Chapter 137: The Truth and the Rat

McGonagall did not let the conversation remain on the tower. She brought Harry, Hermione, and Edward to her office, sent for Lupin, and asked a portrait to notify Dumbledore. No one was permitted to question Ron or approach Scabbers until the adults agreed on a safe method. 

Harry sat rigidly before her desk. "I saw Peter Pettigrew on the map myself. Not once. He was beside Ron's bed, and Scabbers was there." 

"That confirms what you observed," McGonagall said. "It does not tell us how Pettigrew will respond when challenged." 

Lupin arrived first. Edward watched him read the copied map entries and Sirius's statement. The professor's grief showed in the care with which he set down each page. 

"I helped enchant the map," Lupin said. "It identifies the person, not the appearance. If it shows Peter, he is alive inside Hogwarts." 

"Could someone have altered it?" Hermione asked. 

"Possible, but difficult. That is one reason we need more than the map." 

Dumbledore entered with Snape several minutes later. Snape carried a locked case for a captured Animagus and a bottle of the Wolfsbane Potion Lupin was due to take before moonrise. His glance moved from Harry to Edward and stopped on the documents. 

"So secrecy has lasted exactly as long as expected," he said. 

Edward accepted the criticism. He had told Harry before agreeing on the disclosure with the staff. Harry had then verified the map and spoken to Hermione. Each choice had an understandable reason; together they had widened the circle around a suspect who spent every day listening from a student's pocket. 

Dumbledore asked them to separate facts, claims, and unknowns. The facts were limited. The map displayed Peter Pettigrew when Scabbers was present. The rat had lived far beyond a normal lifespan and lacked a digit that corresponded to the finger Peter left behind. Sirius had escaped Azkaban and accused Peter of betraying the Potters. The Ministry had imprisoned Sirius without trial. 

Sirius's innocence remained a claim supported by those facts, not yet a judgment. They did not know whether Peter carried a wand, had an ally in the castle, or had prepared an escape route. 

"Ron must be protected from the first spell," McGonagall said. "Pettigrew has had years to place himself within reach of the boy." 

Snape proposed moving Ron to the hospital wing under an ordinary pretext, then securing the dormitory with adult witnesses. Lupin would identify the Animagus. McGonagall would protect Ron. Snape would disarm Peter if he transformed. Dumbledore would preserve the event in a Pensieve and notify Amelia Bones. 

"And Sirius?" Harry asked. 

"He will not enter Gryffindor Tower," Dumbledore replied. "His testimony has value, but his presence could provoke the very reaction we hope to prevent." 

Harry stood. "He deserves to face the man who framed him." 

"He deserves a lawful hearing," Edward said. "That is not the same as being placed beside Peter during the arrest." 

Harry looked angry, then understood what Edward meant. Sirius had described his hatred without disguising it. An uncontrolled confrontation could injure Ron, destroy evidence, and give the Ministry another reason to ignore the truth. 

Dumbledore opened the Two-way Mirror on his desk. Sirius appeared in a dim room at Grimmauld Place, thin face tense above the silver frame. 

"I want to be there," he said after hearing the plan. 

"I know," Dumbledore answered. 

"I can control myself." 

Edward did not let affection turn that statement into proof. "You practised the withdrawal steps because you were not certain. Use them now. Name five things in the room." 

Sirius glared at him through the glass. Then he looked away. "Lamp. Window. Green chair. Your ridiculous mirror. Kreacher's polishing cloth." 

"Three breaths," Edward said. 

Sirius took them. His shoulders lowered by a fraction. 

"I remain at the mirror," he said. "If Peter is secured, I give my statement after Bones arrives. If he threatens a child and you ask for help, I come through the authorised route." 

Dumbledore accepted those terms. Kreacher would stay with Sirius and hold the second mirror. No one called the compromise trust. It was a limit everyone could verify. 

Harry asked whether he could speak to Sirius before the arrest. Dumbledore refused a private meeting but offered a brief supervised exchange. Sirius looked at Harry for a long moment without speaking. 

"You have your father's untidy hair," he managed. 

Harry gripped the arms of his chair. "Did you betray them?" 

"No. I persuaded them to make Peter the Secret-Keeper because I thought it would protect them. He gave Voldemort the address. I went after him instead of going to you. That choice left you alone." 

"Edward told me what Peter did in the street." 

"Then he also told you it is my account. Make me prove it." 

The answer steadied Harry more than a plea would have. "I will." 

Dumbledore ended the connection before either of them promised more than the evidence could support. 

Snape set the Wolfsbane bottle beside Lupin. "Drink this now. The moon rises in less than an hour, and the arrest will proceed without you if the Potion is not complete." 

Lupin drank under observation. The final dose would not prevent his transformation, but it should preserve his mind if the plan ran late. Snape recorded the time and sealed the empty bottle. 

While the adults prepared, Edward took a silver ward token from his pocket. It was one of the crude fire wards made during the summer, not an invincible shield. He offered it to Harry only after McGonagall inspected the runes. 

"Grip it and say 'Flame Serpent Guard,'" Edward said. "It raises one short barrier against an ordinary physical or magical strike. It will not stop a Killing Curse, it will not identify an attacker, and it may fail if damaged. Use your Shield Charm first if you have time." 

Harry repeated every limitation before accepting it. McGonagall placed the token in his inner pocket and told him that carrying an emergency aid did not authorise him to join the arrest. 

Before the group divided, Dumbledore placed the Marauder's Map beneath a monitoring charm on his desk. He gave Edward a linked silver token that could display an alert but could not reveal anyone else's movements. The original parchment remained sealed in the office. 

McGonagall and Snape went to arrange Ron's removal from Gryffindor Tower. Dumbledore stayed to contact Bones and watch the known exits. Lupin took Harry and Hermione to his classroom, where they could wait under a professor's eye. Edward was ordered back to Slytherin. 

He obeyed as far as the marble staircase. There, the silver token warmed inside his coat. Edward entered an empty classroom before reading the red letters forming across its surface. 

Peter Pettigrew had left Gryffindor Tower, crossed the entrance hall, and was moving over the grounds toward the Whomping Willow. Ron Weasley followed several corridors behind. 

The monitoring charm had already carried the route to Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Snape. Edward pressed the token once to acknowledge the alert, then sent a separate silver message to Lupin's classroom. 

He did not pursue the moving name. 

For the first time that night, following the plan felt harder than running. 

Nobody celebrated.