Lessons with Bellatrix

Bellatrix Black was bored. It was the start of her seventh year, and she had nothing much to do. As her fellow pupils slaved over their books, eager to begin the new year showing promise, Bellatrix lounged around the common room. She knew she'd be taking her NEWTS at the end of the year, but really, NEWTs were for people who had to work. It didn't matter to her if she passed or failed, although she knew she'd probably pass them all very easily.

Severus Snape sidled into the room, looking as ever as though he didn't want to be noticed. Bellatrix couldn't blame him for that. If she were anything like Severus, she wouldn't want to be noticed too. However, Snape had so few friends, he was sure to be willing to have some fun.

She stood up nonchalantly, acted as though she was going to leave the room and then flung her arms round Severus' neck from behind, startling him. She loved to feel people tense in fright. "Severus," she purred in his ear, "I'm bored."

Severus relaxed. Unlike many people, including a few of his housemates, he wasn't scared of Bellatrix. He knew what drove her. "I've got work to do," he half-protested.

Bellatrix tightened her grip on his neck. "Are you sure?"

"Oh, maybe I've got some spare time," Severus croaked.

She released her grip and he turned to look at Bellatrix, rubbing his throat. "Well," she said impatiently, "What are we going to do?"

"I don't know," Snape protested. "I wanted to finish my Charms homework. You're the one who's bored."

Bellatrix tapped her chin in thought. Then she looked more closely at Severus. "You've ripped your robes again," she said in annoyance. "It doesn't do anything for the image of the house, you know."

Severus swore. "I didn't do it. Your stupid cousin - Sirius, obviously - and his fathead friend Potter had a go at me outside the library." He'd hoped for a quieter year this year, but it was not to be.

"That's what we can do," Bellatrix said in delight. "Let's pay them back."

Severus Snape brightened. He was rarely able to tackle more than one Marauder at a time, but Bellatrix would more than balance the odds. She might even swing them in his favour. He threw his book bag onto a chair and whipped out his wand eagerly. "I bet they'll be out by the Quidditch pitch," he laughed.

The pair of them scampered to the door of the common room in a manner more befitting the first-year pupils.

"Hello," said Bellatrix's friend Lucy, as she returned from a detention. "Where are you two going?"

Bellatrix beamed. "Tell you later. This is going to be fun!"

"Don't do any permanent damage," Lucy, who knew Bellatrix all too well, advised as the door slammed shut behind them.

Severus Snape found walking through the corridors with Bellatrix odd. He was used to being glanced at and then shunned. People looked at Bellatrix, however. She really was very lovely and caught the eye of many students. The Blacks had that charisma; her younger cousin Sirius attracted every bit as much attention. They had a sort of natural nobility.

"Where will they be?" Bellatrix wondered aloud. "The Library?"

"No, they were just leaving it when they attacked me. Pince had a right go about me damaging the cover of her precious book, even though it wasn't me who tore it."

Bellatrix laughed at Snape's discomfort. He took the opinions of others so seriously! If Madam Pince had told her off, Bellatrix knew, she'd have had a difficult time keeping a straight face. As if she cared what some dusty old woman locked up in a library all day thought of her. Severus had a fairly thick skin, but he needed to get even tougher. "They could be in Gryffindor Tower by now," she said reluctantly.

"I know!" Severus exclaimed. "They're probably showing off out by the Quidditch pitch. They're always clowning about on broomsticks."

Bellatrix flexed her hands and cracked her knuckles. "Let's try there, then."

**

Peter Pettigrew wasn't much of a flier. He couldn't wait until he was 17 and could learn to Apparate; it seemed a much safer way to travel than by broomstick, splinching aside. He sat in the stands surrounding Hogwarts' Quidditch pitch. James and Sirius were on the pitch, knocking a pair of Bludgers back and forth. They'd been playing this game for years, initially with one Bludger. It was too easy now, though, so they'd moved on to playing with two.

Peter's abilities were mostly analytical. He shone at Arithmancy, and was far better on the theory side of Charms and Transfiguration than the practical. As he watched James and Sirius finish walloping Bludgers at one another, he scribbled some notes down on a sheet of parchment.

James flew to the side of the pitch nearest him. "We're going in, Peter."

Peter waved at him. "I'll follow you. I just want to write this down while it's in my head." James and Sirius flew off towards the changing rooms, where they'd shower before going up to Gryffindor tower. Peter noted down some ideas for Quidditch strategies that he'd had while watching his friends. His strategies didn't always work - one disastrous idea had led to them nearly losing to Hufflepuff the previous year - but the ones that did work could be amazingly successful.

I wish Remus was here," he thought, drawing arrows by stick men to show the way he pictured the players moving. Just as James and Sirius were boisterous and reckless, Remus Lupin was quieter and more thoughtful, like Peter. He was also often ill, though, and away from the other Marauders for several days each month. Remus was the glue that kept the quartet together. He pricked the bubble of Sirius' arrogance and calmed James' wildness. He gave Peter the courage to speak up. People thought Sirius or James were the head Marauders, but they were wrong. Remus alone had influence over everyone.

Peter drew a few more arrows, and then let out a strangled scream as four arms dragged him backwards off the wooden bench. Before he could complain, Petrificus Totalus ensured he wouldn't be able to fight back, and then he was dragged by his feet from the stand. He could do nothing but roll his eyes in pain as his head bump-bump-bumped down the steps.

Bellatrix propped her captive against the back of the stand and surveyed him with disdain. "Hmm. He's not much, this one, is he?"

"It's Pettigrew," sneered Severus. "Pathetigrew."

Peter stared at them in terror. Although he couldn't move in any way that conveyed fear, Bellatrix somehow realised he was scared. She moved slowly towards him and, like a cat, rubbed her face against his. "Poor ickle Peter, all awone wiv no fwiends."

"Let's just go inside," Severus said. "He's not worth bothering with. He's never harmed anyone - he wouldn't know how to."

Bellatrix rapped each of Peter's knuckles in turn with her wand. "He never helped you either, did he?"

"No, but..."

With a smile, Bellatrix uttered a simple spell as she dragged her wand across Peter's hand. It was popular with the younger Slytherins, leading to nothing worse than a bad paper cut. Paper cuts really could sting, though. Talking to Snape, but looking at Peter, she said, "You have to choose friends you can rely on in a tight spot. Either they have to be there for you or they have to be so bloody scary that no one will tackle you.

Another word. Another paper cut.

More words. A neat little line of shallow, painful cuts.

"Leave him, Bellatrix," Snape pleaded. "No one cares about Peter Pathetigrew."

Bellatrix kissed Peter gently on the mouth, and then bit his lower lip until it bled. She stepped back, her own mouth pink with blood. "Peter doesn't have any real friends," she said. "Potter and my cousin have left him all alone. Where are your friends, Peter?"

Remus is in the hospital wing! Peter thought desperately. You wouldn't be able to do this if he were here.

"You do something," Bellatrix told Snape.

"I don't want to," Snape insisted. "He's a waste of time."

Bellatrix recast the spell holding Peter, allowing him to speak. Hurt and angry, Peter lashed out. "Just you wait. My friends will come for me. Snivellus, when Sirius hears about this, he's going to make you wish you'd never been born."

Snape flushed with anger at his hated nickname. "Levicorpus!"

Bellatrix laughed and clapped her hands as Peter flew up in the air and dangled upside down, his robes falling about his face.

"As for you, you mad cow," Peter carried on from beneath his veil of fabric, "I'm going to complain to my house mistress about this too, and she'll send you to Professor Dumbledore."

Bellatrix looked overjoyed. "Oh, listen to him! I do so adore Gryffindors, they're so much fun. Silencio - and..." With a smile and a flourish, she gave Peter a tail. "Damn," she said. "It doesn't have fur? Why doesn't it have fur?"

Severus shrugged, and shrank Peter's fingers to tiny stubs. "Now he can't get back into the castle on his own, even if he does get down from this."

"Gnaettewolcn!" Bellatrix grinned as a cloud of small flies flew from the tip of her wand and started biting Peter's legs.

"Mosquitoes?" Severus said, impressed. Bellatrix knew some amazing pieces of magic. "What spell was that?"

"It's an old Saxon one," Bellatrix boasted. "My family was casting it while the Malfoys and Montagues were still floundering about in France."

Severus watched the mosquito bites flourish on Peter's legs. "It's very clever." He thought for a bit. "Rictusempra."

Peter started giggling uncontrollably under the tickling spell. Bellatrix used Diffindo to give him a few deeper cuts down his legs, and then lowered her wand. "He's getting boring," she said loudly, over the top of Peter's laughter. "Why don't we go in now? "

"Okay," Severus agreed, and raised his wand to release Peter. Bellatrix put her hand over the end of his wand.

"Oh no," she said. "His friends have never let you off lightly. Your friends won't set him free either." Severus pulled a face of regret. Bellatrix smiled. "Don't worry, I'm sure his own friends will come to get him sooner or later." She bent down and pulled up the upside-down boy's robes so she could see his face. "You see, Peter, you have to know your friends are there for you. That's what friends are. Friends take care of one another, like I look after Severus here. If you were my friend, I'd be after the people who did this like a shot. Well, toodle-pip! Hope James and darling Sirius are the stout fellows you think they are, for your sake."

Still laughing, as blood trickled down his legs from the Diffindo and his skin itched madly from all the insect bites, Peter cried as his tormentors left him. It was getting dark and cold, and his head was aching from being the wrong way up for so long. They'll be here soon, he told himself. They're just having an extra-long shower.

Maybe they're having a really long shower, and they're going to get a snack before returning to the Common Room.

Maybe they've done something wrong and are in detention, and will come to get me after that.

Oh, I feel so awful like this. Please, someone come and find me. Mr. Filch, come and find me and report me to the headmaster for being outside after hours. I'll take the punishment.

Someone?

Anyone?

**

"Moony!" Sirius exclaimed with delight at seeing his friend in their dormitory. "Back among the living, I see."

Remus smiled weakly. "I had to come back; I couldn't sleep without the sound of you three snoring and farting all night... where's Peter?"

James looked at Sirius. "I haven't seen him since we were at the Quidditch pitch."

Sirius frowned. "To be honest, I hadn't noticed he was missing - we had a shower, and then James spotted Evans, and I had to go along to watch the fireworks..."

"He's not in the Common Room?"

James shook his head, and dug the Marauders' Map out of his nightstand. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good. Hey, look, there he is... Still by the Quidditch pitch?"

Sirius chuckled. "At this rate he'll have written the definitive work on Quidditch tactics."

"In the dark?" Remus queried, and began to sit up.

"You stay there," James insisted, hopping out of bed and going to his trunk. He pulled out his Invisibility Cloak. "You still look shattered."

"I'll come," Sirius volunteered.

""There isn't room under here for both of us," James said. "It'll be easier with just Wormtail and me. He's tiny."

As James threw the cloak over his pyjamas and left, Remus shook his head at Sirius. "I can't believe you two didn't miss him for a whole evening."

"I can't believe he's been out there this long. He's probably too scared of Filch to come back inside." Sirius smiled. "Or maybe he's finally got lucky with a girl!"

**

James gasped when he saw Peter Pettigrew, covered in dried blood and insect bites. As he began casting spells to reverse the suspension in mid-air and allow Peter to talk again, he took in the other damage - the split lip, the shrunken fingers.

"Hell, Peter, who did this to you? Those fingers are going to mean a trip to the Hospital Wing. I can't put those right."

Peter rubbed his face with his paw-like hands. His throat was sore from constant laughing and crying. "I'll fix it myself." Turning into his rat form broke most of the spells on his human form. When he reverted to being Peter Pettigrew, his hands were whole once more.

"Good thinking." James threw an arm round him. "Seriously, though, who did this? Snivellus? Sirius and I can see to him, don't you worry."

"It was Bellatrix," Peter said.

"Oh." James' face fell. He wasn't one for hexing girls. "I'll get Sirius to have a word with her."

Picking up the invisibility cloak, Peter shook his head. "It doesn't matter. She won't listen. There's nothing you can do to her."

"We can't just let her win," James exploded.

Peter shrugged. "She's going to win whether you let her or not. Anyway, let's go in. I'm tired."

"Sure," James said quietly. Peter seemed really blue, but then bleeding for hours, upside down, with no fingers, would upset anyone. He'll be better in the morning, James decided. Peter can be a bit feeble, but he always bounces back. "Remus is back, you know."

Peter picked up the Invisibility Cloak. "Good." He didn't say anything else on the walk back to the school. Peter Pettigrew had things to think about. He didn't want to confront James, but he was angry at being forgotten and in pain from what Severus Snape and Bellatrix Black had done to him. Do I know who my friends are? He wondered.