Chapter 27
Wormtail's Offer

On the day when Doug Wilson's disappearance was announced to the school, there were 4 weeks left in the term. Security was tightened once again in response to this recent kidnapping, and this time, it was Hufflepuff students who were taken to the hospital wing to be kept under observation to make sure that they weren't taking Polyjuice potion. The mood in the school was tense, and people were beginning to feel increasingly as if the next victim could be anyone in the student body. It was one thing when the only victim had been a first year student. Such a kidnapping was sad and unfortunate, but didn't necessarily mean that older students were in danger. But if a third year Quidditch player, who was by all accounts rather adept at defensive spells was able to be victimized by whoever was doing the kidnapping, then there was really no telling who would be next.

Tonks' Dueling Club meeting for that Tuesday night had an attendance higher than any previous meeting, as even more students decided that it was necessary to learn how to defend themselves against potential attackers. But Neville, Ginny, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were beginning to find that the lessons with the rest of the club weren't helping them as much as they used to, as they were now rather advanced compared to the rest of their peers owing to the extra practice sessions which they were holding. Therefore, their really beneficial practice sessions came on Thursday nights.

However, on the Thursday evening after the disappearance of Doug Wilson, Neville, Ginny, Harry, Ron, and Hermione set out to practice Defense Against the Dark Arts again, but got rather more than they bargained for.

They were preparing to pair off and have mock-duels (with one person rotating out each match, because there was an odd number of people) reviewing all of the spells that they had learned so far, but they were distracted by a rustling sound coming from the corner of the abandoned classroom where they held their practice-sessions.

When they looked over, they saw a rat scurrying on the floor. It took no time at all for all five of them to jump to the same conclusion: This was no true rat. It appeared that this time, Wormtail had screwed up and allowed them to spot him while he meant to be spying on them. Harry felt the familiar rage begin to bubble up inside him as he pointed his wand at the rat and opened his mouth to say, "Accio rat!"

But he never quite got the words out. It seemed that Wormtail had quite intended to be spotted after all, and instead of trying to scurry under the door or into a crack in the wall, he had instead began to transform back into a human. Five wands were pointed his way as he emerged, hunched over, on the floor of the classroom

Pettigrew, of course, had no wand on him, having just transformed. He seemed aware, however, that as noble as Harry was, his thirst for revenge might overcome his sense of chivalry and force him to curse the unarmed animagus into oblivion anyway.

Therefore, as Pettigrew stood up, holding out his hands palms out to reinforce the point that he was unarmed, he said softly, "Of course, you could curse me. But you may well find that I will be of more use to you alive than dead."

Harry was caught off guard. Was Wormtail actually trying to bargain with him? "The last time I tried to show you mercy, you took advantage of it," spat Harry angrily. "It's because of you Sirius had to stay in hiding. It's because of you he spent his last 15 years of life either in a prison or as a prisoner in his own house!"

Harry may have been imagining it, but he thought he saw a twinge of guilt on Pettigrew's face at the mention of Sirius' death. But whether it was there or not, at this point, any remorse on Pettigrew's part would be absolutely meaningless. Harry was waiting for the slightest provocation on Pettigrew's part to justify him cursing an unarmed man. He wasn't sure whether Pettigrew was worth becoming a murderer over, but also wasn't sure that he would be able to allow him to walk out of that room alive. Even if they all escorted him to Dumbledore's office, what was to say he wouldn't somehow escape again?

Wormtail looked at Harry, and did something that surprised Harry more than anything else that had happened so far during this encounter. He laughed. Then he said, "I am not looking for your mercy. Even you are not stupid enough to make that mistake twice. I simply would have assumed that you would want to hear the message with which I have been sent before you decide what you're going to do to me. But of course, if you feel you are above communicating with my master... Ah, but what a pity that little Lucy Smith and Doug Wilson will have to be the ones to pay."

Harry was practically shaking with rage. Wormtail was actually taunting him. He looked around at his four friends to gage whether they had any better of a handle on the situation than he did. But they were all simply standing there, some gaping slightly, holding their wands loosely, staring at Pettigrew. Still, in spite of the cold message of his words, Harry could swear he heard a slight wavering in Wormtail's voice. From looking around at his friends, he could tell that none of them had any desire to take control of the conversation between him and Wormtail, which Harry thought was a bit unfortunate, as he wasn't quite sure how long he could converse with Wormtail without getting mad enough to curse him. But he figured he would have to attempt to carry on if nobody else would.

"Fine, traitor, tell us the message that your master Lord Voldemort has sent you with," said Harry, deliberately using the phrase "Lord Voldemort" for the satisfaction of seeing Pettigrew cringe when he did so.

But Pettigrew managed to stop cringing for long enough to say, "I am to offer a dueling contest. Five of our top agents are guarding the two captive Hogwarts students. The five of you are to come and face off with them. If you survive the encounter, you will be free to collect the captives and come back to Hogwarts, once again the heroes of the school."

"How do I know that you're telling the truth? How do I know that this isn't just another ambush like the one that was set for me in the Department of Mysteries last spring?" asked Harry, calculatingly. But he wasn't going to rely on Wormtail's word alone for the answer to such an important question. He did not even listen to what Wormtail said in response, as he was already focusing all of his conscious mind on the foul man in front of him and all the ways in which he was connected to Harry.

He imagined Scabbers, who had been Ron's pet for three years. He imagined watching that same rat transform in the Shrieking Shack at the end of third year into a man who was meant to have been dead for more than a decade. He focused on how that man had cowered in fear at the feet of two of his former friends. And he focused most of all on what was one of the strongest links one wizard could have with another: He focused on how he had saved Pettigrew's life that night.

He thought about all of this, and he concentrated, looking into Pettigrew's eyes, and suddenly, he was picking up his emotions, as well as slightly garbled versions of his thoughts. It seemed to Harry that this link wasn't quite as strong as the ones that he had made previously, perhaps because Pettigrew was a hostile source whereas Neville, Ginny, Hermione, and Ron had allowed him to read their minds, or maybe it was because he didn't know Pettigrew as well as he knew the others.

But at any rate, he was able to pick up some important thoughts from Pettigrew. His overwhelming emotion was one of doubt. By concentrating hard, Harry could detect that this doubt had something to do with the fact that Pettigrew thought Voldemort was underestimating his opponents again. But the most important thing to Harry was that he could not detect any attempt at deception toward the forefront of Pettigrew's thoughts, and he suspected that he would have done if Pettigrew had been trying to lie to him.

So, Harry reckoned it would be worth accepting the challenge. However, he wasn't entirely sure whether the offer would still stand. Had Wormtail felt Harry break into his thoughts? If so, that might be a deal-breaker.

But Wormtail showed no sign that he understood that his mind had been breached, so Harry said, "Where are you taking us?"

"I see no reason to tell you that in advance," responded Wormtail. "If you don't want to come with me, you can simply let Lucy Smith and Doug Wilson die. If you want that on your conscience..."

"Well... I myself will come. But I can't necessarily speak for my friends. If only certain ones of us go, will the number of duelists for your side be taken down as well?" asked Harry. However, his motivation for asking such a question was not because he had any doubt that his four companions would follow him wherever Wormtail led, but intsead it was a ploy to stall for time. Harry had just remembered that he still had the piece of communicating parchment that Lupin had given him for his birthday. He only hoped that Lupin would have his copy somewhere that he would see it soon. Even after he had broken into Wormtail's mind, Harry could not be sure that he had not been deceived, and so he was not going to go into this alone.

He put his hand into the pocket of his robes, felt around for a quill and the piece of magical parchment, which he carried around with him at all times, and, just as Ginny had done when she was trapped by the death-eaters in the Shrieking Shack months ago, scratched a message into the parchment without using ink.

He wrote, "Lupin, Wormtail is taking us to where 5 D.E.'s are holding Lucy and Doug. Tell the Order. We will tell you where they are when we get there."

He attempted to keep the message short both because of the difficulty of writing a message on a piece of paper in his pocket and because he didn't want to give Wormtail enough time to figure out what he was doing. Harry was quite sure that if Wormtail knew Harry was summoning outside assistance, the entire offer for the duel would be off. And he certainly did not want to add the deaths of Lucy and Doug to the list of deaths that he was partially responsible for.

"Yes, of course, of course," said Wormtail impatiently. He still looked rather intimidated, as if he wasn't quite sure whether Harry would kill him in spite of the fact that he was the only one who could tell them how to find Doug and Lucy. And if Harry were to be perfectly honest with himself, he would have to admit that it was quite difficult for him to resist the urge to do so.

"We'll come with you, Harry," said Neville.

"Yeah, of course we will, mate," said Ron, as Hermione and Ginny nodded fervently.

They didn't seem nearly as nervous as they should have about the prospect, and as Harry glanced around, he noticed that Ginny and Hermione each both had their hands in their pockets as well, apparently having had the same idea as Harry about writing to Lupin.

"I will transform into a rat, and you will be able to follow me in that form across the grounds to where we are going. For obvious reasons, I cannot risk being seen in my human form on Hogwarts grounds," said Wormtail.

"No," said Harry. "How would we know you wouldn't scurry off again like you have before?"

Wormtail looked nervous, and Harry could tell that he would be in a lot of trouble if he failed to successfully bring Harry back to the place where Lucy and Doug were being held. "Fine, I'll tell you where we're going ahead of time," said Wormtail, still very impatient. "We're going to the Shrieking Shack. The place where the captives are being held is only a few streets away from that."

"Fine," said Harry, with little more patience than Wormtail. "And if you're going to have to transform into a rat, one of us will have to carry you. Once we get to the shack, you can transform back, and show us the way, under the cover of darkness so that you won't be seen. I want you to be at this duel, as I think that once I'm done finishing off my opponent, I would like to have a duel with you as well. That is, unless you're too much of a coward."

For a moment, Wormtail looked as if he would object to being carried by Harry, but as he looked around at the five wands still pointed directly at him, he decided to cave to Harry's demands. As Wormtail transformed, Harry reached into his pocket again, and, on the pretense of clearing out the pocket to make room for Wormtail to sit, transferred the magical bit of parchment from one pocket to the other. As he had hoped, he saw that Lupin had wrote back, "Yes, let me know when you get there, and for the love of Merlin, don't let the traitor escape again."

Harry shoved Wormtail the rat forcefully into his pocket and led the way out of the empty classroom as the five students made their way toward the Whomping Willow.

A/N: All right. It's looking like this will be my second to last chapter. I should be able to wrap the story up in one more (or possibly two more) chapter. Looks like I'll finish before the 16th after all. But just barely. Anyway, review if you have a minute.