MAELSTROM

CHAPTER FOUR-MURDERED

I stood outside the hospital wing entrance and began sobbing. When I looked up, Sirius was approaching.

"Carrie," he said softly. "Remus will be fine. Madam Elkin is checking him over for any internal injuries."

"That's not it!" I sobbed. "Supposed he had died? Why am I having these dreams?"

Sirius put his arms around me and pulled me close to him. I pressed my face into his chest.

"Listen," he said quietly and warmly. "We're not going to let anything happen to Moony okay? Not as long as we're around...nor are we going to let anything happen to you."

I just continued to sob into Sirius' chest.

After I was finished, Sirius led me back into the hospital wing.

To my relief, Remus was sitting upright now, sideways on the cot with his feet on the floor.

"He's fine," Lily beamed at me, but then saw my eyes. She turned to James. "Let's head to the common room. Coming Sirius?"

She glared at Sirius meaningfully.

Sirius nodded and gave my shoulder a squeeze before Lily, James and he disappeared from the hospital wing.

I headed over to Remus and sat beside him on the cot. He looked at me.

REMUS.

I looked into Carrie's face. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying.

She was wringing her hands together nervously.

"You could've been killed," she said in a hoarse whisper staring a head at an empty cot.

"Yes," I said. "But I wasn't. I was only thinking of your safety...not my own."

"It was just like my dream," she continued. "What is going on here?"

"I'm not sure," I said softly and quietly as I leaned against her. "But nothings going to happen to me...or Sirius...or James...or Lily or Peter...okay?"

Carrie still wouldn't look at me.

"Carrie," I said in a voice just above a whisper. I gently took her chin and turned her head around so we were looking at each other now. There were tears glistening in her blue eyes. "Okay?"

She nodded and blinked. The tears sliding down her cheeks.

I wiped the tears away with my thumbs.

"I'm fine now," I said reassuringly. "Don't worry. We'll figure this out."

She nodded again.

"He's free to go," Madam Elkin said softly. "No internal damage."

Carrie helped me get to my feet and we headed back to the common room.

James, Lily, Sirius and Peter looked up.

"Hey," Sirius said grinning. "Feeling okay?"

"A bit," I admitted. "I think a good nights rest would be good too."

"Why don't you have a lie down and we'll tell Professor Kendall that you're sick. I think she'll understand after seeing what happened this morning," James suggested.

I nodded. That sounded like a good idea. Carrie went over and sat beside Lily.

I pulled James aside.

"Keep an eye on Carrie okay?" I said, keeping my voice down.

He nodded.

I headed into the boys dorm.

CARRIE.

Remus headed into the boys dorm to have a lie down. The rest of us headed to class.

We had History of Magic. Professor Kendall understood completely and was glad Remus was alright.

Remus had wiped the tears from my face. I've never been that close to him before as our faces were inches apart. My heart had been pounding loudly in my chest.

The Hall had been repaired and the Wixev's body had been taken away. Everyone was talking about it but no one knew I had the dream other than Remus, Lily, James and Peter. Lily had filled in James and Peter afterward.

"What am I going to do?" I moaned quietly as Professor Kendall explained the Lurton Revolution of 1345. "I'm terrified to go to sleep! Suppose I have another horrible dream that comes true?"

"You could take a Dreamless Sleep potion," Lily suggested as Professor Kendall waved her wand at the blackboard and important notes on the Revolution appeared.

We began copying them down on parchment.

"I can't rely on a potion every night," I whispered copying down the effects of the magical world after the Revolution. "Something's gotta be giving it to me...there's a reason."

"Hey," Sirius said suddenly. "I've got a wild idea."

"Uh oh," Lily said rolling her eyes. "She's not an alien Sirius...nor has she been probed, body-snatched, possessed or mind-swapped."

Sirius smirked at her.

"That's not what I was going to say, smart ass," he said. He dropped his voice even lower.

"I bet she's psychic."

No one spoke for a while until class was over and we headed back to the common room for a 45 minute break before the last two classes of the day were.

"Psychic?" Lily asked.

"Yeah," Sirius said brightly. "Muggles claim to be psychic all the time. It means that they can see things before they actually happen. Maybe Carrie has this gift."

"Oh yeah," Peter said thoughtfully. "I've heard of that before."

"What did you hear?" Sirius asked scornfully. "You don't wander outside the magical world."

Peter looked put out but didn't reply back to Sirius' accusation.

"Could that be possible?" I mused. "But both my parents are from the wizarding world. Don't Muggles usually end up with that gift?"

"Not necessarily," Lily said. "I mean it could really go to anyone."

"Then that's what were going to tell Remus? Carrie's psychic?" Peter asked curiously.

"Yes," Sirius snapped. "And we're going to stick to that because that's the only explanation I can come up with that matches what's going on."

"You know," I said suddenly turning on him. "You are really mean to Peter sometimes."

Sirius' expression drained of all color.

"Because he can be a stupid prat sometimes," he replied.

"Still," I snapped back. "Being nasty to someone isn't going to help."

Sirius muttered something that we couldn't hear under his breath.

We entered the common room to find Remus sitting on the couch reading. His Prefects badge caught the light as he looked up.

"Hey," Lily said softly. "How are you feeling now?"

"Much more like myself," he grinned.

He lifted up the left side of his robes exposing his skin. "Looks better too."

I shyly diverted my eyes away from him and pretended to be interested in Peter's school bag.

"How'd class go?" he asked closing the book and watched us as we sat down all around him.

"Well," Lily said then looked at Sirius with a serious look on her face. "Sirius thinks he's found the reason for Carrie's dreams to be coming true."

"Really?" Remus asked sounding interested.

"I believe that Carrie is psychic," Sirius muttered gazing out the window of the tower.

"That would explain what's going on," Remus said nodding.

"I'll be in the library," Peter announced.

He gave me a warm smile before leaving the common room.

"Good," Sirius muttered.

At that, I rounded on him again.

"What is your problem?" I demanded angrily folding my arms over my chest. "Why are you being so mean to Peter?"

Sirius got right in my face.

"Because I don't really trust him okay? He could very well blab this to someone and then you'll be nothing more than an experiment!" Sirius barked.

"We've known him for a good solid 6 years! I think I trust one of my best friends by now!" I argued back. "I trust you, Remus, James and Lily!"

"There's something about him that I don't trust okay?" Sirius snapped, his hazel eyes flashing. "And I wish you would stop being such a goody-too-shoes to stop and realize that all people have bad tendencies! No one is perfect! Not like you!"

"That's enough," Remus growled warningly as he stood up and faced us. "Lay off, Sirius."

"And that's right. Stick up for her," Sirius said cooly. "We all know you're hard on for Carrie."

Lily and James were silent, watching with fear and astonishment at the way Sirius was acting. Lily put a hand to her mouth in surprise at Sirius' last outburst.

Remus stepped around the couch and got into Sirius face next.

"What is your problem, Sirius?" Remus snarled. "Okay so you don't trust Peter...but making Carrie feel like two cents and calling her names won't help the situation! Why are you all of a sudden acting this way?"

"Because I just don't trust Peter right now okay? I'm getting a bad feeling!" Sirius yelled. "I'm sorry if I insulted your girlfriend, but sometimes she can be blind!"

"The only one that's blind here is me, yes," I snarled angrily. "Blind to see just what kind of person you really are...a hard assed son-of-a-bitch."

Sirius clenched his fists and looked as though he'd like to hit me, but he restrained himself. Without a word, he stormed out of the common room.

The common room was silent again.

"If he didn't trust him, why'd he invite Peter to hang out with us?" I demanded pacing the front of the fireplace.

"Something is definitely bothering him," James said quietly looking up at me. "I'm sorry for the way he talked to you."

"It's okay," I said in a softer tone. "Maybe he's just in nerves over the N.E.W.T.s."

"No," James said shaking his head. "That's not it. There's something else. I think I'll go have a talk with him."

With that, he got up from the couch and gave me a wink before leaving the room.

I exhaled and plopped down beside Lily on the couch in James' seat.

Remus sat down across from us on a chair, leaned forward with his elbows resting on his thighs and he clasped his hands. The orange glow reflected off his face. He was staring intently into the fire. I could see he was deep in thought.

"I'm sorry for what Sirius said to you," Remus apologized not taking his eyes off the fire.

"It's fine," I said gently. "Maybe James can get through to him."

"Here's a thought," Lily said. "Maybe he likes Carrie too."

Remus and I looked at her.

She was wearing a broad grin.

"Or maybe his underwear rode up giving him a major wedgie,"

We laughed, glad the air in the common room lightened a bit.

About an hour later, James returned with Sirius.

Remus got up and went to leave the common room, but James held up his hand.

"Remus, wait," James said. "Sirius has something to tell anyone."

Remus paused, standing behind Lily and I on the couch.

"Go a head," James said softly.

Sirius stepped around James and faced us. Remus was watching with a cold expression on his face.

"I'm sorry I blew up at Remus and Carrie," Sirius muttered. "That wasn't right."

"It's okay," I said softly. "I know you're just looking out for me. But I'm not perfect and I do think people have mean tendencies. I just couldn't understand why all of a sudden you were acting mean toward Peter after all these years of being friends."

"Because I'm getting a bad feeling," Sirius continued to mutter. "I should've talked about it calmly instead of exploding."

"Fine," I said as I gave him a quick hug. "Let's just forget it okay?"

"Oh no," Remus said shaking his head.

We turned to look at him.

"I'm not that easy," he said coldly. "You said some pretty mean things. That's fine for Carrie and everyone else, but not me. It's going to take some time before I can forgive you."

"I understand," Sirius said respectively nodding slowly.

Just then, Peter entered the common room carrying a few books. I noticed a letter fall out of one of them.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Nothing," Lily said in a false cheerful voice. "Dump those books in your trunk for now so we can head to dinner."

Peter nodded and scurried into the boys dorm.

I went over and bent down, picking up the letter. I began reading it.

"Oh. My. God," I said as my hand shook.

Remus and James came over to me and both leaned in close to read it:

Carrie is so hot. There are a few things I'd like to do to her...

I shut my eyes. I couldn't read anymore.

But from James' and Remus' disgusted exhales, I could tell what he wrote wasn't clean.

I felt the letter being taken from my hand. I opened my eyes.

"He'll pay," I heard James snarl.

"You don't want to know what he said," Remus said gravely, his eyes flashing dangerously.

Just then, Peter came back into the common room. All heads turned toward him.

Peter froze.

"What?" he asked slowly.

James lunged for him, but Peter dodged him and ran around the couch.

"YOU SLIMY LITTLE SCUZBUCKET!" James snarled angrily brandishing the letter in front of Peter, but the couch was in between them, creating a barrier.

Peter's face drained of all color.

"How did you find that?" he asked quietly.

"It fell from one of your textbooks," I replied clearly disgusted and appalled.

"I didn't want anyone to see it," he said even quieter.

"Well, we did," James snarled.

James thrusted the letter into Sirius' hand and jumped over the couch. Peter turned and ran from the common room, with James on his heels. Sirius scanned the letter.

"What a gross little elf," Sirius snarled as he crumpled the letter up and tossed it into the trash can.

"Dinner," Remus reminded everyone quietly.

We all headed out of the common room. We could hear Peter's protesting yells as James continued to chase him all over the castle.

We sat down in the Great Hall. Food appeared on our plates. We began eating. James and Peter still hadn't shown up about an hour into dinner.

"I have a feeling James shoved Peter into that Vanishing Closet," Lily said with an amused and sad expression. "I can't believe Peter wrote that trash."

I shivered.

"Don't remind me,"

Remus angrily pounded on the table with his fist.

"Whatever James does to him it will probably be worse than whatever I would come up with,"

My lip twitched.

"More than likely James' shove his head into a toilet and flush it,"

Remus looked up at me.

"James has a bad temper I'm sure you know about," he said quietly. "Plus, he was really appalled and shocked at what Peter wrote. I'm not sure what he's going to do to him."

I began feeling a bit nervous now. I hoped James wouldn't do anything to get himself expelled for real this time.

I began eating.

Shortly, James entered the Great Hall and sat down beside Sirius.

"What did you do?" Lily asked.

"I told him that he was hot and there were a few things I'd like to do to him," James replied stiffly.

"What did you do?" Lily repeated.

James shrugged. "Beat the snot out of him then shoved his head into the toilet and flushed it,"

Remus and I's lips twitched.

Peter didn't enter the Great Hall at all for dinner that night.

The next morning at breakfast, Professor Dumbledore arose from his seat and faced the Hall. The silence fell across it.

"I have some rather grave news," he said quietly. "A student has been murdered last night."

Gasps went around.

"Who?" a Ravenclaw called out.

"Peter Pettigrew,"