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Peter the Leader


Sirius was mad out of his mind. He clutched the bit of Remus’s hair in his fist and he ran - ran up the stairs and into Hogwarts castle. The Great Hall was just starting to fill up with people, but he could see even from the doorway that the other Marauders weren’t yet there. He dashed for the staircase. All around him, whispers went up as people recognized him.

“Sirius Black!”

“But he’s been expelled! What’s he doing here?”

“Look there - it’s Sirius, he’s snuck into the castle!”

“What was he expelled for anyway?”

“Practicing Dark Arts, most likely! Being a Black and all…”

“I heard he killed somebody.”

“Taken after his folks after all.”

“Became a Death Eater, that’s what I heard…”

“It’s too bad, too, that he’s gone bad because he’s just so handsome!”

“He’s gay, too, I hear…”

“Blimey, didn’t know that!”

“Yeah, with that other funny Gryffindor boy. The one who’s always ill. Remus Lupin.”

Sirius ignored them all, his heart in his throat. He charged through a group of Ravenclaws. He had to find James. He didn’t know what he would do - but something. Something had to be done!

He was rounding the fourth floor stairwell, the portraits joining in on the muttering, calling out for the headmaster or Filch to come and collect the intruder, when he heard Peter’s voice echoing off the walls. “PETER!” he bellowed, “PETER!!!” He dashed the last few steps that separated them as Peter turned, surprise in his eyes.

“Sirius? What’re you doing? Where’s -- where’s the cloak?”

“PETER. There’s no time to explain. Here.” He reached into his pocket, took out the notecard with the address written on it in his father’s handwriting, “This is my dad’s writing. He’s secret keeper. With this, you’ll be able to get into the house. You gotta get James. Get James and the Order and come to the house. They’ve got Remus! I gotta go. I gotta go help Remus, but we’ll need back up. You gotta come. You get the Order. Everyone in the Order. Hurry!” He shoved the notecard into Peter’s pudgey hands. “The floo in McGonagall’s office works. Use that. Hurry!”

“But - but how --? Sirius! Wait! SIRIUS!” Peter wailed, “SIRIUS!”

But Sirius had already bolted off, not waiting to answer questions.

“Bloody hell!” moaned Peter, looking at the notecard. “Oh bloody hell!” He looked at Annalee, “I dunno what to do!”

“Go and get James and I’ll work on finding the others,” Annalee replied. “We’ll go to Headquarters.”

Peter nodded and he ran, clutching the card, turning back up the stairs and running for Gryffindor tower as Annalee ran down the stairs, hurrying to the Great Hall.

Peter panted as he ran, trying to process all the information that Sirius had dumped onto him in one rush of words. He threw himself through the common room, “JAMES!” Peter shouted as he ran. “JAMES!!!” He tripped on the steps up to the dorm. But James wasn’t in the room. He spun about in the room, his mind not working quite right through the panic.

Where was James?

The library. He’d try the library. He didn’t know why - James Potter at the library! - but he had to have some place to try and that was the first place that came to mind, so he launched himself back out of the dormitory door to the portrait hole and -- wham! Right into Lily Evans.

“Oi! Peter! Watch where you’re going!” she cried, landing on her back and getting a bit of rug burn on her palms. “Ouch, that really --” Lily stopped complaining mid-sentence, seeing the panic in Peter’s face. “Peter? What’s wrong?”

“Have you seen James??” he cried.

“No, I haven’t seen Potter. He’s probably somewhere snogging Maryrose, knowing him --” she stood up and helped pull him up from the floor, since he was struggling with the motion of it. “What’s the matter?”

“The Order, I need everyone in the Order, I need to help -- it’s Sirius - it’s Remus, really, but Sirius -- trouble, they’re in trouble…” Peter thrust the notecard into Lily’s palm.

Lily stared down at the address, “Peter, what’s this? Number 12 Grimmauld Place? What is that?”

“Sirius’s folks place,” Peter said, “That’s his dad’s handwriting. He’s secret keeper. We can find it now. And they have Remus. They’re Death Eaters.”

Lily’s eyes flashed, “They have Remus? But - but why? What’d Remus do? What --”

“To bait Sirius! And it’s working, it’s working, he’s gone - he’s going to get -- and -- need back up! The Order! I need the Order! And James - James is so much better than I am at these things!! We gotta find James! Annalee’s getting the Order - they’re going to Headquarters! But I need James!!!”

Lily handed Peter back the card. “You go to Headquarters and meet them. I’ll find Potter.”

Peter twitched uneasily.

“You know what’s going on, Peter, you can tell them and start figuring out a plan. In the meantime, I’ll find Potter,” Lily explained, “That way two things are being accomplished at once.”

Peter nodded, clutching the card between his fingers, pale and shaking. “But- but- but what if - what if something -- something happens and - I - I’m terrible at this -- I’m scared…”

“You can do this Peter! It’s for your friends!” Lily said. “I know you can be brave! You’re a Gryffindor!” Her voice carried so much confidence, and her eyes were so very sure that Peter felt a sudden surge of certainy well up inside himself and he nodded, determination pouring through him. “There you are!”

“There I am,” he nodded, “There I am. I can do it. I can.” His voice shook, though far less than it had before.

“You can do it,” Lily nodded, “And you will. You’re so brave. You’re going to save the day, Peter, and everyone’s going to be so proud. I’ll be so proud.”

“Yeah…. Yeah.. I can do it.” Peter stammered. “I can be brave.”

Lily smiled and helped guide him back out of the portrait hole to the stairwell and he turned the notecard over and over in his hands nervously worrying the paper, his eyes flashing wildly, but there was something like confidence in those eyes now, too, and he paused at the stair. “Thank you, Lily,” he said sincerely.

“You’re welcome. Now go and I’ll bring Potter right away,” she said, and they parted ways.

Peter shivered as he ran, but he kept repeating Lily’s words of confidence over and over in his head. I can do it, I can. I’m brave. I’m going to save the day. Everyone’s going to be proud. I can do it. I can. I’m brave. I’m going to save the day…

The hallway outside the Secret Room was already stuffed with Order Members and Annalee was just coming running down the hall with Alabastar Jackson in tow when Peter arrived. He didn’t know how to open the door to the room - every time he’d ever tried he’d failed to do it - so he just let them cluster around him there in the hallway and he said, “We - we have our first - our first real mission as the Order! We have to save Remus Lupin!” he trembled.

“Save Remus Lupin?” asked Jaspar Odair, “From what?”

“It’s the Blacks,” said Peter, “They’ve kidnapped him to try and get Sirius to go there - they want to kill Sirius for knowing all that stuff he’s told us!”

A murmur went up among the Order members joined around. And then Peter spotted Maryrose Jenkins was there - so James wasn’t with her, then, and he wondered where the bloody hell James was, and prayed Lily hurried in finding him.

“Where have they taken him?” asked a wide-eyed Meg Johnson, “And where is Sirius?”

“They took him to Sirius’s folks house - they’re Death Eaters, they are - and Sirius is gone to go and try to save Remus but he needs back up as quickly as possible.”

“Well bloody hell! LET’S GO!” Frank shouted, “Why waste a minute! The longer we stand here talking on it, the more time they’ve had to kill them both!”

“HERE HERE!” yelled Alabastar Jackson, whose face was flushed.

Andy Woodhouse nodded, “Yeah, we can’t leave them to it. Let’s go.”

Peter’s voice trembled, “Well -- well we’re just waiting on James and Lily and then --”

“We haven’t got time to wait,” Frank argued.

“They could be dead already!” said Marlene McKinnon.

“But James is the leader,” argued Harry Warbeck.

“Peter can lead, can’t you Peter?” Annalee asked, “Peter’s the one Sirius spoke with about it anyway!”

Peter shook, “M-m-me?”

“Certainly!” Annalee said, and she gave Peter the same look of absolute confidence that Lily had and Peter felt both sick to his stomach and empowered at the same time, adrenaline pumping through his veins.

“How do we even get to Sirius’s folk’s house, though?” demanded Emmaline Vance, looking about, “It’s not as though we can just walk off the grounds of Hogwarts!”

Peter shook his head, “No… but there’s the Floo Network.”

“It’s shut down in all the common rooms and classrooms,” said Harry Warbeck, shaking his head.

“The one in McGonagall’s office - that one’s not shut down,” Peter said, remembering Sirius Black’s words. “We’ll go and break into McGonagall’s office and use the Floo Network there to go to Sirius’s house. We’ll fight the Death Eaters and we’ll save Remus and Sirius.”

Annalee grinned at Peter as everyone got fired up and started yelling threats against the Blacks, declaring what they’d do when they got their hands on the fools that had tried to steal one of the members of the Order. Peter’s face was red-red-red and he gasped for air, heady with the realization that it was him that really was going to save the day.