Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition Semifinals:
Position: Beater 2 for the Harpies
Round Prompts: Write about the Marauder's Map as a sentient being. Write from the Map's point of view.
Optional Prompts: (word) heartbeat, (dialogue) "Hey! Don't objectify me."
WC: 1,001
The Disappearing Dots
The first dot that disappeared from the Marauder's Map is Quirinus Quirrell.
The Map paused. It scanned the castle. It browsed through every classroom, every hallway, every secret passage, but it was no use. Quirrell was gone.
What happened? the Map wondered.
Had Quirrell slipped into some secret room or hallway that the Map had never seen before? Had he somehow removed the anti-Disapparation charms surrounding the castle and disappeared into thin air?
Or—and the Map felt a sense of dread as it considered this option—was the Map simply broken? It had been many years since Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs had enchanted it. Was the spell finally wearing off? Trying not to panic, the Map searched the castle one last time for Professor Quirrell, but all it could find was a blank space where the dot used to be.
It was not until days later, when the Map overheard Masters Fred and George planning to send a Hogwarts toilet seat to a boy called Harry Potter in the Hospital Wing, that the Map realized what had happened.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," said Master Fred.
The Map lifted the invisibility charm from its surface, allowing Masters Fred and George to see the dots scurrying through the castle.
"Looks like the bathroom on the fourth floor is all clear," said Master George. "Let's go."
The boys set off down the corridor, Map in hand.
"George." Master Fred paused to make sure Professor Snape's dot wasn't coming toward them, and then resumed walking when Snape headed for the staircase instead. "Did you hear people are saying Harry's in the Hospital Wing because of an accident during Quidditch practice?"
A snort from Master George. "Quidditch accident. Right."
"A Quidditch accident the rest of the team didn't hear about? Unlikely."
"D'you think it has to do with Quirrell turning up dead?"
It connected all at once. Dead. Professor Quirrell was dead. The Map wasn't malfunctioning—the professor's dot had simply disappeared with his heartbeat.
"What, you think Harry killed Quirrell?"
"Maybe. He killed You-Know-Who when he was a baby. You don't think he could take p-p-poor Quirrell?"
A low whistle from Master Fred. "Remind me not to get on Harry Potter's bad side."
The Map scanned its surface for the dot labeled Harry Potter.
He was in the Hospital Wing, not moving, and with a slight but detectable glow surrounding him.
The next dot that disappeared was Cedric Diggory's.
The Map watched the Triwizard Tournament from the safety of a Hogwarts office—the office belonged to a dot labeled Bartemius Crouch, but Crouch seemed to have adopted a new name for reasons that Map could not understand—and it felt a concoction of shock and dread as it watched Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory's dots vanish from the maze on the Quidditch Pitch.
Dead, the Map thought. Dead, dead, dead…
How had it happened? Surely they hadn't been murdered; there were no other dots within the maze, although several professors patrolled the outskirts of the Quidditch Pitch. Unless they had murdered each other, of course. As the Map considered this, it felt a pang of sadness roll through it. Harry Potter was Prongs's son, which no doubt accounted for the glow that surrounded Harry's dot.
Prongs's own son: murdered.
The Map had learned through the general castle gossip that Prongs himself had been murdered fourteen years ago, and that Padfoot had lost his mind and killed Wormtail before escaping from Azkaban—except he hadn't, really, because Wormtail was alive, and it was all a double-cross. The Map didn't like to think of its former masters turning against one another. It liked to remember them as they once were: curious and brave, roaming the castle at night while making plans for an unsteady future.
The Map didn't know how long it lay there waiting for Bartemius to come back to his office and reveal some sort of answer about Prongs's son, but after some time and with no warning at all, the dot labeled Harry Potter popped back into existence. The Map stared.
Cedric Diggory was nowhere in sight.
Dumbledore's dot was the third to disappear.
"Harry Potter. Show me Harry Potter." Mistress Ginny poked at the Map with her wand. "Stupid old piece of parchment."
Hey! Don't objectify me, the Map thought. "Harry Potter" was in the Astronomy Tower with Dumbledore and Snape and more dots labeled with names the Map hadn't seen in years, names like Bellatrix and Fenrir and Yaxley and—
Albus Dumbledore's dot disappeared.
"Show me Harry Potter," Mistress Ginny said again, and the Map did all it could to direct her attention toward the faint glow in the Astronomy Tower.
"Show me—"
She was cut off by a loud, triumphant scream that sent chills through the Map. It scanned desperately across the grounds and through each corridor, but Dumbledore was gone.
Mistress Ginny gripped the Map in both of her shaking hands. "Harry," she whispered, and the Map watched the dot labeled Harry Potter run from the Astronomy Tower.
The Map stopped keeping track of the disappearing dots after that.
There were too many. One after the other, they vanished: Colin Creevey, Lavender Brown, Bellatrix Lextrange, Vincent Crabbe, Nymphadora Tonks, Master Fred, Remus Lupin—Moony—Severus Snape, Harry Potter…
Names the Map had known, dots the Map had watched over, faded out of existence, leaving behind nothing, not even a splatter of ink by which to remember them.
With grief coursing through it, the Map mentally recited each Master that had disappeared: Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, Prongs, Fred, Harry. It would not forget them. It would never forget them, not even the ones who had turned out to be bullies or pranksters, not even the ones who had turned out to be villains, and especially not the ones who were heroes.
A flicker of light directed the Map's attention to the Forbidden Forest.
Harry Potter's dot was back.