Disclaimer: JKR is the Supreme Overlord of Harry Potter. I'm just a mildly creative peasant who is mutilating her work for my own pleasure.

The Brotherhood

A/N - Finals are done, I hopefully passed all of my classes, and the school year is out! The novel I was writing during June has kind of been written into a corner, and I'm 10,000 words behind where I should be at this point in time. I have massive writer's block on it, so I decided to fall back onto my old hobby of borrowing successful peoples work and ruining it. Hopefully, I'll be working on my novel again soon, but until then, enjoy this new chapter.

~~~Chapter Thirty~~~

You did what?

Harry sighed as he stared at the parchment. He was talking to Ginny over the parchment, and was telling her in more detail about what had been going on for him since they had last met face to face.

I had to Ginny. You know the plan as I well as I do. I have to make him believe I'm loyal to him, and him alone.

Ginny's reply didn't come fast and Harry got the distinct impression that she was mad at him.

I know, Harry. I'm just worried for you. What if it all goes wrong?

Harry glanced at the clock, looking for a reason to cut the conversation short, but the clock said it was barely 11:00, which meant that he had another hour before he would have to retire to bed.

That is a risk I have to take, Ginny.

Harry decided a change of topic would be better.

Where are you at anyway? With Sirius?

Ginny probably knew exactly what he was doing, but she allowed him to change the topic.

I am at Remus' house, but Sirius isn't here. Dora and Remus are in the other room together, but Sirius left this morning and hasn't come back yet.

Ginny's reply caught his interest. Really? What is Sirius doing?

Searching for Pettigrew still, of course. We think he switched to searching for you after you 'went missing', but he's back to looking for the rat.

Harry gaped at the parchment in surprise. Pettigrew! He couldn't believe he hadn't thought of him. True, he hadn't seen Wormtail even once since he had joined Voldemort's ranks, but then again, he hadn't exactly spent a lot of time with the deatheaters. He could free Sirius!

Harry?

Harry blinked down at the paper in surprise. He suddenly realised he had spent longer than his usual reply time thinking and hastily scribbled a reply. Sorry, I just thought of something, Pettigrew is a deatheater right? He's got to be around here somewhere. I could free Sirius!

Ginny's reply came immediately, but it did not contain what he thought it would. It is true that he might be there, but remember your plan. Bringing down Voldemort is more important than anything else. You can deal with Pettigrew later.

But what about Sirius? Harry protested.

Do what you can, Harry. Just be wary. It pains me to say this, but your love is your greatest downfall. You care too much for Sirius, and trying to free him will likely make your success with Voldemort falter.

Harry stared at the parchment in shock. He couldn't believe Ginny had just said that. Angrily, he shoved the parchment aside, not even bothering to reply to her last comment.

Harry stood and paced around the room. He didn't care what Ginny said, he was going after Pettigrew! Hadn't Dumbledore said, before everything, that love was what had protected him? How could love be a bad thing?

Harry, unable to sleep now that he was all worked up, sat down in a nearby armchair and pulled out the book he had been studying earlier in the day.

~~~ TB ~~~

Ginny stared at the parchment in sorrow as Harry didn't reply. He seemed to be a lot more defensive than her ever had before, and Ginny wondered if that had something to do with being around the deatheaters.

The door opened then, and a depressed looking Sirius entered. Ginny watched him enter the living room and evidently disturb whatever Dora and Remus had been doing, because there was much yelling.

Ginny looked in the direction that Sirius had left, but then she glanced back down at the parchment. Yes, Harry would risk everything for Sirius, and there was no stopping him.

~~~TB~~~

Harry made sure the parchment revealing his contact with the outside world was well hidden before leaving his room the next morning. He headed down to the kitchens, where, Harry knew, those deatheaters who were in hiding ate breakfast. Deatheaters who still had homes ate there. He usually ate breakfast in him room, brought up by house elves, but today, he had a new goal.

Harry scanned the room, trying not to look conspicuous. It took a few rounds to finally spot the mousy man, but he was there, sitting at the end of one of the table.

Harry stood and crossed the room to the table where Pettigrew was sitting and took a seat across from him. Peter looked up and jumped in surprise and slight fear.

"Harry," he greeted in a quivering voice.

"Hello, Peter," Harry grinned wickedly and the man blanched.

~~~TB~~~

Ginny flooed, once again, into Remus' house, as was usual by this point. Her family was mildly surprised that she had become such great friends with Dora, but they were glad that she was seemingly getting over Harry, and so allowed her to make daily visits to Dora. They had no idea, of course, that Ginny was also visited Remus and Sirius, or else Ginny was sure they wouldn't have let her go.

Ginny was surprised when she heard the sound of a celebration going on in the other room and she promptly went to investigate.

Sirius, Remus, and Dora were all celebrating raucously, but for what, Ginny couldn't figure out.

"What's going on?" she shouted, trying to be heard over the loud music.

In response, Dora, who was the closest to her, handed Ginny the Daily Prophet. Ginny's eyes widened in shock at the headlines. Sirius had been pardoned in full because of the capture and interrogation of Peter Pettigrew.

"How?" Ginny questioned, looking up at Sirius. He grinned.

"We don't know. Either Peter was stupid enough to get himself caught, or it has something to do with Harry," Remus answered, turning down the music enough so that they could have a discussion.

Ginny's face turned troubled. "Harry was going to try when I reminded him about Pettigrew. Obviously, he succeeded, but I just hope he wasn't caught," Ginny murmured, pulling out the parchment which was covered with words she and Harry had written.

"Contact him and make sure," Sirius suggested, his excited mood fading slightly.

Ginny shook her head. "He's always in training at this time," she informed them, then sat down on the couch worriedly.

A/N - Reviews are welcomed graciously and their senders are rewarded with virtual chocolate.