𝐀𝐩𝐨𝐝𝐲𝐨𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬 (𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘰𝘳 𝘳.𝘫. 𝘭𝘶𝘱𝘪𝘯)

ch27; the night of the shrieking shack pt2

The lights from the village outside shone through the broken windows of the Shrieking Shack, only slightly lighting up the dreary room, filled with deteriorated furniture and dusty curtains.

"Harry, what?!", Marina asked in utter confusion. She then looked over to Remus who gave her a 'just let him come to his senses' look, which she returned with a small understanding nod.

"Harr-", she started, trying to calm his nerves, but was interrupted by a loud 'Ha!', which sounded on the edge of insanity.

"In on it?! Harry, I've never even met this girl. If there's one person who was 'in on it', it's him!", Sirius practically shouted as he pointed to Ron, better said Ron's lap, on which a familiar rat lay.

With a terrified expression, Ron said "Me?! He's mental-".

"No, not you-" Sirius said as he rolled his eyes but was interrupted by Remus.

"Pads, maybe we should start from the beginning?"

Marina definitely didn't miss the sparkle of joy in Sirius' eyes, upon hearing his old nickname, and the small smile Remus gave him in return.

"Yes, yes, of course, Moony"

"Stop stalling and tell me about Pettigrew already!" Harry demanded loudly and returned pointing his wand at Sirius, earning a small relieved sigh from Marina.

Almost out of instinct Remus stepped in between the wand and Sirius as he said,
"He was at school with us, we thought he was our friend"

While watching the scene unfold, Marina secretly hoped that Remus would step aside. Of course, she trusted Harry with her life, but seeing a wand pointed at her love did cause her heart to beat a little faster.

"But Pettigrew is dead. You killed him!", Harry shouted in Sirius' direction.

"No he didn't, I thought so too until you mentioned seeing Pettigrew on the map-"

Remus got caught off by Harry saying, "The map was lying then"

"The map never lies. Pettigrew is alive and he is right there, sitting comfortably on Weasley's lap"

Harry, Hermione and Ron were quite confused at Sirius' madman statement, especially when they saw no reaction on Marina's face, who had now had sat down comfortably on the dusty bed. What didn't, of course, know was that Remus had told her all about their Animagus forms.

"Scabbers? But he can't be, he's been in my family for-"

"Twelve years? Curiously long life for a common garden rat. He's missing a toe isn't he?"

"So what?"

Harry suddenly made the connection and said, "All they could find of Pettigrew was a-"

"FINGER! The goddamn coward cut it off himself so that everybody would think he was dead, and then he transformed himself into a rat!", SIrius cut him off rather loudly.

With furrowed brows, Harry demanded "Show me"

Sirius bent down and tried to take the rat from Ron, but he protested and held the rat out of Sirius' reach. "What are you doing-"

Sirius finally got ahold of the rodent, causing Ron to shout "Scabbers! Leave him alone"

While normally Marina would've felt bad for the Weasley boy, this time all she could think of was finally learning the truth and Pettigrew being exposed to the world.

Sirius put the rat on the piano and he and Remus pointed their wands at it, Remus standing conviently between the piano and the bed, shielding Marina from any possible danger. They then started shooting spells at the rat, but it quickly ran away, dodging every single one.