The sun shone brightly right on top of them when Sirius cornered Peter in a muggle street after a whole night of chasing. His wand ready to kill Peter for the betrayal. He knew the rage would only subdue once he knew Peter was dead and he had avenged his brother, and all those who died.

It was clear now, the Order had a spy in their ranks, giving out crucial information about the Order, like when they would plan to counterattack, who was hiding where and how to move past the protective charms. How could Sirius be so foolish to let anyone trust Peter? There were so many red flags about Peter Pettigrew.

"Stop running now," Sirius spoke from between his teeth, his eyes boring into Peter's.

Peter trembled, looking around himself as people started to look at the commotion. He knew he should've left as soon as he had told the location of the Potters. If he wanted to escape now, he had to think fast.

"Sirius, you don't understand," Peter mumbled, lifting his hand in the air, as if surrendering. "I had to choose and I had to survive – especially after everything."

"SURVIVE?" Sirius shouted, passer-by's eyes turning towards him, but he couldn't care less who listened, Peter betrayed his best friend and brother, "THEY TRUSTED YOU!"

Closing in on Peter, Sirius raised his wand towards Sirius's throat. Speaking from between his teeth, "You were waiting to handover Lily and James to Voldemort, weren't you? You worthless piece of garbage! You're nothing without us, too dumb and cowardly."

"Lily and James?" Peter cried loudly after a pause and Sirius was taken aback. He took a step back, brows furrowed together as he wondered if Peter didn't know what had happened? Could he have judged his friend wrong? "No! Not James and Lily!" Peter cried again, drawing more attention towards himself.

Pulling out his wand from the pocket of his trouser, Peter pointed it towards Sirius, his hands shaking. Sirius's eyes widened, trying to grasp the situation. Thinking of all possible reasons for Peter's reaction, Sirius couldn't think of any that made sense.

"How could you betray them Sirius?!" Peter exclaimed, tears spilling from his eyes and Sirius's jaw hit the floor, too dumbfounded to say anything or even move. "You were their secret keeper, they trusted you!"

Had Sirius heard him correctly? Sirius's brain stuttered for a minute, every part of him pausing as his thoughts tried to catch up. Too stunned to even grasp what Peter was doing, he saw the red light shining from Peter's wand aimed right beside them, as the ground shook beneath their feet.

His body moved faster than his brain, rushing for a cover, his arms protecting his head as he hid in a corner to ditch the debris aiming towards himself. The dust paralysed his lungs for a minute and blinded him before he rubbed his eyes and blinked it away, painfully he opened his eyes, trying to adjust to the scene in front of him.

Detached limbs, pools of blood, everything turning grey, heaps of rubble and people screaming. Sirius's eyes scanned fast across the street, and in his vision, he saw a disembodied finger, and lying next to it was a wand – Peter's wand.

Sirius let out a chuckle, shaking his head as he looked at his feet. His chuckle turned to a humourless laughter. Had Peter killed himself? Sirius knew he was an idiot but this is beyond his level!

Then on a second scan, Sirius looked around himself once more as aurors started pouring in. People standing on the other side of the street were pointing towards Sirius, shouting at him angrily, but he couldn't make out what they were saying. Sirius looked at himself, his wand clutched tightly in his hand and he laughed again, louder this time, pointing towards the finger Peter had left behind.

"Peter Pettigrew!" he whispered to himself, as tears clouded his vision. All the wizards in the world and it was Peter Pettigrew that bought his downfall. Sirius knew how this looked, he was not an idiot. No one besides James, Lily, Peter and himself knew the secret keeper was changed – and the three of them were dead. In the mist of the rubble, the only one standing alive was Sirius, while bodies around him disintegrated into nothingness.

Everything that happened next was a blur to Sirius, all he remembered was around fifteen aurors, led by Cornelius Fudge, had their wands pointed at him, ordering him to surrender as they took his wand away, putting him in chains, dragging him away as Sirius laughed. He laughed at his fate and his horrible luck – the cruel joke his life had become, or had always been!

The next time he opened his eyes, he was sitting on the cold stone floor, behind the iron bars of Azkaban. The chains on his hands and legs weighed nothing as compared to the weight he was carrying in his heart. He dragged himself towards the iron bars, holding onto them, he stood up, looking outside, but it was pitch black.

He was startled when a clocked figure passed by his cell; stumbling backwards, he cowered in a corner, his eyes growing wider and his heart thumping loudly. The rattling of the chains rang in his ears.

He wanted to scream in frustration – but the guilt gagged him. Everything that had gone wrong was because of him. His best friend and his best friend's wife were dead, their baby orphaned because they trusted Sirius enough to let him suggest a secret keeper. He mistrusted his other best friend, because of the very thing his best friend had no control over – he believed him to be the monster that his best friend was not and he would never be able to apologize. The love of his life died in pain thinking that she was unloved and unwanted, even though she meant everything to him and Sirius was disgusted in himself to think that perhaps the last emotion she felt for him was hatred.

He deserved it – he deserved to be hated. His mother was right, he was trouble – a disaster and he was the bad luck no one needed in their lives.

He let out a sob that echoed through his cell, nails scratching against the rough stone walls. He punched the wall hard, before collapsing into a fit of tears and sobs, the excruciating pain returned at the back of his head and he grasped for air.

"We'll search Black tomorrow, find out his accomplice and gain more information," a voice echoed outside his cell. Whoever it belonged to wasn't close by and Sirius instantly froze.

His trembling finger ransacked the pockets of his long overcoat that he was still wearing and inside the pocket, he found a photograph. The only tangible memory of Marlene he had left.

'If they find this, would they think Marlene helped me?' Sirius thought, his lower lip trembling as his eyes scanned the photograph. The last thing he wanted was Marlene's image being tarnished because of her association with him.

Without a second thought, Sirius kissed the photograph, imprinting it in his brain before crushing it and shoving it down his throat. Coughing as it scratched its way down his food pipe. He failed to protect her when she was alive, the least he could do was protect her memory.

One day, when he is reunited with his friends, and he hoped it would be soon, he would tell them how sorry he was for bringing their downfall. He would never forgive himself.

In the darkness of the cell, he remembered faces and names bouncing around in his skull – Marlene McKinnon, James Potter, Remus Lupin, Lily Potter and Harry Potter.

A/N: Hey Readers,

WOW! The story has finally come to an end. I loved writing this story and I hope you liked reading it too. Thank you for supporting it to till the end. It meant a lot to me. Leave a review and let me know what you thought about it as a whole.

Thank you!

-JT