A/N: " Thank you for all the kind reviews for the last chapter, hope you enjoy!"—E
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oOoOoOo
He moved quickly through the dark halls, his old shoes silent on the stone floor. Outside the tall castle windows, an owl passed by, hooting softly in the night air on its way to the owlery, while inside the only sound where the gentle snores of the portraits he passed, their occupants oblivious to his presence.
Remus turned down the next corridor and frowned. The hall was mostly empty aside from a small alcove by the portrait of Brian the Barmy and a few classrooms at the end. There was little place to hide. However, some intuition pulled at him and told him to continue down that path.
There were no torches lit, not that he really needed them. The large moon outside filled the hall with enough light as well as a foreboding sense of what was soon to come. Remus breathed deeply, wishing for that canine sense of smell he had during the full moon, it would help him now more than then. Tiptoeing, he hunted quietly and quickly further and further down the hall, that hunch growing more and more with each step. The first classroom proved empty. The desks were piled against the wall, leaving no place to hide, but the second room made him pause at the door. The large wooden teacher's desk at the far end of the room… someone could easily tuck underneath. He walked across the empty classroom towards the desk.
However, before he got the chance to bend over and look underneath, a hand suddenly reached out to grab his ankles.
"Sirius!" he gasped as barking laughter echoed from under the wooded desk, his heart rate embarrassingly fast. "You aren't supposed to scare me when I find you!"
"It's just too easy! Besides, I hate being the hider," Sirius said as he stood up and stretched, a wide smile on his attractive face. "It's much more fun being the seeker."
"Well, you can't always be."
"Have you found the others yet?"
"No," answered Remus as he and Sirius left the classroom and continued down the dark corridor. "Peter is probably in the trophy room—"
"It defeats the point of the game if he hides in the same place every time."
"—and I haven't found James yet."
"If he doubled back to the common room to chat up Lily again," Sirius frowned, "I'll kill 'em."
They jogged down the hallway, tripping and laughing in the moonlight, Remus only half-heartedly trying to remain quiet as he followed after Sirius. Everyone was in their dormitories by now, curfew had past an hour ago, and the halls were theirs, as they always were after nightfall. Looking behind him, Remus saw the dark corridor was clear and silent as ever, the solitude a powerful comfort as he picked up his pace.
"Remus, this way!" gasped Sirius, a large grin on his face as he pulled on the back of his friend's robe, tugging Remus down another corridor before breaking into a sprint. Accepting the challenge, Remus raced after him and soon his breath was ragged and his legs screaming. Suddenly, a classroom door opened at the end of the hall, taking the last of his breath in fear until he saw the smiling faces of James and Peter in the moonlight.
Sirius won the race, his much longer legs giving him the advantage, and they skidded into the room, both out of breath and laughing as Peter shut the door after them.
"I thought you were a prefect on patrol at first," gasped Remus as Peter handed him a Butterbeer before jumping up onto a desk.
"Me? That's rich," laughed James. "No, they'll be patrolling down the Charms Corridor by now—had to dodge them on our way here."
"What happened to the game?"
"We'll start another tomorrow, I've got something better," James set down his drained bottle and turned to the others, his face full of excitement. "I was poking around the third floor looking for a good hiding spot—"
"Lily told you to bugger off so you decided to play after all, eh?"
"Shut up, Moony!" snapped James as Sirius and Peter snickered. "Anyway, third floor, you know, that bend in the corridor? Well, I found something."
The anticipation quickly grabbed onto Remus and his teasing subsided instantly, the others silenced too. Their exposing charms had detected something hidden on that corridor weeks ago, but they had yet been unable to figure out what it was. Sirius had put money down that it was another passageway out of the castle.
"Really? James, what is it?"
"It's not like the mirror on the fourth floor or the trick wall in the South Tower—"
"So it is a passageway then?"
"But it's not like the tunnel from the dungeons, where you have to walk underground for a hundred miles, and it's not like the Whomping Willow, which leads nowhere but to Moony's bachelor pad."
"Come on, Potter—"
"You've built it up enough, James," said Remus. " Come on, spill—where does it lead?"
Laughing, James Potter hopped off the desk and dug his hands in his pockets. With a large grin he pulled out fistfuls of candy.
"Honeydukes."
oOo
Remus quickly followed after McGonagall through the corridors towards the Great Hall. Their walk was silent. She had said everything outside his door; Sirius was somehow in the castle; the Fat Lady guarding the Gryffindor common room had been found slashed to tatters when she wouldn't let him pass.
It was insane. Absolutely impossible.
As McGonagall continued to hurry down the hall, the older witch looked more strict and severe than ever, the few fly-away hairs from her bun were stuck to the sweat on her forehead as she marched forward. Drawing closer to the Great Hall they were met by students from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, all laughing and teasing one another, the graveness of the situation not yet known to them. Entering the hall, Remus saw the rest of the school was already gathered, the smiles of the newly arrived houses quickly falling as the Gryffindors ran from student to student and the news quickly spread. Soon the hall was full of whispers instead of laughter.
Dumbledore and the rest of the faculty remained at the entrance, talking quickly and quietly. They instantly grew silent as Minerva and Remus joined them, something that did not go unnoticed by Remus.
Dumbledore turned to the mass of students.
"The teachers and I need to conduct a thorough search of the castle," he said. "I'm afraid that, for your own safety, you will have to spend the night here. I want the prefects to stand guard over the entrances to the hall and I am leaving the Head Boy and Girl in charge. Any disturbance should be reported to me immediately."
As Dumbledore addressed the students there was a severity to his disposition that Remus had not seen in quite a long time. The way he stood straighter, his eyes calm yet unyielding—it was a small tension that pulled Remus back to the old days of the Order of the Phoenix.
"Ah yes, and you will be needing these," he finished with a wave of his wand. The large tables slid up against the wall to make way for a hundred or so sleeping bags. He turned back to his staff.
"We must do a full search," he walked from the hall, Remus and the others following. "Check your classrooms and corridors—heads of house, please check your dormitories as well. Leave no hall unturned."
"You think he is still in the castle?" asked Professor Sinistra.
"I do not know," answered Dumbledore solemnly as he looked in on the students one last time. "I have Hagrid already sweeping the grounds."
"And the dementors?"
"Will not be entering the castle," he answered, his voice sharp as he shut the Great Hall doors with a thud.
oOo
The halls were not quiet. The many occupants of the castle's paintings, who were usually asleep at this hour, were all abuzz, running from frame to frame to share the news of the attack. Remus tried to ignore them as he swept the halls, his Detection Charms finding nothing. Their whispers and chatter filled the night air, and Remus picked up his pace to a light jog to get away from them. Pushing open one of the large wooden doors, he found himself in a hall filled with only mirrors, their voices fading into the night as the door closed behind him. He stopped, letting the new silence press into his ears.
It was impossible.
Sirius couldn't be here.
All the questions Remus had pushed away all those years ago were slowly trickling back. His wand at his side, he moved down the corridor, not bothering to perform the Detection Spells. If Sirius had been here, he would be gone by now, that much Remus knew. These halls had been their playground. As first-years, the games they played late at night taught them everything about the castle; by the time they were fourth-years, James, Sirius, and Peter were all fully-transforming Animagi, running these castle halls with him at night; and by the time they were sixth-years, the map was complete. Yes, Sirius would be gone by now. However, Remus wasn't certain if that was a good or a bad thing.
Reaching a dead end, he turned around abruptly and walked back down the hall. Looking up, Remus was surprised to see someone at the end. For just a moment, that small fear of being caught up after curfew flooded his veins, until grim reality hit once again.
"Severus, any luck?" Remus asked, his voice tired as he walked up to the potions master.
"No," Snape drawled, a small gleam in his eye as Remus approached him. "I see you aren't having any luck either. Can't remember a simple Detection Spell?"
Remus forced his face to remain calm as his childhood rival sneered. Of course, Snape would follow after him. He had seen that look not only in Severus' eye, but that of the entire staff. They all knew who Remus once called his best friend. "You know he isn't in the castle anymore, Severus. Sirius would be long gone by now."
"Yes, well you do know him best," Snape hissed, his entire body squared against Remus in triumph. "Should I tell Dumbledore you have given up? That you wish not to find your dear, old friend?"
It seemed that thirteen years hadn't changed Severus Snape; his hatred still clouded his judgment and logic and Remus knew fighting him would be pointless. He turned.
"Continue your search, professor, and I'll do the same," Remus said, his wand erupting in a pulsating light as it searched. "Oh, and don't think for a moment that I don't want him found and locked up," he continued as Severus turned to walk away, his black, bat-like robes vanishing into the shadows. "I hate him more than you do."
oOo
Remus patrolled the castle for hours. He checked all the usual places from their youth, the broom cupboards, green houses, and trophy rooms, but found nothing. As the hours passed, this dark version of their childhood game slowly ate away at him, and each step, every empty room, was a reminder that Remus was the last one playing now.
James was gone.
Peter was gone.
And now Sirius was gone, too.
At around three in the morning, Professor Sprout found him. As she urged him to give up and return to bed, Remus was too tired to notice if she still looked at him with suspicion as she had earlier, but he didn't really care anyway. His feet somehow made their way to his office. With his head pounding, Remus turned the handle and walked in.
His eyes instantly fell upon her.
Hermione had waited up for him, sitting on the couch with her legs tucked under herself in that usual way, a book in her lap. She smiled gently; one that was laced with pity.
When Remus walked the castle, he hadn't forgotten her. He hadn't forgotten how temptation had finally won over and how much he had wanted her, her mouth soft and perfect as she molded into him, and how he had lost his head in the clouds in that moment. Nor had Remus forgotten why she was here, and where she was from.
"You knew?"
"Yes."
Remus nodded and squeezed his eyes shut. Balling his fists, he tried to control the emotions that filled him once again. The lying, the secrets, the hiding—it was as if he had gone back to a time he had left so long ago. With one last look at her he moved across the office into his room and slammed the door shut.
oOoOoOo
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A/N: "Hey, hope you liked it. I always wondered what Remus was going through during those moments in the books when he is trying to find Sirius in the castle. I'm terribly depressed now that I've finished this chapter, which I assume is a good sign. Please feel free to review!"—E