Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters.
Chapter 28.
Peter suddenly jerked awake to find that he was in his Animagus form. He tried to shift back but he couldn't. He started to panic. They knew. James and Remus and Sirius knew about his betrayal. He looked around at his surroundings, still not sure what was going on. He seemed to be in some kind of cage, the the door was open but that lead to some sort of maze. He knew one thing. He did not want to go in there.
"Come along now Peter, your not playing the game." Came the voice of Sirius from being him.
Peter spun around in the cage and stared pleadingly into the eyes of his best friends, well former best friends now. Sirius stood up from his seat on the sofa and walked over to where Peter was. His heart jumped for joy at the thought that Sirius was going to come over and rescue him. Sirius lifted the cage gently. Peter did his best to look thankful, Sirius would sort it all out, and help him shift back again. It would all be ok now. That however, was not the case. Sirius's lifting tilted the cage to such and angel that instead of being rescued as he had hoped, instead he was thrown into the terrifying maze, unable to find purchase on the smooth bottom of the cage.
Somehow mist started to swirl thickly around him, he could hear the sounds of crows cawing, he didn't know where he was but suddenly the cage seemed like a cosy night beside the fireplace compared to where he was now. He turned around and tried to run back to the opening he had tumbled through, but it wasn't there. All around him was mist and maze that was made entirely of large overgrown hedges that gave the impression they were closing in on him. They loomed far above him menacingly.
It was sensory overload, he could hear creatures scurrying about in the dark, somehow he could hear crows cawing in the distance, he knew logically that he was still at James and Lilys house, but he felt a stiff breeze whistling through the maze, chilling him to the bone.
"Can you clear the mist a bit Lil? The effect is impressive, but I can't see the little bastard properly." James's voice boomed from somewhere above him.
They were watching him. Was this some sort of game. They often played pranks on him at school, but this was a step too far.
"Yeah, it was only supposed to cover the floor, not fill the whole box, I'm not sure what happened there." Lily said. And stuck her wand into a small opening at the centre and syphoned off the excess mist.
Now that they could see him more clearly Lily noticed that the rat was not moving, the box was meant to shock him with a mild electrical current if he stood still for more that three seconds, but it didn't seem to be working.
"What's wrong Lily?" Remus asked noticing Lily's puzzled expression.
"The box is meant to send a shock through his feet if he stands still, but he's been stood in the same spot for ages.?" Lily replied. She was missing something she was sure of it. She hadn't really been able to test the box, as she generally didn't agree with testing on animals, the rat in the box currently however, she had no issue experimenting on.
"Ah ha!" Sirius shouted suddenly and jumped up off the sofa and walked over to the wall where the box was plagued in. In a overly dramatic fashion which included a sweeping bow, he gestured to the plug. "it helps if you switch the plug on" Sirius laughed and retook his seat on the sofa.
The moment Sirius flicked the switch they all new that the box was, in fact working. A loud skunk came from inside the box, followed by other equally loud squeaks about every three seconds.
He would be rubbish if this really was an experiment. Even hamsters learnt quicker than he seemed to be learning.
"If you keep moving it was stop electrocuting you, you idiot." Lily said scathingly into the box.
Peter no longer trusted his friends, he understood their need for retribution, but surely this was punishment enough. He could hear them talking, it seemed to be amplified somehow inside the box. Lily had said he would be electrocuted, he breathed a sigh of relief that for once the clever witch made a mistake. He didn't have to play their game. Wrong again. They all laughed at something and then Peter felt a strange seising in all of his paws at once, it seemed to spread up through his body growing more and more painful as it coursed through his body. It stopped as suddenly as it started, but there was not long rest, almost immediately it started again, and again. This was torture. This would kill him, he was sure.
Lily's voice cut through the pain, and he bitterly made a cautious step forward. And then another one, she has been right, as long as he kept moving. It would be fine. Nope. The further he stepped into the maze the more sinister it became. He suddenly felt a cold chill and the leaves on the bushes on wither side of the maze started to freeze. He tried to see further ahead, but the mist was still swirling all around him. Then he saw it. Cloaked in black, looking like death himself, hoovering ahead and closing in on him. A dementor! Peter froze, terrified, but the current from the floor started to creep up his legs getting stronger and stronger, and the dementor was closing in, there was nothing he could do. Peter ran for it, as quickly as he could past the dementor.
He could hear raucous laughter coming from above and he hated them for it.
Breathing a sigh of relief that it didn't follow him, Peter slowed his run back to a walk. The mist still swirled around him, suddenly the path that had previously been clear ahead of his was no longer there and he walked head first into the maze wall. The hedge seemed to be electrified too. It was alot more painful and debilitating when the shock started from his head rather that his feet. He had unconsciously stopped to deal with the pain and was zapped from his feet too. He wanted to scream and cry but he didn't have the capability in his animagus form. This was worse than torture.
He slowly started moving down the path that had opened unto him he could still hear things moving about around him. He could feel something watching him, he looked behind to see what it was but there was just hedge there now. The path had closed off again. He kept moving, picking up speed sure the something was following him. This time he saw the hedge move across his path in time to turn. He was running at full speed now, he could feel the panic rising. He could hear them talking outside wherever he was.
"What's got into him? I know he was always a bit of a coward but he's behaving strangely." Sirius mused aloud.
Lily cast a Muffliato around the box so Peter wouldn't hear them.
"There's a paranoia filter on the whole box, he would figure out we couldn't actually do anything to him. This helps keep him playing the game so to speak." Lily grinned
"You are brilliant!" Remus exclaimed with a grin of his own, while James kissed her forehead.
Suddenly infant of him, the hedge opened up to reveal a glowing blue light in the distance, he felt a compulsion come over him. He needed to get to that light. The light was the key to getting out, he just knew it. Peter ran as fast as he could for the light but he was too late, the hedge that had opened the path up moved again forcing him to turn. Still he had his goal now.
Peter looked above the hedge in the distance, he could see a faint glow above the hedge row. Along as he headed for that this would be over soon. Around the next corner there was a swarm of Cornish Pixies, the flew down towards him and started zapping him with something, It stung but it was not as bad asa the hedge or floor if he stopped, so he tried to ignore them and carried on along the path.
He could still feel something watching him, out of nowhere he heard a scream, followed by an evil laugh, then he could feel something brushing against his tail, then his ear, but he couldn't see anything. The mist started to swirl around him more thickly, and he couldn't see properly. The hedge infant of him opened cup to reveal the glowing blue light again, but the walls of the maze started to close in, the electric shock that came through the floor started to creep up his legs making it painful to move, but the walls were going to trap him, he didn't want the hedges to touch him because the shock from the walls was worse than the shock from the floor, so he push himself to move faster and faster. Making the mist swirl around him even more thickly but he had to get out of this maze. He knew he would die here if he didn't.
Just as suddenly as it started, the mist cleared, the walls stopped moving and he found himself staring at the glowing blue light in the centre of a circle. He could see now that it was a trophy. He needed it. He knew that if he just touched it, everything would be fine. Slowly he crept towards it, the sense of anticipation was heavy in the air around him.
Taking the last few steps towards the cup he reached out with a paw and everything went black.
Just as Lily has charmed it to do, the instant that Peter touched the cup, it transformed him back into his human form, and vanished the maze, box and cage. Peter was unconscious, which was unexpected, but Lily had not been able to text the device she had created.
"Time to hand him over to Moody." Lily said rising from the chair, she proved Peter with the tip of her wand to roll him onto his back, and then ran a diagnostic spell over his prone form. Just as she had hoped and planned, the modified Confundus charm had taken effect, otherwise he was in near perfect health. If you didn't count the minor burns from the mild electrocution he had received in the maze.
"That was quite fun, I was thinking we could build a maze in the garden when all this is over, obviously not with Dementors and electric shocks inside but it looked like it would be a fun way to spend an afternoon." James said.
Sirius took the walkie talkie out from his pocket and let Moody know that he could come and collect the traitor. After promising to let Moody see his memories of the rat in the maze, Moody told them all to "Clear of and let the professionals handle the rest".
With one last look at their former friend, the four of them made their way up the stairs to floo home back to Kensington. Sirius flicked out his wand, but gave no message and sent it to Regulus who was still keeping watch out the front in his animagus form.
Regulus sat perched on top of a lamp post, keeping an eye out for death eaters lingering about in case Peter was being tailed. They knew he was on the outs with the Dark Lord so it was not impossible that he would be under surveillance. Regulus himself had tailed death eaters deemed untrustworthy. An etherial dog shape materialised in front of him, linger for a few seconds and then vanished. He knew that meant one thing and one thing only. Mission accomplished.
A/N: So thats Peter dealt with. What did everybody think? :)