Chapter 2: Padfoot and Wormtail
Few people paid any mind to the stray black dog sniffing along the street just outside London a half a day after the incident at Godric's Hollow. Likewise, the dog seemed to be quite determined to locate something: the "stray" overheard some people joke that he must be the strongest dog in the world to think that he'd buried himself a bone through the concrete. One of the passersby could have sworn he saw the dog roll its eyes at this comment. Sirius was used to this type of stupidity when he wandered about in his animal form. It amazed him how intelligent people could be reduced to absolute idiots around animals, with the condescending baby talk many of them felt appropriate to address him with. He swore that he'd picked up Peter's scent last night, and it seemed to be getting stronger. It was a little past midday when he finally picked up a very strong scent near an alleyway. Unforunately for him, the scent was heavily masked by the stench of rotting garbage in a nearby dumpster. He saw a number of rats scurrying about beside the trash, picking out bits of slimy food to nibble on. Sirius slowly stalked towards these, eyeing them carefully.
There, he thought to himself, seeing a familiar face amongst the rats, ignoring the fact that even thinking about familiar rats was unusual, and began to prowl closer, a deep growl coming from his throat. A number of the rats scattered immediately before the bear-like dog, but one of them seemed to be frozen in fear as Sirius pounced, grabbing the rat by the scruff of its neck. Almost instantly, he could feel the rat's body changing. Growing. He followed suit and soon there were two men standing in the alley where there'd been the dog and rat struggling. Sirius, still dressed in his leather jacket and dark robes, and Peter Pettigrew, a rather chubby, beady-eyed man staring up at him pathetically, whimpering.
"Sirius! I'm so glad to see you!" He shrieked, trying to rush past Black out into the crowded street. Sirius grabbed his collar and slammed him against the brick wall with a snarl.
"Really? You don't seem it... let's talk, shall we?"
"Places to go, people to see, Sirius," Peter tried to protest but found himself at the business end of Black's wand, "of course, I always have time for my dear friends..."
"Don't you dare call me your friend, you gutter-crawling slime," Sirius snapped, inspiring another torrent of whimpers and moans from Peter, "Lily and James were your friends, too, and you betrayed them to Voldem---"
"Don't say the Dark Lord's name!" Peter groaned, his beady eyes darting back and forth rapidly, as if expecting You-Know-Who to leap out of a nearby trashpile.
"Haven't you heard? He was finished last night... I've been hearing wizards murmur it through the night... he's done. Killing curse rebounded on him from Harry... Harry, Peter! He tried to kill my godson!" Sirius was nearly foaming at the mouth, his eyes ablaze with fury. "YOU WERE THEIR SECRET KEEPER!"
"He can't be dead," the smaller man protested, his watery eyes pleading with Sirius, "he's more powerful than you could possibly imagine... he threatened me with such things, Sirius!"
"Worse than what I'm planning, Peter?" Black looked down at him darkly, an even more terrifying change coming to his handsome features, "Perhaps locking you in a small closet with Remus at... shall we say... that time of the month? Oh, I do think I'd enjoy seeing that."
"Sirius, please! Let's not forget who made me their secret keeper... whose idea it was... please don't kill me, Sirius!"
"It's better than what you deserve!" At this shout, Peter let out a horrified squeal and wriggled his way away from Sirius, rushing out into the crowded street. Black saw Peter grab something from his pocket that glinted in the sunlight and hold it behind his back. Sirius rushed out into the street, the traffic coming to an abrupt stop with squeals of tires, people leaping out of their cars, shouting at the pair of strangely dress men.
"HELP!" Peter screamed, "HE BETRAYED THEM, HE DID! JAMES AND LILY POTTER!" Sirius looked about and saw that the eyes of at least two dozen muggles were now on him, staring in confusion and anger. "SOLD THEM OUT TO THE DARK LORD!" He continued on, despite the fact that Sirius had his wand trained on him, and let out another shriek of "HE'LL KILL US ALL!" Peter pointed wildly in the other wizard's direction, and Sirius noted that a small trickle of blood fell from his hand. He hadn't thought he'd shoved him against the wall that hard...
A pair of loud cracks sounded behind Sirius, who turned quickly to see Moody and Kingsley Shacklebolt, a very large black wizard with a dark look on his face, behind him.
"Drop the wand, Sirius," Moody sneered at him, "and come with us quietly."
"No!" Sirius snapped, lunging forward with his wand pointed at Peter's head. Sirius saw a flash of light behind Peter's back, and then it happened... the street and part of the sidewalk behind it simply erupted, pieces of asphalt flying everywhere, crushing cars and people under them. Several pieces of sidewalk flew through shop windows, causing even more screaming and chaos.
"Expelliarmus!" Moody shouted and Sirius's wand went flying from his hand. Sirius didn't move even then, he just stared where Peter had been standing moments ago. There were several more loud cracks, and he was surrounded by Aurors, all of them with their wands squarely pointed at him. Moody made his way over to the bit of ruined street where Peter had been standing and bent down, picking something up with a dark scowl.
"His finger..." His electric blue eye swiveled from the finger to Sirius, "all that's left of Peter is his finger..." Sirius smiled, and dropped to his knees, throwing his hands in the air in amazement and just began to laugh. It was all he could do anymore. "Does this make you happy, Sirius?" Moody sneered, crossing over to glare down at Black, "your Dark Lord is dead... you betrayed your two best friends and godson to him, and you just exploded your school chum. Was James not enough for you? Looks like there was a mistake made when they chose their secret keeper."
Black stared up at Moody and started laughing even harder. It had been his idea to make Peter secret keeper to James and Lily. He had figured Voldemort wouldn't have thought to even bother with such a pathetically weak wizard. He had just heard one of the other Aurors return to Moody with a report. Twelve muggles dead in addition to Pettigrew. Sirius was laughing so hard now that tears streamed down his face. He was guilty, even if he hadn't uttered the curses himself. He was guilty of orphaning his godson, guilty of Peter's death. Peter was such a coward, Sirius laughed to himself, he ended up killing himself instead of letting someone else do it. Out of the corner of his eye, he could almost swear he saw a rat run off, limping, leaving a trail of blood behind it. He had lost his mind, he decided instantly, his throat becoming raw from laughing.
"Take him away, he disgusts me," Moody sneered, and two Aurors fixed a pair of magical shackles on Sirius's wrists, and they fastened tight with a flash of blue light. More wizards, these from the Memory Modification Department, were appearing now, talking to the muggles, offering them potions that would leave them highly susceptible to suggestion. Black let out a few last chuckles at this. Twelve muggles dead, and no one would actually ever remember exactly what had happened. Even Black wasn't sure what had actually happened now... all he knew was that he was heading for Azkaban. His only hope was that he'd see his cousin Bellatrix there to get the opportunity to laugh in her face that her precious Dark Lord had fallen. He shivered, thinking about the events of the past few days, and suddenly grew rather quiet, realizing once again... all of this had been his fault. Lily and James's death... the attack on Harry... the death of all these muggles, simply because he'd thought himself more important and a more likely target than Peter. The rest of the trip to Azkaban was a dark, sullen one... Sirius praying for a chance to redeem himself, someday, perhaps...
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FIN
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