Our Lovely Home_ Marauders Era Fanfic.

41. James turns 16

It was a collaborative work, James even liked to tell him that it was their life's work, that on that piece of paper they would leave their true legacy.

It sounded exaggerated, Remus, Sirius, and Peter, thought the same, but they would never tell their friend so as not to be inconsiderate to him.

The foursome invested, during that year, all their time; full sleepless nights just to prowl the corridors with the invisibility cloak and note the new passages they found. They drew the map, thanks to Peter's artistic skills, and then realized that it could be even more grandiose, if they could put the essence of a house being passing through the castle.

The idea was James', so without thinking too much about it, the three of them, at their friend's expense, set a deadline for the marauder's map to be ready; March 27, 1975, the day James would turn 16.

They managed to figure out how to hide the marauder's map from any intruder who wanted to reveal it without the correct phrase and, after Remus saved a book that the librarian was going to vote on because its pages were falling out of the spine, they were able to find a way for him to identify on his own if the person checking it was Snape.

The people think was very complicated magic, because not only did they want to identify people at that moment; they had to identify future generations of students or professors entering the castle and, that this, could be visible without being limited to a minimum distance.

Sirius and Remus read all the books with the word: "Locator" or "location" in them, Peter whose mother worked in the ministry, had the task of researching everything he could about the magic that the ministry used and that would serve them for the manufacture of the map, gathering a couple of interesting details.

"The spells we use are engraved on our wands," Peter said, "they have a record of who is a wizard from birth, like a registry. In Muggle-born children, there is always a doctor in the hospitals to verify if the child has magic or not."

"What if the child was born at home?" Sirius asked, setting his chocolate milk on the table.

"All people have to go through the registry office, where each person's family tree reveals if they had any wizard or squib ancestors, and if so, they mark them so that at some point they can prove they have magic" explained Peter, making a pronounced movement with his hands, "that's what happens with Muggle-borns, for example, who somehow manage to get into Hogwarts, when they only proved to be wizards once or once in a while."

Remus rose suddenly from his seat, with an inchoate idea.

"That's it! It's not going to be the quickest way to do it, but it's the only one I can think of" he muttered to himself, "though maybe...."

"Moony?"

"But if we cover a radius, that would be the most convenient..."

"Moony!" Sirius called, receiving a tired look from Lupin, "Explain yourself!"

"We can't put a chip in every person's head, but we can put a sort of "tracker" in each of the entrances to the school" Remus pointed out, taking a sheet of paper to draw his idea "an entrance in which the person who passes through that place, is definitively registered, and every step they make can be seen."

"Brilliant! And in the chimneys with flu dust, I could infiltrate as a rat!"

"Excellent! Well gentlemen we should get started; don't you think?"

『 °*- ღ -*°』

Gryffindor's birthdays always turned out to be the bomb, in fact, any event organized by the marauders was going to be the talk of the town for weeks to come.

Back then, no one knew who those marauders were who were in charge of pulling the best pranks of the century, but they did have the notion that they had to be from Gryffindor, because their main target was Slytherin, Hufflepuff's stood out for their kindness and in Ravenclaw they loved to follow the rules. The only problem was that no one knew which of the dozens of Gryffindor students, they might be.

When James turned 16, all the students in his year (minus the Slytherin students and a few Ravenclaw students) seemed to agree with the decision that the entire castle should be aware of James' birthday. They enchanted every nook and cranny, putting up garlands, balloons, and a gigantic banner, which covered the entire head of the teachers' table; featuring James, as he scored an incredible goal in his last Quidditch match.

At breakfast, lunch, and dinner, they sang "Happy Birthday" to James and in the evening, they decided to let in a few students from other houses to celebrate Potter's birthday. It was out of control; and one seventh year student had even brought a bunch of alcohol to get everyone drunk.

But before the party could begin, the boys embraced their friend, who looked at them in confusion. They pulled out the map and with excited eyes handed it to James.

"We finished it!" Sirius exclaimed, "Just point your wand and say, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good" and it will open." At the gesture, the map slowly revealed its secrets

"Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, present the Marauder's Map It's mind-blowing!" James pointed out, opening the parchment, seeing how all the students and teachers were moving around the castle, "They did it, it's moving!"

"It was Moony's idea" Sirius added, resting his arm on Remus's shoulders, "I still think you should have stayed in Ravenclaw."

"The hat debated whether to put me there or Gryffindor but felt that the marauders lacked someone with common sense."

James hugged each of his friends, on the verge of tears, and then pointed his own wand at the parchment:

"I'm going to guess I'm supposed to say, "Mischief Managed" No?"

The drawing began to fade, and his friends looked at the finished product, very proud of themselves.

"We must release it as soon as possible!" said James.

"First, there's a party waiting for you" replied Peter, being the last Gryffindor to enter the house "Happy Birthday!"

The whole house sang happy birthday again, James handed the map to Lupin for safekeeping, and they all enjoyed the endless festivities of James' party.

『 °*- ღ -*°』

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