Harry Potter and all characters, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.

Harry's New Boggart – Chapter 20 – To Kill a Rat

Despite Harry's nightmare the night before, he insisted that he be present at Number Four Privet Drive the next day, and was smart enough not to suggest that Ginny or Hermione stay behind. However, Ron did suggest just that at breakfast.

"YOU THINK YOU CAN FIGHT DEATH EATERS BETTER THAN ME!" shouted Ginny. "STAFF!" Her wand, which had been pointing at Ron, now became a staff. She then calmly stated, "I challenge you to a duel. If you win, I'll stay here and twiddle my thumbs."

Ron, however, looked terrified as that staff pointed at him. He'd seen her fight with it before and didn't want to be the recipient of Ginny's first pterodactyl-bogey hex. His ears, face, and even hands were pink when he replied, "Er, never mind. But Hermione doesn't have a staff, so…"

"So you want to duel me?" asked an angry brunette calmly as she pointed her wand at him. "The loser has to stay home."

"Er, you're not getting the point at all! Neither of you. It's just, these can be dangerous. Right Harry?"

Harry put his hands up. "Don't involve me in this! I'm going to apparate away now."

"Not without me," insisted Ginny as she got up and put her arms around him. He took them to his childhood 'home,' and waited for about thirty seconds, until Ron and Hermione appeared, still arguing.

"I let you go to the Burrow yesterday," shouted Ron, "I thought you'd be happy!"

"Let me? As if you could…."

"SHUT UP, BOTH OF YOU!" shouted Mad-Eye. "If you can't be quiet, then go back home because you'll give away our whole operation!"

Both of them stopped arguing after that, and they were all assigned their positions. A few minutes later, Harry was in Dudley's main bedroom disillusioned. He was looking at the dummy they'd put in the room for the Death Eaters to attack. He was holding his staff at the ready, waiting and wondering if there really would be an attack. Moody had mentioned that Voldemort might have changed his plans after his failure the day before. Harry wished that he'd heard what the plans were when he'd had his dream, but he hadn't.

He started thinking about why he even had a Voldemort dream last night. He hadn't had one for over a year, since Riddle started practicing Occlumency against him. From what he knew about that particular skill, concentration and a well-ordered mind were required. He wondered if Ginny was right, that all his failures had been making him lose his concentration. He also wondered if it could have something to do with the Horcruxes. Either he found out that more have been destroyed and was worried, or that his mind was affected by the fact that so few were left, or if the simple fact that his soul was so badly split made him subject to mental disorders.

Harry was still deep in thought when he heard a crash downstairs. He got instantly on full alert, pointing his staff directly at the doorway and waited. He listened to spells being fired until he heard Ginny's voice scream something from Vernon's room. He couldn't make out what she'd said, but then he heard a squeaky voice screaming louder than people subjected to the cruciatus curse.

He started to walk toward the doorway with the intention of checking on Ginny when he saw a man with a destroyed nose that had been split open from the inside-out running from flying bogeys the size of hippogriffs, and then heard Ginny's voice shouting, "Reducto," which tore Wormtail's torso off his legs. The torso landed in the doorway right in front of Harry.

Harry couldn't help but shout, "You were willing to cut off your hand for your master, what's wrong with adding your legs? I spared your pathetic life, and you ran off and brought Voldemort back! Not only that, but you took my blood!" Harry was feeling as much rage as he had on his birthday as he looked at the little man responsible for so many deaths. "If you hadn't gone after Voldemort, he'd still be powerless in Albania! Every death since you started helping him IS YOUR FAULT!"

Peter looked around in horror as he shook from the pain. "H-Harry? Is that you?"

Instead of saying, "Yes," the raven-haired man shouted, "This is for my dad!" as Wormtail's silver hand was blown off his arm.

"HARRY POTTER'S IN HERE!" Pettigrew shouted through his pain.

"This is for my mum!" he shouted as Peter's other hand was separated from his body. Harry didn't even hear the sounds of others being hexed and falling down the stairs. "And this is for…"

"Harry," shouted Lupin's voice, "The rat is going to die, anyway. Slowly, like he deserves. Don't ease his pain."

"Re-Remus?" said Pettigrew as he bled on the floor. "You've got to help m…uhh."

"That was for betraying the Marauders!" shouted Remus after kicking the man who caused so many deaths. "You cut off your own finger and then your hand in Voldemort's service. It's only fitting that you die without hands or feet. I hope there's a special Hell for you!"

At that point Wormtail began having spasms from his injuries and loss of blood. Harry couldn't believe that he actually pitied the pathetic heap that lay before him, whimpering in his pain. He remembered Voldemort letting Wormtail keep bleeding in the cemetery. At that moment, Harry made his decision. He pulled his sword out of its sheath and instructed, "Remus, get away from Wormtail's body. I'm going to end his suffering." He then got close to Peter, aimed his sword, and stabbed.

The rest of the mission went by in a blur for Harry. He was glad to find out that no one but Death Eaters were killed, and that none of his friends (or wife) was injured. When he got back to Potter Manor, he asked Hermione how the Horcrux search was going, to which she replied, "I'm having problems finding the next address. We'll need to go back to the library."

"We should go to a different one," suggested Harry nonchalantly, doing his best to concentrate on anything else but Peter Pettigrew, "Or disguised."

"Disguised," replied Hermione, "I know my way around there."

"Then we'll go after lunch," he stated without emotion.

"Harry, what's wrong?" asked Ginny, who'd been listening. "You've been very unemotional ever since Peter…you know."

"I lost my temper. I blasted off his hands and then stabbed him."

"I blasted off his feet, after giving him my staff's version of the bat bogey hex" countered Ginny.

"But he was helpless when I…"

"He was responsible for so much death! Your parents, those muggles. He's the reason Sirius went to Azkaban and why Tom got a new body! He's the one who killed Cedric and sliced your arm! It's only natural that you'd lose your temper! I know I lost mine when I thought about all the years my family took care of him! We should've known he was no good when Percy brought him into the house! I even cleaned up after him a few times! He deserved a worse death than he got!"

"I still need to learn to control my temper. I can't afford to attack in anger. I could end up like Riddle."

After spending several hours in the library, Hermione exclaimed, "Of course!" and the she brought her voice down to a whisper, "It's the only explanation as to why everything is missing the same information, Harry."

"What is it?" he asked.

Hermione looked very concerned as she whispered to Harry, "The next house is under the Fidelius Charm."

Chapter end