Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.
A/N: Thanks to PenguinLord0029 and Gazaran, who beta this story.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
The Map
Not knowing what the voice was and not hearing it again, Harry put it to the back of his mind for something he will deal with later. Actually, right now the two things he had been worrying about were Quidditch and the map that he wanted to make.
Working on the map was not as easy as Harry thought it would be and he started to doubt Sirius's claim that the Marauders only spent a month on this. Hermione had looked up the basic spells that would be needed to make the new map and they were all difficult spells to perform, which in itself wouldn't have been so bad but there seemed to be more to this than just casting the spells on a new piece of paper. It seemed that some of the charms would work against each other and the paper she tried to enchant would end up becoming a pile of ash.
When Harry had gone to the twins to ask them to copy the map and if they knew any way to cast these spells together, they didn't seem to have any answer either. Harry was discouraged by this, for though he knew the twins were not very studious, he also knew they were capable wizards and they were especially good at charms. However, Hermione seemed to think this was a challenge and she decided to read all the books on charms that she could find to see how she could make this map work. When the first month had gone by and still she did not have any success she got angry and would spend every spare second she had on this project.
It was only a few days after that that they got the break they were looking for, though it was in the form that none of them were expecting it to be in. Harry, Ron and Hermione were walking back to the castle from the Quidditch pitch, the boys having just had a very strenuous practices (Wood was pushing everyone harder than usually to prepare them for their next game), and Hermione had decided to take her research outside because it was actually a nice day. However, just before they could go into the castle they saw Luna who seemed to be looking for something.
"Hey Luna," Harry said, smiling at his friend. They hadn't actually seen each other that much, not being in the same house nor having classes that were near each other, but Harry still thought of her as a friend. "Do you need some help?"
"Yeah, we can help you find whatever it is you're looking for," Ron added.
"Well, actually I'm looking for the Crumple-Horned Snorkack," Luna said. "My dorm mate said that she thought she saw one down her the other day. I was about to lure it out with some cheese, Daddy said that it's their favorite."
"Er … Luna," Hermione said biting her lip, and looking at the boys uncomfortably before she pressed on, "I'm not sure if your dorm mate was telling the truth …"
Luna turned her dreamy eyes on Hermione then, her expression was hard to read but she said, "Yes, I believe you're correct, but one cannot exclude the possibility that the Snorkack would want to come here until one has investigated the scene for themselves."
"That's a very interesting way to look at it," Harry smiled at her, but Hermione was frowning at Luna. She didn't believe that this Crumple-Horned Snorkack really existed and she couldn't understand why Luna would waste her time on this thing, especially when it was clear that the girl was actually rather intelligent.
"So … er … how have you liked Hogwarts so far?" Ron questioned uncomfortably.
"Oh, it's been lovely," Luna nodded her head; "I think I have found some evidence that there is a great infestation of Nargles around here. It makes sense of course, with this many people they can cause plenty of the mischief that they love so much."
"Er … that's nice," Ron mumbled, not knowing what else he could have said.
"Hm …" Luna smiled at him, placing some cheese on the grass and then walking to join the others.
"What are …?" Harry started to ask.
"The Crumple-Horned Snorkacks are shy, it's best if they don't think I'm watching them," Luna said sincerely. "So what have you've been doing?"
"We've been trying to make a map of the school," Harry answered and the other two looked at him in shock. "What? She's our friend; we don't have to keep it from her."
"A map," Luna said nodding her head. "That sounds very useful, I got turned around a lot in my first week, but I think that had more to do with the wrackspurt."
"We'll make sure to give you a copy of the map after we make them," Harry smiled. "We're going to try to make it so that we can talk to each other through the map. And it will tell us …"
"What?" Luna eyes widen in shock and then became unnervingly normal or at least normal for everyone except Luna. "What are you talking about?"
Hermione than explained everything that they were trying to do to the map and Luna frown deepened the longer that Hermione talked.
"Do you know how dangerous it can be to just combine charms together without knowing how they would react to one another?" Luna questioned, her voice sounding stern.
"Well, the paper did sort burst into flames a few times," Ron said, "and others times the spell would just fizzle out and not work."
"Are you saying that not all these spells could work together on the same object," Harry frowned.
"I don't know that," Luna admitted. "But I know the charm you can use to see if it would work."
"Really! Can you help us?" Harry asked excitedly.
"What did you mean that it was dangerous to combine spells?" Hermione asked, looking put out that Luna had the answer to something she had been working on for a little over a month. "I've read just about every charm book that I could find and they didn't mention anything like that!"
"My mum said they didn't use spells together like this until seventh year charms, because of the risk of potential back fires," Luna said sadly.
"But you know the spell!" Harry reminded her, still looking excited.
"My mum worked in the Department of Experimental Charms," Luna frowned. "Though she mostly worked on potions, she often used charms too."
"Luna," Hermione said softly, she had not missed that the other girl said worked and she hoped it did not mean what she thought it might. However, when Luna looked up at her, Hermione was sure she was right. "Oh Luna, I'm so sorry …"
"It's okay," Luna said, "I was nine when it happened …"
"When …" Ron started to ask, looking confused, but Harry stepped on his foot and then shook his head.
"I think I will help you, Harry," Luna said, her expression was still serious as she looked at the piece of cheese that was still on the lawn.
"We can come back here after lunch if you want to wait here?" Harry offered.
"I think that's a good idea," Luna agreed and the trio left a very thoughtful Luna to herself, coming back almost an hour later. Hermione showed her all the spells they had decided that they wanted and Luna sighed, looking up at them dreamily again.
"I don't see anything on here that would have been too bad," Luna informed them, "though I don't think all of it will work together. For instance, the spell you used to allow you to communicate to one another would cause the spell that allows you to imprint your thoughts onto the map useless. You would able to use one, but not both spells. "
"How can you tell that just by looking at the spells?" Hermione questioned, trying hard to keep the bitterness out of her tone.
"I use to watch my mum work a lot," Luna shrugged. "She would often sing about the fundamental formulas that coincide with one another and also the ones that didn't."
"Really," Hermione said, "do you think you could teach me that?"
Luna looked thoughtfully for a second and then nodded her head.
"Hermione can't we do that later," Harry said impatiently. "I really would like to get some work done on the map today."
"Fine," Hermione sighed.
Luna then looked over the list of spells more closely, casting the charm that would show any potential danger in the list (Hermione then insisted that Luna teach her how to do the spell too, which Luna was happy to do). Not finding any, she informed them of all the spells that wouldn't be able to work together properly and the spells that would definitely cancel each other out if used together.
It took them the rest of the day to figure out exactly what they were going to add to the map to make it their own. They had decided that they wouldn't imprint their personalities to the map, preferring that the map would allow them to communicate to one another through the several copies of the map they were going to make. Also, they made it easier to identify people by making it so when you called a certain name, the corresponding dot on the map would light up. After a few failures, they figured out that if they wanted the maps to be able to work with one another they had to cast the spells on all of the maps at the same time or the charms would be useless.
"Okay, so tomorrow we're going to try and do this," Harry summed up, noticing it was dinnertime.
"Yes," Hermione nodded her head.
"Hm … we still have to try and figure out the order that the spells have to be cast," Luna said.
"Not to mention we have to know how many maps we want to make," Ron added. "I mean do you want one for each of us? Do we make extras?"
"Well, I think it's best if we just have one for each of us," Harry said thoughtfully. "I mean Neville and Luna would need one for sure because they are in different houses. It would be nice if Hermione has one because if we ever need to communicate to one another when she's in her dorm it would come in handy. Technically you and I wouldn't need one each, but seeing as everyone else would have one it makes sense that we both would have one. I was thinking about giving the twins one …"
"Only one?" Ron questioned.
"Well they still have the marauder's map, I don't think they need two," Harry said. "And … well … er … I was also thinking about giving Ginny a map …"
"Really?" Ron said looking confused. "But she doesn't even know about them and it's not like we've really talked to her much since we've gotten here."
"I know," Harry sighed, thinking about how shy and distant Ginny seemed to have grown over the last month. "But I still feel as if she's part of our group."
"Whatever," Ron shrugged.
After that they went to dinner, though Hermione made plans to see Luna after the meal so that she could learn the song that Luna's mum sang to her, so she would know more about the fundamentals of combining charms. After that she was going to try to figure out the proper order of the charms they would be using on the map.
O
The next morning after breakfast the trio met Luna in the corridor that they had made the Animagus Potion in. They brought with them copies of the Marauder's map, and the list of spells they were putting on them. Hermione was beaming as she walked to Luna to have all the work that she did last night confirmed by the other girl. When Luna nodded her head, Hermione started to say the enchantments.
The first charm that she cast was the one that would make everything work together harmoniously. Then there was the charm that would allow you to show all the living people, all throughout the castle, identifying them no matter what disguise they might wear. That was followed by the one that would allow a name to be highlighted if you asked for it, and then there was the one that allowed you to write from one map to another. The words would fade after you wrote them and the answers would come back in the same ink that you had used. Then there was the charm for the passwords that would make the map visible when in use and invisible when they didn't want anyone to see it. Their passwords were 'Hocus Pocus' and 'Alakazam'.
After Hermione had finished, she looked at Harry and gave a nod, which meant that he was allowed to pick up the map. He looked it over at first and smiled, for he could see that at the very least that there were moving dots on the map. "Show me Fred and George," he asked the map, holding his breath in anticipation and beamed when he saw the red dots flare up. "YES! It works!"
"Brilliant!" Ron said grinning, picking up the next map one the pile. "I wonder if everyone will show up red though. Show me Neville," he added to his own map and seconds later Neville's dot showed up in yellow.
"Hm … maybe it goes by house colors," Hermione mused looking very pleased with everything they had done and asked to see Luna, who was indeed blue like her house was. After that, she asked to see Malfoy, who was green. "Well that will make things even easier."
"I think we should try out the writing now," Harry said.
"Oh, I already wrote something," Luna informed them and they turned the map until they got to the page that was designated to sending messages. Harry got to the page first and beamed when he found writing there. He laughed when he saw that it described all the things that Snorkacks didn't like.
"It works too!" Harry explained.
"Hm … I wonder if we would be able to write a message to just one of the maps or if it has to go to all of them?" Ron mused.
"Actually I was reading about that," Hermione smiled at him. "I'm sure that nothing like these maps have be made before, but the spell did say something about as long as you distinguish between the enchanted copies … which is to say that I make the map I'm holding belong to me and me alone, you would be able to tell the map who to write to. Another benefit to this, is we can make it so the maps could only be open to the person that owns the map … you know, like it can recognize our voice or essences or something like that."
"Cool," Ron smiled. "How do we make the map our own?"
"Well, first you will have to mark each map in a unique way," Hermione said. "For instants, we can all make them have their own colors … or we could put a symbol on them or something like that."
"Hm … okay, that does sound cool," Ron smiled.
"I think we should get the other guys here before we discuss this any farther though," Harry said. "We should make a decision like this together."
They all agreed with Harry's suggestion and so they split up to get the others. Ron and Hermione went to the Gryffindor common room where they knew that Fred and George were. It made it a lot easier to find where everyone was with these maps. Luna had gone to the library where Ginny was sitting by herself. Harry went to the owlery so he could have Hedwig deliver a letter to Neville, even though he knew that his friend was in his common room. There was no way that Harry could have gotten in there so he had to resort to notes. He would be happy when he no longer had to send notes this way, but he had a feeling that Hedwig would be annoyed that he wouldn't use her as much. He was going to have to find something else to use her for.
"So, Harry my boy, what are you up to now?" Fred said trying to look annoyed.
"And why are you summoning us to you in such an unannounced sort of way?" George huffed.
"Hold on, we're not all here yet," Harry held up a hand and he thought the twins gave him real glares before they shrugged it off with grins.
"Huh? I wouldn't have thought there was a passageway behind this," Ginny said to Luna before blushing upon seeing that Harry was there.
"You're inviting little Gin Gin to join our merry band of troublemakers," Fred said.
"And another firsty at the look of it," George added looking at Luna.
"Hello," Luna said smiling at the twins, "Do you know that you have a shemanal around you?"
The twins looked at each other before looking back at her and raising an eyebrow.
"What's a shemanal? Fred asked.
"And which one of us were you talking to?" George added.
"Both of you," Luna answered nodding her head, "It's an aura that usually surrounds twins, though it's uncommon for it to be this strong … The Patil twins are the only other twins I've met and they're shemanal is nowhere near as strong as yours … you must be really close, I would think that you were telepathic."
"Not quite …" George said.
"But we're close," Fred smiled.
"This is Luna Lovegood, by the way," Harry chuckled.
"Oh yes, Ginny told us about you," Fred chuckled this time, "you're a Ravenclaw, aren't you?"
"Yes, I think it might have been obviously by the uniform that she's wearing," Ron pointed out the blue and silver tie she was wearing. Fred made a face at Ron but didn't say anything.
"So I suppose you're all wondering why I brought you here," Harry said to his friends.
"No, you brought us …" Luna started to say.
"Er … I mean the others Luna," Harry said and she shrugged her shoulders and then looked off into space. "Anyways, I think I've mention to all of you that I was planning on making a map …"
"Map?" Ginny said, looking completely confused. Harry sighed before explaining all about the Marauder's map and that he was planning on make one for them.
" … And now that everyone's caught up," Harry said, he pulled out his map, "Hocus Pocus."
"Hocus Pocus!" the twins said. "That's the words you chose to use to open the map!"
"Well, we liked it," Harry mumbled and Hermione glared at the twins.
"They said it had something to do with Muggle magic words," Ron rolled his eyes. "I was all for 'The Weasleys Rule,' but Harry didn't think that covey the meaning of the map very well."
"Hocus Pocus doesn't sound so bad now, does it?" Harry smirked.
"I suppose," Fred chuckled.
"Anyway, look at this," Harry said, showing the twins, Neville and Ginny the map and showing all the things they could do. He then had Hermione explain about the last touches they could work on to make each of the maps personalized so that they could send private messages.
"I just have to ask," Fred said.
"Why do we only get one map to share when everyone else gets their own?" George finished.
"Because you have the Marauder's map," Harry said. "You don't really need two of the new ones."
They looked at each other for a long moment before they nodded their head.
"That does make sense," Fred said. "And I think it would be good for us to have two different maps. I'm sure we will find a use for this."
"Good, now that that is all settle, we should think of how to individualize our maps," Hermione said. "I think we should just color them for now, we can add more things later but for the initial difference the different colors would be enough. I think mine should be …"
"Brown," Ron said before she could say anything, and Hermione frowned at him.
"Brown?" she said making a face.
"Well, it's the color of your hair and eyes," Ron said. "And I think your owl is brown …"
"Hermione doesn't have an owl," Ginny said and the other looked uncomfortably at Harry. "What? What did I say?"
"It's nothing?" Ron said looking angry with himself.
"He was talking about what Hermione's Animagus form will be," Harry answered.
"Harry, what do you think you're doing?" Fred said looking at his little sister.
"Well, she already knows pretty much everything," Harry shrugged. "Why not this, too?"
"But," George said looking uncomfortable.
"Wow, how cute, you two CAN be concern about others," Harry said and they glared at him.
"You're going to become Animagi?" Luna said her eyes on Harry. Ginny was now looking at him, too, she was looking shock and excited.
"Er …" was all Harry could said, he was suddenly reminded of yesterday when Luna had reacted badly to the charms they were mixing together.
"Hm … I've always wondered what animal I would be," Luna said thoughtfully. "Do you think it's possible that I could become a Snorkack?!"
"Er …" was all Harry could say again, but for a completely different reason this time.
"Unfortunately I don't think so," Hermione sighed. "As far as I've read, only animals that Muggles know about have been the forms that an Animagus has taken."
"Ow," Luna sighed. "But I still would like to see."
"Do you still have the potion Hermione?" Ron asked.
"Yeah, actually it's right here," Hermione said moving something out of the way; muttering a word that revealed a cabinet with four more doses of the potion, along with the books they had copied from the restricted section in the library.
"Well, if you want to discover what Animagus form you are, you can take this," Harry said holding up two vials, one to each Ginny and Luna. The girls looked at each other before reaching their hands towards the vials.
"Mum is going to kill us if anything happens," Fred sighed in a serious tone, and then he shrugged and added jauntily, "oh well, let's decide what color our map will be."
Harry rolled his eyes at Fred's comment and handed the potions to the others. As the girls went through their quest to find their Animagus forms, the others chose the color they would use for their map. Hermione had indeed gone with brown after what Ron had said. Ron chose red after Hermione commented that it would be the color of his mane. Neville chose teal, because it was one of his favorite colors. Fred and George had a heated debate that was only serious for the first minute of the rather lengthy discussion, which ended when they decided on orange. Harry picked green, which Ron commented on not liking because of the Slytherin. Harry stated it was because of his eye color, which he shared with his Animagus form and, more importantly, his mum.
Luna was the first to come out of her trances, though in some ways it looked like she was still in the trance as she talked about the animal she was going to be, a lynx. She was in the middle of her sentence when Ginny woke up. Luna's eyes frowned when she looked at her friend, because Ginny was looking a little shaken but when asked about what Ginny would be she looked excited like everyone did when they talked about their animals. She was going to be a cat.
After the girls settled down about the animals they were going to be, and the others told them their animals too, Ginny and Luna chose the color their maps would be. Ginny choose gold, it being the color of her favorite Quidditch team and Luna picking blue. After they had changed their maps they said the incantation, the twins saying theirs together to make sure that the map imprinted on both of them ('it's a good thing you shemanal is so strong or otherwise that wouldn't have worked,' Luna commented). Harry was beaming for the rest of the week after what they had accomplished this weekend.
A/N: So at the end of the polling it looks like lynx for Luna and cat Ginny won. I hope that everyone is okay with that.
