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Written for; Competition: 50 Characters, 50 Prompts - Revamped. Remus Lupin and "Please, don't do this."

Obliviate

Something was wrong, Remus could feel it. Sirius and James and Peter were all behaving strangely, secretively, and Remus didn't like it. Didn't they trust him any more? Was he being faulted for doing as Dumbledore asked, faulted for trying to help bring peace to the wizarding world in a way only he was able?

He knew that his condition was a curse, but if he could use it to do good, shouldn't he?

Remus knew that James and Lily were in hiding behind the Fidelius charm, and he was happy they were safe. Sirius was likely the secret keeper, Remus thought, because he would be the obvious choice. A shiver passed over Remus. He would be the obvious choice.

They wouldn't use the obvious. Which meant...

Remus shook on a cloak quickly, briefly looking around his dilapidated flat, before he left in a hurry, hoping he wasn't too late.

The werewolves that Remus had been trying to insinuate himself with hadn't trusted him very much, but he'd heard a late night whispered conversation about a rat and a secret. Something about the conversation had been bugging Remus, but he hadn't understood what it could mean. He hadn't even thought about his friends, hadn't thought they could have anything to do with something so randomly cryptic.

Remus appeared with a quiet crack in a deserted alleyway. Running his wand along a specific set of bricks, he waited with baited breath to be allowed entrance to Peter's hidey hole. The gap in the wall opened just wide enough to allow him entrance, and even then, Remus had to suck in his stomach to slip through into the scarcely furnished room.

"Remus? What are you doing here?" Peter asked from where he sat in a frayed and ripped armchair, a book on his lap.

"What? I can't drop in on one of my best friends?" Remus asked, raising his eyebrow at Peter as he dropped into the one remaining chair. "I haven't seen you for weeks."

"Oh. Of course. Sorry. I just... I don't have many visitors."

"What about Sirius? He checks in on you, doesn't he?"

"Yeah. He's.. busy though you know. Fighting."

"I know," Remus replied with a small nod. "Everyone is busy. How have you been? Keep safe I hope?"

"Yeah... I. Yeah. Keeping safe. What about you? How is your...assignment?"

"Hard. They don't trust me, I have to sneak around a lot."

Peter nodded sympathetically. "Must be difficult."

"Hmm," Remus agreed, keeping his tone mild. "I hear all kinds of conversations thought, sneaking around. Strange conversations."

"Oh. Like what?" Peter asked, and Remus hoped he was imagining the tremor in the words. He hoped he was wrong.

Something inside him said he wasn't.

Remus shrugged. "Cryptic messages that take a lot of working out. Words that could hold different meanings, you know?"

"What are you talking about, Remus?" Peter asked quietly.

"Why would werewolves, werewolves that are on Voldemort's side, be talking about you being the secret keeper for James and Lily, Peter?"

Remus watched as the blood drained from Peter's face, leaving him with an eerily pale complexion.

"I don't know what you... I mean... I have no... Sirius is the secret keeper."

"That's what I thought," Remus agreed. "Until I thought about it."

"Sirius can protect them better than I ever could, Remus! He's stronger, and better at fighting. He's the obvious choice. I don't know why you'd suggest..." Peter rambled, getting more worked up with every word.

"Exactly. Sirius is the obvious choice, which is why they choose you, isn't it?"

"Remus, I don't know what..."

"And the fact that the werewolves are aware of it, that they know about it, makes me wonder about your loyalty, Peter."

Before Remus could react, Peter was out of his chair and Remus was lay on the floor, blood trickling from a cut on his head. Peter stood over him, his wand held shakily in his hand, pointing directly at Remus.

"Why, Peter? Why would you do this? Why would you betray us? Why would you betray them?"

"You don't understand. He was going to kill me, Remus! He threatened me, he threatened my family, I don't want to die!"

"Please, don't do this."

"I have to," Peter replied, even as tears fell to his cheeks. Remus reached out to his friend, to one of the few people he thought he would be able to trust forever.

"Peter."

"I'm sorry, Remus. Obliviate."