"Do you ever," Peter stopped talking then, looking worriedly about the room for a moment before he moved to sit closer to Remus, his knee knocking the other boy's for a moment before he had adjusted himself comfortably and leaned across the library table toward Remus.

"Do I ever what?" Remus asked, setting down his quill and turning brown eyes to his friend.

Peter swallowed and shifted in the chair, nervous. He could hear James and Sirius nearby, looking up jinxes and hexes no doubt.

"Do you ever wonder if maybe we'd be," Peter fiddled with the end of his tie, staring intently at the gold and red threads, "you know, at the ends of Sirius and James' wands if we weren't their friends."

"Maybe," Remus admitted, sounding horribly reluctant, his voice having lost its previous concern. "Why? You practically worship James."

Peter shrugged.

"Yeah, well, he's James. I mean, he's smart, good looking, he's one of the best Chaser we've had in years I heard, and he's nice to me," Peter tugged on his tie a bit more, tightening the knot almost dangerously.

He jumped as cold fingers grabbed his hand and pulled it away from his neck. Remus had turned in his chair and was loosening Peter's tie, his eyes narrowed slightly.

"You ought to stop doing that," Remus said. "You could choke yourself."

"Right, sorry."

"Look," Remus pulled his hands away and picked up his quill again, pulling a small piece of parchment toward him. "James and Sirius are our friends. They care about us. They would never turn on us."

"Yeah?" Peter asked quietly.

Remus wrote something carefully on the parchment, the tip of his tongue sticking out between his lips. Peter remembered James and Sirius making fun of him for it once and he wondered if Remus remembered that. Remus was the main reason they were all friends. They had joined together to protect Remus from bullying because he had once been smaller than Peter. Now, Remus was taller than Sirius and nearly as tall as James. Peter was the smallest now. Would they protect him?

"Yes," Remus said, his voice solid, more sure than he looked as he set his quill down again and offered the parchment to Peter. "James and Sirius are a couple of hot headed bullies sometimes, but they care about us. We're the Marauders. We don't just go around bullying people you know, that's Sirius and James' job. You know the oath, from the muggle book, one for all and all for one, that's us. We agreed in third year on that. Don't forget it."

"All right," Peter carefully took the parchment and read the seven words written on it. "Why do they do it?"

"What? Bullying?"

Peter nodded as Remus twirled his quill in his fingers.

"James probably likes the attention and the power and Sirius," Remus' mouth tightened. "I've never seen Sirius raise a wand to someone that wasn't a Slytherin. It's probably to do with his family."

"Do you really like them?" Peter asked softly.

"Do you?" Remus shot back.

Peter didn't have a reply to that as he sat back in his chair, looking as if someone had trodden on him.

"I wish James would remember the Marauder oath," he said suddenly.

"What makes you think he's forgotten it?" Remus asked.

Peter shrugged, looking up as James and Sirius, grinning from ear to ear, suddenly appeared at the table. Remus twirled his quill absently, looking at Sirius for a moment. Peter swore that Sirius smiled even more at whatever look Remus was giving him. James seemed oblivious to it, going on about a few N.E.W.T. level spells that he had found and wanted to try out. He finally noticed that Sirius wasn't listening; too busy listening to Remus as he explained something about the essay Remus was working on. James looked angry for a moment, but he turned his attention to Peter, smiling brilliantly.

"Come on, Wormtail," James said almost too cheerfully. "It's nearly time for dinner."

As they all gathered their things, Sirius and Remus walking a few steps ahead of them, Peter watched James as he gazed at Sirius. Then suddenly, James had an arm around Peter's shoulder and leaned closer to him, lowering his voice.

"We're going to find out what they're up to," James whispered.

Peter realized suddenly that he was only second best in James' eyes and that was all he would ever be. It was James for Sirius and than for Peter is Sirius wasn't around. He swallowed and with a firm nod, agreed.