√ Finding Moony || Marauder Era

John

   "Merlins dirty nappies, he touched the butt!"

- Wormtail 

Nothing. There was no one there. The Shrieking Shack had never been this hollow and empty. Footsteps seemed to echo for eternity across the wooden floors. Nothing could have been more disappointing to Peter. He had truly hoped Moony would have been here. James and Sirius were together with Remus himself the most brilliant people in the whole wizarding community. There was no way they could have been wrong and yet they were.

'Now what?' It was clear Sirius' panic had started a rage inside of him now that Moony was not here. For some reason Peter felt less and less comfortable with his two friends. The disappearance of Moony had left a dark shadow over them. One that was draining their positive thoughts like a parasite. Almost as if they were followed by a horde of Dementors. It made Peter shudder in fear.

'Can't we ask Lily?' The idea was absurd, especially since it was his and not James', but Lily Evans was as kind and gentle as Remus was when she was not fighting with anyone. If Sirius and James couldn't find Remus, maybe they needed someone like Lily to solve the riddle they got left behind with. She was after all one of Remus' best friends since they had worked together as prefects for two years.

'No.' Every shake of James' head made a jolt of nervousness run through his body. Peter did not like going up against his friends and he was not sure if he did the right thing when continuing to explain his idea, but he wanted to find Remus before the two amazing boys turned insane and lost their Marauder qualities to the fear of losing a best friend.

'Why not? If we can't think of a place where Moony could be, she must know one. We are his rebellious awesome friends. She is his sweet and nerdy friend. He must be at a place where only sweet nerdy people would go and without her we may never find him there.' It was probably the smartest thing Peter had said this year, if not the smartest thing he had ever said in his whole life. Both his friends stared at him in amazement. It was something that occurred every now and then when no one could think of a solution. In that very moment, Peter could always come up with something brilliant, even though it were the only moments his brains produced actual magic. Those seconds his friends looked at him as if he was some sort of superhero were the best times of his life.

'Wormy, you are wicked. I love the way you think. Come on. Let's go the Red way!' Sirius immediately switched from angry black bare teethed dog to happy tail wagging puppy now that they had found another way to Moony than they had been walking so far. The only one who protested against asking Lily for help was surprisingly enough James, the one person who usually grabbed every opportunity to be close to the girl with both of his hands ánd feet.

'I still don't think this is a good idea. Why on earth would Evans help us? She hates me more than anything in this world, she can't stand Padfoot and she has barely even talked to you, Wormtail.' It was clear James was trying to find an excuse so he would not have to talk to Lily, but why? Why was he acting entirely out of character? It just did not make any sense, at all.

'That is not true, Prongs. Me and Red are actually quite close. I think she might adore my hair, but I am not entirely sure. Maybe it is just the fact that we are both extremely amazing dancers.' Peter took one step back, eyes fixed on James whose face became a nasty shade of scarlet red. Jealousy was by far his worst trade, especially when it came down to Lily. Sirius must have known his words would trigger such anger as Peter was witnessing in this very moment. 'Oh and besides, I am pretty sure she does not hate you, Prongsie. She just wants to hate you, because you're always such a prick to her. Sadly she is not capable of such thing. You are probably her worst nightmare though. But hate? Nah.' It was clear James still wanted to scream. Every inch of his body seemed to be only a few seconds away of exploding into a million pieces, but no sound escaped his throat. As if Sirius had cast a silencing spell over him. A strange situation it was.