Chapter 129
Evesdropping
Remus lay belly down on his bed, a textbook in front of him and a spare piece of parchment off to the side, another textbook underneath to avoid ripping it when he wrote.
On the parchment were three columns tabled; M, W, Pa, and Pr along the top. there were small tick marks under each name with Pr having the most and W having only a few.
"Why is it easier to transfigure something into a smaller object than a larger one?" James called out from his position on the floor next to his own bed, he was laying on his back with a transfiguration textbook floating in the air above him, a similar parchment at his side as well.
"Because it's easier to destroy mass then create it. " Sirius' voice was heard from under the blankets he'd buried himself under at some point in the afternoon.
"Ding," James replied with no enthusiasm whatsoever and waved his wand at the quit to mark another notch under Pa, The same mark appeared on all three of the other Marauder's parchments.
Remus smiled at his own genius. Sirius and James were studying, without being bribed, threatened, or otherwise coerced. It had taken every ounce of cunning the sandy-haired Marauder had, as well some tips from McGonagall. It had been her idea to use James' competitive nature by keeping score.
Quiz games as a way of studying wasn't a new concept but he was proud of himself nonetheless.
"What are the ingredients to a forgetfulness potion?" Peter squeaked from where he was sitting at the desk, he'd been in his own bed until the third time he'd fallen asleep.
"I forget." James laughed at his own joke, but no one else did. Remus sighed and Sirius groaned, even Peter wasn't in a mood to praise him.
"Two drops of Lethe River water, two valerian sprigs and..." Remus hesitated, the last ingredient eluding him.
"Four mistletoe berries," James provided, but gave Remus a point anyway.
"I would have remembered if you'd given me time." Remus pouted, but it didn't last long as he wasn't much for dramatic theatrics.
"I gave you the point." James flipped himself over to properly roll his eyes at the werewolf, giving Remus a glimpse of his textbook.
"I'm not going to learn this stuff if you keep giving... Prongs what have you done to that book!"
James looked down to see what he was referring to and Sirius poked his head out of the pile of blankets to see.
The transfiguration textbook was covered in pen, little doodles littered the margins and an artist he was not.
"It's transfiguration, I got bored." James shrugged.
Sirius climbed out from his hut and snatched up the improvised sketchbook before James could stop him.
"James, mate, as your friend and your brother this obsession of yours is beginning to worry me." Sirius shook his head, a solemn look on his face, and showed Remus. Lily Evan's name and initials were written several times in varying degrees of embellishment and a significant number weren't even her real name.
"Prongs, you might want to wait till she can stand to be in the same room as you before you start giving her your last name." Remus mocked unable to hid his grin.
"I'll have you know girls like it when you give them attention. For the millionth time, I've got this under control!" They laughed at him as he watched them with increasing irritation. Only Peter took him seriously.
"Can James lose points for being delusional?" Sirius turned away from the future-stag and threw the book behind him. Remus winced, expecting it to crash on the ground but James used a levitation spell to catch it without missing a beat.
"You're just mad 'cuz I'm in the lead." James huffed as Sirius returned to his fort.
Sirius responded by writing a rude phrase on their magic parchment.
"I think you both need to grow up. Remember what McGonnagall said? You lot should pick up some good behavior habits from me." Remus gave an, almost evil sounding, laugh as he replied to Sirius' comment with an equally rude phrase.
"You used a spell to make Lestrange's gum fly up his nose and blamed it on me!" James exclaimed.
"I did no such thing, she assumed it was you and I didn't stop her. It' not my fault you get in trouble so much they automatically think it was you." Remus laughed when a pouty face appeared on the parchment in reply.
"Brat. "James, cleverly, replied to the werewolf and gave Sirius' mountain of blankets a dirty look. No doubt, feeling as though the pup was mocking his drawing prowess though Sirius had meant nothing of the sort.
"Who was the first goblin discovered in England?" Remus asked returning to the topic at hand, and they allowed the conversation to die down, focusing again on their studies. Prongs continued his solid lead and Remus wondered if Sirius was even trying.
He got his answer just after sunset when the puppy gave a cheer throwing the blankets off himself and running across the room only to plop himself in front of James stuffing a piece of parchment in the older boy's face.
Remus could just see a big fluffy tail wagging behind him as James examined whatever he'd been working on instead of studying with them. He'd never thought of his friend's animalistic traits before, he'd always been confused when they made reference to the traits they shared with their animals. It was such a relief to know what they meant. He wished they'd told him earlier but he understood why they didn't. He would have never let them do something like that for him if he could have stopped it.
"Woah, guys look! It even labels them." James sat up, fascinated by the parchment Remus realized was their map. He hadn't recognized it, though he'd been the one to magickly condense it into a single sheet, because he was just so used to the big maze of paper it had been for the past three and a half years.
Remus and Peter moved to see what he was talking about and when Moony took the map from James it zoomed to the dorm they were currently sitting in as well as all of the other Gryffindor boy's dorms. In their room was four little dots labeled Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black, and James Potter. There were other names in the other dorms. Frank Longbottom was in the fifth year dorm, the movement of his dot looked like he was slow dancing but he was alone in the room.
James stood and walked around the circle of boys, watching his dot move with him.
Peter gave an exclamation of surprise and wonder and Remus gave an impressed whistle as the dot moved back into position with the rest and James sat back down.
"Nice one, Padfoot," James said taking the map back. It automatically shifted to the girls dorms where one Lily Evans was in the bathroom.
"No." Sirius pulled the map, that all the sudden looked very dangerous, out of James' hands, it moved back to the dorm. "You are not using my baby to feed your sick obsessions."
"I didn't ask it to go there!" James defended though his eyes shifted off to the side in a guilty manner.
"I can't say I feel comfortable giving you a method to spy on Evans, either," Remus mentioned, nodding his agreement.
"I'm not going to spy on her, I told you, I got this guys." He rolled his eyes but jumped back when Sirius pushed his textbook in his face.
"This is not under control, James Potter, this is an obsession. You're obsessed and it's creepy." He shoved the map in Remus' lap. "Here, Moony, you take it. You are the most reliable Marauder of us all."
"He's got a point, you're starting to verge on stalker territory now." Remus agreed surprised and flattered by Sirius' complement. "Speaking of reliable, though... didn't you promise we'd focus on studying today? 'No animagi books, no pranks, no distractions,' weren't those your exact words." Remus was glaring at his brother by now.
"Yeah, I got bored," Sirius said in a casual tone, but he shuffled awkwardly like a puppy who'd ripped up a pillow while his owners were away.
Remus smacked him upside the head resulting in a yelp from the younger teen and a snort of laughter from James.
"Next time it'll be the Sunday paper." Remus threatened and Sirius whimpered. The other two laughed leading Sirius to chuckle also, though he still looked guilty.
"Let's go play with it." James jumped up ant the others followed suit but Remus hesitated. He wouldn't care in any other situation but it was the Sunday before exams and they were running out of time. But they'd been studying for so long that even he was getting burnt out.
"Sounds good to me, I'm starving," he lifted himself off the floor slowly, his bones protested the movement reminding him that, once again, there was a full moon coming up. The exams on Friday would be awful.
Much to James and Sirius' disappointment they saw no one on their way there leading the two of them to examine the map to see where everyone was, teachers, in particular, most were in bed, nothing strange for that time of night. Dumbledore and McGonagall alone in her classroom, however, was plenty strange.
Many of the classrooms had shortcuts right outside their doors for those running late, and some of them had walls thin enough that they could hear the classroom noises in case the class had already begun and it was safer to skive off entirely. Others only Remus could hear through.
McGonnagall's wall was the thinnest of them all. No one wanted to be late to her class under any circumstances.
"Bellatrix is becoming a problem, she's killed three full muggle families this month." They heard McGonnagall's voice as easily as if she'd been right beside him, which she nearly was. She sounded exasperated like she hadn't slept properly in days. She'd seemed fine in class Friday. "And it's not just muggles either, I've still got Miss Heifer in here every week in tears."
"Yes, she is supposed to be returning for the funeral soon, but her father is trying to convince her to stay." Dumbledore's calm voice sounded...old. There was something they'd never heard before. Dumbledore looked old but he never acted old, except when trying to sound all wise and stuff.
"He believes it's safer for her to remain here, and he's right. What kind of world is this that we can't send a child home for her own mother's funeral? Is this the inheritance we're leaving for these children, fighting and death?"
"That is what we are fighting to prevent."
"Yes well, a few of us could do to fight a little bit harder, half the order is scared to death of that woman, or more accurately her last name."
The boys looked at each other, Sirius and James were fascinated now, they'd always theorized that Dumbledore was at least part of some force to fight back the rising Death Eater threat. Now their hopes were being confirmed. Both seemed to know that their lives would be spent fighting this cursed war, and now they knew what army they were fighting for. Their trust in the headmaster was impressive, but he had to admit feeling similar if not the exact same thing.
"Order?" Sirius was silent forcing them to read his lips. Remus shrugged and they both looked at James who shook his head.
"Some kind of army?" James mouthed a sparkle of interest in his eyes. The idiot was always trying to get himself killed by something. Sirius, McGonagall, Bellatrix, the crazy librarian, quidditch, redheads with green eyes, werewolves (bloody werewolves!) Remus wondered if he just like the adrenaline rush or if he really was that cocky.
"And if we do somehow catch her what are we supposed to do with her? The ministry won't touch her so long as the Minister is in Orion's pocket, and killing her would only make her a martyr for her cause as well as bring the entire Black family down on us. It's all looking hopeless."
"A war is not won with hope, my dear, it's determination that makes the hopeless possible," Dumbledore told here and James snorted.
"He made that up," he whispered and Remus agreed, some of the things the headmaster came up with made him sound like he had too much free time.
"Determination may do so but it isn't going to protect these children over the summer." McGonagall's voice was harsh and angry. "Not all of them are going to nice proper homes were everyone's safe and happy. It seems like each year we send more and more students to war-torn homes or to families that will never love them or worse. We've had to find orphanages for five students, and another six are going home to relatives they didn't live with when they came at the beginning of the year."
Remus was glad he couldn't see her face. She didn't sound like she was crying but there was a wavering in her voice that emphasized her sincerity. Sirius and James looked at each other. They paid so little attention to others they likely had no idea. Remus had heard of a few of the incidents but not all of them.
He wondered if they were worried that one of the kids they picked on regularly were on that list. He doubted it.
The conversation was a little too deep for the two leading marauders so they headed back avoiding a few prefects with ease thanks to their newly improved map. Sirius and James talked about the 'Order' speculating on what it could be with the general conclusion that it was an army of some kind.
There was no talk of the misfortunes of the other students.
A/N) I finally got around to reading the Potter family history on Pottermore. It was interesting. James' dad inventing a hair care product is deliciously ironic and I can just see James stubbornly refusing to use it.