SOMEONE PRESENT in the third-year girls dormitory was snoring. Liv was not impressed. She'd been awake for what seemed like hours, unable to sleep over the unbearable noise. She'd tried everything – even stuffing a pillow over her face. She'd nearly given up, until someone else in the room let out a loud huff, clearly irritated by the noise too.
"Padma?" Liv whispered. "Is that you?"
"Yeah," Padma grumbled back. "Who the hell is it?"
"Lavender, probably," Liv giggled.
"Maybe we should suffocate her," Padma sighed.
"That's what I've been thinking," Liv replied.
Lavender let out a particular loud snore, causing Padma to groan just as loud, launching herself from her bed. "Come on, I cant bare this, let's sleep on the couch," she said, dragging her duvet off her bed and storming out not room, not worrying if her footsteps were too loud.
"Wait for me!" Liv called, pulling away her duvet too and skipping down the steps quickly down to the common room – shivering in the coldness of the place. Together they squeezed themselves onto the small couch, taking a while for Liv to finally stop shivering.
It took even longer for her to fall asleep. In no time at time, Padma was soundly sleeping and Liv was left alone in the cold, dark room. Liv wasn't sure how long she'd spent staring at the ceiling before she heard the light echo of footsteps, but it had felt like forever. She immediately sat up, desperately patting around between her and Padma's body to locate her wand to see wether it was a friend or foe, or worse, her murderous Father who'd finally tracked her down.
"Harry?" Liv whispered, finally grasping her wand to get some light. Harry's face illuminated at the other end of it, a surprised expression on his face. Luckily, Liv wasn't doing to die tonight.
"Liv?" He replied. "What are you doing down here?
"Someone was snoring," Liv said, pointing to Padma's sleeping frame. "We couldn't sleep. What about you?"
"Oh, nothing," Harry smiled, shoving the piece of paper in his hands quickly into his pocket.
Liv began to grin, eyeing Harry curiously. "Keeping secrets from me, Harry?"
"No!" Harry gasped. "It's nothing, really,"
Liv looked down to Harry's feet next to her own that were bare. "You put your shoes on for nothing?" Liv asked, before suddenly clasping her hands to her mouth with a gasp. "Are you going to go see a girl?"
Harry turned immediately red. "No! I'm– I saw something on the map," he admitted, pulling the paper back out of his pocket. "I wanted to check it out,"
"Well what did you see?" Liv said, standing up from the couch, realizing the paper he'd been holding was the marauders map. "Can I come see with you?"
"Fine," Harry sighed. "I'll explain on the way,"
They climbed through the portrait hole quietly, carefully not to wake the sleeping woman and were about to walk down the moving stairs. Liv silently laughed at herself, wondering why she'd ever believed the footsteps had been that of Sirius Black. How paranoid was she? Suddenly, she paused, stopping in her tracks. "Harry?" Liv called to the boy. "You're not looking for Sirius Black are you?"
Harry stopped too. "No, no, it's not that," He said shaking his head. "Remember what they said about Peter Pettigrew?"
Liv thought hard. "Black killed him?"
"Exactly," Harry said, and continued to walk forward. Liv followed him. "Yet i saw his name on the map,"
"Maybe it was a mistake," Liv suggested.
"Maybe," Harry nodded. "I thought I'd check it out anyway,"
"Or maybe he's a ghost!"
They'd reached a particularly dark corridor Liv wasn't familiar with, and the small amount of light illuminating from their wands was not enough to ease the fight it caused her. She held onto the side of Harry's jumper tight.
"Ghosts don't show up on the map," Harry muttered, concentrating hard on the map in front of him. "There, there!" He'd suddenly raised his voice, pointing to the map. It made Liv jump.
There, very clearly, was Pettigrew's name on the map - the problem was, he was located at the other end of the corridor, in the darkness their wands couldn't reach. Liv's heart began to beat very fast.
"He should be here anywhere," Harry whispered, frantically pointing his wand in every direction, not leaving a single part of the corridor left in darkness.
"I'm scared," Liv gasped, subconsciously gripping onto his hand now instead of him jumper. Harry didn't respond.
Harry yanked her forward, rushing down the corridor. He was panting hard, and Liv had shut her eyes tight to try and avoid the situation all together. If they were about to come face to face with Pettigrew, she really didn't want to see it.
"Harry, I don't like this," Liv mumbled, the stress becoming unbearable. Harry looked down to the map - Pettigrew was so close, any seconds now he should be right there.
Liv opened her eyes quickly, just to check the map before she'd immediately shut her eyes again, but something else caught her eye. It wasn't Pettigrew's name, it was someone much worse.
"Harry!" Liv gasped, grabbing his wrist to lower his wand, muttering 'nox' to extinguish the light. "Snape!" She ushered him. "It's Snape!"
Before Harry could respond, the light was relit, thought it wasn't his own. There was Snape, staring menacingly at the pair at if his head was about to explode with anger. Liv prepared herself for the eruption.
"Potter," Snape he growled, eyeing him disapprovingly, before turning to Liv. "Black? What are you doing wandering the corridors at night?"
"I was sleep walking," Harry said proudly, Liv envied how quickly he'd come up with a (half) believable excuse.
To spare some time, she shuffled her feet nervously. "I was trying to wake him," she mumbled. What a stupid thing to say.
Snape began to sneer. "How extraordinarily like your Father's you are; them too were exceedingly arrogant, strutting around the castle doing what they shouldn't... turn out your pockets,"
Liv tried her hardest to ignore the comment about her Father - which proved difficult. Once again Liv's only focusing was trying to cause Snape hell; well, as much hell as she could cause in the middle of an empty corridor in the middle of the night.
"I don't have any pockets," She snapped.
"I was talking to Potter," Snape responded.
"You could have made that more clear," Liv said.
Snape bent over, towering over Liv menacingly. "Zip it,"
Snape snatched the rather obviously hidden map straight from the pocket of Harry's jumper - making both him and Liv jump and the sudden, reckless moment. "What's this?" He sneered.
"It's clearly just parchment," Liv snapped. Snape was towering over her again.
"I thought I told you to zip it?" He raised his voice, turning to Harry. "What is it, Potter?"
"Parchment, just like she said," Harry repeated.
In response to this, Snape raised his wand touching the tip to the parchment and mumbled "reveal your secrets,"
"Read it, Black. I can't bare to listen to Potter stumble over his words at this time of night," He commanded. Liv snatched the parchment out of his hands harshly. His mouth opened slightly, but there was little response to her behavior.
She cleared her throat, and softly began to read the scripture that had now appeared. "Messers Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs offer their compliment to Professor Snape, but requests he keeps his abnormally large nose out of other people's business,"
For some reason, this seemed to strike a nerve deep inside of Snape, for she'd never seen such rage on a any mans face before, let alone it barely being seen through the light illumination coming from his wand. He raised his hand high as if to hit her – liv flinched, covering her head with her arms before he striked. "HOW DARE YOU –"
If Liv hadn't been cowering behind her arms, she'd had noticed Remus' grabbing Snape's arm from the darkness after appearing out of literally no where. Though, she knew his voice all too well, and looked up when his soft voice spoke.
"Professor?"
Remus still had ahold of Snape's raised arm. He quickly shook him off before sneering. "Lupin, out for a little walk in the moonlight are we?"
Remus managed to ignore him, Liv was certainly struggling to do the same.
"Is everything okay?" He asked Harry and Liv, who suddenly snapped out of her trace of shock. She shoved the parchment into Remus' hands.
"He told me to read the goddamn thing!" She shouted. "So I don't know why he's yelling at me for doing what I was told!"
"You are astonishingly deviant," Snape snapped in response. "Infact, I have just now confiscated a rather curious artifact in Black's possession, why don't you take a look, Lupin," he said, motioning to the Marauders Map.
"It's mine, not Liv's," Harry piped up. "Don't blame her,"
Remus just smiled. "It shouldn't matter who owns it, as it seems to be nothing more than a zonkos product designed to insult anyone who tries to read it. However, I will keep it in my possession to check for any dark magic as you seemed to be so concerned,"
Remus smiled again - no one seemed to smile in response, certainly not Snape. "Right, that's it then? Harry, Liv, would you like to come with me please,"
They shuffled along the corridor in silence until Remus was sure Snape had been out of sight – at least Liv imagined that's what he had done, which was nice. He sighed slightly before turning to check behind him to see if the two were listening, but hadn't stopped his stride.
"Now I will not ask what you two are doing wandering the corridors this late at night but I am astounded you two are continuing to do it given the current circumstances," he said calmly before holding the marauders map high above his head with a small shake. "I am even more astounded you didn't hand this is,"
Liv looked to Harry, rolled her eyes, and let out an annoyed huff in response. "It's just a map," she tutted.
"This is not just a map, and you know it," Remus replied.
Harry was the one to look at Liv this time before they both sharing a shocked expression having no clue how the professor knew anything more than it just being a map. They didn't response, and Remus didn't react to the silence. Soon enough, they'd reached the bottom of the moving stair cases, where they were hopefully finally free. Remus finally faced them.
"Im sure Professor Snape has done quite enough to let you know what you're doing is wrong, so you're not in anymore trouble. Harry I want you to go back to your dormitory right away, i need a word with Olivia here,"
Fuck.
Harry nodded and marched up the stairs fairly quickly to make his escape, leaving Liv behind. In a split second she turned to Remus to apologize, hoping whatever telling off she was about to revive wasn't too harsh.
"Daddy, I'm really sorry –"
"You're not in trouble," Remus interrupted to Liv's surprise. "I just want to know why my daughters out of bed at this time of night with a boy,"
Liv's mouth opened wide. "It's nothing like that!"
Remus raised an eyebrow.
She groaned. "We were out of bed because Harry said he saw Peter Pettigrew's name on the map, we just went to check it out, it's not a big deal," she added a convincing shrug at the end.
Remus had a very blank expression on his face. "Thats not possible," he said flatly.
"Right? Because he's dead," Liv said with a light laugh (though Remus' expression didn't lighten) "I knew it must have been a mistake, we just followed his name on the map but no one was there,"
Remus relaxed, only to shake his head and rub a hand through his hair. "You definitely saw his name?" He ushered Liv.
"Yeah, but, like i said - I'm sure it was just a mistake," she replied.
Remus shook his head again. "The map doesn't make mistakes,"
"How do you know?"
"Because I made it"
"You made it?"
"I was one of those who made it, and one of those who made it so it would never, ever make a mistake,"
Remus looked around as if to check they were still alone, even thought it was the middle of the night and they were very clearly alone. "I on the other hand..." he said quietly. "I have made a terrible mistake,"
Remus looked stressed - and not his normal day-to-day stress. Remus looked as though the full moon had just appeared out of no where. Liv was beyond confused.
"What are you talking about?" Was all she said.
"I had my suspicions as to how Sirius might be in the castle, but now after you seeing Pettigrew's name on the map i'm almost certain...."
"You know how Sirius is getting into the castle?" Liv gasped.
"They're animagi," Remus said, suddenly pacing forward. Liv had to run to keep up. "They did it to help with with the moons, Peters a rat and Sirius is a dog, that must be how he's getting in - dementors don't chase after dogs,"
"Well we need to tell someone! We should tell Dumbeldore now...."
"No," Remus said very quickly with no other explanation.
"You're joking?" Liv nervously laughed. "We need to stop him before he breaks in again,"
Remus stopped abruptly. "I think he might be innocent,"
Nothing could have prepared Liv for what Remus has said. All those months spent worrying, in fear, full of uncertainty. They may have been all for nothing. But not just that – her Father, imprisoned for over twelve years with the chance he could have been innocent all along?
"I just have no proof," Remus said. The breath Liv didn't realize she was holding in suddenly escaped. "I don't even have proof Pettigrew's alive,"
"But his name was on the map? You said it doesn't make mistakes?" Liv said.
"A map a bunch a kids made is not enough proof," Remus sighed. "No one would believe it, anyway,"
Liv let herself yawn, she was tired, and the thrill of Sirius potentially being innocent had warned off, because, if you were gonna look at it logically, it just couldn't be possible.
"We need to get you to bed," Remus said, putting an arm around her shoulder. "You can stay in my room, "I can't have you wondering the corridors again this late,"
Liv nodded, and let her head rest on his side and he lead her to his chambers, trying her hardest not to fall asleep as she walked. "He's was going to hit me," she mumbled quietly.
"Hmm?" Remus said, not paying much attention to her tired babble.
"Snape,"
"I would never let anyone hurt you," Remus whispered in the dark. "Especially not Snape,"
"I love you..."
"Love you too,"
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