Peter thought that James and Sirius were brilliant. They scared him at times; made him feel incredibly anxious whenever they plotted potential pranks for the future, or when they discussed their night outings, or when they were loud (which seemed to be happening more often than not). But despite being mildly fearful, he was also swept up in admiration. He admired their confidence; in particular the confidence James so revelled in himself.
It wasn't that Peter tagged after them practically every day… well, no, that was exactly what he did – but he couldn't help it. It just so happened that he was around them as often as he was (what with the same house, same dorm, and same classes) and Peter used it to his advantage to bask in their brilliance at every opportunity. Occasionally, he even managed to summon the courage to converse with the pair, which in itself was a difficult task. James and Sirius had bonded so well with each other that it was hard to get a word in edgeways; sometimes (often) they didn't even realise that Peter was stood with them. They were, however, more observant if the third member of their party was Remus, which Peter found curious. What did they find so compelling about the sandy haired boy, that they were able to disable their double act? Remus was quiet, like Peter, and incredibly studious, yet he had somehow managed to become their friend. Peter desperately wanted to know what the trick was behind gaining their attention, but was too embarrassed to ask.
"Imagine what his face would have looked like," James exclaimed eagerly, from where he was sat on the bench of Gryffindor table, whilst he shovelled porridge into his mouth.
"It would have been beautiful," Sirius agreed. "Had we have gone through with it."
"Alas, Remus stepped in with his brains and knowledge," James concluded sadly.
Peter had taken the space next to James this morning at breakfast, and had been listening in to their conversation. From the snippets he'd gathered, they were reminiscing over what could have occurred at the Halloween feast a couple of nights prior. At the mention of Remus, Peter had glanced around to see what the boy would reply in answer – to realise he was absent from the table. This wasn't entirely out of the ordinary: sometimes Remus would opt to sit by himself, and he would also occasionally sit over with Lily. But as Peter peered down the table, it became clear that Remus was not in the Great Hall whatsoever. Which was very odd. Peter may not know the boy much, but he'd been quick to learn that Remus always got up, however groggy he felt, for his eagerness for classes overtook him. He hadn't been late down to breakfast before. He definitely had never been late to a lesson. Peter chewed thoughtfully on his buttered toast; there was a chance that the boy had woken up early, and was off somewhere around the castle (Remus liked to wander – within curfew, of course). He nodded assuredly to himself that he must be right, and turned his attention back to that of James and Sirius, who had – in that time – progressed to the topic of Quidditch.
OooOOOoooOOOooo
"I was thinking… ink pots."
"Ink pots?"
"Yeah." Sirius nodded enthusiastically. "Lift them up and then…" he gestured a grand spillage with his hands.
"Just like that?" James grinned. "I like it. Simple but effective. Always a wondrous combination."
Sirius shrugged dismissively, as though this had been the intention all along. "You don't happen to have any on you, do you?"
"Hmm…" James rummaged through his bag, his dark locks of unruly hair ever-ruffled. He emerged quickly from the bag, and held aloft two large pots of ink, a glint of mischief in his eyes.
"Brilliant – okay," Sirius started, grabbing one such pot.
The two had been strolling through the castle, originally in search for Gryffindor Tower. On their way, however, they'd caught sight of a distinctive slouching figure, and thus had since tailed the Slytherin (who was, of course, Snape) along the sweeping staircases and winding corridors.
Throughout the day, the topic of conversation was predominantly set on pranking. Peter hadn't been bothering them so much today (sometimes he tried to join in with their daring, but the boy didn't quite cut it for them in that area of expertise), having been seemingly distracted; James and Sirius had also been concerned as to the whereabouts of Remus. It was only at lunchtime when James jolted up from the bench, upsetting Peter's cup of pumpkin juice along the way, to proclaim of Remus' mother. ("He disappeared before, remember? He was allowed to visit her!") They'd grown solemn for a moment, mindful of how awful Remus had looked around the time of his disappearance before, and how over the past couple of days he'd also been rather worn and tired. However, James' restlessness couldn't be pegged down for long, and he was quick to bring up ideas on how to prank Snape. It had been a while, after all – and James was still mildly sore at what he believed to have been "a missed opportunity" at the Halloween feast. Needless to say, the Slytherin's afternoon had been far from enjoyable. Unfortunately for him, now that evening had settled, he (wrongly) assumed he was safe from their antics for the rest of the night.
"Ready?" James muttered to Sirius, glancing at him before turning back to where the ink pots hovered in front of them.
Rather than answer, Sirius gave an encouraging upward flick with his wand to ease the ink pot higher into the air: the other one was quick to follow at James' command, and together they watched as the two ink pots sailed through the air, much to the surprise of the dozens of portraits that they whizzed past. Further and further they flew, until they slowed to a quiet stop just above the head of the retreating Slytherin down at the other end of the corridor.
"Okay, we'll do it at the same time," Sirius whispered. "Three… two… one…"
A distant howl made them both freeze. Eyes wide and hearts pounding, they looked to each other.
"Did you hear that?" James breathed; Sirius nodded.
"What do you think it was?"
"No idea," James said. "Oh – quick – Snivellus had stopped." He gestured towards the Slytherin who had indeed faltered in his own tracks, probably having heard the howling as well.
The two made to tip the ink pots, when a second howl came wailing from a great distance. Snivellus, up ahead, bolted before James or Sirius had chance to drown him in ink; the pair scarpered as well, abandoning the two floating ink pots.
"Do you think it's something in the castle?" Sirius panted as they ran.
"Nah, can't be – it sounds too far away," James gasped. "Perhaps it's somewhere in Hogsmeade."
"D'you reckon it's dangerous?"
James grinned. "Sounds like it, right? Definitely got a lot of lung power, anyway."
A third howl rippled through the corridors. "You can say that again," Sirius huffed.
OooOOOoooOOOooo
It wasn't until the following evening that Remus returned, bags under his eyes and limbs appearing weighted; his sandy hair didn't quite have its usual bounce and his complexion was paler than normal. He slipped into the dormitory, hoping not to be noticed – unfortunately for him, all three of the other first year Gryffindors already occupied the room. Peter was sat on his bed in his pyjamas, reading a book; James and Sirius were talking animatedly to each other where they sat cross-legged in the centre of the dorm. At the creak of the opening door, all three heads swivelled upwards, for three pairs of eyes to fall upon the rumpled form of Remus as he shuffled in.
"Remus!" James cried, jumping up to his feet. He darted over to the boy and wrapped him in a tight hug; Remus winced.
"You got to visit your mum again, right," Sirius asked from behind. Remus almost appeared guilty for a moment, but the expression cleared, and he gave an indiscernible nod.
"How is she?" James queried, pulling away from Remus. The boy swallowed nervously and looked down to the floor. It was as if he preferred to analyse his shoes rather than answer the question. James exhaled deeply at the silence: he patted Remus' shoulder (to receive another wince) and assured, "Don't worry, she'll get better."
Remus tilted his head back up, and managed a wobbly smile.
Sirius thought the boy was in need of cheering up. "Hey, you'll never guess what you missed yesterday, Remus," he started, stepping over beside James.
Remus' shoulders sagged in worry. "It wasn't homework, was it?"
"No," James laughed. "No; we were pranking Snivellus – or, at least we were about to."
"We got distracted," Sirius input.
Remus frowned. "Distracted?" he repeated.
James and Sirius gave each other a sideward glance of excitement. "Howling," James announced.
If anything, Remus seemed to pale more so at the word, which hadn't been Sirius' plan at all. The boy drew in a shaky breath, and whispered, "Howling?" Sirius almost didn't catch Remus speak.
"Yeah," James beamed. "We think there's a poltergeist or something lurking over at Hogsmeade."
Remus stiffened. "Why would there be anything like that at Hogsmeade?"
"Well, something had to have made that noise," Sirius reasoned. "Besides, it was too quiet to have been within the castle itself."
"It was pretty awesome, though," James added, though this didn't lighten Remus' spirits at all. Rather, the boy mumbled something unintelligible and shuffled over to his own bed, drawing the curtains shut.
James and Sirius shared a quizzical look for a moment. Finally, Sirius whispered, "You don't think he's scared of whatever made the howling, do you?"
James mulled it over. "Perhaps he's just worn out after visiting his mother," he suggested quietly. "That must be difficult for him." James cast an anxious look towards Remus' bed. "I hope he's alright soon."
Sirius nodded. "Me too."
A/N: SORRY! Sorry this chapter took so long, and sorry that it's so short. :(
Thanks for all your wonderful support guys! Lots of hugs and kisses of love to all the guest reviews that are posted (I can't reply to them directly aha) - you readers are awesome xxx
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