A/N:

Hello again! Another update, a little later than I had hoped.

As ever, I hope you enjoy!

The witching hour was upon them, the time when Hogwarts stood most still. Not even the prefects stirred, all their appointed rounds finished in time for them to sleep. Portraits snored in their frames, their deep breaths masking the sound of footsteps padding along the corridors in slippered feet.

Rose walked at the head of a sleepy column, feeling very much like a pied piper leading her fellow Gryffindors into trouble. After they had discovered what they had, James had insisted on bringing the others into this. It was, he had said, far too important now that they all knew what was going on. He had been persuaded of the need for as many allies as possible, and now they were together it sat badly with his honour to keep them in the dark, even for a night. So, they had each been dispatched in their separate directions. Peter remained behind, to copy the papers and reset the modified charm (he was good at that), while Sirius made a beeline for the kitchens to get them the necessary supplies to get through the coming conversation. Remus hurried off in the direction of the Hufflepuff common room, ready to sneak in and collect Edgar without making any fuss. James had volunteered to retrieve Caradoc from Ravenclaw Tower, which left Rose with having to corral their housemates. Which, Rose wanted stated for the record, was like herding cats. First she had had to go up to the boys dormitory, and throw cold water over Benjy and Frank to get them to wake up - fortunately they had the sense not to hex her, probably aware of the repercussions. Then she had to go and brave the girls dormitory. Mary and Lily had been easiest to wake; Mary's sweet disposition reflecting even when she had awoken, and Lily had taken one bleary-eyed look at Rose and instantly been out of bed, pulling on her dressing gown. With Lily's help, Marlene and Alice had been tackled next, Mary approaching Hestia (who'd been awakened by the noise) and Emmeline (who could sleep through rock concert) and woken them.

Sneaking through the castle corridors, evading any prefects that might actually be awake and on duty at this time (unlikely as it was unspoken but understood that midnight was the cutoff for such ludicrousness) was much easier when Rose didn't have a gaggle of grumpy Gryffindors along for the ride. She led them to what appeared to be an average fourth floor alcove, guarded by the stone figure of a knight, and waited. The statue came to life, visor grating as he bowed his head. "My Lady."

"Noble Sir" Rose replied - they had been thrilled when they had found him as guardian of this forgotten sitting room. The Knight stared levelly at her, not asking for the password as the other guardians in the castle did. Rose coughed, knowing this particular password was something of a mouthful. "Lupinotuum pectinem enim dormiens numquam surgere." The Knight nodded, a door-sized section of wall melting away on command.

"What on Earth was that?" Emmeline yawned, quite a picture in her fuzzy pink robe and slippers.

"It's Latin" Rose shrugged, winking at her sister who seemed to have some clue as to what it might mean. "Inside Marauder joke. Nevermind it."

"Uh-huh" Emmeline yawned again, tilting her head to try and see inside the room. Despite herself, Rose grinned. This was something she had been looking forward to since James had suggested this location as their new meeting place.

The first thing that caught attention when someone entered the room, was the cheerily burning fire. Through some magical trickery hundreds of years old, it burned first red and gold, then yellow and black, silver and green, and finally bronze and blue, changing colour every five minutes or so. The scent was of the fireplace, old books, tea, and chocolate, creating a relaxing atmosphere. Arched windows dotted here and there along the walls displayed images of whatever the inhabitants wanted at the time - now it was the views outside the castle, stars in the sky and the breeze blowing through the trees of the Forbidden Forest. Except, that was, for the solitary window located near the right of the room, which clearly displayed the grounds of the Potter Manor by night. James leaned against the wall by that window, staring out at the grounds of his childhood home. The rest of the walls were either left blank (possible entrances that the Marauders hadn't used tonight), or were covered in book cases that nearly groaned under the weight of centuries worth of books abandoned and forgotten about. Two desks were set into either side of the room - one on the left, the other on the right - while a single arched doorway led off to two separate bedchambers, which the Marauders typically used when they needed to get some sleep away from their dormitories. The finishing touches to the room were the overstuffed couches and armchairs that littered the room, resting on squishy rugs and inviting them to just curl up and relax. That was what the rest of their group was doing, relaxing while enjoying a nice cup of tea and some biscuits scrounged from the closed kitchens. Remus, predictably, even had his head buried in one of the books.

"What is this place?" Mary wondered, looking around in awe.

"We think it was originally a sitting room for the Head Boy and Girl, way back in the early days of the school" Remus replied, eyes alight. "Nowadays it's deserted, and we decided to turn it into one of our many hidden places around the castle."

"Why are you sharing it with us now?" Lily asked, still taking in the room's possibilities.

James shrugged easily. "It's more convenient than the Room of Requirement, and password protected so we can all meet to discuss our endeavours without fear of being interrupted or spied upon."

"Don't be such a berk, Prongs" Sirius sighed, offering the newcomers a smile from his seat by the fireplace. He got to his feet, gesturing grandly around at everything the room had to offer. "Welcome to the Marauders' Den. Found in first year by some intrepid, troublemaking firsties, and never shared with a single outside soul in all that time." He inclined his head, conceding some unspoken point. "Until now. You should be honoured."

"We'll be honoured in the morning, Black" Marlene growled, dropping huffily into one of the unoccupied overstuffed couches.

Lily stepped forward, stopping just short of joining her friend. "What Marley means is, while this place is mind blowing, six years after the fact is hardly an excuse to drag us out of bed at gone midnight." Red hair flicked over her shoulder. "We have class tomorrow."

"And we have quidditch practice" Benjy echoed, joining James on the team as a chaser. He frowned at them, blonde hair tousled and jumper thrown on over his jammies. "What's going on, James?"

"What makes you think something is going on?" Peter wondered, his tone suggesting that there definitely was something going on.

"Aside from the fact that you dragged us out of bed at midnight?" Hestia checked, steadfastly avoiding the couch with Frank and Alice on it. "How about the fact that Potter looks like hell, Black looks vaguely murderous, Lupin is reading something I believe in actual Latin, Peter is mainlining fudge flies when he thinks we're not looking, and Rose got Lily out of bed without having to say a word." She turned to Peter, brown eyes wide and pointed. "Is that enough of a reason for you?"

"Very observant for half past midnight" Remus praised, eyes never leaving what appeared to be an actual copy of the Historia Regum Brittaniae.

"I'm a night owl" Hestia shrugged, taking the seat beside him as if his offer had been implicit.

"What is going on?!" Marlene demanded, seconds away from throwing things at either James or Sirius.

James shared a long look with Sirius, reluctantly coming to join them. He stopped to retrieve some sheaves of parchment from a small chest on one of the bookshelves, tossing it down onto the table that stood between the furniture.

There was almost a moment or two of frozen confusion before anyone reached for one of the pages before them. Rose took this time to envy them their innocence, knowing that once they realised what they were looking at, things were going to get difficult. For all of them. In the meantime, she curled into her usual chair, summoned a cup of tea and some biscuits, and tried to pretend that this was just an ordinary evening in the Marauders Den - no war, no Death Eaters, just a return to the research that had been their evenings until they'd achieved the animagi transformation.

"What is this?" Caradoc asked, glancing at the parchment copies before them. What they were was obvious, but it was something that none of them were prepared to accept.

"What is that?" James laughed, dark and bitter like burnt coffee beans brewed too long. "It's the pet project of our unfriendly neighbourhood Slytherins." His hazel eyes were a stormy night and his expression the White Queen's Narnia. "It's a partial list of names."

"What names?" Marlene asked, sounding like she very much didn't want to know. "Lily, Rose, little Andy Addison. They have nothing in common, besides Lily and Rose being twins. Andy is so far the only child of their family at this school."

"Rose, Andy, myself" Lily stated in a tone far too detached to be calm. "We're all muggle borns. That's why Sirius looks like he wants to go and kill his brother. It's why James clearly punched a wall. And it's why they called us out of bed at this hour."

Rose felt the silence stretch on for a long moment, knowing that their brilliant friends were putting together what they had not so long before.

"A list of all the muggle born students in the castle?" Marlene checked, eyes fairly snapping with fury. "I can't believe it! Why would?- no not why, we know why. They're morally bankrupt murdering, scummy bastards. The question is how could they do that? There are children on this list. Children!"

"What better way to prove their loyalty than to make a nice big list of all the mudbloods in the entire school" Mary snarled, tone as bitter as James's had been. "Identification, then I assume little accidents that the Ministry will overlook as simply bad luck." She jerked her chin towards the pile of parchment. "Which page am I on?"

"The first one" Alice murmured, the page crinkled in her fist. "Not far from Lily and Rose."

Marlene nearly tore the page from Alice's hand to confirm it, beautiful face paling at the confirmation. "You have to show this to Dumbledore."

"And say what?" James wondered, already having gone down this path before. "That we were out of bed after curfew, spying on our fellow students, and broke in to one of their rooms and copied their papers?" He gave a mirthless laugh. "Not likely. He'll go to them and they'll make some transparent excuse about secret Santa for all I know and Dumbledore will believe it. And we're up the creek again, this time without so much as a canoe. They'll be onto us, and the entire thing will just explode in our faces."

"So what?" Benjy checked, frustrated at their inability to act. "We let them do this? We let them get away with this?" He jerked a chin at the paper he clearly wanted to set fire too. "Marlene's right. There are children on that list. Children with the possibility of younger siblings who inherited the same gifts. How can we just ignore this when kiddies are involved?!"

"We don't ignore it" Remus growled, offended at the implication. "We never said that we were going to ignore it, Benjy. All we said was that Dumbledore would dismiss this. Not that we were."

"Dumbledore might not dismiss this" Alice suggested hopefully. "He trusts you, he has to. Hogsmeade had to have shown him something-"

"Oh, it did" Sirius growled, casting a look towards the exit closest to the path to the Slytherin dungeons. "It showed him that we might not be children anymore, but that he can still treat us that way. No matter how much we do, how much we sacrifice, what we inflict on those bastards - we're still just those little firsties that fell in the Black Lake trying to ram into Snivelly's boat."

"Those were good times" Peter offered, trying on a smile that was about as fake as any fellow feeling in the Slytherin house. Rose admired him for the attempt, if not for the success of it.

"This is an adults war" Alice announced, sitting forward in her seat. "Children shouldn't be dragged into this."

"They already have been" James growled, throwing his arms up into the air. "Think about it! Every day that Voldemort or his followers murder an innocent, they're dragging children into this. Children growing up without a parent, a grandparent, a cousin or sibling, a friend, an aunt or uncle. This war affects children whether they're in it or not. All those bastards have done is paint the target on more innocent lives than before today."

"Dumbledore has to be informed about this" Lily stated, ready to fight her point. "They're his students, he deserves to know what's going on."

"And what proof of our suspicions can we offer?" Caradoc asked, understanding the Marauders' point better than most. "An innocent list?" He shook his head, carding a hand through messy hair. "Until we have actual evidence of where that list is going to go - who it is intended for - we have nothing concrete. It's more or less hearsay." Caradoc rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously, flushing at their surprise. "My Dad's a wizarding lawyer. Or at least our equivalent of it."

Marlene set her cup back down on the table, her eyes telling a tale Rose recognised in them all. Frustration, hopelessness, anger and resignation, all warring with a desire to get out there and do something - any kind of action would be better than the inactivity and helplessly they all felt. "So" Marlene began, her tone the kind of pleasantly conversational that meant nothing good. "You dragged us out of bed at gone midnight to tell us that the Slytherins are identifying and betraying the muggle born population of this school. But that it's all in hand because we can't do anything about it. And even Dumbledore wouldn't believe us should we go and tell him."

Dorcas held up her hand, stalling the bickering before it could start. "Hang on a minute" she cut in, staying strong under the combined weight of the gazes of the others. "Maybe we're overreaching here with the helplessness of the situation." Her dark chocolate gaze fixed on James. "Do you have a plan for how we're going to deal with this? Or was this supposed to be a giant brainstorming session after getting kicked in the pants?"

James fidgeted with his glasses, uncomfortable with the suddenness of the conversation's turn. Nevertheless, he straightened in his seat, refocusing on Dorcas with all the conviction that James usually exuded. "The plan remains the same. Surveillance, evidence gathering, duels in the corridor if it comes down to it." Hazel eyes fixed on grey for a fleeting moment, then James nodded as if agreeing to something. "Now, we have to just amend the plan a touch. We take the muggle borns and blood traitors under our protection. They don't need to know about it, but we have to keep an eye on them as often as possible. And, should it ever become necessary, we step in and do whatever we have to do to keep the innocents safe." There wasn't anything they could say to that, not when James delivered it with such certainty, such belief in their ability to follow through. It did little for the claustrophobic sense of helplessness in the room, but it would be reassuring when they found a way to push past it.

Some time later, it could have been ten minutes or twenty, Frank echoed what was on most of their minds. "Why is it that no matter what we do, or how well we do it, all that happens is that we get dragged further and further into this mess?"

James glanced up, ready to speak, but Lily's musical voice beat him to it. "Because this is a war, Frank" she said softly. "Because it's not a war fought in the open, it's a war of shadows."

"Voldemort's not going to come out and take control of the Ministry, not even unofficially" Sirius added, anger still simmering away under his nonchalant facade. "He's going to fight it through terror, by making us second guess everything and everyone. We won't know where he'll strike, or at who, and stuck in here all we can do is make life bloody difficult for the odious bastards that can't wait to officially join his cause."

"Okay, I have got to ask this" Remus announced, fairly growling into the silence of their pity party. "Do we all have a gigantic magical 'kick me' sign on our backs? Because I can think of no other explanation for the relative tonne of shit that comes toppling right into our lives."

"I think that's a fairly accurate representation of our cosmic fortunes, Remus" Benjy acknowledged, the others just beginning to refocus on the secret werewolf.

"It's true" Rose chuckled bitterly. "First Sirius gets disowned because he won't join the bastards, then we're attacked in Hogsmeade on his birthday. Next it's overhearing the recruitment drive at Hogwarts, then Dad" her voice trembled but Rose pushed on. "And now this? Muggle born lists?"

"We're going to get through this" Remus stated firmly, not wavering for a second.

"Of course we are" Sirius agreed, his infuriatingly (fake) patient tone grating on the nerves that said Rose might be overreacting.

"Can we really?" Rose demanded, running her hands through her hair as if that could somehow keep her together. But it couldn't. It was too much. She could feel the pressure physically building up inside of her, words screaming to be let out, and she couldn't- she just couldn't hold it in any longer. "Out there in muggle England, my father - my FATHER - is dying of a disease that muggle medicine can neither detect nor cure." She laughed, unaware and uncaring of the hysterical bitterness in the mirthless peal. "And now Voldemort is bringing the fight to our doorstep - not just to us, but to the innocents of this castle. To the children that have done nothing to him but exist and be born of muggle parents. He's turning student against student. Sowing havoc and destruction in the one place that is and should be the safest place from Voldemort and his vile beliefs." She turned to Sirius, knowing that she was unloading on him unfairly, but utterly unable to either stop herself or even care. "I know I can't do anything for Dad, but by Godric, I will fight for our safety. I will fight until this bloody war is destroying them like they want it to destroy us." Lily nodded her agreement, brushing a tear from her face.

"We all will" Sirius promised, the anger gone from eyes now shining with empathy. "We all are, Sweetheart." The others made sounds of agreement, all determined to fight despite the crushing sense of futility that weighed them down like millstones. Sirius stood up, beginning to pace as he always did when he needed to get his thought flowing. "If it helped, I would walk right into the Slytherin dungeons and hex every last one of those Death-worshipping bastards into primordial ooze - and believe me, I'm having a very hard time resisting that impulse." He turned back to them, resigned. "But while briefly satisfying, it would only do more harm than good."

"Sirius Black, preaching restraint" Marlene teased, lightening the tense atmosphere just enough that they felt they could breathe a little again.

"Ha ha" James smirked, picking up where Sirius left off. Sirius came to crouch beside her, understanding and silently offering his support. He really was wonderful. "We can't attack the bastards with no apparent provocation" James announced calmly, leading by example. "If we did that, we look like the aggressors. That gives them the moral benefit, the ethical benefit, makes them look the innocent party. If we are to be the good side in this war, we have to act it. We have to wait, and only act when we know we are in the right."

"How the bloody hell are we supposed to beat him?" Marlene demanded, for a moment looking so exhausted that Rose wondered how any of them were supposed to survive this.

"We wear the bastards down" James growled, the sound like a thunderclap. "We stick to them like barnacles, wear them down until they're jumping at their own shadows, fleeing the cause like the plague infested rats they are - no offense, Pete."

"None taken" Peter replied, waving his hand.

"Before we go back to bed, because it's gone one in the morning and I'm knackered" Benjy started, managing a weak smile. "Can someone recap our immediate plan of action?"

"We watch and gather evidence" Remus responded easily, the only sign of his tiredness the rings growing around his eyes.

"And when we have the evidence?" Lily checked, Mary hiding a yawn beside her.

Rose glanced at James, knowing the decision was ultimately his in the end. He was their leader in this as most other things. He looked at Lily, determined to have her understand that he was telling the truth. "When we have the evidence, we go to Dumbledore, and if he doesn't act then we will."

Thank you for reading.

Reviews are very much appreciated.