Hey everyone, so I thought I'd update quickly to make up for the week of no updates.

So last chapter we watched as James waited for news of his dad...

Chapter 28:

Saturday:

Last night had been harder than James had expected. It took him and Remus ages to get the different ingredients they needed. They also nearly had a run in with Filch. I swear that cat can see through my cloak, James thought to himself.

He had struggled to get to sleep afterwards. He drifted off sometime after 2am. When he woke up it was almost midday. He got ready quickly and then left the Gryffindor tower to go do some more drawing. He hid in a deserted classroom as he thought out the dimensions of the classrooms along the corridor. At about 4pm the boys came to find him. "We've been looking for you man."

"Hi. Yeah just thought I'd work on the map." James nodded, barely looking up.

Sirius and Remus glanced at each other. James turned and smiled, "We need to work out how we want this map to be enchanted… So we obviously want it to be unreadable for anyone else."

"We should be able to add to it – if we find a new corridor." Sirius offered.

"It should tell us where people are…" Peter said quietly. The other boys nodded in thought.

"It should contain the grounds not just the castle." Remus answered.

"What else?" James asked, pressing them.

"It has to tell the truth, we have to make it so that only we can alter it." Sirius smiled.

They continued like that until dinner time. At dinner, James returned to his hardly talking self.

Sunday:

James and Sirius were getting really fed up of hiding in the cold dungeons. They had search for days now and they just didn't seem to be able to find it. They sat on the cold floor when they heard speaking. They followed the sound until the found themselves face to face with a couple of seventh year Slytherins. They turned down a corridor between them and Sirius and James made to follow them but saw them disappear into what appeared to be a wall. They waited for several minutes for someone else to come. They were just about to give up when a small second year girl came down the corridor stopping at the wall the seventh years had walked through. She said in a quiet voice, "Erispet." The wall dissolved to leave a passageway in its place.

Monday:

James had decided that he was going to annoy the Slytherins as much as possible today. Harry watched as his father performed jinx after jinx on the unexpecting Slytherins from the back of the room. Lily was shaking her head, disapprovingly. "Potter, quit it!" She told him.

"Says who?" he replied snidely.

"Stop being such a bully."

"I don't think I want to," James laughed. When potions had finished James walked out with the other Marauders. "Evans is so annoying. I wish she'd just leave me alone."

"Yeah right Potter. That's what you want." Sirius laughed.

"Yeah, it's exactly what I want. I hate the way she's constantly involving herself in my life. If I wanted her to annoy me, I'd ask her out."

Sirius and Remus both laughed. "In fact maybe I will."

"Huh?" The guys now looked confused.

"To annoy her of course. I could ask her out in the most annoying and publically humiliating ways. It'll be great."

"That's slightly mean isn't it James?" Remus asked, always the voice of reason.

"Yeah… that's the idea." James laughed, "speaking of which, I know we're busy with everything else but we really need to do a few good pranks."

"Like what?" Peter asked.

"I don't know. You think of one for once." James replied.

Tuesday:

Still no news. They always say no news is good news. Do you think that's true. James wondered. I hope it is. I really hope it is. It had been a week since he had heard about his dad and he was growing more and more anxious every day. His dad had never been missing for a whole week before. A couple of days – sure, but a whole week?

He had begun to act normal. Frank on the other hand was becoming more and more twitchy. It was fairly normal for them to go missing for a day but a week… he was getting seriously worried. The difference was Lily and the girls really cared that Frank was upset. They comforted him. James felt slightly jealous. Lily hadn't cared that he'd been upset. Kate had just scowled, she couldn't overlook him dumping her – he'd hoped she'd understand why he had had to do it now, but no… Marlene hated James because Kate hated James and Mary just seemed indifferent.

That evening they were all sat in front of the fire. James was on edge. He was waiting for everyone to go to bed so they could get to work. He tried to make polite conversation but failed. Eventually his anger exploded out of him, "Kate, don't you get it. This isn't the first time my dad's gone missing. In fact it's not even the tenth time. I'm used to it. I'm used to death threats against my family. I'm used to death threats against me." The group were all sat in silence looking directly at James, "Do you not see that if I'd have stayed with you eventually they'd come for you too? Since I didn't know how I felt and things were getting pretty serious I had to put your safety first. And just so you know I don't regret it for a second. You can hate me all you like, but it was for your own good, believe me." James saw Frank nodding in agreement.

No one spoke for a moment or so, eventually Kate said, "Isn't it my choice?"

"No. I'm not having your blood on my hands." James replied.

"Can I say something?" Frank asked.

"Yeah, of course you can mate." James nodded.

"I respect James a lot for trying to have a relationship with you, Kate. But we're headed for a war and if I know James like I think I do, he's going to be fighting just like his dad. You're better off. When he finds a woman who can put up with his pranks and childish ways, she's going to spend most of her life worried."

James laughed bitterly, hearing truth in his friend's words. "I'm sorry, Kate. I never meant to hurt you. But trust me, you'd don't want to be in a relationship with me. I'm the sort of arrogant fool who will probably die trying to be a hero. You don't want that." Everyone laughed, but their laughter was slightly hollow. Lily was watching Potter, maybe he isn't so bad.

Wednesday:

James was sat with his friends in the common room. All of the first years had a free period and so were sat in the tower doing their herbology homework. James was struggling to concentrate. Professor McGonagall walked in, "Potter, Longbottom can I have a word?" They followed her out of the common room into the corridor. She led them to an empty classroom. "In here, please, boys."

Cliffhanger... Please review!