School was about to start.

Remus didn't have a problem with school. In his mind, he was awfully lucky to have the ability to perform magic. Hogwarts was helping him use it to the best of his ability.

And to be honest?

He hoped that with all these classes, he'd be able to create a cure...any form of cure...for his problem. Was it selfish? He didn't know. But did he want it? Yes, he really did.

"I'm done, Remus, can we go out and play now?" James begged, jerking Remus to reality.

"Say what? Play?"

"Yeah, play. Quidditch!" James said excitedly.

"Let me read over your Herbology work first," Remus said, pulling James's diagram towards him. "You labeled the Stigma and Sepal wrong, James, but other than that, this looks okay."

James snatched his paper back. "Which one's the Stigma?"

"This one. You've named it the Sepal. You mixed those two up."

James quickly crossed out his lines and scribbled the correct labels in. "Done. Now can we go?"

"Sirius? Peter?" Remus asked the other two friends, who were both working on Potions.

"Okay...almost done," Sirius answered. "Yep, finished."

"Peter?"

Peter peeked off Sirius's paper and wrote something down. "Yeah, finished."

"Your conclusion sentences had better not be the same," warned Remus, drawing both of their papers and examining them. "Peter, your's is literally Sirius's except with a different beginning word."

"What am I supposed to do?" retorted Peter.

Remus patiently explained how he could write his own conclusion sentence, and Peter formed a new one.

"Now we're finished, right?" James checked. "Can we go play some Quidditch now?"

"It's only thirty minutes before curfew," pointed out Peter.

"So that's why we go now. Night Quidditch!" James exclaimed. "Are we going or not?"

"Yeah, yeah, don't get your wand in a knot." Sirius grinned. "Let's go."

The four of them trudged down to the Quidditch Field. They stopped at the broom shed to grab some brooms for each of them, and then they got playing.

James let loose a cart of golf balls bewitched to fly. James was a seeker, Remus a chaser (much to James's disappointment), Sirius a keeper. Since Remus insisted on having no Beaters ("I prefer keeping my skill intact, thank you very much!"), Peter was the commentator.

"James hits - no, Sirius catches, - no wait...Remus is the seeker...I mean…" Peter commentated - failing miserably.

"Oh, shut up!" screamed Sirius over the loud roaring of the wind, blocking the ball and throwing back at Remus. "Haha, Remus, you may be good at studies, but your Quidditch skills are below the mark."

Remus rolled his eyes and threw the "Quaffle" (a golf ball enlarged and painted green with smiley faces - James's idea) at Sirius, who screamed like a girl and ducked.

James, on the other hand, was flying around the field, trying to find their fake snitch, which was a ball painted silver.

"Remus, the Snitch is behind you!" roared Sirius. Remus turned around, grabbed the fake snitch, and threw it at Sirius. Sirius stashed it in his pocket, out of reach from James.

"Not fair!" complained James.

Peter boomed, "And Sirius stole the ball and put it in his pocket, but now Remus dropped his broom...REMUS?"

Remus had been doing perfectly fine, before he saw a flash of light hit his broom, and all of a sudden it started to fall.

"Help!" Remus cried, as he tumbled towards the ground. Sirius sniggered and stowed his wand away in his robes. So he was the curse-caster.

"SIRIUS, I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS!" screamed Remus, falling quickly. "YOU MADE MY BROOM FALL!"

Sirius merely shrugged casually, doing a little dance while keeping his broom in the air. James collapsed in laughter and Remus screamed as he crumpled to the green grass.

"Looks like his broomstick is out of order," said James in a sing-song voice.

"Does it hurt?" asked Sirius with fake concern.

Remus glared up at them as Sirius and James collapsed in a fit of laughter. It honestly was hurting his back, and he started to pull out his wand and curse them when a booming voice sounded over the Grounds.

"As much as I love your episodes, curfew is in five minutes and I expect you in your common room!" They all turned around to see McGonagall holding the microphone Peter had been commentating with, and Peter was knocked back on the ground next to her, embarrassed.

"What happened to Lupin?" McGonagall's voice boomed, as she peered at a grumbling Remus on the ground.

"He fell of his own accord," said Sirius shrugging. His innocence was too much for McGonagall, who narrowed her eyes.

"Sirius Black!" she screeched. "Five points from Gryffindor, for deliberately harming somebody. We are almost at zero points, Black, so try to behave yourself. Term hasn't even started."

"It's starting tomorrow, so it's all the same," Sirius said with another shrug.

"Don't correct me," McGonagall snapped. "Back to your common rooms, now. Lupin, do you need the Hospital Wing?"

Remus blanched. He did not need to spend more time in the Hospital Wing. "No ma'am, I'm fine."

McGonagall sighed. "If you say so. Get back to Gryffindor now. I don't want to see you out past curfew tonight."

"Whatever you say," sang James. "Also, what happened to Peter?"

"Pettigrew is right here," McGonagall said, her eyes flashing. "Stop playing for time and leave."

James and Sirius flew to the broomshed and put their brooms away, locking them with their chains. Peter put his unused broom back. Remus managed to pull himself off the ground and go to the dusty shed. He put his broom in its spot and buckled the clunky, heavy metal chain over it and fastened it shut.

Then they went back to their Common Room.

"This was a great winter break," Sirius said, flopping onto his bed and hugging his pillow.

"It definitely was," Peter said.

"And now school is starting again," groaned James.

Remus shared some of their sentiments, but not all of them. Mainly school. School wasn't terrible. If you mastered the art of staying on top of your classwork, then you were really golden - and you found that there was free time to spare.

"Good night guys," Remus said softly.

"Good night," chimed in Peter.

"Good night," Sirius said.

"Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite!" James sang in a fake motherly voice.

"Thanks a lot, James," snorted Remus.

"Anytime."

Remus crawled into bed and hugged his teddy bear to sleep. He'd had his teddy bear since he was two. His name was Beano, and Remus wasn't embarrassed to have one. His parents said all kids deserved a teddy bear - especially him. Still, Remus hadn't told his friends about his bear. Merlin knew how James and Sirius would twist that into blackmail.

And he fell asleep to the sounds of the wind beating the windows, Peter's loud snores, and the faint hum of the Gryffindor Dormitory sounding in his ears.

"We talk to Dumbledore today, right?" James asked at breakfast the next day. They'd been carefully avoiding Dumbledore when they could, but the time had come that they needed to tell Dumbledore what had happened.

"Yes," affirmed Sirius, taking a large bite of a donut.

"Got it," James returned, wiping his mouth with a napkin and smiling. "It's so exciting."

"Not many eleven-year-old kids do all this stuff in Hogwarts," said Remus simply, shrugging. "We are like an...exception."

"A special exception," corrected Peter.

Remus rolled his eyes but grinned. "Alright. We are like a special exception."

James pretended to think. "Yeah, that's right."

Remus rolled his eyes again. No people other than these three could make him roll his eyes so much. Seriously, he thought his eyes would crack of being rolled so much.

Peter took in a mouthful of cereal. "So when do we do it, after breakfast?"

"That should work," Remus muttered. "It's going to be a long story, though, no way we could tell him before class starts."

Sirius scowled. "It's worth skipping class."

"Why do I feel that something like ant-hunting would also be worth skipping class?" grumbled Remus.

"Ant-hunting?" asked James, pretending to look extremely offended. "We, my dear man, do not go ant-hunting with our time. We go centipede-hunting!"

Pause.

"I didn't see that coming," whispered Peter, before they all burst into laughter.

"Dumbledore's leaving," Sirius said urgently, licking the last bits of glaze off his plate before wiping his hands together and standing up. Sure enough, Dumbledore was standing up and bidding a farewell to Kettleburn, whom he had been animatedly chatting with.

"Now," hissed Remus, standing up and rushing to the doors, ready to catch Dumbledore.

"Hi, Professor Dumbledore!" cried James cheerfully.

"Good morning," he said. "How are you boys? Is something the matter?"

"Well…" Remus wasn't sure how to phrase this. "Can we talk to you?"

Dumbledore looked at him intently. "Of course. Classes are about to start, so...is it important?"

"Very," Peter answered earnestly.

Dumbledore sighed. "Alright then. Let's go to my office, then." He led the way to his office and told the Gargoyles, "Pepper Imps." The Gargoyles swung open and he gestured for them to come in.

"Pepper Imps?" burst out Sirius. "Do you like them?"

Dumbledore chuckled. "I used to not like them, but I've recently acquired a love for them. They're quite...spicy at first, but they allow steam to come out of your ears and fire from the mouth. It's quite tasty, honestly. Would you boys care for some?"

"Okay," agreed Peter and James readily. Sirius hesitated before agreeing. "Remus?" they asked.

"I'm not sure," Remus answered truthfully.

"There's no harm in trying," Dumbledore said brightly. Remus considered pointing out that he'd once tried an Acid Pop...and that hadn't gone so well...but he decided against it.

"Okay," he said resignedly. Dumbledore beamed and passed out some Imps for all of them.

Remus put one in his mouth hesitantly. The first taste was extremely spicy and ghostly, and Remus planned on spitting it out. It was nothing compared to his potions he took for his Lycanthropy, but it was horrible nonetheless. Then the pepper vanished, and steam blew out of his ears. Nervously, Remus opened his mouth and felt fire escaping through it. Betraying himself, a grin spread across Remus's face.

The taste was now quite sweet, and it was pretty...okay. He wasn't planning on taking another one anytime soon, but it had been pretty cool.

"I was a dragon!" cried James, his eyes gleaming. "Did you see me breathe fire?"

"We all did, James-ie boy," Sirius responded.

"Don't call me James-ie boy!" James said adamantly.

"Would you like me to tell them what your dad calls you?" Peter asked, his eyes glittering with mischief.

"No!" James screamed, clamping a hand over Peter's mouth.

"Boys, I was aware that you were here to tell me something," Dumbledore said firmly, but amusement dancing through his eyes.

"We were," James answered, not lifting his hand off Peter's mouth.

"Mmm, mm, mmph!" Peter mumbled, struggling against James's grip.

"Potter." Dumbledore's voice was light and reprimanding at the same time.

James sighed and lifted his hand off Peter's mouth. "Okay," he said sadly.

"Now that that's over with, tell me," Dumbledore ordered, crossing his arms on his desk. "What seems to be the matter?"

And so they told him.

They told him from the very beginning. They explained from their first trip into the Forbidden Forest, to all the plans they'd come up with, to where they really were when they bunked school, to what they'd witnessed in Venice, to what they'd figured out about Kaylee Martin, to the potion they'd slipped into Dumbledore's drink, to right now.

When they finished, the look on Dumbledore's face was quite impassive.

And then…

"You seem to have broken a lot of school rules," was his first reaction.

"We know," said Remus, hanging his head slightly.

"But at the same time, you saved the lives of myself and many others," Dumbledore said.

"Thank you," whispered Sirius, clearly not sure how to react.

"So for that, I thank you," Dumbledore said, smiling widely.

"You're welcome," James said.

"Now, I'm sure you could've simply told Minerva...or one of the other staff once you figured out somebody was in the forest instead of taking matters into your own hands," Dumbledore said lightly. "But, that aside, you boys have done brilliantly."

Remus paled. That did seem like the proper thing to do...but James had acted on impulse and decided it would be better in their own hands.

"And you did not need to skip school," continued Dumbledore. He looked directly at Remus. "No, I am not mad. I, in fact, need to have a word with Alconius." He looked angry at the mention of Alconius. "I had so much trust in him. Aberforth liked him from the start, but I assumed..."

"Their plan was really clever," offered Peter. "They knew exactly what you were like and how smart you were. They devised a certain plot to trap you. It took them two years to build that sustainable relationship. Two whole years."

Dumbledore considered that. "Thank you, Pettigrew. I have been exceptionally foolish."

"No. You haven't." Remus didn't know why he was saying this, but he knew that it was not Dumbledore's fault. Dumbledore did not need another thing on his plate. Goodness knew how many problems he was already juggling right now.

Dumbledore looked at him inquisitively.

"It's not your fault. And you haven't been foolish. Never in a million years would you expect that something like that would happen. You trusted Alconius. I'm sure he was good when you trusted him, but he met someone from the dark side. Heck, he might even have been imperiused. We don't know."

Dumbledore smiled. "That's very kind, Lupin."

Remus nodded, glad. "You're welcome."

Dumbledore thrust a jar of candies towards them. "Would you boys like some assorted sours? You have certainly earned them."

"Yes," enthused James.

Dumbledore popped open the jar of sours and handed two to James. "I have other candies, in case you boys want them," he informed them. "Now, I think I have delayed what needs to be done far enough."

Remus's heart sank. They were going to be expelled. They had broken hundreds of rules in trying to save the school itself.

"50 points to Gryffindor," he said, "for each of you."

A smile spread across Remus's face. They would so win the house cup from this.

"And I think you have earned enough for the entire school to know," Dumbledore continued.

"Thank you so much," said Sirius.

"Before you go, I need to ring Filius about this," Dumbledore said. "Excellent potion-making, by the way." Remus felt himself blush. "Now…" he sprinkled some powder in the fire. "No, no, stay."

"Sir?" came the squeaky voice of Flitwick. His face popped out of the fire.

"Ah, Filius. The prefects' bathroom is open for use," Dumbledore explained. "The prefects can get back there. Announce this to your prefects, would you?"

"Yes sir," Flitwick said. "Did you find the culprit?"

"As a matter of fact, I did," Dumbledore said, winking at the Marauders.

"Who were they? Have they been given detention?"

"They've been given fifty points to Gryffindor. Each," Dumbledore said simply.

"What?" spluttered Flitwick. "But...but why? Who?"

"Patience, Filius. Come to my office now. The staff deserves some explanation." He cut the connection and informed the other teachers to come to his office as well.

After around ten minutes, a lot of teachers were sitting in his office, some that Remus had never seen before.

"Who's she? And he? And her?" James whispered, pointing to a bunch of teachers.

"There are a lot more teachers than the ones you know," Dumbledore said kindly.

"Oh."

"Third-years have more courses than you do," Dumbledore explained. "Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, Astronomy, and others, too. Plus caretakers, patrollers, there are lots of people who work here."

Why the Arithmancy teacher would need to know about this whole ordeal, Remus had no idea. But Dumbledore was Dumbledore.

Dumbledore explained the entire story to the teachers.

McGonagall was the first to speak.

"France, huh?"

"We technically went to France," mumbled Sirius. "We lied a lot. We know."

"We're sorry," Peter added.

"Yeah, we really are," Remus put in.

"I'm not exactly sorry," James muttered.

Dumbledore chuckled. "Why not?"

"Because we saved your lives and all that," James laughed. "So breaking a few rules is worth it...right?"

Remus was afraid Dumbledore would yell. He really was. But Dumbledore laughed even more than he already had been laughing. "If you say so, Potter."

"Should the students figure out about this?" simpered a woman decked in bright yellow.

"I think so, Laura, they deserve to know."

The teacher frowned. "Why?"

"Their fellow students have accomplished this." Dumbledore popped a sour into his mouth and swallowed before continuing. "And this has been going on...in their school. We have spies in our forest."

"Sir," began James. Dumbledore turned to him. "What are you planning to do about it? I mean...we just figured everything out, right? So what are we going to do about it?"

Dumbledore beamed. "You have turned into detectives. Actually, I'm going to arrest them all."

"Do you have evidence?" Dedric asked.

"Yes, I do," Dumbledore said, turning to the Marauders. "Or actually, they do. You say you stole a file from the...Order headquarters?" His eyes flashed.

"Yeah, we sort of did," Remus admitted sheepishly.

Dumbledore chuckled. "Try not to do that in the future. We're not the bad guys here."

"What's the Order?" the what-looked-like the Astronomy teacher asked.

"Just...an organization," Dumbledore said, winking at the boys again. "Now. There is a lot to be done, from what I can tell."

"First, the evidence, right?" Peter asked. "I can go get it."

"No need," Dumbledore said, gesturing for him to sit down in his seat. "Accio evidence from the Gryffindor first-year boy's dorm!" Papers flew into the room and Dumbledore caught it.

"You know the Accio spell?" asked James. The other three laughed, all remembering what had happened with the sixth-year.

"Yes, I know the Accio Spell," laughed Dumbledore. He flipped through the evidence, which included the file from the Order Headquarters, their notebook full of planning, and all planning paper they had. "Wow, you boys worked hard on this. And managed to keep on top of your classes."

"When did you find time to go make potions in the prefects' bathroom?" McGonagall directed at them.

"Before class, in between classes, after classes, weekends, nights," answered Sirius.

"You boys really worked hard on this," Slughorn noted. "Good job for the potion, by the way, it managed to detest a strong Weakening Potion, and Dumbledore overcame the Imperius Curse by himself. Ten points to Gryffindor, for each of you."

"Now we have a chance of winning the House Cup," joked James. "Does this make up for all the points we've lost?"

"No, I'm afraid that list is a lot longer," grumbled McGonagall.

James laughed aloud. "My life's ambition is complete! I can retire in peace now!"

"You wish," murmured Sirius, before they all (all the Marauders, and a couple of teachers) cracked up (well...the teachers who did laugh did not crack up, merely laugh).

"So they'll go to Azkaban, then?" Remus asked, getting back to the main matter at hand.

"Yes, they will. I'm under the impression that Kaylee Martin is wanted from Azkaban."

"Did she run away?" Peter asked, wide-eyed.

"That is next to impossible," Dumbledore said. "She didn't exactly run away. She bribed the right people to shorten her sentence. She was supposed to be life-long. But she bribed the right jail workers. And the Ministry Officials. She left, and then continued committing bad deeds. And now she's running from the police."

"She bribed the Jail Guards?" wondered James.

"No, the jail guards are Dementors," Dumbledore corrected. "You can't bribe Dementors, they suck out the happy thoughts from a person and leave them with sadness. You cannot run away or escape from Azkaban. The only way I could imagine is living with no emotions. The Dementors will get confused. But everyone has an emotion." Dumbledore sighed. "And even then, it's on an island."

"Where?"

"I won't go into further detail about that," Dumbledore said, smiling kindly but making it clear that the matter was over.

"I would think not!" came a voice. They turned and saw a portrait crossing his arms and glaring at the crowded room. Remus heard Sirius groan. "I've been trying to sleep, and all you teachers and students are making it impossible. Do first-years have no respect anymore?"

"Shut up," muttered Sirius.

"Please be polite," Dumbledore said. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"You know this guy?" Remus whispered.

"Unfortunately," Sirius mumbled, which wasn't really an answer.

"Black, what will your parents say about this all?" the portrait teased. "Telling me to shut up? And you know what else you've done that your parents wouldn't approve of. Other than Gryffindor, I mean."

Sirius turned an ugly shade of red. "Shut up, Nigellus."

"Phineas, please," Dumbledore implored. "Black, please be polite to the former headmaster."

Sirius sighed. "Fine."

"Now, as I was saying, that's enough about the Azkaban topic. I don't think I need to worry about you boys escaping from there."

"You don't," Remus said, the others nodding. He couldn't imagine why any of them would go to Azkaban.

"Then I believe we are pretty much done. Minerva, what do you say we cancel classes for today?"

"Sir?" asked McGonagall, uncertain.

"I don't know," said the Ancient Runes teacher (he looked like one) said in a light, friendly voice. "I have a test today, going over all of the curriculum they probably forgot over winter break."

"Yes, but the students should know about what their classmates have done."

"They haven't done much," put in Phineas, the portrait. "Just gone and broke a bunch of rules and brewed a potion."

"Phineas, I didn't ask for your opinion," Dumbledore said calmly.

Phineas huffed. "I'm not appreciated around here. I think I'll go visit my other portrait."

"Please," begged Sirius. "They'll be happy to see you, I'm sure, and we'll be happy to see you go."

"Rude," scoffed Phineas. "But I couldn't say the same thing for you, right?"

Sirius opened his mouth to retort when Dumbledore cut in. "Phineas, visit your other portrait. We value your inputs here. Just not in this matter."

Phineas nodded curtly and left.

"I'm sorry about that," Dumbledore apologized sincerely.

"Don't be sorry." Peter smiled.

"Well then, we have nothing more to discuss," Dumbledore said, clapping his hands. "School is cancelled for today, and today only. We will announce at dinner what you boys have done. Our school deserves a day off. I will send a team of people into the Forbidden Forest tonight, without delay. I will also inform the centaurs. Good day, boys."

"Well wasn't that awesome?" asked Sirius.

"We're celebrities!" cried Peter.

"All my idea," sang James.

"We could've just told McGonagall after we figured out someone was in the forest," pointed out Remus. "But you insisted we had to go on an adventure."

"It was fun."

"Admit it, Remus, you had fun," whined Sirius.

Remus sighed. "Okay, yes, it was really fun."

They were in the Common Room.

"Hey Jason, you have any idea why school was cancelled?" came a voice. The boys turned to see two third-year boys sitting over Ancient Runes homework. "Didn't he say that we would have some exam today?"

"I thought so too," replied the other boy, Jason. "And then he got a ring from Dumbledore and left, and came back saying school was over for the day. I mean...why?"

"I don't know," the first boy said. "He said we'd figure out at dinner."

"I can't wait for dinner, then," laughed Jason.

Peter squealed. "We're creating so much suspense!"

James laughed and patted Peter on the back. "Yes, my friend, we are. Should we go to our dormitory?"

"Sure," said Sirius, as the four of them went up to their dorm.

Remus plopped into his bed and looked out the window. It was a nice sight, really, the trees, the sun peeking out from the clouds, the light snow brushed over the ground, the red leaves, the trees covered in snow, the boys heading towards the forest…

Wait, what?

The boys heading towards the forest?!

Remus jumped up and looked out the window more intently now, shocked that boys would go to the forest in broad daylight. Something was definitely wrong, because no gang of boys would go to the Forbidden Forest in the middle of the day, when all these people were watching. Who were they? And why were they looking so...discreet? And what were they holding tightly in their hands...were those papers?

Remus caught a glimmer of shiny blonde hair, hair he knew well enough.

The hair of Lucius Malfoy.