"I'm sorry, Mr. Potter, but without the permission of your guardians you are not allowed to go to Hogsmeade." Professor McGonagall patted Harry on the shoulder and turned to leave.

Harry ran after her to stop her once again. "I know, but maybe you could sign the permission slip, Professor? You are my Head of House, and I thought that would be..."

"No, Mr. Potter, I am not the one to decide on this matter. Your legal guardians have to agree, otherwise, you stay here inside the castle grounds. I' sorry, Mr. Potter."
With those words and a final stern look Professor McGonagall strode towards the main doors and disappeared into the castle.

Harry sighed and waved his friends goodbye. Ron and Hermione gave him a small smile and went to Hogsmeade behind the other students. Harry started walking into the entrance hall and up the stairs to the Gryffindor tower. When he passed a narrow staircase leading to one of the smaller towers, a two-voiced call reached him.

"Harry!" It was the Weasley twins standing a few steps up the small stairs grinning mischievously down at him.

"Hi, guys. What are you two doing here? Why are you not in Hogsmeade, already?" Harry asked and ascended the stairs himself.

"We thought..."

"...since you aren't allowed out of Hogwarts..."

"It might be a good idea to show you something."

Fred, who had spoken the last part of the sentence patted Harry on the shoulder and grinned even wider.

"That's really nice of you, but I would rather you get me some sweets from Honeydunks or anything like that."

Both twins shared a knowing look and George grabbed Harry's hand while Fred shoved a piece of parchment into it.

"That, Harry...

"Is the origin of our...

"unbelievable great success."

Harry looked doubtfully at the two redheads and asked: "Really, you two became the greatest pranksters Hogwarts has ever seen just because of a stupid piece of parchment?"
He tried giving it back to George, not wanting to talk to them anymore.

Fred snorted and looked at his brother:" He doesn't appreciate a gift when he receives one, does he? I think he should at least wait until he sees what this 'stupid piece of Parchment' is capable of."

George nodded seriously and looked at Harry. The younger Gryffindor rolled his eyes and was about to protest as Fred shoved the parchment back into his hand.

"Open it, Harry!" George told him and with a deep sigh Harry folded the parchment open and looked at the absolutely blank page.

"Guys, it is really nice of you that you try to cheer me up but I don't see the point in this." He looked up from the parchment and glared at the other two. He was a bit annoyed. If he couldn't go to the village with his friends, he just wanted to read, maybe visit Hagrid or just be alone. The twins were entertaining, but at the moment the clue was hidden quite carefully.

Fred tapped his wand at the parchment and said:"I solemnly swear I'm up to no good."
Then he grinned at Harry and motioned for him to look at the parchment.

When Harry looked down, he saw redish-brown ink spreading over the page and forming small footsteps and a maze plus small letters. Surprisingly the letters inscripted the small footsteps which moved around. Puzzled he looked up at the twins. Both were grinning at him.

"What is that?" Harry asked.

"That is..."

"The Maurauders' Map, Harry..."

"It shows everyone..."

"And everything inside...

"And outside of Hogwarts..."

"Within the school grounds..."

"At any time."

"There are we and that..."

"Is Dumbledore..."

"Pacing in his office..."

"as always."

Fred and George both pointed at a small gap somewhere on the map.
"That is a secret passage..."

"There are lots of them..."

"But this one leads..."

"directly into the basement..."

"of Honeydukes."

Harry stared in disbelief at the map and then back at the twins. Did they just tell him a way to go to Hogsmeade with his friends without being seen at all?

"Are you sure?" He asked still gaping at the two Weasleys.

"Absolutely sure, Harry" Fred answered.

"We often used it ourselves..."

"Where do you think the sweets at the common room Parties came from?" They told him with a sheepish twinkle in their eyes.

"We thought you could find a use for it..."

"And since you've got a... Invisibility cloak..."

"You have a chance to enjoy the weekends with Ronnie and Hermione."

A huge smile spread on Harry's face, and he once again looked at the Map.

"Wow, guys, that's amazing! Thank you so much!" Harry grinned at them and asked:
"How do I make the ink disappear again?"

George tapped his wand at the middle of the page and said: "Mischief managed."
The ink was quickly absorbed into the parchment and left nothing to see but the blank page. Harry gaped at the parchment in his hands and sheer joy flooded through his body. He could go out and be with Ron and Hermione. Spending time at the three broomsticks and Zonko's like every other Hogwarts student.

The twins laughed at his grinning expression and patted him on both shoulders before they turned and left the staircase.

"Use it wise, Harry. That's our secret to success. Have fun!" With that, they both were gone and Harry stood alone with the secret parchment on the small staircase. Just for a moment all the ideas of what to do in Hogsmeade rushed through his mind then he tucked the map safely into his robes and sprinted off to get his invisibility cloak from the dorm.

Just minutes later Harry stood in front of a sculpture of a really ugly whitch. Exactly there where the twins had told him where the secret passage was.
Panting heavily he opened the map and tipped his wand at it. Then he murmured:"I solemnly swear I'm up to no good." Instantly the brown ink spread over the pages and showed him Hogwarts and her inhabitants.

Relieved he noticed that there wasn't either Filch nor Mrs. Norris around. Nobody else was near his position due to the fact that most of the students and teachers were in Hogsmeade.

Harry aimed his wand at the sculpture and waited. Actually he didn't know how to open the passage. Probingly he tapped his wand at her arm and jumped back as the stone figure turned and revealed a narrow staircase leading down into a dark tunnel.

Harry took a deep breath and climbed down the stairs. When he arrived at the bottom, he heard stone scratching against stone. He looked back and saw the entrance was closed again.

He nodded and began walking down the passage. While he went, torches lit up on both sides of the corridor. Checking the map again Harry found himself at the end of the corridor where another stairscase lead up to a trap door.
Hastily he tipped his wand at the page and said:"Mischief managed." Then he tucked it securely into his pocket and threw the invisibility cloak over himself.

The trap door creaked as Harry pushed against it. When he was sure the room above was empty he pushed the door open and climbed through.

Indeed, the twins were right! Harry stood in a basement filled with sweets and colourful wrappings. 'That has to be Honeydukes!' He thought and grinned from one ear to the other.

Quickly he ascended the stairs leading to the salesroom and slipped through the door.
What he saw there bested even his boldest dreams. There were different types of sweets everywhere. Burty Bot's Beans, chocolate frogs in all sizes and sugar quills...and...and everything he could imagine. The store was packed with Hogwarts students who gathered as much of the treats as possible. Undiscovered Harry grabbed a few chocolate frogs and left the store, chewing happily on one of them.

It didn't take him long to find Ron and Hermione. They were heading up to the shrieking shack and Harry followed them quietly. Soon they arrived, and Harry heard Hermione tell Ron everything he had read about the old building.

"It is the most haunted place in the country, Ron! There are many legends why there have always been scary noises and howling at night and noone tried to get in there because the people feared what was inside. Stupid if you ask me – why should nobody look in there all over the years, there has been nothing for years now. What do you think?"

"uhuu" Ron answered not really listening to his friend. He was busy getting a lollipop out of its wrapping paper. He sat on a snowy stone and struggled with the sticky paper.

"Oh, Ronald. Why do you have to eat always?" She slumped down next to him and stared at him in disbelief when he finally succeeded, stuffed the lollipop into his mouth and grinned at her.

"Imagine how Harry would dug into his chocolate frogs if he were here, 'Mione!" He offered her some sugar quills from his pocket.

"Oh, Ron..." Hermione sighed and took one of the quills. "You're right. Harry wouldn't stop before he had bought all of those things at Honesdukes. We should bring some..."

She was interrupted by a cheer from the near hill: "Granger, Weasly! Nice to see you here, where is Potter? Oh yeah, he isn't allowed to come here. Poor Potter." Malfoy laughed, and Crabbe threw a snowball at the two. It hit Hermione's head. Ron jumped up and strode towards the Slytherin boys.

"Get lost, Malfoy! No one wants you and your apes here!" the redhead yelled and with a glare at each of them he stalked back to Hermione who had the snow out of her hair by now.

"Ohh are the two of you having fun together?" Malfoy teased, and Goyle threw another snowball in their direction. It didn't even come close to it's target, though.
"What would little Potter say if he knew that? Would he be s..."

A big snowball hit Malfoy directly in the face so he couldn't finish his sentence. Shortly after that Goyles trousers were yanked down from an invisible force and Crabbe was shoved backwards and landed in the snow.

"What is tha?" Malfoy yelled and spun around to see the attacker. Another snowball hit him in the face and he stared in shock at the two Gryffindors who haven't moved. When Goyle was dragged through a heap of snow by his feet, Malfoy turned and fleed down the path to the village.

"My father will hear about this!" he shouted and struggled to not slip on the snowy ground as he ran. Crabbe followed suit just a few seconds after and Goyle pulled up his trousers as soon as he could. Then he crawled a few meters before jumping to his fat feet and stumbling after his friends.

A snowball landed on Ron's shoulder and a second one on Hermione's arm.
"Harry!" Hermione called laughing. Ron laughed too as he saw his best friend appear directly in front of them with a huge grin on his face.

"Hey, guys. Problems with Malfoy? One time you two are out alone..."He didn't finish the sentence because suddenly the sky turned dark. Darker than on a usual winter afternoon.
Harry looked up at the sky and his grin dropped from his face. He stood closer to Ron and Hermione who were both standing now, wands in hand. There were black pillars of dust falling down towards the ground. For a brief moment, Harry thought of Dementors but he didn't feel the hopelessness radiating off the creatures.

It was completely silent. The trio changed puzzled looks and looked around. But there was nothing to be seen. The black pillars were gone.

"Maybe we should go back to school. It gets late, and you shouldn't be out here at all, Harry." Hermione suggested, and both boys nodded in agreement. The three started walking down the path when Ron all of a sudden slumped forward and landed on the ground, hard.

"Ron!" Harry yelled and dropped beside his friend. The redhead didn't move, and Harry saw his friend had been stunned from behind. He spun around just in time to see black figures steppig out from under the trees. Hermione already aimed her wand at the woman coming towards her. She wore a black dress, and her hair was a great mess. But that wasn't what scared the girl. What scared her was the insane look in the woman's eyes and her matching grin as she stepped forward and aimed her wand at the two Gryffindors.

A tall man with silvery blond hair flowing down his broad shoulders stepped out from under the trees and advanced them with firm steps. He fixed his steel-grey eyes on Harry and gave a tiny smile.

"It is a pleasure to meet you here, Mr. Potter." He said in a dangerously low voice and bowed mockingly.

TBC