Unfortunately, Pettigrew was too quick. “Impedimenta,” his squeaky voice rang out.
“Unhhh!” Sirius cried as he was knocked back. Pettigrew took off running down the roads of Godric’s Hollow. “Oh, no you don’t!” CRACK. Sirius apparated in front of Pettigrew, cutting off his escape. “Worthless coward! Your nickname suits you more than ever now, Wormtail. Because you are just a worm. A worthless, stupid, little worm that can’t even see the light of day from all of his hiding!”
“What are you doing, S-Sirius?”
“Fighting you, of course!”
“B-but, we are friends! We are friends!”
“Oh, really? Then how long until you have me killed?! YOU ARE NO FRIEND OF MINE!”
“Y-you can’t fight me! Lily, James, th-they wouldn’t have wanted this!”
Sirius called Peter something rather unkind at this point. “HOW DARE YOU! You kill Lily and James and now you can’t even defend yourself! Why I didn’t finish you off in the Hog’s Head I don’t know, but I can correct that mistake.” With no trace of any hesitation, Sirius raised his wand again. “Avada”“
“Silencio!” Pettigrew’s spell rendered Sirius speechless, and this time he changed into a rat before he took off once again into the dawn. Fuming with rage, Sirius performed the countercurse and once again apparated in front of Wormtail.
Sirius shot a blue-white spell at the rat, who returned to human. “You never could apparate well enough to save your life, Wormtail, and now it’s going to cost you. You can’t spend this entire duel running away.”
“I”I can try! Stupefy!” But this time Sirius was ready.
“Protego!” The magical shield reflected the stunner and Pettigrew was knocked cold onto the street. Sirius grinned happily at finally stopping his prey. “At last, this is the moment! Expelliarmus! Ennervate!” Pettigrew’s fearful eyes shot open as his wand went flying several feet away. He slowly looked into his attacker’s cold face. “I want you to witness this. I want you to be awake when you feel the life ripped from your body, just as it happened to Lily and James. You deserve that at least.”
“B-but, Sirius, l-look.” Pettigrew fearfully motioned behind himself as he slowly got up. Sirius glanced behind his opponent. A small crowd of muggles had approached and had undoubtedly witnessed the recent spells hurled at each other. One of them was carrying a tank of some kind. “Y-y-you can’t, not here. They’ll see,” Wormtail uttered, getting to his feet and slowly moving towards his wand.
Sirius let out a long bark of laughter, failing to notice Wormtail recovering his wand. “I’m about to perform an Unforgivable Curse here, Peter. Really think I care about what a few muggles see?”
“No, y-you can’t! You can’t kill me! Impedimenta!” Sirius was knocked off of his feet again. “We are friends, Sirius, you can’t murder me!” he cried in desperation. Sirius slowly got up and stared down Wormtail. His rage was beyond shouting now.
“Crucio!”
Peter fell to the floor in a crumpled heap, screaming and twitching violently. White hot pain raced up and down his body, as if a thousand knives were piercing every inch of him. “You deserve this pain, Wormtail, because this is what I am feeling right now! Three of my closest friends gone! The Potters, dead, and you, you’re not the Peter I knew. But don’t worry, you can join them soon.” The muggle with the tank was so stunned by this recent sorcery that he dropped his item and it rolled across the street, a small distance behind Wormtail. The frightened duelist, very slowly getting up, glanced around to locate the sound, and suddenly had a triumphant smile upon his face.
“Accepted your death finally, filth?” Sirius shot.
“Hardly!” Peter said with surprising vigor in his voice. “I’ve found a way out! Tell me, Sirius, how many people know that I was the Secret-Keeper?”
“You, me, Dumbledore, and the Potters, but you’ve gotten them out of the way, haven’t you now? Why does it matter? Do you really want to drag this out? You know you’re going to die!”
“Oh no, I’m not. That’s right, after this, only Dumbledore will matter, and he won’t be able to do anything about it. You’ll get blamed for the Potters’ deaths,” Peter said confidently.
“And just what makes you think that that’s going to happen?”
But Wormtail didn’t respond this time, instead, he pointed his wand at one of his own fingers and said, “Diffindo! AAHHHH!” His finger was ripped from his hand and fell to the floor in a bloody mess.
“Have you gone mad with your treachery already? What’s wrong with you?!” Sirius yelled.
”Oh, Sirius, how could you?! You killed them, you killed Lily and James!” Peter yelled over Sirius, loud enough for the growing crowd to hear, fake sobbing to boot.
“What are you doing now, you fool?”
“Just ensuring that you take the fall! Enjoy Azkaban, Padfoot!” Peter said viciously.
“I will, as long as you die! Avada---“ Sirius never had time to complete his spell, for Wormtail aimed his wand behind his back and said, “Reducto!”