Disclaimer: The Marauders and the world of Harry Potter, belong to J.K. Rowling, We're just borrowing them for awhile. All original characters are property of Prongs and Padfoot.
The Adventures of Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs
::Year One::
Chapter Eight:
Peter
By: Padfoot & ProngsIn the morning I was the first to wake, and quickly showered and dressed. When I came out of the bathroom, James and Sirius were just waking up, Frank's bed stood empty, and Remus was still fast asleep.
"Isn't anyone going to wake Remus?" I asked, still carrying a towel and trying to dry my hair.
"I will!" Sirius volunteered, suddenly wide awake, and hurried out of his bed and in to Remus's. Remus's bed curtains were pulled tightly shut, so I couldn't see exactly what was being done, but a few moments, giggles, and peculiar noises later, the pair were emerging, laughing and smiling.
I went over to my bed to fetch a brush, but when I turned to head back to the bathroom, I caught sight of James and my brush fell to the floor, forgotten for the moment. James was standing in the light coming in from the window, only half dressed, his pajama top lying discarded on the floor.
"Need another towel, Peter? You seem to have a bit of drool on your chin," Sirius' voice called tauntingly. James didn't appear to register the comment, but I looked away from him as I knelt to get my brush, and then hurried back in to the bathroom, trying to hide the blush that I'm sure came over my face. I quickly finished with my hair, and went back out searching through my clothes from the night before until I found my shoes.
After James and I had dressed we started to head out of the dorm to go down to breakfast, but Remus called out for us to wait. "Before we go down to breakfast, I, um, wanted to talk to you all about something."
"Okay," James said, flopping down on Frank's bed, because it was the closest. I followed his lead, and sat down beside him. "What is it Remus?"
"Well, someone asked me out yesterday, but before I gave them an answer I wanted to talk with you all about it."
"I don't think you should," Sirius jumped in, not giving Remus a chance to explain further. "You should wait. Get to know everyone first."
"Well, I really like them, and I think I'm going to say yes, but..."
"Who is it? We might know them." James asked.
"Actually... it's Evan."
"No. Don't!" James stated emphatically. "Just trust me on this one. Don't go out with him."
Although I didn't say anything to the effect, I had to agree. I couldn't help but think of Ian. Poor Ian... such a senseless tragedy... I had hated Evan ever since, as had James... Well, James hated him, I feared him more than I hated him.
"Why not?" Remus asked, a stunned look on his face. "He seems perfectly nice. What's wrong with him? You wouldn't tell me last night. You'd better tell me now."
I said nothing, as was my custom, just looked to James, and then to Sirius before shifting my focus back to James. I wondered how much he would explain.
"Look Remus, let's just say I've known him for a long time, I know him very well, and if you go out with him, you're going to get hurt. Right, Petey?"
I nodded in agreement. "Don't do it."
Remus said nothing, just looked around at three of us, an odd expression on his face. "We'd better get down to breakfast." Glancing at him, I wondered if we had convinced him to say no. I doubted we had.
As we headed down to breakfast, James and Sirius started again on their usual chatter, and Remus and I fell in behind them, silent. Eyeing the pair as they walked ahead, I couldn't help but envy Sirius. He was so confident, he had this way of completely taking over every situation and making it all about him. It felt like, when Sirius was around, James didn't even know I was there.
We walked into the Great Hall and had just taken our seats, Sirius and James on one side, and Remus and I opposite, when the owls flew in to deliver the morning mail. We were about to read over the day's schedule, when a particularly large and angry owl flew past our table, dropping a dark red envelope in front of us. It was addressed to Sirius.
"It's a howler!" James exclaimed as Sirius snatched it up. "Take it in to the hallway before it explodes!" We could already see the smoke rising off of it. Sirius jumped up from the table and ran at full speed out the doors, narrowly avoiding a collision with a pair of Hufflepuff prefects. It must've exploded right then, however, as the loud screaming voice of his mother, Mrs. Black, filled the Great Hall.
"Gryffindor?! How dare you ruin our family name! The Black name used to mean something! Gryffindor! As if you were some common, good-for-nothing muggle-born! How do you expect your poor brother to face going to school next year, knowing what his brother is. Just think of how humiliated he will be. And what do you think the others will think of this?! Oh, the shame, the humiliation!" Her rants carried on for a good five minutes before Sirius returned, wide-eyed and slightly pink about the face. At first I thought he had been embarrassed, but as he grew nearer, I saw he was fighting back laughter.
I said nothing as he took his seat next to James again. "Can you believe the nerve of that woman? Sending something like that for the entire school to hear?" he exclaimed, grabbing a muffin from the plate in front of him.
"Looks like your cousins got a good listen to it," James replied, gesturing across the room toward the Slytherin table. The Slytherins kept looking over in our direction and then laughing hysterically.
"Well," James said, glancing over a sheet of paper with the day's schedule on it, "at least we only have one class with them today. Defense against the Dark Arts."
"What else do we have today?" Sirius asked before ripping the top off of his muffin, and shoving it in to his mouth.
"First Herbology, then D.A.D.A., lunch, and the last class of the day is History of Magic."
"Who do we have Herbology and History of Magic with?" Remus asked, pushing a bit of food around on his plate.
"Err..." James paused and glanced down at the schedule. "Hufflepuff for both."
"Hey Peter! Don't forget about tonight," Sirius said, a mischievous smile on his face. "Remedial potions with Mr. Riddle."
I swallowed hard and glanced down at my plate. Suddenly, I wasn't hungry anymore. I pushed my plate away and spent the rest of breakfast listening to James and Sirius' conversation and watching the goings on of the Great Hall, dreading the day ahead.
Our first class, Herbology, passed by uneventfully, with Professor Sprout giving an hour long lecture on the year ahead of us, covering what we would learn and what would be expected of us, including a 15-minute safety demonstration on the appropriate procedure for the handling and disposal of dangerous plants.
Defense Against the Dark Arts was more interesting. The teacher Professor, Aberforth Dumbledore, the headmaster's brother, was ten minutes late to class, startling everyone by turning up with a great Augurey atop his hat, and carrying a large leather briefcase.
"Good Morning, class." He said as he placed the briefcase on his desk and smiled out at us. "I had been hoping to have in a werewolf friend of mine to speak with you, but due to the full moon a few nights back, he's simply not feeling up to it." This he said with a wink to the classroom. "I have come up with something however that will be much more fun! My brother suggested I save this for my older students, but I felt that it was more than appropriate."
As it turned out, inside of his briefcase was a boggart. Several of the students were able to use the riddikulus spell to fight the boggart, but even with the professor's help they were unable to get rid of it. Luckily, I didn't have to face it. In the end Professor Dumbledore had to force it back in to the briefcase.
Lunch and History of Magic passed by rather uneventfully, and before I knew it, evening was approaching.
At a quarter to eight, 15 minutes before the meeting was scheduled to start, I turned up outside the portrait that led in to the Slytherin Common Room. It was then that it occurred to me that I didn't know the password. I stood there for several minutes, awkwardly glancing around, hoping a Slytherin, preferably one I knew, would come along and open it and let me in for the meeting. The only thing worse than having to go to these meetings was the prospect of turning up late... that was just something too terrible to imagine. I was surprised when a fellow Gryffindor, identifiable by her red and gold tie, showed up and quietly murmured the password. The door swung open and she slipped inside. I managed to just get in behind her before it swung shut again. The Common Room was deserted, so I just followed her through a door off to the side and down a spiral stone staircase that led us even further beneath the school. The staircase opened on a large room, filled to overflowing with students seated on hard wooden benches. I slipped in and took a seat in the back on an empty bench. I was surprised when the girl I had followed to the meeting slid in to the seat beside me.
"Hi," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "I didn't know there would be any other Gryffindors here... I thought it would be all Slytherins."
"I'm Peter. I'm a first year."
"I know. I was at the sorting. My name's Penny. I'm a first year too."
"If you're a Gryffindor, how did you know where to come? How did you know the password?"
"I have a twin sister who's in Slytherin, she told me." Penny pointed a few rows ahead and off to the right of us, to a girl who was seated behind Sirius's cousin Narcissa and her boyfriend, Lucius. The girl was leaning forward, straining to hear the two's conversation, apparently. Looking back and forth between the two girls, I noticed they had identical blonde hair and blue eyes, but that seemed to be where the similarity ended. Penny's clothes were very loose fitting, as if they had been bought for someone several sizes larger, while her sister's seemed too tight, as if she had outgrown them several years before.
I glanced around nervously, wondering how much longer it would be. It was then that I noticed a familiar face. Evan Thornsburry was standing by the door, and when he spotted me, his face lit up and he hurried towards me. My eyes shot through the aisles nervously, searching for somewhere else to sit. Just as Evan slid in to the seat on my other side, Penny leaned over to talk to me. "Peter, if you want to sit closer there are two seats up next to my sister."
"Sure," I said gratefully, nearly jumping up and hurrying to the seats, pulling Penny along behind me.
"You didn't look like you wanted to sit next to him," she said as we sat down. I threw a look over my shoulder to see Evan once again scanning the crowd for someone to sit with, then turned back to her.
"I didn't," I said simply, not bothering to explain. Before she could ask anymore questions, I noticed the students around me falling in to silence. A glance toward the door showed me why. The Dark Lord was standing in the doorway, his eyes sweeping over the mass of assembled students. My eyes were glued, as I assume most others were, on him, as he approached the front of the room.
I was surprised when he retrieved a scroll from his desktop, and said, "Bellatrix, if you would come to the front of the class." I watched Sirius's cousin Bella, rise from her seat (front row, center) and step up in front of him. She did not appear to be in the least bit frightened or even intimidated by him. "Please take attendance."
I listened as she went through the list, calling out names and checking them off one by one. I watched quietly as the Dark Lord's eyes scanned the crowd, taking mental notes of who was present and where they were seated. One of the names near the beginning of the list, following immediately after those of the Black sisters came as a shock to me. "Black, Sirius." Immediately my eyes began to search the crowd. I had had no idea he would be here... though, now that I knew he was supposed to be, it occurred to me that this should not have been that great of a shock. The Black Family was one of the darkest of the pure-blooded families. It wasn't until Bella called out his name for a second time that I realized he hadn't shown up. I was relieved, but at the same time, I was still worried. Eventually he would show up for a meeting, and even if he never did, he knew that I was supposed to be having a potions class right now, and he also knew where the Potions professor was. Eventually he would connect the two and my secret would be exposed.
When she called out my name, my call of 'present' was barely audible and when Bella started to move on, the Dark Lord stopped her and insisted I try it again until everyone could hear my voice. It took me three more tries, after which I turned a bright red and slid down in my chair, not wanting to call anymore attention to myself than I already had. As she continued down the list I realized that there were a lot of people here who knew James, Sirius and I, and unless they were as ashamed of being here as I was, my secret wouldn't last long. First there were all of Sirius's cousins, Bella and Narcissa, as well as Severus Snape. Narcissa wasn't much of a threat, but Bella was very close to Sirius, and Severus and James were friends as well. Then there was Evan, who was friends with Sirius, and it appeared he was getting close to Remus as well.
When Bella finished with the attendance, she handed the scroll of parchment back to the Dark Lord and returned to her seat. I watched as he sat down at his desk, stored the scroll in a drawer, and faced the class again. "Anyone whose name did not appear on my list, please stop by my desk and speak with me at the meeting's close.
"Now, first off I would like to thank all of you who bothered to show up here, tonight. I'm glad that you are here. I'm also pleased to see that we have a few new faces tonight. Most of you here already know me, but for those of you who don't, I would like to introduce myself.
"My name is Tom Riddle, but for now, you may call me Professor. If anyone asks any of you what went on here tonight, you are to tell them that this is a Remedial Potions class. But, I will actually be instructing you in the Dark Arts."
Professor Riddle slowly rose from his desk and began to saunter down the rows.
"Now, let me tell you a bit about myself. I am not a pureblooded wizard, my father was a muggle, but my mother was a descendant of Salazar Slytherin, one of the four founding members of this school. My parents abandoned me when I was just a baby, and I was raised in a muggle orphanage. At age eleven I came to study at Hogwarts. I was a model student, I received top grades on both my O.W.L.s and my N.E.W.T.s. I was prefect and, also, elected Headboy.
"As a boy, I had a dream. My dream was to create a world in which pureblooded children would be able to live safe and happy lives, free from the mudblood filth and all their corrupting influences. This dream is what I have now devoted my life to."
He continued on for awhile longer, telling us about the corruption, pollution, and contamination among the wizarding bloodlines, pointing out that very few among us tonight were pure-bloods, and that it was our responsibility to carry on our pure bloodlines.
When the Dark Lord had finished with his speech, all of which I had heard numerous times before both from the Dark Lord as well as my grandfather, he told us to spend the rest of the meeting getting to know one another. I glanced around nervously, afraid Evan would try to talk with me again, but spotted him instead talking to a first year Slytherin boy, whose name I remembered to be Vincent Lamont from Defense Against the Dark Arts. I also remembered that his boggart, that morning, had been a werewolf.
"Who's your new lump of a friend, Penelope?" I heard a nasty voice ask. Looking back to where Penny was seated next to me, I discovered it had come from her sister, who was now surveying me with a disgusted sneer on her face.
"This is Peter, and he's a very nice boy," Penny said, defensively. "Peter, this is my sister Peggy... Peggy, I don't suppose you've made any friends since this morning."
"I don't see where it's any of your business," the girl said sullenly, before adding, "but I've been far too busy to bother with something so trivial as making friends. Now, if you don't mind, I have someone very important to go introduce myself to." With one last contemptuous glare, Peggy turned and walked away. Penny and I followed her with our eyes as she marched off toward the dark corner where Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Black were holding court.
"And I thought my sisters were bad," I said, turning back to Penny.
"She's not as bad as she seems," Penny said, watching after her sister. "Not once you get to know her."
Looking over to the corner where Peggy was trying to force her way through the crowd surrounding Lucius and Narcissa, I found it highly doubtful. Peggy seemed to be very mean and rude, and I didn't see how getting to know her would help any. If anything, it seemed as if that would only make it worse.
"That boy's coming over here again," Penny whispered, gesturing behind us. Looking back I spotted Evan moving toward us, leaving the Slytherin boy who was standing and talking with a first year Slytherin girl whose name I did not remember.
I glanced around considering various exit strategies, but before I could come to a conclusion he was standing in front of me a big smile on his face.
"Hi Peter! Why did you move earlier? I thought we could sit together." Suddenly, I wished James was there. He had always been better at handling Evan than I had.
I opened my mouth to make up an excuse to get away, but before I could speak, a large chorus of laughter erupted from behind Evan. Looking over his shoulder, I could see that Peggy had finally made her way up to the front of Lucius's group and was now being tormented by the older group. When Evan turned to see what the commotion was, I grabbed Penny's arm and pulled her away from Evan, ducking behind a cluster of giggling fourth year girls.
"What's going on?" Penny asked, knitting her eyebrows together in a look of utter confusion. "He seems nice."
"Well, he's not. A couple of years ago he... really hurt a friend of mine. Stay away from him. He's bad news."
"I should probably go get my sister," Penny said, throwing a look back at her twin who now stood alone in the corner, but didn't move to join her. I watched as Lucius and Narcissa walked past us, and up the stairs toward the Slytherin Common Room. Turning back to Penny I could see the Dark Lord at his desk, taking the name of students who had not been on his original attendance list, with Bellatrix sitting next to him, a bored expression on her face.
"Everyone's starting to leave. Come on, we can walk back to the Common Room together." I really didn't like the idea of making my way through the dark school alone, especially not with Evan roaming about, and I doubted Penny would want to.
"I can't leave yet. I'm not on His list yet."
"I can go with you." I told her, knowing that Evan wouldn't approach us as long as we were over near Bellatrix. We walked over to the Dark Lord's desk and waited in the short line that had formed. When we reached the front the Dark Lord's eyes scanned my face, then locked onto my eyes. "Ah, Peter Pettigrew. I received an owl from your Grandfather this evening after dinner. He's very displeased with your placement. I expect you'll be hearing from him soon." I swallowed hard, trying to fight the urge to break the eye contact. In the end, however I had to look away and step aside.
After Penny stepped up to his desk, she never looked up, keeping her eyes trained on her feet. "My name's Penny Puddlemuff."
"Ah yes, you have a twin sister who's in Slytherin, do you not?" the Dark Lord asked as he waved his wand elegantly and his quill rose out of it's well of ink to write her name down on his list.
Penny nodded, never looking up, then walked away quickly I followed after her as she made her way to the staircase silently.
"You're Grandfather knows him?" Penny asked softly, as we climbed the staircase.
"Yeah, he's been over to our house for dinner a few times," I said, trying to sound casual about it. "That's why I had to come to the meeting."
"My sister told me about it. I wasn't going to come but then, I saw... er... some other people headed this way and I wanted to see what it was all about."
"What do you think about it all?" I asked her, as we walked across the Slytherin Common Room and through the Slytherin Portrait. Usually I thought it was all rubbish, but when he was talking about it, it was almost as if you couldn't help but believe in his vision, imagine how the Wizarding World could be. And I had never had the opportunity to talk about it with anyone outside of my family, who were all convinced it was a grand idea.
She didn't answer until we were past the portrait, moving along the dark corridor towards our own Common Room. "Well, I suppose that from a pure-blooded wizarding perspective, it sounds nice, but you have to wonder what he's willing to do to achieve his dream. My sister and I... we're not purebloods. We're not even half-bloods. Our parents are both muggles. What about your family?"
"We're purebloods. My grandfather came to England from the United States."
"The one who owled the Professor?"
I nodded. "He must be furious that I wasn't sorted in to Slytherin. Both my parents were, and my older brother as well. It's the only house my Grandfather finds acceptable."
"You have an older brother?" she asked.
"Yes," I said. "He graduated last year. What part of England are you from?" I asked, eager to change the subject.
"London, you?"
"I'm from London as well," I said with a smile, coming to a stop in front of our portrait.
"Password?" The fat lady asked.
I gave her the password, and the portrait swung away, revealing the passageway in to the Common Room.
"Oh look," I heard Sirius say, "the remedial potions student is returning."
I gave a sigh and rolled my eyes. "I guess I'll talk to you later," I told Penny, before I went to join James and Sirius and Remus in front of the fireplace. I sat down in the empty seat next to James, for the moment relieved to be away from the meeting and back with my best friend, even if it meant putting up with Sirius and his insults. "How was remedial potions, Petey?" James asked me.
"It was alright," I said, before yawning. I was saved from having to make up any more excuses when a door opened, and the head of house Ms. McGonagall stuck her head in to the room.
"Off to bed, you four."
I heard Sirius complaining to Remus, but I followed James up the steps without protest. I was exhausted, and it felt as if that morning had been ages ago. As soon as we reached the dorm room, I hurried into my pajamas, and dove into bed, shutting the bed hangings around me. It seemed as if the second my head hit the pillow, I was fast asleep.