Chapter Six

Secret Revealed (All Ready, that has to be some kind of record)

Peter's point of view

Peter had been back at Hogwarts for only two days and everyone was already suspicious. He had wiped the memories from everyone on how he had arrived. Nobody remembered the demon, or Peter's overly dramatic entrance, but still everyone noticed something was off about Peter, who looked about as different as possible, and, being the worst student in the entire school before he went missing, now seemed to have the correct answer to everything in every class. He had changed so drastically for the good, that Professor Slughorn had began treating Peter like he did James, Sirius, and Remus, like he was the prince of Egypt or something to the equivalent. Peter had noticed something about the potions professor, that he was a collector of sorts. He took care to be extra kind to students who had well connected family or showed promise. Peter seemed to be his absolute favorite now, and he was passing all of his classes with straight O's. Remus was perhaps most intrigued out of everyone about Peter's recent behavior. He never left Peter's side, but that might also have been he didn't want Peter to disappear again. James and Sirius also hung around Peter far more than usual, and were more aggressive than ever, when they were standing up for him, not that they really ever needed to now. What startled them most, however, was something that happened on a day that, otherwise, was a perfectly average day. The snow had melted, and the sun had come out. The grass was bright green, and so were the fresh, new, young leaves on the trees. The sun had come out, and the birds had all come back. All and all it was a beautiful saturday afternoon, even the giant squid was enjoying it, but of course, it bored James and Sirius.

"Excellent." James suddenly said.

"Perfect." Sirius agreed.

Severus Snape had come walking out of the castle, his nose buried in a book. Peter craned his neck to see the title. It was in runes, so he couldn't read it, but it sent a shiver down his spine, leading him to believe it was a book of dark magic. Snape had at least ten other books in his bag that looked just as evil as the one in his hands. Peter hadn't the slightest clue what they had been talking about, until they got up and walked over the grass, straight for Snape.

"Kuso." Peter muttered, annoyed. He also stood and crossed over to the three of them. Sirius bumped Snape, purposefully, so his face actually collided with the pages of his book. James laughed loudly. Both Remus and Peter crossed their arms and sniffed in disapproval. Students had stopped what they were doing, and turned to watch James and Sirius torture Snape, as usual.

"Darn, hope that wasn't a library book, Snivellus, your greasy hair probably smudged all the words." James sneered. It was Sirius's turn to laugh. Peter watched Snape closely, and could see the beginnings of tears of shame in his eyes. He turned a bit red and muttered something to James, who laughed louder than the first time.

"What are you reading about anyway, Snivellus? Trying to find some charm to fix those teeth of yours?" Sirius asked.

"Trust us, you won't find a charm strong enough to help you there." James smirked.

"Lay off." Peter growled, stepping in between his friends and Snape.

"What's he ever done to you?" He demanded. James blinked.

"Erm... Peter... what are you doing?" He asked hesitantly.

"When are you two going to grow up?" Peter asked, ignoring James's question.

"Peter..." Sirius was cut off when Peter held his hand up for silence. Everyone was staring at Peter as though he had just turned five shades of purple.

"You're behaving like children, and it's time someone put a stop to this. I'm afraid that if you two keep behaving like this, I'm going to have to report you to Professor ." James's jaw dropped and Sirius looked stunned.

"Peter's right, this has gone on long enough." Remus agreed. James closed his mouth, but still seemed shocked. Peter turned to Snape, who looked just as dumbfounded as James did.

"Let me know if they're giving you any trouble again, okay?" He nodded, still looking apprehensive. Peter smiled at him, then turned his attention back to James and Sirius. He narrowed his eyes at them, placing his hands on his hips. They dropped their gaze to the ground.

Peter was quite pleased, but didn't let it show on his face, not even had the power to make James and Sirius ashamed of themselves. He stepped aside a bit and said;

"Well, what do you have to say for yourselves?"

"We're sorry, Sni-Snape." James muttered to his feet.

"Yeah," Sirius agreed in the same tone. "We've been jerks."

"See, now, was that so hard?" Peter asked crossing his arms over his chest again.

"Yes." James replied. Peter glared at him again, and James immediately dropped his gaze. "No."

"You aren't going to be bothering him anymore, are you?" Peter said in soft, but stern tones.

"No." Sirius and James muttered together.

"Good." Peter smiled sweetly. James and Sirius turned, and walked back to the tree the four of them had been sitting under.

"Sorry about them." Peter apologized, turning back to Snape.

"Thanks." Was all that Snape said in response.

"Not a problem." Peter held his hand out to Severus, who took it, looking slightly suspicious still. They shook hands briefly, and Peter turned to walk back to the tree. Evens' face stood out from the crowed, because she was the only one who didn't look utterly confused and dumbfounded, she looked pleased, and nodded at him when he passed her. He nodded back. He felt a hand on his shoulder at the same time he heard a girl whisper;

"Hey, Pettigrew." He nearly jumped a mile. The students outside, including James and Sirius laughed. Nothing could ever sneak up on him, but some witch had? He turned to see; Scorpion. That explained it, Scorpion was levitating ever so slightly above the ground, and she could manipulate shadows. She had snuck up on him to scare him. He laughed too.

"Hello, Flametail." He said in an overly pleasant voice. They locked eyes with each-other, both refusing to look away until the other did. He narrowed his eyes, the same way he had done to James and Sirius. She dropped her eyes to the ground for a fraction of a second, before looking back up at him with a cold, defiant expression.

"Is there something I can help you with?" He asked in a falsely cheery voice.

"I'm delivering a message from Professor Slughorn." She said, with a meaningful look. That was a code they had, for when Meli, Sensei wanted to meet them. "He wants to see you at eight tonight." Peter nodded. Scorpion turned and walked away. Peter joined his friends under the tree.

"What's he want with you?" Remus asked, somewhat nervously. Peter shrugged. He knew why Remus was nervous, this would be the first time he would be alone longer than going to the bathroom since he returned, and it would be the perfect opportunity to attack. Peter wasn't going to be alone though, at all. He'd be with a trained assassin, who was, more or less, on his side.

"You in trouble for something?" James snickered.

"Hypocrite." Sirius said playfully.

"No... or at least I can't think of why I'd be." Peter said crossly. Snape was sitting by the lake, still looking at Peter strangely.

It was almost eight o' clock, so Peter picked up his things from the common room and headed for the forbidden forest, after making sure his friends weren't following him, where he and Scorpion meet up to discuss any secret they may have. Scorpion was already there.

"Where's Sensei?" He hissed. Scorpion ignored him. "Where are we going to meet her." Scorpion still said nothing. "When is she going to get here." She ignored him once more. "Do you know how to speak English?" She looked at him with her usual bored expression.

"I'm sorry, were you saying something, Pettigrew?"

"Why do you have to be so dang cool all the time?" Peter folded his arms.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Scorpion yawned.

"Hello." Meli's voice came out of the shadows of the forest. "Good to see you two haven't killed each other yet."

Severus's point of view

He was crouching in the shadows, hoping they wouldn't spot him. He knew they weren't meeting Slughorn.

"Oh, you're expecting me to do away with this idiot?" Scorpion asked.

"In your dreams." Peter said rudely. "If one of us was to kill the other I would be the one walking away."

"As if, I'm twice as powerful as you'll ever be, Pettigrew!"

"Oh, glad to know you peaked at fourteen, Flametail!"

"Silence!" The pale woman said firmly. Both Scorpion and Pettigrew stopped talking immediately. "You two need to learn to work together."

"No way!" Peter crossed his arms.

"Yeah, I would miss this too much." Scorpion flicked her wrist and Pettigrew was lifted off his feet, and suddenly he was dangling upside-down by his ankle. Peter growled and clapped his hands together. Whatever spell Scorpion had cast on him was canceled. Instead of falling on his face, however, Peter preformed a flawless front-flip and landed, crouching, on his feet. He snapped his fingers and a miniscule bolt of lightning flashed to life in his hand. He threw it straight at Flametail, who jumped up to dodge the potentially deadly weapon.

"Stop this now both of you are..." the pale woman stopped mid sentence. Severus had moved out of the shadow and all three turned to look at him, he froze, then straightened up.

"I knew there was something weird going on." He said firmly. "Professor Slughorn was giving remedial potions classes tonight at eight, so I knew you couldn't be meeting him, you're going to have to get a better cover story than that." He smiled smugly.

"You were followed?" Scorpion hissed venomously to Pettigrew.

"Er... actually, you're the Slytherin, he probably followed you." Peter shot back at her.

"You got caught not even a week into your outpost." The pale woman said thoughtfully. "I'm sure that has to be some kind of record." Peter flinched.

"Not exactly the kind I was going for."