The Fifth Marauder

"Amy." The voice was oddly familiar, yet she couldn't place it. "So you're here. With the map?"

She swallowed. "That depends whether you have Aaron."

The voice chuckled. "So you figured it out. Well, he is here."

"Where?" she fired back.

One of the armchairs creaked, and a figure rose up from it. He was wearing a black cloak which completely concealed his body, save his face. It was the face of a man nearing fifty, his striking pale eyes circled with black bags. He was strikingly familiar… she just didn't know how.

"Give it to me," he rasped. "Give me the map."

"Give me Aaron first," she said, trying to keep the tremor from her voice.

The man laughed. Amy couldn't help but back away slightly. "Amy, I, for one, want this to be a smooth exchange. But the exchange is going to go like this. You give me the Marauder's Map, and I won't kill either of you."

"You said… you said in the letter that if I brought you the map, you'd give Aaron back. You didn't say anything about—" Amy hesitated. "—anything else."

"The map, Longbottom." He was now speaking in a sort of snarl. "Now."

"You won't be able to work it," she said, suddenly brave. "You don't know how to work it."

"Actually, you'll find that I do."

The stranger — M — brandished his wand from his cloak, and the map untucked itself from her pocket and sped towards his outstretched hand before Amy could even withdraw her own wand.

He tapped his wand against the map. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good," he said, watching Amy's expression — a brief flash of horror — as the map of Hogwarts came into view.

"Look, please, just give me Aaron," pleaded Amy.

He ignored her. "There are secrets embedded deep in this map that Harry Potter—" He sneered at the name "—would never even dream of."

"What do you mean?" said Amy.

"I trust you've seen what happens when the map is opened," the man said.

"The map appears," said Amy, "with the words—"

"Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, purveyors of aids to magical mischief-makers are proud to present the Marauder's Map," he finished. "Only, that isn't all that happens."

Amy was instantly interested.

"The Four Marauders used to be five," he went on. "You probably know who Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs were."

Amy didn't answer. Of course she knew. She'd known ever since she'd learnt to speak.

"Moony was a man… no, a werewolf," he sniggered, "Named Remus Lupin; Wormtail was Peter Pettigrew; Padfoot was Sirius Black; and Prongs… Prongs was James Potter." The man paused, it seemed, for effect. "But there was another one. Talon. He was an Animagus, too, a large hawk."

"I've never even heard of him,"she said.

"Oh, they did a good job of covering him up," said the man coldly. "Because, you see, while the four of them became more and more comfortable with Lupin's monthly… problem, Talon became more and more uncomfortable. He knew what they were doing was illegal, and every month, one of them would get seriously injured while getting too close to Lupin in his state.

"So Talon, at first, stood up to them. They didn't like this at all, and when he pursued it further, they began to shun him. They began to make fun of him in class, and talked about him while in their house — for while all four of them were in Gryffindor, Talon was in Slytherin."

Well, thought Amy, that was a bad sign.

"They slowly grew distant," he continued, "and Talon, the most well-off and the cleverestof the Five Marauders, quickly made other friends, friends who stood by him just as they once had. But the Four Marauders wanted nothing to do with Talon, especially James Potter and his sidekick, Black."

"So what's this got to do with the map?" said Amy.

"Talon helped to write the map," the man cut in. "But he added more to it. Things he never told the other four."

"So?" Amy cut in. "What good will that do you?"

"And Talon," he continued, "was my father."

"Oh, God," she breathed.

The man tapped the map again, muttered something under his breath. More ink patterns began developing on the map, a map which began expanding slowly. It showed names, hundreds of thousands of names, dotted around a huge rectangle. Amy stiffened as she recognised shapes across the rectangle.

"That's… that's—"

"The entire world," he said. "And there's more, Amy."

"So you have your map," Amy said. "Please just give me Aaron."

The man didn't listen. Instead, he began advancing towards her, wand in hand, leaving the map on the table beside him. She froze, as his lips curled to reveal even, white teeth.

Then suddenly it struck her.

She knew why he had seemed so familiar to her. That blonde hair, that pale skin… those eyes. This man was the spitting image of Turvulus Malfoy.

"Malfoy," she said under her breath.

The man came to an abrupt halt, and stared at her.

"What did you just say?" he whispered.

"Malfoy," said Amy. "Turvulus Malfoy, but older… You look like him."

"You know Turvulus?" The man showed a hint of surprise.

"Yes, I know him," she said with a scowl. "Oh, I know him."

He didn't reply, and, all of a sudden, it dawned on her.

"You're… you're his father, the one who works in the Ministry… David, or something," she said, taking a step back. "No, Draco. You're Draco Malfoy."

There was a silence while the man stood there, glaring at her.

"Lucky guess," he finally scoffed. He raised his wand again. "Turvulus told me about you."

"Did he mention how I hate foul, snide, stuck-up Malfoys?" she fired back.

"No, but he did mention how irritating you were… with your prying, idiotic ways." Malfoy pointed his wand at her.

"Incendio!" she bellowed, flourishing her own wand.

A column of flame shot from her wand, and Malfoy had to quickly use "Protego!"to protect himself.

"He also mentioned how you were quick to use violence to solve any problem," said Malfoy, "And... Oh, how you talked too much. He told me an awful lot about you, Amy."

"He can talk," she fired back. "He's the one who gets his wand out for the smallest things, and tries to wheedle his way out of anything using that greasy little mouth of his."

"Well," said Malfoy, "He doesn't have to worry you any longer, Amy."

Amy dashed for the window, but Malfoy was too fast. "Impedimenta!" he shouted. Amy's feet slipped out from beneath her, and she fell to the floor.

"Stupefy!" cried Malfoy.

"Protego," she choked out, and a shield appeared in front of her. The stunning spell bounced off, ricocheting into the wall instead, which shuddered.

She stood up. "Obscuro!" she screamed, just as Malfoy yelled, "Glacius!"

In a fleeting second, she remembered that her last duel had been with Turvulus Malfoy, this man's son. She had made her way out of that one alive… admittedly with a few broken bones, but still, alive…

"Stupefy!" Malfoy shouted again, and this time, the spell hit its mark, and Amy was thrown backwards.

She struggled to her feet. "Just let Aaron go," she croaked.

He ignored her. "Duro!"

She dodged the spell, and, pointing her wand at her own throat, uttered "Sonorus," then, dodging another spell, took a deep breath, and yelled "JAMES!"

With the effect of "Sonorus," her voice was magically magnified to one hundred times it's normal volume, and her ears were ringing afterwards. "JAMES!" she bellowed again. "HELP!"

"Enough," Malfoy snapped. "Obscu–"

"Protego!" she shouted, and it came out like a thundering roar.

"Reducto!" he cried out, and she felt herself slam into the wall. Her eyelids began to flutter shut, but she tried to hold them open… they were sliding shut again. All she could see was fuzziness, and as Malfoy approached with a smile, she knew that this would probably be the end. He raised his wand, opened his mouth.

"Avad—"

"AMY!" came a shout, and the door crashed open.

James and a very surprised Hog's Head owner were staring at them. Cursing, Malfoy grabbed the map and disapparated.

"Amy!" cried James again, rushing over to her.

But her eyes were losing focus again, and James was going blurry… Her eyelids slid shut, plunging her into darkness.