The Re-Discovery Of A Lost Star
Remus led the walk down to the dungeons, setting a fast-paced stride that the other boys followed. The taller boy was done with this; he was feeling guilty, and upset, and stressed and just wanted to get this whole thing figured out so he could talk to his boyfriend.
The other boys could feel the emotions radiating off of him as they walked tensely down the corridors. The only noise between the group being the sound of their footsteps against the old corridor floors. As they walked closer to the Slythrine dorms, Remus felt the anger in him start to take over.
“Hey, Moony, you sure you're all good?” Peter asked, finally breaking the silence.
“I’m fine, Wormy.” He replied to the shorter boy, although it wasn’t quite true. Remus wasn’t fine. He was anxious and hurt and so, so, so worried about Sirius, but he didn’t have time to complain about that, so instead, he would just tell his friends he was fine, even when he was anything but.
“Ok, but you know we’re here for you, right?” Peter once again reassured the other boy.
Remus just gave a small node to his friend. He didn’t want to have this conversation, and thankfully, he wouldn’t have to, as they walked up to the entrance of the Slythrin common room, Regulus addressed the other three boys. “I’m going to go get Snape from the common room, I’ll tell him that Evans is out here and wants to talk to him, and then when he gets out here, we’ll figure the rest out, got it.”
The three present Marauders nodded in agreement as they watched Regulus whisper the password and step into the common room. The next few minutes passed by painfully slowly. As the seconds passed by, Remus could feel the inside of his skin clawing to get out. He felt his control slipping away. The longer it took for Regulus to step out of that doorway with Snape, the more Remus wanted to break into that common room himself and demand answers.
As the door finally creaked open, allowing Regulus and Snape to step out in the hallway, Remus felt in remaining resolve crumble. He felt his feet starting to move, and the next thing he knew, he had Snape pinned against the dungeon wall by his neck.
“What the fuck Lupin.” Snape cursed at the lycathope as he was sneering below him.
At the same time, James jumped up to the taller boy to reassure him as well as attempt to keep him from doing anything he would regret. “Whoa, Moony, calm down.”
But Remus wasn’t listening, not to James and certainly not to Snape. “What the fuck did you do to Sirius,” Remus question the slythrine boy.
“Nothing he didn’t deserve.” Snape sneered back with a gasp.
“What did you do?” Remus felt what was left of his control crumble even more as he squeezed the other boy's neck just a bit.
“Moony. Stop.” Remus heard himself being yelled at as he felt himself being pulled away from the other boy.
“No, no.” He fought back against the familiar hands. “I need to, I need to know what he did, he- he hurt Sirius, I-.”
“You need to calm down, Remus.” He looked up and saw Regulus standing in front of him. “I get that you’re worried and you’re angry, really I do, but you unfortunately can’t strangle him.” Remus attempted to calm himself down by focusing on the younger boy in front of him. Regulus was right; he couldn’t help if he let his emotions and moony take over. He needed to keep it together so they could find Sirius, he could kill Snape later.
“You’re fucking Psycho Lupin, a freak.” Snape was snapping back at the boy before James took over.
The curly-haired boy had now taken over the place where Remus was previously standing, now leaning to pin the skinny boy against the wall by his shoulders. “Enough, Snivillus, you did something to Sirius, and you're going to tell us all what.” The Gryiffndor quidditch captain yelled. The boy was very rarely raised his at anyone, and so whenever he did, it was truly terrifying.
“Why do you even care? He betrayed you, revealed your secret, or did you forget that?” the dark-haired boy snapped back, specifically directing his snark at the werewolf.
“Of course I fucking care, especailly because I know that you did something to him to get him to do that.” Remus snarled back, failing at his attempt to remain calm. He felt Regulus grab his arm in a small attempt to reel him in.
“Ok, Snivillius, you’re going to tell us what you did to Sirius,” Regulus took over. He was done with all of these games, and it was time to get a move on. “How you admit it is up to you, you could either tell us of your own volition or I can let James and Remus beat your ass until you finally cave, the choice is yours.”
Snapes face fell as he was spoke, the fear becoming visible on his face. “No, you- you wouldn’t, you’re a Prefect.” Snapes' voice shook as he spoke.
That comment triggered a series of snorts and chuckles to be let out from a few members of the group. “I wouldn’t be so sure if I was you, Snivillius.” James said with a slightly mischievous look on his face, “Because being a prefect has never stopped Moony from breaking the rules before.”
“No, no, it has not.” Peter laughed a long with his friend.
“It's up to you, Snivillius. I, for one, would love to see Remus put you in your place.” Regulus said as he leaned right upto the older boys face, “I mean imagine what all your little friends would have to say if they find out that you got your ass handed to you by a half blood Gryiffndor.” as he finshed his sentance, there was a noticeable moment were Snape gave up.
“Fine, but you need to promise that you’ll keep your dogs in line,” Snape responded, his voice still slightly shaking.
“Deal.” Regulus motioned for James to release the other boy as he took a step back from him. All four boys were now staring him down, James and Peter looking like they were one moment away from hexing him into oblivion.
“Now what happened with Sirius?” The younger boy demanded.
“I used ligaments on him to see inside his head. You should have seen the way he just gave up. The moment I cast that spell, he was done for.” the Slythrine Boy chuckled, as if he was proud of himself for what he did. That he managed to hurt them all, even if it meant that he had put his own life in danger to do so.
Remus's heart dropped as the words left his mouth, and his whole world became fuzzy. He had done what? He had used something that he knew he was weak against just to get the upper hand on the marauders, he hated them that much that he would stoop that low just to get to them. The anger in Remus had reached a new high at this moment. He was angrier at that moment than he had been when he thought that Sirius had told over his secret willingly. Remus felt his insides turn as he forced himself to physically hold himself back from attempting to strangle that mangy git.
“ You did WHAT!” Regulus’s words echoed through the corridor, causing James to flinch slightly. “I swear I’m going to-”. Snape had a look of horror cover his face as Regulus tried to lunge at him.
“Reg no.” James cut him off as he grabbed his boyfriend's arms, holding him back from attacking the other boy. “We’ll deal with him after. We still have more questions that need answering, plus I feel Professor McGonagall would find this information very interesting. Come on, guys, we have more important things to deal with right now.”
“James,”
“Let's go.” The tan boy left no room for argument as he started to walk away, the other three boys quickly following after him.
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All four boys headed back to Gyriffndor tower, hoping that by some miracle, whether it be magic or muggle, Sirius had showed back up in their dorm room. The trek back was somber, though, all four boys now being even more concerned for the missing animagus than they were before.
“We’ll find him.” Peter finally broke the depressing silence that had settled between the group, “And he’s gonna be ok, everything's gonna be ok, guys.” He was making a futile attempt to reassure the group of boys.
“He better be.” Regulus said as if it was a threat, but in reality, they all knew his statement had malice, only concern. As much as he liked to pretend he didn’t, Regulus cared for his brother more than anyone else. The brothers' relationship was one of complexity and trauma, but also care, and there is very little that they wouldn’t do for one another.
“Yeah,” James acknowledged his close friend before turning to look toward Remus, but the werewolf looked to be in his own world. He was racking his brain trying to figure out how to find his boyfriend until it suddenly hit him like a slap in the face.
“The fucking map!” suddenly a slight smile broke onto the taller boys face, before he started sprinting twords the tower, not giving his friends even half a glance back.
The other three boys shot after the Gryffindor prefect like he was the last chocolate frog at Honeydukes. All of them running until they arrived, slightly out of breath to the boys’ dorm room.
“Where's the map? Who was the last one to have it?” Remus yelled as he messed through the drawers of his desk.
“Moony, calm down. It's on my night table, right here.” James picked up the empty piece of parchment as his friend went to grab it from his hands.
“Perfect,” he sat himself in the middle of their room with the parchment laid out in front of him as he muttered the incantation to activate the map. “Where are you, padfoot? Where are you?”
“There!” James pointed to a spot at the edge of the map that showed the forbidden forest.