Chapter five already! I'm getting in the groove of this story now! =D

Hope you like it as ususal! And thanks to my mind twin, Whitewolf200056 for betaing! XD

Remus sat down at his desk tiredly, leaning his head on his hands. He was worried, he couldn't deny it. He knew something was going on. There was almost something in the atmosphere. Like it had been building up for a long time, and it was just reaching a fever pitch. Of course, he often did feel this way on the day of a full moon. Though, this time it was different.

He looked at his wristwatch, noting that it was nearly eight o' clock. Severus was to come by and drop of a goblet full of Wolfsbane potion for him in just a few minutes. He was exceptionally lucky that Severus made him the potion every month. He wouldn't be able to teach at the school in good conscience without it. He was forever grateful to his old school 'enemy', though Severus obviously still held a grudge against him. The occasional threat to reveal his werewolf status to the school and always thinking that he was be untrustworthy.

Though, was he untrustworthy? Albus definitely placed his trust in him, but should he really? Severus had tried to argue with the headmaster before, saying he might be helping Sirius Black into the school. Albus trusted him completely though. And he would never let Sirius into the school, around the children, especially around Harry.

However… he might as well be letting him in. He had another internal debate with himself whether he should tell Albus about Sirius' animagus form or not.

No, he thought. The escaped convict was most likely using Dark Magic to get inside the castle. He probably learned it from Voldemort himself. The information that Sirius was an animagus was unimportant. A little pang of mistrust ran through his mind, but he dismissed it quickly. It didn't matter. He didn't need to tell Dumbledore what he led his friend into doing.

His old friend. Old being the operative word. He couldn't count Sirius among his friends anymore. He was a traitorous murderer. Even now, thirteen years later, he was infuriated by the betrayal. How could he have done that? Executed his double agent role. Right in Voldemort's inner circle, while simultaneously acting completely normal around his 'friends'.

Yeah, right. So called friends. He'd had two of them murdered, and murdered one personally. And then getting himself locked up in Azkaban. Leaving Remus quite alone, the last of the Great Marauders and the honorary Maraudette. Left him standing in the middle of their legacy, their great friendship, which was now crumbled into nothing more than dust.

All his greatest friends, the people he trusted, the ones he turned to. Dead and gone in a single day. How racked with absolute grief he had been in the following days, weeks, months. He leaned his head down on his desk, thinking for a few more minutes about how he still missed them all, before his heart softened slightly as he thought of Harry.

He looked so like James. The first time he'd seen him on the Hogwarts Express, he thought he was seeing a ghost from his past. Or rather, a nightmare. He'd opened his eyes only to see Harry slump to the floor, deathly pale. It terrified him, made him think about what James must have looked like on that night…

Then those eyes opened and he'd caught another wave of nostalgia. He hadn't seen those eyes in thirteen years, and suddenly, there they were again.

Then all year long, every time Harry would act particularly like one of his parents. Showing great compassion or curiosity like his mother, or being a sneaky little bugger like his father.

He laughed as he thought about the night a few weeks ago when he had confiscated the Map from him. He'd been utterly shocked to see it. The last he knew, it was locked up in Filch's office somewhere.

The fact that Harry ended up with it was insane. Out of all of the students that had passed through the halls of Hogwarts since they'd left, the one Marauder descendant ends up with it. He would have expected someone more like the Weasley twins to have it.

And then the way the Map had insulted Severus, it was so reminiscent of his friends and how they had acted at school. He had nearly lost it and laughed at what 'Moony' had said.

He knew that he would eventually give it back to Harry. It only seemed right for Harry to own it. Though until Sirius was back in Azkaban, he didn't think it was quite wise to risk it. Sirius had already managed to get into the school twice. At least, he'd been detected twice. Who knows how many times he'd managed to get past everything and get inside, only to slip away again.

Past Dumbledore, all of the enchantments placed around the school. Especially the dementors.

And dementors, speaking of dementors. Harry had to deal with the dementors. At such a young age, he had so much trouble and misery and sadness in his life, they were just drawn to him. He was like a feast to them.

Then the first time they'd had lessons, Harry had said that he'd heard them. He'd heard his parents in their final moments. It was horrifying that he should hear that. It meant he still had some sort of memory of it.

No wonder he reacted the way he did. Nobody should have to hear that. Hear their parents, terrified and screaming for their lives…

His mind flashed, not for the first time, to what his friends had said before they died. Especially Peter. He'd heard accounts saying that he'd screamed 'James and Lily, Sirius! How could you?' Before he'd tried to take on Sirius himself. Even though Sirius far surpassed him in dueling skill. Remus had always found that odd. Peter had never been the one for direct action.

Then he thought about what Harry had said to him, the same night he had confiscated the Map. He'd said that he'd seen Peter. On the Map. That couldn't be right, though. Peter was dead, was gone. Sirius killed him. He couldn't be at Hogwarts. Harry must have been mistaken.

Remus had a feeling that Harry knew what had gone down on that fateful Halloween night, though. He didn't have the faintest idea how Harry had learned it all. Though in that one lesson, when they had talked about the dementors kiss. He'd been convinced Harry knew then. Since he said that some people deserved it.

He sighed and thought again about how alike Harry and his father were. James had the tendency to act rashly and say things he didn't mean when he was aggravated as well.

Though thankfully, Harry had also gained his mother's loyalty and friendship. He'd demonstrated that with Ron and Hermione and with Neville as well. Even with Hagrid. Harry stood up for him whenever the Slytherins were too harsh or particularly annoyed. He'd had many conversations with Hagrid about the boy.

That reminded him… The hippogriff that Hagrid was so fond of. Buckbeak. The one that had attacked Draco Malfoy. Tonight was the night that it was sentenced for execution. An extremely unfair execution, in his mind.

Though, if he knew Harry at all, he thought about the possibility that he had inherited enough of his mother's kindness and friendship to want to be there for his giant friend. It was exactly what Lily would do.

He wondered for a moment how Harry might be able to manage it, thinking at first that there was no way he could. The teachers and prefects patrolling around the school. Before he remembered the cloak. Albus had told him that he had returned James' cloak to the boy. Based on that, he would have bet all his possessions that Harry would be down at Hagrid's Hut.

Remus opened the top most desk drawer, seeing a few spare chocolate bars in there. He'd made sure to stock up when they'd started Anti Dementor lessons. Even though Harry had almost always managed a weak shield form of the patronus, he'd still be left weak. And the chocolate certainly helped.

Not that he'd need an excuse to have a drawer full of chocolate. He moved most of the chocolate off to the side, finding the Marauders Map underneath. He fished it out, and after a second's thought, pulled out a chocolate bar as well. He unwrapped it and took a bite, before pulling his wand out of his pocket.

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good," he said. He took another bite of the chocolate as he watched the thin lines of ink spread across the pages. He looked up to the title, running his fingers across it lightly. 'Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs are proud to present the Marauders' Map.'

He smiled again as he remembered back to the days when he had first made it with his three friends. They'd started work on it in their third year, and they'd kept adding to it all throughout the rest of their years at school, as they found new passages and tunnels. Up until the day near the end of seventh year, when Peter had an unfortunate run in with Filch.

Remus scanned the map, his eyes floating over various people. Albus, in his office. Severus, in the dungeon, hunched over a cauldron. Mrs. Norris, sniffing around the base of the Astronomy Tower. His eyes finally landed on Gryffindor Tower, where he saw most of the Gryffindors congregated in the common room. A few students were up in their dormitories, including Harry and Ron's fellow third years. But those two troublemakers were nowhere to be seen. He noticed that Hermione was gone as well, and that confirmed it.

He started tracing along the path to the front doors, catching up with the trio just as they stepped outside.

He watched the three, who were obviously under the cloak, as they were standing so close together. They made it down to Hagrid's Hut, and he saw that Hagrid was pacing back and forth inside, stopping every once in a while to look out the window before setting off again. He seemed considerably distressed.

He saw the Hagrid dot move over to the door, letting the students in. He left the Map open, watching the four dots interact as he thought. He decided that he couldn't tell anyone about Harry and his friends breaking the rules. Not when they were doing it to be there for their friend. After all, hadn't three of his friends broken the rules to be there for him?

He sat thinking a while longer before he looked back at the map. He saw the names Albus Dumbledore, Cornelius Fudge, Walden McNair, and Nigel Serviceberry making their way down the path to the little hut. He cast his eyes back to Hagrid's, seeing that the students hadn't left yet.

Finally, he saw Hagrid usher the others through the back door, just as the four men reached the front. The three students skirted around the pumpkin patch and started back up to the school, and he sighed in relief, glad they weren't about to be caught.

As they made their way up the grassy hill, he suddenly spotted something strange about the group. He could see the names Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley, and Hermione Granger moving along, but he noticed that they were now joined by another name. Peter Pettigrew.

Shock reeled through him as he sat there staring at the little words on the parchment. Peter was alive. Sirius actually hadn't killed him. The map never lied. Harry had not been mistaken.

Thoughts flashed around his head. The biggest part of Pettigrew they found was his finger. What did that mean? Peter managed to escape, but had his finger cut off? Or something else…

And what in the world was Peter doing with the students? How would he be walking along with them? Where had he come from, how was he on school grounds?

The tiny dot marked as Peter suddenly broke away from the three, streaking away, and the dot marked as Ron chased after him. Harry and Hermione followed behind… followed them right into the shadow of the Whomping Willow. The Ron dot finally caught up to the Peter one and wrestled with it for a moment. Remus was gripping the edge of his desk very hard.

He finally saw the Ron and Hermione dots back away from the tree, but another dot suddenly flew out of the forest towards them. It streaked across the page, and Remus watched, heart thumping, as it collided with the Harry dot, sending it flying. Horror-filled visions suddenly filled his head of what might happen.

But then… that dot left Harry's alone. It instead ran over to the dot marked Ronald, dragging him and the dot marked Peter down the hidden passageway at the base of the tree.

What was Sirius doing? Why had he taken Ron? Unless he meant to grab Peter and Ron was an unfortunate side complication. But how would that work? How could Sirius drag two people down the passageway? They wouldn't fit.

But what if… maybe Peter wasn't quite human at the moment.

He stared at the three dots, watching them until they disappeared. He also saw with a pang that Harry and Hermione followed along, accompanied by someone, or something, named Crookshanks.

He didn't take a second thought before he sprinted out of his office, leaving the map on his desk. He had no idea what was going on. Only that three of the Marauders were about to meet once again, in the shack that he vowed he was never going to set foot in again.

And perhaps, the truth of October the thirty first, Nineteen Eighty One was about to finally be revealed.

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