March 12th, 1972

Remus was standing in a corridor on the fourth floor, facing a blank stretch of wall, and wondering if his friends were playing another joke on him. A moment ago, Sirius had vanished beneath the invisibility cloak with an excited twinkle in his eye, and Remus was certain that didn't bode well.

'Okay, Remus. For your birthday surprise, we present you with…' Sirius' disembodied voice paused dramatically, and a doorway appeared in the wall directly in front of him. '... a mystery! What is this place? And why is it here?'

The light from Sirius' invisible wand shone through the opening, illuminating what appeared to be an ordinary corridor. Or it would be ordinary if he'd come across it in the muggle world. Finding it behind a door at Hogwarts made it an incredibly out-of-place corridor. Remus' stomach fluttered. He loved mysteries.

The floor of the hallway was varnished wood, unlike the stone floors the rest of Hogwarts sported. And instead of bare stone and tapestries, the walls were plastered and painted in pale blue. As if all that wasn't weird enough, there were electric lights on the ceiling, and everything was covered in a thick layer of dust.

'This part of the castle hasn't been used for a long time, whatever it is,' Remus said. 'How much have you looked around?'

Sirius had pulled off the cloak and was watching him closely for his reaction to the surprise.

'Only this floor. There's a main staircase that goes up to the seventh floor and down to ground level. We thought exploring and figuring out what this place was used for would be the perfect activity for Remus day.'

Remus smiled at how well they knew him. 'I love it. Thank you.' He stepped into the hidden wing of the castle and glanced up and down the corridor. 'So what's on this floor?'

'Dormitories,' James said. 'Five of them, with ten beds and a bathroom each.'

'Weird,' Remus said. 'Why would they need more dormitories outside of the Houses? Those spaces magically resize depending on how many students there are.'

'Do they?' Peter said. 'How do you know that?'

'I read it in a book about Hogwarts,' Remus replied at the same time that James said, 'It's in Hogwarts: A History.'

Everyone stared at James in astonished silence.

'What?' James said, going red. 'I read.'

'Only when you have to,' Sirius said.

'I wanted to be prepared.' James' tone sounded a little defensive.

'You're adorable,' Sirius said, chuckling and wrapping his arm around James' shoulders. 'Do you want to see the dorm rooms, Remus? Or explore the other floors?'

'Explore,' Remus said. They would have to come back this way to get out, so he could look at the dormitories then. 'Let's go to the bottom and work our way up.'

It only took five minutes to make it all the way down, and the staircase ended in an open space a quarter of the size of Hogwarts' Entrance Hall. Directly opposite the stairs was a door, considerably larger than the others they had seen.

'Looks like the access from the grounds,' Remus said, trying the handle. It was locked, so he pulled his wand out and pointed it at the lock. 'Alohomora.'

It didn't work, and he turned back to the others in defeat.

James shrugged. 'Who cares about going outside, anyway?' He pointed at another door, to the right of the entrance. 'Let's see what's in there.'

Sirius bounded over and tried the handle. The door swung open, and they walked through, shining their wand-lights around the interior. It was obviously a dining room, but it was nothing like the Great Hall.

Instead of four long house-tables and a separate teacher's table, there were lots of smaller tables and chairs, lined up in regimented rows and columns. There was no enchanted ceiling, and no windows either, so it must have been a pretty gloomy place to eat. Remus pointed his wand-light up and saw the same long, thin electric lights they'd seen in the corridors.

It occurred to him that if there were electric lights, there must be a way to turn them on, and he directed his wand-light towards the wall next to the door. Sure enough, there was a row of light switches, and he flicked them all down in one motion, wondering if they would still work. The lights on the ceiling flickered a little before burning strong and bright, illuminating the room well enough, but not quite reaching the corners.

'Cool,' James and Sirius said at the same time.

Remus and Peter smirked at each other. The simplest muggle device was fascinating to their pure-blooded friends.

'Maybe this was the servant quarters before they got house-elves?' Sirius suggested.

Remus shook his head. 'The house-elves have been here for hundreds of years. Muggles only invented electric lighting this century.'

They turned the lights back off and left the dining hall to continue exploring. Checking behind the staircase next, they found another door which led out to a large courtyard with seating areas and neglected flower beds. But there was nothing of interest out there to look at, and they quickly went back inside.

Opposite the dining hall was a door marked staff only. The Marauders glanced at each other, smirking, and walked straight in. The room turned out to be an office with filing cabinets lining one wall, and a desk pushed up against another. There was a dead houseplant in one corner and a bland painting of a meadow on the wall. Everything here was also thick with dust; it was kind of creepy.

Remus shook the feeling off and opened one of the filing cabinets, rifling through it.

'It looks like student records,' he said. 'But why are they separate from the rest?'

'Too old?' Peter suggested.

'Can't be,' Sirius said. 'When James and I trashed Filch's office, there were records going back hundreds of years. Those look recent.'

'And the parchment is weird. Why's it so white?' James asked.

'That's paper,' Peter told him. 'It's what muggles use.'

'Why is everything here, muggle?' James asked.

Remus rolled his eyes. 'That's kind of what we're trying to figure out.'

'I don't like it, everything's weird,' James said.

Remus laughed. 'You ever think that's how muggleborns must feel when they come to Hogwarts?'

James frowned at that. It was clear the thought had never occurred to him before.

'That must be really scary for them.'

'You think?' Remus said, quirking an eyebrow at him before returning to the paperwork. 'Look, some of these go back over a hundred years, but the most recent ones are from 1956.'

'Any names you recognise?' Sirius asked.

Remus shook his head. 'But you'd know better than me.' He handed the stack of paper to Sirius for him to look through and turned to see if Peter had found anything in the desk drawers. But Peter shook his head.

'Nothing exciting, just what you'd expect to find in a desk.'

'There are some old wizard-family surnames,' Sirius said. 'But I don't recognise the first names. Which is weird because I had to study these families for years.'

'The mystery deepens,' Remus said, unable to keep the excitement out of his voice.' 'Let's see what's upstairs.'

On the first floor, they found classrooms. They weren't that different in layout than the ones they used for their own classes. But there were no ink wells on the desks, still no windows, and the walls were covered in posters ranging from numbers and mathematical symbols, to maps of the world, to the periodic table of elements.

'It's like a muggle school,' Peter said. 'But why's it in Hogwarts?'

'It can't be for muggles,' James said. 'They can't even see Hogwarts.'

Sirius had wandered into one of the classrooms and was examining a poster showing the internal composition of the human body with interest.

'Maybe this was an intensive Muggle Studies program. Live like a muggle for three months or something.'

'Maybe,' James said. 'Shame it was stopped if it was. I'd have liked to do that.'

'You were complaining how uncomfortable you were earlier,' Remus said, laughing.

'Exactly!' James said. 'I don't want to be uncomfortable with it. I want to know what all this stuff is.'

'This is about Evans, isn't it?' Sirius said. 'Because she's muggle-born.'

James flushed. 'No… Yes… Maybe.'

'I don't think Lily cares if you know about muggle stuff,' Remus said. 'She just wants you to stop attacking Snape.'

'I will. As soon as Snivellus stops hurting kids who can't defend themselves.'

'I know, but unfortunately, we can't tell her that. So she's not going to stop hating you.'

James huffed. 'I can still try.'

Remus shared a glance with Sirius and Peter behind James' back.

'Shall we keep going?' Sirius asked.

The second and third floors turned out to also hold classrooms, two of which were dedicated to gardening, and the fourth and fifth floors were dormitories. It was the sixth floor where things got interesting. The staircase opened out onto a landing with five doors and behind each of them was a self-contained apartment, complete with two small bedrooms, a living area, a kitchen and a bathroom.

'Is that one of those TD things you told us about, Pete?' Sirius asked, pointing at the old-fashioned TV in the corner of the living area.

Peter laughed. 'TV,' he corrected, 'but yes.' He walked over to it and pressed the power button, but nothing happened. 'Guess it doesn't work anymore.'

Sirius looked disappointed but quickly perked up again when he entered the kitchen. 'We should cook something!'

Peter tried the switches on the electric oven, and it turned on. 'How about a cake for Remus?'

'Do you know how to make a cake?' James asked, sounding doubtful.

Peter rolled his eyes. 'Of course. I bake with my nan all the time.'

'The house-elves might give us the ingredients,' Remus said. Baking a cake sounded fun, and afterwards, they could eat it. An activity he always enjoyed.

'Only one way to find out,' Sirius and James said simultaneously. They then cracked up, laughing like it was the funniest thing to ever happen.

'You two are weird,' Remus said, shaking his head at his idiotic friends. 'What are you even laughing at?'

This, of course, only made them laugh harder.

Peter wrote out a list of ingredients and when Sirius and James had recovered from their laughing fit—other than the odd giggle—he sent them to the kitchen to sweet talk the house-elves. Remus remained behind to help Peter find everything they would need.

'Have you ever baked anything?' Peter asked him as they searched the other apartments for bowls and spoons, finding five more identical spaces on the seventh floor.

'Not that I remember.'

His mum never let him help in the kitchen. Too much risk of accidental contact. But Remus was confident his friends would accommodate that problem as effortlessly as they always did. He was a little surprised to realise he didn't feel worried about it at all.

'It's pretty similar to brewing,' Peter told him while ransacking a drawer. 'You need the right ingredients, in the right amounts, mixed the right way and heated for the right amount of time.'

'So, I'm going to be pants at it then,' Remus said with a laugh.

Peter eyed him for a moment. 'Maybe, but I don't think so. And It's not as delicate as brewing, anyway. You won't blow anything up if you do it wrong. It just won't taste as good.'

'That's not so bad. Chocolate will taste great no matter what.'

Peter laughed darkly. 'Yeah, don't be so sure about that.'

Remus pulled his head out of the cupboard he was searching to look at Peter. 'Sounds like there's a story there.'

'Let's just say, you shouldn't melt chocolate in a microwave oven.'

'You have a microwave oven?' Remus asked with surprise. 'I saw an advert for them on TV. They're really expensive.'

'My nan has one,' Peter said, and he shot Remus a grin. 'They heat food up so fast. It's brilliant.'

'My mum really wants one, but we could never afford it.'

'You're so smart, I bet you'll get a great job when you leave school, and then you can buy her one.' Peter said.

Remus knew he was being nice, but all it did was remind him of everything he'd lost to the wolf. Because there was no way Remus could get a good job when he left school, no matter how smart he was. Not unless they changed the law.

'Yeah, probably,' he lied.

When Sirius and James returned triumphant, laden with all the ingredients Peter had asked for, plus boxes enchanted to keep the finished cakes fresh, they set to work. Peter lined them all up with a mixing bowl each, a set of scales and a wooden spoon.

'Weigh out eight ounces of butter and the same amount of sugar,' Peter said, appearing to enjoy the role of teacher quite a lot. 'Then mix them together until it's smooth and creamy.'

Remus was the first to give in. 'Merlin, my arm is killing me,' he said, dropping the spoon in the bowl in defeat. 'Why is this so hard?'

Sirius and James laughed at him, but five minutes later they both joined him in complaining.

'No cake if you don't work for it,' Peter said, laughing at them. 'Are you men or babies?'

'Babies,' Remus said without hesitating.

James and Sirius glanced at each other, then back at Peter. 'Babies,' they agreed.

Peter snorted but took pity on them. 'You can take a short break. But then it's back to mixing.'

It was half an hour before the three boys had creamed their butter and sugar to Peter's satisfaction.

'Next, we add the eggs,' he said. 'We need four for eight ounces. Break them into a separate bowl and whisk them first.'

The fiasco that commenced was a sight to behold. To everyone's amusement, Sirius was so grossed out by the egg's insides that he refused to try again after his first failure when the stuff got all over his hands. Remus was feeling smug after he got the hang of it quickly, only wasting two eggs. The first, he tapped too hard trying to crack it, and it smashed on the counter. The second, he smooshed in his hands when he got over-excited at successfully cracking it. James, however, was utterly appalling at cracking eggs. But he was having such a good time trying no one had the heart to intervene until there were only four eggs left and they were forced too.

When everyone had whisked their eggs and mixed them into the cake mixture, Peter talked them through the process of folding in the flour and cocoa powder, (for they were, of course, making chocolate cakes. Was there any other kind worth making?) They transferred the mixture to the cake tins and put them in the oven, a device both James and Sirius found fascinating.

'Where does the fire go?' James asked.

'There's no fire. It runs on electric,' Remus said.

'Muggles are so clever,' Sirius said. 'Hey, can we get a place in a muggle area when we graduate?'

'I think I'd prefer somewhere quieter,' Peter said. 'I live in a muggle town now. There's noise all the time.'

Remus said nothing. He wouldn't be able to live with them if they got a place in town; there'd be nowhere for him to transform. But he doubted they'd still be friends by then, anyway. So there was no point interfering with their plans.

'Somewhere on the outskirts then,' Sirius said. 'So we're close to the muggles but not too close.'

'Sounds good to me,' James said from where he was perched on the counter. 'How long until the cakes are done?'

'About twenty-five minutes. We can clean up while we wait,' Peter told him, grabbing one of the mixing bowls, running his finger around the inside edge and licking off the gloop.

'Now that's the kind of cleaning-up I can get behind,' Sirius said, copying Peter's action with his own mixing bowl. 'Mmm, that is so good.'

By the time the cakes were ready and cooling on the counter, all four bowls and spoons had been licked clean and thoroughly washed. Remus made sure they put everything back how they found it. He doubted the teachers would know it was them if they discovered the debris, but it felt wrong to leave a mess behind.

The house-elves had provided them with lots of things to decorate their cakes. When they were cool enough, they made another mess icing them and making them look good enough to eat, before Remus made them clean that up too.

With the cakes and the exploration complete, they returned to the fourth floor to sneak back through the door. Remus still had no idea what they had found, but exploring it had been fun and the baking even more so. The best part? They now had more cake than they could possibly eat. As far as birthday surprises went, Remus didn't think it could ever be beaten.

The next weekend, Sirius and his friends spent another two days holed up in their cave. This time to complete the first few steps of the Spectral Essence potion. As Peter had said when they first found the recipe, it was an extremely complicated potion, but only a small portion of the weekend needed to be spent actively brewing it. The recipe called for long periods of stirring and heating in between the addition of each ingredient. As only one person was required to stir, Sirius, James, and Peter took turns; Remus was not permitted to go anywhere near it. And there was a lot of time where the potion was bubbling away, only needing the barest amount of supervision.

To pass the time, they played games of exploding snap and burn the witch, but not gobstones—no one wanted to stink up the cave. Sirius began another mural to replace the one they'd traded to the merpeople, Remus read, and James and Peter practised duelling at the other end of the cave from the cauldron.

On Sunday afternoon, they sat down to plan out their time for the next few weeks. The potion was delicate and could only be put under stasis at specific points in the process. One of those times was after step four of the fifty-two step recipe, and they would reach that point at around four pm that afternoon. They hoped to get through the next twenty steps during the Easter Holidays, but after that, it would be tricky to fit things in between classes, homework and detentions.

'We'll just have to make sure we don't get detention,' Remus said.

'Easier said than done,' Sirius replied. 'Sometimes, I just can't help myself.'

'Same,' James said, nodding.

Peter sighed. 'I guess if one of you has detention when you're scheduled to work on the potion, then I'll have to cover for you.'

'And I'll help you with your homework, Pete,' Remus said. 'That'll save you some time.'

Just after four pm, Peter put the fire out and cast the stasis charm over the potion. They had a rudimentary schedule drawn up, which had them finishing with two weeks to spare. It allowed some room for missed sessions, but no room for mistakes. If they messed it up, they wouldn't have time to start again. They had to get it right first time.

From the cave, they went straight to the Great Hall for dinner, thinking it a good idea to show their faces in case anyone had noticed they weren't around. It didn't seem like anyone had, no one was paying any particular attention to them, but they made sure they were noticed now by being loud and boisterous enough to bring a reprimand from the nearest prefect.

After eating, they returned to the dorm where Sirius' stomach tied itself in a knot at the sight of his mother's godawful owl waiting for him. He'd been worried about this but had hoped being sorted into Gryffindor would get him out of it. Apparently not.

Mister Sirius Black,

You will report to the Headmaster's office at 8 am on Monday morning. Your presence is required at home for the vernal equinox.

Walburga Black

Sirius' good mood had evaporated. He screwed up the parchment and threw it on the fire, before flopping heavily onto his bed face first and screaming into his pillow.

'You alright, mate?' James asked, rather stupidly. He clearly wasn't alright.

'I have to go home tomorrow morning,' Sirius ground out through gritted teeth.

'Why?' James asked. 'How long for?'

Sirius hesitated. What would his friends think about him taking part in dark magic rituals? He rolled over and sat up. All three were looking his way with concern on their faces. When he really thought about it, he knew exactly what they'd do. They'd listen to his explanation, understand that it wasn't his choice, and support him in whatever way they could. That was just who they were.

'Just for the day,' he said. 'It's the Black Family Ritual. We do it every year.'

'Sounds awful,' James said, pushing his glasses up his nose. 'What do they make you do?'

Sirius laughed with relief. He didn't even need to explain; James just knew it wasn't his choice. 'It is awful. We make a potion to enhance the casting of dark magic. Everyone has to do a part of it for some bizarre reason, and then we all drink it.'

Remus looked worried. 'Do you drink it?'

'Not since I found out what it did,' Sirius said, feeling sick that he'd ever taken it at all. 'I pour it in the bushes when no one's looking.'

'Thank Merlin,' Remus said. 'A potion like that shouldn't be given to kids. It's dangerous.'

Sirius' stomach twisted itself up a little more. He thought the potion revolting, but he hadn't known it was dangerous for children. And Reggie still drank it every year. He didn't want to mention that, though. He still held out hope Reg would be placed somewhere other than Slytherin, and he didn't want his friends to think ill of his brother.

'Maybe that's why nearly everyone in my family is insane,' Sirius said instead, trying to be funny despite his anxiety. 'The ones that aren't all stopped drinking the potion. I saw Andy pouring hers away last year.'

'That's very possible,' Remus said, missing the joke. 'Are you going to be okay, going home? Your family's still pretty mad at you, aren't they?'

That was the question, and Sirius didn't know the answer. He wasn't sure what to expect.

'Furious, but I'm sure it'll be fine,' he lied. 'Mother won't risk doing anything when I'm coming straight back to school.'

The next morning, Sirius put on a brave face as he said goodbye to his friends, but inside he was a bag of nerves. Mother knew plenty of ways to make him suffer without leaving a mark on the outside. His coming straight back to school was no guarantee of his safety.

So he couldn't suppress a smile when he saw Andromeda waiting outside of Professor Dumbledore's office for him.

'Good morning, cousin,' she said. 'How pointless is this?'

Sirius laughed. 'I wondered if you saw me disposing of my dose last year.'

'It made my heart glad,' she said. 'There's hope for our House yet if our heir rejects dark magic.'

'I think you may be the only one who believes that.'

'Yes, well, I never said you wouldn't have your work cut out,' she said with a musical laugh. 'Shall we go and put on the performance of our lives?'

Sirius smiled and stuck out his elbow for her to take. 'I suppose we must. But where is Narcissa?'

'She already left, I volunteered to wait for you. Thought you might need moral support.'

'Thank you,' he said, meaning it with all his heart and soul. 'I'm dreading this. I'd been hoping I wouldn't have to see Mother until the summer.'

Andromeda squeezed his arm. 'It's only for the day. And most of it will be in the garden.'

'I know. It's after that worries me,' he said. 'We'll be done by mid-afternoon, and she doesn't have to send me back until curfew.'

They flooed from the Headmaster's office directly into the drawing-room at Grimmauld Place, and his mother was waiting for him.

'You're late,' she snapped before he could even recover from the floo sickness. 'Change into your robes and get outside immediately. We're waiting to begin.' She turned when Andromeda stepped from the fireplace. 'Hello, dear. Your robes are in Regulus' room, you can change in there.'

'Thank you, Auntie. I hope you're well?'

'As well as one can be with such a rebellious heir.' Walburga sighed as if her burdens were unbearably heavy. 'If only Regulus had been born first.'

Sirius heard no more. Having reached the door, he let it slam closed behind him and ran up to his room to change. On seeing the state of his bedroom, he groaned. It looked like it hadn't been cleaned at all while he was gone and there was a fine layer of dust on everything. Ignoring his mother's pettiness in ordering the house-elves not to clean his room, he retrieved his ritual robes from the wardrobe and put them on, cringing at his reflection in the mirror.

Sirius kept his temper during the ritual this year, despite being given the flobberworm mucus again. When the torture was finally over, he pretended to drink the potion and waited for an opportunity to dispose of it. He was watching Reggie on the other side of the garden talking to their cousin Bellatrix. There had been no opportunity to speak to him before the ritual, and he'd drunk the potion immediately. There was nothing Sirius could do about it now, but he'd still like to speak to his brother if he could.

He sidled closer to the bushes, hoping to tip out the potion when no one was looking, but before he could, his mother cornered him.

'I want you in the cellar immediately. We need to have a… conversation,' she said. Then, to Sirius' horror, her eyes dropped to the goblet in his hand. 'Drink it,' she spat. 'Now.'

Sirius thought about throwing the potion in her face and making a run for the floo, but he knew it was impossible. There were too many family members around; they would catch him. He had no choice but to do as he was told.

Raising the goblet to his lips, he remembered Remus' warning against drinking the potion and his heart sank into his stomach. He was only twelve. How much damage would this do to him? He swallowed the putrid liquid in one gulp and grimaced. It tasted like death. His mother took the goblet and glared at him. Right. She'd told him to go to the cellar. Sirius swallowed down his fear—he was a Gryffindor, dammit—and held his head high as he strolled through the crowded house and down into the place of his nightmares.

His mother followed him inside, and he turned to face her, keeping his face an expressionless mask.

'Narcissa tells me you've been seen associating with filthy half-bloods,' she said. 'As if being sorted into Gryffindor wasn't enough of a disgrace. You will cease contact with them at once on your return to school.'

Sirius had been expecting this, and he was prepared.

'I will not.'

She sneered at him. 'You will do as you are told.'

He looked her in the eye as he repeated his previous statement more firmly than before. 'I will not.'

She curled her lip at his defiance. 'Maybe you'll change your mind once you've had a small taste of what your summer will be like if you disobey me,' she said, before waving her wand.

The shackles on the floor wrapped themselves around his wrists and dragged him to the wall, pinning him by his arms so his feet couldn't touch the ground. It wasn't a new form of punishment, and he knew that within ten minutes, his arm muscles would be burning from supporting his weight. But he also knew he would recover quickly when she let him go. So he got cocky.

'Is this all?' he said. 'Hardly new, is it?'

'No,' she said. And the evil glint in her eye sent a chill down Sirius' spine. She pointed her wand at his feet. 'But this is.'

Sirius screamed. He hated himself for it. Didn't want to give his mother the satisfaction, but he couldn't control it.

His feet were burning!

He looked down through eyes blurred with tears, thinking surely there must be flames flicking at his feet. But there was nothing there. The fire was no more than an illusion, but the pain was all too real. His mother left, closing the door behind her, and Sirius screamed and screamed until his voice was hoarse. And still, the phantom fire licked at the soles of his feet.

His mother returned a lifetime later and released him from the spell, letting him fall to the floor at her feet.

'You will cut ties with the half-bloods on your return to school,' she said.

The pain had stopped the moment she cancelled the spell, and he hauled himself up and looked at her. Snot and tears covered his face, and his throat was raw from screaming. He couldn't endure that again; not for five minutes, never mind the entire summer. It was too much. He looked at the floor, not wanting to see the victory in her eyes.

'Yes, mother,' he whispered, defeated.

'Drink this,' she said, handing him a potion, before looking him up and down with a sneer. 'Then clean yourself up; you're a mess. The Headmaster is expecting you in half an hour.'

He took the bottle and downed it in one. The liquid slid down his ravaged throat, healing it along the way, and he sighed with relief at the long-awaited absence of pain.

'Thank you, mother,' he said, handing the empty bottle back to her.

Thirty-five minutes later, Sirius climbed the steps to his dorm room with a strange emptiness in his chest. He knew what he had to do, and he was dreading it.

He pushed the door open, expecting the usual commotion that followed James around everywhere he went. But the room was silent. Remus was the sole occupant, and he was, predictably, reading a book, but he looked up when Sirius walked in.

'Hey,' Remus said. He marked his page with a scrap of parchment before putting the book to one side and giving Sirius his undivided attention. 'How did it go?'

Sirius opened his mouth to tell him they couldn't be friends anymore, but he couldn't get the words to come out. He just stood there with his mouth open, staring at Remus and not saying a word.

'Sirius? You okay?' Remus climbed off the bed and approached him with concern in his eyes.

'I drank it,' he said at last. Because he couldn't say what he knew he must, and that was the only other thing he could think of. 'She made me drink it in front of her.'

To Sirius' utter confusion, Remus smiled. He'd been expecting disgust, or revulsion, not happiness.

'We thought that might happen,' Remus said. 'We spent lunch in the library and found a potion to cleanse your magical core of dark magic. James and Peter are brewing it now.'

Sirius couldn't believe his ears. 'They are?'

Remus nodded. 'It has to be taken within twenty-four hours, so we couldn't wait for you to get back and tell us if you actually needed it.'

Sirius stared blankly at Remus, his thoughts in a whirl. This 'filthy half-blood' had given up his lunch break to find a potion recipe just in case Sirius needed it. Peter, the other 'filthy half-blood,' was at this very moment spending his free time brewing a potion for Sirius that he wasn't sure he'd even need. And his mother, the woman who'd ordered him to cut ties with these incredible, thoughtful and generous people, had spent the afternoon torturing him with phantom fire simply because of who he chose to be friends with.

He couldn't do it; he wouldn't do it. And he was ashamed at how close he'd come to buckling. No matter what she did to him during the next six summers, his friends were worth every single moment of pain.

They would always be worth it.

When James and Peter returned from the cave at two am and handed him the perfectly brewed Core Cleanser, he drank it gratefully and thanked them, making no mention of what he'd been ordered to do, or what would happen to him now he'd decided to disobey. The next morning, Sirius threw himself into schoolwork to keep his thoughts off what awaited him at home, but the last week before the Easter holidays went by in the blink of an eye, forcing him to find a new distraction.

Potion brewing was one diversion, but while the Spectral Essence was long-winded and complicated, there were long periods where nothing was required but to watch over it. So it wasn't sufficient to hold Sirius' attention by itself. He finished the replacement mural of the clearing in the forbidden forest—he'd included the mooncalves in this one, having decided to decorate the cave with a record of their adventures—and had begun a new mural of the beach room, complete with giant sandcastles and an ongoing battle.

The first Monday of the holiday arrived quickly, and with it James' birthday. Which, despite being his actual birthday, he insisted on calling James day.

'You both got a day to yourselves. So I should too,' was his reasoning.

Peter's gift to James was food as—no surprise there—but instead of sweets, he'd given him a selection of muggle health food bars, which James adored. Remus had given him a jumper in Gryffindor red with gold stitching around the collar and cuffs.

'It was one of mine,' he'd told James, with cheeks slightly flushed from embarrassment. 'Breen enlarged it for me, and I changed the colours.'

James had immediately put it on and thanked Remus, saying how lovely and warm it was. Sirius got a funny feeling in his stomach, which he put down to jealousy that he didn't have any muggle clothes yet.

Sirius' gift outshone them both. He pulled it out from its hiding place beneath his bed, and James' eyes lit up with instant recognition. The shape of the parcel was unmistakable.

'So, not a painting then,' James said, bouncing where he sat as his excitement got the better of his self-control. Cosmo raised her head and glared at him for disturbing her nap on the discarded wrapping paper.

'Not a painting,' Sirius confirmed, laying the long, thin package across James' lap.

James didn't hesitate in ripping off the paper, and his grin stretched from ear to ear as he regarded the Nimbus 1200 in all its glory.

'Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,' James chanted without pausing for breath.

Peter chuckled at James' over-excitement. 'I think Sirius won this round.'

'I thought we could take it to the cave to fly it,' Sirius said. 'Since first-years aren't really allowed their own brooms.'

James jumped off the bed immediately, almost causing Peter and Remus to topple off from the aggressive bouncing of the mattress, and making Cosmo yowl with annoyance and jump to the floor in search of a quieter place to sleep.

'Get dressed. We're going right now.'

James chivied them all continuously until they were ready to leave, and the journey to the cave was completed in the shortest amount of time ever.

'Just stay on that side of the cave, away from the cauldron,' Peter said when James mounted the broom.

James rolled his eyes. 'I'm not stupid,' he said, before pushing off and zooming into the air towards the ceiling of the cave at top speed.

'Debatable,' Sirius said with a laugh.

'Why did you have to get him a broom?' Peter asked, watching James expertly execute a barrel roll. 'He's gonna be completely useless to us for the rest of the holiday now.'

'You see that grin on his face right now? The sheer joy?' Sirius asked. 'That's why.'

James flew down and landed next to them, his eyes were sparkling with happiness. 'I hope you're all discussing how awesome I am at flying.'

'Peter was saying he thought you'd shirk your responsibilities now, but I have every faith in you,' Sirius said.

'I would never,' James said, looking offended by the suggestion. 'Didn't I already tell you not to plan anything for my birthday because we can't afford a day off? I won't shirk my Marauderly duties for a broom.'

'We know, James,' Peter said. 'I was kidding.'

'Speaking of the potion, shouldn't we get started?' Sirius said.

James glanced at his watch. 'Crap, you're right. We won't be done before midnight as it is.'

James and Peter hurried over to the cauldron to start on step seven, and Sirius looked at Remus. The full moon was in two days, but so far he seemed to be doing okay this month.

'You got any plans?' Sirius asked.

'You can have a go on my broom if you want,' James called from beside the cauldron.

Remus grimaced. 'No, thank you,' he replied. Then to Sirius, 'Promised Peter I'd look over his homework assignments. He doesn't have the time to do the proper research with all the brewing. And since I'm useless for this part of the project.' He shrugged.

'Helping free up time for our Chief Potioneer isn't useless,' Sirius said with a grin. 'It's a valuable contribution to the project.'

'More valuable than Sirius' paintings, that's for sure,' James said.

'Will you stop eavesdropping, James,' Sirius said. 'And my art brightens the place up and boosts morale. It's very valuable.'

'Not to mention, highly entertaining,' Remus said, eyeing the mural of the clearing. The James and Sirius in the painting were imitating the mooncalves' dance, and the Peter and Remus were bent over in silent laughter.'

'Exactly!' Sirius said, pointing at Remus.

'I love your art, Sirius, but right now I need you to prepare the ectoplasm,' Peter said. 'It needs to be infused with the mint and daisy petals before we can add it to the main potion.'

'See you later, Nerd Boy,' Sirius said, winking at Remus, before strolling over to Peter and asking, 'What do I have to do?'

Remus was worried about how he would explain his disappearance for the March full moon with it falling during the Easter holidays, but the problem solved itself when Rieka brought him a letter from his mum the morning of the moon. He'd lied to his friends—gods, he hated all the lying—and told them his aunt had died and he had to return home for the funeral. If the aunt actually existed, he might have felt bad about it, but as far as he knew his mum didn't have any siblings. He wondered how many fictitious relatives he would have to kill off over the course of his education and decided to keep a list so he wouldn't accidentally kill someone twice.

'If my mum's really upset I might stay a day or two since it's the holidays,' he told his friends as he was getting ready to go to the hospital wing several hours early.

'I hope you don't need to,' Sirius said, his voice carrying a hint of anxiety.

Peter nodded. 'Me too. It's not the same without you.'

'You're being a bit selfish, guys,' James said, giving them a look. 'Of course, we'll miss you, mate. But don't feel like you have to come back for us if your mum needs you.'

'I know,' Remus said. 'I'm just in the way right now, anyway.'

His friends argued with that statement, of course, but Remus knew it was true. He was a liability when it came to brewing. Not that it mattered. Peter more than made up for his deficiency in that area, and Remus contributed in so many other ways. It was just that he felt a bit useless while there was nothing he could do to help with the project. So much so, he was almost glad of the full moon, allowing him to step away for a day or two. Almost.

It turned out to only be a day in the end. The full moon went well, and he had no injuries, but he woke up with a deep lingering sadness that he didn't understand.

Remus took an extra day to recuperate quietly in the dorm, enjoying the silence. After a blissful hot shower, he spent quite some time staring at himself in the bathroom mirror, safe in the knowledge that his friends were in the cave. He wasn't sure if it was his imagination, maybe wishful thinking, but his scars seemed ever so slightly fainter. It was impossible, but he was almost convinced Peter's potion was working.

Remus returned to the cave as soon as he had the strength to make the journey, and his friends welcomed him back happily.

'Your mum doing okay?' James asked when the greetings were over.

Remus nodded. 'Yeah, upset, but she's coping. How's the potion?'

'We've just completed step fourteen,' Peter said with pride in his voice. 'We're right on schedule to get to twenty-four by next Sunday.'

'Well, I'll just stay in the tent out of the way then,' Remus said with a small chuckle.

Remus spent most of the holiday in the tent. And he was fine with that. The others came in often when the potion didn't need their attention, but when he was alone, he enjoyed the opportunity to read and study without being interrupted. Every day, two of them would leave the cave to spend time in the Great Hall, or the common-room to keep anyone from noticing their absence, and to stock up on food from the kitchens.

At two-fifteen in the afternoon on the last day of the holiday, James, Sirius and Peter came whooping into the tent and Remus glanced up from editing Peter's Charms essay.

'We did it!' Sirius informed him. 'Step twenty-four is complete.'

'The potion is under stasis,' Peter said.

'We can leave!' James added, his face sporting an ear-splitting grin.

They packed up and returned to Gryffindor Tower, feeling a great sense of accomplishment. The potion wasn't anywhere near finished, but the most challenging part was out of the way, and Remus was starting to think they might actually pull this off.

As he stepped through the portrait hole after his friends, Remus heard James' excited voice exclaim, 'Guys, we are definitely doing this!' but he tried not to worry too much. How bad could it be, after all? The Niffler Hunt, the Creature Hunt, and the Sand-Wars had all been fun. But when he stopped in front of the noticeboard, his stomach sank into his feet as he read the poster.

The Chiefs of Raucous Revelry are delighted to announce

Hogwarts' Annual Midnight Flying Contest

will be held on

Saturday 15th April

All entrants, please sign up below

Contestants and audience, please meet in the common room at eleven-thirty pm

And, as always, anyone who mentions the Hogwarts' Annual Midnight Flying Contest to any member of Hogwarts staff will be shunned.