Dream away (Remus/Sirius; Rated T; 17,5k words)

Epilogue

One week later:

They had drawn a large map of Hogsmeade. It was taped to one of the walls, with nine mirrors hanging on nails around it, placed in precise positions. Remus was standing in front of the wall, monitoring the village through the mirrors.

It was dark, a night before the full moon, but everything seemed calm and quiet. The execution platform built at the edge of the village was guarded by a pair of Aurors.

"But Sirius, I'm only trying to help you," said Lily in an innocent voice, leaning against the doorway. "What would be a better rat trap than a cat?"

"Lots of things," said Sirius, from where he was laying on top of the bed that had become Remus's-and-Sirius's. "An owl, a mink, a terrier."

"We've got enough canines in this house," said James sternly from the floor, where he was going through the notes.

Remus wasn't sure he believed Sirius's theory of 'Peter the traitor', but none of them could argue against Sirius's point that Wormtail had disappeared, and that nobody in the Order had heard of him or his whereabouts for a week.

'Displeased his new master and was turned into a rat pie,' Sirius had declared one evening, but shut his mouth when James said that he didn't want to listen to that kind of talk as long as there was a good chance that Peter was innocent and had been captured.

So, they were still searching for Peter. Remus hoped that despite Sirius's misgivings, they would find him alive and well, and innocent.

But for now they had to concentrate on something that they had a good chance of solving. Tomorrow would be the day they'd attempt to rescue the remaining members of the werewolf pack.

Remus looked at the map and frowned. So many things about the plan could go wrong.

"Everything is going to be alright," said James. Remus turned to see James looking towards him and the wall. "We'll just stick to the plan. We'll save them, and everything will be okay."

"Yeah," agreed Sirius hollowly.

"Hopefully," said Remus hesitantly.

"No, it's not going to be alright," said Lily.

They all turned to look at her.

She looked back at them. "Let's stop pretending. Everything is going to be awful, even if we succeed. But we are going to keep fighting against it."

There was a moment of silence.

"I love you, Lils," said Sirius with a huge smile.

Lily batted her eyelashes at him.

James rolled his eyes, but a smile was tugging at his lips. "You two are awful. I'm trying to keep the mood up, and one of you is always ruining the effort. Go get a room. I'm running away with Moons. He's the cutest one anyway."

"I don't think I'm up for that much running yet, Prongs. We'd have to go rather far for these two to not catch us."

"Ugh, not you too!"

Sirius and Lily snickered.

~*~

Lily was right. Everything was not alright, and wasn't going to be alright for a good while. But they were alive and fighting.

Remus had once said that his perfect world would be one where he never had to be alone, never without his friends. He hadn't gotten that wish in any of those dream ways that he had talked about with Sirius, but still, he had gotten it, and as they continued to refine their plans, he found himself happy and full of purpose in a grim, dark way.

They were going to keep fighting as long as they had to. Together.