Chapter 31

McGonagall and the Map

Luck was on the Marauders side, Transfiguration was their first class Monday morning. Sirius had a special plan for revealing the map, he was going to wait until the lesson was almost done. Then before she could give them any homework they would show her, she'd be ogling over it until class was over and WAM no homework for the night. Remus swore up and down it wouldn't work but Sirius insisted.

It would have worked, if the Marauders hadn't been so exited. None of them could keep still. James shifted in his seat constantly, Remus kept clearing his throat out of nervousness, Peter was swaying, and Sirius though he was trying so hard could hardly keep from screaming and running up to McGonagall's desk. After twenty minutes McGonagall was getting fed up with all four of them. She managed to hold though, at least until James fell flat out of his seat, causing the entire class to start laughing.

"That's it! If you boys don't give a very good explanation of your behavior I'll have to carry a few detentions on to next year, since if I remember you're completely booked with them already!" She hissed.

"But we have a good reason, Professor!" James complained.

"Ya, we have a real good reason, but we didn't want to interrupt you during class." Sirius lied. Remus rolled his eyes but didn't say anything.

"It had better be a darn good one that can't wait, because if you are interrupting my class for no reason..." She threatened before James interrupted.

"We finished it ma'am." He said and all the Marauders instantly straightened up and stopped fidgeting.

"Finished what?" Sirius jumped up and ran over to her, she was a little surprised when Remus followed, though not that James or Peter followed.

"This!" He told her and all four of them held onto it while they gave it to her.

"What is this?" She said with astonishment, and most of the class stood to get a look at it.

"We win," James said with pride in his eyes.

"We told you we could do it." Sirius continued.

"It took all year." Remus went on.

"But we did it." Peter finished.

McGonagall was speechless. These boys were miracle workers, the four of them, the four eleven year old boys had made an entire map of the school in one school year, and still had time to ace all their classes and make the teacher's go crazy due to their pranks.

"How.." Was all she managed, she flipped though the pages of the map, everyone of them contained a part of the castle. She was able to easily find any classroom in the entire school, the kitchens and Dumbledore's office were even labeled. How in the world had they managed to find the kitchens, let alone get passed Dumbledore to get into his office. It was impossible, but here she was holding the product of that impossibility.

"It was really hard." James said filled with more pride then he could stand, he wanted to run around screaming at the top of his lungs, but he forced himself to stay still.

"It's amazing." The Marauders just nodded, Sirius looked like it was taking everything he had to keep from jumping on one of the desks and singing. "How in the world did you get into Dumbledore's office?"

"That is for us to know..." James said with a look of mischief in his eyes.

"And for you to never find out." Sirius finished with the exact same look.

McGonagall didn't respond, after another few moments of looking at the Map, she sighed and handed it back to them. "I suppose then a congratulations is in order, and I suppose the four of you have managed to show me up once again." She said humbly though she did look quite proud of them as well. "I do have one question though, boys."

"Yes, Professor." Remus answered looking up from their Map.

"How in the world did you boys manage to find the time to not only finish this impossible task, but to also pass all your classes with flying colors and break most of the detentions records of the entire school, in just one year?"

The Marauders stared at them for a moment. Sirius got excited. "Did we really?" McGonagall sighed at his reaction but nodded anyway. "YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!" That was all the Marauders could take. They were jumping up and down with excitement. To McGonagall's surprise even Remus was excited by this, he even went as far as jumping on James' shoulders and letting the stronger boy give him a piggy-back ride. McGonagall shook her head in amusement and went to her desk, got out her grade book and gave them all an extra 100 points. Everyone of them now had O's James was actually now passing with a 199% with 100 being an O.

Most of the other first years were just watching the Marauder's celebration, a few of them, such as Lilly Evans was looking with annoyance, while others such as Frank Longbottem looked like they wanted to join in. She watched the boys celebrate for a while before she remembered that she was supposed to be teaching a class.

"As excited as I'm sure you boys are, you are still in the middle of class. I want everyone back..." She began but was interrupted by a loud ringing sound that singled the end of class. She smacked her face into her palm. She could distinctly hear James' and Sirius' laughs. "You knew this would distract me didn't you."

"What ever do you mean Professor? " James said innocently. Remus laughed.

"In case you have forgotten ma'am we were going to wait till after class. You are the one who demanded to know." He told her, not registering at all that he was teasing a teacher.

"Just leave."She said and they ran out of the room, unable to contain their energy.

McGonagall laughed and shook her head, those boys were something else. Sometimes she wished she had even an ounce of the courage they have, when she was their age. Though she still wished she could push them off to one of the other Head of Houses.