Where It All Started

It was a usual day in Peter Pettigrew’s seventh year when he first began to drift away from the Light.

This particular Sunday held nothing special, nothing at all, but it’s the beginning of the end of the Marauders. Peter had always felt as if he lived in his friends’ shadows, and he did, at times. Though, in truth, it was his own doing. He never even considered trying to beat his friends at anything, nor did he ever try to get a girlfriend, thinking no girl would ever want him.

That wasn’t completely true. In fact, where Wormtail saw nothing worth praise, others disagreed. He was loyal to his friends, and if he put his mind to something, he could excel. He didn’t realize that a timid Ravenclaw a year below him like him for himself. He didn’t know that she saw past the slight pudginess, the water eyes from year-round allergies, and the small overbite of his front teeth.

This was the same girl who could have told you the exact time she saw Peter in deep discussion with a few Slytherins. Malfoy, the two youngest Black sisters, both of the Lestrange brothers, and Snape.

It was twenty-two minutes past three in the afternoon. She gasped softly when she saw them, shocked beyond words at the sight. This was Peter Pettigrew, who was a loyal enough to be a Hufflepuff, talking to the people in the school everyone knew either already were, or soon would be, Death Eaters. She watched them as they each took turns talking to him, and she strained to hear what was being said.

“You know your supposed friends don’t care, or else they would be here now. We would never desert you,” Narcissa Black said, batting her eyelashes. “We stick together, unlike your friends now. Have you noticed how they never spend time with you anymore?”

“They’ve been busy,” she heard Peter say, his voice so quiet she could barely hear his words. “Busy? Potter and Evans are off snogging in a broom cupboard, and black and Lupin? Who would want to know what those little fags are doing right now?” Bellatrix Black said, laughing. The girl flinched at the laughter, clenching her jaw.

These people are truly evil, she thought to herself, as she continued to listen to their conversation. “So, Pettigrew, what do you say, my friend?” Malfoy said, slapping Peter on the back. There was a moment of silence while Peter debated with himself. The girl crossed her fingers, praying her fears would not come true. “Okay,” she heard Peter say. “Meet us here tonight, at one,” Snape said, looking down at Peter.

This is when the girl made the worst decision of her life. She thought that if she followed them, and saw what happened, then told Dumbledore before Peter could become one of them, things would work out. Now, she just had to wait until tonight.

***

At a safe distance she followed them to the Forbidden Forrest, and to the edge of Hogwarts grounds. She was gulping nervously, doubting her decision when she saw the large group of student, mostly Slytherins and people from her own house, standing in the clearing.

Lucius Malfoy had just welcomed them all when she took a small step forward to hear better. She stepped on a twig, and it snapped, loudly. Malfoy was in front of her within seconds, she hadn’t even had the chance to run away. “Well,” he said, an angry smirk on his face. “What have we here? A Mudblood?”

The girl didn’t speak, only glared as he strode forward, her wand no longer in her possession. He had her kneel in the middle of the clearing, and she spit at his feet, causing him to kick her. Her eyes traveled to where Peter stood, his eyes as wide as saucers as he realized who she was. They talked pretty often in the past few years, and she knew he thought of her in a friend.

“Pettigrew, I think you should prove your loyalty to our cause. She is not only a Mudblood, but she was spying on us to get us expelled,” Malfoy said, and she tried to object, but it seemed as if her vocal cords weren’t working due to a spell. “Kill her.”

When those two words were stated, she struggled, trying to break free of Malfoy’s grip, which only tightened. She was frozen seconds later, and she saw Peter standing above her. A soft, almost inaudible “sorry,” left his lips before he stuttered out the spell. “A-avva-da keda—da—dava.”

Peter Pettigrew’s career as a Death Eater started the same instant Yolanda Sharp’s life ended.