So this is my first Harry Potter fanfic and as such, I believe it would be good for me to give an overview. I plan on writing 7 stories in total, one for each year of the Marauders in school. The first four stories will have a plot that resolves around each of the Marauders and in this one, it is Peter. These fics should be able to read if you haven't read/watched Harry Potter. So, now I give you the blurb!
This is the first installment of the First Book of The Marauders. When four boys go to Hogwarts (a school for wizards and witches) an alliance is formed and they become fast friends as they perform pranks and make the best use of their year at school. But things won't be so easy for these four and the Forbidden Forest looms on the horizon of their journey.
Chapter 1 - Where All Roads Lead
Peter was bouncing up and down in excitement as he kept a tight grasp on his Hogwarts letter and the instructions. He was not going to risk missing anything from this school and he had arrived twenty minutes early at the station.
Remus was nervous about starting school and he ended up twelve minutes early, keeping close to his father as he stood on the station, looking around at the mass of other students. He had his luggage close to him but made no movement towards the train.
James and Sirius were both just on time, arriving between two and one minutes before the train actually left, hurrying towards the it and leaping on just in time, one appearing through the gate just as the other hopped on. They had met up there and taken an almost empty compartment.
As the train started forwards, Peter stumbled. Despite arriving early, he had been unable to get a compartment. The first one he had gotten into had been empty until some Ravenclaw Sixth Years had arrived and said the carriage belonged to them. With much apologies, Peter scuttled out, dragging his suitcase with him. After about five minutes he found another carriage with three Slytherin second years who had glanced at him as he took a step inside before he found himself flung backwards and on top of his suitcase. Wiping his eyes, Peter continued on and managed to sit with a bunch of other first years. Now that the train was on its way, Peter's eyes lit up with excitement and he started speaking to the others.
"I can't wait. I wonder which house I will be sorted into. Do any of you have any idea where you will be sorted?" He asked.
"I think I will be in Hufflepuff but I want to be in Gryffindor." Said one of the girls.
"I'm going to be in Ravenclaw, both my parents belong in there." A boy said proudly.
"There's houses? I knew I should have read all the information." Another said, panicking.
"Well, there's three houses," Peter started.
"Four," Interrupted one of the others said.
"Right, four. And they are Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, Slytherin and... and..."
"Ravenclaw." Said the boy who had spoke about wanting to be in Ravenclaw.
"Ravenclaw. And then there's this hat, the Sorting Hat, which puts you into one of the houses." Peter finished, looking proud of himself.
James and Sirius had so far managed to have a healthy conversation without bringing up houses. They had tried to have a conversation with the girl in their compartment but she seemed to be worried about school or something and so they had left her alone. There was an obvious silent wall between them.
"I can't wait to study Defence Against the Dark Arts. I've read the whole text book for it. Or atleast the interesting parts." James said, eagerly talking to Sirius.
"I want to have a go at Muggle Studies but we don't get to study that until Third Year." Sirius replied, with a grin.
"It would be interesting to find out more about Muggles, how they cope without magic." James replied with a nod before his face suddenly lit up. "Wait, I've forgotten about charms! Of course that will be lots of fun as well. I think it would be useful for playing pranks-" James' voice trailed off and he looked towards the girl in the carriage who was staring out the window before nervously flickering towards Sirius to see his response.
"Pranks, great! I was worried I might be the only one." Sirius sighed in relief.
"Glad you agree. Want to partner up for pranking?" James asked, leaning forwards in earnest interest and turning his body slightly to make sure that the only other student in the compartment would be excluded. He didn't want anyone else knowing about his interest before he had even got started. Keeping the detentions off his back would not be easy if she was a tell tale twits and informed the teachers of his hobby. Although he couldn't help but notice her beauty. Her hair was quiet striking. That was probably it. Red hair was rare and that must have been what had caught his attention.
Remus had been unable to get a compartment. He was too nervous to enter one as they all had someone inside it. The emptiest one, he recalled, had a single boy in it who looked like first year and after the train had started moving, Remus decided to go back to see if he could sit with the other boy. As he reached the carriage, he looked through all the compartments and saw that all of them were full with no sign of the slightly podgey student he had seen earlier and he gave a sigh. Well, he would have to continue looking or else he would remain in the corridor for the whole trip.
Walking onwards, Remus went through three more carriages until he suddenly found the boy he had seen earlier. Or more accurately, the boy had found him, for it the slightly podgey first year and his luggage that was shoved out of the compartment he was in and ended up in a heap just in front of Remus.
"Are you OK?" Remus asked, taking a step back and helping the boy up.
"I... don't think they like me." The boy said as he took Remus' hand and stood up in the train. A frown appeared on Remus' face as he looked inside at the compartment of First Years.
"Really. Do you know why?" He asked, unsure why first years would throw out a fellow student in the same, or at least a similar, situation to themselves.
"I think I said something wrong. I started a conversation about the houses and then they asked me what house I wanted to be in and I said I didn't know and that they all sounded to be good."
"I think the houses are all fairly competitive." Remus said, glancing back inside and noticing another student looking nervously around at the others.
"I also then said I thought I might need help with any homework that we got." he added and Remus gave an understanding nod.
"It's probably too early to talk about homework. They're probably stressed. If it helps, I can try and help you with homework although I'm not sure how good I will be," Remus replied, having already read all the books to try and get on top of everything. "My name's Remus Lupin, by the way." He introduced himself.
"I'm Peter, Peter Pettigrew."
Much more searching had not lead Remus and Peter to find a compartment to sit in and Remus noticed that Peter seemed to be feeling down due to their lack of success.
"Come on Peter, it'll be fine. I'm sure we'll find a place soon." Remus encouraged the boy, looking into another compartment. It was full and Peter collapsed on his trunk and closed his eyes.
"You should go on without me." He said, sounding absolutely dejected.
"Peter, we'll find somewhere."
"But I've stopped us getting anywhere!" Peter protested.
"It's not you. They're mostly older than us, we probably seem to be annoying younger years."
"But I got us chucked out of that last one"
"No you didn't. They never said that they would let us sit with them, you'd just gone in before they had decided whether they were willing to take on two extra people. Besides, it was already full."
"Are you two looking for somewhere to sit?" Peter's eyes opened at the sound of another voice and he looked towards the boy who had spoken. The other boy was the same age and had just left the toilets, appearing to have just gotten changed into his robes. The boy had messy dark hair and glasses.
"That would be welcome, yes." Remus said after a long pause and the other boy gave a cheerful nod.
"Right, follow me. You're lucky I came along. I think everywhere's full apart from our compartment." He said
"What's keeping you, James?" A head poke out from a compartment, a boy with shoulder length black hair and sparkling mischievous eyes had been the source of the voice.
"I found some other first years who are lacking a place to stay until we get to Hogwarts. You don't mind that I invited them in?" James asked.
"No problem. The more the merrier, hey?" Sirius said, pushing open the door and moving to help bring in the luggage. The carriage was almost empty apart from a red-headed girl who's face seemed to be pressed against the window as she stared out at the changing scenery.
"What were you names, again?" James asked, making full use of the extra space by spreading out.
"I'm Remus and this is Peter."
"Cool. I'm James and he's Sirius. We've only just met on this journey but we're definitely going to be in the same house. No way anything is separating us."
"How do you know that?" Asked Peter, looking between the two.
"He means that we don't want to be split up. Not that we definitely will be." Sirius explained, opening a pack of Bertie's Box Every Flavoured Beans and offering them around.
"Thanks!" James said taking a large handful.
"Hey, don't take all of them!" Sirius replied but he handed the box around and Peter and Remus took a small handful which grew as Sirius threw more into their hands. The girl in the compartment ignored them even when Sirius offered her some of the sweets and he shrugged, turning back to the other boys.
"I got given a load of money to get anything I wanted while in Diagon Alley." Sirius grinned, throwing beans into his mouth and barely chewing before swallowing them. The already less than half full box quickly depleted as Sirius scoffed the food.
"It's not poisoned you know." Sirius said. The only other person who had started eating was James who took it at a slower speed but his pile soon disappeared. Remus started eating a few which encourages Peter to start eating as well.
"Yuck." Peter said after a few seconds.
"What flavour did you get?" Sirius asked, leaning forwards and looking at Peter.
"It tasted like used and very old shoes." Peter said, taking another one as he tried to get the dreadful taste out of his mouth. Remus looked more nervous about eating the rest of his pile.
"Bad luck. They aren't all too bad though." Sirius said before giving a shudder. "Boggies. I swear I attract those ones. I've had over three of them in my lifetime."
"Because your lifetime has really been so long that you can talk about it like that." James said with a laugh.
"Yep, I'm ancient."
"Totally believe you."
"Anyone know when the trolley comes along?" Remus interrupted, still holding about ten beans in his hand. No one noticed at this point a boy coming in and moving to sit next to the only female occupant.
"In a few hours, Re..." Sirius said, holding on the 'e' and tapping his fingers against his legs. "...mus." He finished, remembering the name.
"Oh, right." Remus replied, having heard quiet a bit about the trolley and the sweets on his journey through the carriages.
"Yeah, it is something, if I've heart correctly." Sirius said, seeing the expression on Remus' face.
"Is it lunch stuff?" Peter asked, having finished his beans,
"Light stuff and a lot of sweets." Sirius replied quickly. "Although I've got a lot of sweets on me anyway. Prices on the trolley is less than other places but you never can guarantee that you'll get what you want." Sirius said,
"How do you know all this stuff?" Questioned Peter.
"Family all have gone to Hogwarts. It's a big tradition." Sirius replied, looking darker.
"Where you hoping for something in particular?" James asked, looking towards Remus, whose face redened slightly.
"Chocolate," He said after a pause. "Its really good stuff, you know. Great for people after they've encountered dementors as it helps cheers you up. But as such it can be used at any time to create the same effects."
"Are you not happy?" Sirius asked.
"Nervous, really. And I think I may have developed a soft spot for chocolate."
"Not a bad thing to have a soft spot for, in my opinion." Sirius said, getting up and looking through his bag. "Hm... no chocolate on me, I'm afraid. Ate the last chocolate frog about an hour ago."
"No worries. If I can't get any chocolate on the trolley then there will always be the feast." Remus shrugged.
"I wonder what there will be at the feast. Bet there's loads and loads of food." Peter said.
"Obviously, it's a feast." James replied, rolling his eyes.
"There's something for everyone, if I've been told correctly. No one goes hungry, even the fussy kids. Although my parents think that the fussy children should learn to eat what they're given." Sirius said with a frown. Suddenly James' head turned as he caught a word said by the two other occupants.
"Slytherin?" He repeated, looking at the greasy haired boy. Suddenly the compartment was a lot quieter. Sirius became more withdrawn, Remus looked down at the beans in his hand and Peter fingers twitched, nervously. It was only then that everyone of the students became aware of how rowdy the four boys had been.
"Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" Sirius looked up at James' question and the usual smile that had been plastered on his face did not return.
"My whole family have been in Slytherin," Sirius replied and Peter's fingers stopped moving for a second. Luckily the tension was broken by James.
"Blimey, and I thought you seemed all right!" At this the four boys relaxed, Peter's body slumped somewhat, Remus grew a small smile and Sirius openly grinned. The greasy haired boy seemed annoyed and the red-head impartial.
"Maybe I'll break the tradition. Where are you heading, if you've got the choice?"
"'Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart!' Like my dad." As James lifted an invisible sword, Peter ducked and James grinned and he pretended to knight Peter before a small sound distracted him. The sound had come from the fifth boy in the carriage.
"Got a problem with that?" James turned to look at the boy and once again the tension built up. Remus who had enjoyed the lightening of the mood bit his lip and Sirius seemed to freeze as if sensing a possible threat.
"No, If you'd rather be brawny than brainy –" But the boy had barely got to speak in his sneer-like tone before he was interrupted.
"Where're you hoping to go, seeing as you're neither?" Sirius had not relaxed his body but his voice suggested otherwise and Peter thought that it looked slightly intimidating. James on the other hand seemed to find a lot of amusement in that as laughter erupted from him and after a few seconds, Peter joined in. Remus didn't say anything but looked away.
"Come on, Severus, let's find another compartment." This time it was the girl how spoke and she got up and the other boy followed her.
"Oooooo…" James and Sirius said at the same time, making the most of the situation as they impersonated the girl. As they walked past, James put out his foot and almost tripped the boy.
"See ya, Snivellus!" It was Peter's voice that called out just as the door closed and James and Sirius stared at Peter.
"That's brilliant!" James declared and Peter looked very proud of himself.
"Might have to keep it if we see him again." Sirius smiled and Remus opened his mouth about to say something but he stopped and contented himself with listening to their conversation.
"We won't see him again, will we. I don't think he was very nice." Peter said.
"No, he doesn't take good care of his hair." Sirius said and James nodded.
"That's definitely how you judge people. By their hair."
"I thought it was shoes..." Peter muttered.
"Why would shoes show what you're like?" James questioned.
"Why would hair?" Remus finally rejoined the conversation, aware the cheerful tone of the group was still somewhat lacking after the encounter.
"You know what, I don't know." James laughed but as it died down a small rumble sounded and everyone looked towards Peter.
"I think I'm a bit hungry. I would have usually had a sandwich by now." Peter explained, looking slightly embarrassed and Remus handed him the rest of his beans.
"Don't you like them?" Sirius asked as he noted this exchange while Peter's face lit up with delight, despite his early encounter with a shoe flavoured one.
"I'd rather not risk my lucky streak of nice tasting ones." Remus said with a small nervous smile and James gave a loud laugh.
"Probably the wisest thing anyone has ever decided when it comes to those beans." Almost as soon as James had finished speaking there came a chocking sound from Peter who looked fairly pale as he took out one of the beans he had been eating.
"What flavour did you get this time?" Sirius asked curiously.
"I'd rather not say." Peter said, turning greener just at the thought of talking about it.
"My brother got one of those." Sirius shrugged.
"You mean that's an actual flavour?" Peter asked, looking confused.
"Nah, just that it does happen and people do get dreadful ones."
"Oh. Well, I guess Remus was correct to stop eating them."
"Great self control. Wish I could do that," James said looking towards the tiny remains of the box which rested in Peter's hand.
"You're not going to eat those, are you?" He questioned and as the boy shook his head, James dived in and took one while Sirius took advantage of the offer and took two, eating them both at the same time.
"Chocolate and fudge. My luck has finally caught up with me!" Sirius declared, his face beaming at having got two such good flavours.
"This time I got the boggies." James said with a sigh and Sirius laughed.
"You've stolen my boggie streak, hopefully. It gets annoying after a while."
"How often do you get the same flavour?"
"The only one I've had repeats of is boggie. You?"
"I've had two banana ones."
"That's not too bad."
"I suppose I am lucky about that," James ran a hand through his hair at that thought then looked at Peter and Remus who were still in casual clothing
"You two should probably get changed. It's good to get a feel of the uniform." He suggested.
"Put in the creases and such. I hate stiff clothing." Sirius added.
"Same! And it has to be loose as well for easy movement." James replied.
"But not long and loose which leads it to making too much noise."
"Are you two sure you aren't twins?" Remus' words were casual this time as he went to get his uniform but they were still quiet.
"Maybe we are. Wouldn't that be so awesome! I've always wanted a brother." James said, looking delighted at the idea.
"Trust me, you wouldn't want to be part of my family." Sirius muttered.
"Well, you can be part of mine then." James said decisively and Remus slipped out of the compartment to get changed in the toilets while Peter looked between the two other boys.
"You don't look like twins." He said slowly.
"Hey, don't spoil my dreams!" James protested.
"You've only had your dreams for about two seconds!" Sirius laughed and Peter joined in, semingly nervous but wanting to be included. He was uncomfortable without Remus being there. Already the boy had found the presence of Remus reassuring and Peter didn't like being alone with these two strangers.
"That doesn't mean that they aren't my biggest and most important dreams!" James laughed, looking completely at ease as he threw himself back on the seat and looked up at the roof.
"If we end up in different houses we've got to promise to meet up, Sirius." James said, his voice taking a turn for the serious just as Remus entered, now dressed in his school robes.
"Sounds like an idea." Sirius said, just at the same time that Peter offered a greeting to Remus.
"Do you have an older sibling?" James asked, looking upside down at Remus as soon as Peter had spoken.
"No, why?" Remus asked, looking confused before relisation spread across his face. "Oh, these a second hand. My family isn't too wealthy." Sirius gave a frown as he looked at his own.
"I've always told Mother that we should give our old robes to shops but she refuses. They don't even look worn when she throws them out." No one could miss the displeasure in Sirius' voice.
"Don't get on very well with your mother?" James asked.
"That would be an understatement," Sirius chuckled. "We've never seen eye to eye."
"Families don't often do. And we don't have to worry about it because we're going to be spending all our time at school." Peter said, trying to be helpful.
"Families get on better with each other than mine." Sirius said.
"I'm going to try and go home as often as possible." James muttered and Peter looked around nervously until his desperate gaze fell upon Remus.
"What I think Peter is trying to say is that all families have problems on occasions and if it is too much of a problem, we can always be thankful that Hogwarts will keep us until the summer holidays." Remus said, trying to help Peter out and the boy nodded his head vigorously at Remus words and the others gave a shrug.
"Anything from the trolley?" Came a voice, breaking the silence that had descended on them and Sirius lept up.
"Still got any chocolate frogs?" He asked, striding over to her.
"I've got five left."
"Right, I'll have all of them and a box of Every Flavoured beans, still got those, right? Good. And four pumpkin pasties... wait, make that six. And four plates if you have any." Sirius said, giving the witch a brilliant smile as he gave her his order and she hurriedly set about getting everything out. Sirius handed over the money, still smiling and took the items.
"Thank you." He said, handing the plates out and tossing the pumpkin pasties to everyone along with a chocolate frog each, the fifth one going to Remus who's ears turned red at being the only one to have two chocolate frogs.
"We'll make a start on the beans later?" Sirius suggested, placing the box besides him.
"You got all this for us?" Peter squeaked, his voice trembling with disbelief and delight as he looked at the pile of food in front of him.
"I'm not sure if I can pay you back-" Remus said, moving to look in his pockets for some money when Sirius placed his hand on Remus' arm.
"I've brought everything for everyone and its all on me. It's no skin off my back."
"Then you should have this chocolate frog." Remus said, offering Sirius one of the frogs but Sirius simply held his hands up.
"I've had plenty, I got that one for you. Enjoy." With that, Sirius took a healthy bite from his pastie and Remus gave in to defeat, joining the three other boys in their feast.
Hope you enjoyed!
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