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It was still early afternoon and however much I tried I couldn't get back to reading. My mind was flooded in thoughts. Why would Peter cut his own finger off? It doesn't make sense. Nothing makes sense. Whenever I had a problem before I would go to James. He always knew how to advise me and help me clear my head. Sirius was more if I needed cheering up. Peter could never help me much, it was more the opposite, although being with him did make me feel smarter. It sounds too harsh under these circumstances. But what are the circumstances?...

My trail of thoughts is cut by a soft knock on my bedroom door, quickly followed by a small head with mousy hair. Her eyes were grave and the note in her voice almost exparated as she demands " Where were you? I've been looking for you all morning!"

"I was away." I answer patiently, in the calm way I knew so well how to use to an extent that could drive the rest of the marauders crazy.

" I noticed, I searched the whole place!"

I can hardly keep from smiling.

" I have some more information" eagerness is clear in her voice. She bounds forwards and trips on her own feet. Flustered and blushing deeply she gets up and sits herself on the edge of my bed, only to jump up from the spot and look at me worriedly.

"It's alright, you can seat" I assured her.

"Thanks" she nodded " so, yesterday night, I talked with Adam Pettigrew..."

"Pettigrew?"

"Yes, Peter's younger brother, he's a good friend of mine, we are the same year at Hogwarts"

I frown slightly. Could this be the boy that approached him earlier today?

"He said they came yesterday morning and presented his mother with an "Order of Merlin, First Class" and the only thing that was left from his body" she shivered" his finger!". Tears swelled up in her eyes." He-he said they were going to bury it..."

I nodded gravely.

"I was there this morning, I saw the burial"

" And do you think so too?"

"Think what?"

"That he cut his own finger off! That's what Adam said... do you think it's possible?"

" It did look like it but we can't be..."

"But that means he's guilty..."

"Sirius?"

"Yes, that was the only explanation we could find..." tears were streaming down her face" that he knew he was going to die and wanted something for his family to have..."

She was crying uncontrollably now, and, after some hesitation, I edge closer and wrap my hands around her small body. She stiffens for a moment but then relaxes in my grip and crys.

" I really don't think that's the case Tonks, Peter was never very close to his family..." I stroke her hair reassuringly.

" But Adam said, he said, that he grew closer to-to them in the past two ye-years." She fills her lung with air, gulping in small, shallow breathes." He said that, that, he came to vi-visit them often and was really-really caring and – he was with them when their father died..."

I have to concentrate hard to understand what she is saying as it is chocked and nervous and her voice is muffled by my now wet shirt.

My thoughts are even more troubled then before. He was hardly ever in cintact with his family as far as we knew and he didn't even tell his father had died. As far as he remembers, he had seen Peter almost every day for the past year and if he didn't he was on a mission and everyone knew.

Slowly Tonks calms down and she retracts from my chest, feeling a pang in my heart as she does so, and looks at my shirt nervously.

"I'm sorry"

" It's no problem" I reassured her.

"I , I have to go" and with that she leaves the room and I stay there with her words in my head and her tears on my shirt.