A/n: Okay, go ahead and do it, I know you all want to. I am a hideous, ugly person for waiting for so long to update, so go ahead and kill me now. It'll probably save you energy from doing it again, depending on how long it will be before my next update.

Tomorrow I get my wisdom teeth yanked out, so I'll have nothing to do for the next week or so, so expect an update in the not-so-distant future. Also, I'm hoping to find some new inspiration for a new fic! Should be exciting, despite the excruciating pain!

Well, here it is: the penultimate chapter of Finale. Sniff I'm gonna miss this fic when it's all done. That just means I'll have to write another one after this, I suppose.

CHAPTER SEVEN: Peter's Pride and Ron's Revenge

They stopped in front of a corpse, lying cold by the sidewalk. He was lifeless, but Harry could never find remorse for the traitor before him. Peter Pettigrew had been killed. And the murderer was forty feet away, sitting up against a blasted mailbox post. And they finally found the missing piece.

Ron felt as if he was floating; a very strange feeling to feel during the final battle against the Dark Lord and Company.

He couldn't help it though; it seemed as if all bad thoughts had been erased from his head as he looked across a foggy horizon. He was in utter bliss. He didn't know why he felt like this, and, to be quite honest, he didn't care.

Suddenly, a voice spoke softly, carrying a melodic tone: Aim your wand at the girl….

Sure, he could do that. He pointed his wand where he felt instructed to.

Now use the Killing Curse on her….

Hang on, the Killing Curse? Ron had never performed an Unforgivable before…but to keep feeling this way, he could probably try….

Kill the Mudblood, kill the Granger scum...

Hold it- Granger? Hermione? Ron's arm froze halfway up as he tried to contemplate why he'd want to do something like that. He liked Hermione a lot-- a whole lot-- he couldn't kill her.

Use the Avada Kedavra! Lift your arm up and finish it!

Ron's arm rose up in the air seemingly on its own accord. He couldn't let this happen—he wouldn't let this happen, not if there was anything he could do about it. He could feel the words on the tip of his tongue, though.

"Avada-"

No! This is Hermione- remember your promise!

"-Kedavra!"

Ron wrenched his hand away from where he had been directed to point it so that the spell flew just right of Hermione's shoulder and, unbeknownst to Ron, hit Vincent Crabbe in the chest, affectively ending his life.

And suddenly, the empty blissful feeling was lifted as suddenly as though an ice cold bucket of water had been dumped over his head. He was left shaking and sweating and trying to remember exactly what was going on.

The last thing he remembered was dueling furiously with Peter Pettigrew before the rat had surprised him with the Imperious Curse.

While Pettigrew wouldn't normally seem like much of a match, he seemed to have found something he had never had before: confidence. Somewhere between having Voldemort as a master, having known Ron for 12 years, and having an indestructible silver left hand, Pettigrew now found himself dueling with a fire Ron hadn't anticipated.

Said rat was currently dodging curses from Kingsley Shacklebolt, who had taken over for Ron when he had become incapacitated. Shacklebolt was doing well, but Peter suddenly transformed and darted into the tall grass of a dilapidated front yard. Frustrated and swearing under his breath, Shacklebolt turned to Ron.

"You okay?"

Trying madly to get his shivering under control, Ron nodded.

Kingsley smiled. "After your N.E.W.T.s, Weasley, you may want apply for Auror training. Not many are able to throw off the Imperious Curse."

Ron nodded again, his teeth still chattering but the shaking now subsiding. He smiled at the Auror, a bit of pride shining through at the compliment.

Both turned to look into the tall grass the rat had disappeared into. Ron looked for any sign of movement; swaying of grass, the crunching of a twig, anything. After a minute of scanning the area, however, he could find none.

They'd have to go after him.

Ron stepped into the grass cautiously and looked around. Nothing moved, so he ventured in a bit further. A sudden crunching from behind him caused him to jump around with his wand raised, but it was only Kingsley. He raised his eyebrows at him and Ron's ears tinged pink as he continued to examine the yard.

After a minute or so, Ron seemed to think the searching was useless. They couldn't see him, but the rat could obviously see wherever they were; the grass was tall, but not that tall. He turned to head back to the street to wait him out when a sharp cry from his right caused him to jump. As he turned, wand raised, a familiar swooping sensation overtook his stomach as his world turned upside down.

Startled, Ron dropped his wand as his legs came out from under him and he rose four feet in the air. He realized with grim satisfaction that, for the third time in his life, someone had placed the Levicorpus Hex on him. He felt as though someone was hanging tightly onto his ankles as he slowly swiveled on the spot, the blood rushing to his head.

He felt his blood boil as he turned and was finally able to make out Pettigrew, in his human form, laughing at him. Shacklebolt was nowhere to be found.

Ron struggled to fight the curse wandless as Pettigrew slowly moved towards him, still laughing. He finally made it to point-blank range, no longer laughing but still with a malicious grin.

"You coward! Put me down and face me like a man!" Ron shouted furiously, still turning slightly on the spot.

Pettigrew squeaked out a laugh. "But I've always made a better rat than a person, haven't I, master?" He spat out the last word poisonously and raised his wand. "Sectumsempra!"

Ron flinched and closed his eyes as the spell came closer to him. He saw a bright light underneath his eyelids and his body jerked as pain sliced across the right side of his face. He felt a line of fire strike from his eyebrow and across his eye down to his jaw; it hurt and burned and if he didn't feel as nauseated as he did right now he might have passed out.

Something wet and warm was flowing down his face as he heard Pettigrew cackle with glee. "What's wrong? Haven't I been a good friend, a good pet? Let me prove myself to you, master." He continued to put a spiteful emphasis when addressing Ron as master.

Ron was abruptly released and fell to the hard earth flat on his back.

"Crucio!"

The stinging on his face seemed to multiply a hundred times over and spread throughout his entire body as the spell took full effect. He screamed and writhed on the ground, desperate to escape this internal prison. Nothing was worth this pain; he would never get rid of this pain…he was going to die in this agonizing pain….

But suddenly the pain was lifted as Pettigrew ended the curse. Ron was left on the ground, panting and trembling. Pettigrew stepped toward the teenager, a complacent look on his face.

"We're a lot alike, you and I, Ronnie," the wizard said, twirling his wand in his fingers. "You're Potter's right hand man, and I'm the Dark Lord's. If it wasn't for us, they wouldn't exist. We may be the sidekicks, yes, but we hold the power. The Dark Lord recognizes this power, and he rewards me for it. Potter, on the other hand, does not want to see you with this power. I watched him for three years, Ron. He is afraid of you, of the fact that you may be more powerful than him. You don't deserve that, do you, Ronnie?"

Ron continued to shudder on the ground.

"I asked if you deserved that, traitor!"

Ron glared up at the wizard above him. "Go to hell."

Pettigrew bared his yellow teeth as he drew back. "Well, the Dark Lord has rewarded my loyalty, Ronnie. Let's see how your devotion compares to mine."

Ron desperately searched the ground for his wand as Pettigrew advanced, his silver left hand outstretched. As his powerful fingers clamped around the redhead's neck, he felt his fingers clench around something long and thin. And as he was lifted off the ground, the dark wizard's powerful hand cut off all his air supply. Instinctively, he lifted the item in his hand and stabbed the rat in the eye.

Pettigrew yelled in pain and dropped Ron, clutching his eye. Ron fell to the ground with a thump and as he aimed, ready to fire off a Restraining Hex, he realized that he wasn't holding his wand at all, but rather a normal stick. He swore under his breath and scrambled around in the dirt, searching desperately for his wand.

He didn't get far before someone stepped in front of him. He froze in his tracks, and slowly raised his eyes up to see his wand in the hand of Kingsley Shacklebolt, looking worse for wear with a black eye and bleeding lip. To Ron, though, he was a definite sight for sore eyes.

"You may need this, Weasley," he said in his deep, calm voice.

Ron smiled as he took his wand back from the Auror. Shacklebolt then offered his hand, which Ron graciously took and stood firmly on his feet. Then both turned to face Pettigrew, who was cautiously taking his hand away from his face. His left eye was swollen shut.

They both raised their wands, ready to take out the rat once and for all, when a familiar grunt of pain sounded from the street. Distracted, both turned to see Mad-Eye Moody in a desperate situation against three Death Eaters. Ron and Kingsley looked at Pettigrew, who was trying to collect his bearings, and then at each other.

"Go on," Ron muttered, keeping his wand on Wormtail. "I can handle him."

Kingsley nodded and turned to leave. He hesitated and glanced back over his shoulder at the teen. "Are you sure—"

Moody took that particular moment to let out a grunt of indignation as another Death Eater joined the fight against the ex-Auror.

Ron fixed Kingsley with a look of steely determination. "He needs your help more than I do."

Kingsley bit his lip but turned away, this time without hesitation, and headed to help his fellow Order member.

Satisfied that he and Pettigrew were finally alone, Ron turned to find said rat with a wand trained at his chest. Ron, his wand already aimed, tried to think of a suitable spell. Knowing that the rat would do anything and everything within his power to win this duel did not help Ron come up with a great strategy. It would come to instincts over brains in this battle.

Wormtail sent out a silent curse and a jet of blue light headed straight for him. Ron set up a shield which rebounded the spell back at the caster, and then he cast his own Stunning Hex as a follow up.

Pettigrew blocked his ricocheted spell with a Shield Charm and caught the Stunner in his silver hand. He licked his lips nervously as he surveyed his opponent.

"C'mon, Ronnie, I know you can do better than that," he said as he cracked the knuckles on his silver hand.

"Damn straight," Ron muttered before shouting "Tarantallegra!"

Pettigrew sidestepped the curse and muttered "Avada Kedavra."

Ron, startled, barely had time to blink before the impulse to dive out of the way pulsed through him. Before he knew what had happened, his arm was scratching cement as the Killing Curse flew past him and blasted a mailbox into pieces, leaving nothing but the stump of the post.

Ron rolled over and landed back on his feet. He turned to face the murderer, now not only his head protesting in pain, but also his arm. "Bloody hell! Can't duel me like a man now that you don't hold an unfair advantage?"

Pettigrew smirked and shook his head. "You call it an unfair advantage. I see it as a survival strategy. Crucio!"

Ron backtracked and the spell flew inches away from his nose. "Cursing your opponent while his back is turned is a survival strategy? That's funny, because I would call that being too spineless to face him head on. Reducto!"

Pettigrew ducked as the spell flew over his head. "Okay, you keep it in your way, Ronnie, and I'll keep it in mine."

Both glared at each other another second before unleashing a barrage of spells at each other. While Ron was definitely the better duelist of the two, Pettigrew's silver hand was a definite benefit that helped to even the field. After a few minutes, the two were so tired dodging curses was not an option; the winner would be the first to use the Killing Curse with perfect aim.

"Expelliarmus!"

Ron's Disarming Hex was so powerful that, despite Pettigrew catching it in his silver hand, he slid back several feet.

"Sectumsempra!" the dark wizard countered, after throwing the other hex completely.

Ron, too tired to move, took the curse in the arm. Pain once again seared through his body, this time from his shoulder to the inside of his elbow. He grimaced as the blood began to blossom on his shirt.

He looked at his arm, and realized that Peter would no longer be pulling any punches.

If he wanted to end this, there was only one spell that would work. The one he had learned about in his fourth year, the one that would land him in prison just for trying to use it.

He'd already used it once, though, hadn't he?

As he raised his wand, recognition dawned on Pettigrew. The dark wizard looked scared as he opened his mouth wide. "Ron- you don't want to do this- think about your family…they wouldn't want you to become a murderer…."

"Ha…that trick may have worked last time, but it won't help you now," Ron replied, trying to summon up his courage as he looked the selfish, traitorous rat cowering in front of him.

In a last-ditch effort at saving himself, Pettigrew raised his wand at the same time Ron shouted.

"Stupefy!"

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Ron, completely winded at the fact that, for the second time that day, he had unleashed the Unforgivable Killing Curse, stood stock-still as Pettigrew's curse flew at him. Peter's sheer desperation had given the Stupefy a powerful kick: as it made contact to Ron's chest, he was knocked backward off his feet and his back slammed into the post of the previously-blasted mailbox. The last thing he heard before he blacked out was a sobbed-out scream, and then the unmistakable thump of a dead man hitting pavement.

A/n: All done for now, and only one chapter left! Mind you, it's more of an epilogue than a chapter, but it's exciting all the same!

A big thanks to my newest reviewer, Stormy Bean, and a great heap of gratitude to my returning reviewers Solstice Muse and buffalo1fromSalem. And to banana-hannah...etc, it's not too long, yours is just too short! Stupid stinky sisters...

Final chapter involves the sappiest scene as of yet. A lotta love and loads of Ron/Hermione and Ginny/Harry -ness to go around! Should be fun!

So yeah, hope you enjoyed it, and hope you stick around until the end! We're almost there! Cuddles to those who review (except banana-han...etc, you get a punch if you DON'T review...).

-dieselwriter