"Lily and James, Sirius! How could you?"
Sirius Black could only stare, stare as if it was merely a mirage in front of him, and if he stared long enough he could catch it's glitch and confirm that it wasn't real. That none of this was actually happening.
Peter Pettigrew (or the demon who was possessing him, because Sirius refused to believe this was the same twitchy, awkward school boy who was always lurking in his shadows, who had hero-worshiped the very person who was sent to their grave tonight because of him) then raised his arm behind his back so a conspicuous part of his robes was pointing directly at Sirius. It took him only a moment too late to realize it was Peter's wand.
Never taking his eyes off Sirius, who couldn't breathe, could only stare back at the shockingly viscous glare, Peter let out a great wail, capturing every last attention of the surrounding Muggles. With complete disgust, Sirius became aware of the scarlet drippings from Peters other hand, a served finger suddenly dropping onto the pavement bellow them. Sirius opened his mouth in a silent scream, but at that moment the atmosphere seemed to electrify and he was airborne.
He started to cough, straining for breath once he came down, a sharp pain ensuing in his shoulder as he slowly looked up. That's when he noticed the other corpses.
"Wormtail!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, his throat finally allowed entry, but it was to no avail. He could barely make out a mound through all the smoke, with a figure, no bigger than his hand, dashing across it and into a hole nearby. Sirius felt his heart catapult out of his chest as he realized that was a sewer Peter had just snuck into. Like a common rat, probably never to be seen again.
It meant Sirius had failed at getting his revenge. He couldn't even manage to do that.
His mind went blank then, too utterly stubborn to acknowledge this was anything other than a dream. Or more like a nightmare really, his worst one yet, seeing as in this one he had just lost everything, absolutely everything. Not that any of this really happened, though, because he was going to wake up any moment now. If only this damn fog would clear out already..
Then he heard screams, panic seeming to seize anyone within a mile radius of where he was laying. He slowly forced himself onto his hands, trying to get a hold of this situation, because didn't these people realize they were distracting him? Maybe if they could keep their mouths shut for one ruddy second, he could finally go back to his real life, and alert James that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to switch Secret Keepers after all.. He started to laugh then, out of muscle memory he supposed, because was there really any way he was suppose to act right now?
"There he is!"
"He caused that explosion!"
"He killed all these innocent people! Grab him, grab him now!"
Sirius didn't realize the voices were genuine until they belonged to bodies, bodies that were grabbing his arms with a grip that was none too kind, and yanking him onto his feet. His shoulder seemed to scream in protest, but he wasn't suppose to feel pain, was he? After all, this was only a dream..
"Sirius Orion Black, you are hereby arrested under the law of the Ministry of Magic, and will be serve a lifetime in Azkaban, without trial," said a voice to the left, a voice that was none too kind either, rather cold really. And that's when Sirius began to laugh louder than he ever has before.
This whole situation was ridiculous, just absurd really! This person couldn't be telling him he was going to Azkaban, because despite James' constant teasing that he would end up in prison with all the shite he pulls, he couldn't actually go to Azkaban. He wasn't actually a murderer. The murderer here was Peter, wasn't that clear? But Peter's.. not here anymore. Where'd he go? Sirius distinctively remembers seeing him go somewhere.. but where?
Into the sewers, that's where.
As Sirius took in the sight of Peter's bloody robes lying there in a heap, only his pudgy, dismembered finger still remaining, something seemed to dawn on him; no one knew Peter was an Animagus rat. Well no one other than his friend Remus Lupin, that was. But Lupin didn't know their had been a switch in Secret Keepers, thanks to Sirius himself. So know one knew Peter was a rat. No one would recognize Peter if he scurried by them in that form. No one would know that Sirius hadn't killed Peter Pettigrew. That he was innocent.
And that's when Sirius started to howl with laughter, a trait he had seemed to develop as his transformation in a dog became more permanent. Because he never realized how very stupid he was until this moment, this moment when he found out how very smart Peter truly was. Had he always been this smart? Did he always hate James enough to want to him and his whole family murdered? Would Sirius have noticed this sooner had he paid any attention at all to his least favorite friend of the Marauders?
Then the world seemed to come crashing down around Sirius' ears, stopped spinning for an instant and when it started again nothing was in it's proper place, everything had changed - for the better, for the worse, what does it matter? Everything was gone, everything he believed in, everything he hoped for, trusted in had been destroyed. Destroyed in a wanton tap of a finger, a flick of his eye... gone, gone, never to return.
James and Lily Potter were dead. It was all his fault. He was now going to waste away in prison. And he could feel tears streaming down his face, but only because this whole thing was so goddamn hilarious.