• Serena Black •

"The boy who carried
his last name
like a burden."

Harry, meanwhile, had raised his wand and without hesitation pointed it at the cursing Potions teacher. "Expelliarmus!" he shouted, though his voice was not the only one that had cast that spell. There was a bang that nearly knocked the door off its hinges. Snape was knocked off his feet, he crashed into the wall and slid down it to the floor like a wet sack. A small red trickle emerged from under his greasy black hair on his forehead.

When he did not start cursing the teenagers, there was no doubt that he had fainted. "You shouldn't have done that," Sirius whispered, and although Serena had stumbled in his direction earlier, clearly positioning herself on one side, she now took two steps back again. She avoided his grey eyes, which looked at her with both gratitude and hope. She was still not quite sure that she had made the right decision.

"We attacked a teacher... we attacked a teacher..." whimpered Hermione, staring with fear-filled eyes at the lifeless Snape. She had her hands pressed over her mouth as she did so, as if she herself was surprised at what she was capable of.

Lupin, meanwhile, was struggling with his bonds, at which point his former friend rushed to his aid. Serena resumed her position in front of the door and braced herself. Just in case. If there was even the slightest inconsistency in their story, she would immediately run to the castle for help.

Finally, Lupin straightened up and rubbed the places on his arms where the rope had left deep cuts. His smile looked tortured. "Thank you."

But his goddaughter did not return his smile. "If I'm not back by curfew, the next teachers will show up here," Serena muttered in a trembling voice, crossing both arms in front of her chest. It was supposed to be a threat, but she heard it herself, sounding about as threatening as a Puffskein. Which, in the case of her godfather, might still have an effect if he wanted to play a false game with her again.

"Then it's time we prove it," he replied, looking both surprised and concerned at her statement, before stepping expertly towards Ron. "Ron, please give me Peter. Now."

Ron hugged his pet even tighter to his chest and continued to try to talk his way out of it. Suddenly he seemed to regret that he too had helped to incapacitate Snape. "Well, let's say Pettigrew could turn into a rat, there are millions of rats!"

"It's missing a toe, isn't it?" his teacher asked, seeming calm again after the fiasco with his former classmate. "All they found of Pettigrew was..."

"A finger!" Hermione slapped her hands over her mouth again in horror after finishing his sentence.

"Oh come on, Scabbers probably got into it with another rat. He's been in my family forever."

"Maybe about twelve years?", Lupin patiently inquired, sounding more than ever like a teacher waiting for his student to have the right intuition. "Quite a long life for a rat, don't you think?"

"We... we just took good care of him!" the redhead defended himself, stammering. But Serena doubted that a rat that merely fed on Ron's old sweets could expect to live a particularly long life.

"Doesn't look too healthy at the moment, though, does it?" he observed, and now began to pace up and down the room. He kicked up dust with every step he took. "I suspect he's been losing weight since he heard Sirius was on the loose.... Did he chop off his own finger?"

"Just before he turned," his childhood friend confirmed grimly. "When I confronted him, he shouted so that the whole street could hear, that I had betrayed Lily and James. Then, before I could say my curse, he blew up the whole street with his wand behind his back, killing everyone within ten yards, and finally he disappeared down the sewer hole with the other rats to fake his own death."

"And why did he fake his death?" asked Harry, upset, already seeming to doubt the story of the two men. "Because he knew you would kill him like you killed my parents!"

"No," he replied, looking at him pleadingly, "Harry..."

"And now you have come to finish him off for good!" "That's true, but..."

"Then I should have given Snape free rein!" cried Harry indignantly, and had raised his wand again. Angrily he waved it about, ready to cast a spell.

"Harry," Lupin interjected placatingly. "Don't you see? All this time we thought Sirius had betrayed your parents and Peter had hunted him down and turned him in. But it was the other way round. Peter betrayed your mother and father - and Sirius chased Peter."

"That's not true!" shouted Harry defiantly. Serena had lifted her head. Was her godfather just suggesting that her father had been in Azkaban completely unjustly? That he had not joined Voldemort or murdered anyone? Her mouth had opened in amazement, but no words came out and she didn't know if she should allow herself to believe him.

The bespectacled boy pointed angrily at Sirius. "He was their secret keeper! He said it before you came, he said he killed them!"

"It was practically my fault," he admitted, shaking his head silently. The grey eyes were filled with tears and regret. "I persuaded Lily and James at the last moment to take Peter as their secret keeper. It's my fault, I know it.... the night they died... I had gone to see Peter, but he wasn't home and it didn't look like a fight. I went straight to your parents... and when I saw their destroyed house and their dead bodies... I realised what Peter must have done... what I had done..."

"Enough of this," his friend quickly jumped to his side. "There is only one sure way to prove what really happened. Ron, give me that rat."

"What will you do if I give him to you?" asked Ron tensely, seeming to have finally understood what this was all about.

"Force him to show himself," he explained, "If this really is a rat, it won't hurt him."

Ron bit his lips and finally reached out with dross. The rat began to squeak frantically, biting and scratching, resisting Lupin's grip. He held it outstretched in front of him. "Ready, Sirius?"

Already the addressed had snatched Snape's wand from the bed and stepped beside his former friend. They both had the writhing rat firmly in view. "Together?"

Lupin nodded and gripped Scabbers tighter with one hand and the wand with the other. Blue-white lightning crackled from both wands; for a moment Scabbers remained suspended in mid-air, the small black figure twitching convulsively, then the rat fell to the ground; another blinding flash of light and then where Scabbers had lain, a plump man writhed.

The realisation hit Serena full force, this was the proof, the proof of her father's innocence. She had to hold on to the door frame. Although she had always hoped with every fibre of her body that there had been a mistake, seeing it now with her own eyes was something completely different.

The rat-like man looked around, panting, and Serena noticed his gaze dart quickly to the door. An incredible rage suddenly took possession of her. With quick steps and raised wand, she wanted to single-handedly hex Peter Pettigrew onto the moon.

Her godfather, however, stopped her with his now free hand. "Oh, hello, Peter," he said whimsically, as if it was nothing unusual for rats in his circle to turn out to be old school friends. "Long time no see."

"S-Sirius... R-Remus..." Even Pettigrew squeaked now as he had done before as a rat. Again his watery little eyes darted to the door. Serena stepped back into the doorway, wand raised to block his path should he attempt an escape.

Her father also raised his wand. It seemed to be just him and the rat, he blanked out everything else. Lupin, however, grabbed him by the wrist and gave him a warning look. Then he turned, emphatically nonchalant and inviting, to Pettigrew again. "We had a little talk, Peter, about the night Lily and James died. You may have missed the details while you were squeaking around there on the bed."

"Remus," Pettigrew gasped, and Serena saw beads of sweat appear on his pasty face. "You don't believe him, do you? He tried to kill me. He killed Lily and James and now he's going to kill me too. You have to help me, Remus..."

Sirius' face now resembled a skull more than ever, and he stared at Pettigrew with his unfathomable eyes. Then he started laughing. It was an eerie and joyless laugh that filled the room. Serena hated herself for beginning to doubt the statement. It was his word against theirs. What if this man wasn't lying? What if he was just to get out of the way because he was a witness? What if Harry and her other friends were next? What if she was next?

"Remus, you don't believe that madman!" His face was glistening with sweat now. He wiped his face with his sleeve and looked up at Lupin. Serena followed his gaze. She could never imagine her godfather as a cold-blooded murderer. However, she didn't necessarily expected Quirrel to be... She thought of the moments from the Pensieve and she really wanted to believe them. In the end, it had always been Peter Pettigrew who had never really belonged.

"I must admit, Peter, I find it hard to understand why an innocent man should live twelve years as a rat," Lupin stated levelly, not allowing himself to be ruffled in the slightest.

"Innocent, but full of fear!" he squeaked. "If Voldemort's followers are after me, surely it's because I brought one of their best men to Azkaban - the spy, Sirius Black!"

The accused's face contorted. "How dare you!" he snarled, suddenly sounding like the bear-sized dog he was. "Me, a spy for Voldemort? When did I ever swarm around people who were stronger and more powerful than I? But you always liked big friends to look out for you, didn't you? It must have been the greatest moment of your miserable life when you opened up to Voldemort that you could hand over the Potters to him."

Pettigrew muttered absentmindedly to himself. Serena caught words like "far-fetched", and "mad", but she paid more attention to Pettigrew's ashen face and to his eyes that kept darting over the windows and to the door. Would someone innocent behave like this? Someone with a fear of death by all means...

"Believe me, Harry. I never betrayed James and Lily. I would rather have died than do that," her father continued, addressing Harry. The Gryffindor nodded slowly and seemed to believe him.

"No!" Pettigrew had fallen to his knees as if Harry's nod had been his death sentence. "Sirius, it's me.... Peter... your friend... You're not going to..."

The person addressed nudged him with his foot. "I've got enough dirt on my cape without you touching it."

Pettigrew then turned to Lupin and tried his luck with him. "Remus!" he squeaked, cringing pleadingly. He had his two bulging hands clasped together as if in prayer. "You don't believe this.... Wouldn't Sirius have told you that they had changed the plan?"

"Not if he thought I was the spy, Peter," he replied. "I suppose that's why you didn't tell me, Sirius?" he asked unblinking over Pettigrew's head.

"Forgive me, Remus," said Sirius. "You're welcome, Padfoot, old friend," Lupin said, rolling up his sleeves. "And you, do you forgive me too for thinking you were a spy?"

"Of course," he replied, and for a fleeting second a grin flitted across his haggard face. It was the first moment he bore any resemblance to the boy from the Pensieve and the one from Serena's old pictures. He too now began to roll up his sleeves expertly. "Shall we kill him together?"

"Yes, I think so," said his friend grimly. Serena blanched. They wanted to kill him here and now before their eyes?

"You can't do that... you won't," gasped Pettigrew. And then he threw himself around and glared at Ron. "Ron... Haven't I always been a good friend... A good pet? You won't let them kill me, Ron.... you're on my side, aren't you?"

But Ron stared at Pettigrew with utter disgust. "I let you sleep in my bed!"

"Dear boy... good master..." The rat-man crawled towards Ron, who promptly dragged the broken leg out of Pettigrew's reach. The pain he must have felt was reflected in his expression and made him even paler, so that the numerous freckles stood out like sesame seeds on pumpkin pie.

But Peter Pettigrew did not want to give up yet. He spun around on his knees, slid over to Hermione and grabbed the hem of her cloak. "Sweet girl... smart girl... you.... You won't let it happen.... help me..."

Hermione snatched the cloak from his clutching hands and backed away against the wall, her face aghast. Pettigrew, still on his knees, was shaking all over. His eyes continued to wander and there was no mistaking the fact that hope was slowly but surely leaving him. "Harry... Harry... you look just like your father... the spitting image of him..."

"How dare you address Harry?" Sirius thundered abruptly, taking a menacing step towards the whimpering wretch of a man. "How dare you look at him? How dare you talk about James in front of him?"

"Harry," Pettigrew whispered, throwing himself to the ground with his hands outstretched in front of him. "Harry, James wouldn't have wanted them to kill me.... James would have understood, Harry... he would have shown me mercy!"

But Harry backed away from him, his face flaming with anger. Pettigrew whimpered and his eyes darted back to the door where Serena stood. "You pretty girl, you..." He stumbled towards her, but his gaze was fixed on the open door behind her. "You're not going to let your father.... Katherine would..."

Part of Serena felt pity for the man she had never met before, but who had managed to completely derail her life. Anger, however, took possession of her once more. With a loud bang, she pulled the door shut behind her and pointed her wand at Pettigrew.

The other two marauders quickly stepped forward, grabbed their former friend by the shoulders and threw him onto his back. There he lay, twitching in fear, staring up at them. "If you say Katherine's name again, God help you," Sirius hissed softly, shaking before clearing his throat and pointing his wand at him. "You sold Lily and James to Voldemort. Do you deny that?"

Pettigrew burst into tears. He was a horrible sight, like a large, almost bald baby cowering on the floor. "He... He's taken over everywhere!" he gasped. "W-what good would it do to refuse him?"

Serena drew in her breath sharply as she heard the statement, which amounted to a confession. The last doubts in her mind vanished into thin air.

"You should have realised one thing," Lupin began quietly. The anger was also written on his face and the pain glittered in his eyes. "If Voldemort hadn't killed you, we would have. Farewell, Peter."

Hermione slapped her hands in front of her face and turned to face the wall. Serena watched the action silently and she felt paralysed. She couldn't take her eyes off the scene, but at the same time she didn't want to see what was about to happen. There was only one thought left in her head and it occupied all her attention. Her father was innocent, her father was indeed innocent and not a murderer. Until now.

"No!" she cried before she could change her mind. Her breathing was heavy and her heart was pounding in her throat. Her voice almost failed her as she said her next words, "Don't do it."

All three marauders looked at her as if thunderstruck. "Serena!" sighed Pettigrew gratefully, throwing his arms around her right knee. "You... I thank you.... this is more than I deserve. Thank you."

"Let go of me," Serena hissed, shaking Pettigrew's hands off in disgust. Turning her gaze now to the two armed men, she whispered, "I don't want you to become murderers. The last few months have been bad enough for me and now I know you are innocent, I don't want that to change again."

Serena returned her father's gaze for the first time. No one stirred or made a sound except Pettigrew, who breathed whistling and clutched his arms helplessly around his chest. Sirius and Lupin looked at each other and slowly lowered their wands.

"We'll take him up to the castle. We'll hand him over to the Dementors.... We'll transfer him to Azkaban!" said Harry firmly, after the question of what to do with the rat had been left open. Serena gave him a grateful look. After all, if she wanted to prove her father's innocence to Fudge, they needed him alive.

"All right," Lupin sighed. Thin strings now shot out of his wand and a moment later Pettigrew was rolling on the floor, bound and gagged, where he could do no more mischief.

"But if you turn, Peter", Sirius growled, pointing his wand menacingly at Pettigrew, "we will kill you after all."

All he got in reply was a whimper.