Author's Note: Hello! This fic is a companion to the two stories It Was Never Mentioned and It Was Only Mentioned. Being a companion means that the three stories will intertwine, however, you do not need to read the first one in order to understand the second and so on and so forth, very similar to the Wrinkle in Time Quartet, that I love, lots. This is Peter's story. I have found it the most difficult to write so far because in no way did I sympathize with Peter, and the whole point of these stories was more or less to be sympathetic and understanding towards the characters. I thought Sirius would be hard, just because he is such a layered character, but I've definitely had trouble with this. I think that it will be even harder later on when he makes it to France. Why in my head does he go to France to go to the dark side? Does it say this somewhere in the books? I've just always thought that. Anyway, this is mostly a filler chapter (I'm SORRY) but there is a little explanation in it. Enjoy, mon amis.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. Why I must reiterate this every time I write one of these, I don't know, but I do.
Rating: PG-13, I get a little bit more risqué in these stories than I have in the past, I've matured a lot, I suppose, since I began fic writing, well, I'm a whole two years older, I think. I have to check to see when I signed up. There's some swearing and sexual references.
Chapter One: Rewards
"Oh, Mum! He's lovely!" Peter Pettigrew exclaimed as he pulled the wrappings off of the cage of his new owl. The owl fluttered his wings as Peter stared at him opened mouthed and excited. His mother, Mrs. Pettigrew, beamed up at her son, as she was a great deal shorter than he was which was saying a lot as Peter barely hit 5'4".
She pulled something out of her bag, "There's one more thing. You're father and I were just so pleased with you after we got your OWLs scores, we had to treat you to something." She handed him a glossy brochure with an enchanted photo of the Eiffel Tower, its lights glaring brightly into Peter's gloomy bedroom, making Peter's face glow. The grin on his face grew larger and spread from ear to ear as he realized what this meant; he was going to be taking a trip to France! He'd always wanted a visit, to see the Lourve, the Tower, Notre Dam… and all the magic that was there. Peter had always loved History of Magic, even with stuffy old Professor Binns as his teacher, and really wanted to examine what exactly it was that made France so teeming with magic. it was literally ripping at Paris's seams.
Peter looked as though he was going to cry, as did his mother. But he pulled it together and pulled her into a hug, "This is wonderful, Mum, but I don't' think that I deserve it. I mean, James and Sirius, well, they both got nearly twice the number of OWLs as I did!"
"Oh fuddy!" Mrs. Pettigrew cried, "You are just as good as they are and don't let anyone tell you otherwise." She picked up a photograph of the four of them together; Sirius with his flawless hair, James with his flaw-full hair, and Remus, with that sort of otherworldly glow about him. And then there was Peter, he was short, fat, and pale as the moonlight. Mrs. Pettigrew admired the photo lovingly. "They've been such a good influence on you, Peter darling, I've been ever-so-worried about you," she sighed. "I know you'll probably want to spend the summer with them rather than take this silly old trip…"
"No, Mum! I really, really want to go!" he nearly yelled.
Mrs. Pettigrew smiled at him, "Calm down dearie! Alright, alright! I'll make all of the arrangements and then you'll be off! Do you want to travel by floo?"
Peter thought about it for a moment then said quietly to his mother, "I'd like to take a Muggle airplane, if that's alright…"
She looked taken aback, "One of those fuddy, silver bird things?" Peter grimaced at the repetition of his mother's favorite swear-replacement and nodded. "Are you sure they're safe? You hear about them crashing all of the time on Muggle news."
"They're perfectly safe, Mother."
She sighed once more, "Fine, I suppose it'll be okay." And she wandered off through their small house to make the preparations for Peter's trip. Peter stayed in his room and examined his new owl, then read and reread the brochure that was sitting on his bed. There was excitement boiling within him and he couldn't wait to leave for France.
------
A hollow rumbling filled Peter's living room and he ran to see what it was. A fire had sprung up in the fireplace and was glowing green, a gring spread across his face as he saw a head pop out of the hearth followed by a pair of shoulders and a torso. "Hey Peter!" James ruffled his hair as he wandered into the room from the fireplace followed closely by Sirius, who adjusted his leather jacket as he sauntered in and plopped down on Peter's couch. James still stood, stretching sleepily; he turned around to look at the fire that was still glowing green.
"Where's Remus?" he asked, eyeing the fire suspiciously.
Sirius shrugged and stood back up, "Bloody idiot. He should have gone first."
"Hey! Remus is smart!" Peter said rather stupidly. Sirius looked over to him and rolled his eyes.
Sirius bent over, his gorgeous hair being licked by the harmless flames, and yelled, "Oi! Remus! Hurry up, bloke! We're waiting on you!" The hollow rumble filled the air again, but Sirius didn't have the sense to move, and as Remus came hurling out of the fireplace, covered in soot and ash, and tackled Sirius to the floor. "Aw, c'mon man! This is a new leather jacket! Not to mention clean white tank," Sirius grumbled.
Remus hacked out a cough and struggled to stand up, "I detest traveling by Floo powder. Absolutely hate it. Why couldn't we have taken the underground like normal people?"
Sirius rose from underneath his friend and began to brush off the soot, "Probably because you're about as far from normal, as you call it, as you can get. Besides, all normal wizards who can't apparate go by Floo, where have you been?"
"In my room my entire life," Remus muttered, still sitting with his knees to his chest.
Sirius shrugged and sat back down on the couch. "Sorry for mussing up your living room, Peter. I'll help clean it up," Remus said finally standing up.
Peter waved a hand away, "Nah, don't worry about it, I'll get Nilly to do it. NILLY!" They all turned their heads to see a scurrying house elf come running into the room.
"Yes, master, what is it I can do for you master?" she said, bowing until the tip of her tiny button nose (rather unusual for a house elf) reached the wooden floor.
Peter showed her the mess, "Nilly, could you clean it up a little?"
Nilly nodded vigorously, "of course, Master, of course." She walked over to James, Sirius, and Peter who were sitting on the couch and pinched each of their legs.
"Ow, bloody elf, what was that for?" Sirius yelped as he jumped up.
"The masters must go in other room so Nilly can clean up!" she shoved the four of them out of the room with surprising strength and all the while, pinching them on their bottoms. she gave them a final shove, the four boys tripped slightly, and she slammed the door behind them.
Sirius flipped his hair back and stared at the foreboding black door. "I've just been violated by a house elf," he said dazedly. Remus brushed off some remaining soot and they made their way to Peter's room so they could get started on their summer homework, because contrary to popular belief, they did do such things.
Sirius was the first to wlak in, and one more threw himself down, this time onto Peter's bed, laying down and covering his head with a pillow, "Everybody, leave me alone, I'm sleeping."
James looked at Remus and rolled his eyes, "Sirius, you should have done that last night. Come to think of it, I didn't hear from your owl all night, what were you doing?" Sirius grunted and Remus raised one of his eyebrows. "You went snogging didn't you?!" James exclaimed, shoving his best friend into the wall. Peter blushed slightly, never having pecked a girl on the cheek, let alone had one stuff her tongue down his throat.
Sirius chuckled, "So what if I did? Got to admit, that's better than sleeping." James pulled the pillow of Sirius's face and looked him seriously in the eye.
"You didn't shag her did you?" James asked?
Sirius looked at him in surprise, "No, man! Do I have that unbelievable glow about me this morrow? No! I'm waiting until I'm out of Hogwarts, you know that."
"Just checking."
Peter looked over at Sirius, "So wait, you're a virgin?"
Sirius nodded, a little sheepishly, "What'd you think that I was sleeping with all those girls I snogged?"
"Well, yeah," Peter shrugged.
"And where did we do it?" Sirius asked.
"Oh, well, I never really thought about that," Peter responded.
Sirius nodded, 'Of course you didn't, you really are thick sometimes."
Remus prodded Siriu son his forehead, "We aren't here to talk about each other's lack of sex lives, we're here to work on summer homework!"
"He's right," James began pulling out his history of magic book from his bag. "Okay, here's the paper. You are to research three significant witches or wizards in history. You will then write a paper on the three witches or wizards, focusing on what made them significant and what their greatest accomplishments were. Your parchment should be no less than 21/2 inches long and no more than 3 inches. This will be collected on the first day of class and will count up to 10% of your final grade. have a wonderful summer, and see you again in September! – Professor Binns. I'm surprised he even realizes it's summer, all he knows is that history already happened and it isn't changing. God, this stuff is so boring."
Peter shrugged, "I dunno, it's kind of interesting. I mean, for instance, I've picked Emilie Sagee, Hecate, and Joan of Arc." The other three looked at Peter oddly, their eyes kind of wide. Of course they had always known that Peter preferred History of Magic to other subjects, but they'd never heard him speak so intelligibly about something. It rather surprised them to say the least.
Remus was the first one to regain his ability to speak, "But Emilie Sagee and Joan of Arc weren't real witches, were they?"
Peter smiled and was obviously excited about his essay topic, "Not in the sense that you and I think of witches and wizards, but at that time there were only tight knit magical communities, not like now, where they're spread across the world. If there was no community to raise them to know about the wizarding world, they'd live their life knowing that something was different about them. Emilie Sagee saw her double, or her doppelganger, and Joan of Arc, well you know her story. They were both witches that didn't know it. Shakespeare immortalized Hecate in Macbeth." Again Sirius and James had a dumbfounded, surprised, yet slightly bored, look on their faces. Remus was nodding slowly and seemed as though he was fascinated.
Sirius yawned, "I hate history."
"That's nice," Peter glared at Sirius, wondering if he'd ever just be nice to him; probably not. James was shuffling around some of his papers and then picked up a stack that Peter had lying on the floor.
"Hey, Pete, what's this?" James asked, holding up the brochure that Mrs. Pettigrew had given Peter that morning.
Peter craned over Remus's shoulder in order to see what it was that James was holding up. "Oh, didn't I tell you guys?" They others shook their heads no, trying to see what it was. "My mum and dad got me a trip to France for my OWL scores, and an owl!" he said quickly, walking out to get Mordred. He brought in the exotic owl, with brown and red feathers, "This is Mordred. Isn't he beautiful?"
Remus smiled, "Of course, quite a lovely owl."
Sirius was suddenly sitting up, "But those French girls! Oui, oui monsieur, I'll make out with you on the zee dance floor!"
"Is that all you think about, Sirius?" James asked.
"Of course." He thought for a moment, then his face lit up again, "But, young Peter! You can hook up for the very first time! Jamesy! Our baby boy is growing up!" He faked a tear and a sob, as did James. Peter's face grew red with embarrassment as he stroked Mordred's feathers. Remus simply shook his head as his quill scratched across the parchment, carrying on his essay writing.
------
"PETER! TIME TO GO!" Mrs. Pettigrew yelled up the staircase. Peter came bounding down, followed by his trunk and Mordred's cage that his father had magicked to follow him until there were prying muggle eyes. "Come on! You're going to miss that fuddy muggle aircraft!" screeched Mrs. Pettigrew, ushering him into the car.
"Mum, really, can you stop saying fuddy?" Peter asked exasperatedly.
Mrs. Pettigrew smiled feebly at her son, "Didn't mean to embarrass you, love." They drove a little bit further and finally reached the airport. "Alright, dearie, here you are, I won't get out with you, I'm afraid of all those muggle things. Good you can handle it though. Kisses," she blew him a kiss as he disappeared into the fronds of muggles making their way to destinations unknown.
Thank you for reading and I hope you stick around.
If I get enough reviews, I'll want to write, DON'T DISCOURAGE ME!
:) :)