Chapter 39

New Quest

Sirius did try to remain friends with Regulus, but he had been right the first day. The kid seemed to not want anything to do with him. He completely ignored Sirius, and in the rare occurrence that he provided an answer it was always rude, or sarcastic.

Sirius tried to not let it show how much it it was upsetting him, but his friends saw right threw it. James had become excellent at reading Sirius' feelings, and was pretty good at telling exactly what Sirius needed. Right now, he was sure Sirius needed a midnight snack, though they weren't sure if he felt that way because Sirius needed it, or because he wanted one but didn't want to go alone.

"Come on, guys. Since when have we cared about going out after curfew." James asked Sirius and Remus. Peter was still asleep.

"I don't, but sleep sounds good right now." Sirius said in an annoyed voice.

"Midnight snacks always help me sleep."

"James. If I go with you, will you promise never to wake me up for something this unimportant again."

"This is important. Look at Remus! He's wasting away over there!"

"Hey! I thought this was about Sirius!" Remus replied. "And I am not wasting away! I'm just skinny!"

"I'm going to use what ever excuse works, Rem." He said honestly. "And if you're just skinny then I'm a fat pig."

"You are a fat pig." Sirius said moving to lie back down.

"Please!!!!!!!!!" James begged.

"No."

"Please! Please! Please! Please! Please!" James continued until Sirius couldn't take it any longer.

"Fine!" He got out of bed. "I'll go if you shut up and let me sleep!"

"Yay!!!" James cheered. "Come on Remus!"

"I didn't say I want to go James." Remus reminded him.

"Ya, but you aren't going to be able to sleep anyway. So you might as well come." Remus sighed. He had forgotten how observant they were. A normal person probably would not have noticed that he didn't sleep around this time. Whether or not they had noticed it had something to do with a full moon he wasn't sure though. He really hoped not.

Remus didn't reply but got up and followed them anyway. They didn't even bother to bring James' invisibility cloak. Though they should have, because half-way to the kitchens Remus heard someone walking along the hall straight towards them.

"Crud." He said quietly.

"What?" James responded.

"There's someone coming." He looked around for a place to hide.

"How do you know?" Sirius did the same.

"I can hear them."

"I don't hear anything." Sirius stopped and watched Remus.

"Just trust me."

"Here behind this statue. It's big enough to hide us." He said and they attempted to hide behind the statue, but to their surprise there was no wall behind it. It was a secret tunnel. James and Sirius gawked at it for a moment before Remus pushed them in.

"Hurry up!" They hid in the tunnel.

"I wonder where this goes." Sirius said, walking along it.

"Shush!"

"Remus I don't hear anyone." Sirius replied though he whispered it.

"It's McGonagall." Remus told them, as though it proved he wasn't hearing things. A little while later they heard it too. Though they couldn't tell who it was. They peeked out of the sides of the statue and saw McGonagall walking while reading a book. They waited till she passed before climbing out.

"I wonder what she was reading." James said watching the hall behind them that she had disappeared in. Remus examined the statue curious as to where the tunnel went an why it was there, before he felt eyes burning a hole in is back. He turned and saw Sirius staring at him.

"What?"

"Nothing." Sirius said quickly before turning away and walking back into the tunnel. "I'm going to follow this. It is a lot more interesting then going to the kitchens." He told James.

"But I'm hungry." He whined but followed anyway. Remus hesitated, but climbed in with the others. The look on Sirius' face when he was watching him was really worrying Remus. He didn't suspect anything right. There were some normal people with really good hearing.

"This is really long." James interrupted Remus' thoughts.

"What if it's a dead end?"

"It would still good to know about, even if it is. It's a great place to hide stuff."

They continued to follow the path. It wasn't much longer before Remus saw the end of it, but he didn't say anything, just in case they couldn't see it yet.

"Darn." He heard James say. "It is a dead end." They stood in front of the blocked wall.

"Maybe not. Feel this James." Sirius countered while touching the wall. James did the same.

"What is that?" Remus' curiosity got the best of him and he touched it also. It wasn't brick, like the rest of the walls in the school.

"Is that a canvas?" Remus mostly asked himself. They tried pushing on it but it didn't budge.

"Maybe it wants a password." Sirius suggested.

"Great, so how are we going to figure it out? We have to get out of here sooner or later." James replied sighing. Remus wondered if it ever occurred to either of them just to turn around and go back though the other way.

"Just guess, I suppose." Sirius answered. "Umm. Open" He said to the picture. "Nope."

"Maybe the picture doesn't speak English." James said randomly. "Abierte!" He waited a moment. "Nothing."

"You know Spanish?" Sirius asked.

"Ya, like three words." James shrugged, and Sirius laughed.

"Maybe it just doesn't like Spanish." Sirius suggested. "Kaihou. Ouvres!"

Remus laughed as Sirius just rattled off the word open in what ever languages he could think of. After a while Sirius either gave up or ran out of languages.

"You try Remus." James said looking at Remus.

"I don't know what it is."

"Neither did we."

"Alright...umm... Open sesame?" He said remembering the common muggle phrase. He jumped when the picture blocking the path actually opened. He just stared at it with his mouth wide open.

"How'd you do that?" Sirius asked climbing out of the tunnel.

"I just guessed." Remus answered still just standing there in shock.

"What in the world does open sesame mean?" James followed Sirius out.

"It's from a movie I watched when I was younger."

"What's a movie?" Sirius asked. Remus stared at him for a moment in surprise.

"I guess it's a muggle thing."

"Oh." Sirius dropped the subject knowing he would not understand. "Where are we?"

"Um..." James opened one of the doors in the corridor and inside was the DADA class room. "Woah! Now that is a shortcut." He said surprised at how far they came in such a short time.

"Well we don't have to be worried about being late to this class anymore."

"I wonder if there are any more shortcuts like that around." Remus looked behind them and saw that the picture they climbed out of had closed. It was a painting of a mermaid who kept waving and winking at him.

"I suppose that's what we're going to end up doing all year isn't it? Finding the rest of these." Sirius said happily. So their map wasn't completely done then.

"I'm still hungry guys." James complained now that the curiosity from the shortcut was gone.

"Fine let's go." Sirius agreed and they headed down to the kitchens.

.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

The next morning Remus was really sick. The full moon was that night and it was making him worse then usual. He spent almost the entire day in the hospital wing. He had thought it wouldn't be that hard to keep them from finding out why he was so sick. Madam Pomfrey made some random excuse for it. He didn't, of course, count on the fact that they just might feel the need to stay with him the whole time. James and Sirius even skipped Potions to stay there. Peter was too scared to. Remus tried to convince them that he was fine.

"To tell you the truth, Rem. I'm just glad that you finally decided to stop pretending you aren't sick." Sirius said. He was sitting at the foot of the bed Madam Pomfrey had almost permanently assigned to Remus. "I was getting a little tired of you, pretending you were fine."

"I am fine. You don't have to bore yourselves to death trying to keep me company." Remus half begged.

"Give it up, Remus. I don't even think I could get the puppy away from his master's feet right now." James said teasing Sirius about where he decided to sit. Sirius glared at him for a moment before choosing to ignore him. Remus sighed and closed his eyes. Maybe if he pretended he was asleep they would leave.

Madam Pomfrey came out of her office and sighed. "Aren't you boys supposed to be in class." Remus thanked God that she showed up.

"But.."

"Remus needs sleep. You boys yacking at him isn't going to help. Shoo!"

"Yes ma'am." James stood. "Come on, Si."

"But..." Sirius protested.

"Be a good boy, or no doggy treat for you." He teased. Sirius growled and chased him out of the room.

"AHHH! Good Dog! Sit Doggy Sit!!!" Remus could hear James yelling from the hall. He laughed.

"What is all the dog jokes about?" Madam Pomfrey asked walking over to Remus.

"His name. It comes from the 'dog star.'"

"Oh, yes. I think I heard something about that. Never been that good at astronomy myself."

"Sirius mentioned it once and James won't let it drop."

"Oh." She laughed. "You have good friends, Remus. Bloody annoying, but good." She told him. "They're smart too." This she said as a warning.

"I know"

A/N) Hehe I love making people make dog jokes to Sirius. It's so much fun! ^_^

If anyone is curious the book McGonagall was reading was on animagi. She's still working on becoming one.