kbinnz - Harry's New Home

The boy was never quite sure what happened next. One moment he was pulling the potion vial from his robe, while Professor Snape waited impatiently on the other side of his desk, and the next minute there was a bright flash of light and suddenly a fat little man sat, blinking stupidly, where Scabbers had just been. "Oi! Where's my rat?" Ron demanded, then Harry grabbed him by the back of his robe and jerked him away from the desk.

The invisibility ward shimmered and fell as Dumbledore and the others erupted out of the corner. "Peter?" Dumbledore gasped in astonishment.

Pettigrew threw a hunted look over his shoulder, then lashed out at Snape, heading for the door.

Bones had no idea what was going on, but she knew that a middle aged man masquerading as a little boy's familiar was not a good thing. The things some sick bastards do, she sighed to herself even as she leveled her wand and yelled, "Take him!"

Moody тАУ constantly vigilant! тАУ surged forward, with Shacklebolt right behind him, but in a roomful of shrieking children, they were understandably nervous about firing off any spells. "Surrender to the MLE!" Moody bawled, stumping forward as quickly as his leg would allow.

Pettigrew snarled and knocked over a table, blocking their way, and continued in his rush to the exit. Just before he got there, a form appeared in front of the door, nearly seeming to materialize out of thin air. "Hello, Severus. I just came by for my potion," Remus smiled, then gasped as he found himself face to face with his childhood friend.

"Peter Pettigrew!" Remus shouted, his expression shocked.

"WHAT?" The Aurors momentarily froze in astonishment, even as Peter gasped, "Remus?"

Amelia Bones took the mutual recognition as an admission of guilt, and her voice rang out, "Peter Pettigrew! I arrest you for the murder of тАУ"

Pettigrew looked desperately from side to side but the Aurors were fast approaching from behind and Remus was between him and the door. An instant later, a rat darted into a narrow crack in the wall.

"Get him!" Bones shouted, knowing that it was hopeless, but then the rat was scrambling out of the wall even faster than it had gone in, pursued by a hissing, snapping snake.

The children screeched and jumped on their desks as more snakes boiled out of other cracks in the walls and floor, all seemingly intent on catching the terrified, fleeing rat.

Pettigrew was quickly cornered by the serpents and, in imminent danger of being eaten, he shifted back into his human form. "Wait, wait!" he begged, flinging out his arms. "I didn't mean it!"

"Peter, how could you?" Remus demanded, his wand out and pointed at the smaller man.

"Remus, my friend, please!" Pettigrew wept. "Have mercy! Surely you of all people understand! I was forced to do it! I had no choice! He would have killed me!"

"Then you should have died before betraying them!" Remus spat. "I would have!"

"Oh, noble Remus," Peter snarled back, dropping his groveling pose, "always showing how good and human you are! Always despising anyone who wasn't as smart or strong or handsome as you and the other Marauders! What did you expect me to do? Do you think I didn't know that I was only kept for comic relief? Do you think I didn't know you all secretly despised me?"

"What are you talking about?" Remus demanded. "We trusted you! James and Lily trusted you with their secret! With their lives! With Harry's life!"

"Only because they were convinced that I was such a pathetic creature no one else would ever imagine that they'd be stupid enough to make me the Secret Keeper! It was an insult, not an honor! Do you think I was too stupid to understand that? But the Dark Lord saw my talent! He praised my intelligence and cunning! He honored me for what I am! He respected me!"

"He used you, you deluded fool," Snape drawled coldly. "As he uses everyone. He respects no one but himself, least of all a useless cowering little rodent who would sell out his best friends for an insincere compliment and then spend ten years in hiding as a child's familiar."

Ron's face worked furiously as he figured it out. "Scabbers!" he shouted angrily. "You bad rat! I'm gonna tell Percy on you!"

"It's over, Pettigrew," Moody growled, relieved to note that the snakes had withdrawn as mysteriously as they had appeared. "Give yourself up. There's nowhere to go."

"No!" Peter shouted. His eyes scanned the room frantically, then fell upon Harry's wide eyed form. "Harry!" He lunged for the boy, knowing that with him as a hostage, he would be safe from the others. "Come here!"

Harry squeaked and tried to get away, but Pettigrew was shoving his way through the student desks with unexpected speed, driven by utter desperation. The adults cursed and fought to follow him, still trying to avoid using spells in a room full of screaming children, unstable potion ingredients, and dangerous snakes.

Hedwig flew at the man, striking at his eyes with her talons, while Neville grabbed Harry and struggled to pull him away, much as Harry had earlier dragged Ron to safety. Peter flung up his arms, driving the owl away, just as Neville's elbow struck his cauldron, tipping it over and sending the sludge-like contents towards the short wizard.

The ruined potion splashed all over Pettigrew, and the man shrieked in agony as he began to cycle uncontrollably between forms. Even the hardened Aurors drew back in horror at the appalling sight before them. It was a transformation gone terribly wrong, and after a few horrible, nightmarish moments of screaming agony, Pettigrew lay still, reduced to a twisted lump of deformed flesh, half-man, half-rat. His head in particular was stuck between the two forms, with the left half human, and the right half rodent. In between the two mismatched skulls, brain matter oozed out, and there were several otherтАж wateryтАж bits where the tortured flesh had liquefied under the stress of too many transformations.

The children were shrieking like maniacs and hiding their faces тАУ all except Harry, who had watched the whole thing with a grim visage.

"Damn it!" Bones snarled, finally shoving her way through to the corpse. "I wanted to take him alive!"

"Considering how alarmingly easy escaping from Azkaban has become of late if even Pretty Boy Black could manage it, perhaps it is just as well that we will not need to worry any longer about this self-confessed minion of the Dark Lord," Snape commented snarkily.

Bones glared at him. "He had a lot of questions to answer," she retorted. "And I don't see how we can fully clear Black without Pettigrew's confession."

Snape raised his eyebrows. "Everyone in this room, including numerous students, the head of the Wizengamot, two senior Aurors, the head of the MLE, and a boyhood chum of the dead man all heard his confession and can identify him and provide pensieved memories. I cannot imagine what more you could possibly require."

"Listen, you Death Eating bastard," Bones began heatedly, then stopped as she realized that the children тАУ now that a much more fascinating diversion was before them тАУ had stopped screaming and were watching her exchange with Snape with lively interest. After all, as much fun as it was to shriek in abandon and jump on desks (in Snape's class, no less!), it was even more entertaining to watch their most fearsome professor take on the equally intimidating head of the MLE.

Madame Bones cleared her throat and started over. "In the absence of a Veritaserum-elicited confession from the accused, there are some who might challenge the testimony."

"Such as?" Snape challenged. He gestured lazily about the room. "This is a first year class of Gryffindors and Slytherins. Who on the political spectrum won't believe one side or the other? Or are you seriously suggesting that Lucius Malfoy тАУ or Arthur Weasley тАУ would challenge his own son's account and force him to submit to Veritaserum, despite the potentially permanent brain damage it can cause when administered before puberty?"