Secret Keeper - Chapter 2

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"So she finally said yes, did she?" Sirius murmured, with an unflattering look of incredulity. "Well, good on him. I was wondering when one or t'other'd give in. Mind, if James had been the one to give up, I think we'd have to be stopping him from drowning himself in the lake right now."

"He wouldn't have been that upset, would he?" Peter asked anxiously, pausing in the act of refilling his tankard from the pitcher the waitress had set in front of them. "I mean, it's only a date, yeah?"

A look of amusement flickered between Sirius and Remus. "Only a date, YEAH," Sirius said slowly and deliberately, "if he didn't have it for her as bad as he does. And," he added, helping himself to a particularily large Cauldron Cake from the stack in front of him, "it was completely obvious she's been wanting to say yes this entire year . . . probably would have already if James wasn't such a git."

"Lucky git." Remus said, and they grinned at each other.

Peter, however, frowned in the general direction of the castle. The tip of one tower was barely visible through the frosted window they sat beside, but he frowned at it nonetheless. "Where did they go?"

"Dunno." Remus said with a trace of surprise. It wasn't like Peter to greet any of James's accomplishments with anything less than enthusiasm. "I expect they'll want to be alone, don't they?" he said, ignoring Sirius's snicker. "They probably decided to stay at the school, away from the other students."

"Ah, yeah, that's real romantic," Sirius laughed, "instead of a warm glass of Butterbeer and a nice stroll down the lane to one of the shops, they get swarmed by a bunch of snotty-nosed first-and-second years. I guess I'll have to take a lead from James if I want to impress my next date huh?" he added with a sigh and a flutter of his eyelashes.

Remus smiled, but if anything Peter's frown deepened. "So . . . so he just left, just like that? I thought we were all going to get together today."

"Well, it isn't as if we were doing anything important, was it?" Remus pointed out. "We get together every day as it is . . . besides, I don't think a rogue snitch is going to start tearing apart the Three Broomsticks. I think we'll manage."

"Yeah, and he's been going on about that Evans girl for the past -- what -- three years now?" Sirius said, muffled around a mouthful of Cauldron Cakes, cheeks bulging. Two girls who had been eyeing him appraisingly at the next table looked mortified at this display. "Maybe now they'll stop mooning after each other across the house tables . . . it's been driving me starkers."

"Still." Peter muttered, and he fell into a moody silence.

Remus exchanged a curious look with Sirius who raised his eyebrows meaningfully. This past year, Peter had seemed more and more prone to bouts of sullenness that were entirely unlike him. Whereas typically he had hurried to catch up with the others as they strode laughing through the hallways, half-running at their side and beaming up at them, these days he was more likely to trail a few steps behind, clutching his book bag to his chest, and gazing at the floor in front of his feet unless spoken directly to. These days, however, Remus thought little of it; with graduation looming before them, and the press to find work out of Hogwarts, stress had been taking a good whack at them all. Remus in particular felt he was bearing the brunt of it all; what sort of job could a werewolf possibly hope to attain? It was too much to hope for that any position he could secure would allow him a night off every month so he could be kept in check by a stag and a gigantic dog . . . nevermind the fact that James's and Sirius's own work was likely to lead them away.

Now, glancing over at Peter, Remus noticed the small, angry bruises rising on his face, and wondered wether it was something more than stress that was preying on his friend's mind lately. After a moment, Peter looked up, still frowning. "What?" he asked irritably.

"Nothing." Remus said mildly. "I was just wondering wether everything was okay with you. That's all."

For an instant, it looked as though Peter was going to snarl a reply. The next moment, however, he simply sighed. "I just wish James hadn't gone off on us. That's all."

"You can hardly blame him, though, can you?" Sirius asked, sounding surprised. He wiped a trail of crumbs off of the corner of his mouth with the ball of his thumb. "I mean, look at his choices . . . spend the day with a gorgeous red-head who's finally given him the time of day . . . or spend the day with us, and have another competition to see who can blow the biggest bubble that most closely resembles how big his head is getting with a bit of Droobles."

"We're not doing that again, are we?" Remus asked with mild distaste.

"No," Sirius admitted, "not since he finally figured out how to throw that Bat Bogey hex so you can't dodge it, anyway."

"I just don't see what SHE has that we don't." Peter said plaintively.

At this, Sirius chuckled loudly and Remus hid a smile in his tankard.

Looking flustered now, Peter said, "That's not what I meant! It's just . . . WE'RE his friends, aren't we?"

"Last I checked." Remus agreed. "Still, that doesn't mean we own him."

Peter fell silent again. Remus wanted to ask him where he had gotten the bruises of, but thought better of it. More than anyone else, he understood the need for privacy, and understood how annoying it was when someone tried to push their way into your own. After all, if Peter was really in trouble, surely he'd have told them about it by now. If there was one thing about Peter you could rely on, it was his tendency to run for help when the going got tough.

The silence spun out between the three of them as they ate and drank, but the rest of the Three Broomsticks more than made up for any lack of noise on their part. A smug looking Slytherin third-year had quickly become the center of attention when he'd unveiled a toad that could do rather unflattering imitations of anyone it saw, and the room was full of shouts and requests for imitations. To compete, a pair of Gryffindors had bewitched their chess set to re-enact historic wizarding battles, complete with battlecries which were surprisingly loud for such tiny things. It didn't take long for the Slytherin toad to focus on the chess set, which in turn was challenging the toad to a battle, brandishing tiny stone fists angrily, and shouting very rude insults at the toad's owner.

The toad had just leapt from it's owner's arms and swallowed the white queen whole to the horror of her court when Peter stood up, nearly knocking his chair over in the process. His cheeks were rather red when both Sirius and Remus turned to look at him curiously. "I've got to . . . I mean, I'm going." he blurted, shoving the chair back into place.

"But we've only just got here!" Sirius said, surprised.

"I-I know," Peter stammered, avoiding his gaze, "but I've just remembered, I have an essay due to Professor Binns on Monday, and I haven't even started it yet . . . four feet, can you believe it?" He was edging towards the door now. "Look, I'm really s-sorry, but I need all the NEWTS I can get this year, or my Mum'll go starkers again . . . I still haven't heard the end of those two OWLS I got." he added with a miserable expression.

When he had gone, Sirius looked after him musingly, swirling the contents of his half-empty Butterbeer bottle absently. "Wonder what that was all about? Usually he's the first to start on his homework . . . "

"Sirius," Remus said with a trace of amusement, "he was lying. He didn't get any essay assigned. We have History of Magic class with him. Or did you forget?"

"Oh yeah," Sirius agreed, already pulling Peter's untouched Cauldron Cakes towards himself. "Well, I try not to think about school that much when I'm not in it, you know?"

"I'll never understand how you get grades like yours with an attitude like that."

"What can I say?" Sirius grinned, toasting him with a Cauldron Cake. "I've got the knack."

"For trouble, maybe." Remus said, but he was smiling. "What was bothering Peter when you two came in? How'd he get those bruises?"

For an instant, Sirius looked mystified, before an expression of comprehension dawned in his eyes. "I'd nearly forgotten."

"Somehow," Remus said dryly, "I don't think Peter had."

When Sirius had told Remus of the incident behind the Hog's Head, Remus sighed and shook his head. "I thought it was something like that. My Ancient Runes class has always been a nightmare . . . I take it with the Slytherins, and they're always yelling to know why I'd hang around with someone who lets himself get bullied by his juniors. Peter's nearly as famous as James in school, only for humiliation rather than Quidditch."

"Yeah, he is." Sirius agreed with a slight chuckle.

Remus, however, leaned forward in his chair and studied Sirius intently for a moment before speaking. "You don't like Peter very much, do you?" he asked in a low tone.

Rather than try to deny it, Sirius merely looked uncomfortable. He shifted in his chair a moment before replying. "Come off it, Moony. I've known him for -- what -- the entire time we've been at Hogwarts?" he said evasively.

"Familiarity doesn't always go hand-in-hand with friendship, Sirius." Remus said wisely.

"N-ooooo . . . " Frowning now, Sirius was prodding moodily at the untouched Cauldron Cake. " . . . but, Remus, he doesn't exactly go out of his way to be friendly even to us, does he?"

"He worships James." Remus said, surprised.

Sirius snorted. "I'm not talking about worship. Don't confuse envy with friendship either, Remus. Wormtail is James's walking, talking applause track, and even James knows it." He scowled. "I don't dislike him. But you and James are friends. I don't need a lap dog too. Sometimes . . . sometimes I wonder if Peter isn't James's friend solely to be seen patting him on the back when he leaves the Quidditch pitch."

"You've never said anything like this before." Remus found himself frowning now, as he studied his friend's face. Frowns and scowls didn't sit well on Sirius's face, a face giving more to grins and smirks. Indeed, he'd never heard Sirius speak a bad word about anyone who hadn't done him a wrong turn first.

"You never asked before, did you?" Sirius picked up the Cauldron Cake, then sighed and dropped it back on to the plate. "I've lost my appetite. Look, are you done? D'you want to get a move on? I hear Honeydukes has come out with some blood-flavoured lollipops."

Surprised at the change in topic, Remus blinked. "What in the world would you want one of those for?"

"Oh, you know," Sirius said off-handedly, his gaze flickering off to the left, "people."

Remus followed his gaze and understood at once. Lucius Malfoy had joined a group of Slytherins at the opposite end of the room, and they had instantly jostled one another into cramped positions around the table to give him his space. He was skinning off a pair of black gloves, not a single thread of his white-blonde hair out of place as he smiled benignly at them. He must have felt someone looking at him, however, for the next moment he had looked across the room, turned the brief curling of his upper lip into a sarcastic smile, and waved cheerily over at Remus and Sirius. Sirius, with a fake grin so wide it must have been painful, gave Lucius a wave that turned into a rude hand gesture the moment the Slytherin had looked away. "Slimy Boggart bogey." Sirius said vehemently through his grin.

"What's he ever done to you?" Remus demanded as they stood up, slinging his heavy book bag over one shoulder and testing to see if the seam intended to give way.

"You remember that owl I sent you this past summer? When I said I'd gotten a letter from someone in the family?"

"Yeah?"

"Narcissa." Sirius said with great dislike. "Telling me all about how Malfoy had been to visit her over the summer, and about how she was going to visit him next."

Remus groaned loudly, but couldn't suppress a laugh as they headed for the door, weaving their way more carefully through the other patrons. "Nacissa and Malfoy . . . can you imagine what it'd be like if they had kids?"

"I don't want to imagine." Sirius snorted, grinning despite himself. "I want to find out where they nest and destroy the eggs."

Even before they had reached Honeydukes and Sirius began prowling the streets trying to offer a 'strawberry' flavoured lolly to anyone he recognized, they had completely forgotten about Peter Pettigrew's behaviour.