Chapter 217 - 217 Real killer
Chapter 217: Chapter 217 Real killer
"Severus, what did you feed Peter?" Professor McGonagall tightened her grip on Snape's sleeve and pursed her lips sternly, "I know you had a lot of trouble with Jaime and the others at the time, but it's been over ten years now!"
"Severus, you really don't have to hold a grudge to this extent ..."
"There's no need to worry about him, it's just a little bit of Tranquilizer." Snape's gaze was still dead set on the groggy Peter and his tone was hard, "I do hope that what was poured into his mouth wasn't Tranquilizer, but a poison made from Mandrake juice."
"What exactly do you suspect?" Professor McGonagall frowned tightly.
Just then, Dumbledore, who hadn't said anything, suddenly spoke up and interrupted Professor McGonagall.
"Let Severus go first, Minerva, I instructed him to do it." He said.
"Albus?" Professor McGonagall turned her head to the couch Dumbledore was on and asked in shock, "Why did you do that?"
"I just wanted to confirm something." Dumbledore shook his head gently at her, "Don't be so impulsive, Minerva, a lot of things you see are not always the truth."
Professor McGonagall gave him a willful look, finally trusting Dumbledore more solidly than the touches brought on by her former student.
So she loosened her tug on Snape's sleeve and took two slight steps to the side.
Snape never relaxed his tight gaze on Peter from the beginning, his eyes growing bloodshot and red.
"Tell me who really betrayed Lily twelve years ago ... and who betrayed that arrogant fool Potter!" He forced his tone to calm down, but his words were clearly trembling.
Everyone in the room turned their eyes toward the short, stout figure with his head bowed and haggard look, wanting to see what kind of answer he would actually say.
"It was I ... who betrayed Jaime it was I ... who betrayed Jaime," Peter said in a tone that held no emotion.
His first words made Professor McGonagall's eyes widen and he covered his mouth in disbelief.
"But isn't ... Jaime and Lily's secret keeper Sirius Black?" Professor McGonagall stepped forward and asked urgently.
"He was originally chosen in the plan ... but Sirius felt that he was too conspicuous, and anyone could have thought that Jaime would have chosen the clever Sirius as the secrecy person, so he convinced Jaime and Lily to change the secrecy person to me at the last minute... ..."
Professor McGonagall's child hole tightened abruptly, and Snape clenched his fists and grabbed Peter by the collar with all his might.
"Tell me, Pediru, why did you defect to the Dark Lord?!" In a trembling voice, he said viciously, "How could you defect to the Dark Lord? How can you stand up to Lily's trust in you!"
"The Dark Lord is too powerful, I can't muster up the courage to go against him at all, I'm a coward, I don't deserve to be in Gryffindor." Peter said, "It's a coincidence really, that not long after I promised the Dark Lord, Sirius persuaded Jaime and Lily to change the Keeper of Secrets to me ..."
"I thought I could get a lot of credit and not have to worry about my safety ever again. But the Dark Lord disappeared the night he left for Godric's Hollow and no one could reach him ..."
"I was terrified because I had to take on two camps at the same time - Sirius questioning me about why I betrayed Jaime; the Dark Lord's supporters thinking that I was still working for the Order of the Phoenix and deliberately tricking the Dark Lord into making him slip up in Godric's Hollow... ..."
"So I had to think of a way, a way to survive."
"By that time, Sirius had already found me, and he always knew where I would hide ... So I had a flash of insight in the face of a life or death crisis, and in obedience, I yelled down that street, 'You're the one who betrayed Jaime and Lily,' And then blew up the whole street before he could do anything, leaving dozens of feet of the neighborhood in ruins."
"Sirius is so good, it's only natural that he wouldn't die easily from such an attack. But he didn't actually realize that I wasn't as weak as they thought I was, he thought that I had just lost control of my magic due to my emotions and blown myself into ash along with that street ..."
"But I didn't, I saved myself under that magic spell that enveloped me and cut off my index finger to make him think I was dead, then turned into a rat and escaped into the sewers, where I mixed with other real rats ... until I was adopted by the Weasleys. "
"I was completely turned into a pet rat after that, but I at least survived."
Under the influence of the truth-transmitter, Peter's tone remained unhurried and undulating, which made the few people in the room sound even more exasperated.
Professor McGonagall couldn't believe that the student who was so obsequious and couldn't speak clearly back then had turned himself into a demon step by step, leading to the deaths of dozens of people, including her own friends!
She took a deep breath for a long time before she finally got her breath down.
"But ... but if you're afraid, why don't you go tell Dumbledore? We didn't necessarily ask you to join the Order of the Phoenix, you could have quit at any time!" Professor McGonagall said painfully, "What's more, Dumbledore can clearly protect you ..."
"Dumbledore can't protect everyone." Peter continued with a grimace, "As a friend of three loyal members of the Order of the Phoenix, Jaime, Sirius and Lemmings, I'm naturally on the opposite side of the obvious Death Eaters, and they're going to come after me anyway."
"Becoming a Death Eater and being captured by Dumbledore would at least allow me to spend the rest of my life in Azkaban; but if a member of the Order of the Phoenix is captured by the Death Eaters, then I will surely die at their hands ..."
"I didn't want to die, so I chose the Death Eaters."
"Geez! I really find it hard to believe ..." Professor McGonagall turned her back to remove her glasses and used a handkerchief to wipe the tears that flowed from the corners of her own eyes.
Snape on the other side couldn't stand it any longer, his face seemed to contort in expression.
"Don't want to die? Heh heh heh ...," Snape grabbed Peter's collar with one hand and had raised his wand with the other at some point, "Then have you ever thought that there are just as many people in the Order of the Phoenix who don't care about those ridiculous rules!"
A blinding green light surged menacingly from the wand in Snape's hand, illuminating Peter's small, unfocused eyes green.
Just as the soporific spell was about to hit Peter in the face, a sudden burst of red light struck Peter in the face, one step ahead of him, knocking it heavily out of Snape's hands.
Likewise, it sent him flying out of range of the Sojourn Curse.
Stone froth flew as the green pillar of light blasted hard against the wall behind him, punching a hideous gaping hole in the solid stone wall.
"Albus, do you wish to harbor this shameful traitor?" Snape turned his head and looked menacingly at Dumbledore, "You know it, he got Lily killed!"
"Yes, I know, Severus." Dumbledore sighed softly, "But he had other uses, and I couldn't allow you to kill him just like that."
"What other use could he be?!" Snape bellowed, all but losing his usual icy gloom, "Do you still want to use this traitor to vindicate Sirius Black, the wanted man?"
"Severus, now that the truth is out, we can confirm Sirius' innocence." Dumbledore said softly, "He only infiltrated Hogwarts to capture Peter and avenge Jaime and Lily."
"But then he's not at fault?" Snape's tone was icy, "If it weren't for that egomaniac's arrogance in thinking how powerful and conspicuous he is, how could he even think of handing over the Keeper of Secrets to such a traitor!"
"Severus, your prejudice against Sirius is still too deep." Dumbledore shook his head helplessly.
"I'm just telling the truth!" Snape said through gritted teeth.
"I've seen them for what they are since twenty years ago ... arrogant, cocky, show-offs, never putting other people's emotions or feelings into perspective, and they're to blame for where they are now!"
Snape angrily stepped back and forth in the faculty lounge, one unpleasant adjective after another spewing out of his mouth, all of them being held over the heads of the original quartet, venting the emotions that had been pent up in his heart for over a decade.
Dumbledore watched him quietly without interrupting.
Dracula also watched with interest and amusement at the exasperated demeanor of the never-gloomy Professor of Potions.
The first to look away was Professor McGonagall.
"Severus, Jaime and Sirius they did get a little willful and naughty when they were at school, and I will admit that they were some of the most troublesome students I've ever had, but they did put in a lot of effort to fight the Mysterons."
Professor McGonagall had wiped away her tears and put her glasses back on, resuming her dry, sharp image, with only her still slightly red eyes indicating that she was still not exactly at peace.
Snape's rant stalled.
He was one of the Mystic party members who had been fought off by Jaime and Sirius and the others back then, and at this point he was a little out of breath in the face of Professor McGonagall's rebuttal.
"If you think so, so be it." He bristled and pushed the door of the common room open, "Do what you want, but I don't think the Ministry of Magic will compromise for an original criminal so easily!"
With that, he left this faculty lounge without looking back.
Every time he took one more look at that culprit who had caused Lily's death, his heart would twinge one more time ... After all, the one who had really induced the Dark Lord to get up the idea of going to kill Jaime's family was actually himself ah.
"Albus, what are we going to do next?"
In the faculty lounge, Professor McGonagall looked at Dumbledore with some hesitation and asked.
"No matter what, let's release martial law in the castle first." Dumbledore looked at the sky outside the window and said softly, "It's almost dawn, and it's about time for another important person to wake up."
...
A small bedroom with curtains closed around it and a full soundproofing spell applied to the walls.
At that moment, Lemus Lupin, pale and haggard, woke painfully from his lethargic course.
Even with the wolfsbane potion Snape had made for him at Dumbledore's request, which enabled him to stay awake during the full moon, the transformation process was still not easy.
It wasn't so much the pain of the transformation as it was the mental strain.
Lupin always thought of himself as a sorcerer, not a werewolf, so there was always an aversion to his own body when he transformed into his wolf form.
This mentality had started to develop since he was in school, but fortunately, he had three good friends who were willing to turn into animal forms to accompany him through every full moon night, which prevented him from breaking down in this kind of torture year after year.
This psychological burden was only gradually eased after he chose to fight for the dissolution of the discrimination against werewolves in the wizard society after thoroughly integrating into the werewolf pack in the past two years.
"Professor Lupin, awake?"
Just then, a mellow voice passed through the heavy soundproofing magic spell and came in through the door.
Lupin stood up with difficulty and slightly straightened his attire before walking over and opening the door.
"Professor Dracula, you're awake really early." Seeing the silver-haired figure outside the door, he casually greeted.
"You can't say that." Dracula laughed softly, "To be precise, Dumbledore and I were up all night."
"More than one big thing happened last night, Professor Lupin!"
Dracula led Lupin towards the faculty common room, giving a general rundown of what had happened that night along the way-
Including Sirius sneaking into the Gryffindor common room, him and Dumbledore catching a mouse that turned out to be Peter Pettigrew, and Snape using a truth spit on Peter to learn that he was the real traitor ...
Lupin's mood went from surprise to dismay, to shock, and then to yet another daze.
"I should have thought of that," he muttered, "Sirius and I actually had some mutual scruples at the time ..."
"Sirius thought I was a werewolf, when most werewolves had joined Voldemort's camp; and I thought he was a member of the Blake family, when his brother and cousin were the most loyal Death Eaters ..."
"The two of us couldn't give each other our full trust, and to our surprise, it was the least and most trustworthy Peter who betrayed Jaime."
Lupin's eyes were filled with shame, as if he was considering himself a sinner.
"More than ten years have passed, there is no need to regret now, Professor Lupin." Dracula twisted his head to look at Lupin, "Instead, why don't you take this time to tell me what interesting stories you all had at that time, and think about where exactly Sirius Black would be hiding ..."
Dracula hooked up the corner of his mouth, "You're the one who knows him the best in the entire magical world right now, your thoughts are very informative to us."