Chapter 31 – The Marauder's Map

A/N: Sorry our updates have been few and far between! Both of the authors are swamped with uni work but we'll keep updating when we can :)

Sirius hadn't had the stomach to go to the great hall for dinner. Instead he'd taken the long way back to the dorm, traipsing the halls with heavy footsteps and a heavier heart. He'd hoped walking around would help him calm down. He'd been wrong.

By the time he made it back to the dorm his head was still buzzing with his brothers' words, anger fuelling him when kicked off his shoes, then kicked the edge of his bed for good measure.

"Fuck," he swore, falling down onto his mattress and grabbing his foot, "bloody fucking - ugh."

"Very articulate, Pads."

The words came from James, who was standing in the doorway with a tilt to his head and worry in his eyes, despite his smile.

Sirius didn't reply. He rolled over and swung his legs over the other side of the bed so that his back was to James, trying to ignore the red hot pain still lingering in his toes.

He heard rather than saw his other friends enter the room, and the whispered "is he alright?" Remus directed at James.

"I'm fine," Sirius snapped at them. "Nothing like a good family reunion."

"What happened?" James asked, sitting on the edge of his bed, beside Sirius. "Moony said you talked to Regulus but we thought we'd see you at dinner..."

Sirius shrugged, refusing to meet James' eyes. Then muttered, "It doesn't matter, I wasn't hungry anyway."

"Well, then, I'll just eat the pie we snuck out for you myself," Peter said, pulling a small and slightly squashed pie wrapped in napkins out of his pocket. He looked at it with serious consideration before reaching over to put it on Sirius' bedside table.

"Thanks," Sirius muttered.

"You don't have to talk about it," Remus told him.

"But you can if you want," James added.

"I just don't know what his problem is," Sirius said, standing up and turning to his friends. He didn't want to think about his family but it was near impossible not to. "No, it's not even that - it's that he thinks I care. Why would I give a toss what he does with his life?"

He paused, staring at his friends, who judging by their silence also had no idea why he should care.

"Exactly," Sirius said, nodding in satisfaction.

He picked up the pie from his bedside table.

"If he wants to run around with Voldemort thinking he's something special then fine. As if Dumbledore would ever be scared about a bunch of halfwit pureblood idiots anyway."

He took a bite, savouring the still slightly warm cheese and potato that fell out of the pastry.

"And I'll tell you what," he said with a full mouth, brandishing the other half of pie at his friends, "Voldemort is a stupid name anyway. What is that even supposed to mean?"

"Wait," James said with a frown, holding up one hand to stop Sirius' rant, "Regulus is working for Voldemort?"

"By choice?" Remus added.

"What?" Sirius scowled, "I don't know. He said he's involved whatever that means. But you're missing the point – which is that I don't care. About anything he does."

He folded his arms poignantly over his chest.

"But..." Peter said tentatively, "he's gathering followers, right? So he could've, you know -"

"- recruited Regulus." James was growing fidgety, a sure sign that he was feeling stressed. "What did he say about Voldemort, exactly? You mentioned Dumbledore?"

"Look, I'm sorry if you would have rather we sat down for a nice chat about the finer details of how to be a massive git, but surprisingly I wasn't exactly eager to stick around and ask questions."

He glared from James to Peter, before sighing and adding, "he said Voldemort is, I don't know, worried about Dumbledore's 'people.' He wanted to tell me something I suppose, but we're not even involved in anything Dumbledore's planning. So I slammed the door in his smug little face, alright?"

James opened his mouth and then closed it again, looking at the floor.

Then Remus, quiet until now, said with considerable exasperation, "So you didn't actually listen to what he was telling you about a rumoured serial killer? It's kind of a big deal, you know, especially if he was talking about Dumbledore. What if it's to do with Hogwarts? What if we're in danger? Or your brother is in danger?"

"Then he put himself there," Sirius barked, furious at how the situation had suddenly escalated.

He felt cornered, and a strong desire to kick something else was building inside him. He needed to clear his head, get away from his friends who seemed to be doing their best to not shout right back at him. Of course at the time he hadn't considered it, but the suggestion that he really might have put them at risk by not listening to Regulus was enough to make him feel dizzy.

"I need to get out of here," he said, when no one else seemed eager to try and help.

He started to leave, but was stopped by James' hand on his shoulder.

"Padfoot, I'm sure Regulus is fine and whatever's going on, Dumbledore can handle it."

Sirius glanced at Remus, who gave a small, uncertain nod, and Peter, who smiled encouragingly. They stood in tense silence for a moment before James continued, "You know, if Dumbledore is getting ready for a fight, maybe we can do a little detective work - keep an eye on who he's seeing."

"How?" Peter asked eagerly.

"The map," Remus said. "But it keeps glitching because of the moving stairs and getting the different floors mixed up. Not much use if we can't tell who actually talks to Dumbledore."

"Then it's a good thing I have an idea to fix that," James said, grinning. "What do you say, Pads? Ready to perfect the marauder's map?"

Sirius smiled, barely. "Sure."

They had pushed the furniture apart so they could spread the map out on the floor in the centre of the dorm. James was cross legged, leaning over the map with a crease of concentration between his eyebrows and his glasses slipping down his nose. He was pointing his wand at the staircases, next to which moving dots with names of students seemed to be walking through thin air. Peter was sitting next to him, murmuring words of encouragement and warning James not to set anything on fire like last time.

There was no more room on the floor so Remus and Sirius were perched on Sirius' bed, watching James with some amusement as he creased the map from stabbing it so hard with his wand. Neither of them had said much since their conversation about Regulus and there was still a lingering tension between the two of them.

From what Remus could tell, Sirius seemed to be watching James intently, now and then suggesting an alteration to a spell that he thought might help get the map working properly. James and Sirius had always had a nack for altering standard spells in ways that always worked surprisingly well.

"Hey," Remus said quietly, just as James let out a triumphant cheer and moved on to another part of the map.

When Sirius turned to him, he was actually smiling again.

"Earlier - I didn't mean - I know it's hard for you with your brother." He paused, crinkling his eyebrows together. "I'm sorry your family's so shit," he said eventually, reaching out and squeezing Sirius' hand gently. "There's no right or wrong way to react to that, I think you're brave for talking to him in the first place."

He smiled faintly and withdrew his hand, aware that Sirius' eyes were scanning him curiously.

"Must have been the aftermath from the green hair incident," Sirius joked, "turned you all Scary Remus for a minute there."

"That is the obvious explanation," Remus agreed, vaguely aware of James and Peter still talking about the map nearby. "McGonagall fixed it for me at dinner, she laughed herself silly when she saw me too, didn't even try to hide it."

"Ha, good old McGonagall," Sirius laughed. He looked away for a moment, then said more softly, "and thanks, Moony."

"Yeah," Remus smiled. "Any time."

They felt much better after clearing the air and turned their attention back to the map, which if Peter and James' expressions were anything to go by, was coming along nicely. Feeling suddenly restless, Sirius slipped down onto the floor, leaning across Peter to inspect James' spell work.

"Is it working?" he asked hopefully.

"I think it might be," James grinned, pointing to one of the staircases, which moved much more smoothly that before and didn't seem to be teleporting any of their fellow students' dots to unexplained parts of the castle.

"Brilliant," Sirius said, clapping James on the shoulder. "Now we just need a decent prank idea and someone to hide from."

"Or someone to follow," James said.

"Err, actually," Peter said, pushing Sirius away from him so that he could see more clearly. "Look at that."

He pointed to a particular dot on the map, and James and Sirius leaned closer to see it - even Remus climbed off the bed and knelt down beside them.

"Marlene McKinnon," James said, looking around at his three friends, all of whom appeared just as baffled as him. "What's she doing here?"

"Something in Dumbledore's office by the looks of it," Peter said, nodding at Marlene's dot that was now stationary on the circle of parchment that marked their headmaster's quarters.

"Well Prongs," Sirius said feeling his spirits lift at the prospect of an adventure. "Looks like we found out who Dumbledore's been talking to sooner than expected."

They had been waiting in the corridor outside the headmaster's office for twenty minutes when the gargoyle began to move, revealing a set of stone steps that first Marlene's ankles, then the rest of her, appeared from. She was frowning, but when she saw the four of them she grinned.

"Well, look who it is," she said as the gargoyle slid back into place. "You must be making even more trouble than usual to be sent to Dumbledore's office."

"Although your faith in our mischief making brings me great joy Marls, we were actually looking for you."

"Oh yeah?" Marlene said, narrowing her eyes at Sirius. "And why were you looking for me? Don't you have more important things to do? Quidditch training maybe?" She looked pointedly at James and folded her arms, "or has the team crashed and burned without me?"

"Our team's spirit may never recover, it's true," James said, "but that's not the point. What were you seeing Dumbledore about?"

Marlene raised her eyebrows. "How come you're so curious?"

"We know Dumbledore's planning something," Remus said. After a pause, he clarified, "to do with Voldemort."

"You just can't keep your noses out of anything, can you?" She glanced back at the gargoyle to make sure it was sealed shut. "Look, Dumbledore wants everything secret, but I guess since you're of age..." She hesitated, but James' insistent "Yeah?" spurred her on. "You're right about him working against Voldemort - and that isn't a name you should be throwing around, by the way."

"Working against him how?" Peter asked.

"For now, just preparing things – gathering information, contacting people. That sort of thing."

"What kind of people? What for?" James asked.

"Useful people, I don't know." She shrugged. "People from the ministry, a couple of aurors. I guess anyone who wants to fight back and stop all this shit that's happening."

"Wha-" James began, but Marlene interrupted him.

"I'm no expert, okay. Dumbledore's not one for spilling all his secrets. Talk to him yourself if you're so interested."

"Would he listen?" Sirius asked cautiously. "I mean, would he involve us in his plans if we asked?"

"Not if the conversation Lily and I had with him at the beginning of term is anything to go by," James said, looking frustrated.

"Yeah, I doubt it," Marlene agreed. "I think he's trying to keep things separate from Hogwarts – doesn't want anyone getting involved if they're still at school."

"But we're all of age," Sirius said indignantly.

"Yeah, why shouldn't we be able to help?" Peter asked.

Marlene looked at the four of them and shook her head. "Don't be so ready to throw yourselves into a fight. I can't believe I'm saying this, but you should focus on your classes and on Quidditch – Gryffindor could do with another year of winning the cup. Getting involved with this – it's not something you should take lightly, trust me."

She signed, taking a few steps towards the four of them when they looked nothing but disappointed. "Finish school, okay? Enjoy yourselves and next year – well, let's just say that if you still want to be involved, I'm sure we'll still need people who are willing. We need to prepare for what's to come, for me that means helping Dumbledore, but for you guys it means making the most of the time you have left here, okay?"

"Okay," James said, slightly taken aback by the seriousness of Marlene's words. She wasn't exactly the kind of person he expected to tell them to back off, especially as she had only just left Hogwarts herself.

"Good," she said, already making her way down the corridor and away from them. "Besides, don't think Dumbeldore would want a bunch of slackers who fail all their NEWTs in his secret club anyway." She winked at them, and her laugh echoed down the corridor as she disappeared from view.