Harry Potter: Raised by Wolves.

"I— I don't know if Ron ever said how long. He was Percy's before Ron got him."

"Harry, you can't be serious!" Hermione protested. "Don't tell me you believe this?" It sounded mad, Harry knew. But the desperation in Lupin's eyes… that couldn't be faked.

There was a loud creak as the door swung open on its hinges, knocking against Ron's shoulder, and for a second nobody moved. But nothing happened.

"No one ever knew there were three unregistered animagi running around Hogwarts in our school days," Lupin said, gaze flicking between Harry and Hermione. "They always said they'd register after the war, but— well."

"Hurry up Remus," Black muttered impatiently. "I've waited twelve years for this, I don't want to wait any longer!" "They need the truth, Sirius. We need to do this properly." Lupin squeezed his friend's shoulder. He turned back to Harry. "They learned to keep me company, you see. The potion Severus makes for me is a fairly recent invention. When I was in school, it didn't exist, and my transformations were… awful. Having them around in their animal forms, I didn't want to hurt them like I did humans. They could stop me from hurting myself." He shook his head, hair falling into his eyes. "All year, I've been debating whether to tell someone about Sirius' form. When he got into the castle, I knew he had to be transforming to stay hidden. But I couldn't do it. I couldn't betray James' memory like that. So I stayed quiet, because he was pack, and even after twelve years I couldn't believe he would truly hurt Harry." "You swore to me." The new voice startled all of them, when Snape whipped off Harry's invisibility cloak and revealed himself in the corner of the room, wand held aloft at Lupin's face. "You swore on Lily's memory that you weren't helping him." He glared at Black, who looked from Snape to Lupin and then let out a loud groan.

"Really, Moony? Snivellus? Again?"

"Shut up, Sirius!" Lupin bit out. "Severus, please, allow us to explain."

"I think I've heard enough," Snape said icily. "You left the map open on your desk, Lupin. I came to bring you your potion, and to my surprise, whose name did I see running across the lawn? I should've known you were helping him all along. After all you said…"

"Severus," Lupin took a step towards the man, ignoring the wand in his face, voice raw with pain. "You don't understand. I never helped him, but we got it all wrong. Please, just listen, for me."

"Please, Professor Snape," Harry added. He'd never been so polite to Snape in his life, but if it made him hold off for just five more minutes. "Trust him. There's something going on here."

"Oh, there's something going on alright," Snape muttered, his eyes lingering on Lupin's hand curled around Black's shoulder. He stared at Lupin for a long time, then… he lowered his wand. "If you betray me again, I will kill you, wolf," he said to Lupin, who sobbed in relief.

"You say the sweetest things," murmured in reply. Black snorted.

he

Hermione stared at Professor Snape in astonishment, still cradling her clearly broken arm. "Professor," she breathed in horror. "No, please — you have to get the headmaster! Ron is—" She broke off with a whimper as Snape glared at her, nudging the unconscious Weasley with his foot.

"He is alive," he dismissed, and turned back to Lupin. "Talk."

"I thought Peter was dead," the werewolf said hoarsely. "I thought — I didn't know what Sirius wanted with Harry, but I thought Peter was long gone. Until I saw him on the map tonight, and then saw Sirius' name." He turned to Black, brow furrowing. "How? How did you find him, Sirius?"

"He was in the paper," Black said, reaching into his robe and pulling out a battered piece of paper. It was the Daily Prophet, from the issue talking about the lottery Mr Weasley won. The picture of all the Weasleys in Egypt, Scabbers perched on Ron's shoulder. "I saw it, when the Minister came to inspect. On the front page. I knew him at once… how many times have I seen him transform? I knew I had to leave as soon as I read the boy was a Hogwarts student. I couldn't let himHarry," Black broke off in another moan, wrapping one arm around his stomach as his shoulders shuddered. squeezed him assuringly.

Lupin

"He's alright, Padfoot. Harry's fine." He looked from the photo, to Scabbers, and back again. "Good Merlin," he said slowly. "His front paw."

"What about it?" Harry asked quickly, craning his neck to look at the picture.

"All that was left of Pettigrew was a finger," Snape murmured, comprehension dawning in his dark eyes.

Harry whipped around to look at Scabbers, who had frozen in fear in his cage. His front paw was, as it had always been, missing a toe. "I didn't think he had the brains for it," Snape said, meeting Black's gaze for the first time. "What did he do, cut it off and run?"

Black nodded. "Screamed all about how I betrayed Lily and James, then blew the street up with his wand behind his back, lopped off his finger and transformed."

"So simple," brilliant."

Lupin

whispered.

"Yet

"A first for old Pete," Black agreed with a dark chuckle.

"So what, he faked his death and hid from you because he knew you betrayed my parents?" Harry retorted angrily, wondering where the whole story was going.

"I'd never betray Lily and James," Black declared fiercely, snarling like his animal counterpart. "But it was my fault. I convinced them I was the obvious choice, I told them to make Pete the Secret Keeper instead. We didn't trust Moony 'cause of his boyfriend — sorry, Moons, but you can't blame us — and when I went to check on Peter's hiding place, it was empty, no sign of a struggle. It didn't feel right, so I went to the house, and… it was too late."

"Enough," Lupin growled. "There's one way to prove it all." With a jerk of his wand, the cage vanished, and Scabbers was suspended in mid air, squealing and struggling. "Severus, you know the spell?"

Snape nodded curtly, and in an instant there was a blinding flash of light — then suddenly the rat began to grow and stretch, squeaks turning into human howls of fear.

In seconds, there was a full grown man stood in the middle of the room. Harry recognised his face, though it had changed quite dramatically from the round-faced boy in the yearbook picture.

Peter Pettigrew, alive and well.

There was a long, tense silence as everyone stared at the man who had been a rat only moments ago. "Sirius, R-Remus," Pettigrew stuttered. "My old friends."

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