All the Young Dudes ( Sirius' Perspective )

Wormtail

Well, if you told me you were drowning

I would not lend a hand

I’ve seen your face before my friend

But I don’t know if you know who I am

Well, I was there and I saw what you did

I saw it with my own two eyes

So you can wipe off that grin, I know where you’ve been

It’s all been a pack of lies              

A flash of blue-white light; for a moment, the rat hovered in the air, twisting frantically. In the next second, he fell to the floor—another flash of light, and then—

The rat began to grow. Limbs lengthened; tail shrunk; the twitching nose sank back into the rapidly expanding face. In a matter of seconds, they were no longer staring at a rat; now, he was a small, cringing man.

Peter.

The years had not been kind to him. He was balding, sallow-skinned and hollow-cheeked, as though he had lost a great deal of weight very quickly. He twitched on the ground, blinking up at them with watery blue eyes, breathing quickly. He reeked of fear.

“Well, hello, Peter,” Remus said, steadily, “Long time, no see.”

“S-Sirius…R-Remus…” he squeaked, eyes darting towards the door. “My friends…my old friends…”

Sirius raised his wand, vengeance ready on the tip of his tongue—but Remus grabbed his wrist, stopping him.

“We’ve been having a little chat, Peter, about what happened the night Lily and James died. You might have missed the finer points while you were squeaking around down there on the bed—”

“Remus,” Peter choked out, desperately, “You don’t believe him, do you…? He tried to kill me, Remus….”

“So we’ve heard,” Remus replied, voice hard, “I’d like to clear up one or two things with you, Peter, if you’d be so—”

“He’s come to try and kill me again!” Peter shrieked, interrupting. He pointed straight at Sirius with his mangled hand, only a stump where his index finger used to be. “He killed Lily and James and now he’s going to kill me too…You’ve got to help me, Remus…”

Yes, Sirius thought, staring at him, Yes, yes, I’m going to kill you, you fucking bastard—

“No one’s going to try and kill you until we’ve sorted a few things out,” Remus said.

“Sorted things out?” Peter asked, frantically, eyes skipping around the room as he searched for some means of escape. “I knew he’d come after me! I knew he’d be back for me! I’ve been waiting for this for twelve years!”

“You knew Sirius was going to break out of Azkaban?” Remus asked, “When nobody’s ever done it before?”

“He’s got Dark powers the rest of us can only dream of!” Peter insisted, “How else did he get out of there? I suppose He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named taught him a few tricks!”