Peter Pettigrew. The Invisible One, the Friend of Sirius Black and James Potter, the Dumbest Boy in Class, the Traitor, the Rat.
Peter Pettigrew has earned every single one of these titles. Ever since he was a young boy, he always knew he didn't belong. Even among his most cherished friends, he was always the odd one out, the one no one really noticed as much.
When chances came for Peter to do something that would make James or Sirius notice him, he would do it in an instant.
This is why a particular situation occurred in this, the evening of November 5th, 1977.
Our protagonist, Peter, can be found in his Animagus form on the main floor, scurrying about. He was on an important mission – find out what Severus Snape was doing in the dead of night. James and Sirius had overheard Snape saying to Avery something about 'dungeons at midnight', so naturally, they had to find out what was going on with their most hated enemy.
Peter wasn't the first choice for this mission. The ideal choice would be James with his invisibility cloak – but James, as Head Boy, had duty that night. Sirius would have been next on the list, but the boys had an important project due tomorrow that Sirius hadn't started, much to Remus's discontent. That ruled him out. And then there was Remus of course – but they never sent Remus out before a full moon, and the next moon was three days away. Remus tended to get awfully tired and sick beforehand.
So Peter was chosen. He was happy to do his duty to his friends, but wished they had thought of him sooner. In his Animagus form, no one would ever see him! They'd played this to their advantage before, of course – Peter was their source for gossip. Well, for James and Sirius, anyway. Remus hated gossip. Peter had the perfect disguise – why did they never think of him?
Remus had suggested him first, of course. Remus always did things like that. But James and Sirius didn't listen. They never did.
This is why Peter was currently scurrying down the staircase to the dungeons as of late.
But then he sensed something and came to a sudden halt. He sniffed the air – and relaxed as he saw something out of the corner of his eye. It was only James, along with his fellow Head, Lily Evans. They must have duty down here tonight. He could hear them talking – what could it be about?
Now, Peter was never one for eavesdropping, especially on his best friend. But his curiosity was bursting – Lily hated James. So why did she speak to him in such a civil manner? He scurried towards them.
"-Don't see why we have to keep it a secret," Peter heard James say. "Don't' you want everyone to know?"
"Not particularly," Lily said, shaking out her mane of long red hair. "It's a bit embarrassing, to tell you the truth."
"I'm embarrassing?" James frowned, smile drooping.
"No, no," Lily said hurriedly. "It would be embarrassing for me because I kept turning you down all those years and now I've swallowed my pride."
"It's not swallowing pride," James assured her. "You just agreed to go to one Hogsmeade visit with me next week. We didn't snog or anything."
"Still, I think we should keep it a secret just until we know if it will work out," Lily said.
"I know it's going to work out," James put his arm around her. "I just know it."
James dipped his head. Peter gave a little gasp. (He could gasp as a rat?) James was going to kiss Lily Evans.
"Are you trying to kiss me, James?" Lily said.
"Can I?" James whispered.
"Yes."
Peter shut his eyes. This was just wrong. Lily Evans was not supposed to fall in love with James Potter. She was supposed to hate him for all eternity.
Then Peter started to get excited. When he told Sirius and Remus this, they'd be ecstatic! And he, Peter Pettigrew, had seen it and reported it. They would be so proud of him.
"Are you sure?" Sirius asked ten minutes later. Peter had returned to the dormitory and given his exciting news. "Are you sure James kissed Evans?"
"I'm sure," Peter said proudly. "I saw it with my own eyes."
"Well, this is definitely a new situation," Remus gave a dry chuckle from where he was situated in his bed.
"You can say that again," Sirius laughed. "Evans finally said yes! Hell must have frozen over."
"What do you think we should do about it?" Remus asked. "I mean, we obviously can't just ignore it."
"I've got it," Sirius face broke out into an evil smile. "We announce it in front of the whole school and bother them about it to no end."
"Or we could always tell James the truth, that Peter saw them kissing," Remus rolled his eyes.
"That's no fun," Sirius whined. "We have to mockthem excessively for it to be worth the trouble."
"We could always go down and see if they're still down in the dungeons," Peter suggested. "Then if we see them kissing again we could confront them."
"Wormtail, you are brilliant!" Sirius cried, dashing over to James's trunk to find the Invisibility Cloak. "And then we can mock them forever and ever!"
"Well, I have to see this," Remus slid down off of his four-poster and put is boots on.
"C'mon, lazy ones!" Sirius called as he dashed out the door. "We must go find Hogwarts's latest surprise couple!"
Lily checked her watch. 1:09. "Shift ends in twenty minutes," she said to James, who was a few paces in front of her. The shifts were running all night now that Voldemort was at large – she and James took 9:30 through 1:30 Monday through Thursday. The rest was divvied up between the teachers and prefects.
"Shame," James turned back and smiled at her. "I'd like to spend a little more time down here with you."
Lily felt her cheeks heat up. "Erm, c'mon, we have to keep going," she said, speeding up her pace slightly, not noticing the look of disappointment on James's face.
"Hey, I think I see someone," James called, peering through an empty doorway.
"Who?" Lily turned back to stand next to him. She looked into the room – to find it completely devoid of after-hours students. She turned to tell James of – and found him right next to her, their faces inches from each other.
"Will you kiss me this time, or do I have to initiate it again?" he smirked. Lily unconsciously gave a small smile before lifting her head up to meet James's lips.
"AHA!" cried a voice from behind them. The two parties broke apart, looking guilty. They turned to see Sirius Black, pointing a finger threateningly at them. "CAUGHT IN THE ACT!"
From behind Sirius, they could see Remus trying not to laugh, and Peter with an excited smile on his face. Lily felt her stomach squirm.
"Bye, James," she said, and hurried down the corridor and out of sight.
James glared at his friends. "Look what you lot did now?"