Special thanks to PhoenixPadfoot89 and Magistrix Mundi and of course CrystalizedLily. Yey! I have more reviewers! You all, believe it or not, Fiction Alley would not accept this story. I personally suspect its cuz of grammar. I'm terrible terrible at grammar. But I hope you like this chapter. We're nearing the end now. ::tear::
Peeves didn't know how long he had been asleep; an hour? a minute? a second? He still felt fatigued. But something had woken him. Squinting through the darkness, a cloud shifted, and the forest was bathed again in pale blue moonlight. Peeves felt wide awake now. He had an uncomfortable feeling of being watched.
"Hello Peeves," said a cold familiar voice. Peeves' thundering heart calmed as he recognized the speaker.
"Adrian?" he said, trying not to sound surprised.
"Yeah," Adrian said as he materialized from behind a tree, dressed in a dark cloak with its hood up. Adrian's face was in shadow.
"Oh, good, man," Peeves grunted. "You can help me get back to the fortress. I can't get there by myself. I got bit by a Malaclaw and—"
"I know," Adrian cut in coldly.
"Oh...well, let's get going, then," Peeves said in a quiet voice. Adrian chuckled softly, walking slowly towards Peeves, step by step.
"No, Peeves," he whispered. "I think we'll stay just a little bit and talk."
"O-okay," Peeves stuttered. He had the feeling that something was terribly wrong.
Adrian stopped just a few feet in front of Peeves, his pale gray eyes staring callously down at him. Peeves shivered and he began to feel goose bumps.
"So, Peeves Radley," Adrian said in a very hushed voice. "How are you? Cold? Scared? In pain?"
Peeves could feel his hands shaking from fear. He nodded his head a tad, his wide eyes darting around the trees.
Adrian smiled. "Good."
Peeves wasn't sure if he had heard correctly. Adrian said it was good that he was freezing in the middle of a dangerous forest with numeral amounts of injuries. He tried to say something, but it just came out as a gurgle.
"No, Peeves, let me talk," Adrian said airily, drawing his wand from his pocket and twirling it around his fingers. "You can't imagine how long I've longed for you to feel that way. I can't tell you how long I have wished you unbearable pain. You don't know how long I have hated you with every fiber in my body."
Peeves stared, aghast.
"You wonder why, don't you Peeves Radley? See, that's your terrible error, you don't remember the hurt and pain you create in other's lives. It all revolves around you, Peeves. You." Adrian looked off into the trees as though in thought. Then his face snapped back towards Peeves.
"Do you remember first year when you first caused disarray in my life? No, you don't? Well then, let me refresh your mind. October, you and your bud Sherman got into one of your little troublemaking patterns. I don't know how you did it, but you snuck into the Slytherin dorms and into my room. My room. You then stole my...my undergarments and hung them all over the Great Hall. Can you imagine the embarrassment? To make it worst, it was right towards the beginning of our first year. What an awkward first impression on my part, eh, Peeves Radley? Starting to remember now? Okay, what about this?
"Third year, June. Potions Final. You 'accidentally' dropped a vile of powdered snake claw into my nearly completed potion. Totally messed up my Bumpless Brew. Gave me zero marks in Potions. My parents were furious. In fact, they hired a private Potions tutor for me that summer. They couldn't stand that their son wasn't good at Potions, the family trait. Wasted all my summer plans." Adrian paused for only a moment to collect his breath.
"Fifth year, you did the unforgivable. Since day one at Hogwarts I had had a friend, a best friend, quite like you and Sherman. And with Sherman, you got him expelled. You also had a part in the expulsion of my best friend, Darius Black. You pulled off one of your pranks, the old scare-the-teachers-out-of-their-wits-hoax. Darius just happened to be walking by just then. He got the blame and was expelled." Adrian narrowed his eyes. "You really ought to have learned at that time that that trick gave bad results, as it's the same one that got Sherman expelled." Peeves was numb with revelation.
"Last year, sixth year, March. You put Last-A-Week Wignarum's Iching Powder in my bed. I had abundant numbers of welts, boils, warts, and sores on my back for a whole painful week."
Peeves felt himself sink lower and lower along the trunk of the tree at everything Adrian said. He couldn't believe how much Adrian was blaming him for. And yet he couldn't deny it. He remembered it all, now that he had been reminded. But he had never imagined that his tricks could cause someone so much pain. Peeves knew what was coming next.
"This year, seventh year, you did two things that are unpardonable. First, you stole and destroyed my ...my quill. My grandfather's quill." Adrian stopped, and gave a quiet cough. He swallowed and then continued.
"My grandfather...was so special to me..." Adrian's voice broke and he clutched his wand so tightly in his fist that his knuckles turned white. "He was everything to me...everything." Adrian sniffed again. Peeves dared to speak.
"I-I'm so sorry..." he breathed. Adrian glared at him.
"And then you ruined the wand that Grandfather made for me...for me! He was a wandmaker, see, the...the best ever. I cherished that wand so much, especially when Grandfather died. It was all I had left of him, particularly after you destroyed the quill. Mum and Dad took me to get another wand the weekend after Grandfather's wand was broken...by you."
Adrian looked down at his new wand in disgust. "It doesn't feel as comfortable or natural as any wand made by Grandfather."
He looked back down at Peeves. "I swore to myself to get even to you. You see, Peeves Radley, when I get mad or hurt, I feel the need for revenge. And sometimes that revenge is a little extreme. I have to admit proudly that I can be as sly and as sneaky as you, Peeves. But unlike you, I can use personality to my advantage. Yes, yes, I became quite good friends with a little house-elf named Trivie, yes, that house-elf that oh so handily led you to the 'kitchens'. Then, alas, the second task made clear to everyone your mortal fear of snakes.
"That knowledge became useful when I again plotted how I was going to make your life miserable. I convinced little Trivie to sneak a regular dose of Nightmare Potion into your food and drink. Then, I also had her sneak those many snakes into you bed every night a shipment of snakes came in. You see, Peeves, my dad earned his fortune in breeding and raising snakes. I can get as many as I need, whenever I need then. That came in handy.
"I noticed your change in mood and appearance. Yet you still continued to play pranks and hurt others. Soon this little revenge game wasn't for me, it was for the liberty of all the unfortunate students from Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. Think of the hundreds of pranks you have played, Peeves Radley. Think of the unfortunate people who had to live with that so many months a year for all seven years of your education. Peeves Radley, I plan to end their pain today." Peeves felt even more blood drain from his face. Adrian laughed a wickedly wild laugh. His eyes shone and his teeth flashed.
"My father has always believed that the Dark Arts are a wonderful way to express your anger, and he taught me well." Adrian raised his new wand and pointed it strait at Peeves, who was whimpering on the ground. What came next, Peeves would never have expected.
"Crucio!" Adrian bellowed. Pain beyond anything Peeves had ever experienced pierced through his body. He writhed on the ground in agony, hearing his own screams and the malicious laughter of Adrian, his former pain quite forgotten. Adrian lifted his wand up and the excruciating pain stopped, leaving Peeves feeling sour and weak all over. Adrian laughed again.
"Did you like that? I can't tell you how long I've longed to do that, Peeves Radley! How long! Dad thinks I must be the first seventeen-year-old ever to have advanced so far in the Dark Arts and be able to perform the Unforgivable Curses. Oh yes, Peeves, I can do all of them, all three of them. Imperio!"
Calm washed over Peeves, slowing down his speeding heart. Peeves felt oddly comfortable, he felt no pain, he forgot where he was. Stand up, a voice in his mind told him. Peeves felt himself get to his feet, still completely relaxed. Run. Peeves ran. Run faster. Peeves ran faster.
Suddenly, the blissfulness lifted, and before Peeves realized what was happening he bowled full force into a tree. He distinctly heard a crunch and could taste blood. He knew his nose was broken. Peeves slumped to the ground, his head throbbing, his ribs felt like they were broken as well.
"Crucio!" Pain, again, agonizing, unbearable, excruciating pain. His whole body was one fire. He screamed with all the energy he had. But no one could help him. He was in the middle of a forest, perhaps miles and miles away from anyone else but his torturer. The burning stopped again. Peeves was laying flat on the ground, fighting for breath. Adrian was chuckling softly.
"What...your...doing...is...wrong..." Peeves panted.
Adrian snorted. "I know."
"You...need...to...learn...to...control...your...anger..."
Adrain growled. "Crucio!" Peeves was burning, burning. It stopped.
"How dare you tell me what I need to do?" Adrian roared.
I can't handle this, I can't live like this! Just kill me, get it over with! Peeves thought desperately. "Just kill me!" He hadn't realized he had said that aloud until Adrian replied.
"No, Peeves, I want you to suffer. But don't worry, you'll die. It'll look like a Graphorn attack or something. No one will ever suspect me."
Anger pumped through Peeves. Adrian couldn't just get away with this. Hate surged through Peeves, he felt as violent as Adrian.
"I will make yours and everyone else's lives miserable!" Peeves snarled.
Adrian snorted again. "I'd like to see you try."
Peeves hated him, hated him. He was shaking violently.
"Crucio!"
"AAAGGGHHH!"
"Good, Peeves, good! Crucio!"
He felt so numb. Hate, anger, pain, excruciating pain mixed together. He didn't feel alive. But he couldn't just lay here. He had to do something. He wasn't a quitter.
With a mighty scream, Peeves dove for Adrian. Adrian blinked in surprise, too slow. Peeves snatched at Adrian's wand hand, trying to grip the wand. Adrian held on with a vice grip. Peeves roared again and shoved Adrian's arm up, pointing the wand up.
Both boys pulled at the wand. There was a mighty blast and a shower of red sparks sailed into the air. Adrian stared up at the twinkling red in wild surprise. With a growl, he kicked Peeves in the gut. Peeves slumped to the ground yet again as Adrian disappeared behind the trees. Clasping at the dead leaves he laid on, wheezing and sweating heavily, Peeves slipped into blackness.