The Bonds of Spirit are stronger than the Bonds of Blood

Chapter Thirty One

The following night, James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter snuck out of Gryffindor Tower to, hopefully, finish mapping out the castle. All that remained to be mapped were the Sixth and Seventh Floors. With all four of the Marauders able to work together at once, it seemed likely that they would be able to finish the mapping process tonight. Assuming nothing happened to derail their operation, of course. They knew what they were doing was likely going to get them caught, especially since it was the middle of the night and there was generally at least one patrol to avoid. But it was well worth the risk if it meant completing this map and helping Remus. After leaving the Common Room, James concealed by a disillusionment charm cast once more by Remus, Peter scampering after the trio in his animagus form, and Sirius and Remus under the invisibility cloak, the four made their way down the staircase to the Sixth Floor. James spoke up from somewhere around Sirius' left shoulder, saying "Alright, time to split up! Peter, head to the right here and start counting!" The rat gave an affirmative squeak and started down the hall, counting out the human sized steps while the disillusioned James followed behind and mapped out the area on a scrap piece of paper. Sirius and Remus nodded to each other and headed in the opposite direction. Sirius counted out steps while Remus marked the map, carefully leaving space for the piece that James and Peter were mapping out. James and Peter were covering the Sixth Floor Corridor, the Boy's Lavatory, the Disused Bathroom, the Glanmore Peakes' Corridor, the East Wing, and the Writing Supplies Room. Sirius and Remus started with the Study of Ancient Runes Classroom. It was fairly small, so the duo finished this area quickly. Next up was an empty office that had been used by the former professor, Professor Merrythought. Now though, it remained entirely empty which made it less of a risk to map out. Next was the Room of Rewards. It had a secret entrance, the room itself being one of the secret rooms the Maruaders had found in their second year at Hogwarts. Remus carefully jotted down the entrances the location, behind the portrait of Vindictus Viridian on the Grand Staircase, as they entered the room. Sirius looked over all the awards for achievements from students both past and present. He was surprised this room was hidden. Perhaps it was to prevent jealous students from destroying the records left here. After receiving the signal from Remus, who had stopped to double check he had mapped the room correctly, the duo set off for their next destination. Climbing back up the stairs, they continued on to Classroom 6B. Like the classroom for the Study of Ancient Runes, this classroom was rather small. It had little in it, a blackboard, a globe, and nine desks. This room was quickly mapped out, then it was on to the Storeroom. The storeroom was boring, holding no hidden secrets or lost items. Once again it was mapped out very swiftly. Then there was a small Empty Classroom. It was no larger than Classroom 6B and had even less in it. It seemed to be used more as a storage space for unused desks as opposed to a proper classroom. The mapping done, Sirius and Remus then moved on to their last destination for this floor, the West Tower Battlements. On their way, they had to quickly dodge Mrs. Norris. She appeared to be patrolling for Filch, but some scraps dropped near the staircase seemed enough to appease her. When Sirius and Remus finished mapping out the West Tower Battlements, they stepped out to find her heading down the stairs happily.

Meeting back up with James and Peter at the staircase, Sirius and Remus led the way up to the Seventh Floor. Separating once more, it was time to map out the last part of the castle. James and Peter went left to map out the Hall of Hexes, the Fat Lady's Corridor, the North Wing, the Disused Bathroom, and the Divination Classroom. Heading the opposite direction, Sirius and Remus started by mapping out Professor Flitwick's Office. It was officially the office for whoever was Ravenclaw Head of House at any given point, but Professor Flitwick had been the Head of House for long enough that students could not imagine anyone else having that office. Sirius counted out the distances for Remus, making note of the entrance to Flitwicks sleeping quarters. Overall the office was a nice one, but it was thankfully relatively small. Unlike some of the classrooms, this office was a decent size but felt smaller due to the clutter of books stacked up to the ceiling all around the room. Next they went to the Arithmancy Classroom. This room was much larger, holding a blackboard, large rows of tables, and many number charts. It was obviously a large room, but the clutter of charts and the large rows of tables left the room feeling simultaneously massive and tiny. Sirius silently looked over the charts as Remus reviewed the map. Arithmancy was a curious subject, but Sirius was not particularly interested in it. At least, not as a whole. The Number Charts were very interesting, as Sirius looked them over trying to figure out how they worked. At Remus' signal, he turned his attention back to the task at hand. Sneaking out of the classroom, they headed next door to Classroom 7B. A simple classroom, with nothing significant to note, it made for quick map work. Once that was done, the duo moved on to Classroom 7C. Once again, they found a simple classroom with nothing to mark what subject was taught here. It could have been some sort of storage unit for all Sirius knew about it. Next was the Ravenclaw Tower. Breaking in to map out the entirety of the tower would be troublesome, so instead Sirius paced the length of the door and its relation to the nearby spiral staircase. After Remus marked it down, they moved on to the Seventh Floor Corridor. Remus made note of each staircase in the area. There was the one they used to get from the Sixth Floor to the Seventh Floor. Then there was the staircase that led all the way to the dungeons. The Marauders had found this particular staircase during their first year, after a particularly boring day off from classes. Their work complete, Sirius and Remus returned to the Boy's Dorm back in Gryffindor Tower. On the way, they had to dodge Filch, who appeared to be doing yet another round of patrols despite the fact that the sun would be rising in just a few short hours. Luckily Filch was not as perceptive as his cat, so the invisibility cloak was enough to protect Sirius and Remus from his discerning eye. Once they made it back into the dorm room, the duo sat on their respective beds and anxiously awaited the return of their friends. Each second felt like an hour, every minute like a century. Remus paced the room, muttering about how much trouble they would all be in if James and Peter had been caught. Especially if Peter had been caught! He had been in his animagus form after all. Peter, James, and Sirius were all unregistered animagi, and that would get them in serious trouble if they were to be found out by anyone.

Finally, an eternity of ten minutes later, Peter and James entered through the dorm room door looking utterly exhausted. James spoke while Peter face planted onto his bed. "Sorry we're late. Had to dodge Filch and Mrs. Norris. Nearly got caught. But here!" He handed over the papers he had been clutching, bearing the areas he had mapped out that night. Remus took them and carefully transcribed them onto the actual map. The process was slow, but it had to be. Even the smallest mistake and the map would be effectively useless. James and Peter rested while Remus worked. Sirius sat back and lost himself in his thoughts. He couldn't believe they had actually mapped out the entirety of Hogwarts! They managed to mark down each of the secret rooms and passageways they had found in the past three years. Sure, there may still be secrets that the castle held, like the strange room they had noticed on the Seventh Floor that refused to be added to their map no matter how many times they tried, but they had mapped all that they knew. This plan had seemed entirely mad when they had first come up with it. Even Sirius had had his doubts about the outcome. He would have still tried regardless of the outcome, but that did nothing to stop the doubts that what they were doing was utterly bonkers. But, slowly, they had managed to map out small sections of the castle. With determination, they completed the entirety of the actual mapping process in just one full year. Sure they had had to break for summer, but they spent the second half of their third year mapping out the lower levels of the castle and mapping out the grounds surrounding it. Then, with this year now half over, they had managed to finish mapping the upper levels and all the secret areas they could locate within the castle. The quartet had pulled off something that was genuinely the most difficult undertaking they had ever attempted! Even more difficult than their time spent trying to become animagi! Sure that had been terribly difficult, but at least they knew that was possible. Animagi exist, but a map like this had never even been attempted before! At least, not as far as the four of them had heard. If they could pull off this ultimate feat, actually enchanting the map to do as they wished, they will have done something even the fearless Marauders considered impossible! Remus finished the last touches and said "Alright, it's all in the map now. All that remains is the enchantments." He pulled out some ancient looking books he had borrowed from the library back when he was still researching spells. Looking over the carefully bookmarked pages, he pulled out his wand and concentrated. A light blue-green coloured light began to emerge from his wand. It illuminated the map momentarily, before fading away. The map seemed to shimmer, as if it was alive, but Remus was not finished yet. He read over the next spell, concentrated, and unleashed a bright golden light. This time, foot prints appeared on the map. Each one seemed to populate a different area. But it was unclear why the foot prints were where they were. Remus took out the third book, focused on the spell, and unleashed a dark blue light. When it faded from the map, each pair of foot prints had a name attached to it. The next spell unleashed a bright red light, and the one after unleashed a greenish grey light. Finally, he tapped his wand to the map and said "We'll need some passwords for this. What do you want them to be?" James thought about it for a while, trying to come up with something clever. "Well, how about something with a solemn swear? And something about getting up to pranking?" Sirius perked up and said "What about: I solemnly swear that I am up to no good?" The other three thought on it, smiles growing on their faces, before they said in unison "Perfect!" Remus grinned, tapped the map and said the phrase. His wand continued to glow. "Alright, and the password to hide the map?" James and Sirius seemed to share a mind as they grinned and said in unison "Mischief Managed!" Once more Remus tapped the map and said the phrase. Giving it a second tap, the map folded itself up and appeared to be blank parchment. Utterly exhausted, the Marauders went to sleep for the night, amazed that their plan had actually worked.