After Peter Pettigrew tried to take Harry hostage but was stopped by Professor Snape, Headmaster Dumbledore's expression gradually became stern and cold.
Sherlock was fine, but Harry, Hermione, and Ron fully understood in that moment why people said Dumbledore was the only person Voldemort feared.
At this moment, Dumbledore's expression was so terrible that it completely exceeded their imagination.
Even during the Quidditch match when Dementors appeared and caused Harry to fall from his broomstick, he hadn't looked like this.
Gone was the kindly smile, and the cheerful spark in his eyes behind his half-moon spectacles had vanished.
Every wrinkle on that old face bore cold fury.
The Headmaster radiated power from his entire being, as if he were burning with heat.
"Sherlock, I trust you could extract the truth from him but I don't think we need to waste any more time."
Peter's behavior exposed his guilty conscience and triggered Dumbledore's anger, making him determined to take direct action.
He looked at Professor Snape.
"Severus, please fetch the Veritaserum."
Snape was somewhat surprised; he hadn't expected Dumbledore to proactively suggest using this method to pry open Peter's mouth.
He said in a low voice, "I have some on me right now."
Dumbledore's terrible expression softened slightly. "Good, it seems you anticipated this situation."
Snape glanced at Sherlock with a complex expression, snorted coldly, and stepped forward.
Lupin also took two steps forward, bent down to drag Peter up from the floor, and pressed him directly into a chair.
Snape slowly took out a small crystal vial from his robes.
Inside the bottle was a clear, transparent liquid that looked no different from water to the young wizards.
"This is Veritaserum—a potion that makes you tell the truth."
Snape looked viciously at Peter and said. "I think you know very well what it does. Just a few drops, and even the Dark Lord would reveal his innermost secrets."
"No, don't give me that! Snape, I'll talk, I'll tell you everything!"
Peter immediately began to struggle desperately, twisting his body and shouting at Lupin who was holding him down.
"Remus, don't do this, don't do this, my friend!"
"From the moment you tried to hurt them, I will never believe another word you say!"
Lupin's face showed disgust and anger. He waved his wand, and several ropes flew out from it, wrapping around Peter Pettigrew and binding him tightly.
Then he pried open Peter's mouth.
Snape didn't hesitate and poured the entire bottle in.
Seeing Snape's rough manner, the young wizards were startled.
There was definitely some personal grudge here.
"Severus, you're being too rough."
Professor McGonagall frowned at this scene.
They had agreed that just a few drops would be enough, yet he'd poured in the entire bottle—it was rather excessive.
Hearing McGonagall's words, Snape removed the bottle, checked to make sure there wasn't a drop left, then said.
"You're right, Minerva. It is rather wasteful on such a fool."
'Then why did you just pour it all in?'
Professor McGonagall looked at Snape somewhat helplessly.
She naturally knew about the old history between Snape and Peter Pettigrew, and understood his reasons for doing this, but it wasn't appropriate to say so in front of the young wizards.
At this point, Peter had been choked into a coughing attack by Snape's rough treatment.
But soon, his eyes began to grow empty under the potion's influence.
After a moment, his eyes became completely unfocused.
At the same time, the constantly spinning Sneakoscope also stopped rotating and stopped glowing and making noise.
After taking Veritaserum, did that mean the previously suspicious person was now trustworthy?
Sherlock's heart stirred, and he immediately stuffed it back into his sock and returned it to his pocket.
Noticing his action, Hermione's eyes flickered and she blinked.
At this moment, Dumbledore had crouched down in front of Peter, face to face with him, and asked. "Can you hear me?"
"I can hear you."
Peter looked at Dumbledore and said in a low voice.
His voice was no longer as sharp and grating as before, but had become somewhat deeper.
Dumbledore looked deeply at Sherlock, then said slowly. "Good. I want you to tell us how you escaped death and why you're here."
Harry and Ron couldn't help but clench their fists.
Peter Pettigrew trembled and took a deep breath, then began speaking in an emotionless, flat tone.
"Twelve years ago, Sirius Black cornered me on a crowded street.
I knew I had no way out, so I shouted loud enough for the whole street to hear that he had betrayed James and Lily.
Before he could react, I used my wand hidden behind my back to create an explosion.
I deliberately cut off my right index finger, killed everyone within twenty feet, then transformed and escaped into the sewers with the other rats.
To avoid losing contact with the wizarding world, I deliberately found a suitable family and became the pet of one of their children.
Three years ago, I was given to Ron Weasley and was fortunate enough to live with Harry Potter.
But I didn't expect that the student named Holmes who lived with them would be so formidable—he could deduce the truth from subtle clues.
These three years I've been worried about exposing myself, so I haven't done anything."
Everyone looked at Sherlock.
The latter made a helpless shrugging gesture.
'What, you're blaming me?'
"But I didn't expect Sirius Black to escape from Azkaban.
I knew he must have recognized me to escape, so I've been terrified, afraid he would come for me.
I never expected that the little girl's cat who lived with them would also see through my disguise and attack me whenever it had a chance."
"Why were you afraid of Sirius finding you?" Dumbledore continued to ask calmly.
"Because... because..."
He stammered for a long time but couldn't say it.
"His subconscious is preventing him from speaking the truth."
Snape said with a cold laugh, "To struggle even after drinking Veritaserum—I underestimated him."
Peter's behavior made Snape's earlier action of pouring the entire bottle seem considerably more reasonable.
"Severus—"
"No need to worry, Lupin."
Snape coldly interrupted Lupin, who was about to speak. "I said before, even the Dark Lord would reveal his innermost secrets."
Facts proved that Snape was not exaggerating.
The powerful effect of the Veritaserum finally made Peter speak the truth.
"Because Sirius was the only one who knew that James had changed the Secret-Keeper to me."
"What?!"
Although they'd been shocked enough times today, when Peter said this, the four professors and three students were stunned once again.
The shock on their faces was indescribable.
Only Sherlock's expression remained unchanged, merely raising an eyebrow and giving a soft: "Oh."
"Potter—actually changed the Secret-Keeper to Peter?"
Professor McGonagall looked at Peter Pettigrew before her, hardly believing what she'd just heard.
Peter, thinking McGonagall was talking to him, continued in his emotionless voice.
"Yes, because Sirius thought that while we were both James's good friends, compared to Sirius, I was less conspicuous and wouldn't easily attract the attention of You-Know-Who and other Death Eaters.
James and Lily followed Sirius's advice and changed the Secret-Keeper from Sirius to me at the last moment."
"And then you told Voldemort where James and Lily were?"
Professor McGonagall asked. At this moment she was like an angry lioness, her gaze at Peter wishing she could devour him.
"Yes, I told You-Know-Who where James and Lily lived."
Harry clenched his fists, his green eyes nearly shooting flames. Hermione and Ron quickly grabbed his arms from either side.
However, someone moved faster and more violently than Harry.
SLAP!
A crisp sound rang out. Unable to bear the anger in her heart any longer, Professor McGonagall slapped Peter hard across the face.
This wasn't enough. She raised her hand high again and backhanded another slap.
SLAP! SLAP! SLAP!
The clear, ringing sounds continued as Professor McGonagall, her chest heaving with rage, beat Peter until his mouth was bloody and he was literally searching for his teeth on the floor.
Seeing that McGonagall still wasn't satisfied and was about to strike again, Lupin quickly moved to stop her.
"Minerva, don't do this, don't—Minerva!"
"Let me go, Remus!"
Professor McGonagall struggled while saying angrily.
"We suspected so many people back then: Fenwick, Dearborn, Meadows, Vance but we never suspected him! Lily and James, Wormtail, how could you do this, how could you bring yourself to do it!"
At this moment, the constantly roaring Professor McGonagall had surprising strength. The somewhat thin Lupin could barely control her.
"Minerva, calm down. Anger will make you lose your reason."
At this moment, Dumbledore spoke.
He lightly waved his wand, casting some spell, and Professor McGonagall's struggling immediately lessened, allowing Professor Lupin to finally pull her aside.
"I'm sorry, Remus," Professor McGonagall took a deep breath and stopped struggling. "I was too impulsive just now."
Professor Lupin released Professor McGonagall.
Though his voice was calm, no one doubted the truth of his words at this moment. "Minerva, I hate him more than you do, and would even like to kill him but we haven't gotten to the bottom of this yet, and he's not worth dirtying your hands."
McGonagall took a deep breath and sat back down.
"Self-righteous cleverness."
After a brief silence, Sherlock spoke, though it was unclear whether he was talking about Sirius or Peter.
He slowly walked up to Peter Pettigrew and looked at Dumbledore. "Sir, may I ask him a few questions?"
"Of course."
Dumbledore let out a long sigh and stepped aside. "It's thanks to you that we caught him. This is your right."
"Thank you."
Sherlock said politely, then looked down at Peter, his gaze suddenly becoming sharp.
"Before Lily and James were killed, were you already passing information to Voldemort? Were you the traitor in the Order of the Phoenix?"
"It was me."
Although he was under the influence of Veritaserum, when Sherlock mentioned Voldemort's name, Peter still shuddered.
After being beaten by Professor McGonagall, his speech was somewhat slurred, but if everyone concentrated, they could hear clearly enough.
"Why did you betray the organization?"
"You-Know-Who was victorious everywhere. I didn't expect him to find me.
He was too powerful, so powerful that I couldn't summon any will to resist.
So, I became his spy in the Order of the Phoenix and passed him information for a year."
"When did you start working for Voldemort?"
"1980."
"You've been in our dormitory for three full years. Why didn't you ever hurt Harry?"
"You-Know-Who had vanished. Everyone said he was half-dead. I wasn't clear about his situation.
I didn't want to kill someone under Dumbledore's nose for a wizard who might be crippled and powerless.
Also, your observational skills were too formidable. If I made any rash move, you would spot the flaw."
"Heh, you're quite good at sizing up situations—so when were you planning to act?"
"When I was certain he had regained supremacy over the wizarding world, I would strike unexpectedly.
By that time, no one would say I'd betrayed my master. As long as I delivered Potter to him, I would be welcomed as a hero."
"Despicable!"
This time it was Hermione who couldn't help but express her strong contempt for Peter Pettigrew's behavior.
While Snape looked disdainful, his expression toward Lupin contained a hint of schadenfreude.
Lupin felt both angry and ashamed.
To think that I, Remus Lupin, a decent man, was once considered on par with this despicable villain—what a great humiliation!
Next, Sherlock asked Peter many more questions.
This was the most cooperative criminal Sherlock had ever known.
Under the influence of Veritaserum, Peter truly held nothing back.
However, for Sherlock, most of the questions were to verify his own deductions rather than simply seeking answers.
Because of this, as the questioning continued, the style became rather strange.
"Wormtail—is that you?"
"It's me."
"Who are Moony, Padfoot, and Prongs?"
"Remus, Sirius, James."
Harry and Lupin's eyes widened.
"Are all four of you Animagi?"
"Only three of us are. Remus isn't, he's a werewolf."
Ron's eyes widened too.
"Who else were the traitors in the Order of the Phoenix?"
"Severus Snape."
This time, everyone's eyes widened.
Especially Snape, whose look at Sherlock seemed like he wanted to eat him alive.
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