Little happened during the time leading up to March. James continued playing matches with Marlene and Jethro, winning some and losing some. His mood nowadays always seemed to be dependent on the outcomes of Quidditch matches, so he was either caught in a fantastic mood, grinning and bouncing around like he was floating on a cloud; or a filthy mood where he'd go quiet and snap at anyone who talked to him. Remus hoped it was only temporary, and once the novelty of being on the Quidditch team wore off, he'd calm down a bit, and wouldn't feel like all Quidditch responsibilities fell onto his shoulders. Maybe then they could get some peace back.
Sirius was less reasonable about it though, which turned out to be quite helpful. After a particularly solemn day where they were all on edge around their friend, Sirius shoved James into an armchair in front of the Gryffindor fireplace and stood over him.
"Listen, Potter," he began, immediately sounding like a fed up parent. "It's shit that Gryffindor lost, but frankly you're not going to win every time, so get over it, because you're pissing me off."
"That's not fair, you know it's important to me—"
"Yeah we know, but bloody hell, get a new thing then! If your whole life is being dictated by Quidditch then you've got a problem!" James didn't have a retaliation, and while he sat fuming at the brief intervention, it did appear to eventually make him think first before taking his Quidditch grievances out on everyone around him. Only a bit, though. They were still a little on edge whenever Gryffindor lost a match.
That being said, James did have another thing to preoccupy his mind with: the map. He spent a lot of time pouring over it, asking Peter to draw more passages that he had remembered or discovered. His eyebrows were always knitted together and he scowled whenever he looked at it, thinking deeply and never satisfied with the finished product.
"It's good," he'd say. "But it's not good enough. It just... isn't useful enough."
"Well, what else do you want?" asked Sirius, sitting at one of the creaky desks in the abandoned classroom. That was another thing that had been preoccupying them. The secret room. James went there all the time to study the map without any risk of prying eyes, and they usually joined him. They hadn't exactly given it a makeover; all they'd done was move a few desks and chairs so they could sit down, dust them off, and bring a glass jar to keep a fire in for light.
"Remus, you said it would be useful if it could see when people were coming and going."
"Yeah, but that would need way advanced magic, wouldn't it?" James sighed and ran a hand through his hair, leaving it there as he thought.
"We'll search the library," he decided eventually. "That's not all, though... I'm worried about people finding it. I think it needs to be more hidden."
"What, find a hiding place for it?" asked Sirius.
"No I mean... a hiding place can be found. The map itself..." he trailed off and fell back into his head. He was getting quite worked up over it, so Remus walked over and tried to join in with working out something he didn't even know was being worked out.
"You mean you want the stuff on it to be hidden?"
"Yeah, something like that, but I wouldn't know how to do it." Remus sat back in his chair, arms crossed to his chest and biting his lip. Sirius, who was milling about the room, spoke up from the shadows.
"Well, what about that spell that Remus did to hide the book he gave me."
"The Alice in Wonderland book?" Remus asked, surprised that he'd forgotten all about it.
"Yeah, you know, how all the contents were erased until you said the password. Then it appeared again." James immediately brightened up.
"There's a spell for that?" He exclaimed. "It sounds perfect!"
YOU ARE READING
Boys Will Be Bugs
Fanfic[REUPLOAD] Remus Lupin has more than one secret, and there's no way of knowing who he can trust. All he has are his parents, but they can't protect him when he goes off to Hogwarts. But then Remus meets a boy and his two other friends, and soon real...
