Hogwarts: My name is the Unforgivable Curse...

Chapter 384 The Truth About Pettigrew

"It's a pity to call you here at this time, Sirius, Remus."

July sunlight streamed through the large windows, making Dumbledore's office, filled with wondrous trinkets, seem even brighter. Albus Dumbledore sat in his seat, opposite two familiar faces—Sirius Black and Remus Lupin.

While Peter Pettigrew's death from the backlash of his oath was indeed unexpected by Dumbledore and his companions, Sirius Black was ultimately exonerated. In truth, if Wizengamo had been even slightly more attentive during his trial thirteen years ago, he wouldn't have been so easily convicted of a Death Eater and sent to Azkaban. Furthermore, Pettigrew's recently deceased body itself was crucial evidence overturning the original conclusion, and coupled with Dumbledore's unprecedented prestige at this stage… clearing Sirius Black's name was incredibly easy.

After regaining his innocence, he was finally reunited with his godson. And after Dumbledore personally destroyed Voldemort's soul, the protective charm on Harry became less important, and he no longer needed to stay with the Dursleys to recharge his spells—and the stark contrast between his old and new lives quickly brought his relationship with Sirius back together…

As for Lupin, he returned to Hogwarts at Dumbledore's invitation and resumed his position as Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Just as Avada had predicted, Voldemort's death did indeed mean the complete end of the "Defense Against the Dark Arts" curse. The specific reason was that after Voldemort's soul returned to its wholeness, the curse was revealed by his magical senses—it resided within Voldemort himself.

In short, the curse stated: "I curse Tom Riddle to become the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor at Hogwarts." Normally, if Voldemort hadn't become the professor, the curse would have tormented him; however, Voldemort's strength lay in his unparalleled magical prowess, which allowed him to transfer the curse's cost to each successive Defense Against the Dark Arts professor—meaning that as long as he wasn't the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, this curse would travel a great distance to torment the professors he was currently serving…

As for the year of the Philosopher's Stone—sorry, the Hogwarts staff list states that the Defense Against the Storm professor at the time was Quirinus Quirrell, not Voldemort, even though he was actually hanging on the back of Quirrell's head, and that curse was obviously not very adaptable... So the curse that Voldemort cast twenty years ago hit his future self twenty years later.

Therefore, after Dumbledore confirmed that the curse had dissipated with Voldemort's death, Lupin was able to resume his post smoothly, and having undergone the werewolf healing surgery, he no longer needed to worry about harming his students...

"It's my duty, Professor."

Sirius grinned: "Anyway, as a newly joined member of the Board of Trustees, I'll have to come back to Hogwarts sooner or later; and I reckon Moonface will also have to get used to life as a professor again..."

"Okay, I'm glad I didn't hold you back—how's Harry?"

"Very good."

When Harry was mentioned, Sirius Black immediately became animated: "After getting rid of those awful Muggle relatives, he looks much better... But he still doesn't quite like living in my old house. He spent almost a third of the holiday at Arthur's house, and I even ate a few meals there myself..."

"You also need to keep him in check a little."

Lupin, listening from the side, chuckled, "He'll be facing the OWLS exams next year too. For his future, we should really put some effort into that—the Wizarding Levels exams are much more prestigious than they used to be, aren't they?"

"Why bother with that? That university doesn't teach people how to play Quidditch. Harry is focused on becoming a professional Seeker... If all else fails, he can take the university's entrance exam after he retires."

"But then..."

"Cough cough."

Seeing that Sirius and Lupin were engrossed in their conversation again, Dumbledore had to cough twice to bring their attention back: "The main reason I called you here is to inform you that the results of Peter Pettigrew's investigation are in."

"Peter?"

Upon hearing the name, Sirius and Lupin's smiles vanished instantly, replaced by expressions of unease: "So what exactly happened?"

"I'm sorry... based on the clues we have so far, the truth is probably the one you least want to hear."

Dumbledore slowly shook his head, then pulled a stack of documents from under the table and pushed them toward Sirius and Lupin: "These are the internal records of the Death Eaters from those pure-blood families that we've searched over the past two months... Take a look."

Sirius and Lupin, holding their breath, took the documents and began reading them word by word. For a moment, apart from the crisp sound of turning pages of parchment, Dumbledore's office was completely silent…

"he……"

After what seemed like an eternity, Sirius's trembling voice broke the silence once more: "He actually... I... but..."

"Why...why...even though..."

His chest heaved violently, his hands gripping the stack of documents tightly, as if he wanted to tear them to shreds to deny their contents. Lu Ping, standing beside him, gripped his arm tightly, but his own face had also turned extremely pale…

When they learned that Little Pettigrew had died from the backlash of his oath, they thought they were prepared for the worst. But when the decisive evidence was laid bare before them, they realized that they were not as resilient as they had thought.

"Your initial deduction was correct."

Dumbledore's voice carried an indescribable sorrow: "It was indeed Peter who, out of cowardice and admiration for power, chose to side with Voldemort, and after becoming the Secret Keeper, betrayed the Potter family's address to Voldemort..."

"But why?!"

Sirius suddenly looked up, his eyes red as he stared at Dumbledore, pleading as if begging him to tell him that what he was seeing was just a prank: "He was so sincere back then, and he found out so much information... and he even asked to make the final, unbreakable oath, didn't he?"

"Why is all of this fake?!"

"……I have no idea."

After a long silence, Dumbledore slowly spoke, "But I have a theory."

"His acts of betrayal stemmed from his own cowardice, so perhaps deep down he felt regret and unease. And after Voldemort's defeat, the sense of security Voldemort had provided him vanished abruptly, causing him intense and extremely complex psychological pressure..."

"To escape such pressure, he might have conjured up some fantasies to convince himself that he hadn't betrayed his old friend, hadn't wronged him, and wasn't Voldemort's man. Combined with the little knowledge he gained while with the Death Eaters... that's probably how his explanation to us came about."

"Moreover, as time goes on, he will become more and more convinced of those fantasies, until they completely distort his original personality—that's why he was so sincere when he told us those things, and he would take the initiative to use an unbreakable oath to bind himself... But when he was about to face imprisonment again, his original cowardly nature resurfaced, urging him to break the oath and fly away... and then, he was devoured by the oath and died."

"This is the only possibility I can think of."

"so……"

Sirius stared at his hands in disbelief: "So I really killed James?"

"Was it really because I was too clever and replaced the Secret Keeper with Pettigrew that he was able to betray the James family? If that's the case, I...I..."

"No—calm down, Bigfoot, look at this."

Lupin suddenly pressed on his shoulder and pointed to a passage on the document with his other finger: "You made this decision because of the Confusion Charm—during that time, Little Pettigrew was secretly casting Confusion Charms on you to make that decision—this was part of the Death Eaters' plan."

"..."

Sirius didn't make a sound, but silently lowered his head and sobbed.

"Well, Professor Dumbledore, I think he needs to go out for a walk... Is there anything else?"

Lupin helped Sirius to his feet, whispered a question to Dumbledore, and after seeing the latter gently shake his head, led him straight out of the office.

After watching the two figures disappear through the doorway, Dumbledore let out a heavy sigh, then stretched out his finger and gently touched the document that Lupin had opened...

Instantly, the records that said "Little Starpie cast a Confusion Charm on Black" vanished with his finger, as if they had never existed in the first place.

(End of this chapter)