Author's Note: The muse has provided me a way forward with this story so you may be getting more of it, quicker, soon.

Chapter Six Burrow

He was a rat, in more ways than one. He was also a being with many different names. He'd been born Peter Pettigrew. His mother called him Petey. When he first started Hogwarts, he was Pete. By the time he was done, he was Peter. He was also Wormtail to his friends. At present he was called Scabbers, and being in the first year Hufflepuff dorm was a place of a mysterious pain.

He wanted to go to the Burrow, or maybe even return to Percy and Gryffindor Tower. He couldn't. The pain made it so hard to think and escape. It had been nearly constant since Ron had sat down on the Hogwarts Express. With the constant pain, Scabbers had even had a few thoughts that perhaps letting one of the cats eat him. Not Mrs. Norris though. Scabbers had standards.

VBDF

Right after Defense class on Friday, Ron approached his oldest brother. Since class was over, he didn't have to address his brother as professor, unless he had a question about class. That was the agreement that Bill had made with all of his siblings. "Bill?" he called out, taking Scabbers from his pocket.

"Yes, Ron?" Bill said, coming around to sit on the front left corner of his desk.

"Is Charlie still visiting home this weekend?" he asked, looking at his pet rat, who seemed to be not taking well to Hogwarts.

"Yes," Bill said. "Something wrong with Scabbers?"

"Maybe," Ron said. "He's been limping around his cage, and seems kind of shabbier, not cleaning himself like he usually does. Can you see if Charlie can do anything?"

"I am stopping home this weekend, to see Charlie," Bill said. "But you know Scabbers is rather old for a rat."

"I know, but he's my first pet, even if he is a hand me down, old, and not very good. I don't want to lose him."

Bill tousled Ron's hair before replying, "I'll take him to see what Charlie thinks."

VBDF

The moment that Scabbers left Hogwarts, he started to feel a lot better. Still not great, days of pain were not recovered in moments. It made him wonder. Was there something in Hufflepuff that his form was allergic to?

VBDF

Petunia Dursley was not entirely comfortable driving Vernon's new company car. Mister Grunnings was quite happy with Vernon's performance, especially after he'd found those illicit transfers of funds by his predecessor. Old Mister Grunnings had personally delivered the Jaguar Sovereign to Privet drive, and insisted that Petunia try out the very comfortable seats. Petunia admitted that she like the seats on the new car. In fact, she'd found them more comfortable than some seats in the house lately, and the sound reduction by closing and locking herself in the Sovereign, well it had been a refuge from her since Dudley and Harry had left. She hadn't realized how much she relied on her oldest son and nephew.

Vernon might like the responsiveness of the Jaguar, but Petunia was long used to the much more sluggish 1974 Triumph 2500 Estate that was the Dursley's primary car before. Vernon didn't trust the 2500 for longer distances, hence his insistence that Petunia take the Sovereign to the Devon home of the Weasleys. Petunia was very glad that they were off the A30. It might not be the M3, or even the M25, but Petunia swore that at least three lorries were trying to run her off the road.

A glance at the mirror revealed that Iris, Primrose, and Violet were behaving themselves for once. Lily had earned the front seat. One girl trying to fill Dudley and Harry's shoes wasn't easy, but she was trying. Petunia caught Lily's look to her out of the corner of her eye. "You're really looking forward to seeing Ginny again, aren't you?"

"Yeah," Lily said. "And seeing the magical place she lives at too. I nearly can't believe some of her descriptions."

Petunia turned off the road into an opening between two walls one of which had a sign that said "The Burrow" on it. "Well, Lily, it looks like we're here."

Petunia came to a stop as soon as the vehicle was fully in the clearing that the house was built in. Molly had said that most wizarding families didn't have driveways, but Arthur was obsessed with muggles, and had a Ford something or rather. Molly wasn't sure what model it was. Petunia applied the hand brake, undid her seat belt, and existed the vehicle, for the first time getting a look at the Burrow.

The Burrow was magic. It was obvious that the house wouldn't stay up without magic. The base was a typical cottage, with some of it's original thatched roof poking out between the extensions that had been stacked on top. The first floor was perhaps the most sensible of the stacked on floors, almost being on top of the ground floor, though the space between the two sections was a bit off centered. The second floor, though, that's where things really got off. It was about forty-five degrees out of alignment with the floor below, with two corners touching the two sections of the first floor. Petunia had no idea how it was really supported. Then there was the third floor which was a tall section with a very peaked roof over the least supported section of the third floor. Petunia figured if the magic ever failed that section was going to topple off right onto the garden shed.

Lily was already running up to the front door by the time Iris, Primrose, and Violet got out of the Sovereign. Petunia held Primrose's hand as they approached the Burrow. The door open, and Ginny Weasley darted out of it towards Lily. The two met in what could only be described as a twirling crash, as they embraced at speed and spin around, with big grins on their faces.

Molly Weasley followed in her daughter's wake. "It looks like our daughters were a bit eager to meet again," the Devonshire house witch remarked.

Petunia looked at were Iris and Violet had joined the two red headed girls. "I'd say so. It looks like Ginny is planning on showing my girls around, though my little Primrose here, still suffering from spraining her ankle yesterday. The pain medicine has made her a bit drowsy. That being said, it's one less direction for me to be pulled in."

"Poor girl," Molly replied. "Even magical potions don't seem to do so well with sprained ankles. Ginny used to have a real problem with them, trying to follow her older brothers around."

"Well, today she's the eldest, so we'll see what turnabout does," Petunia replied.

Molly smiled, then cocked her head briefly. "Come on in, I made some biscuits, and the kettle is on for some tea. I can show you around my domain while Ginny pounds up the stairs with your children. My second son Charlie arrived a little while ago, and my eldest Bill said he was coming from Hogwarts this afternoon. He's the new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor. I never thought I'd have a son teaching at Hogwarts."

"So we might get an honest opinion on how our children are doing in their first year," Petunia said, following Molly into the kitchen door. "Harry's writing, but he's always been a rose-colored glasses boy."

"Oh, we might have to ply him with some tarts, there has only been one time, maybe two, that Bill has been able to hide what was going on from me," Molly said.

"I hate to say it, Mum, but Bill's a lot more successful than you think," a young man with the same red shade of hair as his mother said as he came down the spiral stair case into the kitchen. The young man held out hand, "I'm Charlie, dragon wrangler."

VBDF

The pain's reduction reversed the moment that Scabbers appeared in the Burrow. It went up and down as Bill entered the structure and was hugged by his mother. It waned a bit when Bill went upstairs to deposit his trunk in his old bedroom. But as soon as Bill passed Ginny's room, it increased again, and got worse as he passed the young blond girl who was doing some sort of sewing. Scabbers wasn't sure what type. He didn't sew, knit, or crochet.

When Bill opened the cage and Charlie peered over it, Scabbers was relieved. Surely Charlie would know the cause. It wasn't the first time that Charlie had healed an injured Scabbers. The rat on a stick incident still ranked high on reasons why Scabbers never wanted to be a young child's pet again.

VBDF

Lily was really enjoying her time at the Burrow. She'd even managed to get on a broom briefly, having been sworn to secrecy by Ginny. They'd just been called in for lunch, though. The smells of Mrs. Weasley's home cooking filled the kitchen as they entered. There was another Weasley brother that Lily had not met sitting at the table. This one had a fang earring and was wearing some rather nice robes that reminded Lily a bit of the dress robes that she'd seen at Madam Mulkins. Lily figured this had to be the Weasley brother who was now Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor at Hogwarts, home for a visit.

Iris was already inside, having grown tired of the more tomboy-like behavior of her older sisters and Ginny. As Lily had expected, Iris had the cross-stitch kit from Aunt Marge out. She was almost done. Little Primrose was also inside already, apparently having just woke up from her afternoon nap, judging by the bed hair and stretching. Behind Lily were Violet and Ginny.

"So what do you think Charlie," the new Weasley brother was saying. "I can't find any reason for Scabber's limp." They were looking at a rat who was laid out in a cage with its top off.

"I don't see any, Bill, whoa!" Charlie said as suddenly a flame appeared on the rat's left front leg. He quickly cast a charm that had water flowing his wand. It didn't seem to affect the flame.

Lily jumped back as the water shot towards her, and the flame went down a bit.

Bill looked at the girl. "Can you step forward a bit?" he asked. Lily did, and the flame went up. "Back." It went down. "Charlie, be ready to stun."

Charlie tilted his head a bit and stopped the water charm. "Ready."

Bill pointed his wand at the rat, and a blue light shot out at the rat. The open cage was busted as a head shot out away from Lily and feet shot towards her, but ended just short of her.

"Stupefy," Charlie shouted, and a red light hit the former rat.

"Mum, call the Aurors, now," the older Weasley brother said. Lily saw Mrs. Weasley head over to the fireplace and toss some sort of powder. The flames turned green. "Girls, back away a bit. I don't know who this rat is, but he's been hiding among this family for a decade, as a probable illegal animagus." He tapped his wand on the former rat's left arm, where the flames had burnt away the sleeve. There was a tattoo, still slightly flaming. "This is a real worry, though. That's the mark of You-Know-Who."

Lily's mother stepped up beside her, and gently pulled her back a little, before speaking. "I think I know this man. He was the one who told me where my sister was hiding so I could go visit. That's Peter Pettigrew."

Lily's attention was directed back to the fireplace, where Mrs. Weasley had stepped back. A tall black man in a brown trench coat stepped out of the fireplace, followed by two other men, who were not as impressive.

"Auror Shacklebolt," the first man identified himself, addressing Bill. "This is Fawcett and Sink. Professor, your mother tells me we have a possible illegal animagus."

"Positively identified as an animagus by use of the reversal charm on his rat form," Bill said. "I can confirm that the rat has been with the family since November 3, 1981. As you can see the rat has a Dark Mark on his left forearm."

"Did you burn the sleeve off?" Shacklebolt asked.

"No it burnt off due to familia protection charms," Bill said. "This is Petunia Dursley nee Evans. She identified him, and you're going to love how."

"Mrs. Dursley," Shacklebolt said. "Do you know this man?"

"That's Peter Pettigrew," Lily's mother said. "He was one of my brother-in-law's friends. I last saw him in 1980 when he came to tell me where my sister was so I could go visit Lily."

"I see, and did he tell you by giving you a parchment?" Shacklebolt said.

Lily could tell that her mother was looking back on a frustrating time, as she replied, "It might have been easier if he had. He just told me that Lily and James Potter reside in Potter Cottage in Godric's Hollow. No directions, just the statement. It took me forever to find the right Godric's Hollow. Did you know there are six of them, four in England alone?"

"Just try investigating a crime you're just told occurred in Newton," Shacklebolt replied. "Are you willing to testify to that?"

"Of course," Lily's mother said. "I don't see why it would be important."

"If I'm not mistaken, Mrs. Dursley, this man is the one who betrayed your sister and brother-in-law to You-Know-Who," Shacklebolt said.

Lily looked at the rat-faced man on the table, and was filled with fury. This was the man who was the reason she hadn't grown up as Lily Potter, the reason her brother had lost both his parents. She stepped forward, her hair starting to spark with accidental magic. She looked right, at Violet, then left at Iris, before the three of them stepped forward. The flames on the dark mark flared, and more of the rat-faced traitor clothes caught fire.

"Lily!" her mother scolded. Lily looked at her mother. "Let Shacklebolt and his men handle it."

Lily took a deep breath and calmed herself down. She stepped back a few steps, and the flames from the Dark Mark went down and out. Not before it consumed most of the rat-faced man's clothes, and caused burns up and down his arm. She was sure the man would have a hard time recovering from his encounter with the Dursley family.

"Fawcett, the cuffs," Shacklebolt said. "Sink, ready the portkey to the cell. I think you'll be actually using those long hours instead of working to avoid your wicked stepmother. Mrs. Dursley, where might I call upon you to get testimony or serve a summons for this man's trial as a witness." He pulled out a notebook with a spiral wire on the top.

"Myself and my daughters may be found at Number Four Privet Drive, Little Whinging Surrey," her mother said. "You'll need their names, of course. My eldest here, with the red hair, is Lily April Dursley." Her mother put her arm around Lily's shoulders calming her down quite a bit, but not before her nimbus of hair discharged in a spark. "The blonde by the door is my daughter Violet Dursley, and the one with the cross-stitch is Iris Dursley. On the stairs is my current youngest, Primrose Dursley."

"Can you spell Primrose," Shacklebolt asked. "I never can remember that."

"That's P-R-I-M-R-O-S-E, and just in case, Dursley is spelled D-U-R-S-L-E-Y."

"Thank you, Mrs. Dursley," Shacklebolt said turning towards Mrs. Weasley. "Mrs. Weasley, I know Bill, and Charlie, but I'm afraid that I can't recall your daughter's name."

"Ginevra, that's G-I-N-E-V-R-A, though she goes by Ginny," Mrs. Weasley said, as the rat-faced man and Auror Sink disappeared. Lily and her sisters all looked to the adults.

"It's just a portkey, girls," Shacklebolt replied noticing the questioning looks, apparently. "Sink's taking Pettigrew to lock up. We'll start processing him when we return. Mrs. Weasley, could we impose upon you for dinner, tonight? I have a feeling that there are a lot of questions about the last decade that I'm going to need to ask after our initial interview with the prisoner."

"You, just want a home cooked meal," Mrs. Weasley replied.

"Your dinners are well known," Shacklebolt said. "Keep out of areas that the rat frequented. We may have to search them. Mrs. Dursley, we will probably call on you tomorrow or the next day."

"Lily, Violet, and Iris will be in school on Monday," her mother noted.

"Understood," Shacklebolt said. "It's unlikely that I will need to interview them, however. Fawcet?"

Lily noticed that the other auror had the cage that the rat had been in, as well as a parchment roll that she could see was signed "Bill Weasley" in his hands. "Ready, sir."

"Mrs. Weasley, Mrs. Dursley," Shacklebolt said with a nodd of his head, before both him and Auror Fawcett disappeared.

"Well, we can have lunch now," Mrs. Weasley said.

VBDF

Sean Cornfoot was perhaps in an unique situation as a son of a professional Quidditch Seeker. His father had been starting seeker for the Cannons for the last twelve years, since just before Sean had been conceived, and team captain for the last five years. Most such children of starting seekers had to deal with a mass of fans trying to get their father or mother to sign an autograph

There were fanatical Cannons fans, but they were rare enough that Sean had never experienced having to fend off autograph hounds trying to get access to his father. Cannons fans were rooting for the scrappy underdog, and didn't want to risk causing them too lose.

So when he'd discovered that the Hufflepuff that he was sharing his sleeping alcove with was a Cannons fanatic, he really didn't have any concern. He was more worried about Susan Bones than Ron Weasley. She wanted in the locker room, when no one was there to test some sort of theory about a curse on the cannons. Ron was just looking for a few autographs and was willing to wait for them.

So Ron being a Cannon fanatic was not a problem. The two orange beds in the alcove most certainly where not a problem. Ron's was more plain orange where Sean's had yellow hoops on some parts of the bedding. Sean was not a seeker like his father, he preferred to play keeper, which might be a problem later, as that was also the position that Ron played. Sean, however, had no intention of becoming a Quidditch player. He knew the follow of that career. Long careers in Quidditch only occurred on the Cannons, and if he was going to play, he wanted to play for a good team. Neither the Cannons nor the current Hufflepuff team applied.

"Here you go, Ron," Sean said, taking out the roll of parchment that had been delivered by his father's owl, Newton. Ron hadn't been at breakfast when it arrived. It was a Saturday, and Professor Weasley had gone home. This had given Ron a 'blissful ability to sleep in without brothers waking me up," as he'd said. Sean wasn't going to stop anyone from sleeping in on the weekends.

"Thank you," Ron said unrolling the parchment. "They all signed it. I've never been able to get a signed poster before. I hope it wasn't too much trouble."

"Nah, you're not looking for something like Susan is," Sean said, as he moved to lay back on his bed. "She wants into the locker room after we lose a game."

"You make it sound so bad," Susan said, poking her head into the alcove that Sean and Ron shared, which happened to be one down from the one she and Faye shared. "I just want to be able to determine what curses keep causing the team to lose. Aunt Amelia says that if there are curses they'd be detectable after a loss."

"Yet no one has ever been caught cursing the Cannons to lose," Sean said. "Win, yes, lose, no. It didn't work. Heck, even liquid luck didn't get us to win, and the Ministery sanctioned that attempt."

VBDF

Harry had learnt quite a bit about the expectations everyone had from him during his first week at Hogwarts. He was apparently supposed to be a high powered brave hero, that everyone expected would be in Gryffindor. Some seemed to think he was going to be a stuck up celebrity. There was a segment of students who thought he was a pyromaniac. The latter was a case of the wrong family member. If there was a pyromaniac at Number Four, it was Lily, who had a real affinity for accidentally setting things on fire.

Lily's first accidental magic everyone remembered was during a power outage when the-then-two-year-old had lit all the candles in the entire house. Then there had been the incident when Uncle Vernon had decided that taking his four eldest children camping in the Cotswolds was a good idea. Lily had nearly burnt the area of outstanding natural beauty down when she got fed up with her poor skills at striking a match.

As Harry relaxed in the common area of the first year dorms, he read through Hedwig's morning delivery, letters from Lily, Bradley, Violet, Iris, Noel, and even Primrose. (Though it looked like Lily had wrote Primrose and Noel's letters for them, though both of them had signed their names.) Apparently Aunt Petunia had taken the four girls to visit the Weasley family, who they'd met on the platform. Bradley and Noel were both a bit upset that they hadn't been invited, especially since the three eldest girls had managed to sneak riding a broom. (Harry wasn't supposed to tell, because apparently no one knew that Ginny Weasley was a broom ace.)

Lily had informed him that Dennis and his Menaces had already attempted to test her judgements, but the poem had worked at striking the fear of the female of the species in them. They apparently thought that Colin was an easy mark. Harry agreed with that. While both of the eldest Creevey boys were menaces, they were menaces in different ways. Colin was always that enthusiastic young boy, hyperactive and always bothering Mr. Gallegher. He could still hear Colin calling out "Mister Gallegher!" spreading out the last syllable. Lily was complaining about having to clean the boys room. Bradley and Noel were never the cleanest of his cousins, Bradley especially.

Then there was Violet's letter, where she made her usual complaint about the gym education at their school. She may have had a point, but he would have liked to find out a bit more in the page and a half letter about how she was doing. That was Violet, though. She hadn't written enough to get personal. It was the same with any time he talked to her about what was bothering her. It took a long time before she'd get to the real issue.

Bradley was a bit upset that most of Harry and Dudley's chores had landed on him. Not all of them. Some went to Lily, Violet, or Iris, but the big boy chores were now his. He was also mad at Dennis Creevey, who seemed to have thought that without Dudley and Harry on the street, it was free reign for the Menances. He'd be recommending that Bradley open up to Lily more. Or get Colin on his side. It was time Colin actually cracked down on his eldest little brother. He was the eldest, he should act like it.

Iris's letter was written on pink paper with purple ink. Much to Harry's surprise, it consisted almost entirely about how Ron's mother ran her kitchen. Well, there was one other item, an item that all but Noel and Primrose had mentioned. That being Aunt Marge's impending visit. Harry was so glad that he wasn't going to be home for that.

Noel's letter was pretty much what he'd expected of the five-year-old. He wanted Harry's room under the stairs, which to be honest, Harry was getting a bit big for. He really hoped that Uncle Vernon's plan to raise the roof of the garage and put another room there would finally get going, especially since there would be another Dursley due in February.

Primrose's letter wasn't much, save that she really missed him and Dudley and couldn't wait for him to come home for Christmas. Well that, and her complaint about Noel calling her a baby since she wasn't in school like he was. Her signature, in red crayon, was better than Noel's. She signed, he printed.

Harry put aside the letters. As he put them down, he noticed that Ron was just leaving one of the toilet alcoves. Remembering Lily's letter, he said, "sorry to hear about your rat."

"What about it?" Ron asked with a puzzled expression.

It was obvious to Harry that Ron had yet to be informed of the events at his house the prior weekend. "My sister and cousins were visiting your sister when your brothers were looking at your rat," Harry began. "Apparently he was a Death Eater transformed into a rat, somehow. My sisters set him on fire."

"Your sisters set my rat on fire?" Ron said, in an incredulous tone.

"Apparently Death Eaters encountering multiple Dursleys is detrimental to the Death Eater's health," Harry replied.

"What happened to Scabbers?" Ron asked, his face starting to get a bit red.

"He's in Auror custody," Harry said. "According to Lily's letter, he was supposed to be dead, but was hiding with your family, unknowingly. Oh and his name is apparently Peter Pettigrew. Lily said him being alive is bringing a lot into question, but she's not sure why."

"My rat was an animagus named Peter Pettigrew," Ron said slowly. "And your sisters set him on fire. You know how crazy that sounds?"

"You do remember what Draco said about when my cousins walked by his father?" Harry said.

"Yeah, but my rat being a hidden animagus who is actually a Death Eater, you know how crazy that sounds?"

"I think you just said that, Ron."

"Well it bears repeating," Ron replied. "Are you sure?"

"Well, you could ask your brother the Professor, but I think he's already left for the Burrow again," Harry said.