InsaneJournal

RP: ...Always a Rat?
Characters: Peter
Time/Date: Dinnertime, October 23, 2023
Location: Gryffindor house
Warnings/Rating: TBD
Summary: Peter gets reenrolled at Hogwarts
Status: Limited, ongoing



The paperwork had taken longer to go through than the people at the Ministry had originally told him, and no one was exactly clear with explaining to Peter why that was. He was getting the gist of it, in small doses, while Ministry officials chatted when he was sitting, swinging his legs on a bench outside of someone's office, or getting something to drink.

He'd... done bad things in his adult life. Horrible, awful, unspeakable things. He'd broken codes of friendship, turned his back on the people he cared about most and seemed to have had no remorse over it, and chosen to support a madman pursuing a world that he himself didn't belong in over the people who had stood by him and supported him all the way through school.

And he didn't think there was a way that he could be more disgusted with himself than if they told him he'd been the one to brandish the wand that killed them himself.

So he'd delayed the process as much as he could. Played the stupid card wherever possible, feigned ignorance on things, forgotten what year he'd come back at and then remembered and made them go through the entire process again before finally, someone in records got fed up and said they had enough information, and it was time for him to go pester someone else. He was officially accepted back at Hogwarts.

He didn't want to go. He'd given some very serious consideration to just running away. How could he face his best mates, knowing what he'd done to destroy their lives? He must have done it, right? The history books said so. He couldn't imagine the circumstances that would have put him in a place where he would have made the decision to give Voldemort the information he needed to kill Lily and James, but... but that's what all the books said. That was the story that the Ministry officials knew.

But... he wasn't given an opportunity to flee. He was escorted the entire way to the Gryffindor common room, where the password was given to him as the portrait was swung open, and a friendly smile and wave encouraged him into the familiar dorms that were in a building that had an element of foreignness to it now.

He swallowed heavily, making his way through the commons to the dorms he'd been told he was staying in now. Bright smiling faces had let him know that his mates had already returned as well, but that just gave him a sinking feeling in his stomach. But he knew that he had to face them, had to atone for actions he hadn't even yet done but were still unforgivable.

At least it was around the dinner hour. Maybe he'd have some time to unpack first.