Monday 15th October

Leaky Cauldron, 20:30

"Oh, darn it." Reginald muttered, looking at a letter and frowning.

"Are you okay?" Peter asked hesitantly, not wanting to come across like he was prying or anything.

He had been hanging out a lot with Reginald the last few weeks. He, he was even calling him Reginald instead of Rosier. They were friends. Which was pretty cool. A friend he could actually talk about everything with because they shared the same viewpoints on this war. He couldn't talk about this sort of thing with the other Marauders, there was just no way. Reginald, on the other hand, was perfect. Okay, so maybe he was a bit more about the pureblood supremacy thing than Peter was completely comfortable with but he could see where he was coming from. Reginald had a knack for making you see his point of view. Kind of like James but also not like James? Okay, that didn't make sense but whatever, it worked.

What also worked was not calling Reginald by any sort of nickname. Which was weird at first because Peter was so used to friends having nicknames but he couldn't imagine Reginald going by Reg or Reggie or something. He was too proper for that sort of thing.

"I need to get Potions ingredients at the end of the month, a special order, but I can't. I need to meet someone that I've been putting off for ages."

"Can't you just reschedule them?" Peter asked.

Surely a friend would understand? But Reginald was shaking his head.

"He's coming all the way from India. He's been living there for five years and this is his first trip back home. He's catching up with everyone on his short visit here and I can only grab him on that particular day."

That sounded awful, not seeing your friend for years and years. Peter didn't think he would be able to stick it. He understood why Reginald didn't want to miss his friend. It was a pity about his order though. He knew how annoying it was to try and reorder anything from the Apothecary and sort out that mess. It wasn't fun.

"I'll get them for you," Peter offered.

He actually surprised himself at that offer but what was the harm? It was easy enough to do and wouldn't take him long or anything.

Reginald gave him a sceptical look. "Really?"

"Yeah, sure," Peter shrugged nonchalantly even though he was kind of happy to be useful to someone. "I have the time. I'm not doing anything with my evening that day."

He really wasn't. Sirius was probably going for a ride on his motorbike and James and Lily were looking at the Potter properties for a house to live in together at every spare moment - they wanted their own space instead of being at Potter Manor with James' parents. Which Peter really didn't get? Why would you go out of your way to leave a house where everything was provided for you and you didn't have to organise doing anything? It was madness but that was James and Lily for you.

Either way, no one really had time for him recently so he may as well be doing something instead of just sitting around in the flat. That was just depressing.

And it would be something useful. Getting someone things, they needed. Yeah. He was useful.

"If you're sure... you could be at the Apothecary a while as he dices everything fresh..."

"I don't mind," Peter reiterated.

Sure, he wasn't the best fan of the Apothecary- it was the smells for him, they were just gross. Somehow Severus and Lily loved the smell which he couldn't wrap his head around and James was indifferent to it but then again, he grew up with Fleamont Potter as his dad so he had probably smelt weirder. Peter just wasn't a fan. Not at all. It smelled both stake and mouldy and also like fresh blood all at the same time. Gross. But he'd do it for a friend and Reginald was a friend.

Reginald gave him a doubtful look. Peter frowned. Had he ever given him the idea that he wasn't a friend? Friends did this sort for each other, right?

"Some of them you have to get in Knockturn Alley."

That made Peter's heart stop for a beat. Knockturn Alley? Where the only sort of people was the bad sort of people. If they were even people in the first place. He had heard stories. None of them good.

"It's not that far in and you wouldn't be near anything dodgy or dangerous," Reginald tried to reassure him. "But if you, can't I can-"

"No, I'll do it," Peter interrupted.

He didn't want his new friend to think of him as a coward or something.

Reginald gave him a long look and, for a second, Peter thought he was going to withdraw the offer. Which would suck. But that wasn't the case as Reginald nodded and pulled out two pieces of parchment. Order forms.

"Just be careful with those ones. They can be volatile." Reginald said, handing him the first order. "But the guy should package them correctly so I'm sure you'll be fine."

Um, what? That wasn't what Peter had signed up for. He was just trying to be nice, not get himself killed!

"Don't worry, if you can't do, I'll figure something out about my order," Reginald assured him, giving him an out.

Peter bristled inwardly. He didn't need an out. He could do this. Why did people always assume that he couldn't do things?

"I'll do it!"

Saturday 20th October 1979

Marauders Flat, 14:00

"You've missed too many full moons." James suddenly said to him.

"Excuse me?" Remus looked at him and frowned.

"You heard me. You've missed them."

Remus was now giving him a confused look.

"What? I can't exactly miss full moons, James. I don't pencil in my change. It's not like if I don't show up nothing will happen."

"That's not what I meant and you know it."

The two of them stared at each other, neither of them saying anything until James broke first and sighed heavily. James was annoyed because they had finally got Remus to agree to let them sneak into his parents' basement for his transformations. If they couldn't let him get out and run around the area (which he refused to let them do), they could at least keep him somewhat calm during the whole experience. Not that they could really do that when he was chained to the wall (something James was not happy with but now wasn't the time to bring it up).

"Oh, just leave me alone, James, would you?" Remus asked tiredly.

"I'm not!" James said loudly.

Too loudly but at this point he didn't care. He was worried about his friend and he needed answers.

"It's none of your business."

"It is! I'm your friend, Remus and I'm worried for you."

Remus bit his lip at that and actually looked a bit guilty. Good. He should be. Worrying him like that.

"I'm fine." Remus said quietly but not at all convincingly. "I'm fine. I promise you."

James didn't believe that for one second but he saw that Remus wholeheartedly believed his own words. Great.

Monday 29th October 1979

St Mungo's, 15:00

Chryssie let out a groan and rubbed at her eyes. They were burning like there was no moisture in them at all. She had been doing so much reading and learning diagrams and labelling diagrams that it felt like her eyes were about to fall out of her head.

This, unfortunately, wasn't an uncommon feeling for her these days, what, being a Healing student and all. In fact, it seemed like that's all she ever felt now. She couldn't even remember what it felt like to not have a dull throbbing behind your eyes.

She leaned her head back against the wall. Maybe if she rested for just one second...

"Evans, get over here, an emergency situation came up and I want you to observe."

That got her scrambling to her feet, sore eyes quickly forgotten. That was Healer Owens. The Healer she was studying under along with a few other students. And he looked serious. Very serious. Now, this was more like it. This is what she thought of when she thought of the Healer program.

But Healer Owens didn't care what she thought. No, he was already halfway down the corridor and she had to jog to keep up.

"Make notes, keep your head down, stay quiet," were the instructions she was given. "This is time sensitive. I can't answer any of your questions until after so stay quiet. If you even breath too loudly I will kick you out."

Chryssie nodded vigorously, eyes wide as she grabbed fresh parchment and a well-loved quill.

Right. She was ready for this. She was going to observe. She was going be quiet. She was not going to be a pain in the arse and she was going to take the best notes she had ever taken.

She was ushered into the theatre and almost dropped her notes to the floor when she saw who it was on the table. Dora. It was Dora. Her best friend. What in Merlin's name?

"You alight there, Evans?" Purley asked. "I need you steady if you're going to observe. You can't be a distraction."

Huh. Chryssie hadn't even realised that she had grabbed at the wall to steady herself.

Why was the room wavering? And why was there so much blood?

St Mungo's 16:00

It had been horrible. Well and truly horrible. Everything had gone wrong despite them doing everything right. Well, that's what Remus thought. But obviously they didn't because now they were both in hospital and Dora was seriously injured. Not him. He was fine

Just some burns down his back. Dora was worse. Far worse.

She had got caught in the blast and - you know what? That wasn't what happened not exactly. Which was difficult when Healers were swarming around him demanding to know what had happened. Or maybe it was just one Healer. Remus didn't know, he was a bit dizzy. But he was mentally aware enough to protest when Dora was being levitated away from him.

"We need to act fast on her injuries, she's losing too much blood," he was told as the Healers didn't pay any attention to his protests.

"Mr Lupin, you need to come with me," another Healer told him, leading him off to the side to another room.

When had he told them his name? He didn't remember saying anything...

"Burns all down his back. Blisters. Metal embedded -"

Where they talking about him? Had all that happened to him? Had the day been that bad?

Well, actually, it had started out okay. It always did. They had been getting their information and then some thanks to Dora's quite frankly blatant flirting. They had more than enough to make their report. It was great. They were going to be in and then out and neither of them were going to get hurt.

Except they did, didn't they? Though, funnily (or not funnily because getting injured was never funny) enough, their injuries didn't happen because of them. Not directly, anyway.

"Ouch!" He hissed as something was pure over his back.

His bare back. When had his robes and shirt come off? Since when was he on his stomach?

"Steady, Mr Lupin."

"Remus," he gasped out through the pain. Oh, that stung.

"Remus," the Healer said softly. "That was a mixture of a sterilising potion and a numbing potion. We'll deal with your burns in a minute. We need to get the pieces of metal and wood out of your back."

And that's what they did. At least, that's what he thought they did. He couldn't feel anything except the disconcerting feeling of being poked but without even that slight pain.

It felt like forever when they finally stopped. Having no feeling in your back was weird. Really weird.

"That's everything out, Remus," yet another Healer told him. Just how many were working on him? "We just need to take care of those burns."

It was when they were soaking his burns in Merlin knows what concoction when a clatter of many feet skidded past the room.

"Remus? Remus!"

"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to-"

Remus heaved a sigh of relief and almost smiled.

"Let them in," he said to the Healer by his head. "They're my fri- family. They're my family."

"If you're sure," he said sceptically.

Remus nodded and the Healer went out into the corridor.

"You can come in if you stay quiet."

"We will. We will." That was a woman's voice now.

And sure enough, James, Sirius, Peter and Lily all swarmed into the room.

"What happened?"

"What we're you doing?"

"How did you-"

"Did something go wrong?"

"How are you-"

"Gideon and Fabian are dead," Remus said bluntly to them, head swirling with all their questions.

That got them all to shut up at least. It had to be the worst possible way to do it but he didn't know how else to deliver that news. How were you supposed to do it because that definitely hadn't been the right way?

"Gideon and Fabian Prewett?" James asked in a strangled sort of voice.

It was just then that Remus remembered how much James used to look up to those two. How he sort of hero-worshipped them way back in first year. And how he was always chatting to them at Order meetings and laughing at their jokes.

He wouldn't be doing that anymore. None of them would.

"We, Dora and I, we were too late," Remus said into the stunned silence. "Too late."

Because they had been. Too late. Too slow. Too far away. Too unprepared. All of those things.

They hadn't even known that the twins were going to be there at all. Were they on an Order mission? Were they even supposed to be in there? Just what exactly had they been doing?

But they had been there. Surrounded. And losing. Remus had been trying to figure out which Death Eater he should target, to give the twins a fighting chance, any chance. But there were a swarm, a literal swarm, of Death Eaters surrounding the twins. Remus wouldn't have known that they were even there if it wasn't for them blasting two Death Eaters out of the circle, they had got caught in.

Then the next thing he knew, Dora was rushing towards them because she was "basically an Auror and she had a duty to help!"

And it hadn't been a blind rush in either. Other Aurors had rushed past them and one of them had barked to Dora, "Get your arse in gear, Trainee Tonks. Time for you to get some real-life experience!"

Of course, Remus went as well because he couldn't just leave Dora and the Aurors to do the fighting. Not when he could help or keep civilians safe. But they were too late.

He, the Aurors and Dora had tried to help but, as he felt like he kept saying, they were too late. The Death Eaters had the upper hand and there were too many of them. Way too many of them.

He saw Fabian fall first, a sickly green light hitting him in the chest, his eyes instantly going glassy. Gideon wasn't far behind, though he was felled by something purple. But no one could prevent a Death Eater from aiming another Killing curse at him. Remus actually heard the incantation this time. And the noise of a last breath.

If that wasn't enough, then there was an explosion. A big explosion. The Death Eaters had set it off. Remus didn't know how but all him remembered was the roar of the flames around him and seeing Dora's body fly through the air like she was a puppet. She collided with him, landing half on top of him. They had lain there, in the remains of the street and the building, people shrieking and shouting around him. The Death Eaters left quickly, leaving everyone to pick up the pieces.

Smoke and Merlin knows what else stung at his eyes but he remembered his vision clearing for a split moment. A split moment was all he needed to see two sets of Aurors. They were carrying two things shrouded in black.

And then he had passed out and had only woken up when he had arrived at the hospital. Alive. Alive when other people... other people...

Wednesday 31st October 1979

Diagon Alley, 16:30

Peter didn't like this; he didn't like this at all. And he hadn't even gone in to Knockturn Alley. He was loitering around the entrance like some sort of fool. No, make that like a coward. Because it turned out he was one after all.

He hadn't been able to make himself go in yet. He had gone to the Apothecary in Diagon and got the first part of Reginald's order. That had been the easy part. And quick as well. Which meant the one down there, in Knockturn Alley was going to be the bit that took a while to prepare. Which meant he was going to have to be in there for longer. Something Reginald had failed to mention.

And he couldn't do it. Couldn't make himself do it. Which was pathetic. He was sure James and Sirius would do it, no problem. But he couldn't.

No. Wait. Peter stood up straight. He could do this. He wasn't meek and mild. Not anymore. Like Merton said, just because they weren't brash or loud didn't mean that they weren't strong. He could do this.

Oh, wow. It was a lot more... dingey than he thought it would be. He had been expecting all shadows and tall creepy building but this was all sort of... run down and kind of sad looking. Huh. Nothing really to be afraid of. Though he knew from James and Sirius that the further in you went the worse it got. But he wouldn't be doing that. Reginald said the Apothecary he needed was just off the main street. Down an Alley but not too far down it.

He would be fine. Really. He would be. No one ever died just by walking down here, did they? Though, Sirius had told him about those people who just up and disappeared down here, never to be seen again. But he had to be joking, didn't he?

Just a simple potions ingredients order pick up. That's all there was to kt. Nothing more than that. Kt was something everyone did. Maybe not in Knockturn Alley but still. It was a normal task. And this was a normal Apothecary. Nothing illegal or suspicious in here. Peter glanced away from the darkened window. Maybe it was a good thing he was never great at Potions.

The man behind the counter gave him a suspicious look which got Peter fidgeting. Was he going to give him the order? Was he going to go back empty handed? That would be awful. What on earth would he tell Reginald? It would cause the man even more bother and he didn't want that. Not at all. Then the man grunted and passed the bag over to him. Phew.

Now all he had to do was get out of here, get out of Knockturn Alley and then return to Diagon Alley and go home. Simple, right?

No. Not at all. Apparently, you became more of a person of interest in Knockturn Alley if you were carrying a package along it. Peter could feel people's eyes on him. He didn't like it. It was like he was someone's prey. He pulled his cloak tighter around himself trying to pretend that it could protect him from the uncomfortable stares. It didn't really work but it made him feel a little bit better. Like one of them because he had just noticed (Merlin, how unobservant was he?) that no one had exposed faces. People either drew their cloaks up high or pulled their hays down low. It was all very dark and suspicious. And, if Peter hadn't been convinced that these people would gladly hurt him of given half a chance, he would have thought that they were cool.

But they were not cool. They were scary and Peter was not going to spend any longer in here than necessary. He practically scurried back to Diagon Alley; the parcel gripped tightly between his fingers.

He had done it.