Chapter Nine: Blackmail
Dear Remus,
Of all the women in the world that you could have chosen to sleep with, you had to go and pick Dolores Nott. Of course, at that time, her brother had not yet been accused of being a Death Eater…but still, Dolores Nott?! The night James died, mere hours before, I visited him, and he told me the whole story.
"Remus isn't a spy, Sirius."
"What?"
At that time, you'd been with Dolores for two years. I hadn't directly spoken to you in six months.
"She's been blackmailing him."
Oh, Remus, why didn't you tell me? No, don't answer that, I know perfectly well why you didn't tell me. You thought I was a spy, and I don't blame you. I'd been moody and secretive, not answering my doorbell for weeks on end. How were you to know? In those days, any weird action was automatically suspicious.
James told me what you had told him. How you had decided to give playing by society's rules one last chance, and had decided to respond to Dolores's flirtations. How one night you'd had a bit too much to drink and ended up in bed with her. How you'd secretly cried afterwards because you'd lost your virginity and it hadn't been to me. How the next night was the night of the full moon. How she'd come back to your house to retrieve her lost purse and had seen you transform. How she'd fled in fear, but returned after the moon had waned and told you what she had seen. How she'd told you she was a Death Eater and promised to make your life miserable if you didn't betray James to her. You told her that you wouldn't. "Oh, but you will," she'd said. But Voldemort had decided that he didn't need James dead yet. Instead, she would keep you for when she needed you, leaving threatening messages on your doorstep and making your life one of constant fear.
One night, you'd asked her if I was a Death Eater, and thereby gave away your weak spot. She refused to tell you. Now she no longer threatened to reveal your lycanthropy, but threatened to kill me instead. You were left with an impossible choice: the death of your beloved or you best friend. But then something happened that took the situation out of your hands. Peter became James and Lily's Secret Keeper. You didn't know that, but you knew that you no longer knew their whereabouts. You had no more information to give the Death Eaters. Dolores left you alone, but, frightened, you managed to find James and told him everything.
"You aren't safe," I said, when James had finished. "If Remus could find you, if I could find you, so could Voldemort. You two have got to leave this place."
"Yes, but you two had a few hints of where we might be," said Lily. "You both knew that we had bought a house here. Voldemort won't have the slightest idea."
"What if he captured Peter and tortured him?"
"You said it yourself, Sirius, no one is going to suspect Peter of being our Secret Keeper. Now, you'd better get back home."
But I wasn't going to go back home. I was going to go and find you, to tell you everything. Then I was going to take you far away from there, somewhere where we'd both be safe. But as I walked down the street, I decided I'd better check on Peter first.
You know the rest of the story.
Your Sirius