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chapter nineteen / like trying to catch smoke
Pettigrew had gone ballistic.
He threw himself at Ron's feet, crying about how good of a rat he'd been for him. Ron pulled his leg out of the man's reach.
He hung onto Hermione's robes, begging and pleading her to testify for him. She pulled away and backed into the wall, looking utterly horrified.
The man searched the room again his beady eyes landed on Cassie before he stumbled down to her. "Smart girl.. you're just like your father, you trust me–"
"Get off of her!" Sirius shouted. "You dare address her? Though you're the reason she grew up an orphan? Lied to? You foul creature!"
Pettigrew fell back to the middle of the room. He finally reached out for Harry, crying his apologies.
"Harry... Harry! You look just like your father, just like him.."
"How dare you speak to him!" Both Remus and Sirius rushed forward and seized Pettigrew by the shoulders. They threw him backward on the floor.
"You sold Lily and James Potter to Voldemort. Do you deny it?"
Pettigrew burst into tears. It was horrible to watch, he looked like an oversized and balding baby.
"Sirius, Sirius, what could I have done? The Dark Lord, you have no idea... he has weapons you can't imagine... I was scared, Sirius, I was never brave like you and Remus and James and Addie–"
"You'd been passing information to him for a year before Lily and James died! You were his spy!" bellowed Black.
"He– he was taking over everywhere!" gasped Pettigrew. "W-what was there to be gained by refusing him?"
"What was there to be gained by fighting the most evil wizard who's ever existed?" said Black, with terrible fury in his face. "Only innocent lives, Peter!"
"You don't understand! He would have killed me, Sirius!"
"THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED!" The sheer volume of Black's voice startled Cassie. "DIED RATHER THAN BETRAY YOUR FRIENDS, AS WE WOULD HAVE DONE FOR YOU!"
"You should have realized, Peter," said Lupin, in a starkly contrasted quietness compared to Sirius's roaring, "if Voldemort didn't kill you, we would. Goodbye, Peter."
"NO!" Harry yelled. He ran forward, placing himself in front of Pettigrew. "You can't kill him. You can't."
"Harry, this piece of vermin is the reason you have no parents," Black snarled. "This cringing bit of filth would have seen you die too, without turning a hair. His own stinking skin meant more to him than your whole family."
