1: Darkness
The posters are everywhere. Posters with pictures, pictures which laugh maniacally at Remus Lupin from every wall of the Three Broomsticks, the haunted face of a man he no longer knew. The prisoner is, in actuality, silent, any sound halting at the razor-thin edge of the paper, but Remus thinks it seems a cold, cruel, crazy laugh. Whatever had possessed that man to commit such blood-chilling crimes, the ones which merited his incarceration, had surely driven him mad.
"HAVE YOU SEEN THIS WIZARD?" the headline screams.
I almost wish, says a voice in Remus' head, unbidden. So I could take care of him myself, before he gets to Harry. He finds his hand under his robe, on the handle of his wand, before he even realizes that he'd put it there. With a sigh, he unclenches his fingers and sets them back on the table.
It just wasn't right, what Sirius Black had done to Lily and James, to Peter, to those twelve Muggles who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, and, through that, to Remus. Remus remembers being absolutely incredulous at hearing the news of the betrayal, of Sirius's arrest just after the murder of Peter Pettigrew. Lily and James Potter had trusted Sirius beyond any doubt. Peter not only trusted Sirius, he looked up to him, as he looked up to all his friends. And Remus trusted Sirius. Of course. They had been friends. They had been –
Well, perhaps a bit more than friends.
And perhaps that's why there's still this nagging little doubt at the back of Remus' mind, that perhaps Sirius is innocent. The evidence, of course, is overwhelming in the other direction. Sirius had been the Potters' Secret-Keeper, and countless witnesses had seen him destroy Peter and the others. But Remus still recalls his younger self, upon being informed by Dumbledore on Sirius's involvement, crumpling to the ground, clutching the hem of Dumbledore's robe, nearly in tears, saying over and over, "No, no, not James and Lily…Peter…no, they've got it wrong, it wasn't Sirius…not Sirius, no…" And he still can see the older wizard's blue eyes, completely serious, without a trace of the usual sparkle, and full of pity and empathy, although Remus is sure Dumbledore had no idea what he was going through.
A part of him can't believe, even now, with the evidence that Sirius was going to come and finish off Harry, that the handsome, confident, sort-of-insane-but-only-in-the-risktaking-sense boy he'd gone to school with, and the man he'd grown to love, could possible have betrayed two of his closest friends, and kill a third. Remus couldn't have been that wrong. Not about Sirius.
But now Sirius had escaped. Unbelievable.
Remus returns his attentions to his butterbeer, a beverage he doesn't even plan to drink, which he had just gotten for its significance. It reminds him of his school days, sitting in the Three Broomsticks, just beyond the reaches of Hogwarts. Only this time he is a teacher, not a student, and he is sitting alone, without James, or Peter, or Sirius. He sighed. With all he knew now, all of the conflicting messages, he'd never felt more in the dark.
Remus was in the dark. Complete and utter darkness. He was somewhat used to dark, of course, used to sneaking out at night, but he was also used to some kind of light, from a wand, perhaps, or stars peeping through the boards of the Shrieking Shack. But this was dark, pitch black. Well, only way to go was forward. He took a tentative step, and felt-
"Ah!"
"Ow, fuck. What-"
"Shhhh."
"Merlin's beard, Moony, you stepped on my foot!"
"Sorry," Remus said lamely, feeling foolish, "It's dark."
"Yes, it's dark," Sirius said. "But only for a second. Because no one should see us coming out of the floorboards in the Honeydukes cellar. Relax, Moony. James and I do this all of the time."
"You usually bring James's invisibility cloak," Remus muttered. He was feeling somewhat uneasy about this whole situation – sneaking out at night to buy butterbeer and sweets for James Potter, Quidditch hero, currently confined to the infirmary under the hawklike watch of Madame Pomfrey. It had, in fact, taken a lot of convincing for Remus to even consider going with Sirius. "But did you see that dive?" Sirius had said. "It's a miracle he didn't break more than just his leg when he fell off catching the Snitch. He's going to be in the infirmary until morning, Pomfrey doesn't want him walking around. And come on, we owe him. He won us the match against Slytherin, right?"
Remus resisted, but Sirius persisted, and pouted, and persisted some more, until Remus finally gave in, finding himself, yet again, a partner-in-crime in one more situation which could, potentially, get him into trouble with the Powers-That-Be at Hogwarts School. Well, they only had a few months left here, anyway. This, at least, was Sirius' reasoning.
"You could have gotten Peter to come, easily," Remus pointed out.
"Peter would have been twice as useless as you," Sirius remarked, attempting to ruffle Remus's hair in the dark and nearly taking out his eye. "And plus, I wanted to get you out of that dusty library for once."
Remus had been spending more time in the library lately, but it wasn't because of the impending threat of exams. He'd been feeling progressively more awkward, more self-conscious, around James, Peter, and Sirius, and seemed to notice his differences, his comparative personality boringness especially, more than ever. He hadn't been hiding, per se, just, well, avoiding. Especially Sirius, who seemed to seek him out when he decided to disappear.
"Look, here's the door already," Sirius said. Remus heard the soft squeak of hinges above his head, and then the darkness became a shade less opaque. He saw Sirius's silhouette climb through the door and followed it up.
The basement was only a little brighter than the secret passageway, light filtering out from a crack beneath the door. The boys tripped their way over boxes and up the stairs into the shop proper.
Honeydukes, stocked with sweets of all sorts, as always, was nearly empty. Well, of course it would be, at this time of night. They were near closing. There was only an elderly couple, a short, balding man and a tall, stern-looking woman, who didn't seem to notice the boys' rather unusual entrance. Even the woman who stood behind the counter wasn't a presence as she was the rest of the year, with a sweet-as-honey voice but a keen eye which caught any student who pocketed a sweet.
Remus and Sirius, unhampered by the usually crowds, ran up and down the sweetshop with as much unbridled energy as the proverbial kid in the proverbial candy store, stuffing sweets into a sack. Remus wanted to stick more to the traditional toffees, Fizzing Whizbees, Bertie Botts' Every Flavored Beans, and Chocolate Frogs ("You know," he told Sirius, "things you can actually eat."), while Sirius wanted to stock up on Cockroach Clusters and lollipops that would change the color of your nose ("We can use them on Snivellus," Sirius said, much to Remus' chagrin).
When Sirius rang the bell on the countertop, the woman, who emerged from the back storage room ("How many bloody storage rooms can this place have?" asked Sirius, and Remus pointed out that they should be grateful that the cellar was there as well), seemed mildly surprised to see Remus, but not at all to see Sirius. How much business had she gotten from Padfoot and Prongs alone?
Now finished with Honeydukes, Sirius dragged Remus along towards the Three Broomsticks to collect the butterbeer, or, Sirius said, "Something a bit more potent." They were almost there when they saw a familiar figure "sliming" his way along the cobblestone streets, a little more quickly than usual.
"Is that Snivellus?" Sirius whispered, pushing Remus into a nearby alleyway.
"Ow! Hey-"
"Shut up!" Sirius said, a little harshly, Remus thought. "I want to see what he's up to." He craned his neck around the corner.
"Something nefarious, no doubt. Look, Sirius, why can't we just leave the poor guy alone for once?" Remus pleaded for the umpteenth time. He pulled Sirius' sleeve, and Sirius, in irritation, turned around. "Sir-"
"Wait just a tick," Sirius said, shaking him off and looking back out at the street. "He's disappeared." When Remus looked confused, he added, "He must have turned a corner and now he's gone. Kapeesh. Poof. Vanished."
"Well, good for him then."
"Hold my wand," Sirius said, thrusting the wand in Remus' face. In confusion, Remus took it. "I don't like this. I'm going to follow him. I'm going Padfoot."
"You're what?! No! Sirius, that's not a good-"
Before he could even finish his sentence, the great black dog bounded off into the night, leaving a puzzled and somewhat exasperated Moony holding two wands and a bag of sweets.
A/N: I will be away for nine days and won't be able to post an update until I'm back. In the meantime, please review, and I'll look forward to seeing your comments, good or bad, once I'm home. Mischeif managed!