Was Fudge simply too close to the situation to see it before? Once Harley had pointed it out to him, he immediately caught on and sprang into action.
He called Kingsley in and carefully instructed him:
"Kingsley, you're to personally escort Peter back to the Ministry of Magic at once. Lock him in a temporary solitary cell, and assign two trustworthy people to guard him day and night!"
"Remember, don't let anyone else take custody of Peter, especially Crouch and... Amelia and Rufus."
Fudge quietly spoke the last two names, treating Kingsley as though he were one of his own trusted confidants.
Kingsley nodded solemnly, waved his wand, and made Peter Pettigrew float behind him, tightly bound in ropes.
"Minister Fudge, there's something I need to remind you of," Sirius suddenly said.
"There were two main reasons I managed to escape Azkaban. One important reason was that the defensive magic around Azkaban seemed to have a weakness. I think you need to repair it."
"As for the other crucial reason, Dementors can't sense the emotions of animals or Animagi, so they didn't notice me."
"I think you know that Peter Pettigrew and I are both Animagi. That traitor's Animagus form is a rat."
"You'll need to make specific arrangements to prevent him from escaping."
Harley added, "If Peter escapes, it'll have very serious consequences, Minister Fudge."
Fudge immediately grew serious. He'd completely forgotten that they'd mentioned three—no, two—illegal Animagi earlier.
After all, that minor offense was nothing next to Peter's major case. Even if he were convicted, it wouldn't increase Peter Pettigrew's punishment.
And as a member of a Pure-blood family, Sirius only needed to pay a fine to avoid any real consequences for the relatively harmless offense.
So Fudge hadn't given it any thought earlier.
But now, he was