Through a rats eyes.
James, Sirius, Remus and Peter were all in the library, they were trying to finish an essay on human transfiguration for McGonagall. Remus, who always finished first, was reading through Sirius' checking for mistakes, while Sirius lazily twirled his wand around his fingers like a baton. James leaned back in his chair yawning. He had finally finished after several weeks hunched up over books in the library researching the topic.
"Can I please read through yours Prongs?" Peter asked James tentatively, he was still 3 inches too short.
"What? Oh, yeah" James said, pushing his essay roughly towards Peter
"He will never learn if you let him copy yours all the time." Remus said giving James a disapproving glance.
Do they realise I can hear them? Peter thought to himself, hiding his head behind James' essay.
The bell rang for their next lesson, Transfiguration. James, Sirius and Remus stuffed their books into their bags and left the library without waiting for Peter. Peter sighed deeply while scribbling down a conclusion. He could just imagine McGonagall looking down her nose on him, giving him a disappointed look he knew only to well. It'll just have to do he thought picking up his bag and hurrying after his friends.
When he stepped into the corridor he knew there would be no chance of catching them up, as he was swept up in the crowd of people hurrying to their next classes. He trudged along the corridor and into McGonagall's classroom. He glanced around the room looking for James, Sirius and Remus. He spotted them at the back of the class huddled together obviously discussing something important and not wanting to be disturbed. He walked up to the spare desk next to Remus. As he put his bag down His three friends broke apart suddenly realising someone was their.
"Oh, it's just you", Sirius sighed. "Thought you were someone important"
McGonagall walked into the room and silence fell like a heavy blanket on the class.
"Please can you all get out your essays I asked you to do for homework. You will all copy out the theory on the board", McGonagall waved her wand at the board, "while I collect them in."
She moved between their desks, scanning each essay as she picked it up. Peter scrambled around in his bag for his qui- oh no he groaned remembering how he had been too worried about what McGonagall would say about his essay that he had forgotten to pack his bag before he left the library. Luckily he had picked up his essay, so if he got a detention it would only be because his essay wasn't long enough and not that he hadn't done it at all.
"Remus! Can I please borrow a quill and some parchment? … I left mine in the library", Peter whispered to Remus who was furiously copying down the theory from the board.
"Pettigrew! Your essay is 3 inches to short. Explain." McGonagall had reached Peter's desk and she was fixing her disappointed look onto her face.
"I… err…well, I…um-"
"See me at the end of the lesson to arrange your detention time," and without a backward glance she strolled over to Remus. Picked his essay up and gave him an approving smile while noticing the extra foot of essay .When McGonagall reached the front of the class she said, "I expect you to all have finished copying down the theory by now." Peter looked glumly down at his unfinished work. It's not my fault I can't write quickly, He thought while McGonagall explained what they were going to be doing for the remainder of the lesson, go into pairs and practise transfiguring each other into a monkey. James and Sirius quickly paired of together and started bickering about who should go first.
"I should go first because I'm the oldest-"
"Looks like it's you and me buddy" Remus said, giving Peter a patronizing smile.
"Fine then, if you're the oldest you should set an example to me and let me go first-"
By the end of the lesson Peter was the only one not to have given his partner fur on his face and a tail. As the bell rang James, Sirius and Remus packed their bags hurriedly. Sirius gave Remus and James an evil grin and they hurried out of the classroom. Peter traipsed out of the classroom fifteen minutes later Peter shuffled into the great hall for dinner. He spotted his friends at the end of the Gryffindor table, once huddled together. As Peter approached, James saw him, grinned and waved him over. A wave of relief washed over him.
"There you are we need you to keep watch for us tonight. We are planning to test out the map again. Just to make sure it works perfectly. Wee still need a name for it you no", he said turning to Sirius and Remus.
"Okay, well, what about 'Rule Breakers Map'?" Sirius said looking pleased with himself
"No, no, it needs to have a ring to it. How about 'the Marauders Map'?" Remus said looking hopefully at the other two.
"How did you think of that?" James said looking impressed.
"Read it somewhere. Means to roam in search of plunder. So what do you think?"
"I think it's brilliant Moony. Beats me how he thinks of these thinks." Sirius added in an undertone to Peter. He started laughing almost instantaneously, just glad to be involved in the conversation.
"Okay so here's the plan-"
"I'm still not sure about this. There are so many things that could go wrong."
"Oh stop worrying Moony, we've got the map. It'll be fine. So anyway, here's the plan…" and once again they closed ranks and huddled together. This time with Peter included. He couldn't conceal his happiness so he gave in and let a grin spread across his face.
After they finished their dinner of shepherd's pie, they hurried up to the Gryffindor common room to get ready for the nights events. Peter huddled over Remus' transfiguration notes, trying to complete his extra homework for tomorrow. Remus sat opposite him engrossed in their defence against the dark arts textbook, occasionally giving him pointers or correcting his wand movement. James and Sirius weren't helping by noisily playing exploding snap on the table behind him. At midnight, the common room was finally empty. Peter was still doing his homework by candlelight and would rather have stayed in the common room to finish it than to be lookout for his friends.
"Are you coming or not?" James said, shaking Peter by the shoulder, he had fallen asleep on his homework. Peter groggily slipped under James' invisibility cloak, and they stepped through the common room entrance out into the deserted corridors.