Harry Potter and the Order Of the Phoenix [114]
They all walked back to Hagrid’s hut, eagerly awaiting warming themselves in the fire they had made, and turning in Wormtail. When they arrived at the entrance to the hut, Harry turned to them.
“Ladies and gentlemen… now presenting… the filthiest, most evil person I personally know… Peter Pettigrew!” he threw open the door, and bowed towards them. Mrs. Figg had a confused look upon her.
“Well, where is he?” she asked.
“What do you mean?” asked Harry, looking inside.
“Where is he?” she asked again. Harry looked inside the hut again, but Wormtail was nowhere to be seen.
CHAPTER 21- The Yule Ball
“What!?” yelled Harry, Ron, and Hermione together.
“He was just in here!” yelled Harry.
“We just left him for a minute… or two… or more….” said Ron.
“How could he have left? He was unconscious!” squeaked Hermione. The three of them tore the hut apart. They left no book unturned, and no corner uninspected. They looked for several minutes, but the only trace they could find of Wormtail a small pile of ash, right in the middle of the hut. If it wasn’t for Mrs. Figg’s warning of Hagrid returning, they would have all kept searching for the rest of their lives.
“Hurry!” she yelled. “He’s coming!”
“Katheti Repairo!” yelled Harry, Ron, and Hermione as the same time, pointing their wands in various spots. Wherever their wands hit, everything that had originally belonged in that spot, flew there. Within seconds, everything was back to where it should be. Just as they were running out, Hermione shot some water on the fire, putting it out.
They shot out of the hut with Mrs. Figg, going the long way around back to the castle, to avoid Hagrid. They saw him arrive back at his hut, and walk inside, unaware of anything that had occurred while he was away.
“Oh no, Ron!” yelled Hermione. “Did you get rid of you alarms?” Harry saw Ron’s expression, he looked as though he were going to explode with laughter.
“Sure…” he managed to get out. “Yeah, I uh- did it as we were running out…”
“Oh good,” said Hermione as they got up and started walking back to the castle. They arrived back at the Great Hall, to Ron’s delight, right as breakfast was starting. They said good bye to Mrs. Figg, and sat down at the Gryffindor table, stuffing themselves with whatever they could find. When they finally stuffed themselves, the question of Wormtail came up.
“So how could he have left?” asked Ron, wiping his mouth. “I mean… he couldn’t have just gotten up and walked away.”
“And he couldn’t have apparated away either,” said Hermione.
“Well…” said Harry. “Maybe… he was just pretending to be unconscious, waiting for when we were out of his sight, and then make a run for it.”
“No, we would have still seen him come out of the hut,” said Hermione.
“So, the only way he could’ve left, without us seeing him, is if he disappeared inside the hut, and then reappeared somewhere else,” said Harry.
“That describes Apparition perfectly,” said Ron. “He must have Apparated.”
“How many times have I told you!” said Hermione, quite loudly. “You can’t Apparate on school grounds!”
“Maybe he… maybe he killed himself,” suggested Harry. Ron and Hermione looked at him, confused.
“What makes you think that?” they asked together.
“Well… all that we could find of him was that pile of ash… maybe he lit himself on fire.”
“Why would he do that?” asked Ron. “It’s not a very good way of escaping.”
“Better to be killed than to be caught,” said Harry. “That’s probably what he was thinking. If he didn’t kill himself, Voldemort would have killed him for failing his mission… twice, and probably not as nicely as Wormtail would have liked it.”
“Still-” said Ron, about to make another suggestion, when suddenly, Dumbledore’s voice boomed across the entire room.
“Hello students,” he said. Everyone in the Great Hall turned towards him, wondering