Harry and Ron set off up the High Street, Harry under the cloak.
"Where are you?" Ron kept muttering out of the corner of his mouth. "Are you still there?This feels weird"
"You look nuts talking to yourself" Ginny laughs at her brother.
They climbed a slope to visit the Shrieking Shack. It stood a little way above the rest of the village, and even in daylight was slightly creepy, with its boarded windows and dank overgrown garden.
"Even the Hogwarts ghosts avoid it," Ron said as they leaned on the fence, looking up at it.
"Rory doesn't" Fabian Prewett said smirking at her.
"I asked Nearly Headless Nick he says he's heard a very rough crowd live here. No one can get in. Fred and George tried, obviously, but all the entrances are sealed shut"
"They never tried Ron, they weren't really interested in it" Rory tells him.
They heard voices nearby. Someone was climbing towards the house from the other side of the hill, moments later, Malfoy had appeared, followed closely by Crabbe and Goyle.
"Oh look its Crabbe and Goyle Jr" Barty Crouch Jr laughs.
Malfoy was speaking.
"should have an owl from Father any time now. He had to go to the hearing to tell them about my arm about how I couldn't use it for three months" Crabbe and Goyle sniggered. "I really wish I could hear that great hairy moron trying to defend himself 'There's no 'arm in 'im , 'onest -' that Hippogriff's as good as dead"
"You're so lucky I didn't hear about this Malfoy" Rory glared at him making him shrink into his seat a bit.
"I'm quite thankful of that to be honest" He muttered.
Malfoy suddenly caught sight of Ron. His pale face split in a malevolent grin.
"What are you doing, Weasley?" Malfoy looked up at the crumbling house behind Ron. "Suppose you'd love to live here, wouldn't you, Weasley? Dreaming about having your own bedroom? I heard your family all sleep in one room is that true?"
"Draco" Narcissa started.
"Lucius" Rory told her.
"Draco Lucius Malfoy, who do you think you are talking about someone else like that. I'm certain I never raised you that way"
"No mum you didn't. I'm sorry" Narcissa looks at Lucius.
"This is you, I swear you better be better this time around or I'm leaving"
Harry seized the back of Ron's robes to stop him leaping on Malfoy.
"Leave him to me," he hissed in Ron's ear. Harry crept silently around behind Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle, bent down and scooped a large handful of mud out of the path.
"We were just discussing your friend Hagrid," Malfoy said to Ron. "Just trying to imagine what he's saying to the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures. D'you think he'll cry when they cut off his Hippogriff's" SPLAT! Malfoy's head jerked forwards as the mud hit him; his silver-blond hair was suddenly dripping in
muck. "What the?"
The hall broke out in laughter as Draco hid his face.
"I call that karma" Ginny said grinning.
Ron had to hold onto the fence to keep himself standing, he was laughing so hard. Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle spun stupidly on the spot, staring wildly around, Malfoy trying to wipe his hair clean.
"What was that? Who did that?"
"Very haunted up here, isn't it?" Ron said with the air of one commenting on the weather. Crabbe and Goyle were looking scared. Their bulging muscles were no use against ghosts. Malfoy was staring madly around at the deserted landscape.
Harry sneaked along the path, where a particularly sloppy puddle yielded some foul-smelling, green sludge. SPLATTER!
Crabbe and Goyle caught some this time. Goyle hopped furiously on the spot, trying to rub it out of his small, dull eyes.
"It came from over there!" Malfoy said, wiping his face, and staring at a spot some six feet to the left of Harry. Crabbe blundered forwards, his long arms outstretched like a zombie. Harry dodged around him, picked up a stick, and lobbed it at Crabbe's back. Harry doubled up with silent laughter as Crabbe did a kind of pirouette in mid-air, trying to see who had thrown it.
By now most of the people in the hall were crying tears from laughing so much.
As Ron was the only person Crabbe could see, it was Ron he started towards, but Harry stuck out his leg. Crabbe stumbled and his huge, flat foot caught the hem of Harry's Cloak. Harry felt a great tug, then the Cloak slid off his face. For a split second, Malfoy stared at him.
"AAARGH!" he yelled, pointing at Harry's head. Then he turned tail and ran, at breakneck speed, back down the hill, Crabbe and Goyle behind him.
"Oh shit" Sirius exclaimed looking at Harry.
Harry tugged the Cloak up again, but the damage was done.
"Harry!" Ron said, stumbling forward and staring hopelessly at the point where Harry had disappeared, "you'd better run for it! If Malfoy tells anyone you'd better get back to the castle, quick"
"See you later," Harry said and without another word, he tore back down the path towards Hogsmeade. Back into Honeydukes, back down the cellar steps, across the stone floor, through the trapdoor
Harry pulled off the Cloak, tucked it under his arm, and ran, flat out, along the passage. Panting, Harry didn't slow down until he reached the stone slide. He left the cloak hidden in a shadowy corner, then started to climb, fast as he could, his sweaty hands slipping on the sides of the
chute. He reached the inside of the witch's hump, tapped it with his wand, stuck his head through and hoisted himself out; the hump closed, and just as Harry jumped out from behind the statue, he heard quick footsteps approaching. It was Snape.
"Snivellous" James and Sirius said I unison earning them a glare from Lily.
He approached Harry at a swift walk, his black robes swishing, then stopped in
front of him.
"So," he said. There was a look of suppressed triumph about him. Harry tried to look innocent, all too aware of his sweaty face and his muddy hands, which he quickly hid in his pockets. "Come with me, Potter" Harry followed him downstairs, trying to wipe his hands clean on the inside of his robes without Snape noticing. They walked down the stairs to the dungeons and then into Snape's office. "Sit" Harry sat. Snape, however, remained standing. "Mr Malfoy has just been to see me with a strange story, Potter" Harry didn't say anything. "He tells me that he was up by the Shrieking Shack when he ran into Weasley apparently alone" Still, Harry didn't speak. "Mr Malfoy states that he was standing talking to Weasley, when a large amount of mud hit him in the back of the head. How do you think that could have happened?"
Harry tried to look mildly surprised.
"I don't know, Professor." Snape's eyes were boring into Harry's.
"Aww he's trying to intimidate. He gave up doing that to me and the twins" Rory says smiling.
"Mr Malfoy then saw an extraordinary apparition. Can you imagine what it might have been, Potter?"
"No,"
"It was your head, Potter. Floating in mid-air." There was a long silence.
"Maybe he'd better go to Madam Pomfrey If he's seeing things like"
"Yes mini prongs" James and Sirius cheered.
"What would your head have been doing in Hogsmeade, Potter?" Snape said softly. "Your head is not allowed in Hogsmeade. No part of your body has permission to be in Hogsmeade"
"I know that. It sounds like Malfoy's
having hallucin"
"Malfoy is not having hallucinations," snarled Snape, and he bent down, a hand on each arm of Harry's chair, so that their faces were a foot apart. "If your head was in Hogsmeade, so was the rest of you."
"I've been up in Gryffindor Tower. Like you told"
"Can anyone confirm that?" Harry didn't say anything. Snape's thin mouth curled into a horrible smile. "So," he said, straightening up again. "Everyone from the Minister for Magic downwards has been trying to keep famous Harry Potter safe from Sirius Black. But famous Harry Potter is a law unto himself. Let the ordinary people worry about his safety! Famous Harry Potter goes where he wants to, with no thought for the consequences." Harry stayed silent. "How extraordinarily like your father you are, Potter, both you and your sister" Snape said suddenly, his eyes glinting. "He, too, was exceedingly arrogant. A small amount of talent on the Quidditch pitch made him think he was a cut above the rest of us, too. Strutting around the place with his friends and admirers the resemblance between you is uncanny."
"Oh it's on Snivellous" James said glaring at him along with Sirius.
"My dad didn't strut and nor do I."
"Your father didn't set much store by rules, either," Snape went on, pressing his advantage, his thin face full of malice. "Rules were for lesser mortals, not Quidditch Cup-winners. His head was so
swollen"
"SHUT UP!" Harry was suddenly on his feet.
"What did you say to me, Potter?"
"I told you to shut up about my dad!" Harry yelled. "I know the truth, all right? He saved your life! Dumbledore told me! You wouldn't even be here if it weren't for my dad!" Snape's sallow skin had gone the colour of sour milk.
"And did the Headmaster tell you the circumstances in which your father saved my life?" he whispered. "Or did he consider the details too unpleasant for precious Potter's delicate ears? I would hate you to run away with a false idea of your father, Potter" he said, a terrible grin twisting his face. "Have you been imagining some act of glorious heroism? Then let me correct you, your saintly father and his friends played a highly amusing joke on me that would have resulted in my death if your father hadn't got cold feet at the last moment."
"That's a shame" Rory muttered but Remus heard her and sent her a warning look.
"There was nothing brave about what he
did. He was saving his own skin as much as mine. Had their joke succeeded, he would have been expelled from Hogwarts"
Snape's uneven, yellowish teeth were bared. "Turn out your pockets, Potter!" he spat suddenly. Harry didn't move. "Turn out your pockets, or we go straight to the Headmaster! Pull them out, Potter!" Harry slowly pulled out the bag of Zonko's tricks and the Marauder's Map.
"Are you for real, why didn't you leave it with the cloak you idiot" Rory glares at her brother "4 years I had that and you didn't even last 4 months"
Snape picked up the Zonko's bag.
"Ron gave them to me. He brought them back from Hogsmeade last time"
"Indeed? And you've been carrying them round ever since? How very touching and what is this?" Snape had picked up the map. Harry tried with all his might to keep his face impassive.
"Spare bit of parchment," Harry shrugged.
Snape turned it over, his eyes on Harry.
"Surely you don't need such a very old piece of parchment?" he said. "Why don't I just throw this away?" His hand moved towards the fire.
"No!" Harry said quickly.
"So!" Snape said, his long nostrils quivering. "Is this another treasured gift from Mr Weasley? Or is it something else? A letter, perhaps, written in invisible ink? Or instructions to get into Hogsmeade without passing the Dementors?" Harry blinked. Snape's eyes gleamed "Let me see, let me see" he muttered, taking out his wand and smoothing the map out on his desk. "Reveal your secret!" he said, touching the wand to the parchment.
The Marauders and Rory all burst out laughing.
Nothing happened. Harry clenched his hands to stop them shaking.
"Show yourself!" Snape said, tapping the map sharply. It stayed blank. Harry was taking deep, calming breaths. "Professor Severus Snape, master of this school, commands you to yield the information you conceal!"
"Master of this school more like greasiest bat at this school" Rory said earning a slap on the back of the head from her mother.
Snape said, hitting the map with his wand.
As though an invisible hand was writing upon it, words appeared on the smooth surface of the map.
"Mr Moony presents his compliments to Professor Snape, and begs him to keep his abnormally large nose out of other people's business"
"I love you so much Moony" Rory whispers making him smile.
Snape froze. Harry stared, dumbstruck, at the message. But the map didn't stop there. More writing was appearing beneath the first.
"Mr Prongs agrees with Mr Moony, and would like to add that Professor Snape is an ugly git. Mr Padfoot would like to register his astonishment that an idiot like that ever became a Professor."
Rory looked at Sirius and James who both smirked at her.
Harry closed his eyes in horror. When he'd opened them, the map had had its last word.
"Mr Wormtail bids Professor Snape good day, and advises him to wash his hair, the slimeball"
"So" Snape said softly. "We'll see about this"
He strode across to his fire, seized a fistful of glittering powder from a jar on the fireplace, and threw it into the flames. "Lupin!" Snape called into the fire. "I want a word!" Utterly bewildered, Harry stared at the fire. A large shape had appeared in it, revolving very fast. Seconds later, Professor Remus was clambering out of the fireplace, brushing ash off his shabby robes.
"You called, Severus?" Remus said mildly.
"I certainly did" Snape said, his face contorted with fury as he strode back to his desk. "I have just asked Potter to empty his pockets. He was carrying this." Snape pointed at the parchment, on which the words of Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs were still shining. An odd, closed expression appeared on Remus's face. "Well? This parchment is plainly full of Dark Magic. This is supposed to be your area of expertise, Lupin. Where do you imagine Potter got such a thing?"
"From his sister" Gideon and Fabian said in unison.
Remus looked up and, by the merest half-glance in Harry's direction, warned him not to interrupt.
"Full of Dark Magic?" he repeated mildly. "Do you really think so, Severus? It looks to me as though it is merely a piece of parchment that insults anybody who tries to read it. Childish, but surely not dangerous? I imagine Harry got it from a joke-shop"
"Indeed?" Snape said. His jaw had gone rigid with anger. "You think a joke-shop could supply him with such a thing? You don't think it more likely that he got it directly from the manufacturers?"
"Nope he got it got it from the manufacturers offspring" Remus whispered making Rory laugh slightly.
"You mean, from Mr Wormtail or one of these people?" he said. "Harry, do you know any of these men?"
"No," Harry said quickly.
"You see, Severus?" Remus said, turning back to Snape. "It looks like a Zonko product to me" Right on cue, Ron came bursting into the office. He was completely out of breath, and stopped just short of Snape's desk, clutching the stitch in his chest and trying to speak.
"I - gave - Harry - that - stuff," he choked. "Bought - it - in Zonkos - ages - ago"
"Well!' Remus said, clapping his hands together and looking around cheerfully. "That seems to clear that up! Severus, I'll take this back, shall I?" He folded the map and tucked it inside his robes. "Harry, Ron, come with me, I need a word about my vampire essay. Excuse us, Severus."
Harry didn't dare look at Snape as they left his office. He, Ron and Remus walked all the way back into the Entrance Hall before speaking. Then Harry turned to Remus.
Professor, I"
"I don't want to hear explanations" Remus said shortly. He glanced around the empty Entrance Hall and lowered his voice. "I happen to know that this map was confiscated by Mr Filch many years ago. Yes, I know it's a map" he said, as Harry and Ron looked amazed. "I don't want to know how it fell into your possession. I am, however, astounded that you didn't hand it in. Particularly after what happened
the last time a student left information about the castle lying around. And I can't let you have it back, Harry"
"Why did Snape think I'd got it from the manufacturers?"
"Because" He hesitated, "because these mapmakers would have wanted to lure you out of school. They'd think it extremely entertaining."
"That's pretty true" Sirius said smirking at the other Marauders.
"Do you know them?" Harry said, impressed.
"We've met," he said shortly. He was looking at Harry more seriously than ever before. "Don't expect me to cover up for you again, Harry. I cannot make you take Sirius Black seriously. But I would have thought that what you have heard when the Dementors draw near you would have had more of an effect on you. Your parents gave their lives to keep you alive, Harry. A poor way to repay them gambling their sacrifice for a bag of magic tricks." He walked away leaving Harry and Ron alone.
"Bit harsh Moony" James said looking at his friend.
"It's true though" Lily interrupted.
"I think it's a good thing you took the map from him" Rory said looking Harry who smiled at her.
"I may have also lost it in my fourth year as well"
"What, you can't be serious right now" Rory looked at him with wide eyes.
"Prongs, mini prongs doesn't get the map" Sirius whispered to James.
"Agreed"