Are you gonna eat that?

“Right,” she said, her brow furrowing as he explained his problem with the meeting. She’d known it was unsanctioned, and he had mentioned a few times now that Remus, and probably others, didn’t support the whole idea, but she hadn’t really thought about problems it could cause in the longer term. How could she? Daisy had only known about the Order for a matter of days. She didn’t know how things worked, how they made decisions or dealt with problems. She had just had the opportunity to come along, and absolutely was not going to turn it down. “It will be worth it, if we find something, I’m sure.”

“Feel how the ground slants up?”

“Um, right, yeah,” she lied. She didn’t notice any difference. Should she? It seemed to pretty much be as flat as before, there wasn’t much of a feeling of walking up a hill. She did notice that there seemed to be fewer rocks, though, since it had been at least a minute since she’d last tripped over one. She did notice the change in the light in another minute, though, and that was very welcome after nearly an hour wandering through the darkness. Something about having only the light from a wand was unnerving; to have a ring of light but darkness was right beyond it, anything could be there.

Peter could clearly see in the dark better than she could, for she didn’t notice the ladder until he was climbing it. She followed him up into what appeared to be some sort of storage room, filled with boxes and crates. Daisy moved closer to one pile, squinting to make out their labels in the dim room.

He wasn’t an expert in reading people, but he knew that tone. She had no idea what he was talking about. Great. Feeling like a freak since he had a feeling the reason he knew there was an incline was because he’d traveled in rat form where the elevation was more obvious, he did his best to shrug it off. He had a feeling she wasn’t paying much attention to him though, so he didn’t dwell on it.

Familiarity gave him an added bit of dexterity and he maneuvered ahead of her to draw out the ladder. Setting it against the lip of the trap door, he clambered up, pushing the heavy wooden slats up slowly to help minimize the squeaking. Wanting to be double sure no one heard them, he tugged his wand from his pocket. “Muffliato.” A quick swish and flick and a hush fell around them. Good.

He climbed the rest of the way from the tunnel and then slipped to the side so she could slip out as well. Waiting for her to pass him, he moved back to let the lid down carefully, waiting until the cracks dissolved as only magic would allow before focusing on Daisy. At her delighted exclamation he rolled his eyes, glad he’d thought to muffle the area around them.

“Yes, and that would be why we need to be quiet. If this passage is found and locked down it would be a huge loss.” It wasn’t really an understatement either since she was hardly the only order member locked away in Hogwarts and subject to the rules and regulations of the school. Feeling like the worlds biggest grump, he flushed faintly and apologized. “Sorry.” After all, he’d been completely overwhelmed with excitement when he’d found out that his favorite passage let out in the storeroom for Honeydukes. He’d also helped himself to a few treats on more than a few occasions. Who was he to deny her excitement. It was cool.

He grins, and then Emma delivers a hard kick to the back of his right knee, spinning and kicking the other one out from under him, laughing with delight, like a child playing with a new toy. After all, that’s all Peter is to the restless pack. A new toy, and one they don’t even have to worry about breaking.

The snow seeped through his pants instantly, the thin, worn material not much of a barrier against the wet slush they’d forced him into. Porker. So very close to ‘Piggy’. Eight years later and he was still cowering before the bullies of the world, and oh how he hated them. He’d been surprised enough by the sudden loss of his legs that he’d fallen to all fours, but rather than searching for the lost Bertie Bots, he slowly sat up. He couldn’t even escape as a rat. He was well and truly caught.

However before he could even manage to word some sort of protest, cold bony hands with claw-like nails, and the force of malicious delight were pinching at his skin. He shouted in surprise and then bit his tongue, trying not to cry out, recalling a speech from James who’d come upon some Slytherin’s beating him once. They jus’ wanna hear ya’ scream mate. Somehow he had a feeling that ‘not doing anything’ in this scenario was not going to help him out, but he was going to try.

She didn’t agree that he was getting the better half of their deal, if anything they were equal. This was twice now he’d basically rescued her from an awkward situation and didn’t seem at all bothered by it. He didn’t seem bothered by her. With as few friends as she had, it seemed foolish to take any for granted, best to enjoy those relationships while they lasted. They all ended — either the other person got tired of her, the constant working, the difficulty opening up, the overly blunt approach to things, or Amelia ended up pushing them away because she thought they were tired of her. It as a cycle she’d never been able to break, save for Edgar. 

As he expected, she was set to politely decline his offer of assistance in carrying the paperwork she’d liberated from her office, but his next sentence stopped her short. “Far be it from me to deny such a gallant offer,” she replied, smiling at him again. He was quickly working his way up the list of her favorite marauders, though, to be fair, it wasn’t hard to surpass Sirius. 

“No, but it sounds nice.” He said. Given how short on cash he tended to be, he didn’t really have the money to spare on places like the one she’d described but he could splurge once and it would be okay. He moved along quickly beside her, occasionally glancing over at her, but for the most part he kept his attention ahead of them.

He was sure she was sick of people asking her questions, but they bumbled around in his head regardless. What was it like? What did he do? How did you escape? Did he really just let you go? Do you think he's going to come after you again? Are you sure its safe to be up and about right now? Still, the last thing he wanted was to botch their potential friendship, so he avoided the topic and focused on the posted position.

     ”A challenge! I’ll make you regret the day you said that, Wormtail! Birthday or not, you are going down." Sirius plucked the shot from Remus’ fingers, careful not to brush his own skin against his friend’s. Eyes moved over each of the Marauders with a cautionary glance. "For tonight we will separate the men from the boys. The sissies from the macho men. Tonight we will drink until our eyes close and eyes and we vomit and pass out, covered in our own piss. Who’s with me?"

     Sirius rose his shot glass in the air to clink against the others before downing it in a gulp. 

Setting the glass down on the table with a ‘thud’ he sighed in pleasure and shook his head, running his hands back through his hair, “Gods I fuckin needed this.  Feel like it’s been one thing after another lately.  Been far too long since we all just relaxed tagether.”  He shook his head, “Knew leavin’ Hogwarts would change things an I think we’ve done a damned good job’a stayin close, but still… ain’t the same anamore is it?”

The next round he brought over included the bottle, per Prongs’ request. He set the tiny glasses down, however, and flicked his wand over the rims. The shot glasses lit up with purple flame. "Cheers," he said again. When he took the shot, the fire licked his lips, and turned instantly into a sweet yellow flame cooling on his tongue. "James, of course you’re getting sentimental, mate, you’re about to be a married man. I think it’s safe to say that it’s business as usual for me, not much has changed, but you — " he pointed a wagging finger, "we probably won’t recognize you come this time next year." Nagging on him was all in good fun, and offered jokingly as if to say, ‘it’ll be alright. We’ll be here next year, all of us.’ 

He chuckled when James’ upcoming nuptials (unscheduled but imminent in his mind anyway) were mentioned. “Which is why he’s not joinin’ the challenge. Probably afraid Lily would scold him while he was praisin’ the porcelain God. I know I would be.” Peter confessed, reaching out to grab a chip from the basket in the center of the table.