Chapter 7- Betrayed

When Sirius finally spotted his quarry, he hurried to approach him. The small, portly man squeaked slightly when he noticed Sirius beside him. "Well, hello, Padfoot. How are you?"

"Not so good, Wormtail," Sirius spat. "The night before last, Lily and James were killed by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Or, if you don't prefer, Voldemort."

Peter squeaked again. "Oh, yes. I heard about that. Terrible, terrible-"

Sirius pushed him against the wall. "The funny thing is, in order for him to find them, you would have to tell him. So I wondered why you would tell him. One, you were tortured. Two, you've been serving a Dark Wizard all this time. Now, tell me, Peter, which is it?"

The other man's mouth worked, but no sound came out. Sirius smirked.

"That's what I thought."

When he pulled out his wand, Peter found his voice. "What- what are you doing?"

Sirius pointed the wand menacingly at his former friend. "You've done some pretty horrible things before, I don't doubt. But this is James we're talking about, James and Lily. They trusted you to keep them safe, and you betrayed them. After all they've done for you… I don't know how you could repay them that way."

Peter looked frantic, his eyes darting in every direction as though searching for escape. "You have to understand, Sirius. You and James and Remus, and Lily, you were always strong, you had power of your own. But I'll only ever have power that is given to me. The Dark Lord promised me that he would give me power."

"Not the kind of power you're hoping for. Do you really think he would give any real power to a sniveling little rat like you?" Sirius sneered. "No, of course not. You were just trying to save your own hide."

"You don't see how strong the dark side is? They'll defeat you, and then you'll be sorry. You-"

"That may be so," interrupted Sirius, "but you will not be around when that day comes. I can give my friends that, at least." He raised his wand, in preparation to strike.

Peter pushed him away with a surprising force born of desperation. Startled, Sirius cried out. He saw Wormtail remove his wand from his pocket. "Pettigrew, what are you doing?" Sirius just let the surname slip out, as he had done a long time ago, back when the two boys had first met at Hogwarts. He couldn't use the given or chosen name of someone he loathed so much.

"You think you're the only one who knows a thing or two about cleverness," hissed Peter. "You all underestimated me. But I fooled you all, you never knew I was on his side. That should show you what I'm capable of, but no."

"What are you talking about?" Confused, Sirius let his guard down.

Peter puffed his chest out, standing to his full height, and yelled suddenly, "They were supposed to be your friends!" Others around them stopped and stared. "Lily and James, Siruis! How could you?"

Sirius's eyes went wide. Before he could speak, Peter had raised his wand. Sirius lifted his own to counter the attack. By the time he had done so, Wormtail's spell was already taking effect. Sirius could not hear what was said, and a sudden heaving of the ground made him unaware of anything for a moment. When the air cleared of dust, the ground before him was split, and Pettigrew was gone. There were dead bodies strewn around him. Realization of Peter's intentions began to form, but it was too late. Aurors were surrounding him, surprised, but thinking they knew what had really happened. They had no thought but their duty, though it meant arresting an ally.

As his arrest was announced in his ear, the world blurred. All he could see was Lily and James, dead. Harry, without any parents. And Pettigrew- he had escaped vengeance for now, but he would get him someday. There was no way Peter had killed himself; he always went with what seemed the surest route to survival. And his own situation, being carried off by people who had been friends. The absurdity of it hit him full force.

He began to laugh. Hollow and mirthless it was, the laugh of a man who knew how hopeless the crazy world he lived in really was. He alternated laughing and crying, but he could not tell the difference between the two. There was no happiness in the laughter, and no tears to mark the periods of crying. They alternated, but it was all the same.

The worst part of the trial by far was looking up and seeing Dumbledore there in his place, shaking his head in disappointment. Sirius, chained more securely to the chair than most of the others who were brought in, could do nothing to catch his attention, and the headmaster would not meet his eye. He felt the absence of tears behind his eyes then even more. If only he could cry, perhaps he could convince them that he was telling the truth if he said that the Secret-Keeper had been switched.

As Sirius expected, Dumbledore had affirmed that he had been made Lily and James Potter's Secret-Keeper. This alone was enough evidence for most of the Wizengamot to believe his guilt, but the witness accounts and reports of the Aurors who had found him sealed it. His sentence- life in Azkaban- was proclaimed a few hours after entering the room, him being uncomfortably chained to a chair the entire time, and then they made to bring him to prison.

He knew from the sounds around him as they were unchaining him that the members of the Wizengamot were leaving the chamber. Two wizards of some sort held his arms as he was dragged out of the room. He looked back just as the door loomed over him, and finally saw Dumbledore looking at him. The twinkling blue eyes bored into his, and he knew what the old man was thinking.

Sadly, he turned away, and then he ceased to pay attention to where he was. This was how he suddenly found himself in the stone cell, in one of the most feared locations in the wizarding world.

He barely had time to get used to the disgusting dankness, and not nearly enough to accustom himself to the fearful dementors, when he heard a familiar voice near the cell.

"I'm not sure you should go into the cell with him. Can't you talk to him through the bars? I mean, he's killed before-"

"He has no wand," the familiar voice interjected. "I am sure I can handle any physical attack, which is unlikely, to put it boldly. Open the door, please."

The door to the cell creaked open. Sirius knew better than to try for escape, so he waited instead. In a moment, Dumbledore stood across the cell from him. "What are you doing here?" Sirius asked tonelessly.

"I've come to speak to you, Sirius. You do not have to speak back if you do not want to."

"I do want to. But you know that, I expect."

Silence overcame them. Sirius waited for Dumbledore to speak, but he suspected that his old mentor did not want to breach the subject. With a deep breath, he plunged in. "You know I didn't do it. I saw it in your eyes. You know I'm innocent."

"I would not use innocent as a word to describe you, Sirius, except in this particular case. I know."

"Well why did you let them do this to me, then?!" He had not meant to yell, but he lacked emotion so fiercely since the incident that it was a relief to know he still had some.

"Sirius, please. I don't know what you think I could have done."

"You could have said something!"

"What? That I believe you to be innocent, even though all evidence proves the contrary? That would not have changed anything for them, or for you."

"At least I would have felt less betrayed." This time Dumbledore did not answer. Sirius sensed the question, and supplied the answer on his own. "I was afraid they would get to me, and I would let the secret go whether I wanted to or not. Peter was the Secret-Keeper after we switched. I made him tell me where they were right after, because James wished it. But I would not have been able to give away their secret, as I wanted." He snorted a short laugh. "I killed them, as indirectly as it may seem."

"It is not your fault. You could not have known what would happen. None of us could. James could have refused to switch, if he had felt the need."

"I don't know if he could." Sirius shook his head. "The way I insisted… he had never been able to resist giving me the things I wanted that badly. Now they are dead, and Harry's going to grow up… I don't know where."

"At Lily's sister's. His aunt and uncle. They have a son Harry's age, named Dudley."

"He should have had his parents," Sirius whispered.

"Sirius, old friend, did you know that Voldemort is nowhere to be found?" Sirius looked up at that. "I have deduced that Voldemort attempted to kill Harry, but the spell backfired. The child will carry a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead- there." He reached out and indicated the spot between Sirius's eyes. "With the help of you, Lily, Harry- even Peter, Voldemort has been destroyed. It seems that our actions can have good results at the same time as bad. Unfortunately, the good in this is far outweighed by bad, in the eyes of some."

"On the other hand," Sirius said bitterly, "What's one or two lives- three, counting mine- compared to the millions Voldemort would be killing at this very moment, were still alive."

"Oh, he is alive." Dumbledore's voice was grave and reluctant. "It is impossible that he would die."

"How do you know?" Sirius said.

Instead of answering, Dumbledore looked at the ceiling. "Poor conditions in here. I suppose we couldn't petition for a better living space, seeing as the only residents are convicts. Hmm."

"Albus…"

"One more thing," the headmaster said quickly. "You are going to have a rough time in here, with the dementors. But it will not be forever. Someday they'll find Peter Pettigrew, and he'll have some explaining to do, won't he?"

Within a blink, Dumbledore was beyond the cell once again, heading away from Azkaban for the duration of the time Sirius would spend in prison. It would be long before he would see a friendly, or indeed familiar, face. But Dumbledore, the old coot, had given him some hope.

How long could someone like Peter fake his own death?

End Chapter 7

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