When Harry and Draco entered the kitchen for breakfast the next morning, they were greeted with the sight and sound of Molly slamming around pots and pans while muttering to herself. Ron was sitting at the table looking utterly terrified while Tonks and Charlie were looking chagrined.

Harry sat down cautiously, trying to discern the problem from Ron’s frantic looks, but before he could interpret any of them, Molly had turned suddenly on him and Draco.

“One of the many good things about being a homosexual is the fact that you can’t get each other pregnant! Thank you for being the responsible ones here! Seventeen years old is not old enough to start a family; you lot are still babies yourselves!”

Harry was giving Ron a bewildered look as Draco tried to stifle his laughter in his napkin. Charlie blushed as Tonks snorted beside him. As serious as the situation could be, it was hard not to find Molly’s ranting just a little amusing.

“Mum, I doubt Harry and Draco had anything to do with it,” Charlie said earnestly to try to calm his mother down.

“No, that was all your doing, wasn’t it? ‘Let’s get the children drunk and watch them all fall over each other’! It was Harry’s birthday party! Weren’t Ginny and Neville supposed to be keeping an eye on everyone, making sure nothing stupid happened? What were you all thinking?!”

The kitchen door swung open slowly and Hermione was ushered in by Aurora, whose flowing summer robes accentuated the small bump of her abdomen. Everyone stayed silent as Hermione sat beside Ron and took his hand into hers.

“Molly, I think perhaps you should lighten up a little. They’re not exactly children anymore, and they need to make their own mistakes in order to learn important lessons. Think of what you got up to at seventeen,” Aurora suggested gently as she sent Hermione a warm smile and a short nod.

“The spell came out negative. I’m not pregnant,” Hermione said quietly. Ron gripped her hand fiercely and looked about ready to pass out from relief. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close for a hug, whispering in her ear.

Molly looked as though she wanted to rant again about learning lessons and being irresponsible, but the kitchen door swung open once more and in flowed Kingsley, Mad-Eye, Lucius, Severus and Remus. Harry felt his stomach drop and pushed his half eaten breakfast away.

“Harry, Lucius and I think we’ve come up with a plan. All we need now is your decision,” said Severus, who was trying to ignore the cool look his husband sent him as everyone else took seats around the table and accepted cups of tea from Molly.

Harry swallowed thickly and looked around the room, very aware of all the stares directed at him. “Can I talk to you privately for a minute?” Harry asked his father quietly. He had thought a great deal about the Life Debt over night, so much that he had hardly slept. He gave a sigh of slight relief as his father nodded and led him up into the entrance hall so they could speak alone.

“I know this is very stressful and unpleasant, but this could be our only way of gaining the upper hand. I really wish you didn’t have to be involved in this part at all; you have enough to worry about with the Horcruxes. It does not mean immediate death for Pettigrew, but you will have control over his life. You can choose to let him go and run the risk of him running straight back, or you can forfeit his life, make sure he can never betray you again and finally get revenge for Lily and James. You would not have to cast the killing curse or anything like that; you’d only have to say you wish his life forfeit.”

“I can’t do that, Dad. I hate him, but I can’t just kill him – it isn’t right. I don’t want to have to kill anyone, not even Voldemort. I’ll release him from the Debt, but we can’t allow him to go back; that would defeat the purpose of this entire mission. I think we should turn him in.”

Severus’ expression turned sour as he crossed him arms over his chest. “That way that mutt Black will be cleared of all charges, correct? I suppose that would be the best idea…”

Harry sighed heavily and stepped closer to his father, wrapping his arms around the man despite his stiff stature. “No one can ever bring him back, but if I can get his name cleared, then that’s the least I could do. I owe it to him, to Mum and Dad. Don’t think it makes me love you any less; I could never.”

Severus relaxed after a few more seconds of the forced hug and wrapped his arms around the teen clinging to him. He bent down and placed a gentle kiss atop the messy black hair, feeling extremely lucky to be able to cherish this boy when so many others who had loved him could not. “I love you too, Harry.”

S~S~S~S

“So you’re going to be under Polyjuice potion the entire time, right?” Harry asked for the twentieth time after his father and Lucius had explained the plan to him. At first, he immediately objected; he did not want his father walking into danger like that again so soon after his near-death experience. He voted for Lucius to go in on his own, but that caused Draco to throw a fit and yell at Harry for being a selfish bastard. Harry knew he deserved it, but he was terrified of losing Severus.

“Yes, Harry. I promise; we’ve been over this plan numerous times. The danger is slight – not great. We know where he is, how to get in, and how to get back out. Because we’re not going during a summoning, there’s very little chance that we’ll even encounter the Dark Lord at all. Do you understand?” Severus asked, his teeth clenched as he tried to keep his temper in check. He could only explain the plan so many times before it became tedious, and it was becoming so.

“Don’t snap at him, Severus. He’s just worried,” Remus admonished, his arms crossed tightly over his chest as he sat on the other side of Harry, as opposed to sitting beside his husband. It was clear that there had been another disagreement of some sort.

The Potions Master turned sharply to the werewolf and gave him a withering look, one that would certainly never betray that he was actually married to the man. “I understand that, Remus, but I can only reassure him so many times. We are running out of time, and I cannot continue to coddle him if we want this done sometime this century.”

“He is sitting right next to both of you, so would you kindly stop talking about me as though I’m not here? I’m sorry, I am worried, and I don’t really like anything about this plan at all, but I know there’s not really any other choice, so I’m going along with it. Will you stop fighting now, please?” Harry asked earnestly. He had thought the conflict between his parents had been over, but apparently he was mistaken. It seemed as though one wrong word set their fury at each other off again, and it was stressing Harry even further. What if this damn war tore his parents apart? They had a baby on the way, for Merlin’s sake!

Severus just sneered and looked away while Remus frowned apologetically at Harry, gripping his shoulder momentarily before looking back towards Lucius to finish going over the plan a final time before it was to be implemented. “Please, go on.”

Lucius looked between the members of Harry’s amassed family with some trepidation before glancing back down at the parchment in front of him and clearing his throat. Draco had not come back after yelling at Harry and storming out. “After we have Pettigrew in hand, we’ll apparate no less than six times to throw off any sort of tracing spell before taking him to Spinner’s End. Once there, the Debt must be invoked and the potion imbibed before we question him at all. I will not believe a thing he says unless he’s coerced into telling the truth.”

“Neither will I. I just have to invoke the Debt, that’s all? I can do that…” Harry acquiesced. He still felt wary of this plan; he knew something was going to go wrong, he could feel it.

“Is everyone in agreement, then? Remus, you’ll still wait at Spinner’s End with Harry, I assume?” Severus asked icily, his words delivered with the intent to insult.

“Of course I will. My concern in this whole matter happens to be our son, in case you forgot his part in it being somewhat traumatic.”

“How dare you suggest –”

“Stop it! Stop it or I’ll refuse to go along with this at all! You two need to figure out what this animosity between you is and get over it already. In case both of you failed to notice, this is a war we’re fighting, and in case you forgot, you have a damn baby on the way! You’re both acting more childish than when Draco and I fight. Now I’m going to go calmly speak with my boyfriend and resolve our own fight. I suggest the two of you do the same.”

Harry stalked out of the kitchen, fuming at his parents for being so ridiculous. He had not seen them act so nasty towards each other since his third year, and it was tearing him up inside. He found Draco in their room, sitting with his back against the headboard and his arms crossed over his chest.

“Took you bloody long enough,” Draco drawled as he opened his arms and allowed Harry to fall into his embrace. He stroked the messy hair away from Harry’s forehead and sighed. “I’m sorry.”

“Me too. I hate all this shite. Why does it have to be me?”

“I dunno, love. I wish it weren’t.”

S~S~S~S

In the basement kitchen, the silence was thick and stifling. Lucius had excused himself after Harry’s outburst, having no desire to be caught in the midst of some lover’s quarrel. Remus had almost stalked out and left Severus alone as well, but Harry’s words had hit him harder than he had expected. He was right; this was war and things were bound to be difficult. He had to learn to deal with the things he did not like or agree with in some other way. As Harry had also pointed out, he and Severus were about to be parents again. They couldn’t keep this quick to anger thing up if they wanted to keep their family intact. The thought of arranging a custody case over the unborn child nearly sent Remus into a panic, and spurred him into speech.

“He’s right, you know. Our son is far more mature than we give him credit for.”

“Now you’re speaking to me? It takes Harry yelling at us for you to finally get over this silent treatment? Let me remind you that you were the one who refused to speak to me after agreeing to Lucius’ plan. You’ve been so quick to jump on my back lately. Why? What the hell did I do to make you despise me so much all of the sudden?” Severus asked desperately, hating the way his voice had an edge of pleading in it. He was tired of feeling like he had to make up for things, tired of always defending himself against someone who was supposed to love him unconditionally.

Remus scrubbed his hands down his tired face, feeling the stubble that had grown sparsely across his cheeks and chin in the last few days. He knew both Harry and Severus were right, but he was terrified of telling Severus the real reason he had been so tightly strung lately.

“This plan brings back a lot of memories I prefer never to recall again. The distrust that Lily and James had for me at the end of their lives, believing me to be the traitor, the way Sirius would look at me, as though I was the scum of the earth…it was all Peter’s fault. I hate him with a passion so fierce, he is the only living being besides Voldemort himself that I would gladly tear limb from fucking limb during the full moon. Harry has decided to turn Peter in, which means that Sirius’ name will be cleared, and he’ll finally get the peace he deserves. You know I love you, Severus, but there are some things I cannot make my heart stop feeling.”

“You still love him.”

Remus stared at Severus for so long, he was sure the man would walk out on him for being tactless and not responding in the negative straight away. What could he say to that? Of course he still loved Sirius; he always would. That did not mean he didn’t love Severus too, or that he loved him any less.

“Yes, I do. But that does not make me incapable of loving you too. Sirius was my first love, but he’s gone, and he’s not coming back. I’ve accepted that. But the possibility of his name being cleared is opening up old wounds that I thought had healed. You’re right; I’ve been quick to snap at you and be angry with you, when it’s really myself I’m angry with. I’m sorry, Severus.”

“Can we please be done with this fighting nonsense then, because I miss you terribly,” Severus said quietly, staring at his entwined fingers sitting atop the kitchen table.

Remus stood and coaxed the Potions Professor out of his chair as well before pulling him tightly to his chest. He sighed heavily as he felt complete once more, holding his lover in his arms. “I’ve missed you too, love,” Remus whispered into the man’s mane of raven hair before pulling away to kiss him, gently at first, then with growing passion. They became lost in the kiss until the basement door flew open and banged against the opposite wall, shocking them apart.

They were greeted with Aurora’s glowing face, as well as a pink glowing abdomen, both of them slightly worried about the ecstatic look on her face. She looked slightly crazed, if not extremely happy.

“It’s a girl! We’re having a little girl!”

S~S~S~S

Everyone gathered around the table had eyes only for the glowing mother-to-be. Remus had his hand flat on her protruding belly, waiting for the inevitable small kick she said she had begun to feel recently. Severus was resisting Remus’ efforts to make him do the same, but his grimace was cancelled out by the smile reflected in his dark eyes.

Harry was gibbering on with Draco about themes for a baby shower and whether or not having a gender-neutral room was a good idea until the baby was actually born and proven to be a girl. “It’s magic, Harry; the baby is definitely a girl!”

Molly was sharing stories about her own pregnancies, much to all of her children’s chagrin, and Tonks’ amusement as Molly told the story of how she had wished Charlie was a girl so much, she used to dress him in dresses as a little boy.

Hermione just smiled and laughed along with everyone else, her butterbeer hardly touched as she stared at the wall, obviously lost in thought. Ron could see she was not really paying attention to anything, however. Her laugh was only half sincere and her smiles never reached her eyes. As Aurora and Remus exclaimed excitedly as the baby gave a kick, Hermione’s eyes became over-bright, and she stared down into her half-eaten lunch instead.

“Alright, ‘Mione?” Ron asked quietly as he leaned towards her and gripped her shoulder. He wasn’t the best at comforting anyone, but his girlfriend was obviously struggling with something.

With a deep sigh, Hermione’s shoulders slumped as she leaned into Ron’s side. She met his blue eyes and felt some of her sadness melt away as he grinned at her. “Is it stupid of me to be disappointed? We’re not ready for a baby, but I can’t lie; for a second, I really wanted it to be true.”

Ron looked around carefully to make sure no one was eavesdropping. This was probably a conversation best had alone, but he didn’t want to create a scene by dragging Hermione out of the kitchen. “I did too. But you’re right, we’re not ready, and especially not during a war. But when the time is right, I can’t wait to have a baby with you.”

Hermione’s melancholy shell seemed to crack under the loving gaze Ron fixed her with. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him in for a short kiss, snuggling her head into the crease between his neck and shoulder. “I love you, Ron Weasley.”

“I love you too, Hermione Granger,” Ron whispered before placing a gentle kiss on Hermione’s forehead. He was glad he finally got over his fight with Harry and got Hermione back. He couldn’t imagine a future without this wonderful woman by his side.

On the other side of the kitchen, Harry smiled as Draco wrapped an arm around him and gave him a chaste kiss. He was nervous about the plan for later that day, but for right now, he made himself forget anything but his friends and family, and for once, he felt like a normal kid.

“Do you think they’ll make good parents?”

“They already are.”

Draco gave Harry a look and bumped his hip playfully. “You know what I mean. You’re a teenager; neither one of them has had to deal with an infant yet. I think Remus will be just fine, but Sev I’m not so sure about.”

“I think having a baby with work wonders on his temperament, actually. Nothing calms people down quite like an adorable little baby.”

“Yes, but nothing sets off Sev’s wrath quite like screaming children,” Draco pointed out. He knew his godfather had been around him as a baby, but he never had to be with Draco twenty-four/seven as a child. Raising a child was completely different than being around sometimes.

Harry cocked his head to the side as he watched his father finally stretch out his hand and place it so gently on Aurora’s stomach it looked as though it was only just hovering above the small bump. Her dark skinned hand came down and pressed his hand firmer against the bump, and for a second, there was no reaction. Then, suddenly, the most beautiful thing happened. The Potions Master jolted, his eyes going wide as Aurora held his hand to her tummy, and then a broad smile stretched across his usually expressionless face. He let out a soft laugh on an exhale, looking up to meet Remus’ eyes, which looked bright, but so full of happiness that it was almost contagious.

Harry felt his own eyes become moist as he leaned his head on Draco’s shoulder, smiling at the scene before him. He knew his parents would be just fine when his new baby sister came into the world. “Severus will be an amazing father. He already is. That little girl will steal his heart faster than even Remus did.”

S~S~S~S

After the celebratory lunch in honour of finding out the newest member of the Snape family was to be a girl, Lucius, Severus, Remus and Harry all flooed to Severus’ old family home, which hadn’t been lived in nor taken care of in quite a long time. Lucius and Severus were dosed with Polyjuice and put on their Death Eater robes and masks for the first time in a long time, and hopefully the last time.

“Please be careful,” Remus asked as he hugged his husband one more time, despite the fact that the man was wearing someone else’s likeness.

“We will be. Like we planned before; if we’re not back in an hour, go back to Headquarters and inform Kingsley of where we went, alright?”

Remus nodded, hoping he would not have to fulfil that portion of the plan. That was their plan B, the emergency plan, should things go pear shaped quickly. “I love you.”

“I love you too, both of you. See you soon.” And then they were gone.

Harry sat heavily on the recently dust covered sofa and patted the seat next to him for Remus to take. “How did they get the hairs for the Polyjuice potion?” Harry thought to ask. He had gone along with the Polyjuice plan quickly and gladly, as long as it kept his father safe, but he never really thought about how they were going to turn themselves into lesser Death Eaters.

“Have you ever heard of a Blackmail Box?” Remus asked, upon Harry’s negative shake of his head, Remus launched into the explanation of a Blackmail Box. Though they were Dark in nature and Remus didn’t much like the idea of them, he couldn’t argue that they were useful.

“A Blackmail Box is a box charmed to keep the hair, blood, saliva, or any other bodily fluids of any witch or wizard fresh and potent. Most Pureblood families have one of these. They surreptitiously collect these things from friends and enemies alike on the off chance that they should ever need to incriminate someone. It’s Dark magic of course, but can be very useful, as we’re well aware of now. Lucky that Lucius thought to bring along such a thing when he went to fetch the Cartus Animarum.”

Harry grimaced as he twirled his wand in his hand, trying to keep himself busy so he didn’t focus on where his father was at that very moment. “That’s disturbing. The Malfoys would have something like that, though. I wonder if Lucius has anything of Voldemort’s in the box.”

Remus made a face and shuddered at the very idea. “Perish the thought, Harry. I would not want to know how Lucius could have acquired any one of those things from Voldemort.”

“It’s not like he has any hair,” Harry pointed out quite seriously. There was a second of silence before both him and Remus burst out laughing, clutching onto each other as the stress and worry all momentarily melted away into fits of giggles.

“Oh, Harry, how I love you,” Remus sighed as he wrapped an arm around the teen’s shoulders and pulled him comfortably against his side.

“I love you too, Moony. Have you and Dad thought of baby names yet?”

“We’ve messed with the idea a little, yes. Now that we know the baby is a girl, we can start trying to pick out a name. Do you have name ideas?”

“I like Ophelia. I think it’s pretty,” Harry said, smiling broadly at the thought of having a baby sister. He had been so excited when he heard the baby was a girl that he had nearly done flips, but settled on jumping up and down and pumping his fist in the air, a move worthy of Ron.

“Severus has mentioned Ophelia as well. What do you think of Rêve?”

“I like that too. Does it mean anything?”

Remus smiled and nodded. It had been a while since he had been able to talk candidly to Harry, and he had missed the boy. “Yes. It means dream in French. Did you know I was born in France? I can even speak French.”

“You can? I’ve never heard you!”

“Je t'aime mon fils. Je suis tellement fier de toi.”

Harry grinned and gave Remus a bewildered look. “Well…what did you say?”

Remus smiled and lifted his wand, summoning a book from one of the dusty shelves lining the walls of Severus’ old home. He blew across the front of it, removing the dust to reveal the title: French for Beginners. “Translate it yourself. It’ll help pass the time.”

Harry scowled playfully as he took the book and flipped through the pages. “You’re going to have to repeat what you said; my memory isn’t that good.”

And so they passed the time translating French phrases, some of them amusing for the benefit of distracting themselves from why they were really there. It was almost forty minutes later when the wards around the house dinged to warn of approaching guests. Harry sat the book gently aside as Remus rubbed his back comfortingly. This was it. They both stood as the lock clicked and the door swung open.

“The counter potion, Remus,” Severus said as Lucius directed what appeared to be nothing to lie on the grubby rug in front of the hearth. Both Lucius and Severus drank the vials of counter potion that Remus provided, the potion stripping the Polyjuice from their systems and returning them to their natural states.

Harry sighed in relief, and before he realized what he was doing, he was wrapping his father in a tight hug. He heard Remus casting extra wards around the house to ensure that no one and nothing disrupted this meeting. When he pulled away from the Potions Master, he saw Peter Pettigrew curled in on himself, petrified on the carpet.

“Are you ready, Harry?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

Severus pointed his wand at the pathetic man prostrated on the floor, and with one last sneer, said, “Rennervate.”

Wormtail blinked rapidly and looked around, his head shooting up as he seemed to realize he was in immediate danger. He stood quickly, his stubby legs quaking as they struggled to hold his considerable weight up after being attacked so unexpectedly and made to stay in an uncomfortable position for almost twenty minutes.

The man crouched before them was still twitchy and nervous as ever, his pointed features and short stature still very reminiscent of the rat he pretended to be for twelve long years. Harry flinched when Lucius kicked the back of the man’s knees, causing him to fall painfully to the floor. Harry told himself not to feel sorry for this poor excuse for a man, the person who had betrayed his birth parents and nearly caused his own death, but it was so easy to pity something so pathetic.

“Please, please don’t kill me! Harry, you spared me once before, have mercy!”

“Silence! You’re not to even look at my son, do you hear me? You have no right!” Severus snapped, only held back from kicking the vermin in the face by his husband’s restraining hand on his shoulder.

“Moony, please! You know I didn’t want to do it, you have to believe me!”

Remus let go of Severus’ shoulder and took a step closer to the cowering man. His emotions were going wild, but the most prominent was betrayal. “I lost all three of my best friends because of you. You sold out James and Lily, and you sent Sirius to Azkaban. He was never the same – never. How could you sit there and claim innocence, beg me to spare your life, when you couldn’t do the same for our friends? You showed no mercy to the people who called you friend, so why the hell should I? You owe it to James and Lily’s son, my son, to shut up and cooperate. You owe Harry a Life Debt, and he intends to take you up on it now. I agreed to come because I want answers – we need information. After we get what we want, I could care less what Lucius does with you.”

Remus had bent down to look into the man’s eyes as he shamed him, and he could see the pain etched into his onetime friend’s face, but he didn’t care. He deserved it. “And don’t you ever call me Moony again. I only let my friends and family refer to me as such.”

Peter’s head dropped in shame and remorse as he gave a pitiful sob. The noise was at once heart wrenching and music to their ears; Pettigrew deserved whatever pain he was currently feeling. Watery eyes looked up and made contact first with Remus’, then with Harry’s.

“I’ll give you what you want; you don’t have to force my hand, but if calling in the Life Debt will make you believe me, then do it. You’re right, Remus; I owe James and Lily and Sirius for what I did to them. I will fulfil the Debt I owe Harry. I want to help.”

“Forgive us if we don’t take your words at face value, Peter. We’ll be calling in the Life Debt as well as using Veritaserum,” Remus explained as he conjured a chair to chain Peter to. They were taking no chances this time; Peter would not escape again.

“I don’t know what you think you’re going to get from me, but I’ll cooperate,” said Peter as he allowed Severus to wrap a chain thrice around his midsection and the chair, securing him to it.

Lucius stepped forward, his cane making a dull thunk on the ground as he sneered down at the snivelling man. He’d seen this despicable creature do every heinous thing the Dark Lord had ever requested of him. Peter Pettigrew was the epitome of the worst kind of lap dog.

“We need everything you know, Wormtail. I don’t believe the Dark Lord would confide in you necessarily, but as his personal servant, you spend quite a lot of time around him. Surely you’ve overheard something of importance. The problem is determining if anything you heard was in fact of any importance at all. If there is anything you know is important, I’d suggest divulging that information first,” said Lucius. He had a mad twinkling in his eyes that made Peter tremble uncontrollably.

Harry was staying quiet, not quite approving or disapproving of the situation so far. Though he agreed that capturing Pettigrew was a good idea, he wasn’t sure if the snivelling man would in fact have anything valuable to reveal. He wasn’t getting his hopes up, just in case Pettigrew was as worthless as Harry suspected.

“There is one thing,” Wormtail whispered after the chains around his legs were secured. Severus was standing in front of him now, the vial of Veritaserum uncorked and ready for consumption.

“Wait until the Debt and potion have kicked in so that we know you aren’t trying to pull the wool over our eyes,” the Potions Master insisted with a sneer. He wasn’t about to fall for any simpering tall tales in order to spare the wretched man before him.

When everything was ready, Remus pulled Harry gently forward to face the coward who sold his parents out to the darkest wizard of their age. His expression went from apprehensive to angry as he thought of all the years he had suffered with the Dursleys when he could have been with his loving parents. This man’s cowardice had forfeit the lives of the people who were once the centre of Harry’s world, and no matter how pathetic or apologetic this vile man tried to be, Harry could never forgive him.

“Hold out your hand, Harry, and repeat the spell we talked about before.”

Harry took a deep breath and extended his hand, as if to shake the hand of the Death Eater before him. The spell to invoke a Life Debt was simpler than Harry had expected it to be. Instead of long Latin phrases that twisted the tongue and jumbled in his mind, a simple English intonation would compel the one who owed such a debt to fulfil it.

“I invoke the debt owed to me by Peter Pettigrew in return for sparing his life.”

Wormtail, who was slumped down in his seat waiting for the inevitable, suddenly perked up at Harry’s words. He leaned forward as far as the semi-slack chains would allow and extended his hand so that it slipped into Harry’s own, and gave a firm shake. A faint white light lit their joined hands before fading away. As soon as the spell took effect, Harry jerked his hand away and took a step back.

Severus moved forward with the Veritaserum and instead of allowing the rat-like man to feed himself the potion, which was still possible because his bonds were not all that tight on his arms, he took no chances and placed the lip of the glass vial to the dry and cracked lips of the Death Eater. He tipped the vial forward as the man, willingly or not, was compelled to part his lips and allow the potion to be poured across his parched tongue and slide down his throat. He swallowed every last drop, and the familiar vacant expression spread across his face.

“What is your name?”

“Peter Antonio Pettigrew.”

Remus was writing everything down, as well as overlooking a self-recording quill, while Severus and Lucius ran the questioning. Harry was allowed to interject with his own questions at any point if he felt the need to. So far, he felt no need.

“What form does your Animagus ability take?”

“A common garden rat,” Peter droned in a dull voice, only his jaw moving up and down in a parody of a ventriloquist dummy.

“Why did you learn how to become an Animagus?” Lucius asked, which surprised everyone else in the room besides Peter, who stared ahead at nothing in particular. Did Lucius himself know the true reasoning? Of course he knew Remus was a werewolf, but did he know that Peter, James, and Sirius had only studied to become Animagi specifically for him?

“I learned to be an Animagus to accompany Remus in his werewolf form during the full moon when we attended Hogwarts. Mostly my form was useful because I was small enough to dodge the branches of the Whomping Willow and press the knot in the centre to allow James and Sirius into the tunnel that led to the Shrieking Shack where Remus would transform.”

“I think that’s enough confirmation of who you are, Peter. You said you had something important to tell us; go ahead,” Severus instructed, glancing back at Remus to makes sure he was writing everything down.

“I heard this information from behind a closed door; the Dark Lord was alone and does not know I overheard him talking to himself that night. Nagini was the only living creature with him at the time; I know because I was called in soon after by way of menacing hissing from the blasted snake as it curled around my legs. I don’t really understand what the information means, but it sounded important.”

Harry was practically bursting with curiosity now. Peter had built it up so far, Harry had an odd feeling he was about to find out something both wonderful and terrible all at once. Whatever it was, Harry hoped it was useful. He was tired of feeling like he was in some stalemate. He was at a crossroads when it came to the Horcruxes now; once he had all of them in his possession, he could focus solely on finding a way to destroy them. Until then, he let others explore the possibilities, which was both a blessing and a curse.

He felt bad that he was shirking his duties, so to speak, but he was also glad for the help and support from his friends and family. As much as Harry had wanted to follow Dumbledore’s advice and only tell Ron and Hermione about the Horcruxes, that just wasn’t plausible. They didn’t have time to play games and keep secrets, sneaking around and being deceitful. They needed to do whatever they could to get rid of Voldemort quickly, and for that, Harry needed help.

“Go on, Peter,” Remus encouraged, his gentle voice seeming to calm Peter considerably as the trembling man became still and sat straighter.

“The Dark Lord was speaking of sacrifice. He said he could sacrifice one if it meant saving the others,” Peter said quietly, his eyes staring unnervingly into Harry’s beryl emerald eyes.

“Did the Dark Lord say what it is he is trying to keep safe, what he’s willing to sacrifice?” Severus asked as he gave Harry a reassuring look as the teen fidgeted in discomfort at the scrutiny he suddenly found himself under from Pettigrew.

“I believe he called them Horcruxes. He said one was not a high price to pay in order to save the others.”

There was a tense silence as the four other men in the room shared wary yet excited looks. Were they about to find out what one of the Horcruxes was? Had Voldemort already sacrificed one and destroyed a piece of his own soul?

Severus sat forward and drew Peter’s attention away from Harry and onto himself. He took a deep breath and prepared himself to hear something he may not like. “Did the Dark Lord say specifically what he was going to sacrifice? Did he mention an object or a location, perhaps?”

“Harry Potter,” Peter whispered, his eyes back on Harry, who felt his heart jump into his throat and then plummet down to his toes in less than a second.

“M-me?” Harry croaked, his heart pounding so hard he could hear the blood rushing in his ears.

“What do you mean, Wormtail? What about Potter?” Lucius asked, since Severus and Remus were both going through similar internal battles as their son at Peter’s words.

“He said the boy needed to die, that he could sacrifice that Horcrux because Harry is a threat. ‘Potter must die; Horcrux or not.’”

Harry stopped breathing. His heart stopped beating. His world fell apart; the sky was falling, up was down and left was right. Everything Harry had ever known suddenly exploded into billions of pieces as every cataclysmic event Harry had ever feared amassed into one and royally fucked his world up. He looked up at his parents, who were wearing similar horrified expressions, and uttered the words that would haunt his dreams for a long time to come.

“I’m a Horcrux.”