The Bonds of Spirit are stronger than the Bonds of Blood

Chapter Twenty

Sirius was glad to see Remus looking much healthier the following day. The Marauders spent their day, as usual, primarily goofing off in class while Remus took notes for all of them. Peter egged on James and Sirius every time they began to joke. That's not to say the Sirius and James never took their studies seriously. On the contrary, they often excelled in all their classes. They learned new material very quickly, so even if they appeared to be ignoring everything that was taught they were really just storing away the knowledge for later. They saw class as an opportunity to have some fun, rather than sit back and listen to a professor drone on and on about theory or history. This tended to land them in detention more often than not, but they didn't mind. They used their detention time to plan out their next adventure or the next great prank. Today, despite the return of their trouble making antics, they managed to avoid getting a detention. This was incredibly fortunate, as they had planned to start work on their amazing map tonight. Peter had gathered extra stationary supplies, taking countless rolls of parchment and a plethora of ink bottles from class storage rooms, and had stashed them away in the Marauders' dorm room. This would take careful planning, and likely repeated attempts, but they were determined to create this magical map. To avoid suspicion, they played up their usual antics in the Common Room. They joked and pranked some of their housemates. They kept the Common Room properly lively, which kept everyone from asking what had happened to them the past few days. In fact, they seemed to have pulled off their act so well that everyone seemed to have forgotten the oddity of their behaviour. That is except for Lily. Sirius spoke with her briefly, promising to explain everything one day, but he once again asked her to promise to keep quiet and help them out in the future. Luckily she agreed. As soon as the Common Room was nearly cleared out, the quartet made their way up to their dorm to prepare. As they left, Sirius met Lily's gaze. She seemed concerned still, despite their earlier conversation. Sirius gave her a reassuring smile, his eyes seeming to say that all was well. Unable to stop herself, Lily grabbed his arm. Turning back to look at her, Sirius checked to make sure no one else was left in the Common Room before saying "Lily? What's wrong?" Lily took a deep breath and said "This, whatever it is you are doing, it's not too dangerous right?" Her eyes pleaded with him to tell the truth. Sirius gave her a gentle smile and said "I can't give you any details, but I promise it'll be alright. I'm sorry, I keep leaving you in the dark, but please just trust me." Lily looked at the sincerity in his eyes, then nodded and said "Alright, I trust you. But if anything goes wrong you'll have to answer to me!" She gave him a stern gaze, clearly telling him that she wouldn't allow him to come to any harm, even if he was the cause. Sirius knew she was serious, and was glad there was someone else who cared about his well being. He laughed and said "Thanks, Lil. See ya later!"

Once sealed safely in their dorm room, the quartet began their work for the evening. The boys quickly pulled their end tables and trunks into the centre of the room, forming a makeshift table and chairs. Peter brought out some of the parchment and ink, unrolling the parchment over their makeshift table. Remus lit a few candles, enchanting them to hover and manuvering them around the room to get the best lighting for their project. Once everything was set up, Peter was the first to speak. "So.... How are we supposed to make this map?" He asked, looking around at James, Sirius, and Remus. Sirius spoke up, saying "Well we'll need to enchant it. It'll need to be able to show all of Hogwarts and the grounds, but still be small enough to fit into our pockets. And it'll need some sort of safe guard..." James jumped in, saying "Yeah! Like a code word, or phrase, something that people wouldn't think of! Something that only the four of us would remember!" Remus spoke up next. "It'd need to be able to keep track of everyone at Hogwarts... It'd have to be able to know the names of everyone.... It'd need to be able to not only know all the names of those currently here, but be able to work out the names of anyone who steps foot on the grounds.... That will take some serious magic..." He trailed off as he tried to figure out how to make that possible. Peter spoke up again. "It'll need to know where the secret passages begin, and where they lead to." James, Sirius, and Remus nodded. That was one of the main reasons they were making this map. That and for the ability to keep track of everyone to avoid getting in trouble when sneaking off. Remus made notes of what exactly the map would need; making special notations of books that could prove helpful in performing such difficult magic. He smiled and said "Well for starters, we can enchant the parchment to hold a much larger map." He pulled out an ancient looking book of spells, quickly read over the charm he was looking for, focused his energy, and tapped the parchment. The parchment briefly glowed for a moment, a strange bluish white light, then appeared to double in size. He tapped it once more, and it shrank, folding back to its original size. The trio stared at him in shock. With an embarrassed smile he said "Variation of the extension charm, undetectable and very useful. I think I've cast it properly, but we won't know for sure until we actually start working on this map." Trading grins, the three said in unison "Brilliant Moony!" After a brief silence, Sirius spoke up once again, saying "We'll need to get the rest of the charms cast on this map soon enough if we want to be able to test it out, but that'll take some time. For now we should focus on mapping out the grounds and the castle itself."

With their plan decided, the quartet went to sleep for the evening. They had decided it would be best to work more the next day, considering how much work mapping out the entirety of the castle and the grounds would be. The next morning, after a groggy start, they began to work out a more solid plan. "We'll need to work out how to map this entire place. James, you and Remus take the castle for now. Take the invisibility cloak and map out however much you can. Peter, you and I are going to map out the grounds. We'll sneak off in our animagus forms and start mapping out what we can. We need exact measurements, so make sure you have a way to keep track!" Sirius said as the quartet prepared for bed that evening. "We'll rest up tonight. Starting tomorrow we will need to use every spare moment we can find to make this map." James and Remus high fived, before Remus settled down to catch some semblance of sleep before sun rise. James stashed away the invisibility cloak, hiding it in his bag so he could use it whenever he needed in the foreseeable future. Peter quickly gathered a few supplies of his own, a small jar of ink and a piece of parchment that he could use to help keep track of everything while in his animagus form. He then strapped them to a small leather band, about the size of a bracelet, and stashed it away in his bag. Sirius stashed the candles, careful to make sure they were completely out first, before finally settling down to try and sleep. Around him were the sounds of his friends deep in slumber. James snored obnoxiously, sounding akin to a... what was it Remus had called it? Ah, yes, a warthog! That's what it was! James' snoring sounding like a warthog speaking! He laughed silently at this comparison. Remus, in the bed beside him, slept silently; the faint sound of breathing the only indicator that there was actually someone there. Then there was Peter, who snored like a rat, with little hints of high pitched almost squeak-like sounds escaping his lips every time he exhaled. Sirius found himself unable to fall asleep. So much had happened this year, and it was already nearly over. Just a few short months remained and then he would be trapped in that horrible house for months. He dreaded the last day of term, but if he was lucky, he could end up spending the summer with James. And at least he could keep in touch with Lily. He'd have to make sure to send her letters whenever he could. Despite the fact that they had never really spoken before this year, they had grown closer than he could have ever imagined. He knew better than most that you can make your own family through friends, and as far as he was concerned she was the sister he never had. As sleep finally shrouded his mind in a fog of peace, he smiled as he thought on his newly forged family; Remus, James, Peter, and now Lily. They were the best family he could ever hope for. Now all he needed to do was take the time to plan the escape to James' house. His last conscious thought was of the possibility of hiding in James' trunk at the end of the train ride, only to surprise James' parents when they arrived back at his house.

, sleeping untih*e?