Chapter 10

Letters from Patricia Stimpson to Tracy Bowen, William Styles and Ava Woodhouse, and Remus Lupin; dated September 2nd , 1989.

Dear Tracy, William and Ava,

Hello from Hogwarts! Since I would be telling the same things to all of you anyway I decided to just write one letter, it'll save my hand for writing lines. Yes, you read that right, writing lines as in detention. Don't worry, it's not just me, ALL the first years have detention, though we're not sure what it is yet. I'll tell you how we managed that it a bit. You'll be getting this letter from Uncle Remus because I'll have sent it to him to send to you. I made him swear that he wouldn't read anything I send for you but you can ask him to make copies if you want.

I made some friends on the train ride here. Lee Jordan and Fred and George Weasley. Fred and George are twins and it's partially their fault that we have detention. They and another boy got into a fight with another boy, Warrington, who insulted half of the first years all at once. We all started taking sides and eventually Professor McGonagall got so frustrated that she just gave all of us detention. This was before we were Sorted or she would have just taken away points.

Sorting is when we're put into the Houses that we take classes with and live in for the entire time that we're at Hogwarts. Each House has a group of qualities that the people in it are supposed to have. Lee, Fred and George are all in Gryffindor, which is the House of the brave and daring. The other boy who was fighting against Warrington with them, Towler, is also in Gryffindor. I'm a Ravenclaw. We're supposed to be wise and witty, but most of the other Houses think we're just a bunch of bookworms. Tracy, I know what you're saying. I'm not just a bookworm. The other Houses are Hufflepuff and Slytherin. Hufflepuffs are hardworking and loyal. Slytherins are cunning and ambitious. My mother was a Slytherin and Uncle Remus was a Gryffindor. You would all be Hufflepuffs or Gryffindors. Apparently Slytherin and Gryffindor have had this rivalry since the school opened that's gotten really bad in the past few years. The older students say we should just try not to get involved but all my friends are in Gryffindor so I don't really have a choice.

I have three roommates, Grace Abbot, Violet Moon and Noa Lie. They all seem nice and I'm not worried about waking up in the morning with green hair. The Ravenclaw boys in our year are Roger Davis, David Pfeiffer, Newton Dudley and Oliver Martel. We're the most gender balanced group in our year. Gryffindor had five boys and three girls, Hufflepuff has two boys and four girls and Slytherin just has four boys. Just so you don't have to do the maths I'll tell you that our entire year is made up of twenty-six kids. The largest year here is the seventh year. They have more than a hundred students.

We haven't started classes yet, I'll tell you when we do, but I've met some of the teachers. Professor McGonagall teaches maths. Professor Babbling teaches languages but we can't take her class until third year. Professor Flitwick is our Head of House and he teaches English. According to the older students our chemistry teacher, Professor Snape, is a really horrible teacher and really mean to boot. One boy said he once took points away for breathing loudly! He's the Slytherin Head of House and he favours them over the rest of us. That might be better than history though. Professor Binns is supposed to be so boring that he puts everyone to sleep!

The start of year feast was nice. The Great Hall is enormous and the food was really good. Uncle Remus told me how to get into the kitchens so I'll see if I can get some recipes for you, Ava. Hogwarts is in this big old castle and there are supposed to be a bunch of secret passages. Our dorm rooms are all over the place, we Ravenclaws have our own tower and some of the other Houses are down in the dungeons. All of us can see the stars whenever we're in the Great Hall at night though, and during astronomy class.

I could go on for ages but I have to get to breakfast. I'll post this right after and hopefully you'll get it soon. When you write back remember to tell me all about Hanson!

Your friend,

Patricia

Dear Uncle Remus,

I'm in Ravenclaw! The tower is just like you said only there are about a hundred more books. It's like we have our own library. Noe Lie, one of my roommates, answered the riddle that the doorknocker asked. Everyone was really impressed. I'm friends with three Gryffindors, Fred and George Weasley and another boy called Lee Jordan, so you can't be very upset about me not making it into your old House. The Sorting Hat told me that I'd been too much for Gryffindor so it's probably a good thing that it didn't put me there. It also made it seem like that was your fault. Fred and George got into a fight that ended with the entire first year getting detention from Professor McGonagall. I think they've already beaten you and your school friends on that front. We're probably the first Hogwarts class to get detention before school had even started.

Do you think I should let Lee and the twins in on all the Hogwarts secrets you told me? I know you didn't tell me everything, like where you used to stay during those nights or how you managed to get everywhere so that you could map the entire castle, but secrets are secrets. What about if one of them finds the Map? I don't think I'll be able to not tell them, the Map is just too useful. The stairs alone make me wish you hadn't lost it.

Speaking of Hogwarts secrets, one of them came in handy while we were crossing the lake. I said that the Giant Squid takes first year boys and turns them into mermen and if they want to become human again they have to get a kiss from a Slytherin girl, because you told me that the Slytherin common room is under the lake. Many times. How often did you break in there anyway? Almost everyone believed me and I heard the rumor going around during dinner to! I don't think any of the older students have bothered to correct anyone yet.

I couldn't sleep last night and my roommates couldn't either so we decided to make lists of things that we want to do before we leave Hogwarts. Are there any books in the Hogwarts library about becoming an animagus? What about the Patronus Charm? I guess I should ask the librarian but do you remember anything that you found useful? I want to try to learn some languages to but we have books for that in our common room. Penelope Clearwater, one of the older Ravenclaws, said that we mostly have books that aren't in the library, stuff that isn't commonly used. Maybe I would find something about animagus transformations in the common room. Those aren't very common, right?

I haven't been down to the kitchens yet. I'll be sure to say hello to the house elves for you when I do.

Love from,

Patricia

Letter from Remus Lupin to Patricia Stimpson; dated September 3rd, 1989

Dear Patricia,

Congratulations! Ravenclaw, just like you wanted. Professor Babbling will be happy to see you in her old House. Every first year got detention? I don't think that's ever happened before, though my year group could probably have managed it. I wish you luck with your three Gryffindors. By what Arthur Weasley has told me about Fred and George you'll be the one pulling them out of trouble most of the time. I would suggest not telling them too many 'Hogwarts secrets' if you can help it, they don't need any help to get into trouble.

DO NOT attempt an animagus transformation just from books. It's far too dangerous, especially for a first year. If you really want to become an animagus ask Professor McGonagall for help. Animagi have become rare in the last century and she's one of the only ones in the country. I'm sure she'll be glad to help you, even more if you'll let her use your transformation for extra credit. She offered that to my class in sixth year and was quite disappointed when no one took her up on the offer.

Learning the Patronus Charm will be a good exercise for you as you're just starting to work with your wand. You should find instructions for it in Back Foul Beast! by George Leyward. I have a copy in my vault that I can send to you if you can't find it at school.

Give Miss Lie my congratulations on getting the entrance riddle. It took us a month to get into Ravenclaw Tower even though we broke into the Slytherin and Hufflepuff common rooms countless times.

It's very boring here with you gone. We all miss you. Bella sends her love and Elizabeth wants you to get expelled so that you can come play checkers with her (something that I do not advise, even though you've already gotten detention).

Lots of love from,

Your Uncle Remus

Letter from Tracy Bowen, William Styles and Ava Woodhouse to Patricia Stimpson; dated September 10,1989

Dear Patricia,

Tracy: Hogwarts sounds amazing! Are you sure we can't go there? A giant castle with an astronomy class! Sign me up! I can't believe you got detention though. That's a lie, I know your record isn't perfect, bookworm. Hanson can't be as large as Hogwarts and I bet your classes are a lot more fun than ours, the astronomy class anyway. It's been really busy here, which is why we haven't been able to write. We've got a lot of homework and I should be doing maths right now-

Ava: -which is why she cut off in the middle of a sentence. Sorry. It does sound like it would be great to go to Hogwarts. The kitchens must be amazing. I got the recipes you sent but students aren't allowed in the kitchens here so I haven't gotten to try any of them. I've joined the band though, and made a few friends there. School is a lot better without Hale around. Anyway, like Tracy said we have a lot of homework to do so I'll see if William has anything he wants to add to this before I post it.

William: The packages have been sent.

From your friends,

Tracy, Ava, and William

September 13th, 1989- The Library, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Somewhere in Scotland

Patricia and Lee were looking through the books that had been on the list Professor McGonagall had given them when they'd asked about becoming animagi. Patricia had roped the boys into joining her and as per Remus's predication McGonagall had been eager to help them. They had actually gotten the first smile out of her that any of the first years had seen.

"Do you know where Fred and George are?" Patricia asked as she turned the page of A Practical Guide to Impractical Transfiguration. "They were supposed to meet us here."

"They got detention with Filch after Potions."

"What did they do?" Lee smiled.

"Set off a Dungbomb." Patricia smiled to.

"Of course they did."

There was a Ravenclaw Quidditch team practice going on and the first game of the yearlong Gobstones tournament so the library was almost empty. This happened to be a good thing when Fred and George came rushing in smelling like they had just been mucking out an entire stable. Madam Pince wrinkled her nose but as they weren't actually dirty she didn't kick them out just yet.

"Hello our dear friends." George grinned. "Are we late?"

"Considering you had detention with Filch, I think you're early." Patricia put the sleeve of her robes over her nose and her next sentence came out muffled by the fabric. "How many Dungbombs did you set off."

"One-"

"-or two." The twins looked around the room and sat down beside their friends. They leaned towards the centre of the table conspiratorially. "Guess what we found?"

"More of Percy's missing socks?" Lee referenced the prank they had pulled that weekend where the three boys had stolen all of Percy's socks, each one with his initials carefully sewn in, and Patricia had hidden them in the room of the third year Ravenclaw girls. Almost every day since then Penelope Clearwater had been going over to the Gryffindor table, dumping fistfuls of socks in Percy's plate, and going back to her friends with much exaggerated eye rolling. The four of them, and most of the school, were getting good laughs out of that one.

"Of course not-"

"-this was in Filch's office." Fred pulled a ragged sheet of parchment out of his pocket and put it on the table between the tall stacks of books. "It was in a drawer-"

"-marked "Confiscated and Highly Dangerous" so-"

"-we had to see what it was."

"And of course you had to bring it into the library." Patricia rolled her eyes and pulled her sleeve away from her face so that she could get a better look at their spoils. She blinked. It couldn't be… "I think I know what this is."

"Really?" Lee asked.

"Do tell." the twins gestured towards the parchment. Patricia took out her wand.

"Easier to show you." She put the tip of her wand to the parchment. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." Ink began to spread across the page, forming the words:

Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs
Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers
are proud to present
THE MARAUDER'S MAP

"Wicked!" Fred and George exclaimed as they beheld the detailed map. "This is Hogwarts!"

"Here we are!" Lee pointed to a spot on the map near him. "And there's Madam Pince. This map shows where everyone is."

"It's great, isn't it?" The three boys turned to look at Patricia.

"How'd you know to do that?" they demanded. Patricia smiled down at the Marauders Map, her uncle and his friend's magnum opus.

"Well-" Then she saw something on the map that made her face go slack.

"What is it?" Fred asked. Patricia jumped out of her seat, almost knocking a stack of books to the floor. She really was distraught if that could happen without her noticing.

"We have to go see Professor Dumbledore." She grabbed the Map and her eyes flashed back and forth as she imprinted the picture into her brain. It wouldn't last for long, she'd have forgotten it by the next day, but she just needed to know it for a little while. "Mischief managed." The map disappeared from the page.

"Why?" Lee frowned.

"Because there's someone in the school who's supposed to be dead. The Map's never wrong."

Disclaimer: The Marauder's Map title does not belong to me. It's J.K. Rowlings'