Okay, so here's the next chapter. Enjoy!

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Harry watched as his mother chatted with her friends, her eyes – so like his – laughing at a joke that her friend had told.

"Oy! Earth to Harry"

A chicken drumstick collided with the side of his head, literally knocking him out of his reverie.

"Ow!"

He glared at Sirius, the obvious thrower.

"What was that for?"

"You weren't listening," He replied innocently, retrieving the drumstick off of Harry's plate, "I see you were admiring Hogwarts' collection. Of girls." He added at Harry's confused look.

Harry blushed. He hadn't even though about that. He had a girlfriend who he loved very much, and he did not particularly want to be with someone at least twice his age!

"Don't worry." Sirius continued, misinterpreting Harry's expression, "They are very good looking. Well most of them. Some of the Slytherins, well, let's just say it's hard to distinguish between the girls and the guys!"

"Only to you Padfoot," Said Remus, amused, "and that's only because you still haven't bothered to learn any of their names, except for the good looking ones, or the non-Slytherins! But anyway," he turned to Harry "Whilst we're on the subject of girls… We don't have many rules in the Marauders – the four of us – but we do have one. Lily Evans is taken."

"Who?" Harry asked for the sake of his act, although he was attempting to not burst out laughing. Remus opened his mouth to answer but James got there first.

"Her," he said, pointing down the table at Lily, "She is out of bounds, no access. She may not know it yet, but she is my future wife."

He drew himself up, eyes glazed over as he pictured future fantasies. He did not seem to notice his friends determinately keeping straight faces.

Harry himself was disgusted at the thought of dating his mother, but at the same time he was ecstatic that his dad was so totally in love with her.

"Don't worry," he laughed as James came back to reality, blinking rather rapidly, "I have a girlfriend back home. Not interested."

"A girlfriend?" Now he had captured Sirius' attention once more, "What's she like?"

"She's the best girlfriend ever. She stuck with me even though I've been a real prat, and I don't deserve her in the slightest. She is the most beautiful girl on the planet in my eyes. She's also my best mate's little sister." He added as an afterthought.

Sirius spat out his pumpkin juice all over Remus and James choked on his pudding.

"You're dating," Sirius gasped, ignoring a protesting (and soaking wet) Remus beside him.

"You're best friend's little sister?" James finished looking awed, "That takes some nerve mate."

Harry laughed, slightly shocked by their reactions.

"Yeah, I was really worried." He said, "It took me half the year to ask her out, I was too scared of her elder brothers, especially Ron."

"Brothers?" Remus asked, picking up on the plural, "As in more than one?"

Harry grimaced. "She ha- has six actually. Ron, Bill, Charlie, Percy, George and Fred."

His eye twitched slightly on Fred's name, but none of the Maruaders noticed. They were too busy staring at him in awe.

"Six brothers," Sirius said in a hushed voice, "And one of them is your best mate! That is just – Six!"

"Don't mind him," said Remus to a bemused Harry, "He can't understand why you would go through all that trouble. He hasn't been with a girl for longer than two weeks."

Sirius opened his mouth to protest, paused, then shrugged and went back to attacking his plate of chocolate cake.

Back in the dormitory that night, Harry finally had a chance to look through his trunk that he supposed Hermione had sent back. In it he found a spare set of school robes, some normal clothes, his school books for this year (he had no idea how she managed that one), his invisibility cloak and the Marauders Map.

Seeing the last item, panicked though suddenly came to him. His real name would appear on the map, and the Marauders had a copy!

Shoving his belongings back inside the trunk, he glanced around. The rest of the Marauders were down in the common room showing off. But he couldn't count on them being occupied – they could appear at any moment.

He studied the rest of the room, taking in details which he had not noticed before. One of the beds had a Gryffindor banner hanging from it with a book (101 Magical Tricks and Jokes!") and a hairbrush – Sirius, Harry thought in amusement, It was unlikely that Remus or Peter would own that book and James and a hairbrush just did not fit together.

The bed next to Sirius' was completely bare of anything, but for a picture of a plump women on the bedside table. She had blond hair a kind face and bright blue eyes. Harry assumed this was Peter's mother, and Wormtail rose fractionally in his (very low) estimation of him. He clearly cared for his mother if for no one else.

The bed directly opposite from Peter's was a complete mess. The duvet was in a heap at the end of the bed and one of the pillows appeared to be positioned at the wrong end. Moving closer, Harry notice something carved into the chest of drawers beside it.

JP + LE

Grinning to himself, Harry moved to the trunk at the end of the bed. He would have to check the drawers in his time to see if the carving was still there. He unlocked the trunk, rolling his eyes when it opened with a simple alohamora. The map was most likely in James' trunk, and his theory was proven correct when he came across, amongst the jumbled mess of old robes and quidditch books, a slightly worn out piece of parchment.

He picked it up triumphantly, but at that moment he heard footsteps on the stairs. Panicked, he threw a few clothes back into the trunk, slammed it shut, and leaped across to his own bed, ramming the map in his pocket as he did so.

He landed on his bed just as Remus came through the door.

"Hello there," Harry said in as cheerful a voice as he could manage.

"Hi," said Remus, moving over to the bed closest to the door and opening his trunk.

"Sirius and James asked to copy my homework so I left." He explained, straightening upright and smiling at Harry who was still trying to look as innocent as possible.

"They never do any of their own work, I mean just look at James' bed!"

He gestured to the mess that Harry had made, looking exasperated. "I don't remember it being this bad though…"

Harry's heart skipped a beat, as Remus looked around thoughtfully. Just then the door burst opened and two people tumbled in.

"Quick, shut the doors!" James yelled, as he and Sirius scrambled to hide behind a confused Remus. Peter, who had scurried in behind them, hastened to obey, just as more footsteps could be heard on the stairs.

"POTTER! BLACK!"

"Oh no, it's McGonagall," said Sirius looking helplessly at James. "What do we do?"

"Uhh, pretend it wasn't us, she has no proof,"

Remus opened his mouth to ask a question but at that moment Professor McGonagall stormed through the doors.

"Potter! Black! I know it was you two!"

James looked up from a hastily grabbed book, looking convincingly bemused.

"What's the matter, Professor," he asked innocently.

"You know perfectly well what the matter is James Potter," McGonagall growled, glaring at him, "You and Black set off a batch of fireworks in the Entrance Hall!"

"Well, that's not too bad," said Remus, confused, "we've done way worse than that."

"I was not finished ." Professor McGonagall continued, "These fireworks had been enchanted to explode and have varied effects on the victim below. The Hospital Wing is overflowing! Bradley Pickle turned into a cat!"

Harry was extremely impressed by the marauder's will power. None of them had given any signs of amusement at these words. Their faces showed nothing but concern.

"But Professor," Sirius began, "you can't prove it was us-"

"Don't be ridiculous Black," Professor McGonagall snapped, "Of course it was you. No one else would do anything this stupid. All four of your will serve a weeks' worth of detention with me."

"But you have no proof Professor," Remus protested indignantly – Harry assumed that he had not helped much with this particular incident.

"Can any of you produce an alibi of where you were this afternoon?" Professor McGonagall asked sceptically.

The four boys looked helplessly at each other, and Harry decided to speak.

"Why Professor, they've been up here." He said, attempting to imitate the innocent expression he had seen Fred and George assume so often, "We came up here after lessons and they've been telling me about the school ever since."

Professor McGonagall stared at him, which was lucky as all the Marauders were looking at him, shocked, which would have definitely given the game away.

Finally, McGonagall pursed her lips.

"Hmm, okay, this one time I will give you the benefit of the doubt, but if I find out that any of you had even the slightest thing to do with this…" She left the threat hanging and departed, leaving a loud silence in her wake.

Sirius crept to the door and shut it before turning to Harry.

"Why did you do that?" he said, looking suspicious

Harry was confused.

"Would you have preferred it if I hadn't?" he asked.

Sirius narrowed his eyes at him.

"No, but why would you help us. You don't know us."

Harry didn't understand why Sirius cared so much. He had just been trying to help.

"I was trying to be a nice person, but next time I guess I won't bother."

"No!" James said, looking at Harry with respect, "Sirius just doesn't trust people, don't take it personally. Besides, imagine what we could get away with if we have you giving us an alibi the whole time. It's brilliant!"

"Uh, no," Remus interrupted, "The teachers will clue in eventually, we won't be able to pull it off forever."

"Yeah, but we have a week or two at least before they start realising what's going on."

Sirius had overcome his hostile attitude as soon as it had appeared, and was now staring at James, his eyes alight with excitement.

Harry watched the proceedings with amused exasperation. They had completely forgotten him, despite the fact that he was the subject of their conversation. Even Remus and Peter had joined in the scheming.

Harry turned round and pulled his shirt over his head, changing into his pyjamas. Not so much as a thank you…

He climbed into the familiar four poster and closed his eyes.

The map could wait for now…