Disclaimer: If I was JK Rowling, this story would be a whole heck of a lot better, and might actually get some reviews...
Chapter Twelve: The First Month
The month that followed was stressful for the group. Remus stayed in the Hospital Wing, his shoulder slowly healing. Lily, James, Sirius and Jenna continued feeling guilty for their actions, but not so guilty that they swore off pranks altogether. They helped him with his school work, and kept him company even when there was none. The friendship between the five grew.
The four served their weekly detentions, usually a mind-numbing or disgustingly hard task. One memorable occasion found them with the groundskeeper, Hagrid, the giant man who had led the first years across the lake.
"Yeh'll be de-grubbing my tomatoes." Hagrid showed them the plants, which were infested with hundreds of the little worms. Jenna was slightly revolted at the sight of so many wiggly, pale grey creatures. "Don't let 'em back onto the plants. When yer finished, I'll take care of the baskets."
He gave them baskets and they set to work.
Fifteen minutes showed how dull the task was, for the boys anyway. Lily was nervous about being so close to the Forest, and Jenna hated touching the grubs. So James and Sirius found a way to amuse themselves.
"I bet you I could eat it." Sirius held up a pale, wiggling grub.
"Yeah, right. You'll get sick." James answered, in a tone that actually encouraged his friend.
With a grimace, Sirius actually put the worm in his mouth and, nearly gagging, swallowed it whole. "Hah. I did it." He looked a little green. "I win."
"Not if I can do better!" James held up two worms, opened his mouth, and popped them in. He gagged. "Ugh!" But he managed to swallow.
"Oh, yeah? I bet I can eat more than you!" Sirius challenged. So they began, eating grub after slimy, wriggly grub. When Lily saw what they were doing, she began cheering each on in turn. Jenna nearly vomited.
Hagrid looked out the window of his cottage, to see why they were making so much noise. "Yeh know, them worms are better fried. Nice an' crispy."
The four exchanged looks that said, quite clearly, "This man is insane." The look was followed by Sirius quickly turning a most interesting shade of green, and emptying the contents of his stomach.
"I think yeh'd better get 'im to the Hospital wing."
With Hagrid's recommendation, and with Lily supporting him, Sirius went off to see Madame Pomfrey. James and Jenna followed behind.
Madame Pomfrey tut-tutted the appropriate amount for a foolish boy eating parasites, but administered medicines to calm Sirius' stomach. When the four told Remus about the culinary aspect of the detention, all five got a good laugh.
The end of the month, and the date of Remus' first transformation, came much more quickly than he would have liked. The full moon was set to come on the 28th of November. The week preceding it, Madame Pomfrey declared Remus' shoulder healed enough that he could leave the Hospital Wing, as long as he was careful.
During this week, especially the last several days, Remus started looking more and more scared. Most of his classmates didn't know why he was increasingly pale and more withdrawn than usual. They attributed it to his newly recovered wound. The school had been told that Remus had been injured, but no one knew by what. Nor did they know the true reason for the newly planted Whomping Willow, a rare specimen that was supposedly for study by Professor Sprout, who taught Herbology.
His friends knew. And they worried with him. None of them knew what it would be like to transform into a wolf. Remus had a small idea, from his dreams right after the attack, but that idea scared him more. As nightfall approached, Madame Pomfrey came to lead him to the newly installed Whomping Willow. A long pole enabled her to freeze the vicious tree, and Remus entered the tunnel, leading to a newly built, two story house.
Remus' four friends knew that it would be a painful, scary night for Remus. He had told them what his dreams had told him. After bidding him goodnight, the four retreated to the boy's dormitory. After evicting Peter, they sat on two of the beds, and drew comfort from each other, like they had in the Hospital Wing. The subject of somehow helping Remus was brought up again, as it had several times that month.
During the month, the four had read as much about werewolves as they could find in the library. Nowhere was there any reference to any spell or potion that could tame a werewolf. The closest that they could find was, repeated in several books, a statement that said a werewolf would not harm animals, only humans.
Their discussions always came back to this point. Professor McGonagall had told the students about Animagi, wizards that could turn into animals without a wand or a spoken word. They were extremely rare, because this was so difficult to accomplish.
"I wonder if werewolves don't hurt Animagi." That point always came up, too, this time said by Jenna.
"I don't think they would. I think this is our best chance." James answered.
"We should try." The full moon gave Lily the incentive needed to give the final decision.
The other three were in agreement.
"But how do we find out how to do it?" Jenna asked.
"I'm sure there's a book in the restricted section of the library." The section James named was full of books of a dangerous nature, with the most difficult spells and potions. The section was always roped off and poorly lit.
"What! Are you insane?" Jenna was still careful about breaking the rules, perhaps even more so since Halloween.
"Well, are we going to do this or not? We have to go in there if we're going to help Remus." James stood up and started pacing the room. "This whole thing was all our fault. We have to do our best to help him get through this. This is the only way we can. I'm doing it. Who's with me?"
"I am!" Sirius stood.
"I am, too." Lily agreed.
"I'll try, but you know I'm not very good in Transfiguration." Jenna was a little more hesitant.
"We'll have to work together. We won't be able to do this otherwise."
Four people just did not fit under James' invisibility cloak, despite Jenna's small size. The boys more than made up for that. That made the midnight trek to the library more difficult. Lily went ahead under the cloak to provide a lookout. The others followed, listening carefully for a warning if someone was coming.
There was only one tense spot in the journey. A ghost popped out of the wall in front of the three following. Having no warning, Jenna jumped and would have yelled if James hadn't clapped his hand over her mouth. "Sh!"
The ghost saw them, but winked and said, "I remember nighttime wanderings at Hogwarts. Go carefully," and left as quickly as he had appeared.
"Whew. That was close." James whispered.
The rest of the journey was accomplished quickly and quietly. Lily took the cloak off at the doors to the library and they entered.
The restricted section was at the back of the library. The room was dark and spooky at night, though one of Jenna's favorite places during the day. Black bookcases rose out of the gloom, silhouetted by the full moon sneaking in the tall windows. The windows to the library were on the north side of the castle, so not much light came in.
"Lumos," Each of the four illuminated their wand, as there was now little chance of being caught by Mr. Filch. They crept down the aisles, making little noise, since each sound echoed and was magnified by the dark room, which increased the spooky-ness of the library. Finally, they reached the velvet rope designated the restricted section and slid under it. Except for Sirius, who vaulted over it.
"Okay, each of you take a section." James instructed quietly.
The four spread out and begun searching for any book that might mention Animagi. Several minutes later, Sirius called the rest over. "Look at this." He pointed to a page in the book he held.
"Sirius. We're looking for books on Animagi. Not maps." Lily reminded him, none too gently.
"Yeah, I know. But this would come in handy."
"Why?" Lily replied acridly.
"Think about it… a map that would show the entire castle… and the people in it…" James had caught on with Sirius' thought.
"Do you think it would be hard?" Jenna asked.
"I don't know. Ask Lily. She's best in Charm," Sirius answered.
"Let me see." Lily took the book from Sirius and read the page. "I don't think so. The charm looks simple enough. All we need is a map."
"We can get that from Hogwarts: A History." James left the restricted section to find the book.
He returned a few minutes later, opening the book to the front page, which had a detailed map of the castle. Sirius took the book and started ripping the page out.
"No! You can't do that!" Jenna was horrified. "Just copy it."
"Do you have a piece of parchment?" James asked.
"Oh, I do." Lily took a folded piece out of her back pocket. Sirius took it, preformed a simple copying spell, and gave it back to Lily.
"Next we have to do this charm on it." She followed the direction carefully, but the first time it didn't work, just emitted a faint orange light. "Okay, try again." This time it worked. A little dot appeared in the library, labeled with four names: Lily Evans, Jenna Smith, Sirius Black and James Potter. A quick perusal of the modified map showed that Madame Pomfrey was, naturally, in the Hospital wing, Hagrid was in his garden, and Filch was patrolling the dungeons.
"Excellent," Sirius breathed.
"Wait, there's more." Lily had looked further in the book. "We can make it show hidden passages, and we can make it appear only when we want."
"Cool!"
Lily performed the first spell without a problem, carefully following the instructions. A few more halls appeared, drawn on as if with an invisible quill.
"What should we call it?"
"Um, how about 'The Secret Map?'" Sirius suggested.
"Uh, how 'bout not. I like 'The Magnificent Creation by the Magnificent Four.'" Lily answered.
"What about Remus? I think 'The Marauders' Map' is good." James said.
"Yeah, I like that." Sirius responded.
"So, I guess we're the Marauders?" Jenna asked.
"Yep. Good description, don't you think?" James answered.
"The Marauders' Map' it is."
"Wait, before you finish." Sirius stopped Lily. "I think we should have like an introduction."
"Like what?"
"I don't know, like maybe we should have code names or something."
"Like yours would be 'Biggest Git to Ever Walk the Planet?'" Lily grinned.
"And yours would be "Snot Queen of the Universe?"
"Um, good idea, but let's wait on it. We can do our Animagus forms." James stopped Lily and Sirius. Their little matches of wit could turn ugly sometimes.
"If we can do it."
"Don't be so pessimistic, Jenna Grace. We'll do it." James gently rebuked her for her lack of faith in Lily's abilities.
Lily preformed the final spells. "Okay, to use it, you say "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," and when you're done, say 'Mischief Managed.'"
"Cool. Let's try it." Sirius was eager to play with their new toy. "Let's use some of the passages to get back to the dormitories."
On the way back up, they didn't need to have a lookout, as the newly christened Marauders' Map told them when someone was near, and they could duck into a nearby classroom, or take one of the newly found hallways. Halfway there, however, James remembered something.
"We never found anything on Animagi!"
Lily sighed. "Oh, well. Next month."
The four now had plans for every full moon. When Remus went to the Whomping Willow, they would sneak to the library, aided by the map, and look for anything and everything on Animagi. The second full moon they were successful. The book, "Human Transformations," was taken from the library and hidden at the bottom of Lily's trunk. Every month, they would meet in the boys' dormitory, and work on becoming Animagi. It was hard work. The spells involved were far above their level. But they steadfastly continued working on it, determined to do this for their friend.
They never told Remus. It would be a surprise for him when they finally accomplished it.
You know, I find it interesting that my stats say that only one person has read chapter 8, but more than twenty have each of the following chapters. And very few have reviewed!
Note added April 22, 2007- Okay, I need some advice from any readers out there, as I am still suffering from a lack of a beta... I just re-read PoA, and found some bits that made my scene for the creation of the map very non-cannon. I want to re-write it, taking the map out of this chapter and putting it in it's proper place, somewhere after fifth year. Unfortunately, I kind of like this scene. I don't know why, but it pains me to just delete it, and I don't really know what to put in it's place. So, please tell me which you would prefer, and I'll figure something out. And, I could really use a beta, if anyone's interested...
In unrelated matters, Christmas music in April is possibly the most annoying thing I've ever been forced to endure... And I'm not speaking to the weather... and I'm sorry for this mega-note, but my network's going screwy and I can't navigate away from this page until it decides to behave. I think the storm has done something to the connection...