"PETER PETTIGREW is dead!" said Harry. "He killed him twelve years ago—" He pointed at Sirius, whose face twitched convulsively.

"—meant to," Sirius growled, his teeth bared, "but little Peter got the better of me ... not this time, though!"

Sirius lunged at Scabbers. Ron yelled with pain as Sirius' weight fell on his leg, "Sirius, NO!" Remus yelled, launching himself forwards and dragging Sirius away from Ron again, "WAIT! You can't do it just like that — they need to understand — we've got to explain —"

"We'll explain afterwards!" snarled Sirius, trying to throw Remus off. One hand was still clawing the air as it tried to reach Scabbers, who was squealing like a piglet, scratching Ron's face and neck as he tried to escape.

"You owe Harry the truth, dad!" Jessica exclaimed.

Sirius stopped struggling, though his eyes were still fixed on Scabbers, who was clamped tightly under Ron's bitten, scratched, and bleeding hands, "Was that the first time you called me dad?"

"Maybe, I guess." Jessica shrugged.

"All right, then," Sirius 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, all of you," said Ron shakily, looking round at Harry and Hermione for support. "I've had enough of this. I'm off."

　　He tried to heave himself up on his good leg, but Jessica raised a wand at him, pointing it at both him, and Peter.

"You're going to hear him out, Ron," she said quietly. "Just keep a tight hold on the rat while you listen."

"SCABBERS HAS GOT NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS!" Ron yelled, trying to force the rat back into his front pocket, but Scabbers was fighting to hard. Ron swayed and overbalanced, and Harry caught him am pushed him back down to the bed.

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

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

"Everyone thought Sirius killed Peter," said Remus, nodding. "I believed it myself. But the map never lies . . . Peter's alive. Ron's holding him, Harry."

Then Hermione spoke, in a trembling, would-be calm sort of voice, as though trying to will Remus to talk sensibly, "But Professor Lupin . . . Scabbers can't be Pettigrew . . . it just can't be true, you know it can't . . . "

"Why can't it be true?" Remus said calmly, as though they were in class, and Hermione had simply spotted a problem in an experiment with grindylows.

"Because . . . because people would know if Peter Pettigrew had been an Animagus. We did Animagi in class with Professor McGonagall. And I looked them up when I did my homework — the Ministry of Magic keeps tabs on witches and wizards who can become animals, there's a register showing what animal they become, and their markings and things . . . and I went and looked Professor McGonagall up on the register, and there have been only seven Animagi this century, and Pettigrew's name wasn't on the list."

"Right again, Hermione!" Remus said. "But—"

"But the Ministry never knew that here used to be five unregistered Animagi running around Hogwarts." Jessica interrupted

"If you're going to tell them the story, get a move on," said Sirius, who was still watching Scabbers's every desperate move. "I've waited twelve years, I'm not going to wait much longer."

"All right . . . but you'll need to help me, Sirius," said Remus, I only know how it began ... "

　　Remus broke off. There had been a loud creak behind him. The bedroom door had opened of its own accord. All six of them stared at it. Then Remus strode toward it and looked out into the landing.

"No one there ... "

"This place is haunted!" said Ron.

"It's not," Jessica said, still looking at the door in a puzzled way. "The Shrieking Shack was never haunted ... The screams and howls the villagers used to hear were made by Remus."

　　Remus pushed his graying hair out of his eyes, thought for a moment then said, "That's where all of this starts — with my becoming a werewolf, None of this could have happened if I hadn't been bitten ... and if I hadn't been so foolhardy ... "

       Remus told them about how his four best friends turned into unregistered animagi to keep him company during the fool moon as werewolves were only a danger to humans.

"My dad too?" said Harry, astounded.

"Yes, indeed," said Remus. "It took them the best part of three years to work out how to do it. James, Rose and Sirius here were the cleverest students in the school, and lucky they were, because the Animagus transformation 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 the three of them. Finally, in our fifth year, they managed it. They could each turn into a different animal at will."

"They sneaked out of the castle every month under James's Invisibility Cloak. They transformed . . . Peter, as the smallest, could slip beneath the Willow's attacking branches and touch the knot that freezes it. They would then slip down the tunnel and join me. Under their influence, I became less dangerous. My body was still wolfish, but my mind seemed to become less so while I was with them." Remus continued.

"Hurry up, Remus," snarled Sirius, who was still watching Scabbers with a horrible sort of hunger on his face.

"I'm getting there, Sirius, 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 roaming 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. 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 nicknames. Sirius is Padfoot. Peter is Wormtail. James was Prongs. Rose was Caniche."

"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?" Hermione asked.

"A thought that still haunts me," said Remus heavily. "And there were near misses, many of them. We laughed about them afterwards. We were young, thoughtless — carried away with our own cleverness. I sometimes felt guilty about betraying Dumbledore's trust, of course . . . 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 others' safety. He 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 . . .

　　Remus' 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. It would have meant admitting that I'd betrayed his trust while I was at school, admitting that I'd led others along with me . . . and Dumbledore's trust has meant everything to me. He let me into Hogwarts as a boy, and he 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. Professor Snape was at school with us. He fought very hard against my appointment to the Defense Against the Dark Arts job. He has been telling Dumbledore A year that I am not to be trusted. He has his reasons . . . you see, Sirius here played a trick on him which nearly killed him, a trick which involved me —"

"It served him right," Sirius sneered. "Sneaking around, trying to find out what we were up to... hoping he could get us expelled . . . "

"Severus was very interested in where I went every month." Remus said. "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, of James's talent on the 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 — er — amusing, to tell Snape all he had to do was prod the knot on the tree trunk with a long stick, and he'd be able to get in after me. 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 glimpsed me, though, at the end of the tunnel. He was forbidden by Dumbledore to tell anybody, but from that time on he knew what I was . . . "

"So that's why Snape doesn't like you," said Harry slowly, "because he thought you were in on the joke?"

"That's right," sneered a cold voice from the wall behind Remus.

　　Severus Snape was pulling off the Invisibility Cloak from his body, his wand pointing, directly at Remus.

"I found this at the base of the Whomping Willow," said Snape, throwing the cloak aside, careful to keep this wand pointing directly at Remus' chest. "Very useful, Potter, I thank you . . . "

Snape was slightly breathless, but his face was full of suppressed triumph. "You're wondering, perhaps, how I knew you were here?" he said, his eyes glittering. "I've just been to your office, Lupin. You forgot to take your potion tonight, so I took a gobletful along. And very lucky I did . . . lucky for me, I mean. On the ground outside your office, was a certain map. One glance at it told me all I needed to know. I saw you running along this passageway and out of sight."

    Jessica bit down on her tounge. She had forgotten to take the map with her.

"Severus —" Remus began, but Snape overrode him.

"I've told the headmaster again and again that you're helping your old friend Black into the castle, Lupin, and here's the proof. Not even I dreamed you would have the nerve to use this old place as your hideout —"

"Severus, you're making a mistake," said Remus urgently. "You haven't heard everything — I can explain — Sirius is not here to kill Harry—"

"Two more for Azkaban tonight," said Snape, his eyes now gleaming fanatically. "I shall be interested to see how Dumbledore takes this.... He was quite convinced you were harmless, you know, Lupin . . . a tame werewolf —"

"You fool," said Remus softly. "Is a schoolboy grudge worth putting an innocent man back inside Azkaban?"

　　BANG! Thin, snakelike cords burst from the end of Snape's wand and twisted themselves around Remus' mouth, wrists, and ankles, he overbalanced and fell to the floor, unable to move. With a roar of rage, Sirius started toward Snape, but Snape pointed his wand straight between Sirius' eyes.

Jessica clenched her jaw as she rounded on Snape, "You're just looking for an excuse to get Remus out of his position, because of jealousy, and dad, an innocent man, having his soul sucked out because of an old School boy feud!" I exclaimed, sounding braver than I felt. "But tell me, would you — heartless as you may be — be able to live with yourself knowing that you're the cause of two innocent men being in a place like Azkaban, and that you've as good as killed a sixteen year old girl!?"

"You!" He said, just now finding of Jessica's presence, and then sounding much more subdued he repeated, "You."

"Me." Jessica said,

"I tried to warn you, I tried to get you to be different from him. But you didn't — you didn't —"

   This was the first time Jessica Black witnessed Severus Snape being out of words, and based on the enmity between them, one would've thought she would've loved it. But somehow, she didn't.

"But that's something out of my hands, how can a person be decent with Black blood in them? Even if it was mixed with Evans blood . . . " Snape muttered

"How dare you! How dare you mention her name with your filthy mouth!" Sirius bellowed, "Get this wand out of my face!"

Snape emphasised his power over him, by waving his wand, "Give me a reason," he whispered. "Give me a reason to do it, and I swear I will."

　　Sirius stopped dead in his tracks. It would have been impossible to say which face showed more hatred.

"Professor Snape — it it wouldn't hurt to hear what they've got to say, w — would it?" Hermione said.

"Miss Granger, you are already facing suspension from this school," Snape spat. "You, Potter, Black, Blake, Denswood and Weasley are out-of-bounds, in the company of a convicted murderer and a werewolf. For once in your life, hold your tongue."

"But if — if there was a mistake —"

"KEEP QUIET, YOU STUPID GIRL!" Snape shouted, looking suddenly quite deranged. "DON'T TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!" A few sparks shot out of the end of his wand, which was still pointed at Black's face. Hermione fell silent.

What a jerk. Jessica yelled, "You pathetic coward!" I spat, "Just because dad and Re—"

But Jessica stopped, she read the look in Snape's eyes. He threatened to make a move with his wand towards Sirius if she didn't shut up, she knew it. He turned back towards Sirius.

"Vengeance is very sweet," Snape breathed at him. "How I hoped I would be the one to catch you . . . "

"The joke's on you again, Severus," Sirius snarled. "As long as this boy brings his rat up to the castle" — he jerked his head at Ron — "I'll come quietly . . . "

"Up to the castle?" said Snape silkily. "I don't think we need to go that far. All I have to do is call the dementors once we get out of the Willow. They'll be very pleased to see you, Black . . . pleased enough to give you a little kiss, I daresay . . . I —"

What little color there was in Sirius' face left it, "You — you've got to hear me out," he croaked. "The rat — look at the rat —"

　　But there was a mad glint in Snape's eyes that Jessica had never seen before. He seemed beyond reason.

"Come on, all of you," he said. He clicked his fingers, and the ends of the cords that bound Lupin flew to his hands. "I'll drag the werewolf. Perhaps the dementors will have a kiss for him too —"

"SHUT THE HELL UP, YOU ARSE —"

　　Before I could finish my sentence, Harry had crossed the room in three strides and blocked the door.

"Get out of the way, Potter, you're in enough trouble already," snarled Snape, ignoring me, "If I hadn't been here to save your skin —"

"Professor Lupin could have killed me about a hundred times this year," Harry said. "I've been alone with him loads of times, having defense lessons against the dementors. If he was helping Black, why didn't he just finish me off then?"

"Don't ask me to fathom the way a werewolf's mind works," hissed Snape. "Get out of the way Potter, if you know what's best for you."

"YOURE PATHETIC!" Harry yelled. "JUST BECAUSE THEY MADE A FOOL OF YOU AT SCHOOL YOU WON'T EVEN LISTEN —"

"SILENCE! I WILL NOT BE SPOKEN TO LIKE THAT!" Snape shrieked, looking madder than ever. "Like father, like son, Potter! I have just saved your neck, you should be thanking me on bended knee! You would have been well served if he'd killed you! You'd have died like your father, too arrogant to believe you might be mistaken in Black — now get out of the way, or I will make you. GET OUT OF THE WAY, POTTER!"

　　 Before Snape could take even one step toward Harry, Jessica had raised her wand.

"Expelliarmus!" Jessica yelled — except that her wasn't the only voice that shouted. There was a blast that made the door rattle on its hinges, Snape was lifted off his feet and slammed into the wall, then slid down it to the floor, a trickle of blood oozing from under his hair. He had been knocked out.

　　Jessica looked around. Both her, Harry and Aiden had tried to disarm Snape at exactly the same moment. Snape's wand soared in a high arc and landed on the bed next to Crookshanks.

A/N: hello! So, I knew most of this chapter was a copy paste from the book, and I'm never a fan of that. The only reason I actually did this, is because many readers here have only seen the movies, and I mentioned this back story for them, to keep in mind. All the book readers can just quickly scan through it.

- amina