A/N: this just popped into my head on the train home from college the other day so I ran with it. Not really sure how I feel about where it ended up going but…love it…hate it…let me know!
Edit: This is a repost, just thought I'd give it one more shot before I delete it.
I was just sitting down to get lost in a good book when I heard frantic knocking at my front door. I immediately threw my book down on the couch and ran to open it. On the other side was my boyfriend Peter. His eyes were twitching wildly as they darted all around the room and back out into the street behind him. He seemed terrified, like something or someone was after him.
"Pete, what's wrong?" I asked as I ushered him inside.
"I-I c-can't tell you", he spluttered as he sat down heavily on the couch. He took one look at me before burying his head in his hands. Mere moments later I heard loud sobs coming from between his hands.
I gently took his hands in my own and held them in my lap. He looked up at me through tear-filled eyes and my heart broke to see him so upset.
"Pete you can tell me", I assured him, "you can trust me with anything".
"N-no, you don't understand", he said, "you'll hate me if I tell you the truth".
"Don't be an idiot Pete, how could I ever hate you", I asked, "I love you, you know that".
As if to prove my point I took his face gently in my own and kissed him with everything I had. I kissed him with so much passion that he could never doubt the way I felt about him.
"Actually Pete", I said as soon as we broke apart, "there's something I need to tell you".
Pete looked at me quizzically for a moment, then flinched and grabbed his left arm. As if the pain in his arm had reminded him of something, he stood up and began pacing the room.
"I can't do this to you", he whispered, his voice betraying the fact that he might break down at any moment, "I can't bring you into this, I'm doing this to keep you safe and you'll be much safer as far away from me as possible".
"I don't understand Pete, please help me understand", I implored him, "Voldemort is tearing our world apart, how can anything you do now keep me safe".
He looked away from me and I went to him and put my arms around him. He looked down at me and pushed a stray curl behind my ear. He kissed me on the forehead and whispered, "you are beautiful Sarah, I don't deserve you, I'm a horrible person".
"Don't be daft, it's not like your one of those bloody Shit Eaters", I laughed.
Before he could answer, a loud boom echoed through the streets outside. Peter ran to the window and scanned the street. He slowly backed away from the window and cried, "Oh Merlin, he's found me". He ran out the front door and I followed him.
By the time I made it to the street, Peter was at the far end, closely followed by our good friend Sirius Black.
"Get back here you rat", Sirius screamed.
Everything seemed to speed up, next thing I knew Peter was dead, and Sirius was being dragged to the ground by a large group of aurors. I broke down crying in the middle of the street, I couldn't believe it, I just couldn't believe that Sirius would do this.
In the days following I was hounded by reporters everywhere I went, "Did Black show any signs of changing sides?", "Why do you think he killed Pettigrew and betrayed the Potters?", and my personal favourite from Rita Skeeter, "Did Black kill Pettigrew to get him out of the way so he could have you to himself?". That woman was poison personified and I pitied anyone who ended up on the wrong end of her quill. None of them cared that my life had been torn to shreds; I was just another juicy topic to them.
Years later when the truth came out my world crumbled around me all over again. Everything suddenly made sense. Suddenly I understood why Peter had been so agitated that night. I understood why Peter thought I would hate him when I learned the truth, and he had been right. He had destroyed so many lives that night because he was too much of a coward to stand against the evil that was threatening our world. When news came that he was dead for real I didn't shed a tear for him. He meant nothing to me, I would not mourn him a second time.
As I sat in the Great Hall eighteen years after that fateful night, I couldn't help but think of all the times we'd shared in this very room. I looked at the line of nervous seventh years waiting in line to graduate. I caught my daughter's eye and she waved at me enthusiastically, her fathers small blue eyes darting all around the room as his used to. She didn't have many friends, usually tagged along with others rather than trying to be her own person. I tried to shape her into a stronger person then he had been but sometimes she was so much like him that it scared me.
Professor McGonagall called her name and she darted forward to collect her scroll. She didn't know who her father was, just that I had loved him very much and that he had died during the First Wizard War. In a way, I was glad I had never told her, back then it had just been too painful but now I did not want her to have to live with the legacy of what he had done.
After the ceremony my favourite teacher from my time at Hogwarts, Horace Slughorn, came up to me and said, "You should be very proud Ms Edgecomb, your daughter is a credit to you", before moving off to talk to some more parents.
Minutes later my daughter barrelled toward me and caught me in a bear like hug. As we left the castle to walk around the grounds I told her, "You know Marietta, sometimes your more like your father than I thought".
Whatever else Peter had done, he had given me something to hold on to when everything else was gone, he had given me something to love.