"They came at just the right moment..." Before Dumbledore could finish speaking, Harry took a step forward and lunged at Sirius, knocking him down before anyone could react.
After toppling Sirius, Harry didn't let up; instead, he straddled him directly, gripping his neck with his hands.
"You bastard!" His eyes were bloodshot, and his face was even redder than Sirius's, whom he was strangling. "You were their confidant! And you betrayed them."
A flicker of pain crossed Sirius's eyes. He wanted to say something, but his throat was tightly constricted, and he could only emit muffled sounds. Instinctively, he grabbed Harry's wrist with his hand.
"Spongify." A spell from Dumbledore caused Harry's hands to involuntarily loosen their grip. Then, Professor McGonagall rushed over and grabbed Harry's left shoulder, looking at Percy. Percy understood immediately and approached, holding Harry's right shoulder and pulling him off Sirius.
A breath of fresh air filled Sirius's lungs as he managed to sit up and looked at Harry, who was staring at him furiously. Sirius felt uncomfortable.
"Harry, I admit... I was wrong with James and the others... In the last moment, I convinced them to switch the Secret Keeper to Peter... All of this is my fault... If I hadn't chosen Peter, they wouldn't have been betrayed..." His voice sounded hoarse, filled with deep regret. "But Harry, I beg you... Believe me, I never betrayed James and Lily, I would rather die than do that..."
"Secret Keeper, Peter?" Harry was overwhelmed by this news, his head began to ache. "Do you mean that my parents' spy wasn't you, but Peter?"
A thought surfaced in Harry's mind, but he dismissed it because it seemed absurd.
"Yes, to protect them better..." Sirius nodded bitterly. "But instead, I put them in danger and let Peter, the real traitor, go free all these years."
Harry was confused, he looked at Dumbledore for answers. Then he saw Dumbledore nodding. "Peter is here; he has been hiding in the Weasley's house all these years..." at that moment, a strange sound came from Ron on the side, "... I can wake him up and confront him with you."
Dumbledore summarized the facts briefly.
Harry watched all of this in astonishment, as if he were overwhelmed by the amount of information. He believed in Dumbledore's judgment, but deep down, he still wanted to hear Peter's words.
"Rennervate." Dumbledore assumed that Harry agreed, so he woke up Peter for the confrontation.
When Peter woke up, he didn't start screaming and crying desperately; he simply sat there in silence, with an ashen expression on his face, muttering something.
Harry listened attentively and found that he seemed to be repeating the words "ridiculous," "incriminated," and "mad."
No wonder Peter had surrendered without a fight; Dumbledore's attitude had left him in despair. If he couldn't deceive Dumbledore, everything would be lost, there was no point in resisting.
But when he saw Harry, Peter's eyes lit up, as if he had found a glimmer of salvation.
Peter Pettigrew grabbed Harry by the edge of his shirt and said, trembling, "Harry, oh Merlin, you look so much like James, only your eyes..."
"Shut up!" Sirius roared furiously. "How dare you? How dare you speak of him?"
Harry felt like he should say something, but the words wouldn't come out of his mouth.
"Professor Dumbledore," Hermione's timid voice interrupted the conversation. "May I ask a question?" She had been listening to the conversation between everyone and, combining it with the stories she had heard at the Three Broomsticks, had a general idea: Peter was the one who killed Harry's parents! And he turned into a rat to hide.
"Of course." Dumbledore looked at Hermione with a fond gaze, as if he were looking at his granddaughter.
"Scabbers... I mean, I mean, this individual, Peter, infiltrated Harry's bedroom for three years and hid in Ron's house for twelve years. If he was a accomplice of You-Know-Who, why didn't he harm Harry or the Weasley family? That being said, why didn't he hide in some remote village for the rest of his life? Why did he have to stay close to Ron, at Hogwarts?"
Peter seemed to cling to a lifeline. He knelt in front of Hermione, tears and snot running down his face, "Thank you, clever and kind miss, Merlin will bless you..." He reached out to grab the hem of Hermione's clothing, but she showed a frightened expression and backed away abruptly. Tom stepped between them, separating her from Peter.
Peter didn't pay attention to that detail. He turned to everyone in the room and spoke loudly, "Exactly! Twelve years, I didn't even harm a hair on Harry's head! I even helped him deal with troublesome little wizards! If I were truly an accomplice of that person, why not kill Harry or flee to some uninhabited place?"
"Because you're a selfish coward who only thinks of yourself!" Sirius didn't hesitate to expose Peter's lie. "You joined Voldemort solely for your own benefit, you're not loyal to him, you're only loyal to yourself..."
"You know perfectly well how to maximize your own interests," Sirius continued. "You've been waiting for an opportunity, waiting for him to become the supreme leader again. For you, handing Harry over to Voldemort or helping him to rise again would be a way to clear your suspicions and earn your master's favor, right?"
"You need to hide in a wizarding family so you can hear news, don't you?"
Under the barrage of Sirius's questions, Peter seemed like a newly arrived foreign student, stunned and not knowing what to say. He found that all his excuses were refuted, with no chance of redemption. He desperately tried to think if he still had any chance to turn the situation around, but he realized he was trapped.
Finally, he was rendered speechless. He sat on the floor like a deflated balloon, surrendering.
Peter confessed. He murmured, "Yes... but I had no choice, I was forced."