The Ghosts of the Past (The Marauders' Story)

THE TRAITOR

On Halloween evening, Sirius flew his motorbike to Peter's house, to check on him, as they had arranged.

"Wormtail!" he called, seeing no one in the ground floor. There was no reply. Sirius searched the house. Peter was not there.

Sirius wondered if Peter had been taken by Voldemort's people. But there was no sign of any struggle in the house.

Suddenly he spotted an envelope containing the outlines of a train ticket in it. The ticket had been torn out, but the date, time and place were still visible. The train was scheduled in the night that day itself.

Was Peter going somewhere? He hadn't informed Sirius. Sirius began to feel worried.

Then the scar on his hand gave a sharp pain.

Cold fear flooded him. He dashed out and flew his bike as fast as he could to Godric Hollow.

The smoke coming from the ruined house could be seen from miles away. Frightened out of his life, Sirius landed, slowly beginning to realize what Peter had done, still hoping desperately that he was wrong.

Quite suddenly he came across James' limp body. And this time it wasn't a Boggart.

"No," whispered Sirius. "It—it can't be true...don't do this to me, James..." Sirius fell to his knees and clutched James to him. "Prongs—please don't do this to me...wake up...oh, James...I—I promised you..."

When Sirius began to realize that James was gone forever, he stared down at his best friend silently, his eyes full of anguish. As he saw the crooked glasses, the messy hair, the hazel eyes that would never twinkle with fun again, a part inside Sirius broke that would never heal.

"I promised..." Sirius mumbled, and he realized that he couldn't even speak properly, and that his eyes were smarting almost too hard to bear. He laid James' body on the floor gently and stood up.

Sirius stumbled into the ruins, blinded with tears, and he saw Lily's dark red hair falling over her impassive face, her usually bright green eyes glazed over. He bent and gently removed the hair from her face.

In a single night, his family was gone.

Where was Harry? What had Voldemort done with him?

Sirius started to look for his godson frantically.

"Sirius?"

Hagrid was trudging towards him, carrying a sleeping Harry.

"Is he all right?" asked Sirius, still white and shaking.

"Yeah. Miracle, I reckon."

"Give Harry to me, Hagrid. I'm his godfather."

"I can't, Sirius. Had orders from Dumbledore. Gotta take Harry straight to 'im."

"Please, Hagrid, they left him in my care...he's my godson..."

Hagrid patted Sirius on the back, his kind-hearted eyes teary. "I know it's hard on yeh, but Dumbledore's orders, yeh know..."

"All right," said Sirius reluctantly. "Take my bike, then; Harry'll be safe. I won't need it anymore."

Harry woke up. "Padfoot?" he said, pronouncing his godfather's name correctly for the first time.

"Bye, Harry. God bless you." Through his tears, Sirius smiled. In his heart he knew he wouldn't see his godson for years.

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Sirius had no trouble in tracking down Peter near the station.

"YOU TRAITOR!" he bellowed, shaking with fury. "You—coward! How could you give them away?"

"Sirius..." whimpered Peter, cowering against the footpath. "I'm sorry, Sirius..."

"SORRY?"

Muggles all around had gathered to watch.

"You wait, Peter Pettigrew, I'll tear you from limb—to—limb," snarled Sirius, slowly raising his wand.

Peter's terrified eyes were rapidly filling with tears, which gave Sirius a vicious pleasure.

"James and Lily, Sirius!" sobbed Peter, suddenly and unexpectedly. "How could you?"

There was an almighty explosion. Muggles screamed and fell. An army of rats fled into the gutter. Sirius vaguely saw Wormtail vanishing down the gutter too.

Old Wormy had got the better of him at last. And suddenly Sirius realized how it will seem to the world. They had told no one of the switch, not even Remus.

Remus...Sirius' heart constricted with guilt. How could he have thought that dear old Moony was the spy?

Ministry officials were Apparating to the spot.

James and Lily were gone, Remus was all alone, Peter was free—free to hurt Harry...and he would be seen as the spy to the world.

An official came and tied his hands and feet. Sirius didn't even resist.

The irony of it all played in his mind over and over again.

Peter had defeated them all. James was dead due to his fault. He had betrayed Remus, too.

"It's just that you never think, Padfoot, and that's going to get you into so much trouble one day."

There was nothing else he could do.

He laughed.