Wednesday, 15th September 1971, 2.10 pm

After tip-toeing out of the dorm so he wouldn't wake the others, Sirius hurried down the stairs and across the common room. He was using the pre-Astronomy-class afternoon nap to visit the library because he didn't want his friends to catch him with the type of book he needed to look at. Especially not Remus, if he could still call him a friend. Remus hadn't spoken to him since Sirius had snapped at him in Transfiguration. Knowing what he now did, he couldn't blame him either. If anyone had real, actual problems, it was Remus. He hoped he would give him a chance to apologise soon.

Sirius reached the library and hurried to the Creatures and Beings section, pulling down two books with titles relevant to werewolves and sitting on the floor to look at them. He didn't have long.

What he found was horrifying.

The first book he looked at was titled The Curse of the Moon. He flicked through the pages, looking at the illustrations of transforming werewolves, their faces contorted in pain, and cringed. It looked agonising. Was that what Remus had to go through every month? Were these books accurate? Merlin, he hoped the pictures were exaggerated. The text talked about the effect of the moon on the infected individual, forcing them to morph into a wolf every month, from moon-rise to moon-set, through a painful process of transformation. Sirius already knew that.

The second book was more useful: The Short Life of a Lycanthrope. Sirius had hoped the title was misleading, but it wasn't. The book began with the information that people infected with lycanthropy rarely live for more than ten years. The most common cause of death was suicide, either by the man or the wolf. Sirius didn't know how long Remus had been infected, but even if it had happened days before starting school, that would only make him twenty-one at the most when he died. The thought was unbearable. He had to find a way to help.

The book offered a number of useful snippets.

Chocolate is good at easing the pain after transformation. That would be easy to achieve. Sirius could make a habit of handing chocolate out in the dorm, so they wouldn't notice anything strange when he did it after a full moon.

A lycanthrope's senses become extra sensitive close to the full moon. Sirius made a mental note to be less exuberant around Remus at those times. He didn't want to cause him more suffering on top of the transformations.

The infection can only be passed on if the wolf's saliva enters an open wound, so lycanthropes are only dangerous when in wolf form. Remus' issues with touch must be unrelated, Sirius thought. As if lycanthropy wasn't enough, he had to get a phobia on top. Life really hadn't been fair to him.

Werewolves are only dangerous to humans. They have no digestive system and, therefore, no need to eat and have been observed behaving in a friendly and playful manner towards animals. That might be useful to explore. Could they get him a pet to keep him company?

Lycanthropes are often short-tempered and volatile. Sirius had seen no evidence that was true. Sure, Remus had been angry at him a couple of times, but considering the circumstances, those outbursts had been understandable. Sirius wasn't so vain he couldn't admit he was often annoying.

Lycanthropes often lack intelligence and self-control. Okay, this book was getting insulting, Sirius thought, slamming it closed. There was nothing wrong with Remus' intelligence or his self-control.

Sirius scrambled to his feet and replaced the books where he'd found them. He mused over what he'd learned as he made his way back to the dorm to pretend he'd been asleep the whole time. Remus was suffering. Every month he was forced to endure horrible pain that he couldn't avoid, but there were things Sirius could do to help. Should he tell Remus that he knew, though? It might make things easier for him if he knew there was one person he didn't have to hide it from. Then again, how would he feel if someone found out his secrets when he didn't trust them? Most likely scared and upset.

No, he decided. He would keep it to himself and wait for Remus to choose to tell him. That was the best thing to do. And in the meantime, he would provide him with lots of chocolate, and make sure he got quiet time around the full moon.

The next afternoon, Remus made his way to the art club, which was being held on the second floor in the west wing. He had been avoiding his dorm-mates for three and a half days, and despite having only spent a few days in their company, he missed them. The feeling was alien to him; he'd never had anyone to miss before. His parents were always around, and there was no one else in his life before he came to Hogwarts. It was a deep ache in his chest and a heaviness in his limbs. Every time he heard their voices or smelled their unique scents he got the urge to find them, speak to them, beg them to be his friend. Merlin, he was pathetic.

Remus hoped the art club would take his mind off things. But as he drew closer to the room, he smelt it. Wood smoke and soap faintly interlaced with vanilla. Sirius. His heart rate picked up. This wasn't fair. He reached the door and poked his head around to look. Yes, sure enough, there was Sirius, sitting alone at a desk with his head bent over a piece of parchment. His long hair had fallen forward, and he was bent so low the ends were trailing on the desk.

A seventh year Hufflepuff girl with a prefect's badge stood up and hurried over to him. 'Hello, come on in. Everyone is welcome here. What's your name?' she said, holding out a hand for him to shake.

Remus took a step back and held his hands in front of him in defence. 'Remus Lupin, please don't touch me,' he said. 'Don't be offended. It's a phobia.'

The Hufflepuff prefect looked surprised for a moment, but recovered quickly. 'Of course. Why don't you find somewhere to sit? We're just doing some drawing this week, anything you like. Then next week we'll do feedback and advice.'

Remus nodded and looked around. Sirius had glanced up from his drawing and was staring at him, his eyes intense. He jerked his head in the universal sign of "come here." Remus felt his stomach flip over but obeyed. He didn't want to make a scene.

'Please sit down and talk to me. I need to apologise to you, but you've been avoiding me for days,' Sirius said when he reached him.

Remus nodded and sat down next to him. He could see the picture Sirius was working on now. It was an image of a young boy with long black hair, and it looked remarkably like Sirius.

'That's really good,' he said. 'Is it a self-portrait?'

'Ha, no. It's my little brother Reggie,' Sirius said, glancing at the picture and back at Remus. 'I got a letter from him on Monday at breakfast. It's why I was in a crappy mood and yelled at you in class. I really am sorry, Remus. I shouldn't have taken it out on you.'

Remus was confused as to why a letter from his brother would put him in a bad mood. 'Do you not get along? Did he say something nasty in the letter?'

Sirius sighed and leant back in his chair, pushing his hair back from his face. 'No, we get along fine. His letter informed me that our mother has forbidden him from communicating with me in case my Gryffindor infection rubs off on him.'

Remus was shocked. 'That seems a little extreme,' he said.

Sirius shrugged. 'Yeah, well. That's my mother,' he said, his tone uncaring, before looking down at his hands. His body language contradicted his throwaway words.

'I'm sorry, Sirius. That must have been really upsetting.' Remus wanted to do something to offer comfort and show there were no hard feelings. Okay, he thought. Two layers of fabric should be safe. His dad did it every month to apparate him into his cage after all. He pulled the end of his sleeve down to cover his hand and placed his cloth-covered hand on the back of Sirius' cloth-covered shoulder for just a moment before jerking it away. Sirius looked up at him with wide eyes.

'You... You touched me,' he said.

Remus coughed. 'Yeah. Don't get used to it. That was scary,' he said, shaking his sleeve back down his arm and inspecting his hand. His heart was racing, and he felt like he might throw up. He shouldn't have done that. This was exactly why he should avoid friendships. Friends made you do stupid things without even trying. His resolve was wavering, though. He wanted this so much.

'Thank you,' Sirius said. His tone was sincere and serious. 'That's the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me.'

Remus nodded and smiled. 'You're welcome.' He pulled out a piece of parchment from his bag. 'Now, why don't you show me how to draw,' he said.

Sirius' face lit up in a breath-taking grin, and Remus felt his stomach flip again, but for a different reason.

One great night's sleep and two delicious meals later, Sirius was sitting in Transfiguration next to Remus and marvelling at his friend's skill. He had turned his red bead into an orange bead on only his third attempt. And it was a perfect bright orange, not a hint of red left in it.

'Well done, mate,' he said. 'Tell me how you did it.'

'You just have to picture it really clearly in your mind,' Remus said, shrugging like it was simple.

'Ugh, that's what I'm doing,' Sirius moaned, slouching back in his chair and throwing his hands into the air. 'It doesn't work!'

'Keep trying,' Remus said, smiling. Sirius liked it when he smiled, it made his dimples show. 'I'm sure you'll get the hang of it soon.'

Sirius kept trying and by the end of the lesson was able to give his bead a faint orange tint. The final lesson of the day, Herbology, passed in a long and boring lecture on the correct method of planting anjelica, followed by a thirty-minute practical where they each planted their own tray of thirty anjelica seeds. They all returned to their dorm filthy and went for a shower before congregating in the dorm room. Remus had something to tell them.

'I think I've worked out the message on the hidden door we found last weekend,' he said, pulling out the notebook and sitting cross-legged on the floor before placing it, open to the correct page, on the floor in front of him. Sirius, James and Peter moved closer so they could see the pages. Remus pointed to the first symbol. 'This means "speech" or "speak". I think it means we have to say something.'

'Makes sense,' Sirius said, and James and Peter both nodded.

Remus pointed to the second symbol. 'This one means truth or honesty. Combined with the first one, I'm guessing it means you have to speak the truth.'

They all nodded.

Pointing to the third symbol, Remus said, 'This one was the hardest to work out because it's not a single rune but three different ones combined. They're the runes for new life, day and annual. I think it means birthday.'

Sirius nodded. 'So we have to tell the door it's our birthday and be telling the truth?'

'That's the conclusion I came too, yes,' Remus said. 'My birthday isn't until March. Are any of yours sooner?'

James shook his head. 'Also March.'

'August for me,' Peter said.

'Mine's the 3rd of November,' Sirius said. 'But I don't want to wait that long. Surely we can find someone with a birthday sooner if we ask around.'

James jumped to his feet. 'Yeah, I bet we can. Come on.'

They rushed down to the common room, and James climbed up onto a table and stomped his foot hard three times before cupping his hands around his mouth and shouting, 'Hey, everyone!'

Silence fell and every head in the room turned in their direction. Sirius jumped up onto the table next to him.

'We're looking for someone who has a birthday soon. Anyone?' James said.

The students all looked at each other with confusion on their faces. Some shook their heads and went back to whatever they had been doing. The two ginger-haired boys who had been watching them before were whispering to each other. One of them nodded, and they both got to their feet and strolled towards them.

'It's our birthday tomorrow. What's this all about?' one said.

James and Sirius jumped down from the table.

'Tomorrow? Brilliant,' James said. 'Come with us. We'll tell you all about it.'

They led the boys back to their dorm room and shut the door.

'I'm James, and this is Sirius, Peter and Remus,' James said, pointing at each of them as he said their name.

'Fabian,' Fabian said, pointing at himself. He moved his hand to point at his brother. 'And Gideon.'

'Pleasure to meet you,' James said. 'Getting down to business, the reason we need you is that we've found a secret room, and we have reason to believe it can only be opened by someone on their birthday.'

'Well now,' Gideon said, rubbing his hands together and grinning at his brother. 'That sounds like our kind of thing.'

'It certainly does. When do you want us to meet you? We have plans tomorrow evening, but we're free in the morning,' Fabian said.

'After breakfast? Say, nine o'clock?' Sirius suggested.

'In the common room?' Gideon asked.

Sirius nodded, and the twins left. James grinned at all of them.

'I can't wait to see what's in that room,' he said.

The next morning, Remus was rudely awoken by Sirius and James bouncing around the room like a pair of excitable pygmy puffs at seven in the morning.

'Please will you explain why in Merlin's name we need to be awake two hours before we're meeting them?' Remus said from underneath his pillow.

'Because,' James said, 'how can anyone sleep on a day like today?'

'Quite easily if their roommates are quiet,' Remus grumbled. But he pulled himself out of bed anyway and was greeted by loud cheers when he emerged from the bathroom, showered and dressed.

At nine o'clock, they were all back in the common room waiting for the twins to arrive, and with it being so early on a Saturday, the older students were sleeping in, and they were able to nab the best seats in the room, right next to the fire.

Fabian and Gideon sauntered in through the portrait hole at five past and approached them, sporting identical grins.

'Ready?' they said in unison.

'Always,' James said.

James led the way to the hidden door, and Remus trailed along at the back of the group. He felt safe enough with his friends; he knew they respected his boundaries, but he didn't know the twins and wanted to keep his distance.

They reached the portrait that hid the door, and James opened it with a muttered, 'Congratulations.' The portrait swung open, and James stepped back, waving the twins forward.

Gideon and Fabian stepped up to the door and examined the runes.

'Did you translate these?' Fabian asked.

'Remus did,' Sirius said, waving his hand in Remus' general direction.

Fabian and Gideon looked Remus up and down appraisingly. 'Nice job.'

Remus felt his face warm. 'Thanks,' he mumbled

'Let's find out if you got it right,' Gideon said, turning back to his brother with a wicked grin. They both faced the door and in unison said, 'It's my birthday.'

Remus' heart picked up. This was it. How embarrassing it would be if he was wrong. He need not have worried though. His translation was perfect, and with a quiet fanfare that seemed to echo from the stone walls themselves, the door clicked open.

The open door revealed a compact room with another door on the opposite wall. The walls were made of the same stone as the rest of the castle, but the floor was white marble, and a chandelier dangled from the centre of the ceiling, directly above a wooden table. On the table, there was a birthday cake.

It was big enough to feed twenty people. The frosting was white and frothy, and it was decorated with iced roses. The strangest thing about the cake though was the single, lit candle standing upright in the middle. It was of the standard birthday variety, and by rights should have burned away to nothing a long time ago.

When they entered, a message appeared on the wall to their left, in glowing orange letters.

If you manage to extinguish the blaze,

on twenty-eight consecutive days.

a reward awaits you through that door,

but wait, don't start yet, there are two things more.

The flame won't yield, just so you know,

if it's not your birthday, the day you blow.

And if you start but fail to finish,

your chances of success diminish,

for I will move to another location

and you must re-find me through exploration.

The boys all glanced at each other.

'So we have to blow the candle out twenty-eight days in a row, but it can only be blown out by somebody on their birthday?' James said, frowning.

'That would seem to be the case,' Gideon said.

'But if you miss a day, not only do you have to start again, but you have to find it again too,' Fabian added.

'So, what do you want to do? It's your find, so it's your decision. Do you want Fab to blow it out?' Gideon asked.

'Why Fabian?' Remus said.

'Well, aren't you a sharp one? I wondered if any of you would catch that,' Gideon said, turning towards Remus. 'Technically, it's not my birthday until tomorrow. I was born one minute after midnight, but we always celebrate together.'

'That's brilliant,' James said. 'That gives us an extra day to find more people.'

'There are about four hundred students in the school,' Remus said. 'There's no guarantee we'll be able to find someone with a birthday every day for the next four weeks.'

'There's no reward without risk,' Sirius said. 'I vote we blow out the candle and get to work.'

'I second that,' James said.

'I third that?' Peter said, sounding unsure.

'That's settled then,' James said. 'Fabian, if you would.' James waved his hand towards the cake, and Fabian moved closer, bent down and blew. The candle went out, and the fanfare sounded again, as a glowing white light appeared in the top left-hand corner of the wall, with a message underneath saying "Happy birthday, Fabian Prewett." A moment later the candle re-lit itself.

'Prewett?' Sirius said. 'I think we're related.'

'Cousins,' Gideon said. 'Our mother is your father's sister. They don't get along though. We were told not to talk to any Blacks, but we've been watching you. You seem different from the others.'

Sirius lit up like a muggle lightbulb. 'I am different.'

'Glad to hear it,' Gideon said.

Looks like it's going to keep track for you,' Fabian said, nodding towards the white circle of light. 'We'll meet you back here tomorrow morning, same time, but we have things to do now. Good luck.'

The twins nodded to the four boys and left. James looked around at them and huffed. 'Well, come on then. What are you waiting for? We have less than two days to find someone with a birthday on the twentieth of September,' he said, before sprinting past Remus and out of the room.

'Do you think he has a plan?' Remus asked, staring after him.

'I doubt it,' Sirius said.

Peter laughed. 'Extremely unlikely.'

Remus turned his head to look at them. 'Should we go after him?'

'Maybe,' Sirius said.

Peter shrugged. 'He'll probably be back in ten minutes if we wait.'

'Let's go back to the dorm. He's sure to realise at some point that we need a plan,' Sirius said.

James arrived at their dorm, out of breath, half an hour later. Remus and Peter were putting the finishing touches on a large poster they intended to hang on the notice board in the Gryffindor common room. It was garish and eye-catching, with bold black lettering requesting the attention of anyone with a birthday on or before October the fifteenth to help unlock a Hogwarts mystery, and instructing them to contact them at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. Sirius was sitting a little away from them, drawing up a third poster. The second was on the floor next to him, awaiting Remus and Peter to add the colour.

'Come and sit down, James. We need to colour three more of these for the other houses,' Remus said.

'Two,' Sirius said.

Remus sighed, they'd already had this argument several times. 'We're not excluding Slytherin, Sirius. That would reduce our pool of students by a quarter.'

Sirius growled. Actually growled at him.

'You don't scare me,' Remus said.

'Urgh, fine,' Sirius said, flopping back onto the floor.

Remus turned back to James, who had walked over and was inspecting the poster. 'What do you think?'

'It's brilliant,' James said and glanced over to where Sirius was dramatically laying on the floor as if suffering some great trauma. 'You're a fantastic artist, Sirius.'

Sirius pinged upright and grinned. 'Thanks, mate!' He leapt to his feet and dashed over to James, flinging his arms around him and squeezing hard.

'Argh, get off, you great lump,' James said, laughing and prying Sirius' arms from his waist.

Sirius released James and returned to his drawing, and James joined Remus and Peter at the colouring-in station.

They got the posters finished by lunch-time and left to hang them in the house common rooms. Gryffindor's was easy. They simply walked up and stuck it to the notice board. The other houses were somewhat more difficult.

'We can use the invisibility cloak to sneak in and put them up,' Peter suggested.

'No, that would give us away, the posters have our names on,' James said.

'Well, I think I know where the Ravenclaw common room is. Let's start with that one,' Sirius said.

They all agreed, and taking the posters with them, hurried across the school to Ravenclaw tower.

They reached the bottom of the spiral staircase that Sirius claimed to have seen the Ravenclaws climbing and made their way up. At the top, they found a door with no lock or handle, just plain, aged wood and a bronze door knocker in the shape of an eagle.

'I guess we knock then?' Sirius said, his tone questioning.

James reached out and lifted the knocker, letting it hit the door once.

The beak of the eagle opened and a soft, musical voice said, 'What is hard to find, easy to lose, is worth more the less you have, and can never be owned, only shared?'

'Do you think we just answer the question, and it lets us in?' James said. 'That seems a bit easy.'

'Maybe we only get one try,' Peter said.

'We better be careful then,' James said. 'What do you think? Hard to find and easy to lose? That could be anything small, right?'

Sirius and Peter both nodded. Remus wasn't sure they were on the right track, though. He was thinking about the one thing in his life he had had the most difficulty finding, and how easy it would be to lose them.

'Worth more the less you have?' Sirius said. 'What becomes more valuable the less you have of it?'

Remus only had three, and they were worth more to him than his life, he would risk everything to not lose them, was risking everything.

'Anything, really,' Peter said, shrugging. 'If you don't have much, you care about it more.'

'Can never be owned, only shared,' James said, his tone thoughtful. 'Everything can be owned, can't it? If you have enough money.'

'Not everything,' Peter said. 'We can't own the air, but that's not hard to find, it's everywhere.'

'I don't think the answer is a physical object,' Remus said. They all turned to look at him and he felt his face heat, so he stared at the floor. 'I think the answer is friendship.'

'You know what? I think he's right,' Sirius said. 'Merlin, we're thick.'

The others laughed, and Sirius turned to the door knocker. 'Friendship,' he said.

'Well reasoned,' the door knocker replied before the door swung open and allowed them to enter.

The crowded Ravenclaw common room was a circular room with arched windows, decorated with blue and bronze silk curtains. The carpet was midnight blue and dotted with bronze stars matching the domed ceiling, and the students were spread out among the tables and chairs that furnished the room. Those closest to the door turned to look at them as the four lions wearing Gryffindor red entered the eagle's territory.

'How did you get in here?' a prefect with long blonde hair demanded, standing up and marching over.

Sirius shrugged. 'We answered the riddle. You really should get better security.'

The prefect crossed her arms. 'Why are you here?'

'We'd like to put this up on your noticeboard if that's okay?' James said, holding up the poster.

The prefect took the poster and examined it. 'What's this mystery exactly?' she asked.

'Well, if we knew, it wouldn't be a mystery would it,' Sirius said.

Remus stepped forward. 'What Sirius means is, we don't know what will happen, exactly. But the room we found promised a "reward" if we completed the task. So, we don't think it's anything dangerous.'

'And the "task" involves people with birthdays?'

'Yes, they just have to blow out the candle on a cake,' Remus said.

The prefect nodded. 'It sounds intriguing. I'll hang your poster, and you can put me down for September the twenty-eighth. My name's Pandora Selwyn.'

James handed over the poster and Remus took out the dragonhide notebook to add her name to the list he'd written out earlier.

'That's a Tuesday,' he said. 'So we'll meet you at the top of the Grand Staircase after dinner?'

Pandora agreed, and Remus and his friends left Ravenclaw tower, one down, two to go.

Monday, 20th September 1971, 8:00 am

The enchanted ceiling in the Great Hall showed a clear blue sky, not a cloud to be seen, and Sirius was in a fantastic mood. His friendship with Remus was back on track, and they were getting along great. They had a mystery room to unlock and knew how to do it. Saturday afternoon, they had managed to locate a Hufflepuff willing to put their poster up in their common room, and on Sunday morning, he had bumped into his cousin Andromeda, who had agreed to put it up in Slytherin. On Sunday evening, several students had approached the Gryffindor table at dinner asking for them and put their names down on the list. They only needed to fill four more spots, and they were all later in the month, so they had plenty of time.

Life was good, Sirius decided.

'What are you grinning at?' James asked, interrupting his thoughts.

'Just how great everything is right now,' Sirius said.

James' face broke out in a wide smile. 'Yeah, everything is pretty awesome, isn't it?'

Then James' robes turned bright red, and a golden lion appeared on his chest and let out a silent roar. Sirius blinked. Then he blinked three times rapidly. No, it was definitely there. He looked at Peter and his robes were the same. Glancing up, he saw everyone at their table was now sporting the same red robes with golden lions. The Ravenclaw table was a sea of blue with bronze Eagles. The Hufflepuffs were bright yellow with black badgers, and the Slytherins in the distance had all turned green with silver snakes winding their way up their arms and around their collars.

Sirius turned his head to look at the teachers. Most of them had been unaffected, but Professor Dumbledore was wearing purple robes with a blazing phoenix across the front. Of course, he may well have been wearing those earlier; Sirius hadn't paid much attention. As he gazed at Dumbledore's strange outfit, fiery letters burned to life on the wall behind the teacher's table, spelling out a message.

I hope you all enjoy your snazzy new robes

The Hogwarts Marauder

Sirius glanced at James and Peter to see that they too were reading the message.

James turned to look at Sirius, his eyes were wide and gleamed with excitement. 'Who is the Hogwarts Marauder and how can we meet them?' he said.