told him about her mom. I didn't want to make it too emotional, because I didn't feel like crying today.

-Emily Winchester.