Shampoo147: THIS IS FOR YOU, TALAMBUS!
Ayame: Talambus correctly guessed a movie reference in another one of our stories, What I Want, so we're dedicating this story here for the anamynous reviewer Talambus. Love you!
Garfield: We do not own Harry Potter and characters, and the song is "Precious" by (I think it's Depeche Mode). If you have any corrections for us, please review and tell us so we can fix it. By the way, WARNING: This story contains strong violence and twisted psychology.
Precious and fragile things
Need special handling
My god, what have we done to you?
Precious
Peter Pettigrew was small. It wasn't just his height, he was scrawny and mousey, in every way unremarkable. He knew this, so he was proud and grateful to have such great friend like Sirius, Remus, and James. He felt so happy that they seemed to like him.
While they were on the train to their first year of Hogwarts, Peter had been bullied by some purebloods that enjoyed making fun of his parents, both of whom were squibs; he was lower than muggleborns to them. Then James Potter and Sirius Black scared them off, along with Remus Lupin. They had invited him to sit with them and he had been with them ever since.
He knew quite well what he was to them, a charity case. He was a pathetic tag-along that no one liked. They were the popular ones and Peter was very happy to allow them to take all of the spotlight they wanted, even going so far as to shine the spotlight on them himself. It made him seem even more pathetic, but he didn't mind; although he did feel a bit sorry for the people they made fun of.
Just a little bit.
Currently, Peter was making his way to the Hogwarts' kitchen, since his friends had the munchies and didn't want to go down themselves; Peter had volunteered and now he had the Marauder's Map and James' invisibility cloak to take some sweet pastries.
Suddenly he heard the unmistakable sounds of someone smashing windows and he ducked into an alcove, forgetting that he was invisible. As the sounds continued, Peter hesitantly inched forward to see who was the perpetrator.
We always tried to share
The tenderest of care
Now look what we have put you through
"Mother-fucking, pieces of shit!" Severus Snape roared as he threw a quaffle through the majestic Hogwarts' windows, paying no mind to the mess and noise he was making. He got in enough trouble that it would actually be nice to get detention for something that was his fault. The marauders, a group of popular troublemakers, had a habit of getting him into trouble and the teachers, biased as they were, always believed the Gryffindors over him and his friends, the Slytherins. Even Lily, his best friend of almost ten years, turned her back on him.
He knew why, she had wanted him to resent his house and have nothing in common with his fellow Slytherins; but instead he had connected with them and gained several friends who liked him as he was, snarky and all. Lily couldn't handle it and broke off their friendship.
It hurt, but it was when she started dating Potter, his tormentor, that he had snapped. He had called her a lioness whore who couldn't keep her cubs in line. She had snapped that he was a good-for-nothing Slytherin snake who couldn't be trusted. The fight had finished when Potter hexed him for yelling that she was simply a snake of a different color.
That had been that.
Things get damaged
Things get broken
I thought we'd manage
But what's left unspoken
"No good assholes!" He screamed as he threw his final quaffle and promptly released a bludger; picking up a bat in the process. As the bludger came back at him, he hit it towards a suit of armor, knocking over Peter Pettigrew in the process.
"What the sodding hell?" Severus exclaimed as he saw Pettigrew suddenly appear and fall over, bearing a bruise from the bludger. Peter squeaked and tried to run away, but Snape was faster and promptly caught him.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here? The Gryffindor tag-along." Snape sneered as he dragged Pettigrew with him. Pettigrew was one of James' friends, wasn't he? Suddenly Snape got a very nasty idea for a type of revenge against Potter.
Left us so brittle
There was so little
Left to do
Peter couldn't stop his scream of pain as Snape slammed him into the glass covered floor and the glass penetrated his skin. Snape growled at the noise and threw him against the wall with inhuman strength, hearing a satisfying crack; indicating that he had broken something in the rat's body.
"Be quiet, do you want the teachers to come along and ruin our little game?" Snape sneered, "You do, don't you? Typical, no regard for what others want." Snape spat at the pathetic Gryffindor and raised a silencing ward. Due to Hogwarts' magic and his own power, it wouldn't last very long; but neither would Pettigrew.
"You'd do anything for your friends, wouldn't you, Pettigrew?" Snape sneered as he picked Peter up and threw him at a knight's armor. "Answer me!" Snape snapped as he picked Pettigrew up and held him at face level. Peter weakly nodded.
Sneering again, Snape dragged Pettigrew with him to the window, "Make a choice, your friends or your life." Snape growled as he pulled Peter to the window, nonverbally threatening to throw him out.
Peter was terrified, he had never seen this kind of madness before, "M-my friends!"
Angels with silver wings
Shouldn't know suffering
I wish I could take the pain for you
"Wrong choice." Snape growled. With no ceremony, he tightened his grip on Pettigrew's neck and slammed him through the window, feeling a sickening sense of satisfaction as Peter landed on the top of Madame Pomfrey's private greenhouse with a satisfying crunch; mentally blessing impenetrable spells. With that final thought, he jump out and landed on the greenhouse with a simple crunch as the snow flattened beneath his boots.
Pettigrew was a bloodied mess of bones and meat, making Snape tap his wand impatiently to heal him of his serious injuries.
"Don't die yet, Pettigrew, or else I'll get in trouble. You'd like that, wouldn't you, you fat sack of cow shit!" Snape yelled as he picked up Pettigrew and slammed him back down; feeling the bones that he had just finished healing snap.
Pettigrew was screaming, the pain having jolted him into consciousness. Snape absently checked the silencing wards and was pleased that he was a good enough wizard to make the wards follow him.
"Again, Pettigrew, your friends or your life?" Snape whispered dangerously as he picked up the smaller Gryffindor again.
"My friends!" Peter screamed as loudly as his injured lungs could manage.
If God has a master plan
That only He understand
I hope it's your eyes
He's seeing through
Snape threw him off of the greenhouse and jumped off to land next to him. "This is getting tiring, Pettigrew. Every one has a darkness that must be revealed in the moment of truth." Snape kicked the mess at his feet, "Your life or your friends?"
"M-my frie – agh!" Snape aimed his next kick at Peter's face.
"You choose your friends, but where are they now? They're not here and they don't care for you!" kick, kick, shoulders, back, arms, legs, groin . . . everything. "Shouldn't you be back to the dorm now? I know that was Potter's invisibility cloak and the group's map, so they know you're out here. Shouldn't they be worried by now?"
'It hurts, it hurts, where are you? Why aren't you protecting me anymore? Don't you care about me at all?'
"Do you want to know why they're not here now? It's because they don't give two shits about a stupid, disgusting little pollop like you!" Snape sneered as he held up his wand, "I'm going to enjoy this, crucio!"
Peter's back arched with several crunches and cracks as he screamed so loudly that his rough throat reached its breaking point and bled. Snape lowered his wand and grabbed Peter by his hair, bringing him up to face level, "Your life or your friends?"
Things get damaged
Things get broken
I thought we'd managed
But what's left unspoken?
Left us so brittle
There was so little left to do
"My . . . my . . . life . . ." Peter whimpered hoarsely, blood bubbling at his words.
"Yes, your life. In this world you have nothing but your life." Snape whispered softly, feeling his malice disappear. He dropped Pettigrew and, as he looked at the pathetic rat, felt a sudden stab of pure self loathing and disgust. So much, in fact, that he had to turn to around and vomit.
Panting, Severus looked back at the little Gryffindor. Peter Pettigrew was pathetic in almost every sense of the word, but he had been loyal and loving to his friends. Snape quietly cleaned up the mess around him and carefully clean Pettigrew with a few waves of his wand. While training to be a Death Eater, one had to go through a rigorous training regimen that included martial arts, sword fighting, healing, and cleaning.
Snape quietly crawled back onto the greenhouse and cleaned his mess, eliminating all evidence of anyone being up there before returning to Pettigrew, who had curled up into a shivering ball of rat shit.
Snape picked him up and carried him inside, ignoring the vague feeling of disgust at Pettigrew's blood that managed to spike through his self-loathing. Pulling into an abandoned classroom, Snape set Peter down on the desk and promptly cut off his clothes.
Flinching, slightly, Snape began to heal the wounds that he had inflicted on his fellow student. It took some time, and some potions that Snape had the foresight to carry on his person at all times, but Pettigrew was healed. Snape repaired the robes and put them back on the shivering rat.
Peter was squeaking in fear and confusion, "Don't grow to rely no the charity of others, Pettigrew. Humans are fickle in mind and heart and neither are to be trusted."
I pray you learn to trust
Have faith in both of us
And keep room in your heart
For two . . .
Snape gently kissed Peter's forehead and whispered, "Do what you do to survive, run away. Your friends will fight an enemy they cannot defeat and they will drag you in to die with them. In this world, you have nothing but your life to protect."
With those last words, Severus walked away from Peter Pettigrew and spoke not another word to or about him and the Marauders for years to come.
While walking back to his dorm, Severus noticed that his bludgers were still attacking the corridors, but simply shrugged it off and went to his bed.
Peter laid there for a few hours before standing up and going to the kitchen, picking up the invisibility cloak and map before getting the snacks and going back to his dorm.
When he got back inside, his friends were curled up in their respective beds and Peter threw the snacks on the floor.
"You choose your friends, but where are they now? They're not here and they don't care for you!"
Things get damaged
Things get broken
I thought we'd manage
But what's left unspoken
Left us so brittle
There was so little left to do