Chapter 3 - Project Map
They spoke not of the incident on the train again, but Remus could tell it was bothering James. While both boys made up and pretended that everything was fine, there was still slight tension between the Marauders. Remus should have guessed that the only thing that would break that kind of tension would be a prank. Both boys asked to be excused and came back ten minutes later into the Great Hall. By then, most of the seats were filled up, save for the two seats on Remus' left. As luck would have it, Lily Evans and her friends were sitting across them.
"There seems to be fewer students this year," Lily Evans remarked to her best friend, Meghan Callaghan, a frown apparent on her pretty face. James, having heard this, started to agree when Meghan cut him off.
"Do you suppose it had something to do with the Dark Mark?" she asked quietly. The six of them fell silent and Professor McGonagall held up a scroll of names.
"Avon, Jase." A small boy with a haughty expression on his face approached the sorting hat. Seconds later, the hat shouted, "SLYTHERIN!"
"Bartley, Winston." was sorted into Hufflepuff.
"Cassidy, Helena." went into Ravenclaw.
"Cassidy, Zola." went into Slytherin.
"DeGraw, Lester." was sorted into Gryffindor. James and Sirius cheered the loudest.
"Douglas, Daemon." Nobody came up. Professor McGonagall frowned and repeated herself. "Douglas, Daemon." Still, no one came to take the hat. McGonagall glanced backwards at Professor Dumbledore, who nodded and gestured for her to continue, a neutral expression on his face.
"Fonda, Marie"; "Fraser, Rachel"; and "Gail, Aaron." went into Gryffindor as well. However, there were rather fewer cheers, now that the students had seen an absence of a first year. James furrowed his eyebrows, trying to recall the last article his father had wrote. Dark Mark, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, Death Eaters...
"Greenbaum, Nadia." got into Slytherin as well as "Greengrass, Rolfe." However for the next three names, nobody came forward. The sorting went on but even Peter could feel the uncertainty in McGonagall's voice. Finally the sorting ended with a total of nine absences. By now, the entire Great Hall was in silence for nobody had ever seen such a despairing sorting. Headmaster Albus Dumbledore stood up and gave his annual speech but his eyes lacked the usual twinkle. Dinner soon came and conversation resumed.
Sirius dug in immediately, only to hear a question from Meghan Callaghan. "Hungry, Black?" she asked dryly. Sirius' lips quirked into a grin and he purposely chewed his bacon with his mouth opened, showing the disgusting mixture of bacon and eggs to the girls. "Does that answer your question?" he asked offhandedly.
"Aren't you going to say hi to me?" James questioned Meghan, picking up his fork and stabbing the piece of meat on his plate. "But obviously Sirius is more interesting than me."
Sirius snorted at this and nudged James in the ribs with his elbow. "What did you expect?" he asked, in a tone that suggested he was shocked that James thought otherwise. His eyes fell to James' plate of food, poked no less than fifty seven times and snickered inwardly at his friend. Alright, Sirius thought, Maybe I was a little too harsh on Prongs earlier. He noted, with much amusement, that James was trying to avoid looking at Lily for fear of saying yet another stupid thing that would infuriate her.
James rolled his eyes at his friend. "You should realise sarcasm when you hear it, Black," he replied dryly. "How could you be more interesting than James Potter?" At this, Lily choked on her pumpkin juice. Sirius' grin only widened when James took Lily's reaction as an acknowledgement to him.
"See, even Evans agree with me," he boasted to Sirius. Sirius exchanged a look with Remus and chuckled quietly.
"Honestly, Potter," the redhead scowled, "Can you be even more unbearable?"
James opened his mouth, presumably to argue, when one of the Slytherins shouted, "Hey! This drink is spiked!" One by one, the Slytherins' expressions glazed over, causing an commotion from the other students who were worried about their own drinks. Sirius grinned at James and slapped him a five. And just like that, there was no more ill feelings between the two.
While James and Peter sneaked into the kitchens to grab a couple of cookies and butterbeers for their "Project Map", Remus took the opportunity to speak to Sirius. A single question in his eyes and Sirius transformed into a large, black dog. It was a common ritual for them. When Remus needed someone to speak with, yet couldn't find it in him to talk to a human, Sirius would turn into a dog while Remus spill out all his troubles. Their only rules were never to speak about the things Remus talked about; and that Sirius could not transform back before Remus was done.
Padfoot trotted over to Remus' bed and whimpered when Remus scratched him between the ears. Remus smiled slightly. "You remember, Padfoot, when Sirius asked me if I was okay when we were on the train?" he asked quietly. He looked so troubled that Sirius got worried.
"Dad joined the Order of Phoenix." Padfoot remained silent during this time while Remus explained. "It's a secret organisation that goes against the Death Eaters. Dumbledore founded it. I guess he felt that the Ministry wasn't doing their job. Do you know that Bartemius Crouch, the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement is allowing the Aurors to use the Unforgivables on the Death Eaters?
"And I know, Padfoot, how worried Sirius is about his family. I too hope that they aren't Death Eaters." He was silent for a while, and Sirius wanted to turn back into a human to argue that his family weren't Death Eaters. But doing so would be against Remus' rules and besides, Sirius didn't even know his family anymore. He supposed he never did.
"And James," Remus shook his head with a small smile. "He's so obsessed with Lily Evans that it's unhealthy. I'm worried that the day where he has to choose between his friends and Evans may come." He looked so forlorn that Padfoot licked his hand. Sirius knew Remus treasured their friendships a lot because he was a werewolf and thus had very few true friends.
"Peter," Remus continued, "He had been so brave for his family when Mr Pettigrew passed away. But you can't judge a book by its cover you know. I saw his younger sister - Penny - on the train earlier. She blurted it all out to me and boy, could I tell she was upset about her father." Remus sighed. "I don't know if I should tell Peter."
Remus certainly worried too much for his own good. Padfoot barked at Remus just when James and Peter returned.
"Sirius?" James called. "Did I hear barking?" Sirius quickly transformed back into a human and had on his clothes by the time Remus went to open the door. James eyed the two of them suspiciously but Sirius said nothing. This whole idea of Remus talking to Padfoot had been a secret for quite some time now and even James and Peter didn't know.
"Why did you guys lock the door?" Peter asked in puzzlement as he placed the plate of cookies on the night table.
Remus shrugged offhandedly. "Making love." At that moment, Sirius had a cookie in his mouth and he choked.
"Moony!" he exclaimed in shock. "That was my line!"
James rolled his eyes at his friends and pulled out the map from the drawer of the night table. "Guys, I figured out how to hide this from a stranger." He grinned and pointed his wand at it. The lines and dots on the map dissolved into nothing.
Three jaws dropped.
"Y-you," Sirius sputtered, "You bloody idiot! You erased the map?"
"All that work down the drain," Peter groaned, slapping his forehead.
Remus swallowed. "Tell me that was a joke."
James laughed and grinned broadly. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," he declared, pointing his wand at the map. Slowly, their hard work came back onto the map. There was a long minute of silence before anyone spoke.
"Wow," Peter said in awe.
"That. Is. Bloody. Brilliant!" Sirius exclaimed. "How did you do that?"
"And how do we clear it?" Remus asked, ever the quick thinking one.
"Simple. Watch me." James tapped the map again, this time saying, "Mischief managed."
"I like it," Sirius announced with a grin. "Prongs, mate, you're a genius!"
James nodded modestly. "I know."
"But what if people tried other magic on it?" Peter questioned.
"A retaliate charm," Remus said suddenly. He pulled a piece of parchment from between the pages of his History, A Magic book and picked up his quill. "Think of some insults for people who try to use the map."
Four heads shadowed the parchment as they worked tirelessly to finish their map with only a few cookies and a little butterbeer to keep them awake. When it was finally done, the Marauders signed their names proudly and thus completed the Marauder's Map that would fall into James Potter's son's hands someday.