The Whomping Willow lashed its branches wildly, smashing them into the ground and sending dust flying.
"Harry… wait…"
Sean seemed to be warning him.
But Harry had already rushed straight into the storm of branches without looking back.
And got flung away.
A long way away, even with Sean casting a Cushioning Charm on him.
At that very same time, in the staff room—
Lupin was staring out the window.
The moon wasn't full.
But he had still taken leave, and had even borrowed a blank sheet of parchment from the young wizard.
He examined that parchment carefully, his expression softening into something nostalgic.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
he said.
At once, dots began to appear all over the parchment.
Lupin calmly studied each section, confirming that no one would interfere with their plan at this hour.
And in a cluster of overlapping names not far outside the castle, he found the one he had been looking for.
So he stood, shut the door, and carefully set aside a potion bottle, along with the map in his hand.
From the moment he had learned that news, Lupin had sworn he would not drink those potions again.
His brow slowly furrowed, and then he, too, vanished into the corridor.
The torch flames swayed in his wake.
And in their light, another approaching figure was revealed.
Cold eyes fixed on the direction Lupin had gone, then turned into the staff room.
That day, the wind was howling, and the rain was coming down harder than ever.
The corridors and classrooms were so dim that even more torches and lanterns had been lit.
Outside, the wind roared. It swept over the treetops of the Forbidden Forest, and the Whomping Willow was lashing at Harry with frantic force as he dodged left and right in panic.
Realizing they clearly were not going to be waiting for Professor Lupin after all, Sean could only sigh and lift his wand.
He didn't know which knot to press to stop the Willow. It was an old tree, and it had more than one.
"Muffliato."
Sean raised his wand.
[You practiced Muffliato once at Master standard. Proficiency +300]
An invisible layer of magic spread over a small area. This was the new ability his Muffliato had gained after reaching Master rank.
"By stone as root, by grass made one—Vine-Stone Warden."
[You practiced Muffliato once at Expert standard. Master-level proficiency +300]
Sean's gaze sharpened instantly. Even under the Muffliato, the surrounding ground still shook violently.
In Harry's bewildered eyes, the earth split open.
Vines, writhing like living snakes, wound themselves around the Whomping Willow's branches.
Then a hand—massive as a hill, made of rock bound tight with vines—burst out of the ground and in an instant closed around the entire area where Harry stood.
Dust billowed, stones leapt.
The half-closed giant hand wrapped Harry up securely, while at the same time opening a straight path to the trunk of the Willow.
"Lumos."
Harry raised his wand, his face burning red.
Even from inside, he could feel the enormity of the hand. After all, even the corridors of Hogwarts weren't that wide.
More and more, he felt that the difference between wizards could sometimes be as large as the difference between wizards and Muggles.
From outside, the sight was even more terrifying.
More than thirty meters across, the exposed hand stood beyond Hogwarts like some ancient ruin.
"Find a knot and press it, Harry, until the tree stops."
Sean said.
His voice came from outside, but Harry could still hear him perfectly clearly.
Just as Harry was wondering what kind of spell that was, he saw Sean's calm face in the magic hand mirror.
A few seconds later, the Whomping Willow went still at last, as though turned to stone. Even its leaves stopped trembling.
The two of them walked to the trunk and found the opening among the roots.
Sean climbed in without hesitation, and after one deep breath, Harry followed him.
They slid down the earthen slope into the bottom of a very low tunnel.
Both of them hurried forward as fast as they could, stooping low.
The tunnel stretched on and on, feeling at least as long as the one leading to Honeydukes… After a while, it began sloping upward, curved, and then they saw a faint light ahead—a small exit.
As the wandlight brightened, their surroundings came into view.
It was clearly a room.
A shabby, gray, filthy room.
The wallpaper was peeling, the floor stained, the furniture smashed, as though someone had taken a hammer to everything, and the windows were all boarded up.
"Are we in…"
Harry tried to retrace the route in his head.
"The Shrieking Shack."
Sean answered for him.
He glanced at the cage. Peter was still asleep.
And from beneath his robes, the edge of a mirror was just visible.
"He's here?"
Harry asked, his body trembling as he tried to suppress it.
"Yes."
Sean nodded.
"Come out! You coward! Come out!"
Harry's eyes went red in an instant.
Something flashed through the dark. Harry's wand was suddenly knocked from his hand and flew high into the air.
A hand shot out and caught it. Then the rest of the figure followed, grinning with bared yellow teeth.
Sirius Black.
Hatred rose in Harry's chest and shoved the fear aside.
He lunged to snatch his wand back— and for the first time in his life, not in self-defense, but to attack… to kill.
He threw himself forward without thinking. He forgot magic. Forgot he was fourteen, thin and slight, and that Black was a grown man.
All Harry wanted was to hurt Black as badly as he could, no matter how much he himself got hurt in the process.
And maybe because Black was so startled by such reckless stupidity, he didn't get his wand up in time.
Harry seized his skinny wrist with one hand, forcing the wand away, and slammed his fist into the side of Black's head. The two of them crashed backward together into the wall—
A blinding flash exploded from the two wands in Black's hands, spraying sparks so close they nearly hit Harry in the face.
Harry felt the shriveled arm twisting wildly beneath his fingers, but he held on and kept punching Black anywhere he could reach.
The result was nothing like what Harry had expected.
Black really did seem to be pinned down by him.
Harry was straddling him, but Black's eyes still burned bright.
"If this makes you feel better, Harry, then so be it. I owe you that."
he said.
"You do owe me!"
Harry roared.
"Are you going to kill me, Harry?"
Black asked quietly.
Harry froze above him. He took back his wand and pointed it at Black's chest.
Black's left eye was swelling into a bruise, and blood was running from his nose.
"You killed my mum and dad."
Harry said. His voice trembled, but the hand holding the wand was steady.
Black looked up at him with those deep-set eyes.
"I won't deny it,"
he said very softly,
"but if you knew the whole truth—"
"The whole truth?"
Harry felt hot blood pounding in his ears.
"You betrayed them to Voldemort. That's all I need to know."
"I never betrayed them. I'd have died before doing that."
Black gave a bitter laugh.
"If you're going to kill me, at least wait until I've finished the hard tasks I still have left. Alright?"
Harry almost thought he'd heard wrong. A murderer—begging for time, so he could finish some so-called task.
What task?
Some mission from the Dark Lord, no doubt. Some task to destroy more families.
"What task? Whose task?!"
Harry's voice shook harder now.
"The same task as yours."
Black said, lowering his eyes.
Harry's head buzzed. He genuinely couldn't understand what madness had taken hold of the man in front of him.
For several long seconds, Harry stood there with the wand raised. Black stared back at him in silence.
Then a new sound—
Muted footsteps rose through the cracks in the floorboards. Someone was moving downstairs.
The door burst open, spraying red sparks.
Harry spun around in alarm. Professor Lupin rushed in, wand raised.
"He's telling the truth,"
said Lupin, then turned to Sean.
"Good evening, Mr. Green."
"What?"
Harry glared at Lupin, edging behind Sean without meaning to.
Only then did he realize how shocked he was by his own bravery.
Facing a criminal like that, he had actually pinned him down.
"The one who betrayed your parents was someone else, Harry. Not Sirius."
Sean said.
In the next second, Harry froze as though someone had cast Petrificus Totalus on him.
Everyone knew one thing: Mr. Green never lied.
Even the people who liked him least—assuming such people even existed—would still believe him.
The explanation itself wasn't difficult.
Not after Sean cast a spell on Peter.
Harry saw a streak of blue light burst from Sean's wand. In an instant, Scabbers froze in midair, his gray little body twisting madly before dropping to the ground.
Then came another blinding flash—
And like a tree growing in fast-forward, a head emerged. Then limbs.
Moments later, a man stood where Scabbers had been, cowering and wringing his hands.
He was a very short man, barely taller than Harry.
His sparse, dull hair stuck out wildly, with a great bald patch on top.
He looked shriveled, like a fat man who had suddenly lost half his weight.
His skin was filthy, almost the same color as Scabbers' fur, and his pointed nose and watery little eyes still had something ratlike about them.
He looked around wildly, breathing hard. Harry could see his eyes darting toward the door.
"Hello, Peter."
Lupin said pleasantly, as though rats turning into old classmates happened in front of him every day.
"Long time no see."
"You can't believe him, Remus?"
Peter had clearly heard their explanation.
"Oh, who can help it? He found himself the strongest guarantor possible."
Lupin said with a smile, glancing at Sean, reverence sincere in his eyes—and concern flashing through it for a moment.
"He just wants to kill me! Harry—"
Peter turned immediately to Harry.
"I believe Sean. And you disgust me!"
Harry forced himself not to look at him.
At this point, Harry's whole body was still trembling.
The Secret-Keeper switch. Peter as the traitor. Sirius framed…
One revelation after another detonated inside Harry's head, and he couldn't stop the buzzing.
Sirius was his godfather…
And that thought was louder than all the rest.
"Hurry."
Sean said.
Sirius understood. He and Lupin grabbed Peter and forced Veritaserum down his throat.
At once, the crafty look in Peter's eyes vanished, replaced by a horrible clarity, and he collapsed sobbing on the floor.
He looked disgusting—like a balding giant baby, hunched up and shivering.
"Sirius, Sirius, what could I do?
The Dark Lord… you don't understand… he had weapons you never imagined… I was afraid, Sirius. I was never as brave as you, or Remus, or James.
I never wanted it to be like this… it was He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named who forced me—"
"Don't lie!"
Black roared.
"You'd been feeding him information for a year before Lily and James died! You were his spy!"
"He was getting stronger everywhere!"
Pettigrew squealed.
"What good was it—what good was defying him?"
"What good is it to fight the most evil wizard in the world?"
Black's face had gone terrifying with rage.
"To save innocent lives, Peter!"
"You don't know!"
Pettigrew wailed.
"He would have killed me, Sirius!"
"Then you should have died!"
Black shouted.
"You die before betraying your friends! We'd have done the same for you!"
As Sirius roared, a mirror floated up beside them, and Sean's face appeared in it.
"Minister, you heard all that."
Sean said quietly.
"Of course, of course. That is an enormous help, Mr. Green. It saves the Ministry a great deal of effort. The Ministry will have to consider decorations for you, I think—on top of all your other services…"
A slick voice answered from the mirror.
It was low, and didn't disturb the room at all.
"Would you send him to the Ministry, Mr. Green? We'll keep him in Azkaban until the appropriate moment arrives—oh yes, namely when his bones have turned to dust."
The smooth voice continued negotiating.
Sean gave the slightest nod. Then the voice vanished.
"We're going to take him to the Ministry to stand trial. Harry, can you accept that?"
Lupin asked, with some concern.
"Will that clear Sirius' name?"
Harry blurted out.
Sean saw Sirius' pupils flare instantly.
"I'm not worth that, Harry…"
Sirius covered his face.
Harry didn't answer. That word—godfather—was still echoing through his head.
"Harry, then you should go back now. We'll take him to the Wizengamot."
Lupin said, sounding relieved.
Harry nodded, then looked at Sean. Sean would clearly be going with them.
And Harry understood with perfect clarity that Sean was the center holding everyone together here, even though he was the youngest of them all.
It was Sean who found Sirius. Sean who brought Peter in without effort.
Before Harry left, Sirius suddenly said to him,
"Do you realize what handing Pettigrew over means?"
"You're free."
Harry answered.
"Yes…"
Sirius said.
"But I—I don't know whether anyone ever told you—I'm your godfather."
"I know."
Harry said.
"Right… well, your parents named me your guardian,"
Sirius said awkwardly,
"if anything happened to them…"
Harry waited, hardly daring to breathe. Did Sirius mean what Harry thought he meant?
"Of course, if you want to stay with your aunt and uncle, I'd understand,"
Sirius said.
"But… well… think about it. Once my name's cleared… if you'd rather have a… a different home…"
Harry felt his heart swell.
"What—you mean live with you?"
he said, banging his head on a low stone in the tunnel in the process.
"Leave the Dursleys?"
"Well, of course, I suppose you wouldn't want to—"
Sirius said quickly.
"I understand, I just thought I—"
"Have you gone mad?"
Harry said, his voice nearly as hoarse as Sirius's.
"Of course I want to leave the Dursleys! Have you got a house? When can I move in?"
"You would?"
Sirius turned on him in a flash.
"Really?"
"Yes, really!"
Harry said.
For the first time, a genuine smile broke across Sirius's gaunt face. It transformed him so completely it was startling, as though a man ten years younger had suddenly looked out through the haggard mask.
For one instant, you could clearly see the man who had laughed at Harry's parents' wedding.
"I'll come for you, Harry."
Sirius said at last.
Harry floated away as if walking on air.
"So now we…"
When Sirius came back, his face was still lit with happiness.
Lupin was genuinely happy for him—but the thought of Harry living alone with Sirius left the smile on his own face a little strained.
"It's time."
Sean quietly took out an ancient contract.
"Perhaps you've heard of me?"
He looked at Peter "gently."
"Oh, your name is known to everyone."
Peter forced a smile that looked worse than crying. His limbs flailed nervously over one another.
If he could have chosen, this would have been the last person he would ever want to face.
Look at all those titles:
the greatest wizard of the future, the wizard who would surpass Dumbledore, the destined legend…
The younger students might not understand those names, but Peter knew exactly what they meant.
This "god" possessed far more than the ability to rule dreams, bridge life and death, and see the future…
Any one of those words, attached to a wizard, would have been enough to make Pettigrew flee.
And now…
Peter forced out a carefully ingratiating smile.
"I'm still useful, honored sir. Aren't I?"
he asked, trembling.
Sean smiled gently too.
Signing the contract went even faster than they had expected. When Peter lay twitching on the floor afterward, Sean could read his thoughts to his satisfaction.
Unexpectedly, Peter seemed utterly submissive. Sean couldn't detect even the slightest thought of rebellion in him.
"A pathetic, opportunistic creature. Hah—he always knows how to weigh advantage and disadvantage, Mr. Green."
Sirius knew better than anyone what was going through Peter's mind.
Once, between Voldemort and them, Peter had chosen Voldemort.
Now, between Voldemort and a wizard of greater promise and power—a destined legend—he had chosen just as easily.
"Well, that makes things easier for us."
Lupin said gently.
Sirius made no reply.
Everything had gone almost too smoothly. Harry had gained back an innocent godfather, Sean had gained a "loyal" spy, and Lupin…
Ever since Harry and Sirius had spoken, Lupin had seemed subtly different.
But he still forced a smile and opened the door.
A second later, he raised both hands and slowly backed into the room.
"Well now. You may be wondering how I knew you were here.
I went to your office, Lupin. I smelled the potion. You didn't need to drink it tonight at all…
Lucky for me. There was a map beside it, plain as day. I saw you come this way, and then vanish…"
A tall figure stepped into the room, smiling coldly.
"I have warned Dumbledore again and again not to trust you. You would help your old friend get into Hogwarts, and here is the proof—
Green!"
His voice cracked in sudden shock.
"How dare you?! How dare you abduct him?!"
"Calm down, Severus—"
Lupin's forehead broke out in sweat.
~~~
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