Chapter 22
It took a long time to settle most of the kids down that evening. Andy, Ted, Arthur and Molly had no idea what was going on and could tell them very little. It was obvious the children were scared, Harry the most.
He had never been left with any of them on his own before. The three wizards who he trusted most in the world had strayed behind at the Burrow giving him no explanation as to why he had to go.
"Sirius got really mad, really fast," said Harry as he sat perched on Ted's lap.
"I know sweetheart, but you know it was nothing to do with you don't you?" Andromeda said from across the table. The Weasley boys had in the end gone up to sleep in Dora's room, but Andy had not wanted to send Harry off when he was so confused. Besides Molly and Arthur were there to deal with their sons; Harry had no one he was used too.
"I did not like it."
"I know you didn't, poppet," she sighed sympathetically taking his hand gently.
"Is Padfoot going to come soon?"
With all her heart Andromeda wanted to say yes. But the truthful answer was that she didn't know. Her eyes crossed to her husband for direction.
He could give her none. So she had nothing but the truth to fall back on.
"I don't know darling."
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As Peter transformed back into a man (a snivelling, cowardly one) for the first time in years, the tension in the room was palpable.
For so long... for so long Sirius had wanted to come face to face with him. He knew even if he did confront him over what he had done he was not going to be able to bring James and Lily back for his godson. And he was not going to get the answers to satisfy himself for there were no answers for what he had done... there was nothing Peter could tell him that was going to make him understand.
Nothing.
The only reason he had so longed to see him one last time was so he could kill him. And that was what he was going to do.
The years had not been kind to Peter. Animagus could make the change permanent if they wished to but the fact remained that they had been born into human skin and they were meant to be human.
Peter had not been a handsome lad even when they had been young - he had never fit the stereotype of what a marauder was meant to be. The more he looked back, the more Sirius wondered why he, Remus and James had taken pity on him.
Yet at the time, they had been the best people to hide behind, they had been so very popular. If he latched himself on to the marauders then he was never going to be bullied – and he was never going to have to want for a champion or defence when things went wrong.
Once upon a time, long, long ago, a boy named Sirius Black had loved a boy called Peter Pettigrew as any boy would love his natural brother. But no more.
The man with sunken cheeks and eyes before him was not his brother and he was never going to be – he had made that mistake when he had been a child but he was a man now. A man with a child to defend.
"Looking a little worried Peter – I wonder why that should be," begun Remus a lot more kindly than Sirius would have.
As for the animagus himself he was staring at the rat intently, pointing his wand at him. He did not know if he wanted to hear him plead for his life or not. There was going to be some sort of grim satisfaction in it, he supposed.
"Remus, Sirius – my old friends!" exclaimed Peter – at once Sirius felt his blood boil. How dare he say they were friends - he did not even know the man before him... he never had really.
"We are not friends – the two of us were never friends," Remus exclaimed with a passion that Sirius had not expected from him.
"Of course, we were friends. We grew up together all of us!" he said as he ignored Severus the way that they might have when they were young. Snivillus had been nothing but a figure of ridicule to the magic circle of marauders.
"No," Sirius said and Remus did not think her had ever heard his voice so dangerously low. If he had, then he had forgotten which he wouldn't have. It was unforgettable. "Me, James and Remus. We were the ones who grew up together. You were simply there, always in the way, always holding us back. We were just too polite to say it."
Even as he said the words, he knew they were a lie and he was only giving Peter justification for what he had done. But he wanted to deny that he had ever seen the snivingly man on the floor as a friend.
"James never saw me that way and nothing you can say can convince me otherwise Sirius," Peter addressed him with tears in his eyes.
They had to be for himself, for he did not think Peter would ever waste them on the friendship he had never valued.
"Surely that only makes what you did to him, and to Lily worse. Or have you not noticed that you robbed a baby boy of his parents? That baby is six now – and he has had to live without them his entire life – a miserable life," spat Sirius.
Why was he talking to him? Why? Why? He had to get it done with – over.
He did not want him in Azkaban. It was too good for him. Besides, he had been there and he had got out. He had to make sure there was no coming back for Peter for Harry's sake.
Severus could only look on in his own rage, his own contempt. He did not think part of him was ever going to be able to stop blaming James for Lily's death, for their marriage had been part of it. Had she married another man and had another child then she would have loved to a ripe old age. If only she had lived...
But the main catalyst of her death – the death of the love of his life was before him right then. And what was his life worth? If he died then who was going to be there crying for him? No one. No one was ever going to stand at his grave side and cry as he had at Lily's. No, the truth was that Peter Pettigrew was nothing more or less than a waste of oxygen.
It was then that there was a smash. It took him a minute to register that Remus had been the one to hit the first blow at Peter that night.
How odd – Severus would have laid money on it being Sirius.
"You bastard – you bite him! You bite him!" Remus knew when he thought about it, it was odd that had been the thing to push him over the edge. He had hurt Harry, true, but it had not even been bad enough for him to come running to him for a cuddle. He had looked at it when they had got home that day and it was fine once washed...
But he had already killed Lily and James - and then to bite their son...
He had done it no doubt so the boy would not grow too fond of him and draw attention to the fact he had been under their noses for so long.
Peter had always been dim, mused Remus. He should have known they were always going to find him in the end. He had been able to run but he was not able to hide any more.
"Yes," he admitted.
Just when Severus, Sirius and Remus had thought they were as angry with Peter as they were ever likely to be, it went up another notch.
"Why? Just tell us why?" said Sirius as he went back to the original issue. As much as he loved Harry with all his heart, he knew now he had Peter within his grasp he was never going to be able to bring harm to the boy again. No, he was more concerned with what he had done to James. For the rest of his life he was going to be coming to terms that when the man he had loved like a brother had needed him the most, he hadn't been there. "If it had been the other way around, then James would never have even considered selling you out."
"You have no idea of the weapons which the Dark Lord possessed Sirius! If I had not done as he had asked then he would have killed me, I know he would have. What would you have done? If you had been in the position I was put in," whimpered Pettigrew.
"Died! I would have died before I betrayed James." Sirius said in a dangerous growl.
Peter looked at him as if he was just confused. As if he didn't know what he was on about; as if he had been speaking a foreign language.
And he guessed in Peter's mind he had. He had been speaking the language of friendship and love, the language of loyalty.
These were tongues that a man like Pettigrew could never hope to learn. And for just a moment, pity stayed his hand. He truly pitied Pettigrew. That he was never going to understand the bonds which he had been tied to James by, the bonds which joined Harry and Remus to him.
And then he remembered why they were there and what he had done. "I wish you had died then, for James was an infinitely better person than you, a better man than you could be in one hundred years; and I am not saying that as his friend but as a human being. It kills me that he never had a chance to do good in the world. And you didn't just kill James and Lily. You killed all the other little godchildren me and Remus might have gained, Harry's little brothers and sisters. It kills me that I'll never know their names! You stole all the Christmas and birthday presents they would have picked for them, every joke they might have shared and tears which they might have wiped off of his cheeks."
The list was endless. When Sirius thought of what Harry would have had had he been raised by his mother and his father.
He would love the boy until his dying day. But he was never going to be able to replace the lad's parents – not entirely.
Enough of this. He had not looked for Peter for so long so that he was going to be able to make him feel guilty. He had looked for him so that he could ensure that he was not going to be able to feel at all.
"Together?" he asked Severus and Remus.
It was then, just as Sirius became a hairs breadth way from the revenge he had waited so long to exact that they door opened.
"Sirius, you cannot do this. If you do then it is not only his life that you are forfeiting," Andromeda said as she walked into the Burrow once more – with Dumbledore behind her.
It had been when she had been holding Harry thinking of the consequence of the night she had known she had to go back and save Sirius from himself. She had thought about what he had told her, what had happened and she had put the pieces of the puzzle together. She knew it was Pettigrew.
She also knew there were plenty of men alive in the world who had a lot worse tempers than Sirius did. But when it came to Peter she did not think she knew what he was capable of. If she was right, then neither did he.
He had to stay calm.
As hard as she truly knew it was, it really was what he had to do. If not for his own sake then for the boy's. If he was found to have killed Peter (a killing which the ministry had certainly not ordered) then the only place he was going was back to jail.
And if he went there then she could not say for sure that Harry was not going to go back to his aunt and uncles. If that was the case, then she did not think the sweet boy was going to survive it this time – for he had seen and glimpse and tasted and felt and lived another life.
A life where he was loved.
And so she had made a choice she did not think her cousin was going to like and she had rushed to contact the headmaster, praying he was going to be in his office when she flu called. For once her prays had been answered.
As soon as she had explained what was going on he had come to her. And then they had both come to the Burrow.
Remus looked to her as did Severus. Asides from Harry, she knew these were the three men whose lives had been destroyed by Peters' actions. She did not know why in the case of Severus Snape but she knew from the venom in his eyes this had to be personal.
"He has to die for what he did," Sirius told her but the fact that he had replied to her was a good thing she told herself.
"I know why you feel that – god, if I were you then I would feel the same. But this is not the answer."
She said to him and she knew that was the message she had to put across. "If you do this you are going back to Azkaban – I will not lie for you. And then Harry will go back to his aunt and uncles – and I will do everything in my power to make sure you never see his face again. If your hate for Peter outweighs your love for Harry then you do not deserve him and you never did. If you choose Peter, James should never have chosen you as godfather."
"Shut up Andy!" Sirius said as his hand begun to shake.
"I can't – not until you see sense and save your and Harry's life all over again!"
"He has to die!"
"No, Sirius," Dumbledore finally spoke. "No one here has to die."
He looked at them, "If I do not kill him then Lily and James are never going to be at peace."
"If Harry is taken away from you once more then they are never going to be at peace. And neither will you," Andy said as she looked at him with pity in her eyes. She knew how tormented he was by the decisions he had to make. But he had to make it for the better. "Can you really let Harry be taken from you again? Let it go and come home with me. Live for the living Sirius, not the dead. Harry is scared – he needs you. Not me, not Ted and not even Remus. You."
She knew she was making real progress. "I can't let him go free."
"No – on that the two of us agreed," said Dumbledore as he looked at Peter.
He did not think anyone there was proposing that. It had been a long time since he had felt such hate for another human. What Peter had done was beyond forgiveness. There was never going to be a way back for him.
"Please, professor. You always said help was given to those who ask for it!" the rat squealed.
"Then what I should have said is that help will always be given to those who deserve it – and in my judgement, which has been said to be rather good, you do not." Dumbledore curtly dismissed the animagus who stood still at the end of three wands. "There is another way Sirius – let me take him to the ministry."
"Azkaban isn't a bad enough punishment –" said Sirius as his mind went into over drive. "If – and I mean if - we decided to hand him over, then I want him to be kissed."
"Sirius," Peter turned to him. "Mercy, please mercy."
"Give me your word, professor. Nothing less than the Dementors kiss."
"I shall talk to the authorities after his guilt has been confirmed, which it will be; I am sure that I could persuade them to perform it."
Sirius shook as he held his wand – Andromeda suddenly felt rather certain he was changing his mind. Sirius was no longer a marauder or a prisoner first – he was a father. He had to be there for his boy.
"What say you Remus?"
"I hate him – and I hate what he did and I want him to die. But they are speaking sense, I can see it – and my love for the life we are living outweighs the hate I have for him. Listen to what they are saying – let me and you go home. Padfoot, if you go back to Azkaban then he has won once again," Remus reasoned as he felt his throat go tight. "James would want us to go home to Harry."
"I know he would." he said as he turned one last time to Dumbledore. "Nothing less than the kiss – and I get to see it performed."
"It is said to be unbearable to witness," Severus Snape muttered from the other side of Remus where he too had been pointing his wand at Pettigrew.
"I've been Azkaban. I'm sure I'll cope. Dumbledore?"
"You have my word."
Sirius took one long last intense look at Peter – he was in no way worth giving up Harry for.
"Please Sirius," Peter had clearly decided pleading was worth once last shot.
"Never. Enjoy hell Peter. I once heard the deepest circle was reserved for traitors... my god I hope it's true."
Lowering his wand, Sirius could not decide if he felt more or less at peace with himself. But that didn't matter.
"Where is my godson?" he asked.
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