Author's note: tw for near drowning and emetophobia as well as light discussion of the dagger from the previous chapter, and someone being cut by a sharp object. Also within half an hour or an hour or so of uploading this chapter I will be uploading a one shot that explains why the tunnels exist :) providing my internet lets me of course

/\/\/\/\/\

Remus was pulled down into the pipe, slamming hard into the side which broke free his hold on Sirius. The pipe was at a slight angle, making it like a very steep slide. Remus tried to put his arms out to press against the sides to slow his descent, but he was going far too fast and panicking a little too much to be able to slow himself. Plus his elbow had been severely hurt from crashing against the pipe, and when he tried to put pressure against the metal, intense pain flared through his arm.

Also one hand was slick with something which he quickly realized was blood. The whole pipe smelled like blood, actually. Why was there blood in the pipe?!

Then Remus was no longer in the pipe.

He was falling through the air, everything too dark for him to see what was going on. He could hear his friends all screaming then there was a splash.

Then a second splash.

Followed by a third.

Then Remus was plunged into icy cold water.

His automatic response was to gasp, sucking in water that filled his mouth and throat. He gagged, thrashing around as he tried to cough out the water. His throat burned and his lungs and stomach hurt. He was floating, at least, and no longer plunging down—but he had no knowledge of which way was up. Nor could he swim.

He thrashed some more, arms and legs flailing as he spun around in the water. Was he facing upwards? Was he facing down? How could one tell? He let his body drift for a second then he began kicking. One of his shoes came off in the process.

I'm going down, he realized, trying to turn himself which didn't help. After a kick in the other direction he thought he was still going down.

His lungs were hurting even more.

Shit.

He was going to drown.

Could he survive drowning?

Would the lycanthropic ability to heal bring him back from drowning?

Would he float to the surface as a dead corpse, then be brought back to life?

Or would he simply…?

His limbs locked up as he realized he really was going to die. He was going to drown. Because he never learned to swim. Surely his healing abilities couldn't save him, couldn't resuscitate a drowned corpse. This is it then… was it really it?

No, no, no!

He began kicking again, arms waving as he tried to reach the surface. He could hear someone calling his name. It was distant and muffled. Like it's through water, he thought with a bitter laugh.

Then it was becoming hard to even think. He did another thrash then gave up, unable to fight off his impending death. I'm sorry, he thought, realizing his friends must have drowned too. He had killed his friends. After everything with his boggart, he had ended up murdering his friends as a human by being so damn curious. I had to do it, I just HAD to go back down, he thought, his thoughts even more floaty than his body. I've killed them. I'm sorry. I'm so damn sorry—

Then suddenly something grabbed him around the waist, pulling him in the opposite direction he had been going in. His head broke the surface and he took in a slight gasp of air, choking again on the water. He was being carried along by someone who could swim. Who could swim very well. Dimly he tried to see who had saved him though everything was cloudy and wrong. There was just barely enough faint light to see.

James, he thought, the name far away from the rest of him.

Then another pair of hands pulled him out of the water. Voices shouted. They sounded panicked. When he was rolled onto his side everything got super hazy; in fact, he felt himself on the verge of blacking out (or dying?) until someone began hitting him on the back, hard. He gagged suddenly, his body spasming as he threw up the water from inside him.

"REMUS!"

He was rolled back onto his back and opened his eyes to see all three of his friends staring down with worry.

"F-fine," Remus whispered.

Peter pulled him into a sitting position and Remus slumped, clutching his head. There was a strange feeling inside of his chest and he bent to the side to throw up the rest of the water.

"You almost drowned!" Sirius threw his arms around Remus, hugging him tightly. "You almost drowned, damn it, you're not fine!"

It took a second for him to realize Sirius was crying, as were James and Peter. Remus reached up, putting his arms around Sirius, still not quite with it.

"I almost did," he said, head reeling from this fact.

James and Peter put their arms around him too, the four of them clinging to one another. Remus began crying too, as he realized how close he had been to death.

After several minutes they pulled apart, though Sirius didn't fully let go. His hands slid to Remus's cheeks as he stared into his face. "You don't know how to swim," he said.

Remus shook his head which was awkward with Sirius holding him like that.

"You damn stupid—dumb—stupid—" Then Sirius was hugging him again, face pressed into Remus's shoulder.

"Thank M—Merlin J-J-James is a g-g-good swimmer," Remus managed to get out. His body was shivering though whether from cold or fear, he wasn't sure. Sirius was a little cold too, but warmer than he was, so he just pressed against his friend, grateful for his warmth, more grateful for the physical comfort.

After another minute Peter asked, "Where are we?"

It would have been pitch black if it wasn't for Sirius's lit wand laying on the stone floor, however it didn't give much light past the four of them.

"Lumos." The light from James's wand didn't go very far either, nor did it reveal much. Peter tried but his light was very dim.

Remus began patting his pockets before realizing he had been holding his wand. "My—my wand's gone!"

"It can't have gone far," Sirius said quickly. "Wands float, and tend to come back to their owners. If it fell out in the water, it'll show up soon."

If? Remus swallowed, staring at the dark water, wondering when his wand had gone missing. Was it in the water or had it fallen from his hand as they ran from the—the thing?

He instructed James on how to do the magelight, sending weak light shooting out everywhere. It didn't do a great job of lighting the place up but with the added light reflected off the water's surface, it helped enough for Remus to see his wand bobbing not too far out, drifting closer with each second. Sirius plunged back into the water to get it. Remus started crying again when his wand was put back in his hands.

"Lumhalden," he croaked out, his magelights a lot brighter than James's. Soon the place was lit up fairly well and they could see they were in a cavern. It was reminiscent of the little cavern under the school where they had been taken in the boats at the start of their first year, but… bigger. Much bigger. And no ivy-covered exit.

James got to his feet, staring at the water. "Is this the… Black Lake?"

"I think so," Sirius said. "What else would it be?"

Remus shot a magelight straight ahead, the light clinging to the far wall. "I don't see any openings," he said then smacked his forehead. "No, we don't see any light, of course there's not an opening. Ugh, my head is… fuzzy."

"So wh-what does that mean?" Peter whimpered, hugging his knees to his chest. "Where are we?"

"Under the school," Sirius said very unhelpfully.

"I'm guessing this connects to the Black Lake somewhere underneath," Remus said, staring at the cave wall. "It's definitely the lake," he added, since all of them smelled like lake water and not… other things. Which meant the pipe wasn't a sewer pipe, at least. They hadn't fallen into… stuff. Frowning, he looked up at the dark ceiling, wondering why the pipe didn't come down closer to the water... it seemed weird to simply cut off like that.

"We can't get out then," Peter said. "If it's underwater. Can we? There's no way to get out?"

Remus chewed at his lip. "Not unless we can find gillyweed somewhere. I know the spells to… help breathe underwater however they're all very advanced. I've never done them before. Most likely I'd end up—"

"James, your glasses!" Peter suddenly said, pointing.

"Oh thank Merlin!" James cried out, splashing back into the water to fetch his glasses which had finally come into view. "Oh no!" He put them on, one of the lenses shattered. "They must have hit the pipe."

"Speaking of the pipe, did—was there blood? For anyone else?" Remus asked. "I smelled blood. My hands…" He looked at his hands which were clean, then glanced at his friends. Peter had a scrape on his forehead but it wasn't bleeding-bleeding, not enough to cause the strong scent. "I still smell blood."

"Er, yeah, that would be me," Sirius said, lifting up one of his arms. His sleeve was torn and his arm was bleeding. "I cut it on part of the pipe that was sticking out."

"What!?" Remus got to his knees, grabbing Sirius's arm. "Why didn't you say anything?!"

"I was a little more concerned over you almost dying!" Sirius hissed out.

Remus rolled up the destroyed fabric. "That was rusty! You could be infected with something!" He ran a finger along the gash, trying to think of what to do. "Do you mind if I rip your shirt?"

"Ripping off my wet shirt from my body?" Sirius asked. "Sounds sexy."

Remus rolled his eyes and tore off part of the sleeve. "Right now is not the time for jokes."

"It's how I deal with shit," Sirius replied coolly.

Remus tried to do the spell to conjure disinfectant but it didn't go so well. "Hopefully the water is somewhat clean," he said, using the lake's water to clean off Sirius's arm before tying the fabric tightly around the gash. "We need to get you to Pomfrey right away."

"Right, let's just take the door," Peter said. "Oh wait, we can't. There is no door. Just a pipe about a million feet in the air with no wAY TO GET THERE!" His voice bounced around the cavern, echoing a little.

"We'll figure out a way out," James promised. "There is an exit anyway, see?" He gestured towards the water. Several feet into the water along one of the walls was a roundish doorway. It was obviously a doorway—a proper, man-made doorway. Only… it was half-submerged.

"It's flooded!" Peter snapped. "How is that a way out?!"

"We could use the LiftAways," Remus suggested. He pat his pockets again then pulled the package out. Thank Merlin LiftAways had several uses before they got too weak otherwise with as many as he took from James and returned, they wouldn't have them. "I brought them in case we didn't want to all use James's broom. There are only three left but one of us can go up to get the broom."

"YES!" James shrieked, bouncing up and down while Peter cheered.

"Um, hold it," Sirius said before they could celebrate too much. "That's not going to be small enough to go up the pipe. Not fully inflated. The LiftAway is a lot bigger than the pipe, isn't it?"

Remus looked at the balloons then up at the dark ceiling. He put his arms out to what he thought was the pipe's diameter, stomach sinking as he saw Sirius was correct. "Yeah, you're right. And if it isn't fully inflated, we won't make it up there."

Peter began sobbing. "It's a flooded passage, then! Of course it is! And where is that going to lead us? Another dead body?!"

"What—what was that, anyway?" James asked, scratching his head. "I've never seen a ghost like that."

Remus tugged at his wet sleeve as he tried to figure out how best to explain. "Not a ghost. It—I think it's a Vinctum."

"A… what?" Sirius asked. "Victim?"

"Vinctum Spiritus. It literally means… 'bound spirit'," he explained, staring at the water. "They're typically called Vinctums in legends. They're—they're not real though. Or, I thought they weren't real. That had all the… characteristics of one though."

"What the hell is a-a Vinctum?" James demanded. "A bound spirit?"

"That is it exactly." Remus rubbed his eyes, his head hurting from everything. "Sometimes… well, the myth goes if someone is murdered by powerful witches or wizards in certain sacrificial manners—especially when they are being used as an anchor for a spell—sometimes they'll become a Vinctum." He thought of what she had said. Used my death. "Their spirit will stay close to their body until they are… avenged. Or… found, I suppose. There are various versions of the myth. Then the spirit is released. It looked like she disappeared because we found her skeleton."

"Y—you're telling me that was a murdered dead lady?!" Peter shrieked.

"Peter, she had a knife in her chest!" Sirius said, throwing his hands in the air which made him wince, moving his left arm.

Peter frowned. "I—well, yeah. Okay. So now we know what that is, that doesn't really help us now. Down here." He looked over at the doorway. "Bloody hell."

Remus got to his feet. Peter was right. Whatever the ghost meant, now wasn't the time to dwell on it. "We should go. Sirius needs medical care as soon as possible."

They lit their wands up and stumbled over to the water's edge, unable to really tell how deep it was. James said there was only one way to find out before stepping out into the water. He sloshed through, following along the wall, the water rising higher and higher. Remus held his breath, terrified it would be over their heads.

James went in deeper. The water went from his calves to his thighs to his waist then when he reached the doorway the water was almost to his armpits.

"Bloody hell," Peter whimpered again.

"Come on."

One by one they went in the water. Of course it wasn't quite as deep for Sirius, deeper for Peter, and a lot deeper for Remus. He gave a slight gasp as the cold water reached his shoulders then went up to his chin.

"I'll carry you," Sirius said.

"N—no, I'm f-f-fine," he promised, right hand raised high to keep his wand light out of the water, left hand grasping for something to hold onto.

"Don't be stubborn!"

He wanted to say yes, wanted to be out of the water, wanted to stop the cold water lapping at his chin, wanted to stop the terror coiling in his stomach at drowning again… but Sirius was injured. "I'm fine, it's only to my chin."

"Go ahead of me, then, that way if you fall I can get you," Sirius said, though it ended up being Peter right behind Remus, and Sirius in the back as they made their way through the passage.

Remus did his best to focus on the task at hand, ignoring the little voice in the back of his head repeating over and over that he had almost died. He would have died, if it wasn't for James.

He shifted his gaze to the back of James's head. His messy hair was lying almost flat from the wet, and the light from his wand glinted off the only lens his glasses had left.

"James?"

"Hmm?"

Remus licked his lips, tasting the lake water on them. "Thank you."

James looked back at him. "For saving your life?"

"Y—yes?"

James gave a half-smile and reached back, messing up Remus's hair, water splashing as he moved his arm. "Anytime. Though I hope it doesn't become a habit of yours."

"I'll do my best," Remus promised, trying not to cry again.

He was soon shivering from the cold, they all were, but it was slow going walking through the water. Swimming would be a lot faster. Except Remus couldn't swim. He suspected it was him that was making them all go slow which made him feel even guiltier.

The passageway was eerie with the wand lights bouncing off the reflection of the water, and the fact all they could really hear was their own raggedy breathing, some water dripping somewhere, and water sloshing. And Peter whimpering.

At least I'm not claustrophobic, he thought. The passage was just big enough for them to go single file, and with the water it made it feel even more closed in.

Then suddenly Peter screamed, his voice echoing through the passage. Remus nearly dropped his wand from the pain in his ears, while James sloshed past him as Peter flailed, panicking.

"SOMETHING TOUCHED MY LEG!" he screamed. "SOMETHING'S IN THE WATER!"

Remus jerked back, pressing against the wall, gasping as water lapped up onto his mouth and nose from Peter's frantic movements. He stood on tiptoes, or tried to. There was something slippery near the wall and his bare foot went out from under him.

He was submerged.

Panic set in and he began thrashing violently though it only lasted a few seconds before he was pulled back above water, this time by Sirius who slid an arm around Remus's waist, hoisting him up a bit so more of him was out of water. Remus didn't bother to complain, he simply clung to Sirius, panting hard.

"WHERE'S JAMES?!" Remus screamed, terrified when he couldn't see their friend.

James popped back up above water with a gasp. "I was looking for whatever was touching Peter!"

"It was a snake!" Peter sobbed.

James lifted up a long piece of slimy algae. "This is growing along the walls," he said, shaking the water from his hair. "No snake. Only plants."

Peter began trembling, not saying anything as the water slowly settled around them. Then, "Oh. I—I'm sorry—"

"S'fine. We should keep going—"

"Keep going?" Peter stared aghast. "We should go back! This is dumb and dangerous."

"Go back to what?" Sirius asked, swiping some wet hair from his face. "A cave with no other exit? This is part of the castle! It's stone, it's like the castle's corridors. This must lead to the castle."

"It's half underwater!" Peter cried out.

"We keep going," James said firmly, and pressed on, ignoring Peter.

Remus promised Sirius he'd be fine, he really didn't need to be carried. Sirius set him down and he started following James again. Sniffling, Peter went forward, and Sirius stayed in the back like before. Silently, they went through the water, this time all of them smelling a lot more afraid than before. Even though it had just been algae, they were all a little spooked.

If it's connected to the Black Lake, who knows what else is in here.

After a couple more minutes, James stopped, Remus almost knocking into him. At first he was worried there was something in the water but—

"Look!" James said excitedly, pointing ahead.

Rising up out of the dark water were stairs. All four boys gave cries of joy and surged forward, Remus almost going underwater again. He probably would have if his next step hadn't been a stair he could go up and soon the four boys were in another corridor, this one completely dry. They collapsed on the ground in relief, taking a short breather. James figured they must be somewhere in the dungeons which Sirius agreed with.

It was hard to tell where they were. There was a wall directly across from them then the passage stretched to either side. It was too dark for even Remus to see much, however with what little he could see… the passage they were in was completely empty.

Once they caught their breath and got up, James chose a direction to go in.

"I don't hear anyone," Remus noted as they went to the right of the staircase. The walls looked very decrepit and… uncared for. He couldn't smell anyone either, besides his friends; not even a faint trace of humans which meant nobody had been around there for a long time. Plus it was so dark. "If—if this is by the lake we should be around the dungeons, not even the lower dungeons. The dungeons are below the lake—"

"Maybe the cavern is below the lake," Sirius suggested. "Is that possible?"

Remus wasn't sure. "Maybe… there—there are underwater caverns so perhaps it is something like that." He glanced at some vines creeping down a wall. Nobody's been here for ages. He opted not to tell them about the lack of human scent. All it meant was this was either a boarded up section of the castle where nobody went, or it was so hidden that nobody even knew about it.

"I can't wait to get changed," Peter said. "In dry clothes. In my warm bed. I'm cold."

Remus shuddered, not saying anything. Not saying he thought they were still lost, or trapped. Especially when the passage split and both directions were pitch black.

"Be easier if we knew where we were, compared to the rest of the castle," James said, spinning in a circle.

"Let's go left," Sirius suggested.

Remus put a magelight up to indicate where they had been and they turned left. There was another junction, reminding Remus of the tunnels somewhere above them. Or rather, over the cavern. Only these were actual passages, built into the castle, not blasted into rocks.

He stuck another magelight up, feeling exhausted from using that advanced spell so many times already today.

They walked along a very long corridor and it ended in another T-junction. They went left again. This one was a little shorter than the previous corridor and it only had a single turn left. They took this and grew excited when they saw light in the distance until they saw the staircase. The light ahead was Remus's magelight he had stuck up so they would know where they had been.

"We went in a circle!" Peter wailed, falling against the wall.

"Square, really," Sirius said and Peter glowered at him.

"This isn't funny! I'm cold and scared! We saw a dead lady and—and fell—and—" He stopped, sliding to the ground, crying. "I WANT OUT OF HERE!"

Sirius folded his arms. "Maybe if you listened to Remus we wouldn't be here in the first place!"

Peter looked up, eyes blazing. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means Remus told you to stop running and you kept running and now we're here!" Sirius snapped back.

James put his hand on Sirius's shoulder. "Hey, calm down, this isn't—"

"It is NOT MY FAULT!" Peter got up, pointing an accusing finger at Remus. "HE'S THE ONE THAT WANTED TO RUN AFTER CREEPY DEAD LADY WHISPERS!"

Remus winced since that was absolutely true. It was all his fault.

James moved between the two, putting his other hand on Peter's chest. "Okay, look—"

"DON'T YOU BLAME REMUS!" Sirius shouted. "YOU'RE THE IDIOT WHO RAN OVER A HOLE IN THE GROUND!"

James had hands on both chests, trying to get them to stop. "Guys, please, we can't argue right now—"

But Sirius and Peter were too busy yelling at each other to pay any attention to James whose voice rose higher and higher until he let out a loud scream, shutting them both up.

"For Merlin's SAKE!" He let go of them, pushing his glasses back up. "Would both of you stop it? It's nobody's fault! It was an accident! Peter, we all agreed to go down into the tunnels not knowing what would be there and knowing Remus was hearing something. Sirius, Peter couldn't see the hole in the ground since his wand was off; he had no possible way to know there was a hole or danger. It was an unfortunate accident. Now." He jabbed his glasses back up again. "We are obviously somewhere in the school. This is probably an abandoned section of the dungeons, like the Pits Passage is an abandoned section of the third floor. We just need to find our way to regular corridors. Okay?" He shot Sirius a glare.

Sirius took a step back, jaw muscles tight. "Okay."

"Okay?" James glared at Peter.

Peter slowly nodded. "Yeah, okay."

"Okay," James said again, brushing his shirt off. "We have other corridors to go down. Let's go."

They went on to the first junction and this time turned right. That's when Remus realized there weren't any doors. What were these passages for? This was even weirder than the tunnels. At least the tunnels were made by someone probably looking for something. This was obviously part of the castle, so why was it like this with no rooms? The only things Remus saw besides stone and vines were little squiggly lines carved near the floor on occasion.

Soon the others realized the same thing that Remus already had. "Is this a maze?" James asked when they reached a junction they had been at before, having gone in another circle. "What the hell is this? There aren't any—these passages aren't going anywhere!"

"There aren't doors either," Remus quietly pointed out. "Nor decorations although that isn't as surprising if this is long ago abandoned. The door thing is what makes it strange… unless…" He stared at a stretch of blank wall, mind whirling.

"Unless what?" Sirius asked.

"The—I—I was thinking about the Slytherin common room," Remus explained, pressing a hand against the cool stone. "There is no entrance until you say the password, it looks like an empty bit of wall."

"You think there are hidden rooms?" James asked.

Remus pressed his ear against the stone, not hearing anything. "Might be."

"Can we come back to investigate after?" Peter asked. "I am not happy right now. We're stuck in some sort of weird maze. What if there's no exit? What if it's just a giant maze?"

"There's got to be an exit," James said as they started walking again. Remus was exhausted, and if he was exhausted he couldn't imagine how tired the others were who weren't healing up.

"What if there's not?" Peter stomped his foot. "What if we can't find it? All we're doing is going 'round and 'round, and now we haven't, we've been going down this way for ages. We're lost! We're lost and we're going to die down here!"

"We are not going to die down here," Sirius promised.

Peter didn't look convinced. "How can you say that with so much confidence?"

Sirius shrugged. "Because me dying would make my parents happy and I'm not about to do anything to please them."

It was a maze, it was some sort of stupid maze with no end, and no logic. They turned down corridors, Remus leaving magelights up that were getting weaker and weaker. He felt ready to collapse or pass out, but forced himself to keep going because he couldn't let his friends down. His foot hurt with each step, since he had lost his shoe and somehow his sock. During the walking he had scraped the bottom of his foot as well as twisted his ankle (or, it felt like he twisted it) and neither injury was healing properly since he kept putting weight on it. At least it didn't hurt too bad.

They came to another crossroads. Remus lifted his wand to put the magelight up, and everything went black.

/\/\/\

For the second time that morning, Remus opened his eyes to find his friends peering down at him.

"What happened?" he asked, sitting up, rubbing his head, this time not quite sure what had caused the problem. Everything sort of ran together in his head, creating a disorganized conglomeration of strange memories. A ghost… drowning… darkness…

"You passed out," Sirius said, putting an arm behind Remus's back. "I think it's from using that spell so many times, plus after everything that happened earlier."

"Oh." Everything was coming back to him. "I'm sorry, I'll be okay, we should keep going—"

"I think we should rest here for a few more minutes," James said sternly.

Remus pushed himself back until he was against the wall, unable to argue. He was so tired and so weak. He hadn't gotten much sleep that week, then he almost died, and now this. Sighing, he pressed his hands to his face. This is my fault. This is all my fault. If we die down here it's my fault.

He peeked through his fingers. Peter was hugging his knees, rocking back and forth. James was sitting cross-legged, looking afraid. Sirius was against the wall next to Remus, his right hand holding his bandaged left forearm.

All of it his fault.

"We should keep going," Remus said. "We—Sirius needs Madame Pomfrey." He struggled to get up then slid back down, too tired to stand.

"What was that?" Sirius asked with an attempt of a lighthearted chuckle which didn't really go well.

Remus stared at him then down at his lap. "My fault."

"No, Remus—"

"It is, Peter's right." He bent forward, covering his face again. "This is all my fault. I shouldn't have convinced you to come back down into the pit with me! Aegis was right!"

"Aegis?" James asked.

Oh, shit. Remus gulped, realizing he couldn't get out of that one. He had backed himself into a corner, and had to tell them the truth. "Aegis… knows about the Pits Passages. He's been helping me research them, and we've done a little exploring. That—that's how I knew about the tunnels—"

"Wait, that's right," Peter said, head jerking up. "You did know about tunnels, you said—you said you hadn't gone very far—"

"Y-yes," Remus whispered. "I lied. I'm sorry. We went into the tunnels, we found the pipe—"

"WHAT?!" Peter was on his feet, eyes flashing. "YOU KNEW AND YOU DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING?!"

"He did tell you to stop," Sirius murmured.

Remus's whole body shook as he tried not to cry yet again at the huge mess he had caused. "How was I supposed to know one of us would run into it without looking?!" Then he did begin to cry, pulling the hem of his shirt up to cover his eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry! Aegis told me not to go back down and all I could think was I wanted to know what was causing the whispering—"

Sirius's arm went around him. "It's okay."

"NO IT'S NOT!" Remus began sobbing now. "You're hurt and we're lost and it's my fault!" He pulled away from Sirius, unable to accept any sort of comforting. He curled up into a little ball on the floor. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry!" It's all he seemed to be able to say.

After a few seconds someone hugged him. He thought it was Sirius again but when he turned his head he saw it was Peter who nuzzled against Remus's shoulder. "No, I—no, I wasn't—it really isn't your fault."

"Yes it is!"

"No it's not," James said in an authoritative tone. "I said earlier it was an unfortunate accident, and that's what it was. You could have told us you had found the pipe but without showing us, the same thing would have happened. Even if you had showed up, Peter was panicking and he could have gone the same route regardless."

Remus shifted a bit to hug Peter back. "I really am sorry—"

"So am I," Peter sniffled. "I should have stopped when you told me to stop."

They clung to each other for several long seconds then pulled apart, both with rather sheepish smiles.

"We really sh—should get going," Remus finally said, shakily getting up. "Sirius does need Pomfrey as soon as possible."

The other three got up too, brushing themselves off. They were almost all dried off which was a bad indication of how long they had been stuck in the passages.

"Back to finding a way out," James said. "I'll put up the magelights for a while, so Remus can… uh, rest."

"I can carry you for a bit," Sirius offered.

"No, you're hurt," Remus protested.

"My arm is hurt, not my leg," Sirius said stubbornly.

"Yes, but you've lost blood!"

"I'm fine!"

Peter turned around. "I thought we weren't arguing anymore."

Remus rubbed his forehead. "Thank you, Sirius, but I'd rather you not, all right?"

Sirius stuck his lower lip out. "Fine. But if you pass out again, I'm carrying you."

When they reached another split, James put his weak magelight up, and Remus was glad he didn't need to for a while. Though, hopefully they wouldn't need to do it much longer, anyway. Hopefully they came across an exit soon.

All four boys gave a sigh, and wearily pressed on, for what else could they do?

Remus couldn't remember the last time he felt this tired. His whole body ached with each step, and his lycanthropy was doing its best to heal the sore muscles but it didn't do much for the exhaustion. In front of him, his friends seem to be just as worn down (if not more) as they trudged along the passageways. Remus had long ago stopped trying to make sense of where they were or what the passageways were for. Occasionally he did pass by a section of wall that seemed different—felt different. Sounded different. At one point he pounded at the wall, knowing there was empty space behind, frustrated he couldn't get there.

"Reducto!" James tried at one point, but nothing really happened since he didn't really know how to use the spell.

Remus tried punching the wall. While a few bits of stone fell, the only real thing that happened was his knuckles split open and it felt like he broke his hand. Sucking on his knuckles, he started walking again.

"What time is it?" Peter asked at one point when they took another break after the passage they were in looped back to almost near the staircase.

James held his wrist up to his face. "A little after four-thirty."

Peter moaned at that. "We've been here for five hours!"

"On the bright side we're running out of passages to explore," Sirius pointed out. "Almost every single one has wound up where we've been before. We only have two left, really, unless they split off even more."

They probably will, Remus thought miserably as he rubbed his bare foot. The bottom was streaked with blood. As he rubbed, he stared at the wall where he sat, at the squiggly lines down close to the floor. They almost looked like snakes in his opinion, though perhaps he was starting to hallucinate.

After a few minutes they forced themselves to get up and go down another passage. It branched off, and both sections took them to where they had been before, a cross section, and they went down another way; the second to last way to go. Everywhere else just circled back. It was a maze, only without dead ends. Maybe without an exit too, Remus thought, Peter's fears getting to him. What was this place? Why was this place?

Then—

"I think I see a door!" James shouted and took off running, a new invigoration sweeping through all four of them. The others followed, and Remus started to but then stopped as a sense of utter wrongness almost slammed into him. He slowly approached them, the three of them very excited to see this passage did indeed end in a giant stone door. There were large stone torch holders on either side, with very old torches in them. Sirius lit them up so they would have more light and could properly see the door.

It was huge, reaching all the way to the ceiling. There were carvings in it. Most notably: a huge snake twisted into a sort of S shape.

Remus had a very bad feeling.