November proved to be very cold and rainy, and the wind coming off the lake carried sleet and mist every day so that the grounds were void of students most of the time. 

Quidditch was the only exception, and the spectators huddled under their umbrella spells and shielding charms to stay dry as the players magicked their robes warm and wore thick dragon hide gloves. The Gryffindor team was surprisingly very good, despite the risks in placement that James had taken by allowing younger players to sign up, and he was pleasantly shocked when they won the first match of the season, despite the nasty weather. Passion, clearly, went a good deal in Quidditch, and he was quite excited to see how much the littler players would grow as the season went on. Winning had done wonders for their confidence, which could only help. To bolster them, too, James snuck down the passageway to Honeyduke's and bought the lot of them a pile of chocolate frogs as congratulations for the win.

The later into the month of November it got, the more intense classes got. It was getting clearer that they were in the year for their NEWTS because all the teachers were getting quite a lot pickier, and even Garm Tyr was more intense than usual, if that was even possible. Although, oddly enough, Garm was much friendlier with Sirius suddenly.

"I think the poor bloke's just misunderstood," Sirius had announced in mid November, when he was given a better mark than even Remus on a paper - which he'd copied nearly word for word off James, who had copied concepts off Remus.

"Yeah, because it isn't your teeth he fancies ripping out and hanging on a chain about his neck," muttered Remus, rolling his eyes.

"Don't be jealous, Moony," Sirius declared, hugging Remus, "I'll tutor you."

Remus snorted loudly.

"I reckon I ought to grow my own set of dreadlocks," Sirius added, smirking to James with a wink of his eye, knowing he was antagonizing Remus.

Remus made a face. "Filthy nasty things those are. They probably smell like piss up close!"

Sirius laughed, "Yeah? You don't think I'd be sexy in 'em?"

Remus looked at Sirius, not a bit of humor in his eyes. "If you do, I will agrafo you all over again so fast..."

"You wouldn't!" Sirius clutched the tall knot atop his head.

"Wouldn't I?" Remus asked teasingly.

"Bullocks!" Sirius announced, but he stopped going on about Garm's dreadlocks from that moment forward, much to Remus's relief.

In all the business of getting revisions done and doing his rounds, James was struggling with finding a time that worked for a meeting of the Order of the Phoenix. Everyone was just so busy that there didn't seem to be an excellent time to gather, and as the month passed, James got more and more frustrated with the process of setting a time, hearing someone was unavailable, and having to set it all over again.

"Bloody hell," James whined as Marlene, the latest of the back-outers, disappeared back to the Ravenclaw table. He shook his head and dug his schedule book out of his rucksack. "You know," he said, shaking his head, "It may just be easier to wait and hold the ruddy thing after holiday."

"No!" Peter cried, hearing James's conclusion. Everyone looked at him and he flushed, then said, quieter, as everyone turned back to their conversations, "No. Please." He scrambled around Remus, pushing his way in between James and Lily on the bench and looked up at James. "I don't want to go that long. Please. There's no telling what'll happen when I'm not protected by being here at Hogwarts. My mum and dad don't pay attention to anything, they can't help me like you can, James. Please don't make me go home without helping me, please, please, please help me. Please." He was begging, truly begging, his hands clasped before him. James couldn't help but be reminded of his animagus form, for Peter looked exactly like a humanoid version of a rat.

"Alright," James said, "Calm down, Pete..."

Sirius, who had turned about to look at them when Pete cried out and had not gone back to his conversation afterward, said, "If he wanted to do something to you, Pete, reckon he'd do it whether you were at Hogwarts or no. Kidnapped James here, after all, didn't he?" 

Peter shivered.

"Don't go down any dark halls alone at night," Sirius wagged his fingers teasingly.

"Not helping, Sirius," James snapped, rubbing his forehead.

Peter looked away from Sirius and back to James, his eyes pleading all the more. "Please," he begged.

James sighed and looked at the schedule again, so busy trying to figure it out that he barely ate even his bacon - and that only because Remus kept gently reminding him to eat before the breakfast popped away. "Alright, here we go, there's one day that might work, so long as we've got everyone's schedules, but... well, I mean there's a couple people that won't be able to be there..." James looked meaningfully at Remus and Sirius, then pointed to the night of the full moon, which would come the following week.

Peter nodded eagerly. He was sorry Remus wouldn't be able to attend the meeting but honestly a bit relieved that Sirius would be absent. It felt, to Peter at least, that perhaps things might go a bit more smoothly - and with less teasing and joking - if Sirius Black was not present at the meeting. Remus's logic and brains would be missed, of course, but Sirius wouldn't have been much of a help anyway, seeing as all he wanted to do was make idle threats and jokes about the whole situation...

And so James set the date for the meeting and passed the word about.

"Bloody hope this full moon isn't the night Greyback comes for the Good Wolf," Sirius muttered disapprovingly. "We could use all of us there if it was going to be." He glanced at Peter, not saying the only one not helpful would be the rat, but he certainly thought of it, and he turned and grabbed his DADA book from the desk.

Peter flushed, "I don't think that Remus is the Good Wolf after all, after what happened with Garm and --"

"I mean, won't you feel guilty if Greyback does come and there's nobody but me and Moony out there to fight him off," Sirius said. 

Peter's eyes went wide, "But I --"

"SIRIUS," James said, his voice ringing the same warning tone that Dora's often did when she was displeased. "I already told you that we'd join you after the meeting - it isn't like it will take all night, he'll have barely changed by then."

Sirius shrugged, and shoved his DADA book into his rucksack. He held out a hand to Remus, helping him up from the bed. "We're going to go study. We might need to use some defense and I s'pose learning it will be useful." He carefully guided Remus out the door, muttering as they went.

James sighed and turned back to his homework, rolling his eyes, "Prat," he muttered, "Selfish bloody prat, doesn't think of anyone else's feelings but his own..." He hunched over the scroll of parchment on his desk and his feather quill scratched loudly as he started writing.

Peter sat fidgeting on his bed in silence, picking at a loose thread on the big toe of his sock. He tugged it until it unraveled a bit and his toe popped out and then he looked up at James's back. "He really hates me," he said quietly.

James didn't look up, "Who?"

"Sirius."

James sat up and turned in his seat, holding his quill in his hand still, his other arm draped over the back of the chair. "No, Sirius doesn't hate you. Don't be silly, Peter."

"Sure he does," Peter answered, "When was the last time you heard him say one kind thing to me?"

James couldn't remember Sirius ever saying one kind thing to Peter, but damned if he'd say so. Instead, he cleared his throat, "He's just... he's hurt is all, I guess. I reckon Sirius has a funny way of showing it, but he doesn't really mean it when he's a wanker."

Peter said, "He threatened to kill me."

James frowned severely. "What?"

"He said that if I ever betrayed any of you again he'd kill me," Peter said. James opened his mouth to reply, but Peter could tell from just his eyes that he was about to defend Sirius again, and so he quickly rambled on, "I didn't mean to betray you. I didn't set out to, you know, and if you can understand and be nice to me and forgive me for it, then why can't he? It isn't even him I've done it to."

There was a long pause of silence and James looked down at the messy carpet, strewn with artifacts of the boys' day to day life - manky socks and dirty robes and the like. His face bunched in concentration for a moment as he thought, and finally he reached up, adjusted his glasses, and said, "Sirius has been betrayed so many times in the past that he's sort of predispositioned to believing the worst of people's intentions. He sort of expects it from them, and there are very few people who it would surprise him would do that to him... We're it, Pete. You and me and Remus and Lily. We're the only ones that Sirius doesn't wait everyday to be betrayed by at some point. Or... I mean, at least, you were one of the ones."

Peter's lower lip trembled.

"I reckon that sort of experience changes what a person can forgive and can't."

"Then why don't you and Remus hate me, too? Why don't you just... cast me off like rubbish?"

James set down the quill and ran his hand through his hair. "Well, I reckon I can't really say for Remus why but, personally, I just remember what it's like, being there in front of Voldemort, and having him command something and just how charismatic he is and how easy it would be to just... believe in him. Like maybe it's the rest of us that are wrong somehow and maybe he is right, maybe --I mean, it's just so tempting... when you're there... in a way that nobody who hasn't been there could ever understand..." His face was pained. "I get it, Pete, that's all. I s'pose that's my point. I get it."

Peter's eyes were teary.

"I mean, you didn't betray me by accident. You took my watch, that's a very purposeful move --"

"He made me!" Peter whined, but James held up his hand to stop him talking.

"You had a choice, Pete, it's like Sirius was saying. There's always a choice, but it's not always an easy one. You betrayed me and sure you didn't start out wanting to, but you did choose to. I don't hate you for it because I understand why you chose to and I don't blame you for what you chose. In your shoes -- who knows what I would've done, if I would've stolen the watch from Sirius if that was the request Voldemort gave, who knows, really, until we're in that place? Who knows what Sirius or Lily or Remus would do in that same place. I get it, Peter."

Peter hung his head.

"Sirius doesn't get it, Sirius sees everything as all black and white - good and evil. He doesn't see any grey areas, any places that aren't entirely evil or entirely good. Which is mighty funny, seeing as half the time Sirius himself falls into that sort of category with his damned bullying of you and his brother, but that's another whole tale..." James continued on, "Sometimes there is a good deal of greyness and it's up to us to pick and choose what we will forgive and not when it comes to everything in between." James turned back to his homework.

Peter nodded. Then, "James?"

"Hm?"

"Do you reckon people are in the grey patches, too?"

James nodded, "Even more so than people. I don't believe anybody, even You Know Who himself, is fully evil. I think we all live in the in between. I think we can have good intentions for doing something bad and bad intentions for doing something good and it's really what the heart's intentions are. Like I think you betraying me wasn't as horribly evil as it could be - you were just trying to save your life. And I can't blame you for that." He shrugged and turned back to the work yet again.

Peter stared at the back of his head in awe for a moment as the quill returned to scratching across the paper. He looked down at the watch, ticking away on his wrist, and then back up to look at James. "You're the only person on earth that thinks like you do."

James laughed without turning 'round, "Thank Merlin for that, 'ey?"

Peter shook his head, though, "No, not thank Merlin... I wish all the people in the world thought like you do, Prongs. I wish they all were as good as you are. I wish that I was."

James flushed, looking back over his shoulder. "Thanks Pete," he said sincerely.