Remus recovered quite quickly. He was allowed to leave the hospital wing that same evening. It usually took a few days for his wounds to heal. What an unspeakable luck he was to have such friends, he kept thinking.
The next day after class, the four friends roamed the lands.
"You know what this means?" James turned to his friends and walked backwards to talk to them.
"We can explore the forest every month and go further than any student has ever dared." He was already looking forward to the next full moon night.
"How do we manage to sneak out unnoticed every time?" mused Peter. "I mean, we're not actually allowed out at this time of night."
James waved it off. "Since when do we care about rules?"
"Peter's not even that wrong," Sirius interjected. "We need to get to Remus without running the risk of getting caught. If there's anything to warn us when a teacher is near us ..."
Sirius had convinced James. "There's some truth to that. But what spell could help?"
"How about an enchanted map of Hogwarts?" suggested Remus.
James and the other friends stopped. "That's a brilliant idea! Peter, you're good at drawing. I have the cloak of invisibility. We can explore and draw in every corner of Hogwarts!" he summarised excitedly.
"Yes, and we'll find a spell that shows the people on the map," Sirius added.
"Listen, next trip to Hogsmesde we're going to find a parchment to hold the map on. It's going to be a big and best project! And probably the best we'll ever get done too!"
So it was a done deal. Once they were in Hogsmead, they searched for a suitable parchment. "It has to be a parchment that can be folded up so we can transport it," Sirius determined.
"Yes, and we have to remember that Hogwarts is big," James added precociously. After searching everything, they found a suitable parchment. That evening they got straight to work in their dormitory. They had set up a table for it and sat on the floor all around. Peter started sketching the dormitory.
"Remember to sketch the corners," Sirius said. "Yes, yes ... I'm already at it," Peter replied.
They sat on the sketch late into the night. Sleep was out of the question because of the excitement. Peter drew not only the dormitory but also the common room.
"We should make sure that not everyone can read it. After all, it's our work and ours alone," James mused.
"Maybe with a code or a spell," Remus mused. "I'll go explore the library for something useful."
It was always an unusual sight to see not only Remus Lupin but also James Potter and Sirius Black in the library. They were looking for spells that might be useful for their map.
Remus, with his trained eye found the appropriate books the quickest. He took them to the dormitory. They spent the evenings working on the map. Peter drew, Sirius and James explored the castle to uncover more secrets of the school that belonged on the map and Remus researched useful spells in the books.
"I've found something!" announced Remus one evening as Peter was about to draw the Great Hall.
"It's a spell that needs a code to erase the map and bring it back into existence. We need to think of a word or phrase with the how to erase and another word or phrase to make it appear."
So they sat together over their map and discussed
"No, map is far too obvious, Peter."
"How about secret passage?"
"Neither. Can't you think of something better?"
James stood up and walked around the room.
"Okay ... let's think about this ...What are we making the map for? So we can see who is where and so we can better pull off the pranks without getting caught," he summarised and looked at his friends.
"That's what my mother calls a prankster," Remus said and Sirius clapped his hands. "What if we swear on it that we're a up to no good?" he asked to the crowd. "With that, we can reopen the map and to erase it, we say mischief managed." Sirius' suggestion was accepted by everyone and Remus ran his wand over the parchment to perform the spell, then tried it. "Mischief managed." The lines disappeared and they sat in front of a blank parchment. "Okay! Now make the map reappear!" demanded Sirius excitedly. Again Remus tapped the parchment with his wand. "I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good." The lines reappeared and the map became visible again. "Yah! It worked!" exclaimed Sirius joyfully.
"Let's all try it," James ordered. They did just that and it worked for all four of them. Quite happy with their new development, they stood up and high-fived each other and hugged, Sirius hugging Remus a little longer than his other two friends without realising it. "This is great progress!" announced James. "Let's steal some food from the kitchen to celebrate," he suggested, getting his cloak of invisibility out of his cupboard.
They left the dormitory. An hour later, they returned. Peter carried the food after them for James and Sirius before they settled down on the floor and polished off all the cakes and chicken legs. "I think our names should appear on the card when we open it," James said, waving his wand. Shortly after, a small plastic bag appeared, which he thrust into Peter's hand so that he could collect the leftovers.
"Yes, I agree," Sirius agreed, tossing a chicken bone into the plastic bag.
'But maybe we shouldn't use our real names, just in case someone does figure out how to use the map,' Remus suggested. "Nicknames would be a good idea," Sirius agreed.
They discussed nicknames at length as well.
"You can call yourself Snuffle, can't you?"
"Forget it, James. I'm not a snuggle!"
After much back and forth, their nicknames were decided: Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs. Together, they were the Marauders.