Chapter 28: Preparations

"So what's the plan for this term then?" asked Harry to everyone.

"It's exams of course!" said Hermione, "We'll all need to study."

"Broken record," said Dudley.

"Must be out of electricity," said Harry. Dudley sniggered.

"We were thinking more like now that Umbridge is gone, there's no Black problem and everything's back to normal, that perhaps we should get back into the swing of things," said Fred.

"You mean up to your usual?" asked Hermione.

"Of course, people have missed us," said Fred, "Look, I don't deny, Dumbledore with a purple beard was excellent, but I'm thinking bigger."

"But Snape will catch you, he's got your map," said Ron.

"Ah, but we've been having a quiet chat with Professor Lupin," said Fred, "Ours is nearly finished."

"That only stops you from walking round a corner into trouble. It doesn't stop you getting elf popped into Snape's office, does it?" asked Dudley. The twins had admitted to the rest of them over Easter why students were getting caught out of bounds more.

"No, but we've been experimenting with an invisible ink charm. It's one used on some of the parchment of Dudley's. We think we've made it specific."

"What do you mean?" asked Hermione, always curious about things she didn't know.

"Watch," said Fred. He got out a piece of normal parchment and quill and wrote his name. Then he cast the charm in the instructions that came with the parchment pack. His name disappeared. He cast the counter and it reappeared. "Now for the clever bit." He wrote 'My name is Fred Weasley.' Now, if I alter the wand action just so, see," he pointed with his free hand, "Only the words Fred Weasley are invisible."

"And?" asked Ron.

"Think about it," said Dudley.

Ron thought for a moment. "Oh!"

"There we go," said Dudley. "But you're going to have to get hold of his map to do it."

"That's the bit we've not worked out yet."

"I'd say that's a key part," said Harry.

"But also, we've added new features," said Fred. He tapped his map. The teacher's names appeared in blue, and Mrs Norris and the ghosts in green.

"Oh, that's clever," agreed Hermione.

"No, no, no, this is the clever part," said Fred. He tapped a shaded square drawn in the corner of the map as if it were a key. Parts of the castle became shaded. "A chocolate frog to the first person to tell us what those shaded areas are."

"They poured over the map. Harry, Dudley and Ron for the frog, Hermione for the satisfaction of winning.

"Where's that?" asked Ron, pointing to a section.

"Dungeons corridor outside Slytherin," said Harry.

"What's there?"

"Nothing," replied Harry, confused.

"What about that bit?" said Dudley, "It just went from shaded to unshaded. That's Myrtle's bathroom."

"All the hidden passageways are shaded too," said Hermione, "There's nothing there either."

"The shaded areas have nothing in them?" asked Harry of the twins.

"No, but close," said George.

They carried on looking at it, stumped.

"Oh, that's clever," said Hermione, watching some dots move out of an area and it go shaded. "They're not only empty, they can't be seen. There are no portraits there."

"Well done, Miss Granger, your title of Know-it-First is safe," said Fred.

"There are a few other tweaks, but otherwise we just need to get to Snape's map," said Fred.

"Can you accio it?" asked Hermione, "As in 'Accio Marauders' Map'."

"Doesn't work, we tried. I think Snape put an anti summoning charm on it. Either that, or the original Marauders' did."

"Snape comes to breakfast every morning at 7:30," said Fred the next day at breakfast, "I've watched him every day this week. Lunch and dinner varies, but breakfast doesn't."

"He's only in here twenty minutes. That's not much time," said George.

"We could way-lay him here," said Dudley.

"Too obvious we've done something," replied Fred.

Dudley nodded. "You'll get an extra three minutes each way in travel though," he said. "You only need three minutes with the map to find and cast for each of you, me, Harry and Ron. That leaves over twenty minutes to find the map. It's probably in his desk drawer."

"If we get it wrong, so is his ruler," said Fred. "Sneaking into a professor's office isn't going to be just a detention."

"You want me to help you get into Snape's office so you can find and charm his map?" asked Harry, "You're mad! He'll go spare, and you're not in his house. I am. This is not like sneaking into McGonagall's office. There are very different stakes!"

"All we need you to do is be lookout and distractor," said Fred. "You just have funnel Slytherins away from the office so that we aren't seen going inside by any of them. I presume they'd tell him if two Gryffs went into his office, the student code doesn't extend that far does it?"

"They'd tell alright, yeah. House rules," replied Harry.

"Just casually walk people the other way, intercept them, accost them, make an excuse to talk to them. They're in your house. The rest of us can't do it."

"And you two are both going to go into his office to search and cast your charm?"

"Yep," said George.

Harry looked at Ron, "And you're going to…?"

"I'm the watch for his return," said Ron, "I'm legging it back when I see him leave the great hall. We don't know if he'll be going back to his office, or whether he'll go to his classroom, but we aren't taking the risk. As soon as he leaves the hall we're getting out. If I run it gives at least a minute and a half warning."

"And you, Dudley?"

"I'm hoping my role isn't needed, cos if it is we're actually dead," said Dudley. "If Forge and Gred aren't out of the office, Ron gives me the signal and I run down whichever corridor Snape's on and run into him. That dressing down will gain us at least a minute and a half. He doesn't do short lectures."

Harry swallowed, "Yeah, that's not a good role."

Next morning, everyone was in position. Harry was dawdling in the common room. He'd retied his shoelaces twice and forgotten three textbooks. He said good morning to everyone who passed. Harry would never get a job in acting. He was nervous. Well, terrified to be honest. After the last person had left the common room who was leaving for breakfast, Harry emerged onto the dungeon corridor. He walked slowly down the corridor. Snape was still in his office. Harry reached the stairwell at the end of the corridor. The twins were loitering a lot more inconspicuously than he was managing. They'd had a lot more practice. Ron and Dudley obviously weren't anywhere near. If they came near, the brown stuff was hitting the spinning thing.

Harry checked that no-one was obviously watching him, and he turned round and headed back to the common room, pretending to have left his quill this time. He squeaked in terror when Professor Snape passed him in the corridor and wished him good morning.

Harry watched Snape in his robes sweep down the corridor and up the stairs to breakfast. The twins nonchalantly walked past Harry. Harry tried to loiter in the corridor pretending to rummage around his bag for something. The twins slipped inside Snape's office and closed the door behind them.

Ron had got to the great hall earlier than usual. He wanted to have eaten before Snape arrived. That way, leaving having finished wouldn't look too odd. He saw Snape arrive and sit down at the staff table. Snape talked to Flitwick. Flitwick asked him something. Snape patted a pocket looking for something, said a couple of words to Flitwick and then stood up to leave.

Crap, crap crap, thought Ron.

Ron got up and walked as quickly as he could out of the hall to prevent censure for running, then ran as fast as he could the moment he rounded the doorway. He knew Snape was only half the hall length behind him when he started running.

Dudley saw Ron run past looking terrified, Ron gave Dudley a brief glance on the way by. It spoke volumes. Oh crap.

Harry had managed to accost Marcus on his way out of the common room. Harry saw Marcus had the updated list of quidditch practice sessions in his hand. He'd want to leave those on Snape's desk. Snape allowed his prefects to enter his office to leave him paperwork. Harry was talking about a strategy they'd practiced the night before.

Harry heard the running footsteps well before seeing Ron. Ron ran down the corridor, saw Harry talking to Marcus, ran right by, ran past Snape's office door, knocked twice without really slowing down and hid behind a suit of armour just down the corridor. Not well hidden, but would pass a cursory glance.

Harry didn't think Marcus had seen or heard the knock, but couldn't be sure. Harry shifted his stance so that Marcus didn't have the office door in his direct line of sight, but Harry did. The twins didn't come out.

Dudley saw Snape heading back to his office. Ron really must have run because Dudley had waited over half a minute until Snape came. Dudley went for it. He ran down the last bit of the flight of stairs from Gryffindor tower and collided straight into Snape. He hoped it looked like Dudley was in a hurry for breakfast and wasn't looking where he was going.

That was exactly what it looked like. Dudley politely and apologetically endured the snarky comments. While normally he'd be cowed by the harangue to not act like a herd of Hippogriffs and would be concerned by the threat of detention if he ever did it again, that wasn't the terror at the top of his mind.

The Bat of the Dungeons swept on.

Harry heard footsteps. A stride only heard when his head of house was in Bat of the Dungeons mode. Dudley must have mowed him down. Snape rounded the corner. He didn't look best pleased.

The twins still weren't out.

Snape entered his office.

Marcus left Harry to go for breakfast, choosing to not go into Snape's office having seen his face. Harry didn't move. He stared in horror at the now closed door. He glanced over at Ron. Ron was doing the same thing.

The office door opened. Snape appeared in the doorway. He raised a single beckoning finger at Harry.

I'm dead.

He then turned and raised a beckoning finger at Ron. They both entered Snape's office. The twins were standing in front of Snape's desk, the original Marauder's Map on the desk. They stood next to the twins. Snape sat down.

He reached for the map. "And where has the other one got to?" he mused out loud. He was looking at the map. He didn't see the look of total terror on the twins' faces. Before he could look at the map properly there was a knock on the door.

"Come in Mr Dursley," said Snape, putting down the map.

Now there were five of them standing in front of Snape's desk.

"Attempting to steal back the map? And from my office no less," said Snape quietly to them all. That was the problem with Snape's quiet voice. It was terrifying. He harangued, he was snarky, he could hide an insult in a perfectly normal sentence, but you knew, if he spoke quietly you were dead. It was soft, silky and contained the promise of retribution.

No-one spoke.

"Do any of you have anything to say in your defence?" he asked, opening his desk drawer.

No-one spoke.

"Clearly not," said Snape, almost to himself. He got up and stood behind them. "Bend over, Mr Dursley."

"At least it was only five," said Fred. They'd got out of Snape's office and had gone up to Gryffindor tower for the remainder of breakfast. No-one was up there to notice Harry with them.

"Why didn't you get out?" demanded Ron, "I knocked. You heard me, right?"

"We heard you, but we hadn't found the map and we weren't going to get another chance. Snape's not dumb. After this, that map's going to be somewhere safe, like on his person, at all times."

"Where was it?" asked Harry.

"In the back of his planner," said George.

"You know there's one important question I have to ask," said Dudley, wincing as he sat down then thought better of it, "Did you do it?"

Fred grinned, the snug look of the successful. "You will be pleased to know your sore backside was not in vain. And, due to your selfless act of giving yourself up, he didn't look on the map and not find you. Gentlemen, we did it."

"Thank Merlin for that," said Ron, "Would an ice bath be wrong?"

"This is much nicer than Grimmauld Place," said Sirius, looking out of the window over the fields behind Hogsmeade. It was early June and the sunlight was bright and warm.

He had been discharged from St. Mungo's that morning, and Lupin had taken the day off work to take him out to lunch and then get him set up in the house. The Black fortune could easily afford another house, and Sirius had decided he never wanted to set foot in Grimmauld again. He could live anywhere in the country, but for now, he wanted to live somewhere he knew and recognised, Hogsmeade.

The Healers would visit him at home twice a week for sessions. Lupin would visit most evenings. It was a good starting arrangement. Sirius also wanted to meet Harry and get to know him. Harry was his Godson and he wanted to finally be Harry's Godfather.

He was a bit put out that Lupin and the Healers didn't seem as keen on the idea as he did. He'd had the argument with Remus again over lunch. Mooney never got angry or aggressive, he just didn't budge in his argument. It was frustrating.

"Look, Padfoot," said Mooney, "Harry has a family with whom he lives. He lives with his cousin. He's grown up with his cousin. He gets on well with his aunt, and his uncle is away a lot on business."

Sirius didn't know any more than that about the history of Harry's upbringing. The Healers, Lupin and Dumbledore had agreed that Sirius should never find out about Harry's relationship with the Dursley's before the beginning of his second year.

"Yes, but they're not wizards!" objected Sirius, "I can provide him a wizarding environment. I'm not suggesting he lives with me, but it'd be nice if he could stay during the holidays sometimes."

"Do I need to remind you he's underage and shouldn't be doing magic outside school anyway?" asked Mooney with a grin.

"Right. Because that happens in every wizarding family in the country," Sirius had replied, amused.

"He's grown up in a muggle environment, and he likes it," countered Lupin, "If you want to know about visiting a muggle environment I'd love to introduce you to the twins, they're Arthur and Molly's sons, you remember? In fact, they would be ecstatic to meet Padfoot of Marauder fame."

"You seem happy to introduce me to them, so why not Harry?" Sirius had asked petulantly.

"Look, I'll talk to Dumbledore about letting Harry come and visit one weekend. But only, and I mean only, if Harry wants to. I've told you before, you are a stranger to him, and he to you. He's not James. You can't just pick up that relationship with him. It took me a long time to realise that."

"Sit down, Harry," said Snape, "You aren't in trouble. This time." Harry sat on the couch that Snape indicated, and his cheeks flushed. Charming the map wasn't yet a distant memory. They were in his head of house's study. Remus was there too. "It's about Sirius Black."

Remus took over. "You remember that Sirius is your Godfather?"

Harry nodded, and said, "Yes, which is a nicer thought now that he's not a mass murder." He managed that with a wry smile.

"Indeed," said Remus, sadly. "I'm sure you read all about the whole thing in the paper? And that he's been in St. Mungo's ever since."

Again, Harry nodded.

"We've deliberately not spoken to you about this subject before now, because Sirius has been recovering, both mentally and physically from his ordeal," said Remus, "But he's asked if he can see you."

"But why? He doesn't know me," said Harry.

Dudley had Godparents. They were some friends of Petunia's from way back. Harry vaguely remembered them visiting a few times when Harry had been five, maybe six. Petunia exchanged Christmas and birthday cards, and occasionally her and Vernon went to see them, but other than that, they had nothing to do with Dudley. Harry didn't really understand the purpose of a Godfather apart from being a distant person that you saw occasionally.

"Sirius was best friends with your father," replied Lupin. "He saw a lot of your parents, after they left school, and even quite a lot of you. He was the only person who knew where your parents were hiding. He was close to your parents. If they'd lived and you'd grown up with them, he'd have been very close with you too. More like Uncle Sirius than Godfather Sirius if you know what I mean."

Harry nodded slowly. He could understand the concept. "But he doesn't know me, and I don't know him. I know a bit about him, his life has been in the paper. I've read all about him out of curiosity. Assuming the paper is correct. But isn't it going to be weird? I'd be meeting a stranger."

"Do you remember when I visited you at Christmas, Harry?" asked Lupin.

"Yeah, that started out real awkward, and you'd even been helping out in my lesson before then."

"But what I told you about you not being James," Severus folded his arms, "I meant every word. However, I had to get to know you to find that out. Sirius wants to meet you, partly because he misses his friend, partly because he's missed you growing up and wants to think about the might have beens, but mainly, like me, he wants to know you're OK. Like me, he wasn't available to take you in after your parents died. He just wants to know."

"Oh," said Harry. "I suppose." Harry thought for a bit longer. "What's he really like? Will I like him?"

Remus chuckled, "Put it this way, the real him, the twins would love!" Severus didn't say anything. "But you need to remember he's been in prison for twelve years. It's taken a lot out of him. He's trying to find normal. That comes across in his mannerisms. The Sirius of old, how I remember him, the person your father knew, was bright, a joker, very social." Lupin glanced at Severus, "He didn't get on with everyone. He did some things in school that weren't pranks like the twins do. He came from a wizarding household, one with opinions about behaviour."

"Like the Malfoys?" asked Harry, trying to put a pin in his mental map.

"Take Draco, and combine him with the twins," said Lupin, "Is that close, Professor Snape?"

"It's not entirely inaccurate," conceded Snape shortly.

Harry sensed the change in temperature, so asked, "Do you think I'll like him, sir?" asked Harry. Lupin could see the effort of self-control Severus was exerting.

"I think you'll have to meet him for yourself to find that out," said Severus, shortly. "I will be honest and say I never got on with him, but it is also true that I didn't get on with your father or Professor Lupin either. Having said that, I was, as you know, friends with your mother, and she married your father. So there's no accounting for taste."

Even Lupin smiled at that.

"Sit down before you pull a muscle!" growled Lupin at Sirius. "People are beginning to stare."

"I know I've seen him, when I went Padfoot, but I've not been able to talk to him, I'm just excited, that's all!" said Sirius, not making any effort to contain his excitement.

"You remember he's not on his own, don't you? His cousin and three Weasleys are coming with him?"

"I remember," said Sirius, "Look, there they are!" Sirius waved at the group of students walking towards the table outside the café in Hogsmeade.

"Harry," said Fred, in all seriousness, seeing Sirius wave at them from across the street, "We can leave whenever you want, just kick me under the table and I'll make an excuse for us."

"Yeah but if you could wait until after I've shaken the hand of an accused mass murderer and the co-author of the Marauder's Map, that'd be fantastic," said George.

"Hello, hello," said Sirius as they approached the table, "I'm so happy to see you," he said, looking at Harry, "All of you," he amended, taking in the others at a glance. "Sit down, order what you like. My shout. No really, I'm sure the Black fortune has sat doing nothing for 12 years, its can afford an outing to a café in Hogsmeade," he said with a grin.

They sat themselves down. "Ginger hair says Weasley," said Sirius to the three head heads.

George reached out a hand and shook Sirius's, "Nice to meet you."

Harry and Dudley avoided looking at each other so that they wouldn't laugh.

"Mooney has told me so much about you," said Sirius, "It's like I know you already. Youngest seeker in decades! Your father would be proud."

Harry smiled politely, "Yeah, quidditch is brilliant."

"I'd never have thought you'd be in Slytherin though," he said, "James and Lily were so Gryffindor through and through." Lupin nudged Sirius's ankle with his foot. Sirius changed the subject, "So, how is Hogwarts these days, still able to get up to a lot of things you shouldn't?"

The conversation became less stilted, and a bit more relaxed, but it was still a conversation between strangers. Sirius confined his talk to Hogwarts, which made things easier, but there was something off about it. It was kind of forced, but not. It was kind of reminiscing, but not. Sirius did tell a couple of stories about the daft things the Marauders had got up to, one of which Lupin had told him already, but the conversation was just a bit odd.

Harry realised what it was when Sirius said, "So, do you use the cloak to get up to much these days, Ja…. Harry?"

Yep. That did it.

Harry answered, but the conversation never recovered after that, and the boys thanked Sirius for the drinks after ten more minutes and left to go back to the castle.

"I blew it, didn't I?" asked Sirius, sadly.

"I told you he isn't James," said Lupin, gently.

"I just thought…"

"To be honest, when I first met him, so did I. He's the spitting image, but he's just not him," admitted Lupin.

"Do you think he'll still want to spend some time with me at all? The odd day? Maybe a weekend?"

"Perhaps," said Lupin, "It wasn't a total train wreck today, but he's not James, is he?"

"No, he's really not," accepted Sirius.