Harry Potter Travels To The Past

Ch 8 - Snivellus, Detention and Map.

"Er, professor," asked James. Harry looked up.

"Yes?"

"Can you call me by my first name as well?"

"Yeah sure, why not?"

"Why though? Why did you call me by my last name, but call James by his first name?"

Dammit, Harry thought. When Sirius was alive, he always used to call him Sirius, so that's what came from his mouth. Harry obviously couldn't call James 'dad', so he saw Mr Potter as the first alternative. What answer could he give? He looked back at them and saw that Sirius was still waiting for an answer expectantly.

"Well, why are you calling your friend James now, when you called him Prongs earlier?" Harry hit the spot. He knew that anything animagus-related was top secret. Even McGonagall probably didn't know about it.

James's face turned red. "We'd rather not say," he said, after a moment's gap.

"But coming back to my question --" began Sirius.

"I'd rather not say," said Harry, repeating James.

Ah, the marauders, thought Harry. Always up to no good, fighting werewolves every month and sneaking around at night to create their map. Their map. That reminded him. He needed to change his name from Harry Potter, to Parker, so that the marauders wouldn't discover his true identity. His mind came back to the present, and he saw the two of them were turning to leave.

"Wait," said Harry.

"Yeah?" asked James.

"Please give me your map."
The two of them looked panicked.

"What map?" Asked Sirius.

"You know what I mean."

Sirius and James helplessly looked at each other.

"W-we don't have it," said James, hopelessly.

"Fine," Harry sighed.

Relief flooded through the two boys when -

"Accio marauders map!" and the parchment was in Harry's hands. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," Harry muttered.

"How did you know?" asked James, utterly bewildered.

"I'll bet you anything that Peter was the one who rat it out," snarled Sirius.

"It wasn't Peter," Harry confirmed. "I have my own ways."

Harry examined the map, recalling its layout, and how it worked. It had been years since he had used it, after all. Finally, he found his own dot. Sirius and James were waiting for Harry to give it back, but they soon realised that he wouldn't.

James was about to ask it back one again, when Sirius held out his hand, stopping him. I'll handle this, he mouthed to James.

"Please," begged Sirius, his voice so quiet that it was almost a whisper. "Please give us the map, I beg you." he was taking deep breaths between each sentence. "I'm so sorry for what we did today. We'll serve a month of detention," -- Harry raised an eyebrow, "but we need the map to live. Our heart," he took a deep breath, "and soul," another deep breath, "went into its making sir." Speechless, Harry watched Sirius's dramatic performance. He was mad even before being sent to Azkaban. "The map means the whole world to us sir, and we - we can't finish our Hogwarts career without it. We need the map to live. Please, I beg you, we'll do anything. Just give us back our map," whimpered Sirius. He forced tears to his eyes and began to (fake) cry on James's shoulder. James started to console him and gave Sirius a hug. He turned his back to the professor so that his grin (he did a poor job at concealing it) wouldn't be seen.

Harry stared at them for a few more seconds, then burst into laughter. James couldn't keep it in either, and also started laughing.

Sirius on the other hand, started reprimanding James for being such a terrible friend.
"James Charlus Potter, how the Hell are you laughing?? We both put our heart and soul into that map. And you're so cool when we are about to lose part of our soul? What kind of person are you?"

"Sirius Black, honestly. You. Are. So. Dramatic!" Harry wheezed.
Finally, when the three of them had calmed down, Sirius asked for the map once again.
Harry thought for a second.
"I'll think about it. Off you go."
The two of them groaned as they left the classroom, shoulders hunched.

Once the two had left and Harry was sure that the two of them weren't eavesdropping behind the door, Harry opened the marauders map again. Then, he muttered a spell, which changed the name of his dot from Harry Potter, to Harry Parker.