Peter was bound tightly, trembling as he looked at the people surrounding him. His beady little eyes, just like a rat's, darted around nervously.
"Si—Sirius, Lu—Lupin." Peter Pettigrew's voice was high-pitched. He looked around again. "My friends, my old friends..."
Black's eyes were already flashing with satisfaction, excitement, hatred, and impatience. He raised his wand.
But Lupin held down his hand, signalling him not to be hasty.
In front of Harry and the others, they confronted Peter, exposing all his lies.
Realising there was no way to change the situation with words, and finding no opportunity to escape, Peter completely broke down.
His face was ashen as he pleaded incessantly.
"Sirius, it's me, it's Peter, your friend. You wouldn't... you wouldn't kill me, would you!"
Sirius kicked him aside without hesitation, his eyes filled with disgust as though he were looking at rubbish.
Snot and tears streamed down Peter's face. He writhed on the ground like a worm, crawling to Lupin's side in an attempt to evoke his sympathy, but Lupin ignored him completely.
Then he began to plead with Ron and Harry, hoping they would put in a good word for him, but the look in Ron's eyes was filled with nothing but disgust.
"He slept in my bed and even left droppings next to Harry's pillow!"
Sirius could wait no longer; he raised his wand, along with Lupin.
Sherlock felt uneasy. He felt that strange sound growing louder, as though a clock were ticking incessantly beside his ear, every tick and tock ringing out clearly.
"Hurry up, get this over with, lest complications arise," he urged.
Lupin and Sirius hesitated no longer; they prepared to raise their wands together.
However, just as they were about to cast their spells and despair washed over Peter's ashen face, Harry suddenly shouted,
"No! You can't kill him!"
Lupin and the others stopped, turning to look at Harry in shock.
"This is your parents' enemy, Harry!" Sirius roared. "He is the one who killed your parents! This grovelling, filthy creature wouldn't care if you died. You heard what he said just now; his own wretched skin is more important to him than your entire family's lives!"
"I understand," Harry said, panting. "We'll take him to the Castle and hand him over to the Dementors. He can go to Azkaban... just don't kill him. If he dies, your name will never be cleared. It's not worth it; he's not worth it."
Hearing Harry's words, a look of relief appeared on Sherlock's face. He was glad Harry was able to think of these things.
Sirius's face was twisted. He desperately wanted to kill Peter on the spot, but he had to respect Harry's choice.
Because among those present, only Harry had the right to pass judgement on Peter's fate.
Seeing hope for survival again, Peter wept with joy, clutching Harry's leg and thanking him incessantly for his mercy, but Harry shook him off with a look of disgust.
At this moment, Sherlock stared at Peter.
"Can Petrificus Totalus prevent an Animagus from transforming?"
He didn't know where the unease in his heart was coming from, but he could only associate it with his memory, where, in the original story, a rat had escaped in the end. Therefore, he had to be absolutely certain about Peter's current state.
Sirius shook his head.
"No. Once an Animagus has learned the ability, this magic becomes an instinct for the Wizard. It requires no wand and no spell; all it takes is a thought to complete the transformation."
Lupin noticed Sherlock's concern.
"Rest assured, with Sirius and me both holding him, if Peter dares to transform, we will kill him. Is that alright, Harry?"
Harry nodded; he naturally had no objections to this decision.
Their approach seemed flawless, but Sherlock still felt something was off, though he couldn't put his finger on it.
"It takes only a thought to complete the transformation?" He raised his wand at Peter, then, under Peter's horrified gaze, cast the spell. "Stupefy."
The red light from the wand struck Peter, and his head slumped as he fell unconscious.
Sherlock nodded in satisfaction.
"This is the only way to be sure."
"You are too cautious, Sherlock," Lupin said. "But caution is never a bad thing."
Sirius and Lupin each grabbed one of Peter's arms, hauling him up from the ground.
Hermione's pet, Crookshanks, displayed the pride of a hero, walking at the very front of the group with its head held high.
Sirius and Harry had just reunited that night and were talking about their godfather–godson relationship.
Sherlock did not walk with the main group; he was still listening carefully for that strange sound, trying to find where it was coming from.
Just as he was looking around, he suddenly noticed the bright, white full moon in the sky, and he froze.
In that moment, Sherlock finally understood what he had been so anxious about. He turned his head sharply to look at the deathly pale Lupin.
"Remus!"
Hearing Sherlock rarely call Lupin by his first name, Harry and the others all stopped at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, stunned.
Lupin looked at Sherlock in confusion.
"What happened?"
Sherlock stared at him, pursing his lips as he spoke.
"You told me in the office earlier that Snape hadn't brought you the Wolfsbane Potion yet today."
Instantly, Lupin's face turned even paler than before!
"I cannot return to the Castle!"
Harry and Ron were baffled by this; they did not yet know of Lupin's identity as a Werewolf.
Hermione, however, seemed to have guessed something beforehand, and Sherlock's words only confirmed her suspicions.
Sirius realised it too at that moment. He looked at the Forbidden Forest behind them and said anxiously,
"Run deep into the Forbidden Forest, the further in, the better."
However, at that moment, an abrupt voice, not belonging to anyone among them, suddenly rang out.
"No need to run, Lupin. I've brought the medicine for you."
From the darkness in the direction of Hogwarts Castle came the sound of soft footsteps. Snape, his greasy hair reflecting the moonlight, walked over with a playful expression on his face, holding a vial of potion in one hand and his wand raised in the other.
Seeing him, a look of surprise and joy appeared on Lupin's face.
"How did you know we were here? Thank you, Snape."
But Sherlock was not as optimistic as Lupin, because the expression on Snape's face as he looked at Lupin and Sirius was very wrong.
It was the same look Sirius had when he saw Peter—a gaze of intense hatred and barely restrained excitement that was completely out of character for Snape.
He avoided Lupin's hand as he reached for the potion, instead keeping his wand aimed directly at Sirius's chest.
"Compared to delivering your medicine, I think I've discovered a much bigger problem," Snape said in an exceptionally sinister tone. "Two Hogwarts Professors and three Gryffindor students, out in the middle of the night, sneaking around to meet a top fugitive from the Ministry of Magic! What do you think you're doing?"
"Listen, Severus, we can talk about me later. Just give the medicine to Lupin! Give it to him first!"
Black had noticed that Lupin, standing beside him, was clearly acting strangely. He shouted, but Snape remained unmoved.
"If he turns into a Werewolf, even better! The Dementors will be here soon; they will see the fugitive they are hunting, and then they will see an out-of-control Werewolf! Guess what they will do?"
A look of satisfaction appeared on Snape's face; it was the excitement of impending revenge.
Suddenly, a flash of red light struck him from behind!
Snape's body instantly froze in place, unable to move a muscle.
The one who attacked him from behind was a lone wand hanging in mid-air. After the spell was cast, the wand spun gently and returned to Sherlock's hand.
"Hurry! Lupin is about to transform!" Sirius helped support the kneeling Lupin and urged Sherlock.
Sherlock naturally knew that time was of the essence; he had to get Lupin to drink that potion before he transformed into a Werewolf.
But as he walked towards the petrified Snape, the ticking sound of the clock's hands grew louder and louder!
It was as though some timer was counting down, and the hand was about to reach the very last moment.
Sherlock had no time to worry about that at the moment. He walked quickly towards Snape, and the second his hand touched Snape's hand—
The sound suddenly stopped.
Not just the sound—everything around him stopped as well!
Leaves blown from the branches by the wind hung motionless in mid-air, as though frozen in time.
Sherlock grabbed the potion from Snape's hand. He could see that Snape was still blinking furiously in anger.
But the others—Sirius, who was supporting Lupin with an anxious expression; Lupin, who was kneeling on the ground in pain; and Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who were staring at the scene with their mouths agape—all looked as though they had been hit by a pause button.(TN: Interesting.)
Sherlock looked at everything around him, unable to comprehend it.
"What is going on?"
Snape, who was the only one in this scene capable of movement besides him, could only blink furiously.
His eyes were also filled with confusion; he completely failed to understand what had happened.
At that moment, Sherlock realised that the locket he had been wearing around his neck all this time had opened, though he didn't know when.
Inside the locket was an inlaid golden watch, but there were no time markings on its face. The single, lone hand, the moment Sherlock saw it, suddenly began to spin wildly in a counter-clockwise direction!