Summary- "I brought them together, didn't I? The reason the Marauders truly became the Marauders. One boy with three friends that didn't care what he was." Remus' thoughts on trust and betrayal and making assumptions without proof.
Disclaimer- I own nothing. Zip, zero, squat. I own the plot, I s'pose, but you wouldn't want that anyway.
Just Ask
No one ever asked for my side in this. Not that they cared what my opinion was. But they could have at least asked, at least made it look like they cared. They could have pretended. They could have tried to disguise the truth of the matter.
They didn't. Didn't ask, didn't pretend to care. I suppose, if I really think about it, it was better in the end. At least I knew how they felt from the very beginning.
They didn't trust me, towards the end. I never gave them any reason to. I never left them any kind of proof that I was who they all thought I was. I was late every so often, yes. I missed a dinner or two, okay. I couldn't help it. Didn't they understand that, with the measly jobs I managed to find, it meant that I had to work at all hours? That it wasn't anywhere near easy for me to get time off? That I was forced to get what work I could when I could because I never knew when the next opportunity would come along?
Looking back now, I suppose I understand why I was the chosen scapegoat. It was someone close to them, someone that they talked to often. Not only someone in the Order, but one of their friends. The betrayal of all betrayals, to help a sworn enemy find your friends.
Her friends were immediately crossed off of the list, of course. Marlene was too good, too kind to have ever though of doing something as horrible as betrayal. Alice was a target just as large as they were, so it couldn't possibly be her.
So that left the three of us. That we were the three it was narrowed down to disgusted all of us, but we knew it had to be true. Knew that one of the three of us was the traitor. Knew that the faith and friendship that Marauders once stood for and represented was falling apart before our eyes. That is the worst thing Voldemort could ever have done to us, breaking up the Marauders. Tearing apart our friendship and letting us watch it crumble before our eyes. Making us suspicious of our own brothers, our best friends.
How? How could one man ruin my entire life in the course of six months?
It was obvious to everyone which one of the three of us it was. Sirius was too loyal, too defensive of James. He would never do a thing like turn his back on his best friend for power. He could never go back to the side that he had rejected at the age of eleven. It wasn't Sirius. I wish I had been able to believe it, to have the same conviction that everyone else had before that fateful day. I wish I had known before.
Peter was too weak, too small. The Dark Lord wouldn't want a shrimp like him. Who did? The Marauders were the only ones to have ever taken him in, and although they embraced him like a brother, he wasn't one of them. Not really. He was never truly up to par with the others, everyone said. Oh how wrong they all were.
That left me. Me, Remus Lupin. Me, the spiteful werewolf. Me, the only one it could possibly be. There were no other options. It had to be, they all said. Pure and simple. Disgusting, but what other options were there? No one else had enough of a reason, enough proof. No one else was close enough to them, had enough information to tell. It must be him. There were no other choices. Someone was, and it must be him.
I wish they hadn't. Hadn't assumed, hadn't decided from the very beginning without asking me. But they did, and it ended badly. If only they had just asked, I could have told them. I, the only one with enough proof supporting another decision. I, the one that could have given them enough evidence to lead them to another decision.
I wasn't the odd one out. I was the core. I brought them together, didn't I? The reason the Marauders truly became the Marauders. One boy with three friends that didn't care what he was.
That fell apart in the end. I wasn't the reason they bonded, I was the reason they fell apart. Or so they all said. What they didn't know, couldn't know, couldn't understand.
All they had to do was ask.
&&&&&&&&&
No clue where that came from. Just a little ficlet written for fun in about an hour or two. This is what happens when you can't think of anything new for EtU and don't feel like getting around to editing TNCoP or working on FD. Avoidance by plot-bunny. w00t!