Chapter 475 - 26: Expecto Patronum

Chapter 475: Chapter 26: Expecto Patronum

"Peter Pettigrew, my very best friend. I really ought to ask Hagrid for my motorbike back. Then I could tie you behind it nice and securely," Black said with cutting sarcasm. "After all, there’s no friend in the world more trustworthy than you. With you behind me, I’d feel perfectly safe riding at top speed."

"This is all a misunderstanding, Harry! My dear boy, you can’t believe him! Everyone knows he’s Voldemort’s lackey. I’ve had so many chances to hurt you over the years, and I never did, did I?" Peter shrieked. After spending so many years as a rat, he was surprisingly fluent the moment he started speaking again.

The only people currently holding wands were the children and that cat. Peter was especially terrified of the cat.

"What did you say? When have I ever submitted to someone just because he was stronger than me? I’d rather die than betray my friends!" Black looked ready to strangle him.

Harry slowly backed toward his companions. His wand gradually shifted toward Peter, though he never quite pointed it directly at him. He was still uncertain.

At the same time, Harry saw Ron turn toward an empty corner and dry-heave.

"Both of you had better explain everything to us. Neither of you looks like a good person!" Harry threatened.

"I became a rat to hide from him—he betrayed Lily and James, and then he tried to kill me too! I saw what he did!" Peter was quick when it came to petty cunning. He argued desperately, "He joined the Dark Lord, he—"

Black cut him off sharply. "The Dark Lord? I call him Voldemort!"

Ron’s expression stiffened at the name. Even Hermione, who was Muggle-born, looked uncomfortable. Very few people dared say that name aloud.

Black kept talking. "I thought changing the Secret-Keeper to you would be safe. After all, Voldemort would never expect us to entrust the secret to a spineless coward who’s literally timid as a rat!"

"I told you he’s an evil rat!" Yimi immediately added, despite having almost no idea what was going on. She still did not even know Black was a wanted criminal.

Hermione gently patted Ron’s back. "No offense, Pettigrew, but I find it very difficult to believe an innocent man would willingly spend more than ten years as a rat. If Sirius was the only person you feared, there were plenty of people you could have asked for help."

"Well said, girl. Of course he never dared hurt Harry. He was too afraid of being exposed. And he wasn’t only afraid of me. He was even more afraid of the Death Eaters who followed Voldemort. They think he fed Voldemort false information and that’s why Voldemort disappeared!" Black went to retrieve his wand.

Harry hesitated but did not point his own wand back at Black. He simply watched him pick the wand up again, which was almost the same as accepting his story.

In this situation Harry had become something like a judge holding the hammer, capable of deciding how the whole case would end. Peter looked utterly desperate.

"I think I have to kill him. I’m the one who should do it! Twelve years ago he tricked me once. He won’t get away with it today!" Black aimed his wand at Peter.

"No! Master, my dear master—I’m Scabbers!" Peter turned pleadingly toward Ron.

Ron stared for two seconds before realizing that "Master" meant him. Goosebumps instantly covered his whole body. He started scratching himself as though something disgusting were crawling over his skin.

He used to hold that rat all the time. For the past few days he had constantly worried that Yimi was deliberately attacking Scabbers. If he had not been afraid of crushing the rat, he might even have slept while hugging it. This was the family pet that had lived in their home since Ron was little—and it turned out to be this creepy old man. Now the man was personally calling him Master?

Ron shook his head violently, face twisted into a grimace. "When I get back, I have to tell Percy. He deserves to be disgusted too."

Peter desperately turned to Harry. "Harry, James wouldn’t want me dead!"

Harry looked away in disgust, then gave Black a complicated look. "You can’t kill him. If he dies, then you really will be a criminal. You also need him to clear your name. Azkaban is the best possible ending for him."

"Thank you! Thank you, Harry!" Peter cried, hugging Harry’s knees. No matter what happened next, at least he was alive.

Black lowered his wand reluctantly. "You’re the person with the greatest right to decide what happens to him, Harry."

Then he kicked Peter away from Harry and conjured thin ropes around him. "If you turn into a rat and try to run, I’ll kill you immediately! Don’t doubt whether I’d do it. I’ve wanted to for a very long time!"

Black looked at Yimi. "I’ve been thinking. You’re probably just a student, maybe a Slytherin. I’ll keep my promise. Once I turn him in, I’ll take you to the Black family home and let you look around."

He assumed Slytherin because the belief that Slytherins were close to Voldemort had become a stereotype. It had already existed in Black’s own school days, when quite a few Slytherin students had sided with Voldemort.

"You two made a deal?" Hermione opened her mouth in astonishment and looked down at the cat in her arms.

What could a little kid possibly understand about any of this?

Keeping his wand pressed against Peter’s back, Black finally had the chance to look properly at Harry. He could not describe what he felt. Nostalgia? Guilt? If not for the supposedly clever idea he had come up with back then, James would never have been betrayed by Peter.

He said, "Do you know what turning Peter in means?"

Harry nodded. "You’ll be free."

He studied Sirius again too. This man had been misunderstood for twelve years, had once been his father’s best friend, and apparently still was.

"About what happened just now..."

Harry started to say something, but Black awkwardly interrupted. "Your parents named me as your guardian. They said that if anything ever happened to them... You probably don’t know this, but I’m your godfather. If you wanted... if you wanted a different home... Of course, I know you live with your aunt and uncle."

Harry seemed to come alive all over again. "You mean live with you? Leave the Dursleys? Of course I want to! Do you have a house? I can move in anytime! It’s not this shack, is it? ...Actually, even if it is, I’d still come."

What kind of life did he have at his aunt and uncle’s house? The Dursleys even told outsiders he attended a juvenile detention school. Every summer holiday was the most hopeless part of Harry’s year because Hogwarts rules required him to go home.

Hearing those words made Black seem ten years younger, at least in spirit. His appearance was still just as haggard.

"Aren’t you eating?" Yimi jumped out of Hermione’s arms and regretfully pawed at the pot of finished snake soup.

"Congratulations, Host, for unlocking the achievement [Ruthless Iron Hand]. Reward: Portal Energy +5%," the System suddenly announced.

Black shook his head. "That was the best food I’ve ever tasted, but this isn’t the time. I need to turn this coward in."

"I owe you an apology, little cat," Ron said, lowering his head toward Yimi with some embarrassment.

Apologizing always made people a little awkward. His voice came out stiff. "I didn’t know Scabbers was actually a... I mean, he had been with me for so many—ugh!"

Apparently he had imagined something unpleasant again. He turned aside and retched. Ron had firmly decided that Percy absolutely needed to hear about this once he got back.

Seeing him like that, Yimi hurriedly stood on her hind legs and pressed down on the soup-pot lid so Ron would not actually throw up and contaminate her cooking.

"But I still think you should’ve explained it to me... Oh, right, you’re taking this with you, aren’t you? I can help. I help Mum and Dad with chores at home too." Ron voluntarily grabbed the two handles of the pot and lifted it.

With everything seemingly ending as well as possible, Hermione finally relaxed. "So this little house currently contains a cat, a dog, and a rat, and all three of them are Animagi? None of you registered? I thought that was against the rules."

"The people in charge don’t always follow the rules themselves," Black said, making a point Ron understood all too well considering his own father worked at the Ministry.

"Animagi have enormous advantages in spying and crime, which is why registration is required. But if they never find out, there isn’t much they can do about it. I suppose nobody expects a group of students to teach themselves how to become Animagi..."

As Black spoke, he watched the Cat Lady who had helped him finally transform back into a human. A lively seven-year-old girl appeared and reached out to return the pot Ron was carrying to her Storage Space. After all, the little girl was taller than her cat form; as a cat, she would have needed to jump just to reach the pot Ron held.

The corners of Black’s mouth twitched. He finally realized the reason the Cat Lady had helped him was not because she had some affinity for wanted criminals, but because she probably did not understand what a wanted criminal was. What bastard taught a child this young to become an Animagus?

They escorted Peter out through the tunnel. Now that Hermione knew what to do, she crouched near the front, poked the knot on the Whomping Willow with her wand, froze the tree in place, then hurried outside. By now the sky was already growing dark. Winter sunsets came early.

Remembering that Yimi’s human form wore summer clothes—her beginner combat outfit—Hermione turned back to ask whether she was cold, only to see a familiar wand already pointed at them.

"Expelliarmus!"

Apparently deciding there was no need for dueling etiquette when dealing with a wanted criminal holding a hostage, the Disarming Charm instantly sent Black’s wand flying. Students were normally supposed to learn this spell in second year, but unfortunately Harry and the others had spent this year’s Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons under Lockhart.

Taking advantage of the opening, Peter immediately transformed into a rat and bolted away. Yimi reacted just as quickly and chased him.

"Snape!" Harry shouted angrily when he saw who had arrived.

His first reaction was naturally anger. Whether or not Snape meant well, he had just let the true culprit—the key to clearing Sirius’s name—escape.

"You should add ’Professor,’ or perhaps ’sir,’ Potter," Snape said coldly as he picked up Black’s wand.

He pointed his own wand at Black and sneered at Harry at the same time. "Some people seem to think fighting the Whomping Willow won’t attract anyone’s attention. You look surprisingly friendly with him. Perhaps you don’t know this man is the true murderer of your parents, Potter."

Snape and Black were more than simple acquaintances. During their school days, Snape had suffered plenty of bullying from Black’s group. Black had even once tried to trick him into following Lupin into the Shrieking Shack while Lupin was transforming into a werewolf. If James Potter—whom Snape disliked almost as much—had not stopped him, Snape might well have been torn apart by a berserk werewolf.

"Sirius isn’t—"

Harry did not even finish before Ron suddenly pointed his wand at Snape. "Petrificus Totalus!"

Snape, focused entirely on Black and never expecting a student to attack him without warning, went rigid.

"Third time had to work. We don’t have time to explain, Harry. We’ll take the detention when we get back. Hurry and catch Pettigrew!" Ron pointed in the direction Yimi had chased him.

Peter was extremely cowardly. Normally he would never run toward somewhere dangerous—as long as nothing was chasing him. Unfortunately, the little girl transformed into a cat behind him seemed able to find him no matter where he ran.

In blind panic, he changed direction and fled toward the Forbidden Forest.

"Stupefy!"

With Yimi leading the chase, Hermione could barely keep track of where Peter was in the dark. She tried to imitate Yimi and use the sniper scope to fire from long range, but compared with the other two things Yimi had given her, this one demanded far more skill. On her first attempt, the spell streaked past Peter’s ear.

That was already impressive for a first try, especially since Hermione was carrying two additional wands—Snape’s and Black’s.

Even so, the near miss startled Peter badly. More importantly, he saw that the cat behind him had suddenly accelerated absurdly, closing what had been a substantial distance in an instant. If she had been willing to use her mouth to bite him, he would already have been caught.

Peter hurriedly transformed back into a human and screamed in desperation, "Sirius! He’s here! Wanted criminal Sirius Black is here!"

"Meow!" A cat paw smacked him squarely on the forehead and sent him crashing into a tree, knocking him unconscious. The impact even left a dent in the trunk.

Black, Harry, and the others caught up too, but all of them vaguely sensed that something was wrong with the air. Yimi looked upward as well.

Black stretched out an arm to block the three children and was about to stride over to pull Yimi back when something that could only be described as evil descended from the sky.

A Dementor.

It wore a cloak and its entire body looked waterlogged and rotten, with scabbed, corpse-like hands. The instant it appeared, all happiness seemed to drain from the surroundings, making everyone squeeze their eyes shut in misery.

"Meow!"

Yimi had caught its scent. This thing smelled even worse than that rat.

It flew straight toward Black. It did not wait for him to cast some defensive spell. It opened its mouth and went directly for a soul-draining kiss.

In the single second it drew close, the gloom in the air became even more intense. Then a humanoid figure wrapped in ragged cloth appeared from nowhere and seized the Dementor by the throat—if it had one.

Even without any facial features besides its mouth, Black could clearly see a kind of instinctive terror in the Dementor at such close range. It tried to suck out the soul of the figure before it, only for the figure to tear at it while opening its own mouth in return and activating its first Stand ability.

"Famine!"

In that instant, Black and the others felt somewhat less miserable.

"What is it doing?" Harry shouted, because the physical discomfort left him unable to speak normally.

"I think... it’s draining the Dementor’s happiness?" Hermione guessed. She did not know whether they should approach. The sensation from moments earlier had been like falling into a severe depression, leaving nothing but sorrow and emptiness inside her.

But immediately afterward, she realized they had no choice but to move closer to the figure that had appeared beside Yimi, because there was far more than one Dementor.

Dozens—or perhaps even more—closed in, reducing the Forbidden Forest to absolute silence. They surrounded the group hungrily, yet because of the rag-wrapped figure, none dared come near.

The Dementor it had grabbed was already drained until nothing remained. Even so, the mere presence of all the others nearby continued to draw away their happiness. This was the most terrifying weapon of Azkaban.

Hermione dropped flat to the ground and stretched a wand toward Black, the most experienced wizard among them. Everyone else was struggling too.

Yimi immediately reached out to touch them. At the same time, Black forced two words through clenched teeth. "Patronus Charm..."

The Patronus Charm was among the most powerful and ancient defensive spells, capable of driving away Dementors. Casting it required focusing on one’s happiest memory. After more than ten years in Azkaban and only recently escaping, Black might have struggled to cast it properly even with a wand in hand.

Yimi knew this spell. Voldemort had already encountered all sorts of magic during his school days.

"Expecto Patronum!" She thought of a memory from when she was still a tiny kitten no bigger than a palm, when Mama shared a steamed bun with her.

It was genuinely one of her happiest memories. Even so, what she produced was still incomplete.

The incomplete Patronus had no physical form at all. Instead, it erupted as light bright enough to illuminate the entire Hogwarts grounds, including the whole Forbidden Forest, startling the centaurs who had been peacefully stargazing.