Harry Potter and the New Start: Fiery Depths of Hatred
Hello everyone, and thank you to all of the reviewers for the last chapter and all of the chapters! I'm sorry for the delay on this. I generally like to go one chapter this story, then one chapter of my other story, to make sure one doesn't get more updates than the other. This, all well and good, also means that when I'm stuck for one, the other has to wait. That's exactly what happened this time, as I had a writer's block for the latest chapter of Return of the Father. So, sorry for the delay, and let's hope I can get things going more quickly this time around!
-Black Manor-
How Wormtail managed to break the floo connection and rush out behind him so quickly would forever be a question in Sirius' mind.
All he knew, however, was his mother's screams of hatred had given them away, and what seemed like a mere second later, Peter Pettigrew was behind him, wand in hand, it's tip pressed against his head. "Hello, Peter." Sirius spat more calmly than he'd expected to manage.
"I thought y-you'd come, Sirius." Peter said from behind them. His voice trembled, and from the shaking that the wand was doing against Sirius's head, it was safe to say that Wormtail himself was trembling also.
Ever so slowly, Sirius let Harry slid down his body and onto the floor. It wouldn't do to have the little boy in front of him if they started to duel. He was taking no chances. Harry protested with the tiniest of whimpers, but otherwise said nothing. Sirius strongly suspected that Harry was just too afraid to make his voice really work. His godson latched a hand onto Sirius's robes as the older man started talking back to his former friend. "Of course I would." He agreed, "You stole my godson."
Wormtail didn't seem to have much to say. That was quite all right with Sirius though, for he still did. His mother's screams had faded away, as though she'd realized what was about to transpire.
Raising his hands in the air, in the vision of mock surrender, Sirius turned around slowly to face Peter. "Did you honestly think I wouldn't come to take him back?" he asked finally, his voice a low growl.
Peter looked as though he wanted nothing more than to go cower somewhere. To his credit, with the way that Sirius looked right then, even Albus Dumbledore would have been tempted to take a step back. His face was half obscured by the darkness, which only served to make him look that much more terrifying.
The look in his eyes was beyond murderous.
"Give him to m-m-me, Sirius!" Peter squeaked, gesturing to Harry with his hand – the one missing a finger. "Or I'll hex you!"
Sirius pushed Harry further behind him, so only the side of the little boy's head could be seen watching the two former best friends. "Touch him again, and you'll be down a few more fingers." He added his own threat.
This seemed to scare Peter far more than his threat of hexing had done to Sirius. The look in his eyes begging to hide intensified. Sirius found he had no mercy for the thing in front of him.
Whatever feelings of love and friendship that he'd had towards Peter Pettigrew had died the same day that James had.
The hatred that had clouded his judgment that Halloween returned tenfold, so much so that had Sirius been aware of it, he would have even frightened himself. But Sirius didn't sense it, he only saw red in front of him, he only felt the rage coursing through him.
If Harry noticed, he didn't let on. He whimpered, but whether that was because of the situation or his godfather's personality change, Sirius didn't know.
It was likely that not even Harry knew for sure what he was so afraid of.
The person who noticed Sirius's focused hatred most was Peter. He backed away, realizing that he wouldn't leave the house alive if Sirius started throwing curses, which he looked seconds away from doing. He made the mistake of speaking. "Si-irius…please…I-I…"
The words – the pleading tone of the sniveling rat – snapped Sirius from whatever vision of rage he was in. "Shut your mouth." He hissed, his voice neither quiet nor loud.
Snapping his mouth shut, Peter realized his error. Sirius took a threatening step forward, closing the gap. "Were you just asking for mercy? Was that what you were planning on stuttering out?" Sirius asked, sneering. "You dare to take my godson away from me - just like you stole his father too – and you expect compassion?"
Peter shook his head back and forth, though it was more reflex than an attempt to answer Sirius.
The blue-eyed man paid it no mind though. "In this moment, Peter, Voldemort would have been more compassionate." He said with finality, raising his wand.
The words to end Peter's life came across Sirius's lips with remarkable ease. Only after they had left his mouth did Sirius realize that the green light racing towards Peter could scare Harry into remembering a similar light racing towards him. Sirius leaned down quickly and hid Harry's eyes in his should, but kept his own open. He wasn't letting himself miss the rat's execution for anything.
The green spell seemed to take forever to reach Peter. Wormtail seemed frozen until the last second when he transformed suddenly, evading death just as he had years before.
Sirius practically screamed from anger and sent spells hurtling at the scurrying rat. "Stupefy!" he yelled, "Avada Kedavra!"
None of the spells hit Peter though. Realizing that Peter had gotten away, Harry started to cry again into Sirius's side. The sounds of his godson's fear and distress strengthened Sirius's resolve to get the rat.
"Stupefy! Immobulus!" he yelled, finally just thinking up spells to cause any damage at all.
"Incendio!"
The others had just harmlessly hit the wall when they missed, but this spell, this one hit the wall less than harmlessly. The spell hit the wall right before where Wormtail was running.
Flames instantly lit on the ground and started to travel up the wall itself.
Peter, in shock and a fleeting moment of intelligence, knew that he wouldn't be able to stop himself as a rat, though he could stop in time as a human. As quickly as he'd transformed the first time, Wormtail transformed back to Peter in front of Sirius's eyes.
Forced to back away from the quickly growing flames, Peter found himself closer to Sirius than comfort allowed. "The house…it's going to burn."
"Brilliant observation, Peter." Sirius stated quietly, pulling Harry into his arms. "Expelliarmus!" He yelled with no warning.
Caught by surprise, Peter did nothing as his wand flew out of his hands and into Sirius's. Peter made a move as if to rush Sirius and get his wand back, but he stopped short in fear. Turning quickly, he tried to rush out the front door, but the fire had inflamed the area too badly for escape. Black Manor's old structure and walls were quickly becoming filled with flame.
As much as Sirius would have loved to watch Peter suffer, the flames were traveling faster than he'd ever thought they were. Without the magic of a family inside of the building, the arsenal of spells protecting it were failing, and had probably been doing so for a year at least.
He had to get Harry out of the house and back to the safety of their home. But first, he had to make their home safe again. Pointing the wand at Peter, who was currently whirling around in a circle to try to decide what his best course of action would be, Sirius muttered. "Obliviate Mensis!"
Peter's eyes rolled back into his head for a second with the force of the spell. Sirius knew it would be powerful enough to erase the month, as it was intended to do. Peter collapsed to the floor, and Sirius knew that he would be out for a long time.
Quite a bit longer, actually, once the smoke fully overcame him. And once the smoke kept him unconscious, the flames would do the rest.
Peter Pettigrew would never open his eyes again.
Harry's terrified sobs rang in his ears, and suddenly, Sirius didn't want to watch Peter die. He wanted to go home. "It's all right, Harry, we're going. Don't be afraid, nothing will ever touch you again." Sirius muttered, unsure if Harry would hear him over the roar of the flames.
The little boy didn't respond, but merely tightened his hold over Sirius as his godfather ran back through the house and out the back door.
They didn't turn back to look at the burning house, and they didn't give a spare thought to the man inside it.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I'm sorry again that it took so long. We have CAPT testing all this week (a standardized test for Connecticut sophomores that must be passed or you don't graduate) and next week, along with some insane about of science homework/projects/packets/tests. That, and it will be Return's turn for an update. So, we're looking at a bit of a wait for the chapter again, unless of course I'm struck with inspiration too great to ignore, which could happen.
Please, let me know how you liked the chapter! We're getting very close to the end. I actually lost my outline (last time I write one down instead of typing it out!), so I'm flying a little blind now. But I do know what the last three chapters will be, essentially, so we should be fine.
Oh, and "Mensis" means month in latin. So basically, Peter's memory ofthe last month is gone.
Stars Enchantress