Sirius

A few weeks past and the only dorm mate still distant was Pettigrew, the hat staller. He and Remus talked occasionally as they had bonded over the sorting and them both being early risers. In fact, Sirius rarely saw Peter outside lessons. He rose earlier than Remus, disappeared down to breakfast before he and James woke up and, according to the notes he occasionally slipped Remus, spent all his spare time wandering the halls of Hogwarts, discovering hidden places to sit and be quiet. He also went to bed much later than anyone else and his bed was always well made when they woke up, so apart from the rare times when Remus woke to see Peter making his bed, they had no evidence that he slept at all.

But today started out differently. Instead of being left to sleep for long, Sirius found James and himself being woken up early by Remus and Frank. They began to complain but where silenced by the other two, who then pointed over to Pettigrew's bed. It was, as usual, empty. But... it was also void of most of the bedding. Then Sirius realised that they where pointing downwards, onto the floor. Pettigrew appeared to have moved his duvet and a few pillows onto the stone-cold floor and was sleeping peacefully.

They all tiptoed over to him and Sirius got a good look at him for the first time. He had a mop of gingery hair on his head that almost covered his eyes. His skin completion was around the same as Remus'. His eyes flickered open as Frank gently shook his shoulder and Sirius was almost stunned by the brilliance of his electric blue eyes. They widened in fright as he took in the people surrounding him on the floor. He slowly sat up.

"Peter," Remus asked kindly, "Why were you sleeping on the floor?"

Peter drew his knees up and stared at said floor. He mumbled something in response. Frank gently asked him to repeat it.

Pettigrew said: "The mattress was to... soft. I felt like i was going to sink into it." They all looked at each other in confusion. Remus stepped forwards. "I'll admit. It is unusually soft, but i much prefer it to the floor. How could you sleep on that instead?" Sirius knew that Remus was a half-blood and his family couldn't afford as much as Pureblood family's, but the Pettigrew's... "Aren't the Pettigrew family currently battling with the pure-blood directory to expand the Scared 28* to 29?" Sirius' eyes widened in realisation as Peter looked at him confusedly, then shrugged.

James, who like the others had been looking at Sirius and hadn't caught his shrug, widened his eyes and said slowly, "isn't this a standard Pure-blood mattress?" Sirius, who had been deep in thought, suddenly gasped. "You don't live with the Pettigrew's, do you?" Peter flinched at the sudden outburst an seemed to be struggling with how to answer.

Remus, who, up until this point, had been following the conversation quietly, caught onto Sirius, smacking his forehead. "Of course," everyone looked at him, "At the feast," He pointed at Peter, "You told me that you and your mother live in a muggle village. You also seem to have limited knowledge of the wizarding world, surely your mother would have told you the basics of Hogwarts, unless..." He trailed off and Sirius carried on from him, "Your mother wouldn't raise her only son alone in a muggle village if she had the choice. I am guessing that her parents kicked her out. But they would need a good reason to. It would have to be a good reason too..." Remus cut across him to finish, "And if you take all of the circumstances together and look at them, you see that the primary conclusion is that your mother..." At the same time, they turned to Peter and said, "Is a squib." Everyone was staring at them in both awe and confusion.

James looked at his best friends and said "Merlins' pants. How the hell did you to get that figured out?" They shrugged, but were very clearly, very pleased with themselves. He stared at the boy. The boy who lived in a run-down muggle house with a squib mother and barley enough money to keep them going. A boy who tried his hardest to be good at magic, purely to help his mother.

He crouched down and wrapped his arms around him. He hugged Peter Pettigrew, the Hat-staller, the boy who grew up with only stories of magic, the boy who was clearly unsure that the hat made the right choice. "I think," he whispered into the small boys' ear as he relaxed into the hug, "that you deserve to be recognised as a Gryffindor, more than any of us here." Peter stared at him. Then the other joined in the hug.

Remus stood back after a bit and said: "you know what I think?" they all shrugged. "I think that we should get breakfast." They all jumped up and saw the time. "Merlins' pants Remus." Sirius said, "its not going to take us that long to get ready!" Remus smiled. "No, but we should stop by the kitchens and ask the house elves for a different mattress." Peter grinned up at him whilst the others looked confused. "Remus, have you been sneaking around without us?" James said, jokingly putting on a mad face, "you're not allowed to use my cloak without me!" Remus laughed, then had to explain to Peter and Frank about James' invisibility cloak, before telling James that it had been Peter who found the entrance to the kitchens whilst hanging around the Hufflepuff common room.

*This is a reference to the sacred 28, who were, according to the author of the Pure-Blood Directory, the 28 British families that were still "Truly Pure-blood" by the 1930's. (I suggest that you look it up. It has some very interesting facts)