enchanted • draco malfoy

Year 3: Peter Pettigrew

Felicity's POV

Ron, Hermione, and I gasped in unison. "Harry!" I shrieked, "Are you out of your bloody mind?" Hermione's wide eyes were still fixated on Snape as she said shrilly, "You just attacked a teacher!" Harry ignored us, continuing to stare down Sirius Black. "Tell me about Peter," he demanded, wand pointed at the killer. "He was at school with us; we thought he was our friend!" Professor Lupin insisted. Even though I knew better than to trust him, he sounded sincere.

"No," Harry denied, "Pettigrew's dead. You killed him!" He took a step towards Black, wand still leveled at his face, until Lupin stood in front of the escaped prisoner. "No, he didn't," he promised, hands raised in surrender as Harry pointed the wand at him, "I thought so, too, until you mentioned Pettigrew on the map!" Harry looked disbelieving. "The map was lying, then," he said. "The map never lies!" Sirius roared, impatient. "Pettigrew's alive! And he's right there!" Sirius whirled and pointed his finger directly at Ron with a look of maniacal anger on his gaunt face.

"Me?!" Ron gaped, "That's mental!" Sirius let out a low growl of irritation. "Not you," he spat, "your rat!" Ron looked as if Sirius had accused his entire family of murder. "Scabbers has been in my family for-" "-Twelve years?" Sirius cut Ron off knowingly, "Curiously long life for a common garden rat! And he's missing a toe, isn't he?"

Ron shifted, pulling Scabbers closer to his chest. "So what?" Ron asked defensively. I suddenly remembered something. I murmured, "All they could find of Pettigrew was his..." "Yes, his finger!" Black shouted, "Dirty coward cut it off so everyone would think he was dead! And then he transformed himself into a rat!" He was steadily growing louder, his movements more jerky.

"Show me," Harry commanded. Sirius strode over to Ron and tried wrenching the rat out of his hands. "Give it to him, Ron," Harry ordered calmly. "What are you trying to do to him?" Ron panicked, gripping tightly onto the vermin, "Scabbers!"

Black finally tore the pet from Ron's iron grip as Ron yelled, "Leave him alone!" Sirius ignored him and tossed the rat on a dusty old piano, where he and Lupin began firing bursts of white light onto the critter. Finally, just as Scabbers was about to escape through a hole in the wall, they hit him. There was an explosion of dust before it settled to reveal not a dead rat, but the rear end of a pudgy man. Lupin and Black pulled him from the wall and held tight onto each of his arms before shoving him to the middle of the room.

Pettigrew, I suppose, examined his surroundings before his eyes landed on the two men in front of him. "Remus, Sirius!" he greeted shakily, "My old friends!" He turned to the four of us, his beady eyes focusing on me and Harry. "Why, Felicity, is it?" he questioned creepily, "Your parents would be so proud to see you now!" I froze, stiff as a board. "And Harry!" he continued, shuffling over closer to us, "Look at you! You look so much like your father." He sighed, "Like James. We were the best of friends-"

"How dare you speak to Harry! How dare you talk about James in front of him!" Sirius practically screamed, pulling the former rat away from us. Peter ran behind the piano, Sirius and Lupin on either side of it. "You sold James and Lily to Voldemort!" our professor accused, "Didn't you?" Pettigrew looked frightened and close to tears. "I didn't mean to!" he replied, shaking his head vigorously, "But the Dark Lord... you have no idea the weapons he possesses! Ask yourself, Sirius! What would you have done?"

Sirius looked beyond furious. "Died, rather than betray my friends!" he answered, a savage look on his face. Pettigrew yelped, scurried under the piano, and ran up to Harry, gripping his shoulders tightly. Harry stumbled back and I surged forward, pushing the disgusting man's arms away from my best friend. "James wouldn't have wanted me killed!" Pettigrew wailed, his hands clasped in front of him, "Your dad would have spared me! He would have shown me mercy!"