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𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐏𝐄 𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐌 ── ◦'𖥸'◦ ── 𝒜𝒞𝒯 𝒪𝒩𝐸
↳ ❛ the truth is out ❜︎
𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟯 ╱ ╱ 🏛🧺 ˚◞𑁍ﾟ𝙳𝙸𝙾𝚁𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙸𝙰𝙼𝙴𝚃

It took a few seconds for those words to sync to each person present in the room. Then the voice of Ronald Weasley seemed to snap Celeste out of her daze.

"You're both mentals."

"Ridiculous," said Hermione faintly. Celeste flickered her eyes to Harry who seemed to question this absurdity.

"Peter Pettigrew's dead," said Harry. "He killed him twelve years ago!" he pointed at Black, whose face twitched convulsively.

"I meant to," he growled, his yellow teeth bared, "But little Peter got the better of me. Not this time though!"

"Huh?" Celeste asked.

And Crookshanks was thrown to the floor as Black lunged at Scabbers. Ron yelled with pain as Black's weight fell on his broken leg.

"Sirius NO!" Lupin eloped, dragging Bllack away from Ron again, "WAIT Yo can't do it just like that ─ they need to understand ─ we've got to explain ─"

"We can explain afterward!" snarled Black, trying to throw Lupin off. One hand crawled in the air trying to reach for the rat.

"They've ─ got ─ a right ─ to ─ know ─ everything!" Lupin painted. "Ron's kept him as a pet! There are parts of it even I don't understand, and Harry and Celeste deserve to know the truth, Sirius."

Sirius stopped struggling at those words.

"All right then," Black said, without taking his eyes off the rat. "Tell them whatever you like. But make it quick, Remus. I want to commit the murder I was imprisoned for."

"You're nutters both of you," said Ron shakily. "I've had enough of this. I'm off." he tried to heave himself only for Lupin to raise his wand again towards Scabbers.

"Can't you at least hear them out first?" Celeste muttered.

"You're going to hear me out, Ron," he said quietly. "Just keep a tight hold on Scabbers while you listen."

"HE'S NOT PETER, HE'S SCABBERS!" Ron yelled, trying to force the rat back onto his front pocket, but Scabbers was fighting too hard; Rons swayed and overbalanced and Harry caught him and pushed him towards the bed.

"There were witnesses who saw Pettigrew die," he said. "A whole street full of them."

"They didn't see what they thought they saw!" said Black savagely, still watching Scabbers struggling in Ron's hands.

"Everyone thought Sirius killed Peter." said Lupin nodding, "I believed it myself ─ until I saw the map tonight. Because the Marauders map never lies...Peter's alive. Ron's holding him, Harry."

Then Hermione's trembling voice spoke, "But Professor Lupin...Scabbers can't be Pettigrew...it just can't be true, you know it can't."

Sirius's eyes watered and glanced at his niece.

"Why can't it be true?" Lupin said calmly.

"Because people would know if Peter was an Animagus. We did Animagi in class with Professor McGonagall. Celeste and I looked them up when we did our homework ─ the Ministry of Magic keeps tabs on witches and wizards who can become animals; there's a register showing what animals they come...and their markings and things."

"You guys became Illegal Animagi didn't you?" spoke Celeste all of sudden. She glanced between the two adult men. "The question is why?"
"Right again, Hermione, Celeste!" he said. "The Ministry never knew because they were unregistered. The Ministry wouldn't know they used to attend Hogwarts."

"If you're going to tell them the story, get a move on, Remus." quipped Sirius with annoyance. "I've waited twelve years, I'm not going to wait much longer." his eyes went to Celeste again, he looked determined.

Celeste looked at her Uncle wide-eyed, this whole time...it made some sort of sense that maybe her Uncle was innocent.

"All right... but you'll need my help, Sirius," said Lupin. "I only know how it began..." he broke off. There was a crack behind him. All six of them started at it. Then Lupin strode towards it and looked at the landing.

"No one....there."

"This place is haunted."

"Not exactly..." said Lupin, still looking at the door puzzled. "The Shrieking Shack was never haunted...the screams and howls the villagers used to hear made by me."

He pushed his hair out of the way, "That's where all this starts ─ with my becoming of a wolf ─ none of this could have happened if I hadn't been so full foolhardy."

he looks somber and tired from sorry and Ron was about to interrupt but Celeste and Hermione "Shh."

They were watching moving very intently. "I, as a very small boy when I received the bite my parents tried everything but those days there was no cure the potion that Professor Snape has been making for me is a very recent discovery this makes me safe you see as long as I take it in the in the week preceding the full moon I keep my mind when I transform I'm able to curl up in my office a harmless wolf and wait for the moon to wait again."

Before the Wolfsbane Potion was discovered, however, I became a fully-fledged monster once a month. I would be able to come to Hogwarts if their parents weren't likely to have their children exposed to me."

But then Dumbledore became Headmaster and he was sympathetic. He said that as long as we took certain precautions, there was no reason I should have come too to school." he looked directly at Harry and Celeste, "I told you months ago that the Whomping Willow was planted the year I came to Hogwarts, the truth is it was planted because I came to this house, " and looked around miserably around the room. "

The tunnel that leads to it was built for my use once a month. I was smuggled out of the castle onto this place to transform the tree and was placed at the tunnel mouth to stop anyone coming across me when that I was dangerous."

Harry could see where the story was going but he was listening rapidly all the same the only sound apart from Lupin's voice so scabrous frightened squeaking the last looked curiously at the rat this all made it sound so far.

"my transformation in those days was terrible. It is painful to turn into a werewolf. I was separated from humans to bite so I bet on scratch myself instead. The villagers heard the noise in the screaming and thought they were hearing particularly violent Spirits Dumbledore and courage the rumor even now when this house has been silent for years the villagers don't dare to approach it."

"But apart from my transformations, I was happier than I had ever been in my life. For the first time ever, I had friends, five great friends, Sirius Black...Peter Pettigrew...and of course, your father, Harry─James Potter...and your mother Celeste, Reyna Black."

"Now my four friends could hardly fail to notice that I disappeared once a month. I made up all sorts of stories. I told them my mother was ill, and that I had to go home to see her...I was terrified they would desert me the moment they found out what I was. But of course, they, like you, Hermione and Celeste, worked out the truth."

And they didn't desert me at all. Instead, they did something for me that would not make my transformations not only bearable but the best times of my life. They became Animagi."

"My dad too," said Harry completely in awe. Celeste looked at her uncle like a wide-eyed child. "That's freakin cool man."

For the first time, Sirius Black cracked a wide grin at his niece's words.

"Yes, indeed," said Lupin. "IT took them the best part of three years to work out how to do it. The truth is we couldn't have figured it out without Reyna. Can you believe someone that followed the rules, loves to break the rules?" he chuckled.

Sirius shook his head, "Still baffles me to this day, we thought she was out of her mind...but the truth is she was brilliant."

"Your parents and Sirius Black were the cleverest students in school, and they were lucky because the Animagus transformations can go horribly wrong ─ one reason the Ministry keeps a close watch on those attempting to do it. Peter needed all the help he could get from James and Sirius. Finally, they managed it. They could each turn into a different animal at will."

"But how did that help you?" said Hermione, sounding puzzled.

Celeste nodded rapidly.

"They couldn't keep me company as humans, so they kept me company as animals," said Lupin. "A werewolf is only a danger to people. They sneak out of the castle every month under James' invisibility Cloak. They transformed. Peter was the smallest coil slip beneath Willow's tree attacking branches and touching the knots so they froze. They would then slip down that tunnel and join me. Under the influence, I became less dangerous. My body was still wolfish. But my mind seemed to become less so while I was with them."

"Hurry up, Remus." snarled Black, watching Scabbers venomously.

"I'm getting there Sirus. I'm getting there...well, highly exciting possibilities were open to us now that we could all transform. Soon we were leaving the Shrieking Shack and among the school grounds and the village by night. Sirius and James transformed into such large animals, they were able to keep a werewolf in check. Reyna was a dove, that would distract me sometimes...If I were to break loose the rest could track me down using Reyna to guide them. I doubt whether any Hogwarts students ever found out more about the Hogwarts grounds and Hogsmeade than we did...and that's how we came to write the Marauder's Map, and sign it with our names. Sirius is Padfoot. Peter is Wormtail. Reyna was Dove, and James was Prongs.

"What sort of animal─?" Harry began, but Hermione cut him off. "That was still really dangerous! Running around in the dark with a werewolf what if you'd given the others the slip, and bitten somebody?"

"A thought that still haunts me," said Lupin heavily. "And there were near misses, many of them. We laughed about them afterward. We were young thoughtless ─ carried away with our own cleverness."

"I think it's pretty cool...you guys were close huh?" she smiled slightly.

"We all were like siblings..." Sirius chuckled softly. "We don't regret it. We wanted to help our friend."

"I sometimes felt guilty about betraying Dumbledore's trust. He had admitted me to Hogwarts when no other Headmaster would have done so, and he had no idea I was breaking the rules he had set down for my own and other's safety. His never knew I had led three fellow students into becoming Animagi illegally. But I always managed to forget my guilty feelings every time we sat down to plan our next month's adventure. And I haven't changed..."

Lupin's face had hardened, and there was self-disgust in his voice. "All this year, I have been battling with myself, wondering whether I should tell Dumbledore that Sirius was an Animagus. But I didn't do it. Why? Because I was too cowardly. I would have meant admitting that I'd betrayed his trust while I was at school. Dumbledores's trust had meant everything to me. He let me into Hogwarts as a boy, gave me a job when I have been shunned all my adult life, unable to find paid work because of what I am. And so I convinced myself that Sirius was getting into the school using dark arts he learned from Voldemort, that being an Animagus had nothing to do with it...so in a way. Snape's been right about me all along."

"Snape?" said Black harshly, his eyes taking away from Scabbers. "What's Snape got to do with it?"

"He's here, Sirius," said Lupin heavily. "He's teaching here as well."

"Professor Snape was at school with us. He fought very hard against my appointment to the Defense Against The Dark Arts job ─"

"Well no shit, and he remains unsuccessful." Celeste snickered.

Remus grinned and continued, "He has been telling Dumbledore all year that I am not to be trusted. He has his reasons...ou see, Sirius here played a trick on him which nearly killed him, a trick which involved me ─"

Black made a noise, "Served him right." he sneered. "Sneaking around, trying to find out what we were up to...hoping he could get us expelled...poor prat felt so betrayed that Reyna De Martel was a part of it."

"Severus was very interested in where I went every month," Lupin told Harry, Ron, Celeste, and Hermione. "We were in the same year, you know, and we ─ er ─ didn't like each other very much. He especially disliked James. Jealous, I think, James talent on Quidditch field...anyway Snape had seen me crossing the grounds with Madam Pomfrey one evening as she led me toward the Whomping Willow to transform. Sirius thought it would be amusing to tell Snape all he had to do was prod the knot on the tree trunk with a long stick, and he'd beagle to get me after."

"Well, of course, Snape tried it ─ if he'd got as far as this house he'd have met a fully grown werewolf ─ but your father who'd heard what Sirius had done, went after Snape and pulled him back, at great risk to his life. Snape listed me, though at the end of the tunnel. He was forbidden by Dumbledore to tell anybody but from the time on he knew I was..."

"Reyna was so angry when she found out...she created a whole story about how Snape's story was made up, that he got caught by Dumbledore for sneaking out. Regulus backed up her plan but deep down Severus was devastated and furious that she would ever protect me."

"Bit of a freak if you ask me" Sirius rolled his eyes at the mention of Snape. He was a man that was obsessed with his sister-in-law.

So that's it then...he thought you were a part of the joke. My mum tried to cover up the truth to save you. That's the reason he doesn't like you." Celeste said slowly.

"That's right," sneered a cold voice from the wall behind Lupin. Severus Snape was pulling off the Invisibility Cloak, his wand pointing straight at Lupin.

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╭ ╮
✎↷... 𝒂 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒆 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒂𝒖𝒓𝒐𝒓𝒂 ✉️
➩ 𝑣𝑜𝑡𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡, 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑘 𝑦𝑜𝑢!
╰ ╯

Celeste is finally getting to know the truth. Also, you get a sneak peek of Celeste using her gift to knock that Greasy git.

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