Chapter 18

I look at the beautiful woman sleeping beside me. She has a peaceful expression on her face, snoring lightly. She had no qualms going all night, with her classes taking place from 10-11 p.m she could sleep during the day, I on the other hand have a class in half an hour.

With a silent groan I get up from the bed, trying not to make any noise so I don't wake her up. As I silently move around the room to get ready for the day.

I was intrigued before when she suddenly left our date but now I am intrigued even more. I tried reading her mind during our love making but her mental defences are quite good.

I could have easily brute forced it, but to slip in without letting her know, I could only glean her surface thoughts, which only consisted of being horny and content.

Still I have a nagging feeling that I'm missing something, promising myself to look into this later. I make my way out of the room with a tired sigh.

Having to take a full day of classes without any sleep is surely going to result in me being miserable the whole day. This is the first time I think I'm regretting being a teacher at Hogwarts.

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"Professor Pettigrew seems to be really tired today" Hermione says while looking towards the teachers table. Where professor Pettigrew is sleeping with his head on the desk.

Ron, stirring his pasta thoughtfully, nodded. "Yeah, way off. I swear his eyelids were doing battle with gravity all class."

"Maybe those essays finally got to him," he says with a teasing tone.

"Something must be up," Harry said, leaning in. "Professor Pettigrew is always so energetic in class."

"I heard he and Professor Sinistra went on a date to hogsmeade yesterday" Lavender chimes in from the side with a sly expression.

"What!!" Hermione exclaims.

"Yeah they were seen in the three broomsticks flirting with each other, I think both of them didn't get a single second of sleep last night" Lavender says with a conspiratorial tone.

All the students around them quiten down, as they heard what Lavender said. All of them as one look towards Professor Pettigrew who is still sleeping soundly in front of all the students in the great hall.

All the boys faces turn red, most of the girls also blush imagining what Lavender said.

"That's one lucky bloke" Dean Thomas comments.

0000

"Fuck you old man" I mutter as I adjust the invisibility cloak around me.

After a grueling day of classes I was finally ready to have my long awaited sleep when Dumbledore had sent Fawkes himself to ask me to patrol around hogsmeade. He had received some reports of suspicious activity and I was chosen to go as backup to the order members already their.

I make my way towards the out skirts of hogsmeade, where I was supposed to meet the order members. It's a clearing in woods as no roads go out of the little town, wizards don't use cars or horses.

The clearing is empty, hmm strange they were supposed to be here. I take my cloak off and stuff it inside the mokeskin pouch, deciding to wait around for them.

It's hard to open my eyes, with how sleepy I am right now. That's when 3 wizards walk out into the clearing in front of me. The upper part of their faces are covered by hoods obscuring their faces, all them are garbed in black robes, one woman and two men.

They have their wands out and I just grimace, a bad day just turned worse.

"Diffindo" the one on the right roared, the opening salvo in a symphony of destruction. A jet of red light shot towards me. With a flick of my wand, I met the spell head-on. "Protego!" A shimmering blue shield erupted before me, stopping the spell timely.

The woman screeched, "Crucio" A jet of stunning light followed the first curse, but despite my sluggishness due to lack of sleep, I sidestepped it.

"Impedimenta!" I roared.

My spell hitting the woman freezing her on the spot.

I quickly deducted that of the three only 1 of them is on my level, the other two are not as strong.

He dodged a barrage of spells from my wand, his own flashing like a lethal comet as he weaved through the onslaught. "Serpensortia!" A large black snake, easily thicker than a man's arm, erupted from his wand, its forked tongue flickering with malevolent intent as it lunged towards me.

My eyes narrowed, my face etched with a fierce determination. "Frigore!" A blast of icy mist, colder than the heart of winter, engulfed the serpent, freezing it solid mid-strike. The monstrous creature shattered into a million glittering shards that rained down on the clearing with a tinkling sound.

The clearing echoed with the shouts of battle as we weaved between spells. Drawing on one of the spells I learned from a book I stole from sprout, I launched into a complex sequence "Piertotum Locomotor!" animating the surrounding trees.

Their branches, thick as battering rams, lashed out at the attackers with a vengeance. The leader, however, was skilled in defensive magic to. He dispelled the spell with a muttered countercurse, but the momentary distraction allowed me to disarm the other man with a well-placed "Expelliarmus!"

The young man's wand clattered to the ground, lost amongst the rubble.

Suddenly, the clearing fell silent. A prickling sensation of danger crawled up my spine. Before I could react, searing pain erupted in my back.

Two more figures, cloaked and masked, had emerged from the trees and launched a surprise attack with a barrage of diffindo's.

I gritted my teeth, the pain a searing fire that threatened to consume me. For the first time since I came to this world actual fear comes to heart. I have never experienced this kind of pain in both my lives.

Am I going to die here.... No, I decide in my mind resolutely. Whatever happens today I am going to kill these mother fuckers.

Despite the fresh wave of attackers and the searing pain in my back, I fought with the ferocity of a cornered beast.

But I am losing blood every second, I can feel it dropping down my back onto the forest floor, every second this fight goes on I'll loose more and more blood.

I deflected curses with shimmering shields, dodged blasts of dark magic, and even managed to blast one of them into pieces with a over powered blasting spell.

The clearing became a whirlwind of spells, the air thick with the stench of burnt ozone and singed earth.

The leader, desperate to end the fight, took advantage of me focusing on one of the other wizards and aimed his wand squarely at me and unleashed an unforgivable curse, "Crucio" his shout ringing through the clearing.

A crimson light, raw and cruel, wrapped around me, a tendril of pure torture that ripped through me. I screamed, a primal howl of agony that echoed through the trees.

But even through the searing pain, I held on. I knew that giving in meant certain death.

With a deep breath, fueled by a desperate will to survive, I roared, "Mufulger!" The air crackled with raw power as a blinding bolt of lightning erupted from my wand, splitting the sky with a deafening boom. The force of the spell sent shockwaves through the clearing, uprooting a nearby tree and sending it crashing down between me and the dark witches and wizards.

Smoke and dust filled the air, momentarily obscuring the clearing. When it settled, three of the attackers were burnt to crisp.

I saw only one of the attackers still standing, he quickly waved his wand and apparated out of there.

I would have tried to stop him but that last spell had taken everything out of me.

My body felt heavy, I have lost to much blood. I dropped to the ground my eyes closing. The last thing I heard before blacking out was people shouting but I couldn't tell who, I could only wish that whoever it was, is on my side.

0000

Albus Dumbledore stands beside a bed in the infirmary in Hogwarts. He looks down at his defense against the dark arts professor, the newest addition to his order of phoenix.

Peter is unconscious right now but thankfully safe.

He made a mistake and it is gnawing at his conscious. Something like this would never have happened before, but ever since his life had been on a timer, he had accelerated all his plans, doing a lot of things in a hurry.

Culminating in members of his order being ambushed. Two wizards died and Peter almost followed them. If he had been even a few minutes late to arrive at the scene, Peter would have lost his life.

He mind is stewing in these thoughts when Sirius arrives beside him.

"How is he" Sirius says, looking down at his friend.

"Poppy informed me that Peter will make a full recovery, apart from the injuries on his back, the blood loss was the biggest danger, she has taken care of it" he informs Sirius.

"Who was it" Sirius asks with anger in his voice.

"We don't know, but we did find the remains of 4 bodies at the site, I believe Peter killed them" Dumbledore says, a touch of disappointment in his voice.

"You can't be fucking serious, what would you want him to do, stand their and let himself get killed" Sirius rounded on him angrily, his nostrils flaring.

"That's not what...." Dumbledore starts but he is interrupted.

"It doesn't matter what you are saying, he survived no thanks to you, the hell were you thinking, you sent 3 good people to their deaths, and when miraculously one survived you are disappointed that how DARE he fucking defend himself." Sirius shouts in his face.

"I..." Dumbledore is again cutoff.

"Just go away, I can't look at you right now" Sirius ends his tirade, turning his back to the headmaster.

Dumbledore puts his head down and walks away, it seems Sirius still hasn't fully forgiven him for his mistakes both towards him and Harry, now this incident with Peter, He really needs to stop making the life of everyone around him worse.

Dumbledore promises himself that he won't let something like this happen again, he will make sure that he doesn't make these mistakes again, for the greater good.

0000

"Thank you everyone but coming to ask about my health isn't going to make me give you less homework." I smile at the group of students infront of me.

I woke up two days after falling unconscious outside hogsmeade. Sirius was there when I woke up, he was really angry at Dumbledore but that was nothing compared to me.

The old asshole had almost cost me my life. It was there that I promised myself to destroy his legacy. I don't know how I will accomplish that but do that I will.

He had come to apologise to me and I had forgiven him to his face, I could hardly restrain myself from grabbing his throat.

"Okay everyone times up, you need to leave. The professor needs his rest" Madam Pomfrey appears out of no where and ushers the students out of the infirmary.

"And you" she rounds on me. "Rest, I don't want you moving around"

I nod at her and lie down on the bed. That bitch has been keeping me here for the last two days, I have repeatedly asked to be moved to my room but the old crone keeps denying me.

Dada classes have been suspended for the week to grant me some rest, that's the good thing about magic. With my injuries without magic the person would have died or at best been crippled for life but here I am almost fully recovered in 2 days.

Although I am not taking classes, I have sent notes to all students to read up on their books or to practice spells. Can't let them go free, it will only increase my work load later on in the year to cover the whole syllabus.

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