A/N: You know the disclaimer drill and I don't feel like saying it every damn time I put up a chapter so here it goes for the first and only time!
DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own or take credit for anything Harry Potter related. All characters and places you recognize (i.e. Hagrid's Hut, Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, etc.)are the creations of Ms. Joanne K. Rowling. Certain plot ideas and characters may be original. If anything in the following FANFICTION has any resemblance to any other story, it is completely unintentional and I apologize, but I am not at fault for having an idea similar to ones another person came up with. It must be a very good idea if two peoplethought of it.
Thank You for your time and I would appreciate any feedback (negative or positive!) that you may have. Feedback is the only way to build on a story and make it something that may possibly resemble a decent work of fiction.
I'm done sounding old and official. Enjoy the story!
Chapter One: The Last Room
Like was common during the evenings at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Many students were lounging around near the fire and talking to their friends. Occasionally someone would laugh warmly at someone's joke or antic, but other than that the place was rather calm and relaxed.
"This is never going to work guys."
"Of course it will Peter. Now shut up before someone hears. We aren't the only one's in the common room."
"Don't tell me to shut up James!" Peter shouted, attracting attention from his fellow students in the Gryffindor Common Room.
"I wouldn't have to tell you to shut up if you weren't about to get us in trouble!" James Potter reached up and pulled his friend back down onto the couch by his shirt collar. "Now would you just listen to the plan already? Sirius, if you would continue."
"Right, tonight I think we should try to finish up that last bit of the castle. You know, the chamber off the Great Hall? If we can at least figure out how many rooms are there and how big they are, we should have a decent chunk cut out of our work time. The map is almost done with the exception of Dumbledore's office and that place. If we write the other room tomorrow, I'd say we could be done by next Thursday."
"Next Thursday? We can't do that! We'd only have the writing done, and that's well and dandy of course, but the magic, you know, the whole purpose of making the map, can't be done so fast." James said impatiently. "You must be out of your mind to think we, of all people, could do something like that so quick."
"James mate, that's why we have me, and I suppose Remus might be a help too, but..." Sirius responded jovially, clapping the shoulder of the nearby Remus Lupin, who grimaced painfully.
"Watch it Sirius, full moon last night remember?" He said quietly, rubbing his shoulder. "I'm a bit sore you know."
"Sorry mate. But what do you guys think, excluding James of course, he already made his opinion known." Sirius looked almost desperate as he stared hopefully at his friends.
"I don't know...I think James is right." Peter sighed "Besides, what if we get caught? There are bound to be teachers in there and we can't stay under the cloak and work at the same time. We would never finish!"
"Oh don't be such a girl Peter." Remus said sarcastically. "I say we do it. I mean, think of how great it'll be to know where everyone is at once. We would never get caught playing pranks again."
"Ah, so true." James agreed, before twisting his face into a peculiar look. "Oh ! Confusion!...Help! Can't. Hold. On. Much. Longer!" He paused for a second, then: "Okay. Let's do it."
"Come on guys, it's to dangerous! How could we get there without getting caught, huh?" Peter whined. "I mean, it's hard enough to get to the doors but actually getting into the Great Hall without getting caught is too much to ask for."
"I said stop being a girl Peter." Remus teased. "You whine enough to be one."
"HEY! Girls don't whine!" Shouted someone from somewhere near the fire.
"Sorry Alice, just stating the obvious!"
"Well, boys reek!"
"That's not a stink, it's the smell of testosterone!"
"It's disgusting, that's what it is."
"You're over it Alice." Remus said with a mock note of finality and power. "That's how it's always been and always will be. Be thankful girls don't smell like us though. I don't think we'd be too attracted if you smelt like boys."
"Hmm, do I take that as a compliment or an insult?"
"Take it any way you like." Remus replied before turning back to his friends
"Hey, I can think of a few other things we have that would make girls less attractive if they had it too." James said slyly.
"You are way to hormone powered James." Sirius joked. "I think you need a nice cold shower mate. Or maybe a little one on one time with your dearest Lily?" He added after noticing where James' eyes had drifted too, only to be slugged in the arm seconds later.
"Shut up Sirius! We've got to be mature around her, remember?" James hissed as Sirius rubbed his upper arm.
"Why? So little Jamesey-poo can get the girl of his dreams?" Remus cooed, suddenly finding himself being attacked by James, "Ow, hey! Not the face! Not my beautiful face!"
"Trust me Remus, a little mangling will be a lot more pleasing to the eye!" James shouted as he tackled Remus to the floor.
"Off! No, that hurts! Don't put that there! Stop! That doesn't bend that way! OW!"
James stopped as soon as he realized he had just rolled his wrestling partner into the not so soft edge of a table.
"Oh Christ, Remus, are you okay?" He asked as frantically as he tried to stand. "Damn, I didn't mean to cram you that bad."
"Well, just be thankful I was sick yesterday." Remus sighed as he tried to stand. His hand was clamped to his side and he had a rather painful looking grimace on his face. "If it had been the day before that I would have creamed you no problem." He flashed James half a warning glare. Only half because he wasn't too upset about getting hurt and because his legs had just given out underneath him. He didn't have much time to finish the glare when he was falling. That's sort of a hard thing to do.
"Maybe we should get you to the hospital wing." Sirius offered as he helped James guide Remus to the couch. "I know you're sick and all but this isn't normal."
"I'll be fine. I just need to sit for awhile." Remus said as he lowered himself onto the overstuffed furniture, getting an overwhelming sense of dizziness all of a sudden.
"Maybe we should put off the whole map thing till tomorrow..."
"No! I'm fine. Just give me a minute to get un-dizzy."
"Remus, I think Sirius is right." James said, concerned. "You shouldn't overdo it. And if we have to run, you might not be up to par. We don't want you to get caught or anything. Waiting until tomorrow might be our best bet."
"It's not like I'm fragile James." Remus almost spat. "I'll meet you guys half way. I'll go upstairs and sleep until it's time to go. Then you can wake me up and we'll leave. Deal?"
James and Sirius exchanged doubtful glances, but their eagerness to finish the Marauder's Map overwhelmed most common sense.
"Deal. Now go upstairs."
"Yes mother." Remus said mockingly as he stood up and trudged to the staircase. As much as he hated to admit it, he really was tired. James and Sirius were probably right, they shouldn't go tonight. Not when he was so weak, but he hated showing how badly the transformations hurt him. They knew of course, they always had more common sense than he did. He may have been quiet and book smart but he was rash. He didn't really think before he did something, usually something stupid.
He sighed as he crawled into his four-poster bed, walking up the stairs made him dizzy again and sick to his stomach. He pulled the covers up to his chin with a very obvious shiver and squeezed his eyes shut to keep the room from spinning. His stomach lurched again but he ignored it, he knew if he moved to get to the bathroom, he would be doubly sick.
Being a werewolf sucked, it really did.
XXX
"Remus. Remus wake up."
"Maybe we should pour some water on his face."
"Peter, we're not going to do anything with water. It'll make a mess."
"We could drop his hand in something warm."
"Why would we do that? It won't wake him up."
"Shut up Peter, you're showing your stupid."
"Would you quit telling me to shut up James!"
"Christ, how about the both of you shut up?"
"I second that Sirius."
"Look, now you woke him up Peter." James said indignantly. "Good going."
"Isn't that what we were trying to do in the first place?" Peter snapped back.
"You know, If I didn't know any better, I would worry that you two were flirting." Remus said groggily, burying his face in his hands.
"Are you sure you don't know any better?" Sirius asked quietly. If they weren't careful they would wake up their other room mate, Frank Longbottom.
"Hey, you all know I've got a thing for Lily. As for Peter here, we have yet to find out." James said as he stepped away from Peter. "Are we going to get going or not?"
"Yeah, yeah." Remus mumbled as he swung his legs over the side of the bed. "Give a man a minute to take a piss."
"Make it snappy Moony!" James called after him before being urgently tackled by Sirius.
"Do you want to do this or not?" Sirius hissed angrily. "If Frank wakes up, it's all over."
"I'm sorry Padfoot, I can't do it. I just don't bend that way." James teased, raising his eyebrows suggestively.
"That's horrid." Sirius whined and stood up when Remus emerged from the bathroom. "Let's go." He swung James's invisibility cloak around the four of them and they quietly snuck out of Gryffindor Tower to finish exploring the castle.
XXX
"I swear to God, Peter, if you step on my foot one more time-"
"Alright James. Geez, calm down will you?" Peter huffed in response. "It is sort of hard to move under this thing."
"If the both of you don't quit bickering I'm going to pound your faces in." Remus growled. He had a horrible headache and their non-stop quarrelling wasn't helping any. He massaged his temples with his forefingers and took a deep breath. It will all be gone tomorrow. He mused to himself. Just another hour or two.
"Here it is." Sirius whispered. "Check for Professors."
James stuck his head out from underneath the cloak and peered around the corner.
"None." He pulled the cloak off and folded it to fit in his bag, also removing a parchment and quill for each he and his friends. Sirius carefully turned the knob and opened the door a crack. They learned the hard way that it was best to check each of the rooms they look into before actually going in. Once they had actually walked into a room with a three hundred year old curse that made anyone that entered hiccup violent purple bubbles for three months. It wasn't particularly pleasant, especially when the bubble said obscene words when they finally popped. Their professors were none too happy.
"It's safe." He whispered to them and they all scurried in. "And really small." The room, which by the outside measurements and how big the surrounding rooms had been, was actually very small. It was only about the size of the common room, which wouldn't be a big deal if it had doors surrounding it, but it was a fairly bare rectangular room. In fact, the only furnishings were a large stone fireplace, a moth-eaten sofa, and a large work table that from the looks of it was from the potions dungeon.
"So is there an 800 meter wall back here or something?" James asked angrily. It wouldn't be much fun to explore a room like this.
"Don't be stupid James." Sirius snapped. "Of course there's more to this. We just have to find how to get through the wall."
"Why don't we just blow a hole into it. You three know how to do that spell." Peter suggested. They couldn't blame the kid. He tried, he really did, he just didn't know how to...Alright, frankly he didn't know how to do much of anything.
"Because Peter," Remus replied as he rubbed his temples with his forefingers, "The rest of the castle would hear if we blew this wall out. Do you really want someone to come here while we're working on the map?" He didn't mean to be snappy about it, but his head was killing him and Peter's whining and downright stupid ideas weren't exactly helping.
"Oh. When you put it that way, no. That would be bad."
"Good job." Remus said sarcastically and thrust his hands out, flashing Peter the 'thumbs up' sign. He sunk down on the tattered old sofa and sighed in frustration. He couldn't think straight when his head hurt so bad and went from trying to figure out the wall to spacing out while watching the fire in no time. Peter, James and Sirius, however, were busy looking for loose bricks or anything out of the ordinary that could open a secret passage.
"Hey, this one looks funny."
"Yeah, it looks kinda like Padfoot."
"I thought it looked like an ape."
"Like I said, it looks kinda like you, Padfoot."
"Hey, It's loose too!"
"No Peter, your head is loose. This one is just broken, see?"
"At least I'm trying. You're just following Sirius."
"Am not. Look, I'm checking bricks."
"You're just tapping it with your wand. That's not going to open any secret passages."
"Peter are you dense? We go to a magic school in a magic castle. Of course secret passages open with wands. How about you go sit in a corner and leave all the real work to the big boys."
"You're an ass James."
"I know you are but what am I?"
"You're a stupid wanker that's what you are."
"I know you are but what am I?"
"You're a bastard James, now stop acting two."
"When you stop acting five."
"How about the two of you knock it off!" Sirius shouted from across the room. "You're going to get us caught if you keep yelling."
"And you're going to make my headache worse." Remus growled drowsily from the couch. He had been able to tune out James and Peter's bantering but Sirius' shouting was another thing. Although he was completely alert, he couldn't focus his eyes properly and was still staring at the fire. That's when he saw it. In the fireplace, a slight glimmer, only noticeable if you weren't looking at or for it. He stood up and moved closer to the hearth and bent down, sheilding his eyes against the heat of the fire.
"Remus, what're you looking at?" Sirius asked nervously. The werewolf's spontaneous movement to the fire startled him, especially since he hadn't been acting quite right all day. The last thing he wanted was for his friend to get hurt because he let him get to close to the flames.
"There's something in here." Remus responded slowly, like he wasn't quite certain what was going on, which he wasn't, of course. He whipped out his wand and doused the blaze with water. They all coughed and sputtered as the thick smoke rolled off the logs and filled the room and another simple spell blew most of it away from the fireplace.
The four Marauders all knelt around the ashes and soot and squinted, but couldn't see anything. Remus could have sworn he had seen a button or a knob or something made of shiny metal in the fire. He knelt closer and felt a slight breeze of cool air tickle his face. It was very unusually considering he was bending over a still smoldering pile of wood.
"I think this is how we get in." He mumbled more to himself than to the others.
"Careful Remus, don't burn yourself." James whispered. Remus knocked on the bricks behind the grate. It's sound was hollow and he started running his hands up and down the bricks, looking for some sort of trip or latch.
"Here!" He exclaimed. A tiny gold button, no bigger than the tip of his finger, lay half covered in ashes and glittered in the light from Peter's wand. "That's what I saw before!" He blew the white soot off the switch and poked it with the tip of his wand. A gust of cold air whipped their faces and forced them to close their eyes tight against it. Hopefully nothing life threatening would happen while they weren't looking...