Peter Pettigrew:
Peter dug through the roots as fast as he could. The vegetable that he was digging up should be enough to sustain him for at least a few days, but he knew that he had to be quick in his heist. First of all, this garden had an absolute infestation of garden gnomes. Peter had never seen that many of the tricky little devils all in one place before. Also, Peter knew that this house belonged to a magical family. He wasn't quite sure which it was, but the idea of getting some information about what was happening was too alluring a prospect to pass up.
Peter set about grabbing the plant and hauling it off towards the burrow that he had made for himself under the house. He had a few scraps of things laying around the burrow he had hollowed out, but this vegetable would satisfy his survival needs so he could focus on getting information.
All would have gone to plan if it weren't for the pair of hands that suddenly picked him. Peter squeaked indignantly at being touched by something before quickly realizing the dangerous situation that he was in and letting his squeaks become much more panicked. However, that didn't deter the person that picked him up and Peter soon found himself locking eyes with a young boy with ginger hair.
Ugh. Of course it would turn out to be a hovel of Weasley's that he stumbled upon. No wonder they attracted so many gnomes, they were practically gnomes in human skin as it was.
"And what are you doing here?" the boy asked. Peter just stared at the boy, incredulous. Was he really spending his time talking to a rat? "Are you taking some food home? I don't think Mum will be very happy if she finds that rats have been scurrying around in her garden"
The boy grew quiet as he just looked at Peter for a few moments. Peter just scrambled desperately to get out of the boy's grip as fast as possible. He knew that coming this close to a magical family had been a mistake. How could he have been such a fool!?
"I have a deal," the boy said. Peter rolled his eyes at the formal way the boy was speaking to a rat. "I'll let you be my pet and let you have as much food as you want. What do you say? Sounds like a good deal to you?"
That…. Did actually sound like a pretty good deal to Peter. Not the food part, Peter was always to somehow scavenge enough to not be hungry, but the information was very tempting. It was what had brought him here in the first place, after all. If he was in a family as magical as the Weasleys, he would always be close to news happening in the magical world. He would be able to catch any rumors of his master returning! And the Weasleys were so far into Dumbledore's pocket, that he should be able to learn whatever Dumbledore has been up to since the end of the world.
Mind made up, Peter stopped trying to escape from the boy's hand. The boy looked surprised by that for a moment before a smile split across his face. "Alright then, my name is Percy. And what's your name? Hmm… How about Scabbers?"
Peter's nose twitched at the repulsive nickname, which Percy mistook as agreeing to the new name. Percy brought Peter in the house, and Peter marveled at how cluttered and disorganized everything was in this house.
"Mum!" Percy yelled as he ran in. The woman was standing in the kitchen peeling potatoes and turned her head to watch her son. "Look what I found in the garden!"
The woman's nose scrunched up. "Ew Percy, that's a rat! Get it out of the house!"
Percy hugged Peter close to his chest. "What? No! He's mine!"
The woman just sighed. "Alright, fine. But I'm not taking care of it. If I start finding rat poop in the house, I'm taking it out back and turning it into soup."
Percy hopped excited while Peter felt his stomach flip over in fear. "Oh thanks Mum, you're the best!" Percy spun on his foot and started to run up the stairs. He went on his way to bring Peter to his room, but was stopped on the way by a pair of identical younger boys.
"Heya Prince Percy!" One of the boys said.
"Whatcha got in your hands there?" The other asked.
"None of your business," Percy said, holding Peter close against his chest. "And Mum already said I can keep him, so bugger off already."
The first boy came closer and looked Peter up and down. "Gred look - Perce found himself a twin!"
Gred came up and looked at Peter. "By jove! Forge! It looks like there are two pairs of twins in this house now!"
"No!" Percy said. "You two aren't getting your claws into him. He's mine and I'm not gonna let you two treat him like your personal playtoy."
Peter's attention was pulled away by the sounds of someone else coming down the stairs. He looked up to see another boy, this time even younger than the twins. The Weasleys really did multiply like rabbits.
"What's going on," the youngest asked.
"Ronnie!" Forge said. "Wait until you see what Percy's found. A rat! Can you believe it!? And he managed to get Mum to let him keep it!"
Percy had gone as still as a statue and Peter looked at him to find that Percy had a look of fear in his eyes. Was that look because of this Ronnie? He didn't look like much, just a young kid. Oh well, all young boys had dumb ideas about what was worth being afraid over.
"Scabbers?" Ronnie said.
"Who?" Gred asked, confused. Peter looked at Gred to find that he was standing half positioned away from Ronnie and had the same look in his eyes that Percy did. It seemed like Forge was the only one that wasn't strangely afraid of his brother.
"I didn't tell you his name," Percy said, taking a step back. Huh?
Peter replayed everything that happened in his head very quickly and realized, with dawning horror, that Percy had not told any of his brothers his new name yet. How had Ronnie figured out that was what Percy had called him out in the garden?
Peter looked back at Ronnie and found him looking at Peter with a very intense look. He looked incredibly confused and was deep in thought. It was like he was trying to remember a detail that he had forgotten, or was trying to recall a dream that he had had that morning. But as time went on, Ronnie's expression only got more and more serious. Until Ronnie started to appear angry, furious even.
All of a sudden Ronnie's right hand shot up and pointed straight at Peter. Peter felt a massive wave of magic wash over him and picked him out of Percy's arms. Percy and Gred both screamed and ran downstairs in fright, but Forge stayed right by Ronnie's side with wide eyes.
"Ron?" Forge asked, not sounding afraid exactly, but a little bit concerned.
"Stay behind me, George," Ron said. "I don't think this is a rat."
Peter felt fear condense in his stomach and started to frantically try to break free of the boy's grasp. Ron just beckoned with two fingers for Peter to float closer and Peter could stop being flown through the air until he was only a foot away from the boy's face.
Ron's right hand stayed extended to keep Peter floating in the air, but his left hand rose as well and ran its way down Peter's body. And all too suddenly, Peter felt his animagus transformation reverting. All too suddenly, he was in his human form for the first time in years, sprawled out on the floor of a Weasley house.
And he was angry. How dare this little upstart child expose him like this!
"You imbecile," Peter growled, voice contorted from years of misuse and half turned into the clicking of a rat's voice. He lunged at the boy and watched in glee as the neutral expression quickly morphed to fear.
He lunged for the boy's face, using his gnarled fingernails to scratch down the left side of the boy's face, noting with a savage glee that he had scratched right over the boy's eye.
Before he could attack the boy any further, a deadly wave of magic shot out of the boy's body. Peter felt himself fly through the hallway and slammed his back against the ceiling. He tumbled down the stairs bottom over front, before he was suddenly stopped mid air.
Peter looked up in anger to find the boy standing up. Blood was gushing out of the boy's eye and was pooling in his mouth so that his angry snarl showed off his bloodied teeth. Peter could feel the magic collapsing around him, as the boy's hold on him grew. A pain blossomed out of all of his limbs, and he was lost to unconsciousness.