The Bonds of Spirit are stronger than the Bonds of Blood

Chapter Thirty Two

The next day, the Marauders groggily made their way down the many, many stairs to breakfast. All their work had actually paid off, as it appeared their map was working the way they hoped it would. At least it had been when they checked late last night after adding the final enchantment. Sirius was still amazed they had managed to pull it off. He never doubted that Remus would be able to find the right spells and cast them properly, he always seemed to have a knack for that sort of magic, but he could not believe that they had managed to actually map out the entirety of the castle before the end of their time at Hogwarts. He thought it would take them clear up to their graduation day to actually map out every corner of the castle they could find, but they had managed to complete their map in just one year! One rather long year, but it had only taken one full year nonetheless. It had been an eventful year, with the constant dodging of patrols. Several times each of the Marauders almost got caught. Peter often had to out run Mrs. Norris who enjoyed chasing him every time he was in his animagus form. James nearly crashed into Filch on his patrols back when they were first starting to map out the castle. Sirius found himself, in his animagus form, dodging several Prefects and even the Head Boy once! They chased him through the corridors, noticing the lone dog wandering about. They missed the rat clinging to his fur, seeing only the shaggy dog that appeared to have gotten loose. He managed to lose them by ducking into a lesser known corridor and swiftly hiding in a secret room. Having explored the castle before, it was easy enough for each of the Marauders to avoid getting caught by whoever was patrolling the area they were trying to map at the time. They had to survive classes on very little sleep over the past year due to their mapping. Late in the night, when everyone else was sleeping, was the only time they could actually map without attracting attention. Sure, it nearly got them in trouble countless times, but it was all worth it in the end. Finally their map was complete and they could see if their enchantments worked. James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter gave nods of acknowledgement as other students wished them good morning. Too exhausted to do much more, the quartet sat at their usual places at the Gryffindor Table and eagerly ate breakfast. Peter nearly fell asleep in his food, clearly exhausted after the previous night's adventure. He had had it the worst of the four, having to run around as a rat all night. Remus looked just as exhausted, though in his case it was from the particularly difficult spells he had been casting. Tonight they would try out the map properly, just make sure it worked the way they wanted it to. If this worked, then they could be more effective pranksters and escape on the day of the full moon without too much hassle. This map would help their remaining school days to go on without too much trouble. Well they would still likely get detentions, as James and Sirius were prone to do, but it would be easy enough to avoid serious trouble. This could probably help keep Remus from worrying about the others. James and Sirius got in trouble quite a bit, but Remus always worried that the next time it would be something much more serious than a simple detention.

The day's classes went by in a slow drone. James, Remus, Sirius, and Peter moved from room to room in a bit of a daze. Remus, though exhausted, still managed to take excellent notes, which the others would copy down later. Peter managed to stay awake in every class, aside from History of Magic but really no body could stay awake for the entirety of any lecture given by Professor Binns. James spent every class doodling and trying to flirt with Lily, while Sirius spent his time half listening to the lecture and half day dreaming about living with James and his parents on a permanent basis. He imagined all that they would do together. They already spent every holiday together, aside from parts of summer if Sirius' parents decided they wanted to try to change him into their ideal son. They did this far too often. They would decide, out of the blue, that they were tired of trying to ignore Sirius and his rebellion. They would try to force him to return to their puppet, just some mindless drone that would do their bidding without a second thought. So far they were succeeding with Regulus, but their real success would be if they could manage to trap Sirius in their web as well. Their goal seemed to be to trap everyone in the family in their mindset and keep them trapped in the hate and pain that seemed to surround the supposedly illustrious House of Black. So many members of their family went insane or became mindless puppets, all because they had been forced to see the world from the very narrow view of the family. They put constant pressure on their children to be just like them that it created a vicious cycle. Those who rebelled, like Sirius, found themselves shunned by the family. And yet, perhaps since he was still young, the family tried to real him back in and turn him into the person they wanted him to be. The person they believed would represent the Black family properly, like they were training his brother to be. Sirius shook his head, trying to forget about his family. Sure he cared for some of them, but most of them were too absorbed with upholding the supposed family values that they did not care who got caught in the cross fire. Sirius' favourite family members were all people who had gotten taken off of the family tapestry for one reason or another. Some were taken off for interacting with muggles, and not attacking them. Some were taken off for being born squibs. Some got taken off because they chose to follow their own path regardless of what the family wished. Sirius was amazed he was still on the tapestry at all with how he constantly rebelled against the family. He swore that he would never be like them, yet he could not help but worry that they were affecting him. He and James lashed out against Severus Snape, sometimes out of sheer boredom, after James and Severus had begun a feud. Sirius was not sure what had actually happened between James and Severus, but he would not stop supporting his friend. He regretted their actions, often wondering if they were taking things too far, but James seemed content so Sirius decided not to bring the matter up.

Lily sat in class, daydreaming. She had been losing sleep over the past few months. She did not understand why she could not sleep, but there was a feeling of dread that constantly washed over her when she thought about it. Perhaps she felt this way because of her nightmares. Or maybe it was because Sirius could not seem to tell her the truth of what he, James, Remus, and Peter were up to. She was worried about them, but they were currently still alive and well, so she shoved the worry to the back of her mind. Though, they had been looking utterly exhausted the past few months. She wondered what they had been doing to make them look like the living dead, walking around the castle not really noticing everything going on around them. At least that was how it seemed to Lily. She had watched as they nearly fell asleep while eating during breakfast that morning. They were practically dead on their feet. Then, all throughout the first class, they had nearly fallen asleep once more. Though, Remus had managed to continue with his diligent note taking. Lily was amazed he managed to stay awake and actively take notes when he was clearly in dire need of a proper night's sleep. She scoffed at herself. She was one to talk about needing proper sleep. It had been far too long since she had slept through the night, and yet here she was thinking about telling others to stop what they were doing and sleep. She decided she would try to get a sleeping potion today. Maybe that would help calm her mind enough to let her rest properly. She thought all about what could be the cause of her sleepless nights on the way to the next class, Potions. As luck would have it, they were brewing sleeping potions today. Lily mentally cheered and made a mental note to save some in the extra phial she had brought. Today they had potions with the Slytherins, so Lily teamed up with Severus while Alice and Lydia decided to work together. She enjoyed working with Severus. He had always been kind to her, ever since the day they met. Plus he was very clever when it came to Potions. The two of them always managed to complete their potions properly, and even with some time to spare! While Severus took up the phial of their completed potion to Professor Slughorn, Lily carefully filled her spare phial with the mixture, placed the stopper at the top, and carefully placed it in her bag. The rest of the day passed fairly quickly, despite the History of Magic lecture leaving everyone nearly dead from boredom. After dinner, she returned to the Common Room with Alice and Lydia. The three chattered on about nothing in particular. At least, nothing that Lily could remember. She kept losing herself in thought, trying to plan out when to take the sleeping potion, and trying to figure out what she would do if this plan failed. After a conversation she mostly ignored, Lily returned to her dorm room. Inside were six beds. She passed by those belonging to Mary, Suzan, Raven, Lydia, and Alice before finally coming to a stop at her own bed. Putting away her belongings, she brought out the phial and looked over the contents. Calming herself down and working up her courage, she pulled out the stopper and drank the entire contents of the phial. Finally, she managed to fall into a deep, dreamless sleep.

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