chapter 7 – plots

Peter Pettigrew thought that the moment before he ran out of the Great Hall this morning was the worst moment of his life, but no, now, as he walks away from Sirius after the "let's just be friends" conversation, now is the worst moment of his life.

(More worst moments are yet to come.)

He saw Sirius and James outside between classes, and asked if he could talk to Sirius alone. James cleared out with no problem.

Sirius was short and to the point. The blowjobs were over: they couldn't be guaranteed any privacy with Snape so eager to do what he could to destroy the Marauders. Even using the Map, Snape could probably find them while they were… distracted. So there was no point, really, he said.

Part of Peter is insistent that if Sirius wanted, he could carry on with it; they do live together, after all, and now that their roommates know, they could possibly arrange something with them, some private time together. But it was obvious that Black wasn't interested enough in continuing things to make such arrangements. That would be complicated, after all.

As soon as it wasn't easy, he wasn't interested. Like most things in Black's life.

So the rest of Peter just blames Snape.

Severus Snape.

Snivellus.

What is the deal with Snape, that he has to ruin Peter's one chance at happiness? True, he and the Marauders have gone back and forth with pranks and jinxes and hexes or whatever, and the fighting after the Quidditch match was brutal. It doesn't justify this.

Peter spends the rest of the day alone, brooding, and trying to figure out the best way to pay back Snape. But he can't think of anything bad enough. He finally admits to himself that there's nothing, nothing that could hurt Snape enough to make Peter feel better. The only thing that would really make him feel better would be Black agreeing to start up whatever it was they had again. The blowjobs. Whatever he'd want to call it, as secret as he wanted it, as long as it was there to look forward to every Wednesday night.

And Black wouldn't agree as long as Snape was in the picture.

Peter gasps when he realizes the solution is simple.

Kill Snape.

His roommates have joked about this sort of thing often enough, but not even James seemed serious about it. But maybe now Black would.

(Peter knows his own strengths, and even though he's furious enough to maybe say Avada Kedavra, he suspects he still couldn't kill anything more than a cat.

Black, though.

Black - and Potter – and, well, Snape – are the most powerful wizards in their year. Possibly at Hogwarts.

And Black was mad enough at Snape himself…)

By the time dinner rolls around, though, Peter has to admit that his plan needs a backup. If Black casts the Killing Curse on Snape, he'll probably end up in Azkaban, and that would be no good. So he decides to look up other curses that are equally deadly, but less suspicious. Maybe poison would be better, he thinks, but no one would believe that Snape would accidentally ingest a poison. If Snape turned up poisoned, they four would be on the short list of suspects.

So, a curse it would have to be. He spends hours in the library, taking notes on all the best curses. Most of them are not of use in this situation, but the extravagance of some of them blows his mind. He can't imagine having cause to create a miniature volcano, for example, but it sounds like something Potter might want to do after NEWTs, so he makes sure to copy it over.

He feels a tap on his shoulder shortly before curfew. He looks back and sees Lupin, frowning.

"You ought to come back," he tells him. "No need to get in more trouble."

Peter nods and puts his quills and parchments away. He is a little surprised that Lupin is keeping his distance, till –oh yeah – he remembers what started this whole thing. Now Lupin – now everyone – knows he's a fruit.

Funny, he thinks, to see Remus Lupin keeping his distance from Peter Pettigrew. It's usually the other way around...

And just like that, he has it.

::·::·::·::·::·::·::·::·::·::·::·::

Remus has been trying to act normal around Black or Pettigrew, just because they were fairies didn't mean they weren't still his friends, but when Peter does that thing where he stares off into space and licks his lips, it kind of freaks Remus out.

(It always has freaked him out, honestly; Peter always does this when he has an epiphany, just before he says something like, "Wait, I've got a brilliant idea, gents!")

(Peter tries to copy the way Black talks, which is funny because Black didn't talk that way till second year anyway.)

So he taps Peter on the shoulder, bringing him back to earth.

But this time, if Peter has a brilliant idea, he is keeping it to himself.

Remus shrugs, and they walk back to Gryffindor Tower.

author's notes: Remus Lupin's views on teenage schoolboy fellatio do not reflect the author's. Like, duh.

Hat tip to Librasmile, who had the great idea to let Peter be the mastermind. Mwa ha ha ha! Check out her Snapefics.