|1| I think your brother is up to something

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Sunday 6th November 1977

11.30 p.m.


How the fuck did James Potter get to become a head boy?

That was as the only thing Lily Evans, Marlene McKinnon and Frank Longbottom could think of, as they listened to the conversation that was taking place in the seventh-year boy's room.

The three of them were sitting on Frank's bed — the poor boy, he didn't know what he was getting into when those four Gryffindors were assigned to him as roommates in his first year—, trying to help Marlene finish the assignment Professor Binns gave them for the weekend and she hadn't even bothered to start yet.

Remus had his arm around Sirius. James was sitting on someone's bed — probably Peter's —, leading the talk. The three of them were waiting for Peter to come back from the kitchens with groceries for everyone because, in Sirius' words: "We will need to feed ourselves to endure all the brainstorming that we still have ahead, Evans."

"So, if everything goes as planned", James said, pointing at the map spread out on the floor of the room, surrounded by wrappers of chocolate frogs and empty bottles of muggle sodas — a gift from Lily and Remus. "We should be able to get everyone in the Room of Requirement while Filch and McGonagall are in the opposite wing of the castle."

"Where did you say the Room of Requirement is again?" Marlene asked, lifting her head from the piece of parchment which she had not even completed half of.

"Focus," Lily scolded her. "You'll never finish If you keep getting distracted."

Marlene gave a long sigh before landing her sight on the paper again. Despite not having her attention anymore, James answered the question anyway. "There," he put his finger on the section of the map that corresponded to the seventh floor, in the left corridor. "The entrance is hidden opposite the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy."

"Wasn't it on the other corridor?" Sirius asked, leaning onto the map, his half long, wavy black hair falling down his face.

Remus shook his head. "No, I'm pretty sure it was in the left corridor."

"I still don't understand why It won't appear on the map" James complained, as he picked up the parchment from the floor and folded it. "Mischief Managed."

"It's probably unplottable," Sirius mumbled.

"Unp- What?"

Sirius took his wand from the top of the bed on which he and Remus were leaning; as he whispered "Accio," a bottle of pumpkin juice flew up to his hand. "I said that it's probably unplottable. That means that it's a place which location is hidden; like Grimmauld Place," he added with a snort. "These places can't be located in a map, and some of them are hidden from the sight, just like..."

"Just like the Room of Requirement," James finished the sentence. "Yeah, that makes sense."

The door was opened from the outside, and Peter entered the room with his hands full of cookies, tartlets, and seven cups of hot chocolate levitating behind him, following him in a single line. The steam that came out of the cups flooded the room with the appetizing smell of cocoa, and each one travelled to its respective owner once Peter had closed the room door with his foot.

"I've got everything!" Peter said with his high-pitched voice, as he dropped everything on the floor, where the map was lying a few seconds ago. "So, have you thought about how to get rid of Filch and Flitwick?"

"Filch and McGonagall," Remus corrected. "Flitwick never stays here for Christmas, remember?"

"And Slughorn, Sprout, Pomfrey, and Tuttle will be all together in Slughorn's office celebrating that weird Irish thing," Sirius added. "Dumbly doesn't leave his office ever, Kettleburn and Pince will be getting drunk in the Hog's Head with Berf, so our only real problems are Minnie and Filch."

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