"Lily has been acting odd lately," James said, sitting down on his bed.
"Has she?" Sirius asked, distractedly. James didn't bother looking at what he was fiddling with. Sirius often played with magic in ways that none of them understood, simply because he thought it was fun. James did a similar thing when he was working on something that interested him, but other than Lily, things didn't often interest him.
James stood up again and started pacing. "It's not just a simple change, it's like something about her world-view has changed and it's weird. She didn't even curse me to the afterlife when I insulted Snape in her earshot. And she hasn't spoken to Snape in a while, let alone interact with him."
James could have gone on about the changes, but Remus interrupted his monologue. "Do you mind lowering your volume? I really need to complete this essay and your talking isn't helping matters."
He scowled. "You've literally mastered the art of tuning us out, Moony."
"Yeah, yeah. I have done that." Remus muttered, but he was also distracted by something. Remus glanced at Sirius and frowned when Sirius shook his head. James narrowed his eyes at his two best friends and wondered what they were plotting.
Instead of asking either of them, he stalked out of the room to find the fourth member of their group. Peter would tell him about whatever it was, or they would both confront the distracted fools sitting in the dormitory. James walked into the common room and shoved thoughts of Lily's behavior out of his mind. He needed to find Peter first.
Just as he managed to focus, he caught Lily's eyes and she smiled at him.
She smiled at him.
James narrowed his eyes at her. He didn't understand what was happening to everyone else. He couldn't understand their changes to their personality. Elbowing his way out of the common room, James pulled out the invisibility cloak and threw it over himself. Curfew was in fifteen minutes, and he didn't need to be caught out of bounds. Filch might actually throw another fit.
"Now, where could Pete be?" James muttered to himself as he slid through the hidden passage.
As he searched through the castle for his first friend, James wondered when Peter had changed so much that James couldn't find him anymore. He had searched the kitchens, the grounds and even the Shrieking Shack, but he hadn't found Peter.
Peter had been James' first friend. They had met during one of the Ministry functions that James had been forced to attend, and James had found Peter hiding under a table and tying people's shoelaces together. Peter had claimed that he was practicing tying a shoelace, completely straight-faced and innocent. James still didn't think Peter had intended for all the Ministry workers at that table to fall on their faces as soon as they tried to walk, but six-year-old him had found it amusing and they had been best friends since.
"Aha!" James exclaimed loudly as he stumbled upon one of their rooms, in the abandoned areas of the corridor. Peter was probably in one of these rooms. James made quick work of them, and finally stumbled upon Peter in the room on the fourth floor.
"Petey!" He said, throwing the invisibility cloak off himself and spreading his arms wide. "I've been searching for you!"
Peter smiled at him. "And I've been right here from the start."
"Yes." James frowned. "We need a more efficient way to find each other. I've wasted an entire hour searching for you and roaming the grounds."
"You didn't find any interesting gossip, did you?" Peter asked, closing his books and shoving the loose papers in them carelessly.
"Of course not. Nobody gossips so late in the night, especially not in a corridor." James said, thinking about a way to find out where other people were. They needed something like a map, except for people. Although the map would have to be calibrated to adjust every time a person moved. It would be difficult to adjust that, but not unreasonable. Perhaps…
"James!" Peter said, poking his stomach.
"Hmm?" James looked up at him. "Oh yeah, Petey. I came here to ask you about the thing."
Peter looked at him expectantly for a second, but James just waved his hand generically. "The thing, you know…"
"Do you mean whatever Sirius and Remus are working on?" Peter asked, walking past him and into the corridor.
James picked the cloak up and threw it over both of them, casting a silencing spell around themselves as a precaution. Peter wasn't known for his silence or subtlety. "Well, yes. That's exactly what I meant."
Peter also knew James the best, which wasn't much of a surprise, but it was pretty amusing to watch Remus and Sirius flounder in something that Peter excelled in easily. Peter sighed, hoisting his bag further on his shoulder.
"I can't tell you what they're doing," he said finally, and James scowled.
"That's not fair!"
"Is too. I wouldn't tell them if you told me not to."
James couldn't argue with that logic. Sometimes, he wanted to hate Peter for being so loyal, but he just couldn't muster that up.
"You'll like it though," Peter said, bumping his shoulder into James. "They aren't complete morons all the time."
"They're just obnoxious little shits," James muttered, but his lips curved into a fond smile. "Well, I have an idea."
Peter narrowed his eyes at him. "Your ideas never end well, Jamie. At least not without someone to control your crazy impulses and usually that's Remus."
James sighed. He was petty enough to not let Remus into this secret, but Peter was right. Remus did damage control most of the time, stopping Sirius and him from going overboard. Peter didn't have that finesse, goading them into doing worse instead of discouraging them. But James had to get back at them, and his idea for the map was genius, even if he did say so himself.
Turning to Peter with a smile, he said, "It's between the two of us Petey. You and I are going to outdo those two, and we're going to do it in style."
"It's not a competition?" Peter said, making it sound more like a question than it should.
James ignored him, mind whirring on how to accomplish this. Peter was the best artist of the four of them anyways, considering he practiced religiously. Remus had no sense for drawing, Sirius had no need to practice and absolutely no passion and James was too impatient for it. "All you have to do is draw a map of the school."
It took James three more steps to realize that Peter had stopped moving. Turning around, James saw him standing with a perplexed look on his face. "Well?" He demanded.
"We should get back to the dorm, Jamie." Peter said, pointing left. "You're not going to the library today."
James set his jaw. "And why not?"
"Because if you drag me to the library now, I'm not going to draw a map of Hogwarts for you." Peter declared, standing his ground. James sighed and rolled his eyes. Peter wouldn't follow through on the threat, but James didn't bother to point that out.
"Not even if I bribe you with food from the house elves?" James asked, walking towards the staircase that led upstairs. He pulled Peter under the cloak again.
"Not even then."
James contemplated other ways to bribe Peter as they walked up. Peter was content to let him do his thinking. It wasn't until they reached the common room that James realized he still had to figure out what was wrong with Lily Evans. Something had changed and James had to figure out what it was.
James sat opposite Peter in the library. A huge stack of books sat in between them, but they were mostly for James to read, so he didn't understand why Peter kept sending fearful gazes at them. It wasn't like they were all that dangerous either. The information they contained was limited to animation of inanimate objects and charms to animate objects. Really not concerning.
"So," James said, grinning widely. "Today, we start on our project."
Peter scowled at him. It had been all of seven hours since he had decided to make the map, and Peter was still very grumpy about being woken up so early. Maybe it wasn't such a great idea, but James had limited time in his schedule to work on this. He did have Quidditch practice, and transfiguration side-projects, and Lily Evan's odd behavior to research as well.
Peter covered his mouth, trying and failing to stifle a yawn. "Did you have to wake me so early for this?" He asked, blinking. "I'm barely awake."
"I can see that Petey, but we need to get the crack on this. You just need to finish drawing in about a week." James said, pulling the first book towards himself.
"A week?" Peter yelled, getting a nasty glare from the two Ravenclaws a table over. He lowered his volume and glared at James. "You want me to draw the whole of Hogwarts in a week?"
Thinking about it, that was probably an unreasonable estimate. Drawing Hogwarts would probably take more than a week, especially since the castle liked to shift around so much. James placed his head in his hand.
"Okay, a month." He relented. He could be reasonable about this, since he was essentially working with Peter on this. And he had no clue how to draw Hogwarts.
"Three months." Peter muttered. "Three months would be a reasonable estimate if I had the whole day to do it."
James threw his hand up, almost face planting. "Take however much time you want, Petey. Just please get it done before the winter hols!"
"That's not however much time I want."
"I can't win anything with you lot." James muttered, flipping open the first book and pretending to read so Peter would leave him alone.
Peter spoke again in less than thirty seconds. "We need a map to scale right?"
"I guess?"
"You're very helpful." Peter said, and then stood up. "I'm going to measure Hogwarts so I can finish this map of yours in whatever reasonable time you've assigned me."
"It's an entire two months!"
James watched as Peter left without acknowledging his statement. Maybe it was for the best. He didn't want to annoy Peter too much after all. His best friend could be spiteful if he wanted to. James turned back to his books, ignoring the looks the Ravenclaws shot him. Peter would be fine once he got food into himself, and James had no doubt that Peter was walking to the Great Hall for breakfast instead of measuring Hogwarts.
He just wanted to make the perfect map.