Time Travel? Really!

That was anticlimactic

Disclaimer: Again not mine. God this is getting bloody irritating??

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"Time to hunt a rat. Time to hunt a rat …"

It was a good thing that the area was completely devoid of human life this morning, as the murderous looks coupled with the singsong voices of the area's two visitors did nothing but shout 'creepy'. The small child in a shirt and trousers and the house elf in an army uniform holding a box were like characters out of a horror film as they casually discussed murder and torture with happy grins on their faces.

Rose had morphed into a small boy (facially at least) with brown eyes and auburn hair for the occasion, who bore a startling resemblance to a Weasley in case she was caught, not that she expected to be. The face she had stolen actually belonged to a Weasley cousin that she'd met before at Bill and Fleur's wedding – Mike? Mark? Whatever – so she at least looked the part at The Burrow if things went south. Dobby was just dressed up because, why the hell not?

It was barely dawn and she and Dobby had decided to go ahead and catch Pettigrew now before the little shit escaped and ruined everything. Sooner rather than later, and all that. She didn't want to draw attention to his absence though, so they'd found another rat in the wild that she'd glamoured to look like Pettigrew's Animagus form, which she'd then leave in his place while Pettigrew was located to his new temporary abode. She could use compulsion spells on animals somewhat, so as long as the thing stayed in the house for a good few days before running away she didn't really care if Ron got upset about losing his pet. Considering that he had always despised having a rat, if he did end up complaining it would just be because he could rather than any actual regret at being down a rat.

As they walked towards the lopsided house, she tried to feel for any wards but was more than a little bewildered at the complete absence of protection surrounding The Burrow. Bill was a Curse-Breaker for crying out loud, and Arthur and Molly weren't exactly magically weak. It wouldn't have taken much to put up an alarm or something, but even that was apparently too much. It's a good thing I'm not actually here to steal anything valuable.

She silenced her clothes and feet and made her way inside the house while Dobby stood guard at the door invisible, and she crept up the stairs to Ron's room and opened the door. She only just managed to stop herself from puking. It was filthy. And messy. And so orange. Jesus Christ, you have to be colour blind to not recognise this travesty. She glanced around with barely concealed disgust. Rose dreaded to think what it would have been like if she'd been born a boy and been forced to share this bombsite.

Rose looked over the bed, and indeed, next to a snoring Ron – how utterly delightful – there was her parents' betrayer. She could honestly empathise with Sirius' murderous tendencies right now. Very easily in fact. But Sirius needed to be free. And for him to be free the rat had to live. So not fair.

She cast a quick but powerful sleeping charm on both boy and rat, then levitated the rat in front of her into the box, before pulling out the second actual rat and putting it on the bed before spelling it to stay for a few days. A quick few wards on the box to prevent the bastard from transforming and escaping, or sensing anything outside the box, and Peter Pettigrew was caught. Huh. That was kind of anticlimactic.

Mentally shrugging her shoulders, she turned to leave before slowly turning back to the sleeping boy with a smirk. He may only be eleven but he was still a prat as he demonstrated the day before. Children weren't inherently innocent people who could be constantly excused, and Ron really needed to learn some appropriate behaviour. She mentally ran through her knowledge of hexes before remembering a curse from the Black library which conjured a specific illusion to last for a week before disappearing. (She was cruel but she wasn't evil.) Besides, a week of seeing spiders everywhere could prove to be useful again in the future. She quickly weaved the curse over the boy before finally leaving the house with Dobby and the rat.