The Other War // James Potter & Lily Evans

late night escapades;

It felt like James had only been asleep for a couple of minutes when his blissful rest was rudely interrupted by a poke in the shoulder and hushed giggles.

"Shut up, Peter," Sirius's voice said. "Evans is in the next room."

"Sorry," Peter squeaked. James opened his eyes and in the faint moonlight that spilled onto the floor from the gap in the curtains stood three guilty friends all wearing cheeky grins and scarlet bed robes. He sat up, reaching for his glasses.

"What on earth...? How did you get in here?"

"Your password is the same as ours!" Peter piped.

"Bloody hell, that Cadogan," Sirius said, shaking his head. "He almost woke the whole castle challenging us all to a duel." James opened his mouth to ask another question but Remus silenced him with a glare that would have looked less scary if he weren't bathed in a pale moonlight. He held out the Marauders map. "What?" James said.

"We have an idea and you're the guinea pig." Remus said confidently. "Come on, up we won't get anywhere if you're that slow." Remus walked over, yanking James out of bed onto the cold floor. He stood hastily and pulled on his own gown, and the four of them stumbled out of James's dormitory and into the body of the castle. They walked in a small huddle, the cold drilling itself through the material of their sleeves.

James could easily have guessed they they were going to the Room of Requirement. Peter led the way, leading them through all of the secret passages behind the tapestries. The castle was quiet and the flickering candles cast eerie shadows onto the walls of the endless corridors.

The Room of Requirement was structured the same way that it always was when the four of them gathered there. Sofas, a fireplace, a bit of everyone's home incorporated to create a home away from home in home. James collapsed into one of the sofas and raised a questioning eyebrow at Remus.

"So," Remus began. "You know in second year when we made the map?"

James nodded slowly. "Is that a trick question?"

"Just listen," he said; "because we thought that maybe it could work on us."

"You want to print the map onto my back? No thanks," James retorted.

"No. You see, muggles have these things called 'tattoos' and it's like drawing on your skin permanently  - you can never get rid of it. So I thought if we did the same thing as what we did on the map onto our skin, so we can have marauder tottoos."

"Tattoos," Sirius interrupted.

"I'm not tattooing the map onto my back," James said stubbornly but then he laughed and said, "I'm joking. Sure. How do we do it?" Remus pulled his wand out of his pocket.

"That's the easy bit." Remus said smoothly. "We just use ink..." He trailed off as a bottle of ink and a velvet red quill materialised next to him. James raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"So it just works?"

Remus sighed and rubbed at his red eyes. "Well have you decided on a tattoo yet?" Remus asked, picking up the quill. James scoffed.

"I didn't know I had to think of one," he whined.

"Well," Remus said flatly. "I can think of one for you. You could get an electric blue Pygmy puff on your back... or a large image of my face across you nipples?" James laughed. As unappealing as Remus's suggestions sounded, James could see the genius behind the concept. He thought for a second then grinned at Remus.

"I have an idea."