"Prongs! Stop hogging the quaffle!"

"But I have a shot!"

"Yeah, now that you've flown all the way across the field!"

Remus laughed as he watched his two friends bicker. It was the middle of August now, and in keep with tradition, the Marauders would be spending the remainder of the summer in the Potter home. At the moment he, along with his three friends, were currently flying above a mini Quidditch field behind James Potter's house. Their game mostly consisted of the boys randomly passing the ball until one of them made the mistake of passing it to James, who would then fly off to score.

"Hey Remus?"

The werewolf turned. "Yeah Peter?"

"Should we be concerned?"

"About them? Come on, Wormtail, they fight all the time! And this isn't even-"

"No, not them. That."

Remus looked in the distance to where the boy was pointing. His eyes widened. There looming over the hills, were thunderheads, rolling in fast. Realizing that it would not be very long before they were caught in a summer storm, Remus turned to the still arguing boys.

"Hey! Guys! I think we might want to go inside soon."

Sirius turned, looking confused. "Huh? Why?"

Just as Peter had done earlier, Moony pointed. Soon, three of the boys were flying quickly towards the house, while Sirius flew lazily behind them.

"Wusses!"

The Marauders were now gathered in James' room, which had been expanded to allow for the accommodation of three extra people. Outside, rain pounded on the window, with the occasional flashes of thunder and lightning shining through.

Sirius spoke up from his place on the floor. "I still say we could have kept playing."

Remus sighed. "Padfoot, we'd all prefer not to get stuck by lighting by flying in a storm like this."

Sirius pouted, but remained silent. At that moment, there was a particularly loud crash of thunder accompanied by a flash of lighting, causing Peter to jump in the air. James laughed.

"What, you're not afraid of a little lightning, are you Wormtail?"

The rat-like boy blushed as he narrowed his eyes. "Of course no-" Another crash of thunder had Peter jumping yet again. He glared at James and Sirius as they laughed. "I can't help it! It's so loud and…It's bolts of electricity shooting from the sky! Give me a break!"

James got up and put his arm around Peter's shoulders. "Don't worry, Peter. We understand."

"Oh. Well, that's goo-"

"I mean, you have every reason to be afraid."

"I do?"

Being freakishly similar, it didn't take long for Sirius to catch on to what James was doing. He quickly stood and put his arm over Peter's other shoulder, so that he was sandwiched between the two Marauders.

"Oh yeah. I mean, it was a night just like this, wasn't it James?"

Remus soon realized what was happening as well. "Guys…"

James grinned. "Oh yes. It was storming the night Inigo Madley…well, you know."

Peter's eyes widened. "What!? What happened!?"

"You don't know? Inigo Madley was a student at Hogwarts years ago."

"Before any of us were even born."

"They say he sold his soul to the Devil-"

"to become impervious to any curse-"

"but he was driven mad with power."

"He tried to kill the Devil himself-"

"but he was horribly burned by the flames of Hell!"

"Enraged by the attempt on his life, the Devil cursed him-"

"to live forever wandering the Earth-"

"finding more souls for the Devil."

"They say Madley loves stormy nights-"

"because the thunder and lightning-"

"mask the flashes from his wand-"

"as he steals your SOUL!" Just as James spoke the last word, there was a crash of thunder and lightning, causing Peter to shriek in fear and fall to the ground, covering his head in fear.

Remus frowned as James and Sirius laughed. "That was mean, guys." The werewolf leaned down to help Peter stand again. Sirius wiped a few tears of laughter from his eyes.

"Oh, lighten up Moony. We were just kidding around!"

"Yeah, it's all in good fun!" James added.

Remus rolled his eyes. "Yeah well, don't. It's only fun for you two. Besides, it's getting late."

The boys looked and found that it was indeed well past time for them to go to bed. After a few more jokes and getting themselves ready, the four friends said goodnight and turned off the nights. Exhausted from the games of the day, they were all asleep within moments.

Peter was walking outside, struggling against the force of the storm raging around him. Rain whipped at his face as he pressed forward. Looking around, he called out for his friends, unsure as to why he was alone. To his right, he noticed a forest of tall trees, casting dark shadows beyond them.

"H-hello?"

There was no response, only crackling laughter muffled by the rain. "W-who's there?" Suddenly, out from the shadows, a tall man, thin and skeletal with yellow eyes crept towards him. Instinctively, Peter knew who it was.

"Inigo Madley!"

The figure only laughed harder, raising his wand. Peter tried to run, but his feet seemed to be caught in the mud, stopping him from moving. Thunder crashed and a bright flash of light flew from Madley's wand, aimed for the boy's soul…

Peter shot upright with a gasp. His eyes darted around the dark room. After a few moments, he realized where he was. He was at James'. It was summer. He was with his friends. Inigo Madley didn't exist. He was safe.

However, no matter how many times he told himself this, the young boy simply could not fall asleep. Every shadow was a hiding space for evil, every bolt of lighting a spell to steal his soul. Shivering slightly, he sucked up what little pride he had left and stood up. Fumbling around in the darkness, his hands soon found the bed closest to him. He couldn't remember who it was that was sleeping there, but began shaking them awake regardless.

"Hmmf…Wormtail?" The dazed voice asked.

Peter blinked as his eyes adjusted to the darkness more.

"Sirius?"

The boy groaned as he buried his face in his pillow. "Peter do you have any idea what time it is?"

"No."

Sirius blinked up at him before shaking his head. "Well what do you want?"

Peter shifted nervously. "I had a nightmare."

"And?"

"…can I stay with you?"

"…are you serious?"

"…"

The dark haired boy blinked in surprise. He even shook his head a few times, as if to make sure he wasn't dreaming. Finally, he sighed, rubbing his face.

"Go back to bed, Peter."

The boy's heart sank, but he merely lowered his head and began to make his way back to his own bed. Still fearful from the nightmare, he sank into the mattress and pulled the covers all the way up to his chin, closing his eyes and hoping to simply block out the storm. However, he had only been lying there a moment when a sudden weight caused him to shriek in surprise.

Bolting upright for the second time that night, he found himself face to face with Padfoot. But it wasn't the Padfoot he was expecting. He was in his animagus form, a large black dog sitting on his bed. Still in shock, Peter simply gawked at the creature. But, apparently not appreciating the staring, the dog playfully licked the side of his face.

"Ew, yuk!" The boy cried, even though he was holding back laughter. He smiled and gave the dog a pat on the head. Feeling his previous feeling of fear and rejection begin to melt away, Peter put his head back down on his pillow. As he did so, Sirius moved to lie down beside him, his head resting on Peter's stomach.

Once they had both gotten comfortable, they prepared to sleep again. Suddenly, there was a large crash of thunder, causing Peter to jump slightly. Feeling this, Sirius growled. However, for some reason he couldn't explain, Peter knew that the dog wasn't growling at him. It was almost as though he was growling at the weather. At his fears.

Peter giggled when the next boom of thunder was significantly softer. He turned and smiled at his companion. "You scared 'em off, didn't ya?"

The dog wagged his tail and looked at him. Peter could almost hear his friend's voice despite his current form. No one will hurt you while I'm here.

Feeling a cliché warm feeling within him, it did not take Peter long to fall asleep with his hand on the dog's back and a smile on his face.

The next morning, neither James nor Remus questioned why Sirius had been in dog form or why he had been with Peter. They merely attacked them both with pillows, effectually waking both up. Effortlessly, Sirius shifted back to human form and began retaliating. Peter laughed and joined in as well. After they were all worn out and covered in feathers, they made their way down to breakfast. James didn't question why Sirius wanted to see the list, nor did he question the new addition to it.

50.) Nightmares

Wooh! 50th symptom! *throws confetti*

Hope you enjoyed! I know this wasn't a particularly funny one, but here's the thing... I hate Peter Pettigrew. Seriously, I don't like him. He betrayed the Marauders and got my favorite character locked up in Azkaban! Uncool man... However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized, he was a Marauder. And his friends did care about him and vice versa. Sirius said it himself, they would have died for him. And they obviously trusted him to make him secret keeper for the Potters. So, I wanted to do a chapter that showed this a bit more, as a challenge for myself. I'm okay with the main body of the chapter, I don't particularly care for the symptom, but I couldn't really think of much else (so if anyone had a better idea, let me know and I can edit it!). I'm also going to try to include Peter a bit more, or at least acknowledge him more. But I don't know. How have I been doing so far?

Well, I hope you liked it, but either way swing me a review and let me know what you think! I'm going to try really hard to get the next chapter out faster. Thank you all for your patience! You're awesome! ~BFMS