Monday 4th February 1974

Library, 16:00

Remus looked around at his incredibly hopeful looking friends in disbelief. This had to be the craziest... no, stupidest, idiotic thing that they had come up with. And that was seriously saying something.

"No."

"Oh, come on!" Sirius exclaimed. "It's a good idea!"

"No, it isn't!"

It was official, they were completely out of their minds.

"Remus-"

"It's an atrocious idea!" Remus exploded, batting James' outstretched hand away as he paced in front of them. "Not to mention dangerous and downright impossible. Also, did I mention ridiculous? Because it's that too."

"Come on, there are loads of other Animagi about."

Not exactly loads, it was a dangerous and specialised field for a reason, but there was enough. But they were adults who were Transfiguration Masters. Literally. Not a bunch of school kids.

"Did you just completely forget that McGonagall said that experts at Transfiguration are only capable of doing it?"

"We're good at Transfiguration!" James said indicating to himself and Sirius. "McGonagall herself says that we're gifted at it!"

"And we can help Peter," Sirius added.

Their shorter friend beamed. It wasn't that he was bad at Transfiguration. Actually, Peter was quite good at it but he was nowhere near the same level as Sirius and James. No one was, to be honest. McGonagall had started giving them extra tasks in class just to stop them from causing chaos. There was an... incident with the beetles they were using when they were turning them into buttons last year. Did you know you could forcibly stop the Transfiguration half way so that the buttons kept their beetle legs? And the you could herd said walking buttons? All the girls in their class were certainly very aware.

"But not Masters level good!"

"Well, no. We are only third years," Sirius said matter-of-factly.

"Exactly!"

"I'm sure we could figure it out," James said carelessly. "After all, there's four of us."

Remus made a loud noise of frustration. Loud enough to get curious stares from surrounding students.

"Homework's just getting to him," James excused.

"You're getting to me," Remus hissed.

"Oh, come on Moony," he whined. "It could help you!"

"No," Remus shook his head

He wasn't going to encourage this madness. It would be completely irresponsible of him, not to mention dangerous! Did none of them raise that?

"We just want to help," Peter said quietly.

Remus shot him a dark look.

"Well, you're not," he bit out before stomping away.

Saturday 9th February

Gryffindor Common Room, 19:30

"There seems to have been some trouble in paradise," Jasper commented.

"Huh?"

Frank looked up in confusion, not sure what his friends had been talking about. He had been a little bit too focused on his Ancient Runes essay. Just because he no longer completely struggled with it did not mean that they came easily to him. He had to work hard for each one of his Exceeds Expectations.

"Those little Marauders."

"They're hardly little. Two of them are taller than you," Josie pointed out.

"All of them are taller than you," Jasper retorted.

"Well done, you have eyes."

Before they could bicker any further, Frank interrupted, "Something's wrong with James and his friends?"

"Well, one of them," Jasper replied, nodding where the younger boys were sitting. "That scruffy looking one hasn't sat with them all week."

Frank quickly looked over and saw only James and two of his friends. The Black Heir and the short round kid (who he could never remember the name of). Jasper was right. No Lupin.

"What happened?"

Julian shrugged. "Don't know."

"I heard they had an argument in the Library," Josie said.

Frank gave her a sceptical look. There was no way Madam Pince would ever allow an argument of any kind to happen in the Library. It just wouldn't happen.

"That's what I heard," she said defensively.

He breathed a sigh of relief. The Hogwarts Rumour Mill probably blew this all out of proportion. It was probably nothing. James and Black were just probably being a bit loud and Lupin wanted to get some work done. That happened every now and then. Not for a week though but third year was difficult. So, nothing to worry about.

He tried to scratch out another sentence for his Runes essay. Okay, so he was worrying.

He looked over to them and noticed that the three of them were a bit more subdued than normal. They didn't look as cheerful. And Lupin was very calmly on the other side of the Common Room "reading" a book. That was not good.

He half stood up before being pulled back down by Jasper.

"Don't."

"I'm just going to-"

"-do absolutely nothing," he finished for him.

Frank frowned; you were supposed to help your friends.

"You're not helping, you're interfering," Jasper read the expression on his face eerily well.

"But-"

"You don't need to help them. They've had an argument. Let them work it out themselves."

"But-"

Jasper let out a sigh and sent a pleading look to his siblings. "Help me out here."

Josie shrugged. "I think it's sweet he wants to help his friends out."

"You just need to yell them to stop being idiots," Julian told him. "None of them look angry or anything. Which means they're being stupid."

"Doesn't mean he gets to boss then around," Jasper argued.

"I wasn't going to boss them around!" Frank said hotly.

"Sure, you weren't. Why were you going to go over there then?"

"To find out what's wrong!"

"And try to fix it?"

Frank gave him a confused look. "Well, yes."

If he could fix it, he should. Right?

"See, that's-"

Shaking his head, Frank tuned him out. The McRaes didn't know James like he did. He could help. He knew he could. He made as if to stand up again but stopped - not by Jasper this time. This time it was because James and his friends weren't there. They had vanished.

Grumbling about his thwarted good deed, Frank pulled his Runes essay back to him.

Monday 11th February 1974

Owlery, 07:30

Severus resisted the urge to cheer as one of the School Owls flew off into the distance. That was behaviour that was unbecoming of a Slytherin. No matter how much he wanted to.

But still, this was a great day. An amazing day. He had just sent off his order form for the ingredients he needed for his potion. He'd managed to earn enough money and now he could finally get started. Once the ingredients got sent out anyway. Which could be a while. They were a bit vague on their delivery times. No matter. The fact that he was getting them was more than enough for him at the minute.

Oh, he had so much to get organised now. He needed to reserve himself some lab time and he had to make sure all his equipment was absolutely spotless. No impurities at all were going to get into this potion. It was going to be perfect!

Severus let a grin escape him. He couldn't believe he'd managed to get to this point. He was really going to be brewing this potion! And prove that he was good. Not just good but really good. Good enough to prove that you didn't need to be some silly pureblood to be good at magic.

This was going to be great! He could practically feel his stirring rod in his hand as he did a perfect figure eight stir. At that point he should be halfway through it. Maybe a little bit more if some of his ideas proved to be right. Which they should, he had done his research after all. Even found a few papers done by Fleamont Potter, one of the most successful Potion Brewers. They had given him more than a few pointers, particularly on stirring techniques. Which weren't taught at Hogwarts for some stupid reason but he was going to use them.

Speaking of using them, he had better get to Slughorn to book a spot in the Labs!

Thursday 14th February 1974

Great Hall, 08:00

Lily grunted as she slid into her place next to Marlene on the bench. She had not got much sleep last night. Mary had a cold and when she had a cold, she snored. How Marlene slept through it, she would never know. She rubbed at her eyes, trying to get the sleep out of them.

"Eurgh."

"Well, good morning to you too," Marlene said cheerfully.

Lily glared at her, noticing that her friend had her typical cup of coffee by her elbow. It was half empty. That explained her chipper mood. Too bad that wouldn't work for her, she hated the stuff.

"You'd think that you'd be in a better mood," Marlene commented, helping herself to some eggs.

"And why is that?"

Marlene gestured around her and for this first time this morning Lily noticed the pink and red banners decorating the Hall. She groaned again.

"Valentine's Day," Marlene said in an overly sweet voice. "The day of Romance and Bleuch."

Lily rolled her eyes but she somewhat shared the sentiment. Sure, it was romantic and all but it was also just... too mushy. And there was way too much pink involved for her liking.

"I'm taking bets on what Professor Dumbledore will be wearing," Marlene continued. "He usually goes all out for the holidays."

"You shouldn't be betting at all," Lily said disapprovingly. "And it's not a holiday."

"It's harmless," Marlene dismissed. "And tell that to all the couples who celebrate."

Well, it wasn't like it was Christmas or anything. That was actually a fun holiday. Not this silly kissy nonsense.

"Yeah, it can be romantic," Lily begrudgingly agreed. "When boys are actually capable of being romantic."

Which looked like it didn't happen until they were at least sixteen. She looked at the so-called Marauders that were laughing their heads off further down the table. Sirius was making spoons spin in the air. It was stupid. Just like all thirteen-year-old boys.

Shaking her head, she made herself a bacon butty. She might as well spoil herself today. No one else was going to. Not that she needed to be spoiled. She was an independent woman after all. Well, teenager. Same thing. Either way, she didn't need a Valentine's Day card or anything.

"Did you get your Potions essay done?"

Marlene scrunched up her nose. "Just about. I'm about half an inch short. Do you think he'll notice?"

"Professor Slughorn always notices."

As easy-going as he was, he did not like people who didn't do the work. You could be the most awful person at Potions but if you genuinely tried, Professor Slughorn didn't mind. But if you barely put the work in that was a sure-fire way to lose points and get several detentions. He couldn't bear slackers. Of which Marlene was one if she could get away with it. Which she wasn't going to in this case. And she knew it, hence the rather loud sigh that she just released.

"I guess I'll stick in another couple of sentences at the end."

That would probably mess up the flow of her concluding paragraph but whatever, it wasn't her essay after all.

Marlene pushed away her plate of demolished scrambled eggs and stood up.

"Come with me to the dorm?" she asked.

Lily dipped the last chuck of her buttie in the red sauce and shoved it into her mouth in a way that her mum would definitely disapprove of.

"Sure," she replied after swallowing (she hadn't lost all of her manners). "I need to get my bag anyway."

It didn't take them long to get up to the Tower. They were now familiar enough with all the corridors and staircases that they knew the quickest route. Giving the password to the Fat Lady ("maxima rugiet") they got into the Common Room and were soon in their dorm.

Lily went to grab her bag from beside her bed when she noticed something on it. A little envelope. Huh. It had her name on it so it was meant for her. Quickly ripping it open (she never had the patience to peel the flap up), Lily jumped as a little card with hearts on it fell out. A Valentine's Day card? For her?

Looking around for some hint to who had left it for her, Lily frowned at the little card. She didn't recognise the handwriting at all. It was all weirdly upright like someone was trying to force their handwriting to be neat.

Lily, your hair is a shiny as the Quidditch Trophy and as fiery as the Common Room fire. You are amazing and so is your hair. Will you be my Valentine?

Well, that was rather silly. How was she supposed to answer that question when she didn't know who sent it?

"What's that?" Marlene asked, peering over her shoulder.

"Oh, uh-"

Marlene didn't bother to wait for a reply and just grabbed the card off her.

"Hey!"

"You got a Valentine?" she said in far too loud a voice. "Who's it from?"

"Shh!" Lily scolded and yanked it back, or, well, tried to because Marlene held it out of reach. "Give it back!"

"Not until you tell me who it's from!"

"I don't know!"

Marlene lowered her, giving Lily a chance to grab it, and gave her a confused look. "What do you mean you don't know?"

"It's not signed or anything," Lily replied, showing her the inside of the card.

"Seriously?" Marlene demanded, peering closely at it as if the signature was really small or would appear if she stared hard enough. "How annoying."

"It's supposed to be romantic."

Marlene snorted. "Yeah right. How is not signing your name romantic? Isn't it a sign that they're scared?"

Lily sighed at the absolute bluntness of her friend.

"You're meant to try and figure it out. That's what makes it romantic."

"That's stupid. If someone liked me, I'd want them to come right out and say it."

Lily despaired for whoever fell in love with Marlene. They had a lot cut out for them.

"So, are you going to try and find out who sent it?"

"There's nothing really to go on..."

And Lily didn't know if she even wanted to find out. There was something nice in the not knowing, you know? And she wasn't sure she was ready for a boyfriend yet.

"I bet you could find out."

"Hmm."

She probably could. There were a limited number of people that could have given it to her. For one, it had to have been a Gryffindor to get it into her dorm. She told Marlene that who almost immediately disagreed.

"Any boy could have given it to a Gryffindor girl and asked her to stick it there."

That was actually a fair point which meant that the possibilities multiplied. How was she even meant to begin?

Marlene got a sneaky look on her face that made Lily's stomach sink. Her friend rubbed her hands together.

"Looks like we have a mystery to solve."

Why did Lily suddenly feel a sense of dread overcome her?

Friday 15th February 1974

Fat Lady, 15:45

"Sorry," Lily apologised tugging Marlene away so the poor second year could run off with an extremely frightened look on his face. "Marlene."

Her friends did not look overly concerned at this.

"What?"

"You can't just go around intimidating people into telling you something."

"Well, being sneaky didn't work," Marlene replied defensively, folding her arms and pouting. "And neither did any of my other plans."

She had come up with an alarming number of plans. Each increasingly more ridiculous than the last. One of which was capturing all the boys and putting them somewhere (Lily still wasn't sure where) and only let them loose when she had determined that they weren't Lily's Valentine. Another was trying to get samples of every boys handwriting but thankfully Professor McGonagall shut that down.

"Did you do any work yesterday and today?" Lily asked in exasperation.

Honestly, you would think that this was Marlene's secret Valentine and not Lily's with the way she had been acting.

"This is more important than schoolwork!"

Lily shook her head. "It really isn't."

But Marlene was ignoring her because another boy was approaching the Common Room. Oh no.

"Hey! You! I want a word with you!"

Saturday 16th February 1974

Library, 15:30

"Right!" James said from overhead, dumping a book right in front of him.

Remus all but jumped out of his chair in shock.

"Shhh!" he said reflexively. "Library!"

Which was all for naught as Sirius came bounding up.

"Did you find him?" he asked in his normal tone of voice, which was quite loud. "Oh, hi, Remus."

"Shhh!"

Maybe if he said it louder, they would be quieter.

"Hey, did you know that there's a book on how to tie salamanders into knots?" Peter asked, waving a thin book in the air. "Oh, you found him! Hi, Remus!"

"Hi, Peter," Remus returned in a sigh.

"How come he gets a hi and we don't?" Sirius asked in an injured tone.

Remus rolled his eyes and gave him a sarcastic wave. "Hi, James. Hi, Sirius."

"That's much better," Sirius said, making himself comfortable in the chair opposite him.

"You were still last," James said smugly.

"Well-"

"Don't argue in the library," Remus said tiredly.

They got kicked out of here enough as it was. He did not want to be banned from his sanctuary.

His three friends (were they still his friends?) exchanged looks that he did not know what to make of. He couldn't read them. They were nervous and hopeful but also eager and stubborn looking. Who knew what was going to come of this?

"We just want to say sorry," James began.

Ok, that was not what he expected to happen but his reflexes were quick.

"No, I'm sorry," Remus interrupted. "I shouldn't have lost my temper on you. You were just trying to help."

"We were," James agreed. "But we shouldn't have freaked you outside we did."

"Should have showed you all the research James did," Sirius added.

Remus just shook his head at that, not wanting to get into it all again. It wasn't nice to fall out with your friends. He didn't want to do it again.

"It's fine."

"No," James shook his head, "it's not. It would have shown you how serious we were."

"You can't all be Sirius, he is," Remus said in a deadpan tone, pointing to Sirius.

They all groaned at that but grinned. Which felt good. He hadn't done much smiling in the past few days. Or any, for that matter.

Then the silence stretched a bit awkwardly between them, no one knowing what to say. Remus didn't know about them but he knew that he didn't want to say something that could potentially mess this up.

"It's been awful without you," Sirius said in a dramatic tone. "Just awful. Nothing's right at all."

Remus shook his head; Sirius was being completely ridiculous. He wouldn't have had that much of an impression on them.

"I tell you it's been all wrong!"

"Shhh!" Remus chided as Sirius' volume rose. "Stop being silly."

"Me? I'm not being silly; I'm telling the truth!"

They really were going to get thrown out of the Library, weren't they? James noticed his look and shush Sirius himself. Annoyingly, Sirius actually quietened.

"Tell him it's been all wrong," Sirius said in a low tone, a pout on his face.

"We haven't even pulled any pranks without you," Peter said in such a serious tone.

Remus cracked a smile at that.

"That must have been awful."

"It was," James said emphatically. "We just couldn't do any."

That really wasn't a good sign at all. James and Sirius were always pulling pranks. It was like they couldn't help themselves, even if they were poorly thought out and liable to land them into trouble. Remus was just glad that they didn't pin the Marauder name onto those pranks. Would give them a poor reputation around the school otherwise. Honestly, at least with his input the plans had a bit of subtlety. Something that James and Sirius definitely lacked.

Maybe he had been a bit harsh on them. Their hearts were in the right place. Even if they were impulsive. And obsessive.

Speaking of obsessive...

"You're going to keep research Animagi with or without me, aren't you?"

The three of them gave each other pointed looks, pretty much confirming his suspicion.

"Yep," James said folding his arms.

Remus rolled his eyes at his friend's not-so-subtle aggression.

"Show me what books you've been looking at."

Thursday 21st February 1974

Entrance Hall, 08:15

"What's this?" Severus asked, picking up the bit of paper that fluttered out of Lily's bag.

Huh. It wasn't a piece of paper. It was a card. The back of one. Before he could turn it over, Lily snatched it back. Her face red.

"It's nothing."

It was very obviously something or she would have let him read it. Why was she hiding it from him?

"Really?"

"Yes. It's nothing," she insisted.

"It doesn't look like nothing."

Actually, it did, just a little bit of card, but Lily was acting all weird so it was obviously something. That much was obvious.

"It really is nothing."

Severus just arched an eyebrow. Lily was incredibly bad at lying. She flushed at his look.

"Okay, here."

Huh, she broke quicker than he thought she would. And was even thrusting the bit of card at him, reluctantly but still letting him look at it.

It was a card, like he had noticed before, but it wasn't blank like he thought it was. The front wasn't anyway, it was decorated with hearts. Opening it, there was also some mindless drivel about trophies and fires. Really? That's how this person described Lily's hair? How pathetic.

He looked at Lily with a raised eyebrow, not knowing what he was supposed to think of this.

"It's kind of sweet," she tried to explain.

Which wasn't really an explanation. Especially when the card was nowhere near sweet. Awkward and silly, definitely but not sweet.

Severus frowned, not seeing that at all. All he saw was some stupidly written drivel that were barely compliments. And in poor handwriting to boot. How was that sweet? Stupid more like.

Lily shook her head at him in fond exasperation.

"You don't get it."

"No, I don't," he freely admitted.

Because he really was confused and

"You're such a boy."

Okay, Severus took offense to that. Yes, he was of the male gender, there was no doubt about that, but there was no need to lump him in with all the other imbeciles that constituted his gender. He liked to think that he had had more than two brain cells.

"Hey!"

"You just don't understand what's romantic."

"I don't think leaving weird unsigned messages is particularly romantic."

He found it weird. And surely it was creepy? Someone watching you but not coming up to talk to you? Communicating through bits of paper and coloured card? Definitely odd. Even odder was the fact that there was a whole holiday dedicated to this sort of nonsense.

"Of course, it is, it makes it a mystery."

"That's silly," he decided to actually voice his opinion.

Which was a bad idea if the look Lily gave him was anything to go by.

"Or not," he corrected himself quickly.

"Hmpf," she sniffed, taking the card back. "It's definitely not."

Severus decided that it was best just to stay silent no matter what his opinion was. Maybe this was one of those times the older years described that you let girls think you thought the same as them. Severus hadn't understood why you had to give them that impression until now. He didn't want to be fighting with Lily over this.

"Are you going to do anything about it?" he asked, changing the subject slightly. "Find out who gave you it?"

"Why does everyone keep on asking me that?"

[xxxxxx]

Saturday 23rd February 1974

One Eyed Witch Statue, 14:45

James poked his head out from behind the one-eyed witch statue.

"Get back!" he hissed, moving quickly backwards.

All four of them edged back into the tunnel and held their breaths. A whole crowd of students walked past. It was a non-Hogsmeade weekend which meant everyone was inside. Especially since the weather was still freezing, no one wanted to go out on the grounds except for those weirdos that actually liked the cold.

James was about to step forward again when he heard even more people! Seriously? What were they all doing up here? There was nothing up here.

'BANG!'

The four of them jumped as someone fell quite close to their hiding spot.

"Jorkins, you idiot. You weren't looking where you were going again."

"You were the one talking to me!"

James tried not to groan as it sounded like the two students were starting to argue. Without moving. Great, they were going to be stuck here for a while.

"Hey, the statue moved."

Oh no. Please don't check behind it, please don't check behind it. Please don-

"No, Jorkins, you just bounced off it. You can't move a statue."

"No, see! It moved! There's a mark on the floor here."

"This is a castle filled with hundreds of students. There's going to be some marks."

The boys heard a scrabbling noise as the girl ran her fingers around the statue.

"Statues don't move."

"This one did! Come and see!"

"Then you probably broke something. Come on. We promised Prewett that we'd meet at three. It's five to now."

"But-"

"Did you want to do this or not!"

"Of course, I do!"

"Then come on!"

There was silence and then Jorkins grumbled something that James couldn't make out.

"That was rude," Remus whispered, shaking his head.

James raised an eyebrow but he couldn't ask what the girl said because he could still hear footsteps. Which meant the students out there would be able to hear them. Thankfully, the footsteps were getting fainter and fainter until they were gone. James stepped forward to leave but Remus held him back.

"Not yet," he muttered, an ear turned towards the exit.

They waited for another long minute before Remus let him go and they all scrambled out, blinking in the sudden light of the corridors. He had forgotten how dark it was in the tunnel.

"That was close," said Sirius, dusting off his robes.

They always came out of the passageway so dusty. Maybe they should figure out a few cleaning charms or something.

"I wonder if there's a way to stop it from opening," James asked, eyeing the statue.

"We don't want that," Remus said, shaking his head. "We still want to be able to use it."

"Just us," Sirius added, folding his arms. "So, no adults discover it and shut it down."

"Do we block it up or something?" Peter asked, scratching his head. "So, people can't get through?"

"Then we'd have to move stuff every time we wanted to use it," James pointed out. "Which means more chance of being seen."

"Other people could also move it as well," Remus added. "Which brings us right back to where we are."

"Portraits!" Sirius suddenly said.

"It's a statue, not a portrait," James said with an eyeroll.

"I know that, I'm not blind," Sirius snapped back. "I meant; can we do something like the Fat Lady."

James stared blankly at him but Remus was nodding along. At least one of them knew what Sirius was talking about because he didn't have a clue. The statue was nothing like the Fat Lady. This was a humpbacked old witch (he thought) and the Fat Lady certainly wasn't. That and she was a portrait.

"I think it would be more like what we did on our Book," Remus said.

"Grimoire," James corrected.

"James-"

They had argued about this already.

"We record all our pranks and ideas in it which makes it a Grimoire," James said defensively.

It certainly wasn't a diary or a journal. They didn't write down any sappy feelings or anything like a bunch of girls. No. This was strictly research and plans. Which made it a Grimoire.

Remus rolled his eyes and continued, "we should do what we did on our Grimoire. A password that makes it reveal the passageway."

"But what if someone overhears us?" Sirius asked.

"We still would need to go when the corridor is empty," Remus replied. "We'd still be going down a tunnel."

"That's what my Cloak is for," James reminded them. "No one will see us."

"Maybe add more than one protection?" Peter suggested.

"We're going to have to test this," Sirius said, rubbing his hands in glee.

He was always up for some mischief. Something this definitely was.

"We're going to have to research this," Remus corrected.

That got him a chorus of groans.