Prompt: Are people born wicked or do they have wickedness thrust upon them?

Gin'iro no Neko 8 did not create and therefore does not own Harry Potter or Wicked or anything else that can be claimed and sued for in this piece of fanfiction (that is why it is called FANfiction)!

Time limit for myself: 2 hours

I hope you enjoy this story!

A shrilled whistle pierced the dry air of the kitchen at Number 12 Grimmauld Place. Remus' feet shuffled across the cracked floorboards that seemed to groan ominously. The cause of the ear-splitting disturbance was none other than the ancient kettle that Remus' had put on the stove the moment Harry and Sirius were heard coming out of the floo. Sirius, who complained of a headache after their godfather-godson bonding day, had escaped to the attic leaving Remus with a silent, despondent Harry. Pouring the tea into two chipped mugs Remus thought about how to handle the situation. On one hand, Remus could wait until Harry wanted to talk about what was bothering him, which would probably not be in the near future. On the other hand Remus could confront his cub about the issue. While Remus loved Harry, comforting a fifteen-year-old hormonal, emotional boy was not what Remus was best at. However, the easy way out might not be the right way and so with determination Remus pulled out a chair at the table and gave Harry his tea.

"What's troubling you Cub?" Remus' asked in a soft tone as to not give Harry a fright. Harry sat motionlessly before he took a deep inhale of the tea in front of him. Minutes passed with only footsteps echoing from the floors above them. The moment Harry spoke Remus' stomach turned to lead.

"He, uh Sirius took me to their graves."

Silently cursing Sirius for abandoning him in this, Remus searched for the words to bandage the wound in Harry's heart. He could say that he missed his two long-gone friends too, tell a story about James and Lily, or speak about Lily's favorite flower, which was the daisy because it had a simple beauty to it. Any of those, even just the words sorry or I know would have been better than the 'oh' that came out of his mouth.

"I hate him." Mumbled Harry, his head lifting to look Remus in the eyes.

"Why? Why did he have to betray them? Why did they trust him? Why did no one know he was a wicked, wicked rat? I wish he had never been born!" Harry's voice got louder with each sentence until he was yelling angrily. At what Remus did not know.

Peter. Peter Pettigrew. Wormtail, the Rat, the Betrayer, former Marauder and ex-friend. Remus felt like a tosser and a fool. He should have know about Peter and he should be able to give his Cub the answers he desired, that much Harry deserved. He didn't want to though. He didn't want his only Cub to hate him, even though he rightfully earned it. They had all trusted Peter, shy naïve Peter and they should have known. But they hadn't and James, Lily, and Harry had paid the price. No, the blame did not rest on Peter alone.

"Are people born wicked Harry?"

"What do you mean? " Replied Harry with confusion written into his expression.

"I mean are people born wicked? Or do they have wickedness thrust upon them? I will tell you a story but please do not interrupt."

Harry nodded and Remus dived into his tale.

"In fifth year Peter met a girl named Jane Wellington at a Halloween ball in the Great Hall. She was a muggleborn in Hufflepuff with plain shoulder-length brown hair. They had bumped into each other while getting hors o devers and had talked into the night. When Peter had told us about Jane we all thought that she was just drunk and that we would have to cheer him up.

However, the next morning she came and sat down at the Gryffindor table for breakfast with him. They didn't have any classes together but soon they started to meet to practice Charms and she would sit every Monday morning at the Gryffindor table. The 14th of February they went to Hogsmeade together for their first date. None of us had ever seen Peter this happy before.

Seventh year started and came with it many changes. Lily, seeing that James had matured, asked him to Hogsmeade, which had excited him to no end. Sirius and I were still patching up our friendship from the mishap with Snape the year before and NEWTS were coming up. All of us were to busy within those couple of events that we forgot everything and everyone outside those events. Peter being one of those people.

We all had finally come out of our shells around Christmas time. Chestnuts roasted, tree decorated, we were having a merry time in our common room until Sirius asked Peter when Jane had ditched him. I can still remember Peter's face draining of colour and him getting up and leaving the common room. The room had gone quite until James made a joke about the Slytherins, which brought our attentions back to each other. What we hadn't known was that Jane had been killed that previous summer, before 7th year. She was at a muggle bank that got robbed and was shot. She died choking on her own blood. We had ignored our friend while he was suffering on his own and by the time we all had talked it out the next day it was too late. Nothing was ever the same with the Marauders after that.

I know what we did was unforgivable as it cause the death of your parents and Peter chose to do what he did. I don't deny any of that. But Harry the hatred in you right now; nothing good will come of it. Nothing ever good comes of hate."

Harry's eyes were wide and Remus spoke up before Harry could, knowing that he needed to say one last thing before he let Harry cast his judgment.

"Tell me, are people born wicked or do they have wickedness thrust upon them?"

The End.

I hope y'all like it as much as I like it. I loved this idea of the Marauders unknowingly pushing Peter towards the dark side, however Peter was free to make his own choices and he made the wrong one. We all have a choice and I know my choices are definitely influenced by friends and family but they are my choices and mine alone.

I did write this in about 2 hours to see how my writing is on a time limit. There will be mistakes, as I did not allow myself to go over the time limit before posting this but please review! I love getting feedback about what I do well and what I can improve on.