Fear of a Name

Chapter Sixty-Six: Expelliarmus!

Sirius stopped dead. It would have been impossible to tell which face showed more hatred.

Hermione took an uncertain step towards Snape, and said, in a very breathless voice, "Professor Snape — it — it wouldn't hurt to hear what they've got to say, w-would it?"
"Miss Granger, you are already facing suspension from this school," Snape spat. "You, Potter, and Weasley are out of bounds, in the company of a convicted murderer, a werewolf, and the daughter of the Dark Lord. For once in your life, hold your tongue."
"But if —if there was a mistake—"
"KEEP QUIET, YOU STUPID GIRL!" Snape shouted, looking suddenly quite deranged. "DON'T TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!"
A few sparks shot out of the end of his wand, which was still pointed at Sirius' face. Hermione fell silent.

"Vengeance is very sweet," Snape breathed at Sirius. "How I hoped I would be the one to catch you..."
"The joke's on you again, Severus," snarled Sirius. "As long as this boy brigs his rat up to the castle—" he jerked his head at Ron "—I'll come quietly..."
"Up to the castle?" said Snape silkily. "I don't think we need to go that far. All I have to do is call the Dementors once we get out of the Willow. They'll be very pleased to see you, Black... pleased enough to give you a little kiss, I daresay..."

"You — you've got to hear me out," Sirius croaked. The little colour he'd had in his face was completely gone. "The rat — look at the rat—"
But there was a mad glint in Snape's eye that I had never seen before. He seemed beyond reason.
"Come on, all of you," he said. He clicked his fingers, and the ends of the cords that bound me and Lupin flew to his hands. "I'll drag the werewolf and the blood-traitor scum. Perhaps the Dementors will have a kiss for them, too—"

Harry suddenly crossed the room in three strides, and blocked the door.
"Get out of the way, Potter, you're in enough trouble already," snarled Snape. "If I hadn't been here to save your skin—"
"Professor Lupin could have killed me about a hundred times this year, and Ivory could've done it even more than that," Harry said. "I've been alone with them both loads of times. If they were helping Black, why didn't they just finish me off then?"
"Don't ask me to fathom the way werewolf and blood-traitor scum's minds work," hissed Snape. "Get out of the way, Potter."

"YOU'RE PATHETIC!" Harry yelled. "JUST BECAUSE THEY MADE A FOOL OF YOU AT SCHOOL YOU WON'T EVEN LISTEN—"
"SILENCE! I WILL NOT BE SPOKEN TO LIKE THAT!" Snape shrieked, looking madder than ever. "Like father, like son, Potter! I have just saved your neck, you should be thanking me on be bended knee! You would have been well served if he'd killed you! You'd have died like your father, too arrogant to believe you might be mistaken in Black — now get out of the way, or I will make you, GET OUT OF THE WAY, POTTER!"

Before Snape could make even one step towards him, Harry raised his wand.
Harry, don't—
But it was too late.
"Expelliarmus!" he yelled — except that his wasn't the only voice that shouted; Ron and Hermione had tried to disarm Snape at exactly the same time.

There was a blast that made the door rattle on its hinges; Snape was lifted off his feet and slammed into the wall, then he slid down it to the floor, a trickle of blood oozing from under his hair. He had been knocked out.
"You shouldn't have done that," said Sirius, looking at Harry. "You should have left him to me..."
"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 and I were both struggling against our bonds. Sirius bent down quickly and untied Lupin, then he untied me as well. Lupin and I both straightened up, rubbing our arms where the ropes had cut into them.
"Thank you, Harry," Lupin said, as I wandlessly accioed my wand from Snape's pocket.
"I'm still not saying I believe you," Harry retorted.
"Then it's time we offered you some proof," Sirius said. "You, boy — give me Peter. Now."

"He's not Peter, he's Scabbers!" Ron half yelled.
"He's got a toe missing on one of his front paws," I pointed out.
"What's that got to do with anything?"
"All they could find of Pettigrew was his finger," Harry said, realisation dawning on his face.
"Exactly!" Sirius said loudly, seeming glad someone other than me and Lupin was finally understanding. "He yelled for everyone to hear that I'd betrayed James and Lily, blew up the street with his wand behind his back... then the dirty coward cut his finger off so that everyone would think he was dead, and transformed into a rat!"

"Look, Scabbers probably had a fight with another rat or something! He's been in my family for ages, right—"
"Nine years," I said calmly, giving Lupin a look that said to correct me on that point.
"No, it would've been twelve," he said quickly.
"No, nine. For reasons unknown to all but Pettigrew, he chose not to stay with a single wizarding family until three years after it happened. Up until then, he'd been apparating to various places around England and Scotland, trying to gather information on what had caused my father to lose his power," I lied.

Harry, Ron and Hermione were all staring at me as if I was insane.
"Didn't you ever wonder why he was living so long?" I asked Ron.
"We — we've been taking good care of him!" he said.
"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..."

"He's been scared of Hermione's mad cat!" said Ron.
"That cat isn't mad," said Sirius hoarsely, "he's the most intelligent of his kind I've ever met."
"That would be because he's part Kneazle," I said quietly. "They're highly intelligent, like you said, and they have an uncanny ability to detect suspicious and distrustful people."
"Crookshanks is part Kneazle?" I heard Hermione say quietly, but Sirius carried on as if he hadn't heard her.

"Well, that would be why he recognised Peter for what he was straight 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 to Gryffindor Tower for me... unfortunately, they were the wrong week's, so I had to have a little help from someone else there..."

"Who?" Harry demanded immediately.
"Just a girl I'm friends with," Sirius said, thankfully not giving away my name. Still, I knew they'd figure it out, sooner or later...
"Anyway, Peter got wind of what was going on and ran for it..." Sirius continued, "the cat — Crookshanks, did you call him? — told me Peter had left blood on the sheets... I suppose he bit himself... well, faking his own death had worked once..."

"And why did he fake his death?" Harry said furiously. "Because he knew you were about to kill him like you killed my parents!"