After ten or fifteen minutes of searching, Kevin turned back towards the castle. "We have to get Dumbledore," he declared, his voice strained. The two other boys followed him at a run, bursting into the castle and through every shortcut they knew until they skidded to a stop outside the Gryffin in the seventh floor corridor.
"Uh . . ." James stared at the Gryffin.
"Are you sure this is Dumbledores office?" Kevin snapped, unusually tense.
"Yes!" Sirius replied hotly. "No need to be rude about it, we're at least as worried about Remus as-" He was interrupted as the Gryffin suddenly leapt aside, revealing a tall wizard with long, white hair and beard. Dumbledore looked at them gravely.
"What is the problem, boys?" he asked, surveying them over his half-moon spectacles.
"Remus is gone!" James told him before anyone else could answer.
"Where was he last?" Dumbledore queried, not at all ruffled by the boy's upset tones. James didn't answer, not ready to admit what they had been doing, but Kevin spoke up immediately.
"Near the Forbidden Forest, sir, we were just on the edges and we – got separated, we searched and couldn't find him, and I thought I heard somebody Stupefy him." The boy said it all in one breath, and after a moment's contemplation, James didn't understand the terrified expression on Kevin's face. There weren't any really dangerous creatures on the Forest's edge, and Remus would be fairly safe. However, Dumbledore seemed to disagree. He sprang into action without questioning why the boys had been near the Forest.
"Go back to Gryffindor Tower, and do not let anyone suspect that something is wrong," Dumbledore said sternly. "Stay there until Professor McGonagall contacts you in person."
He swept off down the hall, and Kevin turned to go to Gryffindor. James and Sirius hesitated. "What're you waiting for?" Kevin asked sharply, obviously agitated beyond what the situation called for.
"Don't you want to see where he's going?" Sirius asked. "It's just the Forbidden Forest, it's not like anyone's out to hunt us."
"Course, not even that stopped us last year," James reminded him, and they grinned. Kevin, however, was getting more and more upset the longer they stood there.
"You don't understand," he said, grabbing them by their robes and pulling them along after him. The boys followed unwillingly, but made no further complaint.
"Hey look, it's that Malfoy guy!" James whispered, spotting the pale blonde hair from across the corridor. Kevin looked up and met Malfoy's eyes; Malfoy looked confused and outraged, and whatever color was left in Kevin's face drained out.
"This way," he moaned, turning into an adjacent corridor and speeding up even more.
By the time they reached their dormitories, James and Sirius were almost certain Kevin had gone mad. The boy checked to see that no was outside the door, then slammed it shut and made it Imperturbable. His friends were impressed by the casual use of a fairly high-level spell, but Kevin was still pacing the room, wild-eyed and full of unexplained energy.
"Kevin, what's going on?" Sirius demanded.
"The guys that snatched Remus were after me," Kevin explained bluntly.
"You? Why?" James questioned, dumbfounded.
"I'm a prince," Kevin told them, speaking feverishly. "Voldemort's trying to take over my country, it's the largest Unplottable region in the world, and it's got a Secret Keeper as well, my dad, the king. Voldemort had people inside the country working for him, they kept trying to kidnap me to get my dad to let Voldemort in, so my parents shipped me off here to make it harder for Voldemort to get to me. I guess Voldemort has someone working here as well, they tipped off the Death Eaters to watch for a chance to collect me, I'm willing to bet it was Lucius."
"Did you know who the Malfoys were before you came here?" Sirius wondered.
"Yes," Kevin replied bitterly. "His dad had me under the Imperius Curse for three days, making me do slave labor while he tried to ransom me off. I got free that time, and I was lucky we weren't too far from the towns. But it doesn't matter, now that Lucius has seen me they'll know that they have Remus, not me, and if they realize who he is, he'll be worth more to them than I would be."
"Remus?" James asked, bewildered. He had been to Remus' home over the summer, and he knew that the Lupins weren't wealthy. How could Remus have more monetary value than a prince would?
"Remus is my brother," Kevin told them, finally sinking onto his bed. Sirius snorted, making James jump.
"Ok, now you've gone too far," Sirius said, shaking his head. "Situations are weird enough that I might have believed you were a prince. But we know Remus' family. He wasn't adopted. You just blew your little story."
"You think I would joke about this?" Kevin was shaking from fear and rage. "It happened when he was two and I was nearly two. Nine months apart, see. Some crackpot showed up before Voldemort started in on us, and kidnapped us. He must've handed off Remus to the Lupins, modified their memory and everything so they would think that he was their real son. We never found out what happened to him, had no idea the kidnapper had dropped him anywhere around here, until I met him on the train. They found the crackpot when he was getting ready to drop me off at some other house. He got locked up in Azkaban for it, they say he was a madman, always muttering to himself about –" Kevin stopped short. "About fulfilling orders," he completed wonderingly. "So Voldemort was working his way in even then. No heirs, no Secret Keeper, no kingdom."
"You said you felt like a reminder to your parents," James recalled. "And when Remus said something about being separated at two years old –"
"I almost thought he already knew," Kevin told them. "But he was joking. It shook me up when he said it, though, and I think he saw it."
"How do you know it's Remus that's your long lost brother?" Sirius demanded.
"I just do." Kevin shrugged wearily. "I don't have solid proof, but I know he is."
"James." Sirius was looking at his friend with a sudden joy, his mind having changed subjects with the blink of an eye. "James, whoever snatched Remus is in for it tonight. Remus will be back by tomorrow morning, especially with Dumbledore looking out for him."
James stared at his friend for a moment before it registered. The full moon, he thought, and a grin slowly spread across his face. "Don't worry about a thing, Kevin," he said happily. "Remus will take care of whoever kidnapped him, whether they were after you or not." Kevin didn't look reassured, but their confidence bolstered him through the rest of the evening. He removed the Imperturbable Charm from the door and feigned sleep as soon as Peter came in.