"Peter! Oi, Peter! Wake up!"

Peter groaned, feeling a foot digging deep into his side. He opened his eyes to find his new roommates James and Sirius hovering over him, each of them dressed in black robes and Gryffindor-red ties.

Sirius threw another tie at him. "We found these under our beds," he explained. "Hurry up and get dressed, we're going to miss breakfast!"

The thought of food, especially after the amazing feast the night before, was enough to get Peter up. He stumbled out of bed, pulled on some robes, and messily knotted his tie. Unable to remember what classes he had that day, he grabbed his whole pile of textbooks and dropped them into his pewter cauldron to bring with him. His roommates waited for him by the door, James and Sirius bouncing up and down impatiently. Remus stood a little off to the side, looking much less energetic. He seemed paler than he had the day before, almost sickly.

"Are you all right, Remus?" Peter asked as he approached him.

James looked back, narrowing his eyes. "Yeah, mate. You're looking a bit peaky."

"You scared for the first day of class?" Sirius teased.

Remus looked taken aback by all the concern. "No, no, guys, I'm fine. Don't worry about me; we should get moving."

As the boys took off down the stairs, Peter felt his stomach twisting itself into knots. Remus might not be scared for their first day of class, but Peter certainly was. He imagined himself failing at every spell he tried, every potion he brewed, and watching his classmates laugh at him and call him a Squib. He was sure his roommates wouldn't be so friendly to him after that.

Breakfast was just as delicious as dinner the night before, with bacon and eggs and toast and waffles and everything else Peter ever could've wanted. Halfway through it, a flurry of owls swooped in carrying letters and papers for their owners and dropping them in their laps. Sirius received one from a great gray, a little red envelope. "It's a Howler!" he exclaimed with something almost like glee.

"Better open it before it explodes," said James, grinning.

Sirius ripped open the Howler and dropped it onto the table before him. "SIRIUS ORION BLACK," it shrieked, in the voice of what must have been Sirius's mother. "YOU ARE A DISGRACE TO YOUR NAME, WILLFULLY MINGLING WITH BLOOD TRAITORS AND MUDBLOODS IN THAT FILTHY TRAITOR HOUSE."

The letter rambled on and on, growing louder and louder as it threatened to disown Sirius and informed him he would not be welcome at home for the Christmas holidays. Finally it burst into enchanted flames and burned down to nothing, leaving only a bit of scattered ashes in its place. Peter thought he would curl up and die of embarrassment if that had happened to him, but Sirius only laughed and let out a cheer as the Howler burned. The cheer was quickly picked up by James, and later Remus and a bunch of the other Gryffindors.

"Well, that was a great way to start the morning," James said brightly as the food vanished from their plates. "Where to next?"

"Ask Remus," Sirius told him. "He's got a schedule of all our classes for the year, color-coordinated and everything."

"First up is Potions," Remus said. "With the Slytherins."

James and Sirius both groaned. "Guess we'll be seeing Snivellus again," James said with a smirk.

"Who's Snivellus?" Peter wondered.

Before James could answer, the first year Gryffindor Lily Evans, sitting a few seats down from them, gave a loud sigh and said, "Don't call him that. His name is Severus."

"Really?" said James. "He looks more like a Snivellus to me."

"Oh, grow up, James," Lily snapped, standing up and strutting away with her chin held high.

"I think she really likes you, James," Remus said. James and Sirius laughed.

Potions class was held in the castle dungeons, which were cold and dark and filled with jars containing mysterious gases and assorted body parts. It was not the kind of place that made Peter feel more at ease about going to his first class. Every strange noise or figure sweeping out from behind a corner made Peter jump, to the great amusement of James and Sirius.

Remus was a little more sympathetic. "It's all right, Peter," he said softly. "Nothing's going to happen." Knowing he was right, Peter nodded, swallowing. He was being stupid, like always.

The first years all filed into a large open room filled with tables covered in various potion ingredients. They took their seats with the Gryffindors all firmly on one side of the room and the Slytherins on the other. Peter and his roommates sat together in the back, hauling their cauldrons and new copies of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi onto the table.

As soon as the clock struck nine, their professor stepped out of his office and into the classroom, smiling happily at his new students. He had light hair, a bit of a stomach, and eyes that were a strange shade of what was almost purple.

"Welcome, all of you, to your first Potions class," he said. "I am Professor Slughorn, Potions Master here at Hogwarts and founder of the Slug Club, a club I may one day invite a few of you lucky folks to join." He winked as he said the last bit.

"The Slug Club?" James whispered.

"My cousin Narcissa's in that," Sirius said. "She and her boyfriend are always bragging about it. You couldn't pay me to join."

"Today," Slughorn continued, "we're going to be brewing a very simple concoction known as Whistling Potion. If brewed correctly, the drinker will be compelled to whistle whatever tune the potion maker desires." He grinned. "I'll be testing the successful ones out myself at the end of class. You can find the ingredients and directions on page six of your textbooks, and if you require any assistance, I'll be in my office. Off you go!" And he vanished back into the office, leaving the students to their own devices.

Peter flipped open his book to page six and began reading through the list of ingredients. Mandrake root, hippogriff tail hair, salamander tails, eel eyes…. Peter began pulling ingredients off the table at random, hoping they were the right ones, poured some goat's milk into his cauldron, and began.

Before long, his potion had turned green and had begun emitting a strong rotten-egg smell, which Peter was sure hadn't been mentioned in the book. His roommates slid as far away from him as they could, gagging on the fumes.

One of the Slytherin boys at the table across from theirs looked over, smirking and gagging as well. "Whose potion is that?" he wondered.

"I'm sorry," Peter squeaked out, desperately throwing in more eel eyes in an attempt to change something, but the potion only started to smell worse.

Another Slytherin boy at the table spoke up, looking at James and Sirius instead of Peter. "Looks like your friend is the one who isn't brawny or brainy," he said.

"Shut it, Snivellus," snapped James.

"I think I know what his potion's missing, Sev," said the first boy. He whipped out his wand, made a swishing motion in the air, and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

James's glasses flew off his nose; he reached out to snatch them back, but before he could the boy sent them flying into Peter's potion. It hissed and began to bubble and froth, green foam spilling out over its sides.

Professor Slughorn chose that moment to come back out and check on the students' progress. He immediately rushed over to Peter's cauldron. "Merlin's beard," he breathed, "what happened here?" Slipping on a thick glove, he reached into the stew and pulled out James's glasses. "I don't think these were on the ingredients list, Mr. Pettigrew."

Across from them, the table of Slytherin boys was snickering. Remus looked troubled and was avoiding eye contact, but James and Sirius were glaring back at them so fiercely Peter was sure they'd set something on fire.

"Does anyone have a potion that they believe is…suitable for testing?" Slughorn wondered.

"Oh, Severus does," one of the Slytherins piped up innocently, the one who had levitated James's glasses into Peter's potion. "His looks just like the picture in the book."

"Is that so?" Slughorn quickly left Peter's side to inspect Severus's potion, and a minute later he was whistling "God Save the Queen."

"Ugh," Sirius muttered. "Of course his potion is perfect."

"We're going to make them pay from this," James promised, wiping the slime off his lenses and screwing up his nose. "No one takes my glasses and gets away with it."