Chapter Fourteen: Harry Potter
Hermione shrieked in surprise. Black jumped to his feet. Harish felt as though he'd received a huge electric shock.
"I found this at the foot of the stairs," Snape said, throwing the Cloak aside, careful to keep his wand pointing directly at Lupin's chest. "Very useful Potter, thank you…"
Harish had finally had enough.
"Could someone please tell me exactly what's going on here! First of all, my name is Harish Blake. Not Harry. Not Potter. Blake. Second of all, my father would never act as heroic as you two—" he pointed his wand at Lupin and Black "—are saying. His name isn't James, either. It's Blake. Anata Blake."
Everyone in the room looked at Harish in shock. No one looked more shocked than Sirius Black.
"No!" He cried out, lunging forward. "Your name is Harry Potter. You can't tell me I don't know my own best friends son when I see him!"
"I'm NOT!" Harish shouted.
"Harish," Hermione whimpered as green sparks shot out the end of his wand.
"Enough!" Snape snapped. "Quit babbling on so. I have you now, and that's all that's important. Oh, how I hoped I would be the one to catch you."
"Severus, you're making a mistake," Lupin said urgently. "I can explain. Sirius is not here to kill anyone."
"Two more for Azkaban tonight," Snape said with a gleam in his eyes. "I shall be interested in how Dumbledore takes this…He was so convinced you were innocent…a tame werewolf…"
"You fool," Lupin said softly. "Is a schoolboy grudge worth putting an innocent man back in prison?"
BANG! Thin, snakelike cords shot out of Snape's wand and twisted themselves around Lupin's mouth, wrists, and ankles. He overbalanced and fell to the floor. Black gave a roar of rage and started forward. But Snape pointed his wand straight between Black's eyes.
"Give me a reason," he whispered. "Give me a reason to do it, and I swear I will."
Black stopped dead. It would have been impossible to say which face displayed more hatred for the other.
"Come on all of you," Snape said. With a click of his fingers, the ropes that bound Lupin flew to his hands. "I'll drag the werewolf. Perhaps the dementors will have a Kiss for him too."
Before he had registered what he was doing, Harish had crossed the room in three strides and blocked the door.
"So this is why you were so adamant about finding out every little thing I've done," he said.
"Get out of the way, boy," Snape said. "You're in enough trouble as it is. If I hadn't been here to rescue you—"
"What?" Harish asked. "What would have happened? NOTHING! Even if they were trying to kill me, do you think they would SUCCEED?! After everything I've been through—Quirrell tried to kill me—look where it got him!"
"SILENCE! I WILL NOT BE SPOKEN TO LIKE THAT!" Snape shrieked. He looked madder than ever; his eyes were wild and sparks were shooting out the end of his wand. "Like father like son, Potter! I have just saved you neck; you should be on the ground thanking me! You would have well been severed 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!"
"MY NAME IS NOT POTTER!" Harish roared as his eyes flashed a bright, emerald green. With a swish of his wand, Snape was blasted back into the four poster bed will such force that dust shook from the ceiling and the bed nearly collapsed.
"You shouldn't have done that," Black said. "You should have left him to me."
Harish continued panting. "I don't care."
Black bent over Lupin, who was struggling to escape his bonds. The man cut his friend free. Then, Lupin stood up, rubbing his wrists.
"Thank you, Harish," he said.
"Now," Black said. "It's high time we offered you proof." He held out his hand. "Give me Peter."
Harish pulled the rat out of his pocket and handed it to the escaped criminal.
"Nice touch, by the way," Black said. "With the stunning hex."
"I do have one more question," Harish said. "Out of all the rats in London, how did you know that this one was Pettigrew?"
"You know, Sirius, that is a very good question," Lupin said. "How did you find out where he was?"
Black put a claw-like hand into his filthy robes and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. He smoothed it out and showed it to them. It was the picture of the trip to Egypt. On one end was Harish and the twins, and on the other was Ron, a rat sitting on his shoulder.
"How did you get this?" Lupin asked, thunderstruck.
"Fudge," Black replied. "When he came to inspect Azkaban last year, he gave me this paper. And there was Peter, on the front page…on this boy's shoulder…I knew him at once…how many times had I seen him transform?"
"My God," Lupin said softly. He stared at the picture of the rat then glanced at the actual thing in Sirius's hand. "His front paw...He's got a toe missing."
"All they could find of Pettigrew was his finger," Black said. "And the caption said the boy would be going back to Hogwarts…to—"
He broke off and looked up at Harish, his finger resting on where the fifth year was standing in the picture.
"You have your mother's eyes," Sirius finally said.
Harish felt his eyes prick a little. He had never, in his whole life heard anyone mention his mother before. Black's eyes were full of tears.
"I just about killed them," he said in the merest of whispers. "I thought that if I was their Secret Keeper, Voldemort would suspect me and come after me. I didn't trust myself enough not to crack under torture, so I suggested they switch to Peter at the last moment."
"They, meaning Lily and James Potter?" Harish finally asked.
Sirius nodded. "But now I will reveal Peter for the first time in twelve years."
Lupin held his wand up to the rat and Black retrieved Snape's wand.
"Together?" he asked.
"I think so," Lupin replied. "On the count of three—one—two—THREE!"
A flash of blue light erupted from both wands and hit the rat. For a moment it was suspended in midair, quivering, but then it began to grow larger and larger. Its nose shortened, its arms elongated, and its fur shrank into its body. A moment later, where Scabbers had been, a man now stood wringing his hands.
He was a very short man, hardly taller than Hermione. His thin, colorless hair was unkempt and there was a large bald spot on top of his head. He had a shrunken appearance. As if he had once been very plump, but had lost all of his weight suddenly. His skin looked grubby, almost like Scabbers's fur, and something of the rat lingered around his pointed nose and his very small, watery eyes. He looked around at them all, his breathing fast and shallow. Harish saw his eyes dart from Sirius to the door, to the window, and back again.
"Well, hello, Peter," Lupin said pleasantly, though the cheeriness didn't quite reach his eyes. "Long time no see."
"S-Sirius…R-Remus…" Pettigrew squeaked. Again his eyes darted toward the door. "My friends…my old friends…"
Black's wand arm rose, but Lupin seized him around the wrist, gave him a warning look, and then turned again to Pettigrew.
"We've been having a little chat about the night Lily and James died. You might have missed the finer points while you were squeaking around down there."
"Remus," Pettigrew gasped. Harish could see little beads of sweat break out of his pasty face. "you don't believe him, do you…? He tried to kill me, Remus…"
"So we've heard," Lupin said, more coldly this time. "I'd like to clear up one or two little matters with you, Peter, if you'd be so—"
"He's come to try and kill me again!" Pettigrew squeaked suddenly. He pointed with his middle finger as his index finger was missing. "He killed Lily and James and now he's going to kill me too…You've got to help me, Remus…"
Black's face looked more horrible than ever as he stared at Pettigrew with his fathomless eyes.
"I would rather die!" Sirius shouted. "I would rather die than betray my friends! Lily and James only made you Secret Keeper because I suggested it," he hissed so venomously that Pettigrew took a step backwards. "I thought it was the perfect bluff…Voldemort would be sure to come after me, would never dream they'd use a weak, talentless thing like you…It must have been the finest moment of your miserable life, telling Voldemort you could hand him the Potters."
"Uh—Mr. Black—Sirius?" Hermione asked.
Black jumped at being addressed like this and stared at Hermione as though being spoken to politely was something he'd long forgotten.
"If you don't mind me asking, how—how did you get out of Azkaban, if you didn't use Dark Magic?"
"Thank you!" Pettigrew gasped, nodding frantically at her. "Exactly! Precisely what I—"
But Lupin silenced him with a sharp look. Black was frowning slightly at Hermione, but not as though he was annoyed with her. He seemed to be pondering his answer.
"I don't know how I did it," he said slowly. "I think the only reason I never lost my mind was because I knew I was really innocent. That wasn't a happy thought, so the dementors couldn't suck it out of me…but it kept me going…it kept me knowing who I was…so when it all became…too much…I could transform in my cell…become a dog. Dementors can't see, you know…" he swallowed. "They feel their way toward people by sensing their emotions…They could tell that my feelings were less—less human, less complex when I was a dog…they would have just thought that I had gone insane like the rest of the prisoners."
"But then I saw Peter in that picture…I realized he was at Hogwarts with—" he broke off once again before he said the name Harry. He wisely knew that the boy wouldn't be happy if he was addressed by this name. Then, he continued on. "So, you see, I had to do something. I was the only one who knew Peter was alive…"
Harish remembered what the twins had said on the train at the beginning of the year. "Dad says that before he escaped, he was muttering in his sleep, 'He's at Hogwarts'," Black hadn't been talking about Longbottom after all, but Scabbers—Pettigrew.
"It was as if someone had lit a fire in my head, and the dementors couldn't destroy it…It wasn't a happy feeling…it was an obsession…but it gave me strength, it cleared my mind. So, one night when they opened my door to bring food, I slipped past them as a dog…it's so much harder for them to sense animal emotions that they were confused…I was thin, very thin…thin enough to fit through the bars…I swam as a dog to the mainland…I journeyed north and slipped into the grounds here as a dog. I've been living in the forest ever since, except when I came to watch the Quidditch match, of course. You fly well…"
He looked at Harish, who did not look away. Another puzzle piece had been fit into place. That was why he had seen the dog in the stands; he hadn't been imagining it.
"Believe me," Sirius said. "Please believe me when I tell you that you are Harry Potter. I don't know why you look different—but your eyes are the same. I know deep down that Harry isn't dead and that you are him."
Sirius pulled another piece of paper out of his robes. This one was a picture of a woman and a man. The woman had bright red hair and emerald green eyes. Though they were different shades, he knew that they were the same shape. Harish looked away and everyone in the room stared at him with bated breaths. The final piece of the puzzle was then put on the table, completing the whole picture. His unknown mother, his flashing eyes, the blob on the map, the mystery memory he relived every time he got near a dementor, it all made sense now.
Finally, he looked back at Sirius, surprised to find that there were now tears in his own eyes, and nodded.
"No!" Pettigrew finally howled.
Everyone turned to look at him. Sirius seemed to have only just remembered that he was there. He walked forward and grinned.
"Shall we kill him together?" he asked.
"I think so," Lupin replied grimly.
"Wait!" Harish called out as they both raised their wands.
Both men turned and looked at him in surprise.
"Harish," Lupin said. "This man—"
"I know what he is, but you can't kill him! If you do, no one will believe that you are innocent! You will be sent back to prison. We'll take him up to the castle. Then, the dementors can have him."
Sirius stepped back, shocked. He obviously hadn't thought of that.
"Very well," he said.
"Incarcerous!"
Ropes shot out of Lupin's wand and the next moment, Pettigrew was wriggling on the floor, bound and gagged.
"Right," Lupin said, suddenly business like. "I can't mend bones, so we'll just have to take Ron up to the Hospital Wing."
"What about Professor Snape?" Hermione asked.
"There's nothing seriously wrong with him," Lupin said, bending over to check his pulse. "You were just a little—overenthusiastic, Harish. Still out cold. Uh—perhaps it will be best if we don't revive him until we're safely in the castle. We can take him like this…"
He muttered "Mobilicorpus." Pointing his wand, first at Snape, and then at the still unconscious Ron. As though invisible strings were tied to their wrists, neck, and knees, the two unconscious figures was pulled into a standing position, heads lolling unpleasantly. Lupin picked up the Invisibility Cloak and handed it to Harish, who tucked it into his pocket.
"And two of us should be chained to this," Black said, nudging Pettigrew with his toe. "Just to make sure."
"We'll do it," the twins said.
Black conjured heavy manacles from thin air and soon Pettigrew was upright again and chained to Fred's right hand and George's left. Crookshanks leapt of the bed and led the way out of the room, his bottlebrush tail held jauntily high.