Chapter 30

Sid the Squid

Their exams weren't as hard as they expected them to be. Even James who thought they would be easy was a little surprised at how fast he was getting them done. Peter was the only one even remotely worried about them. All that extra studying did help, even Sirius was forced to admit it.
Right now though they were just glad they were over and the teachers would be laying off the homework a bit.

"Sirius wait up!" James called. They were heading outside for some well deserved rest, and Sirius couldn't help but run over to the lake and scream about exams being over at the top of his lungs, causing almost all of the people around him to laugh. When James, Remus, and Peter finally got to the lake, James smirked at them. Sirius yelped when James pushed him into the lake. This caused even more laughter than Sirius' yell.

Sirius laughed after he surfaced. "Very funny Potter." he said sarcastically, causing James to laugh even harder. Sirius went to get out of the water obviously contemplating his revenge when he yelped and was dragged back down in. James rolled his eyes.

"You don't actually think I would believe that. That's probably the..." He started but stopped Sirius popped back up from the water, though he wasn't alone. A giant squid was easily visible just under the surface of the water. It had one tentacle wrapped around Sirius' leg. Sirius tried to swim away but it wasn't letting go. James quickly dived in the water after his friend, Remus nearly followed before having a better idea. He turned around and ran. He heard Peter call his name but kept going.

"Please be home! Please be home!" He said to himself while pounding on Hagrid's door. He was relieved when Hagrid opened it.

"'Ello there Remus."

"A giant squid is attacking Sirius!" He yelled, and Hagrid looked over his shoulder and saw the giant squid hanging Sirius upsidown. His cloak had fallen down showing a pair of jeans he stole from James. Hagrid sighed and headed towards the lake. James stopped firing random hexes when he saw Hagrid coming.

"Sid put him down!" Hagrid yelled in a billowing voice, the squid hesitated before dropping Sirius back into the water. James dived in after him and came back up with Sirius' arm over his shoulder. They began swimming back while Hagrid lectured the squid on grabbing people. He helped them back on solid ground. "Sorry 'bout that. He didn't mean ter hurt ya. 'Es just curious that's all."

"Huh.. Oh it's fine he didn't hurt me." Sirius reassured but when he tried to stand on his own his leg collapsed on him. James caught him while Remus looked at his leg. He winced when he saw large round sores from the suction cups on the squid's tentacles.

"What do you mean it didn't hurt you?"

"Woops." Sirius said allowing James to help him stand. He was surprised to see there was a large crowd surrounding them.

"Madam Pomfrey should be able to heal that right up." Hagrid told him attempting to pick Sirius up to make it easier on James. Sirius just waved off Hagrid's attempts and stayed half leaning on James. They headed to the hospital wing with Hagrid and a large amount of other students following them. Hagrid wanted to explain what happened to the healer but James for the life of him could not figure out why the rest were following them. Remus was the first to walk into the hospital wing and the first one Madam Pomfrey noticed.

"Remus, what's wrong you should still have plenty of time..." Her voice trailed off when she saw James half carrying Sirius. "Oh my." She walked over to them when Hagrid began explaining.

"Sirius 'parently decided ter go for a swim." Surprisingly the healer instantly understood the problem.

"James pushed me!" Sirius defended and James turned red.

"Woops." The healer rolled her eyes.

"Where did it get you?"

"The leg." Sirius answered and pulled up the leg on his pants, or James' pants really.

"I've been wondering where them jeans went." James said to himself when Madam Pomfrey led Sirius over to one of the beds. Sirius sat down on it but wouldn't lay down. The healer left to get something to put on his leg after shooing everyone, including Hagrid away.

"What was Madam Pomfrey talking to you about when you came in Remus." Sirius asked him trying to pass the time.

"Oh, nothing, nothing at all." Remus said though Sirius noticed he paled a little. Sirius looked at James who shook his head then sighed, he hated knowing Remus was keeping secrets but not knowing what it was. Madam Pomfrey came back with a potion.

"The may hurt some." She told him but Sirius just shrugged. She put it on his leg and he winced a little, but didn't make a sound. When she was done she rolled his pants leg back down and told him it would be gone by the end of the day, and that if he didn't feel he could walk back to his dorm he could stay there. Sirius rolled his eyes and stood, favoring his uninjured leg of course. James walked over to him and helped him walk out of the room though he swore he didn't need help.

By the time they got to their common room word of what happened spread over the entire school. A large amount of Gryffindors were in the common room begging for a first hand account on what happened. Sirius described it once then refused to do it again. They climbed up the stairs to their dorm, Sirius locked the door with a spell, then sat down on their beds.

"Does it hurt?" Peter asked speaking for the first time since Remus ran to get Hagrid. He was disappointed in himself again. He didn't do anything to help Sirius get away from the squid.

"Not really. Just when I put pressure on it." Sirius answered then they were all quiet for while.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize James you didn't know it was there." James just nodded though he still seemed quite sorry. "I'm bored let's do something."

"Like what?"

"We could practice some defensive spells." Remus suggested.

"Is that a good idea I mean Sirius is kinda hurt."

"As long as I don't stand up and no one hits me with any spells that could make me use my leg in any way, I'll be fine." James nodded.

"What should we start with?" He looked at Sirius, knowing Sirius had the most experience with spells of any kind.

"I think expelliarmus is a good place to start."

"That disarms people right." Remus asked remembering Sirius doing it to one of the Slytherins. Sirius nodded.

Sirius spent the rest of the day teaching them how to do it correctly. By the time they decided to stop for the day Remus could get his opponents wands to come to him and James' knocked someone clear across the room, Peter was still feeling the effects of that one.

Like Madam Pomfrey promised Sirius' leg was fine the next day. They decided since it was Saturday and they had done enough learning in the past two weeks to last them a month that they would do something much less educational. When they were done at least ten Slytherins were covered from head to toe in what looked like mud, except that it hardened very quickly. They were completely unable to move until a teacher managed to find them.

When they got back to the common room successfully without being caught James and Sirius shared another high five.

"How long do you think they'll be standing there?" Remus asked with humor in his voice.

"Who knows. Hopefully a long time." Sirius answered chuckling and walked over to the desk. "Hey guys, we should probably finish the Map."

"Oh ya, I forgot about that." James said walking over to where Sirius was holding it. They had been so concerned about the exams they had completely forgotten that the Map still wasn't finished.

"Ya, let's do that now." Remus replied. "What more do we have to do on it?"

"Just the North tower, and Dumbledore's office."

"Let's go to the North Tower first, might as well get done before we figure out how to get passed the headmaster. " James said and the rest followed. They didn't have much trouble finding the North Tower, they would have been able to find it even without the map, though they used it, if only because they were proud of it.

It was a little while before they really found out how to get into the North Tower. One of the people in the paintings who called himself Sir Cadogan, refused to tell them until they beat him in a fight. Sirius quickly got annoyed by the man on the fat pony and accepted his 'duel' Sirius then flipped his painting upsidown, causing him and the pony to fall into the sky endlessly until he coincided defeat. Sir Cadogan respectfully kept his word and told them about the trap door into the Divination classroom. They thanked him and then figured out how to get into the classroom, making sure to make a note of how they got into it on the map. They were surprised by how the classroom was decorated. There was a lot of gold, and not much to really make it clear that it was a Divination classroom. James remembered hearing that the Divination teacher was self-centered and greedy. One of his cousins had sworn up and down that if you predicted that he would become the richest man on earth you would pass the entire class without even trying. He told this to the others.

"From the way he decorates his room one could easily assume that your cousin is right."Remus looked around to see if the teacher was there. James turned to Sirius.

"What do we need to do?"

"I really don't think you need to do anything, this room is obviously the only thing up here. I think I just need to label it." James nodded.

"The teacher isn't in here." Remus told them. "Are you done with what ever you're doing to the Map." Sirius nodded, like he said earlier there wasn't much to do.

"Let's get out of here then and figure out a way to get into Dumbledore's office." They climbed out of the trap door and walked towards the gargoyle that protected the headmaster's office, Sir Cadogan bowed to Sirius as they walked passed. When they got to the gargoyle they stopped.

"What now? We know the password, but if he's in there..." Sirius didn't need to finish they all knew what he meant.

"Maybe we should just go up there and see for ourselves if he is in there." James suggested.

"That's a bad idea, if he is we will surely get caught."

"Oh I know, a few of us can go cause a ruckus somewhere in the castle, then one of the teachers will come and get him, we can sneak in then." Sirius said proudly.

"And what if they don't get him? The teachers don't come running to him for every little thing that goes on, they usually handle it by themselves, you of all people should know that."

"Very true Remus." Sirius jumped at the new voice and turned around he found himself staring straight at Dumbledore.

"Um.. Hello Sir."

"If I didn't know better it would sound like you four have some intention to break into my office." Peter turned red and hid behind James.

"Of course not Sr." Sirius said though he knew Dumbledore saw though it easily. He could feel the eyes behind the half moon glasses. "We weren't really going to break in Sir, we just wanted a look inside. Nothing would be broken at all."

"Mr. Black if I am correct, which I usually am, you have had a look inside my office more times then most of the other students combined." Dumbledore stated referring to the many times McGonagall had gotten so frustrated with the Marauders she had just dragged them to Dumbledore office and half begged him to do something about them.

"I know Sir, but.." Sirius couldn't think of how to explain. Dumbledore smiled kindly.

"I assume this has something to do with your little extra credit assignment from McGonagall." They looked at him in surprise.

"You know about that?"

"Oh yes, in fact I think all of the teachers know. Minerva was quite proud of herself when she told us she had found a way to keep Sirius Black out of trouble." He said with a twinkle in his eye. Sirius blushed."Unfortunately it would seem as though she was wrong. You have still managed to make things around here as interesting as a bag of pop rocks." Sirius thought about the comparison for a while but it confused him so he pushed it from his mind.

"Nothing can keep me out of trouble. Sir." Sirius told him with pride in his voice.

"It would seem so, but don't think that means we will not try."

"Even better, it's more fun when you try and stop it." James said joining in the conversation easily. Dumbledore turned and began to walk away with a smile on his face. He turned around for a moment and gave them a few parting words.

"I changed the password by the way, have fun boys." He told them before turning a corner bringing him out of sight.

"Darn it!" Sirius said loudly. He glared at the gargoyle. "The old man's good I'll give him that."

"What do we do now?" Remus asked knowing that without the password they would never be able to get in.

"I'm not giving up. I'm not going to let some old geezer get the best of me." Sirius told them, it was easy to tell that Sirius had taken Dumbledore words as a challenge. Sirius never was one to back down from a challenge.

"How in the world are you going to figure out the new password?" James said hoping they could just skip this and just go back to the dorm. He didn't feel like guessing a thousand passwords for no reason whatsoever.

"He would leave some kind of clue." Sirius told him pacing, a habit he seemed to have accidentally copied off James.

"What makes you think that?"

"I could tell from his voice, he wants us to get in there."

"Then why did he change the password on us." Remus tried to figure out what in the world goes on in the mind of Sirius Black.

"Because he likes to play games with people. Maybe it was something he said to us." He said looking at Remus. Remus sighed.

"Well what was the previous password." Remus asked knowing Sirius would stand there till someone figured it out.

"Jujubes."

"Sirius we are never going to figure this out, he makes up random words for the password, there's no way." James complained, he was sure there was absolutely no way to outsmart Dumbledore.

"Jujubes isn't made up." Remus told James looking kind of confused.

"What do you mean it's not made up? Then what is it?" James said, he was almost sure that Remus had no idea what he was talking about, the only thing that kept him from being sure is that Remus had a much larger vocabulary then him.

"It's a candy." he said as though it was obvious.

"Candy?" Sirius asked not recognizing the name.

"You guys don't know that?" they both shook their heads.

"Remus, I get candy a lot and there has never been something called Jujubes on any of the shelves."

"We must have went to different stores then."

"It's probably a muggle candy." Peter told them. "They have different candy than us."

"That's weird." James complained

"Not when you think about it. Most of our candy moves or does weird stuff to you." Sirius said after a little thought. "Muggles can't have that kind of stuff."

"Oh right, I forgot."

"So the last one was a muggle candy then, does that mean this one is too?" Sirius asked glaring at the gargoyle again.

"I think that if it isn't we might as well give up." Remus said thinking though a list of candies he knew of.

"Pop rocks." Sirius whispered.

"What?"

"That's it! Dumbledore mentioned something about pop rocks." Remus thought about it for a second.

"You're right he did, but how did you know that pop rocks were a muggle candy?"

"I heard about them once from my Mother. She was complaining that muggles were trying to figure out how to use magic and those were the product. Apparently they explode in your mouth or something."

"Ouch."

"They don't really explode, they just pop. It doesn't hurt or anything, and it doesn't have anything to do with magic." Remus explained."You guys should really try them, you'd like it"

"If you say so, back to what we're doing here in the first place." Sirius said and stood in front of the gargoyle statue.

"Pop Rocks." He said the password to the statue and it moved out of the way revealing a moving spiral staircase.

"Yes!" all four of them cheered and walked onto the staircase as it moved taking them up to Dumbledore's office. Sirius made a note of it on the map, even drawing a rough sketch of it. They weren't surprised to find Dumbledore's office exactly the same way it was every other time they had come in it. It was like Dumbledore never touched anything. Sirius added as much detail as possible to the map, while James, Remus, and Peter just had to try to keep from knocking everything over as they moved around the room. When they were done they couldn't help but stop and stare at their Map. It was done, it was finally done. They put so much effort into this map. They had been working on it all year, and it was finally done!

"Let's go back to the dorm." Remus said trying his hardest not to scream in excitement.

"Right." James agreed doing the same.

"Wait, I want to leave a note for Dumbledore." Sirius said excitedly and ran over to the desk grabbed a spare bit of parchment and wrote a note on it. James came over to read it out loud.

'We win. Thanks for letting us use your office for the moment.'

'S, J, R, P'

"That alright with you guys?" He asked

"Why did you use our initials?" Peter asked in response.

"Because Sirius, James, Remus, And Peter takes too long to write." Sirius told him before heading out the door. They followed as Sirius ran back to the Gryffindor tower, yelling in joy every once in a while. They went straight into their dorm, not caring that people were looking at them strangely.

"We did it!" Sirius yelled when they were all in their dorm. He hugged James. "We did it!"

It took them a very long time to calm down. Their map was done, and now they they were going to be able to see the look of surprise on McGonagall's face. It was torture waiting until Monday to show her, but it was well worth it.

A/N) Yay the Map is done, for now anyway.

Thanks for all the prank ideas. I plan on using most of them.