I've already planned the next chapter – it will be out by the end of the month. It's going to be an important one. I'm not giving any promises beyond them because I don't want to break them. I am dedicated to this story though. As long as I have readers, this story will be updated – I'm sorry about the long breaks. Sometimes I think you all are more passionate about this story than I am. When you review, you lend that to me.

So thanks to all my reviewers!!

heaven's door for eternity, Twinfetish, batfan7 (party for Peter hmmm- mousetrap lol!), Nosi (oops! Misspelling!), Sukanya (I like that too!), dellacouer (-sigh- How do you make someone disappear? Hint: how did Peter do it?), TeahLeafs (bonding moment will come up - at some point), Rebel Goddess (I totally agree with you - what you noted is the kindof story I wanted to read and now write!), Eriks leadinglady, BYoshi1993 (-blush- you're a guy! do you know how rare male readers are?), Muria (thanks!), PhantomoftheBasket (thanks for the encouragement!), Liz Wolf (lol!), Lolgirl, Technologirl, shadowbee163, kinty, HPrincess (-blush- oy, not that rich!), satachiha08, zesty cyanide, FantasyDreamer23, MyBloodyAngel, Sapphire1022, greek myths (absolutely!), salixshadow, XxiceflamexX, Drayconette (will do), orange, Aurora Selene Potter-Malfoy, Haruka-Hime, PadfootLover13, dazzel21, Topaz-Pink, HK, Thee-Unknown-Factor, PenguinGirl (argh, trying to get that in!), killing u with umbrellas, Narutos sis and Itachis girl, Kari Minamoto (-blush-), Firey-Moonlight, abbyagapao, rose, Gertyfull Angel, hide1961, Astra Black, APatchOfSunlight (:)), hpanai, gin-kags, Cows are my friends, sunshineysmiles, moonlightshade, quibird, PrettyFanGirl (but I like the whole Potter's son inference in his name), TwilightSarah1414, Latisha C, Mizu1411, Lana-shino (er...), SlytheringRules, Hell's Queen, 14hp1 (all the reviews motivate me!), darkxangelx, storylistener, AbstractDarkness (lol!), Shirokaze Rin, Fk306 animelover, Elvin Flame (thanks!), Muria (thanks!), Sabishii Kage Tenshi, magnetic-starfish, Reggae Groove, CrystalMind, pottercat, livin and breathin, female half - breed, evil-sami-poo, iamkagomeiloveinuyasha, Legilimens31, TatraMegami, HK (OH MY! -flush-), maraudersbanana, EverD, lassie1994, sequoia the squanderer, DarkChampion, Following Padfoot's Pawprints, Stardawn, impteen16, forgotten-magick (lol!), Nights Silhouette, I 4 2 write, Ella Sunn, Catwarrior, coolmarauders, Moony , Marlicat, Zuzanny, Eloisa Skywalker, JaBoyYa, Jestry, MinervaEvenstar, Asterisks, Puella Deorum, Serena Gemini, DotsOnAWall, blueyblonde, Murphyangel, MYsweetAngel, crystalbladedragon, sparkling-stone (awww), Serpent91, HaruJam, JClayton, MidnightMist, LilyJames addict, Clovergirl22, Lady Silverhawk, kittycow2004, Jellyjade Bean (thanks!), Love2Love, Leigh, hauntful yay, green9721, DaisyAnimeluvr, CanadianWolf, stefunny2010, LupinandHarry, oXXb00kw0rmXXo, blackrhino, Mina-chan89, Ava Monroe, Angel-Miko, LovelyLittleAngel144, Teenlaunch, petites sorcieres, TheLastCrumpet, Tomorrows Dust, Iriomote Yamaneko Nokomis, Enchanting Phoenix, carrebear14, sukanya (I so agree!), azillia, fattoad, coffee walnut, CSnow, Nenifer121 (lol!), Coffee, The Metronome Maven, Dawn96, beauty0102, NekoDoodle, Angel'sMystery, Frost Merry Darkness Luver, Comicrileef, lilyre, Elle Gray, Peeps94, Estel Ashlee Snape, Opalalchemy, Viridian, Dadaiiro, digiMist, and hypercell.

Favorite line: Meia-Noite - "it's amusing how his imaginary life turned out to sound so bad like his real one." It has to be though!


29) Up, up and away!

-

-


Dear Ron and Hermione,

Well, a lot has happened since I last wrote to you.

There was an understatement if he'd ever made one. It was easier to write this though, then focus on missing them – even if he enjoyed the Marauders' presence so much. Ron and Hermione had stood by him through really hard times, contrasting them to the guys' easy familiarity felt disloyal.

Some I'll have to tell you in person.

Harry cringed. He could only imagine Hermione's reaction to him getting up close and personal with yet another massive snake, this time without Fawkes' healing tears.

I've had a bizarre non-date with Lily, which I did manage to get James to crash. I left them alone for barely five minutes though and Lily ended up emptying her drink on him. I officially do not know how they got together. I'm in the Slug Club – only because Lily is – and I had a big confrontation with the Marauders. I had to give them an abbreviated account of the people I've lost…

Harry swallowed, then crossed out that line. Explaining what he'd told them was too complicated and he didn't want to go into it again.

I've 'made up' and 'broken up' with the Marauders more times than I care to count. Sirius is still suspicious of me and James seems to vacillate between being an arrogant show-off, faithful friend and a Lily-pining nitwit (Sirius' words, not mine). Remus, though, I think he's going to be a good friend. And Peter…

Harry paused. What was there to say about Peter? He wanted to wish the rat into non-existence, but he was surely a Marauder. Certainly not as flashy as James or Sirius, but his role as tag-a-long was firmly established. And as much as his future condemned him, Harry had to grudgingly admit he could see the loyal sidekick, not very talented but ready if not terribly willing to face all kinds of difficulties for his friends, so innocuous his Sirius never doubted him. Never questioned his allegiance.

He sighed, feeling his chest tighten. It was at these moments, faced with his future, that the grief rose up again within him, hot and fresh.

Peter is always around, on the fringe.

Quidditch is over for now. Apparently they have preliminary matches early so that leaves time later for apparition practice as weather turns cold. Our last match was versus Ravenclaw. I ended up grabbing the Snitch right from under the Ravenclaw Seeker. Their Seeker is new apparently, a second year with talent, but he got too distracted with following the game. Sirius thought it was hilarious – the entire team ended up having flowers 'blossom' at their desks with the message 'Not so bright now, are you?' tattooed on the leaves. The poor Seeker ended up being followed by a Snitch-look-alike the entire next day, which would zoom into his face whenever he was trying to do something. Sirius ended up getting detention for a few days for the whole deal, but I know for a fact James is way better with Transfiguration than him, so I don't think it was a feat he pulled off single-handedly. Remus disapproved, but I think I saw him charm one of the flowers to last longer.

Peter had snickered wildly the entire day. He'd also made a game of catching the 'Snitch' whenever they'd been near the Ravenclaw Seeker – more than once to Harry's surprise. He'd caught himself smiling at the sight, but then turned away. It wasn't just that it was Peter – Harry knew he felt differently about pranks than the guys. He'd been bullied too much growing up to turn a blind eye to the border-line maliciousness Sirius and even James could exhibit. That was going to come up at some point, he just knew it. Yay.

Anyway, so apparition practice is going on. I kinda wish I could take it, just to get some practice before we take the test and everything, but Dumbledore said something about how apparition involves both time and space. I could end up splinched across time-

He shuddered.

-which, yeah, is not a priority for me. I told the guys it had to do with insurance issues. If something happened to me, Hogwarts would be liable and etc. Remus looked puzzled, but the rest of them just accepted it without question. I still go to the practices, just hang at the sidelines. I'm studying for the O.W.L.s then – they got pushed back a little more due to- some health issues. Long story. Anyway, I'd still go just for pure entertainment value. There hasn't been any serious splinching, but someone has lost a shoe – and Peter nearly flipped when he thought he lost his nose. Sirius, actually aiming for Severus, had zapped him with a partial disappearance spell. It took nearly fifteen minutes for the whole ruckus to calm down and Sirius only avoiding detention because Peter pleaded against it. Meanwhile, James had turned Severus into a solid mass – and he got detention. The whole trouble staying out of trouble? Totally hereditary.

That had only been a sidebar though. A few days before, he'd been talking with James on the way to a class when they'd walked into the tail-end of a tiff between Severus and Lily. He didn't know what they'd been arguing about, but he had seen Severus' grab for Lily's arm when she made to leave in a huff. James saw red and only the mediation of Lily had ensured the confrontation remained spell-less. Sniping between the boys had increased monumentally from that day on. Harry was starting to realize just how much the two boys' animosity of each other was tied in with her.

Harry hesitated to write that. He hadn't mentioned his mother's, relation to the Slytherin to Ron and Hermione. In some ways, it'd make it too real. He shook his head.

Another time, Sirius pretended he'd lost his entire arm, blood spurting and everything. No one was going to take him seriously, but James nearly lost it – when he realized Sirius was faking, he threatened to tear it off for real. They didn't talk for a whole day after that. Remus told Sirius it served him right. Remus actually is the only one of them who's met with any success.

In other news, Sirius is dating a Gryffindor fifth year, Patrisia Roan. I didn't even know he was interested, but all of the sudden, he's disappearing into the Astronomy Tower to have starlit evenings with her.

Harry frowned. The whole thing seemed a bit strange to him – when he'd asked Remus, the boy had evaded the question, just muttering something about a coping mechanism.

(What Harry didn't know was that due to Sirius' background and temperament, he wasn't considered prime boyfriend material. His good looks got him some date offers and appreciative glances, which he tended to take up when he was frustrated with the guys and needed to distract himself. To be sure, Patrisia had no idea who she had to thank for him deigning to take her out a few nights.)

This hadn't prevented him from helping James put trailing hearts on her name on the Marauders' Map or charming Sirius' wardrobe to give him pre-date tips.

Sirius was not amused – which just made it funnier in Harry's mind.

The downside is she has Ravenclaw seventh year sister and apparently when they met, she spent the whole time psychoanalyzing him. You can just imagine how Sirius took that. James added that Ravenclaws had a habit of doing that – it's really funny, the whole House has officially sworn off James since he's too 'hung up' on Lily. Remus said they signed a contract! (James actually blushed – just when I was beginning to think nothing could embarrass him!)

Harry grinned. He wondered if Ravenclaws still had that tendency. Of course that whole conversation had gotten awkward pretty fast…

"So Flighty, what about you?" James asked, reclining back on the chair he was on and ignoring Peter's continuing snickers.

Harry blinked. "What about me?"

"You got a girl back home?"

"What? No!" The protest was a bit too vehement – but Harry had never imagined chatting about girls with his father as a quid pro quo. He thought he'd gotten past all the surreal moments. He cleared his throat. "No girl."

"What about that Mona chit?"

"Mione," he corrected reflexively at the same time as Peter. Sometimes the other boy had a mind for details that staggered Harry. (He always referred to Hermione as Mione; it came with the whole disguising his past baggage.) "No, we're just friends." James raised an eyebrow. "Besides, I think she and Ron are going to end up together. They had this whole jealousy thing going on last year. We had a dance at school and Ron tried to invite her as a last resort. She accepted someone else's invitation and Ron was ready to chuck nails. They go back-and-forth a lot, making each other mad."

Remus grinned. "Guess there's hope for you then James."

"They ever kiss and make up?" Peter wheedled, but James ignored both comments.

"C'mon there's gotta be someone you're interested in."

"Well there was a girl last year, but it was really awkward. Her boyfriend died recently." He pushed away thoughts of the tears glittering in Cho's eyes and the press of her lips.

The guys shuddered at the mention of death. "Yikes," James muttered.

He didn't want to explain how. "The only other girls I know well at all are underyears." That was kinda of sad when he thought about it. He did know the girls on the Quidditch team, but they were all older and more buddyish. Not many options when he thought about it.

"Underyears are fine."

"But I don't think of either that way. One's my best friend's little sister and the other," he tried to come up with a good adjective for Luna, "she has a very unique view of reality."

"A unique view?" Peter's face wrinkled up. "Is that like saying she's got personality – and not looks?"

Harry frowned. "She's not, er, so bad looking." To be honest, the paraphernalia she hauled around and the way she talked usually drew attention to that instead.

"You never know," James brushed off. "What color hair did your mum have?"

Remus shot James a look, but then relaxed when Harry just looked confused. "Prongs has this theory of hair heredity," he explained.

"Fiery redheads run in the family," James said, almost proudly. "Doesn't mean you'll definitely end up with one, but it's a preference thing."

"Red hair." James grinned.

"Rad – just Lily's, uh-"

Harry rolled his eyes. "I think I know she's off-limits by now – I mean if the whole of Ravenclaw knows-"

"They did not sign a contract!"

Remus couldn't help a grin. "Sure James, whatever you say."

Meanwhile, classes are going fine. Potions is hard, though Severus is breezing through – after all his talk of how arrogant James was, he's just as bad! Smirking git. Ransdale's started a dueling club. The first day was bad, he had us do patroni – but since then we've been doing less challenging shield defense spells. (By the way, Hermione, are patronus shapes random sometimes and significant other times? If not, what's up with the otter?) He's definitely got his eye on me though. It's funny though, I know those spells so well because of the twins' havoc rather than D.A. I'm almost tempted to tell the guys that, but they really don't need any ideas.

We're already working on our next major prank. I never thought I'd enjoy pranking so much, but now I see why the twins love it so much – if I had more free time in real life, I'd so take this up. It's just – fun. I didn't realize how much work went into it though…


"So how strong do you think the force will be?"

"Well it won't shoot you through the roof if that's what you're thinking," Remus said testily. Harry looked over at him sympathetically. They had a major essay due the next day and Remus hadn't proofed his yet. Not that he needed to, in Harry's way of thinking. But James and Sirius had insisted on doing the preliminary spell testing now.

"I'm hoping for upside down, but I think we'll have to look further for a spell for that," James said, musing aloud.

"If it did flip you upside down, what's to stop everyone's robes from going that way also?" Peter asked worriedly.

Sirius snickered. "That'd be great-"

"We want people not to notice at first though, to be able to walk and have class though, make it just a really weird day," James cut off.

"I'm guessing more spell looking then?" Harry asked wryly. "You guys sure put a lot of thought into these pranks."

"That's what makes us Marauders," James flashed him a grin.

"We ready yet?" Sirius toed the tape line in front of him. They were in an out-of-the-way corridor of Hogwarts. James and Sirius stood on one side of taped box that Remus was still kneeling by, though on the other side. Peter and Harry stood by Remus.

Remus sighed and tapped the stone floor one last time. "I think so – I'm just not sure how high the anti-gravity will work."

"Thus the test!" Sirius said brightly.

Remus stood. "Right."

It was at that moment, of course, they heard the hurried footsteps.

Peter squeaked. "Hide!"

The next minute, Harry found himself crammed between Remus and Peter, behind a fidgeting suit of armor. Peter's elbow was lodged in his stomach and he hissed for him to move it.

Sirius and James were pressed against the opposite wall with no conveniently placed knight.

"Moony, check the map!" James hissed, collecting himself.

Squirming, Remus withdrew the map from his cloak.

"Lumos," Harry whispered, offering a light for his squinting eyes.

"Thanks – Molly Ringwood." They exchanged looks. "Gotta be an underyear. Probably lost."

"An underyear?" James asked, his voice low but carrying across the quiet hallway. "Okay, I can distract her." Straightening, he unconsciously ran a hand through his hair and rushed forward, squirting the square. Sirius, behind him, wasn't so lucky.

"Hey, why do you-" He'd only stepped half-over but he rocketed up, uneven propulsion sending him overbalanced into the middle of the square. Lounging, Sirius shook his head like a dog. "Whoa." He looked down. "Ooh, it really works!"

"Padfoot!" James turned back, but it was clear he couldn't do anything.

"We're screwed," Peter muttered.

The footsteps got louder and glancing over Remus' shoulder, Harry could see Molly was about to turn the corner – "James, she's-"

Several things happened at once. Cursing under his breath, James did a tuck and roll to get to their side of the hallway. Molly came around the corner, a lost first or second year if Harry had ever seen one, clearly frightened by being lost and alone in Hogwarts and ran right smack into the anti-gravity square. Sirius tried to get her attention, but it was too late.

Molly began screaming, clearly overwrought, and when Sirius tried to reach her to calm her down, the scream went higher pitched. Resigned, Sirius started to wave them away.

"We have to get them down."

Remus was looking at the map. "Filch is on his way," he announced. "And so is Flitwick – he must be on duty tonight."

Peter scuttled over to James and began to tug him down the rest of the hallway. "We gotta go."

Sirius, twenty-five feet in the hair, rolled his eyes, mouthed 'I'll be fine' and repeated his 'scat' motion. James cursed, but let Peter drag him down the hallway and the rest made their escape.

"Would yah stop screaming please!! Gonna bust my eardrums!" they heard as they left.

"So the anti-gravity works," Peter said weakly as they finally trudged into the common room. James just glowered and stalked up to the dorm room.

Remus shook his head. "Ignore him. Prongs always has to save everyone." Harry tried to ignore the stab of pain that thought gave him.

"Back to the drawing board then," he said instead.


His periods of solidarity with the Marauders had always been short – and with Remus' secret hanging over all their heads, Harry fully intended to make this period count.

But as the month wound down, he honestly forgot the dilemma facing Remus and the rest even as the third full moon approached.

Halloween came first.