Chapter 8
October 23, 1976

"There you are, Evans! What took you so long?!" Sirius shouted as she came down the stairs to the girls' dormitory. James quickly messed up his hair and sent her a smirking grin.

I rolled my eyes, knowing that it would be a long night.

"Where are we going, Remus?" she asked me, completely ignoring the other two.

"Yeah, where are we going, Remus?" repeated a cross armed Sirius, leaning too close towards me for comfort. I pushed him away, for he knew very well where we were going.

"The Room of Requirements," I answered.

"The Room of Requirements? What's that?" Lily asked, looking very skeptical.

"It's this room that shows up whenever you require it," James was quick to answer.

Lily glared at him. "Thank you, Potter."

"It's this room on the seventh floor that almost doesn't exist. It's only a wall, no door. If you walk past the wall three times, thinking about only what you would need for a room, a door will appear and you can go inside to your perfect room or whatever," I explained.

Lily blinked in astonishment. "Are you serious?"

"No, I am!" Sirius proudly proclaimed to the room, earning himself the next glare from Lily.

I found myself grinning at Lily's misfortune. "No, I'm not Sirius, but yes, that's what the room does."

"Well let's go. It will be illegal for anyone to be outside of the Common Rooms soon and I don't particularly care to be caught," Lily headed off for the Fat Lady's portrait.

"You'll be breaking school rules with us then, Evans?" questioned Sirius.

She spun around and stood on her tiptoes to be at a more equal level as him. Hands on her hips, she said, "To help Remus, yes." And she was the first one to leave the Common Room. The four of us closely followed her and we snuck to the hall where the Room of Requirements was hidden. We had to walk back and forth of the place quietly and quickly. We chose not to bring the Invisibility Cloak as that might have gotten James into huge trouble. I trust Lily, but not with something that would land James or Sirius into heap loads of trouble.

Because she'd probably be more than willing to turn them in.

Anyway, the third time past that wall and the door appeared for us to go inside. Peter turned the doorknob and the door swung wide open. The room was modestly size. About the size of our dormitories. Royal blue banners dressed the walls and a table sat in the middle of the room atop a round, Persian rug. Cinnamon scented candles and a fireplace lit up the room and five beautifully carved chairs were pulled into the table.

"Whoa…." Lily's jaw hit the floor; she was truly amazed.

"Come on." James pushed through us. We all followed him and entered the room as well. I closed the door behind us.

"So now what?" Peter asked.

"We need to establish conversation with her," Lily answered.

"Just shout out for her then," replied James.

"This is a very delicate matter, Potter, and we won't be treating it otherwise," she snapped back.

"Everybody calm down, please," I interrupted. "James, Lily is right. I think it best we don't argue and only one, maybe two, of us actually talk with her. We don't need to scare her off, Padfoot," I added. Sirius pouted.

"Let's all sit down, please. I'm going to try talking to her," and without another word of protest, everyone took a seat and quietly waited. I sighed and closed my eyes, trying to block out all outside distractions and to get my mind as blank as was possible. I need to try to connect with her, but after five minutes of trying, absolutely nothing had happened. I shook my head and opened my eyes.

"What happened?" asked Peter.

"Nothing, I can't find her," I shook my head.

"Maybe we could try a séance," proposed Lily.

"What's that?" Sirius asked.

"It's basically the muggle way of trying to communicate with ghosts," she explained.

"What do we need to hold a séance when we can just call out for her?" Sirius wondered aloud.

"Because that would be disrespectful and she might be sensitive."

"Disrespectful?! I ask Nearly Headless Nick for History of Magic help almost every day!"

"It's different!"

I stood up and looked up at the ceiling. "Hold my hands," I instructed. They looked at me curiously but all stood up and joined hands. "Cecil Marie Reid, are you with us? We wish to speak with you. We mean no harm whatsoever. This is Remus Lupin."

Silence. There was absolutely nothing.

And then-

"Who are they?"

I sighed if relief, she had come. "They are my friends. They mean no harm whatsoever. They want to help you."

"Can I trust them?" she shyly peeked her head out from behind a cabinet.

"Yes. They know everything I know. You can trust them."

She slowly came out from behind the cabinet and drifted to our table, but kept a safe distance away.

"This is Lily and then James, Sirius, and Peter," I introduced her to them. She silently nodded her head.

"How old were you?" Lily asked kindly.

"It was my first year," she answered.

"And what happened?" Lily continued.

"I don't think I should tell you!" Cecil drifted further from the table.

"Please? We only want to help you," she reassured.

"I…."

"Tell them what you showed me that night," I softly spoke up.

She didn't say another word for a while. I think Sirius grew slightly impatient of this, but he thankfully said nothing to scare her off.

"There were a group of Slytherins and they found out about my secret. They pulled me out of the castle on the night of the Halloween Feast and-"

CRASH!

The cabinet fell to the flood. Peter screamed in shock.

"Get out of here now!" Cecil warned us before disappearing through the wall herself.

"What's going on?" asked Sirius, confused. A loud echo of laughter filled the room then, but it was far from bright. A harsh wind blew through the room the, and between that and our own screams, we could hardly hear the laughing. The candles blew out and there was nothing but darkness and laughter and screams and whirling winds.

And as soon as it started, it stopped again. The candles all magically relit themselves again and everyone was ashen and pale as a ghost.

"Is everyone alright?" I looked around the table. Lily, James, Sirius, Peter….

God.

Peter was gone.

A/N- That time of the week already? I haven't been writing this for four weeks now, only typing it in. And I could keep that up for another month, but then I'd have no my to type. I need to write three more chapters and then it's done. That'll be a relief.

And cos I know everyone cares for Peter's welfare, everyone will be back next week anxiously awaited what happened to him, right ::listens to the crickets:: Yeah….

We're gonna take a trip to Toronto this year to see a musical. My mom wants to see The Phantom of the Opera, my brother wants to see We Will Rock You, and I'm honestly torn between the two. Ugh.

This chapter is dedicated to Lori of course for being reviewer number ten. Thanks to everyone for playing! There will be more chances, I assure you!