That night, under a full moon, Sirius woke Peter up in the middle of the night.
"Peter, we have to go!"
James was already changing clothes, eager and impatient.
Peter clutched his blanket and groaned, "We have a quiz tomorrow. Can I skip?"
James replied, "Haven’t you already devoured that book?"
Sirius added, "Five up on that gold fish brain of yours, Remus needs us."
Reluctantly, Peter put on his socks, thinking, Remus has managed for five years without us. You just want to break rules for the sake of breaking them.
In the dark hallway, James led the way with the Marauder’s Map, Sirius held a glowing wand, and Peter trailed behind.
"Wait!" James suddenly stopped. "What’s he doing here?"
James turned around and showed the map to the others, where a small dot indicating Snape was moving.
Sirius grinned wickedly, "Ha, wouldn’t it be better if he came along? Scare the hell out of him."
James said, "Remus will kill him!"
Sirius replied, "No one will know it was us."
Peter widened his eyes in fear. Is he serious?
James, holding back his anger, said, "Dumbledore will know. If Remus kills someone, he'll be expelled."
Sirius said, "We could save him at the last minute, in animal form. He won’t know it was us!"
Peter said, "But If we don’t run now, no one could make it!"
The three of them began to sprint, trying to get to the Whomping Willow before Snape. Peter, who was the least athletic, struggled to keep up. Sirius and James could only leave him behind.
But when they reached the Whomping Willow, Snape was already inside.
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"What the hell are you doing?" James complained, holding the map.
Sirius said, "It’s too late, bury his body, Remus won’t remember."
James pushed him, "You go hit the tree knot, this is all your fault!"
Usually, Peter would have transformed into a rat to avoid triggering the Willow’s attack.
Sirius, still furious, refused to act. He genuinely wished Snape would die.
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Seeing Peter still lagging far behind, James clicked his tongue, then ran straight into the area of the Willow.
"No!" Sirius tried to stop him, but could only catch the map James had thrown behind.
James, being the fittest among them and a Quidditch player, was lucky enough to dodge the erratic branches and press the knot, entering the secret passage.
Sirius, drenched in cold sweat, stared at the map, watching as James drew closer to Snape.
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"Can you stop being so useless?" Sirius scolded when Peter finally caught up, panting.
On the map, it showed that James had, just in time, caught up with Snape.
Peter panted, "It’s you… You’re a murderer!"
Sirius slapped him, "If you hadn’t been messing around, we could’ve left our bedroom long ago!"
Peter thought to himself, Then maybe you should’ve reminded us you told Snape!
But he was too afraid to voice his anger.
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In the secret passage, both Snape and James were panting heavily.
"What was that?" Snape asked, shaken.
James, still out of breath, replied, "None of your business. If you don’t want to die, stay away."
Snape said, "You’ve raised a monster, and planned to kill me."
James snapped back, "No one told you to keep bothering us!"
Snape shot back, "I’ll tell the Headmaster!"
James retorted, "I just saved your life!"
"Or what? Let Sirius kill me? Because you’re jealous that Lily likes me?" Snape said.
James punched Snape, and they both tumbled into a struggle, getting covered in dirt.
In the end, James, being physically stronger, managed to pin Snape down.
"Lily doesn’t even like you! She just feels sorry for you, the pathetic loser! You disgusting, friendless freak!"
Snape growled in fury but was held down in the dirt, unable to turn over.
Then, they both heard Remus's mournful howl at the moon, filled with loneliness and despair.
Snape stopped struggling. He calmed down and suddenly understood.
"Lupin is a werewolf, that’s why he’s always absent, why he always has injuries..."
James released Snape and said, "Don’t say a word. Remus had nothing to do with this. He deserves to stay at school."
Snape wiped his face and replied, "Heh, if you stop messing with me, I’ll consider it."
James said, "I should’ve let you die."
Snape scoffed, "You were only saving yourselves."
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They both walked out of the secret passage unharmed, and Sirius and Peter both breathed a sigh of relief.
"I knew you could do it!" Sirius said.
James, still not forgiving him, noticed that Peter’s face was also injured but pretended not to see, not bothering to ask.
"We’ve reached an agreement. As long as you stop messing with me, I won’t tell Lupin’s secret," Snape said, taunting Sirius.
Sirius looked at James, who replied, "This is the only way to shut him up. Did you hear that, Sirius?"
Sirius snorted and nudged Peter. "Did you hear that?"
Peter reluctantly muttered a yes, too afraid to even roll his eyes.
"Let’s go," James said, leading the way back.
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The road back to the castle was in the same direction, so Snape deliberately waited until they had walked ahead before he started following.
Peter walked behind the two, glancing back at Snape.
In the bright moonlight, Snape saw the scars on Peter’s face and raised an eyebrow at him.
Peter quickly looked away.
He saw that Snape was also covered in scars, appearing to have it worse than himself on the surface.
But on a deeper level, Peter felt inferior to Snape mentally.
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"Scabbers, what's wrong?" Ron asked, feeding him food, but he didn't open his mouth.
After last night, something Peter had deliberately forgotten—the self-respect that comes with being human—suddenly surged back. He was not just a rat.
Ginny quietly watched as Ron took care of Scabbers, but chose to turn her attention elsewhere, starting a conversation with Bill about the interesting things from their travels.
The twins always made everything ten times louder with their excitement, and soon, even Ron stopped fussing over Scabbers and joined in the conversation.
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"Are you feeling unwell?" Percy asked, gently picking him up again.
"Did you eat something wrong?" He carefully checked for any symptoms, but found nothing.
"Sorry, my brothers are idiots." Percy whispered to Scabbers.
Scabbers was the first pet Percy took care of.
Since he could remember, his parents were always preoccupied with his overly energetic younger siblings.
When Ron and Ginny were born, not only did the twins not help at all, but started causing even more trouble.
Percy was several years younger than his two older brothers. Once they went off to school, he began thinking more and more about leaving home as early as possible.
His stiff, methodical personality never matched well with his mischievous younger siblings.
"Let me play with it!" His younger brothers saw Percy taking care of a mouse and immediately wanted to join in.
"Find another one!" Not even ten years old, Percy raised Scabbers high so they couldn’t reach it.
"But other mice bite me!" Ron showed his wounds.
Their parents began scolding Percy: "Put down that mouse, it's too dirty! You need to set an example for your younger siblings, put it down!"
Percy yelled back: "This is mine! Mine!" He hated how his parents always favored the younger ones.
Whenever his younger siblings messed up, his parents would be the first to blame him, saying he hadn’t watched them properly.
He often complained to himself, "It should be their fault for having too many children that they couldn't manage at all."
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Scabbers was a very quiet mouse, never chewing on things randomly.
Unlike his younger siblings, Scabbers was content to eat whatever he was left over.
After eating, Scabbers would sleep, and after sleeping, he would eat—he never did anything else.
In Percy’s eyes, the obedient Scabbers was much more lovable than his mischievous siblings who were always looking for trouble.
So, the more his parents told him to put Scabbers down, the more determined he became to keep him.
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Two years ago,
"Surprise!" Without asking Percy, his parents bought him an owl.
"Congratulations on becoming Prefect!" Arthur said.
Hogwarts only allowed students to have one pet.
"You're growing up. We got Bill an owl after he became Prefect. He said there would be a lot more letters to write, and it would be much more convenient for you to have your owl." Molly persuaded him to accept it.
"Let Scabbers stay at home, or just give him to Ron." Arthur suggested.
Ron didn't say anything—he never expected to have a pet.
Percy was reluctant to part with Scabbers, but he knew it would be embarrassing not to have his own owl once he became Prefect.
"Take good care of him." That's all he could say to Ron.
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Two years later,
"I'll take you back once I graduate." At the dinner table, Percy quietly made a promise to Scabbers. This year was his last year at Hogwarts.
"Hang in there." Percy kissed Scabbers before setting him down.
Peter thought to himself, "I'd rather die than let Percy know I'm a liar."
From that day on, he lost his appetite.
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"Can you tell me what will happen this year? For I'm afraid I might accidentally kill him."
Snape stood in the headmaster's office, holding a newspaper with Sirius's headline, questioning Dumbledore.
The orange cat stood high on a shelf behind Dumbledore, its tail flicking back and forth.
Although the crystal ball had been put away and the cat could no longer speak, its entire demeanor was far from the original one.
Dumbledore sighed. "I must act as though I don't trust you, Severus. He will come back one day, and you will return to his side."
Snape slammed his hand on the desk. "This is different! That man killed Lily! He..." Old grudges from their student days resurfaced in his heart.
Dumbledore replied, "We must not let emotions cloud our judgment, Severus." He stood up and patted Snape’s shoulder. "But I can tell you this: the traitor wasn't him. It was Peter."
Snape froze. "Impossible."
Dumbledore continued, "It's true. We must clear Sirius's name."
"No! This can't be true!" Snape insisted. "That man... that man..." His thoughts were a jumbled mess.
Dumbledore said, "I didn't want to believe it either, that he was a double agent. I thought he was stealing information for us, but even I... "
"Wait, who told you this?" Snape questioned, suspecting that Dumbledore had been deceived.
Dumbledore paused for a moment, then revealed, "Do you remember Tom? He found evidence that Peter was still alive, and even discovered a way to summon James’s spirit. I can confirm that Peter was the Secret Keeper."
After the Chamber of Secrets incident last year, Dumbledore only mentioned to him that Tom was on their side, without revealing more.
Snape still couldn’t believe in this "diary." He thought Dumbledore had become soft again.
"Peter delivered messages for me and Lily for over a year. If he was a spy, I would have been dead long ago." Snape revealed.
The orange cat’s gaze turned cold and menacing, and Snape noticed it, eyeing it curiously.
Dumbledore pondered, "Hmm... that's... sigh, but it’s true that he framed Sirius. Look, I’ll find a way to talk to him again. Oh, and by the way, if you see this cat doing anything strange this year, don't stop it." He pointed to James.
Snape blinked. "Why do I feel like it wants to kill me?"
Dumbledore waved his hand. "Alright, you don’t have any more questions about this year’s curriculum, do you?"
Snape asked, "I haven’t seen Tom in person. Will he be coming to school this year?"
Dumbledore replied impatiently, "He has other tasks. It’s time for you to leave."
Snape and the orange cat exchanged glares before Snape left.
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"James, you need to learn how to be a cat," Dumbledore scolded him after Snape left.
"I'm going to send you around Harry. If you slip up, Sirius will have no inside help. Think about how much he has suffered for you."
"Meow~" James lowered his head in apology.
But Dumbledore wasn’t soft-hearted. "I’m sending you to the pet store for a while. Don’t worry, I’ve arranged everything. Focus on learning how to be a cat, and leave everything else. Just wait patiently."
"Meow?" James was scared. Was he really going to live with other animals?
"When you’re in the cage, you can think about what it’s like for Sirius in prison. All of this is because you trusted the wrong person."
"Meow!" James thought to himself, This is clearly Lily's fault! And he was going to make Peter pay!
Dumbledore didn’t understand cat language. He sighed and conjured a cage to lock James inside.
"You should be grateful for the opportunity to return to the living. Not everyone happens to have a Resurrection Stone to keep you in this state. Especially, don’t provoke Severus again. I’ll say this now: I’d rather lose both of you than lose him."
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Dumbledore didn’t even look at James's expression. He just threw him into the pet store, chatted briefly with the shopkeeper, and left.
James ground his teeth in the cage, seething silently.
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