Peter Pettigrew walked along a corridor alone. James had decided that he was bored and wanted to have a treasure hunt and, with the help of Sirius and Remus, had somehow decided that he was a complete treasure, as were they all, so here Peter was, wondering around the castle trying to find them.
'I wonder how the normal people are spending their time this weekend,' he whispered to himself, just as he heard a clatter from behind a suit of armour.
'James? Remus? Sirius?' he called, edging forward just as a group of fourth year Slytherins, including Bellatrix Black, came around the corner.
'Ah, little Petey Pettigrew! Is that Sirius you were calling for? My lovely little traitor of a cousin? Be sure to tell me when you find him, I've been waiting to curse him since he first sat down at that bloody disgusting Gryffindor table with the rest of you scum. In fact, whilst I've got you here, I might test it out…' she grinned threateningly, drawing her wand and pointing it at him.
Peter looked up at the wand in his face, turned on his heel and ran as fast as he could, hearing Bellatrix's cackle following him and suddenly a curse flew past his ear. Peter had never been good at running as he wasn't incredibly athletic but somehow he managed to be sprinting down a corridor two floors below before he even fully registered that he had just had a wand in his face. Slowing down to catch his breath, he looked around not recognising where he was. Clutching a stitch in his side, he put one hand on the wall for support and pulled it away immediately as he heard the wall giggle. Whipping around he saw a large painting of a bowl of fruit, in which there was a squirming and giggling pear [the source of the noise], which turned into a handle before his very eyes. Peter stared at it in shock. He didn't want to go in, in case it was dangerous and he was on his own so he took a quick look around the corridor to remember what it looked like and ran off in search of his friends.
After half an hour of wandering around, Peter was walking along the Charms corridor. Remus peered around the corner to see him and, being incredibly bored of hiding for so long, stepped out and called 'Found me!' Peter spun around and ran up to Remus, shouting 'Remus, you've got to come with me! Remus, thank Merlin I found you, you've got to come quick!' Remus looked at him in alarm thinking that something awful had happened and took off running behind the already sprinting boy. On and on they ran until Peter finally skidded to a stop in front of a picture of a bowl of fruit down a corridor that Remus hadn't been to before.
'Look!' Peter said, pointing excitedly at the painting.
'Yes, Peter, it's lovely,' Remus replied, confused and looking at his friend as if he had gone mad.
'Touch the pear,' Peter instructed, causing Remus's eyebrows to be raised even higher up his forehead and he stared at his friend incredulously.
'No, thank you,' he said, completely baffled at what was going on.
Peter looked at him and stepped forward, placing his hand on the pear, and sprung back as it began to giggle and squirm and turned into a handle. Remus's eyes widened as he looked at the handle and asked Peter where it lead to.
'I don't know. I didn't want to go on my own, so I went and found you first.'
Remus stepped forward and pulled open the door into a dark corridor with another door at the end of it. Whispering 'Lumos' and walking forward with his lit wand in front of him, he heard Peter mutter the same incantation and close the door behind him. Upon reaching the other door Remus waited for his friend to catch up with him.
'What do you think is behind it?' Peter whispered, while Remus answered with a shrug and asked 'Ready?'
Peter nodded and pointed his wand at the door that Remus was about to open, ready to curse if anything unpleasant was behind it. Wrenching the door open, light spilled out from behind it and the two boys stepped inside.
'Hello, sirs!' came a squeaky voice from beside Peter.
There stood a tiny creature with large bat-like ears and eyes the size of tennis balls. Remus had never seen such a being and was grateful when Peter whispered in his ear 'I didn't know Hogwarts had house elves.'
'Hello,' Remus replied politely. 'What is your name?'
'I is Binky, sir,' the elf replied, bowing low so its nose almost touched the floor. 'What can Binky get for sirs?'
'Get for us?' Peter asked, looking at Remus who took a few steps forward to see around a wall. There were hundreds of house elves slaving over pots and placing food on four long tables, which looked suspiciously like the House Tables in the Great Hall. Realisation dawning Remus turned to Binky and asked 'Are we in the kitchens?'
'Yes, sir! Is there anything I can get for you?' Binky repeated.
Peter and Remus turned to look at each other in excitement and turned back to the house elf.
'Do you have any sausages?' Peter asked, as they were his current favourite food. Almost at once, three house elves came darting forward carrying massive trays full of the food and held them out, beaming, to Peter who happily took a handful and began eating.
'Anything for you sir?' Binky asked Remus, gazing at him happily with those large, green eyes.
'Do you have any chocolate?' he asked, smiling at the thought. 'And you don't have to call me 'Sir', my name is Remus.'
'Yes, master Remus!' Binky said, grinning widely and bowing once more as trays began to crowd Remus, laden with dark, milk and white chocolate. Peter and Remus turned to each other and beamed at each other.
'Binky, do you get many students down here?' Peter asked, his mouth full of sausage.
'No, sir. You two be the first in a few years,' the elf replied.
'We should probably be going,' Remus said, remembering that James and Sirius would probably still be hiding from Peter. 'Would it be ok if we took some of this with us?'
In answer to his question, a house elf came running up to him with two large bags and handed one to Remus and one to Peter with a squeak of 'Take as much as you'd like, sirs!'
After taking their fill, Remus and Peter turned to leave the kitchens, calling goodbye to the elves and thanking them very much. Once out of the painting and back to the school corridor, the two boys turned to each other and smirked.
'We'd better go and find Sirius and James,' Remus said.
'Yeah, it'll be easier with you helping me,' Peter replied. '...Trust you to ask for chocolate!'
'Hey! What's wrong with chocolate?'
'The obsession level is getting a bit worrying, mate,' Peter grinned.
Remus huffed at him and took another bite of chocolate. 'It's the best thing ever, Pete.'
Peter rolled his eyes, but grinned and the pair took off towards the Defence against the Dark Arts corridor, deciding to start looking for their other friends there.
'The kitchens?!' James yelled when all four of the young Gryffindors were safely back in their dormitory, helping themselves to the sausages and chocolate.
'It's incredible! There are all of these house elves and they are all really friendly,' Peter said, excitedly.
'A nice house elf? That makes a change,' Sirius grumbled.
'Really? My house elf is lovely,' James said, whilst Peter agreed that his aunt had a very nice house elf and he had never come across a mean house elf.
'Lucky you,' he huffed. 'We've got one at our house. Of course the family of the Most Noble and Ancient House of Black would never dream of doing any of the work themselves. We've had house elves for generations; my mother puts their heads on plaques at home after they die. The one we've got now, Kreacher, he hates me. I don't know whether to hate him in return or not, for all I know someone else in my family has ordered him to do so,' Sirius said, gritting his teeth and practically growling at the name of his house elf.
'Your family really do seem like fascinating people, Sirius,' James said sarcastically. 'I bet my dad will have a heart attack when I tell him that one of my best friends is a Black.'
Sirius grinned.
'You just wait. I'll get a Howler for the rest of my life when they hear that I'm friends with a Potter. Peter, you're a Gryffindor so you're screwed as well. And you, Remus, you filthy half-blood, they will LOATHE you!' he laughed, winking at Remus.
Soon enough the four of them were laughing at each other.
'But seriously, back to the task in hand, when are you going to go to the kitchens?' James asked, wiping tears of mirth from his eyes.
'Well, we can go tomorrow if you want, it's a Sunday,' Remus said, taking a bite of chocolate.
'If we can remember where it is…' Peter voiced quietly.
'You better! This is far too good a find to forget about!' Sirius gasped.
'I remember, it's ok, Pete,' Remus replied.
'Maybe we should make a map. Not a rubbish 'turn left, turn right' map, like a proper map of each of the floors, with every room and any other places we might find. Maybe there are secret passageways or something! And it should have show people as well, like where they are so we can find each other and avoid other people and spy on the teachers…'
James continued on like this, getting more and more excited and talking faster and faster until he just stared at his friends with wide eyes his mouth just opening and closing with no words left, grinning wider than ever.
'Honestly James, you get far too excited,' Remus sighed, but stopped when he saw Sirius grinning as well.
'That is the best idea I have ever heard! Think of how handy it could be!' he smiled.
'I don't think that's possible,' Peter put in, knowing that it was a good idea but not being able to fathom the complex magic required.
'Come on, I'm sure it is! We could research some spells and-'
''We' could research spells?' Remus interrupted Sirius, eyebrows raised,
'Well, you could go to the library for us, I hate that place. But if you bring books, I'll read them,' Sirius replied.
'Yeah, me too,' James added.
'And me,' Peter joined in.
Remus rolled his eyes and climbed into his bed.
'Well, it's not happening tonight, it's late. Can we go to bed, please?' he asked.
The three other boys sighed and climbed into bed themselves and put out the lights but each of them, even Remus, were laying awake thinking of possible ways that they could bring this map to life.