Rose made her way up the steps to the Owlery, followed closely by Al, Leda, and Scorpius. Almost as soon as she stepped inside, a sleek Barn Owl swooped down from her perch and landed smoothly on Rose's shoulder. She reached up and lightly ran her hand over her pet with one hand, pulling the letter to Lily out with her other. "This is Athena," she said to Leda and Scorpius. Al had already wandered off in search of his own owl, presumably just to greet it seeing as he had no letter.

"Goddess of wisdom," Leda muttered. "Merlin, you're such a Ravenclaw."

"I named her before I was Sorted," Rose protested, holding the letter out so that Athena took it and promptly flew off.

"Yeah, which is why you're such a Ravenclaw," the Slytherin answered, smirking. "You named her a Ravenclaw-ish name before you even became one."

She rolled her eyes at them."Al," she called, "what are you doing?"

"I'm just over here," he replied. "Looking for Storm - oh, there she is."

"You're sending a letter?" Rose hadn't known that.

"To Mum and Dad," he called back, and half a minute later he returned. "Are we done, then?"

"I guess," Scorpius said. "Since we don't have anything to mail, and you two already sent your letters." He glanced at Rose. "How long will it be before Lily writes you back."

"Not long," she chuckled. "Lily will write a response immediately, I know - it's not like she's very busy. Of course, she may not have information immediately, that may take her a little while to get. She's got to wait until her parents are gone to snoop, and...Al, how often do your parents usually leave Lily alone?"

"Once a week or so. She may be only almost-ten, but they're not too worried about leaving her alone," he explained for the two Slytherins' benefit. "There's enough protective charms on the house to trip up an intruder for long enough so that Lily could get out. She knows how to use Floo powder, plus there's a few spare wands around, and she knows where they all are. She can't really do too much controlled magic yet, but if she gets a wand she could probably make something happen."

"Yeah, she can definitely handle herself," Rose agreed. "Anyway, so it will probably be only a couple of days before we get a reply, but maybe a week or so before she responds with anything important."

What Rose thought, however, did not turn out to be correct. She had been expecting a response immediately, even if it wasn't a whole lot more than 'All right, I'll help you', but that did not hold true. Athena returned, without a letter, and it was nearly a week before the Potters' owl, Hedwig III, dropped a letter at Rose's plate during breakfast. During this time no more students had been attacked, and Alexandra Volante was let out of the Hospital Wing, although it was still unsure what had happened to her.

Rose tore open the letter, eager to see what information Lily had written down in her small, messy scrawl. The letter was extremely short, however, and offered nothing about what Rose had asked. She read it a couple times, sighing - she knew what Lily was thinking, and it was now too late to stop her, as neither Athena nor Hedwig III could make the journey to the Potters' house in enough time to tell the younger girl no. It didn't matter, though - Lily would do what she wanted even if Rose had been able to write back. She scanned the letter again.

Ravenclaw common room. 2:00 am. Be there, and bring your friends if you can.

-L

"Oh, Lily," she muttered, rolling her eyes. It would be so much simpler if Lily sent the information in a letter, but of course, Lily Luna Potter was not one to do what other people wanted. She folded the letter, putting it in her pocket, and stood up. If Al, Leda, and Scorpius were to come into the Ravenclaw common room, then she would need some help. It wasn't exactly encouraged to bring people from other Houses into a different House's common room or dormitory, but it wasn't against the rules, either. People would do it no matter what, and so most teachers and prefects had given up. However, the fact that they would have to come in after curfew - way after curfew at that - was a problem, and she didn't want to be seen walking around late at night. That was where James came in.

She walked over to the Gryffindor table and tapped James on the shoulder. He was seated with Roxanne, Alexandra - who looked like she hadn't been sleeping well - and a boy that Rose didn't know. James turned around, glancing up at her. "What is it?"

"I need to talk to you," she said. "Can we leave for a minute?"

"All right," he sighed. "Make it fast, though. I'm hungry."

"As usual," she muttered, and they hurried out of the Great Hall and into a small room near it, which looked like it had never been used. "James, I need your help."

"With what?"

"I just do." She didn't want to tell anybody about how she, Al, Leda, and Scorpius were trying to solve the mystery behind who had attacked Dominique and Alexandra. That should remain secret, at least for now. Not to mention that James, always a little overprotective, would probably try to stop them. "You stole that map from your father, I know you did. The Marauder's Map."

He looked shifty. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, stop pretending, I know you have it. I need to borrow it just for today, I promise that I'll give it back to you tomorrow, all right?" She wasn't thrilled at the idea of sneaking around after curfew and breaking the rules, but it was necessary. Obviously, if Lily was determined not to send information in a letter, then she had found something. Rose knew it would be much simpler if all four of them were there to hear what the nine-year-old had to say; she might forget something if she had to repeat what Lily had told her later on.

"Fine," James answered, not looking very happy. He rummaged in his bag and pulled out a piece of parchment. "To use it, just tap it with your wand and say 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.' Then, when you're done, tap it again and say 'Mischief managed.' And whatever you do, don't lose it."

"I won't, don't worry." Rose was tempted to examine it right there, but decided against it. "Thanks so much, James."

"Never thought I'd see the day when you asked to borrow it," he replied. "Lily, yes. Roxanne, yes. Freddie, yes. But you?" He shook his head. "Things are certainly getting weird."

She waved at him as she left, hurrying back to her seat at the Ravenclaw table. This will definitely work, she thought. The Marauders' Map was certainly an ingenious object, and everybody showed up on it. There was no way that anybody could sneak up on her and the others if they had this, be it teacher or student. She headed over to the Hufflepuff table and whispered, "Be outside your common room at one-thirty am," to Al before heading to the Slytherins and repeating the process to Leda and Scorpius, although she decided to pick them up at one-twenty instead. She felt a thrill of anticipation go through her, and couldn't help but realize that just a little, she was looking forward to this.

Not that she'd ever admit it.

Rose couldn't sleep. She didn't even bother trying; she had no idea how to wake herself up, and she didn't want to oversleep. It was a much better idea just to stay up, but that didn't mean that it was easy to actually stay awake. She was only eleven, after all, and unlike some of her cousins, she wasn't the sort of person to stay up late for fun. Numerous times she caught herself dozing off, even when she tried to read a book, and if it weren't for the worry that she would wake up her roommates, she would have gotten out of bed and walked around the room.

She spent some of her time looking at the Marauder's Map. It was a brilliant object, and although the Marauders had been troublemakers and pranksters and not the sort of people that Rose normally would have admired, it would have been impossible not to admire this. The fact that it was made by people who had been only a few years older than she was now was even more impressive, and she could understand why James revered it so.

At one o'clock in the morning, she slipped out of bed, quietly putting shoes on and tugging a cloak over her head; the castle wasn't heated very well after curfew since students weren't supposed to be out anyway. Since it was November, it would be cold. She silently left the dormitory, the Marauder's Map in one hand and her wand in the other. She didn't know exactly what she would do with it, but it felt better just to have it with her - not that she would be able to fight somebody off very well. Heck, she thought, Lily would probably do a better job of it, and Lily was barely ten. Deciding not to focus on that very much, she left Ravenclaw Tower.

It was rather exciting to be out late at night, wandering around by herself. She always followed the rules as best she could, but in this case, it was a new and interesting experience. She constantly checked the Marauder's Map as she headed down to the dungeons, worried about being caught by a teacher or perhaps the caretaker Goyle, but Goyle was on the other side of the castle. The only teacher who wasn't in bed appeared to be Professor MacDougal, and she was in her office.

It wasn't particularly easy finding her way. The light cast from her Lumos spell was weak, and didn't help too much. If she hadn't had the map, she was sure that she would have gotten lost quite easily. It was helpful, though, to look at her own dot on the map and see which way she had to go to reach the Slytherins' area. She was sure that she got there earlier than 1:20, but both Leda and Scorpius were waiting for her when she arrived. They were both pressed against the wall, wands out, obviously on edge. "It's me," Rose said.

"What's that?" Leda peered at the map. "Merlin, that's amazing."

"It's the Marauder's Map. Uncle Harry's father and friends made it," she replied, keeping her voice down, although why, she wasn't sure. Nobody was around them. It would have felt strange to her, though, to be loud or even normal in this situation - wandering the castle in the dark after curfew, sneaking around like this.

"Impressive," Scorpius said, also looking at it. "This is so useful."

"Lumos," Leda murmured, and a light flared from her wand, much brighter than Rose's. "You hold the map. I'll do the light."

"Thanks."

They made their way to the Hufflepuffs' common room, picking up Al, who looked extremely nervous, before heading back to the Ravenclaw common room. It took them a little while to figure out the answer to the riddle, but finally they were inside. Nobody was there except them, and they sat down around the fire, quietly talking about nothing in particular.

About fifteen minutes had passed when suddenly, the fire flared, turning green, and a figure stepped out.

Hey, readers. This story has been entered in the Long Haul Competition, which basically means that I have to write a chapter - of at least 1500 words - every week. Since I've got a lot of schoolwork, this should be interesting...Anyway, please review! I'd love to hear your thoughts :)