Chapter Eight

An Unlikely Partnership

James's point of view

Peter sat on his bed, reading a thick book, but James could not read the title, it was in another language. Japanese, maybe, or Chinese. There sure were a lot of things going on with Peter, and he had to know. Peter was always so anxious to impress, so why wasn't he going on and on about how he could do nonverbal spell casting now? Why wasn't he bragging about how fit he'd gotten? Why did he keep disappearing and coming back with bruises, cuts, and flecks of blood on him, then acting like nothing happened. Why was he acting so... distant, lately, especially after that incident with the Chi Do Boosoo or whatever he'd called it? Most of all, why wasn't Peter telling them, they were supposed to be best friends, and if he was keeping secrets, was Snivellus telling the truth? Did Peter learn demon magic? Sure, James had jumped to his defense immediately, but that was just it, he hadn't thought about it. Perhaps Peter wasn't really even Peter... no that was stretching way too far into speculation, but it could be true. James shook his head. He looked to his left at Sirius, who was crouched down, mirroring James's position, behind James's bed. They were waiting for Peter to leave the dormitories again, so they could follow him to wherever he was going. Just as they had expected, Peter closed the book and put it down beside him.

"I'm going for a walk." He announced as Sirius mouthed his oh so predictable words. Remus gave a grunt. Peter walked across the room, toward the door, but stopped just short of it. "Don't bother trying to follow me, James and Sirius." He pointed his wand at them over his shoulder, and the invisibility cloak was yanked off of them.

"How did you..." Sirius's question was cut off by the door slamming as Peter exited. James picked up the cloak and threw it over his shoulders again.

"You're still going?" Remus asked, his tone completely neutral. He was taking Peter's recent behavior very hard, the two of them had been almost as close as James was with Sirius, they were like brothers, and now Peter was hardly talking to him.

"Of course, I've got to find out what's going on. This probably sounds selfish, because he's doing so much better for himself now, but I miss the old Peter, or even the one who stood up for Sni... I mean Snape. At least he still acted like our lovable little dork." James answered defiantly.

"I agree, mate, I want him back too... maybe you should go by yourself, you'll make less noise." Sirius nodded.

"Yeah... Remus?"

"What?" He snapped.

"We'll find out what's going on, and we'll get our Peter back... it'll be fine." James said, bracingly. Remus looked up. His expression said that he really wanted to believe it, but didn't.

"I know." Was all he said.

James snuck out of the dormitory, quiet as possible, just in time to see Peter walking out the portrait hole. James followed, trying not to wake the fat lady, who was snoring away in her frame. Slowly, silently, he trailed behind Peter, hardly daring to breathe. James almost tripped, and Peter turned around, staring straight at James, who had frozen in place, as though he could see right through the invisibility cloak.

"James?" He called, now scanning the rest of the hall. James was holding his breath, not moving even the slightest bit. Peter narrowed his eyes, but it didn't have the effect on James that it had the day he and Sirius had been picking on Snape. The, Peter's eyes were full of disappointment and just the slightest hint of annoyance, now, they looked very angry, very cruel. Peter turned and continued down the hall, and James followed, more cautiously still. After a while, James had followed Peter out onto the grounds. Peter made his way around the lake a few times. James couldn't help but feel a little disappointed, it looked like Peter really had only gone for a walk after all. Then, suddenly, Peter stopped walking. "I told you not to follow me, James." He growled. He looked up toward the sky. What happened next made James yell out in horror. "You should have just stayed inside." Peter hissed. "Now that you've seen this, I can't risk you telling anyone, can I?"

"W-what are you?" Was all James managed to choke out.

Sirius's point of view

James had been gone for a while, but, then again, Peter hadn't come back yet, either. Sirius was starting to get worried, about both of them. Just as he was about to propose that he and Remus should go to look for them together, the door flew open, and Peter came in, dragging James by the ear.

"I thought, I told you not to follow me." Peter growled. A large portion of James's left arm seemed to be missing, then, Sirius realized, he must have his invisibility cloak draped over his arm. James scowled, slapping Peter's hand away.

"You did, but I didn't listen." He snapped back. Peter glared at James. Sirius expected that James would have recoiled, seeing as Peter now had a better death stare than a basilisk, but he merely glared right back. James chucked his invisibility cloak into his trunk with a very moody expression on his face.

"Erm... mate, you okay?" Sirius asked him, cautiously.

"Just peachy." James snapped, sarcastically.

"Okay, then." Sirius said slowly.

"You're going to start acting like a prat too?" Remus demanded crossly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Peter hissed at him. Remus slammed his book shut and shot to his feet.

"You know exactly what it means." He growled. You could easily hear a wolfish tone in his voice.

"No, I don't, care to say?" He retorted.

"All we're trying to do is help you and be your friends, and all you can do is shut us out and yell at us." Remus snarled.

"Maybe that's because I don't need help or friendship from losers like you three." Remus looked like he'd been slapped in the face, and Sirius definitely felt like he'd just been punched in the gut.

"W-what?" Remus stuttered.

"You can't mean that." Sirius said weakly.

"Losers, huh? At least I never had to hang around people twice my brains, skill, and power so I didn't get beat up all the time." James shot at him. Sirius was about to jump to Peter's defense, but Peter made that perfectly unnecessary. He turned on the spot and James let out a gasp of pain. For a second Sirius wasn't sure what happened, but then he saw Peter's right hand was balled into a fist and pulled back at his side, while his left was open, the tips of fingers close to James's gut. Peter had just struck James, and very hard it seemed, because for a moment, James seemed to be to stunned to move. Then, James coughed up something dark, something wet. Sirius could suddenly smell blood on the air. Had Peter really hit James that hard? James gave a small shutter and a moan of pain, then his knees buckled. Sirius rushed forward to catch him before he hit the ground.

"What the hell?" Remus roared. Peter completely ignored him.

"Twice my power, huh? I'd like to see you do that." He turned and strode out of the dormitories.

"James, James, mate, can you hear me?" Sirius shook him slightly. James grunted, but his eyes didn't open. Remus knelt next to him and began unbuttoning James's shirt. Sirius didn't question it, knowing Remus knew what to do. There was a big, nasty looking bruise at the base of James's chest. Muttering under his breath, Remus ran his wand over the mark, taking care not to touch the tip to his skin. A white light engulfed James, who shuttered, then it slowly disappeared. James's eyes slowly fluttered open. He muttered,

"The bastard", then his head fell to one side and his eyes closed again.

James's point of view

It was dark and cold. He wasn't sure where he was, or how he'd gotten there, but he knew he didn't want to be there anymore. All around him, pinpricks of lights would suddenly flash. every time it was a different color, though some colors repeated themselves. There were voices whispering around him. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but he wanted to. No, he wanted to leave, and find Peter. He wasn't sure where he was, or how he'd gotten there, but he knew he didn't want to be there anymore.

Remus's point of view

Something was definitely not right. The James he knew would never have said anything like that to one of his friends, and the Peter he knew would never hit one of his friends hard enough to cause bleeding, or his enemies for that matter. Peter was just too gentle to do that, even if he had the ability, which Remus, until now, had doubted that he did. No, something was definitely out of place here. James was in the hospital wing right now, so asking him what'd happened when he followed Peter was out of the question. Neither Sirius nor Remus told Madam Pompherey that Peter had hit James, they were leaving the decision of telling up to James, but, apparently, he'd chosen not to. Loyalty above all else, that, at least, sounded like James. Remus was terrified, but mostly sad. If this kept up, James and Peter wouldn't be able to lay eyes on each other without a barrage of curses flying through the air, and that meant no more full moon strolls as the four Marauders, it would probably just be him and Sirius, but then what. Peter didn't want to be their friend anymore, and that hurt more than his transformations. James had told both Sirius and Remus to get lost, when they tried to visit him in the hospital wing, and Remus was pretty sure that stung Sirius a fair bit. Peter was like a brother to Remus, but, obviously, Peter never returned those feelings, and thought Remus was useless. He'd always thought that James and Sirius were even closer than he and Peter, but now it seemed like James wanted nothing to do with either of them.

Remus could feel something building in his chest, but he couldn't figure out what it was. He guessed he shouldn't feel as bad as he was, he still had Sirius. Just as Remus started to think of him, her rounded the corner with a slight frown. When he saw Remus, a sad sort of smile spread across his face.

"Hey, Moony." His tone was bright, but held a badly disguised note of sorrow.

"Hey, Padfoot." He knew his voice probably sounded the same.

"Erm... Remus, I've been thinking..."

"I thought I smelled something burning." Remus joked. Sirius snorted, a familiar, happy shine to his eyes had returned. Remus was glad that he could distract Sirius from the issue at hand, for a bit at least.

"Well, I was thinking about... about what Snape said, that night with the whole blood monster thing." He sounded uncomfortable.

"What about it?" Remus asked.

"What if... well, just keep an open mind, I know it sounds farfetched, but if Peter was kidnapped by... well, by a demon, maybe he didn't learn demon magic, but he was possessed or replaced by one, a demon I mean. Then, when James followed him, Pretend Peter caught him and James was possessed or replaced." He said. He paused then; "Now that I'm saying it out loud it sounds even dumber." He mumbled.

"No," Remus said slowly. "It almost makes sense. We should look into it." Someone just behind them snorted. They both turned to see Snape leaning against the wall.

"What's so funny, Sni... er, Snape?" Sirius demanded.

"He wasn't possessed or replaced when he got back, now was he?" He replied with an infuriating superior look.

"Yeah, how would you know?" Remus asked.

"Well, think about it, was he acting strange when he first returned, and I mean other than his grades picking up so fast."

"No, not really." Sirius admitted.

"And," Snape continued, "he fought a demon after he'd returned, he would've been forced to reveal himself if he was a shapeshifter in the middle of a battle with another demon, and, had he been possessed, you'd be able to tell a difference in his eyes... you didn't notice anything strange about his eyes, did you?"

"No." Remus was the one to admit to that this time.

"I did." Remus blinked at Snape's pronouncement.

"Yeah, and what did you notice?" Sirius challenged.

"I noticed that when doing bits of wandless magic, his eyes would become completely one color; that was gold. I put some research behind it, and demons can't have a magical aura of gold, only black, red, green, and grey. Your friend is able to use some sort of advanced magical warfare that I've never even heard mention of, let alone seen before, but he couldn't have been possessed or replaced at that moment. When he followed me, however, something odd happened."

"What do you mean by odd?" Remus inquired.

"I heard him coming up behind me far to my right, then, I heard a squeaking sound, like a rat had gotten it's tail trodden on," Remus felt his eyes widen, "and then Pettigrew came into my field of view, but to my left, and I couldn't hear any footsteps, beside my own."

"That is strange," Remus conceded, "but what does that..."

"I was just getting to that." Snape said impatiently. "He stepped in front of me after that, and told me that since I'd seen him do wandless magic, he'd have to kill me." Sirius gasped. "I don't know Pettigrew well, but he didn't seem like the kind of person to threaten someone's life. Then, he told me he was only joking, but if I ever breathed a word of his advanced magic, he'd erase all of my memories from Hogwarts and make me start all over again. The look in his eyes was terrifying. He'd stepped in to stand up for me just the other day, and his eyes were nothing like this. They were kind, mischievous, this time, they were... well, looking at them made me feel like I was about to drop dead if I didn't look away, but they also paralyzed me in a way."

Sirius whistled.

"So you think Peter was possessed or replaced by a demon after he fought that mad blood creature thing?" He asked. Snape nodded.

"Why are you helping us?" Remus inquired.

"I never had anything against Pettigrew in particular, even less so after he helped me, and never had anything against you, either Lupin. If Pettigrew's in trouble and you want to help him, I'll give you any information I can, that you might need."

"Is this because Peter was the only one ever kind enough to be nice to you?" Sirius asked, slyly. Snape's face turned red.

"Shut it, Black." Snape snarled.

"Yeah, Sirius, if he's going to help us, we might as well be nice about it." Remus said.

"Oh, fine." Sirius huffed.

"The question still stands, even if we do figure out where they are or, if they're possessed, what they are, how are we going to bring them back, or free their minds?" Remus asked, thoughtfully. Snape snapped his fingers.

"Flametail." He said.

"Flametail?" Sirius repeated, evidently just as confused as Remus was.

"She's a new student, she registered four days before Pettigrew returned, to my knowledge. I ended up stumbling across a bit of a meeting between..." He trailed off.

"Between who?" Remus asked, excitedly. Snape just shook his head.

"Who, Snape? You said you'd give us what ever information we needed." Sirius said angrily.

"I can't say, she'll kill me." Snape seemed extremely interested with his shoelaces at the moment.

"Oh." Sirius almost looked apologetic.

"Okay, so how is she going to help?" Remus asked. Infuriatingly, Snape chose to reply with;

"Dunno yet, do I?" With that, he turned and walked down the hall, his cloak flowing out behind him as though caught in a breeze.

"You wanna bet he uses a charm to make his cloak do that?" Sirius whispered.