Countess

17. Ratatouille

"That's... " I looked at my sister who had started twisting the sleeve of her jumper. "Sorry. I didn't know."

He nodded slowly. I figured he might start reprimanding me for stealing it, but all he did was look at the map in his daughter's hand, maybe thinking about the good 'ol days before he realised one of his best friends was a homicidal maniac.

The room was so quiet I was starting to feel awkward. I wanted to leave, but I wasn't sure if we were allowed to yet or not. So, I stayed put, waiting to be excused. It was a long twenty minutes before anyone spoke again.

"Oop." Ramona straightened up, frowning at the map. "Dad, I think I broke it."

Lupin frowned in confusion. "That... shouldn't be possible. What's it doing?"

"Well, for starters, you're not on it, and secondly there's two of him." Ramona pointed at me. "See?" She turned the map over so it was facing the rest of us. Sure enough, there were two of me ── one dot placed in Lupin's office and one in the hospital wing, along with two Harry Potters and two Hermione Grangers both also in the Hospital Wing and down at Hagrid's hut. There was also a stunning lack of Remus Lupins.

"Well, we created the map so that the four of us wouldn't appear to anyone, except the other marauders," Lupin explained, taking a closer look at the map. "But I have no idea why we're seeing double, unless..."

I jumped, startling my sister. "We time traveled! Or... well, I guess we're going to anyway. Ha! And she said it wouldn't happen." I tried not to look too excited, but I couldn't help wondering what we were doing. Did someone mess up history so that only the three of us could fix it? Or maybe we were leaving secret messages to ourselves in the future?

"Awe, no fair!" Tilly complained. "Why do you get to time travel?"

"Because I caught Granger with the Time Turner first." I know I promised not to tell anyone, but the cat was pretty much out of the bag anyway.

Professor Lupin grabbed at the map so suddenly we all stopped short of what we were doing. He held it close to his face, like he'd seen something none of us could. His eyes kept going from the map to my sister and me. "That... that shouldn't be... it can't be..."

"Uh, dad...?" Ramona frowned. "You alright?"

He did look sort of ill, all pale and sweaty. Even more so than he had a moment before, which, now that I thought about it, was already fairly bad. But he didn't answer his daughter; instead he tossed the map on his desk. I caught sight of it when he did, but I didn't see anything off about it (besides there being two versions of Harry, Hermione, and me, that is). I wondered if... maybe, if Sirius Black had helped create the map, and if only the map makers could see each other... Or maybe he was just going mad. Call me selfish, but I was hoping it was the second one.

Professor Lupin ran for the door. "Wait here!" he called to us over his shoulder.

I looked at Ramona and Matilda, who both looked a little stunned. "Fat chance."

We followed him all the way outside without his noticing, to the big tree on the edge of the grounds, the one with the branches that start swinging when you get too close ── The Whomping Willow.

"Um, Professor, are you alright..?" Matilda asked, sounding like she was worrying for his mental well being. He did look a bit unhinged, and he was getting paler by the second. Part of me thought we should of gotten the school nurse Madam Pomfrey.

He picked up a long stick without turning around. "I thought I told you to wait in my office."

"You did," Ramona confirmed. She was frowning at her dad's back, looking the most worried of all. Of course she would be. She was his daughter.