{Hidden Corridor, Outside Gryffindor Tower}
{18th Sep 1991}
{George's POV}
"Alright... here, do tell me what do you see here?" Rigel spoke as he pulled out the map from out of nowhere and showed it to George.
'What the fuck is he thinking? Isn't he worried that we won't give the map bac-' George froze mid-thought as his eyes locked onto the names on the map. Seeing the confirmation that the fake Neville in front of him wasn't Sirius Black was a little relieving, but his confusion quickly ramped up as he read a familiar name on the map.
'''Peter Pettigrew'''
His hand automatically went for the map, and surprisingly, Rigel let him take it. The weirdness of the situation still stood out to him, but he ignored it as he felt Fred peer at the map as well from over his shoulder. After confirming that he was not seeing things, he looked around, scanning the environment once again.
The corridor was cramped. Even though visibility was a little low, he was pretty sure that there were only three people in the corridor. Before he could ask his question, Rigel spoke in Neville's voice. The situation maintained its freaky nature.
"So, what do you know about Peter Pettigrew?" Rigel asked.
"Nothing much-" George spoke, "-except for the fact that he's supposed to be dead." Fred finished his statement.
"I guess he wasn't someone overly famous, even though he was awarded the Order of Merlin 'Posthumously' for his contribution to the war and for his daring to stand up for muggles against the notorious mass murder Sirius Black..." Rigel spoke slowly. Neville's slow drawl seemed out of pace, but George ignored that for now.
"Posthumously?" Fred asked.
"It means after the death of the original benefactor," Rigel replied, attracting George's glare.
"Obviously, that's not true now, is it? The only explanation I could think of, besides the obvious, would be the ghost of Peter Pettigrew lurking in this particular corridor, and you are using his name to get out of this situation," George said, his tone holding a certain degree of uncertainty as he looked at Rigel for an explanation.
"It's possible that I just happen to know that the ghost of a dead Marauder was hanging around in the area... or maybe, just maybe, the dead Marauder isn't really... dead." Rigel shrugged.
George looked at Rigel not speaking, he didn't want to dignify Rigel's statement with a response so they stared at each other in silence.
"Fine... How much do you know about the Marauders anyway, each of them had a nickname, ever figured out why they each had one, other than anonymity?" Rigel asked.
George shared a look with Fred before shaking his head, in their first years when they tried to crack the code for the map to work, they had become familiar with the names of the four members of the group.
"We thought it was a part of being in a secret group-" George spoke.
"-With codenames and stuff." Fred finished.
"Not entirely true. Each member of the Marauder had a special ability. Moony was a werewolf—" George's eyes widened at the causal way in which Rigel spoke about sensitive information "-and similarly, Wormtail was an animagus. You know what that means, right?"
"An advanced and innate ability to achieve self-transfiguration into a fixed animal form-" George spoke, a little bit of awe leaking into his voice.
"Exactly. Wormtail was an animagus. It was likely how they made the map, with him being able to slip through the cracks in the walls and find hidden passageways." Rigel continued his explanation. George shared another awed look with Fred, but both of them froze mid-look when they heard Rigel's next words.
"By the way, how long do you think an average common house rat is supposed to live?" Rigel spoke.
...
George took a step back, his wand once again pointing at Rigel but the younger boy didn't flinch, George knew Rigel was able to sense his intent and that his gesture was hollow, still the comfort his wand provided was enough for him to keep the wand pointed at Rigel.
"...A common rat normally lives for 2-4 years, but it may live up to 6-7 years if fed well and taken care of," Rigel continued.
While George didn't feel like talking at the moment as he tried to wrap his head around what Rigel was insinuating, Fred spoke up in his place, "You're saying Scabbers is an animagus, that he is Peter Pettigrew?"
"Well, according to the map, your rat has a name, which is weird in itself, as none of the other pets and animals do. Plus, as far as I know, how long has the rat been in your family? Has it been 17 years?" Rigel asked.
"Stop stalling-" George glared at Rigel.
"I'm stalling because you need time to process that the pet your family adored—okay, stop glaring—maybe not adored but kept around—might be a wizard who has been in hiding, presumed dead for 17 years."
The silence, this time, stretched longer as George put his wand down. He looked at the wrapped-up bundle that was lying not 2 feet away from him. Theories about why someone would live through that kept popping into his head, and not one of them calmed him down.
'Why would someone hide for so long? If he hid for a year or two, then it wouldn't be so bad, but why would someone hide for so long unless that someone was trying to evade the law? But according to the law, Pettigrew was a war hero...' George thought. Things didn't line up from his point of view, so he could only turn to the first-year enigma in front of him.
"Why would Pettigrew hide? He got the Order of Merlin right. First Class?" George asked.
"Of course, as far as the ministry is concerned, Peter Pettigrew is a war hero. He was a friend of the Late Potters, someone who stood beside Dumbledore and his rebellion army." Rigel nodded.
"Then why?" Fred asked as George kept his gaze focused on Neville's face. Even though the stoic look gave nothing away, just looking at the way Rigel didn't dodge his gaze meant that at least there was some truth to what he was saying.
"Because he was afraid of Dumbledore, of course. By faking his death, he was able to fool quite a lot of people, but Dumbledore is not so easy to fool. He would have questions, and Peter probably believed that his story wasn't good enough to repeat to the old man, especially with Voldemort gone."
'Voldemort? Why Voldemort? Was he a spy? But that doesn't make sense. How would Rigel know that Pettigrew was a spy?'
The questions kept popping up, and the story kept becoming more muddied. George shared another look with Fred. His twin was just as confused as him, but he looked like he wanted to know more.
So George looked at Rigel and spoke, "Start from the beginning..."
...
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P.S- 44+ Extra Chapters ahead on P.atreon! It's the start of a new month, the perfect time to binge-read through the stockpile of chapters!