The Traitor Died as a Rat

"Harry, when did you get up front?"

On the way back to the compartment, Ron asked in surprise.

Neville wasn't tall, but he was broad. With him there, and heads poking out of the compartments on either side of the corridor, they'd practically blocked the whole passage.

"Up the stairs," Harry said.

"Apparition," Hermione immediately put in, "can cause Splinching. We can only pay to learn it once we're of age at seventeen, and we also have to get a license from the Department of Magical Transportation after training with an instructor appointed by the Ministry of Magic before we can use it legally!"

"Harry isn't an ordinary person," Draco said scornfully.

Ron stopped as if he'd discovered some great mystery. "Why are you still following us?"

"Harry hasn't said anything." Draco raised an eyebrow. "We Malfoys always stand behind the winners."

"So you joined the Dark Lord," Ron said, eyeing Draco with disgust before pushing open the compartment door.

"Merlin's beard!" x2

"What's wrong with Scabbers?/Trevor's gone!"

Ron and Neville's cries instantly snuffed out the tension that had just begun to flare.

On top of the silver notebook, the gray rat Scabbers had turned gray and white, old and frail, and was on the verge of drawing his last breath.

[Quest [The Traitor Died as a Rat] [The Captured Young Riddle] [Vindicated Dog Godfather] complete. 130 experience points, 2 Silver Magic Knowledge, 1 Gold Talent]

The last two quests are complete, too? Was it already set in stone?

Harry was surprised.

"No!" Ron, who'd been about to rush over and turn on Draco for killing the rat, stopped in his tracks.

Scabbers had disappeared. In his place lay a chubby old man, his index finger missing and his chest motionless.

"An Animagus! That's Peter Pettigrew! He was supposed to be dead... When he tried to stop Sirius Black... All they found of him was a piece of a finger!" Draco rattled off like a machine gun.

Sirius was his mother's cousin, and his family had mentioned him many times. His father didn't even know that Sirius had been a Death Eater. Peter had been implicated, too, so even though Peter had changed beyond recognition, Draco had still recognized him at a glance.

"That notebook is moving!" Neville cried.

Beneath its silver-white woven cover, the notebook seemed to have a heart beating inside it, pulsing with a pale, moon-white glow.

"Dark Magic object!" Ron collapsed onto the floor.

At that moment, countless cursed books his father had told him about flashed through his mind: The Wizard's Fourteen Sonnets, which made anyone who read it speak only in doggerel for the rest of their life; The Book of Shadows, which robbed people of their shadows and made them unable to face the sun; and Daydream, which made its readers sleep only during the day...

Hermione had already hurried over with Percy.

"Dead bodies and all that must be one of Fred and George's pranks—"

Percy, who walked with a spring in his step and always puffed out the side of his chest bearing his Prefect Badge, turned deathly pale.

"Go get Headmaster Dumbledore!"

Quick, go west and fetch Buddha.

For a moment, only Harry remained calm beside the compartment, just as he always was.

Three minutes later, there was one more person like him.

The man wore Half-moon Spectacles. His nose looked as though it had been broken at least twice, and his hair and beard were silver-white. He was Albus Dumbledore.

But...

The two people behind him were both enough to make anyone steer clear.

One had greasy hair and a livid expression that warned everyone away.

The other wore a turban and reeked of garlic. At the sight of the body, he nearly fell over, faring even worse than Neville and Ron.

Only Harry knew that Quirrell had reacted that way because he'd seen the diary. Quirrell himself didn't know why, but Voldemort, on the back of his head, was surely furious and cursing Lucius Malfoy for making him lose a precious Horcrux.

Horcruxes were the source of Voldemort's secret to immortality.

As long as even one remained in the world, Voldemort could never be killed for good.

And now, one of them had fallen into Dumbledore's hands.

There was still another one...

Harry, once a Horcrux, stroked the Metal Wand that throbbed in his arms.

Though their souls came from the same source, it wasn't Voldemort's Horcrux. It belonged to Harry, and deep within his soul, only hostility toward its original owner and a powerful urge to prey on him remained.

[[Voldemort's Vigilance] (100 experience points, 1 Silver Talent trait). The loss of a Horcrux has made Voldemort wary. Find Ravenclaw's Diadem within three school years.]

Did Voldemort move the Diadem?

Is it no longer in the Room of Requirement?

Is it inevitable? What if I stop him?

Harry was astonished.

Meanwhile, Dumbledore had finally stopped what he was doing.

The silver-white substance, like light or smoke, no longer seeped from the area of Peter Pettigrew's brain. Dumbledore flicked his sleeve, and a triangular crystal vial appeared out of thin air, containing the strange substance.

"Some good news." Dumbledore picked up the notebook, which had gone quiet as soon as he'd approached, and looked at Harry. "You're going to have a godfather."

Under Snape's astonished gaze, Dumbledore nodded, then continued, "Sirius is innocent. The real traitor is Peter Pettigrew. After Voldemort's death"—the students around them all gasped—"he hid from the Death Eaters and from our pursuit once the truth came out, spending nearly ten years in the Weasley family in the form of a rat."

Percy made a sound like he was going to vomit. Before Ron, Scabbers had been his pet and slept on his pillow. Sometimes, he even...

Ron wore the same disgusted expression. He hadn't fared much better; his brothers' love had turned into a curse that haunted his midnight dreams.

"I think... I should go to the Ministry of Magic as soon as possible. Severus, take Quirinus back with you."

As soon as Dumbledore finished speaking, he and Peter Pettigrew's body vanished into thin air.

After Snape and Quirrell left,

"I knew Sirius Black wasn't a Death Eater. My mother and father never believed it." Draco, the son of two Death Eaters, offered his affirmation. "Ha ha, Weasley, you slept with an old man for ten years."

"Shut up! Percy slept with him longer! You... you wicked Malfoy," Ron said furiously. "I bet your father was behind that notebook. Your family's always been against ours!"

"Why would my father sacrifice a precious magical object for you? That cover was woven from Unicorn Tail Hair, and it even had plenty of powerful spells attached. Do you think my father's mad?"

"What if it was for Harry? He's bound to be a Gryffindor. Every one of us in the Weasley family is a Gryffindor."

"Quiet. You're disturbing my reading!"

Hermione slammed the thick book Hogwarts, A History shut.

They were in Hermione's compartment now.

Someone had died in the original compartment, and no one wanted to stay there except Harry.

At the mention of reading, everyone in the compartment surreptitiously glanced at Harry.

Ten minutes earlier, after Harry said "Pull Noodles," the space had expanded and the ceiling had risen.

Then Harry had started reading.

His feet seemed magnetic. He was hanging upside down from the ceiling, while the book floated in midair and turned its pages by itself.

No, to be precise, he was standing on it. His hair, clothes, and trousers all seemed to be subject to gravity as if he were standing on the floor.

This wasn't a system quest. It was for skill proficiency.

He'd completely turned into the shape of the Dogskin Book!

Tragic!