Thwarted
Always living in the shadow of the rest, it was the only thing he had ever known.
James was the extrovert, the handsome, the athletic, the great wizard. He was just Peter, a friend by default, having known him since childhood. They were neighbors, and James, who always wanted to have as large a group of allies as possible, attached himself to him like a limpet, even if his presence wasn't all that imposing either.
He watched as James was selected to Gryffindor, and the table filled with cheers. He followed him, who stood with the hat for a long while, debating which house he would go to. The Hat, in the end, before saying the selected house only pronounced:
“Gryffindor is the house of those who would give their lives for that of their friends. Don't forget that” Peter shivered in the chair, as he heard the hat's deep voice “GRYFFINDOR!”
For the first time, he heard praise that was meant for him. He hurried to sit in the seat James had reserved for him, along with the rest of the boys on the train, and they waited for the ceremony to end.
He regretted, almost daily, throughout his first year, having been selected in the same house as James or Sirius, who stood out every day. Frustrated, at a certain point he decided to stop hanging around them every five minutes and realized that if he wanted to stand out he had to do it on his own merits. Like Lupin, the boy who, despite not talking as much as the rest of them, James and Sirius always ended up asking him important questions.
His problem was that he didn't know the skills with which he could be good enough to distinguish himself. He got frustrated when he tried new activities and ended up leaving everything half done. The only thing he knew how to do well was to be James's partner, who was constantly teased because of the way he looked: he was short and chubby, his mother gave him the nickname “my little ball” when he was only five, and since then he could never get rid of it.
It was on an ordinary day, after losing points for his house that he realized his true talent:
“Are you all right, Peter?” James asked “It's Snape's fault, all because he's always picking on you”
He saw James' eyes through his glasses, closed his eyes and smiled broadly.
“Yes, all because of that jerk Snape” Peter replied, feeling James’s ruffle his hair.
From then on, Peter discovered that he had to be brave as a lion to start lying to his friends.
『 °*• ღ •*°』
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