"Is this Weiss's pet rat?"
Dracula opened his palms, and there seemed to be an irresistible suction force in his palms. The big gray-black rat suddenly floated up from the ground uncontrollably and flew towards Dracula.
Suddenly rising from the ground, Banban's eyes showed a bit of astonishment at first, and then, it saw the two professors in front of it, and an expression of extreme fear appeared on its pointy rat face.
It flapped its four paws, twisted its head, and struggled violently.
Banban's struggles were obviously useless. Dracula easily caught it in his hand and pinched the fat rat's neck with the tips of his thumb and index finger with some disgust.
In panic, it struggled to turn its head and bit Dracula's index finger with its sharp teeth.
Then…
The four long upper and lower front teeth were shattered at the same time, but there was not even a tooth mark left on Dracula's index finger.
"Oh, this rat is quite fierce." Dracula glanced at the Scabbers in his hand and threw it to Dumbledore. "You are better at Transfiguration. See if there is anything wrong with it."
"Does Professor Dracula think that Scabbers is an unregistered Animagus?" Dumbledore asked with a frown as he took Scabbers.
He was not as careless as Dracula, and wrapped his hand with an armor spell before taking Scabbers.
"Who knows?" Dracula shrugged. "Anyway, it seems that Sirius Black sneaked into the common room not for Potter, but to find this rat. There must be something wrong with it."
Dumbledore nodded in approval, then looked down at Scabbers who was struggling violently in his hands.
Looking at this long-lived pet mouse, his eyes were first a little surprised, and then turned sharp.
"Perhaps you are right, Professor Dracula," Dumbledore said softly.
He took out the wand with his other hand and pointed it at the mouse in his hand. A circle of blue and white light slowly appeared in front of the wand.
As the light came on, Banban was suspended in mid-air, its small gray-black body twisting and struggling frantically...
After a moment, the mouse in the light fell down and landed on the ground.
There was another blinding flash, and then... It was like a fast-forward shot of a plant growing—
The mouse's body gradually swelled, and first a head appeared on the ground, followed by limbs that stretched out from its body. After a while, a man stood where Banban had been just now, wringing his hands in fear.
The man was short, not much taller than a junior wizard, and his thin, light-brown hair was unkempt, with a large bald spot on top.
His body shape was not in proportion to his body, like an obese person who had lost a lot of weight in a short period of time. There were many fat wrinkles on his dirty skin, which was almost like the fur of a mouse.
Not only that, his pointed nose and watery eyes also have some mouse-like characteristics.
The man looked at the intrigued Dracula and the surprised Dumbledore, breathing rapidly and weakly. His small eyes subconsciously glanced towards the Forbidden Forest, then quickly retracted their gazes.
Looking at the man in front of him, Dumbledore silently suppressed his surprise and his eyes became exceptionally deep.
"Long time no see, Peter." He exhaled slowly and said softly.
"Do you know this rat, Dumbledore?" Dracula asked Dumbledore while looking at the short man curiously. "Tsk, this guy doesn't look very good. Why did Sirius Black come all the way to catch him?"
"Hello... Headmaster Dumbledore..." The man named Peter also had a sharp voice. He looked at Dracula with some fear in his eyes, "Professor Dracula... I, I know you too..."
"Oh?" Dracula put on a playful smile on his face, "It seems that I am quite famous in Weisley and Potter's dormitory. Even a pet knows my name."
"Professor Dracula, this is not a pet..." Dumbledore's voice sounded beside him.
His voice was soft, but Dracula was surprised to sense the rage hidden in it.
"This is Peter Pettigrew, winner of the Order of Merlin, First Class," Dumbledore said softly. "A 'hero' who should have died twelve years ago."
"Peter Pettigrew?" Dracula was stunned for a moment, then his eyes became more amusing, "Professor Lupin and the friend of Sirius Black, right?"
"That's right." Dumbledore nodded slightly. "I'm actually very curious, Peter, what on earth supported you to live in the Weisley family as a pet mouse for twelve years."
"Headmaster!" Peter did not answer Dumbledore's question directly, but shouted breathlessly, with large beads of sweat on his pale face, "Headmaster Dumbledore, you should know that he... He wanted to kill me at that time, he..."
"Yes, I know." Dumbledore's voice became a little cold.
"He's here again to kill me!" Peter suddenly screamed, "Sirius Black, he killed Lily and James, and now he wants to kill me... You must help me, Mr. Headmaster..."
"Don't worry, I won't let him do anything to you until I figure out a few things," said Dumbledore.
"Get it straight?" Peter screamed, looking around again, his eyes checking all the possible hiding places. "I know he's after me! I know he'll come for me! I've been hiding, I've been hiding for twelve years!"
"Did you know that Sirius would escape from Azkaban?" Dumbledore shook his head. "No one has ever escaped before."
"He must have some tricks that the rest of us can't even imagine!" Peter screamed. "How else could he have gotten out of there? I guess He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named taught him some tricks!"
"Your conclusion is not valid." Dracula suddenly chuckled. "There is no reason why Voldemort would only teach the method of escaping Azkaban to a wizard who temporarily defected to the Death Eaters, and not teach it to those confidants who have followed him for decades."
Judging from the fact that Voldemort rescued his former subordinates from Azkaban even though he had not fully recovered his strength, he obviously trusted those prisoners very much. It didn't make sense for him to only care about Sirius Black.
Hearing Dracula say the name "Voldemort", Peter trembled all over, but under the strong desire to survive, he still mustered up the courage to refute:
"that is because… "
"That's enough. I'll figure these things out." Dumbledore interrupted him and looked up at the sky. "Now we just have to wait for the moon to set and the sun to rise..."
Dracula also looked up at the full moon in the sky and curled the corners of his mouth slightly.
"Actually, we don't have to wait until dawn..."
…
In the staff lounge, Dumbledore and Dracula sat on two sofas respectively.
Peter Pettigrew did not seem to be troubled by Dumbledore and was sitting hunched over in a chair.
But when he tried to leave the chair and slip away, he found that there was an inexplicable force on the chair that stuck to his body, making it impossible for him to escape.
This bad sign made Peter even more panicked, and the despair in his little eyes could hardly be hidden.
After a while, Professor McGonagall came in.
When she saw the author's figure on the chair, she covered her mouth with her hands involuntarily and looked at Peter with wide eyes.
"Merlin's beard! Peter, you are still alive!" Professor McGonagall exclaimed, her eyes still full of disbelief.
"Good... Good evening. No, that's not right... Good morning, Professor McGonagall." Peter said stutteringly. The dawn outside the window made it difficult for him to figure out how to greet her.
"This is incredible!" Professor McGonagall covered her face with her hands and looked at Dumbledore. "Albus, did you and Professor Dracula find Peter? Where did you find him?"
"Professor McGonagall, you may not believe this, but Mr. Pettigrew is the rat that Ron Weiss raised." Dracula curled his lips, "Sirius Black sneaked into the Gryffindor common room to find Mr. Pettigrew, not Potter."
"Wait... Professor Dracula, I don't quite understand what you mean." Professor McGonagall didn't react for a while.
"I mean, Mr. Pettigrew turned into a mouse and lived in the Wesley family for twelve years," Dracula explained.
"You mean... Peter is an Animagus?" Professor McGonagall asked in surprise.
Dracula chuckled and nodded.
Professor McGonagall turned her head to look at Peter, opened her mouth, and hesitated to speak.
"Well... Peter, first of all, I'm very happy about your achievements in Transfiguration. Not everyone can become Animagus..." After hesitating for a moment, she spoke.
"But why did you hide? Do you know how sad your mother was when the news of your death came out? The only thing she received was your finger..."
"I... I just..." Peter wrung his hands cringingly, tears streaming down his face, "I'm really sorry, Professor, but I had no choice..."
"Blake... he will definitely kill me at all costs to please the You-Know-Who. They will always find a way to escape from the Ministry of Magic. Not only that, the other Death Eaters will not let me go, because I... I went to stop the traitor."
Professor McGonagall's eyes gradually softened, and sadness appeared in them.
"Oh, Peter, don't be sad." She said sentimentally, "I can guess how difficult it has been for you these years... But you should at least let your mother know that you are still alive."
"I... I dare not. I'm afraid of involving my mother." Peter said stumblingly with tears in his eyes.
"What a poor child! You are so filial and take your friends so seriously, but you are betrayed by your best friend." Professor McGonagall wiped her eyes gently, "But you forgot that you still have Hogwarts and Dumbledore. We will all protect you..."
“Puff.”
When Professor McGonagall and Peter were touching each other, a discordant laugh came from the side.
Professor McGonagall looked at Dracula with dissatisfaction and asked, "Professor Dracula, Peter is already pitiful enough, why are you laughing at him?"
"It's okay, I just suddenly thought of something funny." Dracula looked at Peter with a smile and said happily.
He also didn't expect that in such a short period of time, Mr. Pedillo, who had been a mouse for more than ten years, could come up with such a lie that had many loopholes but was still credible.
A sentimental old witch like Professor McGonagall would easily be moved by his pitiful appearance.
only…
Dracula looked at Dumbledore who was sitting on the sofa next to him, and saw that his face was still extremely calm, so he couldn't help but chuckle.
I guess Dumbledore, like Dracula himself, had already used Legilimency to go through Peter's memory... This great wizard does have his own principles, but that doesn't mean he would be so pedantic as not to use extraordinary measures in the face of such a special situation.
Poor Mr. Mouse is still acting in self-pity, trying to use Professor McGonagall as a breakthrough, play the emotional card, and win a chance of survival for himself.
"Professor Snape should be here soon, right?" Dracula asked suddenly.
"Severus, what is he doing here?" Professor McGonagall, whose expression had become very gentle, was stunned for a moment and frowned slightly.
She knew about the feud between the Slytherin dean and Peter's group when they were in school.
Sure enough, as the words fell, a figure wearing a large black cloak suddenly pushed open the door and walked into the staff lounge with a step that showed no regard for anyone.
Professor McGonagall was surprised to see that there was an indescribable complexity and hatred on Snape's face, which was far from what could be caused by the grudge between him and the four men in the past.
"Oh, who did I think this was?" He said hoarsely, and every word seemed to come out from between his teeth. "A great hero who fought with the brutal Death Eaters to the end and died heroically, huh?"
"Snape..." Peter shivered and shrank back into his chair when he saw his former rival. If he hadn't been unable to leave the chair, he would have been hiding behind Professor McGonagall.
"Professor, help me, he is a Death Eater and he wants my life too!"
"Peter, Severus is now a professor at Hogwarts, he is trustworthy." Professor McGonagall explained, but still stood sideways between Peter and Snape.
"Severus, what are you doing?" she asked seriously.
"I'm not doing anything, I just came to see why this great hero who died heroically is still alive!" Snape's tone was still fake smile at the beginning, but at the end, he was already a little hysterical.
Without waiting for Professor McGonagall to react, he took a few steps forward and poured a bottle of transparent potion that he had hidden in his hand into Peter's mouth!
…
…