MWPP—1 year after leaving Hogwarts
Peter Pettigrew drew his cloak around him, desperate not to be noticed. He was in Knockturn Alley on his newest assignment for the Order, his first solo mission.
Order meeting were the highlight of his life. When he was with the Order, he was one of the Marauders, held high in the esteem of Dumbledore. He was with Prongs, Moony, and Padfoot, and he felt safe. Even when on a mission for the Order, he felt safe as long as there was another Marauder there. Creeping along the alleys and trying to avoid the notice of Malfoy or Lestrange, it almost felt like they were back at Hogwarts.
But he would be alone tonight. Lily was pregnant, due at any moment, and Dumbledore had been kind enough to leave James with her; tonight was also the full moon, meaning Remus and Sirius would be busy. Peter had offered to stay as well, but Dumbledore's mission was urgent, and Peter, as a Marauder, had been his first choice.
He wrinkled his nose in distaste at the thought of his mission. He had to follow Severus Snape, a suspected Death Eater and a definite greasy git, and see what he did. Normally the job was Frank Longbottom's, but his wife Alice was also pregnant and near delivery.
As he spotted Snape up ahead, he couldn't help but remember all of the tricks they had pulled on the former Slytherin.
And as the Death Eaters grabbed him and he felt the excruciating pain of the Crucio, he thought that this would never have happened if even one of the Marauders were with him. As his silent screams rent the air, Peter Pettigrew knew he wasn't strong enough to do this alone' he knew that there was nothing he would be able to keep from these vicious dark wizards.
Nothing.
Severus Snape had delivered his intelligence to the Dark Lord gleefully. Now he could only stand and stare, horrorstruck, as the Dark Lord told his followers that the prophecy must mean Lily's child. He listened, barely able to keep the myriad of emotions he was feeling off his face, as the Dark Lord decided he would kill them.
He begged his Master to spare her, his Lily, his love, and was relieved when he acquiesced. He knew the Master only did so as a reward for Snape's deliverance of the news and thanked Merlin that he had been the one to overhear Dumbledore and that woman.
But his heart was still thumping, his stomach was still nauseous. He knew, deep down, that it wasn't enough. That Lily would never give her firstborn son over to be killed, that she would die to protect him. He fought down the panic that threatened to overwhelm him, searching his mind for some way to warn her, to protect her.
There was, he knew, only one person who could stop the Dark Lord, one person who would listen to him and believe him: Dumbledore. He felt his heart relax and the nausea subside. He would find the old wizard, make him listen! He would save her, even if it meant betraying his Master, even if it meant his death. And he thought all of this while listening to Lord Voldemort make plans for her death, shielding his mind with every bit of skill at Occlumency he had.
For Severus Snape knew, deep in his soul, that he still loved her; he loved her more than Voldemort, more than life itself, and that he wouldn't let anything harm her.
Anything.