Delicate | James Potter

2.28

It was two days later that James was released from the Hospital Wing. He really had crushed his ribs. Sirius was given the okay the day before, though a splint remained on his arm just in case. Remus hasn't been back to visit either of them in the Hospital Wing, though Alice had seen him passing through the common room once or twice. Peter still had not turned up anywhere, in fact in a growing worry, Alice had spent the better half of Sunday evening scouring the grounds around the Whomping Willow for an injured Peter, or perhaps an injured rat. However, after Davey and last years incident, she wasn't keen to get particularly close. James promised if Pete didn't show his face till he was out, he'd take her to the tunnel and they'd search together there. Remus was in possession of the map so they couldn't do much else.

Except then, Peter turned up out of thin air on Monday morning in Defence against the Dark Arts. Alice immediately took the seat next to him, before any of the other boys had even made it to the room.

"Where have you been?" She hissed. "I've been looking everywhere for you."

This was true. She'd done several walks of the castle as well as her Sunday afternoon escapade. Peter looked actually a bit surprised at her voice.

"I've been around." He squeaked nervously.

"You most certainly have not. Do you know what's been happening while you've been gone?" Then she realised he did know, which is exactly why he'd been gone.  He shrunk under her gaze. "Oh... you've been hiding."

He nodded timidly. "Maybe."

"Why?" It seemed absurd to Alice he'd simply been hiding away the whole weekend, when his friends were going through what they were. But then maybe Peter wasn't okay either. He too had surely been through a lot. In a gentler voice, "Are you okay? Did you get hurt?"

"No, not really. I'm okay."

"Then why have you been missing? Remus is seriously upset with Sirius," she caught herself say what she had and was thankful James, or even Sirius himself, hadn't been there to feed the line back to her, "and Sirius has gone all sad and - "

"I know. I've been watching." Peter replied quickly, glancing around.

"Oh?"

"Sirius is mad at me too, I just know he is. I was waiting for James to get better so that he would - " But the boy was cut off, cut off by none other than Sirius Black himself.

"You!" He snarled, and marched very aggressively from the classroom doorway towards their desk. Alice had absolutely no idea what Peter could have done that was so bad Sirius could be this angry throughout everything else going on, but she now knew what Peter had been about to say. He was waiting for James to recover so he'd stand up for him, so he'd protect him against Sirius.

Alice stood up from her chair without thinking and stepped in between Peter and the boy charging at him. Sirius slowed.

"Get out the way Alice." No Goldilocks. He meant business.