After absorbing Peter's soul, the violent surge of magic Voldemort had stirred up was reduced to little more than an aftershock.
So when he saw Tver and Marvolio already pointing their wands at him, he dropped Peter's body without hesitation, shot a Dark Mark into the sky, then turned and Apparated away at once.
Tver's full-powered strike hit only the ground, blasting open a deep crater.
"Bastard!" Tver shot Marvolio, who was trying to look innocent, a furious glare.
"Didn't you promise Voldemort wouldn't hurt anyone?!"
"I had no idea Voldemort would get that enraged and take it out on Peter Pettigrew too..."
Faced with Tver in this mood, Marvolio instinctively shrank his neck.
"After all, all we did was capture some of his Death Eaters, win some of them over, destroy his Horcruxes, and revive me along the way..."
"..."
Looking at it that way, even Tver felt they might really have gone a bit too far.
But when he looked at Peter Pettigrew lying on the ground with empty eyes, a headache started coming on again.
It was not that he had ever intended for Peter Pettigrew to live well. He had simply hoped to keep a spy, a spy who answered to Tver, one who could gather intelligence on Voldemort for him.
Especially now, with Voldemort straying further and further off course, that kind of intelligence had become more important than ever.
Otherwise, something like what had happened tonight might happen again, and the next one to die would not be a traitor like Peter...
"Do you think he noticed something off about Peter?" Marvolio frowned at Peter, realizing the problem as well.
"I don't know, but judging from what happened during the last spell experiment, Voldemort probably realized something was wrong. With how suspicious he is, he'd never allow a ticking bomb to stay by his side," Tver said helplessly.
After the last incident, when Voldemort had immobilized Peter, Tver had told him to send as little information as possible from then on.
Peter had done a good job of that. He had not even told them about Barty Jr.
But in the end, it had still drawn Voldemort's suspicion.
For Voldemort, it was obvious. Better to kill the wrong person than let Peter go.
"So what now? We can't exactly make a big public affair out of Peter, can we?"
Marvolio pointed at Peter, then jerked his chin toward Tver's back, where the four Champions were standing with curiosity written all over their faces, though none of them dared come closer.
After all, Voldemort's outburst of magic had just ripped up a full foot of earth from the ground around them.
Tver's furious counterattack had then blown open an even deeper hole in that already sunken patch, large enough to bury several Peters.
With their professor in this state, even Viktor, who loved courting disaster, and "brave" Harry did not dare provoke him.
Tver shook his head and rejected Marvolio's suggestion.
"If we cover up Peter's death, Voldemort may only grow more suspicious. It'll make it much harder for us to plant any more spies in the future."
For example, a certain Potions professor was now their last possible candidate for infiltrating Voldemort. They could not afford to lose him.
Besides, Dumbledore would never want anything to happen to him either. And if it did, Tver would still be the one taking the blame.
"So we release it to the public as Voldemort personally killing one of his own men, and return Peter, the real traitor from back then, to the Ministry?"
"Exactly. And it'll give Fudge a round of criticism to deal with too, which counts as at least one gain from tonight's mess." Tver casually dug the pit meant to bury Fudge a little deeper.
"You really are something. Even when you come out on the losing end, you still don't forget to drag someone else down with you."
Marvolio sighed and crouched down, tidying Peter's rumpled clothes. After all, this counted as his little contribution too.
"Hm? What's this?" he asked in confusion, pulling a folded piece of paper from Peter's inner pocket.
"A letter Peter meant to send us? Intelligence?"
Tver took it curiously and unfolded it. It was a rather long letter.
"To Professor Fawley:
By the time you read this, I will probably already be dead at the Dark Lord's hands, so I have no choice but to use this method to tell you a few things.
As for why I think you'll be the one reading this, it's because I believe that in this world, other than my mother, you're probably the only one still willing to bury me.
Thinking about it now, it really is pathetic. I struggled so desperately to stay alive all these years, yet in the end I don't have a single friend willing to bury me.
I know very well that from the moment I chose to betray James and Lily, death became the fate I could never escape.
I spent more than ten years struggling on, living lowly as a rat, just to drag out my life for a few more years.
Sirius always used to say that people should live gloriously, that even dying now wouldn't matter. People like you probably can't understand the way I think, like some rat cowering in a corner, can you?
But the truth is, none of you ever knew this. I'm afraid of dawn.
I'm afraid that every time I wake up, I'll have to face another endless day of war.
Or see another comrade leave us forever...
So when I was faced with the Dark Lord's threats, I shamefully betrayed everyone.
I'm sorry. Back then, I was just too afraid. I was afraid I'd never see tomorrow's sun again, and I was afraid that even if I did live to see it, it would only tell me that the shadow of death was still hanging over me.
But the truth is, death has always been with me...
Back when you sent me back to the Dark Lord's side as a spy, I was terrified. I resented you. I even hated you for threatening me.
I'm just a little rat. What is it about people like you that makes you keep your eyes on someone like me?
But I still have to thank you. You were the first one who ever gave me the courage to do something I never would have dared do in my whole life.
From the moment the Dark Lord tried to absorb my soul, I realized that sooner or later either my identity would be exposed, or he would take his anger out on me.
So!
Using the method the Dark Lord taught me, and with the help of the crystal you left in my mind, I hid a curse deep inside my soul.
If one day the Dark Lord really does absorb my soul, then that curse will transfer into his soul too, buried deep within it...
Until one day, like a rat, it gnaws open a crack in his life.
Of course, I'm destined never to see that day.
I'm not hoping for Harry's forgiveness because of this, and I'm not hoping for someone as important as you to think more highly of me.
I only hope that every timid child in the future will never again have to face a life-or-death choice brought on by war. And I hope they won't have to be as cowardly as I was...
Good night, Professor.
Good night, Peter."