Chapter 46

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***

Snape flared his nostrils angrily. The glare he threw at Richard and the twins was so sharp that if it had been tangible, it would have sliced the three boys.

- Ta-ka-ka..." he hissed angrily. - Who went through there? Where does that passageway lead to?

Fred and George rounded their eyes and gave very artistic and believable expressions of bewilderment.

- What secret passage? - Fred asked.

- Who went through? Which way? - George interjected.

- Minus fifty points each! - Snape hissed angrily. - Fifty for Puffendoo and a hundred for Gryffindor! If you don't answer, you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say the word Quidditch!

The Professor's fury-filled gaze stopped on Grosvenor. Richard shuddered; it took a lot of effort for him to regain his cool exterior.

- I don't know what you're talking about, sir," he shrugged.

- There's some sort of disturbance going on," Snape stretched out. - We'll wait for your associates to return, then we'll go to the Headmaster.

- Associates? - Fred said slowly.

- Ours? - George echoed his brother.

- Wait? - Richard asked. - Who, sir? Did you dream something? There's no one here but us, and no one's ever been here before.

- Such childish tricks won't help you," Snape hissed. - Stay here and don't even think about moving!

The Potions Professor pointed his wand at the statue of the one-eyed witch. He began casting various spells on it.

Richie hoped that the detective was currently listening through the magophone to what was happening in the corridor. If he and his escorts and the captive rat hurried, he would be able to get outside Hogwarts in time to use the portal.

Snape continued to conjure. With each spell he grew angrier and more frustrated. The statue appeared to be enchanted to his conscience.

When the potions professor realised that all his attempts were futile, he waved his wand.

- Expecto Patronum.

A silvery, transparent, ghost-like doe flew out of the professor's wand. Snape said:

- Albus, come to the corridor of the one-eyed witch. We have a blatant case of indiscipline.

As soon as he finished the sentence, the ghostly doe disappeared.

Richard, Fred and George looked at each other. Fred winked at Richard and shook his head, signalling that he should deny guilt and play the fool. Richie took the hint and responded with a microscopic movement of his chin to indicate his agreement.After about ten minutes of languid waiting, during which Snape continued to glare at the students, Headmaster Dumbledore approached the statue of the one-eyed witch. His grey beard fluttered as he walked. An enigmatic smile played on the old man's lips. He glanced at the students with an attentive gaze, then asked in a quiet, full voice:

- Severus, what's wrong?

- Headmaster, before my eyes, a secret passage was opened behind the statue of the one-eyed witch and several students entered. I could have sworn one of them was a senior student from Puffendoo. These three students were the ones trying to stop me from apprehending the intruders. I'm sure they know where this secret passage leads.

Dumbledore looked at the three students carefully, then asked good-naturedly:

- Do you boys know where the secret passage leads?

All three of them simultaneously shook their heads in the negative. And Fred in an honest-to-goodness voice said:

- What secret passage? That's the first we've heard of it.

- Yes, yes," said George, looking righteous. - We haven't seen any students, Mr Headmaster. Honestly!

- Headmaster, they're lying! - Snape looked at the students with contempt.

The Headmaster looked over his half glasses at the Puffenduian and asked:

- What do you say, Mr Grosvenor?

- I'm sorry, Headmaster Dumbledore," Richard shrugged calmly. Fully convinced that he had seen grown men and a rat, he answered honestly, "I, apart from George and Fred, didn't see any students. I was just standing outside the stairwell. Suddenly Professor Snape started asking me strange questions, like why I was standing there. Isn't standing there forbidden? The place isn't forbidden to stand and hang around in the clouds, the rebound didn't come... Then the professor abruptly ran towards the statue of the one-eyed witch. I thought something was wrong and ran after him. Professor Snape started asking us about some students, about some secret passage, fined us each fifty points and threatened us with expulsion. We didn't understand what he was talking about.

Professor Snape was boiling with anger more and more. His nostrils flared even wider, his jowls flared, and his gaze became so stinging and hot that it seemed to burn a hole in the young earl.

While the Headmaster and Professor's eyes were focused on Richard, George winked at Grosvenor, Fred furtively gave him an upward thumbs-up.

Headmaster Dumbledore listened to Richard with the look of a good-natured old man. He calmly asked the twins:

- Boys, what do you say?

- Headmaster, that's what happened! - Fred said enthusiastically.

- That's exactly what happened! - said George with the look of a martyr.

- Headmaster, those hooligans are lying to you! - Snape spat angrily. - Let's wait for the intruders to return and catch them red-handed.

The Headmaster shook his head slightly and said in a soothing tone:

- Severus, how much work do you have? Twenty-four lessons a week, checking homework, brewing potions for the Hospital Wing, patrolling the corridors, being Dean... Severus, maybe you should take a break.

Snape choked with indignation.

- Headmaster, you think I'm imagining things! I saw the intruders with my own eyes. I'm sure they're playing tricks on us! Let's question them properly.

- Severus, there are no intruders, and the boys have done nothing wrong," Dumbledore said softly. - Severus, go rest. Boys, go to your dormitories.

Fred, George and Richie, unable to believe their good fortune, hurried towards the stairs. In their hearts, all three boys rejoiced that they had managed to get away with very little bloodshed.

- Phew!" Fred sighed with relief. - We got off easy.

- Richard, you did good! - George clapped Grosvenor on the shoulder. - That was a neat trick.

- Yeah..." Richie put his hand in his pocket and held the receiver of the phone to his ear. - Mr Potter, did you hear everything?

- Yeah, kid," Scott's slightly husky voice came over the speaker. - You're in trouble with the teacher. I don't think he's going to love you after this.

- I don't care," Grosvenor replied. - I didn't expect love and understanding from a former terrorist. How'd it go with you?

- Everything's fine, kid," the detective replied. - We've got our client in place. Our sorcerers have already cracked him. It's really Pettigrew. By the way, he's got a Death Eater mark on his arm. That's it, kid, I can't talk any more. Let's crack this nut.

- Mr Potter, thank you. Good luck to you. Be careful with that wizard.

- We will.

The connection's gone. Richard put the phone back in his pocket. He caught two curious stares.

- Well?! - Fred said.

- Pettigrew," Richard nodded.

- Are you sure? - George asked with a worried look.

- Detective Potter wouldn't lie," Grosvenor replied. - Well done! We've done a great job. Pettigrew the Eater....

- A Death Eater?! - Fred's eyes widened in amazement.

- No, Merlin's mother, a rat food eater! - Richard commented sarcastically.

George looked equally dumbfounded.

- Gee," he said in a long voice. - Percy's going to be shocked.- Guys," Richie closed his eyes and shook his head, "don't tell him yet. And don't tell your parents either. Better yet, don't tell anyone at all. It might be easier for everyone if Pettigrew 'disappeared twelve years ago'."

The Weasley twins became instantly serious.

- 'I see,' Fred said. - 'We won't tell anyone, and we'll warn Ron.

- By the way, Richard," George squinted at him. - What were you saying about Snape? What ex-terrorist?

- He used to be a member of the Death Eaters," Richie looked at the twins' astonished faces and added, "You didn't know?

- No," George shook his head.

- Wow! - Fred exclaimed.

***

The next day was very difficult for Richard. He was anxious to hear from the detective, so he couldn't find a place to sit. In the end he decided to distract himself. To do this, he went headlong into the study of transfiguration. More precisely, Richie borrowed several books on the theory of transfiguration from the library and started reading them right there in the reading room. The folios were filled with puzzling step-by-step transformations. The number of formulas made my brains boil.

Richard was brought out of the world of theoretical transfiguration by a quiet girl's voice.

- Hello, Richie.

Taking his eyes off the book, Richard smiled and answered quietly, so as not to attract the attention of Madam Pince, the librarian:

- Hermione, good afternoon. Have a seat.

Granger took advantage of the invitation. She placed her purse on the table and sat down on the bench next to Richard.

- 'Richie, what are you reading?

Grosvenor put his finger between the pages where he stopped, then showed Hermione the cover.

- 'Oh!" the girl rounded her eyes. - 'I read this book, but I didn't understand anything. Did you?

- It's puzzling, but it reminds me of something....

Richard furrowed his eyebrows. All these formulas and transformations reminded him of something. He tried to remember what he associated theoretical transfiguration with. It clearly wasn't from this life, since if it was, he would have remembered by now. Suddenly Richard's face brightened, he was illuminated.

- Exactly! - he exclaimed quietly. - I've got it!

- Realised what? - Hermione brought her eyebrows together.

Turning his head to his friend, Richie said cheerfully:

- Lobachevsky's geometry!

- Um... - Granger pressed her lips together. - Geometry? What could circles, triangles and squares have to do with transfiguration?

A smirk crept onto Richard's face.

- Hermione, geometry isn't limited to simple shapes. Transfiguration is like topology.

It was obvious from the girl's frown that she didn't understand anything.

- Eh," Richard sighed, "how can I explain it to you? Imagine you have to turn a ball inside out. It seems impossible to do, but with topology and mathematical modelling, it's no problem at all. Or, for example, turning a ball into a mug is an easy task. To transform a bagel with three holes into a human being? That's nothing for topology. Put a big one into a small space? Also realistic. Topology, if you follow some rules, allows you to manipulate space and transformations within wide limits.

- Can you make it any simpler than that? - Granger asked with a pleading look in her eyes.

- Look, some shapes have their own peculiarities. For example, a sphere - any circle can be reduced to a point. Or a bagel, aka a torus, you can't do that with a bagel, no matter how you spin it. That means they have completely different surfaces. But the torus has the same surface as the mug, they both have just one hole. So it's easy to turn them into each other. In doing so, the circle can be turned into a torus. That is, step-by-step transformation in topology allows you to create any object, even a horse from a cobblestone or a grain of sand from a man.

- Just like in transfiguration," Hermione said.

- Exactly! - Richard said happily. - Except that the rules and formulas of transfiguration are very crooked and obscure, while Lobachevsky's geometry is extremely clear and precise, if you don't blow your brains out while studying it. I think the rules of topology apply perfectly well in transfiguration.

Hermione was not impressed. She shrugged and asked:

- Suppose so, and how would that help in magic?

- In magic! Oh, I think very seriously. Hermione, do you have any idea what that means?

- 'No,' Granger admitted honestly. - 'But I hope you'll tell me.

- Hermione, our universe is perfect! - Richard began to speak with inspiration about what he had once listened to lectures about at the institute in his previous life. - Einstein proved that space is not just a stage on which the action in physics unfolds. It can bend around massive objects like stars, planets, black holes. They literally crumple space, like here I am, like this piece of paper.

Richard tore a sheet out of his notebook, placed his fountain pen on it, and crumpled the sheet around it.

Hermione opened her mouth slightly. Once again she found herself thinking about the fact that Richie wasn't who he said he was. No ordinary boy her age could be so inspirational about the universe."Maybe he's an alien or a time traveller after all," she thought.

Meanwhile, Richard continued:

- 'And some objects can be so massive that they just bend space. They just pierce right through it. You can get from one part of space to another through them. Wizards take full advantage of the wormhole effect to travel through space, they have specially enchanted things called portals or port-keys.

Grosvenor folded a piece of paper and stabbed it with a fountain pen.

- That's it!

- So Muggles know about this possibility? - Hermione asked, dumbfounded, as Richard once again made her look at magic in a new way.

- Yes!" nodded Grosvenor. - In theory, mathematicians and physicists already know everything. Scientists call portals wormholes or wormholes. This is where topology meets astronomy. The really interesting question is what shape does the universe have away from wormholes and black holes, i.e. where we live right now?

- And what shape is that? - Hermione asked.

- Imagine that our world is filled with a grid, like a chequered notebook. Not only can it be flat, it can be curved positively or negatively. This is the same Lobachevsky spherical geometry I mentioned at the beginning.

- Let's say," Hermione's eyes lit up with excitement, she was very curious about the structure of the universe. - I imagined a sheet of notebook, curved in many places.

- The universe could have any shape," Richard continued. - But how do we know for sure?

- How?

- There is a way. You have to look into very distant corners of the universe. Three hundred and eighty thousand years after the big bang, the universe became transparent to light, and photons scattered to all corners.

Hermione began to lose the gist of the lecture. But Richie, on a wave of enthusiasm, didn't notice it anymore. He remembered the lectures on physics and with an enthusiastic look continued to broadcast:

- Through the telescope we can get a light cast of the universe. It allows us to measure density. If we use the formula "E equals MC squared" to convert all energy into mass, we get this: if the density is more than five point five tenths of hydrogen atoms per cubic metre, the mass of matter will curve the space around itself, the universe will be closed into a sphere; and if the density is less than this number, the space will be curved saddle; but if the density is equal to the critical mass, our universe is flat and boring.

Richie glanced at the glassy eyes of Granger, who froze and stared into the distance with a defocused gaze.

- 'Hey, Hermione,' Grosvenor shook the girl by the shoulder. - Are you alright?

- А? What?" Granger flinched and whirled her head around, then stopped her gaze on Richard. - 'I'm... I'm fine.

- Did you understand anything?

- Yeah..." Hermione said uncertainly. - Our universe is in the shape of an oval.

- Flat, Hermione! The density of the universe is exactly five and a half hydrogen atoms per cubic metre. It's like someone's customised the universe for us. And it's not just our universe, it's the whole multiverse.

- How's that? - Hermione had a look of bewilderment on her face.

- There's more than one world. Take house elves and goblins for example - they are aliens from a parallel world.

- Yeah... - Granger didn't even bother to challenge that statement.

- Hermione, the weirdness doesn't end there. It gets even more complicated, so get ready. There's just a little bit left.

Hermione covered her eyes and sighed heavily. Taking a breath, she uttered:

- I'm ready, go ahead.

- If the universe is flat, that doesn't mean it can't be closed in on itself, like a rolled up piece of paper, or not closed in a torus. It could be the same with our world, just one more dimension.

- Um..." Hermione stretched out. - I'm already confused," she admitted sadly.

- I'm sorry," Richard smiled guiltily. - I didn't realise that quantum astrophysics was a bit early for you. I can try to explain it in simple words.

- Richie, if I may...

- A multiverse is like a bubble bath, lots of bubbles sticking together. Only in the case of the universe, the bubble is made up of the same bubble. That is, if we mentally look beyond the visible universe, we can see our world too, only turned inside out. It's mind-blowing, isn't it?

Judging by Hermione's newly glazed look, the idea of the universe had actually broken her brain.

- Erm... Richie, that's interesting, but what does magic and transfiguration have to do with it?

- MAGIC CAN DO ANYTHING! - Grosvenor whispered loudly. His eyes were burning with delight at that moment. - Hermione, magic is the secret key to the universe. It is like a system administrator's password on a server. With magic, you can twist the laws of the universe however you want, if you know how. You can create an archway one centimetre wide, through which you will have to walk for centuries. It is realistic to do the opposite - an archway, stepping into which at one end of the universe, you can immediately emerge through a billion light years or in a parallel universe. If you use a powerful artificial intelligence, then based on the principles of topology can calculate the ideal transformation with the help of transfiguration, that is, to turn a stone into a starship or vice versa, and the transfiguration will last an order of magnitude longer than in the classical version, and even forever. It's not a match into a needle, but wow!

Suddenly Madame Pince appeared at the table.

- Shh!" she hissed menacingly, putting the forefinger of her right hand to her lips. - This is the library, be quiet!

- Yes, yes, Madam Pince," Hermione Granger immediately replied. - 'Forgive us, we won't do it again.

The librarian looked at the students from under her glasses as if they were dangerous criminals who had dismembered a kitten for a bloody ritual, and then left.

Richie felt like he'd been doused with ice water. He had given birth to a truly brilliant idea, realised the grandiosity of magic, saw magic as the key to the universe, and then "quieter"... Ordinariness rushed in too abruptly and brought everything back to normal.

Closer to dinner, Richard was contacted by Detective Potter. Scott reported everything he had managed to find out from Peter Pettigrew.

At dinner, Richard was very thoughtful. And after the meal was over, Ron, Harry, Fred and George, burning with impatience, called Grosvenor to the Weasley twins' secret lair.

All five boys were seated on transfigured chairs set up in a circle so that everyone could see each other.

- Well? - Fred said impatiently.

- 'So, gentlemen,' Richard began, 'the rat has actually turned out to be Peter Pettigrew. As you know, my security team, with your help, was able to get the rat out of Hogwarts without any problems. The wizards restored its human form, and the detective interrogated it using the magical truth serum - Veritaserum.

- Pettigrew, then," Harry said with a frown.

- Corosta is a wizard? - Ron couldn't believe it. - 'I... I was sure it was a mistake...'

- Quiet," George hissed at the sophomores. - Richard, please continue.

- Thank you, George," Grosvenor nodded to the boy, then continued:- Peter is by nature a six and a traitor, it was learnt from his words that he tried to stick to the strong mages. At Hogwarts, he joined a group of hooligans who called themselves 'Marauders'.

- Looters?! - George exclaimed with surprise and delight.

- Hooligans? - Frowned his eyebrows at Fred. - Weren't they jokers?

Richard shook his head negatively.

- Pettigrew said clearly - bullies. They would pick their victims and methodically bully them, thinking it was funny. Their favourite victim was Severus Snape.

- Do you know who they are? - George asked curiously.

- 'Of course,' Richard replied. - Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and-" he glanced at Harry and added quietly, "James Potter...

- What?!" Harry jerked as if struck by a blow. - My dad was a bully and bullied Professor Snape? - There was sadness and sorrow in his voice. - Now I can see why Snape hates me.....

- Harry, I'm sorry," Richard continued. - I know the truth about your parents is hard to hear. But it's better to know the truth than to wear rose-coloured glasses. Peter told me a lot of things. Like the fact that Severus Snape was dating Lily Evans, and that the Marauders, led by your father, framed Snape. As a result, he and your mother had a big fight, after which Lily Evans started dating James Potter.

Harry's skin turned as pale as chalk. Tear drops appeared in the corners of the boy's eyes. He wiped the tears from his face with his right hand, sobbed and said in a stricken voice:

- I can't believe it... Everyone says how good my parents were, how good my dad was at flying on a broomstick and what a wonderful couple they were with my mum....

- Don't feel bad, mate," Ron encouraged his friend. - I'm sure Snape was an arsehole when he was younger. Your mother would have left him and gone out with your father anyway.

Harry's face twisted in horror.

- Oh, my God!" he exclaimed. - What do you mean, Professor Snape could be my father?! How horrible!

Fred and George burst out laughing. But they quickly fell silent and looked at Richard with curiosity. He did not hesitate to continue:

- School was over, the students were out on their own. James and Lily got married. James Potter went to Aurorate training. Peter, Remus and Sirius hung around like snot in a hole.

- What do you mean? - Ron questioned.

- Typical slackers. Sirius Black had left home, but his uncle had given him a cottage and money. He burned through his uncle's money in recreational activities: alcohol, girls of easy behaviour. Remus is an outcast because he's a werewolf. Although he hides it, but many people know about it. He couldn't find a job in the wizarding world, and he didn't want to go as a loader or to work at a Muggle factory. In general, he started homeless at that time, and still is homeless, of course, with the correction for the possession of magic. Still, any wizard can settle down almost anywhere comfortably.

- And Pettigrew? - Harry asked, pulling back slightly.

- Pettigrew didn't go to work, he lived with his witch mother on her modest income. It was not a life that suited him at all. After Pettigrew spent seven years in the society of hooligans, he did not want to work. For example, to go to the same Ministry of Magic to the position of a caretaker did not entice him at all. At that time, the terrorist group "Death Eaters" began to muddy the waters among wizards. Their goal is to seize power in the magical part of Great Britain, but they chose disgusting methods. Peter decided that the Eaters would win sooner or later.

Harry clenched his fists with anger and hissed through his teeth:

- Is that why he decided to join them?

- Yes, that's why," Grosvenor confirmed. - A desire to be on the side of the strongest, a thirst for a high social position without doing anything, and to get away from his mum. At the same time, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and James Potter, and with him and his wife Lily, joined the opposing camp under Dumbledore's leadership - the "Order of the Phoenix". Incidentally, the greatest number of casualties during Tom Riddle's reign of terror were among members of the Order of the Phoenix and those who supported them. At the very least, it shows that Dumbledore makes a terrible leader.

- Ritchie, get to the point," Ron said impatiently. - What about Pettigrew? We realised he betrayed the Potters.

- Ron, don't stop Richard from talking," Fred admonished his younger brother.

It was a long story. It made Richard's throat dry. He paused briefly, took a soda out of his bag and handed it to the boys. Everyone took a drink. Just then, the hissing sound that the soda made when the bottle was opened began to spread. Having quenched his thirst, Richie continued:

- Thirteen years ago, Hogwarts' divination teacher, Sibylla Trelawney, uttered a prophecy.

- A prophecy? - Ron stretched out in surprise.

- Prophecy? - Fred echoed him.

- What kind of prophecy? - Harry asked.

- Peter doesn't know exactly," Richard answered. - All he said was that it had happened under very strange circumstances. Headmaster Dumbledore had decided to interview a new teacher at his brother Aberforth's pub, called the Boar's Head.

- A pub?! - asked a dumbfounded George.

- In that viper's den for marginalised people? - Fred was equally astonished.

- Yes, and it's very suspicious," replied Richard. - Even stranger was the fact that Severus Snape, who was about to apply for the position of Potions Professor, had been invited to the interview in addition to Trelawney. And Snape had overheard the prophecy.

- Snape is a Eater! - Harry exclaimed.

- I think Dumbledore knew about it," Ron muttered quietly. - He must have set it up. Why else would the Headmaster have the interview in a pub instead of a school?

- Yes, Ron, Detective Potter had the same thoughts about it," Richard said. - But the point was the prophecy. It said that Harry was a danger to Tom Riddle.

- Wait..." Fred said quietly, horrified. - Correct me if I'm wrong. Snape reported the prophecy to You-Know-Who, and he went to kill Harry, but killed his parents?

Harry Potter had no face. He was sitting there like he'd been drowned in water.

- Yes... - Richard glanced towards Potter and sighed sadly. - Headmaster Dumbledore had warned James and Lily Potter of the danger. He offered to protect their house with a Fidelius spell that would hide the house from everyone except the Guardian and those to whom he would pass the secret of the house's location. James Potter refused Dumbledore's services, but he liked the idea. He performed the ritual himself, but chose Peter Pettigrew as the Guardian because he thought he was the most worthless and no one would think anything of him. And he started a rumour that Sirius Black was actually the Keeper.

- That bastard-" Harry hissed angrily. - He ratted out my parents to Riddle! I'm going to kill that filthy rat!

- Harry, let's hear the rest of it," Ron asked.

- Yes," Harry breathed out. - I'm sorry... Richie, what happened next?

- Harry, are you sure you want to hear this? - Richard raised his eyebrows.

- 'Absolutely,' Potter nodded sharply.

Richard took a sip of his soda and continued:

- Peter, as you surmised, Harry, actually betrayed your parents. On the thirty-first of October in the year eighty-one, he personally escorted Tom Riddle into your parents' house. But either James and Lily somehow protected you, or a miracle happened, but Riddle died. Peter expected him outside, but when the roof blew off the house, he rushed inside and saw the corpses of James and Lily, you, Harry, with a bleeding forehead, and Riddle's robe with a pile of ashes. He grabbed Tom's wand and ran off.

Harry didn't look well at all, he was staggering around. But he found the strength to ask:

- What about Black? What happened then?

- As you can imagine, Peter couldn't talk about what had happened in the Potter house after his escape. But he realised that Sirius Black would surely retaliate. That's when Peter had a plan - to fake his own death. He waited for Sirius near his mother's house. And when he saw Sirius in the distance, he immediately called the Aurors and ran. Black chased after Pettigrew and tried to kill him. On the way, Peter yelled at the top of his voice: "How could you betray them?" Running into a cluster of people, Peter sent a powerful explosive spell into the crowd, cut off his finger, and turned into a rat. Then he escaped through a sewer manhole.

- Wait a minute, Richie," Harry said. - So Black didn't betray my parents or kill anyone?

- Yes.

- But..." Potter stretched out with a dazed look. - Why was he arrested?

- At that time, the wizards, pressed by Her Majesty's ultimatum, were not very discerning - they imprisoned everyone with the slightest suspicion of a connection to the Eaters. Only those who could pay off the money and assure the Ministry that they wouldn't go back to terrorism were released.

- Bastards! - Potter hissed angrily. - It turns out the bastard was free for twelve years, while an innocent man sat in prison....

Fred looked at Potter and said:

- Harry, we realise you're angry and upset, but let's finish listening.

Harry waved his hand tiredly, saying, do what you want. After that, Richie spoke up:

- Aurors arrived on the scene and detained Sirius. Black wasn't himself, he kept muttering: "I'm responsible for their deaths." The guards quickly questioned eyewitnesses from ordinary people. They saw the explosion and heard Pettigrew screaming. The Aurors felt that this was enough to accuse Sirius of murdering a crowd of Muggles and Pettigrew. All eyewitnesses had their memories wiped. Sirius was immediately given a trial and there asked only one question, "Is he guilty?" He answered yes. A typical case of self-hypnosis under extreme stress. The judges didn't listen any further and sent Black to Azkaban for life.

George wasn't interested in hearing about Black, he asked about what was bothering him:

- How did Pettigrew end up in our house?

- Yes!" Fred supported his twin brother. - And why?

- That's a good question..." Richard ran the back of his hand over his chin thoughtfully. - There's some magical stuff going on here. Peter says with certainty that Tom Riddle is not completely dead. You-Know-Who among the Death Eaters claimed to have achieved immortality. It is believed that Riddle has turned into a ghost and with outside help can come back to life.

- He's definitely a ghost! You know he's a ghost!" Ron exclaimed, then realised that the twins weren't aware of it and stopped talking.

Richard looked at Ron reproachfully.

- "You know?" - Fred glanced at Richard.

- 'Curious, what are you hiding from us? - George stared at Richard too.

- 'You don't need to know! - Richard's voice was as hard as steel and his gaze became prickly. - The only thing we can tell you in confidence is that last year we had the misfortune to meet the ghost of Tom Riddle.

- Oh!" Fred looked at his younger brother with delight. - Ronnie boy, and you didn't say anything? You're so cool!

- Piss off," Ron snapped at him. - Let's hear what else Richie has to say.

- What else is there to tell? - Grosvenor spread his hands apart. - It's gone to the Queen, the Minister of Magic, and the Department of Mysteries. Pettigrew has been handed over to the Aurors. He would be tried tomorrow in an emergency closed session of the Wizengamot. There was a ninety-nine per cent chance he would be executed.

Ritchie didn't add that Peter Pettigrew would most likely be handed over to the Department of Mysteries, or indeed Grosvenor's Workshop, for Avada experiments. And he won't last long there.

- What about Black?! - Harry exclaimed anxiously. - He's innocent!

- He's innocent, so what? - Richard raised his right eyebrow questioningly.

- But the Aurors are looking for him! - Potter continued.

- Not anymore," Richard shook his head to the side. - 'Black was amnestied back in the summer, no one's interested in him now.