SABAISM | H. POTTER

TWENTY - THREE. | PETER PETTIGREW

Gemini, who had taken to sleeping at Harry's side by reason of the attack, was rudely awaken by his insistent shaking. "Harry," she groused; casting an agile Tempus to view what time it was, "You best have a bloody acceptable reason behind waking me at three in the morning - Or, swearing on Merlin's grave here, I'll save Mum, and Voldemort, the exertion and kill you myself." The boy hastily removed his grasp on the girl, knowing her more than capable of delivering on such an asseveration. "Sorry, love, but I do have an important reason for waking you," he revealed; then having thrust the Marauder's Map into her depleted sight whilst pointing at a particular set of footsteps, he entreated, "Please, Gemini, just verify that you are seeing what I've seen." She sighed, twisting to indulge the paranoid routine he'd adopted after Sirius' encroachment.

Silver eyes followed the crooked corridors and serpentine passageways of Hogwarts that fashioned onto the parchment, all to where Harry's finger directed. There, microscopic footsteps flitted about, footsteps labeled...Peter Pettigrew. "What the hell?," Gemini sounded out, snatching the map from Harry in order to get a better look. "You see it too then?," he questioned the aporetic female; relieved that sleep deprivation hadn't consumed him whole. But speechlessness prevented her from automatically being able to confirm Harry's suspicions, because Peter Pettigrew, a man inferred dead at the hands of her mother, presently came into view waltzing about the castle. "Harry, come on," she unexpectedly instructed; not expatiating as she jumped out of his bed. "Wait, why?," he probed; nonetheless pulling on his shoes to follow after her determined figure, "What are we going to do?" Pausing in her descent of the staircase, she whirled to face the boy, sterling orbs aflame, as she declared, "What we are going to do is see for ourselves if there is a dead man walking, because this map doesn't lie." Ergo rotating back down the staircase and barreling out of the portrait hole and past the trolls, all with Harry Potter dawdling behind.

The doublet's brisk gait echoed off the castle walls as Gemini wandered down a darkened corridor, map in hand, Harry's wand aglow just to her right. "Harry Potter" and "Gemini Lupin-Black" drew closer and closer to the blot branded "Peter Pettigrew."

Harry, peering over Gemini's shoulder to see Pettigrew had moved down the adjoining corridor, squinted ahead to the approaching shadows of the passage, wand at the ready. - The girl's wand, in like manner, made a timely appearance as the dot was only twenty feet in distance. Ten. - With his admittedly trembling hand, Harry glanced from the map to the ominous corridor ahead, again and again. Then, as the three dots were moments from collision, he slowly pulled his assiduity from the vehement lass holding the map, circumnavigating the corner, heart submerging itself in his stomach and free hand tightening around Gemini's wrist, to meet...a reflection of the pair in a smirched mirror. "Um, Gemini," he hesitantly began, "While what we've seen displayed on that map has been confirmed not a delusion, are you quite sure that it isn't just faulty? The map, I mean." She narrowed her eyes in on the steadfast boy; justifying, "Harry, Remus Lupin was one of the main supervisors of this topographical depiction, this couldn't possibly be faulty." He threw his hands up in chagrin; contending, "Look, Darling, I've never once characterized your dad as a half-witted individual. He is, after all, an exceptionally intelligent man, so much so that anyone with common sense is able to perceive that. But, and hear me out here, what if the map's magic has just weakened with age? It could be a possibility, and it wouldn't technically be your dad's negligence in its' creation process."

Gemini huffed in respondence, startled and irked, then glanced back down at the parchment in hand. "What in Merlin's name?!," she hissed - the map actively exhibited that Pettigrew had managed to move past the investigative Gryffindors. "What?," Harry questioned, moving to see for himself, "What is...How in the hell?!" Perturbed himself, Harry wheeled, casting his lit wand along the walls in search. "Watch it there, boy!," a voice reprimanded; provoking the two to stagger back. But it was nothing but an aged, surly man in a painting, scowling in the glare of Harry's sprig's flash. But Harry hadn't the time to apologize, for the reason that Gemini had watched "Pettigrew" scramble further away, the lass hauled Harry off in the direction of the abnormality. But their pursuit was quickly intercalated - footsteps had arose from behind them, Gemini's wand danced across the map to find the swift, approaching dot, - "Severus Snape". "Fuck," she muttered, "I suppose we'll have to resume this at a later time, Harry. - Mischief Managed!" Lupin-Black expeditiously stashed the map, both extinguishing their wands, and revolved...into the harsh glare of Snape's wand.