No surprise, the moment Snape saw Lupin, his expression turned into one of extreme disgust.
Harry now certainly knew why Snape treated Lupin this way. It wasn't just because he had once made a Boggart impersonate Snape in women's clothes, but also because Lupin was part of the same group as Harry's father.
"Professor Lupin, Professor Snape." Harry greeted them politely.
"Harry." Professor Lupin smiled warmly, but it could not conceal the fatigue on his face.
It was clear he was really tired lately—no one knew what he had been up to.
Once everyone was seated, Dumbledore took out the Marauder's Map.
"Remus," he said, "this map—you should recognize it, right?"
Seeing the map, Professor Lupin's face showed a look of remembrance.
"Of course, I remember," he said warmly. "This is the map I made together with James and some others... It would be hard to find lads as outstanding as them again. This map is truly an unprecedented masterpiece, and we owe it to the Potion James pilfered from the Potter family's vault."
Hearing Lupin's words, everyone cursed him as a wastrel in their hearts.
The potion capable of making the Marauder's Map was known to be incredibly precious; otherwise, it wouldn't be possible to make a map that could show people's locations in real-time.
"Harry told me he saw the name of a person on this map," Professor Dumbledore said, "a person who was supposed to be dead."
Lupin immediately shook his head to deny it: "Impossible, absolutely impossible—if you look closely, you'll find that not even a ghost's name would show up on this map. How could it show a person who's supposed to be dead? Who was it?"
Dumbledore uttered a name that was hard for him to imagine, yet one he anticipated deeply.
"Peter Pettigrew," he said.
Professor Lupin's gray eyes shrank violently; he stood frozen, then clutched his chest, gasping for breath.
Even Snape was almost the same; he stood there in shock.
After a while, Professor Lupin finally came back to his senses and asked hoarsely, "Are you saying—that you saw Peter on this map?"
"Yes, he's now in the Hogwarts Great Hall," Professor Dumbledore said with certainty. "According to the map, he's now beside Ron Weasley—"
"I think this map might be wrong," Professor Snape suddenly said. "I just checked near Mr. Weasley, and besides that silly girl and his little parrot, there was nothing else—I don't believe that chubby old Pediru from Gryffindor would be by his side."
"No!" Professor Lupin suddenly said.
Everyone turned their gaze to him, only to find him bracing himself on a chair, staring intently at the spot marked for Peter on the map.
"Back then... James and the others practiced becoming Animagi for my sake—James's Animagus form was a stag, Sirius was a big black dog, and Peter was a rat..."
At the mention of "a big black dog," Vivi's eyes flashed with a chill.
She remembered the big black dog that had disrupted her plans several times...
It seemed it was time to find it in the Forbidden Forest; Vivi thought with a very dangerous expression.
Lupin continued to stare intently at the map: "If Peter is now an Animagus..."
"I remember now!" Harry suddenly said. "Banban! Ron's pet—I remember, he once told us that Banban has been with their family for twelve years!"
"Yeah, can a house rat have a twelve-year lifespan?" he continued. "But back then, I didn't think in that direction—besides, Professor Flitwick just mentioned, that the explosion caused by Sirius Black blew up the entire street, and Peter was never found, only leaving a finger behind..."
"Ron's Banban..." Vivi mused aloud. "One of its front paws is also missing a finger!"
"Professor Dumbledore!" Lupin immediately said. "I suspect there's something wrong—if Sirius was the one who betrayed Lily and James, then why would Peter go into hiding as a rat and stay with the Weasley family?"
"Oh my god!" Phineas suddenly shouted from the portrait, "I knew it! I knew my great-grandson wouldn't be that kind of person—Dumbledore! Please—although he's the disgrace of the Black family, but the Black family now only has this one heir left..."
Dumbledore nodded towards Phineas's portrait.
"Severus," he looked at Snape, "I think you should prepare something appropriate to deal with the situation that might arise."
"Truth Serum, is it?" Professor Snape displayed a sinister smile, then turned to Harry, pulling a small vial from his cloak.
He looked at the two girls sitting behind Harry, Vivi and Cassandra, and said in a chilling tone, "You've heard of this Potion, right? Potter? Just a single drop in your pumpkin juice—and whoever's secret you prefer will be revealed in front of everyone..."
Harry could swear under oath that Snape was absolutely doing it on purpose.
Just to make the two girls behind him have an opinion about him!
Yet, Snape returned his gaze with a sinister smile and placed the vial of Truth Serum on the table.
"Let's go, let's head to the Great Hall together," Professor Dumbledore said. "If Ron's rat—Banban, right? If Banban is Peter Pettigrew, then... we might be able to clear an innocent person's name."