Chapter 474 - 25: Forced to Reveal His True Form

Chapter 474: Chapter 25: Forced to Reveal His True Form

After Harry finally managed to get him down, Ron sadly cradled the little metal box in his hands.

"He’s been in my family since I was really little. Maybe since he was born. He never bites people... except that time with Goyle."

Back when Ron first met Harry on the train last year, Malfoy had come over with his two followers to mock them. Goyle had greedily tried to grab the Chocolate Frog in Ron’s hand, and Scabbers had bitten him.

Ron continued, "He’s lived longer than other rats. Percy used to own him. Then Percy became a prefect, Mum and Dad bought him an owl, and he dumped Scabbers on me..."

Harry quietly patted his shoulder. He still remembered Ron introducing Scabbers back then by saying, "He’s useless now."

Harry said softly, "Ron, this might not be the best time to say it, but if the culprit really is an Animagus, I don’t think she’d eat Scabbers. An Animagus is still a person in the end, right...?"

"I know! But..."

"Ron! Harry! Guess what I saw!" Hermione came rushing in, flustered.

"Why can you always barge into the boys’ dormitory like it’s completely normal?" Harry muttered under his breath.

Hermione ignored that and spread her hands dramatically. "Scabbers was taken by the cat-girl. She really is an Animagus! Don’t interrupt me yet. Guess where she took Scabbers? Under the Whomping Willow. There’s a hidden passage down there!"

"Mystery solved. I was only guessing before, but it really was her!" Ron shot to his feet and urgently asked Hermione, "Is Scabbers still alive? What did she take him there for?"

"He was alive when I saw him. I couldn’t exactly follow her all the way up to the Whomping Willow." Hermione guiltily pressed a hand against the sniper scope hidden in her pocket. A wizard’s robe was roomy enough to conceal something that long.

She said, "Maybe there’s more going on here than we know. Why would an Animagus grab Scabbers and then run into some place none of us even knew existed...?"

"We have to save Scabbers!" Ron was not listening.

"The problem is how we get over there. How did she get close to the Whomping Willow?" Harry asked.

Ron’s expression looked terrible. "I think she might’ve beaten the Whomping Willow up."

"No. She turned into a cat, hugged Scabbers with her front paws, and ran into the passage on her hind legs. She was really agile," Hermione said, describing what she had seen.

...

The Shrieking Shack.

When the rat woke again, Sirius had already tied him up with four ropes, one around each paw.

"Well, look who it is. Peter Pettigrew! I hear I murdered you so thoroughly they only found one finger?" Black tapped the rat’s head with his wand, and his eyes looked almost red with hatred.

He had wanted to crush Peter to death immediately, but that felt far too merciful, so he had waited for Peter to wake up first.

"Squeak squeak squeak!" Peter shook his rat head, still trying to pretend he was an ordinary rat.

For all these years, cowardly Peter had never once dared transform back into a human. He had been terrified someone might recognize him—or that Death Eaters might find him and demand to know where Voldemort had gone.

"Evil rat. Also someone else’s pet," the little kitty reminded him.

She was cooking soup beside them because Black had no source of food. He seemed to like Yimi’s cooking quite a lot, perhaps because it gave him the illusion that his body was rapidly recovering strength.

"You’re right, Cat Lady. Do you have scissors?" Black asked with a smile that never reached his eyes. Apparently he had misunderstood what Yimi meant. "Or anything sharp at all."

Peter struggled even harder.

"I have a kitchen knife. What do you want to do?"

Black grinned savagely. "I’m going to neuter him."

"Squeak squeak squeak!"

Yimi did not give him the knife, but her ears suddenly stood upright as she looked toward the tunnel they had come through.

"Did you hear something?" Black noticed.

More accurately, Yimi had smelled something. "Someone’s by the Whomping Willow. Red hair, a scar, and a girl."

"Harry? Did he see you when you came here?" Black frowned. "They’ll get flattened by the Whomping Willow! But charging into danger like that is exactly like James. Stay here and watch Peter. Don’t let him run."

He transformed into a huge black dog and raced down the passage.

"Which genius thought planting the Whomping Willow over a secret tunnel was a good idea? I ought to send him a Howler for Christmas!" Ron cursed while using his rebar wand to block the willow’s branches.

The branches could tear the roof off a car, yet they could not leave the slightest mark on the rebar. Ron, who had already lost one wand to the Whomping Willow, could not help standing a little straighter.

Then he remembered where this wand had come from and deflated again.

"If you dare send Dumbledore a Howler, I’ll give you a Nimbus 2001 for Christmas!" Hermione shouted. A branch had just caught her by accident and knocked both of her front teeth out.

She was genuinely starting to envy the other two. Harry had taken the least damage because the wire broom he held covered far more of his body than Ron’s wand did. Hermione not only had nothing to block with, she was also trying to protect the sniper scope in her arms.

"Forget I said anything!"

"If the cat-girl really took Scabbers, what does she even want with him? She can’t be planning to eat him," Harry said, holding the broom in front of himself and forcing his way through.

"Little kids do strange things all the time... Harry!" Ron shouted. He saw a huge black dog rush out, press a certain knot on the Whomping Willow, and leave the tree completely still for quite a while.

The black dog used that opening to tackle Harry, bite onto his collar, and drag him toward the hole under the tree.

Was this dog the cat’s accomplice?

"Ron, I saw it!" Hermione lunged forward too and pressed the knot. "Quick, let’s get inside!"

"Get off me, you damned dog!" Harry struggled as he was dragged into the Shrieking Shack, only for the black dog to actually let him go.

Black transformed back into a human and stared nostalgically at Harry’s face. The boy looked almost exactly like his father had at the same age, except for his eyes. Harry had inherited those from his mother.

"You!" Harry flew into a rage, charged forward, and slammed Black to the floor.

Twelve was an age of rapid growth. Harry was not much shorter than Black at all, and after all the suffering Black had endured in Azkaban, he discovered that his godson had an astonishingly strong grip.

"You betrayed them! They thought you were their best friend!"

Ron and Hermione had just entered when they heard Harry shouting. They stared at the scene in confusion.

"Lumos." Hermione cast the illumination spell, brightening the room.

"Meow."

Noticing Hermione’s injury, the little cat padded over and pressed one paw against her lower leg. Hermione felt a trace of warmth. When she touched her mouth again, her teeth had grown back—and they even seemed a little less oversized than before.

"Thanks." Hermione picked the cat up.

Ron’s attention shifted away from Harry. Before coming here, he really had wondered why Yimi wanted to catch Scabbers, but in the end he had chalked it up to a child’s mischievous behavior.

But what did the Shrieking Shack look like now? His poor pet was tied up pitifully in the middle of the room, and there was even a pot of soup Yimi had cooked over the Mini-Hakkero in the corner.

Ron sucked in a sharp breath.

"Scabbers!"

"Don’t let him go!" Black hooked a foot out and tripped Ron as he ran over.

He noticed Harry looked ready to strangle him, so he reached out too, though only to press a hand against Harry’s shoulder. "Is that what you believe, Harry? Do you want to kill me?"

Ron scrambled up and was about to help Harry hit Black, but Hermione stopped him. "Stop! What exactly is going on here? Is the little kitty helping this criminal?"

Now she was calling Yimi "little kitty" again.

"Harry, I bear some responsibility for your parents’ deaths, but I wasn’t the murderer. I never wanted to hurt them! And when you capture a wizard, you’re supposed to take his wand first." Despite saying that, Black voluntarily tossed his own wand away.

Harry let go of him. His hand trembled as he pointed his wand. "You also killed an entire street of Muggles, and Peter Pettigrew!"

"None of that was me. It was him!" Black furiously pointed at the bound rat.

"You can see it yourself, Harry. I’m an Animagus. Your father was one too, and so was Peter Pettigrew! None of us were registered. We had another close friend back then. He was a werewolf. We learned to become Animagi so he wouldn’t be alone during the full moon. Werewolves don’t have much desire to attack nonhuman creatures!"

"What did Scabbers ever do to you?" Ron moved beside Harry, and together they aimed their wands at Black.

"Peter Pettigrew is dead!" Harry shouted. "And you came here to kill me too. Otherwise why would you be here?"

"Dead? Where’s the body? They said they only found one finger, didn’t they? This rat is missing one finger! Don’t you understand yet? He’s an Animagus." Black bared a mouthful of yellowed teeth in a savage grin. Azkaban had not exactly provided him with dental supplies.

He pointed at Peter. "There’s only one person I want to kill, and it’s him!"

"Your hiding place was protected by the Fidelius Charm. That spell can hide a secret inside one person’s soul. I was the Secret-Keeper!" Black looked as though he wanted to stomp the rat until his eyes burst.

For a moment, he even regretted not simply killing Peter. Fortunately, he still had enough patience left to understand that he needed to explain.

Under Harry’s hateful, distrustful stare, Black continued hoarsely, "At the last moment I convinced James to switch the Secret-Keeper to Peter. But afterward, when I went looking for him, he was gone. There were no signs of a fight in his house. I realized something was wrong and immediately went after him."

"There are millions of rats in the world!" Harry did not believe such a flimsy explanation.

But Hermione thought of something. "Harry, Ron said Scabbers has been with their family for more than ten years. Ordinary rats don’t live that long."

"This one is the only rat in the world I could never mistake! I can prove it. I just need a knife!" Black reached toward Hermione—or more accurately, toward Yimi in Hermione’s arms.

"What are you going to do?" Ron asked in horror.

Black grinned. "Relax. I’m not going to kill him. Just give him a little neutering operation. Any blade will do."

In truth, if he had his wand he could force Peter to transform back, but Black wanted something crueler.

"We’re not giving you a knife. You’re a wanted criminal!" Hermione backed away while holding Yimi.

"Meow meow."

Black had said any blade would do. Yimi happened to have a very safe one. She had no idea what "neutering" meant, but she reached into her Storage Space with one paw and pulled out a pair of nail clippers.

"You’re actually cooperating with him?" Ron glared at Yimi.

Then Black snatched the clippers away and strode toward the rat.

"You think we’re going to stand here and watch you torture Scabbers?" Ron angrily aimed his wand at Black, but just as he instinctively prepared to cast the Full Body-Bind Curse, some reflex made him glance at Yimi first.

That tiny hesitation was enough for Black to get everything lined up.

"Squeak squeak squeak!"

Peter Pettigrew, who had endured more than ten years without daring to return to human form, finally panicked beyond endurance. Like a tree in a time-lapse, a human head emerged first, followed rapidly by arms and legs.

A moment later, a short man appeared where the rat had been. The four thin ropes snapped as his body expanded.

His skin looked wrinkled and he was rather plump. His crooked teeth and the shape around his eyes and nose really did retain something ratlike, giving the whole man the furtive look of a groundhog.

"Eugh—!" Ron made a strange noise and froze. His mind had not yet caught up, but his body was already shuddering with revulsion.

Peter stammered meekly, "S-Sirius... my good friend..."

At the same time, his little eyes darted around the room and settled on the only door.