The Houses Competition.
House: Slytherin
Class: Stand-in Charms
Prompt(s): [Emotion] Wrath - extreme and intense anger
Category: Drabble
Word Count: 774
Warnings: Mentions of canon character death
Remus stared at the cover of the Daily Prophet, hardly noticing the icy rain that fell around him. It couldn't be true, it couldn't be. He pulled the newspaper open to the full article, nearly ripping it in the process. The article said the same thing.
James and Lily Potter were dead, and their son Harry sent away for his protection.
But it was impossible. They were under the fidelius charm; Sirius was the only one who could have told Voldemort, and he would nev—
Another article caught his eye. Peter Pettigrew and twelve muggles murdered by Sirius Black, Black arrested on scene.
Remus' breath caught in his throat. Not Peter too. The article said Peter had gone to confront Sirius. It said Sirius had blown up Peter and the street behind him. It said that only one finger had been found for Mrs Pettigrew to bury. Remus had lost friends in the war, he'd lost family in the war, but the Marauders had seemed untouchable. James, Lily, Peter, Harry... Sirius had betrayed them all.
He crumpled the paper and threw it in the nearest bin as if it was burning him. How could he? They had been his friends, and he threw their lives away. For what? For the man that had killed so many of his friends? For his family that hated him? For his brother? Not even that made sense! There wasn't a shred of evidence that the light side had been involved in Regulus' death at all.
A small voice in the back of his mind told him that it did make sense that the spy was Sirius. How else would information shared only between the Marauders and a few other of their friends have been leaked? James was under constant threat, even above the normal level of the war; Peter couldn't tell a lie to save his life; and the others were now dead. It explained why Sirius had suddenly become suspicious of him; he must've been trying to cast blame off of himself. But… why?
Why?
Why?
He tried to push it out of his mind over the next twelve years, but he couldn't. Still he woke up to the ghosts in his mind; still he was alone and friendless in a world that hated him. He cried when Dumbledore left after offering him the Defense Against the Dark Arts position. He only wished it hadn't taken Sirius escaping for him to have the opportunity to finally meet and protect Harry.
Harry didn't seem to care. He didn't seem to care about his life. He had the Map, he snuck out to Hogsmead, he only just didn't go looking for Sirius. It broke Remus' heart. It was as if Harry didn't realise how many people had died so he could live, and live free. So Remus took the Map, all but scolded him, and sent him back to his dorm.
He couldn't resist it, he didn't even try. He would spend hours pretending he couldn't open the Map, just so he could read his friends' words. Or sometimes he would open it and stare at it, marveling at the ingenuity of it.
Then one day, almost at the end of term, he saw it. Peter Pettigrew, side by side with Harry and his friends. The map was never wrong. Peter was alive. He must've escaped using his animagus form. His heart leapt to his throat as Sirius approached them rapidly. Just when Harry needed Remus, he wasn't there. But Sirius didn't go for Harry; instead, he dragged Ron and Peter away from Harry and Hermione. But why? And how?
Realization dawned. Peter was still in his animagus form. Of course! How had he not seen it? Why hadn't Peter revealed himself? Unless... Peter was the traitor. He had to be the traitor.
Either way, Harry had followed them down the passage to the Shrieking Shack. Either way, Harry was with the traitor. Remus grabbed his wand and ran through the halls, taking every shortcut he knew.
He wanted to cry when he first saw Sirius, all ragged and timeworn, but he didn't. He would save it for after they dealt with Peter. Remus wanted to kill him. He wanted to make him pay for the lives of their friends, for James, and Lily, and Sirius, and who knows how many others. He wanted Peter to feel the pain that he felt, to suffer like Sirius had.
But Harry stopped them. He said James wouldn't want them to become killers, and he was right... but in that moment all Remus could see was that he truly was Lily's son.