Chapter 13: Peter Pettigrew
The boy behind the statue was crouched down low, covered in blood, and clutching the statue for dear life. He was whimpering quietly and his eyes stared straight ahead of him, as though his gaze were fixed on something in the distance. He didn't even seem to notice that Harry and James had approached.
"Who is it?" James asked, still watching out for a potential attacker; it could be a trap after all.
"It's the boy from five," Harry said in surprise. "Pettigrew, the one that joined up with the Careers."
"Really?" James asked, more on guard now than ever. "What's he doing here?"
Harry didn't have an answer for that and instead crouched down and gently placed a hand on the boy's shoulder.
"Hey," Harry said softly. "What happened to you? Are you alright?"
"Ah!" the boy cried, pulling away. "Get off me! Don't hurt me!"
"It's okay, I don't want to hurt you," Harry assured him. He didn't try to put his hand back on the boy's shoulder again though. "My name's Harry, can I help you?"
The boy fixed his gaze on Harry and considered him for a moment. "Why would you want to help me?" he asked. "These are the Hunger Games."
"I don't know," Harry confessed. All things considered, the smart thing to do would be to kill the boy now so that there would be one less person preventing him from going home. For some reason though, he couldn't find it in himself to do it. Not like this at least. He couldn't just kill someone who was already in so much pain.
"Harry, this could be a trap. What if the Careers are using him as bait, distracting us while they prepare to strike?" James asked nervously.
"It's not a trap," Harry said decidedly. "Come on, we need to help him. Let's get him to the trophy room."
James hesitated at first, but ultimately decided to trust Harry and he stowed his knife as he helped Harry to lift the boy, Pettigrew, to his feet. The boy flinched at first, but quickly realized that neither Harry nor James was trying to hurt him, and he compliantly allowed them to lead him through the great hall into the trophy room.
"We're back!" James called out when they returned.
"Oh good, so you found water?" Sirius asked, emerging from behind a trophy display. "Who's that?" he asked the moment he saw their new companion.
"It's the boy from five," Harry informed him.
"What's he doing here?" Sirius demanded. "He was with the Careers."
"We found him like this in the entrance hall," James replied. "Harry insisted we bring him back with us."
"I couldn't just leave him," Harry insisted, laying the boy down on the ground in front of the fire. "Can someone get me a cloth or something? I want to see how much he's still bleeding."
"Here," Lily said, coming up behind Harry and passing him a cloth. She grabbed a second cloth for herself and kneeled down on the boy's opposite side, helping Harry to wipe away the blood.
"So what?" Sirius asked. "You find him bleeding so now he's one of us?"
"I don't know," Harry said. "All I know is I wasn't about to kill him like this, and I couldn't just leave him to die either."
"These are the Hunger Games, Harry!" Sirius cried. "People are going to die!"
"Funny," Harry retorted. "You were singing quite a different tune yesterday. You could have let me die back with Dobby and Hedwig, but instead you came and saved me."
"That was different," Sirius said.
"How so?" Harry wondered.
"You weren't with the Careers!" Sirius cried.
"Well neither is he," Harry said, matter-of-factly. "At least, not anymore. Not in this state."
"Let's just wait and hear his side of the story," Lily suggested as she finished cleaning off his face. "Peter? That's your name, isn't it?" she asked. "Do you want to tell us what happened?"
The boy hesitated and then slowly sat up, leaning heavily on one arm for support. "It happened so quickly," he said, his voice a little shaky. "I was patrolling the halls with Tom and Bella. Sev and Charity were supposed to stay behind with the supplies. We were looking for easy targets; tributes that had gone off on their own. We searched the whole fourth and fifth floors, but then Tom got hungry and decided that it was time to go back down to the dungeons for lunch. That's where the Careers have set up camp; down in the dungeons," he explained.
"So we were on our way down to the dungeons, when suddenly Sev jumped out from behind the statue where you found me and he pinned me to the ground. He yelled out something about how I was dead weight and how Tom and Bella should just kill me now while they had the chance, because the longer the Games went on, the more dangerous it would be to be too large of a group," he continued.
"I begged them to leave me alone. To let me go off on my own. I assured them I probably wouldn't survive anyway, but at least I could have a few more hours, maybe a day or two before some wild animal got me. They wouldn't have it. Bella thought it was too dangerous, so she pulled out her knife and started cutting; she's really evil, that one," he said.
"While Bella was taking her time killing me though, Tom's stomach rumbled and he told her to hurry it up because he wanted to eat lunch. So I pretended to pass out from the pain and then I held my breath, hoping they would think I was dead. I guess it worked, because Sev let go of me and they all headed down to the dungeons for lunch. Then I heard you guys coming down and I panicked; I was afraid whoever it was would finish me off, so I hid behind the statue. And that's where you found me," he concluded.
"So the Careers turned on you," Sirius muttered. "Sure sounds like them alright."
"It's absolutely horrible!" Lily said, her eyes welling up. She wrapped her arms around the boy and gave him a hug. "I'm so sorry."
"So what's your plan now?" James wondered.
"Well assuming you guys don't kill me," the boy said, "I was thinking of heading out into the forest and going it alone. I can't stay in the castle, not with the Careers running around."
"Nonsense!" Lily exclaimed. "You'll stay with us!"
"He will?" Sirius asked in surprise.
"If you can bring in strays, then so can I," Lily declared. "Besides, weren't you the one that said we were safer with more people?"
"Well, sure," Sirius agreed. "But there comes a point when you cross the line from having enough people to having too many. If we ally with everyone, we'll find ourselves at a stalemate."
"Well I say as long as the Careers are out there, we need to stick together, as many of us as possible," Lily declared. "The Careers almost always win and it's because they pick all the individual tributes off one by one. If we band together and take them down, then one of us has a much better chance of winning."
"Alright fine, he can stay," Sirius allowed. "But I need to get out of here. I've been cooped up all morning."
"Where are you going to go?" James asked.
"I don't know, I just need to do something besides babysit," Sirius said. "No offense," he added to Lily.
"None taken," Lily replied. "I think."
"Alright, so who's with me?" Sirius asked.
"Not me," James said. "I was away from Lily all morning. And after what happened to Peter, I don't feel comfortable leaving her side right now."
"I could always go out with you and James," Lily volunteered.
"Absolutely not!" James cried. "You will stay right here, safe and sound, where our baby can grow and mature happily and healthily."
Lily rolled her eyes but conceded.
"And if you don't mind, I think it's rather stay here for a while," Peter said.
"Oh, of course," Lily exclaimed. "You need to heal. You've been through a lot today!"
Sirius turned to Harry. "What about you?" he asked. "You game for a little exploring?"
Harry agreed to go exploring with Sirius. If he stayed cooped up in the trophy room all day, he thought he might go insane.
"Great!" Sirius declared. "Maybe we'll even run into those Careers and do a little damage."
Harry agreed out loud, but secretly hoped that they never ran into the Careers again. They were strong, and Harry wasn't sure he would survive another run-in with them.
"So…" Sirius said as they ventured out. "Where to?"
"I don't know," Harry said. "I thought this was your mission. I'm just tagging along."
"Alright, how about we head up to the second floor?" Sirius suggested. "I haven't spent much time up there yet."
"Alright," Harry agreed. He didn't bother mentioning that he and James had already explored the second floor earlier that day in their quest for water, which he soon discovered, was good, because they ended up going up to the second floor by a different way and found themselves on the complete opposite side of the castle.
"Volunteers from four usually team up with the Careers," Harry threw out casually as they roamed the halls.
"So?" Sirius asked.
"You volunteered," Harry pointed out, remembering the day he'd watched the re-cap of the Reapings.
"I did," Sirius confirmed.
"But you didn't team up with the Careers," Harry stated.
"That's right," Sirius agreed.
"Why not?" Harry wondered.
"You'd rather I'd teamed up with the Careers?" Sirius asked in surprised.
"No," Harry said quickly. "No definitely not. It's just… interesting, I suppose."
"I'm not like those guys," Sirius grumbled. "The ones that usually volunteer. They think they're so cool. They're usually really popular, muscled, well-built, you know? The girls always love them. They wear shorts and their hair always looks like it's filled with sand, but somehow it's never dirty. They train – not officially or anything, because the Capitol wouldn't stand for that. But they train nonetheless. They take their spears and they shoot them at walls. They go out to the lake and they spear the fish. By the time they volunteer, most of them can spear four or five fish with one jab."
"You sound like you really hate those guys," Harry commented.
"I do," Sirius grunted. "They're despicable. They break the rules and then let the rest of us get in trouble for it. Somehow, no matter what they do, they never get caught. Never pay for their crimes. The only solace I have is knowing that chances are they'll volunteer one day too and go off and get themselves killed."
"So why – "
"Shh!" Sirius hissed, cutting Harry off. "I heard something!"