When the Moon and Stars Collide

Map

Two particularly bad full moons later...

Remus' P.O.V

I groaned as I sat up in the hospital wing, my arms and torso bandaged heavily. "Damn" I muttered, my face stinging from a thousand cuts. I noticed that James, Lily, and Peter were by my bed, "Where's Sirius?" I asked. Jame's face pinched as if he had sucked on a lemon drop. "Um" I raised an eyebrow, already fearing the worst. James pulled aside the curtain next to me. I gasped. Sirius was in the hospital bed, one black eye, a suspended probably broken leg, and a huge gash in his side. I avoided my friends eyes. "It's not your fault Remus" said James. I laughed bitterly. "Not my fault?" I mimicked harshly, "NOT MY FAULT?! SIRIUS HAS A MOTHER FUCKING SLASH IN HIS SIDE AND IT'S NOT MY FAULT?!" I was shrieking by now. James placed a hand on my shoulder placidly. "It was the WOLF Remus!" He said, shaking my shoulder. I winced as he prodded a new bruise. "Look Remus, I've told you before and I'll tell you again. GET. A. FREAKING. GRIP. IT. IS. FINE." piped up Sirius from the bed. I nearly sobbed with relief. "You're ok!" My voice came out a hoarse whisper. Sirius shrugged, wincing as a few of his broken ribs grated against one another. "Of course I'm ok, who do you think I am? A slimy git like Snivellus?" I sighed. "You see? THIS is why I still don't like you guys coming with me." Peter grunted. "How many times to we need to tell you Remus? We don't fucking care that you try to claw our eyes out every month. We don't care that you get PMS. YOU ARE OUR FRIEND." I snorted. "Hm" and instead of feeling happy that I had real friends, I did what any reasonable person would do. I took a sleeping draught and slipped into peaceful oblivion. At least for a little while.

James P.O.V

"Aaaahh bugger!" I complained, throwing my hands into the air in exasperation. Peter patted my arm. "Give him a break Prongs. He nearly killed Sirius after all. Think about what that does to a person." He said. I sighed. "Yeah I guess so..." Sirius looked at Remus' unconscious form. "Should we tell him that he slashed my left calf to ribbons?" He asked tentatively. " NO!" Just then, Madame Pomfrey walked in. "Mr. Potter, Mr. Pettigrew and Miss Evans, please leave the ward as Mr. Lupin and Mr. Black need their rest. They will be discharged later today." she said, applying more salve to a nasty gash on Remus' forehead. We trudged out of the hospital wing and headed to Potions. Its gonna going to be a long day without the other two. After lunch, we headed back down to the hospital wing, not caring about Charms. When we got there, we found that Remus was gone but Sirius was sitting up in his bed, waiting for something. "Where's Moony?" asked Peter. Sirius looked worried. "I don't know. Poppy let him out of the hospital and he just took off." he said. Peter shook his head. "Still feeling guilty I suppose." I shrugged. "Why? I can't even count the number of times we've said it was ok." Sirius gave me a look. "How would you feel if you were in his place James? How would you feel if once a month, something else takes over your body and mind, then makes it try to kill your friends?" he said. I sighed. "When you put it like that.." "Look, the important thing is that we need to find Moony before he does something to himself" I nodded. "Peter, you check the common room and the library, I'll take the astronomy tower and the owlery. Sirius, when she lets you out, check the Quidditch Pitch and the Shrieking Shack." They nodded. "Good, text me if you find him."

A Few Hours Later

Padfoot: Found him, he was huddled in a corner of the shrieking shack.

Prongs: Great! bring him back to the common room then. I have a plan

Wormtail: Uh oh

LilyForEver: James? What are you planning?

Prongs: I'll tell you if you go out with me..

LilyForEver: You TOE RAG! NO!

Prongs: You'll never know then :)

Once we had all settled down around a table I announced my idea to the rest of the Marauders. "So what if we made a map of the castle, the pitch, and the forbidden forest. But not just any map, no siree bob, STOP SMIRKING PADFOOT, Anyway, we can use a Homunculus charm on it so that it shows anyones location and where they are walking in the grounds." I said. Moony was the first to catch on. "And we can add their names on top of the footprints." he said. Peter was nodding slowly. "We should add all the secret passage ways too! and any magic spells that you need to access them." Sirius chimed in with his contribution. "Well then, we should make it so that only we can read it, or have a passcode or something." "Right! Lets get to it!" The next few months were dedicated to exploring the castle and recording new places. "You guys ready?" Remus asked once we had finally finished. We all held up our wands. "3...2...1..I SOLEMNLY SWEAR THAT I AM UP TO NO GOOD" I smiled as the ink swirled across the paper to form the words. Messers. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs are proud to present the Marauders Map. Sirius opened it with a certain degree of reverence. "Yes! YES YES YES IT WORKSSS" he shouted jumping into the air. "Shhh Filch's coming!" whispered Peter, pointing to some footprints getting dangerously close to us. "MISCHIEF MANAGED"