Four To The End (prev Shifting Lines) Book Three (Marauders Era)

Chapter Eighty-Nine - The Room Of...?

Author's note: CW discussion of intrusive thoughts

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It was so hard sitting on the secret. Remus kept wanting to tell them, he was so excited! He could tell Pete was excited too, and it didn't take long for James and Sirius to figure out the two were keeping something from them. They kept trying to get the secret out, but Remus and thankfully Peter held firm, promising they'd share the secret on Friday. The two taller Marauders begged while the two smaller ones kept their mouths shut, rather enjoying seeing them squirm. Sirius said it wasn't fair, and Remus called him a hypocrite since the other three Marauders constantly kept secrets from Remus.

"Like what?!" Sirius demanded.

Remus stared. "The polyjuice potion? All your other little ideas to try and help me?"

His face darkened a little as James laughed. "That's different," Sirius insisted.

Remus's eyebrows shot right up, and he folded his arms, tilting his head. "How so?"

"It—you—the—" Sirius spluttered, before drawing himself to full height. "It just is!"

Remus laughed, not pressing the matter. They both knew Sirius lost. "You'll find out tomorrow, I promise."

But oh it was so hard to wait! He kept thinking about the books and on Friday morning, during their free period, he gave in. He told the others he needed to do something in the dorm, then he left; he intended on only getting one book, maybe two, and reading through them between classes. He wasn't going to look around much at all. Just see what sort of books were there.

But when he got to the hallway he froze, staring into Peter's accusing eyes.

"I knew it!" Pete flung a pointed finger towards him. "I knew you were sneaking up here!"

He went beet red. "Ah—I was—the thing—erm—"

Pete stamped his foot. "You made me promise and I've been keeping that promise!"

Remus ducked his head, feeling guilty. "I kept it too. I haven't told them. And I was only—only going to—er—"

"So it's okay if I wait but not you?"

He hung his head more. "I'm sorry," he mumbled, shame welling up inside of him. "I've been thinking about all those books in there and—and I gave into my temptation." He glanced at the wall then back at Peter. "I'm sorry."

Peter folded his arms, trying to scowl but was obviously not very angry. "It's all right. I'm excited too."

They headed back down to the corridor where James and Sirius were hanging out, neither of them the wiser to where Pete and Remus had been. Remus felt awful for the rest of the day, though part of him kept whispering that he never promised not to go back—just that they promised not to show James and Sirius until that evening. Still...

The day dragged on, the hours getting longer and longer as supper approached. The last free period was agony and even worse was the fact that after class, he'd still have to wait till after James's practice was over! And probably wait until after the others got some food in them.

At a little before four, Remus met up with Lily and Aegis to head to Ancient Runes. They were talking about something he couldn't really pay attention to, and probably would have been lost in a daydream about the storage room the entire lesson if someone didn't stop them from going into the classroom.

It was Jha, and he asked Remus if he had talked to Twycross yet. Remus stared blankly, trying to figure out what Jha meant. "For Defense?" Jha asked, squinting a bit.