Sirius rolled his eyes and didn't respond to his old friend. After all, Harley's record really was impressive.
After a while, Sirius casually asked:
"I remember that, back in our day, the students who kept toads and rats always carried their pets around with them, right?"
"That's right." Professor Lupin nodded. "Willie and Eric were like that. I'm not sure about the others, but they were probably much the same."
"I remember you were planning to teach them about Boggarts in your first lesson, weren't you? You could always make an excuse about it being a practical lesson and say that, to prevent accidents, the young wizards had to hand over their live pets."
Sirius came up with an idea.
"Then you could prepare a similar-looking rat in advance and switch it in, couldn't you?"
Professor Lupin rolled his eyes and gave his old friend's dog head a hard smack. "You think everyone's as careless about their pets as you are? Don't even suggest something that stupid!"
The big dog laughed awkwardly a couple of times, wagged his tail, and fell silent again.
The man and dog thought it over for a long time, but couldn't come up with a perfect solution that wouldn't cause a noticeable disturbance or leave Ron at a loss.
At last, Professor Lupin sighed. "If all else fails, after I confiscate Peter, I'll lie and tell Mr. Weasley that the rat seems to have run off on its own."
"I'll let Mr. Weasley look for him himself. If he can't find him, I'll pay him enough to buy another pet."
"That's the least harmful solution I can think of. We'd be taking away that boy's beloved pet, but it's for his own good."
"After all, if Voldemort announces his return, Peter could very well hurt