"Friends? Ha! What a ridiculous word! Friends!" Peter screamed, his voice cracking with a manic edge. "Did you ever truly see me as a friend? Or was I just some lackey trailing behind you, puffing up your egos, doing your bidding—Peter, fetch this; Peter, grab that! I never wanted to do those things—those dangerous things!"
He pounded his fists into the snow beside him, as if the act could purge years of buried pain and fear. Peter no longer cared about the consequences, not even with the person he feared most standing right before him. He had to speak, had to let it all out.
"Why would anyone in their right mind want to be near a werewolf? A werewolf! One bite, and your life is ruined forever! I didn't want to become a werewolf—but did anyone care what I thought? Sirius, you didn't! James, even less!"
"I never wanted to learn that dangerous Animagus transformation either. You have no idea how terrified I was! What if I messed it up? What if I turned into an animal and got eaten by some beast?"
"All those dangerous stunts, all those reckless pranks—those people we pranked, they'd come for revenge! Like Snape! All I wanted was to study in peace, but you lot kept stirring up trouble! I couldn't even say no!"
"Oh, Peter, you're one of the Marauders! How can you back out now?" Peter's voice turned shrill, mimicking Sirius's tone. "Listen to yourself, Sirius! That's all you ever said! You never cared how scared I was, never bothered to notice! You never treated me like a friend—not once! All you ever cared about was yourself!"
Gasping, Peter collapsed face-first into the snow, his battered, bloodied face smeared with ice. He slammed his head against the ground, over and over.
"Then why didn't you just leave?" Harry said calmly. "It's clear you and my father weren't the same kind of people. If you weren't on the same path, you could've walked away, lived your quiet life far from them."
"…Leave?" Peter lifted his head, a ghastly smile twisting his lips. "How could I dare? James… Sirius… Remus… they were so powerful…"
"Good boy, Harry. You're a good boy," Peter muttered, his voice rambling and unhinged. "You're so kind, but you know what happened back then, don't you? You know how James and the others treated Snape—ambushing him, ganging up on him, humiliating him in front of everyone, dangling him upside down so the whole school could see his underwear. It was horrifying, Harry, just horrifying."
"If I'd said I wanted to leave, they'd have hated me," Peter said with grim certainty. "I didn't want to end up like Snape. I didn't want to be bullied or pranked—so I stayed. I joined them, became one of them. It was the only way to avoid being targeted, to avoid ending up like Snape."
"…So, from the very start, you were a coward. Pathetic, spineless, shameless!" Sirius spat, his eyes blazing red. "I can't believe I didn't see it sooner—you were always a traitor. You always clung to the powerful ones, didn't you? For their protection. First it was us—me, Remus, James—and then it was Voldemort!"
"He would've killed me, Sirius," Peter said, his voice hollow, as if his soul had drifted away. Kneeling in the snow, he stared up at Sirius. "I just wanted to survive… heh, I had to survive."
His mind unraveling, Peter let out a sudden, eerie laugh—a smile of twisted satisfaction.
The snowy clearing fell silent, save for the chilling whistle of the wind and the creak of swaying branches. Cold, desolate, deadly.
Neither Sirius nor Remus spoke. Their hearts churned, overwhelmed by a torrent of thoughts. For the first time, they realized they might never have truly known their so-called friend.
They'd never understood Peter Pettigrew, never seen into his heart… just as Peter had said, they'd never even tried.
Anger? Of course, there was anger.
Fury, disgust, contempt—but woven through it all was an unavoidable thread of regret. What if they'd cared just a little more for Peter back then? Would things have turned out differently?
Would James and Lily still be alive? Would Sirius have been spared twelve years in Azkaban?
But those were just fleeting fantasies.
"…You know, Peter," Sirius said, his throat tight as he fought to keep control, "that day—I didn't even tell Remus."
"Because you thought I was the traitor," Remus said, his voice unexpectedly calm. "Didn't you, Sirius?"
"I'm sorry, Remus," Sirius said, taking a deep breath. "Forgive me."
"No need for that, Padfoot," Remus replied with a soft chuckle. "My old friend, will you forgive me for thinking you were the traitor?"
"Of course."
They apologized to each other again, but unlike their tense reunion before, this time Sirius and Remus were calmer, their understanding unspoken.
"No matter what excuses you come up with, Peter," Remus said, crouching to meet the eyes of his former friend, "it doesn't change the truth. James, Sirius, even me—we never owed you anything. In fact, we looked out for you, time and time again."
"You betrayed us. You betrayed our kindness, our trust. That's why you'll pay the price."
"Friends don't sell each other out, Peter," Sirius growled. "Even for you, we'd have stood by you. But you? You couldn't do the same."
"No, no, no, no, no!" Peter's eyes widened as realization hit. He scrambled backward in the snow, desperate to distance himself from Sirius and Remus. "You can't—Harry! I want to see James! I know you can do it! Let me see James's soul!"
Peter lunged toward Harry, his face desperate, but Remus kicked him square in the face, sending him sprawling back into the snow.
"Don't even think about it!" Sirius snarled, his voice dripping with disgust. "You know James's heart! He was always so kind! How dare you beg him for anything? How dare you even think of facing him?"
"He's right, Peter," Remus said quietly. "You must've realized it yourself. You feared Voldemort's power, feared he'd kill you, so you betrayed us. But now? Voldemort won't kill you. We will. Goodbye, Peter."
Wands drawn, Sirius and Remus pointed them at Peter.
"Wait," Harry said suddenly. "Hold on a moment."
"Harry?!" Peter's eyes lit up with desperate hope. "I knew it—you're the kindest boy in the world—please—"
"You're not thinking of sparing him, are you, Harry?!" Sirius roared. "This scum got your parents killed! This groveling piece of filth wouldn't bat an eye if you died! You don't actually believe the nonsense he just spewed, do you? I know you and Snape are close, but he wasn't just some victim forced to join us—"
"Calm down, Sirius," Harry said, trying to soothe his furious godfather. "I never said I'd forgive him. Traitors deserve whatever punishment they get."
"Then why stop us?" Sirius asked, exhaling in relief.
"Just making use of him one last time," Harry said, tilting his head. "Mary Pettigrew still refuses to believe her son's a traitor, doesn't she? She even turned it around and accused James of lying about his own death."
"I get it!" Sirius's eyes gleamed. "Let her see her son for what he really is—let that venomous old hag see what kind of rat her boy turned out to be! Fine by me!"
Though it hadn't been brought up much since, Sirius's blood boiled at the memory of Mary Pettigrew's venomous accusations in the courtroom that day.
In his mind, the entire Pettigrew family was rotten.
"Actually, it's more about settling your case once and for all," Harry said calmly. "If the culprit keeps escaping justice, it leaves things feeling… incomplete."
"I'm fine with that," Sirius said eagerly. "But he doesn't get to walk away after this."
"Of course not."
To stop Peter from spewing more vile excuses or groveling for mercy, Harry silenced him with a spell. The group then returned to Orgrimmar.
What followed was straightforward. Harry sent for Rita Skeeter and handed Peter over to the Ministry's Aurors. Everything fell into place.
It was merely a matter of finalizing the trial from the previous holiday. Upholding Peter's conviction suited Fudge's interests, so he didn't interfere.
With Peter captured alive, his very existence was damning evidence. Even the dimmest wizard would struggle to believe a war hero with a clean conscience would hide in the magical world under a false identity for so many years.
At the trial, once the silencing spell was lifted, Peter began shouting about his innocence, spinning a pitiful tale to the jury in hopes of sympathy. He even accused Sirius of lying and claimed Harry had been manipulated by Sirius's deceit.
Given the Potters' contributions and the controversy surrounding Sirius and Peter's cases, the Wizengamot granted special permission to administer three drops of Veritaserum to Peter.
And that was that. Peter was no iron-willed warrior capable of resisting Veritaserum. Under its effects, he spilled everything like beans from a tipped jar—his thoughts, his actions, how he betrayed the Order of the Phoenix and the Potters, how he framed Sirius. He even confessed to being an illegal Animagus and hiding as a rat in a wizarding family.
Peter knew Voldemort had vanished. Some said he was dead; others, that he lingered in a half-alive state. But Peter wasn't about to risk his life for a crippled, fallen wizard under Dumbledore's watch. Instead, he hid in a wizarding family, eavesdropping for news. As long as Voldemort remained the powerful Dark Lord, Peter planned to deliver Harry to him for protection…
When Peter, under Veritaserum, revealed these twisted thoughts, the jury—some of whom had initially pitied him—now clamored for his execution.
Mary Pettigrew, Peter's mother, fainted on the spot when her son confessed. Frankly, no one cared—neither Sirius, nor Remus, nor Harry.
The trial dominated the next day's Daily Prophet, especially Peter's nauseating confessions and the vile details of his actions, which left many readers too sick to eat lunch.
Peter's reputation was utterly ruined. The Wizengamot unanimously sentenced him to a century in Azkaban's deepest cell.
Sure, wizards could live well over a hundred years, but no one believed Peter would survive a century in Azkaban.
He was as good as dead.
Through Peter's despicable testimony, Sirius's heroism was cemented. The injustices he'd endured were finally righted, and he became one of the wizarding world's most celebrated figures. Some shops even approached him to endorse their products.
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