{Gryffindor Common Room, Hogwarts}

{18th Sep 1991}

{3rd Person POV}

"Skittledash~" Rigel said as the painting of The Fat Lady gave him a struggling bow as she moved. The door flew open on its own accord as Rigel took an unhurried step into the common room. The first thing he noticed was the difference in the two layouts. The Slytherin common room was much larger, with a lot more paintings and seats scattered around the room.

The Gryffindor common room was definitely cozier, other than the annoying shade of orange that was the prevalent theme of the room; the sofas and chairs were a lot nicer with better foam, unlike in Slytherin, where only the center seats had a luxurious feel, here every seat was fundamentally the same.

'Then again, I'm guessing, aren't I? There is no way I would attempt to sit in the middle seats this soon. Not until I have a little more confidence in my magical abilities against the 7th years.' Rigel thought that the hidden politics that the first years were intentionally not made a part of did grate on his nerves, but it was not enough to do something about it.

He pushed the thought of house politics aside and quickly scanned the room. He was being discreet, but you never know when someone would spot that he looked entirely unfamiliar with the environment. He quickly found a boy, an upper year walking through a door and quickly followed the older boy.

He was afraid that someone would notice his strange actions but that didn't happen, no one seemed to care about Neville Longbottom, at least not enough to come and talk to him. Rigel took a sigh of relief as he walked through the threshold of the wards that were clearly there at the bottom of the staircase. It was a risk he was willing to take as the chances of Hogwarts employing a high-level ward like the one in Gringotts that reveals all glamours to stop a prank potentially were practically zero.

He watched the film covering the entrance, and upon seeing no shifts in the wards at his entrance, the fact that Polyjuice Potion was able to fool the school wards was stored in the back of his mind moving forward. He watched as the upper year, someone named Truman Dexter, level 15, walked up the stairs and made him turn to the first door on the right.

The marauder's map was quite detailed in most places, but the descriptions of the common room were a bit weird. Each room was a bit weird and separated, with no sense of which floor it was on. Rigel was guessing that if the upper year went up the stairs, then the first-year dorm should be the one closest to the entrance.

'I guess it makes sense...' Rigel thought, but all his thoughts were pushed aside when he noticed that the room he walked into had just one person in there, someone by the name of 'Peter Pettigrew'

'Alright, let's do this.' Rigel pulled his wand out of the inventory and walked to the corner marked with the name.

...

{First Year Dorm, Gryffindor Tower}

{18th Sep 1991}

{Peter Pettigrew's POV}

Peter Pettigrew was a simple man, driven by his baser instincts to live and survive. One would say that he had made a lot of mistakes, but he reveled in the fact that he had survived. Sure, his fate wasn't worse than Remus's, but at least the redhead fools didn't notice that a common house rat is supposed to live this long, and the glutton of the younger Weasley ate enough that he didn't have to worry about starving.

It wasn't a life he liked, but it was comfortable, in his animagus form, a common house rat, one a younger Pettigrew had abhorred back in the day, but he was quite thankful for it over the years. While Sirius and James got the more flashy and acceptable forms, he got something that had helped him survive, even after all this time.

So with all those years of being on the edge, even though his senses had been dulled a little bit, he quickly noticed that something was wrong with Neville Longbottom. It was the stance that was a dead giveaway, although the different smell helped too. Neville Longbottom didn't smell like the one he remembered, nor did he walk like one; although his back was turned to him, Peter could tell that the boy was reading something.

When Neville slowly started walking toward him, Peter was alert. Although he was quite sure that his secret would not be discovered by someone so easily, the situation seemed off. Something in Peter's mind screamed at him to rush away, to hide under the bed or drawers, but he hesitated. He didn't know if this was 'Neville'; maybe it was one of Potter's admirers trying to sneak into his room.

Still, survival instincts, ones which he had sworn by, forced him to move after the news of Sirius's attempt to enter the castle had kept him on edge. He was waiting, biding his time before disappearing, and although he was pretty sure the old fool didn't know or suspect anything about a common household pet of a poor wizarding family, his disappearance so soon after Sirisus's attempt to invade the school would put him on the map.

Peter dived into one of the drawers that he had dug into, he should be safe here, and just in case he had a safe escape from the hole he had dug into the last drawer. Before he could get too comfortable, though, he felt the whole table shake. The panic made him flee toward the hole, but he was too slow. From the light coming into the drawer, he concluded that the whole table was levitating into the air.

'Who is he, and does he know who I am?' The question was answered quickly as Peter rushed from the hole and jumped. He knew he had to get away from the influence of Neville's magic, but he was probably too slow, as just as he jumped, another jinx hit his body.

Peter Pettigrew froze, both physically and mentally, as he looked into the victorious smirk on Neville's face. Although frozen, his eyes were locked on the bright red wand pointed at him.

He knew that wand and how a first year was capable of using that spell were a bit beyond him, but as the red light enveloped his form and his consciousness started fading away, there was only one thought screaming helplessly at him to escape.

'HE KNOWS!!!!'

AN—Sorry about the delays! Stuff is happening in IRL, and I'm out of a job. I have interviews lined up for next week, so hopefully, I'll be able to get one soon! I'll try to post as much as possible in the meantime!

P.S - 42+ Chapters on Patreon!