A Squirt in the Face

Peter Pettigrew, eleven year old Gryffindor, was not always a traitor to his nearest and dearest. In fact, he was loyal for years and years.

As he carried a small case outside on the Saturday morning, he glanced over his shoulder. James and Sirius were talking to each other as usual. Remus promised to play a game of Gobstones with him once he was finished with his homework. (Peter was trying to join the school's Gobstones club.) However, he had left to the Hospital Wing a while earlier and Peter did not hear back from him yet.

"James?" he yelled over to the shorter of the boys. James glanced up quickly, withdrawing his hand from his hair. "Want to play Gobstones with me?"

From the look on his face, Peter guessed that James was not interested. He dragged his foot around in a patch of dirt he found, making a wide circle. Taking careful steps to not mess it up, he made a small cross inside the circle.

A girl with a head of straight brown hair that could have gotten away with being called blonde, walked over to where he was, frowning.

"I was gonna play here," she said stubbornly. Peter recognized her as one of the first year Hufflepuffs. Sparing a glance over his shoulder at James and Sirius, he opened the case and withdrew a handful of stones that looked like marbles.

"You can join. It's no fun with only one person."

The girl nodded and threw herself down, forcing a cloud of dust to rise over them.

As the two set out the stones into the cross, Peter asked off-handedly, "What's your name?"

"Danielle," she answered, fixing the marbles so that they were straight and pulling out the largest marble in her bag. "You?"

"I'm Peter." He glanced up at her face for a moment, trying to memorize the blue eyes and light skin. He always did his best to remember faces so as not to embarrass himself with having to ask a name later. "You're that Hufflepuff, right?"

She risked a small smile that went away quickly and was replaced with a pondering expression as she flicked a marble that landed a few inches outside the rim of the circle. "I suppose I am. Well, I'm just a Hufflepuff. You're... Gryffindor, is it?"

"Yeah." Peter flicked his own marble and watched it stop short of hers, landing near the rim. Both retrieved theirs and started the game.

They spoke as they played and the two seemed to fight to let the most about themselves out. When Peter mentioned that he was born rather far from Hogwarts, she countered with a mention of Islington near London. When Peter said that he was half-blood, she claimed to be the same with two muggle-born parents. Peter's last name was Pettigrew. She laughed and retorted with Truman.

As the game ended, Peter found himself with more marbles than he started out with. Danielle ended with a face full of black ink and eyes that stayed on Peter most of the game rather than her marbles.

She loaded her drawstring bag up and shook his hand, promising another game the next day. Peter shook on it.

"I'm going to beat you this time," she promised, a grin raising onto her face.

*

Second year Peter Pettigrew with his black robes that had a tie - his only outward marking of a Gryffindor student - marched down to the Hufflepuff table on Christmas, holding a small box in one hand. He loved to give presents. Christmas was about happy faces to him and he would always go to Hogsmeade with his parents before school started to buy everything.

Danielle was there, making a small mashed potato volcano with gravy dripping down the sides. From the games of Gobstones and conversations they always had, peter knew that potatoes were her third favorite thing in the world - right after football and Gobstones with Peter. Her hand that wasn't spooning on potatoes was shaking over a bundle.

As he sat down next to her in an empty seat (almost everyone went home on the holidays, including Sirius, James, and Remus this time), he handed her and package. She jumped slightly, placed down the spoon, and handed him his.

When he opened it, inside was a book on games played on a broom, including Quidditch, Shuntbumps, Creaothceann, and several more. She opened hers.

He watched as she carefully took out the necklace with a small cat charm on it amid the sugar quills. Conversations told him that she loved cats more than she let on.

Without a word, she gave him a hug. Peter, feeling uncomfortable in such close contact, muttered, "Happy Christmas," in her ear.

"Happy Christmas," she said back, pulling away and smiling widely. "Thank you so much, Peter!" Her cheeks were stained a bright red in embarrassment.

Peter knew that his were, too.

*

Two third years, a boy and girl, walked down the Quidditch pitch, talking rather quietly. Danielle was used to peter spending plenty of time with the other Gryffindor boys in his year, but today he broke away with them, telling her a muttered something about girls and James.

"James really seems attached to her," he muttered to himself rather than her, looking cross. He glanced at her. "I mean, he gets all lovey around her and then hates her. It's confusing me."

Peter felt something cold in his hand and he figured it was snow, but he felt it wrap around him. Her hand was in his and she moved closer. Peter remained there, not moving away or nearer.

"Whattaya say we go to Hogsmeade... together?" she asked nervously. "This weekend. Do you have much homework?"

Peter knew that there was plenty of homework he needed to do, but Christmas was coming soon, so he decided taking that time would not be a pain. "No, I don't."

Danielle made a little noise that Peter always found girls making when they were happy. It was a cross between a small yell and a joyful "yay". He felt relaxed by it and watched the snowflakes fall to the snow-coated ground.

He threw part of his scarf around his neck to unwrap it and used one long end to wrap around her. Danielle wrapped her free hand around it and tightened her grip on him.

*

Fourteen was the best year ever, Peter noticed as he flicked another Gobstone and waited for Danielle to make her move. She had been improving in the game and was now able to actually hit inside the lines.

He was not paying much attention and carelessly dropped a marble around, missing the others by inches. A squirt alerted him that they were still playing the game.

Danielle laughed at him and pulled a small piece of cloth from her pocket. "Always carry one around," she told him. "It helps in his game. I used to cover my face up with it before I went and lost."

Peter took it and started to rub it off. When it finished over his eyes, he handed it back to her, but only found blue eyes staring avidly at him.

"What -?" he started to ask before she leaned in.

Their teeth crashed together and Peter closed his eyes, feeling awkward. All it was, was their lips pressed firmly together - and, oh, he could feel her teeth through the skin and, ah, he opened his mouth - and she was lighter this time, opening her mouth a small bit and even if neither of the teenagers knew what they were doing, it was wonderful.

Peter didn't know when to pull away. He knew that he wanted to stay there, lips locked to hers for hours, but that they had to stop at sometime.

Luckily, she pulled away first and opened her eyes slowly. Smiling, she raised a sleeve to her lips and wiped them as if it was a joke.

"That was wet," she said to him.

Peter remained staring at her, lips frozen in place. She leaned in again and whispered, "This one will be better."

*

Peter spent more and more time with Danielle as time went on at the age of fifteen. James and Sirius managed the transformation into animals as did he, and they always spent a few days a month together, planning and exploring. However, whenever none of the others had a plan up their sleeves, he would walk outside, shaking his box of Gobstones slightly, and always hear a shake from somewhere in return. The stones called Danielle like a whistle and as they met, she would grab his hand and he would tighten the grip, giving her an unsure peck on the cheek.

"I love you," she said to him.

Peter froze. It was one thing to kiss but something else to say that. He glanced at her, remembering the first time he memorized her face. Her hair was shorter now, shoulder length and slightly more curled. The blue eyes were the same, maybe a bit darker.

He saw that maybe he didn't know her face as well as he used to. Now there were things he never even remembered seeing about her face. Her smiles were full and bright, filling her eyes with laughter, but the eyes always stayed I place, never crinkling. Her ears stuck out from her hair and were almost perpendicular to her face. Freckles spotted her neck and the far sides of her cheeks that he could never see when staring at her straight on.

With hesitation, he said in a strange voice, "I love you, too."

*

Right after he turned sixteen, Peter wrote her a letter over the summer. It was nothing important. It just said that he would be home all summer in case she "you know... want to come over or anything, you know. Just in case. Just letting you know."

She always wrote back to him quickly, and this time, the answer was back within a day. "Sure," was the first line there.

When she was over, there was murmuring from his parents and glances all around. They did not reject her, as Peter feared, but rather the glances had smiles attached to them and sometimes whispers in his ears saying she was a catch as if she were a polite fish he found in the bay.

She acted differently then, around his parents at least. She would always speak in a higher voice and be meeker, while when with only him, she was all laughter and happy yells and smiles. She hugged him, he hugged her. He did her a favor, she smiled and gave a small laugh as if it was all funny.

When she left, Peter belonged to James, Sirius, and Remus.

*

Once, in seventh year, James asked Lily out - finally, Peter thought - and Peter got the chance to ask Danielle out properly and not keep it a secret. Sure, Sirius laughed at him sometimes for dating a Hufflepuff, but to him it made no difference.

He's jealous, Peter managed to believe. He doesn't have anyone yet. I do.

James spent more and more time with Lily until Peter felt Danielle was a sort of revenge. Whenever James took a break from being with Lily, he would be with them. Peter, with a vengeful air, would say that he had been with Danielle. James always told him that it was nice.

In doses, he began to hate Lily for taking James and began to hate Sirius and Remus for taking James every other time he was free. Lily seemed to replace him in his mind and Peter kept his distance like an enemy.

Danielle and Peter, they were. Soon, it could be one word. Not many people brought it up or even remembered, but to the groups, they were Danielle and Peter, one body.

The very last day of school came around and Peter was sitting inside one of the tunnel-like hallways. The windows did not exist there, so the breeze hit him nicely. There was no point in saying bye to anyone of the Marauders; they would be speaking the next day.

However, there was one person. Peter got up to find them when she came up.

Danielle grinned at him rather weakly as if holding back tears. She gave him a hug and Peter hugged her back, smiling.

"Last day. Be happy," he told her. She sniffed quickly and he saw tears sliding down her cheeks.

"I'll just miss this place," she muttered, wiping at her eyes with her sleeves. "I mean, we'll keep in touch. I'm moving out in a month, so you can come to my place, and maybe..."

She left the thought hanging in air and Peter thought he knew what was supposed to go at the end.

"Maybe," he answered. "Hey, wait here a moment. I have something for you -"

He dashed off to Gryffindor Tower and went through his stuff before finding it. He stuffed the object into his pocket and ran back there.

Danielle was still sitting there, crying harder as she wiped her eyes. Peter really did not see why she was sad. There were no more classes and free time for as long as she wanted.

"Here." He clasped the object and thrust it in her hands, making sure she did not see it until she opened her hands. "I couldn't wrap it, sorry."

She opened her hands slowly, a small laugh coming up through her tears as she smiled at him.

"It's incase you lose to me again."

"Thanks."

*

The newspaper article was long and made him sound heroic. Danielle, aged twenty-one, threw it onto the floor, crying harder than she ever cried; she cried so hard that her heart thumped against her ribcage and she screamed after that, hitting the walls, trying to break them.

As she stood there, arms folded and eyes shut tight against the world, she walked unconsciously to the wardrobe, where, on top, was a small drawstring bag. She opened it, still not looking, and pulled out a shooter marble. Around it was a faint blue edge. Peter had enchanted the Gobstone to not shoot at her once she lost. She held it in her hands, not needing to see it to know the stone. It was like real marble, with swirls on blue in the black.

Heaving and trying to stop the tears, she found the paper and looked at it. On the front page was Peter Pettigrew, the boy she grew up with, with his picture in the shape of a circle.

Lightly tossing the stone, it landed right on the edge of the circle and she imagined it ripping apart his face as it ripped apart the crosses they made inside their own game circles, the circles that clamed the world and made everything better. He was the one causing the pain, even after his death. This circle made everything worse.

"That was for you," she whispered, voice cracking as she tried to breath normally. "I never lost to you. Except this time."

She felt she would have preferred a squirt in the face compared to the pain.