Chapter 26 – Wormtail
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The roof had a noticeable piece missing from it, which seemed to have been haphazardly boarded up, leaving a few gaps in between boards.

Harry walked as quietly as he could, trying to make sure he didn’t make any noise.

The shack itself wasn’t big. It only had a living room with a kitchen attached to it. A bathroom to the side and one other room, presumably a bedroom.

Harry checked the kitchen while Sirius checked the bathroom, but finding no one, they made their way to the bedroom. Luckily, the door was ajar, so they slowly made their way into the bedroom and looked around.

It had a broken down wardrobe and an unstable-looking bed, with a moth-eaten mattress. Atop that mattress slept the man Harry had come to kidnap.

Looking as rat-like as Harry remembered, though considerably more gray with a large bald spot on his head, Peter Pettigrew slept with arms and legs spread out. Harry pointed his wand at Pettigrew and threw a stunning spell at him.

“I’ve waited for this for much too long,” growled Sirius.

“Let’s slap that animagus charm on him before we do anything else,” said Harry.

“You take care of that. I’ll look around the house and make sure we missed nothing,” said Sirius and walked out of the bedroom.

Harry looked around to see what he could use other than the ropes and chains he himself had brought.

While looking around, Harry noticed an earring he had never noticed in Pettigrew’s ear. ‘That should work nicely,’ thought Harry.

He carefully removed the earring and enchanted it and placed it back in Pettigrew’s ear. He also cut off Pettigrew’s silver hand.

However, the moment he cut it off, the stump started bleeding profusely. ‘Oh damn! I can’t have him dying on me just yet,’ Harry thought in a panic.

‘Incendio, that should help to staunch the bleeding,’ thought Harry, casting the spell. The next moment, a huge flame burst out instead, scaring Harry.

“What the hell!” yelled Harry. “That wasn’t a bloody Incendio!”

The ferocity of the flame ended up scaring Harry a little. ‘I can’t exactly use that if I don’t know how to control it. It’d be rather stupid if I set fire to Pettigrew instead,’ thought Harry.

“Oh, right!” Harry slapped himself on the forehead. “I have phoenix fire.”

Harry used his phoenix fire to staunch the bleeding and moments later there was a stump in the place of his arm.

“What happened, Harry?” Sirius rushed in, “I heard you yelling.”

“I found out my magic is a little too strong now…” said Harry.

Harry noticed Sirius’ confusion, so he turned his wand to the window and said, “Incendio.”

A huge plume of fire shot out of his wand. Now that Harry was ready for it, he didn’t cut it off and held it for the duration of the spell. That basically meant a jet of fire shot out of the window into the distance.

Sirius stood, mouth agape, staring out the window.

“Aren’t you a little too broken now?” He gulped.

Harry laughed sheepishly and turned to Pettigrew.

Now that he had put the charm on Pettigrew, he woke him up. Peter sat up abruptly and looked around. With the moonlight streaming into the room, he saw two people he would much rather not see again for the rest of his life.

“H-harry, Sirius… wh-what are you two do-doing h-here?”

“I-it’s good to s-see you, Harry” said Pettigrew with as much servility as he could muster.

“Cut the crap. Do you think I don’t know how your mind works?” asked Harry, his eyes narrowing dangerously.

“Harry, you handle this,” said Sirius, moving to a corner of the room, “if I talk to him, I’ll want to kill him.”

Pettigrew shut up immediately, and then he surveyed the situation. His eyes first darted towards Harry’s hands, checking if he was armed, and then it leaped to the side of his pillow. Though a look of despair appeared on his face the moment he did that.

“I made sure you can’t escape, so don’t even bother,” said Harry with a sneer.

“Wh-why wo-would I tr-try to es-escape?” asked Pettigrew, his teeth clattering in fear.

“Now, I have some things I want to ask you,” said Harry, approaching Pettigrew’s bed. “Answer them honestly and you won’t go through as much pain, though I won’t promise you won’t go through any pain at all. Sirius is pretty pissed off, after all.”

“Hate to le-leave you Harry, but I re-really am busy,” said Pettigrew, trying to sound tough as he screwed up his face. A few moments later, he looked back at Harry, who continued to watch him with a smirk.

“I said that I made sure you can’t escape, didn’t I?” asked Harry. “Now you earned yourself a punishment.”

Harry reached out and broke one of Pettigrew’s fingers.

“Argh!” screamed Pettigrew, holding his hand and rolling around on the bed. “I’m so-sorry! I’m sorry! Pl-please don’t h-hurt me!” he wailed.

“That really depends on you,” said Harry calmly. “If you do something that annoys me, then I hurt you. If you’re good, then I won’t.”

“I’ll be good! I pr-promise!”

“Good, now tell me. Where is Voldemort?” Harry asked, using Legilimency this time around.

“I do-don’t know!” replied Pettigrew, looking scared. “He has his own h-hideout, and he hasn’t to-told me anything about it y-yet.”

‘He really doesn’t know. Interesting,’ thought Harry.

“Why were you in this shack?” asked Harry.

“Th-the dark lo-lord said that he would have a ta-task for me to do and I sh-should wait here till it’s re-ready,” replied Pettigrew, but he seemed to be calmer.

“What plans is Voldemort working on right now?” asked Harry.

“The only ones I know is that he’s tr-trying to recruit dark creatures to his side a-and he’s tr-trying to get the pro-prophecy from the Department of Mysteries,” said Pettigrew a little hesitantly. “Macnair was supposed to go talk to the giants. Fenrir Greyback is going to recruit the werewolves. The Dementors are almost ready to join the dark lord.”

‘I already knew about the prophecy, but at least we know who’s handling which creatures,’ thought Harry.

“I see,” said Harry. “What about spies in the Ministry?”

“Th-the ones I know are Lucius Malfoy, though he’s not really part of the Ministry and in lower posts like Rupert Hastings and Wilfred Otto,” replied Pettigrew.

‘I’m surprised he didn’t lie to me a single time. He really is spineless,’ thought Harry distastefully. ‘Well, it’s not my job to hurt him, that’s for Sirius to do. I’ll torture him in the future, but that will have to wait.’

“Alright Peter, you did well. Now we’re out of here,” said Harry cheerfully.

“Wh-where are w-we go-going?” asked Pettigrew, his nervousness back in full swing.

“A place you will absolutely love!” said Harry with a clap. He then reached towards Pettigrew, who flinched the moment Harry’s hand was near him.

“Shall we head back, Sirius?” Harry asked.

Sirius nodded and grabbed hold of one of Harry’s arms.

Harry grabbed Pettigrew by his collar and, with a loud crack, he apparated back to the headquarters and directly into Buckbeak’s room.

The loud crack with which Harry appeared in the room seemed to have woken Buckbeak up. The hippogriff looked towards Harry reproachfully, so Harry hugged his neck and patted it for several moments before Buckbeak finally cooed comfortably and lay down.

“I think you can have fun now, Sirius,” said Harry, “Long as he doesn’t die, doesn’t matter what you do to him.”

Sirius looked visibly excited. Looking at the shivering Pettigrew, he looked like a wolf ready to pounce on its prey.

“You really should visit more often, Wormtail,” said Sirius with a maniacal grin on his face.

Harry laughed, and then he tossed some ropes and chains towards Sirius, who swiftly caught them. “Keep him tied up. We’ll try to get this situation sorted out as soon as possible.”

“Should we tell the other order members?” asked Sirius. “They might end up walking into the room and seeing him by accident.”

“You can decide on that, Sirius, you probably know better,” said Harry, and then continued with a grimace. “Just make sure not to leak anything about me thinking about removing Fudge from the office. I can’t even imagine how Mrs Weasley would react to that.”

“Haha, can’t argue with that,” laughed Sirius. “I’ll get to work then. I have a lot of frustrations I need to get out.”

Sirius walked towards Pettigrew, who had shrunk into a corner of the room in fright.

“N-no, st-stay away!” he yelled. “Do-don’t com-come ne-near m-me!”

“Don’t be like that, Peter,” said Sirius with an evil grin as he closed in on the rat, “we used to be best friends.”

“Well, I’ll leave you to it,” said Harry and walked out the door, casting a silencing charm on the room.

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