The Marauder’s Map
Over the next few days Sirius watched his brother’s every step carefully. Where once Sirius had made it his business to avoid Regulus at all costs, now he went out of his way to tail the Slytherin. As of yet, Sirius had not found out anything to his advantage. Regulus followed all his normal routines. He went to class, went to Quidditch practise, and he occasionally tutored a younger Slytherin girl in Transfiguration. He did nothing to suggest that he was taking part in Dark dealings, nothing to suggest he was furthering what he and Snape had discussed that day by the lake. But Sirius’s unease was not settled by this. Regulus was going under the radar, he had to be. He was waiting until he was out of school to start doing whatever he and Snape had been discussing. Besides, the fifth year had his OWL exams coming up; he couldn’t devote all of his time being a worthless Dark wizard.
Meanwhile, James, Remus and Peter did their best to keep Sirius’s mind off of his little brother. They knew it was unhealthy for Sirius to dwell on something for too long. This usually resulted in him hexing someone into oblivion or driving himself up several dozen walls. Either of these results usually landed Sirius in detention for a good three weeks. James repeatedly dragged Sirius out to the Quidditch Pitch so Sirius could fly around on the school brooms. Peter was constantly asking for help on his homework assignments, knowing that, despite Sirius’s overall dislike of schoolwork, he would offer his help. Remus entertained Sirius’s many ideas of physically harming Professor Finely, knowing that Sirius would never actually execute them, but that he liked talking about them.
Eventually, Sirius was able to put the conversation he had overheard behind him, or at least pushed it out of his mind for a few hours at a time. There was no use in him forever going through it. He never came out with any other explanation except that his brother was a fool for listening to Snape. So, he left those thoughts behind. This was good enough for his friends; at least it prevented Sirius from taking his anger out on Regulus. They did not feel like having to be witnesses and offer up what they saw to any authority figures, or scrape Regulus’s remains off the walls.
“Merlin, how the bloody hell am I supposed to tell time with this thing?” James lamented one morning late in March. He was staring down at his new gold watch his parents had sent him for his seventeenth birthday. It was a beautiful watch, he couldn’t deny that, but it was utterly useless for telling time, unless he knew which planets meant which hour.
Sirius and Peter, who were busy trying to complete Professor Finely’s two foot essay on the Cruciatus Curse, looked up and shook their heads. They didn’t know how to read a watch like that, seeing as neither of them owned one.
“Remus!” James said when he noticed the portrait hole swing open. Remus had been out patrolling and did not look happy. He raised an eyebrow at James, letting him know that he was listening. “How do you tell time with this thing?”
Remus had gotten the very same watch from his own parents two weeks ago when he had come of age. It was tradition in the Wizarding World for every wizard to be given a watch with planets instead of numbers on it. Remus’s watch was slightly careworn, whereas James’s was brand new. Remus glanced down at his own wristband and shrugged. He hadn’t been able to figure that out either.
“What’s your problem?” Sirius asked, throwing his quill down in defeat. He would finish the essay in the morning. He didn’t care about the Cruciatus Curse anyway, unless someone was threatening him with it. At the moment, no one was, so he didn’t care.
“D’you know what it’s like having to patrol when every single couple in the school seems to have decided that tonight is the perfect night for snogging?” Remus snapped, pulling his book bag off his shoulder and dropping it unceremoniously on the table. He had his own homework to do.
Sirius laughed and looked away, his eyes falling on Peter’s essay. He pretended to be enthralled with Peter’s work. “No… no, I don’t, Moony.”
Remus narrowed his eyes at his friend, suggesting he knew something James and Peter didn’t. “Why don’t you tell Prongs and Wormtail what you were doing when you disappeared earlier this evening?”
Sirius’s cheeks tinged red for the quickest of moments before he turned his head down again and mumbled some incoherent nonsense under his breath.
James and Peter would not be deterred by Sirius’s quiet ramblings. The two exchanged interested looks and rounded on Sirius. “Yeah, Sirius,” James began, his voice dripping with curiosity. “What were you doing?”
“You were gone for a while,” Peter added thoughtfully. Sirius had said that he was going to the kitchens to get something to eat, yet he hadn’t come back with food. His excuse was that he had eaten it all on the way. While this wouldn’t be surprising, it was still suspicious.
“Why don’t you tell them, Moony, since you were so kind to bring it up?” Sirius snarled, throwing Remus a nasty look.
Whatever Remus was going to say died in his throat when he got a look at the withering stare Sirius sent him. Instead, he mumbled something to himself and pulled out the large, folded sheath of parchment that was their map out. They had almost completed it; there were still some parts of the castle they were sure they had not charted. Remus also had to put the appropriate charms on it.
James, on the other hand, would not have his curiosity pushed to the side and continued to press the matter. “Were you with a pretty lady, Padfoot?”
Sirius closed his eyes for a moment, before swiveling them to James. He knew his friend would not drop this easily. “Until this git came in and told me to get back to the common room.” He jerked an angry finger at Remus.
“It was past curfew,” Remus shot back defensively. He had every right to send Sirius back to the common room. He may have hated it, but he was a Prefect. “You’re lucky that’s all I told you to do.”
Sirius grinned challengingly, elbowing Remus in the ribs. “And what else would you have done? Given me lines? Sick Evans on me?”
“What about me?” Lily had just entered the common room, looking absolutely exhausted. Her hair looked as though she had pulled at it in frustration several times and there were the remnants of anger fizzling away in her eyes. She was not in a particularly cheerful mood. She had had to patrol with Severus Snape that night. At one time this would have made her happy, now she dreaded it. She wished she had gotten to patrol with Remus as she usually did, but he was patrolling with Jensen Patil, one of the Ravenclaw Prefects. Patil was much more lenient about punishments than Lily was.
“Nothing, Lily,” James said quietly, scrawling down an answer to his Charms homework. “Sirius was just being Sirius.”
Lily raised her eyebrows questioningly, but said nothing else. Her eyes drifted towards the map that Remus was studying. When Remus saw this, he hastened to cover it up. The last thing they needed was for Lily Evans to discover they had been constructing a map of the castle. Mostly importantly, it was a map that would allow them to sneak about the castle. Who knew what she would do with this information? Instead of continuing on what the boys were talking about, Lily’s eyes rested on James, who felt her gaze and looked up questioningly.
“Yes, Lily?” he asked curiously, wondering what in Merlin’s name he could have done now. He had been exceptionally well-behaved lately - by his standards, anyway. He had only ended up in detention twice in the past two weeks. She couldn’t possibly have been watching him because he had done something wrong.
“No Quidditch practise tonight?” she asked, the amazement clear in her voice. The match was two days away and James had had his team practising every night for the past week and a half. A time when the Gryffindors were not seen flying through the air definitely qualified as a miracle.
James shook his head sadly. “Sammy Acres has got a bad cold and we can’t play without him, but he’ll be back tomorrow.” James hoped he would be anyway, they couldn’t play without one of their Beaters and the match was too close to halt practises a moment longer.
The corners of Lily’s mouth turned down at the thought of the fourth year Beater being sick. It would certainly hurt Gryffindor’s chances. “Happy belated birthday, James,” she then said, nodding at the gold wristband on his wrist.
James could not stop his eyes from growing wide in mild surprise, but he pushed the smile onto his face with much ease. She had never before wished him a happy birthday. Well, not since first year when they had actually gotten along. He couldn’t deny that he was shocked by this, but extraordinarily pleased about it. “Thanks,” he said genuinely.
A small smile crossed Lily’s lips. “No problem,” she told him before joining Alice Gordon, who was waiting at the bottom of the stairs, and went up to the dormitory.
James watched her go with a bit of a dazed look in his eyes, something that Sirius was only too quick to point out. “Stuff it, Padfoot,” James snapped, waving a fist in Sirius’s general direction.
“We’ve lost him to Lily, I’m afraid,” Sirius continued, shaking his head sadly ignoring James completely.
“You’re just trying to get the attention off of yourself,” James accused, snapping out of his daze. “I haven’t forgotten what we were talking about before Lily walked in.”
Sirius groaned angrily and rounded on Remus, who still appeared to be intent on the map. “You had to bring that up, didn’t you?”
Remus shrugged and looked up, grinning mischievously. “You should’ve given me something to keep my mouth shut.”
“So it’s bribery? Is that what our friendship has come to?”
Remus noticed the joking tone in Sirius’s voice and nodded wholeheartedly. When he spoke, he made it sound as if he was pointing out the most obvious fact in the world. “Naturally, Padfoot. Did you think I was friends with you because I liked you?”
“I always knew you had an ulterior motive.”
“How’s the map coming, Moony?” Peter asked suddenly, gesturing towards the parchment spread across his friend. If he didn’t stop those two soon, Remus and Sirius would be going at it for a good twenty minutes. He didn’t feel like listening to them.
“Almost done, I’d say,” Remus deduced excitedly. He scanned through the thick folds of the parchment, looking at the different locations they had charted. They had certainly covered a lot of ground throughout the year, almost the entire castle, and he was certain they were only missing a few things. They had two of the common rooms “ Gryffindor obviously, and they knew the Slytherin common room was in the dungeons somewhere, under the lake if they weren’t mistaken. They had to draw the Slytherin common room first. The only things they were missing were the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff common rooms.
“What are we missing?” Peter asked anxiously. He didn’t like to think that they had gone through all this work to be missing part of it.
“Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, we don’t know where their common rooms are.”
James rubbed his chin thoughtfully. It was true that they didn’t know where those commons room were, but he wondered if they really needed to know. “Maybe we should just leave them out,” he suggested slowly.
“Leave them out?” Sirius repeated uncertainly. Was James losing hope in this map they had created?
“Yeah, we don’t really need to have them on the map, do we?” James reasoned. “We have nothing against them; we don’t really need to know where they live when they’re not in class.” He wasn’t planning on pranking any unsuspecting Ravenclaws or Hufflepuffs and he was sure he friends weren’t either.
“But we were going to put the Slytherin common room in. Are you saying we should leave them out too?” Sirius asked, outraged. He couldn’t possibly pass up the chance to have unlimited knowledge of the Slytherin common room.
James laughed. “Of course not! We’re putting them in. Imagine, knowing where Snivelly is at all times? He’d never have another quiet moment.”
While James and Sirius dreamed up different ways in which they could torment Snape, Remus peered down at the extensive map they had drawn up. It was something, really. It was amazing that they had managed to put most of the castle down. There were some things, however, that wouldn’t stay on the map. The Room of Requirement, for instance, absolutely refused to stay on the map. Sirius was the one who tried drawing it and every time he did, it vanished. The four decided that maybe this particular room was never meant to be mapped and left it alone. Besides, half the fun of that room was the surprise when the door suddenly appeared amongst the stone wall.
Sirius was also staring at the map, deep in thought. It was a brilliant creation of theirs, even if the idea had come from a stupid joke he had made. But there was something missing. As astounding as this map was, it was also dangerous. They had the locations of every student in the castle and if this map fell into the wrong hands, those people would be at the mercy of some loony. They couldn’t do that to the students they had nothing against. This was also incredibly incriminating “ to the four of them. If anyone, especially the professors, found them with this map, they would be in detention for the rest of their lives, even after they graduated.
They needed a way to mask the map, make it look like it was just a spare bit of parchment.
“What do you three say to hiding what this is?” Sirius asked, pulling the wand out from under Remus’s arms. He examined the thing, admiring it as if it was his own child.
“How do you mean?” Peter asked confusedly.
“I mean… we need to Charm this so no one can see it when we don’t want them to.”
“A Revealing Spell, you mean?” Remus asked, sitting up straighter.
“If that’s what it’s called, then yes.”
“How do we do that?” Peter asked, looking from Sirius to Remus, hoping one of them had some idea.
“It’s simple enough, you just cast the spell,” Remus began to explain. “And, if we choose, we can have a special phrase or something to say when we want to activate the map.”
“Like ‘All Slytherins are prats’?” James suggested eagerly.
“Yeah… or something not nearly as insulting.”
“Open sesame?” Peter suggested jokingly. He frowned when James and Sirius rolled their eyes at him. “Okay, then, what do you suggest?” he asked heatedly.
“Merlin, calm down, Wormtail,” Sirius said, waving a hand at the boy. “No need to get your knickers in a bunch. Anyway…what if we do something like ‘I’m up to no good’? That’s partly the reason we made this map, isn’t it?”
“That’s entirely the reason we made this map, Padfoot,” James pointed out. James considered the suggestion. It was good, but it could be better. After a moment, his lips split into a grin. “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”
“That’s good to hear,” Sirius remarked distractedly, observing the map with a thoughtful look on his face.
“No, you git. That’s what we should use to open the map.”
“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good?” Sirius repeated, his eyebrows knitted together as he watched James for confirmation.
“Well, why not? We are using the thing because we’re up to no good.”
“Can’t argue there,” Peter said to Sirius.
“Okay, so we just say that and the map will appear?” Sirius asked Remus, who nodded.
“All we have to do is perform the spell and it should work.” Remus pulled the map away from Sirius and studied it. “But this spell works both ways. If we have to say something to reveal the map, we need to say something to hide it.”
Peter and Sirius rounded on James, who leaned back and held his hands up. “Hey, I came up with the opening; you guys do some work now.”
“How about: We’re done,” Sirius suggested sardonically.
“Gee, Padfoot, that must have really taken you a long time to think up. How do you do it?”
“Can we be serious for a moment, please?” Remus asked irritably. “Or else I’m telling these two exactly who I saw you snogging, Sirius.”
Sirius’s mouth dropped open in exaggerated horror. “Moony, you wouldn’t!”
“Oh, wouldn’t I?”
“Go ahead, tell them. I don’t care, really.”
“Alright, then. Sirius was-”
“Mischief managed!”
“What?” Peter, Remus and James asked.
“Think about it: We’re up to no good with this map and being up to no good is the same thing as mischief and-”
“Aww, Sirius can define words!” James cried sentimentally, earning a sharp glare from Sirius.
“So, mischief managed would be a good way to close the map down, wouldn’t it?”
James, Remus and Peter looked at each other, silently debating Sirius’s suggestion. It wasn’t a bad suggestion at all, it really wasn’t. Besides, the three boys had no other phrases to close the map with. “Mischief Managed” it was then. Remus picked up his wand and was about to perform the spell when Sirius cut in.
“Wait a moment!”
“What?”
“The map needs some sort of greeting.”
Remus raised an uncertain eyebrow. “A greeting?” he repeated, a smile threatening his lips.
“Yeah, when we open it, it should say something!”
James chuckled and smiled crookedly. “Greetings brethren, how are you this fine evening?”
Sirius gave James a warning look, which instantly made James stop speaking. Instead of saying anything else, Sirius snatched the map out from under Remus’s arms again and dipped his quill in the inkbottle. Without another word to any of his friends, he began writing. For a long moment there was only the sound of the scratching of Sirius’s quill while the others waited to see what he had come up with.
When Sirius was finished, he looked up proudly and pushed the map to the centre of the table so his friends could see.
The corners of James’s mouth turned up as he read out loud. “‘Messers Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, purveyors of aids to magical mischief-makers, are proud to present the Marauder’s Map’.” James stared at the header of the page with great amusement. “I didn’t know you knew such big words, Padfoot. And how come Remus gets to go first?”
“I kind of like it that way,” Remus commented smugly.
“Because it sounds good that way,” Sirius said defensively. “Prongs, Padfoot, Wormtail and Moony doesn’t sound nearly as good.”
“He has a point, Prongs,” Peter admitted.
“Marauder’s Map, though?” Remus asked, pointing at the title with the feather of his quill. “Where’d you come up with that?”
“You don’t remember the day we even got the idea to make the map?” Remus shook his head. He remembered the day, but he didn’t remember the exact conversation they’d all had. “You said we didn’t need anything else to help us with our marauding habits.”
“Did I?”
“Yes, and that’s where Marauder’s Map comes from.”
Remus sighed, smirking slightly. “Well, I feel I’ve served my life’s purpose then. I’ll just take this and fix the Charms together, shall I?” Remus took the map from Sirius and went up to the dormitory where his textbooks and library books were so he could work out the rest of the Charms.
When Remus had fully gone up the stairs and was out of sight, James rounded on Sirius, an expectant look in his eyes. “So, was Moony lying or did he really find you snogging some girl?”
“Well, he didn’t find me snogging some boy,” Sirius growled, getting tired of this topic and cursing Remus for bringing it up in the first place.
“And what was this lady’s name?” Peter inquired interestedly.
Sirius looked between Peter and James, wondering why they took such pleasure in mocking him, though knowing at the same time they wouldn’t drop it unless he gave them answers. “She’s a Ravenclaw,” he said simply, turning his attention to a long crack in the wood on the table.
“Well, that answers all our questions,” James said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. “Is she in our year?”
“Possibly.”
“What’s her name, Sirius?”
“Why are you two having so much fun with this?” Sirius snapped.
“What’s the matter with you?” James asked, surprised with his friend’s outburst. They had only been playing, having some fun. “Why don’t you tell us?”
“You two will just make fun of me,” Sirius grudgingly admitted.
“No, we won’t!” Peter assured him hastily.
“What? Is she hideous?” James asked, doubting that was the case. “Who the bloody hell is she?”
“Emily Fort.”
James and Peter glanced at each other once before falling silent, wondering about where they had seen this girl before. She had been in a few of their classes before, they knew this. However, they had never really given her a second glance before. James recalled her having reddish brown hair with brown eyes and being quite on the short side. “She’s pretty,” he finally said.
“Good, can we stop talking about my private life now?” Sirius begged.
James laughed loudly. “Sirius, you’re friends with us, you have no private life.”
Sirius glared at James for a second before turning his attention to the crackling flames in the fireplace. James had a fair point; with those three as his friends he would be lucky to ever have a moment to himself. When Remus and Patil had walked in, it was all Sirius had to do to keep himself from hexing Remus into oblivion for wrecking one of the few moments he had alone with a girl. Luckily, Remus knew better than to become authoritative and just asked them both to go back to their common rooms.
Luckily, Emily was the other Ravenclaw Prefect, and so he could not get into too much trouble. He could always say he was in the company of a Prefect.
Speaking of Remus… After nearly a half hour in the dormitory, Remus came hurrying excitedly down the spiral staircase and stopped just short of falling over the table. “Merlin, Moony, did a Billywig hide in your pants?” Sirius joked.
“Stuff it, Padfoot,” Remus said shortly before stuffing the blank sheet of parchment that was their map into his hands. “Go on! Say that phrase you came up with before!”
Sirius couldn’t help but let the enthusiasm Remus was exuding affect him and he instantly sat up straighter, turning so Peter and James could see. Clearing his throat, he loudly and clearly said, “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”
Almost at once, black ink began spreading out like cobwebs across the page, forming words and rooms and even tiny figures that represented the people still walking about the castle. The header Sirius had written earlier appeared at the top of the page. “Sweet Merlin,” Sirius breathed. “We’ve done it!” He set the map down on the page and the four boys leaned forward to get a better look. “Is that really Peeves?”
“Yes it is,” Remus confirmed happily. “Bouncing around the trophy room, I think?”
“That’s where he is,” Peter said, awestricken, pointing to the trophy room.
“Wait, it gets even better.” Remus pulled up the map and cleared it. “If someone we who doesn’t know the password tries to open the map, it does something…”
“Like what?”
“Insults them, and pretty badly too, actually.”
James, Sirius and Peter all broke into laughs. “Are you serious?” James asked through his chuckles.
Remus was confused by their laughter. “I thought it seemed like a good idea…”
“It is!” James assured him hurriedly. “How does it do it?”
“Err… if the person says their name, it’ll personalize the insults. If not, it’s just a generalized insult. One for each of us.”
“You mean each one of us has our own insult for it?”
“Basically, yes.”
James couldn’t keep the grin on his face from spreading. “This is the greatest invention ever.”