Thank you Pete
"Thank you Pete", James whispered as he hugged his friend tightly.
Lily & Sirius smiled from behind James. A reckless Harry was gurgling happily in Lily's arm and then reached for Sirius, crying "Pa'foo."
James pulled out from the hug, at his precious little son's happy cry to see Sirius moved & took Harry in his arms. Lily's vision was a bit glazed, as she moved forward & gave Peter a friendly hug as well, whispering "Thank you."
Peter's face was devoid of any emotion, he simply gone numb & a strained smile was spread across his face.
Peter was walking through the darkened alleyway on the night before hallowin. Suddenly, an ancient, haunted door appeared out of nowhere. Peter stopped, closed his eyes, clenched his jaws & then entered through the door. The door opened up in a magnificent room.
'The legendary dark castle', Peter thought darkly.
"Ah! Pettigrew", a cold voice cut in the eerie silence of the hall.
"How nice to finally see you under my roof…" a cruel smile spread through the white snakelike face as Voldemort turned to Peter, revealing himself from the absolute darkness.
Peter stared. For the first time in his life, Peter was not scared; he was not afraid, but burning with a passionate anger inside him.
"I prevented Sirius to be the secret keeper, by impinging doubt in their minds about Remus." Peter paused.
Voldemort continued to stare.
"Now release him." Peter spat.
"So who is the one Peter?" Voldemort said icely.
"Wha… I don't know."
A cold laughter rang through the place. "Indeed."
"Where are the Potters Peter?" Peter was taken aback.
"How do I know? I am not…"
"LEGILIMENS." cried Voldemort.
"NO…" Peter fall into ground, clenching the fist, squeezing his eyes shut, concentrating all his might to shut down his mind.
But he was always worthless at powerful wizarding things, let it be a simple hexing spell, or shielding down his own mind and he knew it. But he kept on fighting, fighting like he never fought in his life.
'No no no… get out… get out of my mind…can't let you see them… can't let you harm my friend…my brother…can't…can't….James, Lily…Harry.', Peter was chanting this like a mantra over and over in his head, as he continued to held up the shield of protection against his mind.
"CRUCIO." A voice, cold and sharp like knife cut in.
An enormous pain struck Peter immediately. It set all of his limbs downright in burning sensation. The pain, the absolute agony of it made Peter to scream out aloud. He could feel Voldemort's eyes on him. He felt his resistance was getting weakened. Then suddenly the curse was lifted. Peter lay on the ground motionless.
"Bring the half breed." ordered Voldemort.
Two hooded figure entered through a back door carrying an unconscious human being between them. They threw the figure to the floor in front of Voldemort. The human cried out in pain.
Peter's head snapped up at the cry, as he recognized the voice.
"Remus…" he whispered as he was crawling to the figure.
It was indeed, Remus Lupin, a very bruised, a very badly injured Remus Lupin.
"You told me, you wouldn't touch him, you bastard…what did you do to him?" Peter shouted as loud as his self permitted. He took Remus's head on his lap. His eyes were stinging at the sight of his injuries.
"I was true to my word, I didn't touch that filth." His mouth twitched in a cruel manner.
"Peter…" Remus whispered. Peter looked down at Remus.
"It's going to be alright Remus, I promise, I'll get you outta here. Please…please hold on…ok?"
"You….don't….look…well." Remus commented with difficulty, ignoring Peter's concern for him.
"Touching…. " Voldemort sneered.
Voldemort flicked his wand almost lazily & Peter was flown from Remus & was slammed against the hard wall. Remus watched to his horror, as Peter's fragile body slide down to the floor, leaving a trail of raw fresh blood behind the wall, where his head was slammed moment ago. Peter issued no sound, whatsoever, but bit his lips to prevent himself from crying out in pain & giving the satisfaction to the maniac in front of him.
"CRUCIATUS MAXIMA…" Voldemort roared pointing his wand at Peter.
Peter thrashed violently, as the worse form of the unforgivable hit him. Still he didn't scream. The tears of utmost pain were rolling down from his squeezed shut eyes.
"My my….. you are loyal Pettigrew… but not strong…although I am surprised that you can hold the curse this long without breaking the shield…but not anymore…com'on let me in. You know you can't hold me out forever …. Don't you?" hissed Voldemort as he silently applying strongest & most painful version of Legilimency on Peter.
His words however, jerked Remus back into reality. 'He is using legilimency on him, while torturing him with unforgivable.' As soon as this thought struck Remus, he just stared at Peter, tears automatically leaked out from his eyes, seeing his fragile & inept friend, fighting with such bravery & loyalty, even in that extreme form of agony.
"Pete…" Remus whispered.
"Ahhhh… a little more & the baby is mine…" A cruel laugh made Remus cringed.
Peter was withering in pain & thrashing more violently.
"YES." Screamed Voldemort triumphantly and Remus understood their defeat.
With a final jerk, Peter's body become absolutely still on the floor.
"Innervate." Voldemort said almost lazily. Peter started to move.
Remus breathed a relief.
"You just don't betray you friend Pettigrew…well, but you do betray your friend & willingly do so… A new you …and a new Wormtail as well." Voldemort pointed his wand again at Peter & a large gash appeared across his chest, blood started to ooze down from the wound. Voldemort collected the blood in a goblet, added a bit of his own blood into it & then with another flick of his wand a dead rat's body appeared above the goblet. He grabbed the body sliced it in four halves, "Each for one Marauder." Voldemort hissed with utter relish, & then threw them in the goblet.
Voldemort set the goblet on the floor, & started waving the wand & muttering incantations under his breath. A red glow filled the room & a healthy Peter emerged from the goblet, clad in dark clothes, having the dark mark craved on his left arm. He knelt down in front of Voldemort, kissed the hem of his robes & said "My Lord."
Remus's eyes widened at the scene.
Voldemort turned to Remus and smiled nastily.
"You won't remember this little show of bravery of your stupid little friend Lupin, but will remember him as the ugly traitor."
Before Remus could react, Voldemort cried, "OBLIVIATE."
Whole world around Remus gone pitch black as his head dropped on the floor.
Year 1998, After Voldemort's defeat.
"MOONEY… MOONEY… They caught him, they caught him bare hand. I punched him till his nose bled. That fucking bastard….MOOOONEEEYY…"
Remus ran down the stairs of number 12 Grimmauld place at the erotic scream of Sirius Black.
"Padfoot….What the…" Remus was panting.
"I am cleared of all charges, that bastard has been caught & thrown to the most horrible cell in Azkaban." Sirius blurted out.
Remus stared. "Pettigrew…?" He asked.
"Who else?" Sirius shot back excitedly.
Remus stood still for a second, and then launched forward, pulling Sirius in an enormous tight embrace.
Sirius returned the embrace with equal enthusiasm.
Remus sat bolt upright on his bed. His Heart was pounding heavily against his chest.
"Oh God…oh God…" Remus buried his face in his hands. Then shot up from the bed. He checked the bedside clock. It read 1:30 AM.
Remus raced towards Sirius's room & hammered the door. A few moments later the door opened, revealing a sleepy and thoroughly pissed off Sirius Black in his crumpled, sleep worn night pajamas.
Remus grabbed Sirius's wrist roughly & dragged him along with him towards the Black library downstairs, before he could speak even a word.
On reaching there, he released a bewildered Sirius and went to the ancient Black pensieve.
"Remus…what the..?" Sirius stopped at his midsentence as he saw Remus was dragging silvery thread like memory from his head with his wand & threw them to the pensieve.
Remus turned to face Sirius. Sirius was startled to see the look on his face. A number of emotions are playing through his pale white face.
"See it." Remus commanded.
"Mooney, are you alright? What's going on? You…"
"Just. See. It. Sirius." Remus's voice cut in firmly.
Surprised at his tone, Sirius didn't argue further but dipped his head into the pensieve.
Sirius and Remus, both sat, white faced, crossed legs on the library floor, facing each other.
"He was innocent." Sirius stated in low voice.
"How come… you …. Why now….I don't understand." Sirius looked at Remus for some explanation.
"I think with the death of Voldemort, the effect of the spell started to fade, but didn't completely wore out as Peter is still alive & he has been a major part in that spell, willingly or not. I used to have dreams about Voldemort torturing me & even got flashes of Peter in my dreams from the day Voldemort died, but never like tonight, never this clear…this vibrant. Tonight I saw everything & I remember everything…" Remus looked away from Sirius.
"Pete is alive I think, but I can't say anything about his sanity. The images in my dream were still blurred, not crystal clear & I did struggle a bit to extract it. This means he is at least ….alive." Remus finished & looked at Sirius.
Sirius was watching him intently & nodded slowly.
"I hit him Mooney…that day… during his capture…" Sirius's voice broke.
Remus grabbed Sirius's shoulder, "Let's…let's go there Siri…let's go to him. Visitors are allowed in Azkaban, although none goes but they are allowed…"
Sirius locked his gaze with Remus & slowly nodded.
"Pete…" Remus slowly approached Peter, lying on the dirty floor, chained with the dirty wall, in the darkest cell of Azkaban. Peter's body was thin & pale & glowing sickeningly in the silvery light of Sirius's & Remus's patronus.
"Wormy." This time it is Sirius's voice, a bit louder than Remus's but still low.
Peter's eyes were opened slowly & then blinked rapidly at the sudden unexpected silvery brightness. He turned his head towards the direction of warm voices. Two figures, he saw two human faces, blazing with concern. Peter knew them but somehow couldn't place them. He cocked his head sideways.
"Pete…It's us… Sirius & Remus…Pete…"
Recognition flooded through Peter's eyes & mind.
"Remus, Sirius…" He tried to say, but couldn't as his voice had been lost long time ago.
Remus moved forward & pulled Peter to his chest.
"I am sorry…I…I… couldn't remember, I was obliviated…I am sorry Pete I am sorry…" Remus sobbed, burying his face in Peter's dirty, tangled hair.
Peter felt an enormous joy & comfort at Remus's words. They believed him. At last, the truth came out. Peter closed his eyes & buried his face further into the warm chest of Remus.
"I am sorry too Pete…" Sirius's voice shook with raw emotion. Remus pulled out of the hug & Sirius pulled him in to his chest. Tears of enormous guilt flooded Sirius's vision too as he ran his hand through Peter's hair. Peter simply closed his eyes to enjoy the warmth of his friend's, of his brother's embrace.
"I…am sorry…I failed ...to … protect…them… But… tried…was … never…good…with…magic…always … inept…" Peter managed to say with difficulty.
"You have done, brilliantly, don't you dare to say you are sorry Pete. It's us, that should be sorry not you. " Sirius's voice completely broke down as he said this.
Finally Sirius pulled out of the hug.
"We will get you out of here Peter. Don't worry. My memory is back…"
"No." Remus was interrupted by Peter.
"Too much curses, & years of poisons…I don't care about the rest of the world…but you two…and Harry…Let him know that…I didn't…" Peter swallowed painfully.
"You will tell him yourself Pete, with us, we three together…" Sirius started but got cut by Peter.
"No….no, I can't live much long… I know it...I am just too tired…want to rest…want to rest… in peace." Peter looked at both of them with pleading eyes.
"NO." Suddenly Remus blurted out, realizing something which Sirius didn't.
Peter turned to him & locked his gaze with him.
"Please Remus. Please… want to be free…I am begging"
"Pete…NO." Sirius shouted as the depth of the words sank in to his mind.
He reached for peter. Cupped his face in his hands & make him look at him.
"Pete…listen…you CAN MAKE IT. YOU CAN. Trust me. Trust us. We WILL make sure of it. Pete…"
A sad smile crossed across Peter's face, as he shook his head slowly.
"I've always pictured both of you, you know. That you both are forgiving me and… and…it is happening… in reality… "
"Yes, and we will live like this, as marauders, as friends, as brothers from now on." Remus cut in, placing a gentle hand on the back of Peter's head.
"I am finally happy & relieved. I want this to be my last moment. I want this …with you two… free me, free me Mooney, free me Padfoot… Please…please."
Tears were falling freely from both Remus & Sirius's eyes. After a long silence, they finally nodded. Sirius & Remus laid down Peter on the floor. Then leaned down & kissed Peter's forehead. Peter closed his eyes momentarily, and then raised shaking hands to wipe out the tears from the eyes of his friends.
"Thank you." Peter whispered.
Remus & Sirius stood up silently.
"Say hi to James & Lily from us." Sirius said.
Peter nodded.
Sirius & Remus pointed their wands at Peter's chest.
"Avada Kedavra" The two rays of bright green light hit Peter's chest. The body jerked slightly & then went still.
"Sleep well Pete." Remus whispered.
Remus & Sirius was standing in front of a white marble Tombstone with Harry, standing in between them. Peter's name was craved with golden ink along with his date of birth & death. Remus crouched down & pointed his wand at the stone. More golden words appeared below the dates.
"Here lies one of the true Marauders & a loyal friend."
Sirius conjured a bright yellow rose from his wand & laid it on the top of the stone.
They both stood up & took one of Harry's hands each & slowly whispered,
"Thank you Pete."