Rat For Dessert
by Icarus
Peter had been given the exact image of where he was supposed to apparate, but it was very far underground and in those sorts of places, if you made a mistake… His stubby rat whiskers shivered. He tried not to visualise his own dead body embedded in a dripping stone wall, and failed. Traveling as a rat often made him late, but it was much safer.
Peter didn't like to admit that his apparating wasn't up to snuff, but James had often teased him about it… He forced himself not to think of James. That was part of a different life. The real world didn't just have schoolyard bullies, though some of the lessons certainly were the same. Incredibly, James and Sirius thought they could fight the Dark Lord, like he was just another Slytherin Prefect! But the world was a much bigger place than all of them.
He scuttled along the slick pipe that made his ramp to the tiny room, far underground. He was to receive special training today. He poked his head through a hole in the stone wall. There was no furniture but a dusty table.
A man, or he thought it was a man, paced the little room irritably. Peter waited for his back to be turned so he could pretend he had apparated.
He had his excuse ready, "I…" but it died on his lips.
The man -- it was a man -- had pulled off his hood. Familiar greasy black hair spilled about the gaunt face and hooked nose of Severus Snape. Snivellus. Sneaky, slimy, grimy Snape. That and a million other taunts came to mind as Peter understood was trapped alone with him. Without James, or Sirius or even Remus. "I…" he squeaked. The Dark Lord would never miss poor Peter, and no doubt Snape knew it.
Peter could read the rage in his eyes as Snape recognised him. But there was something else there as well. Satisfaction. Peter scanned the room for escape routes, though he had no doubt if he turned into a rat now Snape would happily squash him.
"So." Snape broke the silence; his voice was venomous hiss. "You are the rat."
He knew his animagus form! Or -- wait -- maybe he just meant… Peter stalled. "I - I'm not surprised to see you've found the Dark Lord. No doubt you were one of the first." He'd learned most of the Death Eaters were flattered by that; they argued over who joined the earliest.
"I imagine you would like to think that I am surprised to see you here," Snape ignored the compliment, always a strange bird. Peter squashed an hysterical giggle; Sirius called him a starved vulture. "But the only shock is that our standards have fallen so low." He pulled open a small black leather bag. It jingled a little. "You are fat. Weak. And you're no great wizard either. Your only asset to us is your animagus form. The fact that you are a rat is your highest achievement." Snape glanced back at Peter over his shoulder and his eyes dissected him with utter disdain. "And even that is a wonder. Nevertheless, I have been sent to train you." He pulled a clear, glowing flask out of the bag and thrust it at Peter.
"-- drink this."
It looked poisonous. "I -- uh…"
Peter scrambled for an excuse not to drink it, but one glowering look from Snape left him shaking like a leaf. At least he was still alive; he wouldn't poison him now, when he could have killed him moments ago? Of course, this was Snape.
Snape's gaze turned murderous, and Peter raised the vile stuff to his lips -- and spluttered immediately. It was chalky and had the texture of phlegm.
Snape snatched the flask out of his hand before it he could drop it. "It will prevent you from transforming for a few hours."
Fear pinned Peter to where he stood. He looked around the room again, as if it had changed. But he already knew all the escape routes he'd found were for a rat, and he couldn't apparate well enough to…. He saw a victorious smirk on Snape's face.
"You - they said I would be trained. And - and I would be able to protect myself," Peter whimpered, shrinking away from the dark form of Snape. "Y- you're supposed to teach me. You said." His voice cracked on the last word.
That look of victory settled into one of malicious amusement. "Is that what they told you? Or is it what you assumed they meant?" His voice was a low purr as he dug around in his bag again. "I fear your 'training' might take a slightly different form than you imagined."
With a loud clank, a tangle of manacles and chain dropped to the floor at Peter's feet. They snaked along the ground and attached themselves to the wall, seamlessly.
"I brought these just in case you proved… difficult." Snape began to untuck and unbutton his shirt. "Don't make me use them."
Finis.