A week passed and Remus was still worried about my well-being. I felt somewhat defeated, I felt as if I had so many puzzle pieces but they just weren't fitting together.

I kept on going over and over the details. Sirius had no reason to join such a shady establishment but the group was beginning to question him. I understood why to an extent.

He's reactive. Quick to anger. Quick to distrust those around him, even those who had proven themselves worthy of trust again and again. Paranoia and conspiracy seemed to consume him at times, control his way of being. On a good day Sirius could be the most wonderful and generous person you could ever meet. On a bad one, it felt like treading on sharp broken egg shells around him. Sirius is obsessive, much like how I felt right now. He's stubborn and difficult to manipulate. He's overly emotional and in denial about it. He's equally as insecure about himself as he shoves his persona in peoples faces. Combine all of that with his flighty behaviour and instability due to the loss of Regulus, no one knowing where he is accurately or how he's living... I could understand why even Marlene was beginning to believe Peters claim that Sirius had to be a death eater. He looked the part, last time I saw him. Unkept, a soulless. Just a darkness surrounding him.

"I know Peter is odd...I still don't trust him, but I do believe him. We can't be the only ones in the group questioning who to trust." Marlene said, cupping a mug in her hands tightly.

"It's quite an accusation." I rolled my eyes.

"Lily said James has been concerned about him lately...for a while now actually. Weird cryptic letters again, like the one sent to me." She explained.

"You spoke to Lily about it?" I awkwardly stirred a spoon around in my tea.

"Hun, everyone's been talking about our little escapade. I was shaken! So were you!" Marlene sighed.

"Something just isn't right." I said for what seemed like the hundredth time.
"Do you know what type of things James has been receiving?" I wondered.

"Uh...she couldn't explain properly, I mean you read the one I received! They don't make sense! But...something about pottery can crumble under pressure? To migrate like birds, find a place where the Lily's bloom? Spring will die where clay crumbles? Change the material, don't tell anyone. I don't know, there's no explanation. A bizarre story." She scrunched her face.

"What does that even mean?" I rubbed my temples.

"Exactly."

"They all have to mean something. He's sending us a message." I said enthusiastically with stress.

"I don't think they do Arty...I think maybe Sirius is just really sick. I think he's not in the right mind, which..." Marlene cringed.

"It doesn't mean he's a death eater." I almost spat.

"I was thinking, trying to put things together, your letter revolves around a mouse trap and that a clever mouse will feed from it regardless right?" I asked.

Marlene nodded.

"Then there was something about trusting her, I don't know who her is...but there's someone to trust there and it obviously isn't the mouse right?" I spoke with my hands, tapping the table with each point.

Marlene seemed to be following, despite her furrowed brows.

"Peter is not a her, but he could be the mouse." I suggested.

Marlene's eyes brightened, like a child who understood math for the first time.

"He's a rat. Peter is a rat." Marlene spoke, unclenching her mug finally.

"Exactly Peter is a rat...and-" I was cut off.

"We've been laying down the traps, you and I. Trying to figure out if he's shady. Maybe you're the person to trust? The her. Sirius is telling me to trust you."

I hadn't considered whether I was the person to trust in the letter, but maybe I was. I had Sirius' stubbornness and I was set on this gut feeling that Peter wasn't who he said he was. Not anymore.

"I don't know what James' letter means, I need to think about it. But I'm sure of yours. I'm sure it's saying Peter is clever enough to manipulate the others! It's why Remus won't trust me!" I exclaimed.

"Shall we show him? The letter?" Marlene asked.

I shook my head.

"It's taken me so many sleepless nights to wrap my head around it and that's only because I'm willing to understand. I don't think Remus would be. He still sees Peter as the boy he went to school with. He just thinks he's misunderstood and awkward. Remus says Peter unsettles me because of it but truly believes he's harmless. He won't hear it. He's too loyal." I sighed.

We sat in silence for a moment.

"Then what do we do?" Marlene asked earnestly with eyes that showed her trust.

"We go back."

Suddenly a creak and click of the front door sounded and three familiar voices echoed in the hallway of my house.

Remus.

James.

And Peter.

Marlene shot me a look with raised eyebrows, almost to say 'keep an eye out'. She didn't have to tell me twice.

"Art. Marley." James said with a smile walking into the kitchen and coming over and pulling himself a chair beside us.

"How you feeling girls?" He asked.

Everyone was a little worried about us after our almost encounter, I don't think Remus had told anyone about my ramblings because no one treated me any differently than Marlene or Peter who also rode home on the same train as me.

"Great." Marlene said sipping her tea.

"I'm alright." I responded.

Remus and Peter followed.

"Good. Good." James said casually. Blissfully unaware of the atmosphere he interrupted.

Remus came over and kissed me on the top of the head before going over to pop on the kettle for the boys.

Peter stood awkwardly in the doorframe. Shoving his hands in his pockets probably searching for lies to tell during conversation.

"You look tired." Marlene mentioned over at him.

He did look tired. Paler than his usual pink flushed skin.

"It's been hard to sleep." He said shrugging.

"Why?" I asked.

"Well one of my best friends is a death eater?" He said as if we had been blasted with a memory spell.

James shifted in his seat, suddenly staring down at his dirty trainers as they squeaked across the floor into a more secure position.

Remus hesitated pouring the boiling water into mugs, subtly clearing his throat and adjusting his limp posture.

"You guys believe it?" I turned to James. Remus had refused to properly speak to me about it, I sensed he thought I was in a fragile state of mind.

"A little." James said with sorrow.
"I don't want to, obviously! But I don't know...I received a really weird letter from him a while ago and last I heard he was in Berlin. Obviously he's not anymore. He's just been really sketchy. I don't really recognise his writing it's- " James started explaining.

"I think we all need to go on holiday or something. A healthy break. Be unreachable for a while. It might be good for us to clear our heads." Remus interrupted.

"What does it mean?" I ignored Remus.
"Pottery crumbles under pressure? To migrate and change the materials? Have you given it any thought?" I asked.

James looked taken aback and Remus looked at me as if I needed to be institutionalised.

"How do you know about the letter?" James said.

"Lily." Marlene and I said at the same time.

Peter's reaction was the most interesting though. Suddenly his sallow face flushed a shade of pink again and suddenly he was on high alert. The look of confusion in his face told me he didn't understand the message, but the colour in his cheeks told me he knew it must be an important message. One he didn't want to be figured out.

"The letter says what?" Remus now acted curiously, seeing that James didn't respond to me as if I was talking riddles- which I suppose I was.

"I haven't given it much thought, no. It doesn't make sense. There's nothing to consider." James shrugged.
"It's just worrying. That's it." He said sadly.

"Do you have it on you?" Remus asked.

"I do actually." James said and pulled out his wallet, sliding out a piece of paper that was folded over multiple times to fit into a card slot.

Peter almost seemed to start sweating as Remus now held the cryptic letter to James... with the letter P on the front.

Prongs.

Marlene's letter wasn't to Marlene at all. It was addressed to 'M'.

Moony.

The letter was telling Remus to trust me and not Peter.

The adrenaline in my body jolted me up from the chair I was sat in, causing everyone to stare directly at me as the chair screeched backwards.

"You okay?" Remus said glancing up from James' letter.

I suddenly felt embarrassed by my excitement that I had truly cracked the code and understood the message Sirius was trying to discreetly deliver.

"I just realised - never mind. Let's just speak later, I have something to give to you." I sat back down.

Remus instantly returned to the letter after a quick nod. Treating it like a puzzle in the paper. James watched over him intensely.

Marlene and Peter watched me just as intensely.

"The 'M' is for moony." I tried my best to mouth to Marlene.

"Oh!" She looked at me wide eyed and proceeded to hand me over the letter she kept safe without a word.

"Excuse me." I said, getting up more casually with the letter now in my back pocket.
"I need the toilet."

I tried not to run upstairs, in an act to remain cool calm and collected. Peter was downstairs and if it wasn't for him being there I would have gone all Sherlock on the group. Creating diagrams to finally prove my sanity to a puzzle I had been piecing together for too long.

Instead of going into the bathroom, I slipped into our bedroom and placed the letter on Remus' side of the bed.

I couldn't wait for him to read it and for me to explain a little what's been going on. If the letter had convinced Marlene to trust me once we decoded it, I felt hopeful that I could fast track the process for Remus.

When I returned downstairs, Peter was nervously twitching, now leaning up against the wall. James was scratching his head and Marlene was nodding hers.

"It still doesn't make an awful lot of sense though." Remus said shrugging, hanging the folded paper back to its owner.

"What doesn't?" I asked.

"The brains made some sense out of it." James said in awe.

I looked at him with a wide eyed gaze.

"Pottery, I guess that could mean Potter, right?" Remus said underwhelmed.
"You crumbling anytime soon mate?"

"Don't think so. Hope not." James said with a slightly amused tone.

"Talking about going somewhere Lilies bloom. Maybe somewhere Lily likes? Don't know." Remus wracked his brain.

"Spring will die where clay is the foundation as young flowers can't grow with such association, that's what it says right?" Remus checks.

James nods.

Peter almost gulps.

"Then something about migration. It's a good poem to be fair." Remus nods impressed.

"But what does that mean?" I asked.

"I think he's telling Lily to leave James?" Remus scoffed.

"Bastard." James seemed honestly offended and shoved the letter back in his wallet.

"Or to drop the name Potter and go somewhere Lily likes." Remus said.

"But we're all hearing how crazy he sounds, aren't we?" Peter pipes up finally, now a deep shade of sweaty pink.

All that was going on in my head was,

Hunt or hide.

Sirius was telling some of us to Hunt and some of us to Hide. I had to figure out why.

Sirius was telling Remus and I to hunt.
Why was he telling James and Lily to hide?