"And who are you people? Why are you tying me up?" Peter's face grew more and more dazed as he tried to struggle free of the ropes.
Peter's words stunned the two Aurors. They looked at Peter suspiciously and questioned him sternly.
"Don't pretend! You'd better tell us who came to your rescue."
Peter was so confused by their questions that he didn't really understand what they were talking about. Bits and pieces of memories flashed through his mind, but they were too scattered to connect…
However, the Aurors unanimously believed that Peter was faking it. After all, how could there be such a coincidence that an insider would lose his or her memory so soon after something went wrong?
"Be honest now! Or do you want us to do it the hard way?" the Auror threatened, his face dark.
The other Auror was even more impatient. He waved his wand and a black beam of light hit Peter's thigh.
"Ahhh!" Peter let out a shrill cry of pain. His face turned purple and he rolled on the ground, begging for mercy.
However, no matter how much the two Aurors tortured him, Peter remained ignorant, and they began to believe him.
"Peter Pettigrew must have known something important about You-Know-Who or the Death Eaters, for someone to come and rescue him," one of the Aurors said after a moment of silence.
"It's very likely that he realized that he couldn't save Peter, so he cast the Memory Charm to make Peter forget everything…" Another Auror nodded in agreement.
They looked as though they had just swallowed a fly. They knew how important Peter was to them.
The higher-ups had repeatedly warned them to be extra careful, but they did not expect something to go wrong in just a few hours.
It was all that damned Daily Prophet's fault. If they hadn't spread the word about Peter, the Death Eaters wouldn't have known he was at Hogwarts so quickly.
"Stay here with Peter. I'm going to report!"
After some discussion, the two Aurors decided to report the incident to the higher-ups and request more manpower, as well as some professionals to see if Peter was really under the Memory Charm.
Ivan, who was floating around disguised as a Dementor, heard their conclusions and frowned.
If Peter had indeed lost his memory, it could have caused a lot of trouble later in the sentence.
Ivan had not expected things to go this far. He had accidentally knocked the man unconscious.
However, Peter's Dark Mark should serve as evidence, and the Ministry had finished taking his statement. Ivan only hoped that the hearing would go well.
While she was thinking, Ivan tried to fool the Dementors into believing that he was hiding in the shadows, fighting for the greater good of his tribe, and then escaping as quickly as possible.
…
At the same time, in the Gryffindor Lounge, the trio, who had just gotten into trouble, were hiding in a corner and discussing what had happened.
"It's a good thing the Dementors didn't chase us all the way, or we'd have been caught…" Harry thought back to the thrill of being chased by Dementors, his face pale.
"So you should have listened to me and not gone anywhere!" Hermione exclaimed, glaring at Harry.
Although she was the one who guessed where Sirius was being held, she did not put Harry and Ron at risk, and would not have gone along if she had not been unable to stop him.
Harry pursed his lips and did not reply, how could he trust Sirius to be held there with so many Dementors gathered around the Observatory…
Ron, the most miserable of the trio, collapsed and covered his head with his hands, his expression worse than if he had been crying. "Oh no, I lost my wand! If Mom knew about this, she'd beat me to death!"
"How about I buy you a wand?" Harry asked sheepishly, scratching his head.
Harry felt bad about losing Ron's wand when he was the one who suggested Sirius's plan.
"It's not about buying a wand, Harry! Ron's wand was picked up by a Dementor, and if the Dementor had given it to the Aurors, they would have found out where we were!" Hermione raged.
"What should we do?" Harry asked anxiously, having been reminded of this by Hermione.
Ron was even more devastated, as it was his wand that had fallen, and he wondered if he would end up in Azkaban.
Just as the three of them were troubled, a helpless voice sounded behind them.
"What are you going to do? Next time, learn a lesson, I warned you not to see Sirius for a while!"
Alarmed, Harry and the others turned to find Ivan standing behind them…
"Ivan! Did you hear everything? And when did you get behind us…? Why didn't I see you?" Harry looked embarrassed. He had promised Ivan that he would not go to Sirius, and now he had broken his promise.
Ivan shook his head, avoiding Harry's question, then turned to Ron and threw his wand at him. "I can only blame your lack of vigilance. If I were your enemy, you'd be dead by now!"
"No, Ron, your wand!"
Ron scrambled to catch it, and when he saw that it really was the wand he had dropped earlier, he looked at Ivan excitedly.
"Oh my God, you got it back? Thank you so much! You're the one who saved my life!" Ron cried as he kissed the wand, feeling alive again.
"Ivan, how did you find this wand? I thought a Dementor picked it up?" Harry asked curiously.
"I picked it up near the observatory. Maybe the Dementor had enough fun!" Ivan explained.
"So you were on the observatory, too? And when Peter tried to reveal Professor Lupin's identity, he started yelling like crazy because you'd done something to him?" Hermione was wise enough to understand what was going on.
She even suspected that Ivan was responsible for the Dementors being summoned back while hunting them.