Fear of a Name

Chapter Sixty-Seven: Peter Pettigrew

"No," said Lupin. "Harry—"
"And now you've come to finish him off!" Harry said, his anger obviously rising even more.
"Yes, I have," said Sirius, with an evil look at Pettigrew.
"Not helping," I muttered, but he just ignored me.
"Then I should've let Snape take you!" Harry shouted.

"Harry," said Lupin hurriedly, "don't you see?" All this time we've thought Sirius betrayed your parents, and Peter tracked him down —but it was the other way around, don't you see?" Peter betrayed your mother and father — Sirius tracked Peter down—"
"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" Harry yelled. "HE WAS THEIR SECRET-KEEPER! HE SAID SO BEFORE YOU TURNED UP, HE SAID HE KILLED THEM!"

I flinched. I was usually really scared when people yelled anyway (I had my mother and father to thank for that, and I guess Snape as well), but when it was Harry doing the yelling, it seemed to make it ten times worse. He was usually... I wouldn't say calm, exactly... but he was very trusting, so you knew he must be utterly furious if he started yelling like that at someone he'd known and trusted for almost a year.
Sirius shook his head slowly, his sunken eyes suddenly over-bright.

"Harry... I as good as killed them," he croaked. "I persuaded Lily and James to change to Peter at the last moment, persuaded them to use him as secret keeper instead of me... I'm to blame, I know it... the night they died, I'd arranged to check on Peter, make sure he was still safe, but when I arrived at his hiding place, he'd gone. Yet there was no sign of a struggle. It didn't feel right. I was scared. I set out for your parents' house straight away. And when I saw their house, destroyed, and their bodies — I realised what Peter must have done. What I'd done."
His voice broke. He turned away.

"Enough of this," said Lupin, and there was a steely note in his voice I'd never heard before. "There's one certain way to prove what really happened. Ron, give me that rat."
"What are you going to do with him if I give him to you?" Ron asked Lupin tensely.
"Force him to show himself," said Lupin. "If he really is a rat, it won't hurt him."

Ron hesitated, then at long last held out Pettigrew, and Lupin took him. Pettigrew began to squeak without stopping, twisting and turning, his tiny black eyes bulging in his head.
"Ready, Sirius?" said Lupin.
Sirius had already retrieved Snape's wand from the bed. He approached Lupin and the struggling rat that was Pettigrew, and his wet eyes suddenly seemed to be burning in his face.
"Ready," he confirmed.

Lupin put Pettigrew on the piano so they could cast the spell, but Pettigrew was too quick — he ran across the piano, onto the stool, then down onto the floor, with mini dust clouds being raised around him by the spells Sirius and Lupin kept missing. I knew I needed to act fast before he managed to hide somewhere we couldn't get to him.
"Totalis hominum!" I yelled, pointing my wand at Pettigrew as he tried to jump into a hole in the wall.

There was a blinding flash of red light. When it disappeared again, Peter Pettigrew was there in his human form, half stuck in the hole, which was now considerably bigger than it had been to start with. As soon as they'd got over their shock about how powerful the spell was (and the fact it hadn't existed up until then), Sirius and Lupin hauled him out. He looked round at us all, his breathing fast and shallow. I saw his eyes dart to the door and back again.

"Well, hello, Peter," said Lupin pleasantly, as though rats frequently erupted into old schoolfriends around him. "Long time, no see."
"S-Sirius... R-Remus..." His eyes darted towards the door again. "My friends... my old friends..."
Sirius' wand arm rose, but Lupin seized him around the wrist, gave him a warning look, then turned back to Pettigrew.
"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," gasped Pettigrew, and I could see beads of sweat breaking out over his pasty face, "you don't believe him, do you... He tried to kill me, Remus..."

"So we've heard," said Lupin, more coldly. "I'd like to clear up one or two little matters with you, Peter, if you'd be so—"
"He's come to try and kill me again!" Pettigrew shrieked suddenly, pointing at Sirius with his middle finger, as his index finger was missing. "He killed James and—"
"WORMTAIL, FOR THE LOVE OF MERLIN, SHUT UP!" I yelled suddenly, making everyone jump.

Pettigrew spun around to face me, his beady eyes full of fear. He was the only Death Eater who was openly afraid of me, the only one who acknowledged the full extent of my powers. I'd found that — on the few occasions he was at the Manor rather than with Ron — he would do almost anything I told him to. My father had allowed this to continue, hoping it would make me see how being powerful like him was a good thing. It hadn't worked. Still, this knowledge might be helpful now.

"I-Ivory?" Pettigrew said in a squeaky voice, his eyes darting to the door once again.
"I told you to shut up," I growled. "Speak when you're told to speak, and not unless."
Harry, Ron and Hermione were looking terrified at my sudden change of demeanour. Lupin was observing the situation interestedly. Sirius was just watching with an unreadable expression.

"O-of course, My Lady," Pettigrew stuttered.
"I also told you not to call me that," I said, resisting the urge to roll my eyes at him.
"S-sorry, My Lady."
"Wormtail, I just said—" I sighed in exasperation. "You know what, I give up with this. Talk to your 'old friends' again, I don't even care anymore," I said, putting air quotations around the words "old friends".
I was sure I saw a flicker of a smile on Lupin's face when I said that, but a second later it was gone, replaced by the same cold expression he'd had before.

"So, Peter," he said, and Pettigrew spun back around to face him and Sirius. "I think we need to sort a few things out."