Chapter 27: Illumination.

"Ask Potter and Sirius, they'll be able to shed some light on it" It was the start of December and Marlene still hadn't asked the boys about the map or the police car, Regulus had been talking about. Lily and James were now a full blown couple having gone on two more dates since the first including a picnic on the astronomy tower – courtesy of Sirius. Every Sunday, Marlene and Regulus met in the Room of Requirement for Occlumency lessons. At first Marlene thought it would be hard to explain where she was, but after explaining she had been spending time with Regulus according to Dumbledore's instructions the others waved it off without another word. In the end it wasn't Marlene who brought up the map, it was Lily.

"Where do you and Regulus go for your private meetings?" Sirius asked one Wednesday during their morning free period. They were all sitting in the common room and were supposed to be studying for the surprise Herbology quiz – it wasn't really a surprise when Sirius had overhead Sprout tell McGonagall what she had planned for the last lesson of the day.

"Just about, sometime we go for walks other times, we're in the library."

Sirius just nodded incredulously. "Ever go into Hogsmeade?"

Marlene shook her head, "why would we do that?" She was about to say more but the bell rang. "Talk amongst yourselves." She gestured playfully to Peter, James and Sirius who all had another free period whilst, she, Lily and Remus had Arithmancy.

Once they had left the room James turned to Sirius. "What are you playing at?"

Sirius sighed. "I've been following Reg and Marl with the map only every time they go off radar. I'm not sure if it's a secret passageway or what but I can never find them."

"Mate, drop it give her the privacy she needs, she been placed in awkward situation by her brother and Dumbledore had found a way to turn it into an advantage."

Sirius grumbled, although he acted happy and brushed it aside whenever it cropped up. Inside he was worried, hurt and paranoid in case his brother harmed the girl he loved.

"What's the Marauder's Map?" Lily asked bluntly on the way down to Arithmancy.

Remus nearly walked into a suit of armour. "How do you know it's full name?"

Lily shrugged, "just a guess."

Marlene smiled. While Marlene tried her hardest to mind her own business, she knew Lily's curiosity would get the better of her. After Sirius had started stirring it in a few minutes earlier, all it took is for Lily to get one of the more weaker Marauders on their own and they would have the information they needed.

Remus swallowed, "I can't tell you."

"That just proves there is something suspicious and illegal about it." Marlene stated as they entered their classroom and took their regular table at the back of the class.

Lily smirked and Remus sighed. "Look if I tell you will you promise not to tell the boys that you know."

"Depends if Lily-Pop here, deems it necessary to angry at Jamesy-wamesy, for having an active part in something that breaks all of the school rules and threatens his position as big-head-boy." Lily glared at her.

It was Remus' turn to smirk, "I don't want to count the number of insults in that sentence."

Lily's glare was returned by Marlene's innocent smile.

After Professor Chaldean had set them their tasks for the class, Remus explained the map. "Its basically a map of Hogwarts that we've charmed to show where every single person at one given time, is. You're fortunate I have it with me." He reached into his bag and pulled out what looked like a blank piece of parchment. Tapping it with his wand he muttered a few words under his breath. Lily and Marlene gasped as thin ink lines spread out across the parchment, criss-crossing and fanning out to all four corners of the parchment. "Here." Remus tapped his wand to a section of the parchment. It was their classroom and every single member of their class.

Marlene glanced up amazed, she quickly scanned the 7th floor and was amused to find that Regulus was right they didn't know about the room. She looked to see if Professor Chaldean was busy marking their essays then turned to view Lily's reaction.

Remus held his breath. Lily seemed to be speechless. "That... is.... absolutely... and utterly..." Marlene felt sorry for the boys, they didn't know what was coming next. "...amazing." Lily breathed.

Marlene's jaw dropped open as did Remus' - they were not expecting that reaction.

"Erm... Lils?" Marlene asked tentatively.

"You guys are really smart, oh... which spells did you use... no wait don't tell me I want to work it out for my self..." Lily pulled the map closer to her and leant forward to study it, her efforts were thwarted however, when Remus quickly erased the parchment with another tap of his wand, just as Professor Chaldean came towards their table.

"Anything you need help with girls? Mr Lupin?" He asked smiling his infectious smile.

All three of them shook their heads, and Professor Chaldean moved on the the group of Ravenclaws who had been waiting to ask him a question.

Lily blushed at nearly being caught by a teacher and started on her work. Marlene and Remus shared a smile before also turning to their work.

The second mystery that Regulus brought to her attention, was the police car incident and she had no idea how James and Sirius would be able to illuminate it. If anything she would need to ask Martyn, but she really didn't want to speak to him.

Pushing it aside for the time being Marlene decided to break the silence that had descended over dinner, with an invitation.

"What are you all doing for Christmas?" She asked. They all shrugged and continued eating. "We're not angry about the map by the way." As soon as she had said that, the tension around the group lifted.

After they had come back from Arithmancy and gone for lunch, Remus had accidentally let slip that he had told the girls, and the boys immediately fell into a recluse, they stopped looking the girls in the eye, they avoided any physical contact. They didn't even give the girls a chance to praise it. They had jumped to the wrong conclusion.

"Any way." Marlene waved her hand fending off any unwanted interruptions. "Parent's say I can borrow the house on Christmas Eve, up for a little soiree?"

"Is that a posh word for booze and dancing?" James asked mischievously.

Marlene nodded, "If you agree we'll convert the conservatory into a small guest house for you guys. Only problem is, that Marytn will be there."

"Can we prank him?" Asked Sirius with an mischievous grin to rival James'.

She shrugged, "If you want. Just on the sly."

The four Marauder's exchanged gleeful glances.

Lily smiled, "Sounds fun, and we're close enough to the castle, to continue with our duties."

James looked up. "Duties?"

"If, on the off-chance the Head-Students remain at school during the Christmas Break, then they will be required to ensure rules are kept and to help the Professor's keep order within the castle."

James groaned whilst the rest of the group laughed.

Marlene had a sudden thought; "Speaking of hexing Martyn, he told me that during the summer holidays he was hit by a flying police car."

The reaction was instantaneous. Sirius and James both high-fived each other and gave a small cheer.

"That was your brother! Yes.... I mean... aw poor ickle Martyn-kins, bless his little cotton socks...."

Marlene laughed at James as he tried – and failed – to feel sorry for her brother. "What did you do?"

Sirius grinned, "Well it all started when Dumbledore asked us to fetch something, and I just had to show off my new flying motorbike, well anyway we were hurtling along breaking major speed limits like you do, when we got pulled over by the muggle authorities. Only they hadn't realised that the fact we were breaking speed limits is because we were being chased. Any way to cut a long story short, we levitated a police car to incapacitate the Death Eaters and allowed us to escape." He finished his story with a flourish and a bow.

Lily started at James, "That was really dangerous, and you used magic in front of muggles. What if anyone had been hurt!"

James cowered at the reprimand. "Sorry Lily."

Marlene just grinned at Sirius. "What?" He asked unnerved by the grin his girlfriend was giving him.

"Nothing." She said shaking her head and returning to her apple crumble.

"I'm going home for Christmas." Regulus said that Sunday.

Marlene shrugged. "I'm am technically, but if my parents or brother get too hard to handle, I'm coming back here."

Regulus smirked; "Too hard to handle?"

"Mainly my brother, they've said I can have to house on Christmas eve for a small party."

Regulus raised an eyebrow but didn't comment.

"Can we continue after the holidays then?" Marlene asked when Regulus didn't say anything.

"He nodded, "You need to keep practising though, You need stop bottling all your feelings up inside, I don't know... erm... speak to Lily or Sirius every night before attempting to clear your mind."

Marlene nodded lightly, she wasn't really getting the hang of Occlumency. As a rule, Marlene was a person who hated other people to know what she was thinking, and having Regulus probe inside her mind... well she was having second thoughts about these lessons. She thought if she took up and mastered Occlumency, she would be able to completely hide what she was feeling from everyone. However because she always had a lot on her mind, clearing her mind (which was a requirement) wasn't really working so well.

"One more attempt?" Regulus asked looking towards her.

Marlene gritted her teeth. She was determined to master it. This time she thought she'd try something different. Instead of completely clearing her mind (which obviously wasn't working) she thought she'd partition her mind, imagine an invisible wall in her mind and behind that wall put everything she didn't want Regulus to see. In front of the wall she focused on Regulus him self. His blue eyes, and typical 'Black' hair. His small seeker figure and the way he held him self.

She was so focused on keeping her partition up and concentrating on Regulus that she didn't notice he had slipped into her mind, until he coughed.

Marlene blushed suddenly and Regulus withdrew from her mind. He was also blushing.

"Erm... I should go..." She mumbled before hurrying out of the room, leaving Regulus a little bit confused, about what just happened.

A/N: Hmmm... this chapter took an age to write.... I've been messing around with other fics as well Wormy's Tale (which I posted at the same time as this chapter) and a small AU (I say small when in reality it spans all seven books). The un-titled AU fic, won't be posted as yet as it gives too much of the ending of Hard Times away. As for Hard Times, I know exactly where I want to go and now I've got this small chapter out the way, it's Christmas where things happen and such like. So I shall get writing on that soon :D. Please review, constructive criticism is welcome but please be nice about it :D thanks.