"Tell me, what was your purpose, and who helped you?" He held his wand to Peter's face again, speaking slowly and suffocatingly in a soft voice. "This could never have been something you worked out alone... it took me over a decade to work it out, and you managed it in a few months."
Peter struggled. "I do not know what you are talking about..."
"No, you do know. Otherwise, how did you escape the Dementors' pursuit?" Sirius sneered.
"Turning into a rat and travelling all the way from the North Sea to England is no short distance. What could be worth travelling so far and risking your life for? Tell me, tell me everything!"
Peter Pettigrew stood there trembling, speechless.
"What, do you want to kill Harry?" Sirius stared at him with a stern gaze.
"Absolutely not! Absolutely not!" Peter turned to Harry, a forced, ingratiating smile on his face. "Harry, I never intended to kill you! Please put in a good word for me, for your father's sake..."
Harry did not speak. He simply stared at the rat-like man with disgust, his body trembling with rage.
Ron stepped forward, silently placing himself between Peter and Harry, trying to shield his friend. He glared at his former pet with hatred, raising his wand towards him.
His expression startled Peter Pettigrew. He dared not look at Harry and Ron again, and could only turn to Hermione, the only girl in the room, hoping to find a shred of sympathy or pity.
Hermione turned her face away in disgust, refusing to acknowledge him at all.
"Do not even think about frightening the boy." Sirius sneered, scrutinising Peter Pettigrew with a sinister look, as though seeing for the first time what sort of man he truly was. "I never knew you had the nerve to sneak into Hogwarts..."
Peter shrank back, not daring to look up at his former friend. His face trembled, like a candle about to gutter out in the wind.
"Let me put the question differently. Peter, tell me, who is behind you?" Sirius leaned down and whispered in his ear, his eyes filled with undisguised murderous intent.
"No one... no one..." Peter's face turned deathly pale. He frantically denied it, his darting eyes betraying his guilty conscience.
"Tell us, Peter. I know you are not a bad man, and that you do not want to do this," Lupin said gently as he approached him, wand in hand.
"Remus, please, let me go..." Peter said in despair, his eyes pleading.
"You know I cannot, unless you are willing to tell us everything," Lupin said firmly, looking at him with something like regret.
Peter simply covered his face and cried, "Then turn me into a slug, if it makes you feel any better..."
"Still the same old coward! Remus, step aside, let me kill him." Sirius glared at Peter Pettigrew with hatred, gritting his teeth as he spoke.
Hermione was startled. She could tell Sirius Black meant it.
Is she about to witness a death?
She suddenly felt a stab of fear. Although she hated Peter Pettigrew and hoped he would be brought to justice as soon as possible, to stop him harming Harry or Draco, she was not prepared to watch anyone die.
Killing... that is wrong. That is not the right way to solve this. She thought frantically.
She missed him... Draco... the boy who had caused her such heartache and longing.
If he were here, what would he say to stop all this?
Hermione forced herself to think.
In her panic, she suddenly remembered a conversation they had once had at the Astronomy Tower, watching the stars.
The boy had smiled inscrutably at her, looking at her quietly with his cool grey eyes, and said, "If you cannot hit the target directly, try a roundabout approach."
Yes, Draco's roundabout methods. Slytherin methods.
Clearly, direct advice was useless. Sirius Black would not listen to her.
Even the words of his old friend, Remus Lupin, were of no use, let alone those of someone he had only met once.
At this moment, he was proud and volatile, and respected no one.
But, as it happened, the person he cared about most in the world was standing right beside her at that moment.
"Harry, would this count as murder?" Hermione tugged at Harry, who was standing there in a daze, and whispered, "If you kill someone, do you go to Azkaban?"
"No!" Harry finally snapped out of his daze.
In a hoarse voice, he shouted at his godfather, "Sirius, do not dirty your hands! He is not worth you becoming a murderer! We shall take him to the castle and hand him straight over to the Dementors..."
"Harry, you do not understand!" Sirius's eyes flashed with terrible anger and hunger. He grabbed Peter Pettigrew by the collar and said viciously, "He will run away again! He certainly will! They cannot do anything to him! I have to kill him!"
"Listen, Sirius, the Dementors will simply give him the Kiss!" Harry rushed forward, grabbed his sleeve, and shook his head desperately, pleading, "We have only just found each other, you cannot be sent back to Azkaban! I cannot lose you... please, I finally have a godfather..."
Sirius glanced back at his godson, and a sliver of sanity finally returned to his terrifyingly distorted face.
"Yes... you are right..." The murderous intent in his eyes surprisingly faded, and he became once more Harry's gentle and refined godfather, as though the cruel expression he had just shown had been nothing but Hermione's imagination.
"You are far more noble than I am, Harry. Though he is not worthy of your nobility." He gazed at Harry and gave him a sad, tearful smile.
Without wasting a moment, they immediately decided to take Peter Pettigrew back to the castle.
Hermione, Harry, and Ron followed behind Sirius Black and Professor Lupin.