"Psst -- Harry!" He turned, halfway along the third-floor corridor, to see Rory, Fred and George peering out at him from behind a statue of a humpbacked, one-eyed witch.
"What are they up to now?" McGonagall asks looking at the screen.
"What are you doing?" Harry asks curiously. "How come you're not going to Hogsmeade?"
"We've come to give you a bit of festive cheer before we go," Fred said giving him a wink.
"Come in here" Rory pulls him toward an empty classroom to the left of the one-eyed statue followed by Fred and George. George closes the door quietly and then turns, beaming at Harry.
"Early Christmas present for you, Harry," he said as Fred pulls the map from inside his cloak with a flourish and laid it on one of the desks. It was a large, square, very worn piece of parchment with nothing written on it. Harry looks at it thinking it's some sort of joke.
The Marauders all look at the screen with wide eyes now the map was being fully shown.
"Sorry" Rory mutters to them.
"What's that supposed to be?"
"This, Harry, is the secret of our success," George said, patting the parchment fondly.
"It's a wrench, giving it to you," Fred said,
"but we decided last night, your need's greater than ours." Rory adds smiling at him.
"Anyway, we know it by heart," George told him proudly. "We bequeath it to you. We don't really need it anymore."
"And what do I need with a bit of old parchment?" Rory rolls her eyes as Fred answers him.
"Old parchment" James looks at him shocked.
"A bit of old parchment!" Fred says closing his eyes with a grimace as though Harry had mortally offended him. "Explain, George."
"Well... when we were in our first year, Harry -- young, carefree, and innocent --"Harry snorted. "Well, more innocent than we are now -- we got into a spot of bother with Filch."
"We let off a Dungbomb in the corridor and it upset him for some reason--" Fred adds "So he hauled us off to his office and started threatening us with the usual"
"detention disembowelment" Rory say mocking Filch
"Aurora Potter" Lily scolds.
"Knew I'd prefer her memories" Sirius says smirking.
"and we couldn't help noticing a drawer in one of his filing cabinets marked Confiscated and Highly Dangerous" George finishes.
"Don't tell me --" Harry says starting to grin at them.
"Well, what would you've done?" Fred says smirking "George caused a diversion by dropping another Dungbomb, I whipped the drawer open, and grabbed this."
"So that's how you got it Miss Potter" Professor McGonagall says looking at her.
"It's not as bad as it sounds, you know," Rory adds looking at Harry's face before George finishes.
"How is that not as bad as it sounds" Molly asks.
"We don't reckon Filch ever found out how to work it. He probably suspected what it was though, or he wouldn't have confiscated it."
"And you know how to work it?"
"Oh yes," Fred says still smirking "This little beauty's taught us more than all the teachers in this school."
"You're winding me up," Harry says looking at the ragged old bit of parchment.
"Oh, are we?" George says as he takes out his wand, touched the parchment lightly and said "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." And at once, thin ink lines began to spread like a spider's web from the point that George's wand had touched. They joined each other, they crisscrossed, they fanned into every corner of the parchment; then words began to blossom across the top, great, curly green words, that proclaimed: Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers are proud to present THE MARAUDER'S MAP, It was a map showing every detail of the Hogwarts castle and grounds. But the truly remarkable thing were the tiny ink dots moving around it, each labelled with a name in minuscule writing. Harry bends over it looking astounded. A labelled dot in the top left corner showed that Professor Dumbledore was pacing his study, whilst Filch's cat Mrs. Norris was prowling the second floor and Peeves the Poltergeist was currently bouncing around the trophy room. And as Harry's eyes travelled up and down the familiar corridors.
"It's your map. That's how you hardly get caught" McGonagall glares at the Marauders.
"There's a few hidden passages" Rory tells him "And that one there" She points at the one closest to them as Fred finishes what she was saying.
"Leads right into Hogsmeade," Fred said, tracing one of them with his finger. "There are seven in all. Now, Filch knows about these four" he points them out "but we're sure we're the only ones who know about these. Don't bother with the one behind the mirror on the fourth floor. We used it until last winter, but it's caved in, completely blocked. And we don't reckon anyone's ever used this one, because the Whomping Willow's planted right over the entrance. But this one here, this one leads right into the cellar of Honeydukes. We've used it loads of times. And as you might've noticed, the entrance is right outside this room, through that one-eyed old crone's hump."
"Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs," sighed George, patting the heading of the map. "We owe them so much."
"Noble men, working tirelessly to help a new generation of lawbreakers," Rory say solemnly.
"You are my favourite kid" James smirks at her along with the other Marauders.
"James" Lily scolds.
"Right," George said briskly.
"Don't forget to wipe it after you've used it or anyone can read it," Fred said warningly. "Just tap it again and say, 'Mischief managed!' And it'll go blank. So, young Harry," Fred says, in an uncanny impersonation of Percy, "mind you behave yourself."
"See you in Honeydukes," George says winking at him as they all leave him stood there gazing at the miraculous map.
"Right boys let's go I need a nice butterbeer with my two best friends" Rory says putting an arm around each of them.
"What no Wood today" George smirks.
"Not today I'm spending the day with my best friends but if they don't stop smirking in a minute I might change my mind" She glares at them playfully before they all burst out laughing and head towards the carriages that take them to Hogsmeade. After a butterbeer they head to Zonko's so the twins can restock before spending the rest of the day wandering around the random shops spotting Harry a few times with Ron and Hermione. Rory also notices a black dog watching them both from an alleyway making her roll her eyes.
"You roll your eyes a lot" Fleamont says looking at his granddaughter.
"Generally when people are being stupid"
Rory finds the Willow already frozen when she reaches it and enters the tunnel underneath and follow it to the Shrieking shack. She knocks the door gently as Sirius opens it before opening his arms for her which she walks straight into wrapping hers around him.
"Hey Uncle Padfoot" She smiles up at him.
"I'm Uncle Padfoot" Sirius says smiling at James.
"Hello little wolf"
"Thank you for the jacket by the way I love it. I've got something for you" She pulls away from the hug and reach into my bag.
"You didn't need to do that"
"Nonsense, it's freezing and you're here alone so I definitely did" She pulls out the jumper and blanket first "Here, I'm afraid the jumpers one of Dudley's old one's but the blankets one of my favourite and amazingly warm" He takes them smiling at me before throwing the jumper over himself.
"You are a truly amazing person Rory" Sirius said hugging her.
"Thank you Aurora but I don't want to take your blanket from you what if you get cold"
"Padfoot I have like 10 blankets don't worry about taking one" She laughs before pulling out some books next "I dunno if you actually want these thought it might give you something to do" He takes the books and places them on the small table.
"Thank you I'll definitely read them"
"And lastly" She pull out the food and sweets handing them to him "I just grabbed some different bits of food and some of my favourite sweets" He looks like he could cry.
"Thank you Little Wolf what did I ever do to deserve you. You definitely inherited you dear mothers kindness"
"You don't deserve to have to live like this Pads, if anyone does it's that bloody Peter Pettigrew" He pulls me into another hug.
Peter looks down avoiding the others eyes.
"You better get back to the castle don't want you getting in trouble now do we"
"I'm always in trouble. I even got detention for a week on my birthday for throwing fireworks at Filch" She smiles at him.
"Just like your father, I am so proud"
"Sirius Black, do not encourage my daughter"
"In all fairness she doesn't seem to need encouraging" He winks at Rory.
"So was Moony he just tried to hide it"