Yep, definitely have a review addiction….I guess that's good for you guys though, huh? I've been reading your comments and am happy to be the cause of so much entertainment- though I scratched my head a little at the request for Draco/Leila, I think they've said maybe five sentences to each other tops? Support what you will, though I had thought I was making a certain pairing rather obvious for the last few chapters. Maybe I'm too subtle, whoops. But even so, things can easily change. Well, here we go!

Dobby's Polka-Dotted Sock

Chapter Ten:

Marauder's Map Malfunction

As it was, Harry's Nimbus Two-Thousand had not reacted well to being tossed about in the wind after its owner's 50-foot fall and then being pushed to its limits shortly afterward by its owner's sister. While it could still fly, it would never be able to compete against other Seeker's brooms again. Harry had been crushed at first, until Ron and Leila came up with the idea to hang it up on the wall of the boy's dorm. Hermione had paused her mad studying to perform the spell work necessary, and Harry had his first broom nearby once again.

Meanwhile, Oliver was desperate that Harry should buy a new broom at once, but with the Gryffindor's fall season over with her brother dragged his feet. Leila shook her head, easily being able to tell what was slowing him.

"You want that Firebolt, don't you?" She remarked over a Charms essay that was close to being finished.

"What?" Harry's head shot up from the reference book, surprised and a little flustered that his sibling had guessed so effortlessly.

"You heard me. It's not that hard to see that; you kept going back to stare at the Quality Quidditch window display in Diagon Alley all summer. And now you have the perfect excuse to buy it. Oliver will be so thrilled, just picture his face!" They both chuckled at that before Harry's face grew serious.

"That would be pretty great Leila, but I—we don't have the money for that. The trust fund is for necessary things until we graduate, plus a little spending money. If I used it all on a Firebolt, we'd be in big trouble. And what about you? I can't spend that much of our money and not let you, too."

"There's not really anything that I want, Harry, but alright, think about it. You don't have to buy the broom yet."

The matter was pushed even further from their minds on Halloween when they returned to Gryffindor Tower from the feast.

"What's going on?" Ron asked the crowd of their fellow housemates all peering over each other's heads at the portrait hole.

"The Fat Lady's gone- someone ripped up her canvas!" Seamus informed them excitedly.

"What?"

The Fat Lady was found and it was eventually coerced out of her that the intruder was none other than Sirius Black, the one man who supposedly was not able to penetrate into the castle, what with the Dementors and other extra precautions.

The students were moved into the Great Hall for the night, but Leila did not find sleep easy, and she doubted anyone else did. How safe were they if a killer could break into a heavily guarded castle and only get caught because of leftover evidence from a fit of rage he experienced.

'If he had known the password, he could have been in there when we got back, lying in wait for Harry….and maybe me, if he really wants to finish off all the Potters.'

It didn't help matters that the teachers were unable to find any trace of Black, like he was a phantom that could appear and strike at will.

Professor Lupin was feeling ill again during the last Hogsmeade trip before break, so it was that Harry and Leila were a little melancholy as their two friends made their way down the path to the wizarding village. The two began looking for someone to talk to, maybe Ginny, when they ran into her older twin brothers.

"Aren't you two going to Hogsmeade?" Harry asked curiously.

"In a minute," George affirmed.

"We just had a bit of unfinished business to attend to," his brother clarified.

"Alright, well, see you later then," Leila said, continuing down the corridor.

"No, you see, Leila," Fred interrupted, snagging her by the arm, "our business is with you two here."

"What kind of business?" Harry prompted as she rejoined him, equally as suspicious.

"Ah, Harry, don't you trust us? We just wanted to give you something," George said.

"Think of it as an early Christmas gift, or a thank you for winning the match," Fred added.

The boy-and-girl twin pair folded their arms as Leila said, "Alright, we're listening."

"This," George said as he whipped out what looked like an old spare piece of parchment.

"It looks like an old spare piece of parchment," Harry echoed what Leila had thought.

"Not just any spare piece of parchment," Fred corrected them.

"This little beauty has helped us become a huge success around here," George admitted fondly.

"It's a bit of a wrench giving it to you, but we figure your need is greater than ours."

"Watch closely," and here George tapped the parchment with his wand saying, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Instantly ink began to sprout on the page, quickly becoming—

"That's a map of Hogwarts!" Harry exclaimed, surprised.

"Yes indeed," Fred agreed, "The Marauder's Map shows you every inch of Hogwarts—"

"Not to mention every person on every inch of Hogwarts," George added smugly.

"It also shows secret passages into and out of the castle that not many people know about. Now, this one is caved in, but here…" As Fred began instructing Harry on all the secret passages, Leila couldn't believe her ears.

"No need to thank us or anything," George remarked, a little bemused by her expression.

"If this map shows everyone," Leila finally said, her voice sounding almost hollow to herself, "Why didn't you use it to find Black on Halloween? Or give it to the teachers so they could find him?"

Fred and George seemed to pause, glancing at each other quickly.

"Right, well, we had left it in the dorm that night, and we weren't allowed to go in there," Fred defended.

"And he's not on it now, see?" George quickly pointed out, showing them the map.

"But what if he was just a few minutes ago?" Harry countered. "I bet he'd love to get his hands on that." All four exchanged nervous looks before extensively searching the map again. No Sirius Black to be found, but—"

"Who's that skulking around your dormitory, Harry?" Leila grabbed his arm, and Harry turned white.

"'Peter Pettigrew'?" Fred read the name off the map. "I've never heard of him."

"Let's go look then," George decided. "He's hanging round Ron's bed, and I don't like that."

They made their way quick as possible to the common room, made easier by passages that Fred and George showed them, and Leila could easily see the benefits of the Marauder's Map. Soon enough they were at the third years boy's dormitory. All four pulled out their wands before Fred kicked the door open.

"There's no one in here!" Harry finally said, confused as the rest were.

"But that's not possible, the map's never wrong, ever!" George protested, checking under Ron's bed, in his drawer, and then moving on to the other beds.

"But the only living things in here are us, Scabbers, and Trevor," Leila pointed out. Obviously it's malfunctioning somehow."

The twins sighed, defeated, and Harry, trying to lift their spirits said, "Tell you what, we go to Hogsmeade now, and then we'll search again after that if the name hasn't left the map."

"We could look it up in the library tomorrow," Leila suggested, "Maybe some bloke named Pettigrew was a Gryffindor and his name got stuck or something."

They all agreed and the pairs of twins split up, the Weasleys leaving through the front door while the Potters snuck through a passage guarded by the statue of a hump-backed witch.

Hogsmeade was truly a wonder, all decked out as it was in its holiday splendor, looking just look a Christmas card. They pulled up their hoods to make identifying them more difficult and explored, keeping an eye out for Ron and Hermione.

When they finally found them, it was at the Shrieking Shack where Malfoy was busy harassing the pair. Some snowballs thrown with the aid of the Invisibility Cloak later, and that problem was solved, but Ron and Hermione seemed rather stunned at how they had managed to sneak out of the castle.

"A map of Hogwarts? No way! You'd think they would've given it to me, since I'm their brother and all, but wicked!" Ron said.

"You used it to sneak out of the school? You should have turned it into a teacher as soon as you thought about Black! Harry, you shouldn't even be out here, it's dangerous- he's looking for you. And Leila, well- you- you don't even have permission to come here! What if a teacher catches you?"

"Calm down, Hermione, happy to see you too," Leila joked, a little alarmed at her friend's behavior.

"Oh no, it's not- I'm just worried is all. Just worried."

"It'll be fine, Hermione," Ron spoke, pacifying the brunette. "We'll make sure nothing happens. So let's head to the Three Broomsticks for Butterbeer."

The Three Broomsticks certainly lived up to its fantastic reputation, and the Butterbeer tasted just brilliant. It was the warmest, sweetest drink she had ever had, and just the winter chill away like it had never been there in the first place.

But suddenly, she and Harry were shoved under the table as Professors McGonagall, Flitwick, Hagrid, and the Minister of Magic all came in for a drink together. The adults had looser tongues in their own company, and the information they inadvertently revealed to the four students was shocking. The man their parents had most trusted- the one the Lupin never mentioned in his stories, she now realized –their own godfather, had betrayed them to Voldemort and was now hunting them down. Dimly it registered in her brain that she had also been correct about Peter Pettigrew; he had been a Gryffindor student, but was dead for twelve years which left them with nothing to go on in that direction.

They made their silent way to the castle, anger stirring in the pits of the Potter twins' stomachs. How could he? Sirius Black, the cruelest man to have ever existed. And there he was, best man in those photos long ago, he looked much better then than now. But it didn't matter, because he was still alive and free.

"As soon as Professor Lupin gets back, we're having a nice long chat," Leila threatened as the four sat by the fire.

"That wouldn't solve anything, Leila—" Hermione started, but Harry cut her off with a rather sardonic snort.

"Yeah, waiting isn't going to help anything. How about we go talk to Hagrid? We know he's already drunk."

"A brilliant idea!" Leila praised her twin as she jumped up and went for the portrait hole.

Ron and Hermione stood back nervously as the twins took turns pounding on the door of Hagrid's hut. Eventually it was pulled open by Hagrid, who was indeed drunk, but also sobbing as he clutched an official looking piece of parchment.

Tearfully, he told them of Buckbeak's impending trial, and how he was certain that the hippogriff would be found guilty and executed. Leila looked to her brother for direction, but he shook his head. She huffed, slightly annoyed, but willing to wait for a better time to question their large friend, and waited for Ron to finish making tea as they all settled down to begin the long process of calming Hagrid down.

Back in the common room they finished up their homework, Ron and Hermione both already in bed.

"Harry?" Leila ventured, remembering a thought she had had before they heard that conversation in the Three Broomsticks.

"Yeah?"

"Do you think- well, did it seem to you like Ron and Hermione weren't happy to see us? Like they were unhappy we'd found a way to sneak out and join them?"

"Well, Hermione hates rule breaking, and I think Ron was just insulted that the twins didn't pass the map on to him," Harry replied. "That was probably it."

"Ok, but they seemed a little…too put out, you know?"

"Don't worry about it, they're fine."

"Alright," Leila couldn't shake the feeling, though, that Ron and Hermione had wanted to go to Hogsmeade together, alone. And it made her feel very uncomfortable for some reason.

Well, that's the latest chapter. Thank you for reading.