Chapter 2 ~ A Recipe for Rat Cooking

Fire and ash rose up in a column somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Two burning circles appeared on the ground, and as the ash particles fused together, they formed the shapes of Harry Potter and Myrana.

Harry asked, "Why does my mouth taste like ash?" as he spat out the contents of his mouth.

"Oops," Myrana giggled with one hand held before her mouth, as if she was hiding her smile behind it. "I forgot tell you, that one should keep his mouth closed while travelling using this method. Otherwise one might risks inhaling the ashen remains of some unfortunate, dammed souls."

Harry barely held in the contents of his stomach. "And let me guess, the screams were that of tortured souls too? Hey!"

He quickly stepped into line next to Myrana, who was already walking forward.

For the first time, Harry actually looked around. It was dark, but somehow he could see perfectly well in the darkness, even with clouds keeping the moonlight at bay. They were nearing the gates of something that could only be a very grand graveyard.

"Hey, Myrana?"

"Hm?" she hummed.

"What if someone sees you? You are not exactly inconspicuous, with all these wings and horns and stuff, you know?"

"I have means of being absolutely unnoticeable to the eyes of mortals."

"Could you teach me? It would be pretty handy next time some psycho tries to kill me. I mean school is starting pretty soon, so the chances for a deadly murderer on my heels a rising."

Myrana shook her head. "Sorry, honey, but that's a privilege reserved only for true devils of the Hells, not planetouched mortals. You simply lack the necessary amount of infernal power coursing through you."

Harry looked disappointed.

"But I can teach you some lesser, but still powerful, methods of disguising yourself," she said. "Speaking of teaching, it's time for your next lesson, my dear little hunter."

She gestured to the shadows that were cast almost everywhere in the vicinity of the entrance to the graveyard. Myrana moved her fingers like a puppet master controlling the strings, and the shadows answered her call. Tendrils of inky darkness solidified out of the shadows in the area. They stretched, wiggled, and moved as if they were alive. Like snakes, they slithered to the area on the ground she pointed at and formed a pool of tentacles, which were moving around as if trying to grasp something.

Harry looked on fascinated and a little bit disturbed by the mass of writhing shadows. Myrana snapped her fingers and the tendrils dispersed as if they were never there.

"And now you do it. Go on, just like with the fire. Command the shadows to do your bidding!"

Harry nodded and focused on the shadows on the ground, which were cast by the few trees planted near the heavy iron gates. He stretched out his hands, trying to grab and pull the shadows toward him. His hands felt like they were dipped in cold water, but nothing really happened.

He looked at Myrana questioningly. "Maybe it will work better with my wand?"

"No, your little wooden stick won't help you here. Infernal magic is fueled by the essence of Hell, not the magic your wand helps you channel from within yourself," the she-devil snapped, her wings stretching in agitation.

"No, what might help you is your imagination. Magic is always about intent, your desired outcome, not the means to get there. Focus on the image of what you wish to achieve, don't worry about the details or the process."

Harry tried again, now with the image of the sneaky, dark tendrils in his mind. And lo and behold, it seemed to work much better this time. There was definitely room for inprovement, the shadow tendrils looked much thinner and not nearly as dark as those of Myrana, but they were absolutely solid.

A twinge of excitement rose up in Harry as the shadows mimicked his desired movements.

"How can this be?" he asked Myrana who looked at him questioningly. "I mean it usually takes days, if not weeks or months for me to learn a new spell, or at least manage a result that does something. But this," he gestured at the shadows that gave a little wink in response to his hand movement, "is so much easier, comes without so much struggle."

Myrana nodded and shifted her wings into a position that looked almost proud. "That is the nature of fiendish magic," she said. "It's not as sluggish as the magic you wizards seem to prefer. It will almost never require an incantation. This is power that actually wants to be used; it is almost sentient in its desire to be released."

She held up a finger and continued to lecture, "But that is also where the danger lies. You must also concentrate to keep control, otherwise some spells originating from the Hells will try to break out and try to get at anything around them, including you."

Harry asked, "but didn't you make me fireproof or something?"

"You may be now, but are the people around you?"

Harry got the point and looked around. The moon was still clouded and the night was still cold. In the distance Harry could only make out one old house, that once might have been a grand manor with a little shack at the side.

"Another weakness of the shadowbinding spell is its requirement of existing shadow. Try using this during the day and it will be much, much harder to achieve even a single solid tendril."

Harry nodded in understanding. However, if he somehow had a source of darkness he could use, the usefull spell would always be available to him...

"So, how long do we need to wait here for Pettigrew to show up? And what is the plan for catching him? Do we just jump out and surprise attack him or something?" he asked. Harry's body was tingling with nervous energy, twitching due to the knowledge of who would be here tonight.

"I don't know, you are the one who has to catch him. I don't care how you do it, I'll just sit here, look pretty, and watch the show," Myrana said with a shrug and began to inspect her fingernails or claws or whatever the exact term was.

"Eh?" Harry stopped twitching and looked at her in shock. "You're just going to sit there and do nothing? I thought you would help me, that we would catch the rat together?"

"I can cheer you on if you wish."

Harry just stared at her in disbelief. "There's a murderous grown-up man coming up here, and I have to fight him all by myself? Not this shit again, dammit!"

"Tut-tut Harry, I revealed to you the location the person you seek will be in, as promised. I even brought you here, free of charge. I also provided you with a helpful tool of devilish magic to enable you to catch him, as promised. I, however, never said, that I would do all your dirty work for you."

Harry cursed silently under his breath about stupid devils who had to be right and walked through the gates without another word. Myrana fell into line behind him, curiously observing what he was doing.

The graveyard was full of stones stating hundreds of names. Unusual were the huge statues of angels and depictions of the Reaper, that adorned some of the graves. It gave the whole place an even eerier atmosphere than it already had.

Harry decided to hide behind one of the larger gravestones with a good view of the gate and the main path. He looked over at Myrana and saw her lounging on another gravestone, her feet swinging off the ground. Was that popcorn in her hand?

"What in the world are you doing?" he asked her in a whisper.

"Don't worry," Myrana said as she flung another piece into her mouth and chewed it with a crunching noise. "Even if your little friend ran right into me, he wouldn't be able to tell anything was there. Just do your thing, but make it interesting."

Harry chose to just ignore her from now on, but one last question wouldn't leave his mind. "But what if I want to talk to you? If no one can see you, everyone will just think I've lost it or something."

"Aww, you want to talk to me all the time? How cute! And don't they think that every once or twice a year?" She chuckled. "Just think really hard about it, and we'll be able to communicate through your thoughts."

"Hello? Test one, two, can you hear me?" Harry thought as hard as he could.

"Yes, yes I can hear you. Now stop this!" sounded Myrana's voice in his head.

Harry stopped and continued to stare at the entrance to the graveyard. He didn't have to wait long before a figure appeared at the gate, opened and closed it, then looked around nervously.

He felt his blood boil as he recognized the ugly visage of Wormtail. The small man hurried along the main path and Harry could hear him muttering under his breath, seemingly searching among the graves. "Senior, senior...

Harry felt the tension in his body rise as he shifted into a better position, crouching behind one of the graves and slipping his wand into his hand. He aimed it at Wormtail, who had pulled out his own wand to illuminate the words written on each marble stone.

"Expelliarmus!" Harry shouted, and Wormtail's wand was violently torn out of his hand and fell with a clatter into the darkness behind some nearby graves; the light from its tip immediately went out.

The traitor's eyes widened in fear as he whipped his head around to the source of the sound. He looked shocked as he saw Harry's face gazing right at him. Suddenly, his instincts seemed to kick in, and he immediately transformed into the form of a rat.

Harry's wand spewed forth spell after spell, but he couldn't hit the small rat, which was getting farther and further away from him. He gave up on trying to hit it with conventional spells and stretched out his hand.

"Come on!" he hissed and commanded the shadows to form the tendrils of darkness. Ignoring Myrana's "Let's go, Harry, get him good!" he gritted his teeth and latched onto the panicked rat with the dark tentacles.

Wormtail managed to evade one or two of the tendrils trying to catch him by narrowly slipping through them, but after Harry almost cracked his own teeth in concentration, the entire area around Pettigrew became a virtual sea of blackened tentacles.

Harry himself gasped at what he had managed to do and looked at the area that now stretched across the grass. In a radius of about fifteen feet, writhing shadows were beginning to grow out of the ground like unnatural blades of grass. Wormtail had no chance of escape; within seconds, more and more of the shadows had wrapped themselves around his tiny body and bound him where he stood.

Harry rushed over to where the rat was wiggling and squeaking. Interestingly enough, the dark tendrils didn't hinder his movement at all. However, he didn't expect Pettigrew to suddenly assume his human form again.

Harry's dark tendrils broke under the strain of the suddenly much bigger body they latched onto and with a desperate cry Wormtail's arm swung around.

Harry's cheek exploded in pain as the fist connected and he was knocked to the ground. He heard his glasses break and fall somewhere to the ground next to him, but the much bigger problem was Pettigrew standing over him now.

"Uuh, that's gotta hurt!" commented Myrana next to him. She almost sounded giddy.

Harry reacted on pure instinct. Following the will of the boy the shadows rose up again without him even guiding the movement with his hands. All the inky, solid mass, that was spread out on a large area on the ground before now swirled up around Wormtail's midsection.

One more command and the arm that had just started to move towards Harry's throat was also covered by the black mass and prevented from moving.

"No, wait, please!" Wormtail cried out, but Harry had already pointed his wand right at his face.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Harry quickly hissed and Wormtail instantly froze. The shadows let go of him and the man fell face first onto the grass next to Harry.

Harry breathed heavily and only looked up as he heard Myrana's clapping.

A hand appeared in his vision. He grasped it and was hoisted up to his feet by the surpringly strong devil.

"Congratulations, Harry," she said.

"Thanks," he muttered and rubbed his cheek as he looked down at Wormtail. Then, remembering his glasses that had fallen off, he quickly snatched them up from the grass. They were broken again, and he had to hold in a groan.

Then suddenly something clicked. He could see perfectly fine. He looked over at Myrana.

"Perfect vision, remember?" she said with a grin. "Whether it's light or dark, you'll be able to see just fine."

"Oh, right," Harry said as he looked down at the glasses in his hand. A true smile formed on his face for the first time since Myrana had appeared in his bedroom. He stuffed them into the pocket of his jeans.

Then he looked down at the man lying there, paralyzed by the body-bind.

With a huff Harry turned Wormtail over so that he could look at his face. Unblinking beady eyes stared back at him, and Harry felt something sing within him in joy as he saw fear behind those eyes.

"Now, the question only remains of what you will do with him?" Myrana asked and put a mocking finger under her chin as if she were thinking really hard.

Harry turned to her and asked, "What do you mean? I have to turn him over to the Ministry of Magic so that Sirius can be free!"

"Whatever happened to silent conversations in your head, so that witnesses wouldn't think your mind was gone?" Myrana asked.

Harry decided that, for now at least, it didn't matter, because Wormtail was in a full body-bind anyway, and no one would ever believe him.

"Apart from that," Myrana continued, "don't you realize this is your perfect chance for revenge? He is lying there, bound to your mercy. Don't you want to punish the traitor who sold out your parents?"

"But I still need him," Harry cried out, frustration lacing his voice. "Or Sirius will never be free!"

"Oh, but you overlooked one little detail," Myrana whispered as she stepped closer to Harry.

"The Ministry only needs most of him for and interrogation, doesn't it? It won't matter if just a little bit of him gets damaged along the way, does it?" she whispered into his ear.

Harry's eyes clenched shut and he barely held in a scream of frustration. He new what Dumbledore would have done. But he also knew what Sirius would have done.

Wormtail's eyes didn't move an inch, but Harry saw the panic in them as he crouched down next to him.

"I know you can hear me, Wormtail, and I want you to know I got you and you won't escape this time," Harry said, looking the traitor in the eye.

"I want you to know that the son of Lily and James Potter got you, the son of the friends you just SOLD OUT TO VOLDEMORT TO SAVE YOUR PATHETIC SKIN!" he screamed the last bit out.

Myra looked on with interest as Harry walked around Wormtail in circles and hissed, "I want you to know what will happen to you. You will be brought over to the Ministry where they will interrogate you and pry every single dirty little secret, every detail of that night from you. I pray that you will be given the Dementor's kiss for what you have done to them!"

"To Sirius..." Hot tears began to stream down Harry's face and he barely registered himself starting to kick Pettigrew's downed form in the ribs.

"To Dad..." Another kick in the ribs.

"To Mum..." A sharp kick in the face. He didn't even hear the tooth breaking in Pettigrew's mouth.

"To me..." A stomp on Wormtail's nose. It broke with a crack and a gasp of air escaped the man's mouth.

"To our family!" Harry screamed and wildly stomped on Pettigrew's face without any control whatsoever.

He didn't know when he stopped; he only absently wiped his tears away. He just looked up as he heard slow clapping behind him. A head with dark horns laid on his shoulder and hands rubbed his sides.

"You did well, Harry," Myrana's voice filled his ear, "didn't that feel just exhilarating? To just let it all out, to punish this pathetic worm? To crush him under your heel like the rodent he is?"

Harry didn't answer; he just looked down at Wormtail. The coward's face was a bloody mess, cuts oozing blood all over it, and dark blue bruises were already forming on the skin. His nose looked broken, a dribble of blood leaking from his mouth, and one eye was swollen shut.

The boy shook Myrana off him without a word and held up his hands. A few moments of struggle and concentration later a ring of fire erupted aorund him on the ground. It didn't take long for it to grow so wide that it encircled him and Wormtail. Without even looking back at Myrana who had a pensive look on her face as she stood there, Harry commanded the flames to swallow him and Wormtail.

Fire erupted on the carpet of the room in Privet Drive Nr. 4. The first thing Harry heard was the wailing scream of a woman. He looked around and saw, that he seemed to have miscalculated his point of arrival.

He didn't land in his own room upstairs. No, he landed right in the living room of the Dursley family room, the pale faces of his relatives staring right back at him.

Aunt Petunia was screaming in fright and looked as if she were about to faint.

Uncle Vernon looked pale and flushed at the same time, with a face that reminded Harry of poorly mixed raspberry ice cream. However, he appeared too shocked to even scream at his nephew.

Dudley had fallen off the couch and was pressing himself against the wall as far away from Harry as possible. He looked from Harry to the bloody form of Wormtail, who gave no indication that he was alive, and then back at Harry.

Harry decided to just ignore his relatives since they wouldn't really want to hear his explanation and simply started to drag Wormtail by his foot up to his room. A trail of droplets of blood were left on the floor as Harry dragged him through the house until he could finally slam his door shut.

"Now," he asked out loud to no one but himself as he sat down on the bed and lookes at he form of Wormtail lying on the floor, "how do I explain this to Dumbledore?"

A/N: Please like and review! It helps me with my motivation. If you have any constructive criticism, then I'll also gladly read it. Next up we will have Wormtail's and Sirius' trial with a little side mission in the Ministry of Magic for Harry thrown into the mix. Read on for more!