Hermione found herself in a dingy, grey, dilapidated room.
The wallpaper was peeling, the floor was stained, and the windows were boarded over with planks lying haphazardly.
Beside a pile of broken furniture stood a pair of the most unexpected companions: Sirius Black and Remus Lupin.
Perhaps it should be said there was a third person present... the unseen one... the Animagus rat... Peter Pettigrew.
This rat, who had escaped from Azkaban and thrown the wizarding world into chaos, was currently being held tightly in Professor Lupin's hand, struggling desperately.
"Sirius! Professor Lupin! You caught the rat?" Harry exclaimed excitedly, taking a step forward before looking puzzled. "I do not understand... how did you all end up together here?"
"And what about that big dog? It was a huge black dog that grabbed him just now..." Ron said, gesturing as he looked around the room.
The reasonable question he posed seemed rather comical to Sirius and Lupin.
They exchanged a glance and could not help but burst into laughter. Like the Weasley twins after pulling off some prank that had escaped Professor McGonagall's sharp eye, their laughter was both raucous and meaningful.
"What are you laughing at?" Harry asked, confused.
A loud, impatient tut came from behind them. It was Hermione.
"What are you tutting for?" Ron asked. "What do you know?"
"Oh, for Merlin's sake, is it not obvious? An Animagus!" Hermione said impatiently, pointing to a row of huge dog paw prints beneath Sirius's feet. "He is that dog! He is an Animagus too!"
The paw prints were very noticeable on the dusty floor.
Harry and Ron were utterly dumbfounded.
"Really, Sirius?" Harry stammered.
"Hermione, you truly are the cleverest witch of your age," Professor Lupin said with a smile, appearing far more animated than usual.
Hermione did not reply. She pursed her lips, looking at Lupin with a mixture of surprise and suspicion.
Today is the full moon. Professor Lupin... did you take your potion?
"Harry, please allow me to explain all this to you later." Sirius smiled at Harry, his handsome, gaunt face appearing somewhat strange today, and like Lupin, carrying a strange excitement. He turned his head, his gaze fixed on the rat in Lupin's hand.
"That rat! It is..." Harry exclaimed excitedly.
"...Peter Pettigrew," Sirius said, his eyes shining. "I know, of course I know."
"I suggest you step aside," Lupin said to Harry, his voice trembling with excitement.
Harry and his two companions hesitated and moved closer to the window.
Without realising it, Hermione peered out through a crack in the window and suddenly realised where they were... in the Shrieking Shack! They had actually come out in Hogsmeade?
At that moment, Lupin nodded to Sirius and suddenly threw the rat to the ground.
The rat tried to run, but it could not outrun Sirius's wand. A flash of white light, and the struggling form of Peter Pettigrew himself finally appeared before them.
He stood there trembling, looking balder, paler, and more dishevelled than Harry had seen him a year ago.
Lupin gripped his wand tightly, the tip pointing warily at him without any hesitation.
"Peter Pettigrew," Sirius said slowly, approaching him with what might be called elegant steps.
Remus Lupin thought that the dashing, devil-may-care young heir of the House of Black from twenty years ago seemed to have returned. Sirius's face was filled with a smug smile, even a touch of childishness. "My dear Peter, why are you running away? Come and play with me!"
"Sirius, Remus, my old friend! How did you know I was here?" Peter Pettigrew's battered face broke into a gleeful smile, as if he had just recognised old companions.
This is strange, Hermione thought. It is as though he is attending a reunion with old friends after many years, rather than being hunted down and caught by them.
"When I came to Hogsmeade, I saw the lights here. Several times." A dangerous smile appeared on Lupin's slightly pale face. "Who else but Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs could get in here? So I invited Sirius to come and see the lights flickering in this house from a distance."
Hermione suddenly remembered that Hogsmeade open day when it had been snowing heavily.
She and Draco had run into Professor Lupin near the Shrieking Shack, who had said he was waiting for an old friend... presumably Sirius Black.
Oh, Draco. She sighed, feeling a deep, piercing pain in her heart.
"It is clearly you who has been playing tricks here! Mischievous Peter! Occasionally slipping off to Hogwarts to frighten innocent students, is that not so?" Sirius's handsome face wore a sinister, false smile as he rubbed his wand against Peter Pettigrew's face twice... quite menacingly... as if disciplining a disobedient pet.
Peter seemed terrified. He stood there trembling, trying to dart through the gaps around him, but was cowed by the wand in Sirius's hand.
"We have been lying in wait here for days, just waiting for you! We have missed you so much!" Sirius pressed his wand against Peter's neck, scrutinising his terrified face. Seeing his expression of fear, he looked positively pleased.
"Sirius, please, let me go! I was forced into it, I never meant to betray James and Lily..." Peter blinked his small eyes in panic, trying his best to squeeze out some tears.
"You filthy traitor!" Sirius's expression changed, and he spat at him, his face full of contempt.
"Sirius, please, spare me, I will do anything for you..." Peter, not bothering to wipe the dirt from his face, collapsed to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably.
Sirius kicked him in disgust, but the man stubbornly clung to his feet, trying to grab Sirius's trouser leg and kiss his shoes.
"What is it?" Sirius kicked him again, a haughty, aloof smile on his face, which looked particularly sinister in the moonlight filtering through the gaps in the boarded windows.
"Of course..." Peter shrank back, wiping his face with a pitiful, innocent expression. He looked up, his eyes brimming with tears, and said, "Sirius, I always admired you, and James..."
"Do not try that look on me! You have already fooled me once!" Sirius suddenly punched him in his pale, swollen face.
Peter cried out in pain and collapsed to the ground. His short, narrow nose looked broken, making him look even more dishevelled, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
Sirius waved his hand dismissively.
He wiped his blood-stained hand on his robe, looking finally satisfied.
Now the Interrogation....