My sincerest apologies for the time between updates. I managed to fall ill and was unable to work on this story. I really hope you guys like this chapter and please let me know what you think!

Chapter VI

It'd been seven consecutive days without their map—at least one week since they'd realized it was gone—and it was pure torture. Despite all effort to steer clear of trouble, they were forced to find alternative means to skirt around punishments for various indiscretions which they all claimed were unavoidable. While Peter decided to abstain from all less than professor-approved behaviors, James practiced sneaking around the castle via corridors that were not used as often by the majority of the Hogwarts residents. Remus had started relying on his prefect status more and more to get out of trouble. It worked quite successfully for him much to Sirius' chagrin especially when they were caught in the middle of performing a prank.

"I'm just saying that you could have vouched for me mate," Sirius grumbled underneath his breath.

"Next time you should try being nicer," Remus advised while grinning behind Sirius' back.

The four boys had spent quite a bit of time attempting to decide what they should do in regards to the map. They currently had no clue where it was, much less who possessed it. Despite the bleak outlook, there were a few options, they could either ignore the situation or they could make another one. Sirius was convinced that they'd figure out who had stolen it, although Remus seemed less than confident in their chances.

While he did doubt that they wouldn't see the map anytime soon, Remus didn't believe that whoever had it—if anyone—know how to use it. Remus himself had spent an enormous amount of time researching numerous spell combinations in order to get the map to function. They'd used so many that were uncommon which led him to believe that a random individual wasn't going to be able to figure it out. All four of them ended up pouring over a years worth of work into it which made it too far of a stretch for someone else to know the secret to encouraging the map to reveal itself.

"How are we supposed to pull pranks or sneak around the castle?" Sirius whined from the seat next to him. It was moments like these that Remus wondered why the girls at Hogwarts followed him around so much. There was nothing suave about whining.

"How are you able to call yourself a Marauder if you can't function without cheating?" Remus asked him.

"I used my wits to create a map. Having the intelligence to enable yourself to cheat successfully counts for more than enough skill to ensure that I'm a Marauder," Sirius argued. Remus rolled his eyes in sheer amusement as he continued working on the Arithmacy project they'd been assigned. When it became clear that Remus was ignoring him, Sirius started looking around the room until his eyes settled on Evans who was sitting in the back of the room.

For the duration of the next hour he spent it throwing balls of parchment at her. It was around the time that he lost count of how much he'd hit her in the head when there was an explosion in the room. It was so forceful that Sirius and Remus were thrown backwards from their chairs. The far wall stopped them, and they narrowly avoided the windows. The table that they'd been working at was left untouched; however the chairs and parchment were all on fire.

"What in Merlin's name?!" Professor Vector asked when she saw the commotion. Her tone had risen to such a degree that several of the students winced. By the time that Professor Vector had put it out, there were ashes left on the desk where Sirius' completed and Remus' in progress Arithmacy assignments had been previously sitting. After ensuring that the flames were subdued, she turned her attention to the two boys whom were lying crumpled on the floor still stunned from hitting the wall.

"Mr. Black, explain yourself please!" The professor demanded as he slowly began to sit up. Remus and he were both clutching their skulls, and Sirius assumed his friend was experiencing the same excruciating pain that he was currently enduring. Sirius only managed to stutter unintelligibly until Evans spoke up in what he deemed to be a "bored" tone of voice. His attention was pulled to her as she began to speak over him—not that he was saying much—in the same tone.

"Professor, the spell used is the result of the combination of two runes and an incantation. It's recognizable to anyone who studies Arithmacy as it is the beginning of an elemental spell. All students regardless of age are taught the dangers of invoking elemental magic without proper supervision and magical ability since it's' so volatile," Evans explained. By the end of her explanation, Professor Vector was nodding along in what Sirius saw as agreement.

"Mr. Black, I'm assuming you have no idea on how such a spell would have been cast in my classroom today?" Professor Vector asked in a sarcastic tone. Sirius wide-eyed began shaking his head although he already knew that it she didn't believe him. To be fair his reputation preceded him and it was entirely believable that he was at fault. He was mildly offended that the professor hadn't realized that he would have been both successful and gotten away with it as well. This did not look as though it would be decided in his favor. The professor walked down the aisle towards his desk, and after a quick glance she pursed her lips. She pointed towards the markings that were scratched onto the table.

"Two nights detention and three hundred sixty-five points from Gryffindor," she said ignoring the widening of his eyes. Every student in the room went slack-jawed, and even the Slytherin's had trouble overcoming the shock to show their glee.

"This is a dangerous spell for someone who is not prepared for the effects and a disruption in class to boot. You're lucky you didn't do any real damage to yourself or your classmates," she said as she walked back to her own desk.

"I am dismissing class for the day. You are all to begin researching the spell Mr. Black used. Anyone who is unable to write me a five foot essay on the subject will share the same punishment as Mr. Black," Professor Vector said. Everyone sat in stunned silence.

"Oh, Miss Evans, sixty-five points for the correct identification of said spell, and Mr. Black, one hundred points for demonstrating exceptional skill at Arithmacy." After she finished speaking Professor Vector walked out of the room leaving her students behind. Everyone turned to glare at Sirius the moment she was out of the room.

"Nice going Black," a Slytherin growled. For once several Gryffindors also chimed in with their agreement. Despite Sirius' efforts to contradict them, no one believed that he wasn't guilty, and so he turned on Remus as the students filed out of the class room.

"You believe me right?"

"To be honest I wasn't paying attention to what you were doing. You do have the magical ability to have performed the spell along with the intelligence to do so," Remus admitted with slight hesitation with an apologetic look.

Sirius didn't know whether to feel insulted by his friend's lack of faith or complimented by the statement. He settled for chasing Evans down for an explanation. The girl had managed to make it a few corridors away, clearly heading towards the Entrance Hall.

"Want to explain yourself Evans?" He asked once he managed to catch up to her. She turned around and raised an eyebrow at him which only served to irritate him further. He didn't understand why she was acting so innocent, much less how she had managed to convince everyone else to think of her in such terms.

"Pardon?"

"Cut the crap. We both know I wasn't responsible for that spell," Sirius said. When she didn't say anything he continued speaking.

"Do you get off on being hypocritical? Is that what your form of sport is?" Sirius asked in a nasty tone. He was attempting to rile her up and thus earn a confession. In his experience when most people were confronted with accusations, or dealt with anger they typically were easy to catch in a lie. Sirius Black was long used to girls swooning whenever he spoke to them, regardless of whether he was flirting or not. The unlucky few who had incurred the famous Black temper had cowered before scuttling away. He had no reason to believe that Evans wouldn't react in the same manner.

He was entirely unprepared to see her smirk at him. It didn't look like a normal expression for Evans, and if he was forced to describe it, she looked like a Marauder. It was the same look that he or James would get after they'd gotten away with a prank.

"Black, it was an interesting spell, but you can hardly blame me for it," Evans told him. The tone of her voice oozed innocence despite the fact that she was clearly not denying that she was responsible. He opened his mouth repeatedly to attempt to find some sort of argument against the girl.

"Next time you decide to work on a complex spell you should probably focus on it, rather than throwing parchment at your classmates," Evans told him before walking away. He was so shocked at the grin that he didn't attempt to stop her. All he could think about was the fact that she had everyone around her fooled. Had he not seen her in their class, he would've been prepared to believe this was a prank that a Marauder was pulling on him. Without allowing him to lose any more time, he took off in search of his friends.

"She's responsible," Sirius stated once he'd caught up to them in their dormitory. Peter, Remus, and James were all giving him confused looks which to be fair were warranted considering he'd thrown the door open and blurted it out without any explanation.

"Who's responsible for what?" Peter asked confused.

"Evans. Evans is responsible for the prank that was pulled on us in the Great Hall. In fact I'm almost certain that she's responsible for it all starting in fifth year," he answered. Remus immediately groaned while James shook his head.

"Padfoot, come off it. We've talked about this; Evans is the most unlikely candidate. The girl is a recluse who coincidentally happens to be at the top of the class! There's no bloody way she'd have the stones to pull this off," James said in a very patient tone.

"Not to mention the fact that the pranks you're talking about would require more than one individual to be successful. One person wouldn't be able to pull them off, much less avoid getting caught for six consecutive years."

"I'm not arguing that she did it by herself. I'm just saying that Evans is clearly involved," Sirius told the three boys.

"Sirius, is this about class?" Remus asked with a degree of hesitance.

"She was responsible for that and admitted to it afterwards," Sirius said trying to ignore Remus' sigh at his statement.

"I know you're upset about losing over three hundred points, but mate—"

"You lost over three hundred points by yourself?!" Peter and James yelled. Sirius found himself sighing, as the conversation quickly veered out of control. This was not what he wanted to be discussing.

"It's not exactly unprecedented," Sirius said in his own defense.

"We've only managed to lose two hundred and fifty in one sitting, and that was with all four of us combined! Losing three hundred points all by yourself, is an entirely different story!" James yelled.

"It was actually three hundred and sixty-five," Remus muttered quietly, as Sirius shot him a murderous look.

"WHAT?!" Peter and James asked.

"It's not that big of a deal. I got a significant portion back myself, and so did Evans. So really I only cost the house about two hundred, well underneath the margin of precedent," Sirius said trying to give them a grin.

"No, considering that we accumulated that two hundred, which divided by the four of us is fifty points each, and we've never gone over a hundred in on sitting individually," Peter corrected.

"You're all missing the point. I was framed! Which lends credit to the theory that it really was Evans who has been behind the pranks that we've been competing with for the past six years," Sirius argued again.

"Mate, I don't think you're going to win this one at least not without more evidence. It's just too farfetched," Remus told him with a light pat on the shoulder. The topic was closed. Sirius knew that, and the boys were already turning to other plans that needed to be discussed.

"We have a group of Slytherins hunting first years again," James told him with a dark look marring his generally happy features. Sirius was dismayed to hear that information. It seemed that they had to take care of this issue each year.

"How many?" He asked.

"Four or five, and they seem to be a combination of second and third years," Peter answered.

"How'd you guys find out?" Sirius asked.

"Peter managed to catch two of them stalking a first year Gryffindor. They had planned on using him to test spells on. Thankfully neither saw Peter and he was able to use a Confundus spell on the two of them," James answered.

"Good job Peter," Sirius said with a small grin for the boy.

"Thanks Pads," the quieter boy said with a smile of his own.

"You guys want to prank them and make sure they stop. I'm on board with that, but if we pursue this we have to have a solid alibi. No one can suspect us of being responsible. The professors, and the Headmaster aren't going to deal with this type of vigilante student punishing other students, especially after what happened to us. Not only do we have to have an alibi, but it can't have our usual flare," Sirius said in a firm voice.

"What are you saying Padfoot?" James asked.

"We're going to have to be creative. I think we should model this venture after our competitor's style," Sirius answered. He changed his focus from Evans to the issue that his friends wanted to discuss. Sirius knew that the issue would have to be in the background for now.

"I don't think we should waste time with this. We're going to have to address it quickly," Remus advised them.

"Don't worry, we won't. Peter how do you feel about taking the lead on this venture?" Sirius asked.

"Me?"

"We're going to need someone who can trigger it without attracting too much attention, and provided you can avoid Mrs. Norris, I think you'll do just fine as the leader of this one," Sirius explained.

"What did you have in mind?" James asked.

"What are the spells that they've been using against the firsties?" Sirius asked.

"Oh I've got a list," James said going to grab it from his trunk. Overall it took them several hours to figure out what they planned on doing, and then another five to work out various kinks in the plan. James wanted to continuously revert back to their own formula for pranks, which Sirius insisted on staying away from.

"Mate this isn't going to work," James moaned the next day as he stared at Evans from across the room. Sirius wasted no time in kicking him underneath the table. The action prompted James to kick him back, and both boys were distracted by the fight that ensued.

"Prongs you have to do it," Sirius hissed as he kicked his best mate again.

"I'm telling you that it's not going to work!" This statement was met with James roughly being shoved out of his chair and into the middle of the aisle. The action prompted a few glances from various classmates, and even Professor McGonagall looked up from her teaching. She pursed her lips and switched her gaze from James to Sirius before glancing back again.

"Mr. Potter did you have a question?" She asked watching her favorite student with narrowed eyes. When he didn't respond or even acknowledge her, she looked back at Sirius who appeared just as confused as she felt. The entire class watched as James Potter walked up to the redheaded Gryffindor and pull her to her feet. Every mouth plummeted, including Professor McGonagall's as he kissed her without hesitation.

He then bolted.

After class ended, on his own way out of the room, Professor McGonagall stopped him.

"Mr. Black, I presume you will inform Mr. Potter that he has earned a detention—he can serve with you and Professor Vector— for cutting class and public displays of affection which is a violation of the code of conduct as well as twenty points for displaying bravado," she said before shooing him out the door.