Peter was still laying in bed when James got back to the dormitory after breakfast. He shucked off his rucksack in the doorway, tossing it onto his trunk, and pulled off his jumper, laying it over the end of his four-poster. He glanced at Peter's bed - at the lump beneath the blankets. James picked up his school tie and looked it over before waving his wand to steam it, and he folded it nicely and tucked it into his drawer.
"Peter?" James called, "Mate, you awake?"
Peter didn't move. He couldn't.
"Pete? You alright, mate?" James tossed his wand, in it's scabbard, onto his bed and went over to where Peter lay, curled up beneath his cover. "Pete, you missed breakfast..." James put his hand on Peter's back but the moment he touched his friend, Peter squealed and jumped up out of the blankets, scrambling away and standing, his back against Remus's bed, staring back at James on the other side, who'd stood up the moment Peter had reacted so badly.
"No, don't touch me, don't touch me, I'm bad," Peter begged, looking terrified at James. He looked at his own hands, then back at James, "I'm bad, Prongs, I'm bad!"
"Bad?" James looked confused. "Pete, I dunno what you've been dreamin', but it's alright, you're awake now." His voice was gentle.
Peter was near tears, "No, no. It wasn't a dream, James. Look." And Peter bent down and scooped up the fallen tarot cards he'd been using the night before, all the different pictures splayed across the floor this way and that. He flapped the Death card at James. "Look. It wasn't a dream."
James took the card and squinted at it, moved his glasses down his nose, and said, "Well blimey, no wonder you're having nightmares! Look at that bugger." He frowned and chucked the card onto Peter's bed. "Are they all that dismal?"
"No," Peter said. He grabbed the one card from the bed and hurriedly shoved it back into the deck without looking at it. "It's an omen, James. It says death is coming. Death is coming for the Marauders - for you and Sirius and Remus - and it's my fault." Peter struggled to get the deck into the silk and velvet sack that protected them. "I'm bad."
James shook his head and took the deck away from Peter. "Mate, I dunno what goes on up in that Divination classroom, but I don't pretend not to think it' all hokum. If something's telling you that you're bad, then that is most definitely hokum. Alright?" James tossed the deck onto Sirius's unused bed across the room, but Peter still stood there, trembling, staring down at his feet.
"Wasn't hokum when the stones told me where we could find you," Peter stammered, "It wasn't hokum that they led me right to you."
James had to admit that was a rather irrefutable point in Divination's corner. He said, "Well it's hokum now if it says you're anything but good, Pete."
"How do you know?" Peter asked, and his eyes were misty, "How do you know what'll happen tomorrow? The stones said it once, too, you know. The very stones that led me to you. And now they're predicting death, and---" Peter gulped. "It's best, perhaps, if I wasn't -- if you didn't --"
James raised an eyebrow.
"It's best if I'm not included," Peter said. He looked down at his toes.
"Codswallop!" James said emphatically. "Utter codswallop."
"It's for your own good!" Peter begged. "And I'm also pretty sure Sirius doesn't want me in the gang now any longer anyway. He all but said it before."
"And why's that?" James asked.
Peter flushed, "I - I said something I oughtn't have done to him."
"He'll get over it, he always does -- he's Sirius," James replied. "And I mean that like his name, not like he's serious." James had hoped that the joke would make Peter smile, but he only looked sadder.
"I'm not so sure," Peter answered, and he hung his head.
James paused, sitting down on the side of Peter's bed, thinking a moment. Then, "Is this why you didn't come to my birthday party? Because of whatever it is that Sirius said?"
Peter turned red. "I - Well, yes. But - he said it because I said --"
James frowned, interrupting Peter, "Hey forget what Sirius said, alright? It was my birthday, not his. It doesn't matter what Sirius wants, it matters what I want, and I wanted my mates to be there - all my mates. I missed you Peter."
"You - you did?"
James nodded.
"You really did?"
"I really did," James said sincerely.
And Peter crawled quickly over the bed to capture James in a hug. "Thank you," he cried, "Thank you."
James hugged Peter back, his cheek pressing on the smaller, pudgier boy's straw-coloured hair and he patted Pete's back.
The door swung open then, and Sirius - red eyed, pale, and defeated looking - came in, holding hands with Remus. They stood in the doorway, taking in the scene of Peter and James, who looked up and took in the scene of Remus and Sirius. There was a pause and then, "Oi, you two, it's Moony and I who ought to be caught doing that, not you lot."
Peter quickly dropped his arms from 'round James, who stood up, "What the hell happened to you?" James asked, shoving his glasses up his nose.
Sirius said, "My mother's been poisoned."
"Poisoned!?" Peter's eyes widened and he looked at the Tarot cards on the night stand in their pretty little sack, then to James. "The death card." He breathed the words.
James looked at Sirius, a bit petrified looking, "She's dead?"
"No, no --" Sirius said, and now that he'd had his moment, he was able to be far more nonchalant, at least outwardly (inside he was still shattering in fragments, but his fingers tightened on Remus Lupin's to help that), "No such luck!" He smirked.
James could tell there was a battle waging in Sirius . He could see the tear between funny, casual, it-doesn't-matter-to-me Sirius and the little boy whose mum was ill Sirius. "I'm sorry, mate," James said - answering both halves of Sirius at once.
Sirius's lip quivered slightly.
Peter said hurriedly, "But if she does die then the death card won't mean you lot!"
James looked at Peter, "I told you that the cards are hokum, Pete. Don't let them get you down, alright? Nobody's going to die just because you pulled that nightmare looking card."
"What?" Remus asked.
"Peter did a tarot reading last night and scared magic out of himself," James explained.
"I drew the Death card," Peter said.
Remus, who had seen the tarot deck before knew exactly the picture of the death card and his face reflected that as he gave an expression of disgust, "Oh Merlin."
"Gave himself nightmares," James added, smirking slightly.
"I mean, who wouldn't have nightmares seeing that card. It's bloody terrible."
Sirius looked between them, "What is it?"
"Nothing you need to see right now," Remus answered, even as James had turned for the deck on Peter's nightstand. Remus shook his head and James put the deck back down. "It doesn't sound like any of us got much sleep last night --"
"Where's Patti?" Sirius suddenly asked, spinning away from Remus's grasp as he tried to lead Sirius to bed.
Peter looked confused, "Who's Patti?"
"Lily and Ali have taken her for a walk to meet Marlene over by Ravenclaw tower," James answered. "She's really taken by that thing," he added.
"Of course she is," Sirius said, then, to Peter, "She's my pig."
Peter blinked. "Your - your pig?"
"Well she was the lamp in the shack, the one by the bed. But now she's a pig."
Peter nodded as though this was enough explanation and then he said, "I can't wait to meet her."
"You'll love her, she's a delight," Sirius said airily.
James cleared his throat, and when Sirius looked at him, he nodded at Peter, and raised his eyebrows.
Sirius knew what James was saying and he looked at Peter, then sighed heavily. "Sorry I was an arse before," he said dutifully.
Peter, wanting to be as airy and casual as any of the other Marauders, answered, "Oh not to worry, it's alright." He smiled.
James smirked, knowing that however light and fluffy the exchange had gone, Peter was squealing internally and Sirius was melting from having to apologize.
Remus cleared his throat next, and then said, "Bloody hell, I've never had to work so hard to get you to want to go to bed, Sirius."
Sirius grinned.
James, who had turned and was crawling onto his own bed, said, "Hey -- Rule number one."
"Shall be violently and utterly broken," Sirius cried, springing at Remus's bed eagerly.
"No!" Peter and James both shouted at once. "It shall not," James added.
Remus laughed as Sirius knocked him into the mattress, "It really shan't, Padfoot." Then he added, "Not now anyway," under his breath.
"In that case," Sirius answered, and he popped into his Snuffles form, bouncing across the bed as Remus pulled himself up and under the covers. With a woosh of air and fur, Padfoot flopped over Remus's form, a heavy black fluffy mass with a wet nose and paws, curled around the torso of a boy.
Peter crawled into bed, too. "I'm so glad we're taking a nap."
"A much needed snooze," agreed James and he grabbed his pillow, fluffing it up.
"And I'm glad it's not you lot who's dying," Peter added. Then, quickly, "But I am sorry, Sirius. You'll have to tell us everything about your mum when we wake up, alright?"
The dog yawned in reply.
"Goodnight, you lot," James announced, folding his glasses and plonking them on the nightstand.
"Good day, more like," Remus said sleepily.
"Nox," said Peter, aiming his wand at the lamp they'd all forgotten to shut off.
"Careful now," came James's voice, half asleep. "We don't need two pigs running around."