Disclaimer: See Prologue

A/N: For everyone wondering what Emma looks like, look up the young woman in the Dolmio adverts. Her hair is even the same style. It frightened me when I was watching ITV earlier.

It was an awkward photograph. Peter's smile didn't reach his eyes. He looked decidedly flustered. His work as a double agent must have been severely affecting him, thought Harry bitterly. If he had known just how close to the truth he was, he would have been horrified.

Lupin sighed deeply. "This is why I sometimes find it hard to hate Peter," he explained. "There was something about him here, something more than a man who betrayed his friends because here he was quite the contrary."

"How would you know?" Harry snapped. "You're out of it here."

Lupin raised his eyebrows and spoke in a tone that frightened Harry. He was icily polite and immediately Harry felt the need to apologise. "Peter made the same mistake. I was not 'out of it', I was half-awake. I'm sure had Peter actually realised this then he would not have had an extremely incriminating conversation in my presence. He was certainly clever enough to pull it off for years. Had I any reason to suspect Peter, this conversation would have made sense but I did not. In fact, I so truly believed that the spy was Sirius that I didn't dream of worrying about Peter. I understand you're angry, Harry. So am I."

"Not with you," Harry mumbled.

Lupin softened. "And the conversation may not have gone exactly like this. I don't remember all the details. As you said, I was 'out of it'. I was drifting in and out of consciousness when I remember Sirius taking that picture. I'm not putting words in Peter's mouth but I may not get them exactly right. Though," he added quickly. "I did ask him about it after Anna died."

Harry nodded. "When you wanted a word with him?"

Lupin nodded. "We discussed the details of this conversation. He fed me lies and I swallowed them whole."

1980

"You promised me!" snapped Peter. "You promised you'd keep him safe. No matter the cost, you said." Lupin groaned softly and shifted. Peter swung round and stared at him. Satisfied, he turned back to Lupin's first visitor. "So what went wrong? Why is he here?"

Anna Mulciber sat down and had the sheer nerve to even light a cigarette in the hospital room. "Mr. Pettigrew, some credit please. You yourself know of what the Dark Lord is capable."

Peter shook his head. "But you can lie and you're the only one who can."

Anna raised her eyebrow. "Severus is also a highly skilled Legilimans. Peter, may I remind you that while both myself and Severus find lying absurdly easy, it's a little bit harder to cast a protective charm around a man in the middle of a battle and pass it off as a mistake anyone could make. If you would like to face Bellatrix, then please, be my guest."

Peter snarled. "So you just let Dolohov hit him then?"

She reclined further in the seat. "What would you have done then?"

Peter smirked. "For Remus? For Remus I'd face Bellatrix."

She scoffed. "And for James?"

No answer. Peter turned away and muttered, "If I were you, I'd stop talking about things I had no hope of ever understanding."

"What makes a Remus then? What makes a Remus different from a James?"

He could hear the amusement in her voice. "Mrs. Mulciber, you yourself know better than I. After all, you're the one who claims to have loved him."

"I still do." The smile was gone. "And at least I'm trying to help him. At least I know where my loyalties lie."

Peter spun round. "So do I! My boundaries are perhaps a little more personal but I know who I'm protecting. I'm not constantly choosing between my husband and my ex-boyfriend."

Anna glared at him, her chocolate eyes losing all warmth. For the first time, he was afraid. Although Anna would not dream of hurting him - at least, not in a public place - she was more than capable of betraying him to her husband. She was more than capable of destroying Peter Pettigrew herself.

And still, Peter did not know when to leave well alone. "I've got a question for you, Mrs. M., if Remus and Charles were slugging it out, who would you stand by?"

Anna took a long drag of her cigarette. "I would never allow that to happen."

Peter frowned. "Let's say that you have no say in the matter."

"Remus."

Peter smirked. "Oh really?"

Anna nodded. "Because he's far too honest to handle my Charlie. Remus is a firm believer in not kicking a man when he's down as it were. Charles will do it gladly and derive pleasure from it. I'd hate the very ground he walked on if I didn't love him so much. Still, c'est la vie."

Peter glanced down at his friend - his only true friend. He shuddered at the sight of the blood bag. The bright red liquid dripped slowly down the tube at regular intervals and in through the needle in Lupin's left hand. Peter winced; Remus hated needles. And in through the right, the needle supplied a constant pain killer. The bruises had not faded and Peter assumed they were caused by the rubble. It must hurt for him to even breathe. He turned to Anna and spat, "This is your fault."

For the briefest instance, fury blazed in Anna's eyes, but it died to flickering embers as she answered, "Yes, Peter, I freely admit it. If I hadn't pulled him away, Remus would be in the morgue with Meadows. If you'd rather that, I'm sure I can arrange it."

Peter shuddered.

"And one more thing, Pettigrew, next time you need a favour, you can bloody well ask someone else. You have no idea what I went through for that. You have no idea the pain he put me through. Few people have come out the other side when Riddle's pissed off with them. You'd do well to remember that."

He glanced out of the window. "His mum's here. She's not what I'd call your biggest fan."

Anna shrugged. "Yesterday night, I saved her son's life. She owes me."

"And Sirius and James," muttered Peter, smiling oddly. "I'd go if I were you. Sirius will slaughter you before you even open your mouth."

Anna hissed and Disapparated.

Peter listened to the strained gasps for breath and stepped back from the door as a frantic Emma Lupin pushed it open and ran to her son's side, perching herself on the end of the bed without so much as a backward glance toward him.

"Remus, my darling, can you hear me?"

Lupin groaned and sat up, wincing. "Where is she?"

Peter's terrified face gave away more than he would have liked. "What do you mean?"

Lupin did not have the chance to argue as Sirius burst through the door, "If he's not dead, I'm going to fucking kill him. I haven't slept all bloody night. And don't get me started on the Healers. Who the hell do they think they are? They think they can stop me seeing him in the night? Fucking bitches. I'll kill them too."

James smiled at Mrs. Lupin. "Sorry."

Lupin hissed in pain and propped himself up. Finally, he noticed the needles and cried out in alarm.

"What happened?" James asked, allowing no sentimentality; not yet.

"Voldemort," Lupin mumbled. "It was Voldemort. The Death Eaters weren't all there. We had four of them. He killed Dorcus, straight out, and then he went for me and…" He shook his head.

Emma squeezed his fingers. "And what, sweetheart?"

"I think I was pushed."

"Pushed?" Sirius cried. "Pushed by who?"

Lupin sighed irritably. "I don't know. They were all wearing masks."

"By a Death Eater?" James asked, his voice high pitched. "But who would do that?"

Sirius frowned. "And more importantly, why?"

Emma clicked her tongue. "Does it matter? He's alive. That's all that matters." She turned to look at Peter who looked as though he was about to be sick. "Poor Peter. He's so tired, bless him. Why don't you go home?"

"Thanks for sitting there, Pete," Lupin murmured, smiling. He frowned, not sure whether he had invented Peter's words After all, Peter couldn't have had a conversation. He was the only one in the room.

Peter waved it off. "You'd do it for me."

Sirius had perked up almost immediately. "Wormtail, you look like shit."

CLICK!

Lupin rolled his eyes. "Is that really appropriate?"

Sirius grinned. "Of course it is. I took the opportunity to get acquainted with your little baby while you were away, Remus, and I know how to work the flash now and everything."

CLICK!

Lupin shielded his face with the bedclothes but it was too late.

James sighed. "All right, we'll talk some more about this when you're feeling better. See you, Peter."

Peter waved and closed the door behind him, presumably choosing to walk home. He looked like he needed the fresh air anyway.

"What am I going to do with you?" asked James, sitting on the other side of the bed and pushing his friend's fringe out of his eyes. "I'll have to make you wear a collar with a little bell on it so I know where you are."

Lupin smiled grimly. "I couldn't save her, James."

He nodded. "I doubt any of us could have. No-one survives when Voldemort wants them dead, Remus."

Lupin tried to be blasé. "I suppose I'd better watch my back then."

Sirius shook his head. "I'll watch your back. You keep a look out ahead, alright? If he's two steps in front of you, there's no point looking behind."

Lupin nodded and laid his head on his pillow. Within seconds, he had fallen asleep and Sirius had pronounced him dead. James rolled his eyes. "Ill go and get some tea. Does anyone else want anything?"

Emma ignored him, staring down at her son, transfixed by him. Sirius signalled he would take the tea and waited for his friend to leave before he approached the woman who had been more of a mother to him than his own.

"Mrs. Lupin, I meant it. I love him. He's like a brother to me and as much as I hate Regulus, anyone who wanted to hurt him wouldn't get within a mile of him."

Mrs. Lupin threw her arms around him. "Thank you."

James kicked the door open, balancing four cups of tea and a large bar of chocolate. "Oh, do excuse me if I'm interrupting something. I'll just stand here like a tea tray, shall I?"

Sirius prised himself away reluctantly and took a cup for himself as his chosen mother. "Moony, wake up. James brought you some more of your dishwater tea and some choccie."

Lupin thanked him groggily and took a sip of tea.

"I think it's the painkiller," said James. "You haven't been letting Costello nurse you, have you?"

Lupin summoned the energy to make a rude gesture and ate a square of chocolate. "Can I smoke?"

"No!"

He rolled his eyes and drank more tea. "I just want to sleep," he mumbled, When he closed his eyes, he could make more sense out of things. He was convinced a woman had been in the room with Peter and he was convinced he had been saved and yet, how were either of those things possible?