Brothers by Choice

The summer had been unnecessarily hot.

Pushing her damp bangs out of her eyes, Lily sat back on her haunches and examined the flower bed she had been quietly tending in the early hours of the morning. One of the only bright points so far had been that with the heat, Petunia had refused to step foot out of the house. Her habit of rising early gave her the relatively cooler morning hours to herself and it was only out here, under the shade of her father’s favorite trees that she found the time to think. Even though she could do magic now, her family didn’t really approve of overt displays – Petunia in particular would shriek for hours if she did something ‘unnatural.’ So she kept her magic simple and as hidden as she dared.

Weeding this morning just gave her fingers something to do. Later, she’d pull out the large, brimmed hat she’d spelled back at Hogwarts with a semi-permanent cooling charm and set about studying her seventh year books and working her way through her required reading. Homework had to be done inside – so did her other studies. The advanced books she’d brought home with her in an attempt to start contemplating the ward structure she would need to lie down to protect her family. She was determined to have something working before she left for school… if Snape was going to be sneaking about these first few weeks, she wanted to keep her outdoor reading to her usual fare.

It had been three weeks since she had left Platform 9 3/4 and the tension at the base of her neck was tightening a little more each day. It hadn’t helped that her parents had spoken with genuine regret at not seeing Severus around anymore. They had accepted her excuses with skeptical expressions – O.W.L.s had lessened the amount of time they spent together and now they simply ran in different circles – but she found she couldn’t bring herself to tell them just yet of the actual danger they were in. She knew eventually she would have too, but Sev… Snape enjoyed his mind games too much to harm them now. He’d let her stew in her own bottled frustrations and fear – trap her with individual threads for his greater web. He was a master at that.

It also made any practical applications of her possible rune and warding schemes tricky. She had to keep it subtle or nearly invisible if she didn’t want Snape to catch wind of it. If she made anything overly complex or apparent, Snape would take it as a challenge. He’d break it just to show he could, that she had no protection against him.

But until the made that first move, let her see him watching – let her know in that subtle, terrifying way that the ante had shifted again… not until then. Only then would she break and tell her parents the truth. Of Voldemort and the Death Eaters and the danger that ‘Sev’ was to them. It was selfish of her, to want to keep this to herself as long as she could. Ignorance wouldn’t help her family in the long run but it let her pretend. And she kept her wand close – it was currently easily and quickly accessible in the basket next to her. Snape knew what she was willing to do to protect her family and there was no guarantee he could take her in an individual duel.

She hadn’t heard from James Potter in three weeks.

Dragging her fingers through the loose dirt she once again tried to work her mind through the mesh of information that had been shown to her in that compartment. So many half-sentences and looks that had a wealth of meaning. The expression behind James Potter’s eyes as he stared at her with that fury and somehow, a determination that made butterflies in her stomach flutter. There was a rock solid confidence and it clashed confusingly with the image of the brash, stupid boy. He didn’t just think he could help her, he knew. And even though it had been three weeks since she had last seen him, she hadn’t flinched in her conviction that he would help her.

It was why she had gone to him for help in the first place, as hesitant as she was to admit it. But what she had not expected particularly was for the heat behind his eyes to catch her so off guard. The knowledge that he… liked, maybe even cared, about her was a Filibuster's firework that had gone off unexpectedly in her hands. It left her flushed and uncertain – shaking her head violently, she forced those thoughts aside. She had other, more important things to worry about.

Like why Potter thought that she was bait for a trap that Snape had set… the Marauder’s thought processes were so mind bogglingly twisty it gave her a headache to keep trying to think like them. That she had followed their insane logic on a gut level left her feeling a bit queasy. She didn’t doubt that Snape was capable of thinking along those convoluted lines and create a trap, his hatred for Potter and Black was a living thing at times. But whereas the Marauders would underestimate her capabilities with both wand and logic, Snape would not. The only reason she had managed to get away with her secret meeting with them was because the idea of her turning to James Potter was completely ludicrous…

Three weeks into summer vacation and she still didn’t want to examine that thought too closely, some instinctive part of her mind and heart warning her that it would change everything if she let it. So it sat at the back of her mind like a trap and she carefully tiptoed around it. Didn’t she have enough to worry about as it was?

A soft, squeaking noise had her lifting her eyes and scanning the grass carefully. Mice weren’t her phobia (roaches, on the other hand…) but another set of soft squeaks didn’t reveal the creature. Frowning she brushed her dirt-covered palms off on the thigh of her shorts and pushed to her feet. As soon as she stood, she caught the careful movement of what appeared to be a large rat. She froze. Rats carried diseases, and if her mother saw him she’d pitch a fit – Petunia gained her inclinations for drama naturally. She was half-way into moving for her wand when the rat did something completely unexpected.

It stood up on its back feet and danced.

Blinking several times to clear her obviously impaired vision, she stared stupidly at the creature before realizing that magic was at work here. Half a dozen possible scenarios bounced around her head – the Imperio worked on animals – but she quickly discarded them. Death Eaters wouldn’t bother with something so insignificant and while Snape was malicious, he certainly couldn’t have caste this little dancing rat with the imperious. There were illusion charms, but she couldn’t think of why someone would use one. So that left one other option: Animagus.

And her first thought – surely Potter wasn’t that stupid – made her heart jump into her throat. (For a single heartbeat, she allowed herself to consider Potter as a rat and somewhere she was laughing.) Carefully, eyes firmly on the now still rat, she reached for the basket and calmly pulled out her wand.

“Let me make something clear. You will crawl into this basket and be still and silent until we get to my room. I am perfectly willing to stun you and take you to the Ministry of Magic. After the Warning for Misuse of Magic my fifth year, I’m hardly going to be nervous about being slapped with a fine for apparating into Diagon Alley without a license – I’m sure they’d be very interested in verifying that you were properly registered, understand?”

It was a risk, of course. If the Animagus was properly registered then it wouldn’t fear her threat. It was a gamble, but she found that the Gryffindor in her soul wanted to know what this was about – she couldn’t seem to find a way to talk herself out of it. When the rat nodded in clear agreement she gritted her teeth and motioned for to jump into the basket.

It was a little after ten in the morning on a Saturday, which meant that Petunia was just now bothering to roll out of bed. Her parents didn’t stop her as she moved up the stairs to her room – not for the first time did she bless their habit of being deeply involved in the morning paper. Slipping near silently into the room she had to herself, she set the basket on the floor and locked the door behind her.

A pale, furry head looked around before jumping out of the basket and letting out a series of squeaks. Lily calmly pointed her wand at him. “I suggest you change forms and quickly or this is going to go badly for you.”

Of course, this had a chance of going badly for her. The rat did as requested and changed shape, melting somehow and growing until she was staring in something like shock at the round face of Peter Pettigrew. It was only habit that kept her grip on her wand and she leaned against the door behind her for support. “Pettigrew?”

He smiled almost shyly. “Hi Evans.”

And the world tipped itself sideways. Closing her eyes she desperately tried to put the pieces together that were suddenly cramming themselves into her brain like hot shards of glass. Peter Pettigrew was an Animagus – they weren’t even going to discuss this topic until next year with Professor McGonagall. She knew Peter was smart – he pulled himself out of his friends shadow this year and somehow the anxious, uncertain little boy had found his confidence and he had shined in charms and runes. But this? Peter was no transfiguration genius which meant…

James Potter was that stupid.

“If I ask, are you going to be at liberty to tell?”

“Probably not,” his voice was overwhelmingly cheerful. “I like your room. Sirius was certain it was going to be all girly and stuff, but Remus just laughed at him. Smells nice. Do all girls room smell nice? James is going to demand I use his father’s pensive so he can see you know.”

Lily held up her hand and used the other to pinch the bridge of her nose. Later, later she’d have nightmares about just what those three had done to achieve this amazing piece of magic sometime before this summer and what they had been doing with it. (She really hoped those wards on the stairs at Hogwarts included Animagus otherwise, she didn’t want to think of where one rat could hide in their dorm room. She’d have to re-think the extra precautions she put on her bed now…) But right now, Peter was in her room and that meant Potter had come through for her.

Opening her eyes, she caught Peter staring at her bookshelf with a curious expression. “Peter?”

He turned and she motioned to her desk chair and perched herself on her bed. “Why are you here?”

Peter pressed his palms together and smiled. “Well, James wanted to come. Really badly, but Remus reminded him that was a totally bollocks idea since Snape would likely do his usual thing if they saw each other, just with less magic. Sirius probably thought about going but we all decided that was a terrible idea since you know, he’s Sirius. So Remus brought me – he’s hanging out at the little grocery store a little ways from here waiting on us. Wasn’t sure if I’d manage to catch your attention and not get chased with a broom – those things are scary! Anyway, if you’d like, we can meet up with Remus and he’s willing to explain things.”

Lily stared at him. That was the most animated and the longest speech she had ever heard from him. But as he smiled at her she realized that the confidence she had seen from him on the train had somehow become more in the last three weeks. “Do you have any idea of how many ways that plan could go wrong?”

“James counted something like thirty-five, but since it was less than forty, we went with it.”

They were insane. All of them. Since she could feel a bubble of laughter trying to work its way out of her throat, she figured some of that insanity was rubbing off. Shaking her head in absolute amazement at the gall of them she finally ran her fingers over her face. “Okay. Fine. Let’s hope that Snape doesn’t see us then.”

Peter furrowed his brows and cocked his head. “Does he go out in the early morning? We weren’t sure, you see – we’ve had him pegged as a bat for years. Would have been here sooner, but we weren’t sure when you’d be up and it’s really not a good idea to leave Remus alone in a store with a chocolate supply for more than a couple of hours…”

Twisty logic – they thought in twisty logic that made these strange skips of sanity into insanity. It was the only explanation that could possible account for how any of them were still alive – and apparently Animagus. Blowing out a breath, she considered the best way to go about getting to the store without rousing any suspicions. She would just have to assume they were smart enough to figure out how to maintain some privacy. She gave herself a quick once over in the mirror – hair pulled up, dirt stained shorts from the garden and a loose tank top that bared her already freckled shoulders to the sun.

“You’re going to have to switch to being a rat, just in case.” She told him as she hunted her purse. “Snape doesn’t usually go to the store I think you’re talking about but that doesn’t mean we could get really unlucky.”

Peter shrugged and disappeared back into a rat. For a moment she stared at him in complete fascination. She’d seen Professor McGonagall changed back and forth several times, but Peter was nearly as comfortable as her Professor. Which suggested a great deal of practice or a lot longer than just one school year as a rat? She was both horrified and envious of the magic and shook herself.

Digging out her summer bag she picked up Peter and carefully closed the edges of the purse to hide him. It wasn’t difficult to explain that she was ‘headed to the store and did anyone need anything?’ Thankfully no one had anything they wanted and Petunia wasn’t yet downstairs for the morning. The walk was quick and she was relieved to see Remus lingering near the front doors. When she caught sight of him he carefully glanced around, eyes catching the light oddly for a moment before he strode into the small lot and joined her.

“Lily.”

It was strange to see Remus in Muggle Clothing – he fit them, somehow. Blinking at the ease at which he was standing, for the first time, she had reason to question how often he found himself in a Muggle setting. Yet another question for another day.

“Remus. I have Pete in my bag. Perhaps we should go somewhere with a little more privacy?”

Somewhere with more privacy ended up being a rather quiet neighborhood with a small park. It was only a few blocks away from the store but it was a considerably better neighborhood than her own and silent in the late morning hours. Remus glanced around and breathed deeply once, then twice and nodded. Pulling out his wand, he muttered a few charms – most she knew, but the last one she’d have to look up later. Peter jumped out of her bag and changed back into his human shape and grinned.

“I told you it would work!”

Remus grinned at him in response before facing her. “Lily, how are you managing?”

“Right now? I am seriously questioning my sanity.” Lily reached up and pinched the bridge of her nose, not bothering to even look at Peter. “What were you thinking? Animagus? When did you have time for that? I don’t even want to think about how long it took or when you started or how in Merlin’s name you managed to keep from getting caught!”

Remus cleared his throat. “We aren’t really at liberty to talk about it.”

Lily lowered her hand and frowned at him. “Peter transforms nearly as flawlessly as Professor McGonagall, don’t think I don’t know how much practice that takes. Which means you managed it sometime before last year – the idea makes my head hurt, Remus.”

Remus grimaced. “I know.”

Lily tilted her head at him and considered that pained, agitated look on his face and found herself suddenly swallowing giggles. Pressing her hand to her mouth, she got herself under control and glanced over at Peter who still had that overly wide smile on his face. “So you didn’t tell Remus what you were doing then?”

Peter perked up even brighter. “It was awesome.”

Remus pressed his face into the palms of his hands and Lily laughed then. She could connect the dots. Remus was a werewolf. The boys were Animagus. The understanding of exactly what those three had done for her friend was sobering and she swallowed the last of her hilarity as she realized the exact lengths they were willing to go for each other. Closing her eyes, she sighed.

“What did Peter mean when he said that this rather crazy plan of yours had less than forty risks so you thought that was the better option?” How much utter insanity had they been up too if they felt like forty possible problems was an acceptable outcome and did she really want to know?

Remus glanced at Pete. “I told you she’d have us pegged.”

Peter nodded solemnly. “Sirius owes you a gallon.”

Lily crossed her arms and glowered at him. “Are you finished?”

Remus and Peter shared a look; Lily pursed her lips and told herself to hold her tongue. Finally they motioned for her to sit next to a large tree. Once they were all settled Remus produced a large chocolate bar broke it into three pieces before handing them out.

“I apologize for the shock of Peter showing up as a rat, but we weren’t certain we could avoid detection from Snape otherwise. It’s possible that he is watching and we wanted to be sure.”

“And we’re sure he isn’t watching now?”

Remus rubbed his nose sheepishly. “I don’t smell him and I’ve got pretty good radar for magic. And one of the spells I used checked for any sort of listening spell. It’s general, but it’s also obscure, so yes, I’m reasonably certain we are alright.”

Peter swallowed his large bite and nodded. “We should be fine here. It’s not like we are going to be talking about really sensitive subjects anyway.”

Lily gave him a dubious look. Peter transforming was sensitive information, but he apparently didn’t seem bothered by her knowledge of it. It would be an entirely different matter if Snape found out about this. “If you say so.”

“Look, Lily – we trust you. With some things. Obviously you could have everyone in big trouble if you told anyone about certain changes – but you’ve held my secret this long, so you’re being trusted with theirs.” Remus said carefully.

Lily chewed her chocolate slowly and read through the lines. She had asked them for help and they were willing to give it – they were giving her show of a trust in return for hers. She wondered how difficult that had been for Sirius to swallow. She was willing to bet he wasn’t happy about it at all. Six years of uncertainty and animosity didn’t just disappear, even if they were seemingly willing to look past it.

She wondered if her life was going to be filled with these double meanings and code. Finishing the chocolate she wiped her hands on the grass and sighed. Nothing she could do about it now.

“Alright. I promise to stay quiet about your other… abilities. I take it we are not going to be discussing that further here?”

“Sorry,” Remus said with a shrug. “Not unless you are willing to take a vow – which we can’t do now anyway.”

And just like that, her heard started pounding. Surely he wasn’t suggesting that they had… taken some sort of wizards vow between them. She bit the tip of her tongue hard enough to hurt to keep from asking. Not here, not now but eventually…. Breathing in deep, she nodded.

Remus reached into his pocket and pulled out a large, decorative gobstone. It was the kind that was used for decorative purposes and not the actual game. The red of the stone seemed to glimmer but there otherwise wasn’t anything unusual about the piece. Heart hammering in her throat, she curled her fingers tightly around the stone.

“Is this…”

“Activation word is the name of Peter’s Animagus. The form, not the nickname.”

Nickname?

“It will activate twenty seconds after you say it, so be ready for it.”

Lily stared down at her white knuckled fist. “And my parents? They can use it as well?”

There was a pause. Then Peter spoke carefully. “We think so, but it would be best if you were with them. Muggles might not do so well with this kind of travel on their own.”

Remus gave her a flat, amber-eyed glance. “You are not allowed to get your family away and stay behind, Lily. Promise.”

She stared at the large red stone for a long moment. “I promise to not sacrifice myself needlessly, Remus, but that’s all you’re getting.”

Peter frowned at her, eyes narrowing as he stared at her. The calculation there shouldn’t have been surprising, yet somehow it was. But instead of saying whatever was going on behind those eyes, his face shifted into mischief. “When you were threatening to take me to the Ministry of Magic if I tried anything? What did you mean when you said you’d already had one Misuse of Magic warning and wouldn’t balk at a fine for illegally apparating?”

Remus looked startled and he blinked at her. “Lily?”

Lily rolled her eyes. “Oh, stop giving me that look, Remus. Yes, I might have used some magic here once and gotten a warning for it. I was informing the rat-that-I-didn’t-know-was-Peter that if he tried anything funny, I’d stun him and take him in, consequences be hanged.”

Remus looked relieved. “Testing out a protection charm?”

Lily couldn’t help the way her lips twitched upwards. “No.”

Peter suddenly looked delighted. “Hexing Snape?”

“No and stop asking.”

Remus blinked at her. “You pranked someone?”

“Remus….”

“You pranked someone over the summer using magic which broke the law…” Peter looked impressed. “Sirius will never believe us.”

Lily shoved the gobstone into her purse. “Is that all you had to tell me? I should be getting back or my parents will start wondering where I headed off to.”

Peter shook his head. “No, wait. There is one more thing.”

Lily hesitated and then sat back down. “What?”

Remus reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, rectangular wooden box. Tapping it with his wand, he was soon holding a box that was several inches wide and just as long. Peering into it, she frowned at the line of runes that covered most of the bottom. “What is this?”

“James has it in his head that you are probably not going to be content with just the Portkey. He said that knowing you, you probably brought home a small library of books to start figuring things out yourself. After some thought, I agreed with him. Especially since you kept insisting you just needed help.” Remus frowned at her. “Are you going to tell me what Professor Flitwick and Slughorn loaned you?”

Lily kept her face smooth only because she had practice. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

Peter grinned at her. “Bollocks, I owe Prongs five sickles.”

Remus shook his head and handed her the box. “This is if you need us.”

Lily arched a brow as she took the box. “I don’t understand.”

Peter fished out another piece of chocolate and grinned at her. “Obviously, we can’t owl back and forth. We thought about the mirrors, but then Sirius started making comments about accidentally seeing you naked or something and James flipped his lid. So we came up with this. It’s what took us so long. Just write out your questions on a scroll and tap the box three times – um, the password is something like…”

“No place like home,” Remus muttered, looking a bit embarrassed. “Sirius got a hold of my copy of the Wizard of OZ and actually read it. He thought it was a riot.”

And he may or may not be attempting to find a way to create flying monkeys, Lily mentally added on. Blowing out a breath, she ran her finger down the line of ruins. She was going to have to study this. “So after I tap the box…”

“It will bring us the letter.” Peter said proudly. “If you want to check it for a scroll, you have to use the password too. It was the only way we could think to keep someone from seeing the scroll appearing that you didn’t want too. We’ve been testing it, it should work. So that way if you need help, you can ask for it!”

Lily frowned at them. “But why…”

Remus leaned forward and took her hand. “You’re my friend, Lily – I want to help you. We want to help you. Let us help you. If that doesn’t convince you, think of it this way – the Potters have an extensive Library and Sirius’ has… experience with wards. We have resources and we are offering them to you.”

And there wasn’t any argument to that that she could think of right now, anyway. And these boys were clearly brilliant in their own way – what mirrors were they talking about? – and having a second, third or fourth opinion on her schemes would be… helpful. She didn’t have to use the box until she got stuck, after all.

“Okay. Thank you.” She forced herself to stand and gather her things, instead of picking their brains for more information or hints to their real reasons. But then she remembered that Remus called himself her friend – and the others had cared enough for his friendship to illegally become Animagus because Remus was a werewolf. Her throat felt tight.

Remus stood with her and pinned her with a fierce look. “You take care of yourself, Lily. Don’t second guess yourself, if you think something is going wrong, use the Portkey and get the hell out of here.”

Lily adjusted her bag. “Don’t worry so much. I understand how Snape works and I’m smart enough not to take on Death Eaters. If I have the slightest worry about something going wrong, I’ll risk looking like a hysterical girl before I let something happen to my family.”

Peter nodded. “Good.”

Lily glanced at them both and then blew out a breath. “Thank you. And tell Potter I owe you one. Or two, as it may be.”

Remus shook his head, “Lily you don’t…”

She held up her hand. “I owe all of you for this and don’t try to tell me otherwise. I’ll guess I’ll see you at the Apparition Test.”

James stared up at the clear sky. Sprawled on his back with his arms crossed behind his head, he let the heat of the day sink into his bones, ignoring the faint itch of the grass. It had been four hours and thirty minutes since Remus and Peter had snuck off to find Lily and somehow, give and explain how the Portkey worked. And the other present.

It had taken three weeks of work to put everything together. Most of that had been spent building the little box that could transfer tiny packages or letters – Remus had gotten the idea from the mirrors. It made sense that if they could use mirrors to see and talk to each other and move their bodies through apparition there had to be a middle ground. The rune work had been excruciating and they’d caught a table on fire (twice) but they’d worked it out. Their biggest problem was that while it was password protected (both the sending and the receiving) it was entirely too easy to crack that kind of defense. It wasn’t a practical way of sending extremely sensitive messages. Unlike that conversation Remus had overheard between Dumbledore and McGonagall regarding using their Patronus to send a message… and wasn’t that just fascinating. Once they had all mastered the Patronus Charm, it would be just a matter of figuring out the quirk that let the charm hold the message…

He thought Lily might have an idea. If she didn’t use the box – and they didn’t figure it out soon – he’d broach the subject with her. He knew her well enough to guess that she’d be reluctant to open the conversation and he had no such qualms. Not now. Not when she’d come to him with the temper and frustration mingled with a touch of fear behind her eyes. Now when he’d seen her realization – it shocked him that somehow she’d not understood. How could he’d have been any clearer? That there was something between them. Of course, he’d seen her stubborn refusal to acknowledge it as well, but she knew. And that was apparently more than he’d had.

James felt the first actual spark of hope.

The Portkey had been tricky in that it had been necessary to have his father charm one for them without fully explaining the reasons behind it – the war, Snape, his growing unease with Dumbledore. He didn’t doubt his father guessed that there was more than he was telling – Lily Evans was a name that had been heard before, many times. That his father had taken his request seriously told him that they had noticed the change in his behavior and were evaluating it. He’d taken the last two years of extra training seriously and his father had been dropping hints about starting to him handle more than minor affairs.

As far as his parents knew, they had delivered the Portkey three days ago at an arranged trip to Diagon Alley. They had no idea that that morning they had taken a trip to outside the wards and Remus had apparated illegally to Lily’s muggle neighborhood. Now they were just waiting for them to get back.

Closing his eyes, he forced the overactive part of his brain to be quiet and started to doze in the warm sunshine. Over thinking those thirty-five ways this whole thing could go wrong would just make him crazy. He half figured it was one of the reasons he was in Gryffindor, this inability to just sit somewhere and think without going out and doing something about it. Huffing in frustration when his brain kept thinking, thinking, thinking he screamed when a sudden, expected wall of cold water drenched him. Lunging to his feet, wand clenched firmly between his fingers, he fired off the first half dozen curses that came to mind.

Sirius was laughing too hard to really care and only when his hair was standing a foot off his head in an assortment of colors and his feet were six sizes too large did he managed to contain himself. James glared, shoving his mopping bangs out of his eyes.

“You are an absolute menace with that wand.”

Sirius grinned lasciviously and smoothed down his green and purple bangs. “The ladies don’t complain.”

James rolled his eyes and set out drying himself out. “Bored are you.”

Sirius shrugged in-between his own spell reversal motions. “This waiting is ridiculous. I don’t wait for things. I say if they don’t get back soon, we go crash the party.”

James picked out a dry patch of grass and collapsed a second time. “That won’t cause my parents any bit of suspicion. That all of us are missing.”

Sirius snorted but joined him on the grass and sighed, loudly. “Oh, they love me.”

“They love you, but they’d ground me, which means you’d lose privileges too and stomp around the manor for days declaring your bored and huffing in that sulk of yours.”

“Men do not sulk. And since I am certainly manly, your words have no affect on me.” Sirius cut his eyes over. “Besides, have you forgotten? We’re adults now.”

James arched a brow. “Please, tell that to my mum the next time she catches us raiding her stock of elf wine. Let me know how that goes for you.”

Sirius looked contemplative. “I just might.”

And the silence became positively weighty, as Remus would declare. The usual means of judging Sirius’ mood (his hair) wasn’t going to work since after they had taken their oath, he had decided to keep it short. ‘A sign that we are in war, ‘gents – to be long only once all our enemies are dust beneath our feet.’ Still, there was obviously something wrong with his friend and if Sirius had sought him out he was finally tired of batting it around in his own head and wanted to talk about it.

“Alright, what’s really bothering you.” James settled in for a few moments of poking in an attempt to get it out of his friend. Nothing ever came easy where Sirius was concerned after all. Which was why he was a bit shocked when Sirius started talking without the fifth or sixth threat at wand point.

“Uncle Alphard is going to make me his heir.”

And James felt every hair on his body stand up in surprise. Uncle Alphie or not, Alphard was risking a great deal of wrath from his sister, Walburga Black, by declaring her cast off and disinherited son as his Heir. The brother and sister had always seemed to have a strange sort of amiable relationship, but James didn’t see how that could last through this. Not to mention how this was going to rock the politics inside the House of Black. Alphard was the oldest son of Pollux Black and Irma nee Crabbe and as such, with Sirius disowned, was 3rd in line to the House of Black and he had no children.

Sirius looked moody. “He told me that with only two male heirs born in my generation, we couldn’t risk the line dying out. That even if my mother was determined to eradicate everyone from the line who disagreed with her he was not.”

James let out a low whistle. “How did dear Walburga handle that?”

“She burned him from the tapestry.” Sirius said flatly.

James felt an eyebrow inch upwards. “Fat lot of good that does her – she can disinherit you but she can’t touch him. No way is your father going to risk losing Alphard’s connections or his gold considering that’s why he married Walburga in the first place.”

“Don’t I know it,” Sirius ran his hands through his hair.

House of Black was wealthy. Orion Black once, hadn’t been. It was an interesting paradox. The Black family was one of the few houses that had divided the assets between what belonged to the House of Black and what was personal. This insured that dowries and other debts would be paid, regardless of what the current Head of House managed to incur during his tenure. It was an old safeguard that had been put into place after several family members had been outright killed due to their inability to pay on magical debts. Orion’s grandfather had done a number on their personal finances thanks to several fits of paranoia. By marrying his second cousin, Orion had guaranteed a sizeable increase in gold for his personal use through Walburga’s dowry.

James ran a hand over his face. The only reason he knew so much about the inner workings of House of Black was thanks to his grandmother, Dorea Potter nee Black. The niece of Orion’s grandfather, she had several colorful opinions on the management of her family’s holdings and written extensively on several subjects that she felt would be useful for her future descendents. He and Sirius had poured through those journals the summer before; looking for any details on the family that Sirius might not have already known.

“Does he want you to move in with him?”

Sirius clenched his hands into fists. “No, not until after graduation – he wants to see how I do on my N.E.W.Ts before he starts investing.”

James knew that Sirius had always had something of a close relationship with his Uncle Alphard, even after he was sorted into Gryffindor and refused to acknowledge his families mania. Walburga and Orion had encouraged that relationship in the hope that Alphard could influence him in regards to the correct mindset, but also because Alphard was well connected. Introducing their heir to those connections had been politically savvy since Sirius would one day manage the House of Blacks Wizengamont vote. He wondered what this meant of Alphard’s political leanings if he was willing to take in a blood traitor like Sirius…

“What’s bothering you the most?”

Sirius sighed heavily and stared up at the sky, his mouth a tense line. “I had hoped to be rid of all of them.”

“And now you are being pulled back in… in a lesser position.” James guessed.

Sirius snorted. “Regulus doesn’t have the spine to concern me. He’s tough when he has his cronies around him but otherwise… I’d been considering becoming an Auror. But with this…”

James made a noise of agreement. “You won’t have the time if you’re managing Alphard’s estate.”

Sirius sat up and braced his elbows on his knees and stared down at his clasped hands. “It’s unexpected.”

“That someone in your family cares about you?”

Sirius shifted enough so that he could wave a hand. “No,well, yes. What Voldemort is doing, it’s two pronged: political and psychological. We know that. We’ve seen it in the hallways of Hogwarts and we’ve seen the effects it’s having. It’s so much easier to ignore it or to agree with it because no one is standing up to it. Publically. Especially not among the Families. The Auror force can’t keep ahead of the death tolls and muggle-borns are being separated and singled out by their peers because of blood. The houses are drawing lines.”

James sighed his agreement. “The problem is that all of us are still being labeled as to young to do anything about it – and the death eaters are taking advantage of it.”

“So how do we fight?” Sirius asked. “The obvious choices we can’t take. We can’t risk it. There is more than just us at stake – you’re the last of your line and I’ve suddenly got responsibilities. Remus is a werewolf and Peter is well, Peter. He’s dangerous but no one is going to take him seriously. So where does that leave us?”

“Where it’s always left us,” James countered. “As long as no one is taking us seriously, we can move in the shadows. Right now, we have a lack of information and tactics; that will change soon . As for the rest… that’ll depend. Dumbledore is going to set the stage with his choices for Heads next year.”

Sirius gave him a considering look. “Evans is the clear choice for Head Girl. Worried?”

James considered that and felt his jaw tighten. It wasn’t that she didn’t deserve it. She did. And he knew if they offered – when they offered – she’d take it. And Dumbledore would manage to paint a target on her back without doing more than passing over a shiny badge. She’d be visible then – an upstart who took the highest honor for her year. He wouldn’t put it past Dumbledore to try to make her some sort of symbol.

“Even Dumbledore has to know better than to put a Slytherian as Head Boy with a muggleborn.”

“Remus will be a Prefect again. He can keep an eye on her.” Sirius voice was carefully neutral.

James felt the muscle in his jaw jump; he had clenched his teeth so tightly. It took a moment, but he managed to speak. “She’s been wandering the corridors during the full moons to protect him. And someone already felt like they could harass her.”

A sudden pop interrupted their conversation and moments later a flushed Remus was walking with Peter into the clearing. Peter looked a little green around the gills but didn’t appear to have lost his lunch. Which was an improvement over the first few times they had tried. Not that James blamed him – he’d almost puked too.

Remus met his gaze. “We’re going to have to do something about how much she knows soon. Lily’s too smart not to figure out that something is going on… and then figure out what we’re doing.”

Peter nodded as he sat down; face slowly clearing of its green tinge. “You owe Remus a gallon, Padfoot.” And then he fished into his pocket and pulled out five sickles which he handed to James, who looked thoughtful as he pocketed the change.

Sirius blinked and then frowned, brows drawing sharply together. “What?”

Remus looked smug. “I told you she wasn’t just book smart, Sirius.”

Peter nodded. “Yeah. She was real careful until she realized who I was – of course she had me at wand point and threatened to illegally apparate to the ministry if I did anything remotely threatening. Did you know she had gotten a Misuse of Magic warning? She wouldn’t tell us what for, but when Remus asked her if it was for a prank she didn’t deny it. Also Sirius, her room isn’t all that girly – it’s mostly done in colors that are not pink.”

“You saw the inside of her bedroom?”

“Evans broke the law? For a prank?”

Remus rolled his eyes but the corners of his mouth were curving up. “Yes to both.”

Sirius looked astonished. “Huh, who would have though Perfect Prefect Evans would break the law so blatantly? I feel like I should be impressed.”

James was staring hard at Peter, who just smiled at him. “If you parents catch us using their pensive for what her bedroom looks like, they won’t take you seriously all summer.”

James tapped his temple. “You keep that memory close. One day, I’m going to see it.”

Remus rolled his eyes. “Giving up on seeing it yourself, Jamsie?”

Sirius barked out a laugh at the look on his best friends face while Remus and Peter exchanged high-fives. James glared at them all and twirled his wand with narrowed eyes.

“Just you lot wait, one day some poor crazy witch is going to knock you off your feet and I am just going to laugh.”

Peter looked at him sympathetically. “If you say so.”

Sirius snorted and flopped back. “Won’t happen – I’m too pretty and too graceful to be bludgeoned by a female. Remus now… I can see it. Some poor, brightly colored thing sweeping him of his feet…”

Remus ripped up a handful of grass and threw it at him. “Stuff it, Snuffles.”

James ignored them, grandly. “So everything went well? No greasy-looking bats lingering around?”

“All clear,” Peter reassured him. “Didn’t see her parents either, she had me stuffed into a basket or purse-thing.”

Remus sighed. “I suppose the question becomes now what?”

Sirius cracked open an eye. “Moony?”

“We’ve spent the last three weeks living and breathing this project. Our apparition test is in two weeks but we’ll pass that with flying colors… so the question becomes – what do we do now?”

James leaned back and shrugged. “We do what we always do – we plot, we plan, we think of all possible contingencies and then when we strike? We win.”

Sirius stretched. “I say we do something exciting. All this sneaking around on Evan’s behalf was… interesting, I suppose, but too serious. We need some excitement!”

Remus muttered something pithy but James sat up. “Oh? What are you thinking?”

Sirius clapped his hands together and pinched his face up, making a show of thinking. “I don’t have a clue.”

Peter laughed. “We’ll we’ve got to figure out how to send those messages through the patronus charm.”

Sirius waved his hand about. “Child’s play. That’ll take us what, two days? Max? I mean something big! Something awesome!”

James shoved his hands through his hair, looking thoughtful. “Hmmm, more amazing than all our past marauding’s…”

Remus sighed heavily. “I thought we agreed not to do anything that could interfere with our abilities to sit for our N.E.W.T.s, Sirius.”

“Big doesn’t mean illegal… mostly.” He paused and then sat up, his expression taking on a familiar, thoughtful cast. “Whatever it is, it’s got to be big. Bigger than Animagus, better than the map… something epic… you know…”

“He’s broke his brain,” Peter stage whispered. “Though too much and it just went splat.”

Sirius rolled his eyes. “Whatever. As I was saying… as a group we have acquired certain… select group of spells and talents. Some of them we’ve even created!”

James grinned. “Why yes, we’re brilliant. But I thought we’d agreed to that back in first year and stuck with it through all these years of friendship.”

Remus and Peter rolled their eyes and Sirius sniffed at them. “James, I don’t think they appreciate us.”

James pressed his hand to his heart. “That’s okay, Sirius. I know you’re my true friend.”

Sirius beamed and then waved his hands. “We should create a grimoire!”

Three pairs of eyebrows shot straight up. “What?”

“Are you serious?”

“This will be awesome!”

“A grimoire, of course I’m Sirius, and I know!”

Remus gave him a sour look and then pinched the bridge of his nose. “Sirius, do you have the slightest idea of what goes into creating a grimoire? We can’t just slap a list of spells down on a piece of paper – this requires magic. Binding, ritualized magic that may include blood!”

James rubbed his hands together, hazel eyes sparkling. “You realize what this means? That even Flich manages to get his hands on the map, not even Dumbledore will be able to crack our spells without the key in the grimoire!”

Sirius eyes lit up. “I hadn’t even though of that! James! You’re brilliant!”

Peter looked thoughtful. “Can we do it? I mean, we’d have to find the rituals… I don’t think we’ll be sneaking any books from the Black library this summer… and do we have any idea what werewolf blood would do to that kind of spell?”

James and Sirius blinked at each other before shrugging in unison. “We’ll figure that out when we get to that bridge, won’t we. But the important thing is we’ll be protecting what we’ve done over the last seven years.”

Remus frowned. Then he considered. He knew that his friends downplayed their accomplishments. Their map was a brilliant. They were working on way to imbed a better security code into the actual makeup of the map – what had been an amusing past time when they were younger had the potential to be a weapon if it fell into the wrong hands. Then there was the work they had put into becoming Animagus. One of the reasons it was a requirements to earning a master in Transfiguration was because of the complex, difficult process.

James, Sirius and Peter had done what was nearly impossible before their fifth year.

“If we do this,” Remus said slowly, his fingers tapping against his knee. “We should look into finding a way to tie the protection spells into our Marauders Oath.”

James smile slowly. “That would solve the problem of finding a way of better locking the Map. If Flich still has his copy of it, then it’s possible that Dumbledore has seen it.”

“Good thing we keyed the spells on a different parchment,” Peter muttered. They all wished Dumbledore luck finding that particular spell parchment in the Potter Library. Only James knew its exact location and he just smiled when asked.

Sirius clapped his hands together loudly. “So it’s decided then. We’ll spend this summer working on our grimoire. Keep those greedy bastards from stealing our genius.”

“Keep Dumbledore from using it like bait on a string,” James corrected with a grimace. “If he ever found out about our abbreviated way of becoming an Animagus…”

Peter flopped back and stared upwards. “Whatever we do, we’re going to have to make sure we can bring other people into it later. Can’t imagine Evans being excited at not being able to see something. Bad way to start off a marriage, Prongs.”

James smiled slowly, eyes glittering brightly behind his glasses. “And that’s why you’re my favorite Pete.”

Sirius sat up straight, eyes wide and affronted. “Hey!”