The dark, lightless tunnel was filled with a pungent stench.
At least for Peter Pettigrew, this place was much more comfortable than Ron's drawer. Probably, having been a rat for over a decade, he felt completely assimilated into rat habits. Now, taking a trip through the sewer could be considered a perfect life as a rat...
But...
Could it be that the sewers in Hogwarts Castle were a bit too large?
Looking at the passageway that was quite big compared to his current size, no— even his former size seemed too big, Peter Pettigrew stopped, panting. He shook his slightly sore paws after the long journey—
The prolonged sense of safety made Peter almost forget the lurking danger around him, until he was jolted awake by Ron's yell— he was still quite thankful that usually Ron would take him out at night and let him sleep on the bed together.
But today, because of the Gryffindor team's victory celebration, Ron was so tired when he went to bed that he naturally forgot about it.
Hence, Peter barely escaped a disaster. After all, if Sirius had found the trace of this rat on the bed at that time... he would probably have been dragged to the Ministry of Magic by now.
After all, at the moment Ron shouted, Harry instinctively grabbed the magic wand under his pillow—and a Sirius, who had spent more than a decade in Azkaban who had only a short machete and an umbrella, probably stood no chance against the current Harry Potter ProMax.
But before that, perhaps he really could have ended Peter's life at the foot of the bed.
It seems as if everything was destined.
However, the current Peter did not know that Sirius had already been successfully captured, nor did he know that many people in the entire castle were now looking for him—something even Trevor, who always ran off on the train, hadn't experienced.
Moreover, he didn't even feel like thinking about these things... because Peter realized he was lost.
Let us talk about Hogwarts Castle, as everyone knows, it is a Scottish castle built in the early Middle Ages (around AD 993), with many towers, turrets, dungeons, and numerous buildings. Similarly, it is well known that as early as around AD 100, the Romans had already built precise sewer systems—
The former owners of this castle obviously knew the importance of the sewer, so the complexity of the sewer in this eight-story castle, most of which had been magically altered... was terrifying just to think about it.
This was contrary to Peter's initial plan of "quickly escaping along the sewer and leaving Hogwarts—or even Great Britain altogether."
He had been lost since two and a half hours ago.
Seeing the same Gobstones piece appear for the twelfth time in front of him, Peter looked at the drain not far from him.
If... he went out now, then walked from the outside?
Peter Pettigrew thought instinctively but quickly dismissed the idea—he couldn't do that, once Sirius was caught, he would surely be sent to Dumbledore, not to mention Lupin was also in the castle, and once they listened to Sirius's "slander"...
At this thought, Peter decisively passed on his previous plan and continued to crawl aimlessly through the passageway.
This matter was a matter of life and death, he had to be cautious—
It must be said, Peter's guess was almost identical to reality, although all of it was based on the premise that Sirius was caught, it proved that Peter wasn't an idiot—quite the opposite, he was a smart person.
No fool could secretly pass nearly a year's worth of information to Voldemort during the first wizarding war.
At the same time, without arousing suspicion from James, Lily, or Sirius.
Additionally, Peter was by no means weak, after all, he learned to become an Animagus while still a student; likewise, ten years ago during his confrontation with Sirius, he used a magic wand to cause an explosion that killed dozens of Muggles—
And the cost was just a finger, eventually pinning it all on Sirius, earning himself a Merlin Medal and a "heroic" reputation.
Although he later turned into a rat and hid within the Weasley Family for a full decade, his mind didn't deteriorate much.
After all, the Weasley Family didn't have Dementors coming to play poker with him every day.
In contrast, Sirius, tortured for over a decade, was not only more irritable and hot-tempered now but his abilities had also declined significantly.
However, even the "clever" Mr. Peter now looked at the tangled crossroads in front of him with some apprehension. He even had the impulse to settle right there because there was definitely no shortage of food in the sewer. Likewise, a rat couldn't eat much each day, could it?
Rising up, Peter hesitated as he looked at the five dark holes in front of him. For some reason, he had been feeling an overwhelming sense of foreboding for the past hour, though he couldn't yet grasp that fleeting inspiration...
"Tick—"
Peter's ears twitched slightly, he instinctively looked back, it seemed like he heard some noise?
Could there be other "friends" in this sewer?
At this moment, Peter felt a grim foreboding, as if a fateful star hovered flashing above his head. Without hesitation, he turned and began to run frantically. There was no time now to determine which paths he hadn't yet taken, because he heard a piercing scrape—