"Halt!" Draco finally yelled, voice shaking slightly. Wormtail did, but he was still smiling, which put Sirius at unease. "What do you think you are doing?"
Wormtail sighed. "I can see I will have to explain it all." He considered. "I don't see why not, if you are both going to die. You can applaud my brilliance before you beg for my mercy…."
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The blond man looked around the room. There was something wrong. The bond between master and servant felt an odd twang, as if servant was doing something master would not approve of.
"Damn, I should have known never to trust Pettigrew." He said acidly. The man immediately pulled a cloak around his shoulders tightly and Apparated to the Atrium of the Ministry of Magic.
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"I was employed, shortly after the fall of the Dark Lord, to assist someone in returning Mr. Black here from the beyond. I had been in hiding, but he found me. I owed this man a favor, shall we say… so I was compelled to do so.
"Well, let's just say I knew more than my employer did about situations. I knew how much Miss Granger yearned to bring the Weasley boy back. I wanted good ol' Padfoot back just as much as my new master, so I rigged the arch. The next person to be brought back through would be Sirius, period, no questions asked." A twisted smile lit up his face.
"Why bring me back at all, if you're just going to kill me now?" Sirius asked. Something about Pettigrew's face frightened him greatly, even if there were two wands on the smaller man, whose wand was pointed in a direction reasonably far from both men.
"That's a good question, a good question indeed." Wormtail said with a kind of wheezing laugh. "Half of which is that my master wanted you back to life, for what purpose I have been ordered not to disclose. The other half is…" Wormtail's twisted smile took on an insane quality, his eyes crossing slightly in mad bliss, "I wanted to watch you die by my hands. I wanted to kill all the remaining Marauders myself. Already, I was the cause of James's death, and I have Remus at just the right position to kill him before too very long, but in order to kill you, I would have to bring you back."
"You can't, can you though? I mean, not yet." Draco asked, curious. "Didn't your master order you to make him alive again?"
"To bring him back, yes." Wormtail said, shifting from foot to foot now. "He mentioned nothing of not killing him, however. He has too much faith in me… has always been a trusting person. Although his character has definitely changed since either of you saw him last. He was willing to kill Miss Granger for meddling in his plans."
"Who is your master?" Sirius asked.
"I am not allowed to tell." Wormtail said, smiling. "It won't matter to you after a few moments, anyway. You will return to death, blissful death, and I have already been let free of my servitude…."
"So you think." Said a weary voice from a doorway across the room, and yet another wand was pointed at Pettigrew as yet another man stood in the room, swathed in shadow. "You have been a dreadful servant, but you have not done what you promised you would do to leave my order. By the way, welcome back to the living, Sirius old friend."
Remus Lupin stepped out into the light, smiling a little at the irony of the situation.
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Sirius was feeling terribly confused. He looked to Draco to exchange a very lost look with him, but for once Draco actually seemed to know what he was doing. The youngest boy smiled thinly at Remus.
"Hello, Lupin. I see you've given this oaf a job." He hitched his head at Pettigrew, who was looking annoyed at Lupin's sudden appearance.
"Unfortunately, yes, one he keeps believing himself capable of wiggling out of." Lupin said, rolling his eyes. "He does not know how deep his bond to me goes, what with our friendship on top of me saving his life… to break such an oath as he made would lead to either death or insanity from him, I'm afraid." Lupin shook his head sadly.
"I have fulfilled it! I have done your wishes!"
"My wish was that you bring back Sirius from beyond the veil." Lupin said harshly.
"And I did!"
"I believe it was Miss Granger that brought that particular thing to pass." Lupin waved Wormtail's whining away.
"I rigged the archway to bring Sirius instead of the Weasley boy! Had it not been for me, our dear old friend would never have returned!" Wormtail shot Sirius an almost hungry look.
"Impossible." Draco suddenly spoke up, causing all faces to turn to him. "The veil cannot be tampered with, without the necessary blood sacrifices. The more innocent the blood, the less it needs. With your blood, Pettigrew, it would need several liters."
"I am also inclined to think that Hermione somehow chose to bring Sirius back instead of Ron Weasley, on however subconscious a level." Lupin agreed.
Suddenly, it all made sense to Sirius, and he felt he had never been happier before in his life. Hermione had somehow chosen him over Ron. Even if she never knew she had done it, and he never knew why she had, it had happened. He wanted at that very moment to pull her into his arms and kiss her, and indeed he would have, had she been present at the time. A foolish grin spread across his face. Thankfully, nobody noticed.
Pettigrew whined, jumping from foot to foot. Apparently, his plans were ruined.
Then, Sirius saw the worst thing he had ever seen; a sick smile crossed Pettigrew's face. Sirius had not caught on to what the man was doing, but Draco and Lupin both had, for, at the direction Pettigrew's wand had suddenly taken, straight at Sirius, they were both galvanized into action. Draco immediately ran for the dais, passing Pettigrew on the way, and headed straight for Sirius, as well. Lupin did the same, but was much farther away, and eventually stopped and dropped below the seats of the auditorium.
"Sectumsempra!" Pettigrew yelled, and, before Draco reached him or he was able to think to defend himself, copious amounts of blood splattered, much of it falling through the arch and disappearing on the other side. Sirius stumbled slightly, wand dropping.
The archway gave a flare, and began swirling.
Just as Pettigrew turned to the archway and yelled, "Reducto!", Draco reached Sirius, and pushed both of them into the safety of the shield Sirius had prepared earlier, just as the bad situation hit the fan.
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White light blazed around them. A maniacal cackle built to an echoing crescendo, and then faded away. The wind swirled throughout the room, but, in seconds, was gone.
Draco opened his eyes. The chalk-like marks were gone from the ground now, the spell having faded them away completely. Sirius was limp in Draco's death-grasp, but Draco felt a pulse; he would deal with him later. He did a quick spell to stop the bleeding, and left him at that. Draco himself did not feel tremendous; it was almost as if he had just walked through a white-hot fire and was pounded by a blacksmith's hammer. His heart suddenly went out to worked metal everywhere.
He let Sirius fall to the ground gently, then stepped back to survey what had happened.
Stupid, stupid Pettigrew. His own bane. Draco thought, averting his eyes from the charred set of bones on the staircase up the auditorium's aisle. Pettigrew had not known what the arch could do to a person when it was tampered with. Draco felt very relieved that he was dead, however.
The damage was done, though, Draco noticed. The archway was collapsed, broken beyond repair. Draco winced at the fact that he would be getting major crap for not having guarded such a relic well enough.
"Suits me just fine." Draco said to himself with a little snort. "The thing was more trouble than it was worth, if you ask me."
There was a groan from across the room, behind some seats, and Draco, remembering Lupin, ran over.
The older man lay, barely stirring, on the ground. Draco knelt at his side immediately and conjured up a cupful of water, putting it to Lupin's lips.
"Here, drink. It will help, I swear." Draco said.
"I would… prefer… some chocolate." Lupin managed to moan, but drank some of the water anyway. He spluttered slightly. "What… happened, exactly?"
"Pettigrew didn't know what he was doing. He thought he'd destroy the arch… didn't know that it would kill anyone not protected in the process. I take it you got up the shield charm in time?"
"Yes. Is Sirius alright?"
"Yes. I got him in the circle just in time."
Lupin grinned. "I trusted that you would. Thank you."
"Don't mention it."
"Listen," Lupin said weakly, coughing quite a bit, "go get Hermione, then come back. She can take the two of us to St. Mungo's, while you report this tragedy." Draco winced, but Lupin just smiled a little. "Don't worry about it… you won't be fired, I'm certain, especially if you don't let on that you were involved. I'll back you up."
"That's not what I'm worried about. It's the paperwork. It's like my own personal hell." Draco said.
Lupin laughed, but it broke into coughing. Draco looked concerned.
"Go! Get Hermione!" Lupin demanded.
Draco nodded, and Disapparated.
Lupin began dragging himself up to the dais.
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A/N: And that's all for about half a week. Sorry folks, check in again on Sunday or Monday or something, I promise to work really hard to update again, but from now until then, I'm wandering the open stretch between Illinois and Southern Texas. (begins singing Rambling Man, adding 'wo' to every time she says 'Man'.) Yeah, I know I'm lame. You don't have to rub it in.