HP: For a better world

Lupin gritted his teeth and pushed the door open.

"Expelliarmus!" "Protect yourself with armor!"

Lupin and Black yelled at the same time.

The light from the spell hit the invisible barrier and bounced off. Harry's eyes widened, "Professor!"

The moment he heard the footsteps, Black immediately cast a Binding Spell on Hermione and Harry. Now they were tied up with ropes and unable to move, with only their mouths left to howl.

Lupin took a break from the ongoing standoff to untie Harry and Hermione.

Perhaps Black let Professor Lupin let them go because he knew he couldn't win, Harry thought bitterly.

Hermione dove aside and grabbed her own wand, then threw Harry's to him. All three pointed at Black.

"Oh, okay... okay... calm down." Black grinned slowly, "I was just about to explain everything to Harry..."

Lupin said, "I've never seen any explanation for tying someone up."

The wand was still pointed firmly at Black.

"This isn't my first time, so it's not going very smoothly," Blake said frankly. "I have to make them trust me first."

"You've never been good at that," Harry heard Lupin say in a strange tone.

"It's okay," Blake said, his voice deep, quick, and plaintive. "You'll believe me... You'll always believe me."

Lu Ping was silent for a long time.

"Professor!" Harry shouted angrily, "Kill him! Hand him over to the Dementors. I want to watch him die!!"

"I can't do that yet, Harry," Lupin sighed. "I want to find out something, and it won't be too late to send him to the Dementors to die after I know everything. Give me your wand, Sirius."

Harry stared and saw that Black threw the wand in his hand over without hesitation.

"professor?"

Lupin ignored him. "Where is he?" he said slowly, slowly.

"It's right here," Black gritted his teeth and suppressed his words, "In this room - that boy!" He turned his head fiercely and pointed at Ron.

Ron, who was watching with bated breath, suddenly panicked. He stammered, "What? Me?"

The spots on his chest were motionless, as if he was dead.

Everyone's eyes looked over and stopped at Ron.

Lupin stayed unusually long.

Harry shook his head slowly and said slowly, "I don't understand...that's Ron...who are you talking about?"

He slowly looked at Ron. Ron's panic-stricken and dazed look couldn't be more real, with one hand still covering his chest pocket.

"...You have changed people." Lupin said, with an expression of sudden realization, understanding and bitterness on his face.

Sirius was unaware of this, and even nodded with some pride, but this pride soon disappeared, and was replaced by a gloomy expression: "No one could have thought of it."

Lupin closed his eyes. "Indeed... no one thought of that," he said, then put down his wand, walked up to Sirius, hugged him, and returned his wand to him.

"What do you mean?" Harry was so shocked that his mind was almost unable to work. His wand was still pointing at Black, but he didn't know who to point it at.

"you--"

But Hermione's voice was faster and louder than his. "You are in cahoots with Black - we trusted you so much!" She shouted angrily: "You werewolf! - I never told anyone, and neither did Winston. He was willing to deliver the medicine to you."

Harry and Ron couldn't believe their ears.

"You betrayed our trust, betrayed Dumbledore's trust, betrayed Harry's trust - ha!" Hermione laughed briefly, as if she found her own trust ridiculous. She shook her head and took a few steps back: "Yes, Black is also a traitor who betrayed his best friend - you... are really a perfect match!" Hermione sneered.

Lupin suddenly looked apologetic, and he stepped forward to explain: "Listen to me, Hermione..."

"Tell that to Harry!" Hermione shouted. "Stupe!" Lupin reacted very quickly and cast the Armoring Charm almost the moment Hermione shouted the spell.

But Harry and Sirius shouted at the same time: "Expelliarmus!"

The adult wizards cast spells faster than the two of them, and although Lupin's wand flew out of his hand, Hermione and Harry also lost their wands.

"Double goal, isn't it?" Blake laughed hoarsely. "Don't waste any more time, old man. Everyone is getting tired of waiting."

He restrained Hermione and Harry and picked up Lupin's wand and threw it back.

Lupin was speechless after being attacked by his own student. "Can you listen to my explanation now? I didn't..."

"You are all in the same group, so of course you can say anything now." Hermione, who was tied up with Harry, interrupted him coldly.

"Not before! Harry, listen to me -"

Harry shook his head slowly but firmly towards Lupin's face.

"——Werewolf."

Lupin's expression froze briefly.

"...I don't deny it...I don't deny it." After a while, he lowered his trembling hands: "I don't deny that I am a werewolf."

Ron's eyes also turned disgusted.

"But I didn't, I didn't help him," Lupin explained wistfully.

"I didn't want Harry to die, and before today I wasn't sure Sirius was completely innocent."

"...How long have you known this?" Lupin whispered.

"One semester ago... after I did Professor Snape's homework," Hermione said. "Winster knew it before me."

Lupin smiled briefly. "Yes, he is also a smart boy. Snape would not tell him any information. He did not want me to have contact with any of his students. But he guessed it from helping Snape make potions... When I was his age, I could only follow the steps to complete the potion with the existing formula."

"Just like I never thought Snape would be loved. When Winston brought Harry to give me the wolfsbane potion, I was so panicked -"

"It's not just Winston and I...at least Professor McGonagall knows about it." Hermione said slowly, "On the day of Christmas lunch...you didn't come. Except for Professor Trelawney, no one else was surprised."

Lupin was silent for a short time, then broke it himself: "I'm not surprised. I never expected that I could hide it for long. The distinct characteristics of werewolves always make us wander."

Not to mention that wizards teach about the horrors of werewolves in every preschool lesson.

"Dumbledore is crazy. He actually let you, a werewolf, into the school!" Ron said angrily, "They actually believed a werewolf?!"

"But I was not a werewolf," Lupin said, no longer gentle. "Not every werewolf is vicious and cruel - at least I am not."

"...Then how did you know we were here?" Harry pressed, "Since you said you didn't help him." He glared at Black coldly, "And 'he', who is 'he'? Don't tell me there is someone helping you."

"That's the point, Harry ... I came here after a rat," said Lupin, pacing slowly up to Ron, while Black stood in the doorway, laughing a silent, manic laugh.

Ron reluctantly took a few steps back, his fear mixed with disgust. "What do you want to do with Scabbers? It just escaped death from a cat's mouth!"

He bent over and stared into Ron's pocket.

"Peter, why don't you come out and meet your old friends?"

----

"What nonsense are you talking about?" Ron covered his pocket and shouted angrily, "Peter is already dead - killed by the mysterious man behind you - don't embarrass my pet anymore! I only have - only Scabbers!"

"I just want to know the truth of the matter. I don't want to hurt your pet - if it really is." Lupin said, and then suggested, "Why don't we each step back. I'll let Harry and the others go, and you hand over Scabbers - just let us take a look."

Ron stared at him suspiciously.

Lupin did as he said and untied the ropes on Harry and Hermione.

Even after getting his wand, Black didn't stop him.

Harry and Hermione were confused by their actions and had no idea what he wanted to know.

Ron hesitated, then pulled the screaming, struggling Scabbers out of his pocket.

Lupin moved closer to Ron. He looked at Scabbers intently and seemed to hold his breath.

"What do you want to do?" Ron said again, holding Scabbers closer to him, looking scared. "It's just a rat. What does it have to do with the truth you want?"

"It's not a rat," said Blake suddenly in a hoarse voice.

"What do you mean? Of course it's a rat—"

"No, it isn't," said Lupin quietly. "Ron, he's a wizard."

"An Animagus," said Blake, "named Peter Pettigrew."

----

Harry and the other two were stunned and didn't know what to say.

"…are you kidding me?" said Harry.

"This is not a joke," Lupin denied. "This is the truth. Harry. Ron's pet rat Scabbers is a wizard's Animagus."

"Peter Pettigrew is dead," Hermione cried. "It's clearly written in the newspaper [an explosion killed an entire block of Muggles nearby, and they were murdered by Sirius Black. In fact, the scene was a bloody mess, and the only intact limb was from Peter Pettigrew...]"

Harry had never admired Hermione's memory so much. She almost repeated the words describing the entire case scene completely.

"I wanted to kill him!" Black's face twisted convulsively, and he roared, his yellow teeth bared again, "But Peter got the upper hand... But not this time!" Black rushed at Scabbers. Black's body fell on Ron's broken leg, and Ron screamed in pain. "Sirius, don't!" Lupin shouted, dragging Black away from Ron. "Wait! You can't just do this - they have to understand - we have to explain!" [1]

"We can explain it later!" Black roared, trying to push Lupin away, one hand still grasping in the air, and his previously normal emotions suddenly burst out. The extreme emotional transformation made Hermione and the others think that Black was a prisoner who escaped from the Dementors and a madman.

"They... have the right... to know... everything!" Lupin gasped, still holding onto Black. "Ron keeps it as a pet! And Harry... You must tell Harry the truth, Sirius!"

Black had stopped struggling, but his sunken eyes were still fixed on Scabbers, who clung to Ron's bloody, bitten hands.

"Well," said Blake, still keeping his eyes on the rat, "tell them whatever you like, but make it quick. I've been convicted of murder for twelve years, and to-day I'm going to prove my guilt."

Lupin nodded. "Hold on to him, Ron. People thought Peter Pettigrew was dead, so when I saw a mouse with a missing finger in the office, I couldn't believe my eyes. I thought he was coming to me for help. I called out to him, but he didn't respond."

Lupin spoke slowly.

"...I ran out of the office after it and saw a cat crouching at the door and almost caught it, but it escaped and headed out of the castle...I couldn't catch up with them because I knew the Marauder's Map would reveal animal footprints, so I opened it and saw a name I could never forget."

"——Peter Pettigrew."

Harry was listening intently, and when Lupin stopped he cried out, "That's not right! How did you know how to open the Marauder's Map?"

"That's even easier, Harry," Lupin said calmly. "A good magical product will never reject its maker." He paused and admitted, "...Yes, that's right. I contributed to the Marauder's Map."

"Professor Snape was not wrong. The handwriting was indeed mine... In the past twelve years, people have often said that Sirius betrayed his best friend and was the most trusted subordinate of the mysterious man and one of the most brutal criminals... There are many versions... and Peter was their follower, an unknown admirer who followed behind them... But very few people would remember... There were originally four robbers - that was me."

Then he told Harry and the others the story of how Dumbledore took him in.

"…the three of them learned Animagus and accompanied me on the night of the full moon."

Lupin smiled briefly, "Three Animagus and a werewolf. I admit that was the best time of my life. I never thought I would make so many good friends at Hogwarts."

"But it's dangerous! If you run into any students--" Hermione cried.

"I admit that I was lucky enough... There were several close calls during the process, but I didn't hurt anyone in the end," Lupin said softly.

The door behind him suddenly opened with a creaking sound, as if it was blown open by the wind.

"Really?" someone whispered. "Lucky enough?"