Thursday, 31st May 1973

'This is the craziest plan you've ever come up with,' Remus said, watching from his bed as Sirius and James prepared for their meeting with Lily. Cosmo was curled in his lap, looking blissful as Remus stroked her, as she should. Sirius knew exactly how good that felt. 'There's no way in hell you're going to pull it off.'

'So you keep saying,' Sirius replied, taking James' wand and throwing his own onto his bed. 'But you should have more faith in us, Moonbeam. I could play James in my sleep.'

Peter handed them both a vial of prepared Polyjuice, giving the golden vial, containing three of James' hairs, to Sirius, and the burnt orange one, containing three hairs from Pete's cousin, to James. 'Bottom's up.'

'Cheers,' Sirius said, clinking his vial against James', who returned the sentiment before they both downed the contents. As they began the painful transformation process, their gazes locked, both of them competing to be the last to give in to the pain and make a sound. James bared his teeth in a mockery of a grin, and Sirius attempted to smirk back, but he was pretty sure it looked more like a grimace.

With a groan as he clutched his stomach, James was the first to break. Whether that was because his transformation from a 13-year-old boy into a 17-year-old girl was more painful than Sirius' transformation from a 13-year-old boy into another 13-year-old boy, or if it was because James was weaker than Sirius was something they would undoubtedly argue about later, but for now, Sirius was just glad he didn't have to hold back anymore and he doubled over with a moan of his own.

'Probably best if you don't try to be all macho when you drink the polyjuice in front of Lily,' Remus commented, sounding miles away through the pounding in Sirius' ears. 'Wouldn't want her to think you've done this before.'

Sirius waited for the pain to recede before straightening and plucking James' glasses from his newly feminine face and pushing them onto his own. Then he turned to face his boyfriend and grinned. 'I'm way ahead of you, Moonbeam. I've been practising my fake collapse to the floor.'

Remus raised his eyebrows, giving Cosmo a scratch behind the ears that made her eyes close in ecstasy. 'Oh, this should be good. Go on, then.'

'You're expecting it to be bad!' Sirius said with a gasp. 'Why are you expecting it to be bad? You've seen my acting before.'

Remus hummed. 'Exactly. You're excellent at acting dramatically. But we're looking for realistic here, not dramatic.'

'I can act realistically,' Sirius said, crossing his arms and painting an offended expression on his face before turning away. 'Where's the cloak, James? I want to get out of here.'

'Hey. I was joking,' Remus said, sounding concerned. As he should. 'Sirius? I'm sorry if I upset you.'

Sirius turned back around so Remus could see his grin. 'See. Told you I could act realistically.'

'Oh, you bastard,' Remus said, pulling the pillow out from behind his back and chucking it at him. 'I thought you were really mad at me.'

Sirius caught it, laughing. 'Well, that's what you get for doubting me, isn't it?' Deciding against throwing the pillow back at his newly contrite boyfriend—a startled Cosmo could often result in painful scratches, and Remus suffered enough pain—Instead, he walked over and tucked it back into place behind him. 'Wish me luck?'

'Good luck.' Remus gave him a smile but didn't offer his lips for a kiss, and Sirius was momentarily hurt, before remembering he looked like James. Of course, Remus wouldn't kiss him.

With one last glance over his appearance in the mirror, Sirius left the dorm and made his way down to the common room, trying to imitate James' way of walking, which was more of a strut than anything else. It only took a second of scanning the room before he spotted Lily's red hair, waiting for him near the exit, and he hurried over to her, picturing Remus in his head so he'd get the smile right as he greeted her.

'Hey, I'm not late, am I?'

'No, you're a little early, actually. I was just even earlier.' She smiled at him, turning towards the exit. 'At least we should get there before Sunshine. Did you remember to bring..?'

Sirius patted his pocket where James' cloak sat hidden inside James' enchanted pouch. 'I did. Did you remember the..?'

'Of course.'

'Great. Then I think we're ready.'

As they walked to a nearby secret passage, Sirius started on his James-approved list of conversation topics, hoping to get Lily talking so he wouldn't need to say much. The more he spoke, the higher the chance she'd realise he wasn't James, especially with Polyjuice potion already on her mind.

'You ready for the exams next week?'

She pulled a face. 'Mostly, I think. History of Magic is going to be the biggest problem. It's just memorising dates and names, and it's so boring. What about you?'

Sirius shrugged. 'I'm not expecting to fail anything.'

'How is that possible?' Lily asked. 'You barely do any work in class.'

If that comment had come from Remus, Sirius knew exactly what he'd say in response, but would James take the obvious opportunity to flirt if it was presented to him? Sirius thought he probably would, so suppressing a sigh—Sunshine better appreciate what he was about to do—Sirius waggled James' eyebrows at her with a cocky grin. 'Watch me a lot, do you?'

She flushed, averting her eyes, and shook her head. 'No. But, whenever I do look at you, you're either staring off into space or chatting to Sirius.'

Sirius chuckled. He couldn't deny the truth of it. During practical classes, they did spend most of their time chatting, and when they couldn't, James did tend to disappear inside his head and leave reality behind, but, 'That doesn't mean I'm not listening.'

'How can you be listening when you're not even looking at the teacher?'

Sirius shrugged. 'I don't know. It's like my brain collects the information and stores it for later, even if I'm not focusing on it. When I need it, it's just there.'

She stopped in front of the tapestry that concealed the secret passage they were heading to and stared at him for a moment before shaking her head and pulling back the cloth. 'That's so unfair.'

With a shrug, Sirius followed her inside, letting the tapestry swing back into place behind him. 'Maybe, but I can't really help it.'

'No, I suppose not.' Lily pulled a vial of potion from her pocket and handed it to him. It was the same shade of bright red as the last time Sirius had polyjuiced into her and he smiled at it.

'Hope it tastes as good as it looks,' he said as he pulled the stopper out, knowing full well that it wouldn't. 'But there's only one way to find out.' Raising the vial to his mouth, he curled his lips in disgust as he swallowed it down. 'Nope, that was awful,' he managed before the transformation pain started and he allowed his knees to buckle.

'James?' Lily said with a gasp, her tone laced with concern.

'M'okay,' he groaned, trying to reassure her. 'S'just pain.'

'I'm sorry. I didn't know it would hurt.'

She sounded really upset, but Sirius didn't have the spare brain capacity to do anything about it right then. Everything he had was trying to deal with the sickening pain. But when it was over, he pulled himself back to his feet and met her eyes with a grin. 'See? I'm fine.'

'That did not look pleasant.'

'It wasn't,' Sirius said, bending a little to dust the dirt off his robes. 'Sunshine must be pretty tough to willingly go through that all the time.'

'This is so weird,' Lily said. 'You look just like me… mostly. There's something… off, though.'

'What do you mean?' Sirius asked, knowing exactly what she meant. They'd all experienced the strangeness of seeing their own faces properly for the first time when they'd only ever seen a mirror image before.

She shrugged, peering at him closely. 'I'm not sure.'

'I'm sure it'll be okay,' Sirius said, pulling James' wand out and shrinking his robes a little to make them fit properly before holding it out to Lily. 'We should swap wands.'

'Oh, good idea. I hadn't thought of that,' she said, taking it and pulling her own out to give to him. 'Where's your cloak?'

'Here.' Sirius pulled it out of the enchanted pouch in his pocket and gave it to her. A moment later, she vanished beneath it, and Sirius smiled at the empty air. 'Let's go.'

Before responding to Lily's request for a meeting, the Marauders had put a lot of thought into the location. Knowing that Lily would be travelling there under the Invisibility Cloak, Peter had pointed out that the route shouldn't take them past any of the invisible doors leading into the Squib Wing, and since there was a door on every floor, that limited the internal options considerably. James had been reluctant to reuse the same meeting place as before, saying that it showed a lack of creativity, but eventually agreed it was the best option under the circumstances since the route would take them straight down the Grand Staircase and out the front doors with no opportunity for Lily to see something they didn't want her to.

They travelled there in silence so Sirius had no way of knowing she was actually following him, but when he arrived at the tree that marked the meeting place, he felt an invisible hand squeeze his briefly and breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn't taken the opportunity to wander off and use the Cloak for some other purpose.

James arrived a few minutes later in his disguise as Sunshine and Sirius smiled at him, tucking Lily's hair behind her left ear as they exchanged greetings—the prearranged signal that everything had gone to plan, he was Sirius, and Lily was nearby, hidden by James' cloak.

'So,' James started once they'd made themselves comfortable on the grass, 'why did you want to meet?'

Sirius shrugged, picking at the grass. 'I just wanted to see you. We'll all be going home soon.'

'I'm glad you did,' James said, smiling at him.

The conversation was stilted at first, but it wasn't long before they both relaxed into the pretence and ten minutes in, they were laying side-by-side on the grass, staring up at the few clouds dotted against the bright blue sky, and competing to tell the most ludicrous but believable stories of their supposed escapades which they both knew full well were completely fictional but pretended otherwise.

'So we left the common room,' James said, finally recounting the story they'd prepared in advance, 'it was about two in the morning, I think, and we were just passing the kitchens when Miss Norris came out of nowhere.'

'What did you do?' Sirius asked, acting like he hadn't noticed the enormous clue James had dropped. He'd bring it up with Lily if she hadn't spotted it, but he'd be disappointed if that was the case. It hadn't exactly been subtle.

'What else could we do?' James said, laughing. 'We ran. But have you ever tried to outrun a cat? Those bastards are fast. There was no way we were all going to lose her, so we split up, me and T—,' he paused, grinning at Sirius as if he'd almost let something slip. 'Me and one of the other Marauders headed for the stairs, while the others circled back.'

'I'm guessing she followed you?'

James grinned. 'Wouldn't be much of a story otherwise, would it?'

He continued to recount the true story of when they'd been caught by Filch trying to hide inside his own office (it had seemed like a good idea at the time), altering a few details to make it seem like they'd travelled up from the dungeons rather than down from Gryffindor Tower. When he was done, Sirius laughed and, knowing Lily would be itching to leave so they could discuss what they'd "discovered," he immediately launched into a long-winded and fictional tale about the Malediction stealing potion ingredients from the greenhouse and almost being killed by the venomous tentacula. It was only fair to make her suffer a little.

James seemed to catch on to what he was doing and helped prolong the story with questions about unnecessary details, but eventually, he had to give in and bring the conversation to a close, not least because Lily had resorted to kicking him in the leg.

It didn't take them long to get back to the passage where Sirius had taken the Polyjuice, and once they were safely hidden from view, Lily flung off the cloak and punched him in the arm.

'What the hell was that for?' Sirius yelped, rubbing the sore spot.

'You made us sound ridiculous with that last story.'

'I did you a favour,' Sirius said. 'He definitely thought it was cute.'

'Cute?' Lily said, sounding outraged. 'Cute is for babies and kittens. I don't want him to think I'm cute.'

Sirius held his hands up in defence. 'Sorry. Merlin. You try to do something nice…'

With a deep sigh, Lily pulled her hair band from her hair and redid her ponytail, visibly calming as she did so. 'Never mind. You found out what we needed to know. Sunshine's a Hufflepuff. We just need to figure out which one.'

Sirius grinned. 'I'm busy on Saturday, but how's Sunday for you?'

Peter stepped back, running his eyes over the gleaming white cauldron and jars of ingredients he'd laid out before nodding to Remus. 'That's everything. You can go ahead.'

Remus drew his wand as he moved closer, and while he worked on setting up the safety precautions, Peter gazed out the window. It was mid-morning on Saturday, and he knew the sun was blazing outside, though he could see no sign of it through the glass. They'd chosen one of the few apartments on the seventh floor of the Squib Wing that had a real window so any fumes that might potentially be created could be directed out of the castle, but it overlooked the courtyard and the space was in shadow for most of the day. Thinking of the poor kids who'd had to endure living there for seven years made his heart ache, so he forced his mind back to the present and smiled at the jolt of excitement in his stomach. Or was that anxiety? It was so hard to tell sometimes.

With a crackle, the room suddenly filled with music, and Peter turned his head to see Sirius and James standing next to the wireless, grinning widely.

'Nothing like a bit of music to work to,' Sirius said, raising his voice to be heard.

'Yeah, but it's maybe a bit too loud,' Peter shouted back. 'Can you turn it down a little?'

James turned back to the wireless and a moment later, the volume decreased to a much more pleasant background noise.

Peter smiled. 'Thanks. We do need to be able to hear each other.'

'You're probably right,' Sirius said, coming to stand beside him as they waited for Remus to finish casting his spells. 'Would be more fun if we couldn't though.'

'More dangerous, you mean,' James said, moving to Peter's other side.

'What's the difference?' Sirius asked, laughing.

'Your chances of being alive at the end of the day,' Remus said, lowering his wand and turning to look at them. 'And I think we can all agree, we'd like those to be high.'

'That's what we have you for, Moonbeam.'

'Except when potions are involved,' James said. 'Are you done, Moons?'

Remus nodded. 'Yeah.'

'Good, then you come sit over here, out of the way.' James took Remus by the arm and led him over to the sofa, sitting him down on it before patting him on the head. 'Good boy.'

Remus stuck his tongue out at him in response but didn't argue, and James returned to Peter's side with a grin.

'Right. What's first?'

Not wasting any time, Peter put James and Sirius to work preparing the ingredients while he worked on the electric part of the potion. They'd cut the plug off the television, leaving a good length of the cable attached and Peter stripped the end, exposing the wires. Ignoring the green and black ones, he took the red and wound it around the middle of a steel stirring rod from his potions kit, using some spellotape to hold it in place. He'd chosen the tool specifically because it had a large glass knob at the end to hold it with, and glass wouldn't conduct the electricity.

With that done and ready to use, Peter turned his attention back to the potion itself, beginning by filling the cauldron with water. The first part of the recipe was fairly straightforward—if any potion recipe could be called straightforward—and he worked through it steadily, heating and cooling, stirring and simmering, adding each ingredient at exactly the right moment, in exactly the right way, until he reached the point where everything usually went wrong. The salamander blood was already a part of the mixture, and it was time to introduce the murtlap tentacles. In every other pain-reducing potion ever invented, aconite needed to be added immediately after, to bind the opposing magics together; in this one, it was time to add the electricity.

'Here goes nothing,' Peter said, picking up the dish of finely diced tentacles and handing them to Sirius. 'Dump those in the middle the second it turns purple,' he told him before turning to pick up the prepared electrical wire and calling Remus over. 'It's time, Moony. Can you plug this in?'

Peter held the glass handle of the stirring rod gingerly, keeping it from touching anything, as Remus pushed the plug into the wall socket and flicked the switch, and he breathed a sigh of relief when he didn't immediately find himself dead. One potentially deadly step down, one to go. They all watched the pale pink potion simmering gently and a few seconds later, the colour swirled into a deep purple and Sirius dumped the contents of the dish into the middle as instructed before stepping back out of the way so Peter could approach.

Taking a deep breath to steady his nerves, Peter plunged the rod into the potion and let go, leaping back as it sparked. A loud pop made them all jump, and then the room was plunged into silent darkness as the light went out and the music stopped.

'What the fuck?' James said. But that's all there was time for as a cloud of dirty grey smoke emerged from the cauldron, growing larger by the second as they all backed away.

Remus waved his wand, muttering an incantation to activate the pre-cast filtering charm to direct the gas out through the window before it could cause any harm, then he waved it again, extinguishing the fire under the cauldron as James hurried over to switch the plug socket off.

'Did we break the eletrists?' Sirius asked, getting the name wrong as usual. 'We're going to be in so much trouble if they find out it was us.'

'Seems like it,' Remus said, flicking the light switch on and off to no effect. 'Sorry, Bubbles. Looks like you're going to have to think of something else.'

'Is it the whole Wing?' James asked. 'Or just this room?'

Remus opened the door and peered out. 'Hallway lights are out, too. Think it's the whole Wing.'

'Damn,' James said. 'Let's get out of here in case someone comes looking.'

Thankfully, the cauldron was unharmed, and they packed up quickly, hauling everything back to the Den before returning to their dorm to recover from the shock, and in Peter's case, come up with a new way to get electricity into the potion because there was no way he was giving up. Not when he was so close to succeeding.

'We should get under the cloak before we go inside,' James said, pulling the enchanted pouch from his pocket and poking two fingers into the opening to hook the cloak out. 'We don't want to be seen.'

'You think people will be awake,' she checked her watch, 'at ten past five on a Sunday?'

James shrugged before tossing the cloak over them both. 'We are.'

'This is a unique situation.'

'You think so?' James pulled his wand out and tapped the barrel, revealing the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room. 'I reckon students sneaking around at odd times of day probably happens more often than you'd expect.'

Lily laughed. 'You might have a point there.'

Climbing into the barrel was an awkward process in itself, but doing it in sync with another person whilst keeping both people covered by a cloak of invisibility was on a whole new level of difficulty. If there had been anyone there to witness the attempt, they would definitely have seen multiple flashes of disembodied feet and hands, but thankfully, no one else was present and their clumsiness went unnoticed.

Once they were through, the tunnel itself was much easier to navigate, but as they approached the end, the sound of voices drifted to their ears and James smirked at Lily, feeling more than a little smug to have been proven right. She merely rolled her eyes in response, pressing a finger to her lips as they tiptoed forward. As if he needed to be told to be quiet. Didn't she know he was an expert at sneaking? But she didn't, did she? That was the whole point of the mission, to keep it that way.

'You always do this, Em,' a high-pitched voice said quietly. 'Why can't I do the Forest this time? I'm fed up with the greenhouses.'

'You know why.' The second voice was lower, but still quiet. They clearly didn't want to be heard. 'If Sprout catches you, she's more likely to believe you have a legitimate reason to be there than if she catches one of us.'

'Plus, you know your way around,' a third voice said. 'We'd be there for hours trying to find everything.'

Lily turned her head and widened her eyes at James. She clearly thought they'd found who they were looking for, and it did seem like this group were up to something. James was intrigued. He jerked his head towards the opening, and they moved into the room, keeping close to the wall.

The group of three students, two boys and a girl, all of them around their age, were standing together around a table checking their bags, and as they watched, one of the boys handed the girl a sheet of parchment. She looked it over quickly before shoving it into her pocket.

'The sopophorous beans might be tricky. The plants had a case of root rot a few weeks ago. But the rest should be easy enough.'

The second boy pulled a face. 'Get what you can. We'll have to buy the rest if you can't get enough.'

'Alright, let's go. Time's getting on,' the first boy said.

James waited a few seconds after the group moved into the passage before whispering to Lily. 'What do you think? Should we follow?'

'Yeah, I think so. Sounds like they're collecting potion ingredients.'

'Definitely a Marauder-like activity. Which ones do we follow, though? The girl or the boys?'

'The boys. They'll be talking to each other. We won't learn much from the girl.'

'Agreed. Come on. Before they get too far ahead.'

His concern proved unnecessary. The Hufflepuffs didn't seem to be in much of a hurry and they caught up with them at the bottom of the stairs leading to the Entrance Hall, where they'd stopped to talk to a Slytherin. A much older Slytherin—seventh year, if James was forced to guess. It was strange, to say the least. The Hufflepuffs were around their own age, maybe third years, but definitely no older than that, and students their age didn't often have cause to speak to seventh years. But what was stranger was the Hufflepuffs seemed to be in control of the interaction. The Slytherin looked nervous.

If James wasn't a Marauder himself, he'd be convinced these people were them. He couldn't have asked for a better scapegoat.

Unfortunately, they parted before James and Lily were close enough to hear what they were whispering to each other—the Slytherin heading down the corridor towards his common room—and they continued to follow the two Hufflepuffs, at a distance, outside and across the grounds to the edge of the Forest.

'Which one do you think is Sunshine?' Lily asked, speaking barely loud enough for James to hear her as they walked.

James smirked at her. 'Which one do you want it to be?'

No response came for almost a minute, but then, causing conflicting feelings of delight and despair to clash in James' heart, she said, 'I don't think I want it to be either of them. I'm kind of hoping we're wrong, actually. Did any of them seem like a werewolf to you?'

James shrugged. 'How would you tell?'

'I don't know. Wouldn't they be walking slow and stuff? Professor Hawthorne said Lycanthropy hurts, but they all seem perfectly healthy.'

'Only near the full moon, I think. We're right between moons now. They'd probably be fine.'

'True.' Lily fell silent again, staring at the ground as they walked, but after a few moments, her head shot back up. 'What about scars? If they hurt themselves, they'd have scars. I didn't notice any on them. Did you?'

James shook his head, thinking about how Remus never let outsiders see his scars. It had taken months before he'd even let his friends see them, and even now he only ever bared his arms in front of them. 'No, but they wouldn't necessarily be visible.'

'God, this is hard.'

'Time to speed up,' James said, ending the conversation as the Hufflepuffs moved into the tree line ahead of them.

Breaking into a slow jog, they hurried to catch up, slowing down again when they reached the tree line and realised the problem they'd neglected to think of.

'They're definitely going to hear us if we walk in there,' Lily whispered, staring at the leaf-covered ground. 'We're invisible, but we still make noise.'

'Wait here until they come out?'

'They might come out somewhere else. Let's wait back by the entrance.'

Their patience was rewarded half an hour later, when the girl came strolling up the path from the direction of the greenhouses, and they glanced at each other, wordlessly agreeing to follow and slipping through the doors before they closed behind her. She strolled across the Entrance Hall towards the Grand Staircase, heading up instead of down, and turned off on the third floor, eventually stopping at a door and using a key to unlock it before disappearing inside for a minute. When she came back out, Lily made to follow her, but James grabbed her arm to stop her.

'Wait.'

'We'll lose her.'

'Don't you want to know what's in there? It's empty right now. We might not get this chance again.'

'You think you can get in?'

'I know I can,' James said, pushing the cloak off and feeling in his pocket for the Knife. 'But you can't watch how I do it.'

Lily rolled her eyes but turned her back and James ran the blade of the knife down the gap between the door and its frame until he heard a click.

'I'm in,' he said before pushing it open and stepping inside with Lily right behind him.

'Woah.'

'Yeah,' James agreed, gazing around the room. In a way, it looked a bit like the Den. There was a brewing station along one wall, but this one had three fire pits instead of just one with a different type of cauldron atop each of them—the standard size two pewter they all used in class, a tiny gold one, and an enormous copper. It had to be at least a size six. More cauldrons were stacked on the floor at the end of the workbench.

A blackboard hung on the wall above the cauldrons, but instead of plans for mischief, it contained a list of potions with seemingly random numbers beside them, and these potions were not ones for mischief-making—Dreamless sleep, Elixir to Induce Euphoria, Invigoration and Calming draughts—they were all the sort of potions people got addicted to.

That's where the similarities to the Marauders' secret room ended. Along another wall, boxes were stacked up, bearing the labels of familiar beverages available at the Three Broomsticks, and the third wall held a chest of drawers. While Lily was examining the boxes, James walked over and opened the top drawer to find a collection of muggle cigarettes of various brands. With realisation dawning, he pushed it closed and opened the next one down before shutting it again quickly. Lily didn't need to see the magazines of half-naked witches.

'I think it's a shop,' he said. 'For stuff kids can't legally buy.'

'I think you might be right. There's a list here, but it's written in some kind of code.'

'That's pretty smart. If they got caught, they wouldn't want to risk their customers.'

'I don't think they're the Marauders,' Lily said. 'How would they have time to organise the Games on top of all this?'

'Yeah, I agree,' James said, because there was no point denying it. 'And we should go. Merlin knows what they'd do if they caught us here.'

'Back to Hufflepuff?'

James checked his watch. 'Let's get breakfast first. They'll be serving soon.'

Twenty minutes later, they were seated in the Great Hall and James was battling his natural urge to suggest Lily add something healthy to her plate of sausages and bacon because that amount of meat on its own couldn't be good for her, but she probably wouldn't appreciate him saying so. Forcing himself to focus on his own bowl of cereal and fruit, James scanned the length of the Hufflepuff table for a new scapegoat and settled on a group of three. They were sitting near the middle of the table, apart from everyone else, they had their heads together whispering, and one of them had a thick, red scar running the length of her arm. Perfect.

He jerked his head at them. 'They look suspicious, don't you think?'

Lily glanced over her shoulder before turning back to grin at him. 'Very, they're the right age, and did you see the scar on the girl's arm? Why wouldn't she have got treatment for such a bad injury?'

'Follow them when they leave?'

'Better hurry. They look like they're nearly done.'

She was right. The group stood up to go a few minutes later, prompting James and Lily to abandon their half-eaten meal and grab their things. Right before they left, James turned back to the table and pocketed a couple of apples, an orange and a pear, before snapping a good handful of grapes from the larger bunch and popping one into his mouth.

'Want one?' he asked, offering them to Lily.

She took one and ate it. 'Thanks.'

James grinned. One grape wouldn't make much of a difference, but it was a start.

They slipped behind a statue in the Entrance Hall and tossed the cloak over themselves before following the group of Hufflepuffs down into the dungeons, and by the time they reached their destination—a locked and enchanted door in the furthest reaches of the dungeons—all the grapes were gone and James had only eaten three of them, so he was feeling quite pleased with himself.

The minute it took for the group to unlock and disenchant the door allowed James and Lily to catch-up to them, and they were able to sneak through the door before the last of the group closed it, but James immediately wished they hadn't when he saw what the room housed.

'Morning, Cookie. Did you sleep well, baby?' One of the two girls crooned.

The small creature growled in response, sounding angry to James, but the Hufflepuffs seemed to disagree. They walked right up to it fearlessly, reaching out their hands to pet it. James held his breath, expecting screams to break out at any moment, but the animal rubbed its head into their palms like a cat. It made sense, kind of. The beast's head was a cat, after all. A lion, to be precise.

The girl with the scar on her arm started digging around in her bag, pulling out a package a moment later and turning to Cookie. 'I've got your breakfast here, but remember, no scratching. Okay?'

'She only did that once,' the boy said, scratching Cookie under the chin and earning himself a deep growl. Her dark green scaled tail curled around to wrap around his back in a pseudo-hug. 'You won't hurt Arie again, will you, Cookie? Don't worry, she'll stop holding it against you, eventually.'

'I don't hold it against her,' Arie said. 'It just hurt.'

'Stop teasing her, Cole,' the other girl said, taking the package from Arie and unwrapping it to reveal a pile of sausages from breakfast before placing it on the floor in front of Cookie. She sniffed them delicately before devouring them in seconds and looking up with an expression of hopefulness, licking her lips.

'Sorry, Cookie. There isn't any more. You'll have to wait until lunchtime.'

'I'm worried she's not getting enough to eat now she's bigger,' Arie said.

'Do you think the house elves would give us more food for her?' Cole suggested. 'It's worth a try, isn't it?'

'Yeah, good idea. Let's go ask now,' the still unnamed girl said, reaching out to stroke Cookie between the ears, but Cookie tipped her head back and thoroughly licked the girl's hand instead.

Cole laughed and reached for the door handle. 'Guess you still had some sausage juice on your hand, Dani.'

'We'll be back soon,' Arie said, following Cole out of the door with Dani on her heels. The moment the door closed behind the Hufflepuffs, Cookie's eyes turned to the corner where James and Lily stood, invisible but not scentless, and she crouched, ears pricked up, growling.

'Time to get out of here,' Lily whispered, making Cookie's growl deepen.

James nodded, taking Lily's hand and leading them to the door as silently as possible while Cookie's eyes tracked their every move. Thankfully, the Hufflepuffs hadn't locked it when they left and James was able to tug it open and slip through with Lily right behind him before Cookie decided to attack them.

Do you need our help? Peter's voice asked in his head, making James smile.

'That was a bloody chimaera!' Lily gasped the moment they were safe. 'What the hell are they doing with a bloody chimaera in the school?'

'Keeping it as a pet by the looks of it,' James said with a laugh of relief. 'I thought it was going to kill us when they left.'

'God, me too. We can't let them keep it. We've got to tell Dumbledore or someone. What if it escapes?'

James held his hands up. 'Alright, slow down. Let's not be hasty. Maybe there's a way we can deal with this without getting them into trouble.'

'How? It's a chimaera, James!'

'Yeah, but she's just a baby, and she seemed pretty tame… with them, anyway. I don't know. Give me some time to think about it. In the meantime, I think we need to go back to Hufflepuff.'

'Yeah, these guys definitely aren't the Marauders. I can't see Sunshine being so stupid.'

James thought that was a little harsh—he could see the appeal of a vicious pet that was only tame with you—but it gave him a warm glow to know that Lily thought he was smart. 'She's kind of cute, though.'

'I guess. But she won't stay cute.'

'I'll be fine. I'll talk to them and figure something out.' If he spoke to them as Sunshine, they'd listen to him, surely? The disguise gave him a level of authority that he wouldn't have as himself, and maybe he could talk them into relocating Cookie to the Forest.

Either Lily was satisfied with that or she'd decided to drop the subject because she said no more on it and they started towards the Hufflepuff common room for their third attempt at finding the Marauders while James took the opportunity to send a message to Remus letting him know it was a false alarm. They never made it to their destination, though, because halfway there, they came across a group of three Hufflepuffs and one Ravenclaw heading up, and Lily gripped his arm and shook it so violently, James almost fell down the stairs.

'What?'

'It's them,' she hissed. 'It's got to be. Remember, we followed the Marauder after the flying competition and they went back to Ravenclaw, but Sunshine's definitely a Hufflepuff.'

'Good call,' James replied, eyeing the group as they continued up the stairs. They were the right age, and he was sure he'd seen them together before. 'Let's find out where they're going.'

Where they were going turned out to be the library, and James had to work hard to suppress his grin when they settled around a table together with a stack of books, researching something complicated by the sounds of their conversation. They were the perfect scapegoats.

After a few minutes of watching them, Lily pointed at one of the two girls in the group without letting her hand slip outside the confines of the cloak. 'Look. That one has a scar through her eyebrow.'

'You think she's the werewolf?'

'Only one way to know for sure,' Lily said. 'We need to find out where she sleeps, and see if she's in bed on the next full moon.'

James really should have guessed that would be the next step in Lily's plan, but he hadn't. It shouldn't be too difficult to manage, though. Moony was used to them leaving for short periods. But it did mean the ruse wouldn't last very long. The girl would be in her bed, and Lily would know she was wrong, but the next full moon was on the last day of term and he'd have the whole summer to think of something new.

'Good idea,' he agreed.

While James was off with Lily choosing the most likely Hufflepuffs to be the decoy Marauders, the rest of the real Marauders were back in their dorm making plans for the end-of-year party which, despite the mishap with the electricity, was still to be held in the Squib Wing. They'd just have to use magic for the lighting.

'Right, so that's food, music, and decorations sorted,' Sirius said, running his finger down the list James had left them. Why he'd given the list to Sirius of all people, Remus didn't know, but he seemed to be enjoying the authority it gave him. 'Just drinks left. When do you want to go fetch them?'

'It'll have to be tonight,' Remus said. 'We've got exams all next week.'

'Not in the evenings.'

'We'll be revising then.'

'Speak for yourself,' Sirius said. 'Revision is boring. What do you need to revise, anyway? You know it all.'

Remus shrugged. 'There's no harm in making sure.'

'You worry too much,' Sirius said, leaning in to kiss him. 'You'll get straight O's. I bet you ten galleons.'

'Done,' Remus said, grabbing his hand to shake it before he could realise his mistake. 'You may as well give me my winnings now. There's no way in hell I'm getting an O in Potions.'

Peter laughed. 'You walked right into that, Twinkles.'

'I did, didn't I?' Sirius agreed. He turned to Remus and winked. 'What's the Galleon to kisses exchange rate?'

Remus hummed in thought. 'I think it's a thousand kisses to a galleon.'

'That seems very achievable,' Sirius replied, smirking as he leaned in.

'How about you pay him when we're not busy planning the biggest party of the year,' Peter said, interrupting before Sirius' lips could make contact.

'Oh, forgot you were here, Bubbles,' Sirius said, turning his head to waggle his eyebrows at Peter.

Peter made a noise of disbelief and shook his head. 'I agree with Moony, by the way. We need the evenings for revising, so we should go to the Three Broomsticks tonight.'

With a groan, Sirius fell back onto the mattress dramatically. 'Fine. Tonight it is.'

Remus was about to ask what Sirius had against the plan when there was a quiet pop in the middle of the room, and they all looked towards the sound.

'Peony is all finished, Master Sirius,' the elf said, bowing to them. But as she straightened back up, she started to giggle. Cosmo had sauntered over to the elf and was rubbing up against her affectionately. 'Yes. Hello. Peony likes you too.' She looked up at Remus and chewed her lip nervously before speaking. 'May Peony be permitted to give the cat a treat, Mister Remus?'

It was impossible not to smile at the sight—Cosmo looked like a panther next to the tiny elf—and Remus nodded. 'Of course.'

'Thank you, sir.' Peony grinned widely and snapped her fingers, conjuring a fresh salmon fillet in a shallow dish, which she placed on the floor. 'There you goes, sweet girl,' she said, stroking her hand along Cosmo's back as she started purring in delight.

'What did the kitchen elves say?' Sirius asked after a few seconds of watching Peony fawn over Cosmo.

She straightened immediately, her ears drooping. 'Peony is sorry for being distracted, Master Sirius. The Hogwarts' elves will be happy to provide food for the students' secret party, and they will deliver it to the Squib dining hall at ten o'clock next Sunday. If that is all, Master Sirius, Peony will punish herself for her bad behaviour now.'

'You will do no such thing,' Sirius said, sitting up straight. 'Fussing over Cosmo is not bad behaviour, anyway, but even if it were, you know how I feel about punishments.'

Peony nodded. 'Punishments are evil and should be banned,' she recited, her ears perking back up a little. 'Peony is sorry, though, Master Sirius.'

'You have nothing to be sorry for. Did you put the posters up?'

Peony nodded. 'Yes, sir. One on each of the House noticeboards.'

'Excellent. I don't know how we ever managed without you, Peony. You're an absolute star.'

'Peony is happy to serve, Master Sirius. Does you need anything else, sir?'

'No, you can return to whatever Mother has you doing. Thanks, Peony.'

Peony bowed low, before giving Cosmo one last scratch behind the ears and disapparating with a quiet pop that made Cosmo's fur stand on end for a moment before she shrugged it off and returned to her fish.

Please don't eat us, James' voice said inside Remus' head, making him jerk upright. 'James is in danger. He's scared something's going to eat them?'

'What the hell?' Sirius said. 'They must be in the Forest. We better go.'

Climbing to his feet as he spoke, Remus agreed. 'Merlin knows how we'll explain to Lily how we knew where to find them, but yeah, we should go.'

'I'll ask him what's happening,' Peter said as they hurried down the stairs to the common room.

'Which way?' Sirius asked once they were through the portrait hole.

'Reperio,' Remus whispered, pushing his magic into the chain around his neck and feeling the invisible rope tug at his chest, pulling him towards the statue of a dancing child at the end of the corridor. Great. 'Down the slide, I think.'

'Fastest route to the Ground floor,' Sirius said as they jogged towards it. 'Got to be the Forest.'

We're fine, but I can't wait to tell you all about it later because you're never going to believe this.

'Wait!' Remus said, grabbing the back of Sirius' t-shirt before he could disappear down the slide. 'James says it was a false alarm.'

'Really?' Sirius asked, climbing back to his feet. 'Thank fuck for that.'

Remus patted the statue on the head to close it back up before turning to walk back up the corridor, but when he did, the rope attached to his chest tugged him back in the other direction, hard. Shit. The magic didn't know it was a false alarm, and it was not happy that he was breaking his vow, but he ignored the feeling and kept going. By the time they reached the common room, it was tugging so hard it was painful, but he could handle it. It was nothing compared to the pain of the full moon.

Every step he took in the wrong direction made it worse, though, turning from a sharp, stabbing into more of a burning, throbbing pain. Full moons hurt, but they didn't burn. Remus wasn't used to that kind of pain, and he struggled to keep it from showing on his face as they crossed the common room. But the moment Peter closed the dormitory door behind them, Remus gave into it with a gasp.

'We may have a problem.'

Sirius was in front of him so fast, Remus would have been forgiven for thinking he'd apparated. 'Moons? What's wrong?'

'The spell wants me to go to James,' he said, clutching at his chest. 'It burns.'

'Fuck.' Sirius turned, staring wildly around the room before returning his eyes to Remus, gently cupping his face with both hands and pressing his lips to his forehead. 'It's okay. You're going to be okay. We'll find him, yeah? Come on.'

'We can't,' Remus said, closing his eyes against the pain. 'He's with Lily. We can't risk screwing up his mission if it's not life-threatening. I'll be fine.' He eyed the distance to his bed, calculating how much worse the few steps would make the pain before gritting his teeth and forcing himself to take them. When he reached it, he collapsed onto the mattress, rolling onto his side and pulling his knees up to his chest, biting back a moan.

Barely a moment passed before he felt the mattress dip behind him and Sirius' warmth press up against his back as his arm wrapped around his waist and pulled him close. 'Breathe, Moons. Just breathe.'

That was easier said than done when his chest felt like it was on fire, but he tried, turning over to bury his face in the hollow beneath Sirius' chin and inhaling deeply, hoping Sirius' scent would help. It didn't, but he stayed there anyway, one hand clutching the back of Sirius' t-shirt in a fist, the other pressed hard against his own chest, just trying to breathe. The feeling of Sirius' hand rubbing gently up and down his back was comforting, but it did nothing to ease the pain or diminish the growing urge to get up and find James.

The need was overwhelming, and he locked his muscles in place in an attempt to stay put. It worked for a while. He couldn't say how long, but it must have been some time because his arm was starting to hurt from lying on it when he could no longer make himself stay on the bed. It happened all at once. One second he was lying in Sirius' arms, the next, he was on his feet and heading for the door.

'Moony, wait!' Sirius called, leaping up and running to grab him before he reached the door.

Remus struggled, but the pain had made him weak and he couldn't shake off Sirius' grip. 'Let go. I have to, Sirius. You don't understand. I have to go.'

'You don't,' Sirius said, grabbing his other arm and making Remus look at him. 'It's just the spell making you think you do. James is fine. He told you he's fine.'

'No! I have to go. Let go of me!' Remus put everything he had into one last attempt and managed to break Sirius' grip on his arms. The moment he was free, he made a break for the door.

'Stupefy!' Peter's voice yelled behind him, and everything went black for a second. When he opened his eyes again, he was pain-free, lying on his bed with James beside him, holding his hand.

'You're here. How did you get here so fast?'

James smiled. 'You've been stunned for an hour. I just got back and Sirius revived you.'

Remus blinked. Gods, they could be beyond stupid sometimes. 'Should have done that from the start.'

'Well, you can thank Peter for thinking of it. It never even occurred to me,' Sirius said, coming to sit next to him. There wasn't much room with James already seated on the other side of Remus, but he made it work somehow.

'What was the danger, anyway?' Remus asked, pushing himself up and shuffling back to lean against the headboard. 'Something was going to eat you?'

'Some of the Hufflepuffs are keeping a baby chimaera in a room in the dungeons,' James told him. 'As unbelievable as that sounds.'

'The Hufflepuffs? Really?' Sirius asked. 'Aren't they supposed to be the rule followers?'

'Apparently not. We followed another group and found out they are running a shop for contraband. Alcohol, potions, and those things muggles smoke? Cigarettes?'

'Wow,' Sirius said. 'I wouldn't have guessed they had it in them.'

'Yes, we're all very shocked and impressed at the Hufflepuffs' secret badness,' Remus said. 'But can we get back to the chimaera? I don't want to seem like a dick, but they're dangerous animals. We can't let them keep it.'

'I'm going to talk to them,' James said. 'If they won't listen to a Marauder, then I'll have to go to Dumbledore about it. But I'd like to sort it without getting them into trouble if we can.'

'Not today, though. We need to decorate for the party this afternoon, and make a trip to the Three Broomsticks this evening,' Sirius said.

'Sometime during the week then,' James said. 'They probably visit her after dinner, so I'll go then and try to catch them while they're there.'

'Her?' Sirius asked.

'Yeah, she's a girl. They called her Cookie.'

Sirius laughed, shaking his head. 'Of course, they did.'

The afternoon passed quickly as they worked on decorating the squib dining hall for the party. Remus reasoned that it was good practice for both their Transfiguration and Charms exams, so it wasn't really a waste of time at all. His forgetfulness potion wore off towards the end of the afternoon, but it was a mild burst of returning memories and he was able to hide the effects from the others while they were all distracted with their own tasks. When they noticed the drop in his mood, he passed it off as fatigue from all the magic they were using after his intense morning fighting the tracking spell, and they believed him, telling him to take a break and eat some chocolate.

After dinner, they descended to the dungeons to take the secret passage to the Three Broomsticks. The door to the old Defence corridor had been locked back up, but a quick scan with the Magic Detector revealed the enchantments protecting it hadn't changed, and James made short work of picking the lock. Due to a lack of foot traffic, the corridor still smelled vaguely of Professor Tenebris, triggering Remus' survival instincts and making the hair on the back of his neck stand on end, but he dismissed it and followed the others to the section of wall that hid the passage. It took them several trips to retrieve enough bottles, and they were all exhausted when they finally crawled into bed that night, but even so, Remus had a penance to pay, and he spent a few hours at his mindscape version of the Whomping Willow before he fell asleep.

Monday's Transfiguration exams went well. The written test in the morning was laughably easy, and Remus had no problems completing the various practical tasks in the afternoon. Sirius, James, and Peter all reported an equal level of success, which was no surprise. They were all working well ahead of the curriculum in Transfiguration theory for Project Gateway. Tuesday morning was a bit of a downer for Remus, but he didn't let his complete failure to brew the Wide-eye Potion stop him from praising his friends for succeeding, and he made up for it with a perfect score in the Charms practical that afternoon.

So he was in fairly good spirits when they arrived at Professor Tenebris' classroom on Tuesday evening. His plan to use Forgetfulness potion to make it through his exams so he could stay in school and learn everything he needed to know to be able to fulfil his reason to keep going was working. Once the exams were over, he would stop taking it, and deal with his feelings properly, but for now, it was working, and that's what mattered.

'Evening, boys,' Professor Tenebris said as they walked into the room. 'Have a seat. We've got lots to get through, and I want to be finished by curfew tonight. You'll all need a good night's sleep for your Defence exam tomorrow. Trust me on that.'

'As ominous as always, Storm. I'm nervous already,' Sirius said, winking at her as he took his seat.

She chuckled. 'You should be.'

Remus sat next to Sirius and scanned the titles on the spines of the books stacked in the middle of the table. They all pertained to soul magic in one way or another, and his fingers itched to pick them up. The knowledge contained within them called to him on a visceral level, but he held himself back, waiting for everyone else to sit down.

Once they were all comfortable, Professor Tenebris went over what she'd already worked out about building a bridge to connect Remus' mind to Moony's body, and then handed them each a book and told them to get started.

It was a dense and complex topic, and Remus would have struggled to make sense of it alone, but with all of them putting their minds to the task, they were able to piece together an understanding of the magic involved, and half an hour before curfew, they had a breakthrough. Or rather, Peter did.

His explanation was a little garbled and included a few hastily drawn diagrams, but after a little questioning, they made sense of it, and it was inspired. The method he was suggesting was dependent on the caster having a permanent connection between their soul and the soul of the target. Luckily for them, James and Remus' souls were already bonded. Unluckily for James, that meant he had a considerable amount of homework to do.