It took me a good second to realise I had a gag in my mouth, and there were tight ropes around my wrists, ankles, and chest.

"Mmmmpppfff..." I groaned, kicking and thrashing in the bondage, but I couldn't move. "Ghhhhhhppppp!"

"What's your name?" a man's voice asked me, removing the gag from my mouth.

"What is this?" I asked.

"What's your name?" the voice demanded.

"R-Remus Lupin," I breathed.

"Blood status?"

"Half-blood," I said.

"Disgusting," he said, then grabbed the ropes around my chest to lift me, searched through my pockets, then took all the contents: a few knuts, my wand, and a snotty tissue.

I had no idea where we were, just that the room was dark and cold, but not the agonising sort of cold, just that uncomfortable sort of cold that made me long for another layer.

And the person. Clearly a man from the voice. He didn't sound very old. He wore a cloak, so I couldn't make out his face in the dark.

"What is this?" I asked again, trying to walk towards him, but tripping over due to the ropes tied firmly around my ankles.

"How old are you, boy?"

"I'm fourt- fifteen," I said, remembering it was my birthday. Or was it? I had no idea how much time had passed since I'd passed out in Hogsmeade.

He laughed. "So, what should we do with him, then, Dolohov? Lanky half-blood teenager with scars on his face? Not much use to us..."

"I'd say kill him," came another voice. Dolohov, I'd guess.

"Wait," I said, "I have – I have information that could help you win the war. I'll – I'll tell you where a lot of muggle-borns are hiding if you tell me where we are and where my friends are."

"They all say that don't they?" said Dolohov. He was laughing. "They all say they'll give us information, then they all start stuttering because they don't know what the information is."

"There are a ton of muggle-borns hiding at the Gold Coast, in Australia, underground," I said. Being a good liar really did come in handy sometimes. "They're hiding from You-Know-Who. Now, would you please let me go and tell me where my friends are?"

"What d'you think?"

"Get the Veritaserum, Malfoy," said Dolohov. Malfoy. The guy Sirius's cousin had married.

I heard Malfoy walking away and come back a few seconds later holding something. They then forced the potion down my throat, pinching my nose to force me to swallow it.

"So," said Dolohov. "What's your name?"

"Remus John Lupin," I said.

"Are you a mudblood?"

"No."

"Are there mudbloods hiding in Australia?" Dolohov asked.

"God, maybe," I said. "How would I know? We're in the bloody U.K!"

"God, maybe you're a little liar," said Dolohov, sneering. "Kill him, Malfoy."

Dolohov walked away, and Malfoy approached me, pointing his wand toward me. I was lying on my stomach now, and he flipped me around, so I was on my back. Now that he was so close, I caught a glimpse of his face. It was definitely Lucius Malfoy.

"Wait," I said. "Narcissa..."

"Narcissa?" he repeated, lowering his wand slightly.

What was I thinking? I was on Veritaserum! I couldn't just make something up!

"Yes," I said. "Narcissa... your... your wife. She is blonde."

"What?" said Malfoy. "I know she's blonde. What are you on about?"

"Her cousin is my... my..." the word 'friend' didn't seem to want to come out of my mouth. Bloody truth potion. "Her cousin is Sirius Black. I know him."

"So?"

"Do you know where he is?" I asked. "And James... James Potter. My friend James Potter, and my friend Peter Pettigrew. Do you know where they are?"

Malfoy sneered and raised his wand again. "I'm not going to tell you where your friends are."

"Oh, come on," I said. "If I'm about to die it..."

I wanted to say it could be my dying thought, but that was a lie, so I stopped myself before I blurted out my plan.

"It... it's something I'd like to know..." I said. "I always like to know if my friends are OK. Even on my deathbed, I want to know."

Malfoy laughed. "I'm not that stupid, Lupin. Avada Ked–"

There was a loud noise from above, and then, a split second later, the roof was falling.

No. Not the roof. The ground. A huge chunk of dirt fell, and sunlight shone down into the underground area where I was about to be killed, and all I could see was a bright pink umbrella.

"Gra' on!" called a rough voice. I looked at Malfoy, who was brushing dirt off his shirt and squinting, then, realising when the ground had fallen, my bondage had been magicked off, and then I gripped onto the umbrella with one hand, and summoned my wand with my other hand. I was hauled up onto the main ground and looked up to see Rubeus Hagrid, the school gamekeeper.

I didn't know whether I was supposed to call him Professor or not, so I didn't use his name at all when I spoke to him.

"I... thank you for that... er, how did you find me? Do you know where my friends are!?"

"Yeh friends are a' the castle," said Hagrid, striding ahead. I had to jog to keep up with him. "Professor Dum'ledore tol' me there was a coupla missin' students, an' I looked in Hogsmeade, and sure enough, a coupla villagers tol' me they'd seen some kids bin taken underground las' night."

"Last night – so it's the eleventh?"

Hagrid nodded. I looked around, realising we were still in Hogsmeade.

"Oh, well... thank you for getting me and my friends out of there," I said.

"S'alright," said Hagrid as walked into the castle. "You injured?"

"No," I said. "But I am currently on Veritaserum."

"Righ', well yeh frien's were hur', they're in the Hospi'al Wing if yeh wanna visi' them," said Hagrid. "An' perhaps Madam Pomfrey'll give yeh an antidote."

"Oh... yeah, yeah, OK, I'll go visit them," I said. I thanked him again, then we split ways and I walked towards the Hospital Wing.

I arrived and saw James and Peter in hospital beds. Madam Pomfrey was tending to another patient and didn't notice me enter. James was asleep, but Peter was sitting upright, so I walked over to him.

"Hey, are you OK?" I said, finding myself scanning the room for Sirius.

"Yeah, I'm alright," said Peter. "A little shaken, I suppose. But I'm OK. What about you?"

"Yeah, fine," I said, looking back at him when I was a hundred percent sure Sirius wasn't there. "Where's Sirius?"

"Oh..." said Peter, fiddling with his hands. "He... he had to go home. He's in trouble."

"Are you fucking kidding me!?" I cried.

"Language!" Madam Pomfrey spun around to face me. "Mr. Lupin... what are you doing here?"

"Can I have an antidote for Veritaserum, please?" I asked. She raised her eyebrows, but walked into her office and came back with another potion. "Thanks."

I downed the potion in one go, then handed her the vial back.

"I'm fifty years old," I said, as a test. I then turned back to Peter. "When was he taken?"

"I don't know," said Peter. "I was asleep, and when I woke up, I asked where he was and that's just what Madam Pomfrey said."

I walked away from him and back to Madam Pomfrey.

"What happened with Sirius?" I asked.

"I'm busy, Mr. Lupin," she said.

"What happened!?" I demanded.

She sighed. "The death eaters that interrogated him took him to his house."

"How do you know this?" I asked.

"Because I saw them in Hogsmeade last night. I had to go to Hogsmeade to get some medicine, and I saw Mr. Black being handed to his parents," she said.

"And you didn't do anything about it?"

"It was his parents," said Madam Pomfrey.

"You don't know..." I internally cursed everything. Her, Sirius's parents, the Death Eaters, and myself, for not knowing what to do.

I walked back to Peter. "We have to do something."

"Yes, but... but how are we supposed to leave Hogwarts?" he asked.

"Let's go to the dormitory and try James's mirror," I said. Peter stood up and we rushed out of the Hospital Wing together, ignoring Madam Pomfrey's protests that Peter needed to rest.

We both ran to our dormitory, and Peter looked on James's bed while I opened his bag.

Clothes, undies, a spare pair of glasses, money, a few quills, every single school photo of Lily, and...

The mirror.

"Sirius," I said. Peter came over to me and looked over my shoulder. "Sirius, Sirius, Sirius, Sirius, Sirius, Sirius, Sirius, Sirius, Sirius, Sirius, Sirius, Sirius, Sirius, Sirius, Sirius, Sirius, Sirius, Sirius, Sirius, Sirius, Sirius, Sir–"

"Moony." Sirius didn't show his face, but he managed to speak into the mirror.

"Sirius!" I cried. "Where are you? Are you at Grimmauld Place?"

"Remus, it's fine," said Sirius. "I'm fine. I'll be back at school after the Easter break."

"No, you're lying," I said. "Sirius, are you at Grimmauld Place?"

"I'm not lying, please believe me, Moony," said Sirius. "Just wait. Sixth of April. I'll be on the Hogwarts Express."

"Why can't you come back to school now?" I asked.

"I... I'm just sorting some things out," he said. "I promise I'll see you at the end of the Easter break. Are you alone?"

"No, Peter's here," I said.

"Hey, Peter," said Sirius.

"Hi," said Peter.

"I'll see you guys in a month," said Sirius. "I've got to go... I'm just sorting some things out... so... bye..."

"We need to do something," I said.

"Maybe we don't," said Peter. "Maybe he really is fine. Maybe he's with his nice cousin or something."

"But maybe he's not!" I cried.

"Well... what if we contact him every day with the mirror, and if he doesn't respond for too long then we'll do something," said Peter.

I found myself fiddling with my hands, then decided to ask James for his opinion. We walked back to the Hospital Wing to find James was finally awake, but lying on his bed, looking miserable.

"Hey," I said. "Are you OK?"

"Yeah," he said.

"Sirius is with his parents," I said.

"What!?" James cried, sitting up. "We've got to go... how are we going to get there... we can't apparate... we could try the Floo Network..."

"James, we just spoke to him with your mirror..." Peter started.

"You looked through my bag?" said James, flushing with embarrassment.

"Why, what's in your bag?" Peter asked.

"Photos of Lily, but that's not the problem right now," I said, causing James to go even redder, but he nodded anyway.

"Remus did, and he found it, and so we spoke to Sirius, and Sirius said he just needs to sort some things out," said Peter. "So I think we should contact him every day and if he doesn't respond, then we should help him, but Remus thinks we should just jump in and go help him, so what's your opinion?"

"Let's... let's ask Regulus," said James. "Ask him if he knows anything."

"OK," said Peter.

"You two go, though," said James. "I would, but... but the death eaters did something to my legs... I can't walk."

"What did they do?" Peter asked.

"I'll explain later, go find Regulus!" James cried.

Peter and I left the Hospital Wing to search the castle. I checked my watch. It was 10:28 am, so Regulus would be in class.

Peter and I checked every single classroom, until finally, in the Charms classroom, we found the Slytherin third-years.

"Professor Flitwick," I breathed. "Can we please speak to Regulus?"

Regulus stumbled out of his seat, then walked reluctantly to the door to speak to us with an expression that said, 'What do you want?'

"Do you know what's happening with Sirius?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah, why?" said Regulus.

"Is he OK? Why was he taken home?" I asked.

Regulus sighed. "They're going to try to talk with him. I dunno, something to do with him being a... oh, it's his business. But they're trying to talk. It should be OK unless Sirius blows it for himself."

Peter and I exchanged a look.

"OK, thank you," said Peter, and we walked back to the Hospital Wing to tell James what Regulus had said.

"OK, so if they're just going to talk... then we should do what Peter suggested," said James.

"Fine," I said, trying to breathe through my worries.

During the next week and a half, leading up to the Easter Break, Sirius managed to respond to us through the mirror every day, and James's legs were fixed. Apparently, both of his legs had been snapped at both the thigh bone and the shin bone, but thankfully Madam Pomfrey was able to fix them quickly.

By the time James, Peter, and I were stepping off the Hogwarts Express for the start of the Easter Break, I was already desperately missing Sirius.

I smiled at my parents, who looked overly cheerful. I didn't want to ruin their mood.

"We have something to show you, Remus," said Mum. "We think you'll really like it!"

"Alright," I smiled. I took their hands, and then Dad apparated with us.

When we arrived at our destination, my mum immediately covered my eyes. We all walked (well, I was weirdly dragged and couldn't see anything), and five minutes later, Mum removed her hands from my eyes.

It was a small house. An apartment room. When I saw it I cried.

I felt stupid and weak, but I hugged my mother and sobbed tears of happiness into her shoulder.

"Oh my god..." I said, finally pulling away from her and looking around. "Oh my god! An apartment! I... our own place... I... wow... oh my god..."

"We've had it since the end of February," said Dad. "We didn't send you an owl about it because we wanted to tell you in person."

"Oh my god..." I said again. "I can't believe... oh my god!"

Dear Remus,

So glad you've got an apartment! Bit sad living here without you and your family, but it's good you've got your own place now! I'm so happy for you!

Anyway, Sirius still seems fine, surprisingly. It's a good thing he hasn't been harmed but it is odd and kind of suspicious.

Anyway, it's my birthday tomorrow, so I was wondering if you and your parents would like to come for dinner and you can spend the night if you want? Peter will be there too, and I've asked Sirius, but I don't think he'll be there. We were thinking of going to a muggle restaurant for the fun of it.

From James

Dear James,

The apartment is great, thank you!

I do agree, I think it is quite suspicious that Sirius's parents haven't hurt him (supposedly).

And I would come tomorrow night, but it's a full moon. I'm really sorry, and I hope you enjoy your birthday.

Happy birthday for tomorrow.

From Remus.

On the sixth of April, Sirius was, as promised, on the Hogwarts Express. I would have hugged him right there if there hadn't been a billion other people there.

"Hey," I said, trying not to sound like I'd desperately missed him.

"I need to tell you something," he said, then led me to a bathroom. "Remus. I... I don't want to do this anymore. You and me. I'm... I'm breaking up with you."