At the lakeshore bordering the Forbidden Forest, Peter Pettigrew was rubbing his front paws together like a fly. Squat and sparse-haired. His face was a mass of wrinkles, as though he had once been plump and lost a great deal of weight in a short time; his skin was riddled with fine lines, and his entire body was as filthy and wretched as a rat dragged from a sewer.
He spoke in a manner perfectly suited to his miserable appearance.
"S-soon, Sirius Black will come here..."
Even his voice was a rat's squeak—enough to make anyone with a shred of dignity curl their lip in disgust.
The Dementors, however, seemed entirely indifferent to such things. They drifted in their grim, oppressive way and listened to Peter Pettigrew's words.
Or perhaps "listened" was too generous a word—it was impossible to tell whether they were paying attention or simply preparing to attack. From within those dark, damp hoods, there was nothing but endless, hollow void.
Peter felt the instinctive terror of it and began to stammer.
"S-Sirius Black, and the wicked ones who broke him out—they'll come here... They're c-criminals. You're welcome to kiss them—the villains who dared break Sirius Black out of Azkaban and put you in a difficult position... Finish them off!"
"That's a lie!"
Beside Peter, Ron—bound tightly in ropes—cried out.
Ron, too, looked frightened by the Dementors' influence, but unlike Peter, he clenched his teeth and fought through the fear.
"You're guards! The criminal is this man right here, who turned into Scabbers and attacked me! Arrest him this instant!"
"Stay quiet, Ron... Dementors aren't Aurors!"
Peter answered in Ron's place.
"They are consumers of emotion! What they care about is not who is guilty and who is an innocent citizen. Only what they can feed on and what they cannot. That is all!"
Peter trembled as he spoke, as though frightening himself with his own words.
"The reason they became Azkaban's guards was to feed on human emotion! That's why they've been pursuing Sirius Black! If wizarding society were to doubt the Dementors' ability to supervise, they'd lose a stable food supply! So no matter how much you say I'm the criminal, it won't—!"
"Brilliant! Oi, Dementors! This man is an unregistered Animagus! Don't wander off—have yourselves a packed lunch!"
Ron shouted with renewed defiance.
A flustered Peter flicked his wand, and the ropes crawled up Ron's neck and stuffed themselves into his mouth.
"That's quite enough... I was genuinely fond of the Weasley family... I was in their debt for twelve long years. Even in rat form, I was never uncomfortable..."
"Mmph, mmphmph?"
"Yes. It wasn't that I transformed into Scabbers. I was Scabbers. From Bill to Percy, and then to you, Ron... We got along rather well..."
Ron, who had until now only thought of this man as someone who had transformed into Scabbers, was struck dumb with horror at the truth.
So that was why Harry and Hermione had worn such pained expressions whenever Peter Pettigrew came up. And why they had searched so desperately for the rat without telling Ron.
Ron finally understanding the true nature of his pet, he screamed—but his words were swallowed by the ropes gagging his mouth.
"I have no wish to kill a Weasley child... Stay still. Watch from there as your friends'—and my friends'—souls are consumed."
The moment the words left his mouth, Sirius Black appeared from the far side, his face murderous.
"Pe—ter—!"
Peter Pettigrew flinched and instinctively stepped back.
But behind him was the lake, and on the other side, Dementors in every direction.
There was nowhere to retreat. Peter Pettigrew, every inch the cornered rat, took one step forward to bite the dog.
"My... friend. Welcome... How do you like the gift I've prepared? Are you satisfied?"
"Shut up! You tampered with Lupin's potion, didn't you?"
Peter Pettigrew gave a slow nod.
"Yes. I sent false letters to Dumbledore and Snape to lure them to the Ministry... and mixed a neutralising agent into the Wolfsbane Potion. H-how is Remus? Remus, who couldn't take his potion, will have become a werewolf—is he all right?"
"You dare ask that!"
"What choice did I have? If I hadn't done this, you'd both have tried to kill me! I only wanted to survive!"
"And so you betrayed my parents?"
At that moment, Potter appeared behind Sirius. His clothes were filthy with dirt and twigs, as though he had taken a hard tumble somewhere.
Potter was breathing hard, but he gripped his wand firmly and fixed his gaze on Peter Pettigrew.
"If all you wanted was to live, you could have simply run. Why go to the trouble of betraying them?"
A flicker of something moved behind Peter Pettigrew's eyes.
Harry Potter, standing boldly at Sirius's side, seemed to stir old memories.
Sirius, James, and beside them Remus and Peter. Bright, glorious memories of a time that had once felt invincible came flooding back.
"Oh, Harry... You look exactly like your father... I watched you grow up..."
"You were waiting for a chance to kill me, weren't you? Remarkable restraint. There must have been several opportunities over three years."
"I wanted to kill you? Absolutely not!"
Peter Pettigrew protested as though the very idea were absurd.
"Why would I kill you? The moment I did, Dumbledore and the entire Ministry would come after me!"
"Don't lie. You've already betrayed once. If you hated running so much, why did you betray my parents?"
"Because I didn't know! I didn't know the Dark Lord would fall!"
Peter Pettigrew screamed as though coughing up blood.
"If I'd known he would fall, I never would have betrayed them! I hate being on the run... When I think someone is after me, I can't even sleep properly!"
Sirius had not been the only one drowning in regret for twelve years.
Thinning hair. Fingernails worn down to nothing from constant gnawing. The life Peter Pettigrew had lived as a rat through all those years could hardly be called comfortable.
Peter Pettigrew, too, submerged in pain and regret, cried out with the full weight of his bitterness.
"At Hogwarts, Slytherin's lot bullied me. So I sided with James! But then James wanted to fight the Dark Lord, and I was hunted by Death Eaters simply for being his friend! I had to betray him to survive! But then the Dark Lord went to kill you and vanished, and I was left behind, belonging nowhere!"
"How unfortunate."
At Harry's low murmur, Peter's expression brightened.
"You understand me, Harry! Yes, Lily was the same...! She was always so understanding...!"
"Shut up. Don't say my mother's name. That's not what I meant."
Potter raked a hand roughly through his hair, exposing the lightning-bolt scar. His face, fully revealed, held not a trace of a smile. With an expression colder than James or Lily—closer, if anything, to Voldemort—Potter regarded Peter Pettigrew with contempt.
"Without the Fidelius Charm, you'd have spent your whole life in agony, hunted by Aurors and Sirius. The years you've had were far too easy for what you've done."
"Wh-what?"
"A grown man who can't take responsibility for his own choices, whining about it? That's exactly why all you can do is run. Pathetic."
Harry's words made Peter Pettigrew's face quiver. But that was all.
He wanted to rage, but having been suppressed for so long, he couldn't even express his own emotions freely.
Like the sort of coward people speak of with contempt, he swallowed his anger and gulped it down.
"Yes, yes, I see. I'll grant you that, Harry. You resemble James... and you have his talent..."
In the next instant, Peter Pettigrew raised his wand. Sirius and Potter immediately drew theirs in response. Three jets of magic collided, and Peter screamed through his tears.
"But that ends here...! Dementors! Take them!"
The moment those words fell, hundreds of Dementors—multiplied from nowhere—surrounded the lakeshore.
"Harry."
"Carina. Wait."
The two of them crouched on their broom beneath the Invisibility Cloak, holding their breath and watching for the moment.
The Dementors surged forward like a tide. White light blazed from Potter's wand, and Peter Pettigrew and Sirius duelled furiously. Hermione, seizing the opening, moved to untie Ron's ropes—and was struck by a stray curse and screamed.
Fear and shock. The moment emotion rippled through her, the Dementors turned as one. Hermione and Ron stumbled back.
"Don't touch them! They're innocent! Dumbledore will not forgive this!"
Sirius shouted desperately, but the Dementors paid no heed. Peter seized the moment and fired a red beam. Sirius barely dodged the spell and blasted the ground beneath Peter Pettigrew's feet.
Peter Pettigrew let out a terrified shriek, and several Dementors began to take an interest in him.
"Wait! W-wait! It's not me! Sirius Black is..."
But a starving Dementor had no capacity for distinguishing friend from foe. They had fixed on the creature that was human and sometimes beast—Sirius Black, as far as they were concerned. There was no reason to spare Peter, another Animagus of the same kind.
A Dementor swept past him. Peter's body went rigid, and then the terror flooded into his eyes.
Sirius and Potter struggled to summon their Patronuses, but there were too many Dementors. Like candle flames guttering in a gale, the light that flickered intermittently from their wands began to fail. Hermione and Ron were already unconscious. Potter and Sirius fought to the last to protect them—and finally dropped their wands and fell.
"We should go."
"...Are you all right? There are so many Dementors."
Carina hadn't forgotten.
The day of the Quidditch match against Gryffindor—the driving rain, the howling wind. The Dementors looking up at them, and Harry Potter falling from his broom.
For Harry, who carried memories more painful than anyone, Dementors were a natural enemy. She had heard that even his Boggart took the form of one.
Could Harry truly defeat them?
"I'm frightened. But right now, I'm all right."
Carina didn't ask why. Instead, she quietly raised her hand. Her empty hand hovered in the air, moving awkwardly.
When Carina Malfoy extended her hand first, it was an act of grace. But the obligation to take it—that belonged to the other person.
Carina Malfoy, who wanted for nothing, had no particular stake in whether the hand was taken or not. But if Harry wanted it, she could offer just the slightest—the very slightest—opening.
The awkwardly extended hand was the evidence of that.
Harry smiled broadly and reached out in return. He took Carina's hand in one of his, pointed his wand hand downward, and called out in a voice louder than she had ever heard from him.
"*Expecto Patronum!*"
It was as though the sun itself had fallen to earth. In an instant the night vanished, and white light blazed down upon the lakeshore.
A silver fox landed on the ground. Like a bolt of lightning, the light's residue streamed along the earth and drove the Dementors back. A Dementor reached out, but the silver fox flicked its tail and sent it flying.
The silver fox raised its tail with imperious grace and took one step forward. The Dementors flinched and retreated two, three steps. But they still lingered, casting hungry glances at Sirius and Peter Pettigrew.
When it became clear the standoff would not end easily, Carina moved.
"Me too."
Harry and Carina, hands still clasped, descended together. Carina stepped off the broom and drew her wand with her free hand.
"*Expecto Patronu—*"
"*Expecto Patronum.*"
"...I know. I've already memorised it. I was only practising for a moment."
Recall a happy memory, she thought, and release it—*Expecto Patronum*.
She had never attempted it before, and success seemed remote. The Patronus Charm was advanced magic. To give form to a happy memory and conjure a guardian to protect you.
It was not supposed to be easy—and yet, somehow, Carina felt she could do it.
Through their joined hands, warmth passed between them, and with it something that tickled and tingled. In this moment, she felt she could send that pleasant sensation out through the tip of her wand.
Carina raised her wand and called out once more.
"*Expecto Patronum!*"
From the tip of Carina's wand, a silver creature burst forth. Weaker than Harry's, but unmistakably a small beast with a definite shape.
A silver fox, the very image of Harry's Patronus, descended to the ground—and promptly tripped.
Carina's silver fox scratched at the ground with its front paws and rolled about.
"Get up, Patronus! Go and sweep those things away, now!"
Despite Carina's threats, the fox only purred and continued rolling on the ground. A muffled laugh sounded from beside her, and Carina's ears went scarlet.
It was a dereliction of duty—but even so, it seemed to the Dementors like a threat. With one more Patronus added to the field, the Dementors wavered and scattered, retreating into the darkness. One by one, they vanished entirely.
Harry's Patronus padded lightly over and began to watch Carina's. At that, Carina's silver fox swished its tail and pressed itself against Harry's.
"Hey! Get away from him!"
Carina's command went unheeded. The silver fox nuzzled its nose against the scruff of Harry's Patronus—which was somewhat larger—still swishing its tail, and then, tongue just barely poking out—
"Aaaaaah!"
Carina whipped her wand back and forth, and at last the Patronus vanished. Whether it obeyed her or had simply been too unstable to hold, she couldn't say.
Harry's Patronus faded shortly after. Harry stood there looking as though he might burst out laughing at any moment.
Carina wrenched her hand free.
"Now that we're done here, let go!"
"Oh. Right."
Carina fumed for a moment—and then even that felt ridiculous, so she stopped.
Silence settled over the Forbidden Forest, as it did on any other night. Harry looked over the fallen figures and said,
"From here, you need to take the lead, Carina. Potter doesn't have his memory of what happened—he's unconscious right now."
Carina steadied herself and tried to recall the sequence of events.
She had left the school grounds, seen a bright light from the direction of the Forbidden Forest, and then—
"I rode the Hippogriff that was tied up outside Hagrid's hut and came down here. I spotted someone over there. But it turned out to be Professor Lupin, who had become a werewolf. And that werewolf had the audacity to attack me—"
"...Professor Lupin? Oh no."
Grrrrr.
The moment the words left her mouth, Professor Lupin—transformed into a werewolf—emerged from between the trees. His savage eyes were full of hostility toward the humans before him.
Lupin dropped to all fours and began charging toward Harry and Carina.
"Hide, now!"
Harry threw the Invisibility Cloak around them both, grabbed Carina by the waist, and ran. The werewolf's claws came crashing down on the spot where they had been standing.
Having abruptly lost its target, the werewolf looked around in confusion—then pressed its nose to the ground and began sniffing them out.
The werewolf's nose tracked the scent, drawing closer and closer. Carina and Harry found themselves clutching each other without thinking.
Then came the sound of beating wings, and the past Malfoy descended to the lakeshore on Buckbeak's back. She aimed a Lumos in their direction.
"Potter? Are you all right?"
The werewolf snarled and raised its head. Malfoy was visible in the distance, visibly terrified.
Harry made to bolt out immediately, but Carina caught his wrist and held him back.
"It's fine. Buckbeak saved her..."
Saying it that way made it sound as though she owed a debt to a beast, so Carina quickly corrected herself.
"That Hippogriff is rather useful, actually. Chased off a wolf without any trouble. It would make an excellent guard animal."
Lupin lunged at Malfoy, but took a blow from Buckbeak and was sent flying. In the end, the werewolf couldn't even overcome the Hippogriff, and fled. Harry murmured,
"I hope Professor Lupin is all right."
"Worry about yourself before you worry about a werewolf!"
Malfoy was approaching their position, so Harry and Carina moved carefully. Malfoy laid a hand on Potter's body, and her expression eased with relief; then she began firing sparks into the sky.
In the meantime, Harry and Carina wrested Ron's wand from Peter Pettigrew and bound him with a Rope Spell.
They already knew what would happen next. From here, even without Harry and Carina, the others would reach their ending.
Harry loaded Peter onto the back of his broom and said,
"Let's go back, Carina."
"Yes. What a thoroughly unremarkable excursion."
It was time to return to their own moment. Harry and Carina left Malfoy behind and departed the Forbidden Forest.
In the distance, Snape could be seen approaching.
---
As they drew near Hogwarts, Harry took out the Marauder's Map. Dumbledore was just then making his way back to the Headmaster's office. They landed on the west tower, then ran down the corridor with Peter Pettigrew balanced on the broom.
Albus Dumbledore was walking ahead of them. Harry called out to him.
"Professor Dumbledore!"
Hogwarts' Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, heard Harry's voice and turned.
The greatest wizard of this age. Children called him eccentric, yet what he actually did remained entirely unknown.
Hobbies: knitting. Special talent: collecting sweet wrappers.
But apart from these quirks, he was a colossus who wielded immense influence over the Ministry of Magic and the Wizengamot alike.
In front of people, he played the part of a pleasantly mad old man, and the Slytherin students treated him as a genuinely senile elder.
He's completely lost it. Look at him now—just sitting in his office doing nothing? He must have gone soft in the head from old age.
But facing him now, Carina understood that to be a perfect misapprehension.
Or perhaps "senile old man" was merely one of the many faces Dumbledore wore.
Dumbledore looked at them over his spectacles.
"At last. Peter."
Dumbledore asked nothing further. Like a man who had seen through everything from the very beginning, he simply regarded the broom and the Peter Pettigrew lying atop it with quiet composure.
"Well done, Harry. Now, if we can only bring Sirius in, he and I will be able to lift the magic connected to something I cannot quite name aloud."
"Snape is bringing Sirius now."
"Severus?"
It was only an instant. But that fraction of a moment was enough for Dumbledore to piece together the truth.
"You used a Time-Turner."
This time, even Harry seemed surprised.
"How did you know?"
"Because Severus and I returned at nearly the same time. We received letters summoning us and went to investigate—only to find that the Ministry had never sent for either of us. Peter's trap, no doubt? Yet when we hurried back, the two of you had already finished everything and brought him in. I know you are both remarkably capable, but there was no particular reason to rule out the possibility of a Time-Turner."
Dumbledore flicked his wand. Toward Peter, still lying on the broom, a rope imbued with magical force advanced. It coiled like a living serpent, then opened its mouth wide as though it meant to swallow him whole.
Even if Peter regained his senses and reverted to rat form, the rope would have him.
Dumbledore continued.
"There is also this: Severus harbours a deep grudge against Sirius, and if given the opportunity, he would certainly try to kill him. If you had no intention of letting Sirius die, there would have to be someone at that location capable of stopping Severus—and I rather suspected that would be a version of you from the original timeline."
Carina said nothing.
It was precisely as he described. Snape had been on the verge of sending Sirius to the Dementors, and Carina had barely managed to stop him with a lie.
And yet Dumbledore had seen through all of it from where he stood.
The knowledge accumulated over long years, and the intuition to weave it together and draw out the truth in an instant. A situational awareness that belied his age. All of it combined—Dumbledore was formidably, unsettlingly capable, and frightening with it.
Carina thought again.
How on earth had the Dark Lord ever imagined he could fight a wizard like this?
"Carina Malfoy. How would you prefer I address you?"
Carina startled at Dumbledore's voice. Under a gaze that seemed to see through a person and take them apart piece by piece, she felt a sudden flash of fear.
But even so—Carina Malfoy was a Malfoy.
Whoever stood before her, that was no reason to lose her composure. She collected herself, gave a small, deliberate cough, straightened her spine, and spoke with perfect composure.
"Miss Malfoy, if you please. Ours is a professional acquaintance."
"Mm."
Dumbledore looked at Carina's composed greeting and smiled with gentle warmth.
"You have a good friend, Harry."
Harry laughed, a little sheepishly.
"It took an enormous amount of effort to get there."
"Indeed. I thought it a futile endeavour, but that was my error. It was worth every bit of it."
Dumbledore flicked his wand once more.
Peter Pettigrew, completely restrained, flew off in the direction of the Headmaster's office. The two serpentine ropes moved of their own accord, received him as though swallowing him whole, and closed again.
Dumbledore strode toward the ground floor and said,
"Miss Malfoy, thank you for helping Harry. Go in and rest for tonight. Harry and I will handle what remains."
"Professor, just a moment—Carina should—"
Harry made to say something more, but Dumbledore shook his head—gently, but without any room for argument.
"Harry. You know this. I cannot tell her everything."
Everything. The truth beyond what had already happened—a truth that reduced even tonight's events to a mere fraction of the whole.
Dumbledore invoked it to stop Harry. He could not draw her any further in.
Harry glanced at Carina. But Carina smiled softly and gave him a small push.
"It's fine. Who said I was curious? I have no particular interest in some secret or other."
It would be a lie to say she felt no regret. But Carina already knew far more than enough.
For a while, she would need to turn over what she had learned tonight. Truths that were rather gratifying, and yet just a little too embarrassing to look at directly.
Carina turned away without looking back.