Chapter 6
October 10, 1976

To say the very least, Peter ran out of there faster than any of us knew he could run. And we weren't too far behind him either.

We made it to the edge of the Forbidden Forest when James had enough sense left to stop us to get under the Invisibility Cloak. We dashed to Gryffindor Tower as quickly and as quietly as we possibly could.

When we were in the safety of our dormitory, James pulled back his cloak and Peter transformed back, rooted to his place like a potted plant.

"What the hell was that?!" Sirius shouted before James could close the door. He closed it immediately afterward, though, and cast an Imperturbable Charm on it.

"What do you know?!" Sirius continued.

"Not much more than I've told you already," I defended myself against Sirius.

"What aren't you telling us?!"

I held my tongue and went to the foot of my bed, to my trunk. I opened it and shifted things around until I found my own copy of Hogwarts, A History. I turned through the yellowing pages until I found the right page. I set the book open on my bed and we all gathered around to read it.

"'There were only three murders ever at Hogwarts. The first, in 1066-'" James read aloud.

"Next one," I interrupted. They looked at me and then back to the book.

"'The second murder occurred in 1476, when a first-year student, Cecil Marie Reid, was found stabbed to death in the Forbidden Forest on October the 31st. Her murderers are still unknown and their motive for attacking her is also unknown,'" James finished reading. "That's it?"

"Don't you start that now," Sirius moaned.

"Why didn't they just use the Avada Kedavra curse to kill her? Why go through all that trouble stabbing her?" Peter spoke up, surprising me. I hadn't even noticed that. Why had they resorted to muggle ways of killing when they were wizards…probably anyway….

"I…." I shrugged and suggested the sadistic. "I don't know. Maybe they wanted her death to be more…painful…."

"Or they were muggles and couldn't use magic," James stole the words out of my mouth.

"Then how did they find Hogwarts?" challenged Sirius. James shrugged.

"I don't know. Those first-years get lost all the time."

"She got lost all the way outside into the Forbidden Forest?"

"I kind of doubt her murderers were muggles, Prongs," I interrupted again. "Muggles can't find Hogwarts unless they know where it is and I doubt anyone would go through so much trouble."

"I think they had it planned ahead of time," Sirius began. "As grim as it seems, I think Lupin was onto something. They wanted her to die a painful death, not just be over and done with it with Avada Kedavra."

"She probably wasn't well-liked, then," commented James.

"Obviously not," Sirius rolled his eyes.

"I wonder why, though…." Peter said.

"Maybe she was a jerk," James shrugged.

"Maybe she wasn't pureblooded," Peter piped up, receiving a look of astonishment from James and Sirius. He shrunk back, "Maybe, I don't know…. It would have been a novelty then!"

James looked out the window at the nearly full moon. "Maybe…."

"That could be it!" Sirius shouted excitedly. It was a good thing we had an Imperturbable Charm cast on the room or else he would have woken somebody up for sure. "That could seriously be it!" Peter looked up hopefully.

"Congratulations, Peter, you're finally growing a brain!" James cheered, sling an arm around the shorter boy's shoulder.

"I'm not stupid, you know," sulked Peter, easing away from him.

"Why'd she come to us?" I spoke up for the first time in a few minutes.

"Huh?" They turned to look at me in surprise, as if they'd forgotten I was still in the room.

"She had five hundred years to talk to anyone she would ever want to. Why us?" I repeated my question.

James lowered his eyes to the floor unsurely. Peter shrugged.

I sat down on my bed. "What does she want from us anyway? From me?! Why am I the one she's visiting and not James or Sirius or Peter or Dumbledore? I doubt she wants us to avenge her death; her killers have been dead for centuries. But back in that cavern, with those writings…what is she trying to get us into?"

"You mean you're giving up on this?" Sirius questioned.

I sighed. That wasn't the way I'd have put it. "I realized back in that cavern, when Wormtail fell through the tree and we saw that writing…. If it's going to hurt my friends, then yes, I am quitting. I won't have you lot hurt because of some ghost girl visiting me with her problems. You're all more important to me than that."

There was a long, uncomfortable silence where a minute ago there had been jovial celebrating. After five minutes of staring at each other, Sirius coughed and excused himself off to bed, uncharming the room. James and Peter followed quickly, and I last. I was grateful that Frank hadn't been in our dorm during our discussions. He came in quietly, though, trying to make as little noise as possible so he wouldn't disturb us. He clicked the door shut and jumped upon turning around, for he hadn't expected to see me awake.

"Oh! Remus, I didn't think you'd still be awake," said Frank. "The rest of your lot up, too?"

"Yeah, but we're all gonna hit the sack soon," I answered.

"Well, 'night," he waved, going into the bathroom to brush his teeth.

"Goodnight," I called to him before I changed into my pajamas and crawled under the sheets. It wasn't until after I heard James, Sirius, Peter, and Frank crawl into bed themselves that I began dozing off.

And for once, it was no nightmare. It was just a regular, normal dream –

Until I heard something near me….

I felt suddenly colder and colder as something was coming closer. My eyes snapped open and I saw the ghost girl by my bedside.

She pressed an invisible finger to her lips. "You have to help, Remus. I need you."

I blinked the sleep out of my eyes to make sure I wasn't still dreaming. "Why do you need me? Why not anybody else?"

She looked shyly down at her feet. "I dunno. I guess you're nice," she shrugged.

I shut my eyes, bit down on my tongue, and took in one long, deep breath. "What was the writing on the wall about?"

"They don't like people nosing around," Cecil explained.

"I don't want my friends hurt, Cecil. Don't you see that?! I don't even know what you do need!" She was silent. "I couldn't help you even if I wanted to! What is going on?!"

"It would kill your friends if anything happened to you, wouldn't it?" she asked.

"What?!?"

"Please, Remus…if not for my sake than yours! You're in danger - "

"What are you talking about?!" Just then, that loud, laughing noise that had filled the Shrieking Shack haunted our room. The candles flickered on and off again as Cecil retreated through the floorboards.

And as soon as it had started, it was over. I lay in my bed breathing heavy in and out. There were loud complaints heard around the room, enough which brought the Head Boy in. He promptly took away five house points each and sent us al to bed once more.

And I knew it would be another long, sleepless night.

A/N- Cliffy...not like it matters. Hope this was an enjoyable read. I'm planning on posting the next chapter in a week, but if that doesn't happen, it will be two weeks. I'll shoot for one week, though.