"Thanks again for helping me with my potions homework, Lily", Peter said, as he finished up one of his many homework problems Slughorn had assigned, "I have no idea why I thought I could continue potions into 7th year".
"Any time, Peter. And you're doing really well; don't worry! This is really tricky stuff he has us doing to prepare for N.E.W.T.s" Lily smiled back at Peter. She'd been helping him with his potions homework all term and could really see his improvement.
The two of them sat at one of the Gryffindor common room tables with their books and potions materials spread out. Just as they began to look over the next problem Slughorn had assigned, the portrait hole opened and James and Sirius climbed through.
"Oi, Wormtail! Potions homework? Try not to blow up the common room this time!" Sirius teased as he and James made their way over to Lily and Peter's table. James smirked at Sirius's joke. Peter looked slightly embarrassed but he was used to his friends' teasing.
"When are you guys going to be done," James asked Lily.
"I don't know we still have a few problems to do," she replied.
"It's late," James said back.
"I know but we want to get this done," Lily was starting to get a hint of annoyance in her voice.
"Alright, whatever," James retorted. He turned and walked toward the staircase to the boys' dormitories. Sirius just looked at Lily and Peter, shrugged and followed James. The two disappeared up the stairs.
"Is everything okay with you and James. He's been pretty sour lately," Peter asked Lily once he was sure his friends were out of earshot.
"Yeah, it's fine. We had an argument but we're okay," Lily replied, suddenly becoming very interested in her potions problem.
"Why'd you argue?" Peter pressed on. Sometimes he was bad at picking up on cues. This was the one of those times. To anyone else, it would be obvious that Lily didn't want to keep talking about it.
"It's nothing, just talking about the future and stuff. What we'll do after Hogwarts, jobs, stuff like that. No big deal," Lily replied. This time the tone in her voice was so obvious that even Peter realized not to press the subject further. He allowed her to change the subject back to potions.
"Alright so I think we should practice this one because I'm sure it'll come up on the exam," said Lily, pointing to an extremely long and complicated set of directions, "You start grinding the dittany and I'll get to work on separating the dragon blood".
As Lily rolled up her sleeves to start working with the messy mixture, Peter noticed something odd.
"What's that on your arm?" he asked, pointing to a massive black and blue bruise that clearly stood out on her pale forearm. It almost looked like someone had grabbed her there so tight that the bruise formed in the shaped of a hand.
"What? Oh this, I pinched myself between my bed and the wall the other day reaching for something I dropped!," Lily replied all too quickly.
"Really? You must have pinched yourself pretty hard," Peter was skeptical and starting to feel concerned. Did this have something to do with James?
"Yeah, it hurt pretty bad. Clumsy me," Lily replied, mixing the dragon blood furiously and avoiding Peter's concerned look. Not sure what to do, Peter slowly returned to grinding the leaves that were in front of him.
No way James would hurt her like that. Sure, he's a little jealous and controlling but he loves her. They're happy together, he thought to himself.
"Okay so is the dittany ready?" she interrupted his thought. Her voice sounded shaky, like she was trying to hold back tears.
"Yeah, here…," he dumped the ingredient into the cauldron, "Seriously though Lily, is everything okay?"
"Yes, Peter it's fine. We just had a little argument. It's my fault anyway," her voice broke off at the end. A tear slowly welled up over her eyelid despite her best efforts to hold it back.
"Lily, please if something is wrong you have to tell me," Peter didn't know what to do but he knew this was not normal. Lily was the toughest, most levelheaded girl he had ever come across. Certainly she would not start crying unless something was seriously wrong.
"I was stupid. I tried to makes amends with Severus since we're graduating and stuff. I didn't want to leave Hogwarts on bad terms," she wiped a tear from her eye, and sat back in her seat.
"What's so stupid about that? He was your first friend in the wizarding world," Peter replied. He had a strong feeling James did not share his view on this issue.
"Come on Peter, you know he and James don't get along. I should've just let it go," Lily turned away and looked out the window. Peter sat, silently staring at the table cluttered with potions ingredients. Would she really be this upset over a little argument? She and James had argued before and it was never a problem. Any other time, they'd be over it by the end of the day. There had to be something else going on here.
Peter didn't even want to entertain the thought they came into his mind next but the possibility seemed too real. He had seen James get violent before. He'd been in plenty of drunken fights with the Slytherin gang. One time he was blacked out and punched Sirius squarely in the chest when the latter was trying to stop him from destroying their dorm room. But he would never hit Lily. Or would he?
"Lily, did James…hurt you?" he asked her, barely above a whisper. Lily just stared at him, horrified. Eyes wide, she shook her head frantically and tried to speak, but all that came out of her mouth was a sob. Peter felt like he wanted to be sick. Should he comfort her? Should he leave her alone? Should he tell someone?
"What did he do?" he asked, without really realizing. He could not get over the initial shock.
"It's nothing. Peter, really it's nothing," she labored to get out between sobs. Clearly, it wasn't nothing. "He just grabbed me by my arm. He was a little heated but he didn't mean to hurt me."
"Why did he even grab you like that in the first place?" Peter was starting to feel angry, scared, conflicted. He looked up to James. He loved being included with everything he and Sirius did. He had always thought that someday he wanted a relationship like James and Lily's. Now all of this was crumbling before him.
"I don't know I was just trying to walk away from him and he wasn't done talking to me yet so he grabbed my arm and pulled me back," she wiped her eyes on her sleeve.
"He grabbed you that hard that it left that awful bruise? Lily, that isn't okay! That's, I don't know, abuse or something!" this could not be real.
"No, James doesn't abuse me. He loves me," Lily said, sounding like she was trying to convince herself more than she was trying to convince Peter.
"Lily, you need to tell McGonagall or someone. I'm serious, that isn't okay," he was starting to feel like he should take this into his own hands.
"No! I could never do that! James and I would be done; we would probably lose our head status. He could get in a lot of trouble for that, Peter! Like I said, it was my fault," tears started streaming down her face again.
"Lily, it is not your fault! How can you say that?" Peter wanted this to be some sick nightmare.
"Yes, it is. I shouldn't have even reached out to Severus. I deserved to get shoved up against that wall—" she cut herself off. She'd said something she hadn't meant to.
"What wall? Lily, what did he do to you?!" Peter had always been extremely fond of Lily and hearing about this made his blood boil.
"Peter, please just stop. I've already told you too much. You CANNOT tell James you know about this. Or anyone. I'm serious, Peter. You cannot tell anyone," she pleaded with him. He looked into her tear-filled green eyes.
"Lily, I can't let this keep happening," he didn't know what to do. Should he tell on his best friend or let this same friend continue to physically harm Lily?
"It won't happen again," she replied.
"How do you know that?" Peter said back.
"He promised he wouldn't hit me again. He was just as upset, Peter. He just got so angry because he loves me and wants to protect me," she sounded like she was programmed to say the words.
"Lily, that's just what he says. If he loved you he'd never think of laying a hand on you," nothing seemed right anymore.
"Peter. Stop. I was there. I'm the one dating James. I know what happened. Please just promise to keep your mouth shut," she was suddenly more composed.
"Lily, come on. I—"
"Peter!"
"Okay, I…I promise," he didn't know what else to do.
"Thank you. I'm going to bed," she said quietly as she packed up her potions supplies and slipped up the steps to the girls' dormitories, leaving Peter sitting alone in the common room.
He felt sick. He wanted to run right upstairs and beat the ever-living shit out of James Potter. But he couldn't. Without James, he was nothing.
He slowly got up and walked up the stairs. On his way up the spiral staircase he decided he'd do it. He was going to make James pay for what he did to such a sweet, caring, innocent girl like Lily. It was time for Peter Pettigrew to finally, finally stand up to James Potter.
He reached the bedroom door and threw it open, wand drawn. He took two steps through the doorway and stopped dead in his tracks. He looked at James's bed, with the curtains closed. Nothing was stopping him from hexing the life right out of this abuser. But instead, he dropped his wand and slowly made his way over to his own bed.
Someday Peter Pettigrew would make sure James Potter paid for what he did. Today, however, was not the day.