Order Only: Private Message to Remus

[alt_sirius]

You know, I don't want to pry into their business but something's not adding up.

• Ron wants to know about transfiguring animagi into other animals and what effect that might have, as a precaution in case Glozeman tries transforming him


• He also asked about the forced reformation spell, since someone in their class knew it and they weren't already familiar with it (and why didn't Albus teach it to him? That's a question for another day)


• Private messages among Harry, Ron, Sally-Anne, Justin and Pansy (which could be anything, I admit)


• Harry asks us about Peter because he's been 'thinking about other animagi'?


• Sally-Anne asks me (and the other Animagi) about remaining in animal form for 'a really long time' and whether if one did so for sufficiently long periods, if one would turn into that animal


• And now, after we've been discussing Peter with Harry, he sends them all another Private Message

....

Doesn't Sally-Anne have a pet rat?

Comments

[alt_lupin]

Yes.

She does have a pet rat.

Or so I've heard. I've never actually seen it, even though apparently it once came along to appreciate tea. Have you ever seen it?

[alt_sirius]

No, I haven't. I wonder if anyone has ever taken her photograph with him in it.

[alt_lupin]

Never seen one of those, either.

[alt_sirius]

Oh, but he can't be ... not all this time? And the Slytherin dormitory is crawling with cats.

Circe! That would mean he's been living in a girls' dormitory for six years. That wretched little pervert.

[alt_lupin]

Oh, he must have LOVED that.

[alt_lupin]

What was it you told Harry?

He always liked the vulnerable girls.

[alt_sirius]

Don't I know I just told him that!

And Peter did, too, remember? The ones who thought no one would ever notice them and so were pathetically grateful for his attention.

[alt_lupin]

I do remember.

'I play in my own league,' was that what he said? To James. When James was stuck on Lily, and Peter was trying to persuade him to move on.

Ugh.

[alt_sirius]

Yeah. What was her name? He was so proud of himself. Becky? Becca? Thornbush, right? Year below ours, Hufflepuff. Rather on the chubby side, if it comes to that. Anyway, he was insufferable that whole spring. Never lost a chance to remind James that he'd finally come first in something among the four of us.

Stands to reason he'd latch on to our Sally-Anne just when she needed something to make her feel more secure.

I'm going up there. Tonight. He has to be stopped before he can sell out the next generation, too.

[alt_lupin]

That makes no sense, though. If he'd wanted to sell them out he could've done it years ago. Years! Why hasn't he done it, if that's what he were going to do?

[alt_lupin]

Do you think we have to just sit here and wait for them to realise they ought to tell us?

[alt_sirius]

I was about to ask you the same thing.

[alt_lupin]

Well.

We can't go over there. Not in the middle of the day. It would be suicidal and there'd be no guarantee whatsoever that we'd succeed at getting to Peter, especially as they're probably keeping him somewhere like that room where they have secret meetings, and I'm not sure we could even get in.

So our options are yelling at them, or waiting for now and yelling at them later.

How worried are we that Peter will give them the slip? They do at least know he's an animagus so presumably they're alert to the possibility of him getting away from them as a rat.

[alt_sirius]

BUT -

[alt_lupin]

Dolohov has some means of knowing who's in the castle.

We can't. Not right now. We're going to have to trust the kids to handle it.

[alt_lupin]

As for cats, the whole school's been thick with them for the last year and a half. Thanks to Dolores Umbridge's plate collection!

What the hell use is a cat that won't eat Peter, that's what I'd like to know.

[alt_sirius]

Well. All right, so the proper cats would know he's not a proper rat, which means they'd likely leave him alone. But Pansy's is actually a kneazle - I mean store bought with certifications - and why he didn't ever alert them to the presence of a malignant stub like Peter ....

No, I can't sit here and do nothing. They're in danger.

[alt_lupin]

I want to agree, but -- he's been there for how long? And now they know about him, and surely he's got no wand.

It's not just Harry by himself -- he's got Ron and Justin backing him up. Two of the best fighters of the younger generation.

[alt_sirius]

Sodding bugger all, you're right. As usual.

All right. But if Harry doesn't come to us by Monday, we're asking him what he plans to do. Agreed?

[alt_lupin]

Oh, agreed.

[alt_lupin]

I think we have to let them handle it. At least for a few more hours.

[alt_lupin]

All those times I could have just ASKED to see that goddamn rat.

[alt_sirius]

Peter's too clever for that, though. I think once he realised that you were at Laszlo's (and certainly if he'd heard I was there), he stayed away.

You know it's going to kill me to wait.

[alt_lupin]

I'd offer you distraction but in that case we'd better boost the Notificio charm on our journals. Anyone writes to us, I want to be writing back IMMEDIATELY.

[alt_sirius]

Normally I'd say yes but it might be ... more prudent to tinker. Or get in some target practice or something.

Too bad Dora's put the soundproofing round the painting. I could really use an excuse to break crockery in front of it right now.

[alt_lupin]

Target practice! Sounds perfect. Maybe we can practice on some ancestral crockery.