"Where is he?" the murmurs spread throughout the classroom.

Fifteen minutes into History of Magic and their professor still hadn't arrived. Normally, the students wouldn't be concerned, Professor Binns was always late. Their ghost teacher seemed to have no comprehension of time, but never was he this late. Never was he a quarter of the lesson late, and even if today he just happened to be, he wasn't the only professor to turn up late that Monday morning. Their first lesson had been Transfiguration and Professor McGonagall, always at least 5 minutes early, arrived on the wrong side of the lesson bell. She offered no explanation for her tardiness, and no one questioned it too much but now the students couldn't help but wonder if something was going on.

Of course, there were several rumours going around the classroom. They were the kind of rumour that was so unbelievably far-fetched that they could be true. Marie had said that Peeves, the poltergeist the Marauders had set loose on the castle the previous year, had turned back every single time-keeping device the professors owned so they were all running one hour behind. While this was just the kind of thing Peeves would do, professors rooms had a shield specially designed to stop Peeves doing such a thing. So unless they all forgot to 'activate' it, this wasn't likely.

Another rumour, which Lily had strong suspicions the Marauders started themselves, was that they, the Marauders, had in fact slipped a bit of potion to each of the professors. The potion would take effect in different ways. Some would act out their deepest fears, others would feel it safer to not leave their bathroom and others would just keep acting out strange habits all day, like hopping instead of walking, or randomly touching their own eyeballs. When she heard this Lily couldn't hold in her disapproval at such ridiculous gossiping ideas any longer.

"Oh please. Don't tell me you people believe this nonsense. Binns is a ghost, he can't swallow potion for Merlin's sake. And as for trolls capturing the castle, let's all ignore the fact that we'd have been sent to a safe room while they were stopped. Just ignore that for a minute and consider this; We. Would. Have. Heard. Them!" She exclaimed, slowly pronouncing each of the last five words, hoping to drive the point home.

She received glares for her efforts and the gossiping continued. It was now half way through the lesson.

None of the theories as to what was keeping their teachers were true, not that the students knew this. They didn't know their professors were engaged in very secretive talks with Dumbledore and the Minister of Magic, a tall, burly man by the name of Ludron. They didn't know that the purpose of these meetings was to warn the professors of an evil rising that threatened to ruin the semi-peaceful co-existence of the wizarding and muggle worlds together. Nor did they know that the people involved in these meetings were the only ones to be informed of what was coming, and as such were sworn to secrecy. For this reason, it came as a surprise to the students when Professor Binns did eventually float into the room with fifteen minutes to spare, he too refused to share where he had been.

That was a strange day in Hogwarts, break came after that lesson and Dumbledore announced that the remainder of lessons for that day would be cancelled. It was advised that pupils did their own learning individually, the library would be open, as would some classrooms if pupils wished to practice spells.

Obviously, like in any school that allowed their students the day off to do work, no work was done. Alice and Marie spent the day in their dormitory pampering themselves. Narcissa took Alex, who had planned on spending some time with Jacob, to the dungeons where she was meeting some Slytherin's. Lily went for a swim outside. It was empty out there because of the cold, but that didn't bother her, she liked the cold water, it refreshed her, made her feel alive. And anyway, the swimming would warm her up.

But this is not what we are concerned with, not just yet anyway. This part of our story involves the Marauders who, being the Marauders had only one way to spend their day.

"I'm sure I saw someone there but when I looked again there was no one. It's certainly worth looking at, don't you think?" Remus finished telling James about a suspicious situation he had seen that needed further investigation.

James was already on his feet before Remus had even finished. "Right, let's go…Wait, where's Sirius?" he asked as he looked around the room, no one could mistake the annoyance in his voice.

Remus shrugged, but Peter squeaked up. "He's with Tacea."

Remus frowned. "I thought she talked too much for his liking?"

"Yeah," James agreed, equally confused.

Peter nodded. "She does, but he reckons he can keep her quiet." As he spoke he put on the same sly suggestive look Sirius' face had held.

It was slightly disturbing to see it on Peter's face, but the other two boys couldn't help but laugh, Remus rolling his eyes too.

"Well, let's go find him." James said, heading out of the room, the others following behind him.

Ten minutes later they found Sirius engaged in a kissing session with Tacea. It took a further three minutes to work out the best strategy to prise him away. In the end they went, not for the best strategy, but the one that seemed the cruelest to the couple.

Remus stretched out his hand and pulled Sirius back by his hair, which, though short, was at a length that allowed him to grip a few inches and so pull hard at Sirius' scalp.

"Ow!" Sirius cried and James readied himself for his part.

"Oh, Sirius, how could you?" he asked in a surprisingly convincing female-sounding voice. "You told me you wouldn't cheat on me again but here you are with another of your floozies."

Tacea had been stunned at their rude parting, but on hearing herself called a "floozy" she snapped back into the happenings.

"How dare you call me a – Oh, it's you." The realisation that she had been interrupted by James Remus and Peter came as she spoke, with Peter jumping into her sight.

"Yes, it's us," he said simply.

"What do you want?" she asked, obviously disgusted by the sight.

"Well, we need Sirius; why else would we be here? Not for your 'stunning' conversation." James answered coolly.

Sirius, now with a slightly less painful head (Remus had released his grip), smiled at this.

"Right, I'm coming. Tacea, I'll see you later baby."

Tacea sniffed indignantly but nodded all the same. The boys were already off to investigate.

"So where are we going?" Sirius asked a couple of corridors later.

"The fourth corridor on the second floor…" Remus started.

"Oh, I know. The one-eyed witch statue? I was considering that myself."

"Great minds…" James muttered. "So, you and tacky, anything serious?"

Sirius raised his brow at James' use of the pun the agreed never to use again, an agreement reached in primary school.

"Sirius Black doesn't do serious, you know that." He paused, finishing it with a sigh before continuing. "No, Tacea's great, really great, but she's just too…talkative."

Remus chuckled. "So we won't be seeing that sight again."

Sirius shook his head and a relieved look crossed over the other three boys faces.

"Oh, look, we're here." Peter squeaked.

James examined the statue carefully while the others conversed. His hands brushed over it, trying to find anything that shouldn't be there, or more correctly, should.

"If you're right then it works by password not touch." He said with an air of one who was expertly trained in what they were talking about, like a professor and his subject, or a broom maker on the wizards' favourite transportation device.

"A password?" Remus asked, aware of the endless possibilities.

Peter frowned. "You're sure it's a passage?"

James nodded. "As sure as I can be. There's a small gap at the back, not even wide enough for a finger, but there feels like there might be a hole back there."

Sirius stood up. "He's right," he certified, having examined the statue in a similar manner. "Could take us a while to get this one."

"But, they're going to use the same password twice are they? So we can pretty much rule out Partice, Bledroon…" Remus continued, trying to remember the other words.

James thought of some more. "Melgrone, dissendium, hereg…whoa."

A quiet rumbling sounded and then a harsh grating. "Three boys turned to see the statue had moved and James sprawled in front of a gaping hole in the wall."

"Jimmy-boy, you've done it," Sirius cried happily as he helped his best friend to his feet.

"Come on guys," Peter's voice called.

Looking into the darkness they could see a small figure encircled in tiny light slowly making its way further into the tunnel.

"Exchanging looks of pure pleasure, the remaining three boys chased after Peter with noisy anticipation to see where they would end up….

"Ow...Ow…Ow…Ow…Ow..."

"Sirius, shut up!" Remus exclaimed in frustration after Sirius said "Ow" for the four hundredth and sixty third time.

"But I keep banging my head," he whined.

"So crouch," the rest of them had learnt after the second time that the tunnel was too low for them. Sirius, apparently, hadn't.

"Hurts my back," he pointed out loudly.

"Shh," Peter hissed from the front stopping suddenly. "I think we're there."

James pushed forward to see.

"He's right. It's a trapdoor." He inched it open slightly so that his eyes could peer out.

"Cockroach clusters, fizzing whizzbees, sugar quills. You guys? I think we're below Honeydukes."

"Honeydukes?" Remus sounded dumbfounded. "But that's in –"

"Hogsmeade." Sirius finished, his eyes lighting up and an ecstatic grin spreading across his face. "Let's go." He continued trying to scramble his way forwards so he could get up.

A hand dragged him back. "I'll look around first," emus said, knowing full well he, being the most sensible of the four, was less likely to get caught.

The others nodded in consent, Sirius grudgingly.

Five minutes he was up there; five slow, impatient minutes for those left behind and five explorative but tense minutes for Remus as he looked around.

"What's taking so long?" Sirius complained after the sixth minute.

Remus' voice could be heard from above. "I think it's safe…wait."

He had heard a creak on the stairs leading from the basement to the above shop. His voice, already quiet, became less than a whisper on that last word; "wait."

The other three, eager to get up there and see for themselves, rushed on, not hearing Remus' warning. Looking back Remus thought he might not even have said it, and if he did, it was more than likely that he only heard it because he knew he was saying it.

"Look at this, just look!" Sirius grinned in childish joy.

"What are you –" Remus began but stopped as footsteps drew closer.

Four heads looked to see a door, its handle turned and a collective breath was drew as four minds worked overtime to try and avoid getting caught.

A/N: I know, it's short, but I wanted to leave it on that cliffy, and I do actually have the next bit written out. I just need to type it up, which I'm not going to do now 'cos I'm not in the right mood, I had to force myself to do this.

Happy New Year though, and I hope your all ok.

Rae