"Mum, what's going on?" Ginny's voice came from upstairs, sounding a little tired.
The others pushed open the door, too.
"Professor Dumbledore? Harry? When did you get here?" George asked, looking tired.
"Sorry, we're exhausted," Fred said.
"Harry?" Ginny finally noticed Harry.
The little girl looked at her messy pyjamas and hair, then ran back to her bedroom like the wind.
Harry was a little confused when both Andy and Dumbledore turned to look at him, both with similar ambiguous smiles on their faces.
"Mum, who are those two?" George finally noticed the extra guests in the living room, Sirius and Peter.
"George, that man is..." Fred swallowed, recognising the man.
Sirius looked up at the Weasley twins, his eyes glowing with hatred, and then he grinned menacingly, revealing his sharp teeth.
The Weasley twins took a half-step back at the same time.
"This is not something you should be involved in!"
Mrs Weasley stormed upstairs, "Go back to your rooms. And remember, no matter what you hear, don't come out, do you hear me?"
"Mum, Ron's downstairs too, that's not fair!" Fred shouted.
Bam!
It sounded like someone had been hit.
The noises upstairs were quickly suppressed by Mrs Weasley's authority.
Andy glanced at Ron, who gave a slightly bitter smile as he folded his arms.
Sure enough, the mother of every family is a terrifying creature. When they lose their temper, if you can't appease them, then try to behave as well as you can.
When Mrs Weasley walked downstairs, everyone acted as if nothing had happened, while at the same time focusing their attention on Peter Pettigrew.
Peter Pettigrew: "..."
"D-Dumbledore...Black...It's been a long time."
Peter Pettigrew's voice trembled, and he looked around at the crowd, trying to find someone who could help him say a few words.
"Ron—"
He finally found someone.
Peter tried to hug Ron but was forcefully stopped by Mrs Weasley, and Ron took a fearful step back.
"Ron, we are..."
Before Peter could finish his sentence, he was roughly pushed to the ground by Sirius. "Enough! Peter! You should tell them how you knelt at the feet of that person twelve years ago, shamefully betraying James and Lily!"
"What does this have to do with my parents?" Harry finally heard something about him, and it even involved his parents, which made Harry impatient to know the truth.
"Oh, Harry! Poor boy," Mrs Weasley once again embraced Harry, her heart aching as her eyes reddened.
"Harry, you should know that twelve years ago, the You-Know-Who wanted to kill you because of the prophecy,"
Sirius spoke loudly as if he wanted to vent the torment he had suffered in Azkaban for twelve years, as well as the exhilaration of getting his revenge.
"To escape the pursuit of the Dark Lord, James and Lily went into hiding, and they hid in a house that had been enchanted with the Fidelius charm. That was a very advanced spell, and as long as the keeper of the secret didn't reveal it, no one could find the house!"
"Originally... originally, I was the Secret Keeper!"
At this, Sirius's face pained, "But I was so high-profile at the time, and the Death Eaters always saw me as a thorn in their side. And I liked adventures and thrills, so I often fought with them!"
"So I came up with a plan. I suggested that the Secret Keeper should be Peter Pettigrew... This was the biggest mistake I ever made!"
Peter Pettigrew tried to argue, "No, that's not what happened."
Unfortunately, no one wanted to hear his explanation.
After he tried to escape, no one would believe him.
Sirius continued, "I thought that if I attracted the attention of the Death Eaters on the surface and let the rat hide, it would be better for James and Lily. And of course, you, Harry!"
Harry listened quietly, his eyes slightly reddened.
This was the first time in so many years that he had heard the truth about his parents.
"But none of us ever imagined that—"
Sirius glared at Peter Pettigrew with murderous intent, "This rat had already sided with the You-Know-Who! When he became the Secret Keeper, he couldn't wait to go to his lord to claim his reward."
"Right, Peter?"
Peter Pettigrew trembled and couldn't speak.
Sirius continued, "And then...then it happened! When I heard the news of James and Lily's deaths, I went after Peter alone."
"He knew I wouldn't give up, so he used magic to blow up an entire street. After the explosion, Peter was gone, all that was left of him was a finger."
"I thought he was dead!"
"Until I saw that newspaper in prison, your family won the Gold Galleon...congratulations! I saw Peter in that photo of you accepting the award!"
"Peter – even if you had turned into a mouse, I would recognise you at a glance!"
Everyone's attention was once again turned to Peter Pettigrew.
Peter Pettigrew trembled, "You, you don't know, he was so horrible, I had no choice. They caught me and tortured me with the Cruciatus Curse..."
"So you sided with him?" Sirius scoffed, his voice full of contempt.
"I had no choice..."
Peter Pett put a pleading look of help and looked at Harry's face, "Harry... James and I were best friends, he wouldn't want you to do this to me."
Harry shouted angrily, "My father doesn't have friends like you, not after you betrayed them!"
Peter Pett turned his head to Ron again, his face full of hope as he said, "Ron, we're best friends, don't you remember?"
Ron looked disgusted.
The thought of this disgusting man sharing his bed for five or six years gave Ron goosebumps all over his body.
Peter looked around – he finally and despairingly realised that none of the people in the room seemed to want to speak up for him.
"Peter..."
Dumbledore sighed and said, "I thought you would gain courage in Gryffindor, but the protection of your friends made you overlook it, and you only saw that the strong can protect the weak. So when a stronger person appeared, you didn't hesitate to join him."
Andy silently watched all this before him.
The replacement of the secret keeper, Peter Pettigrew's betrayal...it all seemed to make sense, but if you connected it to the prophecy...
It was just that now it obviously wasn't the time to ask such questions.
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