Oh but Peter didn't like the sound of this. Why was Avery sitting alone in the dark? Peter understood doing that at night, but this was the morning, and he had company, even if it was someone as low as Peter. Was he trying to intimidate him? Or was this for some other reason that had nothing to do with Peter? It was always so hard to tell why any of the senior Death Eaters did what they did. Merlin, Peter just wanted to be at home, or Snape's home at least, still in bed and not having to deal with this.

He sat down gingerly on a dusty settee, fidgeting and keeping his gaze averted from Avery's cold stare. "Alright," he muttered. He wanted to protest, to say that he knew nothing, that staying in Snape's old place meant that he never saw or heard a single thing from anyone, let alone anything that would interest a man like Avery. He could see, though, that any argument would be useless in the face of whatever funk gripped the man, and could indeed just make things worse for him. "I won't lie."