Sirius awoke, chained to a damp brick wall. He felt a little dozy, and his first thought was, This is a little clichéd for a prisoner isn’t it? After that, they rapidly got more and more panicked and urgent. Voldemort was there, and smiled maliciously as he began to twist his head around, searching for escape routes, counting how many people he would have to fight, and trying to get an idea of where he was. James, being an Auror, had given a lecture to the Order one meeting about what to do in a situation like this. He saw one, heavily bolted door (it was probably magically sealed too), counted seven Death Eaters in the room, plus Voldemort, but he had no idea where he was. Dark, dank room. No windows, so possibly underground, he thought to himself. Not much to go on.
“Sirius Black. How have you been?” Voldemort asked, as he reached slowly for his wand.
“Just dandy, Voldepants. And you? You’re looking peaky.”
“Where the Potters?”
“With the Pixie Queen Dandelion. Anything else?”
“Crucio!” Voldemort hissed. Sirius yelled out in pain, writhing as much as his chains would allow. Voldemort lifted the curse. Sirius spat at him.
Someone entered through the door. Sirius craned to see what might lie behind it, but there was just a corridor. He moved his attention to the person. Or persons.
Bellatrix was dragging LaLa behind her, who was tied up with ropes.
“LaLa,” Voldemort said, turning to her. Now that he was not the centre of attention, Sirius tried to get out of his chains, but they were magically sealed to the wall, giving him no chance.
“She tried to escape,” he heard Bellatrix say, but he didn’t look round, having noticed that the Death Eater nearest to him had a wand sticking out of his pocket. If he could just reach it ...
“Oh, really? But you and I used to be friends, LaLa. You can’t have gone off me so suddenly. Unless of course you were brainwashed.” Voldemort whipped around again, to see Sirius leaning towards the careless Death Eater as much as his restraints would allow. “Macnair, be more careful about where you keep your wand. And Black, I wouldn’t try it. There’s only one way you’re getting out alive, and that’s if you tell me where the Potters are.”
“Right on one count, there is only one way I can get out. But you’ll kill me if I tell you or not, you won’t let me walk out here. Not after all the trouble I’ve caused. The only way out is if I kill you all.”
“And since that won’t happen with no wand, then you might as well tell me, and die quickly.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Crucio,” Voldemort said, simply, and Sirius was filled with pain again. LaLa tried to escape, to stop her old master, but it was no use.
“Let her go,” Sirius hissed at him when the spell lifted and he gathered some strength. “What’s one Death Eater to you?”
“Black, you are absolutely right. Her life means nothing to me. I could let her go. But then again, I could just flick my wand, and ... she would no longer trouble me.”
“No. No way. Let her go free! She can’t tell you anything, just let her “”
He casually pointed his wand at LaLa. “Avada Kedavra. You see, Sirius, I don’t do what you tell me to. It’s the other way around. So, tell me, where is the Potter family hiding?”
“Go to hell!” Sirius yelled with all his might. He wouldn’t let on that he couldn’t tell Voldemort anyway, as they had changed who would be Secret-Keeper. But at least it would protect Peter for now. He also wouldn’t let himself look at the ground. He kept his eyes on Voldemort, and tried to ignore the figure lying on the floor in the corner of his eye.
There was a knock on the large door. Voldemort nodded his head at Bellatrix, who sneered at Sirius, and went to see the person behind it.
“How do you know it’s not the Order, come to get me back?” asked Sirius, trying to play a kind of mind game on Voldemort.
“Because they do not know that you have even been taken, let alone where we are.”
“They’re smarter than you think.”
“Undoubtedly, but not quite smart enough. And anyway, behind that door is one of my followers.”
The door opened, to reveal a slightly plump man, Sirius’s age, with watery eyes.
“You see! It’s Peter! I told you the Order knew where I was!”
Everyone in the room began to laugh, except Sirius (and Peter, who looked shamefully at the ground).
“Peter?” Sirius said to his friend.
“Peter, Peter!” Bellatrix mimicked. “What are you doing here? Why aren’t you saving me gallantly?”
Peter seemed to have decided to ignore them both, and instead moved towards Voldemort. He bowed, and then stood again. “I have information. The Potters. They live at “”
“Peter, no! They’re your friends, what are you doing? Lily and James! Little baby Harry!”
Peter wavered, but pretended not to hear. He ploughed on defiantly, although there was a new tremor in his voice. “They’re at Godric’s Hollow.”
“No! Peter you “” There was a long string of swear words, which finally ended with, ““ man-whore!”
“Man-whore?” asked Bellatrix, seemingly impressed at this inventiveness during such circumstances.
“You are sure? How do you know? This worthless filth is their Secret-Keeper!” Voldemort indicated Sirius.
“Damn right I am! The most secret, Secret-Keeper there ever was! Don’t listen to him, he’s always been stupid!”
Peter winced, but still ignored him. “They changed it to me two days ago, and this is the first opportunity I had to come and tell you. I’m sorry I was late, Master.”
“Well, let us go. Macnair, Crabbe and Goyle, you stay here to watch the impostor Secret-Keeper, I’ll be back to kill him later. Just be sure he doesn’t escape while I go and kill his friends.”
They had soon all gone, and Sirius was left alone with the three. They didn’t stay anything, just stood, watching him try to escape his chains. Eventually, the energy seemed to just deflate from him. He kept remembering all the times as a Marauder. And now look. James was probably going to die. Peter was evil. He had been falsely suspicious of Remus. And he was chained to a wall, Merlin only knew where.
How could he have been suspicious of Remus, when Peter was clearly the most likely to be a spy? And after all they had done for him.
He got an idea. “Hey, you,” he said to one of the Death Eaters. It was Crabbe, who looked up at him. “Yeah. You. Listen, since I’m going to die anyway, is there a chance you could reach the little hand mirror in my pocket, and hold it in front of my face? I want to go out looking good. You know?”
Crabbe looked at him like he was insane. Well, desperation can do that to people.
“No? Come on, I won’t do anything funny. I really am as vain as the rumours say, you see, and I just want to be doubly sure that I die looking the best I can.”
Crabbe turned away. It was no use. But he got another idea. It was so simple, he was almost disgusted with himself for not thinking of it sooner. But he would do all that bit later, once he was free.
He transformed into a dog, and easily slipped out of the cuffs tying him to the wall. None of the Death Eaters were watching him, so surprise was on his side as he leapt, and bit the closest. He transformed back into himself, stole the wand of the fallen Death Eater, who was rolling around in agony, and stunned all three of them.
The rest was going to be easy.
His old flying motorbike was in the courtyard at the back of the shop. He used to ride it all the time when Lola was alive, to take her on the back of it. And when she died, he sometimes took it out to try and forget all his pain as he flew through the clouds. Sometimes it worked, but when he came back down, and everything came back to him, it hit him twice as hard. It had been sitting unused for a long time, but he decided that he would use it now to go to the Potter’s. If they were injured, or if he had to take Harry to safety, he didn’t really want to side-along apparate.
The journey seemed to go by in a flash. It was dark, and cold “ after all, it was the end of October. But when he reached Godric’s Hollow, there was nothing but ruins. He slid off the bike, and could feel himself shaking. But maybe, there would be a chance ... They could have escaped ...
He saw a huge figure emerging from the clouds of dust. He could tell it was the Gamekeeper of Hogwarts, Hagrid. None of it made sense. All he could hear was a loud buzzing noise inside his head.
“Sirius Black?”
“Hagrid. Hagrid, what happened? Where are they? What about Harry?”
“I’ve got ‘im. But as fer Lily an’ James ...”
Sirius fell backwards, the motorbike catching his fall. Hagrid went over and comforted him for a while. Eventually, some sense sank, slowly into his mind. He had promised Lily that he would protect Harry if anything happened to them. He remembered the look of relief on Lily’s face, how she’d calmed at his words, like she completely trusted him. He wasn’t giving in now.
“Harry. Give him to me, Hagrid. I’m his Godfather, I’ll look after him.”
“No. Dumbledore’s orders, I’m afraid. He’s ter go ter his aunt an’ uncle’s.”
“Please, Hagrid. You can’t mean Lily’s sister? She hates them both, it’s not what they would have wanted. Hagrid, please.”
“I’m sorry, I really am. But it’s Dumbledore’s orders. An’ I can’t go back on ‘em.”
Sirius knew it was no use. But there was one thing he could do to help. “Take my bike. I won’t need it any more.”
He disapparated to wherever Peter might be.
Sirius appeared in a small alley. He looked around. Peter wasn’t here. Instead he ran towards the main street that it led to, and sure enough, he could see the traitor’s retreating back.
It didn’t take long to catch up, and he grabbed him by the back of his robes, then pinned him against the wall. Muggles were staring. Sirius took out his wand, and pointed it a Peter Pettigrew’s heart, ready to kill. It didn’t matter about the consequences.
Peter chuckled. “You found me, then.”
“You murdered Lily and James. They were your friends. They had a son “ a fifteen month old son, Peter. He’ll never know his parents, because of you.”
“And you’re going to kill me?”
“Damn right I am,” Sirius spat, but as he spoke words from long ago drifted into his mind.
You’re not a murderer, Sirius. Keep it that way. It was what Lily had said to him, after taking him away from Bellatrix when Lola was killed. The thought of Lola, of Lily, of James, or what would become of Harry’s future was too much. He began to lower his wand, only slightly.
“Lily and James, Sirius! How could you?” Peter cried, noticing this weakness. There was an Earth-Shaking explosion behind them, Peter took out a dagger in his pocket, and cut off his finger, then transformed and scurried away.
Sirius swivelled round, wand still in hand, surveying the chaos. Bodies of Muggles. Surviving Muggles screaming. And all because of little Peter.
***
“And you, rodent boy? Who are you?”
“Peter Pettigrew, sir,” the boy squeaked, hoping that Sirius would like him too.
“Well, you’ll do I suppose!”
***
“Um, I don’t really like any girls yet. Like I said, I don’t see the rush,” he muttered, looking away.
“Me neither! Girls are boring. And they smell like flowers,” Peter said, supporting Remus, before James or Sirius could jump in and start chastising all over the place.
***
Peter arrived on time, and soon he was being introduced to Mrs Potter as well. Peter, however, was apparently not too thin for his age, Mrs Potter subtly didn’t give him quite as much to eat as Sirius.
***
“So, you think he’s lying to us? Why would he do that?” Peter asked. “He’s our friend.”
“Well, maybe he’s embarrassed,” James suggested. “Once a month, right? What kind of things can happen monthly?”
“My mum gets really moody about once a month,” Peter said. James started coughing and Sirius quickly cut in.
“I don’t think that has anything to do with it.”
***
After a couple of minutes of small talk, Peter blurted out, “Remus, are you in an evil organisation?”
***
“It’ll be fantastic!” Peter exclaimed, almost jumping up and down. “Hey, do you know what would be great?”
“If you could snort chocolate from your nostrils?” suggested Sirius. Remus and James spluttered with laughter.
“No,” Peter said, matter-of-factly, “if we had nicknames to do with our animals.”
James grinned. “Hey, that’s a great idea! You can be called Ratty, I can be called Staggy, Sirius “ Doggy, and Remus, Wolfy!”
***
James sighed. “It’s so weird. What are we meant to do with our spare time?”
“I think it’s traditional to get a job,” Remus stated. Sirius, James and Peter stared at him.
“What do you mean?” Peter asked. Lola smacked her hand on her forehead, but Lily just looked exasperated.
***
“You mean I was attracted to a man?” asked Peter, looking horrified.
“Peter, there are some things in life that you just don’t admit,” James said, laughingly patting him on the shoulder.
***
“Okay. I think you have a problem here. Is this about that fight last month that you’ve been itchy from ever since?”
“No, Jack, I just can’t decide what to have for my lunch,” he said, sarcastically.
“Well, I always say that a cheese and pickle sandwich hits the spot perfectly,” Peter piped up.
“Wormtail, once again, your mouth is open, words are coming out, but I really don’t think anyone’s inside that head of yours.”
***
And now he had betrayed two of his closest friends. And, Sirius realised, as Ministry officials apparated all around him, he had successfully pinned the whole thing “ as well as the murders of about thirteen Muggles “ on him, Sirius.
He began to laugh.
AN: Well, that’s it. They’re dead. Peter has gone. Sirius has been captured. Three guesses what the next chapter is about. But the way, the little “Peter-montage” was to show that even though he’s evil in the end, Peter hadn’t used to be. He was a bit of a tool, but I think, reading back on those quotes, he was a loveable tool. Until he went evil, of course. Anyway, that’s what I was trying to prove there. Please review.
And for some blatant advertising, I have a new one shot up in the Other Pairings called "Azkaban Mistry"! It starts with Sirius being put in Azkaban, but is NOT part of this fic - it is a completely different story. What happens in that does NOT happen in this.