A Dangerous Game

by orangepenguin

Remus stood up from the hearth, brushing the soot from his knees and trying to shake the image of Frank Longbottom's suspecting face from his mind. He should have seen this coming when Dumbledore had first mentioned the possibility of a spy. After all, he was the creature (yes, creature, never forget you that are not human, for no one else will) who knew the comings and goings of the Order, knew the schedules… for Merlin's sake, wrote the schedules…

He turned and saw Sirius asleep on the worn sofa; wondered if Sirius suspected him too. Surely, after all those transformations, all the years of defending him with righteous anger against a bigoted world...Surely Sirius would never think that he could be a Death Eater. Remus wandered into the kitchen and put a kettle of water on the stove to boil. He could just imagine what was running through Frank's mind: he's a dark creature, it's in his nature to be deceitful, we should never have trusted him…Remus noticed that his hand was trembling and wondered if it was because of anger, or simply exhaustion.

Sirius stirred, making a slight moaning sound, and Remus turned with a jerk. He half smiled, it wasn't like him to be so jumpy. He was supposed to to be the calm collected Marauder. The kettle began to shake, and Remus picked it up before it whistled, not wanting to wake Sirius. Of course, very little could wake Sirius. Back at Hogwarts it had been a favorite pastime of his and James, trying to rouse their sleeping friend.

"Cold water? Please, it'll take a lot more than that," scoffed James, shaking his head at Remus, whose wand had just become a veritable fountain.

"Okay then, let's see what you've got."

James grinned. "Cover your ears." The sound of a train whistle filled the room, and Remus's mouth dropped open.

"How did you do that?" he gasped. Sirius merely turned over, still sleeping. James and Remus exchanged looks, and fell to the ground laughing,

Remus smiled at the memory, it had been a long time since he or James had laughed hard at anything. Much had changed from those Hogwarts days…although Sirius was still the deepest sleeper Remus had ever seen. He placed the tea bag into his mug of hot water and sighed. He hated the dark suspicions that filled his own mind these days. Someone had to have tipped off the Death Eaters about the McKinnons, and he was automatically listing everyone involved.

Remus had just sat down at the table when the kitchen door flew open, and a bedraggled looking Peter Pettigrew stumbled in the door. "Peter! Your watch wasn't supposed to be up for another hour and a half."

Peter shook his head, and went to pour himself a mug of water. "Emmeline came by early, told me everything that happened, and sent me here. Remus, if we're going to be doing six hour shifts, we're going to have to get all the sleep we can." His small perceptive eyes took in Remus's dark circles. "How long has it been since you've been to bed?"

Remus stifled a yawn, "Longer than I'd care to think about." Peter joined him at the table, bobbing his teabag up and down in the mug. It was a steady movement, almost hypnotizing. Remus felt his eyelids growing heavier, and struggled to regain composure. "Did anything happen I should know about?"

"No…James threatened to body bind me if I didn't get the hell out of his bushes, but Lily took his wand away." He took a long sip of the tea. "How are things going here?"

"Itold Frank and Alice the news through the fire, and I could just see…"

Peter looked up, "See what?"

"Nothing. It's only, well… Dumbledore thinks that there's a spy in the Order, someone who is reporting our schedule and information to Voldemort, and I feel like I'm the prime suspect."

The short, prematurely balding man nodded, "Because you're the one who knows where everyone is, always, and because you don't ever go on guard duty."

Remus felt the blood rising to his cheeks, "Don't tell me you suspect me too, Peter. I don't go on guard duty because I'm always here, drinking tea with all of you real Order members!"

"Let down your hackles, Moony, I'm not suspecting you. I just see how people could get the idea."

Remus shook his head. "I'm sorry, Wormtail. It's just that we need to be strong, to be a united force, but instead we're suspecting each other and playing stupid political intrigue…" he growled in frustration. "I really need to go to sleep."

Peter watched him, gaze unwavering as he drank from his tea. He was not the type of wizard to offer aid unasked, he preferred people to owe him favors. This pained his Gryffindor friends' senses of pride—they all abhorred asking for help.

Still, desperate times… "Can I trust you to take care of Haven for a couple of hours? At least until Sirius wakes up?"

Peter nodded. "Get some rest now, Remus. Who knows when you'll be able to in the future."

Remus smiled at him gratefully. "You always did have the strongest survival instincts, Peter. Traditionally such a Slytherin trait…but we were lucky to have you."

"And don't you forget it!"said Peter, half joking, but with an odd glint that made Remus question, for a moment, the relative value of owing Peter Pettigrew a favor. He yawned, and realized that he would owe Bellatrix Lestrange a favor, if it meant he could get a good night's sleep. I better not say that, even as a joke. Not with everyone wondering...it could be taken the wrong way.

He got up and rinsed out his mug, heading for the concealed entrance to the bedrooms. "Thank you, Peter."

Pettigrew sniffed rodent-like, and his eyes narrowed, "Think nothing of it."

After Remus left the room, Peter's body, not seemingly tense before, visably relaxed. He stood and walked over to Sirius's sleeping form. " I could kill you right now," he whispered. "Kill you and make it look as if the Werewolf did it. Who are they going to believe? The rat or the monster?" All of a sudden he kicked Sirius sharply in the shins, and Sirius, in his sleep, seemed to whimper like a dog.

"But no. I'm not a Slytherin, I'm a Gryffindor, and I will not kill you in your sleep, helpless. When you die, the whole world will know. And the world will remember my name." He turned on his heel and left Haven.

A/N: Shorter than I'd have liked, but hopefully an improvement on what's been posted thus far. I'm trying to sort out what I want from this fic, and I think that Remus is the key. Of course, he's always been my key…mmhmm….