"James!" Lily reprimanded softly.
James, upon being scolded like that, immediately turned into a good boy. His posture even became obedient, his eyes brightly fixed on Lily, full of offering treasures.
"Sometimes I wonder, perhaps your Animagus should really be a dog." Sirius ruthlessly teased, "Look at you, I've said this line before, right?"
"Oh, shut up, Sirius!" James rolled his eyes.
It's obvious, as a friend who loves to tease, Sirius absolutely wouldn't miss any chance to jab at James.
"But what really makes me curious is..." After pondering a moment, James asked, "Why would you accept that Snot Spirit to teach at Hogwarts, Dumbledore? You know, he's a steadfast follower of Voldemort's Death Eaters."
"His name is Severus, James." Dumbledore sighed, "At least he is now a professor at Hogwarts..."
"I'm already being quite generous not pulling out my magic wand to cast Inverted Golden Bell on him, Dumbledore!" James lazily rolled his eyes. "He betrayed Lily and me to the Death Eaters. What good attitude do you expect me to show him?"
What you said is so reasonable, I actually have no words...
Dumbledore thought for a bit, indeed it made sense, so he stopped correcting James's "verbal slip".
Forget it, let whatever happens, happen.
"Severus informed Voldemort immediately after hearing Trelawney's prophecy, but he didn't know the child mentioned in the prophecy was Harry." After pondering a bit, Dumbledore continued, "When he found out the child was Harry, he came to me expressing regret and agreed to be my double agent to protect Harry and Lily."
James's face sank, then turned a slight shade of purple.
No, you damn...
Damned Snot Spirit, my wife needs you to think about her protection?
This filthy, foolish Snot Spirit, I'm going to personally...
Nearby, Sirius lowered his head, seemingly suppressing a laugh.
Originally, he couldn't laugh, but the thing is now that James and Lily are here in this era, it means they won't die, so there's no harm in laughing.
He's witnessed many of James's embarrassing acts, knowing his wife has always been attached by the sticky Snot Spirit.
That Snot Spirit indeed wouldn't give up his sneaky intentions, if it were Sirius, he wouldn't tolerate it.
"And then?" James asked, trying to control his anger.
"Then?" Dumbledore chuckled and said to James, "He passed me lots of useful information, like when Voldemort would move, to Godric's Hollow to find your family... But, Peter betrayed. He sold you and Lily to Voldemort, so... the rest you know."
Just now, Sirius hadn't told James about Peter's betrayal when narrating all this.
He knew, James always treasured emotions, trusting friends with all his heart.
Suddenly hearing this news, he feared James couldn't accept it.
Indeed, upon hearing this, James's face froze.
He asked, somewhat uncertainly, "What did you say? Who betrayed Lily and me?"
"It was Peter Pettigrew." Dumbledore didn't have so many taboos and spoke whatever needed to be said.
Indeed, upon hearing this name, James fell into a long silence.
"James? Dear?" Lily knew James's character and reached out to stroke James's back, trying to calm her husband's furious mind.
After quite a while, James regained composure from the silence.
"Wormtail actually betrayed me..." James lifted his head, muttering, "I trusted him so much... Merlin, I even considered him like my own brother, but why is that? Why would he do such a thing?!"
"According to Peter's own confession, he had already betrayed you and joined Voldemort a year ago." Dumbledore said, then added, "I mean a year ago in 1980, not 1993."
"So he had betrayed so early..."
James held his head, his eyes bleak, "I always mistakenly trusted him, but why... His Animagus is a rat, if he wanted to hide, he wouldn't be harmed at all? Why did he think to defect to Voldemort?"
"No one knows why, under the effect of Truth Serum he told us he was just afraid." Dumbledore shook his head with a sigh.
"It's all in the past, Peter has received his deserved punishment." Sirius patted James's other shoulder, "Take it easy, brother—at least you're still alive now, right? The Desire Gem—hey, it's truly magical."
However, James still wore a bleak expression, unable to emerge from the shadow of Peter's betrayal.
"Things are far from over, Mr. Potter."
Cassandra suddenly spoke, drawing the attention of everyone at the table.
No one expected the usually distant Cassandra would suddenly speak.
James slowly raised his head, looking at Cassandra puzzled.
"What does Miss Malfoy mean..."
"I mean, Peter did far more than just that—" Cassandra curled her lips, "Did you know? After betraying you, he even framed Mr. Black for it. Because of this, Mr. Black spent twelve years in Azkaban, while he himself turned into a rat, lingering for twelve years in the Weasley family... If Harry hadn't discovered Peter Pettigrew's true identity, he might have continued hiding, and Mr. Black would continue suffering injustice in prison."
James was stunned, he hadn't expected his good brother would suffer wrongful injustice, spending so long in Azkaban.
In the Magic World, Azkaban's infamous reputation is known from Ireland to Qidan.
Everyone knows that whoever is locked in Azkaban, even if they enter as normal individuals, they would come out deranged.
"Yeah." Pabi also said: "Sirius saw Peter Pettigrew transformed into a rat in the newspaper, which is why he broke out of Azkaban, wanting to protect Harry from this villain's harm—the Ministry of Magic made a huge fuss over it, even sending Dementors to hunt him down, poor Mr. Black had nothing to eat and had to consume rats and spiders for sustenance..."
"Hey, it's nothing." Sirius raised his head, looking indifferent and said, "It's just part of life's experiences..."
"Sirius..."
Lily held her face in her hands, tears streaming down.
She just thought of the life Sirius endured and felt an overwhelming pain in her heart.
In a way, Sirius was also akin to one of the children she raised, as half a mother, how could she not feel sorrow?
"Bro."
James reached out and squeezed Sirius's shoulder, he said nothing, merely nodding heavily at Sirius.
Men's friendship doesn't have a lot of lingering sorrows, everything is expressed in silence.
"Heh."
A greasy, dragging voice suddenly appeared.
"If this Black could have been a bit smarter, found Dumbledore sooner to tell the truth, perhaps he wouldn't have wasted so many years in Azkaban—oh, I almost forgot, canine intelligence is usually not very bright..."
Upon hearing the Old Snot Spirit insulting his good brother, how could James endure?
"Old Snot Spirit!" He abruptly stood up, pulling out his magic wand and pointing it at Snape: "Are you itching for an Inverted Golden Bell? If you want it, I'll grant your wish!"
(Calling for monthly votes)
(Tying up loose ends from earlier, about 'Fallen Angel' and 'Lucifer' etc., that's why today's content is a bit less. Actually, the plot never really relates to Western mythology—not related, not related—Voldemort contacting that so-called Lucifer is actually a character from the book, who has appeared and been written extensively, guess who? There's a reward for guessing correctly~)