"I know he's coming."
Sean said it gently, his gaze warm through Crookshanks's ginger fur.
"Prrr—"
Crookshanks purred, as if he trusted Sean completely.
"Crookshanks, you've done very well. But it's not time yet. Where is he? Take me to him, alright?"
Sean lifted Crookshanks off his shoulder. The big ginger cat seemed perfectly in sync with him and immediately started leading the way.
Its fluffy tail swayed back and forth as it padded out of the castle.
It was already dusk. Sean stepped across the soft green lawn, blurred by evening light, feeling the thin mist rising over the Scottish Highlands.
At a corner, Crookshanks stopped. With a low rumble, he jumped toward a clump of bushes.
The place was half-enclosed by dark, slimy walls, and from the shadows emerged a figure Sean found all too familiar, almost as if he were embarrassed to show himself.
"You came to find me..."
Sean lowered Crookshanks's ear close to his lips, then turned and said to the slightly plumper black dog,
"You're far too impatient, Mr. Black."
Then something astonishing happened.
The black dog leapt forward and, in the blink of an eye, transformed into a wizard.
His tangled black hair hung all the way to his elbows. If not for the light still burning in his deep-set eyes, his gaunt, skeletal body would have made him look like a corpse.
If any wizard had happened to see him here, they likely would have screamed.
Because he was Sirius Black, the notorious fugitive wanted by both the magical and non-magical worlds.
"I'm sorry. I just..."
Sirius avoided looking Sean in the eye and cast a few uneasy glances toward the castle.
At dusk, Hogwarts looked peaceful and serene. If Harry Potter hadn't had that loathsome traitor at his side, Sirius would not have wanted to disturb the ancient castle at all.
"You want to get rid of him that badly, don't you?"
Sean spoke the thought Sirius hadn't said aloud.
He had known Sirius would break into Hogwarts in the near future, but he hadn't expected him to come scouting so soon.
It seemed he had already laid careful plans to deal with Scabbers.
"You know... I've long known that you understand everything. But why..."
Sirius said respectfully, dragging his gaze back to the dark, slimy wall.
"I haven't ruined any of your plans, have I, sir?"
"You're overthinking it."
Sean answered calmly.
At that, Sirius looked up. In those deep green eyes, he seemed to see nothing but a boundless sea.
"I should have known, sir."
A faint curve touched Sirius's lips.
No one could ruin the plans of someone who already knew everything.
"It still isn't time."
Sean said it again.
"And when will it be...?"
Sirius asked, carefully restraining himself.
"You and I both know, Mr. Black, that Pettigrew is not the root of everything."
Sean had not wanted to reveal more, but he could not bear to leave Sirius drowning in that endless confusion.
"I know. Of course I know, sir. That will be our great struggle."
Sirius's face held a terrible kind of resolve.
"The future is changing, Mr. Black. No wizard can guarantee that fate will continue along its original path..."
Sean thought of Professor Trelawney's prophecy—he remains cunning...
"We need to know more."
"You mean...?"
Sirius seemed to grasp something.
"He will find him."
In the end, Sean let a little more truth slip out.
Sirius's eyelids fluttered rapidly. His throat bobbed, and swallowing suddenly seemed to become difficult.
"We have to stop him, sir... we can't let him..."
"No, sir. The terror of the unknown is that we cannot prepare for it."
Sean lowered his eyes slightly as he spoke.
Would it be better to let Voldemort return, or simply throw Peter Pettigrew into Azkaban?
Sean had made his choice long ago.
Rather than let Voldemort remain a truly hidden viper, waiting in the dark for the right moment to destroy Hogwarts, it was better to keep the future from changing too much.
And in the end, all of it rested on the raw power of individual magic.
If someone could truly defeat Voldemort and kill him, then they would not need to rely on the kind of long, delicate planning Dumbledore had once needed.
If no one could truly defeat and kill Voldemort, then any plan would most likely amount to nothing.
Long ago, Sean had stopped leaving himself any retreat.
Harry was no longer a Horcrux. The future had already changed. The ending in which Harry killed Voldemort through "the power Voldemort knows not" was no longer destined.
From beginning to end, the one who would have to face Voldemort...
Sean gazed into the distant night sky, a deep black canvas strewn with silent stars.
"When he returns, we will strip away everything he depends on. I will defeat him, and then I will kill him."
Sean said it plainly.
In his calm eyes lay a kind of vast solemnity Sirius could not understand.
Sirius did not dare look directly into them, any more than he would dare stare straight at a god.
"Until then, please be patient."
As Sean turned to leave, Sirius called out to him in an extremely low voice.
"But sir... are we really just going to let Peter... are we going to leave it like this...?"
Sirius asked, unwilling but cautious.
"Oh, that's alright, sir. Peter will help us find him. And of course, Peter will become very obedient."
Sean said it thoughtfully.
"You plan to...?"
Sirius blinked, then asked curiously.
"The goblins possess the oldest contracts in magical history."
Sean said it like a simple fact.
At once, Sirius felt a weight lift off his chest.
If Peter became their spy and returned to the Dark Lord's side, then no matter whether Voldemort noticed anything strange about him, they would still be able to track Voldemort's movements.
As for Peter's life or death—
no one wanted to see Peter die more than Sirius did.
"You should go now. Most people in Hogwarts wouldn't recognize you, but our new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor is Mr. Lupin."
Sean reminded him softly.
"Lupin... he..."
Sirius looked as though he wanted to ask something, but in the end swallowed the words.
His expression worsened. His mouth twitched awkwardly, showing yellowed teeth.
"Please don't blame Mr. Lupin."
Sean said quietly.
"I of course... of course I..."
Sirius's face looked terribly unnatural.
After the explosion that night, everyone had believed he'd betrayed James and Lily and gone over to the Dark Lord.
But the truth?
If a single person had simply asked him, they would have heard the truth of it.
Would he have refused to tell Lupin—his closest friend?
Or refused to tell Dumbledore the truth hidden beneath appearances?
They had all chosen to believe he was the traitor.
And yet, of course, he could not really blame them.
"Perhaps, on that night, you weren't the only one who lost everything, Mr. Black."
Sean looked into the deepening night, where a plainly dressed figure came into view.
"Good evening, Moony."
Sean greeted him.
"Good evening, Mr. Green."
Lupin looked at Sean in surprise, seemingly wondering how he knew that name.
Then he saw the black-haired figure standing opposite, and at once he understood.
His expression hardened. He immediately pulled Sean behind him and drew his wand.
"So, here you are, Sirius..."
Lupin smiled, but there was absolute vigilance beneath it.
"Moony... are you here to catch me?"
Sirius smiled too, unexpectedly.
"Crookshanks is a very clever cat. He led me here. And now, Mr. Green, I'd like you to leave."
Lupin said it gently to Sean, while praising the large ginger cat that had leapt back onto Sean's shoulder.
"Oh, come off it, Moony. Do you think Mr. Green needs to hide from anything?"
Sirius let out a mad little snort of laughter.
"You'd do better to keep your distance from Mr. Green, Padfoot."
Lupin sounded almost kindly cautionary, but a dangerous smile had already appeared on his face.
If there was one person in this castle who absolutely could not be allowed to come to harm—
it was Mr. Green.
Dumbledore had spoken to him long ago. Mr. Green, he had said, was all their hope.
And besides, Lupin knew perfectly well that if anything happened to the young wizard before him, one person would unquestionably go mad.
Severus Snape.
Frankly, Lupin had never expected that name.
"That's enough, Moony. If you want to catch me, you'll have to prove you can."
Sirius even had the leisure to wink at Sean.
As though this were all just some amusing game.
"You should tell Mr. Lupin, Mr. Black."
Sean cut straight across Sirius's little game.
And then Lupin saw something he could never have imagined.
The fugitive wanted by the whole magical world, the Dark Lord's supposed greatest servant, his best friend—the one he had not dared let himself remember too clearly—after one brief dazed pause, answered with complete obedience.
"As you will, sir."
Sirius said it reverently.
"This..."
Lupin's entire world took a blow. It was as though he no longer recognized the young wizard before him.
"Oh, Mr. Lupin, Mr. Black will tell you everything. I think you've always had your suspicions, haven't you?"
Sean added.
He had already said more today than he usually said in a week.
"Oh, Moony..."
At last Sirius dropped the mad act. Leaning against the roots of a tree, his eyes held a dazed kind of grief.
Some say the world is vast, too vast for a person to cross in a lifetime.
But others say the world is very small—no bigger than the space around you, no bigger than a few scattered friends.
If they all like you, then the whole world likes you.
But what if none of them believes you?
Sirius smiled bitterly.
He slipped a clawlike hand into his robes and pulled out a crumpled newspaper clipping, smoothing it flat and holding it up.
It was the photo of the Weasley family that had run in the Daily Prophet the previous summer. Perched on Ron's shoulder was Ron's rat, Scabbers.
"Look, Moony. Do you notice anything wrong with that rat?"
Lupin took the clipping carefully.
"God..."
He looked back and forth between Scabbers and the photo, then whispered,
"His front paw..."
"He's missing a toe."
Sirius said.
"Of course,"
Lupin murmured, finally seeming to understand.
"How simple... how clever... he cut it off himself?"
"Right before he transformed,"
Sirius said.
"Once I cornered him, he started shouting so the whole street would hear that I had betrayed Lily and James.
Then, before I could even cast a spell, he used the wand he had hidden behind his back to blow up the street, killing everyone within twenty feet—and then he escaped down into the gutter with the other rats..."
"The biggest piece of Peter they found was one finger."
Lupin finished the thought.
"Do you know how long it's lived?"
He turned to Sean, urgent but controlled.
"Ron says it's been alive for twelve years."
Sean answered.
"Twelve years,"
Lupin repeated faintly.
"How could a rat live that long?"
Sirius said nothing. He waited until Lupin's eyes began to redden slightly before finally letting out a low, almost mocking snort.
"And now you're going to tell me you suspected all along?"
"I don't think I'm in any position to say that..."
Lupin's throat had gone dry. He looked at Sean in disbelief, then cast a glance toward Sirius.
"Perhaps you shouldn't be so hard on Mr. Moony."
Sean sighed softly.
That night, Harry had lost everything. Sirius had too.
But what about Lupin?
His world had been just as small—just a handful of friends who didn't despise him.
Two dead, one maimed, one condemned forever.
That was what Lupin had been left with.
On the night when everything was lost, in the storm and the rain, how could anyone ask a grieving soul to remain rational and calm?
You could no more demand it than you could ask the rain to wash away his tears.
"Oh, fine. I forgive you, old friend."
After seeing Lupin's helpless hands and reddened eyes, Sirius no longer had the heart to blame him.
"Though I'm sorry too. I thought you were the spy. You know how it was then—we couldn't trust anyone."
"Forgive me, Remus,"
Sirius said.
"Oh, don't be ridiculous, Padfoot, old friend,"
Lupin said, his expression twisted into something that was neither laughter nor tears as he rolled up his sleeves.
"Then you forgive me too, for once believing you were the spy?"
"Of course."
A faint smile crossed Sirius's wasted face. He rolled up his sleeves too.
"You'll have to help me, Moony."
"We'll finish him together?"
Lupin said it, then glanced at Sean. He clearly did not want the young wizard hearing too much, even though he suspected Sean knew more than he did.
Otherwise why would Sirius be this close to him?
"Oh, I'm afraid not."
Sirius broke the mood completely.
Sean could see Lupin's smile freeze on his face.
"Then what?"
Lupin asked stiffly.
"We need to talk, old friend. About... a greater plan."
Sirius said grandly.
~~~
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