Saturday, 8th January 1972

After their very successful trip into Hogsmeade on Tuesday afternoon, the rest of the week sped by. They progressed to working on mid-level diffindo in Charms, using the spell to chop up a thick tree branch. In Transfiguration, they were working on turning ice into steam, and they brewed the deflating draught in Potions, making sure to bottle some of Peter's for their collection. On Saturday morning after breakfast, Remus excused himself from the group to go to the library in search of the elusive Spectral Essence, while the rest of them were going to look for the unopenable door on the sixth floor. They planned to concentrate on the west wing as they'd already searched all the main building and east wing of that floor.

They waved Remus off on the fourth floor and were continuing up the stairs when they were stopped by a shout from behind.

'Sirius! May I speak with you?'

Sirius turned around and glanced back down the stairs.

'Who's that?' James asked. 'She's pretty.'

Sirius grinned. 'Course she is. She's a Black. That's my cousin, Andromeda.'

James frowned. 'Want me to get rid of her?'

'No, it's okay,' Sirius said with a laugh. 'I actually like this one.' He bounded back down the stairs, and James and Peter followed.

'Hey, Andy,' he said when he reached her. 'What's up?'

'Oh, cousin. Have you lost all your manners already?' Andromeda asked.

Sirius stood up straighter and cleared his throat. 'Not at all, my lady,' he said before bowing politely. 'To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?'

Andromeda laughed. 'Very theatrical. I'm sure Aunt Walburga just adores you.'

'If the day ever comes that she does, just avada me.' Sirius put his hands together in a begging gesture. 'Promise me, cousin.'

'I'm afraid I may not be around to keep that promise,' Andromeda said. 'That's why I wanted to speak with you.'

Sirius immediately stopped being silly and paid attention. 'What do you mean? Are you in trouble?'

'In a way,' she said. 'I plan to announce my engagement in the summer. I don't believe the family is going to be very happy about it.'

'They don't already know about it?' Sirius asked. That was extremely unusual; all marriages in his family were formerly arranged by the betrothed's parents.

'No,' she said, shaking her head. 'That's partly why they won't be happy about it.'

Sirius raised an eyebrow. 'Only partly? Andy, whatever have you done?'

'I'm engaged to a man named Edward Tonks,' she said.

Sirius gasped. 'Oh shit, Andy.' She didn't need to say anything more. Tonks was not a wizarding name. 'Don't tell them, just go. Run away and be happy,' Sirius said, meaning every word.

Andromeda shook her head. 'I have to give them a chance to accept him.'

'But they won't, Andy. You know they won't,' Sirius said, grabbing her hands. He wanted to shake some sense into her. What she was planning was dangerous. For her and for this Edward guy.

'Why not?' James asked, startling Sirius. He'd forgotten James and Peter were there.

'Hi. I'm James Potter, and this is Peter Pettigrew. We're Sirius' best friends,' James said, offering his hand to Andromeda politely. 'Why won't your family accept him?'

'You're his best friends, but you can't figure that out?' Andromeda asked, raising her eyebrows. 'Ted is muggle-born.'

'Oh,' James said. 'Damn.'

Andromeda inclined her head. 'Exactly.'

'If you're dead set on this insane plan and I can't change your mind, what can I do to help? What do you need me for?' Sirius asked.

'When I make the announcement, I'd like you to speak up for me, as the heir to our House,' Andromeda said.

Sirius snorted. 'That's not going to help you. Don't get me wrong, I'll do it. More than happy to. But it won't do you any good.' He shrugged. 'Didn't you hear? I'm a disgrace.'

Andromeda smiled. 'You may be a breath-taking disgrace, dear cousin, but you are still the heir. Your word carries a certain weight. If only a little.'

'A breath-taking disgrace, huh? First time I've ever been called that,' Sirius said with a chuckle. 'As I said, I'll speak up for you at the announcement, but I doubt it will help. If I'm right, and they do disown you, I'll just reinstate you when I inherit, so don't worry too much about it.'

Andromeda smiled. 'Thank you, cousin. Don't ever change, will you? I foresee our House blossoming under your guidance.' She bent down and kissed him on the cheek. 'I'll see you in the summer then.' She turned to James and Peter. 'It was nice to meet you both.'

'It was nice to meet you too, Andy. Good luck with your engagement,' James said.

'Thank you. You're very kind,' she said, inclining her head before turning and heading down the stairs to the Slytherin common room.

Sirius stayed where he was for a moment, staring after her. If Andy was ejected from the family, he'd only have his Uncle Alphard and Reggie left. He was already outnumbered as it was. How was he going to survive another six years until he was old enough to leave?

'You alright, mate?' James asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

Sirius shook himself out of his thoughts. 'What? Oh, yeah. I'm alright. No point worrying about it yet, is there? Summer is months away. Come on, let's go find that door.'

Sirius hurried up the stairs, forcing an end to the conversation as James and Peter scrambled to keep up with him. He didn't want to talk to them about his family issues right then. It was too much. And he didn't want to think about what might happen to Andy when she announced she was marrying a muggle-born. He'd heard the stories of disgraced ancestors and what was done to them.

After an hour of searching, they found what they believed to be the unopenable door at the end of an empty corridor. It was jet black and had no identifying marks at all. Not even a doorknob. They weren't able to get it to open with alohomora, so, believing they'd been successful, they returned to Gryffindor tower to await Remus and find out if he'd found the recipe for the potion.

As they walked into the common room, Sirius glanced at the noticeboard to see if their times had been posted for Gryffindor's sand-war heats yet. They hadn't, but there was a new notice on the board that caught his eye.

'James, Pete. Look at this,' he said.

Hogwarts Chiefs of Raucous Revelry

are pleased to announce

The Hogwarts Annual Super Secret Creature Hunt

The hunt will take place, as always, in the Forbidden Forest

on

Sunday, 13th February

9:00 - 16:00

Please be aware that this event is dangerous. It involves traversing the Forbidden Forest and actively searching for potentially dangerous animals. As such, lessons on offensive and defensive magic will be provided for four weeks before the hunt.

If you wish to take advantage of these lessons, please meet in classroom 12c on the third floor on the next four Saturdays at 1pm.

This hunt is about spotting creatures, not killing them. Any team caught intentionally harming any creature, other than in self-defence, will be immediately disqualified.

As always, teams must consist of four people.

Under no circumstances reveal the existence of the Hogwarts Annual Super Secret Creature Hunt to any member of Hogwarts staff, under pain of shunning.

They signed up right away without waiting for Remus to agree; they were all sure he'd be well up for it, and then they went up to the dorm. Sirius grabbed a butterbeer from their stash and leapt onto his bed before cracking it open.

'We've only got a few left, you want to make a trip to Hogsmeade tomorrow and get some more?' James asked, grabbing his own bottle.

'Sure. Sounds like a laugh,' Sirius said with a shrug.

'I think I'll stay here this time,' Peter said. 'Remus promised to help me with that essay for History.'

'Alright, but we're going to need both of you to help get the bottles up the slide. You'll have to meet us at a specified time or something,' James said.

Peter nodded. 'Yeah, we can do that.'

Just then, the door opened and Remus walked in, his nose stuck in a book. He closed the door behind him, walked over to his bed and sat down, all without looking up.

'Did someone stick that book to your face?' Sirius asked.

Remus jumped a little, and his head shot up in surprise. 'Oh, I didn't realise you were back, sorry.'

'Well, it's hard to notice that sort of thing when you're not looking,' James said, laughing. 'What's so interesting about that book?'

'I found the potion,' Remus said. 'But it's ridiculously complicated. It's actually in a book called The world's most complicated potions.'

'Show it to Pete,' James said, not seeming concerned.

Remus handed the open library book to Peter and sat back down while he looked over the recipe.

'He's right, this is going to take at least a month to brew. Probably more like three with having to put it under stasis for lessons,' Peter said. 'And some of these ingredients are going to be a nightmare to collect.'

'We can do it,' James said, puffing out his chest. 'We just need to find a secure location to brew it.'

'What about the room behind the portrait on the third-floor?' Sirius asked.

Remus shook his head. 'No good, all you have to do to get in is to threaten the portrait, and he's so annoying people probably open it by accident all the time.'

'We'll find somewhere,' James said. 'We're the Marauders. Oh, by the way, Remus. We signed up for the creature hunt next month, and we have to go to defence lessons every Saturday afternoon until then.'

Remus paled. 'Creature hunt?'

Three days later, Sirius and the other Marauders were prowling the corridors on the hunt for Peeves. They needed poltergeist ectoplasm for the Spectral Essence, and if Peeves refused them, then they weren't sure what they would do. Poltergeist ectoplasm was incredibly rare and therefore expensive. Even James couldn't afford to buy it.

They found Peeves floating along the fourth-floor corridor outside the library, dumping water balloons on anyone who tried to go in or out. The Marauders took their soaking with good grace; they wanted Peeves to be amenable.

'Good Afternoon, Peeves. How many people have you managed to soak?' Sirius asked.

'Thirty-seven,' Peeves said, cackling.

'Nice!' James said.

Peeves frowned at them. 'What are you lickle firsties after? The rest of you run away when they see me, but you stop to talk. It's suspicious.'

'We knew you were smart. There's no fooling you, is there?' Remus said.

'Flattery will get you nowhere, Loony,' Peeves said, doing a back-flip in mid-air. 'Tell old Peevsy what you want, and maybe we can strike a deal. Peeves knows you are bad little boys.'

'Now who's doing the flattering?' Sirius said with a grin. 'We need a cup of your ectoplasm, good sir.'

'Ooh. That's a big ask, that is. Old Peevsy will need a lot in return.'

'Your wish is our command,' Sirius said, bowing to the poltergeist who cackled again in response.

'Hmm. You know, old Dumbles uses horrible magic to keep Peevsy from joining your classes. Poor Peevsy can't have any fun when the students is learning.' He shook his head sadly before looking up with an evil smirk. 'But you ickle firsties can get in.'

'You want us to disrupt a class and cause mayhem? Easy,' James said. 'Done.'

'Not just one class, Potty,' Peeves said, shaking his head. 'I want you to cause mayhem in four classes. You can choose which ones, but they can't be your own. And this is just for starters. You have to complete three jobs for me if you want my ectoplasm.'

'Deal,' Sirius said.

'Ooh, you is bad little firsties,' Peeves said before flying away down the corridor, cackling gleefully.

Sirius turned to look at the others. 'So…' he said. 'We can make this easy on ourselves. The divination teacher seemed like a good sport, Flitwick, Hawthorne and Slughorn. Or—'

'We can have fun with it, and hit McGonagall four separate times,' James finished for him with a grin.

'I pick that option,' Sirius said.

'Seconded,' James said.

Remus and Peter groaned and shared a look of resignation.

'Might as well get started, then,' Remus said. 'What do you want to do?'

They spent ten minutes planning before making their way to McGonagall's classroom. When they got there, Sirius peeked through the door.

'Fifth year, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw,' he said, pulling his head back out of sight.

'The Ravenclaws will not be amused,' Remus said.

Sirius shrugged. 'Not my fault they don't have a sense of humour.' With that, he flung the door open with a yell of, 'Minnie, my treasure! I cannot go another second without declaring my undying love for you!'

McGonagall stopped mid-sentence and stared at him, utterly stunned. Sirius took the opportunity to march up to her, grab her hand and fall to his knee. James, Remus and Peter followed him into the room, roaming between the desks and shooting glitter and heart-shaped confetti into the air with their wands.

'You are the smartest and most beautiful woman I've ever met. Please will you do me the honour of becoming my wife?' Sirius asked, managing with great difficulty to keep a straight face.

The Hufflepuffs in the room were giggling, but most of the Ravenclaws looked annoyed and were brushing the glitter and confetti off of their desks irritably.

'Mister Black,' Professor McGonagall said, looking down her nose at him. 'I'm flattered, but I'm afraid I must decline.'

Sirius gasped and pressed his hand to his heart. 'Minnie, you have broken my heart. I may never recover from this brutal rejection.'

'Be that as it may, Mister Black. My answer is still no. However, you will have plenty of time to pine over me. Detention every night for the next two weeks.' She looked to the other Marauders. 'All of you.'

'Ah, Minnie, you still love me after all,' Sirius said, jumping to his feet and bowing. 'I will see you tonight, my queen.'

The Hufflepuffs in the room chuckled as the Marauders sauntered out of the classroom and closed the door behind them.

'I can't believe you called her Minnie to her face,' James said, laughing.

Sirius chuckled. 'Out of everything I said, that's what you focus on?'

They received their first detention slips at dinner that evening. Their crime had been recorded as, "Disrupting a lesson to propose to a Professor," and their punishment was to help Professor Sprout in the greenhouses, providing them the perfect opportunity to scope out the location of the leaping toadstools. They were in greenhouse three, but they had to harvest them under a full moon, so they couldn't take them yet.

Sirius was annoyed that they would all need to stay up late on the full moon. It meant he would be able to spend less time in the tunnel with Moony, keeping Remus safe. But there was nothing he could do about it. The mission would require at least two of them. He just hoped Moony wouldn't do too much damage before he was able to get there.

The next morning Sirius snuck out of the castle before dawn to collect a dewdrop from the grounds. He had been delegated the task by James because he was "the Marauder least bothered by getting up early." It was a little unfair. James had woken them all up at the crack of dawn on several occasions. He clearly didn't mind waking early either.

Sirius made up for his early morning by sleeping through History. He could borrow Remus' detailed notes later if he needed to know the information. Charms was tough. Professor Flitwick had returned their own hacked up tree branches from the last lesson to them and told them to use Reparo to make them whole again. It was a devious tactic. The ease of Reparo was directly related to how clean the break was. If they'd done a good job in the last class, it would be easy, and vice versa. Sirius had not done a good job in the last class. He could have if he'd wanted to, but he'd thought it would be funny to hack his tree branch up as badly as he could manage. If you thought about it objectively, he'd done stupendously at the task he was attempting; doing it badly.

On their way to lunch, Peter spotted a notice for the next Hogsmeade weekend. The third-years and above would be allowed into the village on Saturday 22nd, the weekend after next.

'Good time to go shopping for ingredients, don't you think?' Sirius asked, looking at James. We'll blend in with everyone else.'

James nodded. 'We'll have to be back by lunchtime though. We have the creature hunt prep in the afternoon.'

'Yeah, don't want to miss that,' Sirius agreed. 'We could use a few offensive spells in our repertoire. It's so annoying that they don't teach us any until second-year.'

'They'll be useful for the sand wars too,' Peter said as they entered the Great Hall.

'Do you think it's safe to be learning spells above our level? You remember what McGonagall said about draining all our magic,' Remus said.

James shrugged as he sat down at the table. 'I'm sure the Chiefs know what they're doing.'

'You're only saying that because they picked you to bequeath their legacy to,' Remus said.

James puffed his chest out. 'Exactly. They clearly have superior judgement.'

Remus chuckled. 'Or, you know, they're stark-raving mad.'

'I resent the implication of that remark,' James said before taking a large bite of his sandwich.

Sirius grabbed his own sandwich. 'Maybe you're both right, intelligence and madness aren't mutually exclusive.'

They lingered in the Great Hall until they saw Minnie enter, and then they hurried to the Transfiguration classroom and let themselves inside. They quickly spread out, having already planned who would do what, and they worked like a well-managed shroud of house-elves, planting the whizzing worms and fireworks around the room and setting them to go off ten minutes into the lesson. As soon as they were finished, they left and hid in a nearby alcove to watch the results.

Sirius was delighted to see third-year Gryffindors and Slytherins arriving for the next lesson. Several of the students they had caught in acts of bullying were there. He felt a little bad for Frank Longbottom—he seemed like a good guy—but he was a Gryffindor. It would take more than fireworks and whizzing worms to scare him.

At twenty to two, the mayhem began. First, the whizzing worms went off. With an ear-splitting shriek, they shot out of the nooks and crannies the Marauders had hidden them in and flew around the classroom. Or, at least, Sirius assumed that was what was happening. He could only hear the squeals and cries that were the result. The fireworks went off next, with deafening bangs and flashes of coloured light bright enough to light up the dim corridor. The squeals inside the classroom turned to screams and students began pouring out of the door. Professor McGonagall marched out of the classroom, glanced left and right, and made a beeline for their alcove. She pulled back the tapestry and glared at them. Sirius tried very hard to stifle his laughter, but it burst from him in a loud snort. McGonagall's lips twitched a little.

'How did I know you four would be behind this?' she asked. 'And that you wouldn't be able to resist staying to watch the result?'

Sirius grinned at her. 'It's because you know us so well, my love.'

McGonagall pursed her lips. 'I'm starting to wish I didn't know you at all. Another two weeks of detention.' She sighed, turned away and muttered, 'Not that I think it will do any good.'

Sirius waited until she had ushered her students back into the classroom and closed the door before turning to the others. 'If we keep hitting Minnie's class, we'll be in detention until we graduate.'

Remus nodded in agreement. 'We already have a month. It's going to eat into a lot of our free time already.

'You want to hit someone else for the last two?' James asked.

'I think we probably should,' Sirius said. 'Flitwick's a good sport. And Slughorn adores us.'

James grinned. 'Yeah, he's sickening, but might as well take advantage of his preference for the rich and powerful.'

They returned to Gryffindor tower to make plans to hit Flitwick's and Slughorn's classes during their two free-periods the following day. On the way in, they checked the notice-board and found the times had been posted for the first round of Gryffindor heats on Saturday.

James frowned. 'We're not on here.'

'That's probably for the best,' Remus said. 'If we don't compete until next month, we'll have had four weeks of lessons for the Creature Hunt. We'll stand a much better chance.'

'We should go watch anyway, get an idea of the competition,' Peter said.

James grinned. 'You're right, it gives us an advantage.'

Sirius didn't think he'd ever get used to how quickly James' mood could switch. One minute he was morose and downtrodden, the next happy and excited. It was unnerving.

'We better get some homework done if our evenings for the next month are going to be taken up with detention, the weekends with sand-wars and Creature Hunt prep and our free-periods with collecting potion ingredients,' Remus said.

Sirius blinked. 'Gods, you're right. We have a lot going on, don't we?'

It was funny, Remus thought as he watched his friends with their heads bent over books and parchment, that everyone considered James and Sirius to be lazy trouble-makers. The more he got to know them, the more he realised how untrue that was. Sure, they themselves claimed not to care about schoolwork, but despite that, they were diligent about getting their work completed on time, and he had never known either of them to get anything less than an E on an essay.

Peter tried exceptionally hard too, Remus thought fondly, turning his attention to the blonde head of his other friend. He was outstanding at Potions, of course, but he also did well in Herbology, since the two subjects were closely linked, and with all the practice he got thanks to their mischief, he was improving in Charms and Transfiguration. He was fairly poor at History and Defence, but the others were always willing to look over his essays and give him some pointers. They took the Marauders Code very seriously, even if the 'aid' was merely pointing out mistakes in an essay about the 16th Century Goblin Rebellion.

After dinner that evening, they dutifully attended their detention for Sirius' proposal, which that day was to be taken by the groundskeeper, Hagrid. Their detention slips had told them to report to Hagrid's hut at 6:30 pm. They arrived promptly after crossing the grounds, stepping around the few patches of snow still left, and Hagrid was waiting for them in the little garden next to his hut.

'There yeh are. I hear yers been havin' some fun with Professor McGonagall,' he said when he spotted them coming down the path. 'Well, come on then. You fours goin' to help me weed the garden ready fer planting in the Spring.'

It was hard physical labour, and Remus found it exhausting, but Hagrid kept up a merry conversation while they worked, and before they left, he invited them to come and visit him for tea whenever they got the chance. Remus thought Hagrid seemed really nice despite his rather intimidating appearance, and even though his muscles were aching, it was one of the more pleasant detentions he'd had.

During Thursday's first free period, they hit Professor Flitwick's class of second-year Slytherins and Ravenclaws. Taking inspiration from the Niffler Hunt, they "borrowed" a couple of brooms from the broom shed, and James and Sirius flew up to the windows of the classroom, with Peter on the back of James' broom and Remus on the back of Sirius', and charmed dungbombs to soar into the classroom and explode.

Remus found it a little easier that time. They didn't need to go as high and he was wearing both his gloves and hood (which even morphed to match his hair), so he wasn't concerned about contact, but flying was still terrifying and he was glad to be back on the ground. They didn't get caught, Flitwick was too slow to get to the window, and they were long gone by the time he looked outside.

They hit Slughorn's class Friday afternoon. At lunchtime, they snuck into his office and checked the curriculum. After discovering Slughorn was covering pepper-up potion with his fifth-year Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, they snuck into the supply cabinet and switched the essence of belladonna with essence of dittany. Peter assured them that it would cause everyone's potions to emit a foul odour before evaporating into dust. The plan, unfortunately, meant they wouldn't be able to see the resultant confusion and disgust, but they just couldn't afford any more detentions. They had far too much to do.

They searched for Peeves Friday evening but weren't able to find him before they had to go to detention, peeling salamander eyes for Slughorn. It was a revolting task, and they all went straight to the showers when they were finished.

Saturday morning dawned overcast but dry. Not that it mattered. It was always warm and sunny in the beach room. James thankfully let them sleep in until eight before waking them all up by leaping on Sirius and Peter. Remus was almost grateful for his lycanthropy that saved him from such a fate.

Almost.

The four Marauders hurried through breakfast and made their way to the beach room to watch the competition and get an idea of what they would be up against. The beach-room was already busy with students enjoying their weekend, and there was a sizable crowd at the far end where the sandcastles had been set up, surrounded by magical barriers to keep spectators out of the battle zone.

The sandcastles that had been built in preparation for the Gryffindor matches were far superior to the ones the Marauders had made on Sirius' birthday. They were tall, square and large enough to fit four people inside comfortably. Each castle had two levels from which to fight and four red and gold flags, one in each corner.

At nine o'clock, the two Gryffindor seventh-year prefects called for attention and everyone stopped chatting to listen.

'Welcome, to the first of Gryffindor's three sand war heats. The rules are simple. When a flag reaches ground-level, it will turn white. When all four of your flags are white, you're out. You may use any spell that you know to attack the other castles and to defend your own, but you must stay inside your castle. Years 4, 5, 6 and 7 will compete this week, to give the younger years more time to prepare. Years 1, 2 and 3 will compete in a month's time. The winners from both weeks will compete during the third heat until only two teams remain. Those teams will represent Gryffindor in the semi-finals. Are you ready?'

The crowd cheered in confirmation, and the first four teams were called up. They were all seventh-years, and as they took their positions inside the giant sand-castles, Remus began to feel a little worried about their chances. That feeling only intensified when the fighting began.

Spells flew back and forth between the competitors at lightning speed. The multi-coloured flashes of light and loud bangs made him feel dizzy trying to keep up with the action. The fighters were just as proficient in defence as they were in offence though, and the castles stood up well under the assault.

'Do you see how all the teams have two members dedicated to defending, and two to attacking?' James asked.

Remus watched carefully. 'Yeah, but they don't all seem to trust each other. The attackers on those teams,' he said, pointing. 'Keep switching to defence. It's working against them.'

'You're right,' Sirius said. 'Their castles are definitely going down quicker.'

'So if we trust each other and stick to our roles, we'll have a better chance?' Peter asked.

'I think we can do that, don't you?' James said with a grin.

'We've had plenty of practice at it,' Sirius said with a chuckle.

It was true. Their mischief making thus far had necessitated putting their trust in each other, sticking to their assigned tasks and not deviating, even under pressure. And they excelled at it.

The battle ended ten minutes later, and the next set of seventh-years went head to head. The tactics were similar and so were the pitfalls, although Peter noticed something else during that match.

'That team,' he said, pointing. 'The attackers are using fancy spells that look exciting, but they don't seem to be doing much.'

'Don't show off,' Remus said gravely. 'That's going to be difficult for some of us.'

'Hey!' Sirius and James said at the same time.

'I resent that remark,' James said, sticking his nose in the air.

'I never said I was talking about you,' Remus said, laughing. 'You just assumed.'

James chuckled. 'Okay, so we'll stick to simple, fast spells.'

'Fast but effective,' Sirius said. 'Sounds like your style, James.'

James shoved Sirius in the shoulder. 'Shut up.'

Remus spoke up to keep a fight from breaking out between the two. 'It seems to work best if the defenders are up top and the attackers below.'

'Which of us should do what, do you think?' James asked.

'Probably best if we wait until we've had some lessons. See what we're good at,' Peter said. 'Or not worst at, anyway.'

'Hey, stop with that pessimistic nonsense, mate,' Sirius said, putting his arm around Peter's shoulders. 'You're going to do great, I know it.'

They stayed until lunchtime and then left to get some food before their Creature Hunt Prep lessons. The battles had reached the fifth years by that point, and they had picked up some useful tactics. Unfortunately, everyone else watching had probably noticed the same things.

They arrived at classroom 12c five minutes early, but there were already around forty students crowded into the room. Remus wasn't overly excited about spending hours in such a crowded space, but he'd worn his gloves and hood in preparation, so he wasn't too anxious either.

At 1:30 pm, two men walked on to the stage. Remus didn't recognise either of them, and they looked far too old to be students.

'Who are they?' Sirius asked.

'No idea,' James said with a shrug.

A fourth-year Ravenclaw standing nearby overheard and leaned over to whisper, 'They're the Chiefs' disguises. No one knows who they really are. Whenever they do show themselves, they look like that.'

'Thanks,' James said, nodding at her. When she moved away, he bent close to Remus and the others. 'I wonder if we'll get to find out who they are when we pass the test.'

'Don't you mean "if"?' Remus said, raising an eyebrow.

James frowned at him. 'No, I mean "when". You should have more faith in your friends, Remus.'

Remus chuckled but was saved from answering by one of the men on stage clearing his throat.

'Ladies, gentlemen and everyone in between. We are gathered here today to impart knowledge and wisdom from our eldest to our youngest. A noble endeavour and I'd like to begin by thanking those from the upper years for so generously donating your time to help teach our younger peers how to survive The Creature Hunt, as you all were once taught yourselves, so many years ago.'

The audience chuckled, clapped and hooted, and the Chiefs' waited patiently for the noise to die down.

'We will begin, as always, with a nod to safety, and we will repeat what your professors have already told you. Never, ever attempt a spell that you are not positive is within your capabilities. With that in mind, I'd like you to form an orderly queue. We are going to perform a simple and painless spell to assess the strength of your magical cores and so determine what level of spell you'll be permitted to learn today.'

Remus' mouth went dry and his heart skipped a beat. Would his lycanthropy show up on the test? What would they do? Was his secret about to be revealed to everyone here? The others were already moving towards the queue that was forming at one end of the stage.

'You coming, Remus?' Sirius asked. He was looking at Remus with a concerned expression. Remus knew he was acting odd and drawing attention. There was no choice, if he left now it would look suspicious. He would have to go through with the test and hope it either didn't show up, or if it did, the Chiefs' would have the decency to not mention it publically.

'Yeah, sorry. Was in my own little world there,' Remus said, joining Sirius and slipping between him and James in the queue. They moved to make room for him, and Remus felt a shiver of fear run down his spine. Would they hate him when he reached the front of the queue? He would find out soon enough. The queue was moving fast. Both of the Chiefs were performing the spell, and it only took a few seconds to cast. The Chiefs would then tell the student what level they were currently at and move on to the next people in the queue.

It only took five minutes for Remus to reach the front, and he stepped onto the stage along with Sirius and approached the Chiefs. The two disguised students waved their wands and checked the results, which appeared on a sheet of parchment each of them was holding.

The Chief who was testing Remus looked up from his parchment and raised an eyebrow. Remus held his breath.

'Twelve,' he said. 'That's impressive for a first year. You can learn stupefy, protego, relashio and flippendo.'

Remus breathed out a relieved sigh and nodded. 'Thank you.'

He moved away to wait for his friends. They quickly joined him and compared results. Sirius and James were both nines and were allowed to learn the same spells as Remus. Peter was a seven and allowed to learn everything but relashio. They were all impressed to hear Remus was already so much stronger than them, but didn't seem suspicious about it. James was excited about the potential for future mischief, though.

The first lesson was pretty boring. They were put into groups according to their level and current knowledge and learned the theory behind stupefy and protego. The first practical would be the following week.

On their way back to Gryffindor Tower, they bumped into Peeves lurking on the Grand Staircase and throwing frog's spawn at passers-by.

When he spotted them, he swooped down and hovered in front of them, but a little above their heads, forcing them to look up at him. 'Well, if it isn't my ickle firstie minions. I heard about what you've been doing to the poor professors.' He shook his head. 'Such naughty ickle boys.'

'Have we completed the first task to your satisfaction, Mister Peeves?' Sirius asked.

Peeves nodded and cackled. 'Oh yes, Peeves is very impressed with your performance. The second task might be a little more tricky. Mister Filch has been terribly mean to poor old Peevsy.' He looked up with a smirk. 'I want you to ransack his office.'

Letter Remus found in his bag Saturday evening

Marauder No. 1,

I thought it best to give you this information privately. I lied about the results of your test earlier today. Your magical core is a lot stronger than it should be at your age, which suggests it has been exercised regularly since you were quite young. I don't know the reason for this but did not wish to create difficulties for you or cause suspicion to be cast your way. Your magical core is, in fact, a level twenty.

Your secret is safe with us,

The Hogwarts Chiefs of Raucous Revelry.