ritten for The Houses Competition, Year Two, Round Six.
House: Hufflepuff
Year: 5th
Category: Themed Power (Power doesn't corrupt, people do)
Prompts: [Speech] "Care to tell me why you're bleeding?"
Wordcount: 2329 (Google Docs)
Betas: Aya
Title: Thrillseeker: Marauders with Machines
Summary: Peter secretly wants what Sirius has got. But can he handle it?
Sirius Black looked like a mess of sweat and grease out in the driveway of the Potter's mansion. He'd wasted the first three days of Spring Break getting sloshed and wallowing in self pity, and the fourth day of Spring Break wishing he was dead. But after he got over the fact that it was just a machine and that it could be repaired, he fully embraced the idea of fixing up his motorbike so that he would never have to go through this emotional hell of losing his most prized possession ever again.
"Looks good," James called out to him, squinting in the midday sun. "You can't even tell it was a pile of bent up metal just a few days ago."
"That's the way I wanted it." Sirius grinned at his friends. He'd stayed behind while James, Remus and Peter had gone down to the lake for the morning. Compared to the smudges of black and brown all over him, they all looked like shirtless, suntanned demigods. There would be time for swimming when his bike was done. As it stood, he was halfway there.
Remus put a hand on the shiny front fender and whistled. "How did you get all the dents out of it? Oh!" He drew his hand away. "How many spells did you use on this thing?"
Sirius hadn't stopped grinning. He'd just come of age, and using magic outside of Hogwarts was no longer out of bounds. "As many as it needed," he said. "And then a few more, for good measure."
Remus chuckled. "Better put a warning on it. I can feel the vibrations from the charms when I touch the metal. That's some potent stuff."
James appraised Sirius's work, while Peter hung back from the rest of them. Sirius thought that Peter looked nervous about the whole thing.
"What's wrong, Pete? Never seen a charmed motorbike before? I made it practically indestructible this time."
At the word "indestructible" he saw a glimmer in Peter's eyes. "Wow," Peter said, and then took a step farther back.
"Aww, it's not going to hurt you," Sirius said. "It's only magic."
"When will you be done?" James asked.
"In a bit," Sirius said. "Give me another hour."
James clapped him on the back and said, "Come on, let's leave him to it." He went inside with Peter following, but Remus stayed behind.
"That's not the Standard Book of Spells," he said, touching his foot to a leather bound hardcover next to the bike. "Where'd you get it?"
"Library," Sirius said.
Remus kicked the book over, wisely unwilling to touch the thing that looked old and too potent to be laying about on someone's driveway next to a motorbike. The large seal gleamed up at him from the back cover. It was the mark from a collection of the most protected books in the entire school. "You got this thing from the Restricted Section! Sirius, are you daft? Hold on, that means you were planning on doing this even before Spring Break. Did you wreck the bike on purpose?"
"Nah," Sirius said, getting up and dusting himself off, which only caused the grease from his hands to make swirling patterns on the thighs of his jeans. "The wreck was an accident. But it made it easier to infuse this thing with all the good stuff."
"It's too much, Sirius." He put his hand near the fender again, pulling back before he touched it again. "I can feel the spells radiating from the surface of this thing without even touching it. You're making it too dangerous."
"Hey," Sirius said to him. "I'm full up on magic, and so are you. Hell, this whole house was built with the stuff, and no one's afraid to sleep in it. Who says I can't gain a little personal benefit from our natural gifts, especially since I'm allowed to do magic now?"
"I still think it's a bad idea," Remus said.
The next morning, Peter made sure to get to the Potter's home early, just so he could watch Sirius infuse the motorbike with more incantations. It was supposed to be finished the day before, but Sirius couldn't help adding a few last touches to his project. Peter stood a safe distance away while the motorbike glowed and sputtered, and then returned to normal. Each time Sirius waved his wand, Peter would get a flutter inside his stomach, a little like he was going to get sick, but then it would pass and leave a knot of nerves in its place. He found the feeling disturbing at first, but the more he stood and watched, the more he actually wanted that feeling. Again and again, Sirius cast deeper and deeper spells on the machine, and Peter fed on his growing excitement.
And then everything stopped.
"Is that it?" Peter asked. Just like every time Sirius had cast a spell, the sensations had faded, and his stomach clenched for more. But this time, Sirius was picking up the leather bound book and had tucked his wand away. Peter's stomach felt empty and unsatisfied.
Sirius groaned and tried to shake out a knot in his arm muscles. "I need a shower. I bet Mrs. Potter has snacks. Let's go see."
Inside, James and Remus were arguing over nothing and did that annoying thing, stopping mid sentence when Peter and Sirius entered the room. It's wasn't that he felt left out, but yeah. He felt left out.
When Sirius came back downstairs with a fresh t shirt and jeans on, he led everyone outside to show off his work. Peter let James and Remus closer to the machine, standing several feet away from them.
He wasn't afraid, really. It was just that Sirius had put so much magic into that collection of metal and rubber that maybe Remus was right. Maybe it was too much. Peter wasn't sure that anyone would be able to handle that much power.
After a few minutes of listening to the magical mechanic pointing and explaining, James cut Sirius off from his show. "Come on, everyone. Mum has lunch ready."
Peter hung back and let Sirius go inside ahead of him. He looked back at the motorcycle and felt that tightness in his gut again. It was almost as if the bike was calling out to him.
"Pete!"
Knocked out of his daze, Peter scurried inside after Sirius.
"It's near perfect," Sirius was saying over sandwiches and tea. "I even put the Fiendfyre in the exhaust."
Remus almost choked on his food. "You did WHAT?"
"It's perfectly safe. The fire is locked up tight. It won't get out unless you flip the switch. I tested the design myself."
James wasn't concerned like Remus was. "Is that why you're missing your left eyebrow?" He ignored Sirius's middle fingered salute and leaned in with elbows all over the table. "You gotta show us after lunch!" he stage whispered.
Sirius excitedly led the boys outside, very pleased with how his project had turned out. The motorbike gleamed in the afternoon sun, shiny and perfect.
"It's got a lot more in the engine than horsepower!" he exclaimed. "Who wants a ride?"
James hooted and jumped onto the seat. He churned up the engine and rolled right out of the driveway. His friends watched the wheels spin down the road and out of sight. Five minutes later, he was back with a flushed face and a fierce smile. "Wicked!" he exclaimed. "It's got so much speed!"
Sirius, the madman that he was, grinned. "Alright, Remus. It's your turn!"
Remus only got as far as the end of the driveway. He flipped down the kickstand and got off, scowling. "It's too much. It's giving me a headache. I'm not riding this thing!"
"Wimp!" James laughed, but it didn't erase Remus's scowl.
"Hey Pete!" Sirius called out. "Do you want to take it for a ride? Where'd he go?"
"I think he went back inside for more sandwiches," James said, looking around. Peter wasn't outside anymore.
"That's funny," Sirius said. "He's been watching me fix it up. I was sure he'd jump at the chance to take it for a test drive."
Later, the boys were quite comatose, lounging around inside after a heavy Quidditch game. While James dragged himself off to the shower, Sirius and Remus set to gorging themselves on James's mom's Cornish pasties. Peter wasn't very hungry. His stomach still hadn't recovered from the empty feeling he'd gotten that morning. But now that his friends were otherwise occupied, he felt that it was the perfect time to sneak out into the front yard to look at the motorbike.
There it was, a two-wheeled black and chrome homage to speed and freedom.
It seethed power.
Peter walked timidly up to the contraption, and gently put a hand on the seat. The leather burned from being out in the hot sun. He swung his leg over the bike and sat down on it, ignoring the heat that seeped through his jeans. Then, without even thinking about it, he revved up the engine and rolled out of the driveway.
The engine rumbled between his legs as he went flying down the road, each moment more fast and furious than the last. His stomach unwound and the blood sang in his veins. Peter scanned the console and pushed one of Sirius's special buttons. One of the spells let go, and the engine bucked under him.
Thrilled, he let loose another spell and almost lost control, swerving and lurching and pulling back into the center of the driving lane at the last moment. He could have been in an accident right there. But he wasn't.
"I've got this!" he yelled to the open road.
He wouldn't have done any of this if Sirius or James or Remus were watching. They always made him feel inconsequential, and therefore too nervous to think straight. But alone, without an audience, he felt the wind in his face and the speed in the wheels and he laughed out loud. There was one final spell: the fire in the exhaust. James hadn't even tried this one, but out here, without any witnesses, he was braver than he'd ever been. He wasn't going to back down now. His stomach needed the rush.
He let go the spell, fire shot out of the back, and he zoomed down the road, faster than ever. He let loose all of it. Full throttle.
And that's when it happened. The tree came out of nowhere. He was on the road, and then he wasn't. The tree came out of nowhere, and it did not yield. The bike flew straight into it and the resulting explosion threw Peter away from the bike. He was knocked into the dirt, and rolled into a ditch.
His ears wouldn't stop ringing. He might have broken an arm. His neck was sore, and his head pounded. His hair might have caught his on fire at some point. But he wasn't dead.
And he was in the middle of nowhere. Peter had no idea how far he'd gone away from the Potter's house, or how long it would take to walk back. He wasn't going to approach the fiery mess under the big oak tree, even though the flames were sputtering to their death, and the bike looked pretty much intact. He just needed to get out of there before any Muggle coppers came around asking questions.
Because that would be very bad for him.
Not knowing what else to do, he apparated back to the Potter's house. Sirius was outside, arms crossed and frowning.
Peter gulped. "Where are James and Remus?" he asked meekly.
"Out looking for you," Sirius said. "Care to tell me why you're bleeding?"
Peter was embarrassed and forlorn. He could not lie. "I took the bike."
Silence.
"I crashed the bike, okay? I just wanted to see what it could do… and…"
"You lost control."
Peter turned his head to the side, where a scorch mark ran from his chin all the way up the side of his head. A strip of his hair was missing.
"You let loose the fire?" Sirius was mad, but he was holding it inside. Peter feared the power inside of his friend more than the power inside the bike. If Sirius ever lost control, Peter might not be alive to tell anyone about it.
"You could have asked," Sirius said. "I let the others ride it earlier today. I would have let you take a spin on it. You didn't have to go behind my back."
But would he have? Would Sirius have let Peter push all the buttons?
With a loud crack, James and Remus apparated onto the front driveway with Sirius's motorbike between them.
"We found the bike, crashed into some trees. It survived with only a few scratches, but we didn't find…"
They saw Peter, bloody and bruised, and just stared at him. Peter shuffled farther away from Sirius. His arm ached and his stomach was back in knots again.
James shook his head and rolled the bike up to Sirius. While Sirius examined the bike, making sure it really had survived the ordeal, Remus came up to Peter and looked at him closely. Too closely. He could probably smell the shame rising from Peter's shoulders.
"Are you hurt, Pete?" he asked.
Peter shrugged his shoulders. "I'll live," he said.
"That was a stupid thing you did," Remus said. Then he turned away from Peter and back to Sirius.
"I told you it wasn't a good idea to put so much magic into that bike," Remus said. "It's far more dangerous than it should be."
"All the spellwork I did paid off. There's not a scratch on it, and all the controls are intact. It's not the power inside the bike we have to worry about," Sirius said, looking straight at Peter. "It's the people we give it to."