Guys, I'm really busy these days so I'll probably only be able to update once a week. I hope that that's ok.

Song for this chapter 'Rat Trap' by The Boomtown Rats.


The words echoed across the room. A solution. So simple and yet so much more complex than it should have been.

Dumbledore pressed his lips together, the ever-present twinkle in his eyes dimming.

"Very well then," he spoke, his eyes grave, "Let's mo-"

He was cut off by Peter throwing himself off the chair, his feet landing on the marble floor with a thud. He didn't waste time in making a dash towards the door, slipping and sliding in the hurried process.

He didn't make it far though before the chains near his leg sprung into action, snapping around his ankle with a reverberating clang.

The action caused Peter to trip, landing face-first onto the floor, the only cushioning being his arms which he had brought to the front of his face mid-fall.

He let out a soft groan as the room burst into harsh whispers. Three of the aurors from before moved forward, each donning various degrees of glares on their faces.

They harshly pulled him up, his robes dragging along the floor like a ragtag trail, waving to-and-fro with each step taken.

"Please, pl-please, I'm innocent, let me go! D-Dumbledore you must believe me! I was in the o-order. I w-wouldn't b-betray you," his pleas filled the room, more desperate than Umbridge's and more pitiful than the other accused's.

The auror's were unmoved by his words, throwing him onto the seat roughly as the remaining chains wrapped around the man more rigidly and urgently then they had previously, as if trying to wrap the little worm in a metallic cocoon.

"I wouldn't do it, I-I COULDN'T do it," Peter stuttered out, struggling and squirming in the chains like a slug having salt sprinkled over it.

"Check his arm, Paddy," Amelia ordered, addressing one of the aurors who had grabbed onto the Peter during his attempt at fleeing, ignoring his shouts and pleas.

The man, Paddy, raised his wand and unclamped the binds around Peter's left arm which had been shut over his robes making them impossible to get off without tearing.

"NO!" Peter shouted, pulling his now free arm towards his chest, "I'm innocent! I'm innocent! Surely you can't- you can't believe that folder! We don't even know who's given it! Y-you just CAN'T! Let me go!"

"Incarcerous," Paddy muttered coolly. Ropes shot out of his wand, wrapping itself around Peter's arm before pulling it down, binding it to the arm of the chair.

He moved forward with a scowl on his face, gripping the sleeves of Peter's black robes before pulling it back with a jerky motion, almost tearing it off in the process.

The smooth, unmarked skin of his hand was visible to the whole room. People whispered amongst themselves, pointing and nodding towards it like tourists at the zoo pointing at animals.

"There's nothing here ma'am," Paddy said unnecessarily as if Amelia wasn't already staring at his arm with unshrouded curiosity.

Amelia hummed in response, leaning back in her seat disappointedly.

Dumbledore, however, picked up his wand which he had placed on the table in front of him.

"Revelio," he whispered.

One word. Four syllables. Seven letters.

A mere whisper.

Echoing across the room.

It seemed to carry a ripple through the air, turning each head towards the centre of the room, where the rat seemed to turn paler and paler by the second.

I finally seemed to understand what the butterfly effect meant, watching the room revolve around that one word. One word that could make or break a man's life. A clap to a hurricane.

As if a drop of ink had been dripped onto Peter's arm, a black spot emerged in its centre.

It spread itself in fine lines that twisted and twirled across his skin, the tantalising motion captivating each person in the room, either with fear or awe.

I watched as it formed a familiar figure.

First the skull, then it's unhinged jaw and finally, the curling and slithering serpent.

Gasps bombarded the room with a viciousness- no more ones of shock- but of bone chilling, unnerving fear.

I suppressed a shudder at the sight of the mark which brought up unwanted memories. Memories which I had tried so hard to repress but had never been able to. A chill seemed to settle on the back of my neck which I tried to ignore with everything ounce of strength in me.

I watched as the twinkle from Dumbledore's eyes completely vanished (something that didn't happen often) as he stared at the mark.

Peter stared at the mark too for a few seconds as if hoping it would disappear before he looked up, his eyes watery, his lips quivering.

His eyes darted around the room before it landed on the Marauders and Lily.

"Guys..." he whispered, "Please... my friends... p-please, Padfoot, Prongs, Moony... y-you've got to, please... don't let them t-take me away! Th-they'll throw me in A-Azkaban! Pl-"

"You... are a death eater?"

It was Remus who spoke, interrupting Peter in the middle of his pleadings. His voice was meek, as if he couldn't believe what was happening, couldn't believe that any of this could be true.

"What could I have done?!" shouted Peter desperately, his eyes darting between the four. Dumbledore, Bones and Fudge(who had finally snapped gained back his bearings of mind) had their heads bent together as they furiously discussed something in hushed whispers. They were too busy to stop the conversation occurring right now. The rest of the wizengamot however, seemed to hang onto each word escaping the newly-discovered death eater's mouth.

"The Dark Lord..." I saw people exchange terrified glances at his mention, "you can't imagine... he has weapons, he forced me... I was never brave like you lot! I was never brave like you Sirius, James, Remus, Lily..."

Sirius had a murderous expression on his face. The only thing that seemed to be stopping him from jumping over the barrier and pummeling Peter into a bloody pulp was James' hand resting on his shoulder.

"You were the Order's spy as well, weren't you?" Lily whispered harshly. I saw tears form in her eyes as she spoke.

Tears of anger, and tears of sorrow.

"He forced me to," Peter said, his eyes darting around nervously, "I didn't want to! He forced me..."

"A year Pettigrew, you were passing information to him for a whole year! It wasn't a one-time, spur of the moment thing," Sirius whispered furiously, "The Prewett twins, Dorcas, Edgar, Benjy... all dead- cause of you."

I saw Lily choke back a sob at the mention of Dorcas and hesitantly wrapped my hand around her shoulder in awkwardly-offered comfort.

"He was taking over everywhere!" Pettigrew exclaimed desperately, as if any of his pleas would make sense at the moment, "What was there to gain by refusing him?"

James shook his head, "You disgust me." He pulled Lily into his side, unknowing to the presence of my hand which I retracted back gratefully.

"Please... please, my friends," Peter gasped as the discussion among the questioner seemed to finish. "Please... my friends, please..." he tried to mutter out, hoping to convince them before his fate was sealed, hoping to have them by his side.

"We are not your friends," Remus muttered out, his eyes having grown as hard as steel upon hearing the names of the dead, his voice no longer meek as he spoke.

Spoke the words that had been silently hovering between Lily and the three Marauders; and Peter - they weren't friends, not anymore at least.

And now, they never will be.

Before Peter could speak again, with his watery eyes and his shivering shoulders, Fudge attracted the attention of the whole committee again.

"Settle down now, settle down," though his words were commanding, his nervous and shaky voice betrayed any farce of authoritarianism he had been trying to conjure, "Very well now... (Merlin's beard)... very well. Time for the vote."

Dumbledore's voice boomed across the courtroom, "All those in favour of clearing the accused of said set of charges."

Not a single hand rose.

"And all those in favour of conviction?"

Hands rose softly, painting the board with a clear victory by the majority.

Peter burst out crying.

Fat, ugly tears rolling down his cheeks and he screamed his throat raw with defeating "No"s. He thrashed against the binds, pleading and begging to be left free.

Everyone grimaced at his behaviour, I saw a brunet fully cringe backwards after a particularly loud sob.

But no one held any expression of pity for him.

Realising that his act was going to get him nowhere Peter quieted down, changing his tactics so fast that I was convinced that if his animagus form wasn't a rat then it would have surely been a chameleon. He sneered at everyone angrily

"I'm NOT going to Azkaban," he spat mutinously before he started shifting.

No... not shifting, transforming.

His head shrunk and his body morphed as the chains around him grew looser.

The wizengamot looked on in shock as looks of realization dawned upon the Marauders and Lily.

"GET HIM!" Sirius bellowed.

The four beside me sprung into action.

Peter had disappeared into the mounts of chains and you could hear the clanging of the metal as he ran among them, trying to escape

A small mousy body peeked its head out from near the chair's leg before making a mad dash across the room.

Remus jabbed his wand forward and a blue light emerged from it, which I recognised as the Animagus-Reversal Spell, but missed the rat by a few inches.

James went next shouting a stupefy that also missed Peter but succeeded in uprooting a tile from the floor prompting screams of fear and panic.

"Don't hurt anyone," Lily spoke urgently before shooting an Impendimenta from her wand that also missed the rat.

The four continued randomly shooting spells, now assisted with the Aurors, Madame Bones and some members of the committee. I looked between their failed attempts and Dumbledore who was watching the scene gravely making no move to help, making him even more useless than Fudge who was at least trying to order people around (though with a lot of added cursing).

Realising that these idiots were just gonna let Peter get away I pulled out my wand again and tore a piece of paper from the folder in front of me. I flicked my wand and watched as the paper transfigured into a small jar before muttering. I tapped the jar and muttered "Infragilis". I proceeded to unscrew it and then levitated the container along with the lid off my palm, watching as it followed the movement of my wand.

I saw Sirius blast a confringo at the rat who had been dodging between the auror's legs (causing one of the auror's to topple backward with a shriek) when I saw my chance.

The rat jumped away from the spell and I quickly moved the ar forward. Mid-jump, I snapped the jar shut around the rat's body, (almost knicking his head off in the process).

The cap screwed itself tight before the container fell to the ground, emitting a soft thunk.

The chaos in the room wore down. Everybody stared at the jar.

I softly levitated the jar up again, before harshly depositing it right in front of Fudge.

Everyone's eyes remained fixed on the jar as it rolled around lazily on the desk, with a squeaking and scampering brown rodent inside.


Infragilis - An incantation I came up with for the unbreakable charm.

Someone tell me wth was going on in my brain when I named this chapter. Seriously, if someone can tell me then it would really really help cause my own brain is a mystery to me sometimes.

Also, why is it that every time I try to search up songs related to treachery or revenge or lying or manipulation for this story the only thing the internet recommends is relationship songs, or to be more precise songs about exes.

Nah, I just want a song about the protagonist being an awful person. That's it.