Sunday 3rd December

'Let's test them,' James said as soon as the last chain stopped glowing. 'Make sure they work.'

Remus frowned at him. 'Can we test them? I don't think we should use them unless one of us needs help. Like Sirius said, there might be consequences.'

'I know that.' James rolled his eyes at Remus. Then he shrugged. 'One of us will just have to put ourselves in danger.'

'Not it,' Peter blurted, feeling his face warm up as they all looked at him. But what did they expect? He wasn't one for unnecessary danger. When they didn't look away, he got impatient. 'What?'

James chuckled and shook his head. 'I'll do it. Shouldn't be too hard.'

'I don't think it's really necessary,' Remus said. 'It'll happen eventually if we just wait—an exploding cauldron in Potions or a misfired spell in Charms. Hell, you're all in danger every full moon. These things will probably be going off every five minutes.'

'Yeah, but we're all together most of the time. I want to get a feel for how the tracking part works.'

'For you to feel it, Peter will need to be the one in danger, and he's already said he won't do it,' Remus said.

'That's fine, you can just describe it to me.'

'Can't we at least have dinner first?' Peter asked, unable to ignore his growling stomach any longer. 'I've been working on that potion all day. I'm starving.'

'Fine, but then we're testing them,' James said. 'Agreed?'

Appearing satisfied by their nods, James led them from the room, towards the stairs which would take them to the Great Hall, and the delicious roast dinner that awaited them. Sundays were the best.

Peter was not disappointed. As usual, the house-elves had prepared an assortment of roasted meats, three different kinds of potatoes, and a variety of vegetables. And every few feet sat a gravy boat, filled to the brim with steaming dark brown liquid. His mouth was watering before he even reached his seat.

The meal was uneventful, mostly. James took it upon himself to spoon some broccoli and carrots onto Sirius' plate when he wasn't looking, and in retaliation Sirius kept hold of a gravy boat, so it wouldn't disappear, and poured it on James' ice cream when dessert was served. But other than that, nothing much happened.

'Right, time for some danger,' James whispered, rubbing his hands together when everyone was finished. 'You might as well wait here until you get alerted.'

'I'm coming with you,' Sirius said. 'Then they can both describe it to us.'

James nodded. 'Glad to have you by my side, Twinkles.'

'Don't do anything too stupid,' Remus said. Peter wasn't sure why he bothered. They both knew when James and Sirius were left alone together, stupidity would happen.

'As if we would,' Sirius said, winking at Remus.

With that, the two rose from the table and strolled from the Great Hall.

'Guess we just wait now, then,' Remus said.

'Reckon I've got time for another piece of apple pie?'

'Debatable. I doubt it'll take long for those two to find trouble when they're actively looking for it.'

Peter sighed. 'Yeah, that's true.' He took one last longing look at the apple pie before forcibly tearing his eyes from it. 'Any idea what we're waiting for, exactly?'

Remus shook his head. 'The book was really vague on the details. It just said the protector would be alerted if the protected felt themselves to be in danger.'

Peter chuckled. 'Think the magic takes over-confidence into consideration? We might be sitting here all night if we have to wait for them to think they're in danger.'

'That is a good point,' Remus said with a laugh of his own. 'Let's hope it does.'

'I just hope they hurry up. I still have to finish that essay for Charms, and it's due tomorrow.'

'Why didn't you say?'

'What, and get a lecture from James about getting homework out of the way so we don't waste time on pointless detentions? No thanks.'

Remus laughed. 'For someone who likes to portray themselves as a rebel, he sure does take his education seriously, doesn't he?'

Peter nodded. 'I just wish he'd keep his enthusiasm for it focused on his own work, and leave mine alone.'

Remus paused, frowning. 'If you want us to butt out, you only have to say.'

'No, I didn't mean that. I'm sorry. I'd be fucked without you all helping me. Sometimes, I just don't want to, though, you know?'

'This is going to be fun,' Sirius said.

Peter looked around, confused. What the hell? Remus seemed to have heard it, too. He was glancing around himself as if searching for something.

Leaning forward, Peter whispered. 'Did you hear something?'

'I thought I heard James saying, "Ha, Snivellus thinks he can best me," but he's obviously not here. Do you think it's the alarm?'

'Yeah, I heard Sirius, too. It has to be. Come on.'

They hurried from the Hall before pulling out their wands and muttering the incantation to activate the tracking part of the spell. 'Reperio.'

There was an immediate tugging feeling in his chest, like someone had attached a rope there and was pulling on the end. He glanced at Remus and pointed at the dungeon staircase. 'I think it's that way.'

'I'm getting that impression, too,' Remus said, rubbing at the centre of his chest. 'This is not a pleasant feeling.'

'No, I suppose that's the point, though. It wants to make sure we follow.'

Keeping their wands in hand, they followed the invisible cord down the dungeon stairs. When they reached the end of the corridor and had to choose a route, the feeling changed slightly, as if pulling off to the left.

'Left?' Remus asked.

'Yeah, I think so.'

They turned and continued down, walking quickly because whenever they slowed, the invisible cord tugged harder, almost painfully, and as they approached the next bend, they heard the distant sounds of a duel.

'This is going to be fun,' Sirius' voice said again. This time, without the background noise of the Great Hall, Peter could tell it was inside his head.

'Huh, James said the same thing again,' Remus said.

'Yeah, Sirius did too. It must keep going until we get there. Thank Merlin, it's not continuous.'

They rounded the next corner to the sight of James and Sirius duelling three Slytherins, one of which was Snape. No surprises there. Spells were flying back and forth, but no one seemed to be landing anything. Tenebris' lessons were obviously effective.

Remus moved up behind Sirius, laying a hand gently on his shoulder, briefly, before slipping into a defensive stance. Peter took his position behind and slightly to the right of James.

'Glad you could join us,' James said, grinning but not looking around. 'Flipendo!'

'Expelliarmus,' Peter said, aiming at Snape. He deflected it, of course, but the distraction allowed Remus to hit him with a knockback jinx, and James followed it up with a Stupefy while Sirius defended them all from the oncoming attacks.

They worked seamlessly, utilising their coded manoeuvres to communicate with each other, and within minutes all three Slytherins were out cold, and Remus was flat on his ass, having stepped in front of a knockback jinx to protect James.

'Well, that went well,' James said, offering his hand to Remus to help him up.

'This is going to be fun,' Sirius said without moving his lips.

Peter looked at Remus. 'Shouldn't the alarm have stopped now?'

'I didn't hear anything this time. I think it's stopped for me.'

'What's it like?' James asked, wide eyed and vibrating slightly.

'It was your voice,' Remus said, talking slowly. 'Saying, "Ha, Snivellus thinks he can best me," but in my head. It was different from my own thoughts, though. Not just because it was in your voice. It felt almost like… like an intrusion. But… comfortable?' He paused and chuckled. 'I'm not making any sense at all, am I?'

'No, that's exactly what it was like,' Peter agreed. 'Something that shouldn't be there, but it's not… bad,' he finished lamely. Sometimes he really wished he knew more words.

'What did I say?' Sirius asked.

Peter laughed. ' "This is going to be fun," ' he said in what he considered a passable imitation of Sirius' tone.

Sirius grinned. 'I was right, too.'

Remus was eyeing the unconscious bodies of the stunned Slytherins. 'We should probably go somewhere else to talk about this. They could wake up at any moment.'

Agreeing, James led them back to the dorm, and the 'alarm' went off in Peter's head twice more on the way. When they arrived, Sirius threw himself down on his bed and patted the mattress in invitation. They all climbed on, Remus sitting beside him while Peter and James sat together at the other end. Cosmo, deciding that the invitation also applied to her, jumped up and made herself at home in Sirius' lap.

'Yes, you're my favourite cat, too,' Sirius murmured, scratching her behind the ears as she purred.

'Is it still going, Pete?' James asked, leaning forward to pet Cosmo. She sniffed his hand before rubbing her face against it affectionately.

Peter nodded. 'Yeah, doesn't seem to have changed at all.'

'What's different?' Remus asked. 'Me and James must have done something to stop it, and you and Sirius haven't.'

'Why does the alarm repeat at all?' James asked. 'Once would be enough to alert us.'

Remus frowned in thought. 'So we can't ignore it. We promised to protect each other. The spell's compelling us to keep that promise.'

'Okay,' Sirius said, looking thoughtful. 'So how does it know when the promise has been kept? Proximity isn't enough, which makes sense. We could be close enough to touch but actually still have a wall between us.'

The words triggered something in Peter's mind, and he saw James reaching out and pulling Remus to his feet when the fight was over. 'Touch. We have to touch.'

'Of course,' James said, then he looked at Remus and laughed. 'Good job you're not still scared to touch us.'

Remus snorted. 'Yeah, or I'd have your voice ringing in my head every five minutes for all eternity, driving me mad.'

'Not sure I'd mind,' Sirius said, smirking at Remus. 'Depends what you were saying, I suppose. Actually, whenever you find yourself in danger, think something like, "Sirius is the most gorgeous being to ever live," I wouldn't mind hearing you say that over and over.'

Remus rolled his eyes. 'Of course, I'll be sure to make my last panicked thought before I die something suitably complimentary.'

Patting Remus' knee, Sirius grinned. 'That's all I ask, Moonbeam.'

'This is going to be fun,' Sirius said again in Peter's head.

'When you're done flirting with Moony, do you think you could find a moment to make this alarm stop?' Peter asked, holding out a hand to Sirius. 'It's kind of annoying.'

Sirius clutched his chest dramatically. 'You find my voice annoying? You wound me, Bubbles. And I thought we were friends.'

James laughed. 'Stop being a prat and touch your friend, Twinkles. He's begging you for it.'

Sirius' eyes lit up at James' less than subtle suggestion, and Peter backed away. 'Nope, I've changed my mind. It's fine. I can live with it.'

Remus reached over and lifted a mewling Cosmo out of the way—the traitor—and Sirius leapt forward, but Peter jumped off the bed just in time, running for the door.

'Colloshoo,' James said, and Peter felt his feet glue themselves to the floor. Dammit.

Pulling his wand, he pointed it at Sirius, who was advancing on him slowly now that he was unable to escape, his fingers wiggling suggestively.

'I'll jinx you,' Peter said, doing his best serious expression.

Sirius laughed, still advancing. 'Go on then.'

'Brachiabindo,' Peter said, moving his wand in the pattern Professor Tenebris had shown them earlier that week.

Immediately, invisible cords wound themselves around Sirius, creating impressions in his clothes as they tightened. 'Little help, Sunshine.'

Peter looked over his shoulder. James already had his wand pointed at Sirius. 'Come on, James. At least let me go first.'

James laughed. 'Fine, but no running out the door.'

Peter agreed, and James lifted the hex, keeping his feet glued to the floor. Not wasting a moment, Peter put as much distance between himself and Sirius as possible before James waved his wand in his direction, saying, 'Emancipare.'

The creases showing the location of the invisible ropes vanished and Sirius grinned. 'Come on then, Bubbles. Let's get rid of that alarm.' Then he dashed at Peter, pushing him over on to the closest bed and tickled him mercilessly.

Peter wasn't entirely sure what happened next. Everything was a confused blur of howling laughter, flailing limbs, and an overwhelming pressure building deep inside him. Somewhere under the creeping sensation of Sirius' tickling fingers, the pressure burst, sending his magic racing through him, searching for the closest exit. It was outside of his control, and he couldn't direct it down his arm and into his wand. Instead, it exploded from every inch of his body in a shower of silver.

Sirius disappeared.

'What the fuck?' James said. 'Where did he go?'

Peter sat up. 'I don't know.'

'Can you hear anything?' Remus asked, a little aggressively. 'An alarm?'

Peter shook his head. 'No.'

Remus looked relieved. 'He's not in danger then. I think you must have banished him somewhere.'

'But we don't get taught that until next year,' Peter said. 'And not on people. Is that even safe?'

James nodded. 'Yeah, it's just considered rude. My mum does it to my dad when he annoys her. Once she banished him right into the river.' He laughed at the memory. 'Sirius will still be in the castle, though. The wards wouldn't let you banish him through them.'

'Thank Merlin for that,' Peter said, thinking how mad Sirius would be if he'd banished him further. 'But how'd I even do that?'

Remus looked thoughtful. 'I mean, you were in a highly emotional state. Accidental magic, I guess.'

Peter felt his cheeks burn with humiliation. 'Gods, that's embarrassing. Still doing accidental magic at my age.'

'Not really,' James said, shrugging. 'It happens to adults sometimes, too, when they're really upset. My mum blew up the flower beds in our garden when my gran died.'

The door burst open, then, and Sirius walked in looking annoyed. 'I got detention,' he said. 'One minute I'm here tickling you,' he pointed at Peter, 'and the next, I'm in the fucking corridor outside the common room, and the prefects come round the corner and catch me out after curfew. Of course, I couldn't explain what the hell I was doing there, so they gave me detention. What the hell was I doing there?'

'Pete banished you,' James said helpfully.

'Accidentally,' Remus added.

'That…' Sirius said. 'Is awesome. Can we banish Snivellus? To… Antartica?'

'No,' Remus said, making Sirius pout.

'Sorry I got you detention,' Peter said.

Sirius waved the apology away. 'Don't worry about it. It's not like I'm a model student normally.'

'Who would want to be?' James asked, laughing.

'Well, there's something to be said for keeping a low profile,' Remus said.

Sirius rejoined Remus on the bed, using tickling Cosmo as an excuse to cuddle up closer to him. Peter internally rolled his eyes and walked over to sit back down. 'I think it's stopped now, anyway. The alarm, I mean.'

'You were right, then?' James said. 'Brilliant. Now we've got that figured out. We need to talk about Christmas. What are we going to do?'

'The party went down well last year,' Peter said, shrugging. 'We could do that again.'

'But bigger and better,' Sirius added. 'And with no teachers.'

'How're we going to manage that?' Remus asked. 'The Great Hall's the only space big enough.'

'There's another "Great Hall" in this castle, though.' James grinned. 'Think we can sneak everyone into the Squib Wing?'

It only took two days for Remus to decide they'd made a terrible mistake. Enormous. Possibly the biggest mistake of their lives. The damn alarm went off constantly. He wasn't sure how the magic detected 'danger,' exactly, but he could only guess it was somehow linked to the person's heart rate and other bodily responses, because every time there was even the slightest possibility of injury, they were hearing each other's voices in their heads. Remus had been woken by James screeching 'Merlin's saggy balls,' in his head on Monday morning when Sirius had merely snuck up on him in the bathroom and made him jump.

Learning the softening charm spongify in Charms had gone well enough, but the mock duels Professor Tenebris was using to test what they'd all learned so far were a nightmare. It was much more difficult to fight when you could hear your friend's voices in your head every few minutes. And don't even ask about Potions. The burn-healing paste was a tricky brew, and with cauldrons bubbling over, exploding, or making strange and unexpected noises, everyone was on edge the entire lesson. After the first ten minutes, and five different incidents, they'd agreed not to bother cancelling the 'alarms' until the lesson was over.

And that was all fine, if irritating, but what Remus was really worried about was what Sirius might hear if he thought the wrong thing at the wrong moment. Why did he have to take Remus' token? Why couldn't it have been James or Peter? And he really needed to stop thinking about that before they reached Tenebris' classroom, where they would undoubtedly encounter danger of some kind.

'Any guesses what she's got planned for us this week?' James asked as they left the Grand Staircase.

Remus shook his head, welcoming the distraction. 'How could we possibly guess? She's completely insane.'

'Good teacher, though,' Sirius said. 'Insane or not.'

'Whatever it is, I hope it doesn't take too long,' Peter said. 'I've got that Transfiguration essay to finish.'

'Fuck. Me too,' Sirius said. 'Got distracted in class and didn't finish. I don't see why we have to write an essay describing what we did wrong every time before we can try again, anyway. Isn't thinking about it enough? Why do we have to write it down?'

Remus shrugged. 'Helps us remember, I guess.'

'Just pisses me off, to be honest,' James said. 'Seems like a waste of time that I could be using to practise and get better.'

'You're already brilliant at Transfiguration, anyway,' Sirius said. 'What did you even write in your essay? While turning my roses into plastic lilies, the main thing I did wrong is absolutely nothing because they turned out perfect first time, but despite their utter perfection, Miss Evans still refused to accept them.'

James laughed. 'I wish. You know that if we get it right, we have to write about how we could improve on the spell. That's way harder than what we did wrong. Why does it seem like doing well is always punished with harder work?'

'Teachers have a sick sense of humour, mate,' Sirius said, patting him on the back in a show of solidarity. 'Speaking of sick senses of humour… We're here.'

'Wonderful,' James said, eyeing the door with slight trepidation. 'Let's see what the delightful Professor Tenebris has in store for us this evening, shall we? Moons. if you would.'

Remus had already taken the magic detector out and quickly scanned the classroom door for traps. 'It's safe.'

James nodded and pushed the door open, walking inside, and Remus, Sirius, and Peter followed. The classroom looked different in the torchlight than it did during the day, when the sunlight streamed in through the windows, bouncing off the wall of mirrors and casting patterns on the stone floor. Creepier. Part of that was the effect of Remus' proximity to Professor Tenebris, of course, but he'd learnt to ignore the shivers she gave him. They were nothing more than an unnecessary survival instinct against vampires. Some vampires might be dangerous to him, but Tenebris wasn't one of them.

Sirius gave him a sideways glance with an arched eyebrow. Shit. What had he been thinking about?

'Good evening, boys,' the professor's voice said, coming from the door to her office. 'One minute.'

Remus and his friends all looked at each other, and as one, unsheathed their wands. Just in case. It turned out to be unnecessary, however, as she hadn't been planning an ambush. This time.

'Sorry, I had a detention this afternoon and missed dinner,' she said, coming out of her office and closing the door behind her. 'I was just having a snack.'

Remus caught a faint whiff of something familiar as she came down the short staircase towards them and he took a deeper breath through his nose to make sure before asking, 'What did Regulus do to get detention?'

Her eyes widened for half a second, and then she laughed. 'It didn't occur to me that you'd know his scent. I probably shouldn't tell you this, but he hexed another student during class. Nasty little thing it was. Glued her tongue to the roof of her mouth so she couldn't speak.' She sighed. 'I think he may have been dared to do it, but he wouldn't admit it.'

Remus grimaced, knowing exactly how it felt to be under the effects of that particular hex. At least, Madam Pomfrey now knew how to counter it so the girl wouldn't have been subjected to the hour of tedious failed attempts he'd been put through.

'Anyway, enough about that. Let's get started, shall we? I saved this lesson for the new moon so you'd be at maximum energy, Remus.' She smirked. 'You're going to need it.'

Sirius grinned and nudged him with his elbow. 'Sounds exciting.'

'We've practiced fighting, obviously, and we'll do more on that in the future, but flinging spells about should be kept as a last resort. What do you think should always be your first course of action, if it's an option?'

'Running away?' Peter suggested, making his answer sound like a question.

'Precisely,' Professor Tenebris said, smiling at him. 'And since you can get away with running in the corridors, and I cannot, I'm only going to give you a thirty-second head start. Hide well.'

Remus waited, expecting more instructions, but she just stared at them, and then, 'twenty-eight, twenty-seven…'

'Um, run?' Sirius said, grabbing him by the hand and tugging him towards the door. 'Come on!'

'Where should we go?' James' voice said in Remus' head as they tumbled out of the door.

'Take a left at the end,' Remus said. 'There's that passage to the west wing.'

'Yes, and then if we take two rights after that, we can take the one to the sixth floor. That should put some distance between us,' James said.

'Depends how she's tracking us,' Sirius said as they rounded the first corner. 'She might just follow us down the passages.'

'Shit, we don't want to give away our secrets,' James said. 'Maybe we should split up. Moony and Bubbles, and me and Twinkles. That way we can find each other later.'

'Good idea,' Remus said. He gave Sirius' hand a squeeze before letting go. Then he grabbed James' briefly to cancel the alarm. Peter did the same, first James and then Sirius. 'Let's split up on the stairs. We'll go down, you go up.'

They reached the Grand Staircase and grinned at each other before separating. 'Don't get caught,' Sirius advised, as he turned away.

'Same to you,' Remus called back.

'Where should we go?' Peter asked.

'I'm thinking outside,' Remus said. 'Find a good vantage point where we can see her approaching, but with plenty of space so we can run if she finds us.' The strong wind would also make it harder for her to follow their scent, if that's how she was tracking them.

'We'll freeze,' Peter moaned, but made no further argument.

They reached the bottom of the stairs and crossed the Entrance Hall quickly, tugging open the heavy front doors and slipping out into the howling darkness. Okay, perhaps this hadn't been the best idea. With no moon, it really was incredibly dark outside.

'Fuck. It's fucking cold,' Peter said.

Remus pulled his wand out and cast a warming charm on Peter and then himself. 'You really need to learn how to cast this. Remind me to teach you later.'

'Fuck, that's better. Thanks Moons. Where to?'

'Let's stay away from the Lake, since we can hardly see. Don't want to fall in. How about the quidditch pitch?'

'Yeah, we can hide on the stairs. It'll be warmer there out of the wind. And if she finds us, there'll be tonnes of escape routes.'

They held hands so they wouldn't get separated in the darkness and headed towards the quidditch pitch. They were halfway there when Remus heard James in his head. 'Shit, she found us.'

'She's found James and Sirius,' he told Peter.

'Yeah, I just heard Sirius say, "Trust us to get caught because of Evans." Think James must have got distracted, again.'

Remus chuckled. 'Sounds about right. Should we keep going? Or go help them?'

Peter hesitated. 'I don't know. What do you think?'

'If she's caught them, they might need our help to escape. We should go. Reperio.'

The invisible rope attached itself to a point inside his chest and tugged. Not towards the Entrance as he'd expected, but towards the wall of the castle. As far as he knew, there was no way in over there, so he ignored it, and continued to the Entrance. The magic embedded in the necklace seemed to take offence at his mistrust and yanked painfully hard, just once. It was enough for Remus to get the hint.

'It's telling me to go this way,' Remus said, tugging on Peter's arm to steer him.

'Reperio,' Peter muttered, and then louder, 'Yeah, mine is too.'

'There must be a way in, somewhere.'

Remus cast a dim Lumos as they approached the castle, but he couldn't see anything. The magic was insistent, though, tugging him closer to the blank stone wall every time he stopped. It wasn't until he was within touching distance that it appeared. A door materialised out of the wall as if it had been there all along and Remus just hadn't been looking right.

'Fucking hell,' he said, reaching out to turn the handle. The door opened easily, and he stepped into a tiny room with nothing but a staircase leading up. 'It's not just an entrance. It's a secret entrance. You know what this means, Bubbles?'

Peter nodded, grinning. 'The necklaces can help us find all the secret passages in the school.'

'Exactly. And James is going to make us do all sorts of insane things to set off the alarms so we can find them.' His footsteps on the stairs echoed in the silence as Peter digested this information.

'Shit,' he said eventually. 'I suppose there's no way we can avoid telling him about this?'

'I would love to say, "yes, let's keep it a secret,"' Remus said. 'But this staircase seems to lead all the way to the seventh floor, and it'll be insanely useful for sneaking out on the full moons.' He paused and then shrugged 'And any other time.'

'Yeah. That's what I thought.'

At the top of the staircase, they found another door, identical to the one at the bottom, and Remus pushed it open, peeking through the gap. He couldn't see or hear anyone, so he stepped out into the corridor and looked around, trying to get his bearings. The necklace was quite insistently telling him to go right, but he wanted to make sure they could find this door again.

'Is that wizard trying to teach trolls ballet?' Peter asked, peering at a tapestry hanging on the wall opposite the door.

Remus glanced at it. And yes, he indeed was, and it was not going well for him. 'Barnabas the Barmy,' he said, reading the writing along the top. 'A fitting name. Alright, I think I know how to get back here. Come on.'

They hurried down the corridor, following the magic that was tugging them onwards, and they seemed to be heading towards Gryffindor Tower. Had James and Sirius tried to hide in the dorm? But no. They passed the portrait and continued on, round one corner, then another, until they heard the sound of running feet, and the magic released its hold, allowing them freedom of movement.

'This way,' Remus said, pulling Peter towards the sound. They rounded another corner and seconds later saw James and Sirius run past the end of the corridor, shortly followed by a jet of light.

'Tenebris must be chasing them,' Peter said.

'We'll draw her attention to us, and then run.'

'Run where?'

Remus didn't get time to respond as he saw Tenebris passing the end of the corridor. 'Stupefy,' he said, pointing his wand at her.

She turned at the sound of his voice and smirked. 'That was foolish.'

'Catch me if you can,' Remus said, spinning on his heel and dashing back the way they'd come, Peter huffing along behind him.

They ran down several corridors and around multiple corners before dodging into a secret passage. Remus kept running, swerved around a corner and careened headlong into Sirius, who was leaning against the wall catching his breath. Sirius stumbled as Remus collided with him, but managed to stay upright and caught him by the elbows, holding him up too.

'Woah, careful there.'

'She's right behind us,' Remus said, panting for breath.

'Shit,' James said from the other side of Sirius. 'I thought we'd lost her.'

Remus shook his head. 'We distracted her. Didn't mean to lead her right to where you were hiding, though.'

'She was firing spells at us just now,' Sirius said. 'But she didn't when she caught us talking to Lily and Marlene.'

Of course. It was so bloody obvious, Remus couldn't believe he hadn't thought of it sooner. 'She won't attack in front of witnesses. We need to go somewhere crowded.'

'The Common Room's just around the corner,' Peter said.

'No good,' James said. 'The Fat Lady's been told not to let us in until curfew.'

'Any clubs happening now?' Sirius asked.

'Potions is on in the dungeon,' Peter said.

Remus groaned. 'It had to be potions, didn't it?'

'Come on, the slide down to the ground floor isn't too far. We can go that way,' James said, pushing himself off the wall of the passage and starting down it again. When he reached the end, he pulled back the edge of the tapestry and peered out. 'All clear.'

They ran to the statue of the child dancing and patted her head to open it, before climbing onto the slide one at a time. It was not a route for the fainthearted. The slide was close to vertical, only curving properly near the bottom, and Remus always struggled to make himself push off the ledge to descend. Knowing this, they made him go first, and when he sat there, paralysed by terror at the sheer drop in front of him, James gave him a little shove to start him off. Sirius' bark of laughter followed him down and he wondered what he'd thought in his moment of dread that was so damn funny.

He didn't have to wait long to find out. 'Aw, don't kill Sunshine, Moons. We need him,' Sirius said when he joined him at the bottom after his own whooping descent.

Remus offered him a hand to help him up and did the same for Peter when he reached the bottom, but ignored James, leaving the task to Sirius.

'I had to, Moony,' James said. 'We would have been caught if I hadn't.'

'I know,' Remus told him. 'But I'm still going to hate you for it, for at least five minutes.'

James tilted his head to one side in consideration and then nodded 'Yeah, fair enough.'

'Come on. We're not safe yet,' Sirius reminded them, pushing aside the statue hiding the bottom of the slide. The Entrance Hall was deserted, and they hurried through it to the dungeon staircase. They passed a few groups of students on their way to the classroom hosting the Potions Club. Some were in motion, travelling in the opposite direction to them, others were standing around talking. None of them took any notice of the four second-year Gryffindors walking along with their wands out.

All of them glanced over their shoulders frequently as they moved through the halls, but they reached the Potion classroom without incident. The door was propped open, so they walked straight in and gathered around a brewing station at the back of the room.

'We don't have any equipment,' Remus pointed out. 'We're going to be kicked out.'

'Snivellus is already giving us suspicious looks,' Sirius agreed, 'but Slughorn seems oblivious. As long as no one pulls his attention from whatever that is he's reading, I don't think he'll notice us.'

James checked his watch. 'There's fifteen minutes left. Are there any Gryffindors here?'

Remus scanned the room. Even though it was after hours, many of the students had their school robes on to protect them from any brewing disasters, so it was easy to pick out the different houses. Mostly Slytherins and Ravenclaws—those students tended to have more interest in the academic clubs—but there was a single group of Hufflepuffs over in the corner, and yes, a pair of Gryffindor boys almost hidden behind a group of Ravenclaws. They looked to be in sixth or seventh year.

'Over there, behind those Ravenclaws,' Remus said, using his chin to point. 'Two Gryffindors.'

'Perfect. We'll walk behind them when they leave,' James said.

'Let's hope they go back to the Tower,' Sirius said. 'Their curfew is two hours later than ours.'

'They'll want to drop their stuff off, at least,' James said, but he didn't sound overly confident about it. 'Surely they won't want to carry around their cauldron?'

'Depends what they're doing next,' Remus said. 'It's a long walk to the seventh floor.'

'Don't look now, but there's someone waiting for us outside,' Peter said.

'Tenebris?' James asked.

'Yeah, she came to the door and saw us, then did that evil-looking smile she does, you know the one?'

They all confirmed they knew what smile he was talking about.

'And then she waved at me like this.' Peter held his hand up and waggled his fingers. 'And stepped back out of view.'

'Well, at least she's playing fair,' James said, nodding his approval. 'Not using her position to order us to come out.'

'Yeah, but if those Gryffindors don't go back to the Tower, we're screwed,' Sirius pointed out.

'That depends,' Remus said. 'She never said what we had to do to win this. Do we have to be back at the Tower for curfew? Or do we just have to avoid her until curfew?'

'What are you thinking?' James asked.

'This club finishes fifteen minutes before curfew, right? So what if we ask Slughorn some questions and get him talking, so he escorts us back to the Tower?'

James grimaced. 'Urgh, the guy gives me the creeps, but it's a good idea.'

They waited another five minutes, and then Slughorn looked up from the papers he was reading. 'Time's up, I'm afraid. Clean up and put your things away, please.' He scanned the room as he spoke, his gaze finally settling on them at the back of the room. He immediately jumped to his feet. 'Mister Potter, Mister Black, I didn't see you come in. What a pleasant surprise.' He squeezed his way through the desks and stopped next to their station, frowning at the empty firepit. 'You don't have any equipment. So you didn't come to brew?'

'No, sir,' Sirius said, letting his pureblood mask slip into place. Remus looked away, hating the way Sirius' face looked when he hid himself behind it. 'Actually, we were hoping to persuade you to probe your extensive knowledge of potions and help us work something out.'

Slughorn perked up at Sirius' completely unsubtle ego-stroking. 'Well, of course. I'd be happy to help.' Then he frowned. 'But you've left it a bit late. Curfew is in fifteen minutes.'

'Could we walk and talk?' James suggested.

'What is it you want to know, exactly?' He turned his head to speak to the rest of the room. 'Hurry up now. I want everyone out of here in the next minute.'

'Well sir,' Peter said. 'We'd prefer to tell you that in private.' He pointedly looked at Remus. Remus wasn't sure why, because they hadn't discussed what they were going to speak to Slughorn about. But it seemed like Peter had come up with an idea, so he pretended he knew what was going on and just offered a faint smile.

Slughorn nodded. 'Understood.' He glanced at Remus before turning to usher the few stragglers from the room. 'Shall we?' he asked, when there was no one but the five of them remaining.

As they headed towards the door, Peter began explaining his made-up reason for their presence at Potions Club. 'We were wondering, sir, if you know of any way to make a pain potion without using aconite? We've worked through a few of our own ideas, but so far nothing has panned out.' This was news to Remus. When had they been working on that?

Slughorn rubbed his chin thoughtfully. 'I can't say I've read anything about any studies into such a potion,' he said, as they strolled past Professor Tenebris. Remus made eye-contact with her and smirked. She inclined her head, with an expression that Remus could only describe as proud. 'As far as I know, there's no other ingredient that can bind the fire in the salamander blood with the water from the murtlap tentacles. These elements were never supposed to mix, and the discovery that aconite could successfully force them to do so was revolutionary in the field of healing.'

'So I'd need to find a brand new binding agent, or replace the salamander blood and murtlap tentacles with less temperamental ingredients?'

'Precisely. You see where the difficulty lies?'

Peter nodded. 'It seems impossible.'

'Not impossible,' Slughorn said. 'But exceedingly unlikely. The proper motivation always helps when it comes to innovation.'

'That's true,' Peter said, shooting Remus a smile. 'If there's a way, I'm going to find it.'

'Well, let me know if I can help at all, but if that's all for now, I'll leave you here, boys,' Slughorn said.

They'd only reached the Entrance Hall by that point, and Professor Tenebris was following a short distance behind them. But it was too late. Before any of them could think of a reason to keep Slughorn talking, he'd disappeared out of the door.

'What a shame,' Professor Tenebris said, smirking. 'And you were so close too.'

Professor Tenebris didn't hold their last-minute capture against them. Instead, she was full of praise for the tactics they'd used to escape her, merely advising next time they find a better chaperone than Slughorn, and then sending them to bed.

Sirius was tired, but he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep until he'd asked Remus about what he'd heard in his thoughts earlier. It was just so huge. So he waited for James and Peter to fall asleep, and then crept over to Remus' bed, pulling back the curtain.

'You asleep?' he whispered.

'I was almost asleep,' Remus said with a groan, but he pulled back the corner of the covers. 'Get in, then.'

Sirius grinned and climbed into the warmth, snuggling up next to Remus and pressing his ice cold feet against Remus' legs to warm them. Remus complained but allowed it because he was nice like that. It was one of the many things Sirius liked about him.

'Are you here to sleep or to talk?' Remus asked once they'd both stopped wriggling to get comfortable.

'Talk. I… heard you think something earlier, and I wanted to know if it was true.'

Remus stiffened in his arms. 'What did you hear?'

'It was when we walked into the Defence classroom. You thought, "Some vampires are dangerous, but she's not." Is Professor Tenebris a vampire?'

Remus' frozen body relaxed, making Sirius wonder what he'd thought Sirius had overheard if it wasn't that.

'You shouldn't know that,' Remus said. 'She told me in confidence. You can't tell anyone.'

'Of course, I'm not going to tell anyone.' Honestly, did Remus think he was some kind of blabbermouth? 'Explains why she's so invested in teaching you how to protect yourself, though.'

Remus nodded, making his hair tickle Sirius' chin. 'Yeah, she gets it.'

'I'm glad Dumbledore hired her. And I won't tell. Good night, Moonbeam.' He kissed the top of Remus' head, and he moved off Sirius' chest so he could get up.

'Night, Twinkles.'

Sirius woke up Wednesday morning excited for a half day, and for flying lessons before lunch, but first he had to get through Herbology and Transfiguration. His good mood was ruined slightly when he opened his copy of the Daily Prophet at breakfast to see the headline emblazoned across the front page.

Minister for Magic Eugenia Jenkins calls for snap election

Minister for Magic, Eugenia Jenkins, has made the surprising decision to call for a snap election only four years into her term as Minister, claiming a need to solidify her position after mounting pressure from contender Lord Voldemort and his followers. Lord Voldemort's campaign is routed in his main policy, to repeal the Statute of Secrecy and reveal the magical world to the muggles. See page 3 for further information on Lord Voldemort's policies.

While support for Lord Voldemort has risen steadily in the past year, Jenkins believes she still has the support of the majority of the electorate, and no doubt wishes to hold this election now, rather than be forced to later if Lord Voldemort's support grows and public opinion shifts.

The election is to be held on May 1st, and Ministry owls will be sent out from April 24th to collect your votes. Keep your eyes open for yours.

Sirius threw the paper down on his bacon-grease smeared plate. 'Shit. I hope the fucker doesn't win.'

'People aren't going to vote for him, surely,' James said. 'Repealing the Statute would be madness.'

'Sounds like he's got a fair bit of support,' Remus said, having pulled the paper over to his own plate and scanned the article.

'Jenkins better have one hell of a campaign planned,' Sirius said, frowning. 'Voldemort's going to have a tonne of pure-blood galleons behind him. He was already collecting donations back in the summer.'

Sirius tried to put his worry to the back of his mind during morning lessons, but didn't succeed until he was in the air on the back of his broom. Flying always put him in a good mood.

After lunch, they all headed to the Squib Wing to see how feasible it would be to hold a secret party there. It didn't take them long to discover that there was a door between the hidden wing and the main building on every floor from the ground to the seventh—the wing didn't seem to have any subterranean levels. That would make it a lot easier to get everyone in.

'If we have one of us on the seventh floor to let the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws in, and one of us on the ground floor to let the Hufflepuffs and Slytherins in,' Remus was saying.

'Wait, wait, wait,' Sirius interrupted, waving his hands in the air. He must have misheard. There was no way Moony had just suggested… 'We're inviting the Slytherins?'

'We have to,' Remus said, rolling his eyes. 'Not inviting them would look suspicious.'

Sirius groaned. 'Fine. But, I want my objection noted.'

'I'll make sure to record it in the official log,' James said, laughing. 'I think we should decorate the route from the seventh floor entrance to the hall. Make it festive.'

Peter pulled a face. 'That's going to be a lot of work. And we only have two weeks.'

'It's only a bit of transfiguration,' James said with a shrug. 'I'm thinking flower garlands winding around the banisters, maybe lilies, some icicles, a bit of glitter…'

'We are not decorating everything with lilies,' Remus said, shaking his head at James. 'How obvious do you want to make it?'

James held his hands up placatingly. 'I was kidding.'

Sirius decided it was time to interject before they made any decisions that would completely ruin the party. 'Leave the decorations to me. You lot have no artistic style. What are we going to do for music?'

'I was thinking of asking student bands to sign up?' James said.

Remus nodded. 'Great idea. Some of them were really good at the beach party. And we can use the music spell to fill in any gaps. What else?'

'Refreshments,' Peter said. 'We'll have to ask the house-elves if they'll serve food here.'

James nodded. 'We'll go down to the kitchen when we're done here. What about alcohol, for the older students?'

'We can't get it, but we can ask the seventh years,' Sirius said. 'Or ask the twins to mail some?'

'We'll need to recruit a few seventh years to help bring everyone to the party, so we'll ask if they can get alcohol. We'll call the twins Plan B.' James rubbed his hands together and grinned at them. 'This is going to be brilliant.'

After a brief trip to the kitchens, where the elves agreed to provide refreshments for the party and gave James several balls of string when he asked if they had any, they returned to their dorm room to get started. Sirius' first task was creating the posters to advertise the party, ask for bands to sign up, and request seventh-years to volunteer as supervisors.

'Don't forget to call it a Super Secret event, or the magic on the prefect badges won't kick in,' James reminded him. 'We don't want anyone blabbing to the teachers.'

Sirius shrugged. 'Does it matter? Dumbledore trusts us to keep everyone safe.'

'Yeah, but he still might shut it down if he finds out alcohol's involved,' James said.

'Speaking of safety,' Remus said, standing up and heading towards the door with his bag hooked over one shoulder. 'I'm going to the library to see if I can find a way to block off the areas not needed for the party.'

James saluted him from the pile of string he was gradually transfiguring into tinsel. 'That's our Chief Safety Monitor. Good luck on your quest, good sir, I hope your search is fruitful.'

Remus snorted. 'You're such an idiot sometimes.'

That just made James grin harder. 'You love it.'

'Hang on, I'll come with you,' Peter said, grabbing his bag. 'I wanted to look up some things.' He followed Remus out of the door, and Sirius glanced over at James, who just shrugged.

Half an hour later, James crawled out of the pile of multi-coloured tinsel and climbed onto his bed, flopping face first onto the mattress. 'I'm all magicked out. I can't make any more decorations today.'

Sirius chuckled. 'You can come help me with the posters if you want. I've done two so far.'

James rolled on to his back. 'No, I think I'm going to practice the lock picking. I really think I'm getting the hang of it now.' He clambered off the bed and grabbed the lock and tools from his trunk, settling down on the floor next to Sirius.

'Actually, there's something I wanted to talk to you about while Moony and Bubbles aren't around.'

Sirius raised an eyebrow at him. 'I thought we didn't keep secrets?'

'This is different.' James eyed him carefully before looking back down at the lock he was poking at, and continuing to speak without looking at him. 'It's about last week. With the polyjuice. The way Moony didn't even react to it.'

'Yeah, that was freaky,' Sirius said. 'Don't see why we need to talk about it privately, though.'

James looked up and met his eyes. 'Aren't you curious?'

'About what?'

'What it feels like. How bad is it? I mean, for the polyjuice transformation to be nothing, the full moons must be…' He shuddered.

'We've heard his screams. I think it's pretty obvious it's bad.'

'I want to know,' James said, looking up and meeting Sirius' eyes. 'I want to understand exactly what he goes through. I want to feel it for myself.'

Sirius was about to tell James that was impossible, but James wouldn't have brought it up if he didn't already have a plan. And if James already had a plan, there wouldn't be any talking him out of it. But like fuck was Sirius going to let him do it alone. 'And how exactly do you propose we achieve that?'

James grinned. 'I knew you'd be up for it. We're going to do it with polyjuice.'

Sirius' eyebrows shot up and his head jerked back. 'You're insane. You want us to polyjuice into Remus on a full moon?'

'Yep,' James said. 'Medical conditions pass over. Anything from a cold to a missing limb gets transferred.'

'I know that,' Sirius said. 'But what happens if it wears off while we're in wolf form?'

James shrugged. 'I don't know. We'll just have to make sure it doesn't. The stock the twins left us is almost gone, so we're going to have to brew some soon. It really depends on the quality of the ingredients, and Pete's skill, as to whether it'll be good enough to last the night.'

'We can count on Pete, and we can buy decent ingredients,' Sirius voiced the thoughts as they went through his mind. 'When were you thinking we'd do it?'

'Summer holidays. You can stay at mine, and we'll sneak out before moonrise and transform by the waterfall.'

'I don't know, James. That seems really dangerous. What if your parents notice we're missing and come out looking for us?'

'That's true.' He looked defeated, staring back at the lock in his hands and twisting the lock pick.

Sirius nudged him with his shoulder. 'Don't worry. We'll think of something.'

The lock clicked open, and James looked up at him, grinning. 'I did it. It's a sign.'

Sirius laughed. 'Yeah, okay, Sunshine. It's a sign.'

After practising with the lock for another hour, James moved on to picking the lock on their bathroom door, then the dormitory door, and by the time Remus and Peter returned from the library, he was able to pick all of them in under three minutes. Now that they had a way in, they planned their trip to the locked corridor in the dungeons for the weekend. If they went early on Saturday morning, there would be no one around, and hopefully they'd find something to prove Emhio's innocence. Sirius hated thinking about her locked up for a crime she didn't commit. It just wasn't fair.

Regulus entered the dungeon room on Wednesday evening and found himself a spot near the back where he could watch the proceedings without being observed. The room wasn't crowded by any means, but there were more people present for this meeting than the previous ones. Whether that was because something was finally happening or because Mulciber and his friends had been more successful in gaining people's interest recently, he wasn't certain.

Shifting his weight from one foot to the other, Regulus observed the audience as he waited for the meeting to begin. The majority were Slytherins—he recognised their faces from the Common Room—but there were representatives there from all four Houses and the general feel of the room was one of excitement. What reason each individual had to be drawn to Lord Voldemort's message of hope, he didn't know, but something was pulling them in.

The chatter suddenly increased in volume briefly before a hush fell over the audience as Mulciber moved to the front of the room. Regulus shifted a little to the left so he could see past the taller people in front of him.

'Welcome, friends,' Mulciber said. 'Today is an exciting day. One that will go down in history as a turning point in both the Wizarding and Muggle worlds. Because today is the day we begin campaigning to rejoin those two worlds, come out of hiding, and live openly, freely practicing our magic, without fear!'

The room broke into applause with multiple people whooping and cheering, and Regulus clapped politely. He didn't want to draw attention to himself by not joining in the celebrations.

'Those of you who will be over seventeen by the 1st of May can actively help us bring about this glorious future by voting for Lord Voldemort yourselves, but if you're too young yet to vote, there is still much you can do. Speak to your families this Christmas when you return home. Speak to your friends, and ask them to speak to their own families. Make donations to the campaign if you're able, every knut helps. and attend rallies if you can to show your support.'

More cheering and clapping. The fevered energy in the room made Regulus feel on edge, like a storm was coming, and he was standing right in its path. He needed to speak to Professor Dumbledore. Surely, he wasn't going to let this happen. There must be something that could be done. Lord Voldemort could not be allowed to become Minister for Magic.