The tunnel finally threw them out onto hard wooden flooring with enough force to leave all three bruised and breathless.
Harry hit the ground first with a painful crash.
Hermione landed beside him a second later, sliding across the dusty floor—
Then Victor dropped directly on top of Harry hard enough to force a groan out of him.
"Hraugh—!"
Harry nearly lost his breath from the impact.
"Sorry, Harry," Victor said while quickly pushing himself off him and standing up.
Harry stayed on the floor for another second clutching his side while Victor looked around the room carefully.
The wooden walls were old and cracked, parts of the ceiling looked half-rotten, and dust covered almost everything around them. Broken furniture lay scattered near the corners of the room while cold wind slipped through gaps in the walls.
They had definitely reached Shrieking Shack.
Beside them, Hermione suddenly began checking herself frantically.
"My wand," she said anxiously. "I lost my wand during the fall."
She quickly searched the dusty floor around them, but the tunnel ride had thrown dirt and debris everywhere.
Before anyone could properly help her search—
"Harry! Victor!"
Ron's voice suddenly echoed from another room nearby.
All three reacted immediately.
Harry grabbed his wand and rushed toward the sound while Victor followed beside him and Hermione hurried after them.
They entered what looked like an old ruined bedroom.
Torn curtains hung near the broken windows, dust covered the floorboards, and an old fireplace sat cold and dead against the wall.
Ron was sitting against the wall beneath one of the windows while clutching Scabbers tightly against his chest.
His face had gone pale from pain.
One of his legs looked twisted badly, and deep bite marks had torn through part of his robes with blood staining the fabric around the wound.
"Ron!"
Harry knelt beside him quickly while looking around the room.
"Where's the dog?" he asked sharply.
Ron looked shaken badly, breathing unevenly while trying to hold onto Scabbers at the same time.
"That wasn't…" he said weakly. "That wasn't really a dog…"
Harry frowned immediately.
"What do you mean?"
Ron slowly raised a shaking hand toward the dark doorway nearby.
"It was a…"
"It was a man…"
The moment he said it, a shadow moved across the room.
Harry spun around instantly and raised his wand while Hermione gasped beside him.
A tall figure stepped slowly out of the darkness.
His face looked thin and hollow beneath long tangled black hair, and his clothes hung from him like rags after years of neglect. Deep tired eyes fixed themselves directly on Harry.
Sirius Black.
For a second nobody moved.
Then Harry stood up so fast the chair beside him nearly fell over.
"You!" he shouted, rage immediately exploding across his face.
Sirius didn't even look at anyone else.
"Harry—"
Harry pointed his wand straight at him.
"You betrayed my parents!" he yelled. "You killed them!"
Behind him, Hermione quickly grabbed Harry's arm.
"Harry, wait—"
But Harry shoved her hand away without taking his eyes off Sirius.
Victor, meanwhile, stayed unusually quiet while watching the room carefully.
Sirius looked exhausted more than dangerous, but his eyes kept flicking toward Ron.
More specifically—
Toward Scabbers.
"I didn't betray James and Lily," Sirius said hoarsely.
Harry looked ready to attack him anyway.
"You expect me to believe that?" he snapped. "I heard what you did!"
Sirius took a slow step forward.
"Then you heard wrong."
Before Harry could say anything else, the bedroom door suddenly burst open.
A spell flashed across the room immediately.
"Expelliarmus!"
Harry's wand flew out of his hand and skidded hard across the wooden floorboards.
Everyone turned sharply toward the doorway.
Professor Remus Lupin stood there breathing heavily, his wand still raised from casting the spell.
Harry looked completely stunned.
"Professor Lupin?"
Hermione stared between Lupin and Sirius in confusion while Ron looked like he genuinely couldn't understand what was happening anymore.
Victor, meanwhile, reacted almost instantly.
Before Lupin could properly step into the room, Victor flicked his own wand.
"Expelliarmus."
Lupin's wand shot cleanly out of his hand and flew across the room near the broken fireplace.
Now everyone looked confused.
Victor calmly stepped between Sirius, Lupin, and the trio while lowering his wand slightly but not fully.
"Well," he said while glancing around the room, "before someone here makes another terrible emotional decision, maybe all of you should calm down first."
Sirius narrowed his eyes immediately while studying Victor properly for the first time.
"Who the hell are you?"
"Victor Malfoy."
The reaction was immediate.
The moment Sirius heard the surname, anger flashed visibly across his face, his entire expression hardening.
"Malfoy…"
Victor noticed the look and sighed quietly to himself.
"Right," he muttered. "I forgot my family has enemies older than me."
Sirius instinctively took another step forward.
Victor immediately raised his wand again toward him.
"Don't," he said calmly. "I'm helping you at the moment, and I would prefer not to start regretting that decision."
Ron looked between them nervously while Hermione still seemed completely lost trying to understand why Victor had disarmed Professor Remus Lupin.
Victor, however, looked directly at Harry.
"There's something you need to know," he said calmly. "Sirius Black did not betray your parents."
The room went completely silent.
Harry stared at him in disbelief.
Even Lupin looked shocked that Victor had suddenly revealed it so directly.
"What?" Harry asked quietly.
Victor's expression remained calm.
"The real traitor was Peter Pettigrew."
That only made the confusion worse.
Hermione frowned immediately.
"Peter Pettigrew?" she repeated. "But he died years ago."
Ron nodded quickly.
"Yeah, Sirius killed him."
Victor slowly turned his gaze toward Scabbers in Ron's hands.
"Apparently not."
Everyone followed his eyes.
For one second, nobody understood what he meant.
Then Victor spoke again.
"That rat," he said calmly, "is Peter Pettigrew."
The entire room froze.
Ron looked horrified.
"…What?"
Victor kept staring at Scabbers.
"Isn't that right, Scabbers?"
The moment the rat heard his name, panic exploded across his tiny face.
Scabbers suddenly launched himself out of Ron's hands and sprinted toward the doorway as fast as possible.
"Oi—!" Ron shouted.
Victor reacted immediately.
"Wingardium Leviosa."
Scabbers suddenly lifted into the air before he could escape, his tiny body floating helplessly several feet above the floor while he squeaked in pure panic.
Now everyone in the room was staring at the floating rat.
*****
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