Chapter 6: Autumn, Spike, and Peter
They were about halfway to the hospital wing when they ran into two of their fellow Gryffindor,
Autumn and her twin brother Spike.
"Hey you two, where've
you been?" Autumn asked. "It's crazy, did you hear about Remus and-"
"Yeah we heard," James said shortly. "We're on our way to the
hospital wing now. Can you do me a humongous favor and find Peter for me? He should be there
too."
"No worries," Autumn said. "We can find
anyone."
"Hey, you two are the best source of news around
here," Lily said. "You hear everything before anyone else."
Spike grinned. "What can I say? It's a gift." He winked at his sister, who grinned
back.
"Well, any clues as to what happened to them?" Lily
asked.
The twins exchanged glances before answering.
"Well,'' Autumn said slowly, "nobody is entirely sure. We know they were
Stunned-"
"We overheard Madam Pomfrey talking to
Dumbledore" Spike cut in.
"- and I have a pretty good
guess as to who did it."
"Yeah, since your buddies
aren't the only ones in the hospital wing," Spike grinned. "Seems they knocked out a couple of their
assailants before they went down. Wished I hadn't missed the fun."
"Slytherins?" James asked.
"Need
you ask? C'mon man you're supposed to be smart!"
James
glared at Spike, and then shrugged it off. "Who says you missed all
the fun? We're going to go stay with them, so I can't do anything right now. If you should
just happen to come across the people responsible for
this..."
Spike's normally blue eyes turned green with the
promise of a good challenge. "Say no more, my man. We got you on this." he looked to his sister, who was
smiling a very mischievous grin.
"Five galleons say we find
them before lunch," Autumn challenged.
"You're
on." The twins whipped their wands out, nodded to James and Lily, and went to find Peter and wreak mayhem on a
couple Slytherins.
"Are you sure that was a good idea?"
Lily asked James as they resumed their quick pace to the hospital wing.
"Trust me," James said. "If I can trust anyone to handle this, it's those two. They know as
much about this castle as I do. And you don't duel with Spike and Autumn unless you fancy a month in St. Mungos.
They're practically guaranteed to be Aurors after school!"
"I want to be an Auror too!" said a squeaky voice behind them. Lily and James whirled around and came
face to face with Peter Pettigrew.
"Peter! Did the twins find
you already?" Lily asked.
"No. Were they supposed
to?" Peter looked fearfully at James, wringing his hands, as though he was supposed to be found somewhere and now
had to deal with the wrath of James. Lily felt a sure of impatience run through her. Peter always seemed as though he
was on the verge of tears or a nervous breakdown.
"Never
mind," James cut in. He was just as impatient as Lily. "Did you hear about Moony and Padfoot?" Lily
looked to James questioningly, having never heard their nicknames before, but James shook his head at her.
Not now, the look in his eyes said.
"Yeah I did,'' Peter squeaked.
"Well, c'mon, Lil' and I are sitting with them until they wake up." James
said.
"But it's almost time to eat..." Peter trailed
off at the look in James' eyes.
"Mother of god, Wormtail,
two of your best friends are in the hospital wing!!" James roared. "They'd be there in a flash if it were
you, why can't you do the same for them? Do you care about anything at all except
yourself?"
-----LONDON, NOV. 1--------
"Lily and James! Lily and James, Sirius, how could you?!" Peter screamed for the
whole street to hear. Tears streaming down his pudgy little face, his wand was held in his shaking hand and he aimed it
at the furious face of Sirius Black.
"I never realized what a
spectacular actor you are, Wormtail," Sirius said. His voice was soft, dangerous. "But then you must be. How
long have you been pulling this off?"
''MURDERER!!" Peter shrieked. The crowd of onlookers whispered something about fetching the police,
but Sirius didn't care.
"I AM NO SUCH THING!" Sirius
shouted. He advanced few steps on Peter, who shrank back from the towering figure. "What did he offer you,"
Sirius hissed quickly, ''power? Fame? All the usual things he's offered a hundred others? What do they
have, Peter? Death sentences. A future of Azkaban. Nothing. This is why you betrayed everyone?"
"No" Peter whispered. He was wringing his hands in his usual fashion.
Sirius saw something silver glint from between Peter's hands but wasted no thought on it.
"What then? I want to know the reason before I ruin your
life."
"Your life is ruined Sirius," Peter uttered
suddenly. "Mine is starting over again and I'll still get almost everything I was
promised."
"Almost?" Sirius was curious in spite of
himself. "What was the one thing you were promised that you won't get?"
Peter sucked in his breath in a harsh gasp and clutched his hands tightly. Blood
began to seep from between his fingers. He raised his eyes to Sirius and grinned the most un-Peter like grin Sirius had
ever seen. Wormtail's face was full of hatred and malice, not a shred of regret or anything resembling the old
Peter Pettigrew he'd spent half his life being friends with.
"You really want to know," Wormtail whispered cruelly. Wormtail stood on his feet, held his wand in his
left hand. His right hand was leaving drops of blood on the street. Wormtail tossed what he was holding in his hand to
Sirius, who caught it against his chest and looked at it.
Peter's finger.
Bile rose in Sirius' throat. With a
cry of revulsion, he tossed Wormtail's severed finger from him and looked with horror into the cold eyes of his
former friend.
Wormtail smiled grimly as he smiled at Sirius, who
still had his wand aimed at his face.
"Peter," Sirius
whispered.
"Peter is dead," Wormtail muttered. He slowly
lowered his own wand until it was pointing at the street right in front of him. "And that thing I
wanted?"
Sirius unconsciously stepped forward, for Wormtail
was speaking so quietly now he could hardly be heard.
Wormtail
looked straight into Sirius' eyes and said the last thing he would say to Sirius for (unknown to them both)
thirteen years.
"It was Lily."
And with that, the whole street exploded.