To Guest: What an interesting thought! I've actually never seen before that Snape wanted to get Harry kicked out of school to protect him from Dumbledore and Voldemort, so kudos! I do disagree, I think it's more the simple solution in this case, Snape was doing Dumbledore's orders but still hated him because he looked like James but reminded him of Lily. Still, it was something new to think about, so thank you!


Warmth! The sensation after such harsh conditions was quite literally the best experience they'd had through all these trying times. Eyes still watering and adjusting to these new surroundings, none of them felt the need to stay so close and huddled together anymore as the rest of this place came into focus.

It was still too eerily quiet, save the wind howling outside which helped some. The place was so heavenly though, for once they didn't care about the outside world.

"Padfoot, I think we actually may have died during that last one," Remus stated as he spun slowly on the spot.

Sirius inhaled deeply, mouth already watering a bit, and feared answering for getting spittle on every surface. Not in Honeydukes of all places.

Shivers already slowing in such a homey environment, James quickly ruffled his hair back to normal. He swallowed, but not for their surroundings. As mad as he was at her, those last few moments had left him legitimately concerned about Evans, and spotting her now he realized he'd been right.

She was still crouched down on the floor in the far corner, her dark red hair plastered to her face but not quite hiding her red tinted eyes and sniffling noises that had nothing to do with being next to a barrel of All Icing For All Occasions, Flavors Include Strawberry, Dragon Breath, Chocolate and More! Frank and Alice had landed behind the register a bit aways from her, so he still managed to get there first.

"All right Evans?" He couldn't help but ask, even as his innards clenched and he still felt like snapping at her for all she'd thrown at Sirius lately. It was the angriest he'd ever been at her, and still he couldn't think to do anything else but offer her a box he'd swiped on his way over. "Bean?"

Anyone hearing their last words could not be the most pleasant of things, let alone what she must have been suffering through. Maybe that was why she looked at him and said with the calmest, most indifferent expression ever, "no thanks."

Ignoring his outstretched hand still, she got herself shakily to her feet and murmured something about checking for the book upstairs, all the while James couldn't help but notice such an alteration in her personality. Somehow seeing her so subdued was even worse than her usual anger at him. He bit down on his lip and looked around with intent, there had to be something he could do.

The upstairs flat very quickly showed there was no book in sight, though that had been the least of her worries. Alice and Frank truly were very good friends, one look exchanged between them before she'd gone up these stairs had explained she hadn't wanted to be followed, she'd just wanted a moment alone.

Around her was a one bedroom, tightly packed but clearly very loved and lived in space. A small kitchenette sat in the far corner looking out into the alley way, a comfortable bed was all made up, and a door cracked open showed a closet charmed to hold the rest of their belongings. The only door closed she quickly rectified to find a bathroom.

The smell of the candies still managed to waft up here, but that wasn't why she took an uneasy breath. All her reservations were screaming at her for the invasion of privacy she was considering, but her hair was still dripping slightly on the floor, and she needed some way to chase away this cold that was still settled around her. The last time she'd had the privilege of a shower had been in the Gryffindor dormitory ages ago...

This was finally a decision she made for herself, no outside voices telling her what she should and shouldn't do, and she needed this for herself. Decided, she quickly set to work.

The tap was easy enough, and she set the spray as hot as it would go while she pursued the linen available. There weren't enough spares, so she gently took a rather threadbare butter yellow towel, and duplicated it seven times before putting the original back. She grabbed the one now resting on top of the sinks edge, shucked her wet clothes into the basin and finally managed to relax.

After she was done, a quick charm left her attire still grungy with use, but warm and dry once more as she made her way back downstairs, amazed to find no one had started the next part yet. Her answer came in the form of the Marauders, as usual.

If she hadn't known better, despite Harry's loss in the last chapter, Gryffindor would have just won another game. Potter and Pettigrew were juggling various sweets between them, while occasionally still managing to swipe a parcel into their mouth and continue their exuberant game. The elder Black was busy stacking various boxes of every candy available onto his younger brothers head, and it didn't even look like it was under duress. She couldn't imagine how he'd talked him into it, but he was smiling as much as the others. The only thing missing was the cheering crowd and the butterbeer for their usual antics. She found herself smiling and relaxing even more than the steaming hot water had provided.

"I've found it!" A voice cheered, from below her feet? Lily looked around and finally spotted a door behind the register she hadn't noticed before, and Lupin came charging out holding nothing apparently but he had a pleased enough smile on his face. He looked surprised to see her back and quickly went over to Potter and Pettigrew, sidling up like he was going to join the game.

The others seemed so busy they either didn't notice, or didn't care. She cleared her throat and polity informed, "err, I've found a shower up top, I'm sure they wouldn't mind, I mean I've tried to keep it as put together as I found it. So long as we all do-"

The older Black, Sirius she forced herself to distinguish, looked around at her, and before she was even done was sprinting towards the stairs.

"Oi!" His little brother spluttered, but too late, there was already a door slamming shut upstairs and the sound of running water again.

Potter fell to the floor laughing at the display, a pile of sweets quickly covering him. The others were all snickering as well, but Pettigrew came over and waved his wand to begin unpiling the makeshift, edible hat. The younger- err, Regulus finally took the base off his head, a whole box of licorice wands, and cracked it open to begin unwrapping one, offering Pettigrew another in thanks. "Black, red, green, brown, purple, blue, or the one that's all mixed together?"

"The rainbow one," he asked. He took a huge bite of the mixture, and his skin quickly took on the same tie-dy effect. Regulus snickered as he took a bite of the green one, his skin taking on a sickly hue but clearly enjoying the flavor anyways.

"Oi, Evans," Potter had suddenly popped up right beside her again, somehow unburying himself from his pile of sweets, but unsurprisingly still clutching some. "I found a chocolate ganache flavored pack of All-In-Rolls. Padfoot already ate the turkey one, and I may or may not have nibbled on the hash one. Had to pry this away from Remus and Peter nearly killing themselves for it, so I hope you enjoy such a sacrifice." He flashed her a winning smile and offered it to her with a slight bow even.

She couldn't help it, she snorted out a laugh. Through all of this madness and mayhem, something was finally normal again. She quickly regained herself back though, ignoring the bright twinkle in his eye, and told him sternly, "I'll not have it, and you shouldn't either! You can not tell me you've brought enough money to repay this shop all the madness you've already caused."

"Evans, you wound me!" He flashed her that smile again, clearly pleased as ever at the proceedings. "I've been keeping this business afloat for as long as we've been here, of course I'd never run them out without proper compensation now." He pulled a money bag, which she swore he hadn't had in their Potions class when all this started, and jangled it purposefully.

She let out a resigned sigh, but finally took the dinner bred flavored in her favorite dessert.

James smiled to himself as she turned away, towards Alice and Frank already levitating a few feet off the ground as they enjoyed their sherbet balls. Bless Moony for having the quick hands to pass him the gold without anyone noticing. He was patting his past self on the back for keeping a stash of galleons in the basement below right under the secret trap for just such occasions, it was quite lucky he had still managed to get in, even if he was sure had he traveled all the way back to the school that one would have been blocked.

There were alternately seven of them all enjoying themselves as one excused themselves to the bathroom, Remus going last because he just hadn't been able to bear putting down his salt water taffy until he'd finished it. The water was still as warm as ever, thank Merlin for magic.

In all the hubbub, Frank finally found the book behind a stack of Shock-O-Choc. They were all in such a relaxed and comfortable mood, everyone having savored a few chocolates first, that at first he almost glossed right over the chapter title.

"What map?" Alice asked in confusion, looking from the book to the suddenly shifty Marauders.

"No idea," Potter said with a completely straight face.

"Yeah, beyond us," his best friend nodded along.

"We're not the only Marauders on Earth," Lupin casually studied his fingers, picking fudge out from under his nails.

"Why would you assume otherwise?" Peter asked back innocently. He kept his hand in his pocket where said item currently was. They'd only finished it over Christmas break of this year, no way were they willing to show it to anyone else in this school! Not to mention, it wasn't really working anyways, the place would be more deserted than it ever had in its life. Even during holidays you could find some teachers who lived there about the school, now there wasn't even that.

The three exchanged a look of exasperation, but really they couldn't force another answer out of them, considering none believed this, so Frank just got started hoping for more answers from the book.

Regulus just kept eyeing Sirius, though he wasn't sure what for. He wasn't expecting some special treatment and an explanation, but he'd been well aware for ages his brother and friends got up to something around school. Even without Snape going on about it to anyone who would listen it was obvious enough, there just wasn't enough care from the general student populace to find out. Now here was an honest clue to it all, but what did a map help? By fifth year most students didn't need such a thing.

A kid voluntarily staying in the hospital wing for the weekend was quite the depressing way to get things started. It was nice his friends all came to visit him, Frank actually got a chuckle out of the fact that he didn't share his recent Grim sighting because he could accurately predict his friends reactions. There was irony abound in there.

Sirius didn't seem to find it as funny, blanching in unease and taking a step closer to Prongs at the reminder Harry had nearly died both times he'd caught sight of him. Was he really some omen? Twelve people had all died around him for some reason... "Oi Padfoot!" Remus cut in loudly. "Come here and play Exploding Bonbons with me."

"You two are so lame," Peter rolled his eyes as Sirius at once darted over. "Only couples do that sort of shite."

"Just because you caught Bertha Jorkins and Florence Jr. playing that last month doesn't change the fact that they've been doing this since third year," James rolled his eyes at him. "Now come here, I want a witness to see how many Pepper Imps I can fit in my mouth at once." Peter frowned in confusion at him why he hadn't instead made some joke towards Evans about trying the same, but willingly followed him over to the shelf where he could grab arm fulls of the little candies.

Alice was filling her pockets with plenty of Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, while Frank was popping Crystallized Pineapple into his mouth every few sentences. Evans was now ignoring everything as much as she could as she dug into some No-Melt Ice-Cream Every Flavor, but she seemed to have a hard time swallowing it. He sighed and wished more than anything he could skip ahead, but the blasted book only let a few lines appear at a time. No one should have to listen to their final moments being lived through by their child. There wasn't any comfort they could give her for this.

Sirius nearly chocked on his next bonbon when Ron threw a crocodile heart in Malfoy's heart, spraying Dynamite Coconut all over Remus and neither of them caring as they knew they'd do just the same.

"I won that one," Moony smirked, wiping the crumbs free from his scruff, he needed a shave soon.

"Blast," he grumbled as he snatched up the next one blindly, and then scowled when it came up black.

Remus did so next, coming up with a red one. The two held each others gaze as they popped them in, but Sirius lost again this time because the little concoction exploded in his mouth faster, forcing him to quickly and visibly swallow. "How do you win at this every time?" He demanded as the prick still sat there smirking with his jaw firmly held around the candy even as Sirius blindly began choosing another. Luckily he came up with a white one this time, while the book turned to Professor Lupin's class.

"I've always been better at handling my sweets," he muttered for Sirius alone, nearly causing him to drop his candy. He grumbled and eyed the staircase, but didn't think the two of them could skip off without their friends noticing and coming along this time. Blast Wormtail putting the idea in his head, he'd been fighting back the urge to snog Remus for a whole minute now, the candies would have made such an experience even better.

They were interrupted anyways by the two joining them, smoke still pouring out of Prongs' nose and a very satisfied look on his face. "New record!" He crowed, collapsing on the ground beside Sirius and offering him a Jelly Slug.

"You really must make quite the good teacher Moony," Peter snickered. "All those kids complaining to you, and you taking it in stride like that."

"Least I managed to take your advice and keep my cool," he sighed, knowing full well he wouldn't be having any words with Snape. If he wasn't already avoiding him before, he would be now, even though the question of that mysterious potion was still on all their minds, Harry didn't seem to be picking up any more clues about it.

Lupin did call Harry back, and that following conversation was wrenching for them all. More talk of Azkaban and those dementors wasn't helping anyone's mood in here despite the warmth surrounding this room. No amount of Chocolate Flavored Pumpkin Pasties was going to make hearing of this better, but it was quite interesting to hear he promised Harry dementor lessons soon! The four exchanged almost excited looks for that promise, finally someone who was going out of there way to help Harry.

"Thanks, err, Remus."

Moony nearly startled to his feet, the only one who didn't seem surprised by Evans coming over was Prongs. He seemed determined to be unphased by this, shifting through some Treacle Fudge with an absent expression.

"Oh, ah, you're welcome," he quickly smiled at her, meeting her expression openly. "I'd ah, do it for any student of course, but, well, I don't need to tell you I'd do anything for James' kid."

"Right," she said quietly, turning back away now that she'd said her peace, unable to shake the dark thought her friend had certainly never bothered to do the same. She held the two beside each other in her head, trying to age them up nineteen years, it was almost unfathomable. Her best friend had turned into some bitter tyrant of the school and here Potter's friend was, going out of his way to help Harry.

Of course this didn't explain Black on the loose, and Lupin just so happening to be at the school the same year. There was just no way that could be a coincidence, but would another of Potter's friends really be out to kill Harry?

Alice distracted her by offering her a Sugar Quill, gazing around at Honeydukes with a new eye and asking, "you know, I've just thought. Why would this place have any significance to Harry? He's not getting in here, and I wouldn't think his friends bringing him more sweets from this place would be so big a deal."

"Who cares," Frank managed around a mouth full of toffee. How he'd been getting the words form the book out with any semblance of intelligence was the real mystery today.

Regulus stopped sorting his beans into different colors and looked up with interest as the twins pulled Harry aside right before a Hogsemade visit, instantly guessing what all this was about. He'd heard rumors from some of the older students the school had dozens of secret passages, and he'd certainly put money down those twins knew some of them. Then his eyes widened further as he turned to look at his brother, the four of them looking as if they were holding their breath in anticipation, all sweets forgotten and expressions locked in on Frank. A map of those secrets of the school would come in handy, and the Marauders were certainly more than capable of making such a thing; and then it somehow got even more fantastical!

The four of them had to scramble desperately to hide their sudden euphoria of Prongs kid of all people just stumbling across this! Instead they were forced to fix confused expressions in place, trying to make themselves look as intrigued and curious as anyone else should. It was like staring down Dumbledore!

"Wow, ah, what a marvel that thing is!" James began earnestly.

"My, my, we must be geniuses to figure this out, by our seventh year surely!" Sirius quickly agreed.

"If it's even ours," Peter quickly tacked in.

"Oh yes of course, how silly of us, or anyone to think we alone could engineer such a thing and-"

"Sign it with your bloody stupid nicknames you keep calling each other," Frank interrupted with an eye roll.

"You lot are the worst liars, really pathetic considering how often you try practicing at it," Alice snickered.

"Can't we see it," Regulus asked with such an excited little squeal to his voice, Sirius swore he was that ten year old again asking to see his big brothers wand.

Then James made the mistake of looking at Evans, five years of habit unbroken, and found her looking nothing but curious for this.

The two caved. Remus knew they'd lost. Peter pulled it out.

Sirius snatched it away, cleared his throat with far more importance than anyone really thought was necessary, and stated clearly, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Little ink lines began spreading about at once, and the other four crowded forward eagerly.

"Well I don't know what you were expecting," Remus couldn't help but say defensively into the silence. "You knew as well as us there's no one in the castle for it to be properly working right now!"

"Mrs. Norris is still there," Regulus noticed, prodding a corner that housed Filch's office.

"Huh, none of the other animals are," Alice said curiously.

"Or that basilisk," Frank shivered.

"We had to put a special charm in to track that cat," James shrugged, "doesn't work on all animals."

"And we don't have the Chamber on here, we never found it," Sirius sighed.

"I'm not particularly fond of the idea of adding it in," Remus agreed.

"How did you manage such a thing?" Evans asked, a wide-eyed student in class again. She held her hand out curiously, Sirius reluctantly let it go.

"Some modifications to the Hominum Revelio spell, had to transfigure a textbook on revealing charms," James quickly said with bursting pride. He was more than happy to brag about this to her now that it was out in the open, but Peter was still frowning at the four suspiciously.

"It's not exactly something we made overnight, took us ages to get it all-"

"Isn't Hogwarts unplottable though!" Frank interrupted. "How did you actually manage this?"

"Drew the whole thing myself," James crossed his arms with a smirk. "The magic didn't stop us from animating our own map, we just couldn't con one up from the school. Padfoot and Moony managed all the fancy wand-work, then Wormtail went around and marked all the details."

"I can't imagine this thing when the school's, well, normal," Alice giggled as she scanned every corridor. Even having lived there the past six years, she hadn't found half the places marked on this thing. "How can you make out anything with so many people about?"

"Practice," all four said at once.

"I want to know how the twins got a hold of it," Regulus took his turn holding it, Evans offering it without a second thought. He held it up to the light, then flipped it all around to get every angle, before finally folding it up again. "I can't imagine you lot letting this out of your sight much, let alone how it fell into the Weasley's possession."

"They said they swiped it from Filch," Peter recalled. "It wouldn't be too far fetched for him to confiscate it from us and for them to figure out how to get it working from there." Then he shifted uncomfortably and again tried to caution, "of course, the more people who know about it, the more likely-"

"You think Harry's going to get into Hogsmeade with this!" James suddenly shouted above everyone, snatching it away and quickly tracing his finger to the corridor Harry would be in.

Regulus gave Peter a sympathetic smile and whispered, "don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

"Thanks," Peter sighed back while Frank scrambled back to the book curiously. "I just hope those three will keep their mouths shut."

"It's hard to imagine Evans doing it," Regulus agreed. "She might lord this over you lot, threaten to turn it into a teacher once the novelty wears off."

"That might put Prongs off her once and for all," Peter couldn't help an ironic laugh.

James' prediction came true of course, and Harry was soon on his way to this very building. The other four of course went traipsing down the stairs as if to meet him, all of them crowding around the basement now looking for the secret hatch.

The Marauders stayed on the stairs with smirks in place, their eyes knowing just where to fall.

Frank tried to keep reading and get a clue, but despite Harry coming up and then above into the shop, he still couldn't spot it. Alice cast a few spells to reveal any such thing but nothing happened, while Lily was walking purposefully on the floor, clearly listening for something. Regulus was watching, and finally managed to follow Sirius' eyes, right to a square spot on the floor that had slightly less dust then everywhere else.

Alice yelped in excitement when he pulled it up, jumping down the hole with abandon.

"Bit of a squeeze down here, hard to imagine you four all scampering around in here," she called back.

"We manage," Sirius snorted.

It took a while for them to finally stop badgering questions, but the Marauders couldn't find it in them to be very upset at these four learning one of their secrets. Well, two, but plenty of students knew of the secret passages existences. They still had one secret that was just for them after all, and still no one had thought to ask them about their nicknames.

Harry was now able to explore Honeydukes, and eerily running right into his friends. They'd all had their fill of candy already and were more than happy to hear of Harry getting to explore even more of the village. James expected the chapter to be winding down soon so went wondering back upstairs to make sure and drop enough money in their till, Remus going with him to see if he couldn't stuff a few more sweets into his pockets for the continuing trip, who knew when they'd get food again. Regulus thought up a few more questions and managed a decent conversation with Peter and Sirius for a time, while Lily and Alice were discussing the merits of that kind of magic. Their thoughts of those boys being layabouts felt laughable now, how much research must have gone into that map?

Frank was as surprised as anyone when the kids reached the Three Broomsticks, got comfortable, and then chocked on the words as teachers appeared.

"Blast it all, Harry can't have one decent thing!" Sirius scowled.

There was a thunk from upstairs, and they didn't have long to wonder what had been dropped in surprise as a cascade of Tooth-Splintering Strongmints came tumbling downstairs, James and Remus close behind.

"This is madness," Potter protested, skittering on the last few steps and nearly sliding into the entrance that had been left open.

"He didn't even bring the Invisibility Cloak," Remus sighed.

Hermione did some quick thinking and hid the kids from sight, but the relaxed tone couldn't quite come back.

"Has anyone tracked how long Hagrid's been in this place before?" Peter sighed. "I feel like Harry's going to miss curfew before he can slip past him."

"Have a bit more faith in the lad," Sirius tried to laugh off. "He's on the smaller side," sending a superior smirk at James, who in turn flipped him off. "He'll sneak out in no time."

Frank hoped they were right, he didn't particularly want to be the one to read about Harry's adventure getting ruined so thoroughly when he wasn't really doing anything that wrong. He'd expected the conversation wasn't much to listen to, but was quickly proven wrong when once again Black and the dementors were the topic. In all the excitement of this news he'd almost forgotten about Black's future misdeeds.

Judging from the mingled horror and resignation on his face, he might have as well. He shrunk back into the shadows with ease, nearly vanishing from sight and murmuring something for his friends ears alone.

"It's alright Pads," Remus caught him up in a reassuring embrace before he could slink too far away.

"Yeah, we still don't believe a word of it, no matter who says what," James stated in no uncertain terms.

"Even McGonagall of all people," Peter laughed awkwardly as their head of house even managed to share light on the tail. The four managed a pleasant smile for a moment as she reminisced about James and Sirius being as close as brothers, it was a wonder she didn't mention the other two, even a little offensive considering she now worked with one of them! Sirius' teeth sunk uncomfortably into his lower lip as he wondered at that, if he'd really done something to make her not associate Remus with him anymore.

Things weren't going that badly for a moment, James even perking up with interest at Sirius being his best man at his wedding to Evans. He glanced over and saw her scoffing, as usual, but even now he couldn't help but grin at the idea. She would look lovely in white. He turned away much quicker than usual though with an uneasy sigh, he wasn't sure how to look past her attitude towards his best friend. He'd named Sirius Harry's godfather for crying out loud, the news unsurprising to him. Shouldn't that be enough for anyone to know what kind of person Sirius was?

He missed Lily watching him out of the corner of her eye, her own mind a tumultuous mess of wondering at her future. A marriage to Potter of all people sounded ridiculous of course, but what would it have been like? His best friend had been there, had hers? Her sister? For just a moment, she could imagine it. Tired of feeling so alone, and the one person still trying to fight for her attention, she'd cave and possibly say something civil to him-

She'd missed some of it in her musings, Black being a Secret Keeper or something and the Marauders vehement protests something must have gone wrong with Dumbledore's spell before their mate had done anything against Potter. She wanted to scoff and laugh at their naivety in such a reckless friend, but stopped cold before she could even start, forcing herself to remember this time she once would have said the same about Sev- still would! Right?

Frank was growing increasingly uncomfortable the longer he had to keep going. Hagrid's shame at not stopping Black but instead accepting a gift from him like that bike was only making things worse. When he'd dismissed the Marauders as naive for thinking their friend couldn't do what the rest of the world said he'd done, they all must have been some level of crazy. It just kept getting worse, Black managed to kill Peter in that explosion?! It didn't seem real.

That arrogant pureblood stepping off and taking out a dozen muggles to prove himself had been perfectly in line with the character he knew, but taking out one of his own friends with it? After having just stabbed another in the back? It was hard to imagine any human with half the loyalty he'd witnessed in the past few days conceiving of such a thing.

Regulus had started to back away from his brother at the gore in this story, feeling like he was interrupting something private between the four even as he was forced to listen to the grisly tale. He stopped though when he realized what he wasn't seeing. The four just seemed frozen in place, expressions stuck on shock and nothing else. Regulus drew his wand and flexed his fingers, scenarios running through his mind of six of them turning on his brother. He didn't care what mother said, what anyone said, Sirius hadn't done anything yet to deserve this fate. Regulus still wasn't convinced this was the whole story, he wouldn't trust anything second hand now if details were already admitted to being covered up.

James unfroze first, stuffing his hands casually into his pockets, eyes flashing with fire about the room as he snarled what a horrible story that had been. Remus crossed his arms and put a calculating expression onto his pasty face, whispering to no one all the inconsistencies that could be had from this. Then Peter moved, Regulus raised his wand with a curse on his lips, but the guy merely launched himself into his friend, half shrieking, "glory Pads, to think what was going through your head finally wasn't your insanity! It's alright, whatever the hell that was, I know you'd never really!"

"I, wouldn't," he managed in half a sob, fingers trying to shake right out of socket as he patted him on the back, before crushing him in a life threatening hug. "Course I wouldn't," he repeated with a conviction no one would have believed moments ago. "I'd never."

Frank and Alice exchanged another of their unspoken looks. After such tenderness, watching their friendship in action, he found himself trying to guess what story in this future was missing a few holes, while watching those in front of him band around each other. Frank read the last few lines, Harry's shock at hearing all this as fresh as theirs, and begged of the new chapter to give some relief.