Where the bloody hell had Pete gone? He was getting worried by now, it had been a couple of hours. Of course, Remus was listening to Padfoot, Prongs, and Lily talking about their plans to get James out of the school, when they would be able to tell McGonagall about all that had happened (they were thinking tomorrow morning), how he would get to London without being caught, who would go with him (probably Lily), and so on. But, over the years of dealing with his transformations, he had developed the skill of focusing his mind on as many things as possible, so that he wouldn't have to think about his condition. Especially at times like this, so soon after a full moon, it was incredibly helpful to be able to clear his head of all those thoughts. Right now, sitting in the common room, his brain was fixed on Pete's disappearance (he would probably go look for him in a few minutes and find him snogging Emmeline Vance behind a tapestry somewhere), James' parents, organizing the prefect duty roster for Gryffindor (which he had already organized into an elaborate chart based on all of the prefects' schedules, complete with color-coded flashing ink telling him who was on duty where- a little touch of Lily's), what the best way was to contact Dumbledore, his mother's birthday coming up in October, the two feet of parchment that Binns was demanding on the giant wars by Tuesday (why on Earth the staff had decided to set the first day of classes on a Friday was a mystery to him), and just whether or not Greta Catchlove had actually snuck into the common room to shag Dirk Cresswell the night before. And right now, especially, he was thinking about how exhausted he was. The first week after a transformation was always tiring, his body not fully comprehending what state it was in, the nocturnal wolf inside him keeping him awake until the wee hours of the morning while the conscientious student tried to get at least an hour of sleep. Slowly, Remus let himself refocus on the conversation around him.
"Are you absolutely sure Mom said she saw old Archie? Like my old man's old man? What the fucking hell?" Sirius was pacing around the room, pausing every now and then to push his hair out of his eyes and rant. James' head was hanging low- he and Lily had tried to keep that piece of information quiet, but Sirius had quite the puppy-dog eyes, even when he wasn't masquerading as Padfoot.
"Yes, love, we're sure! But you have got to stay here, Sirius, okay? We need you here, someone has to pester Dumbledore for information!" Lily was pleading with him, seeing the look in the boy's eyes that usually meant he was off to jump in the lake in midwinter, or try to levitate himself up to the ceiling in the Great Hall. This time, however, Remus was certain that their friend was going to try to go and singlehandedly defeat Voldemort and all his followers, just to get back at his grandfather. Lupin looked over at Lily, who was giving him the look she gave him when he was too lenient with a troublemaking third year, or when he wouldn't talk to her after a transformation, or when he had spent ten hours in the library for an essay and hadn't slept. It was her "you'll-never-become-a-professor-with-that-attitude-now-come-here" face, and he knew it all too well.
"Hey, Sir, come on, let's go take a walk. Your family's crazy, remember? Try repeating that to yourself, you don't have to prove anything to your old man's old man. Want to help me look for Pete?" Remus walked over, taking Sirius' arm and pulling away from the window, out of which he was staring despondently. At the mention of Peter, Paddy rolled his eyes.
"For Wormtail? Yeah, I'll come. Even with Emmeline Vance, the girl of his wet dreams, you know he wouldn't have lasted this long. Maybe they fell asleep in a broom cupboard or something, let's go." The hint of a smile passed over his face, and Remus laughed. It was true. They started to walk out of the room, and as he looked over his shoulder, Lilypad shot him a thumbs-up. As he watched, she moved a bit closer to James, as the two began poring over his mother's letter again.
ARCHIE? Not that he was surprised, but- did the man ever stop? 76 years old, and still supporting evil, mad, bigoted wizards trying to ruin the Wizarding world for the rest of them. Honest-to-Merlin, was it necessary? Sirius didn't see why his grandfather couldn't just stay in his manor house and leave well enough alone. It was no wonder Regulus had been named after him, old Arcturus was just as filled with ridiculous ideals of a pureblood-only world as little Reg was. Moony was right, all of the Blacks were crazy and Sirius needed a walk. It was a residual effect of spending at least three or four days a month as a dog, but he was always restless, wanting to be outside no matter the weather. Remus always knew when he needed to get out, so they had taken to exploring the castle more, trying to navigate without the Map, always willing to bump into a girl or two.
"So, Moonboy, where do you suppose Pete's run off to?" Remus was walking ahead of him, looking back and waiting for Sirius to catch up.
"Honestly, Pad, I have no idea. I mean, Emmeline's pretty, but you know he would be finished and back by now! If that's even where he went, but don't you think we would have heard about it?" Moony sighed, swiping his dusty brown hair out of his eyes (a tell-tale sign he was worried- if he was focusing on things or enjoying himself, Sirius knew he would always just let his hair hang into his face). As they reached the Great Hall, taking the long way instead of the shortcuts that they had memorized years earlier, it seemed too quiet. Peeves was usually blowing around, hoping to catch someone out of bed (or a couple, which was even better) as an excuse to call Filch down and wake up some professors. Invoke general chaos, per usual. But the poltergeist didn't seem to be out tonight. Given that only the bloody Bloody Baron could actually control the damn apparition, the entire situation was relatively suspicious. It looked like Remus had noticed it too, he kept peeking over his shoulder and stopping in his tracks,
"Moon, is this- is this weird to you? I know it's only the second night of term, but shouldn't there at least be some-" he didn't finish the question. Moony had a finger to his lips, with a look on his face that Sirius unfortunately recognized. He had seen that face around the full moons, when his friend's canine senses were at their height. It meant that he had heard or smelled something, something bad. Catching Remus' eye, he pointed down the corridor that led to the dungeon. At the taller boy's nod, Sirius instantly knew what was going on. In one of Pete's letters from the summer, he had mentioned that Avery and Mulciber had been hanging around his neighborhood. They had been doing to same to Reg, but of course the dolts had been invited into 12 Grimmauld Place, given seats of honor next to Sirius' old man. Old Orion was almost drooling, he was so honored that his son had been chosen to lead (in his head) the Dark Lord's army. Of course, Sirius had learned all of this not through his brother, but through that damn Kreacher, who had been sent to "keep an eye" on him at the Potter's.
Now Pete's disappearance made some sense. Why in the bloody hell the Death Eaters thought that little Peter Pettigrew would be a good addition to their forces, he would never understand, but there was no way in Azkaban that he would let his friend go through that. Pete was the loyalest person he had ever met (except for Lily, maybe… Pete was the most faithful guy he had met, then), they had to be holding him against his will. With Moony leading the way, the pair crept down the corridor. Those Slytherins weren't smart enough to have found any of their shortcuts, they must be in the dungeons, down in the snakes' common room. If he saw Regulus, he swore to Merlin, he would probably hex him on the spot, that boy was causing enough trouble as it was. He was too soft, he couldn't see that the pureblood mentality was po- a muffled cry from farther down the dark corridor (all of the torches had been extinguished, but both Sirius and Remus had decent night vision, thanks to their canine dispositions) shut down his train of thought.
The two boys started running into the darkness, wands held out in front of them. The yelling grew louder and louder, until they reached a bend in the stones and ground to a halt, trying their best not to breathe too loudly. Sirius's ears perked up- he could hear Peter arguing with someone, yelling at them… There was something they wanted that he couldn't do, that he was refusing to do. He wasn't go to… betray his friends? Those bloody slimy bastards! Pete would never join their slippery crew of pureblood arseholes, he was too pure, too simple and kind to ever make ranks with the likes of them. He was caught up in his mental rant when he felt an elbow in his shoulder. Moony had that face again, and looked incredibly distressed on top of it. Then, Sirius heard the voice he had been dreading.
"Listen, Pettigrew, the Dark Lord needs an insider like you with us! You have been chosen by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, you should be honored to be an agent for our side." Regulus' words were rushed, almost shaking with excitement. " And if you're not feeling quite the way we wish, you know that our forces are posted outside your home, and that blood traitor Vance is being watched, as well! Join us… Peter. We need your knowledge of Dumbledore, of everything the other side is doing!" Sirius rolled his eyes at this; as far as he knew, Pete barely knew about the Order of the Phoenix or that Dumbledore had been recruiting students since last year. In fact, Mam Potter's letter might have been the first time he had really even heard about the war. His mind quieted as Reg's voice piped up again, cutting through Pete's unintelligible protesting- they must have gagged him.
"What's that, Peter? Oh, we can let you go now. Lads? Untie our friend here. He has quite a lot to go tell Gryffindor." His brother's voice sounded so young, he shouldn't be doing any of this. Merlin damn their parents, poisoning Regulus' mind with their pureblood talk… Although, Sirius thought with some pride, Reg seemed to be a leader among the Slytherin Death Eaters. At least he had managed that much. Give Walburga something to gossip about with her other pureblood crones. Then they heard Wormtail coming down the passage, and they had to act fast.
Peter dropped to the ground, the Sticking Charm binding him to the wall finally letting go. Gasping, he rushed down the corridor, forcing his stiff legs to move faster. As he rounded the corner, praying to Merlin he was going the right way, he was suddenly pulled off his feet and into the wall. Oh my God. They're going to kill me. This is it, I said I wouldn't join and now they're going to kill me. He tried to scream, but there was a tight hand over his mouth and he couldn't make a sound. Whoever his captors were, however, it seemed like they were taking him up, out of the dungeon, back into the castle where he came from. He could barely hear a thing, but he smelled something familiar- it was like a mix of wet dog and cologne… Oh, Merlin. Thank you. His entire body relaxed, knowing his best friends had come to find him. As they emerged into the dim light of the Great Hall, Moony and Pad let him go, and he enveloped them in a huge hug.
"Did you hear everything?" he asked, still trying to get his breath back.
"We saw enough, alright? Tell us the next time something like this happens, mate!" Sirius' face was grim, and Pete decided not to ask him anything else until they were safely behind the Fat Lady's portrait. Remus smiled faintly (this was probably more stress than he needed only a few days after a full moon), and shoved Peter a little bit with his arm.
"Come on, men. We've got a nice story to tell Lily and Prongs, haven't we?" At this, Sirius exhaled a bit of laughter.
"We can't tell it to them if they're already shagging, Moony! Let's go catch them before it gets too hot up there."