{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..."
...
-------------------------
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!
{Abandoned Classroom, 3rd Floor}
{18th Sep 1991}
{3rd Person POV}
"So let me get this straight. According to your 'speculations'..." George air-quoted as he looked at Rigel with a doubtful look, "Peter Pettigrew was the one who sold out Harry's family to Voldemort and killed the 12 muggles instead of Sirius Black. And for the past 17 years, Sirius Black has been wrongfully imprisoned in Azkaban?"
"Yup," Rigel nodded. The twins did not seem convinced, but it wasn't entirely necessary. He had Pettigrew imprisoned, so there was no need for him to do anything.
"You want to interrogate the rat?" Rigel asked, getting a hesitant nod from George and Fred. He wasn't planning to do anything like that in Hogwarts, but the circumstances had changed. Rigel got his wand ready before he opened Pandora's box. The rat was still knocked out unconscious at the moment, so at least he didn't need to go through the chase again.
Rigel grabbed onto Wormtail's tail and pulled him out of the box. After contemplating for a bit, he looked at Fred and George before placing the rat on the table.
"Do any of you happen to know the charm that could reverse the animagus transformation?" Rigel asked.
"No-" "Nope"
With two negative responses, Rigel moved on to Plan B. Since he was going through this on the fly, the plan wasn't as foolproof as he would have liked, but three wands were better than one. He rolled Pettigrew's unconscious form onto his back so that both his hands and feet were sticking out above.
"Incarcerous," Rigel cast, and he focused on binding his limbs. The charm worked better than he had hoped, as ropes appeared out of thin air, binding his limbs together.
"Okay, that's a basic precaution taken for his rat form. I'm going to need your help with the rest..." Rigel spoke, getting two hesitant nods in return.
"When I persuade him to transform into his human form, I want one of you to dispel these ropes. We don't know how this spell would work, and I don't want his hands to snap like a twig. The other one will use the Rope Binding spell on him again when he is in his human form. Do you have any questions before I wake him up?" Rigel asked.
"What if he tries to run or attacks? If your theory is correct, he's a death eater, isn't he?" Fred asked. He looked a little concerned even though he was practically vibrating with excitement.
"The Incarcerous Spell will stop him from running in his rat form, and I will have a stunning spell ready if he shows any intent of running away." Rigel clarified, getting a nod from George and Fred.
"Ready?" Rigel asked one final time and then focused on Wormtail.
"Enervate~"
The bright blue bolt of magic left Rigel's wand and sunk into Pettigrew's unconscious form. The rat twitched as he woke up slightly, and as it tried and failed to move, its beady eyes and neck looked from side to side in a very human-like motion as he surveyed his surroundings.
"Peter Pettigrew, welcome to the land of living," Rigel commented, and Pettigrew snapped his neck back to look at him.
"I'll speak, and you'll listen. Okay, there's no need to panic, as it won't help you much. I'll tell you about your situation, and I'll assure you that you have no way to escape for now. No, me and my friends here don't know the counter spell to reverse your animagus transformation. And as much as it would help learning that spell, I don't have the time right now." Rigel paused for a bit to make sure the rat understood everything.
"Now you have two options: you could refuse to reveal your real form, and I could simply stun you again and again and again. I have heard that repeated use of stunners on someone could be dangerous, but that's just a theory, right?"
"Or, you could change back into your real form and tell us your story. Why are you creeping around the Weasley Family?... Wait, I just thought of a third option. I could hand you over to Dumbledore. He would know what to do, right?"
Rigel saw the rat tremble slightly at Dumbledore's name, but the rat didn't respond even after the threat. Since he was likely contemplating an escape plan, Rigel decided to use the time crunch. Even though he was confident they had cornered Pettigrew, he wasn't going to take a chance.
"I don't have much time. You have three seconds to make a choice: either transform back, or I'm taking you to Dumbledore... 1 ... 2-" Rigel stopped as Pettigrew's form started shifting. George dismissed the ropes binding his arms as Rigel focused his intent.
The transformation was swift, as Pettigrew changed from a rat to a human in a second. Before he could twitch, Rigel fired a stunner at him, which the rat had no way to avoid.
"Stupefy~"
*Slam*
Pettigrew's head slammed on the desk as he flopped over. He was sprawled on the table on his back, his head lolling to the side. Rigel looked at Fred and George, who were looking at Pettigrew with wide eyes. Due to the sudden nature of the transformation, Fred had forgotten to use the Incarcerous Spell.
'In canon, he was able to escape even after he was caught by the Aurors. The last thing I'll do is give the rat a chance to escape.'
"Why did you do that? How will he tell us his side of the story now?" Fred complained. He looked a little too excited for Rigel's liking. To him, this was an unforgettable adventure, and for Rigel, this was one of the key factors that led to Voldemort's early revival.
"We don't need him to talk, do we?" Rigel spoke, but upon getting two confused looks, he sighed and walked over to Pettigrew's fallen form. After confirming through his mana sense that the man was knocked out, he walked over and lifted the sleeve of the worn jacket covering his right hand.
The mark was faded, but it was still there. The skull with a snake coiling onto itself was unmistakable for anything else. Rigel was expecting the tattoo to be live, to move, and to indicate that it was magical in nature, but it didn't do anything of the sort. He was a little underwhelmed, but still, he had plenty of proof that his story had a plausible edge to it.
"So what do you guys think? The Dark Mark or a coincidental tattoo enthusiast?"
...
------------------------------------
AN - It's been a while! Hope you guys are doing well! The regular release schedule will begin from today
As always, 48 Extra chapters on P.atreon!
Paragraph comment
Paragraph comment feature is now on the Web! Move mouse over any paragraph and click the icon to add your comment.
Also, you can always turn it off/on in Settings.
GOT IT