2. PETER
I probably won't get it. I probably won't get it. How could I ever get it? I surely won't get it.
Peter Pettigrew repeated the mantra over and over in his head. There was only a month left for the new term to start at Hogwarts and Peter hadn't yet received his letter. Well, it wasn't really a surprise. Peter Pettigrew was a squib.
He was okay with it, really. Sure, he couldn't do little magic tricks like other wizard kids his age but it was okay. Sure, his father was always disappointed in him, but it was okay. It was okay that he didn't really have any friends because the Muggles found him strange and the purebloods found him inferior.
It was okay. It really was.
His mother believed otherwise though. "You're just a late bloomer, that's all," she would tell him sometimes. "You'll make a great wizard someday, I know. Every kid on the street will know your name."
He knew she was just trying to make him feel better but it just made him feel worse. He had already accepted his fate. Once he was seventeen, he would go to live in the Muggle world like an ordinary no magic Muggle. There was no place for him in the world of magic.
"Late bloomer my foot," Peter cursed as he swung higher and higher in the swing set, his soft brown hair flying with the wind and his glassy blue eyes somewhere far away, not aware of his surroundings. The playground was empty and he preferred it that way. The Muggle kids usually called him names. One time the local bully Vernon Dursley even threw a rock at him. It hit him in the head.
Although, it all had been his fault. When they wouldn't let him play with them, he told them he knew magic. And when they realized that he had lied, the rock came. He thought they would forget it with time, but of course they didn't.
Even his mother had been mad at him that day. "It's against the law," she had said to him as she fixed his wounds. "And it's boastful."
"The law binds no squib," he murmured as he swung higher.
"Oi Fatty!" It was Vernon with his standard group of thugs. Peter hadn't seen them enter the playground.
Vernon Dursley was a pudgy little boy much like Peter, only older, with locks of golden hair and a big pink face. His friends were assortment of various mean neighborhood kids, though he was the meanest of them all and hence the leader.
"What are you doing on the swings? Won't you rather ride your broom, ya fat little liar." His friends laughed at that.
Peter turned scarlet. It wasn't anger. It was shame.
The truth was, it wasn't okay. He wished he could use the broom but flying brooms never agreed with squibs like him. He wished he could use magic. He wished he wasn't such a big disappointment to his father and that his mother was right, that he was just a late bloomer. He wished he had friends of his own who would back him up like Vernon's little thugs. But above all he wished he could hex Vernon and shut him up. It wasn't okay that he couldn't.
It was anger now. He closed his eyes tight trying to calm down. He never really understood how it happened. Maybe it was the mix of anger and shame that did it, maybe it was finally accepting that being a squib wasn't really okay for him.
But when he opened his eyes he was standing over a horrified Vernon Dursley lying flat on the ground, arms extended in defense. His friends were running away screaming something about a flying monster.
Peter walked back home whistling to himself. He didn't yet understand what had happened and he had given up trying. When his mother tucked him in for the night, he knew that there would be a letter for him in the post next morning.
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A/N: I've always thought Petunia's hatred for the Wizarding world was somewhat justified and Vernon's hatred has always been a fact that you accept without reason. But I've always believed that Vernon must have had a falling out or an accident with a wizard/witch and that's why he hates them so much. So I tried to incorporate that into this chapter.
Feel free to share your thoughts on that. :)
Also please vote if you liked what you read.
PS- I'm currently re-editing this story, so all the chapters that are numbered have been edited.
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