James was breathless from running. He slammed through the door to the Marauder's dormitory, his lungs burning, to find the other three sitting about Peter's bed, playing Wizard Chess, two against one to Moony, and eating chocolate and licorice wands, as though nothing were the matter. James doubled over, clutching his knees, "Need you -" he panted, "Need you down - down in the - the Trophy Room passage - need to - talk."
The other three looked at him blankly.
"What the bloody hell has Evans done to you?" Sirius asked. He looked at Remus, "You never make me that out of breath," he said accusingly.
Remus ignored the comment. "What's going on?"
"Snape..." gasped James, "Potion...Greyback... Gotta talk... Evans is waiting."
Sirius heard the word Snape and without even a hesitation he leaped up, knocking over the chess board (he was losing anyway and it was as good an excuse as any to not have to resume it later) and hurried to fling on his leather jacket and boots. Peter quickly grabbed his divination stones and shuffled into slippers as Remus tugged on his ratty old jumper and tucked a bar of chocolate into the pocket. Thusly prepared, the Marauders hurried down the steps to the common room, silent as ghosts they were so used to sneaking down that staircase, and across the common room to the portrait hole. They were out and into the corridor without a single sound.
Lily Evans was pacing in the alcove off the Trophy Room Passageway, wringing her hands nervously, when the boys arrived. She hurried to wrap her arms around James and clutch him closely to her for comfort. James squeezed her reassuringly as the other three poured in and they stood in a circle, facing one another.
"What's that greasy twat done now?" Sirius asked point-blank.
Remus and Peter looked nervously between Lily and James.
"We were doing rounds -" James started.
"Actual rounds," Lily supplied, "Not snogging."
"Right," Sirius drawled. "Go on."
"- and we spotted Snape sneaking out the Entrance Hall door," James continued.
Remus's brows stitched in concern.
"So we followed him, of course," Lily said, supplying the next bit of the story.
"And the git doesn't know how to open the door properly, making loads of racket," James injected.
"Of course not, that slimeball," muttered Peter.
"And he was sneaking off across the grounds," Lily continued, "Past Hagrid's hut and right into the woods, just the way we all went back in first year."
"That walk was a good deal shorter than it was back then," James observed. "Seemed to hardly take even ten minutes to reach the edge of the charms." He shook his head, "Luckily, I had the cloak with me, so we were under that and he never saw us."
"And we stayed far enough back he couldn't hear our minds," Lily added.
"He was really distracted anyway," James pointed out.
"Yes, very," Lily agreed.
Remus, Peter, and Sirius's heads were bouncing between the pair of them as they told the story, their eyes following them like a dueling match, bouncing from speaker to speaker as the story unfolded.
"And then he reached the clearing," James said, "And suddenly Fenrir Greyback's there --"
Remus made an involuntary flinching motion and Sirius's arm clapped about him the same as James's was clapped about Lily, pulling his narrow frame closer as the twitchy displeasure of the thought of Greyback worked its way through him.
"-- and Snape's giving him a vial of potion," Lily finished James's sentence. "Something called Wolfsbane."
"The werewolf cure," Remus nodded. "They're testing it through the Ministry. It enables a werewolf to keep his wits about him... during the full moon."
"Well, Fenrir Greyback has some now," James said, "And somehow Snape has access to it. Sounded like Slughorn's brewing it."
"For Dumbledore," Lily added.
Remus looked shocked, and perhaps even a bit betrayed, "For Dumbledore?" he asked, "But - if Dumbledore has access to Wolfsbane, why hasn't he --" he paused, not wanting to sound selfish.
"Dunno," James answered the unfinished question.
"Fuck him for keeping a remedy from you," Sirius declared, his jaw setting with anger, "Bloody bastard, why wouldn't he want to help my Moony?"
Lily said, "Of course there's always the chance that Severus was lying to Greyback."
James glanced at her warily.
"I dunno why he would," Lily said, "But perhaps?"
"I've brought my divination stones," Peter suggested, holding up the back. "We could ask the stones."
Sirius looked skeptical, but Lily nodded encouragingly. "Ask the stones, Peter."
Peter hurried to sit down on the floor by the little couch and let his legs form a ring before him, quickly shaking the bag and closing his eyes, muttering to himself until he finally poured them out. The gemstones glittered in the pale, flickering torch light of the little alcove, and the photos on the walls all seemed to be leaning, looking at the results that the stones would give. James found himself holding his breath in anticipation as well, even though he had no idea what the stones throw would mean. Peter studied the way the stones had fallen, studied the pattern and the colors of them, and he looked up, face pale.
"He's not lying to Greyback," he said resolutely, "And there's something horrible gonna happen because of it, but the stones don't say what. Only that a lot of death is coming. And - and the werewolves, they're in trouble. Good ones, I mean." He looked at Remus.
Remus shivered and Sirius held onto him protectively. "I'll bloody tear apart anyone that tries to hurt my Moony," Sirius growled, "And I plan to go right up to Dumbledore's office and demand to know why he's excluding you from the Wolfsbane potion. Right now. Wake the bloody old coot up from his cozy little slumber and --"
"No!" Lily injected, and they all looked at her. "There must be a reason Dumbledore's keeping Remus out of this," she said. "I'm sure it's for Remus's own good. We know Dumbledore would never do anything to purposely hurt Remus. He's the only reason Remus has been given the opportunity at an education, isn't he?"
Remus nodded slowly.
"But he's got the bloody cure!" Sirius snapped, "Sure he helps him hide his furry little problem now, but he could cure it."
"But it would expose him to accept the potion," James said. "Maybe the potion Dumbledore is having Slughorn produce has something to do with the ministry's testing and to offer some to Remus would mean exposing him."
Sirius was fuming, but he paused in his attempts to head toward the door at this.
"Perhaps all those werewolves Dumbledore had with him at the Hog's Head had something to do with all this, too," Lily suggested.
"Must've done," James agreed.
Remus was shaking. "Ned will know."
"We could floo up Professor Viegler and find out," James suggested.
Remus nodded.
"He's still at Fallengunder, Newt said," added Sirius, "With Elva."
Remus nodded again, "Yeah. Bloody hell." He paused. "I can't imagine Fenrir Greyback with the Wolfsbane..."
"What," laughed Sirius, "Tamed?"
"No," Remus said, "The potion doesn't tame a wolf, it allows him to keep his own mind. Just think of it... Fenrir Greyback. With his own mind in the werewolf's body."
There was a silence as the meaning of the words sank in. They looked at one another warily.
Peter scooped up his divination stones, sliding the bag into his pocket, and he stood up. "We can't let that happen. It's - it's too scary." He thought of the hungry look on Greyback's face when he'd faced the Dark Lord over summer, how Greyback had threatened him, called him a morsel... He shivered at the thought of Fenrir Greyback nearly as much as Remus did now, and he swallowed back the fear that was twisting deep in his belly. "It's just - too - too scary," he repeated.
James nodded resolutely, "He's right."
Lily grabbed James's hand.
James declared, "We need to figure out how Snape is getting the potion, find a way to stop him before Greyback gets anymore than the one vial he has now."
Sirius's eyes turned to that of determination, "We should go to Slughorn."
"Yeah, but how?" Remus asked, "Slughorn adores Snape. He's one of his favorite students. I mean, blimey, they get on about as good as --" he paused and they all looked at Lily.
Lily spoke up, "I could talk to Professor Slughorn. He'll listen to me."
James nodded, "Of course he will, you're the only one Slughorn likes more than Snape, I reckon."
"And if he doesn't?" Sirius asked.
James shrugged, "Then we'll figure out what to do next then, when we come to it."
Peter was shaking, nervously shuffling beside the others, clutching the bag of his divination stones in his ratty little fingers. "Oh dear," he muttered.
"It'll be alright, Pete," said James, clapping his hand on Peter's shoulder.
Peter nodded, but in his mind all he could see was the death part of the divination stones' pattern and he shivered deep within at the thought of it.