The Other Uncle (a sequel)

A Broken Promise

AN: I thought that the ending to my last chapter needed a follow up, so I created this.

Padfoot ripped through the forbidden forest. How could he have been so stupid? Of course the Fat Lady wouldn't let him in! Especially not without the passwords! He could just hear Anna and Remus critiquing his plan in his mind. They had always been better at thinking ahead. When he was finally deep enough in the forest, he stopped behind a tree and morphed into his human form.

He leaned back against the tree he was crouched behind, breathing hard. The marauder wiped the sweat from his brow and dared to sniff his pits but immediately regretted it. He stunk. He sighed when he heard his stomach rumbled as well. He was a mess. He was thirsty, sleep deprived, starving, smelly, and still wore the same outfit he had had for weeks. His younger self would be horrified at how low he had gone. It was all his fault, too.

He had thought that Remus was going to be the traitor. Now, he realized how ridiculous the accusation was. Remus may be smart, but he was a sweetheart. Anna would've slapped him for even daring to think that. He'd stupidly thought that it would be wise to make Peter the secret keeper, that the Death Eaters wouldn't suspect that he had told Wormtail of all of the marauders. That way if Sirius was tortured, he wouldn't give have any information to give up. He would've told Anna but he didn't want to put her in more danger than she already put herself in. The thought of her being an Auror and hunting down Voldemort's slimy followers was already enough to give him a heart attack. How had she gone from the slightly nerdy sister he used to protect to a (for lack of better term) badass.

His heart ached at the thought of his honorary sister. He pulled out a red envelope from his jacket pocket and opened it and smiled as he looked over the photos for the hundredth time. Merlin, she had grown to be so beautiful and strong. The onlybad part was the obvious loss of innocence in her face. Her eyes were those of someone who had seen terrible, awful things. Those were the eyes of someone who had seen both the miracles of life and the harsh realities of death. He had seen a similar look the last time he glanced in the mirror.

But she hadn't failed like he had. She did her duty. She was taking care of poor Harry like James would've wanted. She was helping Remus through his transformations, like James would've wanted. She was protecting Hogwarts like James would've wanted. Meanwhile, he was a fugitive and soiled the good name he had made for himself just from one bloody mistake.

He growled to himself and put the photos back in his pocket. Pettigrew had to pay for what he had done to his family. He could've stayed in Azkaban forever. It was bad but at least he had food and water and some kind of shower. But then he realized that Pettigrew was at Hogwarts where Anna and Harry and Remus all were. What if Anna recognized Wormtail? Would he have attacked her? What if Peter was just waiting for the right moment to murder his godson?

He was doing this for them. If he was going to be imprisoned or executed for a crime, he wanted it to be one he actually committed: the murder of Peter Pettigrew. If he could just protect his friends and Harry one last time, then he would embrace death gladly. He would laugh in it's face like the old Sirius would, the one from before James and Lily's demise.

He found a stream deep in the forest, one that the marauders had visited a few times. He washed his face and drank the water after purifying it with a wand that he had taken a while ago. It wasn't his wand, but it would do. He was so exhausted, he fell asleep right there.

*Dream Flashback*

"Where are they?"

Anna was on the floor with a wand pointed at her. She had been captured by a Death Eater, eager to impress Voldemort by gaining information on the order and driving the famous Anna Evans to insanity or death. Little did he know it was pointless trying to get her to talk.