A few weeks had gone by, and Peter was pretty sure he was getting the hang of this whole wizard thing. He was relieved to learn that coming from a muggle background (he knew what that word meant now) didn't necessarily mean he was automatically terrible at magic. There were some kids who came from wizarding families who were terrible, and some muggleborns who were amazing. The fact that Lucas was eager to explain anything Peter didn't understand didn't hurt either.
Peter honestly felt like he belonged at Hogwarts. He had friends who honestly cared about him. He was sharing a room with James Potter, which Lucas liked to remind Peter of every time James wasn't there, then quickly hiss "Shut up, he's coming!" and he would smile and say "Hi James!" and Peter would roll his eyes and go back to whatever he was doing while Lucas smacked him on the arm. James was actually pretty cool, and seemed to enjoy Lucas's attention, along with many others who gave him attention too, so who was Peter to judge?
The only part Peter didn't like was how infrequently he got to see Jason McConnell. Sometimes they'd get partnered up in classes when it was Gryffindor and Slytherin, but the other times it was just Jason giving a quick nod to Peter when they passed in the hallways. Jason seemed to have amassed a small following himself, of Slytherin boys who thought he was cool and first year girls who thought he was cute, including the head of his group of fangirls, Ivy Robinson, while Nadia hung in the back alone, rolling her eyes. He hung around with his friends, Peter hung around with his own, but he wished he could spend more time with Jason.
Peter really liked his friends, though. He had Lucas and Matt, and a sweet (if naive and rather ditzy) Hufflepuff named Diane Lee, plus a few other Gryffindors that he wasn't super close with, but they still counted as friends. Lucas showed him how to use owls to send letters, so he frequently wrote home to his mom about school and his friends and everything, and she would send back cookies and various other treats, which were Lucas and Matt's favorite part. Sometimes James would try to take some, and Lucas would eagerly give him as much as he wanted, despite Peter's protests. But Peter was quickly learning that trying to argue with Lucas over anything with the name "Potter" was useless.
So they'd all be sitting in the library, Peter trying to study, Matt "helping" Ivy by basically doing her work for her, Lucas charming things at random and skillfully not getting caught by the librarian, Diane telling stories about her cat, and Peter would look up at the group of them, and smile, and even though just a few months ago he was terrified of all of this, he wouldn't have his life any other way.
A/N: Yes, I know I suck. I promise to update more often. Feel free to yell at me if I don't.