Thank you to all my reviewers for the last few chapters, as well as the people who have favourited/added to alerts. It really makes me smile :)

Andromeda shivered in the cold evening breeze and wrapped her robes closer around her. It could start snowing out here and she still would rather be freezing to death in the garden than be in the house with them. Merlin, she hated Death Eaters.

A loud POP! startled her and the house elf cowered away, apologising profusely he said, "Master Yaxley wants to see you, Mistress. In the dining room."

He disappeared again, leaving her alone as hope sparked inside her, perhaps he had to tell her that he was leaving for a while, on "official business" of course. She hurried inside, her heels clacking on the polished wooden floor. Pushing the door open, her face drained of colour at the gruesome sight in front of her. Blacks don't show emotion. Andromeda Yaxley fainted.

"I'm telling you there's something going on," Snape insisted. Homework forgotten, the others stared at him with varying degrees of scepticism before one of the girls spoke up.

"What evidence have you got?" Abigail challenged loudly, earning a glare from the old librarian watching them with distrust in her eagle eyes. Lowering her voice, she continued, "It's a big claim to make if it's just a hunch, Sev."

"It's not just a hunch!" he said hotly"Every full moon he disappears, then resurfaces covered in bruises and looking like hell. What other explanation is there for that?"

"You're thinking too much into it," Lily dismissed, picking her quill up again. Her voice took on a reproachful tone as she tucked a stray hair back behind her ear. "You know his mother is sick, that must be really difficult for him. You shouldn't be making up rumours to make his life even more difficult."

"I'm not making it up, Lily!" he insisted again, a slight flush appearing across his pale cheeks. Lily's dismissal hurt a lot more than Abi's.

"Right, that's it! Out the lot of you!" the librarian hissed, shooing them away from their desk. "This is a place for quiet study, not for you to behave like hoodlums! Out, now!"

Groaning and protesting, the teenagers stood up and began shoving parchment and textbooks back into their bags as Snape continued his argument in a heated whisper.

"He's been lying about going home to see his mother! I watched him leave with Madam Pomfrey the last time, they went to the Whomping Willow!" he hissed. Lily shook her head and swung her bag strap up over her shoulder before the group left the library.

"You were watching them?" Avery asked, his blonde eyebrows raised. He sniggered, "That's a little creepy."

"Oh like you can talk about being creepy!" Lily snapped, her green eyes flashing with anger as she remembered the incident that had happened last week. "Your little friend Mulciber isn't exactly charming!"

Seeing Avery was going to make a retort, Snape elbowed him sharply in the ribs. "Back to what I was trying to say… the noises coming from the Shrieking Shack-"

"It's haunted, of course there are going to be weird noises coming from it," Abigail scoffed as they rounded the corner. Seeing a familiar figure up ahead, her eyes narrowed. "And speaking of weird noises…. Where the hell were you?"

Leaning casually against the wall, his messy hair falling into his eyes in that... annoying way, Sirius just gave her one of those grins. "Come on, Abi, you know I'd never be caught dead in a library!"

Lily rolled her eyes as he sauntered over to join the group. "Maybe you should start being caught there alive then, before McGonagall actually does kill you."

"Nah, McGonagall loves me," he replied cheerfully. "But if you desperately want me to come next time, Evans…"

"As much as I hate to interrupt," Snape began, a sneer spread across his pale face.

"Could have fooled me," Sirius stated immediately. He scoffed, "You're not still going on about Lupin, are you? Y'know that's why Potter has been hassling you more than usual."

"I think we all know the real reason for that," Snape said coldly, his black eyes burning into Lily's, who looked away uncomfortably.

Sirius shrugged, done with the conversation. "Nope, I think I've missed something there. Anyway I'm glad I caught you lot without Reg tagging along. Got something to show you..."

A sharp pain across her face was the first thing she felt when she was dragged cruelly back to consciousness. Her stormy eyes opened slowly, her vision was blurred but she could still make out the motionless body lying only 5 feet away from her. A wave of nausea rose up from her stomach as a hard kick to her side sent her sprawling on the floor again before she was pulled to her feet. Yaxley pushed her up against the wall, his face contorted with rage.

"Yes that's right, take a good look at your little pet Mudblood," he spat. The fury inside him boiled and twisted inside him, screaming to get out. "Do you have any idea how much you have humiliated me, you stupid bitch!"

"I-I don't understand," she whispered, unable to tear her eyes away from Ted's body. "What did you do to him!"

A grotesque smile twisted his features as he replied, "Unfortunately, I did nothing except enjoy watching him die. The Dark Lord had the pleasure of ending his miserable life."

"No..." she moaned, crushing despair making her sink halfway down the wall. Her usual proud figure was gone, she looked so small in her grief. Ted was gone... along with her dreams of someday escaping this godforsaken house. No. No, he couldn't be gone. It was some sort of trick he was playing on her, to make sure she would stay with him. He was testing her, that had to be it.

Yaxley's hand tightened on his wand. Her outward display of emotion at the mudblood's death only added to his humiliation; his wife had been in love with scum, yet still hated him - one of her own, a pureblood, for Merlin's sake! He had failed where a mudblood had succeeded and that was unacceptable.

The two girls wrinkled their noses in disgust at the state and smell of the room in front of them, the boys sauntered in paying no attention. Snape dumped his bag on his bed - the only made one in the room - clearly still annoyed at the others. Sirius dropped down onto his bed and started rummaging around in his trunk for something. His hand closed around the familiar parchment and he grinned as he pulled it out.

"Ladies and gents," he announced, opening up the seemingly blank parchment with a flourish, "I present to you, the evidence that I, Sirius Orion Black, have had a much more productive afternoon than you lot."

"You actually managed to find the parchment supply your mother packed in September? Well done, Sirius," Abi said with a snort.

"Patience, Miss Nighthew, patience!" he chided, picking up his wand. "All is about to become clear..." Much to the other's bemusement, he tapped the parchment with his wand gently and stated, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Previously looking bored, Avery and Snape frowned and got up off their own beds to move closer as words began to appear on the page.

"What the hell..." Avery muttered. He read slowly,

"Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Featherwing, and Prongs
Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers
are proud to present
THE MARAUDER'S MAP"

"What is this?" he asked, looking up at Sirius who now had a smug expression on his face.

"It's a map of Hogwarts," he replied. Looking at the others to judge their reactions, he continued, "Nicked it off Potter."

Lily's eyes widened as they took in the strange artefact. "Wait... there's names on it... Sirius! You need to hand this in!"

"Are you kidding?" he scoffed. "This is gold!"

Confused, Abi took a closer look at the map trying to figure out what Lily was so upset about and the truth dawned on her a few moments later. Avery was still looking confused, while Snape looked grudgingly impressed.

"This map shows the people as well as the rooms of Hogwarts doesn't it?" she said. Trust Sirius to find this. "So Moony, Wormtail, Featherwing and Prongs are...?"

At this, Sirius frowned. "I don't know."

Too intent on the map, no one noticed Snape's eyes light up.