The next morning, Hagrid discovered Peter Pettigrew's body while watering his vegetable patch. By then, the body had reverted to human form, rather than remaining an easily overlooked rat.
When Draco, Hermione, and Harry hurried over, they found him lying where Crookshanks had brought up the dead rat the day before, his mutilated face frozen somewhere between fear, blankness, and surprise.
Draco was not surprised by this.
An Animagus reverts gradually to human form after being gravely injured, since there is no longer any magic left to sustain the transformation; the same is true after an Animagus dies.
"Do not look, Hermione, he has been rather horribly gnawed." Draco stepped in front of Hermione, blocking her view. "I would suggest brushing Crookshanks' teeth."
Hermione pressed her lips together, glanced at the ground, and turned instead to examine the enormous pumpkin Hagrid had grown.
"Hermione, what is going on between you and that Malfoy boy?" Hagrid set down his bucket of water beside a great pumpkin, looking troubled.
He bent down and whispered, "Did he not upset you terribly yesterday? How is it you are all friendly with him again today? And how did he suddenly turn up beside you last night? Are you all right? He will not go telling everyone, will he?"
"Oh, Hagrid, do not worry. He was simply passing by last night, and he helped us a great deal. He will keep last night to himself. As for the other business, he apologised to me afterwards," Hermione said, shrugging as if to say, I must admit, I may have been a little foolish yesterday.
"A Slytherin student! Helping, of all things? Hermione, do not forget, all the Dark wizards come out of that House, and the Malfoys were once followers of You-Know-Who! Do not forget that,"
Hagrid said warily. "Hermione, mind you are not taken in by him!"
"Do not worry, Hagrid. To me, he is simply a friend from the House next door." Hermione's face showed a hint of pride, as though she were trying to convince herself of it too.
Yes, she had worked it out. She could not simply ignore Draco, nor could she bear a second blow to her heart.
Let them just remain friends, then. Keep a safe distance, just as he once had from her.
Let things stay as they are now, Hermione thought, glancing at the boy talking to Harry, trying to calm her racing heart.
After all, she had endless essays to write and mountains of revision to get through, so she had no energy to spare for dwelling on this matter!
Then, Hermione took a deep breath, changed the subject, and asked cheerfully, "Speaking of which, I have been meaning to ask, how did you cast an Engorgement Charm on this pumpkin? Did you use your big pink umbrella?"
"Ah, er, um..." Hagrid suddenly grew flustered. He knocked over the bucket beside him, then hastily set it right again. "Hermione, would you like a little something? I will fetch some rock cakes..."
Amid the clatter of Hagrid's buckets, Harry stood silently to one side, staring at Peter Pettigrew's corpse with deep fear and disgust.
"He died so suddenly, and so easily," he said to Draco.
"It was an accident," Draco said. He was thinking of the cat Crookshanks.
An ordinary cat could not kill an Animagus, unless it were descended from some magical creature, like Crookshanks.
He had been remarkably clever, appearing at the right place at the right moment, moving freely between the two timelines they had created, and ultimately achieving something quite extraordinary.
Though cats and rats have been at odds since time out of mind, he had seemed particularly set against this rat, as though there were some deep private grudge between them.
Draco did not believe such an intelligent magical creature could fail to tell a common rat from an Animagus.
It might well have been a personal score to settle, rather than mere instinct.
Draco glanced over at Hermione, smiling and talking to Hagrid in the distance... she had always seemed rather fond of Crookshanks.
What was done was done, and there seemed little point pursuing it further. She would hardly want to lose her cat over it.
Finally, he said to Harry in an offhand tone, "Cats catch rats."
The dark-haired boy said nothing to that, shifting his gaze instead to the great pumpkin beside him, still looking rather confused.
Yesterday's events felt to him like some long, hollow nightmare.
Seeing Harry so downcast, Draco felt a surge of sympathy.
Harry must have been through a great deal last night.
So he changed the subject, determined to lift the boy's spirits. "Harry, I must say, I have watched you grow up."
"What do you mean?" Harry asked, confused.
"Three years, and you have finally learned to use your wand instead of simply throwing punches," Draco said with satisfaction. "That Patronus Charm was very well cast indeed."
"Oh, thank you. It is not like you to say a compliment." Harry grinned. "But why do I sense a hint of sarcasm in there somewhere?"
"Honestly, I would have been rather more pleased if you had not tried to crawl beneath the Whomping Willow with your bare hands last night, or gone toe-to-toe with a werewolf," Draco teased him.
"Thinking about it, it seems you have not much outgrown that Gryffindor habit of tangling with dangerous creatures."
"Oh, that is rich, coming from a Slytherin who threw himself bodily in front of a werewolf," Harry chuckled.
"Draco, where was your wand, then? Why... why did you abandon all that caution of yours and do something so reckless, the very sort of thing you have always disapproved of?"
"I do not know," Draco said quietly, his eyes still fixed on Hermione as she spoke to Hagrid.
Harry, standing beside him, looked at him curiously, then at her, and finally shook his head with a slight smile.
Soon after, the Minister for Magic, Fudge, arrived in a hurry.
As ever, he wore his lime-green bowler hat and pinstriped cloak. He personally examined the body in the vegetable patch and at once pronounced it to be Peter Pettigrew himself.
"He must have been set upon by some great beast from the Forbidden Forest." Fudge examined the mutilated body for a while, making a disapproving tutting sound. "Look at these wounds, so ragged."
"In that case, there is surely no further need for the Dementors to remain stationed at Hogwarts?" Professor Dumbledore said with a smile beside him, his silver beard gleaming in the morning sun.
"Quite so, quite so. I shall have them removed at once. Lucius Malfoy has complained about the Dementors any number of times; now I can finally give him an answer."
Fudge's plump face radiated satisfaction. "And the whole business of Peter Pettigrew is settled at last, too; I need no longer live in dread of it..."
He glanced at the face of a large gold pocket watch hanging from his waistcoat, bade Dumbledore farewell, and hurried off happily.
"I received Hagrid's owl almost the moment I arrived in London, so I hurried straight back. It has been quite a night. Fortunately, you all managed perfectly well without my help, did you not?"
Dumbledore said with a smile to the figures standing on the ridge.
His keen eyes were hidden behind his half-moon spectacles. On this crisp morning, with everything settled at last, he seemed the very picture of kindness.
Harry, Hermione, and Draco gave him an embarrassed smile. They had told Dumbledore only part of the truth; the matter of Hermione's Time-Turner had been quietly left out.
None of them wished to bring trouble upon her.
But Draco suspected Dumbledore had already seen through it, and had simply chosen not to mention it. Nothing can be hidden from his Legilimency.