Chapter Two: The Aforementioned Plan of Attack (or A Series of Undeniable Failures)
"Pete," Lily said, sitting down next to him in Charms, "Pete Pete Pete. Peter."
Pettigrew looked at her sideways, "Lily," he said, cautiously questioning.
"I suppose you heard about my… Altercation with Potter yesterday, yes?"
"Heard about it?" He snorted with laughter, "anyone from 3rd floor up would have heard it while it happened!"
"Right." Lily blushed at the reminder. "Well, you know that he refuses to tell me what you all are doing every night, but I was wondering if you might be able to enlighten me."
Peter's eyebrows raised and his chubby hands fidgeted. "I don't think James would appreciate that," he said warily, "besides, not sure it would benefit me much either."
"We could change that," Lily smiled, "what can I give you in return for telling me?"
"Are you bribing me?" Peter whispered, shocked at the redheaded girl's statement.
"Pshh…" She motioned with her hand as if flapping away cornish pixies and concerns. "Maybe just a little incentive?"
"If you threatened to kill me, maybe I'd tell, but the guys mean everything to me!"
She sighed, but shrugged. She respected his stance on the matter. "It's okay Peter, I understand."
They spent the rest of Charms in mostly silence, apart from when Lily corrected him kindly on his wand motions. She quite liked spending time with him (especially in comparison to Potter and Black), when he was on his own he was a good listener, and didn't have the air of confidence and self-obsession that made so many men tedious. She had gone to Pettigrew first thinking that he would probably break more easily, but with hindsight she could see where her logic went wrong. While the others, perhaps barring Remus, were concerned with the secret and ramifications on themselves, Peter was concerned with pleasing them. So with an unrelated secret he would be the obvious choice to intimidate, but his admiration and glorification of Potter meant that he would do anything to stay in his good books.
In a way she felt sorry for him, such an unequal friendship hardly seemed healthy. But who was she to judge, she thought, reminded (as she was too often was) of Severus.
Undeterred by the previous attempt Lily cornered Sirius after Care of Magical Creatures, the only class they had together this year without the interfering eyes of his friends. After making sure Black would stay after class by surreptitiously jinxing a hole in his bag, letting out all manner of unexpected but satisfactorily chaotic magical items, she urged Mary to go up to the castle without her. A red Screaming Spinning Top burrowed its way into the grass with a high pitched wail. A vial of bubbling blue liquid broke and exuded an unpleasantly spicy smell that drove most of the sixth years off, and attracted some nearby toads. Sirius muttered "what a waste". Lily wrinkled her nose and stirred her determination.
Flashing her prefect badge at Professor Huxley she encouraged the hassled teacher to go tend to his incoming third year class while she helped clean up the mess. A Fanged Frisbee which attached itself to Huxley's coat helped motivate him sufficiently, and soon Lily was alone with Sirius.
She decided to get straight to the point.
"Tell me where you and Potter and the others go at night." She pulled out her wand and stood as tall as she could, putting on her best intimidating glare.
He stood up from where he had been crouched cleaning up the strange blue toad attractant and smiled at her. Several toads were leaping about his feet. He casually span the Spinning Top he had managed to extract from the ground between his fingers (it was calmed by the action and had finally ceased its screaming).
"Evans you're not going to hex me."
His self-assured grin just made her even more likely to, and he seemed to realise that when she brandished her wand closer to his face, almost poking his left nostril.
"Look, Lily." He dropped the cocky expression and the Spinning Top he was holding. "I'd love to tell you, but it isn't just my secret to share. It involves other people, people I care about, and I can't betray their trust. It's something we would all need to agree on before revealing, and while frankly I don't give a rat's arse about getting in trouble, I'm not the one who has the most to lose here."
His sincerity was only slightly marred by the loud screeches that had once again started from the Screaming Top below them and somehow even louder croaks from a toad which now was vehemently humping his shoe. She sighed and lowered her wand. She hadn't expected that kind of maturity from Sirius, who six months ago she was sure would have laughed and provoked her into actually hexing her. Momentarily she was disappointed because once again her efforts had been fruitless, but that feeling was quickly outweighed by appreciation of this new maturity, for while it may not help her in the short term it'd surely be a great benefit to the entire magical population. She wondered where it came from.
They walked back to the castle together, a reparo'd bag holding most of the objects that spilt out and wrought havoc (as well as some of the toads), and Lily decided this time to just accept the unexplained for its positive outcome rather than question it. A little sacrifice to allow her mystery solving energy to remain focused. Because of course there was no way she would give up on the bigger mystery here. She'd just have to try something new.
A couple of days later Lily found herself patrolling the castle with Remus, something they did begrudgingly each month as prefects. In thinking about how to best approach him she had debated several techniques, but in the end she had settled on a direct appeal.
"Remus?"
Lily stopped walking in the middle of one of the staircases on their way up to the 3rd floor. Remus paused on the stair below her. It wasn't unusual for them to talk on their rounds, about their schoolwork ("What do you think the best counter is for the Oppugno jinx? Would a magical shield work or would you need something physical?"), or their friends ("Sirius got another detention today, for telling Madame Fancourt his tealeaves showed her and Filch getting it on in Greenhouse IV"), or even what they thought was going to happen after they left Hogwarts ("I don't know"). Often Lily would ask about how Remus and his friends had pulled a certain prank. Remus would tell her most of what he knew while assuring her that he wouldn't let James know she had been interested. But they hadn't been doing many extravagant hoaxes recently, and usually he and Lily would continue patrolling while they talked, so Lupin tilted his head and paused expectantly.
Ready to launch into her prepared inquiry she looked across at him. He looked tired. He had bags under his eyes that seemed worse than usual, and he was leaning too rigidly on the staircase banister. His pleasantly curious expression seemed forced. Lily frowned with concern. She didn't like seeing her friend like this. So instead of her planned dozen persuasive questions (inundated with ample begging), she merely asked one.
"Are you alright?"
The staircase beneath them shuddered and jolted sharply to their left as whatever magical sentience it had been given decided it wanted it was a bit bored of staying useful. Lily, used to the contrariness of the staircases, managed to quickly grab hold of the banister. She only swung slightly around, her feet twisting on the spot as she leaned out backwards. Remus on the other hand toppled sideways and went down several steps head-first before he could he could clutch one of the railings. He lay there defeated for a few seconds before the staircase connected with another landing, stopping just as suddenly as it departed, and Lily could reach out and give him a hand up.
"I'm fine," he replied, in answer to both Lily's question and her clear concern about the fall he just had. She didn't believe him.
She stared at him with puzzle clear in her bright green eyes, and wanted more than almost anything to call him out on his lie, and find out the truth. But the thing she wanted more than that was to make sure he was happy, and arguing with him in this state would only make him feel worse. So she merely said "Okay," with the added caveat of "Just know you can always tell me anything Remus, I'm here for you."
She left it at that, and with a small smile each, one comforting and one relieved, they continued their patrol in considered silence.
As they finished up on the 6th floor and started on the familiar pathway back to the Fat Lady's portrait Lily's mind spun with new thoughts.
Her talk with Remus, while not very enlightening about the mystery, only incentivised her further to get to the bottom of it. He was obviously tired, and clearly staying out every night was only going to make that worse. He probably just didn't want to insult his friends by backing out of whatever nightly ritual they had going, and his friends weren't observant enough to realise.
Truthfully she had begun to wonder whether or not it was a good idea to continue pressing the issue just to sate her desire for satisfaction. With the warnings from Potter and Black tumbling through her head each night suggesting that someone could be hurt by the truth she had been considering calling it quits. But now it was clear that someone was already getting hurt, and by knowing what was going on she would be able to convince them to stop so that Remus could get adequate rest. Or at least that's how she justified it to herself.
As she internally validated her curiosity she considered why she had only just noticed Remus's exhaustion. And as they stepped back into the Gryffindor common room she realised why. None of the other boys looked tired. She had been so focused on James and Sirius she hadn't stopped to look closely at her friend. But come to think of it, why did none of the others look tired? Were they creating some kind of secret base, or digging a tunnel to Hogsmede and making Remus do all the hard work? Ooh that wasn't on her list! She shook her head. No, that didn't seem like them. They were a team and there was no way they would relegate all the work to one person.
She said a short goodnight to Lupin, who was wandering over to where his friends lounged near the fireplace working hard on something (schoolwork or mischief Lily didn't know), and walked up the stairs to her room. Once there she dived into her bed and pulled all of the drapes across, blocking out the world and the chatter coming from Mary, Marlene, Robin, and Jasmine. She was going to need to take some more drastic measures. It was becoming repetitive really, the amount of times she thought that. Yet it still rung true.
Well there is chapter two, I hope you liked it!
Your adoring Ravenclaw author