First of all, that would probably work about as well as trying to convince Patil that the insect invasion was just the result of someone keeping chocs in her trunk.

Second, even if I could convince him I had nothing to do with the rat breakout, once they found the rat they'd take it away from me, and the horrible things that happen to Carrow's rats would be a lot worse if it were a rat I'd kept as a pet.

He has both magical and non-magical rats in that cage in his classroom, I think.

If it happened at the very end of the year, right before we left for the summer...it would still be a bad idea.