Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.

A/N: Thanks to MaeSilverpaws1, who is beta-ing this story.

Chapter Sixty-Nine

Rat Trap

Knowing that his friends would be out on the grounds near the lake, Harry decided to find them to let them know about what Professor Trelawney had just said and how she had behaved afterward. He hurried through the castle, detouring only long enough to stop at Remus's office to see if he was there. Remembering that the werewolf was still teaching and it would be a half an hour before he was done. Harry started heading for the grounds again. He cursed the fact that he had given up his map so that Sirius could use one, because right now it really would have been useful so that he could quickly find not only Sirius, but his friends as well.

He felt wary as soon as he left the castle and he didn't like that one bit. Trelawney had said the servant would meet the ones that he had betrayed and Harry was sure that meant Remus and Sirius, but he was also afraid that it could mean him as well. He wasn't sure if he wanted to meant this rat that had help Voldemort destroy his family or not. Part of him wanted to be able to curse the man but at the same time he didn't want to see this person because it would make the fact that his parents were betrayed by their friend all the more real.

"Harry, you look terrible," Hermione said as he came into view, Ron and Hermione were sitting under one of the trees looking towards the lake while Luna was standing near the shore looking at the water curiously; it appeared like she was trying to see if one of her creatures were in there. At Hermione's words, however, Luna turned to walk closer to her friends.

"Where are the others?" Harry asked, Fred, George, and Ginny were supposed to met them there too. Neville had already said that he would be with his Hufflepuff friends and he would see them tomorrow.

"Well, Fred and George said they couldn't make it here, they decided to go to Hogsmeade to get some Fi … er … butterbeer," Ron said, correcting himself when Hermione turned a suspicious eye on him.

"Firewhiskey!" Hermione said. "They can't possibly …!"

"Oh, look, there's Ginny now," Luna interrupted, and Ron looked relieved about that fact. He didn't really want to be yelled at for something his brothers were doing.

"What's the matter, Harry?" Ron pressed, still trying to get the conversation away from the twins.

"Trelawney just made a prediction," Harry said as soon as Ginny had joined them.

"Okay …?" Ron said looking at Harry oddly. "Doesn't she make 'predictions' all the time," he went on, using air quotes when he said prediction.

"This was different … she looked like she was having a seizure and spoke in this creepy voice," Harry shook his head.

"That sounds a lot like the book described what it looked like when someone was having a prediction," Hermione muttered.

"What are you talking about?" Ron looked at her questioningly. "I don't remembering reading about that."

"That's not surprising … you don't remembering reading about anything you learn," Ginny pointed out and Ron scowled at her.

"It wasn't in our textbook, it was in the book that Luna gave me," Hermione said.

"Why do you have a textbook about Divination?" Ron asked, turning to Luna.

"I thought it was an interesting subject," Luna said, "and when Hermione asked for help …"

"Look this isn't important," Hermione said looking annoyed, she didn't like admitting she needed help in anything, nor did she like that Luna had pointed this out to Ron. "Harry, what did she say?"

Harry repeated the prophecy he heard the best he could remember it and everyone looked worried about that.

"We need to find Sirius or Remus," Ginny said. "They should hear about this …"

"And it probably would be good to tell Dumbledore about this as well," Hermione added.

"Either way, we should get back to the castle," Harry nodded his head in agreement with his friends. "Come on."

"Wait, I just have to get Scratch," Ron said, looking around for his rat that he had brought with him so his pet could enjoy the sun too. He narrowed his eyes looking around confused. Scratch had always liked wandering around when he was outside, but he usually stayed in sight.

"Ron, we really should be getting back to the castle … I'm sure Scratch will be okay if we …" Hermione started to say but stopped when they heard a loud squeaking sound. Ron ran after that sound and the others watched him as he stopped twenty feet away, slowing following after him.

"No," Ron groaned miserably, looking down at the rat that he had own the last few years. It wasn't moving and there was blood around it. "Scratch …"

His eyes fell on the other rat that was near his pet and his depression turned to anger. That anger quickly went to shock as the rat turned into a man …

O

Peter Pettigrew wasn't sure what he was supposed to do now. He had try to find out where his master was, and decided that Hogwarts was probably the best place to go, but he didn't have the guts to actually go into the castle. The Dementors were guarding all of the main entrances and he didn't want to get close to the monsters that had pulled out his worst fears and memories. He was also wary about the warnings the rats in Hogsmeade had given him about a big black dog that was attacking all of the wild rats in the castle. He was sure that Sirius was on the grounds, just waiting to get his hands on him. He knew that his school time friend would show him no mercy at all.

He had decided to just wander the streets of Hogsmeade to see if anyone would say something that would help him, but after more than a month of doing this he realized that he wasn't gathering any useful information. He decided that it was time to make a run into the castle to see if he could find anything out. He was shock to say the least when he nearly ran into Snape of all people. He had not expected to find a Death Eater in the castle. Feeling that he might be the most likely to have information about the Dark Lord, other than Dumbledore that is (and since he was terrified of the old headmaster), Peter had decided to follow Snape.

He merely watched Snape when they had first entered the Potions Master's room. Peter might not have been the smartest bloke, but he always had a good sense of self preservation. He knew that he couldn't show himself to this man to try to question him about his Dark Lord's whereabouts. Snape might have been a Death Eater, but that wasn't a guarantee that he wouldn't turn Peter in. After all, Snape believed him to be an idiot, just like all the Death Eaters … just like everyone … had believed him to be. Even Peter hardly believed that he was capable of helping the Dark Lord out.

As soon as Snape left to go to his next lesson, Peter transformed back to a man and started to search the room for clues that might be useful. He was just about to give up after an hour and a half of searching, when he noticed something about the chest by Snape's bed. He had searched it three times already but he was suddenly reminded of his own days of trying to keep information hidden from any inspection. The Dark Lord had taught him a useful spell that was undetectable by any wizard no matter what they used to try to discover it (other than the counter spell, of course). As a spy, this had been very useful to him, because he had plenty of things that he needed to keep hidden. Thinking that Snape might have to do the same thing, seeing as he lived so closely to Dumbledore, Peter cast the counter curse to the spell that he learned on the chest and was disappointed when nothing happened. However, when he cast it on one of the desk in Snape's room, a drawer seemed to appear out of nowhere.

Smirking, Peter opened the drawer and looked through the contents. It was mostly filled with letters from other Death Eaters starting from the time that Snape had started his job at Hogwarts. Peter looked them over quickly after performing the charm to make their contents clear … a spell that only Death Eaters knew. He was disappointed that they were mostly filled with request to make the Death Eater's child have good grades or asking Snape to cause trouble for a certain child for one reason or another. However, there was one letter that was nearly two years old now from Lucius Malfoy that he found of interest. It appeared to be in response to one that Snape had written to his fellow Death Eater.

Severus,

If what you have said in your last letter is right, I fear for you. It was smart of you to write to me for your own sake, but you have put me in a precarious position. It's hard to believe that the Dark Lord would go to Hogwarts, especially with only the help of such a weak fool as Quirrell was, but I know that you're not one to exaggerate. I agree that you cannot go searching for him yourself, not with that Mudblood lover watching your every move, but I can't do much more myself. It's important that I continued to hold a high position in the Ministry so I can be useful to our Lord when he does return. I will try to send others to Albania, but as you know, the bloodtraitors and the Mudblood lovers watch most of our movements closely so we aren't able to move in the open, especially anywhere near where the Dark Lord is rumored to be hiding.

There was more to the letter, but Peter didn't care, he got the information that he wanted. He put the letters back in the desk, closed it and ran out of the room. He was now going to do something that no other Death Eater could, he was going to find his master and no one was going to be able to stop him from searching because he could become a rat and hide in plain sight.

He ran through the castle quickly, knowing that it was dangerous for him to stay there. Not to mention he had the information that he needed and there was no more reason for him to be here. However, while running from the grounds he couldn't help but hear an interesting conversation that had caught his ear … one that he thought might be important to listen to. He heard the voice of a boy talking about someone making a prediction and heard it described as a real one.

He was startled when he recognized the back of the boy that was talking, though he had never seen him this old before. His resemblance to his father was unmistakable. He felt a wave of guilt looking at Harry, if he returned to this master; this boy would likely be killed. But if he didn't, then he, Peter, would definitely be killed or force to live as a rat for the rest of his life. He wouldn't allow that to happen, it wasn't in his nature, so he just listened, wanting to hear the prophecy.

He didn't get the chance to do that however, because a rat came up to him. It was difficult to describe how he understood what the rat was saying, because it wasn't like talking to a human. It was more like the rat made its intentions clear through its movements. This particular rat seemed to be asking why he was listening to his nice master. Peter tried to tell him that he was just curious; a common feature in rats but the black rat didn't seem to like him. This was why he hated talking to rats that were trained by wizards, they always seemed to know that he wasn't a true rat and they become mistrustful of him.

Peter had decided to just ignore the chattering from the other rat, and tried again to listen to what was being said only to hear one of the girls mention that the group of humans should go and find Remus and Sirius. He was frozen to the spot on the ground as his mind filled with dread at the idea that he would be found by either one of his old friends, they were likely to kill him or at the very least turn him back in to the Dementors. It was a sudden chatter from the other rat that snapped him out of his thoughts; the noise was almost loud enough for humans to hear now. He darted at the rat to try and silence it … he didn't want to be found. However, the rat only became louder and fought against the sudden attack. Peter got slashed across the face before he was able to make the rat stop squeaking by biting it hard in the throat.

"No!" he heard a boy's voice and he looked up horrified to see that he was this close to a human. "Scratch …"

He didn't know what to do, but he glanced at the other approaching humans, Harry among them and feared what would happen if he just ran for it. He could not be caught now, but he had the element of surprised at the moment. Even as the red haired boy looked at him with hate filled eyes, he was turning back into a human. The boy gasped and looked at him too shock to move and Peter took that second to grab the boy and take the wand out of the pocket the boy had been reaching for moments ago.

"Don't move," Peter said his voice was squeaky and hoarse from lack of use.

"YOU!" Harry growled, not heeding Peter's words at all. He pulled out his own wand and pointed it in Peter's direction, the three girls doing the same.

"I will kill him," Peter said and pointed the wand he had in his hand at the boy he had taken it from. The boy was struggling against his grasp and Peter was sure the red head would win the fight if it lasted much longer. "Stop or I will curse you," he hissed at the boy jabbing the wand into his ribs, making the boy hiss in pain.

Harry and the girls stop where they were, all looking hopelessly as Peter backed him and the boy away, trying to think of where he could run to now. Catching sight of the Whomping Willow, he headed in that direction. One look at Harry and he knew that the boy wasn't going to just let him go. He would have to use the red headed boy as a shield against the son of his childhood friend and if Harry was anything like James, he wouldn't just leave his friend behind.

"Drop your wands," Peter said in the most commanding voice he could muster, but it sounded weak even to him. The others looked at Harry, who didn't look sure he should follow the order, or not.

"Don't do it," the boy he was holding yelled at his friends and then cried in pain when Peter jabbed him in the ribs again.

"Now," Peter said even more firmly than he had before and Harry dropped his wand and the three girls followed his lead. Peter thought faintly that if he could just curse Harry and the others now, he would be able to get out of this, but he knew that his aim was horrible and he would likely miss. He also knew that as soon as he tried to do something like that, the boy he was holding would overpower him. He had to keep them believing that he was in control. "Now, head towards the Whomping Willow!"