Think About The Future
Peter
“They are not that weird, James, they’re really nice.” Peter once again repeated his argument while all four of them sat together in their dorm room after the school day finally ended, passing a bag of chips between them.
Well, technically it wasn’t Peter’s room - since the school didn’t recognise him as a boy - but his friends made sure to make it his nonetheless (“as it should be” was what Sirius said when the problem first popped up a year and a half ago.)
“I know you think they’re nice, Pete, and you know what? maybe they are. but I don’t think I’ll get along with any of them.” James retorted right before shoving another chip into his mouth.
“You’re lucky, then, ‘cause you don’t need to,” Remus joined into the conversation with raised eyebrows, talking like it was a very secretive matter.
Sirius snorted.
“I do, though.” he argued, “Because if she will work with them on the newspaper, she will make friends with them, and I’ll have to get along with them when me and Evans get together.”
“Evans and I.” Remus corrected.
James rolled his eyes. “Whatever. We will get together.”
There was a moment of silence before the three of them started laughing.
“What??” James cried out in offence, but Peter saw the corner of his lips twitching. James was easily affected by others’ joy.
“You really are sure of that, aren’t you?” Sirius answered once his laughter calmed down a notch. “You really are dead cert that you and Evans are going to end up together.”
James' cheeks were red now, but he didn’t seem at all upset. they all knew when a line was crossed.
“Well, yeah!” James proclaimed, like it was obvious. The other three bursted into laughter again.
“You know, Prongs,” Peter said, a chuckle still in his voice, “I think you will get along with the editorial staff, you are mad as a hatter!”
They all doubled over with laughter, James too.
Peter felt his face warm up, his cheeks and stomach aching from the sustained laughter. It was heartwarming to hear his friends laugh so hard from his jokes.
It’s not that usually they didn’t, no. On the contrary; his friends had always agreed that Peter is one of the funniest people they have ever met, but Peter will never get sick of the sound of his friends laughing as a result of his humour. It will always make him happy.
Sirius finished the crumbs that were left in the chips bag, crumpled it into a ball and tossed it into the bit on the other side of the room.
“Don’t worry, Prongs,” he said, once the bag landed safely in the bin. “not all of them are weirdos, Mary told me she joined too.”
“Really?? That's great!” James’ face lightened up, and Peter met Remus’ eyes with a smile. They both rolled their eyes, their chuckles tinged with a hint of hopelessness.
-
When it was time for lights out, Peter went back to the girls dorm building and entered the room he was supposedly sleeping in.
His “roommates” were Lily, Mary and Marlene, the girls in their friend group. Despite the fact Peter slept in the same room as them for two and a half years, he never hung out with them much. He was always closer to the boys.
The girls were getting ready for bed, and Peter sat on the edge of Lily’s bed and waited for his sign that it was safe to sneak out.
He heard the knock at 10:34 PM.
Whispering a quick “good night” to the girls, Peter quietly walked out of the girls’ dorms towards the boy’s. When he got to the disabled’s loo, Peter came to a stop and knocked on the door three times in a row before continuing to walk to his room. He glanced backwards just in time to see Dorcas Meadows disappearing into the left corridor.
Peter got to the boy’s room and sneaked inside.
“Welcome back, wormtail!” James greeted warmly, like this shit doesn’t happen every single night. James had a flair for the dramatic, and so this greeting was a part of the routine at this point- as was the nickname he used for Peter.
It’d be weird to explain this nickname to strangers, the mature type in particular, because the roots of it were ironic and obscene.
The whole thing started as a joke before Peter even came out as trans.
One day in 7th grade, the boys were jokingly arguing about who had the biggest dick. None of them cared that Peter was there with them, and he didn’t care either. In fact, he quite enjoyed how open they were around him even though he was a chick, and it made him feel warm inside.
“I don’t know why you’re even bothering to argue, we all know I have the biggest tool.” Peter said playfully at some point.
“Oh really, Pettigrew, how long is your schlong?” Remus countered with an amused expression, chuckling from his accidental rhyming.
“pathetically long,” he answered, nodding his head gravely to convince his audience, “long like the worm-like tail of a big rat.”
They all laughed at that, and slowly but surely it became his nickname, longside “Pettigrew” and - subsequently, after a long while - Pete and wormy.
“Hey,” Pete smiles at James’ greeting while closing the door behind him. He saw Remus pinch the bridge of his nose, eyes shut, while shaking his head in despair, although all of his roommates knew he was quite amused.
Peter headed to the closet in which each one of them had his own shelf.
He picked a pair of cotton blue shorts and an old white t-shirt and entered the bathroom to shower and brush his teeth.
When he got out, both Sirius and James were already asleep, which was a bit of a surprise since usually they boosted each other's hyperactivity and could not fall asleep or even get to bed until it was way past midnight.
Remus was still awake, and the warm orange-ish light from his night lamp made his face glow in a majestic way.
“aren’t you going to sleep, Moony?” Peter quietly inquired while nestling in his duvet, careful not to accidentally wake the other two.
The other boy looked up from whatever the hell he was doing on his bed and tilted his head.
“No. Or at least, not now,” he said.
“Why not? you looked really tired today.”
It took him a minute to react, and that reaction was a tired smile followed by a short sentence;
“Life is tiring when your limbs work like trash.”
Peter didn’t expect that. Remus said it with a quiet tone and calm expression, but a mischievous little smile made Peter question whether he was serious or not. He stifled a laugh anyway.
“You sound like an ol’ man saying that.” he snorted and covered up his toothy grin, despite the kind darkness of the room.
“Well,” Remus replied, “I am an old soul, you know. an old soul stuck in a supposedly young body.”
They both chuckled quietly.
“You should go to sleep tho,” Peter said, and the other nodded.
“I will, don’t worry,”
Peter nodded back and shifted to a more comfortable position, closing his eyes.
He bid good night to Remus, who hummed the same in reply.