Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine, not even the original character!
Warning: No warning.
Dedication: To Tara, for so much inspiration!
Author's Note: Semi-challenge story! Came from a discussion a friend and I had over the lack of Peter Mary Sue stories. Peter needs some loving too! So here is one...a Peter/OC romance! First of it's kind!
Studies of Romance
It had been a very, very long day. Peter sighed, shoving his way into the library, a pile of books held precariously in his arms. He had so much studying to do, he doubted he'd get any sleep at all. Why had he listened to Sirius? He could have spent the day studying, but instead he helped his attention challenged friend hex the Slytherins shower room. Now he had to race to catch up!
"Damn it!" He practically dropped his books on an empty table. He was out of breath, and panting. And he was missing one of his books. //Why does this always happen?// He turned, and stopped in his tracks. Entering the library now was a girl that Peter had spent a good four years avoiding. She looked up at him, and inclined her head to him in way of greeting.
"Hi!" Peter squeaked nervously. After an evening of hexing the Slytherin's showers, meeting one face to face gave him a bit of a fluttery feeling. And from what he had heard, Tara was quick with her tongue. Why did it seem all the Slytherin's were good at were insults and hexes. Did she know? She was looking at him oddly. She was tiny, but intimidating. Peter shook slightly, shifting his weight from foot to foot.
"Problem?" Tara asked, dark eyes fixing on Peter's light ones.
"Er...no." Peter shook his head. //Do I look guilty? Is she going to hurt me?//
"Then why are you staring at me?" Her voice was a bit bitter, and suspicious.
"I...I just..." Peter struggled, wracking his mind for something to say. Unfortunately, clever comebacks were not what Peter excelled at.
"Weirdo." Tara muttered, brushing past Peter, who was still standing there-blubbering. //I am not weird!// He thought to himself. /?She's weird!//
"You're weird!" Peter snapped back, finally. Tara looked up, raising an eyebrow and looking at Peter as though he had five heads.
"Nice comeback." Tara shook her head, short dark hair whisking about her chin. "A little late, though."
"No it wasn't." Peter felt like an idiot. Verbal sparring was something he had never been good at. Especially with Slytherins.
"Look, is there something you want to say?" Tara asked. "Because you're still standing there staring at me. I want to study..."
"So do I." Peter said, setting his round features firmly. "I just need my book."
"Which one?" She asked, tilting her head and watching Peter un-blinkingly. It was a little unnerving.
"My potions book..."
"I've got one." She pulled a book from her pile, and slid it over the table to Peter.
"Oh...thanks." Peter took the book, and sat down across from tara. She had a book open in front of her, and was no longer paying any attention to Peter. They studied in silence, Peter ever so often glancing up to look at Tara. //What would Sirius say?// He'd say that Peter was consorting with the enemy. If he could manage a word like 'consorting'.
"Um...do you need this back?" Pete asked, shyly, holding up the potions book.
"Obviously." Tara said, shaking her head at Peter.
"I meant now. Or close to now." Peter tried again, flushing. //Idiot.//
"Yeah, sure." Tara took the book, and placed it with her others. "I think that's enough for me. I'm about ready to pass out onto my books."
"Yeah." Peter didn't know what to say. Not only was Tara a Slytherin, she was a girl. Peter wasn't very comfortable with either.
"See you around." She said, standing. Peter just bobbed his head at her, and flushed again. "You know something Pettigrew?" Tara asked, pausing next to Peter's chair to tilt her head at him. "You're kind of cute."
***
"Hey Peter...whoa, what's up with you?" Sirius was the first to jump on Peter when he returned to the dorm.
"Huh?" Peter was lost in his own fuzzy little world, and paying little attention to his dormmates.
"You look like you just got in he way of a bad confundus charm." James added, waving his hand in front of Peter's face.
"No...I was just studying." Peter said blankly, dumping his books on top of his chest. //She called me cute. No one's ever called my cute before. Except my mother, and she has to. She thinks I'm cute. She's cute, too. Should I tell her she's cute? Or will she hit me?//
"Studying a little to hard, it looks like." Remus frowned.
"Yeah." Peter nodded. "Good night." He didn't want to talk about it. They'd make fun of him. They'd tell him he was stupid, and that Tara Frost was not the sort of girl for him. They always said things like that. But at seventeen, and having never had a girlfriend, Peter was ready to take whatever he could get. If it was a petite, sarcastic Slytherin, then so be it. She *was* cute.
"Night then." Sirius said, and there was suspicion in his voice. Peter wasn't the most subtle of people, and he was well aware. But he would try and keep them thinking he had just been studying too hard. They'd buy that. For a while at least...
***
Hogsmeade. It had to be one of Peter's favorite places. He could spend hours in Honeydukes, and often did. His three friends were off in Zonko's, which was fine by him. He was busy mulling over a selection of fudge, when he felt someone bump into him. Hard.
"Hey..." Peter said, turning. His eyes fell on the small form of Tara, and his words froze in his mouth. "Er...hey." He said, freezing in his tracks.
"Sorry." Tara said, trying o squeeze by Peter. It was rather crowded in the candy shop, and Peter wasn't exactly small. He..was by no means fat, he was simply cuddly.
"It's okay." Peter was having trouble breathing. Tara had become pressed up against him in the crush of students. She came up to just below his chin, and he could smell her hair. //What do I do...what do I do...what do I do?// He was in a blind panic. //Say something! Talk to her! Tell her...tell her she smells nice, or she looks nice, or something! How hard can it be?//
"Wannagothreebroomstickswithme?" Peter managed to gasp out.
"The sad thing is, I understood all of that." Tara shook her head. "Sure."
"Really?" Peter couldn't believe it. He had asked a girl to go somewhere with him, and she had said yes! This had to have been the best day of his life!
"Yeah, it's too crowded in here anyway. Let's go." Tara grabbed his hand, and pulled him through the crowd. //She's touching me! She's touching me, and not in a bad way!// Peter's heart was practically beating out of his throat at this point. //Oh no...my hand isn't sweaty, is it?// Suddenly, he started worrying. What if this was some sort of trick? What if he messed up? What if...?
"Feels good to be out of there." Tara said, letting go of Peter's hand once they were out in the street. She leaned against the wall of the building, raking her dark hair out of her face. //She's really pale.// Peter noticed, really studying her face in the fading light. Her features were small and delicate, her cheekbones set rather high in her face. It gave her a certain pixie-ish quality. And for once he wasn't seeing her in school robes. Her figure matched her face, petite and small. She looked fragile...
"You're staring again." Tara said, folding her arms.
"You're pretty." Peter said, without thinking. Tara blinked at him, as if not certain of what he had just said.
"What?" She asked, sounding confused.
"I...I think you're really pretty." Peter said, blushing furiously and staring down at the ground.
"Really?" She didn't sound angry. "Thanks..."
"You're welcome."
It was an awkward moment. //I wonder if she'd be my girlfriend...I want her to be...// Regardless of the fact that he hardly knew her, there was something about her.
"Let's go." Peter said, shyly offering his hand. She stared at it for a moment, before taking it. They walked hand in hand to the Three Broomsticks, and Peter felt as if he were walking on air.
"Hey Peter....hey." James had come out of nowhere, or so it seemed. Peter jumped, and dropped Tara's hand, startled.
"James!" He exclaimed, eyes darting around madly for some chance to escape.
"Yeah, hi." James looked from him to Tara, and back again. "Uh...we were just wondering what had happened to you. I didn't mean to interrupt..."
"It's okay. We're just going to grab something to drink." Peter knew he was in for it when they got back to school.
"Sure, yeah, that's fine. Uh...have fun." James smiled in a nervous manner, looked at Tara again, and jogged off-assumedly to meet up with Sirius and Remus.
"Scared?" Tara asked, folding her arms and glaring at Peter.
"Huh? Oh! No. Startled." Peter said, feeling like an idiot. "I'm sorry...I'm...I'm a idiot." He shrugged. "That's all there is too it. I'm horrible in school, I'm have no talents, and I can't make conversation to save my life. I suck at existence."
"No you don't." Tara shook her head. "You make conversation fine. And you're just...you're a follower. And the world needs followers. There wouldn't be any leaders without them. Just a bunch of angry people yelling at each other. Let's skip the Three Broomsticks and just head back to school, okay?"
"Sure." Well, that was that. He had blown his chances with Tara, all because he was an absolute idiot. He shoved his hands in his pockets, walking silently back to school. Why was he such a screw-up? Why couldn't he be smooth and slick like Sirius? Or smart like Remus? Anything but him!
"Don't look so down." Tara said, stopping down by the lake.
"I just feel really stupid right now." Peter sighed. "I thought....I don't know. I like you, and I guess I thought you might like me too, but you never want to see me again, and I should have guessed that it would end up like that 'cause I don't know how to..."
Peter was stopped mid-sentence when Tara kissed him. He hadn't seen it coming, and after it was over, wasn't sure it had even happened. Her lips were soft and small against his, and she tasted faintly of peppermint. Peter was left, open mouthed, unable to speak.
"I do like you." Tara said.
"Uh...." Peter was speechless. //She likes me, she likes me, she likes me, she likes me...// His knees felt like they were going to give way.
"What?" Tara asked, searching Peter's face with r eyes.
"I just...I've...no ones ever kissed me before." Peter admitted, green eyes bright and shining.
"Well, now they have." Tara said, tucking her hair behind her ears. "Now knock off all of this self depreciating crap. You're not an idiot. You're just a little socially challenged. So am I. So what? Nobody's perfect."
"No..." Peter nodded slowly. He was still working out the dynamics of the kiss.
"So I don't want to hear you putting yourself down anymore." Tara said, taking Peter's hands in her own.
"All right." Peter nodded, smiling shyly. This was *definitely* the best day of his life. He gazed down into Tara's eyes, caught up in the moment. "Would you kiss me again..."