Chapter 121: Exploring the Castle

Disclaimer:

Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

I own nothing but the original characters I make.

"Dialogue"

'Thoughts'

-Author notes-

Chapter 121: Exploring the Castle

"Say, James, are you going to be busy this afternoon?" Remus asked him after they finished their Charms class.

"Of course he is. He is always busy," Sirius responded before he could.

James glanced at his friend. Lately, Sirius had been getting somewhat bitter because they hadn't hung out together all that much, other than for homework or Quidditch training. "I can make time if there's something you need."

Remus looked around to make sure that no outsiders were listening to their conversation. "As you know, I've been working on a personal project of mine. A living map of the castle…"

"Do you need help with the runework? It's not my specialty, but I can take a look," James offered.

"No, I have that part under control. But I could use some extra help mapping the place. This castle is massive, and it has so many secret passages and rooms. Not to mention, it's constantly moving, making the process much harder," Remus explained.

"We have been helping Remus with that task. Although, it would be nice if you came along," Peter quipped in.

"I see… very well, I can help you with that," James said.

Other than the Headmaster, there was probably no one who knew Hogwarts as well as he did.

"Great!" Remus said with enthusiasm. "We should go to the last two floors. Those seem to be the ones with the most secret passages for some reason."

"Yeah, it sounds like fun," Peter said with a grin on his face.

James glanced at his friends and felt a bit guilty for not spending as much time with them as he could.

But he wasn't doing it all for his own personal amusement. The things he was working on today might give them a better tomorrow, so he was not going to stop now.

<><><><><><><><><><>

Their last class of the day was Transfiguration with the Slytherin house.

James noted that the students from the House of Snakes were quieter than usual.

There's a saying that goes, "What happens in Slytherin, stays in Slytherin," but it was obvious that something had occurred there.

Bella threw a few glances in his direction but never said anything nor tried to communicate with him in any way.

It wasn't like James needed to guess that much.

News traveled fast, so Lucius and the Lestrange brothers must have already heard the news about what happened to their parents the other day in the House of Black.

Rabastan and Lucius were like the Kings of Slytherin, so anything happening to them would reflect on the rest of the house and the tension was palpable.

He could not help but be a bit concerned for the three Black sisters, and even more so for Bella.

Rabastan was a violent individual, and his reaction was definitely explosive.

James had previously placed a capsule with basilisk venom inside Rabastan's body that could be activated any time he wished. Doing so would kill the boy in a few seconds, but it would also create a huge mess in the school.

Students dying during magical practices was not completely unheard of. It does happen once in a while.

But a student being murdered with venom was a different thing.

There was a good chance that James was already being investigated for what had transpired the other day. If the son of the man he had just injured were to die now… he would definitely become a suspect.

Having the Ministry come after him would be rather inconvenient, so he would have to find another way to deal with this issue for the time being.

"James?" Sirius shook his shoulder.

He glanced up and found Remus and Peter standing next to him.

"The class is over, sleepyhead," Sirius said with a grin.

"You're lucky that McGonagall didn't ask you any questions because you were obviously paying zero attention," Remus added.

Peter nodded quickly. "Right! You're so lucky. Professor McGonagall can be so scary! I once had detention with her an—"

"Excuse me?" a voice said from behind them.

"Oh…" Sirius turned around and found himself staring at the professor.

"Professor McGonagall!" Peter jumped from fright.

"I am scary, is that right?" the professor asked with her arms crossed.

"N-no… I mean… a bit?" Peter didn't know what to say.

"Get out of here. The class is over." She pointed at the door.

James stood up and was about to walk past the professor when she spoke again.

"And Mister Potter, I did notice that you were not paying attention. Let that not become a common occurrence, yes?"

"Yes. Sorry, Professor." James apologized and wasted no time in getting out of there before McGonagall changed her mind and he had to spend the rest of the afternoon in detention.

<><><><><><><><>

Just as they had planned, the Marauders went on to explore the sixth and seventh floors of the castle, cataloging every detail and adding them to the map that Remus was creating.

There were a few secrets that James could share with his friends.

Unfortunately, the best secret room on these floors, other than the Room of Secrets that they already knew about, was the one that James had used as his first secret laboratory.

The group passed by what had once been the entrance. The Headmaster had transfigured the wall to make it completely solid and blocked the entrance to the room.

The painting was also removed as it had suffered a lot of damage due to the fire that James had created.

"I think this is good enough," Remus said as he drew the last lines onto the map.

"It's so detailed," Peter said.

"It is, but you said you wanted to add another feature, right? I mean, if you leave it as it is, it will just be a nice map of the castle and nothing else," Sirius commented.

"Indeed." Remus nodded. "I also want to include a function that will show the position of everyone inside the castle. But I'm still trying to figure out how to go about that."

"We can help you with that too," Peter said with excitement.

Remus smiled. "Sure. But before that… there is still a part of the castle that I am missing."

"Which one?" James asked.

"Well… it's the dungeons. I don't dare to go in there outside of classes. There are always Slytherins around."

"That's alright. We can go there after dinner. I have just the spell to help us out." James gave his friend a thumbs up.

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