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When Kyle walked in, the atmosphere in the room was tense.
Kyle stood aside under the Disillusionment Charm, the flickering oil lamp casting his shadow on the wall, but no one present noticed this...including Professor Lupin and Sirius Black.
They were now at a table in the corner, arguing violently.
Harry, Ron and Hermione stood on the other side. They seemed to have finally realized their current situation and began to get scared.
Ron had a complicated expression. He wanted to go forward and get his rat back but he didn't dare.
"When Scabbers bit me, I thought what I should have thought of." He said weakly: "Scabbers ran away, but Lupin trapped it with a spell... Will the professor come to us with a wand? Snape won't!
He must have planned it in advance, damn it, why didn’t I think of it before…”
"But what do they want your Scabbers for?" Harry wondered, looking warily at Lupin and Black.
"I don't know," said Ron. "Maybe they like killing other people's pet rats."
But Harry and Hermione didn't think so. An ordinary pet mouse was not worth their risk.
And as the argument became more and more intense, Harry heard a very familiar name.
"I didn't betray James!" Black roared, saying what he had always wanted to tell everyone.
"Peter is the real secret keeper…we switched, and I thought this would keep it from You-Know-Who. As long as he keeps hunting me, James and Lily will be safe."
Black's voice trembled and he seemed to want to cry, but after being tortured by the Dementors for twelve years, crying had long become a luxury.
With red eyes, he grasped Banban and shook her vigorously.
"But I never expected that this damn, cowardly traitor would tell the You-Know-Who's location the day after he became the Secret-Keeper."
"You must have been very happy at that time..." Blake raised his hand and looked at the struggling mouse with a ferocious smile, "What did your master reward you with?"
"That's enough, you're crazy, both of you!" At this time, Ron suddenly shouted: "It's not Peter, it's Scabbers, my pet mouse!"
He took a step forward bravely, "I've heard enough, give Banban back to me!"
"I'm sorry, but I can't let you leave until the truth is revealed," said Professor Lupin, snatching the mouse that was almost crushed to death from Black's hands.
"This is the truth!" Blake seemed even more irritable.
"I told you before that as long as you find the Marauder's Map, you will see Peter's name on it at a glance...it's in Filch's office!"
"You think I didn't look for it?" Lupin said expressionlessly, "I went to Filch's office after you broke into the castle for the second time, but the map was gone!"
At this moment, Harry felt his head was in a mess.
He knew of Peter Pettigrew, whom Minister Fudge had mentioned before in The Three Broomsticks.
But wasn't he already dead? Killed by Blake himself!
It's impossible for a Minister of Magic to lie.
Thinking of this, Harry couldn't help but say, "You can say anything now, because you have killed Pettigrew, and the whole street is a witness!"
"What they saw was not what they thought it was," said Blake rudely. "He deceived everyone with his despicable tricks!"
"But Scabbers can't be Peter." Ron still refused to believe it. "It lives in our house..."
"Twelve years!"
Blake said, "Do you think a normal mouse could live that long?"
"That's because Kyle has been brewing rat tonic for it," Ron retorted. "Ever since Percy had it, which is years."
"Who is Kyle..." Blake was stunned for a moment. He obviously didn't expect Ron to say that. He always felt that he had heard this name somewhere, but he couldn't remember it for a moment.
"A very clever child," Lupin explained, "and incredibly knowledgeable."
"So he's just a kid who hasn't graduated yet..." Black said nonchalantly. Looking at Ron's expression just now, he thought he was a master of magical creatures.
"It was just a coincidence that he ran into an Animagus and thought it was his tonic that worked!"
Kyle, who had been standing nearby, raised an eyebrow.
Although what he said was correct, it sounded so harsh coming from Blake's mouth.
When did he become so self-righteous?
Besides, those tonics were all carefully prepared by him.
At this time, Black continued to patiently say to Ron: "Is he missing a finger?"
"So what?" said Ron.
"They only found the finger..." Harry subconsciously thought of what Fudge had said before.
"Yes, that coward cut off his finger just before it transformed," said Black. "After I blocked him, he screamed so loudly that everyone on the street could hear that I was the one who betrayed Lily and James. Then, before I could even cast a spell, he blew up the street with the wand hidden behind his back and crawled into the gutter with the other rats..."
"Mad!" said Ron, as if he were listening to a fantastic story.
Hermione also spoke up, her voice trembling, trying to remain calm, "But Professor Lupin, Scabbers can't be Peter Pettigrew, you must know that."
"Why do you think it's impossible?" Lupin asked calmly.
"Because if Peter Pettigrew was an Animagus, people would know about it... The Ministry of Magic has records... There have only been seven Animagus in this century, and Peter Pettigrew's name is not among them."
"You are correct, Hermione," said Lupin, "but unknown to the Ministry, there were three unregistered Animagus active at Hogwarts."
"How do you prove it!" Harry felt his mind getting even more confused, "Prove that Scabbers is Peter Pettigrew!"
"It's simple, and that's what I'm going to do." Lupin looked at Black deeply, "I hope you're not lying to me, otherwise..."
His tone turned cold, and then he threw Scabbers to the ground and pointed his wand at it.
The magic wand emitted a blue light, which enveloped Banban's head...
Blake smiled, and his sunken eyes suddenly lit up strangely...
Harry, Ron, and Hermione also looked at the mouse on the ground nervously.
However, nothing happened...
Scabbers was still the same as before, running wildly on the ground, and was finally caught by Ron.
The smile on Black's face froze, but Ron showed a victorious attitude.
"See, I told you they were all crazy. How could Scabbers be Peter Pettigrew?"
Harry looked at Lupin silently.
His face was extremely gloomy, and he turned his wand to point at Blake, "What else do you have to say? It's ridiculous that I would choose to believe a traitor like you!"
"No, that's not the case..." Black said dully, "There must be something wrong with your spell... He is Peter Pettigrew... He is... I won't make a mistake..."
"Save that kind of talk for the Dementors," Lupin said emotionlessly.
Seeing this scene, Banban, who was held in Ron's hand, stopped struggling, and his little eyes were full of surprise at surviving the disaster.
"No... Remus, it's not like that..." Black collapsed and threw himself over, "You must have made a mistake, I beg you to give me your wand... let me do it..."
"Don't even think about it!" Lupin pointed his wand at him. "Don't come any closer..."
However, before he could finish his words, Black lunged forward regardless, knocking him to the ground and snatching away his wand.
Another blue light, but again it was useless.
"Impossible... This is impossible..." Blake was like crazy.
Harry reacted and immediately raised his wand.
But before he could chant the spell, a faint, familiar voice came from the corner.
"Expelliarmus."
Kyle, who had lifted the Disillusionment Curse, walked out and reached out to catch the flying wand.
……
(End of this chapter)
Chapter 431 Padfoot and Wormtail
Kyle's sudden appearance startled everyone, and even Professor Lupin stopped his fist subconsciously when he was about to hit Black in the face.
Only Blake was not affected, and he still rushed towards Scabbers in Ron's hand without looking back.
But without a wand, he was quickly repelled by Harry and Hermione, and his body flew backwards and hit a table with a bang.
"Kyle, Kyle?" Professor Lupin came back to his senses and said in disbelief, "Why are you here?"
"Hello, Professor." Kyle said with a smile, and pointed to the corner where he had just been. "I've been here for a while, right there...but none of you saw it."
"What? You've been here all the time?" Professor Lupin frowned.
Although he had been looking at Blake and didn't pay much attention to the situation around him, he shouldn't have failed to notice the presence of another person.
And that's not what he wanted to ask...
"I mean, how did you find this place?" Professor Lupin continued.
"Follow the map."
Kyle pulled out a large piece of parchment, "I was just reading this in my dorm when I came across you five leaving the castle before curfew. I was curious so I followed."
"The Marauder's Map!"
After all, it was something he had participated in making and had used for several years, so Professor Lupin recognized what the parchment was at a glance.
"You took it from Filch's office?"
"No, I haven't been to Filch's office." Kyle shook his head and said, "I borrowed it."
"Wait a minute, Kyle!"
At this moment, Harry suddenly realized something was wrong and quickly said, "You just said five people left the castle?"
"Yeah." Kyle nodded.
Harry thought about it carefully again. "But there are only three of us. With Professor Lupin, there should be four of us. Could it be that Black has entered the castle again?"
"No." Kyle said, "The map shows that next to Professor Lupin, there is another person named Peter Pettigrew."
"That's impossible!" Ron was a little annoyed. "Why is it Peter again? It's obviously Scabbers!"
"Yes." This time Professor Lupin also stood on his side. "We have just confirmed that it is not an Animagus. I think there must be something wrong with the map... I mean, it has been there for a long time."