LINER NOTES:

Well, here's your next chapter, Eleonora1-who-is-demanding-an-update! There isn't much Remus/Nate in here, it's mostly

platonic Remus/Harry/other people. It's a good deal longer than my normal chapters, but . . . oh, well, that's okay! Enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: I think you people all get the point by now . . . IT DOESN'T BELONG TO ME.

ARCHIVING: See Ch. 1.

RATING: PG-13 for mild language, homosexuality, and . . . I think that's it this time around.

REVIEWS!:

Eleonora1: Put the knife down, please, Eleonora . . . violence is not the answer. No, it really isn't. I wasn't aware you'd react

so strongly to a Remus/Grawp pairing . . . no, nonononono, don't! Put the knife DOWN! It was only a JOKE . . .

Oh, dang! You pointed out an error I somehow left in there. That should be corrected. Until I make the correction: Iliad is

"banded" around his leg with a metal band like we real-world people use. The band contains either a phone number or a

tracking number to allow someone to identify the bird if it is caught (it works like a microchip, sort of) and then to contact the

owner. It is illegal (at least in the US) to resell a bird if it has been caught with a tracking band on its leg. Neverwinter and Poe

are also both banded, but as they are very well trained it rarely matters : ) Remus does his best to use normal paper or

parchment that is charmed to look like paper, since this is how homing/carrier pigeons and other homing birds carry their

messages. Most Muggles would simply assume that Iliad was being trained as a homing owl (though that's not a very smart

thing to do) and not suspect anything more. And I'm glad you like my Remusness . . . : )

DARKMEW13: Coming right up!

Enjoy!

It was another three days before anything was heard from Nate, and when news came it wasn't really news at all – rather a

small parcel addressed to Harry, with a short note wishing him a happy birthday, and delivered by a raven who promptly left

again. Harry opened the parcel somewhat excitedly (he'd resigned himself to the "fact" that he'd be alone the next day, so an

unexpected gift was a rather nice way to segue into that) to find a gorgeous leather bookmark and a rather juicy book on

Wizarding history that covered just about everything he would ever want or need to know in a far more interesting way than

Binns ever thought of in his wildest dreams (always assuming, of course, that Binns still had dreams in his spectral state).

Remus was secretly thrilled that Harry would have something that would make him stop needlessly brooding for the next

eighteen or so hours, and so he left Harry on the couch, completely absorbed in a duel between Morgan le Fay and some

wizard Remus had never heard of, in spite of his avid collecting of Chocolate Frog cards (he was quite proud to own one of

the five most complete sets in Britain) and the fact that the wizard probably featured on one. (If he didn't, then it only proved

he'd always been quite obscure and had probably first shown up, and died, in the duel with le Fay.)

Abandoning abruptly all thoughts of Chocolate Frogs and battles in Camelot, Remus set about the much more concrete task

of making lunch, bringing a sandwich and chips (1) in to Harry on the sofa. Harry barely acknowledged him, turning a page as

he picked up a sandwich half and bit – air. A throaty caw greeted them both, and Harry stood up (scattering his chips hither

and yon over the carpet and dropping his book facedown on the sofa with no regard to the bookmark intended to avert such

treatment) with a dismayed "Neverwinter!" The evil bird in question was currently sitting on top of a lampshade devouring the

spoils of her cunning swoop. Harry chased her into the kitchen (Remus wasn't entirely sure what he intended to gain by it)

and, after scolding her severely for stealing his lunch, Harry removed the scroll tied to her leg. Neverwinter flew to the second

perch in the bedroom (Iliad had finally returned, and Remus had promptly seen the need for another roosting implement in

case of visiting post birds) and sulked – no crow liked being disciplined, and Neverwinter was no exception. Harry tossed the

scroll to Remus, picked up and disposed of his chips, and sat back down on the slightly crippled sofa (it had seen many years

of jumping up and plopping down and overnight guests and all manner of spills), picking his book up and the other half of his

sandwich (which had miraculously not hit the floor) and returning to Camelot. Remus slipped the band off the scroll,

completely familiar by now with the unrolling-and-refolding procedure, and waited for the letter to calm itself before sitting

down next to Harry to read.

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Dear Rémy,

Drivel can be a good thing – I don't recollect at the moment where I heard of the idea, but it's believed that we'd go insane if

we didn't dream – it's not so much sleep we need as it is lack of reality. I must confess to being fully familiar with the two

o'clock insomnia syndrome – it's a rare night when I can get to sleep before one o'clock, at the very earliest. I find your

choice of abstract-time authors and reading materials quite amusing – if you happen to be quite familiar with Hamlet then you

will of course know why (2).

I am afraid I've not been much help insofar as distracting Harry from what I consider the true drivel in your letter (playing one

against the other is never a good idea), but I do hope he enjoys the package I sent him. History of Magic is somehow never

as good in classes as it is in books.

You might want to consider taking your owl to the apothecary in Diagon Alley, if he has been making a habit of disappearing

– he may be under a Messenger's Curse, which would put you in a very bad position if you use him for sensitive material. I

never use Poe for sensitive material (he also has a habit of disappearing – ravens have a tendency to be rather unreliable,

whereas Neverwinter has never given me any reason not to trust her), but if you are unable to keep two birds then it is a very

good idea to keep a close eye on the one you do have.

I have indeed read The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and have seen its musical counterpart in the West End,

although I confess I should probably find it more entertaining if it were not so intensely personal to me. For sheer literary value

it is indeed an excellent piece of work. It translated excellently to the stage as well, but it is not something I would care to see

or read on a regular basis. Dracula I have never been able to enjoy. I rather fear it is the result of growing up in a pureblood

family – I could never truly take pleasure in Tolkien or Lewis' (3) works, either.

I just took notice of the fact that you asked if I was aware what a telephone is – I am perfectly aware and have used them

several times, although I find the incessant static to be quite off-putting. I try to stay away from them if I can help it, but

Muggle electronics can be quite useful tools if only one knows how to use them.

Unfortunately I'm still working on those accursed lesson plans, so I have to close for now –

Nate

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Remus folded the letter with a small smile and slipped into the bedroom to put it in his nightstand with the others – fourteen of

them now – and lay back on his bed, happiness reigning indiscriminately throughout the apartment for the first time in a week.

"Harry – HARRY!" Remus shook Harry's shoulder in what he hoped was a good imitation of being frantic.

"Nnnn."

"Harry – wake up! HARRY!" He shook harder.

Finally Harry sat up, hair tumbling into his eyes. "What?"

Remus did his best to look completely panicked. "Harry – I overslept – it's almost nine o'clock now – could you give us a

hand?"

"Huh?" Intelligent Harry may have been, but a bright morning star he was not.

"The group – I was supposed to be there three hours ago, Harry, I've got my guitar and two of the synthesizers and all of the

mikes, clip-ons and floor mikes, and Raven's going to kill me . . . " Remus accentuated this worried rant by pacing the floor

and running a hand over his face, trying to hide the fact that he was actually trying not to burst into laughter.

"Umm . . . right . . . uh . . . Remus, can you give me – I dunno – fifteen minutes to get a shower?"

Remus nodded, hoping he looked distracted. "I better call Raven and let her know we're on the way . . . oh, she's going to

kill me for this . . . " Remus hurried toward the phone as Harry practically flew into the bathroom. Remus waited until the

water went on and he heard the shower door slide shut before he picked up the receiver.

It wasn't Raven he called.

Remus and Harry hurried out the door, when suddenly Harry said something that made Remus all but jump. "Remus,

shouldn't we have to load stuff into the car?"

"Everything's in the car, Harry." It was a terrible lie and he knew it as soon as he realized the backseat was empty. The trunk

would never hold everything he'd claimed it to hold, and it was impossible to use Shrinking Charms on . . .

"Remus, there's nothing in –"

"I enlarged the trunk. I didn't want anyone seeing what we've got – we're probably going to have to go through a pretty bad

section of town to get there as soon as we can."

"Oh. Remus?"

"Yes?" Remus hurried to start the car.

"I thought you couldn't lift the synthesizers by yourself."

Oh, Merlin. Now what? He could say he'd levitated them into the trunk, but Harry would never believe that because the

parking garage was too public a place and anyone could have seen him with a wand out and two synthesizers floating along

merrily behind him . . .

"I said Raven and Sinelle couldn't lift them alone. I can do it if I put my back to it. Anyway, I cheated a little." Let Harry fill in

the blanks for him.

"A Lightening Charm?" That would work.

"Exactly." Excellent.

Remus turned left out of the garage, trying to seem like he was hurrying when he wasn't really. Unfortunately, the cool water

of the shower, plus a hurriedly drunk cup of coffee, had woken Harry to the point that he picked up on their direction.

"Remus?"

"Yes?"

"I thought you said we were going to a place in Charing Cross."

"We are."

"Remus . . . Charing Cross is east. You should have turned right."

Damn . . . he was out of good lies, too. "We have to stop somewhere else first."

"Oh."

Remus breathed a sigh of relief.

It was almost twenty minutes later when he finally pulled into the parking lot. Harry stared at Remus incredulously as he pulled

the keys from the ignition. "Remus . . . this is a pizza arcade (4)."

"I know that." Remus pocketed his keys as he got out of the car. "Are you coming?"

Harry stared, suspicious. "You sure don't seem like you're in a hurry now."

"Harry, are you coming, or not?"

Harry considered his options. "I guess I'm coming."

"Good."

Harry blinked as they walked into the pizza arcade – not only had he never been in one, he was sure he was seeing things.

Four red-headed people were waving at him, and instead of picking something up and leaving (or some similar task), Remus

guided him to the table with the redheads, where Harry was promptly slapped on the back by the Weasley twins, high-fived

by Ron, and hugged by Ginny. "Surprised?"

Harry stared at Remus. "You said – you said you were playing tonight!"

Remus shrugged. "So I lied. Feel honored – I don't blatantly lie to too many people."

Fred – or George? – broke in. "Whole thing was our idea, really, Harry. Remus called up at the shop and wanted to know

what kinds of things you might like to do, since we'd spent more time with you than he had and he doesn't get out much –"

the other twin broke in – "and we put our heads together and thought you might like this –" switchback to the first twin –

"because there's almost no teenager who doesn't like video games –" "– and of course ALL teenagers like pizza." "And loud

noises." "No, Fred, I think that might just be us. Ron never went in much for the Exploding Quills (5)."

Harry grinned happily at the twins, and then – since they promptly entered into a conversation with Remus that seemed to be

a pickup from wherever they'd left off over the telephone – he turned his attention to Ron and Ginny. Ron immediately began

updating Harry on everything that had happened since Hedwig took refuge at the Burrow (effectively cutting Harry off from

talking to his friends), and then suddenly interrupted himself to say "And guess what, Harry? I learned how to use a

telephone! D'you reckon Remus'd be upset if I called you up sometime?" At the mention of his name, Remus promptly

shooed Harry and the two nonidentical Weasleys toward the arcade.

The entire group got heavily involved in a discussion over pizza forty minutes later – it seemed that Fred and George had been

trying to copy the Marauders' Map to sell, and hadn't been meeting with too much success. They could force the copies to

vanish their contents, show the people moving within the walls, or reveal the contents only with an individually set password –

but they couldn't do all three. Ron argued that perhaps the original map had a Copyright Charm on it. Ginny was of the

opinion that the original had been created with a series of spells that had to be used in exactly the right order to create the

effects of the original map. Hermione had suggested in a letter to the twins (she and her parents were again in France) that

perhaps the map had been created through several obscure spells or spells invented specifically for the purpose of writing the

map. Remus simply watched the entire group with amused eyes as they deliberated on possible causes for the twins' failure.

Finally Remus leaned forward and tipped his head in secretively. "You're all wrong, actually. The original map was hand

drawn and then set in motion with a set of six basic spells. The trick is in the quill you use." Fred and George turned,

extremely interested, toward Remus. Ron and Ginny both stared – though they both knew Remus' alter-identity as Moony,

neither expected him to part with such a secret so readily. Harry, meanwhile, was shaking from contained laughter – Remus

had already told him the whole story, right down to how the map would alter its own details to match the grounds as they

changed, and why.

"All right, mate, no fair keeping it a secret. What d'you know about the map?"

Remus leaned back, looking quite amused. "Well, I'm not so sure I should tell you that. It would make the teachers' jobs a

whole lot harder."

"Oh, come on, Remus, you've got to tell us now."

"No, no, I'm sorry, I just don't think it's a good idea."

Harry finally poked him in the ribs. "Come on, Remus, spill. You told me."

"That's different, Harry. These are –"

"They could have been the next Marauders if they'd only known who the originals were and if they'd had access to an

initiation ceremony."

Remus rolled his eyes, groaned, and finally leaned forward again. "Fine. But you can't tell anyone else, do you understand?"

The twins nodded, and Remus pulled out a sheet of notebook paper from his pocket, where he always kept a spare sheet or

two "in case I get any ideas while I'm around." Everyone at the table watched as he slipped the pen out of his jacket pocket,

clicked it open, and started scribbling some kind of very complex looking formula with several short phrases mixed in. After

about a minute he clicked the pen closed, put it back in his breast pocket, and pushed the paper across the table to Fred,

who examined it critically. "Remus, mate, this just makes invisible ink."

"I know that. You have to use a phoenix-feather quill. And yes, it has to be done by hand. There used to be four of them –

there are only two, now. But they were all done one at a time by hand. Don't lose that."

Meanwhile, George's eyes had all but popped from his head, reading the spells written down on the bottom of the paper.

"Cloak Charm . . . Animation Charm . . . bloody hell, these aren't even Hogwarts-grade spells! These are above N.E.W.T.

level, mate. Who did this?"

Remus gave the twins a mischievous glance. "Let's just say Mr. Moony hasn't retired from the game yet, and he hasthree

excellent successors."

Fred was carefully folding the formula paper into his jeans pocket, but George was staring at Remus. "Wait a minute. You

mean . . . you . . . you're . . . "

Nobody sitting at the table had ever heard either of the twins completely lost for words before, and so everyone laughed as

George gaped like a fish out of air. Finally he came to himself, with a typical Weasley twin question: "You got anything more

like this, mate?"

Remus only laughed silently, his eyes still darting mischievously from one person to another, before he answered. "If I did, do

you honestly think I'd give it away for free?" He looked at his watch. "Harry, are you going to use the rest of those tokens

before we leave, or are you planning on saving the entire half a cup for souvenirs?"

It was a thoroughly worn-out but happy sixteen-year-old Harry Potter who returned home with his guardian that evening. He

turned his wrist to stare again at the watch he'd got with his tickets – a replacement, finally, for the watch he'd lost to the lake

in his fourth year.

Harry was startled by the large barn owl sitting on his bed when he slipped into the bedroom to change into his pajamas

before joining Remus for a cup of hot chocolate. He retrieved the two letters it carried – one of which was addressed to

Remus – and watched as it flew away through the window he'd accidentally left open before they'd left that morning. Harry

meandered out through the living room and into the kitchen, where he handed Remus one letter and then opened the other.

"Remus, my O.W.L.s came in."

Remus put his own letter down to read Harry's. "Wonderful. How did you do?"

Harry flicked through the multicolored certificates. "E plus in Transfiguration . . . A conditioned in History of Magic – what

does 'conditioned' mean?" Remus took the certificate and examined it. "In History of Magic? It means you didn't complete

the test, but based on the answers you gave they estimate your whole grade would have been an A if you'd finished."

"Oh." Harry didn't want to think about why he'd not finished the test, and so he continued flicking through the certificates. "E

in Charms . . . P in Divination – well, I always knew I'd fail that one, I guess that means I can drop it now – O plus in

Defense Against the Dark Arts, I knew I got an O in that one the day I took it . . . E plus in Care of Magical Creatures . . .

Remus, I passed Potions!" Harry jumped up, knocking his chair over, and stared at the pale orange certificate in his hands.

He'd gotten through with an O conditioned, and a short explanation given afterward that he showed "extreme promise and

exemplary understanding" in his Potions Theory exam.

Remus carefully tugged the stiff paper from Harry's hands, not wanting to tear it, and a grin spread easily over his face.

"Congratulations."

Harry picked his chair up and sat back down, running his hand through his hair and staring at the O.W.L. summary sheet

sitting on the table in front of him. There it was, in green ink on yellow parchment – Potions, O conditioned. "I'm not sure if I

should be happy because it's a required N.E.W.T. for Auror training or if I shouldn't be, because it means two more years

with Snape." Harry made a face.

Remus, meanwhile, was examining the rest of the certificates. "You got an E in Herbology, too, Harry, you forgot that one."

"I only read them in the order they came out of the envelope, Remus – I did?" Harry turned his head around to read over

Remus' shoulder. "I did."

"You did really well, Harry. We'll have to put these in a book like the one I've got from when I was in school – we'll just

leave the Divination one out and pretend you didn't take it," he added, winking impishly at Harry, who was playing aimlessly

with the multihued certificates now scattered across the kitchen table.

"I can't believe I got an O in Potions. Snape's going to be furious."

"Professor Snape, Harry," Remus corrected automatically, carefully stacking Harry's O.W.L. certificates and slipping them

back into the envelope. "Now let's see what Dumbledore wants with me, shall we?" he added, as he carefully slit his own

envelope along the top. He pulled out a sheet of parchment folded separately from the rest. His eyes moved rapidly back and

forth for several moments, a grin spreading slowly on his features, and then, beaming widely, he pushed the letter across the

tabletop toward Harry, who read only the first two lines before he looked up, caught Remus' eye, and then they both started

laughing. When at last they were able to stop, Remus pulled the rest of the parchment out of the envelope and flicked through

it. "Well, I suppose this means I have to start setting lesson plans tomorrow, Harry," Remus murmured, tucking the entire

sheaf back into its envelope. "In the meantime, don't you think it's time we headed to bed?"

As Harry burrowed beneath his sheets, staring out dreamily at the moon before he fell asleep, he thought drowsily that he'd

never known a birthday could be so much fun. Just as he drifted off to sleep he wondered what had ever become of the other

three copies of the Marauders' Map.

Author: Tee-hee-hee-hee . . . I'm evil . . . I guess you'll have to review and then read the next chapter to find out!

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REFERENCE NOTES:

(1) I seem to have accidentally included this reference in the last chapter. Just for those with slow-loading modems who

don'twant to go back – "chips" is the British/Oxford English word for what Americans call French fries. The Oxford for

potato chips is "crisps" and is used in Goblet of Fire, when Harry decides he will "not accept even a crisp from Fred and

George in the future" after the incident with Neville and the Canary Creams.

(2) Nate is referring to the line "To sleep, perchance to dream" from William Shakespeare's Hamlet, the work Remus was

randomly quoting from.

(3) I assume the reference to J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy (which I have never read but have no problem

abusing as a literary reference ) is self explanatory. "Lewis" is C.S. Lewis, the author of the Chronicles of Narnia (four books

of which I have yet to finish). Both of these created their own mythology (much as Rowling admits to doing), so it is unlikely

that Nate would be able to enjoy what would seem like nonsense to him because in his world, it would be inaccurate.

(4) I don't know if these exist anywhere but in the United States (I feel bad for people in other countries if they don't). For

people in the US: I'm thinking of something like Pete's Pizza or Chuck E. Cheese's here. For those who don't know what

Pete's Pizza or Chuck E. Cheese's are: When you go into a pizza arcade, you order a pizza and buy game tokens. Half of the

place is a restaurant, but the other half is a giant video/game arcade. You go play games with your tokens until your pizza is

delivered (at our local Chuck E. Cheese's, they call your name over an intercom), and then after you eat you go play games

again. It's easy to spend the whole day at one, and you can collect tickets from the games to redeem for some pretty cool

prizes.

(5) A new trick item from Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes, of course! : )