by Child of Two Worlds
Disclaimer - Harry Potter was created by JK Rowlings, not me.
AN - Don't kill me if the time line is off. If you're certain (and I mean 110% sure) that you know the right year, then please tell me and I will change it. Thanks. ^.^
/italics/ - emphasised words
*thoughts* - what a person is thinking
Another day ended, as the sun set upon the snowcovered horizon one could watch the wind whipping around the top most layer of snow from a window in the Griffindor Common Room. The sky darkened from red to deep blue as the evening wore on. In the crisp, clear winter night the stars began to appear across the heavens. On the other side of the glass sat two boys, Peter Pettigrew and James Potter, diligently working on their homework with their backs to the evening view. Peter pulled his robes further down his arm to keep off the cold that was leaking in. The prime place to sit was in the cushioned chairs by the fireplace but it was occupied by a group of fourth years discussing the next Hogsmead visit. A few people looked towards the portrait hole as it was opened by a first year with dark hair. Among those who looked up some waved to the new comer. He waved back and walked over to the corner occupied by a certain Potter and Pettigrew.
"Have you seen Remus?" he asked them as he leaned slightly on the table.
James looked up from the scroll he was writing on, "Sure, Sirius, lots of times," he grinned.
"No. I mean lately," Sirius was not smiling back at James.
Peter looked up from his work, "Same time you last saw him: after Transfiguration. When he said to go on ahead because he had to talk to McGonagall about homework or something," he went back to scribbling on his parchment.
"He never came to dinner," James noted.
Sirius shrugged, "He's skipped meals before. Usually he's curled up in a dark corner of the library, reading up on some odd curses or something." Sirius' expression changed to one of frustration, "But he wasn't in the library! I checked all the dark corners!" He flopped into a chair opposite of the other two, "Even the dank ones!"
"And what about the dreary ones?" asked James with mock seriousness.
"Of course!" Sirius made a swipe at James' head that missed, and he fell back into his chair. Frowning, he added, "Then Fubster closed the library for the evening."
Peter's shoulder's slumped as he tightened his gripped on his quill, "So he's disappeared again."
"Yes, /again/," Sirius said absently as he looked beyond the other boys and through the window at the night sky where the full moon was rising. There was no sound amongst them except for the scratching of quills for several moments, "I feel like I'm missing something," Sirius stated.
"You are," James told him, "Page 147 of your Charms textbook."
Sirius shrugged, still ignoring the homework he had to do, "It made a good paper wad. There were no pictures to leak ink on me when I needed to-"
Peter interrupted him, "That's all well and good, but that page has the questions we have to answer for homework."
Sirius was unmoved by this comment, "What about your textbook?"
Peter blushed, "Th-the Slytherins stole it when we had that fight yesterday."
"We'll get it back tomorrow," James assured him with his trade-mark smile.
Sirius went back to staring out the window as he absent mindedly voiced whatever thoughts had wandered into his head, "I wonder if Remus is a werewolf," he said in the manner an artist might ask himself what certain color combinations he might create.
James and Peter's heads shot up with astonished expressions on their faces.
"Wh-what?!" was all Peter managed to say.
"Where did that come from?" James asked sternly.
"I was looking at the moon rising." Sirius said nonchalantly, "It makes sense."
James stopped writing and looked at Sirius , "The stream of consciousness, yes. The rest, no."
Sirius leaned over the table with an excited look on his face, "Think about it," he said eagerly. "He gets all out of sorts for about a week once a month and then shows up pale and all after he disappears."
"Pass me your ink Peter," James said as he went back to his homework, ignoring the mad gleam in Sirius's eyes.
"Here," Peter gave James the inkbottle as he continued to work diligently on his homework.
Sirius scowled at the two of them, "Are you two listening?"
Without looking up James replied, "In one ear and out the other."
Eagerly Sirius egged him, "Well?"
James continued writing, "/Well/ what?"
Unfazed Sirius continued, "What are we going to do about it?"
"Why don't you just check the registry?" Peter suggested before he realized he had been talking out loud. He sealed his lips almost before he finished the last word.
It was so simple. When someone becomes a werewolf they have to register themselves with the Ministry. If Remus truly was this dark creature his name would be written in the registry.
"Of course!" Sirius exclaimed.
"The library is closed," Peter said in what can best be described as a desperate whine, though he had wanted it to sound matter-of-fact.
"That hasn't stopped us before," James said.
*Who's side are you on?!* thought Peter with a startled look at James.
Sirius was on his feet in an instant, "I'll get your cloak," he told James.
Peter and James watched Sirius dash up to their dorm room. He took the stairs two at a time as he called hasty apologies to people he nearly clobbered. Those unfortunate people left in his wake called insults and warnings back to the first year while trying to regain their balance.
"You didn't tell him about your new hiding place did you?" Peter asked James with a sly smile.
"Nope," James said while examining his parchment, "It'll take him a good five minutes to find it."
"Five minutes is all I need to finish my Charms homework."
An uneventful four hours later the un-triumphant trio returned to the dark, deserted common room.
Sirius slipped out from under James's invisibility cloak and exclaimed in a voice that was barely contained in a whisper, "I can't believe Hogwarts doesn't have such a basic reference book as the Werewolf Registry!"
Peter looked longingly at the couch near the fireplace where the coals from the fire were glowing warmly. However, James pulled him towards the stairs to their dorm. It wasn't a good idea for any of them to fall asleep down in the Common Room.
"It's not /that/ surprising Sirius. It was a long shot that Hogwarts would have such a book anyway," James said.
"It wasn't even in the /Restricted/ section!" Sirius hissed.
"Besides, what would students want with the Werewolf Registry anyway?" James asked pointedly.
Sirius glared at him.
"Let's go to bed," James told him, folding the cloak up. Peter was swaying on his feet a little ways from them. Sirius continued to fume as he slipped an arm under Peter's and led him upstairs. James followed closely to make sure their sleepwalking friend did not slip on the stairs.
Remus returned at lunchtime the next day looking like he'd given two pints of blood. In fact, there was a large bandage wrapped around his fore arm. None of the boys had ever seen him this beat up, he looked like he'd been to hell and back riding a chimera. Wordlessly Remus sat at the table, oblivious to everything but the food.
"What happened to you?" asked Peter, eyes wide.
"Potions accident," Remus replied automatically before he shoveled food into his mouth.
Sirius scoffed at Remus's excuse, causing Remus to wince slightly in reply. James reacted by kicking Sirius under the table. Sirius cringed, biting his lip to prevent yelling in pain, and shot James a glare in response.
Peter, who was not participating in the battle under the table, looked around, perplexed. Remus sensed the tension but continued to eat the food on his plate.
Things didn't get anywhere, nor did they after lunch. They went to their classes of course but they weren't paying very much attention to what was going on because two things made it hard to concentrate. The first was Remus's most recent disappearance. The second was the fact that it was a Friday. (Those who were in their third year and up also had the Hogsmead trip the next day to occupy their thoughts.)
James, Sirius, and Peter tried to make light of Remus's escapade because it wasn't a very good idea to question him in the middle of Transfiguration (you might be able to get away with it in History of Magic, but otherwise it was better to wait for another opportunity.) However, a certain Serverus Snape had no intentions of leaving Remus alone when he looked his worst. The greasy haired Slytherin sauntered past the four of them as they were on their way to Herbology.
"Feeling ill, Lupin?" Snape drawled.
"I'm fine, Snape," Remus replied calmly, while Sirius and James prepared to deal with the rude intruder. The only reason Snape bothered with Remus was because he was friends with James and Sirius. (Peter was fun to torture regardless of who his friends were.)
"Truly, Lupin? Or perhaps you-" Snape was conveniently cut off by an upper-cut from Sirius.
"Back off, Snape," Sirius spat as he stood above the stricken boy, still prepared to defend his friend.
Severus stumbled back into the wall bringing his hand to his sore face. From his position on the wall he glared at the four Grifindors in front of him. A punch to the jaw was the last thing he expected, otherwise he would have made his comments from the safety of other Slytherins. Even with his knowledge of dueling spells, four to one were not good odds.
"Sirius," Remus said, putting his hand on Sirius's shoulder. The voice of reason pleading with Sirius to stop before the situation got out of hand or a teacher arrived (whichever came first).
"Yeah...well," Sirius lowered his fists.
"Let's get to class," James said in a commanding tone.
"Y-yes, o-otherwise w-we'll be late," Peter stammered.
As they walked away Sirius muttered, "Greasy git."
After Herbology the boys went to the library. Their various plans included research, a nap, getting extra credit for Potions, and sharing a not-so-well thought out plan to get a copy of the Werewolf Registry.
As soon as Remus was deep in the stacks and just before Peter was able use a copy of Hogwarts: A History as a pillow Sirius ushered them over to a little used area of the library that housed the school's copies of Wizarding Britannica.
"What now?" Peter yawned.
"I know how we can find out the truth!" Sirius said in an excited whisper.
James knew he should tell Sirius to drop it, but as much as he hated to admit it, he wanted to know as well. James just stood there looking at Sirius while Peter glanced back and forth between them.
Sirius took their silence as a cue to continue, "We'll go to Hogsmead's town hall and look in their records. They're bound to have a copy of the registry." Sirius was grinning ridiculously.
"Why don't we just ask Remus?" Peter put in.
"Ask me what?" Remus walked up to them carrying several books of varying degrees of disrepair.
"Where we can get information on the Belladonna we're covering in Herbology," James lied smoothly.
"Oh," Remus seemed less tense, "Well, you're looking in the wrong place. The books on venomous plants are two rows over." He pointed towards where he had come from.
"Thanks," Sirius grinned and led the way. The other three boys followed him.
Another confrontation had been averted.
Sirius's thoughts kept him awake that night. *How can we get a copy of the registry?*, he wondered. For such a simple suggestion it had complicated problems. He knew Hogwarts didn't have a copy and he realized that there was no guarantee that Hogsmead would have one either.
Frustrated, Sirius sat up and drew back the crimson curtains. With a glance he knew that no one else in the room was being kept from sleep like he was. Carefully he lowered his feet to the cold floor and padded over to the bathroom to get some water. It was not longer very late at night but actually very early in the morning.
*Why didn't we just ask Remus?* It seemed the longer it went that he thought about this theory the harder it became to even consider asking Remus. The boy was already sensitive about a few things, such as schoolwork, and the issue seemed to grow enormous. *If Remus was a werewolf and we knew about it and told him would Remus bite us and want us to become werewolves too?* Sirius sipped him water. *What would /he/ do if he was a werewolf?*
Quietly Sirius slipped back into bed. As he stared up into the shadows of the canopy he knew he had to come up with a plan. Tomorrow was the Hogsmead visit and he only had a few hours to think of something that would keep Remus busy all day.
When the sun rose, Sirius still did not have a plan that would last more than two hours and did not require some fancy broom flying. So the Hogsmead trip went off as planed with no little firsties slipping in between the older students.
It wasn't until two weeks later than an opportunity came. Remus never showed up for History of Magic that afternoon. Sirius took this as one of Lupin's infamous disappearing acts. "James," he hissed.
"What?" James looked up from his notes.
"Remus isn't here," Sirius was trying to be stern but a grin threatened to break out.
"How observant of you," James smirked.
"Shut-up and listen!" Sirius hissed.
"Last time I did that I wound up with detention," James rolled his eyes.
"Look, I'm sorry that I put too much yeast in the potion but this is important!" Sirius slammed his fist on the table
Although the loud thump drew the attention of the other students (and Sirius waved merrily in response to their curious expressions), Binns didn't even pause in his lecture about the goblin rebellions. Soon after the class was lulled back to sleep by the monotone ghost.
James turned to Sirius with a stern look on his face, "Fine, I'm listening,"
Peter looked at both of them with apprehensive interest.
"Here, read this," Sirius passed them a parchment covered in doodles, scribbles, and blots of ink. It said: Okay, this is how we should do this. Remus has disappeared again, so that means he won't be back until the morning.
"Wait, I don't know..." James said after reading just that bit.
"What if he's in the hospital wing?" asked Peter rather desperately.
"I'll check after class, but I doubt he's there. It's the class before dinner. He's always gone the last period and shows up the next day." Sirius countered.
"But there's no full moon tonight," James whispered and looked at his notes.
Sirius faltered at this comment, "Um...well that doesn't matter. He's gone, so we should...take advantage of this opportunity..."
Peter snorted.
"/What?!/" Sirius glared at Peter.
Peter cowered, "Y-you - the last time-"
"Stop thinking about the last time I did something and concentrate on what's happening now!" Sirius barely contained his voice in a whisper. The more alert students kept giving him nervous glances. James's posture of hunched shoulders and an unfocused stare told Sirius that James wouldn't listen him to anymore. And there was no way that Sirius would try to convince Peter because he would be too scared to do anything without James.
Sirius remained in an annoyed state until the end of class. As soon as the bell rang he dashed out of the room without saying anything to the others. Peter and James watched him run out, but shrugged it off, and went to the common room.
A half hour later, Sirius showed up in the Common Room. "Did you see Remus?" he said, in between ragged breaths. It sounded like he had sprinted from the Potions Dungeons to the Griffindor Tower.
James didn't want to answer him and he didn't have to, Peter did it for him.
"No," said Peter.
"Good," Sirius said, "I've checked the library, the Hospital Wing, /and/ McGonagalls office."
"You /would/ check her office, you've been there often enough," said James.
Sirius shrugged, "Leave no stone unturned," his eyes glittered with suppressed glee, "Now let's go!"
"Where?" asked Peter.
"To Hogsmead, the registry should be there. We've got a few hours before the offices close if we skip dinner."
"I'll get my cloak," said James.
"What?!" exclaimed Peter.
James gave Sirius a hard look, "I'm going to prove you wrong Sirius. You've been stuck on this ever since you suggested it, and I'm going to prove you wrong. This registry will be the final answer, and there will be no way that you can accuse Remus anymore." With that said he went up to their dormitory.
"Wait," said Peter, "How are we going to /get/ to Hogsmead?"
"Well, see there's this door, you know what a door is, right?" Sirius teased.
"We can't just waltz into Hogsmead under an invisibility cloak!" Peter exclaimed.
"Who said 'waltz'? I'd just walk." Sirius pretended to be nonchalant by shrugging but wound up smirking at Peter anyway.
Peter sulked until James came back down from the dormitory. From there the three of them left the Griffindor Common room.
In an empty corridor they slipped under the cloak and made their way out of the castle.
The sun wouldn't set for an hour. They were that lucky at least.
The trio walked as fast as they could down the path while remaining under James's invisibility cloak. The snow was piled all around them but they left no footprints on the shoveled road. When wizards get rid of unwanted snow they do a thorough job. The ground itself was so cold and hard that it could pass for muggle pavement.
"There has to be an easier way to get out of the castle," Sirius muttered to James.
"Yeah, with all those wars between Hogarts's construction and now there has to be a secret escape route, or /something/," said James.
"But would the passages be into or out of Hogwarts," wondered Peter as he rubbed his mittened hands together.
"Who cares, as long as they're easier than this the next time we have to leave," said Sirius.
"N-next time?" stammered Peter.
" 'Course!" Sirius grinned.
"Shh!" James hissed, "We're near the gates, so we have to be extra quiet."
The boys walked slowly past the great stone pillars with the Hogwarts crest on the top. The huge iron gates were open and they could see the lights of the town of Hogsmead down the road. When the entrance was a safe distance behind them James whispered to the other two, "Let's go!"
"Alright!" Sirius wooped and they went as quickly as they possibly could down to the town.
"You know," said Sirius, "We should have changed our cloaks before we left."
Peter looked absolutely terrified, "W-what if we get caught?"
"We're wearing your basic black cloak," said James.
"It just has the Hogwarts crest on it," said Sirius groused.
"Oh no! We're going to be caught! Let's go back!" Peter whined.
"No! We've come this far already. Besides," James grinned, "We're under an invisibility cloak! No one is going to see us anyway."
"Oh," Peter said, embarrassed.
Sirius was shaking with silent laughter, even though he had forgotten that no one could see them up until that point.
James poked Sirius in the ribs, "You don't exactly have a perfect memory, Sirius."
"I never claimed that," Sirius replied with mock innocence.
"What about when we were making that itching potion?" James raised an invisible eyebrow at Sirius, "I believe you said: 'Yes, I'm sure it was yeast! I remember it exactly! Trust me! /I know what I'm doing!/' "
"Yeah...well...that explosion was pretty cool," Sirius mumbled.
"So were the detentions we got," James replied.
"You have to admit, though. We've never seen those trophies that shiny," put in Peter.
"And you'll never see it again," grinned Sirius.
"Until the next time you try to smoke the Slytherins out of their common room," smirked James.
Once again Sirius was prevented from making a rebuttal by a hand over his mouth. The trio had arrived in Hogsmead. The busy wizarding town was settling down for a late supper and tea for the evening. There were not as many people in the streets as there would be during the daylight hours. Sirius, however, still needed to be silenced so as not to attract attention to disembodied voices. After a bit of walking, carefully avoiding people and animals, the marauders arrived at Hogsmead's town hall.
The building itself stood three stories tall and was obviously supported by magic, the third floor looked much larger than the second. The entrance was imposing, like the doorway to a gothic cathedral, with wizards and witches walking up and down the stone steps. Cautiously the boys drew up to the door and entered with a tall wizard who was wearing a black business cloak. The foyer was large with marble floors and high ceilings. In the middle was a large desk with a witch dressed in a bright green cloak behind the counter. Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun at the top of her head. They couldn't see her face because she was concentrating on something on the desk in front of her.
"Too bad we can't ask for directions," Sirius whispered. The other two nodded.
James pointed to a directory. It showed a list of all the departments, the Mayor of Hogsmead being at the top and the office of the custodian at the bottom. On the bottom half there were several storage rooms listed, the library of public records among them. That contained various censuses dating from 500AD to the present and copies of wizard laws. This was the place they wanted. It was on the west side of the building and two floors down. Quickly as they could they left the entrance hall and followed the maze of passages towards the west.
"This is insane," whispered Peter, "We're lost."
"No, I just have to get my bearings," replied James.
"We're lost," confirmed Sirius who had a lopsided grin on his face.
"No, I've been in government buildings before. Give me a minute." James concentrated.
"This is unnecessarily complicated," commented Sirius.
Peter nodded.
"We should have just checked the lunar charts," Sirius said in a 'matter-of-fact' tone.
Peter looked absolutely flabbergasted, "W-why didn't you say that before?!"
"Shh!!!" insisted James, "We go this way." He led them down a long flight of stairs that opened into a dim hallway. After several more twists and turns they found themselves in a corridor with hundreds of doors running the length of the hall on both sides.
"Now what?" hissed Peter.
"We start opening doors?" Sirius suggested with a grin.
"All clear?" asked James.
After a brief pause Peter replied, "All clear."
The three of them became visible when James removed the invisibility cloak and stuck it in his pocket. They stood there, just looking up and down the hall until James opened the first heavy door and peered inside. It wasn't a very large room, there were books lining the wall on shelves of various sizes and in the middle was a small table and chair. James had been in /bathrooms/ bigger than this.
"See the lengths we're going to just to prove you wrong?" said James looking back at the other two who followed him into tiny room. Bringing his attention back to the task he went up to the shelf and pulled down a dusty book. It was a census from 530AD.
"Please don't plan on making a habit of this," Peter said in a pleading tone. He was looking into around the room at all the book yet his eyes kept darting back to the open door out of fear.
"I will," Sirius left the room and opened another door.
Peter returned to the hallway. He gave Sirius a suspicious glare, "Stop or make a habit of it?"
Sirius shrugged as he grinned, "I don't know. I thought I'd just wing it."
Peter rolled his eyes.
James was ten doors down from them already. "They should have put the census records in their own section," he complained.
"Why should they? Who would want to look?" Peter muttered.
"Alright, we have to think about this. These are the censuses in the library of public records. " James looked intently down the hall.
"Really? I thought-" Sirius started.
"Shut-up Sirius," James's patience had reached his limited. He wanted to see this record, prove him wrong and be back at Hogwarts before the next morning. "If the records in that room, " he pointed to the first door they opened, "are the first censuses and in that room," he pointed to the third room they entered, "are from the 6th century AD then we should go at least thirty doors down."
"Why thirty?" asked Peter.
James shrugged, "the plaques on the doors say when the censuses were performed,"
"Oh geez," Sirius hung his head, "/James/, you could have said something about that before." (A/N: If this were an anime Sirius and Peter would have fallen over and you would see their legs twitch. ^.^)
James had already started down the hall, "I could have,"
Angrily Sirius muttered, "I think he's inhaled too much dust. It's clogging up his brain,"
If you look closely at the doors you can see a small, dirty plaque hanging at the right height for an adult to read. The much smaller 11 year-olds were not tall enough to notice them at first.
Thirty-two doors later they reached the rooms containing the wizarding laws. Forty-six more doors later they were in front of a group of doors with plaques with the various registers for those things wizards needed licenses to perform, such as becoming animagi.
"This one," directed James. They entered a room that looked exactly like the other rooms, books lining the walls and a small table with a chair in the center. James skimmed the books eventually pulling down a large, leather bound book. Sirius helped him lower it onto the table without making too much noise. On the cover in raised letters read: Werewolf Registry of Europe.
"/Finally/," Peter breathed.
James opened the book and began flipping pages in the manner of someone who was looking for an address in a phone book. All the information was in neat columns: the names were listed in alphabetical order, last name and then first, the birth place, the birth date, the bite date, how many others the werewolf had bitten and how many it had killed and its last known location. When they reached the L's James began running his eyes down the page.
Suddenly, Peter made what can only be described as a high pitched squeak.
Sirius rounded on him, "What?!"
"T-the name-" Peter became very pale.
"Yeah?!" Sirius was very agitated. And for a good reason, high pitched squeaking after several minutes of silence would scare the begeezes out of anyone.
"It di-disapp-ppeared!" he stammered.
Sirius and James looked from ghost-like Peter to the book. Indeed the text on that page was shifting upward.
"What name was it?" James whispered, he was considerable paler than he was a moment ago.
"Lombardi," Peter told him, "I only saw the last name."
"Maybe it was natural causes," Sirius tried to assure Peter, but he didn't sound all too sure of himself.
"Shut-up Sirius," James turned to the next page, "Let's get this over with."
Sirius looked over his shoulder, reading the page along with James. Peter stood next to James but he was too scared to keep reading.
After a short time Sirius gasped and blood drained from his face. Peter saw this and whimpered, he thought another name disappeared but instead Sirius said, "It says Lupin, wrong?"
Peter looked page. There it was: Lupin, Remus J. Whales, England. June 13, 1959. August 23, 1964. 0 Bites. 0 Deaths. Hogwarts School of Magic. "It says Lupin," he said quietly.
Sirius looked severely disappointed, "I was hoping that I'd become illiterate for a few moments," he whispered.
James looked furious, "You wanted to know, and now you know," he spat.
Sirius could only nod silently. Peter just stared at the book on the table.
James sighed sadly, "I wanted to prove you wrong…but instead I proved you right."
Peter closed the book and Sirius helped him put it back on the shelf where it came from. "Well, now we know his big secret," he said as they left the room, "Do we tell him we know?"
Sirius nodded, "We should."
"Yes, it's the right thing to do," James said as he closed the door behind them, "so he doesn't have to lie anymore." James resolved as he threw the invisibility cloak over the three of them.
Entirely sobered up from the experience they went back down the hall from where they came. They may know the truth now but there was still the matter of getting out of the building and back to school.
In all the time it took to find the Werewolf Registry the Town Hall had closed for the evening. The halls were so dark that they kept tripping over each other. When James finally dared to perform the 'Lumos' spell a voice could be heard echoing down the far corridor.
"That sounds like Filch," whispered Sirius.
"You /would/ know," said Peter sarcastically.
"I like to think of him as-"
"Shh!" James hissed, interrupting Sirius.
Filch had just called out greetings, but to who? Another voice responded, deep and rich. "Argus, my boy, good to see you. How's Hogwarts holding up?"
"It would be much better if those little brats didn't drag mud through my clean hall ways," Filch replied with more humor than bitterness. He must be a friend of this man to respond so light-heartedly…for Filch.
"A custodian's work is never done," the other man intoned. "You want to stop in my office for a drink after I make the rounds?"
"Sounds great, Darren," Filch's voice sounded significantly less bitter. "Do you still have that Goblin Fire Whiskey?"
"I do, you know how long /that/ stuff lasts," Darren laughed. Filch laughed as well, though not as warmly.
The sound of the footsteps drew away from the boys and down another corridor.
"Let's follow them," whispered James.
"That's crazy," hissed Sirius.
"We'll be caught for sure," moaned Peter.
"Filch found a way in after this place closed. I don't think he'll spend the whole night here, so there has to be a way out," James informed them.
"What if he has his cat with him?" asked Sirius.
James shrugged, "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."
The trio followed the two custodians at a discreet distance. The two men seemed to be reliving some old memories.
"I haven't been down this particular passage since Dumbledore had me relaying messages during the war against You-Know-Who," said Filch.
"I remember. You'd come running out of the tunnel, past the bunker and up the stairs before you could blink," the man laughed, "You should have run marathons when you were younger."
"Some people don't have the option to pursue idle pleasures," Filch said in a voice that gave the impression he was on autopilot.
"Sorry," Darren said. There were a few moments of silence as both men thought of a different topic, "Nobody goes down to the bunker anymore. I'm glad we have no more use for it."
"It would make a great office," said Filch.
The conversation went from offices to cleaning supplies to stain removal. It would be a very interesting conversation for janitors but the 11 year olds didn't find it as engrossing. James kept the group going as he lead them down passage after passage, he had to keep Peter awake and stop Sirius from making gagging sounds when the conversation reached a low point. Eventually Darren finished his rounds of the lower floors, other security workers took the upper floors. (What would anyone want with census records anyway?) However, the boys could not return to Hogwarts yet. Argus and Darren needed to warm themselves up after such a daunting task as wandering the basement of the town hall. The three boys sat outside Darren's office while the two men examined the limits of drinking Goblin Fire Whiskey.
After what seemed like eternity and a day the door of Darren's office opened and out stepped a very drunk looking Filch.
"I have to make the midnight rounds, Argus," said a much more sober looking Darren.
"I'll see you in town, Darren," Filch slurred, waved to his friend and began weaving down the hallway.
Darren chuckled at Filch's antics and walked off in the opposite direction.
The trio followed Filch down several corridors. They were dead on their feet. Luckily Filch found the secret passage into the school, they were almost certain he was lost. It was part of a wall and the only reason you might suspect something was there was from the darkened area that was the result of many hands touching the same spot. Filch did his best to place the hand in this spot, it kept slipping, and slurred out the password, "phoenix tears". A section of the wall slid away and Filch lurched inside. Hurriedly the boys followed him in and the wall shut behind them.
When safely back in their dorm room, each boy collapsed on his respective bed. Not one of them was awake enough to change clothes, especially Peter who slept with his feet on his pillow. At least James had the presence of mind to stash the invisibly cloak under his blankets before falling asleep.
AN - I had wondered why no one had just checked the registry. It was so simple. In writing this I discovered a problem (as seen in this story). Where are you going to get a copy? I hope this was plausible, but I can tell you right now that they would not have discovered the truth this way, it's far too complicated. ::grin::
I hope I wasn't too mean to Peter. I know Sirius would love to tease him and the poor kid seems to have a studder. (Remember how Wormtail spoke in GoF?) He's also more cautious and doesn't have the self confidence of Sirius. He's your average wizard hanging out with two above average ones and a werewolf. I know all four of them were friends back then and I tried to show it. If it came out badly I'll make them nicer. ^.^