Chapter 1
Chapter 1
Seventh year
"Oh, one day she'll say yes to me won't she boys," James sobbed dramatically, clinging onto Remus desperately.
"Hands off my man Prongsie," Sirius teased playfully.
"It's literally 7 in the morning Prongs, piss off." Remus replied, shoving him and clambering back into the warmth of his bed.
Peter laughed stiffly, he loved James, truly, but it was constantly same-old same-old with him, Lily this, Lily that, and Peter was sick to death of it. Then, on the rare occasion James wasn't bewitched by the ginger girl, he and Sirius were whispering secrets to each other, entirely in a world of their own. The only other fortunate soul blessed with entry into their universe was Remus, his fellow marauder and Sirius' lover. Peter was happy for them, genuinely, but he couldn't but notice how even more invisible he felt amongst them after the couple got together. Before, the group (even though a four) could partly feel split in two. Peter couldn't fault them for it, everyone could tell James and Sirius were each other's soulmates, each other's person. And even though Peter and Remus weren't that close, the pair did get along greatly. Alas, Sirius became even more attached at the hip to Remus once they announced themselves to the world, and what he thought would make the group properly a four, made them a three and a one. Not purposefully of course, Peter did know this, but deep down the questions still lingered inside of him.
"Do they not want me here?"
"Am I just annoying them?"
"Do they even want me as a marauder? Or is it pity?"
"Oi Wormy, are you coming to breakfast or not! Those elves wait for no one to clear the food away," Sirius called to him, snapping him out of his inner-thought tangent. He glanced up and saw his friends smiling at him, standing at the open door of their dorm room, waiting for him.
"Yes, yes. Don't get in a strop Padfoot. As if you wouldn't find a way to steal food anyway," Peter sighed, hauling himself up from the comfort of his bed and out into the brisk cold corridors of the castle.
James, confident as ever, strutted down the halls, capturing all the attention onto him without a single trace of effort. Sirius and Remus, synced step by step, Sirius' arm swung over Remus' shoulder whilst letting out a barking laugh. They too, attracted everyone's attention - Sirius with his bad-boy style and flirtatious aura that had everyone hooked, and Remus, the casanova of Gryffindor who made his muggle grandpa jumpers cool. Then there was Peter - not trailing behind, but somehow not directly next to them. If their right foot was forward, his left was, no matter how hard he tried to fall into place.
"Morning boys!" Mary shouted warmly at the group as they entered the Great Hall and made their way over to their other friends.
"Looking gorgeous as ever Evans, or should I say future Potter," James winked, resulting in a collective groan from the group, aside from the snigger that Sirius let out uncontrollably.
"Taking the rejection well as always Potter," Marlene snarked at him, but the fondness could be detected in her voice. James really was everyone's weakness.
"Ah you know me so well Marls," he replied as the marauders took their places at the table.
However, unlike usual, his friends weren't the focus of his undivided attention. Instead "Wormy" was. A simple nickname with no ill-intend, he actually felt privileged to share an inside thing with his friends, but the name itself really was the beginning for him. The first time he truly felt lesser than the boys. James, with the animagus of a stag, the king of the forest, a beautiful creature. Sirius, with the animagus of a dog, a guardian and protector to all. Then, as always, there was Peter. A rat. Whilst the other two had been glorified with majestic creatures, Peter had got trapped with the scum amongst animals, the "double-crosser".
"So, is the order meeting tonight?" Peter heard Lily question in a hushed tone. The whole group visibly tensed, and subconsciously moved closer together. The order, or as Peter liked to think, "Dumbledore's child army." Voldemort's power was rising, as was concern amongst the Ministry. Voldemort was a name known to nearly all the wizarding world by now, but the rest remained a mystery to all apart from the few with an unjust amount of power, and well now the 'lucky' witches and wizards chosen by Dumbledore himself who he deemed strong enough to help him defeat the evil and become one of his soldiers. And these fortunate people happened to be Peter's friends. However, originally, Peter hadn't been chosen as he was told his magical abilities were lacking, but James being James argued Peter's way in. Their headmaster had held his ground in the beginning, but one day he randomly changed his mind and in a matter of hours Peter was an official member.
"Yes, the room of requirements after dinner tonight," Remus confirmed and the conversation ended as quickly as it started. The order had to be top secret and they all knew it, especially as the rise of death eaters at Hogwarts had increased significantly. Even Sirius' own brother Regulus had taken the mark, though Peter could tell by even just a short glance across the Great Hall it wasn't what the boy wanted, no matter how strong the facade he wore was. It was a strong facade, Sirius himself had clearly fell for it, his disgust with his brother's choice (if it could even be called that) was laced into most of their conversation, but observing had become one of the many skills Peter had acquired during his time at Hogwarts, He found comfort in being able to read others. It made him feel a sense of security, as even though he was a Gryffindor, Peter didn't see himself to be as brave as the others, therefore to stay out of trouble and harm's way, he learned to be ahead of the game.
Shortly after, their first lesson of the cold winters morning began - potions. The marauders, as they always did, sat in the centre of the classroom, and James and Sirius, as they always did, sat in the middle of the boys. Peter secretly wished he was sat next to Remus or Lily as potions wasn't exactly his strong suit, and James never really paid enough attention in the lesson to help anyone. All his attention, as always, was solely on the ginger two rows in front of him.
"Pete, don't want to give you a jump scare but Snivillous is literally glaring at you," James whispered into his ear and promptly bursted out laughing, gaining himself yet another detention for distracting people.
"Come on Sir, people can't help laughing," Peter could hear James pleading as he turned his head to Snape's seat to find James was right - the slytherin was staring right at him, wearing a face of slight intrigue, but mainly utter disbelief.
"Mate don't look at him for too long, you wouldn't want to catch his stupidity," Sirius raised his voice extra loud for the second half of his sentence, eager for the object of their conversation to overhear them, which resulted in a snigger from Remus and a death glare from Lily, who for God knows what reason, still felt the need to be protective over that swine of a boy.
Peter turned his head back to focus on his work, but his thoughts kept leading him back to the look on Snape's face.
"Has someone stuck something stupid on his back again," he thought, "No, that wouldn't shock him."
"Did i do something to upset him?" he tried again but yet again his answer was no. Peter did participate in the pranks the marauders pulled on Snape because he could admit that Snape clearly wasn't the nicest person but he didn't think he'd done anything to acquire a personal vendetta. He turned back and saw Snape talking with his death eater friends so decided it would be best to drop it, as of course, it couldn't be anything important.