(A/N let me know if there are any mistakes in this. I did go through it twice and edit it but then again it's almost 1am for me)

. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .

It was common knowledge throughout the school that James Potter had a girlfriend. Lily Evans (about time to). Many girls had resulted to love potions out of jealousy of the stubborn redhead.

It was also common knowledge that both Sirius and James, famous pranksters across Hogwarts, did manage to have good grades, much to the annoyance of Remus. Nobody quite knows how they do, seeing as they are always missing lessons, either because of detentions or plotting/creating the next big prank, or sometimes they just felt like skipping. Since they weren't in the lesson they had extra time to learn how to identify certain spells, charms and potions, to help them with their pranks and mischief. This meant that they could tell what was a love potion and what wasn't.

It was around six o'clock at the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and the Gryffindor dorms were practically silent. Even the Marauders were. It was one of the only times of the day that the infamous trio were silent. Ish. (with some persuasion, they had managed to convince McGonagall to move peter out of their dorm since he had regularly been sleeping in other rooms anyway). Explosions were a common occurrence in the room, the ones that tended to echo through the corridors and cause dust and dirt to fall of the walls. So when it was three in the morning and bright colours, bangs, flashes and shouts reached their ears, nobody was surprised. Someone of Gryffindor a few years back when they began had pinned the instructions of a silencing charm to keep their noise out on the board with the quidditch trials paper on.

James woke up first, by about ten minutes. Despite what some people (Snape) say, he was not always lazy, apart from when he wants to be, and was normally waking up the others. One of their rules they had created back in their first year was that the first person to wake up had the right to wake up the others in any way that they wished, and since he was usually the first, he had that privilege, if you could call it that..

He quietly tiptoed out of his bed, and edged silently towards the bed of Remus Lupin. The messy haired teen frequently chose to wake Remus up first since Sirius could sleep through practically anything. They had tested it once. It takes a lot to wake him. 

James slowly reached over the bed and poked the lanky teen in the face, though it was rather gentle. He stirred slightly but then stilled and carried on sleeping. James rolled his eyes and forcefully tugged his blanket off of him, exposing him to the cold morning air.

"S'too early prongs... go back t'sleep," He rolled onto his other side and draped his arm over the bed, his fingertips lightly brushing the ground. 

"Remus, you're late to class and you missed the exam-"

He shot up into the air and accidentally rolled of the side onto the cold hard floor in his haste to get out of bed. 

"Wha- why didn't you wake me?" he ran towards the shower and then froze as he reached the door. 

"Wait, I don't have an exam today, it was yesterday, and... James its barely even light outside what the hell are you going on about?"

James felt a grin tugging at his lips. "Well I had to get you out of bed somehow didn't I? and besides the quicker we're all up the quicker we can eat and then go find some new passages.

They had almost finished what they had called The Marauders Map until Sirius had accidentally discovered a new passage that led to the trophy room whilst he was running from some particularly angry Slytherin fifth year. 

"Ugh, true. Well we still need to wake up Sirius," he sighed, glancing at the long, dark haired Gryffindor still tangled up in the sheets, his knee in the air and his arms thrown above his head. 

"Mhm, we can test out more things that wake him up. where's the list?"

Moony looked around and saw the corner of some parchment sticking out from under a discarded shirt.  He turned it over and saw it was the list. He grabbed the nearest quill to him and nodded at James, signalling to begin 

James first grabbed his wand off of the floor next to his bed. He stood for a few seconds before muttering levicorpus.

Sirius began to float in the air, upside down as though attached to a rope, hovering just above their heads, his hair falling limp in the air. He showed no signs of waking up. 

Remus scribbled something onto the parchment.

All of a sudden, James released the spell and Sirius came crashing down onto his bed in a heap. It was as though his sleep had been undisturbed. 

"N-not now rem... homework c'n wait till later..." he mumbled, and then rolled onto his side, lying on his front with his head buried in his pillow. Potter looked at his partner in the experiment with wide eyes, mirrored by the teen in question and he glanced down at the sheet and scribbled some new notes down.

"How the hell did he not wake up?" they didn't bother whispering since the knew that they could be shouting as loud as they could and he probably still wouldn't wake.

"Y'know what, just scream into his ear, that has to wake him, otherwise I have no clue." Remus said as James smirked and lowered himself to his best friend's ear. He took a deep breath and screamed as loud as he could, even Remus had to cover his ears with his hands. 

"Nygh...get away from my hair..."

He buried himself deeper into his pillow.

Remus rolled his eyes at the mention of his hair.  He was all was going on about his...hair...and how it's apparently so amazing and...and nobody but himself could be in its... presence and all that...crap. Of course, now it made sense to Remus. He knelt down next to jams and whispered softly into the still sleeping teen's ear: "Sirius, haven't you seen the state of your hair?" 

His eyes snapped open as though he had been electric shocked,also causing the other two in the room to jump.

"Whats wrong w'my hair?" he screeched, trampling over his crumpled up clothes from yesterday in his rush to get to the mirror. His hair looked as perfect as always. 

Remus and James grinned and shared a knowing look, and they wrote it down in capital letters, finalizing their experiment. 

"There's nothing wrong with my hair, what d'you mean?" he said confused.

"Nothing, we just wanted to wake you up."

Sirius was not impressed.

. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .

Once they had all showered and dressed, they had gone down to the great hall so snag some breakfast off of the food-filled tables. Since it was only half six, there was barely anyone there, save for the odd student doing some last minute revising or doing their homework that was due today, and a new professor they had only seen around the school, they didn't know what she taught.

Carrying their stacks of toast, they made their way to the fourth floor, where they stood between two empty classrooms. 

"Gideon told me the other day that he came across some fourth years walk through here, round the corner and vanished, so we both assume they went through a passage, or got kidnapped, one of the two I don't know." Sirius shrugged his shoulders when Remus gave him a look saying you've got to be kidding me.

"Fabian also told me yesterday that there's an entrance to a tunnel on the fifth floor to second. Maybe it runs into the one that might be here? He doesn't remember which portrait it was behind though, since he was in a rush to get to the great halls for some reason," James contributed as they walked towards the corner where the students had vanished.

The corridor was empty until they heard a hiss from somewhere below them.  They looked down to see Mrs Norris, trying to bite their ankles as Sirius will later claim.

The shuffling of footsteps soon followed. Filch.

"What're you doing 'ere ay? Sneakin' around so early in the morning," His eyes narrowed at them. "You 'ave no business bein' up to early in the morning, nobody else is up, so why're you then eh?"

"Getting to lessons early so we have some extra study time for our exam coming up." Remus lied easily, not quite trusting the other two to say anything.

Filch gave them one last glare before picking up the evil cat and hobbling down they corridor, muttering under his breath. "Come on my sweet, we'll find out what those pesky troublemakers are up to, yes we will, my sweet, ought to punish the lot of them..."

As soon as he was around the other corner out of earshot and sight, the three boys peered over the now opened map of the school. 

"Stupid Filch, whats his problem? Why's he up so early is the real question, all he does is talk to that mangy cat of his and stalk people. Honestly"

Remus us rolled his eyes at Sirius though silently he agreed. he looked over Padfoot's shoulder. The map showed the grumpy caretaker stalking up the stairs, most likely to complain to Dumbledore about them. 

"Coast is clear for now so c'mon lets go"

The corridor really was empty now, apart for a few benches and a portrait of some wizards sleeping .

"Must be behind the portrait then, don't know where else it could be," Sirius walked up to the portrait and tapped on the canvas, startling the sleeping wizard sat at the table.

"What is the meaning of thi- oh valorous morrow to thee, young wizards, what endues thee to this practically deserted corridor?" he raised his eyebrows at Sirius. They had been speaking to portraits long that they knew roughly what they were all saying, since most of them were from around the 10th century.

"We're looking into the mystery of the disappearing students." He said, staring the portrait in the eye.

"Disappearing? I bethink I would hath't did notice if 't be true people did start to randomly disappear in mine own corridor. 't is a rarity forsooth to see people down hither, mister-"

"Black." Sirius narrowed his eyes.

"And I think you know all about it, you see, we heard from Gideon Weasley-" The man in the painting paled slightly at the name, as Remus noticed.

"So you do know then?" he cut off Sirius, standing next to him and crossing his arms."You've heard of him haven't you? You know exactly whats going on here. We have a reason to believe there is a secret passage behind this door."

"Don't try to deny it" James added. "You lied when you said this corridor is always empty, because we've been down this corridor plenty of times before, yet we've never come across you. Care to explain that, mister portrait guy?" Sirius covered up his mouth to hide his grin at the nickname.

"Fine, I'll telleth thee, I swapped portraits with the usual portrait hither, lovely people they wast, which is wherefore thee hath't not seen me hither ere, and nay I wilt not telleth thee the reason wherefore, I hath't been sworn to secrecy on the subject. Thither may possible beest a secret passage behind hither? Doth not telleth anyone I did betoken thee though! 't is lacking valor enow those fourth years I assume thee wast talking about knoweth, only because they threatened me though."

Remus raised his eyebrow. As did the other two boys, who clearly didn't understand a word of what he had said. Clearly their knowledge on the language of ancient portraits had limits.

"Luckily for us I used a translating spell on him. Anyway basically he swapped portraits with the normal one here for some reason and also only us and those fourth years know, because they threatened him."

Sirius and James just stared. "Remus, did we ever tell you that you are amazing?" Remus smiled at his friends.

"I giveth up, just wend. Apace anon, don't needeth someone finding out about this,"

James looked at the map and saw a group of students just about to go round the corner.

"Quick quick quick guys, there's people coming."

The portrait swung open and the three Marauders ran through. It slammed shut, echoing through the old passage.

"You do realize that students appearing mean lessons are about to start, right?" Remus said, glancing at the map and seeing people walking down corridors, groups quickly becoming crowds.

"Yeah, well. We have History of Magic first so it really doesn't matter if we are late."

They walked down the passage, which started to go downhill.

"Okay, somewhere here the should be a passage exit, since we don't want to end up on the second floor." James said, grabbing his wand and casting lumos. The passage was quite dark but it was light enough to see the thick stony walls surrounding them. Gradually the path leveled out, unfortunately it split into two.

James pointed his wand down the left tunnel and saw that it was still going down hill.

"It's this way, this should come out somewhere near the classroom I think."

 Suddenly they heard a voice.

 Two voices in fact. Nearing and nearing.

"Prongs,"Sirius hissed, "The cloak." They ducked into an alcove in the wall and covered themselves with the invisibility cloak to hide themselves.

"...Is it ready yet? we need to make this perfect..."

"Yeah...nearly done...We'll show her..."

"How dare she steal Potter from us..."

They froze. They were talking about Lily.

"Lets just leave it here and go to class...."

"Alright, we need to be back before second period to finish it."

They walked further through the tunnel, pausing just in front of the older boys.

 "Did you hear something?"

They held their breath.

"You're imagining it, come on."

Eventually they were out of sight at the cloak was lowered.

"Moony, what was in the-" he had already ran to the cauldron, sniffing it and grimacing slightly at the smell.

 "It's a love potion."

"HOW DARE THEY-" James yelled, anger very much visible in his face.

"Woah calm down a sec prongsy. We can fix this. all we need is a Howler and we can use it that expose them infront of the whole school." Sirius grinned.

"...fine, c'mon, we can get it finished by lunch, and they we'll strike."

They smiled evilly at eachother, turning back around and heading to Gryffindor tower once again.

. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .

Lunch had finally arrived and the tables were covered in sandwiches, any flavour imaginable.

There was a severe lack of food actually being eaten. A lot of the students were nervous. The Marauder's hadn't been seen all morning and everyone including the staff knew what that meant.

Those who knew they had done absolutely nothing wrong were happily eating, knowing that what ever the Marauder's inflicted on the students had nothing to do with them.
Whose who had done something, not necessarily something the three mischief makers know about, but something they knew they wouldn't like, were way too nervous to be eating.

The Professor's were tense, internally counting down the time until their wrath reined down upon the school. That time was now.

An owl, it's feathers crown with white tips, flew into the table of which the professor's sat. Specifically Professor McGonagall.

She didn't need to open it or anything because she know it was about to start itself regardless.

A very familiar voice echoed through the hall.

Students of Hogwarts, it has come to our attention that illegal love potions are being made in secret passages, came Remus Lupin's voice.

This is not what the professor's expected.
It's certain that a lot of people in room had gone deathly pale.
Especially two certain Ravenclaw fourth years.

We will say this once and only once:
If we come across any love potions, we will not hesitate to prank the life out of you. We have the power to make the rest of your time at this school a misery, constant checking behind your back for someone or something to jump out at you, checking everything you own isn't cursed in some shape or form, testing everything you eat or drink to make sure it hasn't been spiked. James potter was not someone to be messed with when angry, as a matter of fact, none of them were.

Not that it would have worked, the potion that we found, which has been safely removed of, was made incorrectly. We cast spells on everything. We each eat or drink, to check if it's actually what it looks like it is, and we have had some questionable experiences with this. I swear that when I find out the person who put itching powder in my damn pumpkin juice I will not hesitate to- Remus cut Sirius off

The point is, we know exactly who you are, so you better get started on packing your bags girls because the next 3 years is gonna be torture for you. We promise you that.

Everything was silent, no one quite daring to make a sound, until-

By the way Minnie I finished the homework last night before you end up giving me another unnecessary detention, and no I didn't copy anyone.

Rustling was heard in the background, along side a few muffled shouts.

Sirius? Do you mind?

Not particularly-ouch not the hair moonykins, that's just low, even for you-

And what the hell is that meant to mean? You know what-

A high pitched scream was heard and then heavy footsteps followed.

Well that's all we had to say bye!

A yell of "Get those scissors away from me you demon" and the howler cut itself off, exploding glitter everywhere.

A hoot sounded, and dropped another letter that they had appeared not to notice earlier.

McGonagall opened it delicately, and saw that the inside was filled with three types in handwriting. One neat, one average and one barely legible.

A list of people caught with love potions, in our secret passages; the audacity of some people,

it read, followed by a long list of names.