Chapter 4
Endings
There were three of them sitting in the dark room, and with the somewhat questionable company, Peter was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable. Snape was sitting in the corner looking bored, as he always did, speaking to Lucius Malfoy in hushed tones, and leaving Peter to sit quietly on the floor trying to hear what they were saying.
But suddenly, they stopped talking, as the door flew open, and a dark figure walked in.
Peter was holding his breath. He did that a lot these days. He found that he was frightened about 99% of the time now. But that was ok. He had made his decision and he was happy enough with it. It would all turn out all right in the end.
"Well?" his master said as he entered the room. "This had better be good, Malfoy."
"Oh, it is my lord. It is of utmost importance," said Malfoy, bowing. "I have spent the last few months doing the work you have set for me, and I have finally found him-the one to whom the prophecy refers."
"It's about time," the dark lord said, sounding quite bored. "Well? Who is it?"
"Well," Lucius said, pausing slightly, "there are actually two possibilities. Both Neville Longbottom and Harry Potter were born at the end of July, and both of their parents have escaped you three times."
Voldemort stood and began pacing. "Hmm… two boys… Well, I shall have to kill both of them myself… But which shall die first?"
Snape sneered. "Well, the Longbottom boy is pureblooded, but Harry Potter's mother is a Mudblood, so it is easy to see the bigger threat, My Lord."
Voldemort kept pacing as if he hadn't heard Snape at all. "They will all have gone into hiding by now, of course. I assume they will have a secret keeper. I will find the Potters first."
Snape and Malfoy looked shocked at this, but they knew better than to disagree with their master.
Voldemort continued. "But it may take a while to find their secret keeper. After that it will be simple."
Peter stood proudly. "My Lord, I believe I may be of some assistance. You see, the Potters have made me their secret keeper."
Voldemort laughed. "Very good, Wormtail. Then it is done. Soon enough I shall be unstoppable. Now, leave me."
Sanpe and Malfoy rose and bowed themselves from the room, but Peter lagged behind. "M-my Lord? I was only wondering if you will kill the boy's parents," he said, trembling with nervousness for what he was about to ask.
Voldemort paused only for a moment, and said calmly, "You wish me to spare Lily Potter," reading Peter's thoughts.
"Y-yes, my Lord."
Voldemort paused again, and said, "Very well. I shall kill the child, and his father, but the woman shall be spared."
"Oh, thank you, Master," Peter said, stumbling from the room. He walked from the building smiling and thinking of everything he would do once James was dead, but paused for a moment.
He had handed an innocent baby over to death. Was that wrong? But it wasn't really his fault… The Dark Lord had other ways of getting what he wanted, and even if Peter hadn't told him where the Potters were, he still would have found them eventually, wouldn't he?
Peter tossed this from his mind as quickly as it had entered, and thought only that soon, James would get what was coming to him, and Lily would be his.
*
It was a few days until the night that the Dark Lord had chosen to kill the Potters, and Peter was starting to get very anxious. He had to see it, even if he would be punished for it.
On the night of the great event, Peter transformed into a rat, and scurried along the street to the Potters house. He had to sit there for a while before his master arrived and it almost made him sick to watch James and Lily sitting together with their baby, talking and laughing. The only thing that got him through was the thought that it would all be over soon.
But finally, Peter saw the shadow at the end of the street that meant his master had arrived, and he was filled with anticipation.
The Dark Lord was at their door now, and he simply took out his wand, and walked in.
James jumped up as the most evil wizard that ever existed walked into their living room. He shouted at his wife, "Lily, it's him! Take Harry and run!" Peter laughed as James pulled out his wand and stood tall, ready to fight. But he never got the chance to fight for his loved ones, simply falling in a flash of green light.
Voldemort stepped over James' lifeless body and walked up the stairs to the nursery, where Lily was placing Harry gently in his cot, with tears in her eyes. Peter watched her through the window, and felt suddenly upset that he had put her through this. But he would be there to comfort her, and she would get over this. She would be spared.
She stood boldly in front of Harry's cot as the Dark Lord entered. Peter watched in horror as she refused to give up her child, and wanted to cry out as his master raised his wand and spoke the dreaded words.
Peter couldn't breathe as he watched her fall to the ground. He transformed back into a man and ran into the house. Nothing mattered, only that he get to her in time. He had to do something. She just couldn't be dead.
But when he got to the nursery, Voldemort hadn't been there like he expected. Lily was there, her eyes staring blankly at the ceiling, and Peter could hear the baby crying in his cot, but the Dark Lord had vanished.
How could it be that the boy had lived, but his master had gone? Peter spun around. "My Lord? Master? Are you alright?" He waited for an answer, but instead heard the faraway rumbling of an all too familiar motorbike.
He ran to the window just in time to see Sirius landing his motorbike outside the house, with a nauseous-looking Hagrid hanging on tightly on the back.
"You go on in," Sirius said to his slightly green friend. "Tell Lily and James I'm just parking my motorbike and I'll be in in a minute."
Peter panicked as Hagrid entered he house. He had nowhere to go, and he just couldn't think of anything to do. Perhaps he could feed them some story about how he had just saved the baby from certain death? But he quickly realized the Sirius would see through that immediately. In fact, as soon as Sirius saw what had happened, he would know that Peter was the traitor. There was no other way Voldemort could have found the Potters.
Peter's state of utter panic increased rapidly as Hagrid's voice rang out, "Sirius! Come quick! It's James-he's dead!"
Peter had never seen Sirius move faster than he did at that moment. His treasured motorbike fell forgotten to the ground as he burst into the Potters' house.
"Hagrid, go find Lily and Harry!" he shouted, but his voice held no hope.
As Peter heard Hagrid stomping up the stairs, he knew he had only seconds before he was discovered. But suddenly it hit him. Was he an Animagus or not? He transformed just as Hagrid burst through the door, and quickly scurried under Harry's cot.
Hagrid howled when he saw Lily's body, and knelt over her for a moment, when a cry came from the cot. Hagrid leapt up immediately, and rushed over to the baby. He was silent for a moment, in awe that he had survived when his parents had not, and then shouted, "Sirius! He's here! Harry's alive!"
In just a few short moments, Sirius was standing next to Hagrid, peering into the cot at the sleeping baby, but there was a darkness in his eyes that Peter had never seen before. He spoke slowly, and his voice was sad and haunted. "Dumbledore will have to be notified. I expect you'll have to take the baby to him." He took a deep breath. "You can take my motorbike. I won't need it anymore."
Peter knew then that he had heard enough, and silently scurried down the stairs, out the open door, and into the street, where he thought it would be safe enough to transform. He did so quickly, and then looked slowly up to the nursery window. His stomach jolted as he saw Sirius, glaring furiously back at him.
He knew. He had to know what Peter had done. How could he not?
Almost immediately, Peter apparated to his apartment, but quickly realized that it would be the first place Sirius would look if he was chasing him, and so he ran from the room, knocking over his possessions as he went. Just as he got to the door, he heard the pop behind him telling him the it was indeed the first place that Sirius had looked.
It was a race down the stairs, Sirius shouting furiously, "Come back here, you… you rat!" but Peter's mind was working faster than it had ever done, because he knew that if he didn't think of something quickly, he would surely be killed.
Finally, Peter burst out into the street, where Muggles seemed to be everywhere. Sirius was quite a few steps behind him, so he had just enough time to pull out a dagger from his belt, and cut off his finger before turning to face Sirius. It hurt more than he could ever have imagined, but it would save his life in the end.
Sirius burst into the street, but stopped dead when he saw Peter facing him, and pointed his wand directly at Peter's chest. By this time, the Muggles had stopped what they were doing, and were watching the two men intently, wondering what was going on.
Peter caught this opportunity and shouted, "Lily and James, Sirius! How could you?!"
Sirius looked a bit baffled by this outburst, and Peter couldn't help but grin slightly before blowing up the entire street.
In the chaos that insued, Peter quickly dropped his severed finger on the ground, and transformed, sneaking into the sewers, quite happy with himself. After all, life as a rat was better than no life at all…
*
Peter the rat spent the next month or so doing nothing more than searching wizards' rubbish bins for old Daily Prophets, reading articles of Sirius Black's arrestm and of the wonderful Harry Potter, and waiting for any news of his master. But it was a boring life as a rat, and there had been no sign at all of the Dark Lord, so Peter had become resigned to a tedious rat's life, when, in one particular rubbish bin, he was seen by a plump woman with bright red hair, who promptly began to scream.
At this, a boy with the same flaming hair ran out of the house, obviously quite worried, and said, "What's wrong, Mum? Everything alright?"
"Oh yes. Yes, Charlie. Everything's fine," she said, catching her breath. "It's just a rat in our rubbish bin."
Charlie nodded slowly, and then gave Peter a closer look. "Look at that, Mum. It looks as if he's trying to read the Daily Prophet!" The two of them had a good laugh at this, because everyone knows that rats don't read newspapers, and then the boy said, "Hey! Can I keep him, Mum? I promise I'll take care of him!"
"But Charlie, it's just a mangy old rat!" said his mother, but at the pleading look he gave her, she sighed and said, "Oh, all right, I suppose so."
Charlie picked him up, and Peter sighed. Maybe it wouldn't be as boring being a pet rat. And at least they would feed him.
"I think I'll call him Scabbers," the boy said, and he carried him inside.
And you know the rest.
Well, that's it… Hope everybody liked it.
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