A/N: Sorry for the long wait.

Disclaimer: Not making money on this.

Perfection Lost

Chapter Three- Peter

Nine Years Ago- Harry's 2nd Birthday (1983)

"Happy Birthday, Harry!" Peter said quietly while offering a small, blue stuffed rat to the chubby little two year old who was trying to get his Unca Mooey's attention by pulling on his trouser leg. Peter chuckled when Remus had to keep hitching his trousers back up over his hips from all the tugging.

"Careful there, Prongslet," Sirius laughed as he scooped the baby up into his arms, "before you help poor Moony give us a show none of us want to see!"

Remus reached over and thwapped Sirius on the back of the head. "I'll have you know that any show I put on would be worth seeing!"

"According to whom?" Vernon chimed in as he carried a tray of snacks from the kitchen into the living room. "Your mirror?"

"It's probably the only thing that's ever seen any show from Moony!" was called from the kitchen by Petunia followed by a giggle.

"Your wife that's who!" Remus retorted as he dodged the piece of treacle tart Vernon had lobbed at his head as he stuck his tongue out at the door to the kitchen.

"Nah," Sirius laughed as he twirled Harry in circles making the little one giggle loudly. "We all know Tuney only has eyes for me!"

"That's only because your over-inflated ego and abnormally large head make it impossible to see anything else," Severus drawled as he plucked Harry out of Sirius' arms.

"I'll show you a big head-" Sirius started to say before being interrupted.

"Careful, Severus," Vernon warned with a smile, "little Harry there looks a little green after all that spinning."

"Ah, in that case."

Harry immediately passed into Peter's arms as the dizzy child promptly spewed everything he'd eaten for lunch all over Peter's shirt.

"Hahaha!" Sirius barked out and pointed at his friend as Peter handed the still grinning baby over to Vernon as he tried, and failed, to hide his anger at Sirius' laughter. His face had gone red in embarrassment and humiliation. Sirius was always saying or doing things to humiliate him. Peter, even after so many years of being with the Marauders, still didn't know if it was intentional or just how Sirius liked to play around. If it had happened to Remus, Sirius probably would have laughed, but not have made such a show of it.

"Come on Wormy," Remus coaxed the irate rat animagus, "let's get you cleaned up."

That was another thing that Peter had put up with for many years. The others all thought him incompetent when it came to basic magic. It was all because he'd never bothered learning household charms, and they all thought he just couldn't do them at all. He'd never tried. He was a pureblood male. Why would he need to know a cleaning charm? If his wife couldn't do them, then his house-elves would take care of it. He conveniently ignored that he had neither wife nor house elf. It never crossed his mind that Remus was just the mothering type. He was just so tired of these two treating him like an almost-squib. They were supposed to be his best friends. Friends don't treat each other like that, right? 'Except they do, and always have,' ran through Peter's mind.

Pushing away his treasonous, or at least Sirius would think so, thoughts, Peter allowed Remus to perform a scourgify on his blue shirt before softly smiling at little Harry who was now tugging at his Uncle Vernon's mustache.

"Sorry guys, but I have to go," Peter mumbled as he collected his cloak and kissed Harry on the head in goodbye.

"Oh, Peter, why so soon?" Petunia asked as she entered the living room. "The cake is almost ready; just waiting for the icing to set."

"I'm really sorry, but I have to-" Peter broke off as he tried to think up an excuse. He couldn't very well tell them the truth of everywhere he was visiting today. They would never understand. He still didn't fully understand how he'd ended up in the mess in which he'd found himself caught. "-to go see my cousin, um, Charlotte. She's ill, and Mum asked to check in on her."

"Cousin Charlotte?" Remus asked in confusion. "You've never mentioned her before now."

"Oh, well, see," Peter hurriedly explained, "she's not my real cousin. Just a daughter of Mum's friend, Sarah."

"Sarah Bulstrode?" Sirius asked this time. "Hm, thought she only had a son. Willy or something."

"Um, yeah," Peter hedged. "Charlotte's adopted. But anyway, I said I'd stop by to check on her. She goes to bed really early, and it's already after six."

"Is she older than Dumbledore, or what?" Sirius joked as Peter rushed toward the door. "Guess so," Sirius mumbled as he watched the other man apparate as soon as he was over the threshold.

"Is it just me, or was that really odd?" Severus asked with a raised brow. After having handed Harry off to Peter, he'd gone in to the kitchen to assist Petunia. He'd only heard the last part of Peter's excuse for leaving early.

"No, it was definitely odd," Remus responded thoughtfully. "Come to think of it, Pete's been acting really odd for the last few months. At first, I thought it was just because of all that's happened. But now, I don't know what's going on with him anymore."

"He'll come around," Sirius said dismissively and stuffed a small piece of tart into Harry's mouth and laughed when the baby spit it out into his little hand and shoved it into Vernon's mustache.

"Ea' it! Unca' Vernown!" he giggled as his uncle raised a brow at him and licked the sticky mess from his mouth.

"Goo' Boy!" Harry said and patted his uncle's smiling cheeks.

**PL**PL**

One Week After Harry's 2nd Birthday

"I brought what you asked for, Mum!" Peter called out as he levitated several bags of groceries into the tiny kitchen of the small house he'd grown up in with his mother after his father had passed away in his second year at Hogwarts.

After putting everything away, Peter walked in to the comfortably, yet outdated, furnished living room in search of his mother. It wasn't all that strange that she hadn't returned his greeting. The elderly witch had given birth to him in her sixties (which was very uncommon in either the wizarding or muggle worlds) and was already close to a hundred years old. What was strange was the man sitting in his mother's favorite rocking chair. Peter froze in the doorway from the kitchen to the living room.

"Hello, Mr. Pettigrew," the man greeted with twinkling eyes and a slight smile.

"Headmaster?" Peter glanced around the homey room in search of his mother. "Where's my mum? Why are you here?"

"It has come to my attention, Mr. Pettigrew, that you have been keeping secrets from the Order and myself, in particular," Dumbledore stated with a raised brow; the grandfatherly smile and twinkle had turned decidedly cold. Peter shivered at the anger, now blatantly obvious, in the headmaster's expression.

"I-I d-don't know wh-what you mean-" Peter began to stammer.

"Do not lie to me!" Dumbledore interrupted in an icy tone. Peter could now feel the older wizard's aura expand with his anger.

"Wh-where's my mum?!" Peter shouted. The headmaster was making nervous, and his mother never left the house; which is why Peter had brought her groceries.

"Safe."

"Safe?!" Peter yelled. "She was safe here! Where have you taken my mother, Dumbledore?!" Peter, in his fear for his mother, forgot for a moment that the man in front of him was known as one of the most powerful since Merlin. He stalked towards Albus Dumbledore, a man he'd respected nearly all of his life, and grabbed him by his beard. "You'd b-better tell me where my mum is, or-or-"

"Or what, Mr. Pettigrew?" Dumbledore snarled threateningly. "Will you call your master?" The word master was said with such disgust and loathing that Peter was slightly taken aback. "Will you have him come kill me like you did Lily Potter nine months ago?" Dumbledore continued sarcastically. "Will you have me kidnapped like James? Tell me, PETER, what. Will. You. Do?!" The last four words were growled menacingly.

"What?!" Peter's eyes were wide with surprise, nearly bugging out of his head. 'What the hell is the old man talking about? Where the hell did he get those ideas?' It didn't matter that he knew a few things that he couldn't tell anyone. He'd made an unbreakable vow. "You've g-gone completely barmy," Peter stammered as he raised his wand and tried to apparate away. He was absolutely terrified by the old man in front of him. When nothing happened, and he noticed the smug smirk on the headmaster's face, Peter did the only other thing he could right then. He transformed into a rat. The headmaster flinched in surprise. He had not known that the coward was an animagus, and before he could adjust the anti-apparition and portkey wards he'd raised upon arrival, Peter was gone. Peter had scurried through a small hole in the wall that led outside into a patch of thick shrubbery near the tree-line of the forest surrounding the house. Once he'd reached the trees, Peter transformed back and apparated away.

Dumbledore narrowed his eyes in fury when he heard the crack of apparation that sounded before he'd made it to the kitchen door. He would be the last member of the Order or Ministry to ever again lay eyes on Peter Michael Pettigrew.

**PL**PL**

No sooner than Peter had completed his apparation he was sprinting for the large house on the hill up ahead. It was a decent half mile away to the ward-line. Peter, like most wizards these days, was not in the best physical shape. Regardless of the painful stitch in his side and burning in his legs and lungs, he did not stop running until he breached the powerful wards surrounding the home of his closest friends. When he felt the soothing magic wash over his body like a gentle shower, he collapsed to his knees and struggled to regain his breath. Finally being able to breathe normally again, Peter finished his walk at as brisk a pace as his over-worked legs could manage.

"Peter?" A woman's voice called from the sitting room just off to the right of the entry hall, "Is that you?"

"It's me!" Peter called back as he left the rather sparse hall. "I have to tell you-" he broke off what he was saying when he saw who was seated next to his best friend. Eyes wide in a mix of surprise and a little fear, Peter asked, "When did he wake up? Does your- um, does He know he's awake?"

The woman giggled at her friend's expression before smirking at him. "Of course He knows." She giggled again when Peter's eyes just got wider. "Who do you think finally managed to wake him?"

"W-well, does he know," Peter pointed to the man sitting next to the petite woman, "the truth?"

"I've explained things the best I can, but he always was just that little bit thicker than most." The woman replied teasingly as she poked the man next to her in the cheek with her index finger.

The glared at the beautiful woman and stuck his tongue out at her.

"Don't stick it out unless you plan to use it!" She winked and laughed again.

Both men's mouths dropped open in surprise, but it was a third male's voice that scolded in exasperated amusement, "Lily!"