Chapter 4

Remus collapsed onto the bed, making Sirius jump up. "Whoa, watch it..." He clamped a hand to his stomach. "Thank god it's the last year we'll be doing that, I feel sick..." He moaned, burying his face into his pillow.

"I did warn you not to eat that Cauldron cake; you'd already finished what was on Wormy's plate too." Remus snorted, and stared at the ceiling.

From the opposite side of the room, James shushed them. "Can you keep it down? I'm trying to read." He sat by the window, Remus' book on his lap.

"Hey, that's my book!" Remus jumped up, and grabbed it off him. He began to scan the pages, making sure none were doodled in, or ripped, but everything seemed normal... "What have you done to it?"

James held up his hands to protest. "I haven't done anything, Moony! I was reading it!"

Padfoot snorted. "Since when did James Potter read?" making James shrug. "Oh, James, please tell me this isn't your new scheme to get Evans to go out with you."

Rolling his eyes, Remus fell back onto the bed, putting his book behind his pillow. He tried tuning their arguing out by opening his mouth to talk to Peter, when he realised he wasn't there. "You two, where's Petey?" neither James nor Sirius answered. He sat up again, and said louder this time : "I'm going to find Peter, I'll leave you to it." He figured they were too engrossed in their argument to even notice Remus was already half way down the stairs leading to the common room.

Another 7th year girl sat by the fireplace with her two friends. Remus approached them, and asked if they'd seen Peter.

"Who's Peter?" The first girl asked.

Before Remus managed to tell her, the third girl answered. "Isn't he that mousey boy you lot hang around with?" and Rem nodded.

"Oh, that one!" The first smirked. "Nope, he didn't come through with you, and he hasn't been in here since. Sorry."

A little disappointed, Remus mumbled his thanks and started to head towards the Hall, to check they hadn't left him behind because he'd collapsed on the floor from eating too much. Remembering to jump the step that disappeared, he walked down two, and jumped the other three. Once again, Peter was nowhere in sight when Remus reached the Hall. Where was he? It's not like Petey to wonder any more than 5 meters from James' side, and there weren't many places he'd normally go.

Remus sighed, and turned around to head back up to the common room when he saw them; A large Slytherin boy hung over Peter, hurriedly whispering to Peter in an aggressive way. Peter began to cower back on his heels.

"Hey, leave Pete alone." Rem called to the Slytherin, as he made his way towards the pair.

The boy twisted his head to face Remus, revealing him as Avery. "Alright, I'll leave him alone." Avery smirked and glanced over at Peter, before rushing off to the dungeons. When Remus found Pete, his face was white as a sheet.

"What did he say?" Remus snarled, feeling his fists tighten.

Peter shook his head quickly, making him nearly topple over. "Nothing!" He squeaked. "He didn't say anything! Let's go back up to the common room, I bet James and Siri are wondering where we are..." Peter attempted to push past Remus, but Lupin clutched onto his arm.

"No, Pete. Tell me what's going on, or I'll get Sirius to ask you." Remus' eyes flashed, and he added a stern tone to his voice.

"N-Nothing, I told you!" Pettigrew whined. "Now let me go!" He pulled harder on Remus' grasp, and started to run up to the common room.

"Wormy! C'mon..." Remus ran after him, shoving some third years out of the way. He made it up to the common room, seconds after Peter. Up in their dorms, James and Sirius were practising tying their ties with their wands. Peter ran straight into James who was tying Sirius' tie, making James flick his wand a little too high and started to choke Sirius with his tie.

As Sirius tugged and loosened his tie, Peter sat on James bed, staring at Remus. "What's going on?" James arched an eyebrow at the two, and Pete stuck his tongue out at Remus.

Remus frowned. What was Peter up to? "Nothing, Pete and I were just... playing bulldog. It's a Muggle game. And Pete just won." He slumped against the bed banister, determined to find out what was going on. I'll wait, he thought, when he least expects it...

James nodded. "I know what it is. Being a sore loser?" He smirked, looking at Sirius with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. "Remind you of someone, Siri?"

"Oh Merlin, James, you're not suggesting..." Sirius shook his head and looked at Remus from the corner of his eye. "That our Remus is turning into Sour Grape Snape's mini me?"

"Oh har har, really funny guys." Remus rolled his eyes, and fell onto the bed. "Can you shut up? I'm going to sleep."

James frowned. "It's only half past. It's a time I'd expect Evans to go to bed at, not a Marauder. Remus, you're losing your touch. We need a day of detention, that'll do you some good. It's been a while."

"That," Sirius began, "Sounds like a good idea, Prongs." Sirius jumped onto Remus, sitting on his stomach and causing Rem to gasp 'OOF!'. "C'mon, Remmy, you'll enjoy it."

The boy sighed. "Alright, but how are you planning to get this so desired detention?"

"Peter can make a diversion and we'll do what the hell we want. Simple." James shrugged.

This caught Peter's attention, making him snap his head around. "No, no way! I'm not getting involved again! You got me into trouble and you got away with it."

Sirius laughed. "Oh yeah! That was great." Prongs nodded and muttered 'Agreed.'

"Fine." Remus said. "We'll sort it out in the morning. Now can I please get some sleep?"

The other three mumbled their 'alright's, and Remus rolled over onto his face, ignoring their quiet talk and snuggled his face into his pillow, falling into a hazy dream.