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Salmon Puffs


Peter stuffed a salmon puff into his mouth, then grabbed three more and tucked them into a napkin in his robes pocket before moving along the table to pick up two palm-sized treacle tarts, a small stack of crackers with cheese on them, and a cup of punch. He looked around, balancing his treats, trying to spot Sirius or James, but he didn’t see either of them anywhere in the Great Hall. He waddled off from the table, though not too far, until he found a seat against one wall and he lowered himself into the chair. He stuffed his mouth with his treats and sipped his drink, listening to the music echoing off the walls and waiting for one of the other Marauders to come find him.

Suddenly it a spell slapped the bottom of the cup, spilling it, red punch splashing all over Peter. He squeaked and looked down as the front of his shirt bloomed pink with the juice. Evan Rosier’s laughter from across the room echoed over and Peter scowled his direction. Goyle high-fived Rosier and Peter hastened to get up and scurry out of the Great Hall, in case Evan decided to start something. He didn’t fancy trying to defend himself against the bully and he ran into the entrance hall, looking over his shoulder. He bumped into somebody and turned around to find Severus Snape standing before him.

“Oh. I - hi - sorry,” Peter stammered.

Snape glared at Peter with a particularly hateful anger. “Where’s Potter?” he demanded.

“I dunno,” Peter said.

“Of course you do, you always know where Potter is, you follow him around everywhere, you little spot of pondscum. Where is he?” He took out his wand and Peter’s eyes widened.

“I really don’t know!” Peter squealed.

Patience lost, Severus forced his way into Peter’s mind, shoving past thoughts of the treats in his pocket and the image of the spilling punch. He shoved and pushed, trying to find James Potter in there, and Peter’s weak little mind gave up a great myriad of secrets in simplistic images, flashes of ideas and thoughts - most of which made no sense to Severus. Pictures of rats and snacks and dogs and dark tunnels and a girl with straw colored hair in braids. Mopsus knows all echoed from Peter’s head and a woman… a middle aged woman who was plump with curly sandy hair and rosy cheeks... but nothing about James Potter’s current location.

The little git really didn’t know.

Severus released his mind.

Peter stumbled backwards, his eyes wide. “What did you just do?” he demanded.

Severus glowered at Peter. “Nothing of any use,” he sneered.

Evan Rosier and his gang came trooping out of the Great Hall at that moment, “Oi, Snape, what’re you doing talking to that fat little piglet?” called Rosier with a laugh. “He hangs out with the Puffer Fish; do be careful.”

Severus looked to Rosier and Peter took his moment of distraction as opportunity to run. He scrambled up the stairs, his trainer catching halfway up so that he tripped on the steps, and he hurried back to his feet, looking over his shoulder in a panic as he rushed, making sure the Slytherins weren’t following him. They didn’t appear to be, but he didn’t slow until he’d gotten through the portrait hole in Gryffindor tower. He panted with nervous energy, leaning against the closed door and trying to catch his breath. He looked down at the stain on his shirt and frowned, walking up to the dormitory.

Peter pushed open the dormitory door, unbuttoning his shirt as he went, “The Slytherins are ruddy gits, they --” he looked up from his shirt buttons and stopped mid-sentence. Sirius was sitting on his bed, his jaw dropped, staring across the room at a scarlet red Remus, who stared back at him, a book balanced on his lap. Remus looked sort of sick and Sirius’s eyes were funny. “Is… is everything alright?” Peter asked, looking between them.

“Yeah,” Remus stammered, and he looked away from Sirius, breaking the stare that had been going on for a very long time. He tried to recall how to breath naturally and Sirius turned his head, looking toward the duvet with a sort of dumb expression. “What happened with the Slytherins, Pete?”

Peter held up his spoiled uniform shirt.

“Is that blood?” Remus asked, nervously.

“No, just juice,” Peter replied.

“Did they hurt you?”

Peter shook his head, “Just spilled my juice and ruined my shirt, mostly…” he answered.

“I know a spell,” Remus said, “Leave it there on the chair, I’ll get it out in the morning...”

“Thanks,” he said. He pushed open his trunk and dug for his pyjamas. “Have you lot seen James?”

“He went after Evans,” mumbled Sirius.

“Well Severus Snape nearly blasted my face off looking for him,” said Peter, frowning.

“Yeah, he was in a ruddy horrid mood, ‘ey?” Sirius said.

“What happened anyway?” Remus asked, putting his book aside.

Sirius still wasn’t looking up from his duvet, “I don’t know the whole story. Lily and Snape had a row at the party and she ran away from him, right out the front door. He followed her, I tried to stop him, and he gave me a duck bill… then he ran out the door and James went after the pair of them.” He shrugged, “That’s all I know.”

“A duck bill!” Peter exclaimed.

“Yeah, I looked right mad coming up here, great orange bill on my face. Remus set it right,” Sirius said, and he looked up for the first time, a smile on his face, but it melted off as his eyes met with Remus’s. The breath caught in his throat and he turned away again, feeling hot and cold all at once. He swallowed and stood up, jamming his hands in the pockets of his jacket, “I better go and see if I can’t find James… he might need some, er, back-up,” Sirius said awkwardly.

“You want us to come along?” offered Remus.

Peter looked ‘round at Remus in surprise at the offer, then shook his head. “I don’t want to go out on the grounds in the dark,” he said, “Last time we did that, we got chased by bloody werewolves and nearly died.”

“It’s not the full moon,” Remus pointed out.

“Besides, it’s fine,” Sirius said, “I’ll go. You lot… you lot stay here.” He kept his eyes carefully adverted from Remus, and pulled the jacket closer, popping the neck of it and ducked out the door.

Peter turned to Remus, “Was there something funny going on?” he asked, “He was acting quite strange.”

Remus shook his head, “No,” he answered. “Nothing out of the ordinary.”

Peter finished putting on his pyjamas and picked up his robes, finding the remaining treats in his pockets. He held up the napkin. “Shrimp puff?”

“No thanks,” Remus replied, shaking his head.

“Alright then,” Peter said, and he stuffed two more into his cheeks, making them swell out as he crawled into the bed.




Lily slowly released her fingers from around the fur of the stag, having cried her entire heart out into his shoulder. He’d never moved, never tried to get away, never stiffened or groaned or sighed or anything. He’d just stood, his head tucked ‘round her protectively, and let her cry into his neck, a strong, warm being that simply listened. She’d never felt more cared for in her life. She stroked his fur gently and he licked her tears once again and she closed her eyes as he did.

Finally, she looked up into his great brown eyes and she stroked his snout gently. “Thank you,” she whispered.

He just blinked at her and she imagined that if a stag could smile then he would be.

Somewhere far off, there was a voice, yelling across the grounds and Lily looked over her shoulder. She pursed her lips and shook her head as the sounds got louder. It was a boy’s voice, low and worried, coming closer.

The stag looked up in the direction of the call, his ears flicking.

“Potter? Evans?” It was Sirius Black.

The stag turned quickly, bounding toward the dark of the trees.

“Wait!” Lily cried, panic in her voice as she spun back around to the stage, “No wait! Don’t leave! Come back!” She ran to follow him, “PLEASE!” but the stag was already gone, disappeared through the trees. She stopped when she’d reached the path from whence she’d originally come, the stag nowhere to be seen.

Suddenly a light came through the trees and there was Sirius Black, holding aloft his lighted wand. “Evans!” he said coming up to her, “There you are. Where’s Potter?”

“Potter?” Lily said, though she sounded dazed, still staring off the direction the stag had gone off in.

“Yeah, didn’t he catch you up? He went after you…”

Lily shook her head, “No…? I haven’t seen him since I left the entrance hall.”

Sirius frowned. “That’s odd. He followed behind you and Severus earlier and --”

Suddenly there was a crashing in the trees and James, his clothes wrinkled and a bit off centered, came stumbling through them behind Lily, his glasses askew. “Sorry,” he said, “Here I am... I mean, there you are. Been, er, looking every place for you, but of course since you’re here and I didn’t look here until just now, well obviously I hadn’t found you yet.” James laughed awkwardly.

Sirius raised his eyebrow.

Lily looked surprised to see him, “Potter?”

“Evans?” he replied, mimicking her tone. She stared at him. He had a couple twigs stuck up in his unruly hair and despite having straightened them, his glasses were still a bit crooked. He smiled. “You had something to say, Love?”

“No,” she answered, and she hurried down the path toward the school. A horrible thought came over her -- if James was in the woods, what if he’d overheard her talking to the stag and all the things she’d said, all those private feelings, all the things she didn’t ever want anyone to know about how she felt? Her cheeks burned with the anticipated humiliation, and she begged all the gods she could think of that James would simply keep his mouth shut and leave her alone.

Sirius looked at James, “Did I miss something?” he asked.

James’s eyes were locked on the shimmering red of Lily’s hair and his eyes were a bit glassy. “Yeah,” he said thickly. He looked at Sirius and a grin spread across his face, “Quite a lot, actually.”