"You have no story—nothing but lies!!"
Sirius struggled and roared.
"On the contrary—I not only have a story, I know far more than you do."
Peter raised his wand with a weary sigh, making Lupin tense at once—then used it to temporarily seal Sirius's voice.
"Calm down, Padfoot. Please—listen to me until the end…"
As he spoke, he slid down the wall and sat there, drawing in a deep breath that reeked of rotting wood. "Padfoot isn't wrong. I was indeed the Secret-Keeper for James's family. But I did not betray James and Lily, and I never willingly told that secret to Voldemort…"
Sirius immediately began struggling violently.
"Then how did he get into James's house? And why didn't you explain all this to Sirius back then?"
Lupin's hand remained on his wand, brow tightly furrowed as he stared at Peter.
"What comes next is hard to believe—but it's the truth. A few days after I became the Secret-Keeper, the Death Eaters found me and took me to Voldemort…"
Lupin's pupils contracted sharply.
"The exact reason is… strange. I'll explain it later. And then—"
A flash of terror crossed Peter's eyes. "Voldemort… right in front of me, he tore the secret protected by the Fidelius Charm out of my soul."
"Only later did I understand what had happened… At the time, he used the Imperius Curse to control me and forced me to kill a Muggle… After it was over, I saw him take a container and make a cut across my forehead, like this—and then… then…"
His chest heaved as though he were truly facing a Dementor, his voice trembling on the edge of tears. "I'll never forget that moment. Voldemort—he stared at that empty container for a while, then slowly spoke James's address aloud…"
"Do you know how desperate I was in that instant, Moony? Padfoot… I knew it was over. All of it was over…"
Peter curled in on himself, clutching his head as he sobbed softly.
"…"
Sirius stopped moving. Lupin seemed frozen into stone as well. After a long while, he finally forced out the words, "You're saying… Voldemort… he...he broke the Fidelius Charm?"
"…Yes."
Peter nodded through his sobs. After some time, he gradually steadied himself, his voice smoothing out a little. "Voldemort wanted to kill me then. But I knew I couldn't die. If I died, no one would be able to carry back the truth—that Voldemort could break the Fidelius Charm. The Order of the Phoenix would suffer even greater losses, and James and Lily would have died for nothing…"
"So I pledged myself to him on the spot. I swore an Unbreakable Vow—to be forever loyal, forever obedient, never to betray him."
His trembling hand pulled up his sleeve, revealing the branded marks coiling around his forearm.
"Apparently he decided that leaving a spy alive still had some value. That's why Voldemort spared me."
"Then you—"
"I know what you want to ask," Peter said quietly. "After handing over a great deal of intelligence I knew about the Order of the Phoenix, I begged Voldemort to tell me how he had broken the Fidelius Charm. And perhaps because he believed I was completely loyal—someone worth confiding in—he told me that secret. Not only that… there was something even more terrifying."
"He used a technique called 'Horcrux.'"
Peter closed his eyes in pain, recalling it slowly. "The Fidelius Charm hides a secret within the soul. A Horcrux is the opposite—it's a method of splitting the soul. By preserving fragments of the soul, the main soul can never fully perish, achieving immortality…"
"Voldemort had mastered this technique—and had made multiple Horcruxes. His skill at splitting the soul had reached a frightening level of precision. So he forced me to create a Horcrux, ripping the secret in my soul out together with a fragment of my soul. That's how he broke the Fidelius Charm."
As he finished, Peter waved his wand again, lifting the magic binding Sirius. "Padfoot—you're from the Black family. You must know a thing or two about this sort of dark magic. Can you believe me, even a little, now?"
Sirius kept his head lowered, silent.
"But from that conversation, I learned something even more critical—Voldemort had created several Horcruxes. As long as they weren't destroyed, he was effectively immortal…"
"That's when I realized I had to do everything possible to stay alive. The Order and the Aurors didn't know about Horcruxes—they were doomed to never truly kill Voldemort. The only one who could do something was me: someone who knew the secret and was bound by an Unbreakable Vow…"
"Yet Horcruxes also showed me a way to break free of that Vow. So I humbled myself completely and begged Voldemort to teach me how to make a Horcrux, promising eternal service—eternal slavery. He refused. Telling me about Horcruxes at all was already a tremendous sign of trust, and I hadn't proven myself valuable enough to ask for more. Still, perhaps to spur my loyalty, he agreed to tell me part of the process—and promised the rest if I performed well…"
Peter conjured some water and gulped it down. "He told me how to split the soul—through killing."
"Killing with malicious intent," Sirius added quietly. He was no longer raving.
"Exactly. With conscious malice—knowing clearly that the act you're about to commit is evil. When he controlled me to kill before, I don't know what method he used, but the result of the soul-splitting was transferred onto me. And that meant something even more horrifying—he could make Horcruxes for others. He could create an immortal army of Death Eaters, controlling them through their Horcruxes. Perhaps that was the true meaning behind the name 'Death Eaters'…"
"I had to stop it."
Peter's gaze grew resolute, his voice no longer shaking. "Even without knowing how to make a Horcrux, knowing how to split the soul was enough for me."
"But the study of Horcruxes is far too profound. A talentless person like me could never master it quickly. And Padfoot was still hunting me then, leaving me no peace to study. So I resorted to an extremely vile and brutal method—I caused that explosion."
He shut his eyes tightly, his voice breaking again. "I killed twelve people in one instant!"
"That massacre tore my soul to pieces—and shattered the Unbreakable Vow as well. I know what I became is unforgivable. But only that… only that allowed me to escape the Vow and begin searching for Voldemort's Horcruxes…"
Sirius and Lupin both fell silent. The Shrieking Shack grew utterly still, broken only by faint sobbing.
"Then after you broke free of the Vow, why didn't you go to Dumbledore?"
At last, Sirius looked up at Peter again, eyes bloodshot. "Dumbledore is far more capable than you. Why not tell him everything and let him hunt the Horcruxes?"
(End of Chapter)