Lucy's POV:
"What d'you suppose it is?"
"Maybe it gives instructions on how to prank..."
"Keep quiet!" Vanessa shushes us. She looks very curious and intrigued too, but she turns back to look at the twins.
We're watching Fred and George to see if they'll use the parchment again. That way, we might be able to steal it back and actual- ly be able to use it. There's no doubt it's a prankster's attribute, maybe it's from Zonko's!
"I swear, Minnie is a literal life saver," Vanessa whispers to me. And it's true. If Minnie hadn't been there, Snape would've punished me so much, just before the full moon and before the Christmas Holidays, on purpose. Just to be a bully, be- cause apparently, that is the one thing Severus Snape gets joy out of.
"You said shut up!" Liliana hisses at Vanessa, in fake offense. "Then you shut up too!"
"Sorry..."
"Oy, see that there, Freddie?" We all fall deadly quiet as George says this, but he's not pointing to us. He's looking at randomly appearing footprints in the snow, as if someone is walking there, but there is no one. Harry.
"I thought you had to Cloak," Liliana mut- ters in my ear, but I shake my head. I knew Harry had it: he tried to slip it away unnot- iced in the Common Room yesterday.
The twins share a knowing smirk and go up to invisible Harry. He doesn't seem to notice though, until they both grab him and drag him inside, to where we are.
"Quickly!" Liliana grabs our arms and we run off as quietly as we can. Luckily, we're gone in time and they don't notice us: the boys are all too busy.
"Get off of me guys!" Harry protests as his Cloak slowly slips off while he tries to wriggle himself free. "Let me go, I wanna go see Hogsmeade!"
"We know that Harry," George still smirks. "We're just here to help you. I'm surprised Lucy didn't tell you how to get there in better ways!"
"I didn't talk to Lu about this," Harry grunts and he stops protesting. He clearly realises it's no use to fight.
"I think I'll watch here," I tell the others. "Go ahead, I'll see you later. If I figure out anything new, I'll tell you as soon as I can."
The girls nod and disappear doen the halls again, to do whoever knows what. It still stuns me how they trust me without ques- tion, even though I can't recall a moment I gave them any real reason to.
"You should have asked her y'know," Fred tells Harry. "I hate to admit it, but she and the other girls know much more than George and I did after just two years here. And maybe they know even more than we think."
"She's still my little sister," Harry argues. "I don't want to have to rely on her for every- thing mischievous. But you're right, I guess."
"Yeah, we are," George says. "Now, onto business. Fred and I have something we want to give you. We were going to give it to Lucy and Ginny first, since they're prank- sters and our baby sisters, but we decided you need it too."
They see me as their little sister?! I'm so stunned I almost miss them grabbing the parchment we found and goving it to Harry.
"What's this rubbish?"
"What's this rubbish he says!" Fred laughs to George, who snorts. "This is our secret to how we manage not getting caught around here."
"It's parchment."
"It's a masterpiece," George corrects Harry with a stern finger. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." He taps his wand on the parchment and I can see it happen.
Ink appears on the map. I can't read it, but I don't need to, because Harry reads it out loud.
"Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs are proud to present the Marauders Map?"
My heart drops at once. Of course I recogni- ze the nickname immediately: Remus' nick- name, the one I use for him. Strange eno- ugh, Harry shows no signs of recognition. Did I never call him Moony around Harry? Apparently not, because he has no idea who Moony is, or any of the others.
I don't know who they really are, the others, but I can guess one of them is Sirius Black and the other is our very own dad, James Potter. They were Remus' friends and he always tells me Dad was a prankster, but Mom wasn't. Maybe the other one is Mom, but it could be someone else too. However, I don't know for sure and can't tell who'd be who.
"Is that...?"
"Dumbledore, pacing in his study," Fred grins at Harry. Harry is utterly stunned, but I can't see it clearly from this angle. "He does that a lot."
"So you mean this map shows-"
"Everyone."
"Everyone?"
"Everyone."
"Where they are-"
"What they're doing-"
"Every minute-"
"Of every day."
Holy hell, that is brilliant! I can already see how invincible we would be with that clever invention in our possession. I need to get hold of that bloody map.
The twins tell Harry all about the entrances to Hogwarts and routes to Hogsmeade and wear they end up, but I know this already.
They don't however, know the entrance through the Whomping Willow actually works. Harry keeps quiet, but I see the thought flash in his eyes: he of course knows. But he'd have to explain it to them and he can't do that without exposing me.
I already know all of these entrances by heart, but being able to see if anyone is coming would be a valuable thing when you're pranking someone. I decide to follow Harry to Hogsmeade today and maybe I'll find a moment to steal that map. It's a fairly easier job to get it from him than from the twins, after all. Also, I'd fancy a bit of fresh air, I don't often manage getting out of the castle unsupervised lately.
Harry goes to the entrance that leads to Honeyduke's, he has to, he's never been in the Whompung Willow and he knows it's dangerous. This gives me time to grab a hat and gloves in the dorms, since the passage in the Whomping Willow is shorter and I walk faster than him, since I know the route I'm taking well and he doesn't.
As I arrive, I know I'm going to have to find Harry first. He'll be here by now, closeby Honeyduke's still. I start to go out of the Shrieking Shack when I hear voices outside. I forgot people come to watch this place sometimes.
"Piss off, Malfoy!" I hear the familiar voice of Ron Weasley scowl. Ron and Hermione, obviously with Malfoy and his goonies.
*
Harry's POV:
I start throwing snow balls at the Slytherins and it becomes a whole game of them trying to figure out who's throwing at them. It is hillarious to watch them struggle and I can't help laugh. See, Lucy is not the only one who can be funny!
"Harry!" Hermione and Ron laugh and I show myself when the Slytherins are gone.
"How'd you get past the Dementors?" Ron asks me. Hermione looks worried, but she says nothing. She probably figured I'm not going back anyway.
"About that, I've got to show you someth- ing."
"We'd better go to the Three Broomsticks then," Ron suggests. "That'll be way warmer than here, outside. If you stay under the Cloak no one will see."
Hermione first tries to object, saying it is too risky, but in the end, she can't win this and we set off into the village. I first expected it to be like Diagon Alley, but I was wrong. Even though both places have the same magic hanging in the air and the air is buzzing with excitement, that is about where the resemblance ends. The ambiance is a key difference: where in Diagon Alley, people are wildly excited, but often to a point of stressful, Hogsmeade is buzzing with cosiness, peaceful happiness and ama- zement. The buildings are different as well: this is a real village, with little houses and small shops and people livingabove the shops: even in the cold winter, the place radiates warmth.
The Three Broomsticks is a small café where clearly all Hogwarts students go to, because it's fully packed. With some luck, we mana- ge to get a table in the back, so Ron goes to get drinks for us at the bar. Still more people enter the café, but I can't imagine there being much more places for them.
"It must be the start of Christmas break, making it so busy," Hermione sighs, uneasily looking around. "It's a good thing we have booths, or someone might try to steal your seat. God, this feels so crazy, talking to air."
"You're not talking to air, 'Mione, I'm still here. I promise." Ron comes back, the tension slowly disappears and we get into conversation.
"So, how'd you do it?"
"Fred and George gave me this," I shove the Map to them and they both look at it incred- ulously. Did my face look this funny when thry showed me? "It shows some secret passageways too. I took the one behind the statue of the One-Eyed Witch. It leads to the basement of Honeyduke's."
"Bloody hell," Ron stammers. He seems not to know where on the Map to look, his eyes going quickly over every detail. "Why didn't they show this to me? I'm their own brother, for Merlin's sake!"
"Thry said they were planning on giving it to Lu and Ginny, but decided I needed it more."
"You'll need to hand this over to McGonna- gall," Hermione says all of a sudden. Both me and Ron look up at her ridiculed.
"Are you mental?!" Ron scoffs. "D'you know how useful this'll be."
"That's the whole reason," Hermione argues. "What if it gets in the wrong hands?"
"I'm not leaving it around Malfoy's, I'm not that stupid!" I can't believe she'd ever think that low of me.
"I don't mean Malfoy, I mean someone more dangerous. Like Sirius Black, for instance."
That shuts me up instantly and Ron as well. She's got a point, if he finds this and opens it, I'm absolutrly doomed. But how would he?
"I havrn't shown you yet, but this thing closes and you can't open it with some random revealong spell. It has a real password."
"So he won't be able to open it!"
"Ron, you're just excited and want to keep it. What if he figures it out, or somehow knows?"
"How would he?" I ask, but just as I do, Ron and Hermione freeze, looking at something behind me. The door.
I hear their voices only a milisecond before Ron and Hermione both push me under the table at the same time, with the Cloak and my Butterbeer.
How could we be this stupid?! Of course the professors come here too, it's their start of the holidays as well. We should've seen this might happen. And if they discover I'm here, I'm done for.
The professors luckily don't see me and sit down at a table that just emptied, ordering drinks from the bartender, Madame Rosmerta.
"Ron has a crush on her," Hermione had told me once after their first time going here. He had denied it, but he turned suspisciously red. I can't blame him, she is a naturally charismatic woman and very pretty. Even some male professors and Cornelius Fudge look flustered.
Hold on, what the hell is the Minister of Magic doing here?! He's sitting with the professors, having an aninated chat with them.
"All those Dementors, swarming the place!" Madame Rosmerta scowls at Fudge. "They're chasing the customers away! I'm making less and less profit here, Mr. Fudge!" She isn't afraid to glare at him openly, which flusters him even more.
"Well, Rosmerta. You've got to see this from my perspective," he tries tp atgue, but he sounds weak. "We need this in place as protection, safety first!"
"Against Black? So you really think he's still here?!"
"We know he's still here, waiting his chance. We know he's headed for Hogwarts and he's awaiting his chance to get in."
"But what does he want at Hogwarts?"
She seems to be about the only person I know who doesn't know he's after me.
"He's after Harry Potter," Fudge answers gravely, the pity dripping in his voice.
"Poor Harry," Hagrid sighs. "He must be so scared. And poor Lucy, she's so afraid to lose the last person she has. She hasn' literally told me, but I csn tell as much."
"Yeah, I can too," Professor McGonnagall sounds sad and worried as well. I didn't realise she was so scared for me. Of course she is, if there's anything she's afraid of, it's losing everyone she loves. I would be scared if I were her, too.
"But why is he after the poor boy? Just because he brought down You-Know-Who?"
"That's only half of the story," Fudge tells her. I'm instantly intrigued, I never heard this part about there being more to it. No one told me more about it! "It's a fact that when You-Kmow-Who was thriving, the Potters knew he was after them. They went into hiding, using the Fidelius Charm, with help from Dumbledore. D'you knpw hpw that works?"
"No, but I've heard of it...?"
"The point of the Fidelius Charm is that the hiding people choose one secret keeper. And this person is the only one who knows where they are or can find them. If you'fre not the keeprr, you can look all you want, but you'll never find them," McGonnagall explains. "It was used a lot during the war and it worked magic. But the Potters' secret keeper betrayed them to You-Know-Who. That's how he found them and killed them. That's how poor Lucy and Harry became orphans and of course, famous."
"That's awful! Who was the secret keeper?!"
"Well, back to Black now," Fudge annoyingly interrupts. "Do you remember he used to come here, when he was still a Hogwarts student? Not many people know this anymore..."
"Of course," Madame Rosmerta laughs a little. "Little band of mischief makers."
"So you also know who he was always with then?"
"Naturally, never saw one without the other. You'd have thought they were brothers: Sirius Black and James Potter."
I almost throw my bitterbeer away in shock. What the blood hell is this?!
"Exactly! They stayed that way and went into the war together as well," Professor McGonnagall picks up again. "So naturally, when they went into hiding they chose Black as their secret keeper."
No.
"Albus asked them to consider him as a secret keeper. He knew there was a traitor in their midst and he had his suspiscions, too. But James insisted he could trust Sirius."
No, it can't be.
"Only a few days later, on Halloween, You- Know-Who found them and killed them."
That bloody bastard killed them! He was their friend and he betrayed them, sold them out!
"No way! I'd have never thought he'd go over to the dark side, out of all people. What turned him around so much?!" Madame Rosmerta asks.
"No one knows," Fudge admits solemnly. "But he isn't dumb, that man. I knew he was still sane in Azkaban, the only sane one, in fact. Everyone goes insane in there, I myself feel drained there. But Black? He asked me for the newspaper the last time I was there on business, before he escaped I mean. Said he missed doing the puzzles!"
"That's not even the worst of the story Ros- merta," Professor McGonnagall tells her. "Their other friend, Peter Pettigrew, he found out about the betrayal and he went after him. He was never the brightes. I have to admit, I used to give him a little bit of a hard time in class. You'll understand I feel terrible for that now. He cornered Black in that street, but then Black pulled out the spell and caused that explosion that killed 12 muggles and Pettigrew. Only a finger was left of him! One finger! Worst is, the Potters made exactly those two people the godfathers of their children: little Lucy already lost her godfather, hers was Pettigrew. But until this day, Black remains Harry's legal godfather."
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