A Burning World

Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter characters, J.K. Rowling does.

"Avada Kedavra!" – Speaking

'Knowledge is power!' – Thoughts

~.~

"Life will find a way, huh?" Whispered a broken man with his cloak flowing with the wind, "I never understood that sentence before, until now…"

The man stared with empty eyes, not fully seeing, across the landscape. Seeing death, carnage, but also life. It's funny, after a war should be peace, but it's not necessarily peace where everyone lives. There's no one left alive besides himself, a broken man wishing, just wishing that the end of the war had been different, that he didn't betray the people who accepted him and made him feel worthy and most of all, loved. He just had himself to blame, his cowardly betraying self.

He always wondered if he did the right thing that night, now he knew that it wasn't in the right. Laughing insanely he yelled to the heavens as he fell to his knees, "WHY?! Why didn't you stop me? Why didn't you have someone kill me before I did the unthinkable? Why am I so COWARDLY?! Why…why…why…"

This man, this broken insane man, was Peter Pettigrew. Years before this disaster happened he was a stodgy man with long slicked back dirty blonde hair and expressive blue eyes. One couldn't say that Peter was handsome, but he had a boyish charm to him that would have been endearing if he didn't sell out the Potters to Lord Voldemort. Now though, Peter had a skeletal-like frame from having the Cruciatus Curse done to him many times and being unable to eat, like an anorexic teenager, he wanted to eat but his body wouldn't let him. His once smooth hair was a stringy mess that fell in clumps, not unlike Severus Snape but was also dirtier. His eyes, oh his eyes, once expressive now stuck in a glared expression and the loathing, hate, bitterness, and above all, loneliness, were shown within his eyes. And they say, the eyes were the window to the soul.

Peter was now 23 years old, only two years after the death of the Potters including James, his best friend, Lily, the older sister he never had, and little Harry, the baby whose life was snuffed out before he could live it. And it all started with the stupid prophecy! If only Albus Dumbledore just kept that stupid thing to himself! Everyone knew what a crack-pot Sybill Trelawney was…and that any prophecy she would have said would have been self-fulfilling! And those prophecies were the absolute worst! And guess what…Voldemort self-fulfilled the prophecy by killing the only person who could have killed him (or so Dumbledore said). If only people of the British Wizarding world weren't made of sheep, then Voldemort would have been killed before he rose from the ground.

And they say the British Wizarding world was the only wizard community full of sheep, every other wizard community were full of smart people. Once the war started to turn for the worse (i.e. when the Potters were killed and everyone gave up hope because Voldemort stated the prophecy for the world to hear), every other wizarding community closed their doors to England and left everyone to rot and clean up their own mess and hoping that Voldemort would leave them alone or they'd kill him. No joking, only the British were stupid enough to stay back in the times and having rising dark lord's the most often because of restricting laws to dark creatures and muggle-born's. Peter wouldn't have been surprised if there was a muggle-born dark lord, but Voldemort was here now, or had been.

The people of the wizarding world finally gave up hope for one year, because not only did the Potter's die, but so did Dumbledore because he believed the prophecy so much that he wasn't in the right mind when Voldemort killed him. But after one year of no hope, Sirius Black rose above all and rallied support from muggle-born's, half-blood's, pureblood's and dark creatures (not with Voldemort). Their army wasn't much considering most wanted to run and hide, but Sirius was a very convincing charismatic young man. He taught his army to the best of his abilities of what he learned in school as well as what he learned from the Ancient and Noble House of Black. His parents, especially his mother, would not have liked it but what's to say what he could or couldn't do, he wasn't their responsibility anymore.

There were deaths, oh so much death, torture, massacres and just overall battles that lasted for one full year before all was gone. Voldemort lost many Death Eater's and dark creatures to Sirius' army, but the army wasn't without their losses as well, many more died on the dark side but with Sirius's army being so small, the deaths were a major damage. Half-way through the year, Sirius found the reason to Voldemort's invincibility. He couldn't believe it, his brother, Regulus Black, who was a Death Eater, told Sirius about the horcruxes that Voldemort created. That set his brother on a journey to collect the items along with some other members of the army and researchers relaying the information to them.

It was hard for Regulus and his team, but they had done it, in half a year while Sirius kept fighting back against Voldemort. Once all the horcruxes were collected, Sirius and Regulus simultaneously lit all five of them with Fiendfyre. The five horcruxes were Ravenclaw's Diadem, Hufflepuff's Cup, Gaunt's Ring, Slytherin's Locket, and T.M. Riddle's Diary. The easiest to obtain was Slytherin's Locket since Regulus already collected it, next was Ravenclaw's Diadem in Hogwarts, Gaunt's Ring in the Gaunt Shack, Hufflepuff's Cup in Gringotts (Sirius took control of Bellatrix's vault after her death when he became Head of House Black), then T.M. Riddle's Diary after killing Lucius Malfoy and freeing Narcissa Malfoy née Black from the Imperious Curse.

After destroying all five horcruxes, Voldemort knew what had happened and declared an official battle at Hogwarts in his rage, not knowing that all would perish in the battle. The battle was ferocious, Sirius' army vs. Voldemort's army. All who fought were wizards, witches, vampires, werewolves, giants, acromantula, centaurs, dementors, trolls, dragons, lethifolds, inferius, house elves, and one 1000 year old basilisk.

Both sides wouldn't give up and because of that, both sides lost. All who participated died in the battle, the survivors would have kept fighting but when Sirius and Regulus tag-teamed Voldemort and killed him, Voldemort's body was turned into something similar to a muggle bomb and destroyed all within its radius. Voldemort was a very very paranoid fellow, so just in case he perished in battle he did a ritual that would turn his body into a very dangerous and explosive substance that would take all life within Hogwart's grounds. And took life he did, now nothing was living within the area, no people, creatures, or plants, all life was gone.

And now, Peter Pettigrew, the coward he was, stayed just outside Hogwarts grounds until the battle was over, and saw the desolate land. Nothing but a vacant landscape, no Hogwarts castle, no Forbidden Forest, not even bodies to bury. All was gone, except one tiny little sprout in the middle of the blank slate. One little piece of green life was left, to start the British Wizarding World anew, or just give the land to muggles to build further life?

Peter just stared at the sprout with a blank expression, knowing that even if there was a British Wizarding world to grow, he wouldn't be there for it. He needed to pay for his sins, and the only way to do that would be to die. He couldn't, no wouldn't kill himself with magic, he felt unworthy, no he needed to do it the muggle way. So he took out a knife and pressed it to his throat.

'Goodbye my friends, I hope you all are happy in heaven and I hope you forgive this broken cowardly man,' thought Peter before he ended his life, 'As they say, life finds a way.'

~.~

AN: Please review! Honest criticism is welcome and if you see any errors, please tell me! :)