Disclaimer: Not mine. At least not all mine. Some things are, like the flour, for example.
Peter tapped on the ground with his fingers. He'd have given the world to know what the others were thinking. And he would have been quite happy if he could have understood his own thoughts, too. Everything looked so wrong — Sirius crying, James shouting with anger, Remus laughing mirthfully. He felt it was his job to turn it back to normal, to make them see they were still the people they had been before.
But he didn't know how to do it. He only knew they had to stick together. He couldn't let any of them leave.
Mix the ingredients together, and let them boil; in due time either the fumes will clear or it will explode, professor Slughorn would say. And then, afterwards, things will have sorted themselves out one way or another.
Just sit back, and watch, and let things happen.
"How can you… I thought…" he heard Remus mutter to James in desperation, and he turned away to hide the tear that had dropped from his eye at that.
Peter shrugged. Was he a bad friend to the others? He didn't feel as miserable as the other three looked, he was certain of that. He had only been in the role of a spectator that night. Sirius had run into him, screeching for James — Peter knew he was always the third one in the group when Remus was missing. Then Sirius had told his story, and they had both run off. And he, Peter, had decided to follow Sirius, not James.
He only found out later how close it had been. How the werewolf-Remus (he always kept good watch on himself, even in his thoughts, not to confuse it with the real Remus) had charged at James before he managed to transform, how Snape the Wimp had passed out just hearing its growling, how James had carried the limp Wimp away from the Shrieking Shack and had almost been battered to death by the Whomping Willow…he heard it all only in the next morning.
That night he had gone after Sirius. It wasn't easy to keep up with him, a desperate young man in a good health running with all his might. But being desperate meant that he never thought of transforming, so it was quite possible for Peter to follow him in his Animagus form. He had followed Sirius to this cave here, and watched his friend stomp down into a corner with an expressionless face, staring blankly into the darkness in front of him, no muscles moving in his face.
Peter had watched over him the entire night from the mouth of the cave, not once being noticed by Sirius. And then he had returned, to find out how the others were.
And now he was back up here. This time he brought the others, too. This time, he hoped, they were going to leave the cave together. Because they belonged together in everything they did, in everything they wanted, in everything they were. Because he knew that being miserable wouldn't led them anywhere.
Mix the ingredients together, and let them boil; in due time either the fumes will clear or it will explode. Yet, though Peter wasn't good in any specific subjects, he knew that a catalyst could at least quicken the process, and maybe even shift it in a preferable direction.
He sorted through his brain to find something to say, something that would remind the others of the times they've been there for each other, something that would kill the insufferable silence around them, the coldness that was emanating from the glances they shot at each other.
"I think I feel faint tickling in my fingers… I hope I'm not an ant," he finally said with a smile, and the memory claimed all his attention.
-----
"I'm not quite sure about it," Remus said, kneeling next to the cauldron and peering into it. "It looks kind of disgusting."
The liquid in there looked almost alive. It was swirling sea green in colour, and now and then little sequences of drops sprang out of there like snakes, only to sink back inside after reaching the height of about four inches.
"I don't think adding flour was a good idea, Sirius," James laughed from where he was comfortably sprawled out on the crimson pillows on the floor.
"It was you who said it needs to be thicker, and flour did the job pretty well. Besides, this is exactly what it has to look like, it's as if the picture in the Moste Potente Potions has been copied straight from our mixture," Sirius said, leafing through a heavy and worn-looking book. "I can't understand, though, why it has to be green. Like there aren't any other colours left in the world."
Peter perched himself on a desk that had been shifted to the end of the room. "It doesn't look that bad at all. Remember the last patch?" he asked, flinging his legs.
Sirius made a disgusted face. "Yeah, I can't imagine Master Lupin here suggesting that adding powdered leaf of Muggle cauliflower would improve it in any way."
"Hey, don't jump at me!" Remus protested. "I mean, it does help with some other potions. Like Strengthening Solution, for example. It speeds up the boiling, and I thought it was worth a try!"
"It boiled up pretty quickly, that's true," Peter laughed, remembering the hours they had spent removing the sticky yellow foam from their faces, clothes, and hair, and the walls and ceiling of the room they used for making the potion. They had found this little room by coincidence when running away from Filch, because the door was disguised as a window overlooking the lake. He, Peter, in his usual hurry to do the best, had accidentally said Acio-room instead of the intended Accio broom. And the window had opened to led them into this cosy classroom-like chamber.
"I think those wisps will wriggle when you try to swallow them," Remus said, eyeing the cauldron carefully.
"What are you worried about?" James asked. "You don't have to drink it."
Remus smiled a small victorious smile. "Neither do you," he told them.
"Aha! So that's what it's all about!" Sirius said, closing the book with a bang. "So that's why you let me add the flour! You hoped I'd ruin it!"
"Haven't we told you enough times already — we want to do it!" James said, shifting the pillows under his elbow to a more comfortable position.
"But I can't manage the spell!" Peter whined, jumping off the table, and squinting towards the others.
"I told you eighty four times already," Sirius said in a mockingly irritated voice, "you can do the spell alright, only you must not forget to stab yourself with your wand. You must tap your chest as close to the place where your heart is as possible."
"Yeah, and in your case, Sirius," James said, "as close to the place where it should be."
"You say I'm heartless? You want to see me being heartless? Here!" he conjured a goblet and quickly filled it with the swirling potion. "You drink first."
James sat up quickly and took the goblet, yet first throwing a pillow at Peter, just for the fun of it. "My hand's asleep!" he said, shaking it and trying to give the goblet back to Sirius.
"Oh no, you're going to drink it!" Sirius said, waving it back to him with an evil smile.
They were all now standing around the sitting James, staring down at him in anxiety.
"I'm sure it'll try to crawl back up your oesophagus," Remus supplied with an encouraging smile.
"What's the oesoe-whatever?" Peter asked quickly, still transfixed by the dancing droplets of the potion in the goblet.
"Quit it, Remus," James said, still shaking his hand, and looking at the potion in an uncertain way. He quickly sent a glance at his friends around him, then said, "Here goes nothing!" and with one gulp, emptied the goblet.
A moment later Peter jumped away when the now empty goblet flew right past his ear to the far corner of the room. He watched in horror how a strange white powdery substance covered James from head to foot, and a green fume was emanating from his eyes and ears.
"My wand, my wand!" he croaked, fumbling with it, so that it rolled away towards the cauldron.
Peter jumped after it, threw it quickly to Sirius, who in turn handed it to James. A high arc and, Peter knew it, a mental incantation later he pointed it to his heart.
The green smoke vanished. The white powder vanished. Where there had been sitting a teenage boy in school robes, there now was sitting a teenage boy in school robes. Peter, Remus, and Sirius looked at James expectantly, then disappointedly. Remus heaved a happy sigh.
"Nothing happened," Peter commentated. Sirius snorted.
"I think I feel faint tickling in my fingers… I hope I'm not an ant," James said, looking questioningly at his hand, and giggling slightly.
"I think you spent the whole night leaning on that arm, so it was asleep," Remus said, turning away from them to hide his smile.
"OK, maybe the flour wasn't a good idea," Sirius said, walking back to the cauldron and staring at the potion as if it had offended him. The potion in there was as merry as ever, looking just like it ought to look.
Peter joined Sirius at the cauldron. He could understand Remus' happiness on their failure; he could understand Sirius' frustration over three months worth of work going down the drain. What he couldn't understand was James' giddiness.
"So what now?" he asked, turning back to James, but instead finding a high majestic stag in his place. Peter squealed in delight.
-----
The three first year students walking past the window suddenly heard a high-pitched squeal of delight from somewhere near the lake, though there seemed to be no one outside. Then there was a splash, followed by an urgent shout.
"Why'd you push his head in there?"
And then,
"Quick, give him his wand!"
A/N: I know I haven't updated for ages! But I have a good reason for it! I... OK, I have no good reason for it. Sorry. But there's only one more chapter to go after that, and then I can call this finished! I hope I'll have the last one up in less time than this one took...
One more thing... REVIEW!