August 31st, 1971
Peter Pettigrew did not have a lot of confidence when waking up for his eleventh birthday. Tomorrow, wizards and witches his same age were going to Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry and he still hasn’t gotten an acceptance letter.
To his defense, you can not receive the letter until you’re eleven years old, which he now is today. To the schools defense, he doubted he was going to even get one. He may be a pureblood, with parents and grandparents and great great great grandparents of wizards, but the Pettigrew line has had more squibs than any other pureblood family in history.
It started about seven generations ago with Arthur Pettigrew never showing signs of magic. He never got his letter and he ended up cast out into the muggle world and disowned. The next generation had a male squib and the generation after that had four male squibs. Their family no longer disowns squibs as they probably wouldn’t still have a family name if they did.
Peter always thought they were cursed. Somehow in every generation there ended up being at least one male, always male, squib. Peter has six cousins, all girls, and two older sisters. No brothers. No male cousins. Just him.
So yeah, Peter Pettigrew had very little confidence when he woke up on his eleventh birthday. What’s worse is that no one in his family can think of a time he displayed accidental magic. Of course not every magical child does display accidental magic, but it wasn’t helping his case.
Peter’s oldest sister, Maryanne, was displaying accidental magic before she even turned two years old. Their parents always share the story of how her first sign of magic was making her teddy dance. Maryanne had just graduated Hogwarts last June. Her and her friends are spending the next year in France before they pick up their studies for a magical career. Something Peter doubts he’ll ever get to do.
Shannon, Peter’s other sister, was about to start her sixth year at Hogwarts and was at the top of her class. Her first showing of accidental magic was when she was two and a half where she transformed a flower into a lolli.
Peter can’t even make a leaf fly through the wind.
Peter’s family did not have confidence either. Dad had already enrolled him in muggle school ‘just in case the spots fill’. Mum had brought out Shannon’s first year books and supplies but she has yet to take him shopping. He doesn’t even have a wand. Maryanne is absolutely confident that Peter will get in saying ‘he’s always been a late bloomer’. She was the only one with that opinion. Peter didn’t mind it but he felt like she pitied him. Like she was only saying this to make him feel better and not because she truly believed it.
Shannon has not stated that she doesn’t think he’ll get in, but her actions almost confirm it. All summer she researched muggle jobs and muggle school programs and muggle universities. She tried to take him to muggle museums but Peter didn’t want to. He knows he’ll end up a squib like everyone believes, but he wanted a little bit longer to pretend he could be a wizard. That he too could get a wand and go to Hogwarts and study magic. He feels stupid just thinking about it.
Today it will confirm everything he’s ever dread which is why he is still in bed. He doesn’t want to know if the post is here yet, he doesn’t want it confirmed that he is nothing more than a muggle in an entire wizarding family.
He gives himself twenty more minutes of bliss before getting up. Mum always makes him a special birthday breakfast and he would hate if he let it get cold. He quickly got dressed in his usual clothing, today isn’t really special anyways, and he made his way downstairs.
“Happy Birthday!!” Three identical cheers waited for him. Mum was short with blonde hair just like him and Maryanne. Peter was the biggest of the bunch but he was only just growing into his body. Shannon looked almost identical to dad. They both had darker hair and had a taller leaner fit. Neither of them were tall necessarily, but they were tall for the family. Dad worked at Gringotts so he was gone most days, he should be home for Peter’s birthday dinner though Peter doubted he would be celebrating anything by then.
Mum had made them all fried eggs and toast with jam and sausage on the side. Peter supposes he’ll still be able to enjoy mum’s cooking instead of whatever the Hogwarts house elves make.
“Feel older yet Pete?” Maryanne asked as she sat next to him. Shannon sat on the other side along with mum.
“Not really.” Peter shrugged. Eleven didn’t feel any different than ten. He hasn’t grown overnight or gained any profound wisdom and he still isn’t even a wizard. He looked around to see if the post arrived yet, but he didn’t say anything. Luckily, no one else did either.
“You will. Eleven is much more mature than ten.” Mum smiled. She always tried to make their milestones so much bigger than they were, and normally Peter let her, but today he really wasn’t in the mood.
“I remember when I turned eleven…” Shannon continued on with her story about all the adventures she went on, but Peter stopped listening. Maryanne and Mum added their own stories too. They mostly shared stories that weren’t about Hogwarts which almost made it more obvious that they were trying to promote being a muggle. Peter has been homeschooled up until now. He had two teachers, one muggle and one wizard. The muggle tutor taught him literacy and mathematics and art while the wizard tutor taught him basic spells, wand forms, and basic potion skills. You can guess which one Peter was better at. He never successfully made a working potion, the practice wand he used barely did anything more than sparked, and the only thing he could do was say the names of the spells.
He was actually pretty good in maths. He liked logic and patterns and it was really satisfying when he solved the problem. He was alright with reading and writing, but he was never good with writing long essays. He really liked chess too. He didn’t mind the wizard version but the muggle version had less pieces to clean up at the end.
At least in either school, he would be with kids his same age. He’s been out at the park with his sisters, but he’s never been good with making friends there. They’re all so much taller and fitter than him. He doesn’t like feeling shy, he just can’t help it. He tried to introduce himself or play with the others but they’re so intimidating he can’t do it. Hopefully when he gets to class with them they’ll have to be partners with him. Either class.
How long does it truly take an owl to arrive? Peter can’t imagine he has a popular birthday. Really the owl should only have to make one stop and he can’t be that far from Scotland. That letter isn’t coming. He’s not stupid enough to believe he has magic.
After breakfast, he went back to his room. He didn’t want to read nor did he want to lay back in bed. He had a few games but they all required at least one more person and he wanted to be alone. He decided to get his wizard chess set out. The one thing that wizard chess does better is that you can play alone since the pieces can move of their own.
“Pawn to e4.” He started and watched as the piece glided forward then slow to a stop. The other side moved a pawn as well and off they went.
——
“Peter darling! Come down please!” Mum called. He had just beaten the magic pieces twice over. The muggle maths class really helps out with forming strategies and looking things at every angle. Peter sighed and left his room. He stopped halfway down the stairs since his mother was on the landing.
“Anything you want to do for fun today?” Mum asked. She had a weird sparkle in her eyes, Peter didn’t understand it.
“Not really.” He shrugged. He really wanted to just stand by the window and watch for any sort bird that could be flying even remotely close to his house.
“Well I was thinking we could head down to London and do some school supply shopping.” She grinned. School supply shopping? In London? Could it-? Could it really be happening? He ran down the rest of his stairs and to the kitchen where his eyes met a great gray owl holding a single letter in his mouth. His letter. Peter hastily thanked the owl and grabbed the letter.
Mr. P. Pettigrew.
The Fourth Bedroom,
17 Rilla Mill, Cornwall
He couldn’t believe it. He was a wizard! He wasn’t cursed! He wasn’t a squib. He was a real wizard! His mum and sisters were all hugging him and planning their spree shopping trip. He almost felt like squealing. This was the best birthday ever!