"right down the rabbit hole"
When everyone arrived down in the common room the next morning, the tension in the air thick. It was as though there was an invisible divide between the girls and the boys, preventing them from even being in the same area.
"Right, so we need to find Potters map," Daphne took charge, her foul mood fuelling her authority over the Slytherins. "So, first, what does it look like?"
"It looks like regular parchment, and then sometimes it would have a red Hogwarts castle on the front. It said Marauders Map on it." Draco said, trying to remember as much as he could.
"Didn't the Weasley twins use to use that a lot?" Blaise asked him.
"Yes, that's why Filch might have it. If he confiscated it from them, or even if Harry just left it lying around somewhere, Filch would have swept it up and claimed it."
Pansy looked at him intently, "anything else? Or are we just looking for some generic parchment with the castle on it? Because if we are, that's not much help."
"They used to say something to almost turn it on..." he trailed off, stamping his foot on the ground, "they had to turn it on and off. Merlin what was it?" He paced up and down, "give me a second."
"Don't worry Draco, we've got all day. No hurry at all." Daphne rolled her eyes at him, watching as he paced back and forth, and back and forth and back and forth.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
"Nice to know, but we don't really care," Theo patted his friend on the shoulder encouragingly, "but come on, think harder."
"No you idiot!" Draco raised his voice, "that's what they said, the tapped their stupid wands and said I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
"What about turning it off then?"
"We can figure that out later." Pansy exclaimed, "we have bigger problems for now."
"Right," Daphne began, filled with a tiny bit of hope, "where could it be then?"
"Peeves probably has it," Theo said, shifting the weight between his feet, "Draco or Pansy should take that one, Peeves is afraid of them, if not, they're scary enough that they could get the Bloody Baron to scare Peeves for us."
"Peeves isn't the only one," Daphne scoffed under her breath. "Right, Draco and Pansy go do that," she knew Pansy could keep Draco in check, and she didn't want Draco near her or Astoria.
"It could be with Filch, if Peeves hasn't stolen it." Astoria said quietly, "I could deal with Filch."
"I'll help," Theo offered before Astoria had even finished, "Filch hates me, so I can be a great distraction."
Daphne glanced at Astoria, raising her brows, "does that work?"
Astoria nodded.
"Right, then that leaves me and you," she turned to face Blaise, "to go and search McGonagall's Office."
"Last time we went near McGonagall's Office went great with all six of us, so two will be a right treat!" Blaise laughed, shoving Theo jokingly.
"Well.... we can figure it out." Daphne shook her head, "if we fail, we all go back tonight and search the office, okay?" Everyone nodded, "right so come back here when you're done, and someone please come with this bloody map."
After a few moments, the group disbanded, wands in their pockets and goal on their mind.
"So," Theo began as he walked next to Astoria, "what was all that?"
"What was what about?"
"You know...last night." He smiled awkwardly, "and then just there, Daphne."
"Did you not hear my little moment?" She tried to laugh it off.
"Well, yes." Everyone had heard it, though only a few knew exactly who it had been. When the other students began to gather in the common room, it was all they could talk about, and soon, it would likely be school gossip. "I just didn't....well. I don't know what to say."
"It's okay," she took a deep breath, "I just had a bad night." She tugged at her sleeve, pulling it over her palm.
"I get you," he looked at her, "I get them too sometimes."
Almost all of the Slytherin students did. Even if they hadn't directly been involved in the war, they had heard enough to know what it was like, they had spent enough time with their likely pureblood families to have been on the wrong side of the war. If you listened close enough, there was almost always someone within the castle crying, and more often than not, they were in the Slytherin common room.
"Anyway, how are we going to go about Filch?" He changed the subject, sensing it might be for the best.
"I think we can just see if he's there first," she said quickly, grateful for the distraction, "and if he isn't I'll go in and look, you keep watch and distract him if he comes back."
"Sounds easy enough, me and Filch always have a lot of chat about!"
"But," Astoria added, "if he is there, you distract him and take him somewhere, tell him Peeves is causing problems again, he would be more than happy to go and annoy Peeves. And then I will look again. Did Draco say it had the castle on the front or not?" She had never actually seen the map and her memory was certainly not the finest today.
"Red castle. Marauders Map, tap it and say I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." He recited to her, causing her face to drop in shock, "I've been practicing Miss Greengrass." He faked a bow at her.
"You certainly have," Astoria was impressed, "you should put some of that effort into your subjects, it would probably help a lot."
"Or I could Nott!"
Astoria stopped, rolling her eyes.
"Get it. It's funny, because it's my-"
"Theo shut up."
"Well that's rude, you might not appreciate my comedy but some pe-"
She cut him off again, "no, wait." She held her hand up at him, "can you hear that? If she held her breath, she could hear some kind of low growl.
"No, Astoria I don't hear anything. Maybe all that screaming last night burst your ear drums." He shot her a smile, "or maybe you are just aging not so gracefully."
Astoria rolled her eyes, but she let herself smile at his joke, "anyway, Filch's office is right up here so let's go. You go first and see if he's there."
Theo happily went in front, peering into Filch's' Office, "all clear, but if Mrs Norris shows up," he shook his head, "I am out!"
"Fine by me!" Astoria too had a well justified fear of Filch's cat, Mrs Norris. "Keep a lookout, and preferably a good one."
"I'm not Pansy, you don't have to tell me. I learnt all my skills from the best," Theo brandished a golden smile before beckoning her into the office. "Remember to say I solemnly swear that I am up to no good, that way you can see if any of the random pieces of parchment are actually the map."
"Good idea." She stepped into the small office, pulling out her wand and beginning her search. The office was a mess, parchment was sprawled all across the desk, barely visible under the dim glow of the hanging lantern. Filing cabinets lined the walls, letters falling out of them onto the wooden floor.
"Merlin," she whispered to herself. Where to even begin?
Astoria took out her wand and began tapping it against random pieces of parchment, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." She repeated several times to no success. She trailed around the office aimlessly, tapping at every piece of parchment she saw until she noticed a label on one of the cabinet. "Confiscated and Highly Dangerous, sounds perfect."
She reached her hand deep into the cabinet, "Lumos," the tip of her wand illuminating the contents.
"Oh!" She heard Theo exclaimed loudly outside the door, "Filch!"
"Shit," she grabbed a handful of items from the cabinet, shoving them into her pocket, "Nox." The light from her wand as quickly extinguished.
"Peeves is just that way! I think he was scaring Mrs Norris again!"
Astoria almost laughed upon hearing how theatrical Theo was being. She peered her head out of the door, watching as Filch stalked away angrily.
"Astoria, time to go!" Theo turned hot on his heel, grabbing her hand and pulling her away down the corridor. "Did you find it?"
"Not sure," she shook her head as they speed walked away, "I just grabbed what I could see when I heard you yell that Filch was coming."
"Fair enough, let's go back to the common room and have a look."
In silence, they made their way back to the Dungeons, the pair sitting themselves before the roaring fire as Astoria reached into her pocket, pulling out the parchment and placing it all on the floor.
"I guess we just test it all and hope we find the map." Theo said, getting to work as he pulled out his wand.
Astoria sat, legs crossed as she brandished her wand and followed suit, repeating "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," with every motion of her wand.
She hadn't realised how much parchment she had managed to grab in the rush, but as they made their way through the pile, it didn't take long for her to tire. Most of the parchment seemed enchanted in some way, insults scrawling themselves across it once it landed in Astoria's hands, but none of it seemed enchanted in the way she needed.
"Hello, you two," Pansy smiled, walking into the common room and taking a seat on the floor beside them, Draco following behind her.
"Any luck?" Astoria asked them, continuing in her work.
Draco and Pansy shook their head, "Peeves was useless, if he knew anything he hid it well."
"We tried just asking him if he had seen anything in the castle, but he just kept throwing things at Professor Binns," recalled Draco, "he didn't have any useful information."
"Hopefully Daphne and Blaise come back with something, or you two get through that stash of parchment."
"Would be nice if you could help?" Astoria held up a piece of parchment, offering up to Pansy who quickly shook her head.
"No way."
"Not after we just had to deal with Peeves," added Pansy, "I need three working days to recover."
"Then be quiet so we can work." Theo instructed them, holding up his finger to the pair.
Astoria and Theo kept working for what felt like hours. Astoria's mouth felt dry, her arm hurt, and her brain was tired of being insulted by every piece of parchment.
"Alright, we fucked it." She turned to see Blaise storming into the room.
"No surprises there," Pansy rolled her eyes.
"Couldn't get into McGonagall's Office, so you better all have done better." Daphne sighed, plopping herself down on the floor beside her sister.
Pansy and Draco shook their heads.
"We haven't finished yet, we have about ten more parchments so if it isn't here, we're fucked." Theo said with a sigh, taking the next piece of parchment.
Astoria tapped her wand against the parchment, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
And again.
And again.
Astoria repeated the process so quickly, she barely noticed when something finally happened.
"Wait-" She turned to see Blaise watching over her shoulder, "go back one."
She picked up the parchment from her discarded pile as everyone began to gather around her.
"Look at that!"
Astoria watched as thick lines of ink began to spread like spider's web, blossoming across the parchment.
"Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs. Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers are proud to present The Marauders Map." She read, tracing the words.
"Who are they?" Daphne asked.
"Wack names if you ask me?"
"Whoever they are... we thank them."