16 Our Plans

By the time Remus had come back the room was three fourths of the way complete.

Sirius had put up his own bed curtains again. These were the ones he had spent two months learning to Charm in second-year so that instead of a blank white tapestry it pictured rolling waves that made soft noises. On the walls and ceiling were pictures of motor bikes, muggle bands, and of course half-naked girls that he also charmed to be animated. Sometimes he would practice his flirting on them, trying to get them to take off their bikinis.

Peters was more tame, only one poster with a muggle actress that wasn't charmed. (He hadn't been able to do it properly) There was a small shelf off to one side with a variety of knick knacks that Peter liked to collect. James smiled at the sight of three shells added to the stuffed shelf. There was also a few books. (Yes despite his lack of academic ability Peter did enjoy reading some books) these were on psychology though instead of magic or fiction.

These didn't go on a shelf as Peter only had one, instead he stacked them next to his bed.

James was exactly what he thought the average teenage wizards should be.

Quidditch dominated most of the wall. Puddlemere, Montrose Magpies, and of course a healthy amount of Holyhead Harpies. But a new one was added onto the mix now, Chudley Cannons.

"The Cannons?" Sirius said sniffing in disgust. "I would never have thought you would put something like that up."

James grinned.

"I know I'd rather not either, but its to honor Harry. They were his favorite team."

Sirius was quiet for a moment before brining back the joking air.

"Well if you start dropping the quaffle you know why."

James laughed, putting up the rest of his stuff.

James also had a few of his own knick knacks, though these weren't collected on the beach or woods. There was a broken snitch he had stolen after his first game. A set of silver weighing scales someone had forgotten in a potions class once and James took (He felt bad about it when he realized how much it cost the average person, but the person in question had already graduated.) Then there was a photo of him and his parents when they visited Beauxbatons a few years ago.

"I see you've all already gotten comfortable," Remus said tiredly as he entered.

"You didn't do the knock!" Sirius proclaimed, rushing to pick up his wand and point it at Remus like he was Sirius's worst enemy.

Remus gave a fond sigh and stepped back out.

Knock KNOCK knock knock… KNOCK KNOCK… knock

"Ah, good, come in," Sirius said, breathing a sigh of relief and putting away his wand.

Remus scowled a grin tugging at his slightly scarred lips.

"I doubt any of you knocked before entering. And… well honestly I was hoping you forgot about that."

"The Marauder knocking signal?! Never, what if I'm in the loo and need some toilet paper? Imagine me calling for help only for Snivillus to be there instead of you? That's why we knock."

"You'd think wiping your ass would be more important than who was passing the roll," Remus said dryly, taking out his wand and casting spells.

Remus was always good at household charms, and could even do a few silently.

"No, never. I'd walk around with my ass covered in-"

"Nonononono, please don't finish that," James said, casting Obscuro again, but this time directing it to Sirius's mouth.

Sirius spat out the blindfold.

"You need to stop doing that," Sirius said throwing the piece of cloth away where it disappeared.

Remus cast one last spell and the last slice of the room was complete.

Unlike the other three Remus didn't keep any posters of girls or sports or anything like that. Instead his wall was covered in two things. Posters of beautiful landscapes or photos of the four of them. Of course none of the posters had moons in them, it would have been in bad taste.

Remus never thought he would make it through all seven years at Hogwarts. He had thought he would learn as much as he could before inevitably being found out then forced to leave. So in his first year he only had one thing of decent quality, a magical camera. He took photos of everything, and even after they learned he was a werewolf and Remus realized they weren't going to do anything about it the sandy haired boy still took photos regularly.

"So-" Remus yawned. "I'm tired, are we going to do this or what?"

"Of course," James said, and pointed his wand at the bedframe-turned-fort. A blackboard slid out from behind the bedframe sticking itself to the wall. Another charm had a piece of Chalk write on it.

MARAUDERS 5TH YEAR GOALS

They had started it in their second year. They would create goals or achievements they would try and reach before the end of the school year. Never had the goals ever been related to academics though.

"I think this one is obvious," Sirius said, magically writing with another piece of chalk.

1 BECOME BLOODY ANIMAGUSSSES

"That's definitely not the plural form for an Animagus," Remus grumbled.

"And of course," James said, adding another line.

2 WIN THE QUIDDITCH CUP

"No no no, thats not a Marauder goal thats a James goal," Peter said, taking two tries to clean the board. No one commented.

"Its a Sirius goal too, he became a Beater last year."

"Sirius doesn't care about the cup, the only thing he cares about is beating Slytherin and hitting people with bludgers," Remus said. "How about this instead?"

2 FINALLY WIN THE HOUSE CUP

Sirius looked at the words like they spoke vilely about his mother, or maybe his cousin Andromeda instead.

"Why would we care about that? The house cup is useless, anyone with a bright enough Lumos can see that."

"But we've never won it before," Peter said.

"Thats because we lose the house so many points," Remus said.

"Just give us them back," Sirius said.

"Can't. Prefects have a limit on the amount of points we can deduct, and we have even less on the points we can give. Too easy to abuse the system otherwise."

"Damn."

"Hmm I don't know if just winning the House Cup is a Marauder worthy goal though," James said, tapping his chin with his wand.

Peter grinned evily.

"What if instead we do this?" he said, writing with his own magical chalk.

2 NEVER GET CAUGHT IN A PRANK

"I like it," Remus said instantly.

"Of course you do, traitor."

Remus was not impressed with Sirius's comment.

"No really. This is our OWL year, a lot of our future is dependent on how we do. If we spend half our free time in detention then we're gonna be seriously- shut up Sirius- we're gonna be super behind. And it can indirectly help us win the House Cup."

"But I'm seriously Sirius. Wohoo, yippe, nice pun Siri," Sirius muttered darkly to himself.

"That, and it will drive the professors wild," Peter said, the evil gleam still in his eyes. "We leave our signature in a lot of the pranks, but if we never have anything tying us to the crime, despite the obvious perpetrators…"

"We'll drive them bonkers," Sirius said in awe. "Four years of basically screaming that we did it, but this time nothing. If they punish us its er-"

"Profiling," Remus supplied.

Sirius knew the word, he just liked to have Remus do that.

"Yeah. They can't prove its us, despite well duh its us. Oooh I can see it now."

Sirius pretended to turn an invisible corner only to yelp.

"W-w-w-whaaaaat?!" Sirius said in mock surprise. "Who could have ever flooded the entire first floor?! Oh my heavens!"

Sirius pretended to faint, falling to the ground. The three of them burst out laughing.

Peter was next, pretending to stand up suddenly and gasp, he pointed across an invisible Great Hall.

"Oh dearie! Why oh why did someone change all of the Slytherin's pumpkin juice with Polyjuice of Professor Slughorn! How will I ever know if I he was the one who gave me a Poor for my Wiggenweld potion! Oh the travesty!" Peter joined Sirius in fainting onto the ground.

The two of them looked between James and Remus expectantly.

The two standing Marauders looked each other in the eyes, rolling them in exacerbation in sync.

"Is that… is that a swarm of flying flobberworms coming out of the Defence classroom?!" James said suddenly pointing at the oncoming horde in terror. "Is… is this our new DADA teacher?! The Eternal Flobber! I've only heard legends of their terrible actions. Why us! Why this year! I needed to get all T's on my OWLs so I could b-b-b-be T-t-t-t-t-t-troll tacular!"

James fell to the fround, arm slapping Sirius in the groin who yelped and kicked James in the shoulder.

"Oi watch it! And really? Flying flobberworms?"

"Yes, a horde of them."

"I think the troll tacular part was worse," Peter said.

"It was innovative."

"About as innovative as someone with nothing but T's can be," Peter mocked, rolling his eyes.

"Don't say that Pete, might just be you at the end of the year," Sirius said.

Peter flushed, looking at the ground.

"Remus?" James said, trying to pull attention away from Sirius and Peter.

Remus fell to his knees, staring ahead in absolute terror.

"No… how could Dumbledore do this?! To… to think he would let such a monster into the school! A werewolf! How… how could he, all our children's lives were in danger…"

It was so realistic James worried Remus was having some hallucinogenic episode.

"I always knew werewolves were less than human, but to let them cook all the food for the halloween feast?! Barbarity is what that is. They added way too much salt! And the lemon juice! Where is the lemon juice! The acid would help bring out so much more flavor! To put our childrens dietary needs in that things claws, how… how DARE HE!" Remus finished, his face contorted into rage, one hand clenching the front of his robes into a ball and the other raised to the sky as he screamed.

Silence reigned in the dormitory for several seconds. Remus still frozen in place, a mask of rage and anguish.

Then they all started laughing again.

When they finished Remus said. "So that's a yes then?"

"Yup!" they all agreed.

"Okay," James said. "This next one we've been bouncing around for a while now, but haven't really put it to paper. Lets make the Map!"

3 Create-

"All capital mate," Sirius said.

"Oh shut it," James said, erasing the words and rewriting it.

3 CREATE THE MARAUDERS MAP

"We tried that last year James. Any spells put on the hallways shatter eventually from all the magicals moving around. So we can't track people. Just a map is well. Useless," Remus said.

"Aha, but there is an avenue we haven't tried yet."

"Oh?"

"Asking Hogwarts of course!" James said, spreading his arms out wide.

"What?" the three of them said incredulously.

"Think about it. Every scholar and book out there says Hogwarts is more than just a castle with a few safety wards. This place is alive. It has wards to check to make sure there are no intruders. Though I've heard they need to be actively used, it doesn't mean they are not passively there. The wards, and in turn Hogwarts's subconsciousness keeps track of every being inside her domain. And also names are powerful things, our given names are tied to our very souls. Hard to trick that."

"Our names are tied to our souls?" Remus said.

Sirius looked a bit queasy at that.

"Yeah, Harry was telling me about it over the summer. You know the saying when you sneeze when someone is talking about you? Well it came from the fact that there is a magical connection between a name and the individual. Think about house-elves. Hopps!"

A Hogwarts house-elf appeared inbetween the four of them.

"Yes Mister Potter sir and Marauding sirs?"

"Yes Hopps can we please get some tea?"

"Right away Potter sir!"

The house-elf disappeared with another snap.

"Hey they stopped calling you Mister Potty," Sirius said.

"Shut it."

"Should have warned us, James," Remus said, quickly casting a spell over the blackboard.

Hopps the house-elf appeared again, levitating four cups of tea.

"Made just as you all likes it!" Hopps said, but before he could disappear James spoke.

"Hey Hopps, how come you know when someone calls for you?"

"Well… because I can hear them Mister Potter sir."

"Hear them?" Remus asked.

"Yes Loopy Sir, hear here," Hopps pressed a hand to his chest.

"In your heart?" Peter said.

"No sir, in my magic. You spoke my name, not hopps or the name Hopps, but me Hopps. I can hear it best when the Headmaster says it, then the Professors, then the ghosts, then the students. Outsiders I can hear, but not as well, as they are not as tied to my magic."

"Tied to your magic?" Remus prodded, completely invested in the conversation.

"I am a Hogwarts House-elf. Those that stay here are tied to Hogwarts and are tied to me."

"Hmm, so the theory that house-elves need to be bound to a wizard is true?" Remus asked.

Hopps looked uncomfortable now.

"No… Its not proper to speak of, we does not live as we did before. When the wild elves walked free," Hopps looked disgusted at the thought. "We are not tied to wizards, but settled magic. And magic settles best in places with lost of magical things. Like magic trees, or creatures, or wizards. Wizards are best because they build with magic, so magic is woven into the environment and settles down stronger. And because we live in the places wizards settle with magic of course they are our masters! To try and be free of that is to try and run from home, from the ones who let us settle. So we obey the masters!"

Hopps looked scared that the four of them were suddenly going to think that he wanted to be free.

"I understand Hopps, thank you for the explanation! It really helped us understand you. I'm glad that we do, it makes me feel closer to you," James said smiling kindly at the trembling house-elf.

"Y-yes Master Potty, thank you thank you, I will go now."

The elf disappeared again with a crack.

"Hmm guess old habits die hard Mister Potty."

Remus meanwhile was staring out into nothingness.

"That was the most thought provoking conversation I've ever had. Even Professor Kidrin doesn't hold a candle to… uh can I say his name?"

"If you say it with the intention of wanting to see him he'll come. He might still feel it, but will know that you are not asking for him."

"Facinating… Oh shit, its late, we can continue this tomorrow," Remus said, ready to clean the board.

"Wait, let me show you something with magic and names real quick," James said taking his wand and pointing it to the blackboard again.

"I don't know… this seems dangerous," Remus said.

James looked his friend in the eye.

"Trust me?"

Remus grimaced.

"Of course."

"James Potter, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew… Oculi Tui," James said, a light blue light engulfing the blackboard.

"Nothing happened," Remus said blandly.

James grinned.

"Oh, maybe I should have made it a demonstration. One sec."

James poked his head outside the door, seeing Frank trudging up the stairs an exhausted look on his face.

"Oi," Frank yelled as James pulled him in.

The other three looked at James in shock. They had real illegal stuff on that board.

"James-" Sirius began.

"Hey Frank, what does that thing on the blackboard say?"

Frank glared at James, but relented and looked at the blackboard.

"Nothing, it says nothing James. Now can I go to bed?"

"Yeah yeah go away," James said, pushing the large boy out.

James turned back to the three others.

"See, for our eyes only. It was an old spell used during Roman times for secret messages."

Sirius looked at the board in fascination.

"Thats awesome, where'd you learn that? The Potter library?"

"The Potter library does actually have that spell somewhere, but Harry taught it to me."

"Damn that Harry guy seems awesome," Sirius said.

"The best," James agreed.

Remus pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I'm glad it worked James, but next time can you test something like that between us?"

"Sure," James said, shrugging.