Author's note: this chapter is dedicated to my cousin who found out I was writing a Marauder fanfiction (she isn't in the fandom though) and decided to try to find it. As of right now she still hasn't found it ahaha

/\/\/\/\/\

Remus doubted the Gryffindor tower had ever been so loud. Even with his earplugs in, it was far too loud and he had no idea how anyone could stand it. It had taken ages for the Gryffindors to get from the pitch to the tower in the first place, all the team members carried on shoulders the whole way. Remus trailed far behind the crowd, head pounding from the noise.

The game had been terrific. Both sides played hard, sending rousing cheers and angry boos throughout all the stands. Remus focused on James, half-listening to the commentator as she described the game going on. At one point Remus did borrow Sirius's binoculars and trained them on the box where the teachers' sat. He saw Fawley there, sitting between McGonagall and Sprout. The Potters were also there, Mrs. Potter on her feet as she jumped up and down.

Of course, he really wasn't sure what was going on but he cheered whenever James or another Gryffindor scored. At one point one of the Slytherin Beaters hit the Bludger hard and it smashed into James, sending him spiraling down nearly to the ground. He managed to yank himself back upright just in time, and after the short time-out Bell called, James returned to playing. He even continued playing after getting slammed in the stomach about half an hour later.

In the end Gryffindor won, 190-30, winning them not only the game but the Quidditch cup, for the first time in quite a few years.

Now the Gryffindors were partying hard, the team members on top of tables except for James who was on his broom, doing small loop-de-loops above the crowd; nobody seemed to care he was breaking the rules this time. He laughed as Sirius set off fireworks, doing fancy spins through the explosions of lights.

Peter appeared, holding two cups of butterbeer and offering one to Remus, who reluctantly took it. "This is amazing!" Peter laughed, turning to watch James who almost hit the chandelier.

"Didn't he get injured?" Remus shouted back. "Shouldn't he be in the hospital wing?"

Pete shrugged. "Probably! But you know he won't."

Remus eyed the entrance to the common room, considering making a beeline for it for a moment before deciding he shouldn't; not yet, at least. This was James's victory. He wanted to show his support.

James got off his broom, weaving his way through the crowd to find his friends, hugging them all tightly as he laughed. When Remus inquired about his wounds James happily yanked his shirt up to show a horrific bruise on his abdomen.

"I'll be fine!" he promised when Remus made noises of concern, then he seized Remus's hand, yanking him into the crowd to force him to dance.

"N—no!" Remus's squeak of protest was lost in the noise. There were so many people around, so many different scents that he grew even sicker. Sweat and hormones mingled together in a disgusting mess permeating his nostrils. At the edge of the room it wasn't quite so bad, but being shoved into the middle of it was awful.

James flung his arms around Remus, laughing. "C'mon, Remy."

"No!"

Sirius and Peter had wormed their way over and were dancing too, surrounding Remus. James didn't really give him much of a choice however he didn't do any dancing on his own, simply allowed James to maneuver his body around to the beat of the music. Finally, James let go and Remus ducked under Sirius's arm to scurry to the farthest side of the tower. His clothes stuck to him from all the sweat, and his stomach churned from the smells. The cup of butterbeer didn't help.

He sank down in an armchair, fanning himself until a third year girl plonked down next to him and used a cool breeze spell to waft over them.

"It is too hot in here," the girl remarked. He didn't know her name, but he knew she was considered the prettiest third year girl; she was the one who had kissed Peter's finger about a year prior.

"Th—thank you," Remus stammered out, the breeze definitely helping. He knew how to stir up a breeze, he just didn't know how to make it cooled.

"I like the face paint."

Remus suddenly remembered the lion still moving around on his face. "Oh, er, th-thank you." It felt awkward repeating the same thing but what else could he say?

"Who enchanted it?"

"Er, m—me."

She raised her eyebrows. "You did a good job."

Ugh now it was definitely awkward. "Th-thank you." A third time. The polite thing to do would be to compliment her back. Unfortunately, he wasn't sure about what. "You d-did a g-good job with—with the, uh b-breeze—erm… spell…" He wanted to disappear as soon as the words came out of his mouth, they sounded so dumb.

The girl simply giggled. "Thank you." She flicked some of her blonde curls back. "So you're—"

What Remus was, he never found out. Two girls ran over. "Marrrrleeeeene!" They grabbed their friend, hauling her off to go dancing and she went with them, obviously whatever she had on her mind about Remus forgotten.

Thank Merlin, he thought, sinking down in the chair and, since her breeze spell was gone, used the breeze spell on himself even though it was warm air wafting across his face.

Lily joined him for a bit, then the Marauders, and then he couldn't stand it another minute. He excused himself, giving James another hug before he went upstairs to get something, then left the tower entirely. Part of him wanted to go outside for fresh air but it was hot and he could see out the windows that a lot of people were having fun outside. There probably wouldn't be many places to have quiet. Instead, he went to the fourth floor, going into the Pits Passage. There he inflated the LiftAway he nicked from James's dresser, just enough to make running jumps across the pits until he got deep enough in there was no possible way to hear anything.

Once he got one magelight onto the wall he sank down, pressing his cheek against the cool stone. The magelight he used wasn't very strong, so there was only a little bit of light—not much. It was dark enough to feel good.

Hmm. He sat upright, first removing his earplugs and pocketing them, then wriggling his way out of both tops. He pulled the t-shirt back on, his scar peeking out from under the short sleeve, and used the long-sleeved top as a pillow, laying back down.

"Ahhh."

It felt good. Very cool, very dark, and very quiet.

Mostly quiet.

After several minutes he heard a faint sound. He sat up, staring into the darkness, trying to sort out what the sound was. It didn't take him long to realize it almost sounded like… someone talking? Someone whispering?

He got to his feet, gripping his wand. Aegis, perhaps? Would he be talking to himself? Who else would it be? The Marauders were without a doubt still partying. Who else knew about the passage? Someone else? It wouldn't be too unusual if that were the case. Nervously, Remus got the long-sleeved top back on to make sure his scar was hidden once more.

There was something off about the whispering. It didn't sound quite right and finally Remus inflated the LiftAway again, jumping across two pits until he got as close as he possibly could to the source. It wasn't someone in the Pits Passage, it was someone in a pit.

Remus knelt down at the edge, staring wide-eyed into the darkness. It was whispering. Someone whispering. He craned his ear, trying to make out words. Help? Did someone need help?

"Hello?" he called out.

The whispering stopped, and that sent an eerie chill down his spine, making the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. There was an uncomfortable shrinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"H—hello?" he called out again, this time very nervously.

No response.

"Do—d-do—do you need help?"

His breathing became rather ragged as he tried to see into the darkness. There was something wrong. Very wrong. The tingling he felt was a far cry from the tingling that Sirius and Prewett gave him. This was something terrifyingly strange.

"Lumhalden," he finally braved, sending a magelight down into the pit. It went down probably two stories before sticking to the floor. It was a very narrow pit and Remus couldn't see anything. No sign of anyone except—

Something moved.

Remus screamed and scrambled backwards far enough that he started tipping backwards into the pit behind him. He screamed again, his hands desperately trying—and failing to—grab hold of the edge. As he plummeted down, images of his broken body laying at the bottom of the pit filled his head. Somehow he kept a little sense and used shaky fingers to pull the lever.

He yelped as the LiftAway inflated, his descent slowing probably about ten feet from the bottom of the pit. "Oh God," he moaned as he lifted upwards. "Oh God, oh God, oh God!"

The LiftAway bumped the ceiling gently, Remus dangling underneath. He felt as though his heart would explode. After he managed to get his breathing somewhat under control he deflated the LiftAway enough to come to about floor height. He had to use a spell to drag himself away from the pit, and he finished deflating the balloon.

He went straight into a curled up position, half-crying as he kept seeing what potentially could have happened if he had left it even one more second.

The whispers started again.

Very slowly he crawled to the pit, peering down.

Nothing.

Shakily he sat up, rubbing his face off until it was dry. After a few more deep breaths he made sure he had everything with him as he inflated the LiftAway. He went back the way he came, unable to be there another minute by himself.

/\/\/\

Remus was too shaken up to do much of anything. First he tried studying, then he picked out an easy-to-read book that he struggled to get through. Then he crawled under his bed, dozing in and out of an uneasy sleep until his friends came back to the dorms well after two in the morning. He followed them into the bathroom, trying to explain what had happened—trying to explain the whispers and the shape that moved.

"What?" Peter stared in shock. "S—something moved? You saw something in a pit?"

"Maybe it's what you saw, in the room," James snickered.

"No, it—I don't know what it was," Remus said, having the feeling they didn't quite believe him. "It was a sort of… shape. Big. I don't know. It disappeared. It moved, and disappeared."

"And it was whispering?" Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow. "What was it whispering?"

"I don't know. I didn't—I couldn't make out the words," he admitted. "But it was whispering, or something was whispering. It stopped when I called down. Then started again after—after a moment." He opted not to tell them about falling into the other pit.

James spat his tooth cleansing potion into the sink. "It was probably a ghost or something."

Remus tugged at the hem of his shirt, unhappy about how logical that was. "It… might have been. Why didn't it—why wouldn't it call back? Or come up? Why ignore me?"

"Maybe it was the Bloody Baron," Sirius suggested. "Or Peeves, playing a trick."

It wasn't Peeves! Remus thought rather angrily. "No. I don't think so—"

"I believe you," Pete said.

"Yeah, 'cause you saw something too," James pointed out. "Probably a rat. Remus probably saw Peeves."

"I didn't!" Remus snarled out, startling his friends. Oops. He hadn't meant to say it out loud. "I—I know it wasn't Peeves. I don't know what it was…" A shiver went down his spine as he thought of the eerie whispering once more. "It sounded… creepy. Unnatural."

"Unnatural for a wizard?" James joked.

Remus narrowed his eyes. "Unnatural for a werewolf," he hissed out which seemed to shut his friend up.

Then he jumped as a hand went on his shoulder. "We'll go check it out tomorrow," Sirius promised, and Remus sagged a little in relief.

Except the next morning when they finally woke up—for the first time all four sleeping in, since James didn't have Quidditch practice anymore—and went to the Pits…

"It was this one," Remus said, pointing. James had flown Peter across the pits while Sirius and Remus used the LiftAway method.

The four of them knelt at the edge, waiting. And waiting. And waiting.

Nothing.

"Do you hear the whispering at all?" Sirius asked, and Remus shook his head.

"Helloooo!" James called out.

Remus chewed at his lip. "Lumhalden!" His previous magelight had disappeared, and the new one stuck to the bottom revealing nothing. Nothing moving, just the bottom of a jaggedy pit.

They waited several more minutes until James got up, brushing his jeans off. "Whatever was there seems to be gone now," he said.

Remus suspected that they still didn't believe him. "I guess."

They left the passageway, the others talking about the prank while Remus thought about the whispering, and the thing that moved. He had seen something! Though if it disappeared, that did make it being a ghost a probable explanation… or Peeves…

Not Peeves, he thought. Peeves didn't play those sorts of pranks. Peeves would have dumped sticking solution all over Remus, or put signs on his back that said 'Loopy'. Not… something creepy like that, with the whispering.

Not a ghost either, he thought as morning turned to afternoon. A ghost would have responded! Unless it was the Bloody Baron. Why would the Bloody Baron be down in the pit though? That made no sense.

Part of him considered asking the Marauders to go down into the pit with him, to look; he wanted to go look, just not by himself. The problem was they were clearly not that interested, they all thought it was a ghost or something. Oh, they'd go down with him if he asked, he knew that, but it felt almost embarrassing to go down with them to look at an empty pit and feel their smugness in him being wrong. All right, maybe they wouldn't be like that, but he was afraid they would.

The pit and the whispers were on his mind so much it made it difficult to study, which absolutely sucked since exams were only a week away! As he sat at his desk, the whispers floating around his head, panic began bubbling up. No, he needed to check it out as soon as possible.

Aegis! he thought, wondering if perhaps Aegis would be interested in going down into the pit. That thought gave him enough ease to study without too much difficulty for the rest of the evening, though excitement was now simmering away inside of him.

He tried to keep his hopes down when he headed to Potions on Monday morning. Perhaps Aegis wouldn't want to, especially with exams coming up—they needed to study. Should study. But when Remus purposely chose Aegis as a partner and asked him, Aegis agreed to meet up with him a little after four; neither of them had class at that point.

"Are you going to the library later?" Lily asked when class ended.

"Probably after lunch," Remus replied, wincing as Mulciber bumped into him on purpose. He and Avery chuckled as they hurried past, and Remus rolled his eyes.

"All right, I'll meet you there if that's okay," Lily said rather anxiously. "I wanted to go over a few things and was hoping you'd want to too?"

"Er, sure, yeah, we—we can do that," he agreed.

He then quickened his pace to catch up with his friends who immediately asked when he wanted to start working on the illusion spells; of course James suggested after lunch. Remus admitted he'd be in the library, so Sirius suggested after Transfiguration and Remus reluctantly told them he had plans for that period too.

"And after supper I've got Study Group," he added. "I—I don't think today's a good day at all. This… the next couple of weeks won't be very good, with exams… I mean I'll try to fit it in…"

James adjusted his glasses. "I'm just worried about if it'll be ready to go by the feast?"

"I mean, if we get a little help then yes," Remus said, and James scowled. "If it's just me then I really don't know."

James looked over his shoulder at Lily then moaned. "Fine, all right. If she wants to help with that part she can. Stop it!" He smacked at Sirius who jokingly put his hand to James's forehead. "I'm not sick yet. Wait till I'm forced to spend an extended amount of time around that cow, then I'll need the hospital wing."

"She won't tell, will she?" Pete asked, stumbling a little as he tried to keep up pace. James and Sirius were walking so fast it was difficult for Remus too.

"I don't think she will," Remus said. "In any case, I won't tell her the details until I know for sure if she wants to help or not. I promise."

After lunch he and Lily sat in the library, going over some Astronomy assignments. They had star charts spread out on the table and were taking down notes. Remus stared rather blankly at the history of Neptune and its effect on magic as well as flora.

"What plant is best picked when Neptune is bright?" Lily whispered.

Remus shuffled through his notes. "Shit, I can't remember."

"Purple shelleaf?"

"Um, I—I think so." He found the paper. "No, the purple shelleaf is under Saturn. Neptune is… motelas."

They worked until one-forty-five then left to go to History, and on the way Remus decided to bring up the prank thing. It took a moment for him to work up the courage to actually say anything then eventually he asked if she ever thought about helping out with any pranks.

"You mean, helping you lot?" she asked and he nodded. "Hah! As if Potter would ever want me to help again."

"He… might."

Lily looked rather suspicious. "This isn't a trick on me, is it? You're not trying to get me to go somewhere for them to do something, are you?"

Remus couldn't help but gasp. "Lily! No! I'd never do that to you, I promise! We—we have a rather intense prank we'd like to do. I'm in charge of doing the illusion spells and… while I can do it, it would be a lot easier if I had someone else doing the spells with me." He shifted his satchel to his other shoulder. "That way I won't be as exhausted."

Lily stuck her chin out. "What prank?"

"I—I can't say exactly. Not unless you agree to help us, and agree not to tell anyone."

She brushed some of her fringe back. "And Potter agreed?"

Remus laughed. "Yes. He's threatening to check himself into the hospital wing once we're done, but yes, he's agreed. Only for you to help my part of the prank, not theirs."

"Is it a dangerous prank?"

"No, I promise."

"Hmm." She stopped as they approached the History classroom. "Illusion spells? All right. I'll think about it."

Remus accepted that, not wanting to pressure her at all. He let the others know she'd be thinking about it and would let them know once she made up her mind one way or another. And with that taken care of, all he had to think about was going into the pit with Aegis…

/\/\/\

Remus and Aegis knelt next to the pit a little over two hours later, peering into the darkness. There weren't any whispers or sounds at all, and when Remus sent the light down they couldn't see anything either. Remus had told Aegis the whole story on the trip across the pits and Aegis seemed nervous.

"Maybe we shouldn't," he said, sitting back. "What if it's something dangerous?"

"I don't see anything," Remus pointed out. "You don't need to come down anyway, you can stay up here. I just wanted someone here with me in case I needed help."

Aegis agreed to that and after a couple more minutes Remus was descending down into the pit. His heart began racing as he thought of both the thing that moved and his tumble in the other pit. The terror only subsided a little bit when his feet touched the bottom of the pit, then it careened out of control when he turned around and found himself staring at a dark entrance to a tunnel.

"What is it?" Aegis asked when Remus made a noise of surprise.

"A t-tunnel." Remus deflated the LiftAway fully then took a few steps. The way the rocky wall spiked out made it difficult to see the tunnel from above. "Do—do you see that?" He looked up, seeing Aegis's pale face far above him.

"I do not see anything like a tunnel," Aegis said. Remus stepped into the entrance, part of him still sticking out. "Oh! No, that—I don't see the tunnel."

It might not have been a ghost then, Remus realized. "Lumos." It only lit up some of the tunnel. It was rather narrow—enough room for one person to go through comfortably. It also had a low ceiling. If Sirius were down there he'd easily be able to touch the top of the tunnel.

"Is there anything there?" Aegis called down.

"No." If it had been something physical in the pit that explained why it 'disappeared'.

Suddenly Remus grew violently ill as he realized there could very well be something down here. Something… physical and living. Possibly something dangerous. Something like—like a hinkypink. Something that lured an innocent person down into the tunnels to do away with.

Don't be stupid, if there was something down here you'd smell it. Besides. What would attack a werewolf?

Remus sucked in a deep breath, trying to stay calm. "Do you want to come down and look with me?"

"Er. Ah. Erm. I—I suppose so…"

A moment later Aegis was in the pit with him, the Slytherin looking a lot more terrified than Remus did. His eyes bulged a little and Remus could smell the fear radiating from his body.

"It's okay," Remus promised.

Aegis wiped sweaty palms off on his trousers. "How can you be sure?"

Remus thought about the best way to respond to that. "Instinct," he settled on saying. "Come on."

They went into the darkness. With the smallness of the tunnel, it proved to be a very claustrophobic surrounding, which didn't upset Remus too much. He didn't mind closed-in spaces like this, but it made Aegis's panic spike.

"We can go back," Remus offered.

Aegis blinked a few times then shook his head. "No, I will be fine, thank you. I am curious."

A few feet farther they came to a junction. The tunnel kept going straight ahead, and there was another passageway going off to the left. Remus and Aegis stopped, looking at both directions.

"If there are more like this, we may get lost," Aegis said cautiously.

"Lumhalden." Remus put a light up on the wall across from the left passage. "There, now we'll know. Which way?"

Aegis looked at both directions. "Left," he decided.

They went down the side passage which only went a little bit before splitting. Remus put up another magelight and they plunged forward instead of going right.

"Who the bloody hell even did this?" he wondered out loud.

"A madman," Aegis muttered, and Remus giggled.

The tunnel began curving right, and Remus wondered if it would meet up with another tunnel. A moment later it split. Going forward or right. A third magelight, and the two boys kept going straight though it didn't take long for them to come to a dead end. A very strange dead end.

"What in Merlin's name?" Aegis asked.

Remus held up his wand. It looked as though whoever was blasting these tunnels had blasted right into a pipe! A very large pipe, by the looks of it, and very old. It was rusty and clearly not in use anymore. From floor to ceiling the pipe was gone though one could see the sharp metal ends of the pipe in both the ceiling and floor. Remus leaned forward a bit, peering into the gaping hole of the pipe in the floor. It was big enough for a person to fall into. He thought if he put his arms almost all the way out they'd reach the sides of the pipe.

"I don't think this has been used for ages." Remus looked up at the ceiling section of the pipe. "I don't… er… smell anything."

"You think it may be a sewer pipe?' Aegis asked. "Or simply water?"

"I—I don't know, if it is a sewer pipe it's been out of use for a long time. If it's water… well…" he knelt down, touching the floor. "It's very dry so I doubt it's being used anymore. If it was, I think some water would fall—"

"Wh—what was that?!" Aegis spun around, breath catching in his throat.

Remus stared wide-eyed at the tunnel behind them.

Whispers.

Loud whispers, to be exact.

Like someone—or something—was in the tunnel maze with them.

Aegis's fear went even higher and he began backing up. "Remus—Remus—this—"

"W-watch out!" Remus sprang to his feet, grabbing Aegis as he almost backed up into the pipe."You nearly fell!"

"I want to go," he said, breathing becoming faster and faster, his whole body trembling; he was very, very scared. "I want to go. Please. I'm sorry, I c-c-can't—I want to go. Please—please—"

"We'll go," Remus promised, squeezing his arm gently. "Take a deep breath."

What he wanted to do more than anything was find the source of the whispering, to find out what it was exactly. What was in this maze, and why it was there! But he knew Aegis was without a doubt unable to press forward.

"Come on." Remus took Aegis's hand and guided him back through the tunnels; the way they came, following the magelights he had left up. It didn't take long for them to notice the whispers were being left behind them. Whatever it was, it was deeper in the maze and not near the pit.

They arrived back at the pit and inflated their LiftAways, floating back up to the passageway. Once they were on the ground, Aegis collapsed.

"I'm sorry," he whimpered, covering his face. "I didn't mean to panic like that—"

"It's okay," Remus promised, sitting next to him. "I'm not upset. I promise. It was very frightening."

Frightening, but curious. He wanted to go back down! Not alone though, never alone. If he told the Marauders about the tunnel maze they'd definitely want to explore it, so that was an option. Maybe with a little research first, to try to figure out what the whispering might be. If there was a creature like that. One that didn't… give off a strong scent? Though how Remus would be able to find that out was beyond him. Unless the creature had a particular invasive scent regular people didn't talk much about how they smelled.

Aegis dropped his hands. "There is something extremely creepy about those tunnels. It feels utterly different than the other tunnel, the one where you found the book. I—I don't know how to explain it."

"No, it does," Remus agreed. "It's very different. It's very creepy." The whispers were so faint now he could barely hear them, and if he didn't know it was whispering he wouldn't be able to figure out what the noise was; he realized it was a noise he had heard from the pits before, a long time ago. "Are… you okay?"

Aegis nodded.

"Are you sure?"

"Y-yes. I'm feeling better now that we are out of there."

After a couple more minutes of resting they went across the pits, leaving the passageway. Aegis said he wasn't sure if he'd be at Study Group that night, that he may simply go lay down and rest. When they separated Remus felt really bad for putting Aegis through that. He hadn't realized his friend would panic like that, and he shouldn't have…

Well, he wasn't sure what he should or shouldn't have done, but he felt really guilty, and hoped Aegis would be all right.