The Lost Potter-Draco Malfoy

Chapter 10 (Year 3)

"Where have you been!" Hermione yelled as Charlotte walked into the common room, with Ron sitting next to her.

"What?" Charlotte laughed.

"I looked all over for you! I searched all of Hogwarts! I couldn't find you! I thought you were dead! You said you were going to owl your parents, and then just disappeared!" Hermione's eyes were bloodshot. She had been crying for hours.

"I'm sorry, Hermione, I lost track of time-"

"Time! Doing what?" Hermione demanded.

"I was-well, I was um with-Malfoy." Charlotte said it was the first name that had popped into her head.

"Doing what?" Hermione yelled again.

"I was helping him with some potions work because Snape is forcing me too. I didn't realize how late it had gotten." Hermione was still peeved as she glared at her.

"Honestly Hermione, don't worry. It's not like she was with Pettigrew." Ron said Charlotte avoided their eyes.

"You are so lucky I didn't tell Dumbeldore or your parents! Or Harry for that matter!" Hermione said,

"I think he'd have a bigger heart attack hearing that you were with Malfoy." Ron said, shaking his head.

"Yes, well, I'm going to bed now, or do you want me to tell you that I'm going to take a shower first in case I'm not in bed?" Charlotte asked. Hermione rolled her eyes, but smiled.

"Go, don't stay up too late! And do your homework!" Hermione called after Charlotte as she walked upstairs.

The dorm was still empty, and Charlotte was thankful for it. She needed time to think. She couldn't believe Peter was innocent. She needed James and the others to believe that too, but she didn't know how.

The manor was one example. All the pictures of Peter Pettigrew had been cut out. James couldn't even say his name or watch the news reports about him. How was she supposed to do it?

---

Over the weekend Harry was forced to stay in the hospital wing, while the others went to Hogesmade. Charlotte thought she would go and visit Lupin again. She knocked on his door and heard a faint.

"Come in,"

"Hi, Moony," She said, as she shut the door behind her.

"Hi, Charlotte. No, Harry?" Remus asked, as he put down the piles of paper he was grading down, and she sat down in front of him.

"No, he's still in the hospital wing. You know how Madam Pomfrey is." Charlotte said, as Remus put a pot of tea on and brought her some chocolates.

"I-um- I wanted to ask you a question." She said, as she bit a large piece off her chocolate bar.

"Ask away."

"What if, and this is just in a complete made-up thought, Pettigrew was actually innocent?" Remus stiffened up as he watched Charlotte and gripped his chocolate bar.

"Where is this coming from?" He asked,

"In just the made-up sense. If he was innocent, and he told you he was, and there was even proof! Would you believe him?" Remus put the bar down and whipped his hands from the chocolate stains on a napkin.

"You might not know this Charlotte, and I don't want you telling Harry, he'll get too angry, just like his father." He laughed,

"But a long time ago, Sirius, James, Peter, and I were all best friends. You would never see us without each other. We were brothers. Then the war came, and everything changed. Sirius and I turned on each other. He thought I had wanted more rights as a werewolf, and I thought he had gone back to the pureblood ways. We were both wrong. There was a mole in our group. We never suspected Peter, he was our little brother, the baby of the group. Before the war he was just as loud or dramatic as the rest of us but then when it started, he turned quiet, he still laughed with us, but it was never the same, we always wanted to figure out what was wrong, we knew he was different, but it was war and war changed you, so we thought we were crazy. Then you guys needed a secret keeper, so Sirius told Peter to do it, and Peter told Voldemort where you were. Sirius figured it out first, so he ran after Peter, and cornered him on that muggle street. Peter confessed to being the rat, and blew up the street, killed all those people, tried to frame Sirius." Remus explained. He stopped and took a sip of his tea.

"James took it the hardest. He blames himself for not seeing that Peter had changed, but I don't. I blame Peter and his actions."

"But what if it wasn't Peter but someone else?" Charlotte asked. She knew why Remus was angry, but she also knew that Peter deserved better.

"How could it be someone else? Peter was the only one who knew where the meetings were, and what we talked about." Remus countered, Charlotte signed, if it was this hard explaining it to Remus, how hard would it be for Peter to explain to them? How was she going to get all of them in a room together? She had no clue on how to do any of this.

"I'm going to go; I need to do some homework." Charlotte said as she stood up.

"Charlotte, why are you asking these questions?" Remus asked before she could leave.

"No reason, just curious."

"There's nothing wrong with being curious, but don't you go looking for Pettigrew, he's dangerous." Remus warned, Charlotte smiled, thinking if only he knew she had done just that.

"I won't."

---

"Why so gloomy Potter?" Draco asked, as he strolled over to her. She shrugged, not really in the mood to fight.

"Not today, Malfoy. I'm in no mood." She signed. It had been a couple hours since her talk with Remus, and she was in no mood to fight.

"Why not? I'm in the mood to bother you,"

"And I'm in the mood to not listen." Charlotte snapped back. As she headed towards the grounds, she had gotten some food from the house-elves, and was going to bring some to Peter.

"Where are you going?" Draco asked, as he looked back on the castle grounds.

"None of your business."

"You seem to have forgotten that a mass murder is after you." Draco laughed, but he stilled eyed the Hogwarts grounds, nervously.

"No, I know."

"Then you better move your butt back into the building." He said,

"Draco, I'm busy, know, can you please leave me alone?" Charlotte asked. She was about halfway to the dark forest before she stopped. Lottie had thought that was enough to get him running away.

"You seem to be in a hurry? Where to exactly."

"Nowhere really, just on a stroll."

"Yeah, I don't think so. I had to almost run after you, and you call that a stroll?" He laughed, but Charlotte ignored him. Draco could sense something was up with the way she was acting; he had a plan.

"All right, I'll leave you be." He said. Suddenly, Charlotte was pleased, never noticing his ignorant smirk.

"Alright, Malfoy, see you." She said, as she walked closer to the dark forest. He trudged back inside Hogwarts until he noticed she wasn't looking and followed her. Charlotte didn't notice Draco following her as she walked into the forest.

"Peter! Peter! Come out, I've brought food this time!" Lottie whisper yelled,

"Charlotte," Peter whispered, as he came out of the bushes.

"There you are! I've brought you food," she said, as she set her bag down.

Draco couldn't believe what he was seeing. Charlotte Potter with Peter Pettigrew, the man who tried to kill her for god's sake. He stepped on a small twig that made a much louder cracking sounding then he wanted. Charlotte turned her head, meeting Draco's eyes, and gasped.