Disclaimer: Typical nonsense about not owning Harry Potter and being sad about this :(

The boys, despite swearing to find every secret passageway in the castle, had not made much progress on exploring. Their school work (mostly Peter's schoolwork, actually) had kept them too busy to run around the castle at night. It wasn't until the last week of September that they were able to sneak out of their dormitory again. This time, with Remus.

Though no one wanted to admit it, Remus was being a bit annoying about the whole sneaking-out-of-bed thing. They thought he'd be all for it; eager to explore the castle. Instead, he kept panicking about getting caught and breathing too heavily and trying to get them to turn around and go back.

"Listen, Remus. We did this last week, and we were perfectly fine, okay? We're under an invisibility cloak. Hush up and no one will find us!" Sirius whisper-shouted after the fourth time Remus suggested going back.

"You don't understand… I can't get caught, I can't. Please, let's go back. Please."

"Oh, what's the worst that'll happen if they find you?" James snapped.

"I'll be expelled, I will, I'm telling you!"

"They won't expel you for one stupid bout of rule breaking!"

"You don't understand, I'm not even supposed to be here! They'll kick me out as soon as I get in trouble!"

"Not supposed to be here? What does that—wait, quiet!" James stopped suddenly, causing the other three to bump into one another.

They listened as footsteps drew nearer. Even Remus stopped his hyperventilating (though that may have been because he was so panicked he forgot to breathe) and turned his head to the source of the noise. Because of their squabbling they hadn't noticed how close they were until now.

"Hurry, next to the wall," Sirius breathed. The four boys pressed their backs against the stone as the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom door opened and Professor Dumbledore exited.

For a moment, James thought they had been caught. Professor Dumbledore was looking straight at them; he was going to pull the cloak off at any moment and take a million points from Gryffindor for being out late at night. Instead, he just looked away, and gave what James could have sworn to be a small wink. No, not a wink—just his eye twitching. He needed to yawn.

It wasn't until after Dumbledore walked away that James realized he had been holding his breath. "Come on, we're almost there."

They sprinted the last few yards around the corner to the statue, holding the folds of the invisibility cloak tight as to not let it fly off of them. It took only steps to reach the statue of the

"What was the word again?" Sirius asked, pulling out his wand.

"Diss- dissendium, I think," Peter said.

"Dissendium," James nodded in agreement.

Remus began hyperventilating again.

Sirius tapped the one-eyed witch's hump and muttered the word. With a puff of dust, the hump in the one-eyed witch's back sprung open to reveal a tunnel. The four boys stood around it, staring deep into its depths.

"Well," said James, after a moment of silence, "Shall we go?"

They all stood around for a moment longer before Sirius jumped up and swung his legs into the tunnel, pulling the invisibility cloak with him. With it gone, they had no choice but to hide themselves within the one-eyed witch.

Peter followed Sirius, and James had to coax Remus into the statue, convincing him it was safer down there than completely unprotected in the middle of a hallway. He reluctantly got in with a final push from James, who slid down directly afterwards.

The tunnel was dark and rather musty, and the ground was damp and cold. The only light came from Sirius' shining wand tip. James and Remus added to the light, and though Peter tried, the second-year spell was slightly out of his range. They were at the beginning of a long, narrow passageway that stretched farther than the wandlight could reach.

"Well…" he said, gazing out towards the pathway, "Let's… go."

The others followed James in silence, walking the twists and turns of the pathway huddled together. Every once in a while someone would trip on the uneven ground.

It took a substantial amount of time for anything to happen. After what felt like an hour, the passage slowly began to rise. They had no idea what was on the other end, or even how long it would take them to get back to the school, but the prospect of the unknown drove them forward. Even Remus, who had been so terrified before, had calmed down and looked positively intrigued.

"Why the sudden change in attitude, Remus?" James asked as the passageway started to get higher.

"Oh I just—interested, I suppose. Not as worried we'll get caught. At least not—" he glanced at his watch, "it's only one in the morning, so we've got plenty of time to get back. If this takes much longer though…"

"A watch… why didn't I think of that?" Sirius mused.

At that point, the group reached a bunch of stairs. Through some sort of silent agreement, they all began climbing without question.

There must have been over two hundred steps. They just kept climbing and climbing, never stopping and only conversing when they had a theory about where they were going.

"We must be outside the grounds right now," Sirius said, about halfway up the stone steps.

"Which direction, do you think? Out towards Hogsmeade? Or under the lake?"

"Hogsmeade, I think."

"Oh, I hope we come out in Zonkos. All those goodies just waiting for us to get our hands on them. All the pranks we could pull. And Filch would never know where we're getting it from all the time!" Sirius cackled.

"Well, he'd know where we were getting it from… just not how we were getting so much, considering we're not allowed in Hogsmeade," Remus pointed out.

Eventually, James and one of the other boys—he wasn't sure which one—simultaneously hit their heads on a wooden trapdoor in the ceiling. Sirius, the tallest of the four, was able to push it just enough that it opened and hit the floor with a bang. After waiting a moment to see if anyone had heard them, they climbed, one by one, through the trapdoor and into some sort of basement.

James and his three companions looked around the basement with their wands held high. Around them were piles and piles of boxes and jars, each one labeled with a different name.

"Fizzing Whizbees," Sirius whispered, turning around one jar.

"And chocolate frogs," James said, reading the side of a rather large box. "And Acid Pops. We must be in…"

"Honeydukes!" Sirius cried, overjoyed. He began picking up candy and stuffing it in his arms. "Come on, everyone grab something!"

Peter jumped right in, filling his pockets with Licorice Wands and Bertie Bott's Every-Flavor Beans. Remus and James looked at one another. "Well, just this once wouldn't hurt…" James said, shrugging. He picked up a box of Chocolate Frogs. Remus, too, picked up some chocolate and put it in his pockets.

"We'll just come back and leave a few Galleons in a box or something," James said to ease his guilty conscience. Still, he took no more than two boxes of Chocolate Frogs (his favorite).

"I feel like… like some sort of marauder or something," Remus whispered, searching through candy boxes for ones that were dented and bent up, because he thought that they would probably be thrown out anyway.

"Marauder? What's that?" Sirius chuckled. "Sounds like some sort of… of…"

"It's kind of like a muggle pirate, I guess, but without the sailing. They loot places like we're doing with the candy and look for secret caves and passages," Remus said, cutting Sirius off.

"Marauder. I like it. It sounds… dangerous!" James said.

"Marauders. We're marauders!" Peter yelped, collapsing into a fit of giggles.

"Shh!" The three others hushed him, grins splitting their faces.

They spent only fifteen minutes in Honeydukes' basement, stuffing their pockets with whatever loot they could fit. Then, they slid back through the trapdoor and back into the underground passage with the stairs.

Remus looked at his watch, determining how much time they would have before people would notice them sneaking back into the dormitory.

They made it back with plenty of time and no trouble with any of the staff. James stuffed his invisibility cloak and candy into his trunk and jumped into bed, far too excited to sleep. It was only after he was comfortably in his bed that he realized they hadn't gone to visit Brutus again.