The Marauders' Map
It was in my fifth and sixth years of school that the Marauders got to know every corner of the school. Naturally, Sirius and James had discovered quite a few of the hidden pathways in previous years, but nothing compared to the number we found in our day- and night-time wanderings of the school in our sixth year. Sirius and I discovered a number of them in our constant search for privacy in a castle full of nosy teenagers; James, in turn, discovered them looking for us, being the nosiest of all.
It was after Padfoot and Prongs had been out pranking one night in October and barely avoided capture by Filch – courtesy of the Invisibility Cloak – that they came up with the idea of a map that showed not only Hogwarts, but the people in it. I thought it sounded like a very interesting project, and was excited to see what use it might be put to. Because, unlike the other Marauders, I saw it as more than a means to prank without detection.
How wonderful wouldn't it be, being able to make absolutely certain that no one was following me to the hospital wing? Or knowing for sure that Sirius and I didn't get caught together? I was quite determined to keep both of those secrets – at least from everyone but my friends – and such a map would help me do that. Of course, my joy about this invention of theirs faltered almost as quickly as it had come, because how could it ever be possible to make such a map? Especially for four teenage boys. Better make that three, as there was no point expecting that Wormtail would come up with anything helpful.
I was surprised, however, by the determination Sirius and James had. It seemed that neither of them could stand to wait any more for it to be done, and to work. They did most of the work themselves; I only helped a couple of times after finding a reference to something in a book that I thought might be useful. Peter, as expected, did nothing, but he was still credited when the map was finally finished, just before Christmas in our sixth year.
We had all decided that the map should bear some kind of mark, a reference to its makers. We also agreed that, because of Filch, it couldn't be our names. Therefore, we ended up signing it with our nicknames, which had been invented shortly after the other Marauders became Animagi. Their names had come pretty natural, and almost made themselves. Mine, on the other hand, was a bit harder. I was always terrified that people might hear the Marauders use the name Moony and guess my condition, but luckily no one ever did. After all, only the Marauders ever really used the nicknames, which was why we thought they were safe to use for signing the map.
It only took me about a month to regret ever making the map. James was extremely obnoxious; he was always looking at it, which meant that Sirius and I could never be on our own, because he would always find us and say that he was bored. I think the truth was that he was still uncomfortable about us being alone – he thought we needed chaperones all the time. When James wasn't looking for Sirius and me, though, he passed the time staring at the dot labelled "Lily Evans". This drove me crazy too, because Lily was still ignoring James, and because I was often with him, she had started ignoring me as well.
Sirius had his own obsession with the map. Whenever he could pry it away from James, he would sit and stare at the Slytherin Common Room, where I knew he was looking for Regulus. He had confided in me privately that he was worried about his brother. After he had run away, Regulus had ignored him completely, and any good influence Sirius might have had over him before was lost. Now the threat of the Dark Lord rising was making Sirius particularly nervous, as he seemed like just the kind of person Regulus might want to follow.
Despite his young age, Regulus did indeed seem to be hanging out with the other Voldemort supporters – the same crowd that Severus had joined. Their actions were a constant worry for both Sirius and me, and we spent hours talking to each other about it. James didn't really understand. He sympathised with us in thinking that they'd got the wrong idea, and that they should be avoided at all costs. But he couldn't understand what we felt about our friend and family being part of it, no matter how hard he tried.
It was March when James stopped stalking Sirius and me. He "accidentally" walked in on Sirius giving me my "birthday present", which was a rather intimate one that year. James had a hard time looking at us for a few days afterwards, but after he recovered from the shock of seeing us together like that, he promised to never seek us out when we were alone.
Meanwhile, I was starting accept that Severus and I were probably never going to regain our friendship. We used to be the best of friends, but these days he wouldn't even greet me, when we passed each other in the hallway. Lily was being treated even worse. He wouldn't even look at her. It was like she was transparent to him – and they had known each other even before they started Hogwarts, had been each others' constant support for all those years.
I think it might have been this fact that got Lily warming up to James. It didn't happen overnight or anything; it took months for her to change from either ignoring him or laughing at his self-humiliation when he tried to get her attention to the point where she would actually listen when he talked, and sometimes even answer nicely. This gradual change had happened between the Christmas holidays and Easter, and when we started school in mid-April, she actually sat next to James in class, causing not only all of the students, but Professor McGonagall as well, to stare at her for a few minutes before realising that the bell had rung for class to start.
When at first I noticed this change in behaviour from Lily, I was afraid what James might do to fuck this up, but luckily he'd grown up somewhat in the last year, so he actually almost acted maturely. At least, as maturely as a 17 year old boy, completely in love, can possibly act around the person he's in love with. In the last few months of our sixth year they actually had quite a few conversations with each other; something that would never have happened earlier, when all James could do in front of Lily was either drool uncontrollably or humiliate himself in some other way.
They didn't start dating until that Fall, though, after having spent a few weeks over the summer together at James' place. That summer I spent nearly all of my time in Sirius' new flat...
