Catch Me If You Can → George Weasley

Twenty-Nine

There was a moment of tense silence. Not a word was spoken. Apollo had his eyes trained sharply on the rat, hand reaching towards his wand. Hell, he was willing to hand his wand over to Sirius Black and let him do the honours.

"You're all mental," Ron voiced.

"Ridiculous!" Hermione said faintly, as if not believing her ears.

"Peter Pettigrew is dead!" Harry said. "He was killed twelve years ago!" He pointed at Sirius accusingly.

"I meant to," Sirius growled, "but little Peter got the best of me... not this time, though!" He lunged toward the rat who was Peter Pettigrew without second thought.

Apollo, for one, did not react. Let him kill the rat. Who cares what the children thought? Remus, however, did not share that mindset.

"Sirius, NO!" He shouted, pulling Sirius away from Ron. "WAIT! You can't do it just like that. They need to understand. We've got to explain it-"

"We can explain afterwards!" Sirius snarled.

"Apollo." Remus made a head movement. With a sigh, Apollo gave in and helped him retrain Sirius, seeing as he was struggling. "They've got a right to know everything!" Remus said to Black, panting. "Ron's kept him as a pet! There are parts of it even I don't understand! And Harry - you owe Harry the truth, Sirius!"

Sirius stopped struggling. "Alright, then," He said, not taking his eyes off Peter. "Tell them whatever you'd like, Remus, but make it quick. I want to commit the murder I was imprisoned for."

"Trying to get back on the family tree?" Apollo asked dryly. If Sirius was not so focused on Peter the rat, he likely would have glared at the blonde boy. Instead, he settled on a growl of annoyance.

"You're nutters, the three of you..." Ron said shakily. "I've had enough of this, I'm off."

Remus raised his wand again, pointing it at the rat. "You're going to hear me out, Ron," He said quietly. "Just keep a tight hold on Peter while you listen."

"HE'S NOT PETER, HE'S SCRABBERS!" Ron shouted. Harry pushed him back towards the bed.

"There were witnesses who saw Pettigrew die," Harry said to Lupin. "A whole street of them."

"They didn't see what they thought they saw!" Sirius said in a almost strangled way.

"Everyone thought Sirius killed Peter," Remus said, nodding his head. "I believed it myself until Apollo presented me with the truth, until I saw the map... Because the Marauder's Map never lies... Peter's alive, Ron's holding him, Harry."

Harry and Ron exchanged an incredulous look. "But Professor Lupin... Scrabbers can't be Pettigrew... it just can't be true, you know it can't..." Hermione said with a trembling voice, trying to will herself to be calm.