No Body No Crime □■ Hermione Granger

Chapter 38

"Don't freak out." The man warned.

"Oh my god" Arlene exclaimed, completely ignoring him "Ohmygodohmygodohmygod-"

"I just said don't freak out."

"You're alive," Arlene stated, very much still freaking out "oh my god!"

"I'm alive." He agreed.

"Wha- how." She stuttered, still in shock "does mum know? Wait, what are you even doing here- oh my god I forgot about Ron- is that dog an animagus too?"

"Paloma knows," he informed her calmly "that dog is an anigamus as well, your friend will be alright. As to what I'm doing here-"

"Wait, who is it?" she interrupted him once more, then her eyes widened "Oh my god, it's Sirius Black, isn't it? Oh my god-"

"Arlene." He said firmly "I need you to be very calm while I explain everything."

"I.." she needed to think, she needed to save the mental breakdown for later and focus right now.

She took a deep breath "Okay."

"I know you have a lot of questions. I would too if I were in your place, but the most important thing you need to know is this; Sirius is innocent, I've been undercover, both Paloma and Dumbledore know, and Peter Pettigrew is still alive."

"If she knew, then why did she warn me to stay safe? Why didn't she sign my Hogsmeade form -wait who is alive? Peter? The same Peter who blew up thirteen years ago -oh my god-"

"Arlene." He stated firmly "stay calm, yes Peter is still alive, we'll come back to that point later, as to why Paloma acted the way she did, it was because she needed you to think he was guilty, Fudge suspected that she was helping him –which was true- and she knew he'd try to get information from you, haven't you noticed his increasing visits to Hogwarts?"

She did wonder why the Minister would be a witness at some appeal for a magical creature, and she wondered why he'd be in Hogsmeade having drinks with professors, but she always assumed he was there to check on the dementors, and because he suspected that Sirius was targeting her and Harry.

Harry.

"Wait, why did Sirius –it is Sirius, right?- why did he take Ron."

"All the same point as Hogsmeade; Peter Pettigrew. When Fudge heard Sirius at Azkaban 'he's in Hogwarts' he was talking about Peter, not Harry. Your mother knew you were in danger because Peter was at Hogwarts with you,

"she thought you'd be safer because everyone would be keeping an eye on you, even if they were watching out for Sirius, not Peter, because Peter was the traitor, not Sirius."

Arlene simply stared, sure, she suspected that Sirius was innocent, but that was just a suspicion "What does that have to do with Ron."

"I'm sure you've realised that every animal in this story in this story is animagi."

Arlene gaped "Scabbers..?"

"Is Peter Pettigrew." He finished her sentence "that's how Sirius knew, Ron's family was in the newspapers earlier this year, Sirius recognized the rat."

"Did mum help him escape?" Arlene demanded "and why are you all animagi in the first place?"

"Paloma didn't help him escape, he escaped because nobody knew he was an animagus, but she did help him stay low. I became an animagus at first because your mother and I were planning to disappear in the middle of the war, your mother told you she was disowned because she had a child out of wedlock, that's wrong, we were already married, they disowned her because she refused to take the Deatheater mark."