WHEN ANGELS CLIP THEIR WINGS
chapter three
. . . .

𝑬𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝑯𝑨𝑫 𝑪𝑶𝑴𝑬 to learn that forgetting wasn't easy. No, memories of Ophelia's teary face still flooded his mind, of her falling down to her death, of how happy she really was with Benjamin, of how angry she had been when she had confronted him about Blanche Lockmore, of her yelling at him that Blanche was only using him. Forgetting will never be easy, especially for him. How could he when he murdered someone? Someone who meant the entire world to him? Someone he loved with the entirety of his heart.

Forgiveness though? That was a choice. Peter knew that, but he couldn't make the decision of forgiving himself. And as he sat in front of all his friends, Sirius not even looking at him, he hoped they could make that decision for him. He hoped they could forgive him so that he could try and forgive himself. He could live without forgiving himself, sure, but if his friends couldn't forgive him? That'd hurt.

"What is he doing here Dumbledore?" James snarled, looking at the elderly man as they sat in his office. Peter looked down. They still hated him.

"I will not excuse the actions of Mr Pettigrew, but I thought you'd like to hear that he was telling the truth after all." Dumbledore began, sitting in his chair and Peter saw Lily's head snap up.

"But why would Benjamin do that?" Lily asked, confusion thick in her voice.

"That you would have to ask Mr Crane."

It was then Sirius said something for the first time that evening. "That son of a bitch." He had growled, glaring at Peter as he said it and the boy gulped. Did he mean him? Or Benjamin? Benjamin was at fault, not him, though he did accidentally push Ophelia down the Tower.

"Sirius, calm down." Remus spoke. Ever since the accident, Remus looked even more raggedy, more like he didn't even bath, more scars littered his face and Peter felt like he was responsible for that.

"Calm down?! If that faggot could only keep his manhood inside his bloody pants, Peter wouldn't have killed our friend!"

"She's not dead!" Remus snapped at him. "Lia is not dead! And she won't die! Stop saying that she's dead!"

"Gentlemen, please calm down." Dumbledore calmly spoke. "What I meant was that you can ask Mr Crane himself, for I have sent someone to go fecth him."

"With all due respect Professor, but that was a horrible mistake you've made. Just look at Padfoot, no offense Padfoot but you're a mess and I fear you might kill the poor b ━"

"Poor boy?!" Sirius jumped up. "He cheated on Lourdes! You know what, I've seen enough traitors for the day," Sirius growled at Peter. "I'm leaving."

"Si..." Lily sighed, but Sirius only stormed past her, not looking back and Peter but down on his bottom lip.

"I'm leaving too, I don't want to see Benjamin." Remus told his friends a few minutes after Sirius left and Peter sprung up, following Remus, if there was one person who could forgive him, he knew it'd be Remus. He had the softest heart of them all.

"Remus, wait please." Peter called out and he saw Remus turn around. Tears were pooling in his eyes. Some people dealt with grief differently, for Peter, that was bottling it up, for Remus, it was the same, though he cried more. "Look, I won't say it wasn't my fault because it is. And I can't forgive myself for that ━"

"I forgive you Peter."

" ━ and I know it sounds dumb ━ what? Just like that? Y ━ you forgive me?" Remus nodded and Peter smiled, crashing into him with a hug.

"Thank you so much Remus, I knew you'd forgive me." Peter whispered, urging himself not to cry. It felt like the world had magically lifted from his shoulders and he could suddenly breathe again.

"I'm only doing what I think Lia would've done, this is not for you." Remus replied, wiggling out of the hug and Peter watched him walk off, his heart slightly broken.

. . . .

Sirius can confirm that he's had better days. Days where Ophelia were in, those days were the very best. He still remembered the first day he met Ophelia Lourdes, shy little thing, long wavy brown hair cascading down her back and just like Remus, tiny little scars littered her face. The two became friends after she had cast an Unforgivable Curse on Ford Freeman. Sirius doesn't know why Dumbledore didn't expel Ophelia that day, but he was glad he didn't.

After that, he held her in his arms the entire night as she cried about what she did to Ford and about her brother. James had made fun of them, saying they look like a married couple and Sirius obviously shut that idea away, cursing at him and made sure the commotion didn't wake Ophelia up. The next day however, the brunette had marched into their dorm, a pair of scissors in her hands and a spell written on parchment and demanded that he should cut her hair and use the spell to change the color.

Sirius obviously agreed but he left the spell casting to Remus, he was afraid he might blow her head off.

Sirius has grown to love Ophelia, probably in a way he shouldn't, maybe that's why he was taking this harder than anybody else. Sure, they cried but the laughed freely as well. Sirius doesn't remember the last time he laughed, he doesn't remember the last time he actually smiled.

He hated the fact that Peter loved Ophelia as well. He has no right, he shut her out for a good two months just because she found a boyfriend. Sirius does admit that he was hurt as well but he didn't want to show it, no one could know that he loved Ophelia Lourdes.

"You're only damaging your lungs." Sirius looked up, seeing a familiar face standing not so far away from him and Sirius scowled at it.

"Go away Regulus." Sirius growled taking another long drag from his cigarette and he watched as his brother shook his head, sitting beside him. "Don't you understand what I just said? Go away."

"You might be a bloodtraitor, but you're still my brother." Regulus softly spoke, looking at the moon instead. "I know you loved her, I just wanted to say I'm sorry, she seemed like a lovely girl."

Sirius stared at his brother. How did he know that he loved Ophelia? Was he making it that obvious? No, that can't be it. If that were the case, James would've been first to find out. Then how did he know about it? He pushed it back however and he sighed. "She was the reason behind my smile and now that she's lying in a hospital with little chance of waking up, I fear I will never be happy again."

"That's exactly why you should join me, join us, you want to make Peter hurt, don't you?" Regulus softly spoke. "You'll be happy once you've gotten your revenge, I know you will. All you have to do is join me."

Sirius swallowed hard. He obviously knew what Regulus was talking about. The Black family had a history of joining the Dark Lord and Regulus had been no exception. Sirius could join now, just to murder Peter, he could make him hurt but he knew deep down, that wasn't who he was, he knew that it wasn't what Ophelia would've wanted for him.

"No," Sirius shook his head. "That's you Regulus, that's not me. I am angry, but I don't want him to die, not by my hands."

. . . .

a/n. Unnecessary trauma to characters? Check.