Author's Note: Hi guys! So sorry for the lack of updates! I've been working a lot and am really pressed for lately. I appreciate your patience though! This chapter doesn't have much action but I felt the need that you need to get to know this version of Peter. Anyway, the next chapter will have loads of action, no worries!

Another note: I revised this chapter slightly due to an inconsistency for later on in the story. It was my oversight and I apologize.

First Times, Second Chances

Chapter Four: More Alike Than Not

Harry felt the onset of panic as he watched Meri and Sirius stroll off down the street, leaving him alone with Peter. Swallowing the suspicious lump that had form in his throat, Harry turned to look at the man standing next to him. This was most certainly a different Pettigrew than the one Harry had come to know and his heart rate started to slow.

"I'm glad it's just us, Harry."

And his heart sped up again. "Why is that?"

"I heard Sirius ask last night about what his counterpart was like and it had me wondering about mine as well."

Harry's breath left him in one great whoosh. "I, uh, I really don't think you want to know."

"Am I dead?"

The immense seriousness of his tone took Harry by surprise. He had heard nothing but sniveling, begging and groveling from the other Pettigrew. He looked up at the man walking beside him for the first time since he had come. This Peter stood straight and had a confidence the other lacked. There was a quiet strength about Peter that Harry had always associated with Remus Lupin. The faces were the same here but he was starting to realize that the people behind them were not.

"Uh, no," Harry mumbled, "you're not dead."

"What am I doing then? Was there an Order of the Phoenix where you're from?"

Harry jumped on the possibility of a subject change. "Yeah, there is. It was founded when Voldermort first tried to come to power, back in the late seventies."

"Let me guess, they succeeded in beating him back."

"More or less." Harry wasn't sure how much to reveal to these people yet. Appearances could be deceiving and he would have figure out who to trust still. "He was more incapacitated than anything. He went into hiding for about twelve years before he started to make himself known again."

Pettigrew looked confused for a moment. "If he was incapacitated then how much of a threat could he be?"

"He still had loyal followers who were more than helpful to him." Harry thought bitterly about Snape and how wrong he had been in believing he was on their side. No, you couldn't trust appearances. "Voldermort returned to his full power three years ago."

"Let me guess, Lucius Malfoy helped him accomplish that?"

"No," Harry took a deep breath. "You did."

Pettigrew's steps faltered slightly but he quickly caught himself. "Me?"

Harry nodded.

"That's interesting. Meri will want to know that."

"Know what?"

"Wait till we get inside."

Harry noticed they were back on the main street of Godric's Hollow. A couple people had ventured out of their homes but Harry could see the wariness with which they moved about and viewed the world. Everyone was an enemy until they had proved themselves otherwise. Perhaps Dumbledore would still be alive in his time if they had taken that view with Snape. Well, it didn't really matter anymore. They knew what a traitor Snape was now, a lot of good it did Harry at the moment.

When they entered the house, silence was the only thing that greeted them. Harry couldn't tell if that was a good or a bad thing. It was easier when at least one other person was around, Harry's chances at having an ally were greater.

"James?" Pettigrew called out. "Remus?"

A creaky door opened upstairs and a bleary eyed Lupin gazed down at them. "What?"

"I was just seeing who was home," Pettigrew shrugged. "James around?"

"Doubt it. I haven't heard anything from his room."

Pettigrew nodded and moved off into the kitchen and Harry heard the door upstairs slam shut. That was definitely not the Lupin he was used to being around. Wanting to know what Pettigrew wanted to tell Meri, Harry followed him into the kitchen. The door leading outside was standing open so Harry glanced outside and found Pettigrew sitting on the porch steps.

The backyard to the house wasn't large at all but it was pleasantly green and well taken care of. As Harry took a seat on the grass and rested his back against the side of the house, he noticed a motorcycle propped up against the back gate.

"Is that Sirius'?" Harry asked, pointing towards the bike.

"Yeah," Pettigrew laughed. "He had charmed once to fly. Meri used to play Quidditch quite a bit till a bludger took out her knee. She never could quite get her balance back to play again. She missed the flying around so Sirius found the charm and took her flying every now and then."

"Don't they go anymore?"

"They can't. None of us can use magic out in the open. We even try to abstain from it indoors as well. It only acts as a beacon for the Death Eaters."

"That's why you were so shocked to see I had a wand."

Pettigrew nodded his head slowly. "Here, carrying a wand is like wearing a large red bulls eye on your person."

"Do you ever use magic then?"

"When we have to, usually it's in the midst of battle."

"But no wands."

"No, we use wands, like I said, in battle. But since it so clearly marks you as a magic user, we try to use wandless magic as often as possible. Now you know why there's so few of us. Those of us who could use only wands were quickly killed off. Most wizards find it easier to ignore their magical abilities instead of trying to train themselves to use it to fight."

"There could be hundreds of other witches and wizards out there in the world that are just living as muggles to avoid confrontation with Voldermort?"

"They're trying to keep from being killed by Voldermort."

"They're cowards."

Pettigrew laughed slightly. "You sound like the your father. At least, the way he was."

"Before my mother died?"

Pettigrew was silent for a moment before motioning out to the back of the yard. "She used to have a garden out there. She had a gift when it came to growing flowers. Roses with blooms the size of your fist. Oleander, snap dragons, lilacs that you could smell throughout the whole hollow. Did you get to know her at all in your time?"

Harry shook his head, still trying to envision his mother out in the yard planting and pruning the now dead garden. "She and my Dad were both killed shortly after I turned one." Harry didn't want to get into the details of that night and remembered Pettigrew still owed him some information. "What was it that you wanted to tell Meri?"

"Ah, yes, that." Pettigrew sat up straighter. "I had a theory that I was talking to Meri about as to why there are different realities. My theory was that when we are given a choice, the moment we decide what to do a reality breaks off from that one where the other choice plays out."

"I don't understand what that had to do with what I told you?"

"You said that I helped Voldermort return to his human state after he had been incapacitated?"

"Yes." Harry shivered at the memory of that night. Watching Wormtail cut off his own hand to resurrect Voldermort.

Pettigrew sighed heavily. "I was given a choice, many years ago, to serve Voldermort or die. It was in the early days of Voldermort's rise to power. I was walking back from meeting that was held by Dumbledore about the need to create a wizarding army of sorts."

"The Order of the Phoenix?"

"Precisely. I was heading back to my flat after the meeting when someone grabbed me from behind. The next thing I knew, I was in a basement of sorts with three hooded people standing over me."

Harry was listening with such rapt attention that he actually felt like he was there. The sunlight was hitting him suddenly faded and he could swear the damp scent of mold hung in the air. He could even see the skull like masks of the Death Eater staring down at him.

"They asked me if I wanted to serve Voldermort. I answered no. I don't know how long they tortured me. A day…ten days. It didn't matter."

"How did you get out?"

"James and Sirius came looking for me. I was in the basement of the building where my flat was located. They hadn't seen me for a day and the full moon was rising that night and they wondered where I was. I was almost dead when they found me but I had held out. The sad thing was, I wasn't the only one that they had taken that night. I was by far the luckiest."

"Who else did they take?"

"Some who are now Voldermort's most trusted. I believe Snape may have been one of them. A man by the name of Goyle and his neighbor Grabbe. Others that choose to side with Dumbledore died after hours of torture similar to what I went through. Alice and Frank Longbottom were the first I heard about. They had just been married. Arthur Weasley was another. And then, of course, Meri."

"Meri was taken?"

Pettigrew looked down at his hands. "It was horrible, from how they described what happened to her. She had been missing for sixteen days and when we found her, she couldn't have been dead more than a few hours."

"Wait, you said she was dead when you found her."

"Yeah?"

"Then who's the woman that's living here?"

Pettigrew's eyes grew wide. "I thought she would have told you by now."

"Told me what?"

"The Meriam Potter that's living here now is from another time as well. We're actually all wondering if you may come from the same time."