SIX : THE TRAP IS SET

"Oh, hello, Sirius, Peter, James,"greeted Remus quietly. He was lying on a bed, face very pale for even him, with a half-eaten chocolate bar in his hand. James felt helpless as he watched his friend, very subdued and weak, struggle to speak. "I heard you won the match?"

James blinked. "Oh, yeah...the game sort of ended early but I caught the Snitch anyway. I don't know who won...." He made his voice as quiet as Remus's. "We need a favor of you."

Remus raised his eyebrows. "Me?"

"Oh, yes, we–" started Peter, but was quickly interrupted by Sirius. He explained the whole plan to the wide-eyed Remus.

"Like James said...is it really wise?" he asked, voice a little stronger, after the plan was revealed. He took a bite of chocolate and pondered the idea. "I'm not sure if I could...hold myself–"

"Visitors!" Madame Pomfrey suddenly announced, from the other room. "Visitors, it is time for lunch! Go on!"

Peter jumped up, hand close to his robe and the loaned Invisibility Cloak underneath it. The excitement of what he was about to do next coursed through him and he almost bolted out of the room. Sirius started after him, afraid of what suspicions Peter might stir with him tearing down the hall. "Peter!" he shouted, in the bustle of the crowd outside. Students coursed around him, on the way to lunch, and completely blocked the view of what his friend was doing. He decided to just act casually and talk to Peter later at the table.

James, on the other hand, had seen nothing of this. Remus had begun to act really strangely, and was being carefully watched by the worried James beside him. "Don't go!" he suddenly shouted, strength returned. "Don't! I don't know what will happen! DON'T. GO." Remus started bellowing warnings, much to the surprise of James. Fortunately, Madame Pomfrey was off in another room and heard nothing of Remus's fits. James carefully backed up off the chair he was sitting in as Remus started to go hoarse. He grabbed James's shirt. "I won't do it," he warned. "I'm not going to tell Snape anything. Tell off Wormtail that I'm not going to do it!" Suddenly, he passed out James carefully backed out of the door, and began to run, shaking, to the Great Hall.

He heard footsteps and quiet curses in the hall before him. Ducking behind a corner, James saw Snape with his right hand wrapped around one of his left fingers. "Stupid rat. I think it was a rat,"he murmured.

"I ain't sayin nothin. I saw no rat," came another voice. James recognized it as a sixth year Slytherin named Gerry Kalzon. He lumbered along the passageway with his hand on Snape's shoulder.

"I don't need your guidance, Gerry," remarked Snape flatly.

James listened as the arguing voices went down the corridor. He continued to the Great Hall, where there was a considerable murmur from the Slytherin table. As he sat down in his seat next to Sirius, he smiled at Peter. "Good job," he mouthed. He decided to not tell anyone about Remus's refusal. He really didn't want Snape learn how to freeze the Whomping Willow. Honestly, he didn't want to get in trouble for leading Snape into the mess at all. But most deeply inside, he really didn't want his friend Moony to face Snape after his frenzied warning.

He glumly ate his lunch as these thoughts ran through his head. What would happen tonight? Would Snape somehow discover how to enter the Whomping Willow anyway? Would Remus be locked in the nurse's ward? If Snape did get into the Whomping Willow, what would happen then? He sighed.

"Hey, man," offered Sirius, who instantly read James's signs, "just forget about it. We aren't doing anything for a couple of hours."

"All right," responded James quietly. "I hope this works."