Moonlight

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TAP-TAP-TAP!

A jolt went through Ted as he finished reading the last entry in the 1975 journal, causing it to slip from his hands and fall into his lap. He picked it up and slipped it back into the box between 1974 and 1976 before jogging over to the window to let in the Potters' family owl, a great-horned named Tristan. He managed to smack his nose on the window as he opened it. Eyes streaming, he untied the letter from Tristan's leg while Tristan perched patiently on the windowsill. He tore it open and recognized Harry's penmanship:

2 May 2015



Dear Ted,



Ginny, the kids, your grandmum, and I are coming next Saturday for your final Quidditch match! Surprise! I hope you don't mind. If anything, the kids really want to see you play. As do Ginny and I. From what I've heard, you'd have given Fred and George a run for their money. I wish you could have met Fred. George is still a laugh of course, but he and Fred were like a double-act being twins, and it just isn't the same without him. And then George besides isn't quite like his old self anyway. It really is true what they say about there being a connection between identical twins, and when one of them dies, that connection gets severed (bit like me and Voldemort, except more normal and less perverted), and if feels like there's something missing: an empty, vacuous spot. (And trust me, getting rid of Voldemort hardly made me feel like I was missing something. If anything I felt more whole than I ever have in my entire life.).

Anyway, I was also wondering how much "discovering" you've been able to do in that box. I assume that by now you've learnt what your father was. I'd like to hear from you what else you've found out though. You can say as much or as little as you want, but after I'd given you the box, I realised that I wondered about your dad's whereabouts during the times I didn't see him. I mean I kind of knew Sirius': before I met him he lived in his parents' house, then went to school with your dad and my dad, and then fought with them for the Order, and after that was in Azkaban, then during my fourth year he was on the run but I saw him in secret once and kept in contact with him through letters (he wanted to keep a close eye on me during the Triwizard Tournament), and after the return of Voldemort he was holed back up in his parents' house of course, until, you know, when he left it to save me and my friends, and his dear cousin Bellatrix murdered him.

You and I have something in common with that woman. Both of us had loved ones murdered by her hand--for me it was Sirius, for you it was your mum. But thank God YOU never had to meet the likes of her. She was a nasty piece of work. Blood meant nothing to her. I know you loathe the idea that she was your great-aunt, but also remember that your mother was her niece, Sirius was her cousin (and also, I think, YOUR cousin twice removed, or something like that), and your mother and Sirius were good people right to the very end. Not to mention your grandmum was her sister, and there's no doubt in the world that SHE'S a good person as well (got a bit of the Black family temper but otherwise a good person). Actually, even your great-aunt Narcissa isn't all bad, because in the end she and your great-uncle Lucius kind of realised they cared more about what happened to their son, Draco (your second (?) cousin), than whether or not Voldemort won the war.

Right, now I'm rambling about the past. Again.

Well anyway, don't say anything to me about those answers I gave you when we come to visit though, even when we're alone. I don't want your grandmum finding out I'm breaking my word giving you all this stuff about your dad, and there is the chance she might overhear us even when we think we aren't being overheard. It'd be better if we did this via owl post.

See you next Saturday! And if we don't see you before the game starts, I'd like to wish you luck in advance. Your grandmother sends her love.



Harry



Ted couldn't understand why, but reading Harry's letter sparked a tiny flame of ire inside of him. Perhaps it was because he'd already been feeling mildly incensed with his godfather before this letter from him even arrived, from the moment he read the account of how James received the nickname, Prongs.

Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs: his instincts hadn't been incorrect at all. He'd been right ever since he found out in the journal that his father's nickname had been Moony, and that he and his friends had started calling themselves, the Marauders: they were the same Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs from the Marauder's Map. Even if the map hadn't been mentioned (yet), the fact that they called themselves the Marauders was a dead giveaway.

The memory of when Harry had given him the Marauder's Map burned in Ted's mind....

"Wow, Harry! This map is brilliant! Where'd you get it?"

"I've had it. Fred and George had it before they gave it to me. And they'd nicked it from Filch's office their first year."

"That was nice of them."

"That'd be them."

"How does it work again?"

"You tap it with your wand, and say, 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.'"

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good. Cool!"

"And don't forget, when you're done, you give it another tap with your wand and say, 'Mischief managed'. Otherwise anyone can read it. And anyone could be someone you don't want reading it."

"Alright.... Harry, who are Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs? They the ones who made this?"

"I expect so."

"Are these their real names?"

"Oh, I seriously doubt it, Ted."

"Do you know them?"

"We've met."

"Really?"

"Yeah, but I--I met them--well, I met two before I got the map, and afterwards I met the other two."

"What were their real names?"

"Didn't ask them their names when I met them. I...er...didn't know they'd made the map until after I'd met the last two. I believe they were just a bunch of school troublemakers from years back.... They're all dead now.... Ah, Andromeda! Didn't see you there. By the way, those cauldron cakes of yours were just excellent...."

Oh yes, that fit too, Ted thought as he began to pace the length of the dorm, back and forth, clutching the letter tightly in his hand. They were all dead. Harry's father, then Sirius, then Pettigrew, and then his father.... And Harry had never told him! He'd lied then! Lied about not knowing their names!

But then his grandmother had made Harry promise not to tell Ted. Harry had at least given him the map....

Yet what harm could there have been in at least telling him his father had helped make the map while he was a boy at Hogwarts? He wouldn't have had to tell him that he was a werewolf to tell him that.... And now, he was expected to tell Harry things? Well...he could forget that!

"Ted?"

Ted whipped around and saw Rodger standing in the doorway. He saw Rodger's contented expression change to one of slight concern.

"Ted?" he repeated, this time with anxiety.

"What?" Ted said coldly, going over and stashing Harry's letter in the drawer of his bedside table. He glanced at Rodger and saw that he'd fixed the letter with a questioning gaze, but appeared to be biting back a query about it.

"How--How are you?" he asked, looking up at Ted again. "You wouldn't come down for breakfast. You still nervous 'bout this afternoon?"

"No," Ted lied brusquely. He did not want Rodger there with him right now. Right now he wanted to kick something and not stop until he'd caused it serious damage.

"What's got your wand in a knot, then?"

"Nothing."

Rodger leaned his shoulder against the doorjamb and folded his arms over his chest. "Not buying that, mate."

Ted knew that Rodger was only trying to help. And he shouldn't take his anger out on him. He had a bad habit of taking his anger out on people who didn't deserve to have it taken out on them. Andromeda always told him he had that "Black family temper" that was just mentioned in Harry's letter. And from what little Harry had said, his father had been the complete opposite, rarely losing his temper, and only once had he lost it with Harry...and of course Ted had asked what his father had been so infuriated about...and of course Harry had told him he couldn't tell him...as usual....

That last thought of Harry made it unbearable for him to hold in his frustration. "He lied to me!" he exclaimed furiously, throwing his hands up in the air. "He lied to me!"

"Who?" Rodger inquired calmly.

Ted faced Rodger. "Harry!" he moaned. "My godfather, Harry! He lied to me!"

"What about?"

"The Marauder's Map!"

"The one he gave you for your twelfth?"

"Yeah. I just found out in my dad's journal: my dad was Moony!"

Rodger's eyes widened in surprise. "Really?"

"And Harry's godfather Sirius was Padfoot, and his father was Prongs, and Peter Pettigrew was Wormtail!"

"Who's Peter Pettigrew?"

"Nobody," said Ted, shaking off the question like an annoying fly. He began pacing again in his distress. "He told me he never knew their names! Ha! Like hell he didn't!" At that moment all his anger peaked, and then fizzled out in one fell swoop. He felt slightly drained, and stopped his pacing to sit on the edge of his bed, wrapping his arms around the post at the end of it, leaning against it, feeling he might otherwise collapse onto the floor in a heap. He didn't know what to feel now. He looked up at Rodger, who was still watching him with concern from the doorway. "My grandmum made him promise not to tell me things about my father, because my father was a werewolf. At least, I think that's the reason. Anyway, I mean...sure the map has a distant connection with his lycanthropy, I mean it led to certain events that led to the map being made...I haven't actually read that they made it yet, but I'm positive they did.... But he still could've managed to tell me my father had helped make the map and left it at that, couldn't he've?"

Rodger shrugged. "I guess so, mate."

For a while, neither of them spoke, nor moved. Ted stared at a patch of carpet near Rodger's feet, still clinging to the bedpost with his arms wrapped around it. He remembered Andromeda had been in the room at the time when Harry had given him the map. Perhaps he was being cautious. His grandmother obviously kept Harry under the radar, feeling he couldn't be completely trusted not to let something slip. In fact, Ted was sure that Harry had wanted nothing more than to right out tell him that both their fathers had been co-writers of the Marauder's Map. And Harry hadn't actually said he didn't know their real names...he'd only said he'd never asked them.

And it was possible he hadn't.

When he'd met his father, it would have been when he was born, and obviously he couldn't have asked his name then. So he'd learned his name from other people.

He had not asked Sirius' name. He'd already known his name from the newspapers long before he'd met him in person.

He had also not asked for Peter's--he'd already learned his name from overhearing a conversation between Minerva McGonagall, Filius Flitwick, Madam Rosmerta, Rubeus Hagrid, and former minister of magic, Cornelius Fudge, in the Three Broomsticks pub in Hogsmeade.

And then Harry had mentioned to Ted before about meeting Ted's father on the train to Hogwarts for that one year that he had taught as defense against the dark arts teacher, and Hermione had worked out his surname from his briefcase, which had been labeled, "Professor R. J. Lupin", and later on learned through usage by other people that the R stood for Remus, and the J for John. Ted also recalled that right after Harry had told him this, his grandmother had walked into the room with an, "Ahem!" to Harry, informing him that Ginny had wanted a word with him about something. Ted now realized that that excuse had just been a ploy to keep Harry from saying anything more. Apparently Andromeda was that paranoid about Ted discovering that his father had been a lycanthrope.

At any rate, the point was that in reality, Harry had never technically asked any of them for their names, so he hadn't technically been lying when he'd told him that he hadn't asked them.

Ted sighed and looked up at Rodger, who had remained leaning against the doorjamb with his arms folded. "Well, what're you up to now?" he asked wearily.

Rodger blinked, and then said, "Er...well, I'd just finished breakfast and er...." The color rose in his cheeks. Was he embarrassed?

For the first time that morning, Ted grinned, and what was more it was his puckish one. "Rodger...?" he inquired slyly.

Rodger lowered his eyes to his feet as he shuffled them uncertainly. "I just came up to tell you that...er...well...." He took a deep breath and let it out. "Cecilia Bell's invited me to go for a walk with her around the lake."

Ted laughed. "And you said, 'Yes, please!', I assume?"

"Basically," Rodger mumbled.

It was then Ted realized that his friend's oddly meek behavior while speaking of the opposite sex was genuine. "Rodger, you've had tons of girlfriends before. Sure things haven't always worked out but--"

"Ted, I chucked every last one of them?"

Ted shook his head. "No, that's not possible, mate. One of them had to have chucked you. What about Rosalind Goldstein?"

"Chucked her. She was my first."

"Josie Corner?"

"Ted, I sacked it off with her at the weekend before Christmas in fifth year, remember?"

"Oh, right. Well, what about Naomi Creevey?"

"Okay, so that was a two-week fling, and we both just sort of fell apart, but technically it was my idea to fall apart in the first place."

"Ah. So, what's the story on her little sister, Wylla, then?"

"Bin-bagged her, Ted! Can't you remember that one? She slapped me in front of everyone in the Gryffindor common room!"

"Oh, yeah.... But what about your last one, Zoey Kipling? I thought she sent you a Dear John."

"Actually...it was more of a Dear Jane...if you get my meaning...."

"You mean you wrote her about sacking it off?"

Rodger nodded guiltily.

"God, you really have chucked every last one of 'em. Still, I dunno what you're climbing the walls for though."

"Well what if I chuck Cecilia? I don't think I can do that, mate...."

"Then don't chuck her then." Then Ted realized something, and he laughed again. "Rodger, don't tell me that you--you--have just taken a fancy to a girl you actually care about?"

Rodger said nothing. He gazed out the window a moment with an anguished expression, and then said, "Well, I've got to go...er...meet her...I don't want to be late.... See you later."

"See you later," said Ted, as Rodger disappeared from the dorm, closing the door behind him. He looked out the window, and saw that Tristan was still sitting on the windowsill. Quickly he pulled out parchment, ink, and quill, and scribbled a hasty note to Harry, glad that he no longer felt angry with him, though he still felt bad about it all the same:

Dear Harry,



Thanks for the letter. I'm really glad you all are coming for the Final. And don't tell anyone, but I've got a date this afternoon with Victoire Weasley. I'll tell you how it went. If it goes well, I might not bother you with detail. If it doesn't then I'll have a lot of questions to ask you about what in the world I did wrong.

Give Grandmum my love.



Ted



After he sent Tristan off with his reply to Harry, he glanced at his father's watch, which he now wore regularly with a sense of pride. According to the timepiece, it was three of nine. It had stopped raining and the sun was shining outside, the drops of rain on the trees in the Forbidden Forest glistening like rhinestones. A beautiful day for a romantic afternoon.

Too bad it still gave Ted butterflies in his stomach.

Hoping to calm his nerves, he pulled out Remus' 1976 journal from the ANSWERS box, stretched out on his bed, and began to read....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They had started to forget where things were. In the month of January shortly after the Christmas holidays, they began arguing about where the secrets they'd discovered in the castle and grounds during and in between full moon were, exactly.

"The fruit painting's this way!" Peter insisted in a whisper.

It was around midnight, and the four Marauders were under James' Invisibility Cloak, trying to find the secret entrance to the kitchens. They knew it was the painting of the fruit, but where it was they couldn't recall for sure.

"No, it's this way, you berk!" Sirius argued, tugging the cloak in the direction opposite the one in which Peter was tugging it.

"Stop it, both of you!" James hissed. "You rip this and I swear I'll rip you!"

Sirius and Peter stopped pulling the cloak in their different directions and stood nearer to James and Remus.

"We really need a map," said Remus. "One of the school and the grounds, you know?"

"Too bad Hogwarts is Unplottable," grumbled Sirius. "Even on a wizarding map."

"We'll have to draw up our own then, won't we?" said James. "Hey! Look! The painting was right in front of us the whole time!"

As they tucked into goodies brought to them by the eager Hogwarts house-elves in the kitchens, Remus, who was not eating nearly as much as the others were, picked up his wand and began drawing in the air.

"What're you doing?" Peter asked before popping a cream puff into his mouth.

"It's a drawing of our path from Gryffindor tower to here," said James.

"It's perfect," said Sirius when Remus had finished his rough sketch floating in midair.

"It's not to scale," said Remus, "but it's a start. I only wish I could save it somehow, for future reference...."

"I think if we use Priori Incantatem," said Sirius, "then one of us can just use it on your wand with our own and make it spit out a copy of it."

The next day they drew rough sketches of maps to every class as they went to them. As soon as they got there, one of them--they took turns--drew it on a spare bit of parchment during the lesson, while it was still fresh in their minds.

"What's this then, Mister Pettigrew?" Professor Slughorn asked Peter in potions later that morning.

"Er...."

"It doesn't look like the recipe for the Draught of Peace, to me."

"Er...it's er...."

"I'll have that then," said Slughorn, confiscating the bit of parchment on which Peter had been scribbling their path to the dungeons hastily instead of working on making his Draught of Peace.

Peter glanced apologetically at the other three. James and Remus shrugged sympathetically back, and Sirius smacked his forehead with his hand.

Slughorn glanced over at their cauldrons: all four of them were emitting sickly green vapors.

"Mister Potter? Mister Black? Mister Lupin?" he said. "Forgive me, but it seems you are making about as much progress as Mister Pettigrew here."

"We're sorry, sir," the four boys said as one.

"Try looking back at the recipe--I believe you may have forgotten the moonstone." He proceeded to the row behind them. "Ah! Now, these are what I call Draughts of Peace! See here everyone! Miss Evans and Mister Snape have done it outstandingly! I daresay they'll be scoring an O on their potions O.W.L.!"

Everyone turned in their seats to see Slughorn standing beside Lily and Severus. Lily was smiling rather shyly, but Severus threw James a smug little smirk.

"Ruddy pumpkin-head, isn't he?" he growled under his breath when class was dismissed, watching Lily and Severus leaving the room together as they packed up their things.

At lunch in the Great Hall, Severus drifted over from the Slytherin table, apparently en route to have a chat with Lily. "What are you scheming now, Potter?" he sneered, peering over James' shoulder as James was quickly resketching the way to the dungeons.

"None of your beeswax, Snivellus," said James through gritted teeth.

It was times like these that Remus seemed to remember he had a gleaming prefect badge pinned to his robes. He stopped eating and remained completely still, with only his eyes moving as he glanced from James--who sat with his back to Severus--then Sirius--who faced Severus with a loathsome glare--and then Peter--who appeared anticipatorily excited as usual.

"It's a map, isn't it?" Severus seemed to glow. "A map so you can sneak around even more easily. I'll have you chucked out of school for this, Potter...." Remus saw a manic gleam in his eyes.

His and Severus' gazes met haphazardly, and Remus quickly looked away, but Severus advanced on him from where he stood on the other side of the table.

"You're in for it too, Lupin," he said quietly. "You've been ignoring your prefect duties for your mates here, and that's not equal justice now, is it? And...I think I've worked out your little secret too...though how you got into Hogwarts without telling anyone...."

"What are you on about?" James snarled, turning to face Severus at last beside Sirius.

"Well, everyone seems to think Loopy here's got a badly tempered rabbit, but I have a better theory about his furry little problem," Severus said softly. "Just wait until I get some proof to back it up."

Remus glanced up and saw Severus' black eyes boring into him. Every muscle tensed, and he glanced around the Gryffindor table at the people sitting nearby, and saw that most of them weren't aware of what was going on. So far, they'd kept their voices low and civil enough not to draw attention. The only one watching as a bystander was Lily....

Their eyes met briefly, before Remus glanced away. The heat that rose to his cheeks from the beauty of her green eyes had been too much, and he couldn't let her see him blush. But in the split-second that their gazes had locked, Remus thought he had read something like fear in her, though for what, he could not be certain.

He looked up at Severus again.

Severus smiled, and said, his voice barely above a whisper, "You fancy prowls by the full moon, Loopy?"

Remus gripped the edges of the table, his knuckles turning as white as his face.

James and Sirius whipped out their wands, and green light exploded from both and hit Severus, who was too late in reacting to them. Wide-eyed, he fell back on the stone floor, his face tinged with green.

"Sev!" Lily leapt off her seat and knelt beside him on the ground.

Remus rose to his feet along with Peter to look over the table at what Sirius and James had done to Severus.

Severus struggled to sit up, his sallow face turning greener. Then in one swift motion he grabbed his stomach and threw himself forward onto his hands and knees just before he puked out three large, green, slimy slugs.

Everyone around them recoiled.

Lily threw James a look of loathing over her shoulder that was just about as nasty as those slugs.

"If looks could kill, Prongs..." Sirius began, his voice gradually rising in a comical falsetto.

"Shut up, Padfoot," James growled. It seemed the only time James every got genuinely angry or annoyed with Sirius was when the subject of Lily arose.

But it never lasted long. They had to stick together. Now of all times, as Professor McGonagall approached to inform them of another detention they'd be spending.

~

"Remus! Remus!"

Remus, who had been walking alone back from the library on the night of James and Sirius' detention, recognized the voice calling for him from behind at once. He stopped and remained still for a split-second, while his heart skipped a beat, before he turned to face Lily, who had finally caught up with him.

"Hi," she said breathlessly.

"Hi," said Remus quietly, as Lily took a moment to catch her breath. He realized that he felt as if he'd been running as well, for he was becoming nearly just as breathless.

She looked up at him with her brilliant green eyes, and his heart thudded so fast he wondered if she could hear it.

"I wanted to talk to you," she said softly. "About the other day...."

Remus' mind began to wander as he became aware of a curiosity of what it would be like to touch her cheek with the tips of his fingers. He mentally shook himself, forcing his brain to concentrate on her words.

"About what other day?" he asked.

Lily turned her head and allowed some of her dark red hair to hide her face as she averted his gaze. Remus fought the impulse to gently pull the hair aside like a curtain and tuck it behind her ear.

"That day...er...Potter and Black placed that hex on Severus that made him chuck slugs," she murmured. Her green eyes emerged from behind the veil of red hair as she raised her chin. She tucked the hair behind her ear and blinked up at him.

Remus was rendered speechless for a twinkling, before he cleared his throat and asked hastily, "Er...why did you er...wanna talk to me about that?"

"Well, I just wanted you to know that I'm really sorry Severus got after you like that," Lily explained quickly. "And I swear I didn't tell him a thing. I've kept my promise to you not to tell anyone, not even him. He's just...you know...gone and worked it out on his own because...he's a bit obsessed with your whereabouts every month. Black's, Potter's, and Pettigrew's too, for that matter."

Remus was so overwhelmed with gratitude he was lost for words yet again. The fact that after four or five years of knowing each other--though barely speaking to each other--she had kept that promise to him as if they'd been closer to each other than she and Severus had ever seemed to be--and he still could not understand what she saw in him--it all provoked a panging sensation inside his core that went deeper than mere fondness. It grew rapidly now, and an animalistic hunger rose up and clawed at his heart with a burning intensity. He was on the verge of doing one of two things: either rearing his head back and howling like the wolf he became on a monthly basis, or cupping Lily's perfect face in his hands and pressing his lips to hers, opening his mouth and feeling his way inside of her with his tongue....

"Remus?" Lily tilted her head, her fine brows drawn together.

Remus gasped and quickly regained control of his senses. "I--" he began, the adrenaline pumping in his veins causing him to quaver. "Th-Thank you."

"For what?"

"F-For not--not telling," he stammered. He wished he could say more, form the words that would tell her exactly how much it meant to him that she'd kept her word to him, how much his insides ached for something he knew he would receive at least a tiny portion of if he could only touch her...just for a moment.... But all he could manage however was, "I-I knew you wouldn't."

She looked away again, but this time he was sure he'd seen a smile, and the color rise in her cheeks.... "You're welcome," she said mellifluously.

Remus trembled and waited, unable to move or speak, as if his ability to function all depended on Lily now. Yet in the mixture of the turmoil of turbulent emotions churning inside him, another added itself to the brew: fear. He grew afraid that she would get angry with him for some reason--any reason--and in that he found the will to move and speak on his own again. "I--I have to go," he blurted out, and turning tail he ran down the corridor, and didn't stop until he'd passed through the portrait hole and was safe inside the fifth year boys' dormitory of Gryffindor tower.

~

It turned out that if James had been a Muggle, he would have made a brilliant architect.

He had all of their rough sketches of different places in the castle floating around him in midair as he sat on his bed, drawing a perfect, scale reproduction of an overview of the entirety of Hogwarts castle and grounds. Remus sat on the edge of his own bed, which was right next to James', and watched him. They were waiting on one last sketch. Sirius had volunteered to do the tunnel leading from the Whomping Willow to the Shrieking Shack, and Hogsmeade, but he had been taking his time doing it, so to speak.

"Where is he?" James muttered, waving his wand to make the ring of sketches floating around his head in a circle rotate. After a moment he stopped them, and began referring to the new sketch that now hung directly in front of him. "He said he'd be done a half an hour ago."

As if on cue, the dormitory door flew open, and Sirius burst in with Peter at his heels. He waved a sheet of parchment wildly in his hand. "I've got it!" he exclaimed gaspingly, standing between James' and Remus' beds and leaning against the post at the end of James' for support as he caught his breath. "I've...got...it...finally...right here...all finished...." He took a gulp of air as he handed it to James.

Peter sat beside Remus on the edge of Remus' bed.

"About time," said James, taking the parchment from Sirius. "Now we can finish this thing."

The end result of the map was magnificent. After praising the quality of its hand-drawn craft, the time came to apply it with a few charms for security purposes and such.

The four of them all sat on James' bed and huddled around the map.

Remus tapped the map with his wand and said, "Confirmo consilium Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and grounds of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

The map shuddered, floated a millimeter off the bed, and then fell back down and lay still. Remus pointed his wand at it again and said, "Revelite homines." There was a pause, and then hundreds of black dots appeared all over the map, in the castle and on the grounds. Each dot represented a human being within the school and grounds, and each them was labeled with their name right beside them.

Peter pointed his wand at the map next, and, slightly pale with apprehension, as if he might accidentally set it aflame, said, "Revelite incantates." Now the map would tell people using it how to get into the seven secret passageways, and it would also be able to see through forms of magical concealment, such as people in Animagus form, people underneath an Invisibility Cloak or under the influence of a Disillusionment Charm, and the true identities of people using Polyjuice Potions or other methods of disguise.

Then Sirius tapped the map with his wand and said, "Aperite verbis: 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good'." The ink on the map shimmered like obsidian for a moment, and then resumed its usual inky sheen. Sirius glanced sideways at Remus. "You think a prefect like yourself can say that? That you're up to no good?"

"Do I have to be telling the truth?" Remus asked.

"You have to say those words if you want to open the map," said Sirius. "But I s'pose you don't have to mean them."

"Moony, we've known you for too long not to know that whether or not you want to admit it, you've got a mischievous streak just like the rest of us," said James. "At least, you certainly can't honestly, solemnly swear that you're not up to no good, can you?"

Remus had to smile at this. "No, you're right, Prongs: I can't say that at all in good conscience."

Sirius laughed. "Then you'll love this one, Moony." He pointed his wand at the map again. "And now to close you up. Claudite verbis: 'Mischief managed'."

The map wiped itself clean, all traces of ink gone, leaving an entirely blank sheet of parchment.

"Have we covered everything?" asked Peter.

"Not...just...yet," said James, a puckish gleam in his eye. He tapped the map with his own wand. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." As the map reappeared on the parchment, he glanced around at the other three. "Right, here's what I want you all to do," he instructed, exchanging impish looks with Sirius, "answer this question when it's your turn, and answer it in third person. The question is this: what are your thoughts on Severus Snape? Moony'll go first, then me, then Padfoot, and then Wormtail. And remember, we're going for insulting here."

Remus realized what James and Sirius were up to. "You're going to put a special Ridiculing Jinx that'll activate if Severus specifically ever tries opening the map!"

"I thought it'd be a nice touch," said James, grinning more broadly. "I had to work on it some, and read up on the theory, and I had Padfoot help me out on some test parchments until I got it right. Basically it'll be like putting a little bit of yourself into the map. Makes it more personal. Which is the point. The insults are supposed to be personal."

"And the way the spell works," Sirius added, "is that you put in your insult, and then when the person you're trying to ridicule tries to pry into whatever you don't want them prying into, it's able to change words in the insult--or update it if you will, if the occasion calls for it. Like if one of us talked about Snape being a student, and then say later on in he became a Hogwarts professor--as if that would ever happen--but anyway, hypothetically speaking he became one later in life and tried to open it then, the words 'student at Hogwarts' would update themselves to 'professor'. Make sense...sort of?"

"Not really," said Peter wearily. "I'm having trouble getting my head around this, to be honest."

"It's a complex jinx," James admitted. "But I couldn't pass up the opportunity."

"So, are we all agreed on this?" Sirius asked.

"I dunno," said Remus slowly. "You two abuse that poor bloke to no end, and if I weren't your friend, I'd have a thing or two done about it the next time you ridicule him, openly or otherwise." He was relieved to see looks of slight remorse cross James and Sirius' faces, rather than looks of total resentment.

"Well...yeah," said James. "But c'mon Moony! I don't suppose you remember what he said to you the other day at lunch about prowling by the full moon, do you?"

"I do remember, Prongs. Very clearly."

"Moony, the sneaky little git's trying to get your secret out in the open," Sirius put in bracingly. "Can you take that lying down? He was practically insulting you!"

"I'd like to see him try and insult Moony when he's a wolf," Peter piped up enthusiastically.

Remus noticed an elfin glimmer flash in Sirius' gray eyes at this, and he didn't like the grin that played at the corners of his mouth.

"Please, Moony!" James urged him. "Admit it: you'd like to see him get what's coming to him just as much as we would."

Seeing he was going to lose this argument, Remus conceded. "Alright," he sighed.

"Right then," said James, placing the tip of his wand on the map. "Here we go. Ridete inimicum Severus Snape."

A bright orb of light rose up out of the parchment and floated before them. James signaled Remus with his eyes. Apparently anything spoken aloud would now be taken into account by the spell.

Remus cleared his throat, and searching deep inside himself, thinking back to that day at lunch when he'd taunted him about his secret, found one thing he truly wanted to say to Severus Snape. "Mister Moony presents his compliments to Snivellus, and begs him to keep his abnormally large nose out of other people's business." He glanced around at the others, and was heartened to see them all grinning amiably back at him.

The orb glowed brighter, and then dimmed.

Then James took his turn. "Mister Prongs agrees with Mister Moony, and would like to add that Snivellus is an ugly git."

Sirius and Peter struggled not to burst out laughing, and Remus couldn't help but smile wanly.

After the orb glowed bright and then dimmed again, Sirius took his turn. "Mister Padfoot," he began with relish, "would like to register his astonishment that an idiot like that ever became a student at Hogwarts."

Again, the orb glowed brightly, and then dimmed.

At last it was Peter's turn. "Mister Wormtail bids Snivellus good day, and advises him to wash his hair, the slime ball."

For the fourth time, the orb glowed very brightly, and then dimmed.

James pointed his wand at the orb and said, "Finite incantatem."

The orb sank back into the parchment and disappeared.

As one all four Marauders erupted with roars of suppressed laughter, and James and Sirius were by far the loudest of them all.