The moment Peter Pettigrew got his hands on a wand, he was ecstatic.
Ten years. It had been ten long years since he last touched a wand! Who could possibly understand how he had lived through those ten years?
Back then, to escape suspicion, Peter had devised a trick—he let the only one who knew he was the Secret-Keeper, Sirius Black, corner him on a Muggle street.
Sirius Black had once been his closest friend. The closer they had been, the deeper Peter had hated himself in that moment.
Because it was he, the Secret-Keeper, who had betrayed their mutual friends—the Potters. He had led Voldemort straight to them, and the Dark Lord had murdered them.
Sirius, who should have been the Secret-Keeper, loathed himself for failing them, but he hated Peter even more. What he didn't expect was just how cruel the usually cowardly Peter could be.
Peter severed his own finger and cast an explosive curse of immense power, killing nearly every Muggle on the street. In the chaos, he slipped away.
That day, he lost both his wand and a finger. Since then, he had lived as a rat, scurrying through sewers, until fate landed him in the Weasley household as their pet.
For all those years, Peter never once returned to human form. He was too afraid—afraid of others coming to settle accounts with him. Voldemort was gone, defeated by nothing more than a baby: Harry Potter.
"Hahaha! I knew it—the news was false. The Dark Lord couldn't possibly be dead." Peter sneered, staring at the Marauder's Map in his hand. "Look—he's still here. He lives."
Tom Riddle. A name Peter would never forget.
Though he couldn't understand why the Dark Lord's name was bound to someone called Quirinus Quirrell.
Still, it was enough. That alone made this intermittently vicious coward perk up with courage again. He saw his master's name, and he dared to act.
Wand in hand, Peter glanced at Louis—who was completely engrossed in playing an absurd game of mahjong in his dreamscape—and his face twisted into a hideous smile.
"Avada Kedavra!"
Muttering the Unforgivable Curse with murderous intent, Peter flicked the wand toward Louis.
And… nothing happened.
"What?" Peter froze. He never imagined Louis's wand would be a fake, an imitation without a core. As he lifted his head in shock, he saw a massive owl swooping straight at his face.
"Skreeee!"
"Aaaghhh!"
Fafnir's talons ripped across Peter's left eye, gouging deep enough to expose bone. One eyeball popped loose, dangling grotesquely from its socket.
Don't be fooled by how cute Fafnir acted around Louis. An owl is still a raptor—and Fafnir was a Eurasian eagle-owl, the largest of them all. Strengthened further by three genetic potions, its talons could crush stone.
Peter Pettigrew had the dubious honor of being the first wizard to experience that strength.
The searing pain made him shriek, his high-pitched scream instantly waking everyone in the dorm.
Inside the dream, Louis had just drawn a glorious straight flush, waiting on the eleven of ten-thousand, when he abruptly pulled back into consciousness.
The moment he opened his eyes, he saw a blood-soaked, bloated man with a filthy, rat-like air shrieking at his bedside.
Blinking groggily from his interrupted dream, Louis's eyes widened. The sigil of the Ox Talisman shimmered in them—and before he could think, he lashed out with a kick.
"BOOM!"
The thunderous crash shook the room. Peter's body slammed into the wall right beside a drowsy, confused Draco Malfoy. His obese form flattened a full inch on impact, and his belly was blown open where Louis's foot had struck.
Malfoy, stunned, turned his head—only to see the fat man embedded in the wall, spewing blood, one eye dangling grotesquely. The stranger rolled his eyes back and fainted on the spot.
Goyle, Crabbe, and Blaise Zabini were awake too, but before they could process what happened, Louis snapped his fingers and dragged them all into a dream.
"What the hell just popped up in my face?"
Louis's expression was dark. Who wouldn't be pissed if they were jolted awake to find a grotesque fat man missing an eye screaming right in front of them?
And Louis's way of handling irritation was simple: he'd already kicked the intruder into a wall.
Walking over, Louis frowned at the trembling wreck who looked ready to die at any moment. "Seriously, who the hell is this guy?"
Peter's vision blurred, his consciousness swallowed by terror.
This… this thing wasn't human! No human could nearly kill him with one kick. This had to be a monster wearing human skin!
At that moment, Hastur—who had ignored Peter earlier out of distaste for his "donated blood"—trotted over, carrying a thick parchment in its mouth. It dropped it into Louis's hand.
Louis glanced at it—an activated Marauder's Map.
"Oh. Peter Pettigrew." He studied the fat man, who looked like he was about to shift from "fat man" as a description to "corpse" in reality. A slow smile crept onto Louis's face. "Peter Pettigrew, do you want to live?"
"…Wh-what?" Peter was half-dead already, barely comprehending anything. His body felt weightless, as though his soul were drifting away.
Then, through his darkened vision, he saw the "monster" reach out and press a hand against him. A dragging force yanked his fading consciousness back into his flesh.
Agonizing pain flooded in, and Peter's head lolled as he fainted.
"Pathetic. Can't even endure a little pain." Louis shook his head as the Horse Talisman mended Peter's ruined body. He looked down at the bald, fat man with clear disgust.
Not just because he was fat, but because he was filthy.
His clothes were rags, his yellow nails absurdly long—and he'd dared touch Louis's wand with those hands. The thought made Louis want to kill him outright.
But no—Louis hadn't saved him out of mercy.
Killing Peter would yield no Fate Points.
Fate Points were earned by mocking fate, not by destroying its puppets.
And every character tied into the storylines of fate was invaluable to him. Losing one was a waste.
Especially someone like Peter Pettigrew—his threads tied into multiple arcs of Harry Potter's fate. There was no way Louis would just let him die.
---
RedX43's Note:
➤ Want More? Get up to +50 Extra Chapters on Patreon!
➤ [email protected]/RedX43
➤ Thanks for Reading! 🙌