Remus didn't wake up before they had to leave for Charms, so Sirius reluctantly brushed his hand with his own, cancelling the alarm and the repetition of Remus' voice repeatedly saying how much he wanted to kiss him. That had been a pleasant surprise, but it would be too distracting during the lesson. It was hard enough to keep his mind from wandering to thoughts of Remus' mouth as it was.

'Are you listening, Sirius?'

'What?'

James rolled his eyes. 'I was saying, we need to do something so Tenebris can't kidnap us from our beds again.'

'Oh right. Yeah. Good idea.'

The door to the hidden room creaked open. 'Right, come on you three, time to go,' Madam Pomfrey said, poking her head inside.

They left the room as quietly as possible, and Remus didn't stir. It was good that he was sleeping so peacefully. He always recovered faster when he slept well. Which reminded him, he needed to order more chocolate for next month. Their supply was running low.

James started speaking again as soon as they were out of the Hospital Wing. 'So, I was thinking a locking charm, obviously, but that's only going to slow her down. Maybe we can use the same alarm as we're going to put on the secret passage.'

'What?'

James sighed. 'To protect the dorm? What is with you this morning?'

'I was just thinking, we need to order more chocolate.'

'Oh, that's true. Let me write it down.' James pulled out his notebook and a muggle pen, turning to a page near the back. Sirius peeked over his shoulder. The title of the page was Things to buy, and there was a long list of items underneath, all crossed out.

'How do you remember to actually check all the lists?' Sirius asked. He'd been wondering about that for a while. It wouldn't matter how many lists Sirius wrote because he wouldn't remember to look at them. He didn't need to, anyway. James alerted him to anything he needed to remember in plenty of time. It was nice having an organised friend to keep him on track.

James shrugged, slipping the book back into his bag. 'I've been doing this for years. My mum used to remind me, but it's just part of my routine now. Like writing in your journal is for you.'

Sirius nodded. That made sense. He never needed to remember to write in his journal. It was just something he did automatically in the evening, and sometimes in the morning if he was thinking too much. Thinking about thinking too much, Peter was awfully quiet this morning. Even more than usual.

'You alright, Bubbles? You're awfully quiet this morning.'

'Hmm? Oh, yeah. I was just thinking about the samples. Are we doing anything this evening?'

'Er,' James pulled his notebook back out and flipped to another page, this one near the middle. 'Nope. We're meeting with the volunteers tomorrow afternoon, though.'

'Great. I can run the tests tonight, then.'

'Think I'm just going to bed early. I'm exhausted,' James said.

He did look tired. Both of them did. 'Are you sure you want to do it tonight, Pete? Can't it wait until morning?'

'The longer I wait, the more the samples will degrade,' he said. 'I'll have a nap in History. It'll be fine.'

Sirius smiled. Sleep didn't interest him when he had an obsession, either. James led them to their usual seats at the back of the classroom, and they all but collapsed into them. Putting his feet on the desk, Sirius tipped his chair back on two legs, resting it against the wall. Flitwick was cool. He didn't care how they sat as long as they were doing their work, which was a review of the Scouring Charm and increasing its power to clean dirtier things.

It wasn't a spell they'd had cause to use much. They usually tried to limit the amount of clean-up necessary when an event was over. Not that lack of practice held Sirius back. The filthy rock he'd been provided with was sparkling by halfway through the lesson, but when he looked over to see how James and Peter were getting on, he found they'd done nothing.

'You can't be having that much trouble with it. Have you even tried?' he whispered to James.

'Too tired,' James said with an exaggerated yawn.

Peter nodded. 'Yeah, me too.'

'Think it's because of the you-know-what,' James said. 'I'm way more tired than usual after a camping trip.'

Sirius sighed. 'Here, swap your rock with me. Quick.'

Having spent thirty minutes already becoming familiar with the charm, Sirius made quick work of cleaning up James' rock, which he then swapped with Peter's. By the time Professor Flitwick made the rounds to see how everyone had managed, each of their desks sported a spotless stone, cleaned to perfection.

They ran down to the Hospital Wing during break, but it was a wasted trip. Madam Pomfrey told them Remus had woken up and drank his nutrition potion, but had already fallen back to sleep again. Sirius tried to squash the disappointment. Remus needed his sleep, and he shouldn't be selfish. That didn't make the longing any easier to bear, though.

Transfiguration went much the same as Charms had, with James and Peter barely even bothering to take out their wands despite James' natural talent for the subject. Unfortunately, Professor McGonagall was far more watchful than Flitwick had been, and Sirius didn't get a chance to transfigure their flowers for them.

So it came as no surprise when Professor McGonagall's dismissal of the class was followed up with, 'Misters Black, Potter, and Pettigrew, a word, please?'

They waited for the rest of the class to trickle out before approaching her desk. 'First,' she said once they were standing in a line before her, 'the three of you missed Astronomy last night, and could not be located in the castle. Were you perhaps hiding in a secret passage again after a late-night misadventure?'

That was so close to the truth that Sirius struggled to keep a straight face. They'd spent quite some time brainstorming plausible excuses for missing Astronomy, but option one was out. Their dorm had clearly been checked, so they couldn't say they'd slept through their alarm. Option two it was.

'Well, you see, after I took Remus to the Whomping Willow last night,' Sirius started.

'You took him?'

He nodded. 'There had been some kind of accident or something. Madam Pomfrey couldn't leave, so I offered. After I dropped him off, we all went to do some more exploring.'

'Exploring?'

'Yes. And we got locked inside a room on the fifth floor.'

She raised her eyebrows at him in disbelief. 'Just like that?'

Sirius nodded again. 'We think someone might have locked us in intentionally to get us into trouble because the door unlocked itself again in the morning.'

'I see.' She looked entirely unconvinced, however. Sirius couldn't understand why. It was a believable story. There were plenty of Slytherins who'd be delighted to take revenge on them in such a way. 'Well, despite that colourful tale you no doubt painstakingly concocted for me, you will all be receiving detention for missing class. And there is also the small matter of a complete lack of work from Misters Potter and Pettigrew today. Ten points from each of you. I understand you're tired, but I still expect you to try.'

Sirius kind of agreed with her if he was honest with himself. It wasn't like James and Peter to be lazy like they had been that morning. James said he felt worse than usual after a full moon, but that didn't account for the complete lack of effort he'd made. Even exhausted, it was normally hard to convince him to take a break.

'Hey, do you think you can do Remus' bath this month?' James asked as they left the classroom. 'We'll collect him.'

'Why?' Sirius asked, without thinking. He always collected Remus, and he especially wanted to this month. If James did it, there wouldn't be an opportunity for kisses.

James shrugged like it was no big deal, which it probably wasn't for him, but for Sirius, it was a really big deal. 'I just thought it'd be a nice change.'

A nice change, he said. A nice change. For who? Not for Remus, and certainly not for Sirius. How could he argue without giving anything away, though? He couldn't. Damn James and his need for change.

'Yeah. Fine. If you want. I'll go do it now, then.' Sirius left quickly before James or Peter could see the annoyance on his face. Maybe he could linger in the bathroom long enough to get a kiss before Remus got in the bath. With that goal in mind, he took his time walking up to the Tower. If he timed it right, he could be just finishing up when Remus got back.

There was something to be said for making friends with house-elves. They were extremely helpful little bastards, and when they liked you, they would go to extreme lengths to make you happy. Unfortunately for Sirius, whichever school elf had taken a liking to the Marauders (or just to Remus, and who could blame them?) was unaware of Sirius' plan to corner Remus in the bathroom, and had prepared the entire bath; soothing bubble bath potion, chocolates, and pumpkin juice included.

Well, Sirius wasn't above taking credit for someone else's hard work. He'd just have to pretend he was just finishing up when Remus arrived. Feeling a little ridiculous but not really caring, Sirius waited by the bathroom door for the sound of his friends entering the dorm, and then grabbed the bottle of bubble bath potion, pretending to be pouring it into the water when Remus walked in.

Sirius looked over with a smile, which he had to force himself to hold in place when James and Peter both walked into the room behind Remus. Dammit. He was starting to wonder if James had figured them out and was doing it on purpose to force a confession. In which case, he would find Sirius a much tougher opponent than he expected.

'Hey, Moonbeam. How're you feeling?'

'Not bad at all. James said the wolf was pretty restless after the Ritual? I feel fine, though.'

'Yeah, he didn't calm down for ages.' They'd both been moving towards each other as they spoke, and they met halfway between the door and the bath. Sirius pulled him into a hug, pressing a sneaky kiss to his neck. 'I was worried about you.'

Remus reciprocated with his own sneaky kiss to Sirius' neck, making a thrill run through him, before pulling out of the hug and meeting his eyes. 'I'm fine. Promise.'

'Alright. Let's leave Moony to his bath. We need to get going,' James said. 'Defence starts in twenty minutes, and I'm starving.'

Sirius allowed himself to be dragged off to the Great Hall, where they barely had time to grab some sandwiches to eat on their way to class. It was the final lesson on lifting enchantments, and James' turn to be enchanted. Sirius ended up doing all the work, again, this time because Peter was struggling to even cast anything. Thank Merlin it was Friday, and they'd have the whole weekend to recover from whatever was causing their fatigue.

Sirius didn't get a chance to be alone with Remus until after everyone had gone to bed for the night. Peter had left for the Den immediately after dinner, but James stayed stubbornly present all evening, and despite his claims of exhaustion all day, he stayed up late working through the letters from the people Emhio had rescued and responding to them. Sirius knew it was important, but why wouldn't he just go to sleep?

'I think James knows and is trying to force us to confess by keeping us from being alone,' Sirius whispered to Remus after crawling into his bed when James finally fell asleep.

Remus welcomed him with a kiss and snuggled into his arms. 'We should just tell him, then.'

'Are you kidding? It's a competition now to see who breaks first.'

Remus tilted his head back and rolled his eyes at him. 'You're mental.'

Sirius kissed him quickly before he could move his lips back out of reach. 'You say that like you didn't already know it.'

Remus huffed a laugh. 'Fine. Have it your way. We're definitely going to win. But sleep now. Tired.'

Sirius pressed one last kiss to Remus' curls, smiling, before turning his head to the side and closing his eyes. 'Night, Moonbeam.'

There was no response, however, because Remus was already asleep. Merlin, he was adorable.

James tossed his copy of the Daily Prophet onto the table with disgust. What a way to start his Saturday. It was almost enough to put him off his breakfast. 'Lord Voldemort's campaign's gaining ground,' he told the others. 'What is wrong with people?'

'Stupidity,' Sirius said, counting on his fingers. 'Ignorance, bigotry—'

'Yeah, I get it,' James interrupted with a sigh. 'Just hope they see sense before that maniac gets voted in.'

'Are you talking about Voldemort?'

James nodded at Marlene, who was taking a seat beside Sirius. He hadn't believed Sirius that the break-up was amicable at first, but he couldn't deny the evidence of his own eyes. There was no awkwardness between her and Sirius, and the two still spoke almost every day. 'Yeah, it's starting to look like he might actually win.'

'Hey, Marls,' Sirius said, smiling at her.

She grinned back at him before leaning forward to wave at Remus on his other side, and Peter opposite. 'Morning, Remus. Peter.' She turned back to James after making her greetings. 'Yeah, my parents have been talking about voting for him. Lily's worried, though. She's been to some of those youth meetings about him. Says it reminds her of some muggle bloke that started a huge war?'

'Hitler,' Peter said. 'Yeah, I can see what she means.'

Evans was so smart. James should have known she would see right through it. 'Have you told them not to?'

Marlene laughed. 'Like they're going to listen to me.'

'Is Mary, okay?' Peter asked. 'She hasn't come down yet.'

'They're all still asleep. We had a bit of a late night last night.'

'Oh?' James asked. 'Planning something, are you?'

She smirked. 'Maybe. You'll have to wait and see, won't you?'

'Don't we get a clue because we're your friends?' Sirius asked, giving her his best puppy-dog eyes.

'Is it another potion?' James asked, thinking of Remus' near-death experience last time their group had spiked the food.

'I'm not telling you anything. Lily would kill me.'

Despite their best efforts, they weren't able to get anything out of Marlene before they finished eating and were forced to give up. They were still testing all the food before Remus ate anything, anyway, so if it was a potion, Remus would be safe.

On their way back to Gryffindor Tower, they ran into the rest of the Marauders' Malediction and lost Peter to his girlfriend. There was nothing to be done about it, so they hung around in the common room until he returned. It was good for them to be seen there sometimes, anyway. If they spent all their time hidden away, people would start to take notice.

Students from older years had claimed all the best spots in the room, so they took seats around a small table near the stairs where they had a clear view of the portrait hole. Sirius tipped his chair back against the wall and put his feet up on the desk, crossing them at the ankles and gazing around the room, while Remus took a book out and flipped to the marked page.

'What's that?' James asked.

'Alarm and trapping spells,' Remus said, without looking up from the pages.

'Found anything yet?'

'If he had, he wouldn't still be looking, would he, Sunshine?'

'So far, everything that would do what we want is way above my ability,' Remus said. 'I'm thinking we're going to have to cobble something together from smaller spells.'

'That doesn't sound so bad.'

Remus pulled a face. 'We could make it work, but it wouldn't be elegant.'

'Doesn't need to be pretty,' James pointed out. 'Just needs to catch us a killer.'

'That it will do. I just need to figure out the last part.'

'Then I'll leave you be,' James said, shooting him a wink, before turning to Sirius. 'Got anything to do?'

Sirius shrugged. 'Could give you a tattoo if you want?'

Remus' eyes stopped moving across the page, but he didn't look up. He was just listening. This could be funny. 'Yeah, alright. Go get your kit.'

Sirius grinned and jumped to his feet, the front legs of his chair dropping back to the ground with a thump before he turned and jogged up the stairs to their dorm.

Predictably, the moment Sirius was out of sight, Remus let his book drop to the table. 'Are you mad? You're going to let him draw a permanent picture on your body?'

'Yeah, I was thinking a dragon, all up my arm. What do you think?' James was biting his cheek to keep from laughing at the look of complete horror on Remus' face.

'Your parents will kill you,' he said at last. Which, to be fair, would have been a really great argument if James had been telling the truth.

'Nah, they'll be cool with it. It's my body, not theirs.'

Remus gaped at him but was prevented from replying by Sirius' return. He was clutching the tattoo kit and the book that came with it in one hand, and a roll of parchment and one of James' muggle pens in the other—he had quite a nice collection now. His dad had taken to sending him a new one with every letter.

'So, what were you thinking, Sunshine?' Sirius asked, returning to his seat and spreading the parchment out on the table. 'I haven't designed the Official tattoo yet. I wanted to wait until we've completed step one of Project Gateway. Include that information in some way, you know?'

That idea made James bounce in his seat. 'Merlin, yes! That's a brilliant idea.'

'I'm still not getting one,' Remus said.

Sirius pouted at him. 'Oh, go on, Moons. For me?'

'I still don't think it would even work on me,' Remus said, leaning across the table and lowering his voice. 'I heal too fast.'

'We can always test it somewhere inconspicuous to find out,' Sirius suggested.

And that's how they ended up in the dorm, all sitting on Remus' bed with his trouser leg rolled up above his knee when Peter walked in.

'What's going on?' he asked warily, closing the door behind him.

'We're finding out if Remus can get a tattoo,' James told him.

'And Remus agreed to that?'

James waggled his eyebrows. 'Sirius persuaded him with the temptation of discovery.'

'Ah. That makes sense.'

'You're just in time,' Sirius said. 'Moony was just deciding what colour dot he wants.'

'I'm thinking a lovely Slytherin green,' Remus said, smiling innocently at Sirius.

'Absolutely not. You'll look like you're going mouldy.'

James snorted. 'Yeah, that's the reason.'

'No one's going to see it,' Remus said. 'That's the point.'

'I refuse to do green. How about a nice gold?'

'Or red?' James offered.

'Not red. It'll look like a spot,' Peter said, wrinkling his nose.

'Again. No one is going to see it.'

'Ooh, I know. If you do it in a light brown, it'll just look like a freckle,' James suggested.

'Excellent idea,' Sirius said, grabbing his equipment.

It didn't take long for Sirius to be ready, and Remus didn't even wince when Sirius leant over him with the needle. A moment later they were crowded together on the bed, all staring intently at Remus' knee as they watched the tiny wound heal over, leaving behind a new tiny brown spot.

'It worked!' Sirius said. 'Now what's your excuse for not letting me decorate your beautiful body with my artwork, hm?'

Remus pulled his trouser leg back down, averting his eyes. 'Don't you think my body has enough decorations?'

'These would be ones you chose,' Sirius said without missing a beat. 'Totally different situation.'

Remus didn't look convinced, but he conceded a little, probably just to make Sirius stop staring at him with wide eyes and pouted lips. 'I'll think about it.'

Sirius whooped and launched himself at Remus with the air of an overexcited puppy, knocking him back onto the mattress and pinning him in place as he rained kisses down on every part of his face while Remus laughed uncontrollably and tried to push him off.

It was times like this that James really missed his magic. Getting into trouble for not doing his work in class when he literally couldn't was one thing. Annoying, yes, but not the end of the world. But not being able to cast a Tickling charm on his best friend when such a prime opportunity presented itself was unbearable. Peter offered him a sympathetic look, obviously understanding the nature of his predicament.

There was really no other choice. With a whoop of his own, James leapt on top.

Sirius shrieked with surprise, trying to buck him off, and Remus started laughing even harder. After several seconds of unsuccessfully trying to dislodge him, Sirius huffed and rolled to his side. Unfortunately for James, there wasn't enough mattress left on the side he chose for two of them, and James suddenly found himself with nothing to support him. Unfortunately for Sirius, James had a firm grip around his neck and chest, and pulled him down with him. They both hit the floor with a thump, and a moment later Remus' laughing face appeared over the side of the bed.

'That didn't end well for you, did it, Sunshine?'

'Definitely could have gone better,' James admitted, shoving Sirius, who had landed on top of him. 'Get off, you wanker.'

'Who jumped on whose back again?' Sirius asked, pulling himself up.

James sucked in a desperate breath as the pressure against his lungs released. 'Damn, you're heavy.'

'You take that back. I'm as light as a feather.'

'You want me to lie?'

'Hmph.' Sirius spun on his heel and leapt back onto the bed. 'Moony! James is being mean! Make him stop!'

'There, There, Twinkles. You're not that heavy.' Remus pulled Sirius into his arms and stroked a hand through his hair, his eyes still sparkling with laughter.

Sirius stuck his tongue out at James, cuddling up to Remus, the puppy dog becoming a contented cat under the attention. James wouldn't be surprised if he started purring.

'Is it safe to sit down now?' Peter asked. 'Or are you all going to start fighting again in a second?'

'No, no. I think we're done,' James said, glancing at Sirius for confirmation. 'And, now you've been released from the clutches of the lovely Mary, we can get to work. Did you tell Moony, yet?'

'Tell me what?'

'That's a no, then,' James said, rolling his eyes at Sirius with exasperation. 'We have a job for your magic detector. Sirius received a mysterious parchment from his father.'

'Mysterious, how?'

'It looks blank, but apparently isn't.'

As James had known he would, Remus looked intrigued. 'Where is it?'

Sirius shifted about and pulled it from his pocket, handing the folded sheet to Remus before snuggling back into place.

'Where's the detector?' James asked. He was the only one of them still standing, so he may as well get it.

'In my desk. Top drawer.'

Remus' desk drawer was a mess of parchment, spare quills mixed in with muggle pens, ink bottles, and other things James couldn't identify, but he found the detector easily enough. It was the biggest thing in there. 'People think you're tidy, but you just hide your mess, don't you?' he commented as he moved back to the bed and handed it to Remus.

'I know where everything is. I don't see why it matters what it looks like.' Remus pulled his wand out and placed the detector over the parchment. 'Let's find out what's protecting this parchment then, shall we? Deprehendere.'

They all watched the lights on the discs flash in their cycles, and as each layer stopped, Remus translated. 'It's charmed… Both defensive and neutral… Some kind of barrier, and magic to communicate… In writing. Ah, shit. It requires a password. It could be anything.'

'What do you mean "magic to communicate in writing?" It's not just concealing something that's been written?' Sirius asked.

Remus shook his head. 'No. More like the notebooks I made for Christmas. They'd light up the same runes. Doesn't mean it's exactly the same magic though, just similar.'

'Yeah, I doubt my father wants to write me instant letters.'

'And, I should point out, this design doesn't account for everything. It would need to be bigger than this room for that. There could be magic on this that's not being registered.'

'Have we tried a Revealing charm?' Peter asked.

Remus shrugged and pointed his wand at the parchment. 'Revelio,'

Handwriting that looked a lot like Sirius' careful script scrawled itself across the page, and James read it out. 'Disappointing, son. A lacklustre effort. I expected better.'

Remus laughed. 'Well, that explains the communication magic.'

'Can we make another detector?' James asked. 'More specific to this?'

'I'll put it at the end of that very long list of things I'm already doing, shall I?'

'If you wouldn't mind.'

Remus sighed. 'No, I don't mind. Might be a while before I get to it, though.'

'That's fine. In the meantime, we can try to figure out what the password might be.'

'It might be more than a word,' Remus warned. 'Could be a whole sentence. It could be an entire novel.'

'What do you think, Twinkles?'

'He wants it to be hard, but not impossible. I got the impression he wanted me to work it out. So, I don't think it'll be long.'

They spent longer than James cared to admit discussing Sirius' father and trying possibilities that they came up with, but the parchment stayed stubbornly blank apart from the sometimes encouraging, sometimes derogatory messages that wrote themselves across the page in Orion Black's handwriting. Eventually, they were forced to give up for the day and go to lunch, after which James had an important appointment he couldn't miss.

Hidden under the folds of the invisibility cloak, he waited until the corridor was empty before pulling it off and clumsily stuffing it into the handbag he was carrying for the purpose. Polyjuicing into a body so drastically different from his own was a weird experience. Peter's cousin was one such body, and it always took James a while to get used to it. Her arms and legs were so much longer than his own, everything weighed the wrong amount, and, damn, the breasts were annoying. How did they always manage to be in the way?

'Good afternoon, everyone,' he greeted the occupants of classroom 12c after he finally managed to grab the door handle and push it open. 'Thanks so much for volunteering.'

'Been looking forward to this since first year,' one of the Ravenclaws said. 'Finally, get a look behind the scenes.'

'I just want to find out if it's really as dangerous as it seems,' a Slytherin over by the windows said. 'I find it suspicious that no one ever gets seriously hurt.'

James grinned, pulling a sheet of parchment from his pocket. 'It's true. Helping out will make you privy to some of the secrets of Hogwarts' Entertainers in Chief. Which is why I'm going to need you to sign this parchment before we begin. It's nothing bad. It'll just tie your tongue if you try to tell anyone what you've learned.'

'Like what happens to the prefects?'

'Exactly.' James handed the parchment to the closest seventh-year, a Hufflepuff, and watched as it was passed around and each person in the room signed with their magic. The sheet was already covered in the signatures of volunteers from previous years, some of the names still clear, while others were faded away to almost nothing as the magic degraded. When the name could no longer be read, they'd be free to speak about it again, but by then they'd be too old for it to matter.

'Alright,' James said, clapping his hands together when the parchment was passed back to him. 'Let's discuss the plan.'

'Bubbles,' someone was hissing in his ear. 'Wake up.'

'Why?' he mumbled back. 'Don't want to.'

'The twins wrote back.'

Peter peeled his eyes open and squinted at James. The room was still pitch black and he could barely make him out. 'What time is it?'

'About five-ish.'

Peter groaned. 'It's Sunday, James.'

'I know, but we need to talk about it before Remus and Sirius wake up.'

'Urgh, fine.' Peter pulled himself to a sitting position and rubbed his eyes. 'What did they say?'

'Don't know. Didn't open it yet.'

'Well, hurry up, then.'

James cracked the seal on the scroll he was holding before unrolling the letter, and they put their heads together to read it.

Marauders,

Judging by the state of your letter, the amount of cut off sentences, the complete lack of information, and the date, we're going to go ahead and guess that you've completed the Ritual and are wondering what the hell is going on. Take another look at the Journal.

Yours in mutual mischief,

The Chiefs of Raucous Revelry

'Take another look at the Journal?' Peter asked, looking up. 'Do you have it?'

'It's on Remus' desk, I think. I'll get it.'

James returned a few moments later, clutching the enormous book, and climbed into the bed beside Peter. 'The floor is so cold,' he complained. 'Feel my toes.'

Peter jerked his legs away. 'Don't make me squeal. I'll wake them up.'

'Shit. Good point. Sirius is in Remus' bed, again, by the way. I don't know why Remus even bothered with that dream catcher.'

Peter cocked his head to one side. 'Is it cute or disappointing that they think they're being so sneaky?'

James thought about it for a moment. 'Cute. But I really don't understand why they feel the need to be sneaky. We've never given them a hard time about sleeping together or anything.'

'We're all getting older. Maybe they're embarrassed that they still want to?'

'Well, they don't need to be. Ah, here we are.' James had been flicking through the book while they talked and he moved it so they could both see. 'I don't know what we're supposed to be looking for… Wait! There at the bottom. That wasn't there before.'

'If you're reading this,' Peter read aloud. 'Then you've completed the first half of the Ritual. Don't panic, your magic will be accessible again after you complete the second half.'

'Thank Merlin for that.'

'Yeah, also, this means we didn't fuck it up.'

James nodded seriously before looking back at the page and continuing to read from where Peter had left off. 'The Ritual forces your core to remain in its dormant state after the full moon has set, absorbing power from the environment, and in the process, your own magic becomes inaccessible. Prepare yourselves for many detentions this month.' James snorted at that. 'At the next full moon, the power you have collected will be drained from your core and used to create the protection throughout the Forest. '

'We're batteries,' Peter said.

'What's a battery?'

'You remember. We put them on the list for the Niffler Hunt. Muggles use them to store power.'

'Oh, yeah.' James paused to think about that for a moment. Then he grinned. 'That's pretty cool.'

'Yeah, except we can't do magic for the next four weeks.'

'Not quite,' James said. 'Listen to this. While you're unable to access your own magic, classroom 12c has been set up to allow you to channel the magic of the castle. You may wish to practise ahead of the first Creature Hunt lesson, however, as it can be tricky to get the hang of.'

Peter groaned. 'How are we going to get away from Remus and Sirius long enough to practise?'

'We'll worry about that later. At least we'll still be able to help with the Creature Hunt stuff. That should keep them from getting too mad at us.'

'Yeah, hopefully. What's the last bit say?'

'You may also have noticed that you can't talk or write about the effects of the Ritual to anyone who has not also taken part in one. We believe this is for your protection, as it could be dangerous for people to know you're without your magic.'

'Makes sense,' Peter said. 'Imagine if Snivellus found out?'

'Doesn't bear thinking about.' James said with a shudder. He ran a hand through his hair. 'I just wish Sirius and Remus were with us. They're going to think we're shutting them out on purpose. Sirius is already getting annoyed.'

'Will we be able to tell them after, do you think?'

'I doubt it. That would make us vulnerable next year.'

'Yeah, that's true. So, we're never going to be able to tell them, then?'

'Looks that way.'

'Maybe they'll figure it out after a couple of years.'

James perked up at that idea. 'Yeah. Of course, they will. They're too smart not to.'

'But until then, they're going to get pretty pissed off that we—' Peter's tongue glued itself to the roof of his mouth and didn't release until he stopped trying to finish his sentence. 'I think someone woke up,' he said instead.

James twitched the bed curtain to the side to peek out. 'It's Moony. He's gone to the bathroom. I should go while he's in there.'

'Put this back, too,' Peter said, closing the Journal and handing it to him.

James took it with a nod, and crept out of Peter's bed, back to his own. Laying back down, Peter closed his eyes. He might be able to get another hour or two's sleep in if he tried.

Remus rolled his eyes at James as he added a spoonful of peas to Remus' plate at dinner on Tuesday evening. 'Is my mum paying you or something?'

James reached across the table and patted him on the arm. 'Eat your peas, dear, and don't ask silly questions.'

'Think you should be worrying more about your own diet,' Sirius said. 'Remus isn't the one with five detentions for not doing his work. What's got you so tired?'

James shrugged. 'Don't know. I'm sure I'll be alright in a week or two.'

'It's not just you, though, is it?' Sirius said. 'It's both of you.' He pointed between James and Peter with his fork. 'Ever since the you-know-what.'

'Maybe we should ask the twins about it,' Remus suggested. Surely they would know what was going on. And if not, they would at least learn the problem was unrelated to the ritual. Either way, it would give them something to go on.

James waved the idea away. 'We don't need to bother them with this. I told you, we'll be fine.'

Sirius hummed. 'If you're not better by the end of the week, I'm writing to them.'

James was staring over Sirius' shoulder, his eyes following something. 'What's up with Reg?'

Remus turned his head to look, but Regulus had already passed their table on his way to Slytherin's, and he wasn't able to see his face.

'What do you mean?' Sirius asked.

'I don't know. He looked paler than normal, and his eyes were red like he'd been crying.'

Sirius rolled his eyes. 'Reg doesn't cry. He was probably up late studying to make Mother happy.'

'Don't you think you should make sure that's all it is?'

Sirius put down his fork, put his elbows on the table and propped his chin on his hands, staring at James intently. 'Do you fancy my brother, James? Because you're strangely obsessed with him.'

'What? No. He's your brother.'

'Hm. Not sure I believe you.' Sirius picked his knife and fork back up to continue eating. 'You're a pureblood, so my parents would be fine with it. I could ask him if he's interested?'

'Ew, no. Please, stop.'

'Did you just "ew" my brother, Potter?'

'Yeah, because you're like my brother, and he's your brother, so just ew, no.'

Remus exchanged a glance with Peter before promptly looking away so he wouldn't laugh.

'That better be all it is.' Sirius pointed his knife at James in a threatening manner. 'You'd be lucky to score my brother.'

'Absolutely,' James said, nodding his head emphatically. 'He's very attractive and smart, and way out of my league.'

'Good. I'm glad we've got that sorted.'

If Remus was counting correctly—and the chances he wasn't were slim—then that was the ninth conversation regarding James and Peter's peculiar symptoms that James had derailed by distracting Sirius. And it had only been five days. Why was James putting so much effort into not talking about it?

A creeping down his spine made Remus turn his head to the teacher's table, where Professor Tenebris had just taken a seat. Why wouldn't his body get the message that she wasn't a danger to him? It was annoying feeling on edge every time she was in the room. As he turned back to his food, Sirius' hand slipped into his under the cover of the table and Remus squeezed it gently.

'I'm excited for tonight,' James said, noticing the shift in Remus' attention. 'What do you think we'll be doing?'

'You heard her last week,' Sirius said, leaning over the table and lowering his voice. 'She's going to teach us telepathy.'

Remus scraped the last of his peas onto his fork. 'I'm not sure that's a thing she can actually teach,' he said, before popping the food into his mouth and laying his knife and fork neatly on the empty plate.

'No, I know. You know what I mean,' Sirius said. 'But it's exciting, right? I know she said it'd be hard, but when does that ever stop us?'

James, always ready to back Sirius up, took his cue with enthusiasm. 'Hm. I don't know. I think it's something like, never?'

'It's exactly never. Can't be harder than Project Gateway, can it?'

'Yeah, but you haven't succeeded at that, have you?' Remus felt forced to point out.

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

'Yet,' Remus allowed. He was still sceptical they would ever manage it, but he had to admit, they'd already achieved more than he'd thought they would. 'I just don't think you should get overly excited about this.'

'Always the downer,' Sirius said, bumping him with his shoulder. 'Considering how successful your last attempt to send me a very specific message was, I'd think you'd be more optimistic.'

Remus smirked at him. 'That was different. We don't usually know we're about to be scared in advance.'

'Wait,' James said. 'What are you talking about?'

'Isn't it obvious?' Peter asked. 'Thursday night, I'm guessing. Remus knew the alarm would be set off, so he thought something happy to keep Sirius from going insane all night.'

James grinned. 'And it worked? What did you think?'

For the first time since he'd decided to do it, Remus regretted cutting all his hair off. It would have come in quite handy at that moment to cover the blush he could feel burning its way up to his face.

'Oh,' Peter said, failing to keep the laughter from his voice. 'I think that might be private, James.'

'Are you two using the alarms to flirt?' James asked with mock outrage. 'Unbelievable. They never stop, Pete. Ever.'

'Getting a bit loud there, mate,' Sirius said, glancing down the table, but Remus couldn't see anyone looking their way.

'Shit, sorry.' James said in a much quieter voice. 'We should probably stop talking about this in public. Are you done?'

Sirius pulled a face at the remains of his dinner and nodded, putting down his cutlery. 'Yeah, let's go.'

They spent the hour before meeting Professor Tenebris in the common room playing several unnecessarily loud and energetic rounds of Exploding Snap. Unnecessary to the casual observer, that is. In reality, the noise and exuberance were carefully cultivated to draw as much attention to them as possible. They were missing from sight a lot, so it was useful for people to have vivid memories of seeing them where they were supposed to be. Remus' job in the whole charade was to look embarrassed and "attempt" to calm them down; a role he played to perfection if he did say so himself.

There was no caution in Remus' movements as he approached the door to the Defence classroom, but he froze as if he'd been petrified when Sirius said, 'Wait!'

'What?' Peter asked.

'Test the door. If she's ever going to put a trap on it, it's going to be now. While we're not expecting it.'

It was a good point, so Remus brought out the magic detector and used his wand to activate it. 'Huh,' he said when instead of all blinking out, the Charm rune stayed lit and the next layer began to flash. 'Guess you were right.'

James was peering over his shoulder. 'What is it?'

'Restraints… invisible ones. Probably a bodybind, since she knows we can get out of those.' Remus pointed his wand at the door and muttered the counter charm before pushing it open. 'After you.' He waved them in, shoving the detector back into his bag.

'I know werewolves don't have any special skill for reading magic,' Professor Tenebris said as they entered. 'So, please explain how you immediately knew what spell was on the door?'

'You seem cross,' Remus replied, eyeing the five black leather armchairs sitting in a circle in the middle of the room. 'Did we spoil your fun, Professor?'

She smirked at him. 'You did. I was looking forward to laughing at you while you tried to escape.'

'So sorry to disappoint you,' Sirius said. 'What's with the chairs?'

She arched an eyebrow at him. 'Why don't you sit in one and find out?'

Sirius stared at her for a bit, narrowing his eyes. 'Are they trapped too?'

'Could be,' she said. 'Who knows? Oh,' she said, spinning to face him, 'Remus might.'

Remus met Sirius' eyes and shrugged. 'She already knows about everything else.'

'True. Go on, then.'

'James? Pete?'

They both nodded, so Remus tested the chairs with the magic detector while Professor Tenebris watched with interest. They all returned the same result, an object transfigured from another object, and no traps. And when he was done, she gently tugged it from his hands.

'Where did you get this?'

'I made it.'

Her eyes widened with surprise. 'You made it? That's impressive, Remus.' She paused and then, 'What about the knife? Did you make that, too?'

'No, that was made by someone else. Friends of ours,' James said. 'But Moons is pretty incredible. He's made a few things now.'

'I just like solving puzzles,' Remus said, ducking his head. All the attention was making his face warm and he kind of hoped the detector had missed something and the chair would swallow him whole as he lowered himself into it. Unfortunately, he wasn't that lucky, and he stayed annoyingly present in the room as Professor Tenebris questioned them on Remus' inventions and they told her all about the notebooks and the Snitch-O-Scopes.

'Of course, if we'd had one on us last week, we'd have known you were watching us,' James said. 'But I didn't think to grab one when I went to the dorm for supplies.'

'You mean clothes,' Peter said. He narrowed his eyes at Professor Tenebris. 'I'm still annoyed you didn't at least give us socks, by the way.'

She laughed. 'No doubt you'll still be angry with me in fifty years.'

'I'll be sure to send you an Owl about it,' Peter said. ' Can you make a note, James?'

James pulled his notebook out and Remus watched him write Owl Tenebris regarding lack of socks when kidnapped - Jan 23, 2023, under the title Things to remember - long term. How did that work? Did he copy the list into each new notebook? Remus really needed to ask James about his listing techniques. He was far more skilled at it than Remus was.

'Right,' Professor Tenebris said after James had put the notebook away again. 'I've been thinking hard all week about how to best use this connection you've saddled yourselves with. And I think I've got a workable plan.' She gazed around at them, meeting each of their eyes. 'But it's going to be hard, and probably painful. So, if at any time you don't wish to continue, speak up, okay?'

Remus swallowed but nodded along with the others. He wasn't particularly worried about pain, but he didn't like the thought of his friends suffering.

'Wonderful.' She sat back in her seat and crossed her legs. 'Alright, we're going to start by intentionally triggering an alert. I want you to close your eyes and think of a bad memory, a time when you were very scared.'

Well, that was easy enough. Remus closed his eyes and brought up the memory of the wolf stalking through his back garden, reaching down to it as he leant out his bedroom window, the pain as its teeth tore into the flesh of his arm and dragged him outside.

'Really concentrate on the memory. Remember the fear you felt then and let yourself feel it again.'

Trying to dredge up those long-forgotten feelings was a lot harder than recalling the memory had been. Had he even been scared? He couldn't remember. All he felt thinking about it now was sadness. And just a little anger at his past self for being so bloody stupid. Maybe he needed a different memory. Something more recent.

His first day at Hogwarts? That had been a terrifying day. Especially walking up to the stool to put the Sorting Hat on, wondering if he was about to be sent home. But, honestly, the memory just made him want to giggle now. He'd been so dramatic.

Sirius telling him he knew he was a werewolf? The words had made him go cold with terror at the time, but now the memory just made him feel warm and fuzzy in his stomach and led to thoughts of kissing, which definitely weren't helpful right then.

'I don't think this is working,' James said, and Remus opened his eyes. 'Memories of being scared aren't really scary anymore. At least not for me.' He looked around. 'You've all got worse memories than I have, though.'

'Mine mostly just make me sad,' Peter said.

'Angry,' Sirius said, shrugging.

Professor Tenebris sighed. 'Alright, I was hoping that would work, but we'll have to do it the less pleasant way.'

What could be less pleasant than thinking about their worst memories? Remus exchanged a worried glance with Peter.

'Close your eyes again. This time, I want you to think about the thing you're most afraid of, and imagine it happening.'

Remus closed his eyes. What was he afraid of? Being discovered, obviously. His attendance at Hogwarts being complained about to the DRCMC. They would arrive at the school and drag him out of class, maybe stun him first so he wouldn't need to see the stares, but maybe not. Everyone would know what he was. Would they look at him with disgust? Recoil from him as he was dragged past them? His friends wouldn't stand by idly, of course. They'd try to protect him, and probably get themselves hurt in the process. He felt his heart speed up. The Aurors wouldn't kill them, would they?

'I'd have to live like a muggle.' James' voice said in his head. What a strange thing for him to think. His worst fear was his parents dying, wasn't it? Maybe he was imagining going to live with a squib relative or something.

Remus opened his eyes, pretty sure he'd already set off Sirius' alarm and glanced at James. He was frowning with concentration, his eyes still tightly shut. Sirius looked similar. They must both really want this to work. Reaching across the circle, Remus squeezed James' knee, and he jumped, opening his eyes. 'Did it work?' he mouthed. Remus nodded and James grinned, turning to Peter and giving him a nudge. Peter looked up and smiled when James let him know his alarm had already activated.

It was another minute before Peter's eyes widened and he said, ''You can stop, Sirius.'

'Well, that seemed to work much better,' Professor Tenebris said. 'How did you find it?'

'Unpleasant, but doable,' Remus said.

James nodded. 'It wasn't too horrible.'

Peter shook his head. 'It's nothing I don't think about all the time, anyway.'

'Yeah, same,' Sirius said.

'Alright, good. That was the easy part, though. The hard part is going to be thinking about the message you want to send at the same time as making yourself scared enough to send it.'

Yeah, that did sound harder. Impossibly so. How the hell were they supposed to do that?

The frequency of alerts received by the Marauders increased significantly over the following two days, as they all took every chance to practise sending messages on command. By the end of the first day, Remus had developed his fantasy scenario quite significantly and was working on making the increase in his heart rate coincide with the moment his fantasy self yelled a heart-wrenching goodbye to his boyfriend. If he could get it right, whatever his fantasy self yelled across the classroom would be the message sent to Sirius, and that would make altering it simple.

James and Peter continued in their apparent quest to lose as many points and rack up as many detentions as possible in the shortest amount of time ever achieved, but while they were working on that, Remus was putting the finishing touches on his design for a magical trap and alarm for the murderer's secret passage into the school. He was fairly sure he had a workable plan, and Peter needed ingredients for his apprenticeship project. Which is why they were skulking about the dungeons on a Thursday afternoon.

'All clear,' James said from one end of the corridor.

'Same this end,' Sirius said from the other end.

Remus quickly checked the door for any new protections, but the detector showed only what they already knew, so he tried the handle and found it was still unlocked. 'Let's go,' he said, pushing it open and stepping inside, Peter right behind him. By the time they reached the blank stretch of wall that hid the passage, James and Sirius had joined them.

'Don't tell me you forgot the password,' Sirius said.

'Aperimihi,' Remus said. He smirked at Sirius as the archway appeared. 'After you.'

'I'll reward you later,' Sirius whispered in his ear as he passed him, walking into the passage after James and Peter.

Remus followed them in and closed the opening behind them. They wouldn't be coming back that way. James and Peter were already a few feet down the passage, so Remus sidled up to Sirius and took his hand. 'You make a lot of promises, but can you live up to them?'

'You know I can,' Sirius said, grinning and leaning down to press a kiss to Remus' lips.

Remus bit his lip as Sirius pulled away. 'Risky.'

'What's life without a little risk?'

'What are you two whispering about back there?' James called out from the darkness.

'Just wondering how long you two are going to walk in the dark before you cast a Lighting charm,' Sirius called back. 'Lumos.' His wand tip flared a bright gold, lighting the passage more than enough to see where they were going, and they quickly caught up with James and Peter.

Even when on an important mission, the Marauders couldn't resist messing about, so it took them a while to reach the point the magic detector indicated was the edge of the wards. They wanted to put the trap as close to the school as they could, but it wouldn't work inside the castle's protections.

'Pete and I will keep going, make sure the ways clear to get out, yeah?' James said when they stopped to cast the magic, but he didn't wait for a response before dragging Peter away down the passage. Remus and Sirius exchanged a look of confusion.

'This is getting really bloody weird now,' Sirius said. 'James loves fucking about with experimental magic.'

'Unless…' Remus moved closer to whisper his theory. 'What if they're just leaving us, so they can catch us?'

'You think?'

Remus shrugged. 'You're the one that thinks they know.'

Sirius frowned down the corridor. 'It does sound like the sort of thing James might do.'

'Let's get the trap done, then.'

Remus passed Sirius his notes, and they read through them together, before working in sync to cast all the different pieces in the right order for them to work together. Finally, he linked the cobbled-together spell to the magical signature of the chain around his neck, so it would allow them through without activating, and alert them if the trap was sprung.

'All done,' he said.

'Can you sense it?'

Remus closed his eyes and focused, but there was only the slightest of tingles across his skin. 'Only if I'm really looking for it.'

'Excellent.'

Moving quickly, they travelled the rest of the passage, finally catching up with James and Peter at the trap door—putting paid to Remus' theory. They could have spent some time kissing, dammit.

'There's been no one the whole time we've been here,' James told them. 'But we should probably get under the cloak as fast as possible when we go up.'

They did as James suggested and a few minutes later, the four of them were peering around the corner into the bar area, assessing their chances of escape. The place was close to empty, with only a couple of hardcore locals propping up the bar and one pair of witches at a table.

'We'll have to wait by the door for someone else to open it and then slip out,' Sirius whispered.

Which is exactly where they were, had been for several minutes, when the door finally opened and Professor Tenebris walked in. Remus had just enough time to register the barmaid's shout of, 'Afternoon, Dea. Didn't expect—' and the slight frown and turning of the head of their Defence teacher before he was tugged summarily out of the door.

'Shit,' James said, once they were safely outside. 'It would have to be her of all the teachers.'

'She can't possibly have noticed us,' Peter whispered.

Remus wasn't so sure about that, and he felt Sirius squeeze his hand in question. He moved his head in the tiniest of shakes. If she had recognised their scents in that brief moment, it was up to her if she wanted to reveal her secret to James and Peter to call them on it. Right then, they had a job to do.

'Let's get the ingredients and get back to school,' Remus said. 'That was too close for comfort.'

The shopping wasn't difficult. Peter had an official document from Monty proving his legitimate need for the ingredients he was purchasing, which had the added benefit of making the assistant think he was older than he was. And if the Marauders slipped in a few extra items that weren't strictly needed for Peter's project. Well, no one need ever know about that.