Potter Twins

Chapter 42: Peter Pettigrew

After Joni managed to knock Snape out by hitting the disarming spell on him, which sent Snape flying into the old bed behind him, Hermione, Ron and Caitlin were shocked at what Joni just did.

"Joni! What did you just do?" Ron asked.

"You attacked a teacher!" Hermione said.

"You're going to be in so much trouble!" Caitlin cried out.

"I know, guys." Joni said and looked at them and lowered the wand. "But we need to get to the bottom of this. Black seems to be innocent to me, and Snape wasn't willing to listen."

Lupin and Black looked relieved at the thought of Joni being willing to listen to them.

"Now, tell us about Peter Pettigrew." Harry said to the two.

"He was in the school with us the same year as us and your father." Lupin explained. "We thought he was our friend. Pettigrew also wrote the Marauders Map with us, and his nickname was Wormtail."

"Are you saying he was an Animagus too?" Joni asked.

"He was, and his Animagi form was a rat."

"But Pettigrew's dead." Harry said and then pointed at Black. "You killed him!"

"No, he didn't!" Lupin then got in front of Black. "I thought so too, until Joni mentioned seeing Pettigrew on the map!"

"The map was lying then!"

"Harry, ever since we got the map, it has been right in showing people around the castle." Joni argued. "I thought it was weird his name was on the map and yet we didn't see him, but why would it lie like that?"

"Joni's right, Harry." Black said. "The map never lies! Pettigrew's alive!" He then pointed his finger towards Ron. "And he's right there!"

The four teens looked confused at Ron.

"Me?! He's mental!" Ron cried.

"Not you! Your rat!"

"Scabbers?" Ron held Scabbers tightly against his chest. "There are millions of rats, how're you supposed to know which you're after if you were locked in Azkaban?"

"That's a fair question." Lupin commented before looking at Black. "How did you find out where he was?"

Black reached into his ripped uniform and pulled out a piece of paper, which was the Daily Prophet article about the Weasley family.

"How did you get this?" Lupin asked shocked.

"Fudge." Black said. "When he came to Azkaban last year, he gave me this. And there he was, on this boys' shoulder. I recognized him at once."

"But Scabbers has been in my family for--" Ron tried to argue.

"Twelwe years?" Lupin interrupted. "Didn't you ever wonder why he was living so long?"

"We-- We've been taking good care of him!"

"Ron, Scabbers has been sick ever since before the beginning of the term." Joni said.

"He's been scared of those mad cats!"

"These cats aren't mad." Black said as he stroked Millie's and Crookshanks' furs. "They recognized Peter for what he was straight away. And when they met me, they knew i wasn't an ordinary animal. Took them a while to trust me, but they've been helping me."

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.

"They tried to bring Peter to me, but couldn't, so this cat-- Millie, was it?" Black then asked Joni who nodded. "-- She brought me the passwords into Gryffindor Tower. As i understood it, she took it from a boys' bedside table."