Never Cursed

𝔄𝔠𝔮𝔲𝔞𝔦𝔫𝔱𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔢

James Potter

Nevermore, October 1976

Here he is!" Sirius exclaimed, raising his arms to welcome James, "Our quidditch champion! Where were you mate? We waited for you – for like what?" he wondered, looking at Remus thoughtfully, "twenty minutes."

"Yeah, about that," The blond boy replied, raising his eyes from his book. He looked down at his friend. James was more tousled than usual, his cheeks red from the cold, but his eyes were bright with life. Remus smiled; it seemed that his friend hadn't gone unnoticed. From here and there in the cloistered garden where they took their meals, he could spot some girls glancing toward James.

"Sorry mates," James said, bowing mockingly under Pete's cheers. "Quidditch champion's got quite the intense training. I actually went for a jog and got lost," He confessed as he sat in front of Sirius.

Hogwarts' breakfast had always been the most delicious meals James had ever had. His mum cooked well – that was a fact for sure. But never would it measure up to Hogwarts elves' food. James reckoned they put magic in the dishes. Although after the jogging he had done this morning, through cold and humidity, he could eat pretty much anything.

"This castle is a real nightmare," he grumbled as he ate his scrambled eggs. How I miss Hogwarts' breakfast, he thought. "I don't know who had the idea to build a building as intricate as a spider's web!" James kept going, gulping down his glass of water.

"Yeah crazy," Sirius agreed unnecessarily.

"It's smaller than Hogwarts though," Peter said, quite smugly, "I got my way around pretty easily." The blond boy looked at them, pride shining in his eyes. After all, he did not often master something quicker than his friends.

James and Sirius exchanged a knowing look as Remus filled his plate with bacon for the second time – Moony was as predictable as ever.

"Well," James admitted prompting Sirius, "I guess we'll just have to get used to it then, won't we Padfoot?"

"I was thinking of creating a new Marauders' Map," Remus declared, as he sipped his black coffee. He would usually get English Breakfast tea with a spoon of honey, his favourite, but with the full moon so close, his sleep schedule was far too messed up to go caffeine-free for the day.

"A Nevermore Edition?" James exclaimed, clapping his hands on the table. It was Remus through and through, dropping the biggest bombs in his usual small-talk tone. "The Never Map! Or should we call it the Mapmore? I don't know, so many possibilities are opening to us!"

"With adapted changes, of course. There's no moving stairs, maybe no secret passages or–" Remus continued, too deep in his considerations to notice James's propositions.

"But to know everyone's whereabouts!" Sirius blurted out. "This is brilliant! Moony, you're truly one of a kind! A kind that I'm especially fond of, by the way," He added, a smirk drawing on his lips.

Remus rolled his eyes, yet unable to hide the blush blooming on his cheeks. Sirius apparently had no idea of the effect he had on him. He paused for a moment, focusing on his bacon, before nodding. "That's the idea," Remus said eventually.

Even if the Marauders' map had been dedicated at first to escape the naughty moving stairs, it had quickly turned into something else: to sneak out at night without getting caught by Filch, which had become Hogwarts' real national sport at some point; to find their way to Honeydukes for a chocolate refill; or even more importantly to come back from the shrieking shack unnoticed. But overall, to know everyone else's location, which was primordial for the Marauders to live up to the students' expectations.