Revised and Extended

CHAPTER FIVE The Initiation of Peter Pettigrew

The morning of their first day of classes at Hogwarts dawned warm and bright. Ophelia, Lily and Talia went down to the Great Hall, as Mai had wanted to send an owl to her parents.

They sat down across from their very tired looking friends.

"Morning all."chirped Ophelia.

"Phe, Tal, Lily,"began Remus, his voice a bit strained. "I'd like you to meet Cole Reid--"

"The most boring git ever."muttered James under his breath.

"And Peter Pettigrew."

"The quietest git ever."
Ophelia suppressed a laugh. "Nice to meet you."she smiled, shooting James conspiratorial look. He turned a bright shade of pink and shrugged his shoulders.

Professor McGonagall came round and handed each of them their identical timetables.

Lily quickly scanned the list, as Mai sat down next to her. "We have a double History of Magic, followed by Transfiguration and Charms."

Sirius bit into a piece of toast with jelly. "Tha's nah too bad, righ'?" he said, through a mouthful of food.

As they soon discovered, not that bad actually meant an incredibly tedious morning.

They filed into the class, which they were sharing with Hufflepuff, and took the two long tables in the back.

A misty blue ghost glided into the room, and without so much as an introduction or greeting, began the lesson.

"The Aztecs were the first civilization to recognize the superior gifts of witches and wizards from common Muggles. At this time, however, they were held in high esteem, and were regarded as exalted beings."Professor Binns droned, his voice stale and monotonous.

Sirius tapped Ophelia on the shoulder. "Should we be writing this down?"

"Be quiet."she hissed, "He'll notice we're talking."

But quite in the contrary, Professor Binns continued speaking to the back wall.

James took hold of the rather large History of Magik: Grade One textbook and dropped it to the ground with a heavy thud.

They turned their attention back to their teacher, searching for some sign that he had heard the commotion.

"The positions these wizards here were most commonly governing the local society, while others were viewed as Oracles."

Remus was busily writing and had already accumulated half a foot of parchment.

Sirius tilted his chair back. "I am going to love this class."

Ophelia reluctantly turned back in her seat, took out her sugared quill and began to write down the gist of what Binns was dully lecturing about. It was their first day of classes and she already felt bored out of her mind. History of Magic was one of the subjects that Noah and Helena had insisted had insisted on teaching Ophelia and Remus since they were very young. She was finding it extremely difficult to concentrate on something she had learned when she was six years old.

Remus, however, was listening as intently as if up until this moment, he thought magic was just a recent discovery. Ophelia heard a rustling of papers from behind her and seized the opportunity to turn away from her parchment.

James had taken out a bag of Every Flavour Beans and emptied it's contents onto the desktop. "Want one?" he asked, not bothering to keep his voice down.

Ophelia plucked an orange one -always the safest bet when it comes to Every Flavour Beans- from the large pile and popped it into her mouth. Cheese. Well that's better than pond slime any day, she thought.

Once their first History of Magic lesson had finally come to an end, they trudged down to the Great hall for lunch.

Peter Pettigrew, the smaller boy who had been hanging back from the crowd for most of the morning, was now lagging a great deal behind. He was poring over his notes when a lanky Slytherin purposefully collided with him, sending him to the floor and his open book bag into the air, it's contents spilling everywhere.

Peter Pettigrew's robes were now covered in sticky, green ink. He looked around the crowd, his face aghast.

The Slytherin boy and his friends began to roar. "Watch where you're going." he snarled.

James cocked his head. "Oh, hullo. My friend here must not have seen you. Seeing as how you blend in so well with the dungeon decor. Pardon us."

The scowling Slytherins looked as if they had just tasted something very awful and went to reply when Professor Riley passed by. They instead turned angrily on their heels and left.

Sirius helped the boy to his feet and pointed his wand at the mess."Scourgify." he muttered. But nothing happened. "Scourgify!" he repeated, with a bit more force.

James pushed his friend out of the way. "Scourgify."

The ink covered robes were now clean. Peter grinned sheepishly and shook James' hand. "Thank you. I should probably be more careful between classes."

"Maybe getting your head out of the books for a while your walking down the halls." growled Sirius.

James elbowed him in the ribs. "Don't think on it. It wasn't your fault, Petey."

During the rest of the short walk to the hall, James politely asked about the boy's family and where he came from, much to the chagrin of Sirius, who didn't like being out of the spotlight.

For the rest of their day, Petey Pettigrew walked alongside his new friends, and was ready with a laugh when someone cracked a joke, or to answer when a question was posed in class- even though his response was usually wrong.