𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘍𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘦𝘯: 𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘚𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘧 𝘏𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘳 𝘙𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘛𝘺𝘭𝘦𝘳...
« 𝙼𝚊𝚐𝚗𝚞𝚜 »
When I was sure I was far enough away from Professor Lupin and the Gryffin-dorks, I pulled the paper I'd stolen from him out to look at it; something was written on it again, but this time it wasn't insulting our potions teacher. Instead, in the same writing used by Mr. Prongs, it read:
𝑈𝑝 𝑡𝑜 𝑛𝑜 𝑔𝑜𝑜𝑑?
"Uh, yeah, I guess so." I suppose I should have been more cautious. The last time someone in this school started talking to an inanimate object… well, it didn't go over very well, let's put it that way. But I also really wanted to know what else this thing could do. Why did Professor Snape think it was so bad?
Mr. Padfoot wrote to me next, followed shortly by Wormtail and Moony (seriously what was with those names?).
YOᑌ ᕼᗩᐯᗴ TO Տᗯᗴᗩᖇ IT
ʙᴜᴛ ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ᴊᴜsᴛ sᴡᴇᴀʀ ɪᴛ
𝒮ℴ𝓁ℯ𝓂𝓃𝓁𝓎 𝓈𝓌ℯ𝒶𝓇 𝒾𝓉.
I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, fine, alright. I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good."
What happened next was one of the strangest things I'd ever seen at Hogwarts. The paper slowly started filling out, until every inch was covered in ink: a map of the school. Here and there, little dots were sprinkled over the parchment, labeled with the names of, what I guessed was every person in the school, including Mrs. Norris and Filch. Over the front it said: Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot & Prongs are Proud to Present the Marauders' Map, which I had, at first, accidently read as 'The Murderer's Map.'
It was a very concerning five minutes before I was finally able to understand.
"Whoa! Is this in real time?" I held the map closer to get a better look. Most people were still coming back from the Hogsmeade trip, so there were a bunch of little dots and scribbled names in one place. I spotted Foggie among them, and Tilly, according to the map, was on the move to meet her friends. I couldn't find Nina, but maybe she was hidden in the crowd somewhere. "Cool! Potentially problematic in the wrong hands, but cool!"
I wondered what to do now that I had this "Marauders' Map." Obviously, I was meant to use it to cause trouble. But what sort of trouble would these horribly named individuals have had in mind? It sort of reminded me of something the Weasley Twins might have gotten into (who knew maybe they were two of the Marauders?), so I imagined they intended it to be used for, like, pranks and stuff. But I wasn't very good at that, so I'd have to think about it a bit.
The map must have somehow sensed I was done with it, because the image of Hogwarts castle was replaced with the words: Mischief Managed?
"Yeah," I said. "Mischief managed. For now at least." And just like that, it was an old, blank piece of parchment again.
◎━━━━━━◎━━━━━━◎
The next day was pretty hectic. First off, Nina was very bad at listening to her father and kept hanging around me even though he said not to. Which was both cool and scary, because I didn't want her dad to kill me. She'd been spending most of her time with Fin Hagrid though. Apparently the Hippogriff that had broken The Rich Twit's arm had lost his trail and now he was being sentenced to death. Nina was trying her best to comfort her friend, or at the very least keep the very tall, very angry, very scary girl away from The Rich Twit, who kept running his mouth every two seconds.
Rhys Macnair, a fellow Slytherin student that I had never really noticed before now, had been acting shifty since the news of Buckbeak's fate had spread throughout the school. I figured it was because their dad was going to be the one to do the deed. I caught them trying to apologize to Fin on the way back from CMC that day.
"I'm sorry," they were saying. "I've tried to make him see reason, but…" They looked a little like they might be sick.
Fin shrugged. "S'not like yer gonna be the one who does it."
"Yeah…" But Rhys still looked upset over the whole thing; in fact they almost seemed more pissed off about it than Fin did, which was saying something.
"Hey, Foggie, how come we don't talk to Rhys?" Because I couldn't actually think of a reason not to.
"We're anti-social?" Foggie suggested.
"Good point."
"Look at him blubber!" The Rich Twit and his friends were standing in the doorway, listening in on a conversation Hagrid was having with the Golden Trio and laughing like it was super funny.
Fin started to charge the little twerp, but Nina held her arm out to stop her (though I had a feeling Fin could barrel right through Nina if she wanted to). "Fin, no. It's not worth it."
"It'd be a bit worth it." Fin glared at the back of The Rich Twit's head as if she were trying to burn a hole through his skull.
That look of pure hatred only intensified when The Rich Twit kept going, "Have you ever seen anything quite as pathetic?"
"Yeah. You," Foggie told him. Rhys snorted with laughter; Fin seemed to appreciate the comment, small as it was.
But The Rich Twit wasn't paying attention. He just kept being an ass. "And he's supposed to be our teacher!"
Fin took a step forward, but someone beat her to the punch. Literally. Hermione Granger moved like lightning with a battle cry of, "YOU FOUL, LOATHSOME, EVIL LITTLE COCKROACH !"
Next thing anyone knew, Draco Malfoy was flat on his ass, blinking up at the muggle-born girl with a look of pure blooded confusion and a pure bloody nose. Behind him, his friends were looking around dumbly, trying to do the math in their heads. 'So… one idiot running his mouth plus one angry muggle-born equals… a lot of pain?'
When The Rich Twit got up and ran away, I swear he said something like "my father will hear about this!" but no one else remembered that part.
Fast forward a little while later, I was on my way to Charms class when someone ran into me. We both fell to the floor, our things scattering.
"Sorry, Magnus…" It was Hermione. She was pretty civil considering at Christmas she'd been saying how I was just another untrustworthy Slytherin, but that could have been because of how tired she looked. She had bags under her eyes and her head kept flopping to one side like she was trying hard to stay awake.
I was just wondering how long it had been since she had slept properly; I didn't mean to say it out loud, honestly, but I said, "You look like crap."
"Wow. Thanks for that." She huffed and started picking up her books.
I winced and tried to help her, but she just snatched the books from my hands when I gave them to her. "I didn't mean it like that…"
"And just how was I meant to take it?" she demanded.
"I just meant… oh, never mind. It was rude, sorry."
I tried not to be too offended at her look of genuine surprise. Like "wow, Slytherins can be self aware? Who knew!"
"Well, um, I was just on my way to see Flitwick to apologize for missing class today… " she told me.
"Cool," I said. "Hey, is this necklace yours ── wait a second is that what I think it is?" Her eyes widened, and she tried to grab the golden chain before I did. I was faster. Sure enough, it was exactly what I'd been expecting: a small hourglass pendant stuck inside this spinning sphere, dangling from the chain. A Time-Turner (it was just like it sounded, a magic necklace that actually turned time backwards).
"Where did you get one of these?" I asked, holding it out of her reach when she tried grabbing it back. I will admit I was super jealous. I'd wanted one for years, but they were super hard to come by because the Ministry had them all on lock down. They were super dangerous if used incorrectly, but I mean… come on. Time travel. How was that not cool?
"Professor McGonagall loaned it to me, so I could get to all my classes! And I'm not supposed to tell anyone about it, so if you don't mind, I'll have it back now!" She held her hand out, giving me a look like that reminded me all too much of her Head of House.
"Okay… but, just hear me out ──"
"Magnus Pettigrew, you give me back my time turner!"
"Well, don't shout about it in the halls if it's a secret. Anyway, just listen. Wouldn't it be really cool to, like, go back in time and do a real life reenactment of Back to the Future?"
"No," she said, putting her hands on her hips. "It would not be 'really cool.' It would be stupid and irresponsible, not to mention illegal."
"Nah, anything's legal so long as there's no law enforcement around."
She did not look amused. "Time turners are very dangerous. They must be used responsibly or else ──"
"Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. Space-time continuum and bad stuff happens to witches and wizards who use it wrong, blah, blah, blah, but… come on! Who doesn't wanna go hang out with dinosaurs or somethin'? I mean, you've really never used this thing for anything besides homework?" The look on her face told me all I needed to know. "Seriously? I thought you Gryffin-dorks were supposed to be daring! Where's your sense of adventure, Granger?"
She rolled her eyes at me. "I don't have time to adventure! Just hand it over now, please."
"If you've been time traveling you could literally make time. The laws of physics are basically your bitch."
She sighed heavily and shook her head. "This is exactly why people like you should not have Time-Turners."
"What's that supposed to mean?" I swung the golden chain out of her reach again when she lunged for it. Maybe I was being mean now, but I didn't want her to leave the second she got it back and not explain that comment.
"Oh, you know what I meant," she said, rolling her eyes.
"No, I don't actually. You mean Slytherin? Or homeless thieves?"
"I ─ I… oh forget this!" Hermione yanked her wand from her pocket and waved it in my direction. At first I thought she was about to hex me, but instead she said, "Accio, Time Turner!"
Before I could do much about it, the golden chain flew from my hand and into hers. She looked back at me smugly. "Hey, calm down, we weren't supposed to learn summoning charms until next year!" Hermione just stuck her nose in the air. "Fine, but you realise I can totally use this to manipulate into doing anything I want right?"
She raised an eyebrow, not at all concerned. Maybe she was planning on hexing me if I tried. Gryffindors tended to get a bit hex happy when they felt threatened. I should know, my sister was one of them. "No really. Watch: I'll tell everyone about that thing unless you promise to take me with you when you go on a time travel adventure."
"I'm not going ──"
"Right, yeah, but when you do ──"
"I'm not going on any time travel adventures!"
"── you have to take me with you. Or else."
She rolled her eyes again. I suppose she was just too tired to argue, because she said, "Fine! Alright! Whatever. If ──"
"When."
"If I go on a trip through time for anything besides school work I'll let you tag along. Happy?"
I grinned. "Very happy actually, thanks for asking."
Hermione huffed. "Right. Well, if that's all…" She turned on her heels, stalking off down the hall, either abandoning her mission to see Flitwick or forgetting she wanted to talk to him after running into me.
"We're not all Draco Malfoys, you know." I don't know why I said that. It wasn't like I cared about Slytherin's bad rep. I was just getting real tired of people comparing me to the likes of that twat. "Some of us are actually decent human beings. Yes, we do exist in places that aren't Gryffindor. I think you lot might take notice of that if you ever talked to anyone outside your house for a change." I said that last thing every bit aware that the only people outside Slytherin I talked to myself was my sister and Kip. But whatever. We've already established that I'm a hypocrite back in chapter one!
"And by the way," I went on, maybe just to drive my point home, "you don't have anything to prove. So, I think you could stand to drop a few classes next year if they're making you that tired." I left her there, standing with a look of pure confusion, like she couldn't believe anything I'd just said. But whatever. Who cared anyway?