"Done another one!"

It was pitch black outside the Gryffindor tower. The rain was pelting just as hard against this glass window as on the other side of the castle, where the hospital wing lay three floors below, but the spirits in this dorm were not to be dampened. Not by the petty fights or chilly weather as four teenage boys worked on something they kept ever so close to their chest. (Even Sirius hadn't used it in an attempt to chat up the girls in his year.)

The cheers echoed around the room as a scruffy black haired boy yanked the parchment off of his best friend.

"Oh! Watch it! The ink's still wet!"

"Shut up Padfoot."

"I spent a good two hours on that!"

"Well, I'd do some if you would let me."

"Pete, you know this map takes precision."

"Yeah I know."

"Let me see?"

James Potter pulled his glasses down from his head to sit on his nose allowing him to take in the drawing properly.

"Hospital Wing?"

"Yep. That and the…" he shuffled some papers on his desk, "the tapestry corridor. First floor of the castle is done now."

James grinned before passing the parchment to Remus Lupin, who looked at it through intellectual eyes, analysing every crimson line his friend had drawn.

"You're getting better at this, Pads."

"Practice makes perfect." Sirius rolled his dark eyes and flopped down onto the desk on top of the spare sheets of parchment that hadn't been added to the map as of yet, as well as the numerous utensils like compasses and rulers and squares.

"Only another… billion rooms to go…" Remus passed the papers back to Sirius who then attached them to the main map with a flick of his wand and it all folded up into the neat oblong pile.

"Cheer up Moony, we'll do it all eventually." James slapped him on the back, jumping then off the bed to snatch the map off of Sirius; he laughed jumping back on to Moony's bed.

"Right, do you want to do the honours and test this bad boy?"

"I want to!"

"Peter, Sirius has been working on it all afternoon and evening."

"Nah, it's fine, go on Wormy." Sirius smirked as Peter Pettigrew, who even after four years in the popular gang was still the wettest and the most excitable child, stumbled out of bed and scrambled over to where Moony was sat. He pulled out his wand and cleared his throat.

"Mischief managed."

The ink began to fade and the boys all grinned, except for Remus, he often wouldn't grin until it was certain to have worked, so just a crooked smile adorned his lips; for now at least.

"Okay, okay, okay." Peter jumped up and down slightly on the spot, his tiny eyes gleaming with excitement. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

And after a slight tap of his wand on the paper, the crimson colour began to re-appear and spread over the papers forming the lines and curves that had existed on the original, but now with the addition of footprints and name labels.

"It's worked…" Remus smiled sitting back as Peter looked over the paper with adoration.

"Look, there's Hyperon in her office! It's worked, we did it!" Peter squealed in delight as James and Sirius laughed whilst gathering onto Remus's bed to look at the stretched out map.

"Nice one, Sirius."

"Wait..."

"What?" Sirius frowned. "Fuck, have I forgotten a door or window or something again?"

"No… But this is definitely finished, isn't it?

Peter pointed his stubby finger at a bed down in the main wing.

"Yeah… or the names won't be there…"

"Shit, Sirius…"

For Sirius had finished it, and there were names there. Two names were together on the map, their names in tiny crimson letters, names that shouldn't be there and shouldn't be together.

"It must be a mistake."

"You know, even in this early stage, the map doesn't lie…" Remus muttered slowly.

"It just can't be."

Sirius snatched the map out of his friend's hands, holding it so close to his face his nose was touching the paper.

"But that's… Tonks, that's… That's Longbottom's muggle-born friend, isn't it? The one who smashed his arm up earlier?"

"Yes… Yes it is." Remus murmured softly.

"Your cousin and a muggle-born… your parents are gonna freak!" Peter squealed.

"Never mind your parents, what are your Uncle and Aunt going to say about this?!"

"Guys, just shut up for a second." Sirius jumped up and began pacing. "They, they could just be talking."

"In the middle of the night on a hospital wing bed?" James pushed his glasses back to sit on the top of his head as he raised an eyebrow.

"Fuck... you don't think they're…"

"Oh yeah."

"Shut up, it's not funny!" Sirius threw a pillow at James as he started making kissing noises.

"To be fair, if anyone else had this map, we were all just huddled on my bed."

"That logic doesn't work Moony because if we did have the map, we wouldn't have been!" Sirius snapped beginning to pace wildly around the room. "It's wrong, it has to be wrong."

"It isn't wrong! And you bloody drew it!" James yelled over Peter's hysterical giggling.

"I know I did! Fuck, fuck fuck fuck, what are we going to do?"

"What do you mean we?" Remus asked softly.

"Well she's my cousin, I can't just let her do this!"

James rolled his eyes and climbed off of Remus's bed and moved to lie down upon his own.

"So what, so they're having a snog and maybe a shag-"

"Fuck off-"

"It's the truth! When is it such a big deal, you snogged those Muggle girls when we went into London that time, not to mention Emily and Mands, they're both muggle-born-"

"Don't forget Olivia!" Peter chimed in."

"Shut up, Wormtail." Sirius snapped a dark tone to his voice. All the boys started to laugh. "You think this is funny? You think my parents are bad, you should see hers! And Bella, oh fuck, if Bella was to find out she'd skin him in an instant!"

"Look, they've obviously done a pretty good job of keeping it secret, right? We only know because of the map and do you think your cousins have one? No! They don't! So just calm down, just leave them to it."

"Leave them to it, James?! Do you have any idea what could happen?!"