'Shouldn't we look for Peter first?' Sirius suggested.

'No! We have to make sure that Ron is okay! We don't know what can happen to him!' Hermione said. She was slightly panicked.

'Calm down, Hermione. Don't you think that we should stop Peter from telling the whole school about Remus first?' Sirius asked calmly. 'He said that he was going to make sure that everyone would know.'

'Come on, Padfoot, you know Peter. He is a coward. He doesn't even dare to show himself in the public, afraid that people would recognize him. Then people would also know that you are innocent and then his cover would be gone. He is just trying to scare us off with his empty threats,' Remus said, he saw that Hermione gave him a thankful look.

'So we are going to find Ron first?' Hermione asked.

The two men nodded in agreement and they opened their map once again.

'Can you see him?' Sirius asked.

'No,' Hermione said disappointed. 'Does that mean that he is not in the castle?'

'I don't see Peter either. He can't have gone out of the castle this quickly,' Remus said, deep in thoughts.

'But if he is in the castle, then he would be shown on the map, right?' Hermione asked again.

'The map never lies,' Sirius said. 'So he must be out of this castle.'

'Not necessarily…' Remus said absentmindedly.

Both Sirius and Hermione looked at him in confusion.

'We've made this map. That doesn't mean that it shows every room in the castle. We knew a lot, but not everything. Remember the Chamber of Secrets? It wasn't on the map either. And I've heard something about a room on the seventh floor…' Remus said.

'You may be right. But I would be surprised if there was a secret room at Hogwarts that we don't know about. Apart from the Chamber of Secrets, I mean. But how were we supposed to know about that? We are no parselmouths,' Sirius said.

'There is another room, believe it or not. The seventh floor. The Room of Requirement. It only appears when you are desperately in need of something. It is not always there, that is why it isn't on our map, remember? We have been there, but we couldn't put it on our map because it wasn't really there!' Remus said.

Sirius sighed in relief.

'So that means that it isn't on the map because we didn't know about it? Good. I was getting worried that we were failures,' Sirius said.

'How are we going to find Ron if that room doesn't exist?' Hermione exclaimed frustrated, ignoring Sirius completely.

'The Room of Requirement only appears when you really need it. So I suppose that it will appear when we all are desperately thinking of Ron and that we need to find him,' Remus said.

'Maybe Peter is there as well,' Sirius said.

'I hope for him that he isn't. I am going to kill that guy as soon as I get my hands on him,' Remus growled.

'Well, what are we waiting for? We need to get Ron!' Hermione yelled and she sprinted out of the office before the two men could even blink.

'I'll stay here, I guess… I can't really walk around, not even in my dog form. It's not that usual at Hogwarts to see a random dog walking through the corridors,' Sirius said, clearly frustrated by the fact that he couldn't just come with Remus and Hermione.

Remus, however, understood and he nodded. Then he quickly went after Hermione.

'So… Here it is?' Hermione asked.

'Yes, I am sure,' Remus answered.

Both Hermione and Remus were thinking of Ron the best they could, and suddenly a door appeared in the wall. Hermione wanted to run through the door, but Remus held her back.

'No, I'll go first. We don't know what is in there. It could be dangerous,' he said sternly.

'But I…' Hermione tried, but Remus gave her a strict look which made Hermione shut up.

Remus pulled out his wand and approached the wooden door carefully, closely followed by an exited Hermione. He pressed against the door lightly, so that the door would open very slowly. Then Remus looked carefully in the room, to see if there was anyone. It was awfully silent in there. It didn't feel good. The two walked further into the room and looked around for Ron.

It was a very large room, with almost no light. There was a very small window from where the little light came. The room was almost completely empty, except for a small table on the other side and a few wooden chairs. All together it gave a creepy impression.

'Remus?' Hermione asked hesitantly, but Remus signed that she had to be silent. He could hear something, but he couldn't see where the sound came from. He walked towards the source of the sound and found that there was a big cage in the far corner.

'Ron?' Remus asked carefully. There was a sound again, like someone was shifting.

'Peter?' the voice of Ron came, he sounded angry. 'Are you going to tell me why I am here yet, or do I have to be here for another couple of hours?'

'We are not Peter,' Hermione now said.

'Hermione!' Ron called in relief. 'Thank God! I've been here for almost three hours! And I am thirsty! Where is…'

But Ron couldn't finish his sentence. Behind Hermione, a man appeared. It was Peter, he had been there the whole time, in his rat form.

'Are you looking for me?' Peter sneered and then he grabbed Hermione from behind. She dropped her wand in surprise and her face went pale in fright.

'Let go of her,' Ron demanded angrily. 'Tell me why I am here!'

'You were just the bait. You can't get out of that cage, if you try, then you will die. Now here is the deal… DROP YOUR WAND!' Peter yelled suddenly when Remus pointed his wand at him.

Remus did as Peter told him to, he was too afraid that something would happen to Hermione. Peter may be a coward, but he was not stupid. Far from. He was also dangerous. Remus believed that Peter was capable of hurting Hermione when he had to.

'Good… Now… I'll tell you what I want. I just want to make sure that neither of you is going to tell the world about me. Now that Sirius is free, my cover is useless. So I want you to swear to me that you won't tell anyone. All of you. With an unbreakable vow,' Peter said, still holding Hermione with a firm grip.

'We would never do such a thing,' Remus dared Peter.

'So you want me to kill your little girl?' Peter snapped.

'You wouldn't kill her. I know that. You can't. You are, again, making empty threats,' Remus said with a strong voice, he sounded more confident than he felt. But he had to do something, otherwise Sirius would never be free. But he didn't want Hermione to be in danger either.

Ron held his breath. He looked terrified as Remus took one step closer to Peter and Hermione, he was afraid that Peter would really kill Hermione. How on earth could Remus know that Peter wouldn't kill her? He could never be sure about that! This was too dangerous.

'I'll do it! I'll do the unbreakable vow, just leave Hermione alone!' Ron shouted.

'Good lad. Now you two… Remus?' Peter asked, looking at Remus.

'Do you really think that you can fool me with this?' Remus asked, taking another step closer.

'I swear that I will kill her if you don't back off! I've killed before!' Peter said, tightening his grip on Hermione.

'And what when you have killed her? Then what? Then you are powerless. You know that. And you are just too selfish to risk your own life, too cowardly,' Remus growled, taking another step closer.

Now there was a little trace of fright on Peter's face. He clearly hadn't thought about that part yet. His wand was somewhere far away, he hadn't seen it in ages. All that time he had been a rat. He knew what Remus was.

'I'm warning you, back off, or your girl will pay the price!' Peter shouted.

Remus let out a low growl, which made Peter wince.

'Back off, you filthy werewolf!' Peter commanded again.

'You are not allowed to threaten me, and you are certainly not allowed to threaten my mate. You will regret this, Peter. This will be the last mistake you'll ever make. One more chance to let her go…' Remus said with dangerously flashing eyes.

Peter didn't let go of Hermione. Remus saw that he was struggling with himself, he just didn't know what to do. While Peter was still arguing with himself, Remus felt himself becoming furious. He had to protect his mate. He had to kill the man who was threatening her. He felt the wolf taking over and before he knew what was happening, he jumped towards Peter and grabbed him, so that they fell on the floor together.

Hermione took a step back and watched Remus being in a fight. She knew that she didn't have to help with her magic, Remus would win this anyway. She saw that his eyes were almost entirely yellow, which meant that he was really angry. He was even more angry than he was with Ron. Remus punched Peter over and over until his knuckles were bleeding.

He didn't want to stop. He couldn't stop until the man was dead. He was the reason for James' and Lily's death. He was the reason for those twelve years of Azkaban. He had been threatening his mate. He had no right. Therefore, he had to die. He didn't deserve to live. He could smell the blood. Peter was now begging for him to stop, but he didn't. He felt bones breaking under his fists. He kept hitting the man beneath him until there was no sign of life anymore.

Remus quickly got off Peter, suddenly realizing what he had done. His face was white and he was breathing very heavily. Then he looked at Hermione, who was pale as well. She was shocked. No, she was frightened. Of him? Did she fear him? Of course she did now, she must think that he was a completely insane monster. Which he was. Sometimes.

'Is he… he is… have you?' Hermione wasn't able to bring out a whole sentence.

Remus looked away from her and then he carefully felt the wrist of Peter, looking for a pulse. There wasn't a pulse. He really had killed him. While it wasn't even full moon.

'I think I… He is… dead…' Remus brought out and then he let himself sank down to the floor.

The twelfth chapter! Let me know what you think! I am sorry, it was a little bit cruel, but I felt that Peter kinda deserved it (do I sound bad now?). I never really liked that guy. Ron is going to be okay! Don't worry, he will get out :p

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