Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters.
Chapter 27
Peter sat on the sofa in the living room awkwardly. He had not seen his friends for over six months at this point. He couldn't take his eyes off the little boy sat on James lap. This was the kid all the fuss was about. He couldn't understand it himself. The Dark Lord would give anything to have information on this child. Perhaps if he had something useful to share, the Dark Lord would allow him back. Peter had never seen such power, he knew there was no way for the light to win. The Dark Lord was indestructible, thanks to his Horcruxes. Peter smiled to himself internally, Order meetings were't the only thing he spied on. He had to make sure he chose the winning side.
"So Pete, it's been a while. Hows your mum?" Remus asked pleasantly. Interrupting Peter from his thoughts
"She's getting alot better actually better, I will be able to be much more involved in the order hopefully, now she doesn't need me around all the time." Peter answered
Sirius who had been distracting himself as well as Harry with the flying ornaments barely contained a growl, all of the flying objects suddenly fell to the ground and smashed on the tile floor of the living room.
"Opps sorry Lil." Sirius winced. He needed to get a hold of himself.
"That's ok, I didn't like them anyway." Lily smiled kindly at him, drew her wand and vanished the entire mess with a flick of her wrist.
Peter had been there for oner half an hour already, and it was noticeably awkward. He had barely said anything but sat staring at Harry.
"Right well, I think this little boy is tired, so I will just go up and put him to bed" Lily said as she walked over to James, kissed his cheek and plucked her son from his arms and made for the stairs.
Echos of 'Goodnight Harry' and 'Sweet dreams' followed Lily up the stairs and into the master bedroomas she grabbed a handful of floo powder, threw it into the fireplace and whispered her destination. She was gone with swirl of green flames.
"Don't you think Voldemort might be a bit pissed off if you decide to really join the order?" James asked casually.
"No, he's not very happy with me at the moment." Peter answered.
"Oh why's that?" Remus asked.
"Well, I passed on some information that got a lot of his key members captured and thrown in Azkaban." Peter said, his suddenly wide eyes frantically looking around the room at what could have made him divulge the truth so easily.
"Trust is a funny thing, don't you think?" Sirius asked curiously "you've been spying on us for months, and yet you still trusted us, I suppose thats because you are the untrustworthy one, but I am surprised, you still trusted us so blindly that you just downed a drink handed to you by the enemy." He continued.
Peter grasped his own throat and rasped out "You've poisoned me?"
"Was he always this much of an idiot, how did we not see it?" Sirius said to Remus. "If we had poisoned you, you'd be dead. I was overruled on that one" Sirius grumbled to himself
"It's Veritas serum. Lily really is an amazing witch, she brewed it herself you know." James said proudly.
"I don't understand what's going on?" Peter said desperately.
"I'm not surprised." Remus said "Why did you come here tonight Peter?" He continued.
"I thought that if I got information on Harry for the Dark lord, he would let me back in." Peter said He would have continued to elaborate but James charged across the room and punched Peter directly in the face. There was a sickening crunching sound as blood began to pour from the traitors nose.
"I think Lily is rubbing off on you Prongs, I'm proud. That was such a muggle response" Sirius said as he clapped James on the back.
Peter was getting himself up off the floor, and stupidly pulled his wand on the room full of more intelligent and talented Wizards than he. He was wordless and wandlessly disarmed by Remus, who had yet to move from his spot on the end of the sofa. He caught Peters want with a bored look on his face.
"You know, I would snap this, but the Aurors will need to check it and they can't if it is broken. A shame really but there you are." Remus said.
"Aurors?" Peter asked
"Yes Aurors, you will be locked up in Azkaban with the rest of your kind." Sirius said.
"But you can't, I'll bring you lot down with me, I mean it, I'll…I'll…I'lll tell them James and Sirius are illegal animagus, you'll go to Azkaban too." Peter threatened
"Oh no, I'm quaking on my boots" Sirius mocked.
"Unfortunately mate, that won't work, you see you're the only one who's an illegal animagus, Sirius and I registered over a month ago. So if you bring that up you're just getting yourself into more trouble really." James said consolingly.
"Why didn't you tell me, I would have registered too" Peter said looking offended.
Sirius burst out laughing, he laughed so hard tears actually formed in his eyes.
"That's why we didn't tell you, we've known for months that you had defected, like the coward that you are, to the side you thought would win." Sirius said viciously.
"But you were wrong, good always wins in the end." James added.
"It was your fault, you alway treated me like I was worthless." Peter started
"So you thought you would prove it?" Sirius interrupted "You've done a good job mate will done."
"How did you even find out? Who tipped you off, you never would have found out, your all too loyal to even suspect." Peter snarled viciously.
"Hermione" James said
"Hermione?" Peter said "What's a Hermione?"
"Padfoot's girlfriend" James said, not missing an opportunity to rib his mate, even in this serious situation. Sirius punched him in the arm.
"Prongs" Sirius said warningly.
"He might as well know, by the time I'm finished with him he won't know what way is up" Lily said as she cancelled the disillusionment charm she had been using to watch.
James whirled round to face her, a look of panic in his eyes. "What are you doing Lily?" James asked.
"Well, I wasn't about to let you boys have all the fun" Lily smiled at them. "I'm happy to see I brewed the veritas serum right, although it would have hardly mattered if I hadn't." Lily said
"What would have happened if you hadn't" Peter asked.
"Your insides would have melted." Lily said as she smiled at Peter.
Peter paled and gulped. He was in over his head. He made a grab for his wand, but Remus was faster.
Lily rolled her eyes at his predictable attempt at an escape, and waved her hand. Peter the man, turned into Peter the rat in mid air. She immediately followed her forced transformation with a body bind, and the rat fell paralysed to the floor.
The three marauder's looked at her with shock and awe, and a little bit of lust but that was James.
Out of nowhere a small cage appeared in her hands.
"What are you up to Lily?" Sirius enquired casually, he was the first to recover.
"Well I figured you lot would beat him to a pulp and then hand him over to Moody, but where's the fun in that, Remus said you wanted to play with him so let's play." Lily said.
With a wave of her hand the rat was in the cage. She walked over to the corner of the room and waved her hand again. Protected by a strong Notice-me-not and disillusioned was a rat obstacle course. She had been given the idea when she was chatting with Helen over tea, about how they test intelligence levels in rats for science. She didn't think Peter would do very well, it would be fun to watch. She cancelled the protections and levitated the large square wooden box to the centre of the room and settled it on the floor, where the activities inside would be able to be seen from the sofa and arm chair.
When Sirius, James and Remus had all gathered around her. She put the cage on the floor and attached it to the entrance of the maze. She picked up the plug and attached it to the socket in the nearby wall. She was thankful that James had been able to adapt the house to have electricity.
"I don't get it" James said. "how is this fun."
"Well, let me explain." Lily said taking a seat on the armchair. "This box is similar to what muggle scientists use to test rats intelligence for their experiments. Thats where I got the idea. I have adapted this one based off of the memories Hermione left from Harry of the Tri-wizard tournament. This maze is an exact replica of the maze used then, it has the same enchantments, except instead of being port keyed to a grave yard to resurrect Voldemort, this time as soon as our champion touches the little cup in the middle" Lily pointed at the miniature prize cup in the centre of the maze. "He will be hit with a modified permanent confundus charm." Lily finished proudly.
"A confundus? I don't understand, whats the point? He's going to go to Azkaban as soon as Moody gets here." James asked
"The point is, dear husband, that if he get sent to Azkaban, he won't stay there long. He hasn't actually done anything. The information he passed to Voldemort actually lead to the capture of his most important people, whether he intended harm or not, he has actually not done anything. I have spoken to Moody, the only charge that will stick is his illegal animagus status. That is not punishment enough."
"Shit! she's right Prongs" Sirius said. As an Auror himself he suddenly saw what she was saying.
"OK so what does your modified Confundus do?" James asked with his arms folded across his chest.
"That is particularly brilliant on my part if I do say so myself. The second he touches the cup. He was shift back to his human form, but he will think he is a rat. He will become, in his head, Scabbers, pet rat to the Weasley family. It is irreversible, He will have to live for the rest of his life, in a secured ward at St Mungos for the criminally insane. That part Moody will handle, or else he would just end up on the spell damage ward. Just in case it ever wears off. Obviously I haven't really been able to test it." Lily finished.
"Now does anyone want a cup of tea before we wake him up." Lily asked.
"What if he doesn't ever touch the cup, we could be here forever" Sirius asked.
"That's what the plug is for. It might look like the challenges of the final Tri-Wizard task, but its still a box. If he stops moving for more that 3 seconds, he will be mildly electrocuted. Just to keep him moving." Lily smiled evilly.
"Brilliant." Remus said "you sit back down Lils. I'll make the tea"
Lily returned to her seat on the arm chair, James came over, perched himself on the arm of the chair and leaned in to give her forehead a kiss. With his arm around her shoulders she looked up at him and smiled. Glad that he wasn't upset with her for not doing as he wanted and staying home with Harry.
"Harry's with Helen?" James asked quietly.
"Yes He is at our house though, I know we might be home late, but I'm not sure I'm ready to spend a night away from him." Lily replied softly.
Remus came back into the living room with four cups floating along behind him, complete with saucers.
"Right, now that we are all settled, let's wake him up shall we?" Lily said as she pointed her wand at the rat in the cage.
A/N: Not really a cliffhanger but sort of.