Disclaimer: See Prologue
Thanks for all your amazing reviews. This is a long one, sorry.
The next photograph made Harry feel physically sick. It had obviously been taken when the Marauders were still young children. Sirius still looked in his twenties, Lupin still looked about ten, James had grown to almost the same height as the other two but his hair was still unruly and his eyes still gleamed with laughter. Peter was trying his best not to cry again. He bit his lip and blinked away tears. Sirius looked absolutely disgusted and continually wrinkled his nose in distaste. James had an arm draped round him and Lupin stood beside them, hands in pockets.
"That was January of our first year." said Sirius. "Sometimes I wonder what might have happened if we'd stayed in the common room that evening."
1972
"I'm bored." sighed Sirius, draping himself dramatically across the sofa in front of the fire.
Lupin didn't even look up from his book. "Well then do something worthwhile. What happened to your Transfiguration homework?"
Sirius made a noise expressing deep disgust. "Homework? On a Saturday night? I want to go outside. We've got two hours 'til curfew. I'm going mad in this place."
"I'm sorry Sirius but I have to catch up by Monday." said Lupin, speed reading his way through a Charms textbook.
"Where do you go anyway?" asked James, finally returning from Lily-land. She had noticed him staring and so he had been forced to stare into the fire.
Lupin shifted in his seat, pushing the book up until it covered his face. "I told you, my mother is ill. I have to go and see to her."
"What's the matter with her?" asked Sirius, who wouldn't know tact if it tried to dance a naked tango with him.
Lupin slammed the book shut a little too quickly. "Okay, let's go out."
_____________________________________________________________________
The only tree that bore leaves was the now infamous Whomping Willow. The wind howled in their ears and the Marauders were all glad of their scarlet and gold scarves.
"Can we go back in yet?" asked Lupin, his teeth chattering as he sucked in a breath.
"We only just came out here." protested Sirius.
"Shh," hissed James. "You hear that?"
"Please don't tell me you're hearing voices." joked Sirius. "My uncle did once in nineteen-sixty-three and they still haven't let him out of St. Mungo's."
Lupin's eyes widened as he too registered the cruel laughter of two figures standing a little way ahead of them, beside the border of the forest. They appeared to be standing over a dead body. Maybe they'd found something in the forest.
"Who is it?" asked James, squinting.
"Avery and Mulciber." answered Lupin, coldly. "Let's go back inside. They've got some animal corpse. I don't fancy being made into one tonight."
The 'animal corpse' emitted a bloodcurdling scream and Lupin turned on the spot. He and James shared a worried glance. Sirius looked severely uncomfortable.
"Actually," muttered Sirius. "That Transfiguration essay is pretty important."
"You're not scared, are you?" asked James, trying to joke.
"I am." admitted Lupin. "I mean come on, they're twelve and they already mess with the Dark Arts. Merlin only knows what they're doing up there."
"Yeah." agreed James, eventually. "You're right. We'd better report it anyway."
They turned and began to trudge back to the castle hoping that the screams would stop soon so they could feel less guilty.
"Please!"
It seemed to strike a chord with Lupin who had been bullied for years. He shuddered and bit his bottom lip. Remembering how it felt to want to scream for help and knowing no-one would bother to listen, he turned back and strolled casually toward the border of the forest.
"What are you doing?" James shouted after him.
"I'm not just leaving him there." said Lupin, a new resolve in his step.
"Loopy, Mulciber is six feet tall!" Sirius half-shrieked. When Lupin didn't even register his protest, he turned to James. "Looks like Loopy's finally cracked."
"He should count himself lucky that you're not talking about his skull." replied James, sighing and following his friend.
Sirius raised his eyebrows and reluctantly traipsed after the others. He knew who it would be. It would be the weedy kid who followed them around all the time; the boy with the pale blonde hair and deep blue eyes, so sunken-in that he looked gaunt. Peter, he thought his name was. It was dreadfully common whatever it was. Sirius realised he sounded terrifyingly like his mother and was dragged out of his reverie by the sounds of a laughing Mulciber.
"Good God Remus, shut up!" he heard James shout.
Lupin evidently either didn't hear him or was too stupid to take his advice. He continued to glare up at Mulciber. "I said let him up."
Mulciber sneered at him, turning to Avery. The small lump of a boy they had pinned to the floor scrabbled to his feet and began to back away slowly and quietly.
"Why don't you listen to your little friend?" asked Avery, his whole face twisted with malice. "Or I'll put the Cruciatus Curse on you."
Lupin scoffed. "You don't know how." he said simply.
James and Sirius turned to face one another. Where had this surge of courage and stupidity come from? This certainly wasn't anything like the Lupin they knew.
"Don't I?" said Mulciber, pointing his wand directly at Lupin's face. For a moment Lupin almost looked as though he believed it.
"I should warn you," said Lupin, coolly. "That sometimes even the people you least suspect can become very dangerous. They have adrenaline rushes when you put them in difficult situations."
Mulciber laughed mirthlessly. James contemplated running or screaming or trying to perform a curse that would incapacitate the six foot Slytherin who loomed over his best friend. He found that he couldn't move, he couldn't speak and his lungs seemed to refuse to work.
Lupin's breathing became shallow and quick. As Mulciber began muttering what was no doubt a practise attempt at a dark curse the others hadn't even heard of, Lupin picked up a thick and heavy branch and swung it at his assailant's head.
"You see? Adrenaline rush. Just like that." Lupin said to the concussed body lying at his feet.
Sirius snorted earning himself a withering glance from Avery which soon silenced him. He contented himself with taking Lupin by the shoulders, dragging him away and then shaking him vigorously, resisting the urge to slap him and only because it would make him look decidedly homosexual.
For reasons none of them could fathom, Peter had tagged along too and now stood beside James, watching the exchange with bewildered amusement.
"Are they always like this?" he asked.
James shrugged. "Yeah…most of the time. It's because there's a massive personality clash. Sirius likes to take everything as it comes and gob off to pretty much anyone and Remus would rather take the back seat and wait for arguments to resolve themselves. He's a really careful planner and I think Sirius is just trying to deal with Remus acting like him. In response, he's taken to acting as sensibly as Remus."
"Yes." agreed Pettigrew. "I thought it was very unlike Remus. I never knew he had such a temper."
James wondered how it was possible that a total stranger could know how Lupin typically behaved but thought little of it. It was probably best not to ask.
Thankfully, Lupin and Sirius joined them and Peter immediately started to shift his feet slightly. "Thank you." he mumbled and Lupin coughed awkwardly.
"It's fine Peter, seriously. I used to be bullied. It's not pleasant."
"I'm not being funny," said Sirius, preparing everyone for the fact that whatever he was about to say would be offensive. "But where are your friends when this stuff goes on?"
Lupin bit his lip, embarrassed for Peter. He knew that when you were bullied at that level, no-one in their right mind wanted to be associated with you.
"I um…"
James sensed a pattern and cut him off, sensing no need to embarrass the boy further. "Well you can hang round with us and be a Marauder. It's terribly exciting."
Sirius threw him a look that could have scared away a starving tiger.
"Excellent." said Lupin, feeling better knowing that Peter now had friends. He began handing things from the bottom of his bag to both Sirius and James until he finally pulled out a large camera that he had to have charmed to fit pretty much anywhere.
James took the camera. "Okay everyone, group photo."
CLICK!
1995
"If I'd just done my Transfiguration homework then Peter would never have played a part in any of our lives. If I had done my Transfiguration homework Harry, you would have parents."
Lupin threw the lid of the box at Sirius's head. "Don't be ridiculous. Besides, if I hadn't beaten the crap out of Mulciber with a big stick then he wouldn't have stuck around."
Harry contemplated this and eventually said, "My dad invited him to hang around with you. So maybe it's my dad's fault. Besides, he shared a dormitory with you for seven years, he'd have found a way to worm his way in. That's what he was good at, you both know that."
Lupin gave him a half smile. "Harry, you can't possibly understand how it feels to know that you have been betrayed by the man you called your friend and I hope you never have to. That's one horror I hope you will be spared. I took Peter as a friend and accepted him, trusted him even, straight away because I knew how that felt, because your father and Sirius had done it for me."
Harry felt decidedly awkward and shifted in his seat. He didn't want to talk about this; about the man who had later sold both him and his parents to Voldemort. He didn't want to feel any compassion. He wanted to rip him apart.
"It took me about a year." said Sirius, quietly. "And then I trusted him. I trusted him when I realised that my other friends trusted him completely. I was an idiot and I paid the price. If this teaches you nothing Harry-"
Lupin sensed the beginnings of despair in Harry before Harry even registered it himself and said, "Then it teaches you constant vigilance. Next photo Padfoot, double quick."
Harry couldn't quite see it but whatever the photograph showed, it enabled Sirius to laugh again and for that he was grateful.
