Three Animagi and a Werewolf

Three Animagi and a Werewolf, Chapter 7: The Making of the Marauders

Holidays

Sirius sat on a bench beside the frozen lake wrapped in his winter cloak. He was listlessly kicking up the snow with the tip of his boot. It was a late afternoon in early December, and the festive spirit had already got hold of Hogwarts. Everyone was busy wrapping up presents in hidden corners, Hagrid had dragged several huge Christmas trees up to the castle, the suits of armour in the corridors were practising Christmas carols under the skilled direction of Professor Flitwick, and most of the students were looking forward to going home for the holidays. Sirius Black, however, was not feeling the yuletide spirit. Having no family to go to, he would be spending a lonely Christmas here at Hogwarts. James would be going home to his mother, Remus would be spending Christmas with his parents and Peter, naturally, would be at home with his parents and sisters. No, Sirius was not looking forward to Christmas.

Suddenly there was a shout behind him, and Sirius heard familiar footsteps running his way.

"Sirius, Sirius!" James shouted, laughing happily and, skidding to a halt, dropped breathless onto the bench beside him, waving a sheet of parchment. "Sirius, guess what."

"Well, what?" said Sirius testily.

"This is a letter from my mum," James puffed. "And do you know what she says?"

"No."

Sirius was looking like he didn't care what Mrs. Potter had to say, but James just grinned.

"I'm going to wipe that scowl off your face, Sirius," he said eagerly. "You see, I wrote to Mum and told her all about you - well, actually, not all. I didn't tell her about the bubotuber pus you smeared on Snape's scarf last week. And I sort of forgot to mention the time you dropped a tickling potion in Professor Flitwick's tea. And the time ..."

"Oh, get to the point, James," Sirius begged. "I'm not in the mood."

"Well, you will be. The fact is, I told Mum what a great friend you are, but that you've got no family and all that, so you're upset because you'll be on your own here at Christmas ..."

"I'm not upset!" Sirius barked.

James went on, undaunted. "Oh, shut up for a minute, can't you? I'm trying to tell you my mum says why don't you spend Christmas with us!" he finished.

Sirius stared. "You're kidding!"

"Nope," James grinned. "Not a bit of it. What do you say, will you come?"

Sirius sat stunned for a while, then a grin spread across his face. "You try and stop me," he said.

"Hello," said a voice behind them, "you two look pleased."

"Remus!"

James turned to face their friend. "You're back! Come and sit down. You look exhausted."

It was true that Remus looked much as he had done when they had first met. It seemed strange to James how his friend always looked so ill when he had been away. Several times that had happened since they had known each other. Back in October, his mother had been ill. Then he had been to his grandmother's - his mother's mother's - funeral. And yesterday evening his mother had been taken ill again. Yet whenever Remus returned from these brief visits to his family, it was he who looked ill. It worried James. He hoped it wasn't an indication that his friend suffered from whatever serious disease his mother seemed to have.

"How's your mother?" he asked when Remus had joined them.

"Not too bad," Remus said tightly, then quickly changed the subject. "But you two look like you're celebrating."

"Sirius is coming to stay with me for Christmas," James explained.

"That's great," Remus said, pleased for his friend. "That way we'll all be able to travel to London together. All four of us in one carriage - the Hogwarts Express will never be the same again."

They laughed.

The last school days stretched endlessly, but at last it was time for them all to pack their trunks and go down to Hogsmeade station. James thought the school must be practically empty, judging from the amount of students who stood shivering on the platform.

He, Sirius, Remus and Peter found an empty compartment and passed a very pleasant trip to London, discussing all the things they would do at home, and wondering what presents there would be. Time seemed to fly by, and before they knew it, the Express was slowing down, drawing into platform 9 ¾. Sirius was first off the train, and the others passed the trunks down to him, one after another. Then they climbed down onto the platform and began looking around for their families.

A fair-haired girl near the porter's hut was waving i their direction. James noticed she had a short, slightly upturned nose and small bead-like eyes. She caught Peter's eye, and he waved back.

"It's Pippa!" he cried. "Well, I'll be off then. See you all after Christmas."

He heaved one end of his trunk off the ground and walked away. James, Sirius and Remus shifted their trunks out of the way of the train doors to where they could get a better view. Sirius, being the tallest, stretched as high as he could and tried across the heads of the crowd to spot anyone who looked like they might be related to his two friends. Finally he spotted a woman with shoulder-length brown hair, dressed in what to him was unusual attire: a pale grey trouser suit, as worn by many Muggle women.

"See anyone?" James asked.

"I'm not sure. Is that ..."

James tried to follow where Sirius was looking, and started waving wildly. The woman smiled and came their way. She drew level with them and hugged James.

"This is my mum," James said, straightening his glasses. "Mum, this is Sirius, and this is Remus."

"Hello," Mrs. Potter said kindly.

They answered politely. Then Remus uttered an exclamation. "There are my parents," he said, pointing.

James turned with some curiosity to face the two people who were now coming towards them. The man was very dark-haired and quite good-looking, with shining blue eyes. But it was the woman - unmistakably Remus's mother, she looked so much like him - who interested him most. He had always imagined her to look something like this, of course. The long, light-brown hair and brown eyes were just what he had expected. What he had not expected was that she would look so vigorous, so full of life. The illnesses that obliged Remus more than once to leave school and visit her had seemed to his mind to imply a somewhat sickly appearance, something resembling Remus's own weary face and heavy eyes, certainly not the rosy cheeks and cheerfulness that he was witnessing now. As she reached them and said hello, James found that he liked Mrs. Lupin very much, and the mystery of her frequent illnesses occupied his mind more than ever.

Remus Lupin's Dilemma

Remus came down the stairs to breakfast, marvelling at the speed with which time had flown and trying to burn every last moment of his visit home into his mind. The fire was crackling away merrily in the living room, and the old familiar stair creaked when he stepped on it. There was a smell of fresh bread coming from the kitchen, and the sound of his mother's soft humming was so sweet that it hurt him to think he must leave her again so soon. He entered the room as quietly as he could, not wishing to disturb her, but Faith turned around at once and smiled.

"I can't believe you're leaving us again so soon," she sighed.

"Nor can I, Mum," he answered, slipping onto a kitchen chair. "I wish I could stay. At least another week," he blurted out.

His mother looked across at him sharply, and sat down opposite him with a wise smile.

"I see," she said quietly. "So I was right."

"Right?" Remus asked, guessing the answer. "About what?"

"You haven't told them, have you? Your new friends. James, Sirius, Peter ... they don't know you're a werewolf."

Remus winced slightly.

"No," he confessed. "I haven't told them. Does - does Dad know?" he added anxiously.

"No," his mother reassured him.

Remus breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't want his father to know. His father would be disappointed in his son ... as disappointed as Remus was in himself. And yet ...

"May I ask why you haven't told them?" his mother persisted.

Remus stood and turned away, but he could feel his mother's eyes watching him as intently as if he had been looking at her.

"I can't. If they find out what I am, they won't want anything to do with me any more. No one else who knows does. Even my own grandmother ..."

"Your father's mother only needed an excuse. She never really liked me, or any child of mine. She blamed my 'bad blood', as she called it, for what happened to you. Your father broke with her after that."

"She's not the only one though, is she? People don't want anything to do with a werewolf. Why should my friends be any different?"

"Because they are your friends. Because if your friendship means anything to them, they won't care. They'll just accept you and like you for who and what you are."

"You just say that," Remus said impatiently, "because you love me."

"Yes," his mother said, speaking so tenderly that the boy couldn't help but look at her, and be moved by the loving look in her eyes.

"I do love you, Remus," she went on. "And whoever knows you as I do must inevitably love you too. Tell them, Remus. Put their friendship to the test."

Remus thought for a long time. Finally he said, "I don't know if I can, Mum. I don't know if I'd have the courage to go on if ... if they deserted me."

Faith Lupin smiled and came to him. She pushed back the strand of hair that hung in his eyes and kissed his forehead.

"You can, my love. You have more courage than you know."

Remus tried to smile back at her. But he was still not sure.

James Potter's Discovery

The holidays were over. Back at Hogwarts, Peter sat rapt as James began to unwrap the special present he had received for Christmas. Sirius was sprawled on his bed, grinning. He knew what was coming. Remus was perched on the window sill, hardly taking any notice of them, staring out unseeingly towards the Whomping Willow and still going over that talk he had had with his mother.

"It's beautiful!" Peter was whispering, awed. "What is it?"

"Wait and see."

"Oi, Remus, come and look!" Sirius called. "You don't want to miss this!"

Remus tore himself away from the window. James was holding up a long cloak of a shimmering, elusive material. One minute it seemed to shine a thousand different colours at once, the next moment you thought you had imagined it, it was like a dream on the edge of your memory - you knew it had been there, yet you couldn't quite grasp it. In spite of his preoccupation with his own private worries, Remus found himself intrigued.

"Put it on!" Sirius urged.

James smiled, and with a flourish draped the cloak around his shoulders. As he did so, his arms, his torso, his legs, all vanished from view. All that was to be seen of him now was his head, floating in mid-air, and his fingers where they held the cloak about his neck. Peter gasped. Remus stared.

"It's an Invisibility Cloak," Sirius said proudly, as though it were his own. "A perfect asset for nightly escapades, don't you agree, Remus?"

"It's brilliant," Remus agreed.

"Where did your mother get it?" Peter asked James.

James, reappearing from under the Cloak and folding it carefully, said,

"She says she didn't get it for me at all. It came by post and there was no card with it. Mum said she only knows of two people who used to have one, but that it couldn't have been from either of them."

He frowned.

"She wouldn't tell me any more than that."

Remus came nearer and touched the material gently.

"Fantastic. It must have cost whoever owned it originally a pretty penny. But ... do you think it's safe to use, not knowing where it came from?" he said doubtfully.

"Oh come on," Sirius said, swinging his legs off the bed and coming to join them.

"What d'you suggest should be wrong with it? I mean, who'd want to jinx a thing like that?"

He took the Cloak from James and wrapped it around his middle, so that the upper and lower halves of his body looked like they were moving about the room individually. Remus still looked concerned.

"Remus," James said seriously, "I really think Sirius is right. The only one I can think of who might think of jinxing something and sending it to me as a present is Snape, and you can't tell me even he'd spend that amount of money, just to be mean to someone."

"I suppose you're right," Remus agreed. "It's not as though there were anyone who would wish you any serious harm. But it would still make me feel a lot easier if we knew where it came from."

"Oh, loosen up, Remus," Sirius scolded.

He threw the cloak over his friend's head with a laugh and wrestled him to the ground. James and Peter watched, laughing, while the half invisible tangle of arms and legs struggled and then resurfaced at last, smiling up at them, slightly out of breath.

Their lessons began again all too soon. On their very first day, they had to endure double Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts with the Slytherins, and that meant taunts and evil smirks from Severus Snape. But James found he wasn't so very bothered about that. When Snape got too annoying, he just thought of his Invisibility Cloak lying folded up in his trunk, and imagined the look of envy on Snape's face if he only knew. He still believed the Cloak was harmless, but Remus had made him wonder more than ever who might have sent it. Which two people could his mother have meant? She had no siblings, no family at all that he knew of. Though it was only logical that she must, at some point, have had parents. James began to wonder about his grandparents. Were they still alive? Had one of them sent the Cloak? Or was it - his heart leaped at the thought - could it be that it was from his father? He was torn from these thoughts by the teacher's voice, asking him a question to which Sirius quickly whispered the answer, while Snape smirked across the room at him.

That Friday, Professor McGonagall interrupted their afternoon snowball fight in the grounds, again summoning Remus away. He apologised and asked them not to wait for him. James was reminded at once of his concerns before the holidays, and was so preoccupied with thinking about Remus and his mother's mysterious illness which left no outward mark that Sirius's snowball took him by surprise and squashed unpleasantly into his left ear.

Remus did not return all that afternoon and evening. Long after Sirius had dropped off to sleep and snores were issuing from behind Peter's and Frank's curtains, James Potter remained seated on the window sill, gazing out into the night.

He let his eyes roam aimlessly about the grounds, imagining the endless amount of fun he and his friends would have exploring them, now that he had his new Cloak. Who knew, they might even venture out into the Forbidden Forest one night, maybe on a night very like this, when the full moon shed enough light to remove the necessity of carrying a tell-tale lantern. James stared up at the moon, admiring its smooth brightness, the milky whiteness of the giant disk, that looked so near from up here that he almost felt he could touch it. He turned to look around the dormitory, his home here at Hogwarts.

The light of the moon fell on the empty bed by the opposite wall, and the cold hand of worry seemed to close once more about James's heart. He was sure there was something very wrong with Remus, and it pained him not to know what it was. He felt, somehow, that he should know. It was nagging at the back of his mind, an idea forming like a word that rested on the tip of your tongue and would not come out. The harder you tried to make it reveal itself, the further it seemed to run. And at the same time, he felt it was very important he should find out what it was. In the relatively short while that he had been at Hogwarts, he had grown deeply attached to his fellow Gryffindors. He would hate anything to be seriously wrong with any of them. With a deep sigh and a heavy heart, James finally crept into bed.

His dreams were disturbed. Always there entered into them the silhouette of a great beast standing out against a pale light whose source he could not see, but felt he knew very well. He turned over in his sleep, trying to look away from that menacing shape, but he couldn't.

He heard heavy footsteps on dry leaves and felt his breath coming hard. Then he realised the footsteps were his own, and he was running, running away from something. Or was he? The faster he ran, the nearer he seemed to get to whatever it was. A grey shape, the same shape whose silhouette he had sought to escape from before, only now it no longer seemed frightening. It was ... gentle. Helpless. Lonely. James stopped a few paces away from it.

The beast turned its head, and James found himself looking into a pair of large brown eyes, sad and weary and somehow oddly familiar. His heart ached to see it, alone and friendless, appealing to him to help it, to do something to make its sad existence more bearable. But what could he do, a boy of eleven? Trying to escape that longing gaze, he looked away, up at the sky, and saw the moon. His heart gave a leap.

James sat up in bed with a start, his dream for once as clear in his mind as if it had been a real event. He tore aside the curtains around his bed and blinked. The full moon still lit the dormitory, its light falling straight on the pillow of the empty bed. James snatched up his glasses. His heart was pounding. Of course, if he was right, it all made such perfect sense. It was so simple, he wondered why he hadn't seen it before.

He climbed out of bed and pulled his trunk out from underneath it as quietly as he could. Then he took out his Invisibility Cloak and wrapped it around him. He thought of waking Sirius, but decided against it. He may be pretty sure he was right, but he had to be absolutely certain before he told anyone about his theory. He crept out of the room on tiptoes and, sneaking down the stairs and out through the portrait hole, immediately made for the library.

Sirius Black's Plan

"James? James, wake up!"

Sirius threw back the curtains and stopped in mid-action. The bed was empty. Puzzled, he turned to the two boys behind him.

"James isn't here."

"Perhaps he was hungry and went down early," Peter suggested.

"He wouldn't do that, not without waking me," Sirius said, sounding hurt.

"Well," said Frank, patting his stomach, "I'm starving, so I'm going downstairs. Anyone coming?"

Peter nodded, and he and Frank left the room, but Sirius sat down on the end of James's bed, a frown fixed on his face. He looked up suddenly. Surely he had heard the floorboards creak? The door to the dormitory closed, seemingly of its own accord.

"What the -" he began, but another voice said,

"Shhh."

There was a movement, and suddenly James stood right in front of him, his Invisibility Cloak slung over one arm, a thick book in the other. He came over to the bed and, replacing the Cloak in his trunk, sat down next to Sirius.

"James - where have you been?" Sirius asked, bewildered. "And why didn't you take me with you?"

"Sorry," James replied. "I felt I had to be quite sure before I mentioned it to anyone."

"Mentioned what?"

By way of an answer, James dropped the heavy book on Sirius's lap.

"Beasts and Birds in the Wizarding World," Sirius read. "James, what is all this about?"

"I didn't sleep very well last night," James began. "I was thinking. About how Remus keeps 'going home' because of some emergency or other in his family. You know how he says his mother is ill? Well, I thought somehow it was strange, when we saw her at Christmas, that she didn't look ill at all. And I started wondering - well, I'd wondered before that. But it really got me thinking."

"About what, for heaven's sake?"

"Why Remus really disappears so often. And why, while his mother looks perfectly all right, he usually looks like death warmed up when he comes back. Last night, I found the answer. And it's really so obvious! I could kick myself when I think how blind I've been."

"Well, you'd better kick me then, because I still don't get it," Sirius complained.

"The answer's in that book. But I actually figured it out because I never sleep very well when there's a full moon."

"What's that got to do with it?"

"Don't you see?" James whispered excitedly. "Remus always makes up some excuse for going away when there's a full moon. I checked all the dates, as near as I could, of his mother's so-called illnesses."

"So-called? You mean he made it all up? Why on earth would he do that?"

"Obviously because he didn't want us to know the truth."

"Which is what, exactly?" Sirius demanded.

"Don't you see?" said James. "He's a werewolf, Sirius."

Sirius gaped at him.

"You're mad," he said at last. "I mean, he can't be a - a werewolf. Not Remus. He's so - so ..."

James was nodding hastily.

"I know it seems crazy. But the facts fit. He makes excuses about not being here every month at the full moon, he comes back looking dreadful, he's even got grey hairs, and he's only eleven!"

Sirius was watching him with an unfathomable expression on his face. What James was saying all made sense, when you thought about it. It all added up. It explained everything that was, admittedly, odd about Remus Lupin. And yet it seemed incredible that a boy whom Sirius had always - if he was entirely honest - thought a bit soft, or gentle, to put it more kindly, should become a monstrous werewolf at every full moon. He thought about it in silence for a long time, unsure of what to say. At last he admitted to himself that, though he was undoubtedly far from being as tough as Sirius would have approved, Remus Lupin was without doubt a decent kid, and a good friend. All he could say, finally, was,

"It's - not fair, James."

He worried briefly that his words might sound very hollow, even silly. But James was looking at him in complete earnest.

"No," he agreed. "It's not."

"But why make up all those lies and excuses? Why didn't he just tell us?" Sirius wondered.

James shrugged his shoulders.

"Werewolves generally aren't very popular. They're regarded as outcasts by most wizards. Or worse, as dangerous monsters. No parent, for instance, would want their child to share a dormitory with a werewolf. I reckon if my mum had ever heard of this before she met Remus and saw what he was like, she would have had a word or two to say about it. She might still, if she knew. I suppose Remus must have thought that if we found out, we wouldn't want anything more to do with him."

Sirius shook his head.

"He should know us better than that. We're his friends."

"It's easy for us to say that. We don't know what problems he may have had before we met him. We can't even begin to imagine what it's like."

He paused. Then he said,

"The question is, now that we do know - what do we do about it?"

"What can we do?" Sirius answered helplessly.

James got up and paced the floor. He stopped by the window and looked out pensively. At last he came back and sat down on the lid of his trunk.

"First of all," he said, "We have to tell Remus we know, and let him know that it's okay and we're still his friends."

"Okay. We'd better have a word with Peter first, though. It's all very well for us two, but I don't know if he'll be quite as unconcerned about being friends with a werewolf."

James sighed.

"I suppose you're right. But I don't think we should tell any more than that. Not even Frank. He spends more time with the Hufflepuffs, anyway, so he won't be too upset if he ever finds out, and we haven't told him."

"Agreed. So we talk to Peter, and then we tell Remus. Then what?"

"I started looking in all the books I could find for a cure, but there's nothing. Still, I've a feeling there must be something we can do to make this more bearable for Remus."

They sat together for a while in silence, thinking.

"There might be something," Sirius said at last.

He laid the book on his lap on the bed, dug a different, very old and battered-looking volume from his trunk and began flicking through it.

"I remember reading something about a werewolf once. If I've got it right, then ..."

His face brightened as he discovered what he was looking for. He pointed at the page that now lay open in his lap.

"This book says that werewolves are extremely dangerous to humans. Left to their own devices, if there aren't any humans about they can also sometimes attack wildlife. But this book mentions a few werewolves who actually became friends with some animals - a dog or a bear, for instance. Larger animals that can control them, I suppose."

James was watching his friend's face as he worked furiously at an idea. Sirius's speech had slowed towards the end, and now he broke off altogether. Nevertheless, James knew him well enough to guess at the outrageous idea forming in his brain.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" he asked.

Sirius smiled.

"Probably. It would mean another night time trip to the library with your Cloak, though. We'd probably only find the kind of books we're after in the restricted section, and we'd never be able to get a teacher to sign a note for us without telling them what we're up to. And that's out of the question."

James grinned.

"A typical plan à la Black, in fact. I like it."

The Marauders

Remus stalked past the annoying Peeves, who chanted at him as he went,

"Loony, loopy, Lupin."

He was just too tired to be hurt by the poltergeist and his silly insults. He reached the portrait hole and muttered the Christmas password,

"Cracker jokes."

"You don't look in the mood for them, dear," the fat lady commiserated, swinging back on her hinges.

Remus climbed through the hole and up the stairs to the first years' dormitory with a weary step. He had suffered a lot of pain last night, and the added burden of having lied to his friends yet again, and his mother's gentle reproach at his not having told them the truth, weighed heavily on his already sagging shoulders. He ran a hand through his hair and across his face. It felt like a new line of care had engraved itself between his eyes. With an effort, he pushed down the door handle and went in. Then he stopped short.

Three faces were turned towards him. On the left sat Peter, his small eyes darting frequently to James and Sirius, but avoiding Remus altogether. On the right, sitting cross-legged on the trunk by the foot of James's bed, was Sirius, quietly watchful, his eyes - unlike Peter's - fixed unmoving on Remus's face, his jaw set in an uncharacteristically serious expression. In the middle James waited, sitting on the end of Sirius's bed like a king upon a throne.

"Hello," Remus said, a little warily. "What's going on here?"

"We thought we'd welcome you home," Sirius replied. "How is your poor mother? Or was it your father this time? I hope your labouring by the sickbed didn't keep you from a nice midnight stroll under the full moon."

Remus felt his cheeks go hot. Oh no. He really didn't need this, not now. He was too tired.

"Don't you just love going for walks when there's a full moon?" Sirius went on. "I do. It's so ..."

"Sirius," James broke in, studying Remus's gaunt face. "Stop it."

Remus looked from one to the other of them, and his eyes came to rest on James. In spite of the unaccustomed coldness in his voice, he looked quite normal, kind and understanding as ever. Remus felt as though his heart were being twisted around in his chest. These were his friends, the only ones he had ever had. If he lost them ...

"James, I ..." he began, but James held up a hand and stood up.

He came towards Remus and stood looking at him. Then he turned briefly back to Sirius and they exchanged glances. Facing Remus once more, James smiled, and Remus was relieved to see it was the same friendly smile as always. And then James did something he had never done before. He embraced Remus like a brother, and led him over to his bed.

"Sit down," he advised. "You look terrible, and we don't want you passing out just yet, because we want to talk to you first."

He sat on the edge of Remus's bed, and Peter and Sirius followed suit.

"Now," said James matter-of-factly, "as you may have guessed, we've found out you're a werewolf. Don't worry, Dumbledore didn't tell on you or anything, we worked it all out for ourselves."

"Well, James did," Sirius put in.

"Anyway," James went on, "once we had found out, we assumed you had your reasons for not telling us."

Remus nodded.

"I - I thought you wouldn't want anything more to do with me," he said, still not quite willing to believe his luck.

"Well, for once you were wrong, weren't you?" Sirius said, smiling.

At this characteristic, affectionate tease from Sirius, Remus actually managed a small smile himself.

"And for once, I'm glad of it," he replied.

He listened in amazed, happy disbelief while James unfolded the story of how he had worked out his friend's secret, and when James and Sirius told him of their scheme - to secretly become Animagi so that they could keep him company when he had transformed - he was so overjoyed and grateful that he didn't know what to say. A great lump seemed to have formed in his throat and his eyes were burning madly. The others tactfully looked away while he recovered, and Sirius dug out their map of Hogwarts.

"So, Mr. Moony," he said lightly, "show us where you've been hanging out lately."

He handed Remus a quill and ink pot.

But Remus, grinning and looking still physically tired, but much healthier and less weary, pushed it aside and instead took out a clean sheet of very old parchment, a quill and a pot of a different kind of ink.

"I have a better idea," he said. "This parchment and ink pot were a Christmas present from my parents - the best apart from the one you three have just given me," he beamed.

Pointing his wand at the map, he said,

"What we need, first of all, is a password. An original line that only the four of us will know, and that you have to say so you can read this new map. And of course another spell to wipe it clean again."

They thought for a moment. At last Sirius put out his hand.

"I've got one. How about 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good'?"

They laughed.

"Excellent," Remus said.

He repeated the words, waving his wand over the piece of parchment. He then began to copy all the lines of the old map onto the new one. He also added a spot marked 'Whomping Willow', and the others gasped as he drew a long tunnel leading from the tree off the edge of the map.

"There's a tunnel under the Whomping Willow that was made especially for me. The willow itself was only planted to guard the entrance. There's a knoll on the side of its trunk. You press it, and the willow stands still. This tunnel leads to an empty house in Hogsmeade village," he explained. "The Shrieking Shack. That's where I ... transform."

They sat for a moment in silence, then Sirius, taking the map and quill from Remus, said,

"Hey, Pete ..."

Peter, carried away by the excitement of the moment, jumped.

"Yes?"

"Have a look in my trunk, will you? There's a book in there called The Art of Magical Cartography. Open it where I left the bookmark."

Peter did so, and handed Sirius the thick volume. Reading quickly, Sirius then looked up, satisfied.

"Watch this," he whispered, "it's a handy little trick we used once back at the orphanage, when we made a map of the teachers' wing."

He pointed his wand at the map once more, and said,

"Omnis demonstratio."

Immediately, small dots began to move all over the map. Peter leaned in close and examined those in the first year dormitory of Gryffindor Tower. They were labelled 'James Potter', 'Remus Lupin', 'Peter Pettigrew' and 'Sirius Black'.

"This is brilliant," he said admiringly.

"May I?" said James, taking the quill and map from Sirius.

He thought for a moment, then bent low and wrote something along the top of the parchment. He leaned back at last, satisfied.

"The Marauder's Map," Sirius read out loud. "Excellent."

He took out his own wand and, waving it over the map as he had watched Remus do earlier, said,

"Mischief managed."

The parchment went blank.