"Are you okay, professor?" Arlene asked.
Lupin cleared his throat "Uh..yes, I'm sorry, I spaced out. The Inferi are a form of Necromancy and a crime that gets you a life sentence in Azkaban, you'll learn about it in sixth year."
"What do they do exactly?" Arlene questioned.
Necromancy was raising the dead, how was raising the dead a good security system?
"An Inferi is a dead body, once the spell is cast on it, can move. But they don't come back to life, they are simply puppets to do one's bidding. They haven't been seen since Voldemort died, he killed enough people to make an army of them." Lupin continued, it seemed like it was hard for him to talk about it, Arlene guessed he had bad memories from the war.
"Okay, thank you." She told him and turned to leave, but suddenly as idea hit her.
She stopped and turned to Professor Lupin again "uh, Professor?"
He turned to her again with a surprised look, probably thinking she had left "Yes?"
"Do you know anybody by the name of Kreacher?"
It was stupid move. She knew it was, but she also knew that Lupin was friends with Sirius Black and had prefect duties with her dad, it wasn't farfetched to think that he knew who Kreacher was.
But she knew she made a mistake when Lupin froze, looking as if he had seen a ghost.
"Professor...?"
Lupin snapped out of it and cleared his throat "No, I'm afraid I don't know anyone by that name."
Arlene nodded politely, thanked Lupin then left, it was obvious the name was familiar, but she didn't want to push her luck.
Alas, Arlene's life was finally relatively good, she and Hermione were hanging out every other day and she was the only one that knew about the time turner (which she would be lying if she said it didn't make her feel special) everybody loved the Hogwarts Weekly, there wasn't any new sightings of Sirius Black, she was on the Quidditch team, the "is Lupin a bad person' fiasco is over and Sage was going on a date.
Speaking of the latter.
The morning of the Hogsmead trip, Arlene was laying on the ground of her dorm and playing a board game with Blaise and Theo while the other girls got ready.
"What do you think?" Pansy stepped out of the bathroom and posed her outfit.
Blaise focused on her dress and tilted his head "I think..." he started, catching Pansy's attention "...I don't care."
She rolled her eyes and threw a random concealer bottle at him playfully as she turned to the mirror.
Arlene chuckled and shook her head. What a bunch of children.
Suddenly, the doors of the dorm were thrown open, and a distressed Sage came bursting in.
She threw herself on her bed dramatically "Arlene! I don't have any clothes!" she declared.
"Predate crises?" one of Arlene's roommates, who was tying her shoes, asked.
She sighed "yup." Arlene replied and stood up to help Sage.
She dropped down next to her "I only have leather, and like, a blouse, but mostly leather."
"You have a leather jacket and a pair of leather boots, Ms. Wannabe." Blaise called out after her.
Arlene grabbed a pen and threw it at him.
Blaise winced as it made contact with his forehead "What is this, 'let's throw stuff at Blaise' day?"
"No, that's tomorrow." Theo said sarcastically.
"People!" Sage exclaimed "Can you at least pretend to care!?"
Arlene chuckled "Just ramble about Quidditch, insult Snape a few times and he's all yours."
"I already do that." Sage mumbled into the pillow she had stuck her face to and Arlene couldn't help but smile.
Sage removed her face from the pillow "I mean, I never dress to impress, but it's Lee. I've had crush on him since I found out he was in the Muggles at Hogwarts club and was trying to invent a magical radio because he wanted to have a broadcast one day and-"
She was cut off when a pale pink sweatshirt and a blue skirt were thrown at her, hitting her right in the face.
Sage sate up and the two turned to the direction that the clothes were thrown from. And to say they were shocked to see Pansy would be an understatement.
"Hey," she said "I may be 'I want you dead' mean, but I'm not 'spit on your hotdog' evil."
And with that, she turned around and reentered the bathroom, leaving them all surprised.
"Wow," Arlene said "Pansy is really growing up, she didn't even make a purist commen-"
"And make sure you burn it after you're done!" Pansy called out from the bathroom "I don't want it back if you wear it!"
Arlene sighed "Aaand, there it is."
Sage shook her head at Pansy, but she was smiling. The colors looked great on her and she seemed to think it was perfect.
"Thanks Pansy." Sage called out as she left the dorm, already gone when Pansy started making noises of protest.
Unfortunately, everybody started to leave for Hogsmead and excluding first and second years, Arlene was the only Slytherin left behind.
She decided to take a walk around the castle, maybe a fun idea will hit her.
Arlene thought about going outside and practicing, but the thought was shut down as soon as it appeared. It was too cold outside.
Usually, when she had free time, she'd sit down in front of something she found beautiful and draw, but Hermione wasn't there and she had artist's block.
Maybe read that book Hermione lent her? That was a good idea, except for the fact that she had already finished it.
She could always grab her books and notebooks for some early studying? The idea was too funny, she couldn't help but smile.
Thankfully, she didn't have to think about it anymore, as while she was walking the third floor, she was stopped by the twins.
"Arlene!" Fred? Or maybe George? Arlene couldn't tell for the life of her, said
"Just the Slytherin-"
"we were-"
"looking-"
"for!"
She raised an eyebrow at the twins "What do you want? Are you going to prank me? Is there a bucket of paint above my head?"
She looked around as if actually expecting some sort of trick, but nothing happened.
"Sadly, no," he sighed "but we have great news! George, tell her the good news." Fred said, turning to his brother.
"Come on." George said vaguely and nodded towards a room to their left.
With great suspicion, Arlene followed them.
"Stay here." George said, then turned around and left with his brother.
Left alone in the classroom, Arlene felt quit stupid sitting there, she would be a fool to trust the twins. Plus, they only had, like, two conversations, both in which Arlene had called them stupid, multiple times.
But before she could consider leaving, the two came back, with Harry trailing behind them and looking just as suspicious as Arlene.
"Early Christmas present for you two" George declared with a grin.
Fred pulled something from inside his cloak with a flourish and laid it on one of the desks. It was a large, square, much worn piece of parchment with nothing written on it. Both Harry and Arlene, suspecting one of Fred and George's jokes, stared at it.
"What's that supposed to be?"
"This is the secret of our success," said George, patting the parchment fondly.
"It's a wrench, giving it to you," said Fred, "but we decided last night, your need's greater than ours, staying behind on a Hogshead night, shame."
"Anyway, we know it by heart," said George. "We bequeath it to you. We don't really need it anymore."
"And what do I need with a bit of old parchment?" asked Harry.
"Isn't it obvious, Harry?" Arlene said sarcastically "it's a magic parchment. O' great ancient paper, take mercy on us and transport us to the village."
"A bit of old parchment! Ancient paper!?" Fred exclaimed, closing his eyes with a grimace as though they had mortally offended him. "Explain, George."
"Well, you see, when we were in our first year, young, carefree, and innocent-"
He was cut off when Harry and Arlene snorted in unison, she doubted whether Fred and George had ever been innocent.
"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-"
"So he hauled us off to his office and started threatening us with the usual-"
"-detention-"
"-disembowelment-"
"-and we couldn't help noticing a drawer in one of his filing cabinets marked Confiscated and Highly Dangerous."
"Don't tell me-" said Harry, starting to grin.
Catching on, Arlene's eyes widened in excitement "You didn't actually-"
"Well, what would you've done?" said Fred. "George caused a diversion by dropping another Dungbomb, I whipped the drawer open, and grabbed... this."
"It's not as bad as it sounds, you know," said George. "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," said Fred, smirking. "This little beauty's taught us more than all the teachers in this school."
"You're winding me up," said Harry, looking at the ragged old bit of parchment.
"You promised it's not a prank." Arlene agreed.
Fred and George smirked and shared a mischievous look.
Fred took 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
■■■
A moment of silence for our fallen real life hero, Stan Lee. You will be truly missed.
Stan Lee was a candle in the midst of darkness, he baught light into our lives and created a whole new universe for us to live in, somewhere to hide from our brutal reality.
He lived a long and happy life, 95 extraordinary years, full of good and bad, never turning cynical, always seeing the good in the world.
So for the last time, Excelsior!