Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

Malfoy Manor.

Narcissa chuckled softly to herself as she read the day's entry in the Grimoire, particularly when she reached the part about Remus being caught in the crossfire of the little joke Xander had played on the Twins.

'Poor Remus, he must be going spare.' She thought to herself, finding the man's plight to be amusing for a moment.

Then she thought about Sirius and her humor was gone.

How that man had escaped from Azkaban, she didn't know, but it did present an opportunity, if she could get to him before he got himself caught again. Unfortunately Lucius was being no help at all, merely growling at her when she asked him to contact Sirius.

'honestly, it's not as if it's difficult to work out that my dear husband was a Death Eater,' She thought irritably, 'Only a total fool would believe otherwise, which explains Fudge quite nicely. All I want is for him to contact Sirius so I can speak to my cousin before he does something stupid like attack the Potter boy at Hogwarts.'

From what Fudge reported that seemed to be her Cousin's target, but it could NOT be allowed. Narcissa set her jaw, if Lucius would not help she would have to make some inquiries of her own.

Sirius must NOT be caught.

"Stop playing us for fools, Lupin." Severus Snape sneered, "The very day you step foot back in this school, the name of the Marauders is flaunted across the great hall, do you expect us to believe you had nothing to do with it?"

"I already answered that, Severus." Remus said softly, face pensive. "And to be honest, it's not the Marauder's name that has me on my heels."

"Do explain, Remus." Albus motioned to the tired looking man.

"I haven't heard from the Coven since I finished school, Albus." Remus said pensively, "James and I never did figure out who they were, and Sirius would never tell us. He thought it was a great joke."

"Are you saying that Sirius Black was part of the Coven?" Minerva McGonagall stiffened in her chair, eyes wide as she pinned Remus with a glare from across the room.

"No, but he found out who they were." Remus replied, a touch of a smirk showing on his face, "We waged war with the Coven for three years, and only stopped when Sirius brokered a 'treaty'."

"I remember." Minerva said sourly, drawing chuckles from Fillius and Albus. "Particularly since you four had no idea who you were fighting, so you just targeted everyone."

"That was mostly James' idea," Remus admitted with a smile, "We also had to fire twenty times as much in order to make up for the fact that they knew who we were."

"Indeed," Albus chuckled softly, but then grew serious. "However, the fact that Sirius Black has connections to the Coven, and their reappearance now... has disturbing connotations."

Remus sighed, "I know."

"So we must find out who is taking up their mantle," Albus said softly, "Did Sirius ever give any hints at who they may have been?"

Remus shook his head, "Not really. He seemed to think that we knew them, though."

"From my House?" Minerva leaned forward.

"Possibly," Remus acceded, "But I'm not sure that the Coven was just one house. Sirius seemed to hint that they were a cross house alliance of sorts, specifically created to nail us."

"If anyone could drive multiple houses to close cooperation, it would have been you four." Severus said sourly.

Remus didn't rise to the bait, however, and just shrugged in response.

"Very well," Albus said, "We'll have to watch for any more action by this 'Coven'. Judging from the choice of names, we're probably looking at Witches I believe."

Remus nodded, "Traditionally, a Coven is all or mostly female."

"Only for the last century or so," Minerva warned.

"Indeed," Albus conceded, "The old root simply means to Convene. However, if students invented it twenty years ago..."

Minerva nodded, acceding the point.

"It may be unrelated," Fillius spoke up for the first time.

"Fillius?" Albus questioned softly, "Do you have information to add?"

Professor Flitwick considered it, "Possibly. Was it just me, or did the message seem to be targeting someone specific?"

Remus scowled a little sourly himself this time, "That's how it felt."

Fillius chuckled, "Not you, Remus, I think you were merely... unintentional splash over."

Several teachers chuckled at that, and Remus seemed to be caught between which was worse, being the target or merely having wandered blindly into the firing line. "Who then?"

"The Weasley Twins," Fillius suggested. "The 'Heirs' of the Marauders."

"That's possible," Minerva conceded, "Those two are surely cut from the same cloth."

"There is also Harry."

The room fell silent, all eyes turning to Albus, who went on, "Harry is the only blood Heir of the Marauders, and the message could have been aimed at him. I believe that it would behoove us to locate the members of this Coven as quickly as we can, just to ensure the safety of the school."

The staff nodded in agreement, and shortly thereafter the meeting broke up.

School went on, the year beginning with a bang but quickly descending into routine as the students found that even with demons floating around outside the wards, things were mind numbingly normal within.

Xander had set aside the wand projects for the time being, not having anything more than a few minor adjustments in mind for them, and those could wait until summer. He instead started interesting Wednesday and Hermione in a new school project of sorts.

"Marauder's Map?" Hermione frowned, looking over the notes. "These are some advanced spells."

Xander nodded, "yeah, but think about the final form. A real-time map of the school? Too cool."

"Indeed. The information value alone is staggering," Wednesday admitted.

"What you two might want with such a map is, quite frankly, frightening." Hermione said flatly.

"Could be worse." Xander smirked.

"How?"

"The twins could have one."

Hermione shivered, cringing at the very idea. "That's horrifying."

Xander grinned and nodded, then turned back to the notes. "It's all based around this, The Protean Charm."

Hermione leaned in, "That's very advanced."

"NEWT level," Xander confirmed.

Hermione's expression wavered between horrified and enthused by the prospect of learning a spell that advanced.

"The tough part is actually going to be linking the charm to the Castle Wards." Xander admitted while she was thinking, though. "From what I can gather, that's not easy."

"Why?"

"You have to do it from the Headmaster's Office."

Hermione started, then drew in a breath to scream at him, only to have Wednesday calmly slap a hand over her mouth.

"We're in the Library."

Hermione eyeballed Wednesday for a moment, then nodded as she took in a deep breath through her nose. As the hand dropped away she leaned in, whispering fiercely. "Are you insane? You can't be serious!"

Xander shrugged, "That's where the keystone to the wards is placed. It's the only place you can finish the map."

"Well then we're not going to be making one, are we?" The bushy haired witch hissed.

"Well, I don't know about you..." Xander grinned.

"You don't have the Arithmancy to pull this off." She said simply.

"No, but I do." Wednesday replied.

"Plus I think I can get some help from others," Xander said with a smirk.

"I'll... I'll tell!"

Xander raised his eyebrows, "Really? Over this?"

Hermione wavered, wincing visibly.

"You won't tell, Hermione." Xander said after a moment, "You won't betray us over this. We're not talking about hurting anyone, or ourselves. Worst thing that happens is we get caught."

"That's bad enough." She objected sullenly. "You could get expelled."

Xander rolled his eyes, "Hermione, Draco Malfoy regularly attacks other students. Harry, Ron, and yourself are constantly getting into the most idiotic messes... Do you *really* believe that we'll get expelled over breaking into the Headmaster's office?"

Hermione grimaced, then shook her head.

"No."

"Besides, even if we did, Salem would take us." Wednesday said coolly.

"That's fine for you, but I'm not American." Hermione said to that, then let out a breath, "Thank god."

The two just looked at her for a long moment.

"Ok fine," She huffed, "But if we get expelled I'm blaming you two."

"Deal." Xander smirked, pushing the pages over. "Here's the first steps. Do you think we can learn the Protean soon?"

"It depends, I haven't looked at it too closely yet," Hermione sighed, "It's on next year's reading list, to be honest. I'll move it up."

Xander grinned at her. Only Hermione had her reading lists planned out like that, AND could remember them so easily. Well, her and maybe Willow. He wasn't sure about Wednesday, maybe her too, but it was hard to tell. All he ever saw her reading was horror tales.

Xander made a note to introduce her to Horror comics sometime.

For the moment, though, they had a project and he had a rather difficult spell to learn.