THE STUDENTS of Gryffindor, for the next days, were the happiest they had been for a long time. Especially Jessica, Aiden, Natalie, Fred and George. They had no idea that the world was about to be flipped on them, in the matter of a few hours.

"We need to have a party to celebrate our grand win." Aiden decided.

"Uhm, Aiden, have you forgotten the huge party we had, the day we won the match?" Natalie asked.

"Yeah, well that was all of Gryffindor. We need a party of just the five of us, too, and Padfoot too, of course." Aiden winked, "I need volunteers to go with me and get some food from the kitchens."

"I'll come," Jessica said.

"Fine, but I'm eating a treacle tart on the way back, then." Natalie said.

"We'll try to get into Filch's office, and get some of the cool stuff he confiscates." Fred said, referring to him and George.

George looked skeptical, "why don't you come with Fred and me, Jessica? I'm sure Natalie and Aiden will be fine."

"Any reason for me to do that?" Jessica raised her eyebrow curiously.

"Uh, no, it's your choice of course." George said, his eyes darting from Jessica to Aiden.

"If this is about the broom cupboard session, let me just tell you that they were our code words for Legilemency practice." Aiden said.

"Oh no, it's not about that, I was just . . . " George said, but he looked lightened by Aiden's words, and Jessica had a small feeling that Aiden might be right about what he said before.

"Well come on then, to the kitchens." Natalie said, "We don't have all day."

"I told you George has a crush on you, but you won't listen!" Aiden said, as he tickled the pear, and entered the kitchens with Natalie and Jessica.

"Shut up, Aiden." Jessica mumbled.

"Shut up, Aiden," Aiden mocked and rolled his eyes before turning to the house elf, "hello, Ninny! How are you?"

"Master Blake is very kind to treat Ninny so nicely." Ninny played with the hem of her worn out dress, "and Miss Black, and Miss Denswood, and Master, and Master Weasley."

"Ninny, we've told you before, that you can call us by our names." Jessica said.

   Ninny flushed red, and buried her head into her old clothes.

Aiden chuckled, "I'll get the food with Ninny, you guys can stay and wait here."

There was a moment of awkward silence between Natalie and Jessica, before Jessica broke it, "I know we haven't been spending time with each other like we used to, Nat, but I've been so busy with Padfoot and all —"

"You seem to spend time with Aiden just fine." Natalie said coldly.

"That's different, Nat, we're having the practices." Jessica frowned.

"I'll forgive you in one condition." Natalie said, trying to hide the small smile creeping on her lips.

"What?" Jessica started to fear what Natalie was going to say.

"You're going to honestly tell me, whether you like George or not." Natalie said.

"Nat —"

"No excuses."

Jessica groaned, "I don't like him in that way, you guys are so dumb. He's not — we're not like that — I don't —"

"The Jessica Black, stuttering over a boy?" Natalie fake gasped, "Tch, tch, tch, you must really like this guy."

"Natalie, I'm warning you —"

   A huge bang frightened both of them out of their skins. More crashes followed as Aiden stumbled forward.

"What was that?" he panted.

Automatically, all of their thoughts turned to the Weasley twins, or Padfoot. Aiden turned to Ninny, "Ninny, we'll come back in a few minutes."

   They raced out of the kitchens together, following their instincts to where the bang must have come from. A crowd of students were standing by Filch's office, so they assumed that's where the bang came from.

   There were remains of fireworks, and they immediately knew the cause of that bang. The twins must have dropped a firework or two, which might've caused the bang. But the question was, whether they had fled the situation or had Filch had caught them?

   What none of the other kids, but the three friends noticed was the old piece of parchment which lay abandoned. They knew what that actually was.

   Jessica grabbed it immediately, it may have fell from one of their pockets, they always carried it around. She opened the map, and all three of them scanned for the twin's name. But before they could found that, something else caught their attention.

    The names of Hermione Granger, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew in the Whomping Willow.

"Shit, we need to get Remus." Natalie bit down on his tongue.

"But, what about George and —" Jessica began.

"We'll worry about that later, just get going, we need to find Remus, quick!" Aiden said.

"Remus, open the door!" Jessica frantically ponded on the door of Remus' private chambers, with Aiden and Natalie alongside, "Remus open the goddamn door, do you here me?"

"What did I say about LANGUAGE?" Come a voice from inside.

Remus opened the door, standing there in his robes, "This is my nap time, kids. I just finished checking all the assignments, and just when I'm about to change, you come knocking. I don't want to know if Padfoot stole someone's sandwich or —"

Aiden shoved the map to his face, and as expected, Remus' face grew pale, "I need to get to the shack."

Jessica let out a humorless laugh, "What do you mean by shack, Remus Lupin? Do you expect us to not come, you are very much mistaken —"

"Jessica, there's no way I'm —"

"Shut the hell up, Remus. There is absolutely no way —"

"You, Aiden and Natalie will stay here, safe up in this castle, and you will not follow me." Remus said, "This is final."

A minute after Remus had left, Aiden jumped up, "Come on let's follow him."

"He really thinks we're Gryffindors for nothing?" Natalie said amusedly.

"Moreover, he thinks that I, as a Black will not go out of my way to do what I want to." Jessica said.

   They slowly followed him, keeping in the shadows, and they watched in wonder as he froze the Whomping Willow by poking a certain knot with a stick. They followed him inside, before the whomping willow could get back in motion, but unfortunately, Aiden's leg got stuck in the knots.

"What are you doing here?! I told you three to not follow me!" Remus hissed, as he helped Aiden out.

"We're Gryffindors, and I'm a Black." Jessica whispered back, "What had you expected? Us to listen?"

Remus pinched his nose, "Stay behind me, don't say a word to Peter, if he's still there, Jessica."

"Oh, he is." Jessica said.

"Follow me, quietly." Remus said, as he cautiously walked forward.

   They walked through a corridor, and Jessica could see a room up the stairs. Their footfalls must've reached there, as they heard a shout.

"WE'RE UP HERE! WE'RE UP HERE — SIRIUS BLACK — QUICK!"

    It was Hermione. Remus fastened his pace, and the three followed, close as his heel. Remus burst open the door of the room in a shower of red sparks, his wand raised and ready. Jessica's eyes flickered over the room, from Ron, lying on the floor, over Hermione, cowering next to the door, to Harry, standing there with his wand covering Padfoot, to Padfoot himself, crumpled and bleeding at Harry's feet.

"Shit, are you okay?" Jessica asked.

Before Sirius could reply, Harry asked, "Why are you asking him if he's okay . . . why are you . . . you're with him, aren't you? You've been planning to kill me this whole time! You were, you were!"

"Expelliarmus!" Remus said, before Harry could come closer to having steam come out of his ears.
　　
     Harry's wand flew out of his hand, and so did the two, apparently, which Hermione was holding. Remus caught them all deftly, then moved into the room, staring at Sirius.

Then Remus spoke, in a very tense voice, "Where is he, Sirius?"

   Sirius stood still for a moment. Then, very slowly, he pointed straight at Ron. Jessica was bewildered, but she looked closely, she realised that he was actually pointing at the rat that Ron was holding.

    That wasn't a rat.

"It's really him, huh?" Remus asked.

   I exchanged a glance with Natalie and Aiden, who now understood what was going on. But by the looks on Harry, Ron, and Hermione's faces, they obviously didn't.

Remus walked towards Sirius, and helped him up. Together, they stared down the rat quivering in Ron's fingers. This is a very over used line, but honestly, if looks could kill, that rat would be dead twice by now.

"I DON'T BELIEVE IT!" Hermione screamed.

Remus let go of Sirius and turned to her. She had raised herself off the floor and was pointing at Lupin, wild-eyed, "You — you —"
　　
"Hermione —" he interrupted
　　
"— You and him!"  She said.
　
"— Hermione, calm down —" Jessica tried to say.
　　
"— I didn't tell anyone!" Hermione shrieked. "I've been covering up for you —"
　　
"— Hermione, listen to me, please'" Remus shouted. "I can explain —"

"I trusted you," Harry shouted at Remus, his voice wavering, out of control, "and all the time you've been his friend!"
　　
"You're wrong," said Remus. "You're wrong about Sirius, he's not—"
　　
"NO!" Hermione screamed. "Harry, don't trust him, he's been helping Black get into the castle, he wants you dead too — he's a werewolf!"

　　There was a ringing silence. Everyone's eyes were now on Remus, who looked remarkably calm, though rather pale.
　　
Jessica said quietly, "How long have you known?"

"Ages," Hermione whispered. "Since I did Professor Snape's essay . . . "

"He'll be delighted," said Remus coolly. "He assigned that essay hoping someone would realise what my symptoms meant . . . Did you check the lunar chart and realise that I was always ill at the full moon? Or did you realize that the boggart changed into the moon when it saw me?"

"Both," Hermione said quietly.

"Listen, all of you." Jessica said, "When Sirius first came to me, I didn't believe him either. But there's a map, a map that made me believe."

"How can we trust you, what if he bewitched you?" Hermione shrieked.

"Ask me anything," Jessica turned to Harry, "ask me Harry."

"Er, who's your least favourite Weasley?"

"Percy." Jessica answered easily.

Despite the situation, and how shaken up Ron was, he couldn't help but let out a snort, "Anyone could have guessed that. Ask her something else."

"Who's my favourite Professor?" Harry asked.

"Remus, Hagrid and McGonagall." Jessica answered.

"She's right," Harry turned to Hermione.

"Fine then, let's hear what you have to say. But we can't say that we will believe you." Hermione said

     Remus separated Harry's, Ron's and Hermione's wands and threw each back to its owner, and they caught them, looking stunned.

"There's a Map," began Remus. "It's called The Marauder's Map, it shows everyone in Hogwarts, wherever they are and whenever there. Aiden, Natalie, and Jessica came to my office, and showed it to me. It was you three, along with Sirius."

"But that wasn't it," Jessica continued, "there was someone else with you."

"There wasn't!" Harry interrupted.

　　
"I couldn't believe my eyes," said Remus, now pacing, and ignoring Harry's interruption. "I thought the map must be malfunctioning. How could he be with you?"

"No one was with us!" said Harry.

"Do you think we could have a look at the rat?" Remus asked Ron sternly.

"What?" said Ron. "What's Scabbers got to do with it?"

"Everything," said Remus. "Could I see him, please?"

　 Remus moved closer to Ron. He seemed to be holding his breath as he gazed intently at Scabbers.

"What?" Ron said again, holding Scabbers close to him, looking scared. "What's my rat got to do with anything?"

"That's not a rat," croaked Sirius.

"What d'you mean — of course he's a rat —" Ron stammered

"No, he's not," Aiden said. "He's a wizard."

"An Animagus," said Sirius, "by the name of Peter Pettigrew."