In the past one hundred and eighty years, the Hogwarts Express had been taking students of all ages to the school. Not once in all, that time had it failed to be the first year's first introduction to their new world or to contain a hundred sighs of relief from seventh years finally, finally finished with their last exam.
Not until now.
"You've got your bag, Peter? Your Mum said you might forget it." Fleamont patted Peter on the head and Peter heaved his trunk closer to the Potter's fireplace. The already quite large fireplace was bigger now, had to be if it was going to transport them and all their things.
"Ridiculous," Euphemia muttered under her breath. "A few more aurors and the train would be perfectly safe. They can't ban public transportation. It's just silly."
Lyall pulled the newspaper out from under his arm so it didn't fall when he rubbed the eye behind his glasses. "The main entrance to the Ministry of Magic was bombed last week. Dumbledore's just taking precautions. You can't blame him for that."
"Of course not, but still, it's the Hogwarts Express."
"It's just a train, Dear."
"It's more than just a train. It's a tradition."
"Traditions are dumb," James interrupted rolling his eyes. "Can we go now?"
"Of course, Love, just waiting on Sirius. You be good this year, you hear me? I quite enjoyed managing to go a week without being sent an angry owl from Minerva." Euphemia mussed his hair and handed him his trunk.
"It's not my fault you're not getting letters. She's holding my captain badge hostage."
"Good for her," Lyall chuckled. "If it works it works."
"Moony, can I adopt you too? I don't like your parents anymore."
Hope gave Remus a big hug. "Not a chance." She said.
"Bye mum," Remus muttered his cheeks turning pink. Then he looked at Lyall, worry plain on his face. "Dad, be careful."
Lyall and Fleamont were still determined to make a case against Walburga Black in Sirius' defense. James and Remus were only helping in a very minor capacity so as not to tip off Sirius. Peter had meticulously collected proof of all of it, just in case for some reason he needed to turn Padfoot against James and Remus at some point. This wasn't likely to be necessary, but Peter liked to know he could if he wanted to.
"You know I will, Son. I learned that lesson a long time ago," he said humbly. After all, this wasn't the first time he'd knowingly ticked off a person with the power and desire to hurt someone he loved.
There was a crash and an obnoxiously loud swear from the stairway in the next room over. All three Potters went to make sure Sirius hadn't fallen down the stairs.
He'd probably just tried to levitate his trunk down the stairs and failed. Because Sirius' new wand was causing trouble. Of course, they couldn't admit this because they weren't supposed to be using magic outside of school.
Because even his magic needed to be the center of attention at all times.
"I'm fine," Padfoot said testily dragging his trunk behind him, James and his parents following behind.
"Alright, let's get this over with," Remus said with a sigh. "I hate floo powder. Makes me sneeze. Pete, you wanna go first?"
Peter didn't, but he threw the powder in the fireplace anyway. The trip would be long and dreadful. Floo powder travel was never comfortable, but this was defiantly the longest trip he'd ever taken with it.
"Gryffindor Common Room, Hogwarts, he said clearly and whisked away.
It didn't disappoint. Felt like he was zooming through ash-covered chimneys for an hour, though it couldn't have been more than ten minutes.
When he finally emerged coughing and spitting out ash someone helped him up and brushed his robes off. He didn't recognize them. He had short brown hair and a lot of freckles, and she had short blond spiky hair with a braid that had outgrown the rest of it.
But their Headboy and Headgirl badges were enough to identify them, even if Peter didn't have a name. Professor McGonagall was there as well, checking a name off her list.
"Pettigrew, good to know you've made it safely. I presume the others are coming soon as well then. Head down to the great hall, the start of term feast starts in two hours. No, no don't wait up. We'll send them along shortly."
Peter left the common room as he was told but did-in fact-wait up. He wasn't going down there to that pack of wolves alone. No, he'd wait for James or Remus to come out.
But they weren't the next ones to emerge from the common room. Lily Evans crawled through the portrait still coughing and sputtering her robe already ripped though the term hadn't even started yet.
"First time?" Peter asked in a tiny voice.
Evans blinked, coughed again, and found him with her eyes.
"Oh, yes. How on Earth do you lot do that all the time. It's miserable." She said pointing a wand at the tear in her sleeve "repairo."
"It's not so bad when you're not going so far. Did you have to use someone else's fireplace too? Moony did."
"Alice. She'll be right behind me I expect."
"Doesn't Alice live in Sheffield?" Peter asked trying to sound innocent. He knew from a letter to her parents he'd stolen from her bag that Evans lived in Cokeworth. Nowhere near Sheffield.
"Yes well, I certainly wasn't going to attempt to use Severus' fireplace, was I." She said a little testy still.
So the two never made up. That was good to know, James might be interested in that.
The portrait door opened up and Remus came out. He had hardly any dust left on him, though he was rubbing his nose like he'd just sneezed. "Hello, Evans." Remus greeted. "I'd move on if I were you. Prongs aught to be around soon."
She rolled her eyes than after a moment of thought looked downcast. "How's Black?"
Remus thought about this, looked at Peter and Peter shrugged.
"Better, I think. But still not great."
She nodded, "Potter said it was better if I didn't ask. So I'll go. But if you need anything. I mean, I know we're not friends, and don't tell Potter. But if you need anything…"
"Thanks, Evans. You waiting on Prongs, Pete?" He turned back to Peter as Evans continued down the stairs to the great hall.
"I just didn't wanna go alone," Peter admitted.
Remus nodded and started walking. "Then they can meet us there. I've been keeping an eye on the Daily Prophet over the summer, I didn't want to miss anyone when we add names."
Peter followed, it took him a minute to remember what Remus was talking about. It had been so long since he'd even thought about the memorial the Marauders had put up in the Great Hall. Surely it wouldn't still be there?
But when they arrived, passing the four house hourglasses that were alarmingly empty already, the firey letters still burned bright. Like the teachers were too sentimental to take it down.
Remus must have noticed Peter's surprise because he laughed.
"They can't figure out how to remove it," he whispered as they sat down in their usual spot. "Prongs used an ever-burning jinx he found in the restricted section. It's sort of a mild version of the fiendfyre spell. I saw Flitwick and McGonagall trying to remove it at the end of last year. Though, I'm not sure they were trying very hard."
"Wow," Peter whispered, actually impressed for once. He faked it a lot, but when James and Sirius performed feats of magic that even the teachers couldn't manage, he couldn't help but feel he'd picked the right team. For now anyway.
They really were incredibly skilled wizards.
Remus waited for a few other people to come in before he started adding to the list of names. Having Peter read them off as quietly as he could and performing the spell James taught him with as little movement as he could. Peter was pretty sure Hagrid and Professor Binns wouldn't have noticed regardless though since they were too busy slowly emptying the house hourglasses outside in an attempt to keep the freshly arrived students in line.
Gryffindor's hourglass would be empty in an hour, Slytherin's already was as most students were still in summer holiday mode.
At least they were on an even playing field.
"What's taking James and Sirius so long?" Remus asked as the last name went on the wall, several Hufflepuffs were pointing out the addition to everyone else. Hagrid was a puddle of tears the moment he saw it so Gryffindor might make it through the opening feast without going into the negatives point-wise. It wasn't like Binns cared what the students did on his own.
Alice met up with Lily and the rest of their friend group had already gathered. But the other two Marauders were nowhere to be seen.
"Hope they're getting in trouble somewhere," Remus said looking back at the door.
"Don't you mean not getting in trouble?"
Remus looked back with a cheeky smile, so no, that wasn't what he meant.
It wasn't until the Great Hall finally filled up and Dumbledore stood to welcome them to a new school year that James and Sirius snuck in under Prong's invisibility cloak.
The Hall was still depressingly empty. Peter knew that with the war-that still technically no one official was calling a war yet-had caused several families to go into hiding, or leave the country together. Particularly families with muggles mixed in.
But to see the gaps in the house tables, to hear the lack of chatter during Dumbledore's speech, to count the new first years.
It wasn't right, it wasn't natural.
Of course, the Slytherin table was hardly affected. No empty spaces there.
The thought left a chill up Peter's spine.
"All right, Wormtail?" James' voice said from nowhere a second before he threw the cloak off. He and Sirius sat there like they weren't abysmally late looking perfectly normal.
McGonagall started calling the names of first-years to the front of the Hall.
"Where have you two been? How long have you been sitting there?" Remus whisper-yelled across the table.
A tiny person by the name of "Andrews, Geroff" climbed onto the stool and the sorting hat was placed on his head.
"Oh y'know, around." He had a smile on his face that just spelled trouble for all of them. Even Sirius didn't look quite so grumpy, a small smile on his face that Peter half thought might have been more for James' benefit than anything else.
After a few seconds of thought, the hat yelled out "Slytherin!"
"Yes…" James hissed turning his attention to the sorting just as something fell from nowhere onto the new member of the snake house.
Something foul. Greenish brown and sticky, but also slimy. A new teacher Peter didn't recognize screamed at the horrible goop though it had completely missed all the teachers at their table as well as McGonagall.
"What on Earth?" McGonagall cried and several of the teachers stood to help the student. Slughorn escorted him out of the great hall, and Professor Sprout examined the substance before Flitwick had a chance to banish it all. Dumbledore was looking at the ceiling in surprise, trying to discover where it came from no doubt.
"You didn't…" Remus whispered. "How? The sorting hat is bewitched by the founders themselves, how could you possibly have cursed it?"
"It's not on the hat," James whispered back.
"It's on the stool. They'll never find it." Sirius finished, looking like he was having genuine fun for the first time in months.
Dumbledore himself examined the sorting hat as the whispers in the great hall increased in volume. The poor first years looked scandalized.
He didn't check the stool."
They tried the second student, foolishly thinking it was a one-time thing.
"Collins, Phillis" climbed up to the chair looking ready to bolt if she so much as saw a hint of slime.
"Hufflepuff," the hat said like there was nothing unusual going on.
Fireworks shot from the doorway exploding in the air with a bang and yellow and black sparks crinkling on their way down. Three, four, five of them shot off and then there was silence.
The Hufflepuffs applauded, both their new member and the firework display.
Remus started giggling into his hand.
There was a full moon tonight. Yet the excitement and the loud noises weren't bothering him at all. He wondered if the others had noticed. Were their transformations actually countering the effects of the moon itself? Were James and Sirius, two underage wizards successfully hoodwinking the entirety of the Hogwarts staff?
Peter had grown up with James Potter, yet at this moment—an enchanted ever-burning fire still marking the walls behind him, and a shockingly cheered up Sirius Black in front, bronze and blue fireworks now reflecting in his glasses—at this moment he didn't even recognize his childhood friend.
Yes, Peter Pettigrew had picked the correct side. And it would take one seriously powerful wizard to convince him otherwise.