Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and never will.
"From the diary of Peter Amadeus Pettigrew June 1st, 1971
I have completed my education at Spellwicks school for highblood boys! I will now be receiving my Hogwarts letter and then I'll get an adult wand! I'm excited and so is Addie. Paulette is sad to see me got and I'm said to be going but I'm also very excited. I'll have to try and stop wetting the bed by then to save myself the embarrassment. I'm going to meet some muggle borns too and that should be interesting. Templeton and Nicolas are always saying we live like muggle here in Remordere proper. I miss india sometimes but I barely remember it. Once I get to Hogwarts I'll learn to apperate there. Wello, now to await the arrival of the owl.
-Peter Pettigrew soon to be greatest wizard ever"
Paulette sighed as she rummaged through Peter's old school things. Taking care of his son Beadle Bard Pettigrew just wasn't the same. Peter had never been as willful as Beadle Bard. She sighed, she was getting too old for this. Paulette Danielle Dupree was old, very old. She was also tired, very tired. She had lived through three wars, the fall of the muggle's empire and the panic in Remordere that followed as well as three generations of Pettigrews and a loveless affair with Albus Dumbledore before the thing with Grindelwald but it was getting taxing. Then again, her entire life was taxing.
She had been born of an affair between her mother and the reigning head of the Pettigrew family, Wolfgang Ashahel Pettigrew and her mother Delrina Dupree. She was a chamber maid for the oldest son of the family, Eugene Miles Pettigrew. From Eugene sprang ten surviving legitimate children and fifteen bastards. She was put to the task of nurturing her second youngest son, Peter Amadeus Pettigrew.
Peter Pettigrew was not a difficult child to care for. Never the willful child, rarely defiant but incredibly lonely. He was a lonely child and the circumstances of his life were nothing that could have helped matters. He had only one friend in his life up to Hogwarts, his living circumstances didn't help that.
"Up an Adam Peter Pettigrew! Happy Birthday!" said Addie cheerfully. Her face was just beginning to wrinkle but it did nothing to tarnish her appearance. The humidity on the other hand made her hair wild like a jungle no matter how many enchanted pins she put in it.
"I'm tired." Said five year old Peter Pettigrew from under his linen blanket. He wasn't tired, he just didn't want to get out of bed.
"Come on now, it's not every day the young master turns five." Said Paulette as she pulled the blanket off of him. He responded by pulling himself into his nightshirt.
"I know it's my birthday so I should be able to have my presents and eat my cake in my bed." Said Peter
"What of Addie?" said Paulette
"She can give me presents and eat cake in my bed too." Said Peter. Paulette pretended to look serious
"Well, if you spend the rest of your life in bed I can't tell you the surprise." Said Paulette nonchalantly fanning herself. The one thing she hated about India was the heat. Well, anything to get away from Albus –Too-Long-A-Name-For-His-Own-Good Dumbledore.
"What surprise? I can catch a snake?" asked Peter getting his head out of his night shirt.
"No! No more animals Peter Pettigrew." Said Paulette pulling the nightshirt up over his head.
"I can go starkers today?" asked Peter as Paulette rummaged through his wardrobe for something to wear. She handed Peter a set of combinations and he stood up waiting to be dressed.
"Well, it's two surprises actually." Said Paulette as she dressed him. Peter looked like he was ready to jump to the ceiling
"Tell me! Tell me! Tell me now!" said Peter unable to hold still.
"Not until you stop squirming. You want to spend the day in your skivvies?" said Paulette
"I can?" asked Peter
"No, what is your obsession with going about naked?" said Paulette as she pulled out a small short sailor suit.
"For me?" asked Peter running to his wardrobe. He threw it open and saw that instead of the childish semi dresses that permeated the first five years of his life there were tiny suits and kilts. He began to pull everything out of the wardrobe in a mad rush.
"Peter Pettigrew! These are new!" said Paulette as she pulled the wand from her sleeve. She gave a silent wave and the clothes flew back into their spots.
"I know! I'm all grown up now! When do I get my Hogwarts Letter?" asked Peter as he walked back to Paulette. She dressed him as best as she could while he moved back and forth in excitement.
"Not yet Peter, not yet." Said Paulette as she brushed his Pettigrew blonde hair made even blonder by the Indian Sun
"When? Or do they not deliver to India? Please tell me that they deliver to India." Said Peter as he brushed his teeth with bicarbonate of soda.
"Brush then talk, you'll choke." Said Paulette as she fixed his bow tie. If he was this excited wearing a child's suit she wondered how excited he would get wearing children's robes when he turned ten, and then Hogwarts robes at eleven.
"What's the other surprise?" asked Peter tucking his child's training wand into his pocket
"We're going home." Said Paulette as she picked the official all clear from her pocket. Peter looked at it and tried to read.
"My hi-guh bloo-d com-raids. I am pleased to ann-animate-an-noun…Paulette!" yelled Peter as he handed her the ordinance.
"It says that the outsider wizards finally got the last of Grindelwald's followers and we can go home." Said Paulette. Peter could have sworn that she said 'About bleeding time Albus'
"But this is home." Said Peter firmly. He knew that they came from another place but he didn't care. As far as he was concerned India was his home, this was his room, Addie was his best friend, and Paulette was his governess.
"This is our tea plantation in Assam, India. Home is the manor house in Remordere proper." Said Paulette
"I don't care! I live here! I'm not leaving! You hear me! I! Am! Not! Leaving!" yelled Peter, magic cackling around him. Suddenly it began to snow in the room. Paulette was amazed. He had done a few bouts of accidental magic before but nothing like this. He had never been that defiant either now that she thought of it.
"I don't decide Peter, your father does." Said Paulette as the snow began to melt. It looked more like crushed ice now that she thought about it.
"Then I'll-I'll-I'll make more snow and I'll kill all the tea." Said Peter as he began to concentrate. He waved his toy wand around a bit and only succeeded in unraveling his bowtie.
"Oh Peter." Said Paulette. She tied his bow tie and reluctantly banished the snow before it ruined the floor.
I'm not going." Said Peter. There was a knock at the door.
"Enter." Said Paulette. The young child that was Adelhyde Cassandra Hilspare, better known as Addie. She entered the room with an aura of importance for somebody so young, dragging her exhausted governess with her.
"Happy birthday Peter." Said Addie hugging him. This seemed to cure him of the huff he was in.
"Hello Addie, Viola." Said Paulette shaking Addie and he governess' hands.
"Present you daughter of a pig!" yelled Addie as she kicked Viola in the shin. Viola quickly pulled a package out of her seemingly bottomless bag.
"We're not supposed to call them that, it's a bad insult." Said Peter
"Only to the natives." Said Addie as she adjusted her hat. She was covered from head to toe in purple. Paulette hoped that Peter ended up nothing like Adelhyde Hilspare.
"Here you go young master." Said Viola. She handed Peter a carefully wrapped package and Peter tore into it quickly. Inside was a small non-lethal snake. Paulette wanted to take it away from him but he didn't want two children throwing tantrums.
"I'm sure he's not venomous. I wanted to get you an asp or a cobra but she was afraid." Said Addie gesturing towards Viola. The children began to play and Peter seemed to have completely forgot what he was angry about. She looked over at Viola and offered a comforting hand. Viola had been a servant for even longer than her but she was old, tired, and beaten.
"Who are they?" asked Viola as she motioned out the window towards the garden. Three girls stood in the garden and they seemed to be arguing. The back haired girl appeared to be pregnant and the blonde girl was pale as any dark seeker she had ever seen. The girl with the dark blonde hair seemed to be angry about something. Paulette turned around to leave the room but she heard viola gasp.
"What? Where did they go?" asked Paulette ignore by the children who were trying to see if they had the ability speak to snakes. Viola and Paulette were both glad that the snake was under a snake charming spell.
"They disappeared in a ball of fire." Said Viola. This got the children's attention but their attention was quickly brought back to the snake
"So they disapperated?" asked Paulette
"It didn't look like any apperation I've ever seen." Said Viola. They were stopped when all the windows closed and a paraffin lamp flicked on.
"Mother requests your presence, brother." Said Nicolas Andrew Pettigrew. He was what was commonly referred to as a dark seeker. He was allergic to sunlight but he could go outside with a complicated set of potions and glamor spells. It was taxing on the nine soon to be ten year old so he didn't have them performed often. He was the reason why close cousins and especially half siblings shouldn't marry.
"Yes, N-Nicky." Said Peter. Peter was afraid of both the dark and his older brother. Addie on the other hand was defiant.
"We're playing." Said Addie. She grabbed Peter's hand and Peter looked to Paulette for help.
"Please unhand him, Adlehyde." Said Paulette as she grabbed Peter's other hand
"No! We're playing!" said Addie angrily
"Like I said little girl, he is needed." Said Nickolas
"Ad-Adlhyde….he needs to go now." Said Viola her face looking even more creased than usual. Addie turned beet red.
"What did you just say to me!" screeched Addie. She threw the cage at Viola but Paulette stopped it. Addie took her play wand from her sleeve and brandished it at Paulette. Paulette disarmed her with a wave of her hand.
"I'm going home! And when we go to Remordere proper I'll see both of you fired and in the poor house!" said Addie as she pulled Viola out the door to the disapperation spot in the hallway.
"Well, she's tightly wound." Said Nicolas with a chuckle. He motioned for Peter to follow and Paulette stayed to clean the mess up.
"Why am I needed?" asked Peter. He seldom saw his father at any time besides meals and his mother even less so. He pulled to the side as his sister older sister Margareta rushed past him followed by his other older sister Anne, another dark seeker. Peter wondered briefly why he wasn't one when so many of his siblings were
"Because you are, don't ask me how mother's mind works." Said Nicolas as they stopped in front of the door to the study. Angry muttering could be heard from within.
"Nicky…" said Peter as Nicolas wrapped at the door.
"She only asked for you." Said Nicolas.
"Enter." Said Lady Magnolia Mulberry Pettigrew. She nodded to her friend the Baron who was regaling her with tales of his conquests in the previous century. They said she was made but she knew they sought her out. She smiled as her second youngest but most adorable son entered the room.
"Hello mother." Said Peter as he stood in the door way nervously.
"One mustn't lurk in doorways, Peter. It's very rude. People might even begin to question your upbringing." Said Magnolia as she smoothed down her hair. He face, hands, and hair were streaked with ink from her note taking. She didn't want the servants to take her notes as she dictated them because she knew they thought she was mad.
"Mother?" asked Peter as he walked up to her. She took him in a hug and didn't care that his suit was getting ink on it. He knew what they said about his mother and he admitted that he was a bit unnerved with her.
"Now that you're five I want to know something." Said Magnolia
"Yes mother, what is it?" said Peter as he looked at the piles and piles of notes his mother had filled the study with. Some were magically sorting themselves out but most were sitting there in piles.
"Can you see them?" asked Magnolia motioning vaguely to het left
"See the parchment?" asked Peter
"No son, the notes are only what they give me. Can you see them?" asked Magnolia stressing her words now.
"Sorry mother." Said Peter shaking his head. Magnolia sighed.
"I agree baron and baroness, complete shame. Maybe the other boy perhaps? Templeton shows progress. Well, at least he can go out in the sunshine! Oh, don't give me that!" said Magnolia as she began to argue with nobody. Peter was afraid and his himself under the table. He drew his socks up past his knees to his breaches to keep warm as the temperature dropped. The argument began to get more intense and Peter crawled out of the study. It was a very memorable birthday.