The ground looked dark, and Peter watched it in shocked silence. He couldn't know if it was a gaping pit he stood on or an inky black field. The sky above was red as blood.

The soil shook. Peter almost fell over when more tremors erupted. The dirt broke free and a skeletal hand emerged. Peter wanted to run, wanted to flee as far away as possible, but the hand gave way to a decayed face, but a face Peter recognised.

'You-' It said, climbing up from the sand. 'Kill-' Peter backed away slowly. Sweat beaded down his forehead. The gaunt face of James stared at him. 'Killed-me.'

'No! I couldn't-I haven't,' Peter stumbled. He turned around to come face to face with a horrifying spectre that looked like Lily.

'My son-' She rasped, her hand threatening to choke Peter. 'Dead-all your fault-' Peter could feel his every muscle want to run, but he was slow.

'I'm sorry! I hate myself for it!' Peter said, but more shapes emerged out of the ground, more skeletons that frightened him crawled out. 'Your fault-Your fault- Kill you-' They chanted, in an eerie monotone voice. His foot found thin air, and Peter turned around to see another crevasse, this one perfectly deep. His face was inches away from the undead. Remus, Sirius, Dumbledore, all of them still repeating the words like a death march.

His feet slid off the rocks and Peter fell down in that dark shadow. He was falling...

'Peter.'

So many miles...

'Peter!'

Was he even worthy?

'FOR THE LOVE OF MERLIN, PARKER!' A voice rang loud, and Peter opened his eyes. The light blinded him as he blinked several times to focus. A mass of black hair came into his eyes and nose, and he sneezed.

'Ugh, now I have snot all over my hair,' Sirius said, as he leapt out of Peter's bed. Remus and James surrounded him, like some Muggle doctors at an operation. The hazel eyed boy frowned at Peter.

'Are you all right, Peter?' He asked worriedly. 'You were doing a lot of screaming and yelling.' Peter couldn't meet his eyes. How could he, when the dreams were about them, about how Peter did unthinkable things to them?

'M'fine.' He said, opting to look at Lupin. 'Just a bad dream.' Sirius scoffed.

'A bad dream? You were thrashing about in bed, shouting your voice out.' He said. What had Peter done? Had he said the same things he had done in the dreams? Cried like he did? Moan like the bodies had?

'You're okay now,' Remus said, a hand on his shoulder. 'Just have something to eat, alright?'

'I concur with our Remus,' Sirius declared. 'It's Friday and I'm absolutely starving.'

'Since when do you use big words like concur?' James asked Sirius. The Black heir raised an eyebrow.

'Since when you started following Evans.' He curtly replied. James winced.

'Touche, pal.' He amended. 'But in all honesty, Peter, are you sure you don't need the Hospital Wing?'

'No.' Peter said. 'But I do need to write a letter.' To his parents, who must be impatient to hear news of his school life. After the walk to the hall and a breakfast later, he grabbed a quill and some parchment and puzzled on how best to start the letter.

Dear Mum and Dad,

He paused there. Should he sound mature, or a little bit childish? In the end, he figured his parents should feel that he has a good time here, not that he didn't enjoy Hogwarts, but the guilt of living with the future Marauders is too much.

How are you? Hogwarts has been amazing so far and I love it. All the classes here are fun (except History, where a ghost called Binns guarantees instant sleep.) and I've made some new friends.

I 'm kind of nervous writing to you now because, I was sorted into Slytherin. NOPE, just pulling your legs, it's Gryffindor! I have three new roommates with me. There's James Potter, who loves to prank. His sole aim in life is to breed mischief and mayhem! Then there's Sirius Black, and he's absolutely terrified about his family (with good reason) and he goes along with James like two peas in a pod. And then there's Remus Lupin, who's so good at his homework I've been borrowing his notes (Sorry Mum!). I'm having a fun time just being with them.

Tell Dexter I miss his buttered pancakes and don't forget to write back!

Love,

Peter

There. He dryed his quill and capped his pot. Just the right blend of seriousness and silliness. He folded the parchment carefully and trot to the Owlery. Autumn seemed to take over from summer, so it was still balmy, but not hot. He opened Rex's cage and the owl's claws wrapped around the letter.

'Parker Lot.' He muttered quietly to the grey owl. 'You know that don't you, Rex? Go on, girl!' The owl hooted before spreading its wings and flying away in the sky.

Friday meant almost no classes. With the exception of Defense and Flying, their afternoon was practically free. He did dread flying a broomstick though. They were safe, but Peter thought that finding his eyes fix on the ground a dozen feet in the air was a risk.

James and Sirius didn't think so. 'I'm going to be a Chaser, Sirius. I'll do so many awesome things on my broom that will leave everyone else in the dust. You'll see!' Sirius was no less enthusiastic in his approach.

'I can't wait to be in the air!' He exclaimed. Lily resorted to consulting her hands Quidditch book about instructions. Remus was the calmest of them all, and Peter envied his cool. He could tell that the boy was nervous about the whole ordeal, but he was jealous all the same.

'Welcome to Flying lessons.' A white haired, eagle eyed woman spoke. 'I am Rolanda Hooch, and you'll be learning how to handle a broom.' Peter glanced at Snape. After all, they had class with the Ravenclaws.

'Now I must warn you, it isn't easy. You need to stand next to your broom, with your hands-palms downwards, and say "Up"!' She said.

The way she said it, Peter thought she was easily bored at their newness to this charade. Thankfully, he did some prior experience the first time around, and it really wasn't something he wanted to remember, given that the broom didn't jump as easily to his hands as it did for James and the added fact that he ended up being forceful and the brrom hit him hard on the nose.

Peter ended up in the Hospital Wing, amidst laughter from James and Sirius. Not this time, he decided. Not this bloody time. 'Up.' He said, and the broom slowly rose into his hands. James had his shoot into his hands quickly while Sirius did a sort of twirl with it. Remus and Lily had some trouble in convincing their brooms to obey.

'Now,' Hooch continued, 'when I say 'Go', and not now Potter,' she directed at James, 'you will kick off from the ground with both hands firmly on it, and never let it slide off.' Sirius coughed slightly at the implication. 'On my mark then,' Peter thought furiously of flying, even though his heart felt otherwise. 'GO!'

Brooms all rose up in the air. Some, like Lily remained hovering above ground. Others like James looped and whooped as they flew past the students in speed. Peter found middle ground with the likes of Snape and Remus, who did know how to fly but didn't overly enjoy it. With that said, Peter enjoyed the calmness in gliding above air, thought ignoring the height was proving to be a tough ask. He yelled over to Remus, 'Enjoying it yet, Remus?'

The boy shrugged, before hollering back, 'Not as much as they are,' pointing a thumb in the direction of James and Sirius, who were now playing air tag of sorts. And that was when it happened.

Sirius was reckless, that Peter knew. But the fact that he was reckless enough to knock into Snape was something he had not expected. Snape teetered on edge at his broom, before slowly, but surely loosing his grip on it. Everyone looked frozen, even Sirius who had bumped into him.

Then Snape fell, arms flailing. Hooch wasn't around, Merlin curse that woman and Peter didn't and couldn't use the floating charm, as he had to stay in character. So he did the most exciting and possibly dumbest decision in all of Gryffindor history.

He dove after him.

It was instinctive. He could feel the ground rushing up, feel his heart almost burst but he had his eye on Snape, Snape who was so important to the future, Snape who would have been in Slytherin if not for Peter Parker. He prayed for the best and held an arm outwards.

Snape was grasped by the robes. Cheers emerged out of the tensed children, but before Peter could enjoy the attention,he remembered one important tidbit of information.

He was no Quidditch pro. And he definitely couldn't carry Snape with one hand. Shit.

The end result was that they both fell onto the grass. Snape moaned beside him and Peter himself felt his body sore all over. They hadn't fell at the height Snape would have had Peter not held him, but it was a bruiser. Hooch choose this perfectly opportune moment to come back.

'What is going on here?'

Gryffindor lost 30 points because of Sirius and gained 40 from Peter, which meant 10 points in the bargain. Sirius had a severe talk with McGonagall and his face shrank inch by inch until Peter was sure he couldn't look more miserable. Peter felt bad for Sirius. He didn't mean it, but Snape at that height could have had a broken back, or unfathomable death.

James was pretty shaken, as was Lily. They had never expected for anyone to have a brush with death so close in the year. Come to think of it, Sirius actually rushed the attempt on Snape's life, the incident in sixth year (which Sirius deprecatingly referred to as 'My Moony Mistake') coming to mind first.

James gathered the group and told them they had to apologise to Snape. When no one protested, Sirus reluctantly walked along to the Hospital Wing with all of them in tow.

Snape was lying in his bed with some Ravenclaw besides his bed Peter didn't recognise. The pale boy scowled when Sirius came into view.

'Look Sev,' Lily started, and Peter was immensely thankful for her persuasion over Snape, 'James,' The Potter heir actually blinked at being very mentioned familiarly, 'and Sirius have come here to apologise-'

'Look, I'm sorry Snape,' Sirius cut in before Lily could say anything. 'I really didn't mean to knock into you and all.'

'I'm sure,' Snape drawled, 'that you would have done something like that regardless of the flying lesson, would you not?'

'We don't mean to kill someone Snape,' James said agitatedly, 'Sure, we might tease someone if they mess with us, but if you think we're murderers, you're so mistaken.'

'And yet, I fell 50 feet from the air despite the good intentions.'

'I think you're focussing on a lot of negativities here, Sev.' Lily said gently. 'Peter caught you, didn't he? You do have something to be grateful for?'

'There's no need to appreciate what I've done.' Peter interrupted, before Snape argued that he didn't need the pity party. 'I just did what I had to, and I can't bear to see someone injure themselves badly.'

'Soft heart?' Snape taunted.

'Personal experience.' Peter replied softly. Snape had no reply. 'I'll have you know that no one in their right mind would want to kill someone, student or not just because they are from another house. Sirius is really sorry.'

The Ravenclaw intercepted the conversation. 'Dirigibles don't grow in sandy soil.' He told to Snape matter of factly. Snape lost the grimace.

'Apology accepted, Black.' Snape said. 'But if you pull another like that-'

'He won't,' Remus said. 'Not until he has reason to do so, isn't that right Sirius?'

The boy gruffly nodded, losing the tension in his body. 'Er-if you don't mind me being rude Snape, who is your buddy there?'

'I'm Xeno,' The boy said. His dirty coloured hair and wide eyes looked serenely at them. 'Have you heard of the Zigfar Conspiracy?'

'Uh-' James replied, quite at a loss to proceed. 'Sure, mate.' He looked at Snape with eyes that said, 'Is he always like that?'

Snape narrowed his eyes. 'He is my-' He paused, a little unsure. 'Acquaintance, if you will. He has a unique perspective about the world in general. Meet Xenophilius Lovegood.'

Xeno nodded. 'It's all because of the Wrackspurts. I told Sevvy,' Sirius mouthed 'Sevvy?' in horror, 'that they sneak inside the ears of people who brood.' Snape too had the good decency to look a bit embarrassed at the casual truth, and Remus had a little knowing look in his eyes.

'All right then Xeno,' James said, with an attempt to bring the conversation to normal ground, 'which Quidditch team do you like?'

Xeno's eyes brightened. 'Oh, I'm obsessed with the Wigtown Wanderers! I know all about the vampires they kill with their cleavers.' He leant in conspiratorially. 'I heard they're made of silver.' Peter didn't know whether to snort or laugh. He ended up making a choking noise. Everyone turned to look at him.

'Sorry,' He managed, 'I've had some Nose munchers end up in my ears.'

Xeno smiled. 'Get them out before your ears turn into noses then. They can make your ears runny!'

Everyone raised eyebrows at that. Some like Remus had taken to grinning and enjoying it. Others like Snape turned upwards to the ceiling.

Once they were done with their chat with Snape, the Gryffindors found themselves in Defence class, where Owen Fitzgerald stood with a gleaming toothy smile. 'Good afternoon, students!' He said welcoming. 'I hope you're not too full of food to sleep in class, because you're gonna miss a lot of lessons keeping that up.' He had a slight Texas accent, which Peter noticed when Remus told him so.

'Today we'll be staring on basic offensive spells. And that includes the Runny Nose Hex, and the Shaking Jinx.' He waved his wand at a dummy that just appeared. 'Basically, what they'll do is make your nose runny and your hand shaking. Now,' he paused and every student leaned forward in interest, 'Who can tell me how these spells can be used? Yes you there!'

A boy with strawy brown hair said in a tone of boredom, 'Well, it's hardly useful, isn't it? If someone wants to duel you, they might fight with powerful spells.' He looked challengingly at Owen, and the professor just smiled.

'Come in up here then,' Owen said, his eyes still mirthful as the boy walked unsurely to the front of the classroom. 'Shall we put that theory to test?' The boy looked nervous. 'What's your name, son?'

'Franklin Nott.' The boy said quietly. Owen nodded.

'Okay,' he said, holding his wand at arm's length. 'Let's have a little duel here. I'll use just those two spells, and you can throw whatever you got at me. Sounds fair?' Franklin nodded. 'Right, on three then...'

Franklin threw a freezing hex, but Owen dodged that and sent a beam of purple light. Franklin responded with a weak shield, saying, 'Protego!' and the spell hit it, causing him to lose his balance and fall. Owen sent another hex towards the fallen boy, but Franklin rolled off. He shot a curving bolt at the professor who sent a powered charm in the same direction. The spells collided and fizzled in air. Owen then said clearly, 'Succutiocarpi.' and the beam went straight for Franklin's hand. The boy had his hand shaking uncontrollably, and the wand dropped even with his tight grip. Owen picked it up with a simple Summoning charm.

The entire class was silent. Owen said grimly to the student, 'Good duel, Franklin. Five points to Slytherin.' The boy returned to his seat. All eyes were on the professor as he opened his mouth.

'Any spell,' He said, 'can be used in a duel, in a battle, in any situation provided the caster has sufficient creativity and agility. Ability counts for nothing if you don't have the proper aim to cast a spell.' Then he was back to his normal cheery self. 'And moving on from that depressing topic, let's practice our spells, shall we?'

Peter was paired with Franklin in the end, and he could not have been more excited. The boy did have talent for duelling, and he knew defensive spells that weren't taught until third year. The class was similarly divided, with Lily paired with a heavily built girl, and James paired with a sneering Slytherin. Peter bowed to his opponent.

'Bow to death Harry'. He was back in that graveyard, watching Harry fight Voldemort to the death. He couldn't save him, had killed Diggory and fled as Voldemort raged at Harry's escape.

Not now, He thought as Nott said, 'Petrificus Totalus!' You are a better man than that snivelling coward you were. Peter sidestepped that narrowly as it brushed past the top of his head. He said, 'Flipendo!' and watched as Nott expertly deflected it. Hmm, time to get serious.

It's a miracle you manage to do anything right, rat. Short of getting your arse handed to you by a first year. The voice continued. 'Shut up,' Peter hissed, as he watched Nott cast an unknown spell. Peter ducked under it and said, 'Fumos.'

The effect was instantaneous. Thick smoke began to spread in their corner, and Peter blended into the smoke, confident about his vision in obstruction. When it cleared, he was face to face with Nott, as he said, 'Expelliarmus.' And the wand clattered down to the floor. Nott held his hands up as Peter clapped him on the back, then returned the gesture.

'That's the second time I mucked up today,' he said remorsefully. 'You won't be so fortunate next time though, Parker.' Peter tilted his head.

'You're excellent at this stuff.' He agreed. 'But you heard what Owen said-creativity matters more than spells.' He decided to boost the boy's ego further. 'You probably knew more spells than me, but I still managed to win.'

'I'll remember that,' Nott said, as the class left for the door, concluding the day's classes. Owen had his eyes scrutinising Peter as he crossed the door.

He rolled his eyes. What was it with him and suspicious teachers?

Heavy snores spread through the room. The feast at night had been extravagant and Peter was famished from his duelling class, and hogged as much as Sirius, which was saying a lot considering the boy ate as much food as an adult did. No one was awake.

Perfect time to find what he was after. He gently lifted the covers off and placed a testing foot on the floor.

No response. He was relieved at that, and proceeded to exit the common room. Peter tiptoed quietly past James and Sirius, but he failed to be silent. 'Lumos,' A voice whispered, and Remus had his face shine pale in the dark. 'Peter, what are you doing?'

'Isn't it obvious?' James had woken up, his whisper sounding excited. 'He's going to prank the castle!'

'Parker?' Sirius scoffed, equally fervent. 'He might want to plunder the kitchens.'

'Actually,' Peter admitted, I was going to sneak into the Library.' James and Sirius grinned at him.

'See, Black?' James said. 'It was only a matter of time before our peacemaker wrought trouble,' Sirius wiped a fake tear, 'such determination to break the rules at this young age. I'm moved.' He leant forward. 'Would you have a bit of professional tutoring in this art from yours truly?'

'Are you all out of your minds?' Remus hissed. 'It's after curfew! If we get caught, it's detentions for all of us.' Sirius tutted.

'You know, Remy,' He said, 'there's a simple way to avoid that problem-we don't get caught.' James highfived Sirius at this.

Peter told Lupin, 'It's nothing harmful, Remus. We'll be back before you even know it, won't we boys?'

'I'm coming with you then,' Remus said, 'and no detours anywhere, ok?' A round of hurried nods happened. 'Peter, let's get this done with quickly.'

They had to wait a while before James held his hand upraised. The moonlight shone on a patch of silverly substance and Peter instantly recognised what it was. 'An Invisibility Cloak?' Sirius whipped his head around so fast it could have cricked.

'Where did you get that?' He asked in wonder. James shrugged.

'My dad had it, gave it to me. Simple enough, isn't it?' He said, raising it upwards with a flourish. 'Come on in.'

They managed to form a weird human train. James was in front, followed by Sirius. Remus, being the tallest of them had some trouble fitting between Sirius and Peter, who was at the rear. They managed to exit the room silently, amidst grumbles from the Fat Lady. Virtually every thing in the castle was now either silent or snoring. The stairs were a lot easier to use at night, and their route was almost unhindered.

Almost. Meaning Filch, and his cat, Norris who had eyes sharper than a hawk. A hiss and a yowl was enough of a warning for James to pull everyone against the wall. Distantly, they could hear Filch murmuring, 'Have you found someone, my sweet?' A beat later, he said, 'Must be the armoured statues...' And then trailed off. Peter heard the last of receding footsteps before he nudged Remus to urge their motion.

The Library was a long way off, but they managed to sneak all that distance. Peter threw off the cloak, confident that no one would be watching them. 'Look,' He told the boys, 'I'm heading to the Restricted Section, so if you lot fancy joining me, do it quickly.'

'No problems, Pete,' Sirius said cheerfully. 'We only need that book for pranking spells, and we'll be back on our way.'

'All right then.' Peter whispered grimly, then set off with his wand lit. He searched alphabetically and thought, If I wrote a Dark book, where would it be?

Deciding that he needed to pull down a few binders, he roughly grabbed a thick leather bound book. It was tightly shut and Peter had to use his fingers to prise the cover off. A bloodcurdling scream came from the pages, and a horrifying face stretched out of the sheets. Peter snapped it shut quickly.

There was another book that magically cut his fingernails. Why a book needed to have such a feature was beyond him, but the book only has one mention of Horcruxes, and that went something like this,

Horcruxes are the darkest work of magic that can be spelled by a sorcerer. In order to understand how a horcrux works, we must understand its history. The ancient magick workers of Egypt had practiced life magick without consente of the Pharaoh, which led to severe repercussions. As Ankaw Nukat noted...'

The rest of the paragraph had more excerpts of other wizards and witches who knew that horcruxes existed, but not its working. If anything that deeply frustrated Peter, who was looking for an easier route than this.

Aha! His eyes focussed on the title 'Magick Moste Evile'. Was it his key to the answer? He flipped the pages rapidly until he came to a horrifying moving illustration of a man, or a humanoid something standing in a myriad of runes.

And then are thee Horcruxes, which are thee moste deepest, darkest, ande despicable piece of magick, of which we shall not speake nor mention...'

Now ready to rage, Peter whacked his wand at the pages as hard as he could. The writings merges, then twisted and changed into something else.

Thee supreme acte of killing is what is responsible for damaging the soul. Darke wizards and witches who have soughte suche paths have often soughte to create Horcruxes, wherebye they commit murder to split their souls forcefully in order to prolonge their life, but in order to do so, they lose their humanity and hence their reasone and humor.

Peter had an unthinkable vision of Voldemort being a stand up comedian, before realising that humor meant the Greek version of health. This was what he was after! It could also explain why Voldemort became more delusional, impatient and terrorising as the years went by.

So Voldemort survived after the Avada Kedavra becasue he had his soul in pieces. And the ritual that night, why, why , had he even done it? Voldemort had found him, but the moment he found the Dark Lord in that grotesque baby, he wished he could smash that head against a solid wall. But that was a skilled Dark wizard who could probably kill Peter even as a ghost.

No matter, he had found the secret. Now it was time to-

No. He felt something brushing against his ankles. A soft snarl down below and a voice that was callous. Time to run. He threw back the books to the floor over the cupboard and they fell with a loud thud. He could hear the clank of chains over a lamp, but he didn't stick around to find out.

The halls were still unlit, and as he had so wisely extinguished his light, he was groping in the dark. He must have hit the walls several times, because grumbling noises from the sides had erupted. He ran as fast as his eleven year old legs could carry him. And then there was light.

A mocking noise sounded from his right. 'Naughty naught student around! Naughty naughty sneaking around!' Peeves crowed.

'Shut up, Peeves!' Peter growled, but the poltergeist had already broken into a chant,

Peter Parker prancing round,

Sneaking nights about!

There were three, now just the one

This little boy had better run!

Peter dodged a balloon that he was sure wasn't filled with anything good. The rancid smell splatted on his shoes as he made a break for it and he turned down the stairs. Peeves floated through the wall and disappeared, leaving a wary boy trudging towards the last corridor that he had to use before reaching the common rooms.

Peter sank to the edge of the parapet, panting heavily. That had been a particularly close run in with Filch, and Peeves. All in one night. His eleven year old body and his 38 year old mind were physically and mentally tired. He was never going to go for a night out until he had enough reason to do so again. And then his adventure went to an all time high.

'Professor Dumbledore?'

Hello again! This chapter is a biggie-mainly because I felt it wouldn't look right as separate chapters. Even so, I normally don't make a habit of writing 4K+ words (like this one).

And, wow! This story currently has over 350 views, and 8 followers. I never really expected this much of a crowd. Thank you, all of you who favorited and follow this story. Please do review after reading-my duty is to write, but I could use all your opinions on the direction this story's going.

Coming back to the plot, Peeves was a last minute addition to the adventure. The little rhyme was just something off the top of my head. So, until next time

Cheers,

K2SC