Peter's POV – 24th October 1981
I was sitting casually in my living room. I had to try and get Lily and James to try and make me their secret keeper. I was running out of time. They were going to make Sirius the secret keeper tonight and if they did that we had no chance. I had to be secret keeper. I was about to sit down and try and decide what I should do when Sirius apparated into the living room.
"Sirius." I said slightly surprised. What was he doing here? He had a cut across his face.
"They know I'm going to be made secret Keeper. You have to take my place" YES!
"Are you sure?" I asked him pretending to be concerned, trying desperately to try and hide my smile. My job had suddenly become a lot easier.
"Yeah, it has to be you. No one will suspect you and we can't use any of the girls because they have kids." Sirius had a good point.
"So why aren't you becoming secret keeper again?" I asked him. Sirius looked slightly anxious.
"They've been attacking me all week. Voldemort somehow knows that I'm important to Lily and James' plans. If it continues, I'll be dead and Lily and James won't be protected any more." I looked at Sirius, pretending to consider it when in reality I'd already made up my mind.
"I don't know, I'll have to think about it." I said. Sirius nodded.
"Ok, but if you decide you want to be the secret keeper, come to Lily and James tonight at about eight." He said. I nodded.
"Have you told Lily and James yet?" I asked him. He shook his head.
"I'll go and tell them now." Sirius said. I nodded.
"Alright. They're my friends too." I said with a smile. Sirius gave me a grateful brotherly hug then apparated away. I casually brushed my clothes and then grinned. My job was suddenly so much easier. I would be the Dark Lord's most favoured Death Eater, handing Harry Potter to him on effectively a silver platter. It was just too easy, these chances just kept coming to me. I was going to go down in history, I'd be the Dark Lord's right hand servant. He'd forever be grateful. The boundaries of friendship and love didn't hold any meaning any more. It was all about who had the power, and right now, it was the Dark Lord.
He was already angry with me for letting April go, April had been a bit of a mistake I admit, but at least we knew now a lot more then we did. I know that they could have gotten the address and details out of me, April had managed to give us their sleeping patterns, how they behaved, their routines, their plans for their safety. I hadn't been told about anything to do with the Fidelius charm until I heard it from April while she was under the influence of Veritaserum. Every time I went to Lily and James' house now I could see Death Eaters waiting for the Dark Lord's signal to attack.
I quickly went to my room and picked up my wand and tucked it in my trousers. I was going to have to tell the Dark Lord. I pulled on a cloak, the dark lord's house tended to be rather chilly at this time of year, even if it was October. I apparated to the Dark Lord's house and pulled my hood up. It was dark, as usual, and there were a few Death Eaters about.
"Wait there, who are you? What are you doing here?" came Rabastan Lestrange's voice.
"It's Pettigrew." I said, "I need to talk to the master."
"He's busy." Lestrange said. "What do you need to tell him?"
"I have very important information regarding the Potters" I said coldly
"Fine, wait here until he's finished" Lestrange said. I nodded and stood in the side of the room waiting. While I was there, quite a few Death Eaters came in and out, talking in hushed voices to Lestrange. He just took everything they had to tell him and then told them to go away. Soon though I felt the Dark Lord's presence and looked at the door as he walked in. He saw me.
"What are you doing here, you should be-"
"It's news about the Potter's Secret Keeper." I said. The Dark Lord smirked and beckoned me to follow him. I followed him into a different room.
"So what do you have to tell me?" He said, sitting in a chair regally.
"Sirius Black has decided that he doesn't want to be a secret keeper."
"And who is replacing him?" the Dark lord asked expectantly.
"Me." I answered. The Dark Lord sat up straighter.
"Really? I did not think you were that close to the Potters. I would have thought one of the other group of friends would have been chosen."
"They don't want to leave any of the children without a mother." I answered. The Dark Lord nodded.
"Ah, yes, that may be a factor." He said, "The side of good often want to look after their offspring. Very well, Wormtail, you will become their secret Keeper. We must then hold up some pretences that you are being faithful and loyal, so when you are made secret keeper you will come to me and you will tell me the Potter's address. Once Harry Potter is killed, then you will be rewarded beyond your dreams. I will reward you most generously." I smiled, I couldn't help it. I would be famous.
"I will most likely be made secret keeper tonight." I told the Dark Lord.
"Very good Wormtail. I have to admit, I was beginning to think that you were beginning to stray from my cause." He said. I nodded slightly.
"I would never stray from your cause master." I said.
"Very well. Go and talk to your...friends" he spat, like the word physically hurt him to say it. I nodded and apparated away. I went back home and checked to see what time it was. Was Sirius making any progress with Lily and James? I hope he was, I had to be secret keeper. I had to be.
Ok, half past seven. I picked up my wand and apparated to Lily and James house.
"Oh my god Sirius, you promised us you'd do it!" Lily said.
"You can't back out now!" James also said rather loudly. I frowned.
"I'm sorry but I just think it'll be better is it's not me who's the secret keeper, it's too dangerous."
"And who's going to be secret keeper in your place?" James asked.
"Peter." Sirius said.
"PETER!" Lily asked. "Why Peter?" I think I should have felt slightly hurt that Lily didn't trust me all that much but then, she shouldn't. I wasn't about to tell them but I was going to go and hand them over to the Dark Lord.
"Well, no one would suspect him would they?" Sirius said. "And I'd be more then happy to act as a decoy, just to protect you guys and Peter."
"Why not one of the girls, or Remus?" James asked.
"Well, we don't want to leave the kids motherless and Remus is too obvious for a second choice, no one will suspect that it was Peter." Sirius said. I walked into the room. James was looking rather annoyed and Lily had her arms crossed. I also hadn't failed to notice Harry sitting on the sofa behind them. He was staring at his parents, rather interested.
"Hi Peter." Lily said stuffily. She glanced at Sirius, who shrugged his apology.
"Um, so Sirius has spoken to you about our decision?" Peter asked.
"Yes he has." James said, "and to be honest, we would have liked a bit more warning." He looked at Sirius.
"Look I'm sorry but I only decided after I was nearly killed last night. And if I am killed, it means that you won't be protected any more. No one will think that Peter is the secret keeper."
"So they're going to have to kill all our friends to get the secret keeper?" Lily asked, "Don't answer that, why didn't you tell us this morning when you decided?" I looked at Sirius curiously,
"I thought you said you were going to tell them this morning." I said. Sirius looked at us sheepishly.
"Well, April was kinda...she distracted me." He said, scratching the back of his head. Lily threw her hands in the air defeated.
"I'll be back in a moment." She said, leaving the room.
"Mummy, Harry come also." Harry said, climbing off the chair and taking Lily's hand. She led him out of the room. James looked at Sirius and I and then sighed.
"Fine, Peter, will you be the secret keeper, I suppose what Sirius says makes sense and obviously Lily's given her consent."
"How do you know?" I asked.
"She's gone to get the potion." James said. "You won't tell anyone other then Dumbledore and our friends wont you?"
"Of course not. I'd never do that." James smiled slightly.
"Thanks, I don't want anything to happen to my family. Nothing at all." James said.
"Don't worry." I said trying to be as sincere and understanding as possible.
"Oh crap." I heard Lily say. "Harry give this to daddy." We all turned to the door and saw Lily running past and going up the stairs. Harry walk in clutching a small vial of potion. He handed it to James. Sirius and I looked at James curiously.
"Is Lily alright?" Sirius asked.
"Mummy go blurgh" Harry said pretending to be sick. He grinned, obviously proud of his impression and started laughing.
"Yeah, Lily's been a bit ill recently, and tired and a bit weird. We think she's pregnant again." James said.
"Right, and when was the last time you two, ow!" Sirius said rubbing his arm. James had just hit him rather hard.
"Anyway, Peter, are you ok with being our secret keeper?" James asked.
"Yeah, of course." I said, "Anything to protect you guys." I said. James smiled gratefully as Lily walked into the room looking rather worse then she had been looking a few minutes ago.
"Ok, lets get on with this." She said, brushing some hair out of the way. James put a hand hesitantly on her shoulder.
"Are you sure you can do this? You've been really tired recently."
"James, the sooner we get this done the safer we'll be" Lily said, looking at James in the eyes. They both stared at each other and seemed to come to an understanding. Lily turned to look at me.
"You ready?" She asked. I nodded
"What do I have to do?" I asked. Lily got out her wand and took the vial from James. James picked up Harry and took him out of the room. Sirius followed James so I was left alone in the room with Lily.
"I'll tell you when I need you to do something." She closed her eyes as if trying to remember what to do, or going over what she had to do in her head. "Ok, I can do this. Close your eyes" She said uncertainly. She raised her wand.
"Wait, Lily, what happens if this doesn't go right?" I asked her. She looked at me
"Worst thing that will happen is that you'll break out in spots but I can clear that up easily." She said. I nodded, I didn't feel very reassured by that. I closed my eyes and waited for Lily to do what ever it was she had to do. She didn't seem to be doing anything. I frowned with my eyes closed. I couldn't hear her doing anything and obviously I couldn't see her doing anything. How long had I been standing here with my eyes closed.
"Ok, think of my address." Lily said after what seemed like an eternity, she sounded a lot more tired then before. I thought of their address. This didn't need as much effort as I thought it did. I heard Lily give a sigh.
"Open your eyes" She said. I opened my eyes and she opened up the vial. "Drink this." She said. She handed me the vial of purple liquid and looked at me expectantly. I took it in my hands hesitantly and looked at it. I looked at Lily, she looked very tired, if not desperate. I had to swallow my hatred for her and downed the contents of the vial. It tasted like seaweed blended with all things disgusting. I put the vial down on the coffee table and stuck my tongue out in distaste. Lily smiled slightly and lifted her wand again. I closed my eyes apprehensively.
"Fidelius Protectum" She said tapping me gently with her wand. I opened my eyes uncertainly to see her smiling at me. "Thanks Peter." She said with what, I have to admit, was a very pretty grin.
"No problem." I said. She hugged me like a brother and then went to the door.
"Finished." She called into the hall. James came in followed by Sirius, who had Harry on his shoulders.
"Took an hour that did." Sirius said. "All done?"
"What does Finished mean Sirius?" Lily asked. He grinned and turned to me.
"So write me out the address and I'll take it round all the others." He said to me. I nodded and conjured a quill and parchment. I wrote down the address and handed it to Sirius. He read it before folding it up and then putting it in his pocket. I smiled at them when Lily suddenly put her hand to her mouth.
"Lily!" James said slightly alarmed. She held out her hand as she looked like she was fighting the urge to be sick.
"I'm ok." She said after a few minutes. "I can't believe I have to go through morning sickness all over again!" I suddenly felt like my stomach was falling to pieces. Another baby, that meant that the Dark Lord would probably kill this other baby as well. I bit my lip. I may not like Lily but I had a thing about killing Children. I couldn't do it, and I don't know how responsible I'd feel if I was responsible for it.
"You know I'll be here for you." James said putting his arms around Lily.
"It's your fault I'm like this!" Lily said. James grinned.
"But remember the night this baby was-" Lily put a hand over James mouth as Sirius and I looked at them interestedly. Lily gave us a smile.
"So are you guys going to stay for a while?" She asked. Sirius looked up at Harry.
"Do you want me to stay?" Sirius asked him. Harry put his arms around Sirius' head and rested his tiny chin on top of Sirius' head. Sirius looked at Lily, while moving Harry's arm out of his eyes.
"I'm staying for a while, unless you don't mind me taking Harry with me." He said.
"Harry's not leaving this house." Lily said sternly.
"Siri Stay." Harry said.
"I'm staying." Sirius said. He pulled Harry off his shoulders and into his arms.
"What about you?" James said with a smile. "Do you want to have some firewhiskey with us."
"I'm not drinking." Lily said.
"Me and Sirius are" James said with a grin, "You want to join in?" He asked me. I shrugged.
"Why not?" I said. James grinned. He turned to Sirius.
"Give me that note, I'm going to go and I'll bring Remus back with me." He said holding out his hand. Sirius nodded and took the small folded up piece of parchment from his pocket and placed it in James' hand.
"Be careful." Lily said, kissing James quickly.
"See ya"
"Check on April for me." Sirius managed to say quickly before James disappeared. "Bugger."
"Language Sirius." Lily said.
"Sorry Darling." Sirius said.
"When James comes back tell him I've gone to bed" Lily said tiredly. "Come on Harry," Lily went to Sirius to pick up Harry but Harry clung to Sirius even tighter.
"Siri stay." Harry said. Lily rolled her eyes.
"We'll look after him." I said. Lily smiled at me gratefully.
"Alright, but make sure he's safely in his room before you begin drinking. I don't want Harry exposed to alcohol" Lily said pointing at Sirius.
"I don't want Harry to do that either." Sirius said, "What kind of godparent do you think I am?" He asked. Lily rolled her eyes and left the room.
"Oh thank god they're safe now." I said, sitting in a chair.
"Yeah." Sirius lay on the sofa and let Harry sit on his chest. "We can all breath slightly easier now, and we have a safe house." Sirius said with a grin. "You're completely safe now aren't you Harry?" Harry grinned and played with the buttons on Sirius' shirt. I frowned slightly.
"Yeah, he is." I said. Sirius looked at me.
"Smile Peter, Everyone is safe now."
"Well, the Potters are safe now." I corrected him.
"Yeah, that's what I meant."
"Aren't you worried about your own family?" I asked Sirius.
"April? She can look after herself. And I'm only going to be away for the night and she's living with her parents until she's given birth." Sirius said. I nodded, "I mean I love her so much, but it's her decision, I miss her at nights but she's right, the bed isn't big enough." He pouted slightly. Harry copied Sirius' expression. Sirius changed his expression and Harry copied that. That boy is so strange. I'm still not completely sure why the Dark Lord wants him dead, I mean yeah he's part Muggle but other then that, I just don't see it. I decided not to worry myself about it for now as Sirius continued to play with Harry. Soon James apparated into the room with Remus.
"Good day all." Remus said happily. Sirius and I looked at him. "Why Sirius my friend, how are you?" Sirius laughed.
"I'm fine, what's gotten into you?" Sirius asked as he sat up, letting Harry slide off his chest.
"Ah, Jenny spiked my food." James nodded to confirm this.
"She told me."
"She says I've been sulking for too long." Remus said. He looked as though he was thinking about it then shrugged.
"James, my darling has gone to bed, she requested that I tell you." Sirius said with a grin, knowing this would get to James. James narrowed his eyes.
"I swear, if you weren't marrying April I'd think you were having an affair with my wife." James said.
"Oh, you trust Lily so much." Remus said sarcastically.
"No, I trust Lily completely, it's him." James said pointing at Sirius.
"Nah, Lily loves you and only you."
"How would you know?"
"I think your anniversary night would be enough." I said cheekily. James went red and picked up Harry.
"Right, You're all getting it later, I swear you are. As soon as I take Harry to Lily."
"Make sure you come back" Sirius said. We all burst out laughing except James.
"That's not funny." He said. He left the room and headed up the stairs.
"Yeah, of course it's not." Sirius said.
"Well, if he's not back in five minutes then I'm off home" Remus said, "I want to sleep." He said bouncing on the balls of his feet.
"You look a bit hyper to me." I said. Remus shrugged and sat down and grinned.
"It's a nice night tonight isn't it? It's a pity it's not a full moon, we could go marauding around the place. It's a good night for marauding." Sirius and I looked at each other. Remus never looked forwards to a full moon.
"What exactly did Jenny feed you?" I asked Remus. He shrugged.
"I don't know. She didn't tell me until afterwards. I don't think it was a potion though, I think it's one of those temporary things."
"You're like me on a sugar high." Sirius said trying not to laugh. Remus grinned even more. James pushed open the door.
"I'm back, happy?" He asked. We all turned to him.
"Yep." Sirius said, "Where's the drink?" He asked. James waved his wand and all the drinks were on the coffee table. Sirius poured out four shots and handed one to each of us.
"I think we should have a toast." Remus said.
"Why?" I asked. Remus looked at me knowingly.
"Well, to James, Lily and Harry, they're finally safe." Remus said holding his drink out. James and Sirius grinned, I smiled as well.
"To you guys, who've helped us through this." James said. We all downed our drink.
"Right, next one." Sirius said rubbing his hands together.
I felt my arm burning like mad. I bit my lip to stop myself from crying out. Even though I wasn't completely in the right frame of mind I knew I couldn't tell the others. I looked at the clock. What time was it, was it six o'clock or half past eleven. I squinted my eyes.
"Um, guys what time is it?" I asked. James turned to the clock and squinted as well.
"Half eleven." He said.
"Oh right, well I better go." I said, "Early morning tomorrow." I said. I stumbled to my feet and headed to the hallway to get my cloak. James followed me out into the hall.
"Peter." James said. I turned to look at him, he looked like he was trying to be sober. "Thanks for being the Secret keeper, Sirius is right, he is too risky but we can't tell the others, you understand?" I nodded.
"Yeah, just for safety." James nodded.
"Well, thanks again. You're a great friend you know." James said. I tried to smile but I couldn't. James gave me a brotherly hug as his words sobered me up completely. I patted his back and James smiled before going back into the living room. I felt my arm burn again and apparated out of the house. I found myself in the dark and dull room again with the Dark Lord sitting in his chair as regally as he'd sat there earlier.
"Wormtail." He said expectantly. I didn't look at him, I continued to stare at the floor.
"Yes master." I said.
"I think you know what I want." He said, "have you been made secret keeper yet?" I nodded slowly. "So?"
"When will you attack them my lord?" I asked him.
"Why are you so concerned?" He asked me. Because I don't want you to kill them any more.
"Because if you attack too soon it will be suspicious." I said. I felt the Dark Lord's eyes on me. Like he was looking straight through me, like I wasn't even there.
"You are right, but I think that I can restrain myself for at least a week. That is enough to instil a false sense of security into the Potters." He sneered. I finally looked up and he smiled. He handed me some parchment. I scowled and conjured a quill. I felt my heart thumping, it had seemed so easy thinking about it. I'd just hand over the address and it'd be off my chest but in reality, it seemed so much harder then I thought it was going to be. I held the quill poised over the parchment. I cursed myself mentally, now my conscience wanted to help me decide what to do! James was trusting me with his family and I was ready to hand him over. He had befriended me when no one else had at Hogwarts, until I was friends with him I was just that fat kid in Gryffindor. But I'd made a promise to the dark Lord and If I wasn't on his side he'd kill me. I didn't want to die. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. The quill touched the parchment and I quickly scribbled the address down then threw the quill down. The Dark Lord laughed and summoned the parchment towards him.
"I thought that I'd nearly lost you there Wormtail. Your loyalty was wavering." He said, he stood up and read the address. His eyes glittered triumphantly. I was breathing heavily and I could hear my heart pounding.
"I'm sorry my lord." I muttered.
"You had better be Wormtail. This information is the key to my success." He said rolling up the parchment.
"Yes master" I said. I felt my heart giving a weird tug, what would the others do if they discovered what had happened. Would Sirius be the one who'd take the fall? Would April be ok without April? Of course she would, she'd have Jenny and Remus. But could she survive without Lily? It sometimes seemed like the two couldn't live without each other, forget their husbands or boyfriends or whatever. I frowned and the Dark Lord grinned.
"Now, you may forget that you are a one of my most faithful servants for now and enjoy yourself. I do not often reward my followers but I think that you shall be rewarded with two weeks of freedom."
"Master, I am very grateful for this reward but I beg that you keep me informed with anything that you decide to do with the Potters. I won't tell them anything but I just feel that I deserve it." I said. The Dark Lord smirked.
"Of course Wormtail. I will send Bella to your house whenever we have some more progress or when I am to kill them." I nodded slowly. I wasn't going to tell him that Lily was pregnant, I think that I'd betrayed them enough. Now that I had a break I was going to push all things to the back of my mind. At least I knew I was safe from the Dark Lord but maybe not from my old friends. I knew after this I could never look James in the eye again.
A/N:-I'm aiming for about 12 reviews before I next update....which will probs be weds, during the day. I got a busy few days coming up. Don't ask why i'm aiming for 12 reviews, I just picked a number at random. I'll update regardless of whether i have them n e ways. I've had a totally exhausting night with my Youth Parliament celebrationg event, FINALLY over, I'm sooo happy about that, I really just want to sleep and stay asleep and to never never wake up BUT....no such luck :( I had to update for all you lurvely people. This chapter was INCREDIBLY hard to right, It was originally only like....1000 words, then I forced myself to extend it so if it aint as good as usual or meets your usual expectations, I'm sorrry.
The next chapter will be the split. They're basically both Exactly the same until it gets to the bit where the Potters either live, or they die. I'll finish this story with the 'happy' ending though it's not really that happy, the potters just live. I'll post the last 2 or 3 chapters of the unhappy ending as a different story. Then I'll post up the sequel to the Happy ending when I get back from Spain or whenever.
Also, I would like to draw your attention to a writing challenge that has been set up. I can't write the addy here but if you visit my bio page thing then you should find a link to it. IT's a new site and should be quite fun. It's basically a monthly writing challenge. Go and have a look and see what you think.
Till next time....