Sorry it's been so long since I posted an update! I've been horribly busy with work/recovering from Covid multiple times but I am going to be updating more regularly now so please stay tuned! Thank you again for reviews and follows.

Chapter 19

Marian glared out of the library window, watching the procession of Hogwarts students meandering down to Hogsmeade. It wasn't that she particularly needed anything in Hogsmeade, and the novelty of visiting the village had mostly worn off by now, but it was the indignity of being banned, the humiliation of being turned away by Professor Flitwick, in a horrible echo of her first attempted visit back in her third year, and knowing that all of this was the fault of her mother and Bill Weasley… She fumed silently. It had been a terrible holiday, after the first magical few days. As soon as the last words of Bill's howler had faded into silence, Marian's mum had forced her to her feet, thanked Mrs McNully through gritted teeth for her hospitality, and marched Marian to the fireplace to floo home. And she was just getting started. The argument that had followed was the worst that Marian could ever remember – worse even than the remembered arguments that Jacob had taken part in with their mum, after his expulsion from Hogwarts.

Fragments of her mum's words still rang in her ears.

"Bringing more disgrace to this family… taking after your brother… going to come to a sticky end, just like he did… you, your brother and your father, the whole lot of you, don't know when to keep your noses out of other people's business… going to be killed before you come of age… meddling with dark magic… death eater-in-training…" It had gone on and on, for hours. The outcome of which had been that Marian had been grounded for the rest of the holidays, not even able to send or receive owls to her friends. And clearly, the punishment hadn't ended there.

"I'm terribly sorry, Miss Baker, but your mother was very… er… firm, with me on this. No more Hogsmeade outings," Professor Flitwick had patted her on the arm sympathetically as he stopped her in the entrance hall. "I imagine she is merely concerned with you working hard for your OWLs. I am sure she will revisit her decision after that."

"She won't be able to stop me," Marian had muttered rebelliously. "I'll be of age in September and then she won't be able to stop me doing anything!"

Professor Flitwick had peered at her with some concern, but she had marched away from him and her friends, who were waiting for her. That hadn't been the worst thing her mum had done.

"If you put another toe out of line – if you even so much as think of a cursed vault from now on, I'm pulling you out of that school. Yes, you can pout as much as you like, my girl, but you're not of age yet and until you're of age, there's nothing you can do about it! I won't see another death eater coming out of this family, and that's that!"

Marian stabbed her quill viciously into the parchment in front of her. She hadn't spoken to her mother since then. Twelve days of silence in that gloomy little house. Her mother had been like a stranger, grim and cold. And it was all Bill Weasley's fault.

Charlie had been in big trouble too, apparently. Not that Marian had spoken to him.

"He's not allowed to speak to you, Marian," Ben had informed her earnestly on the Hogwarts Express when Marian had tried to go into the Gryffindors' compartment. "If he speaks to you again, Bill's threatened to tell McGonagall and get him stripped of his quidditch captaincy. So it's probably better if you don't try."

Bill himself, on the other hand, had taken to stalking Marian whenever she left Ravenclaw Tower, glaring in an uncanny impression of Snape whenever she dared to look in his direction. When she'd confronted him about following her to quidditch practice, he'd positively snarled at her.

"You can't be trusted not to get yourself and everyone around you into trouble, Baker. I'm making sure you don't break another rule and get somebody killed!"

It was so hypocritical and unfair that Marian had been rendered speechless, and was dragged away by Skye and Andre quickly before she could regain the power of speech. At least Bill didn't seem to have realised the full extent of their excursion to Knockturn Alley, as far as Marian could tell, as Skye, Murphy and Orion had not been sent howlers or received the same treatment as Marian and Charlie had.

"My mum thought your mum had over-reacted a bit," Murphy had confided in Marian when they'd been reunited on the train. "When my owl kept getting sent back, I mean."

"Yeah," Skye had chimed in. "I mean, as far as she knows, it was just a mistake, right? Don't see why she was kicking up such a fuss."

Marian had stared moodily out of the window, pretty much as she was doing just then in the library. It was a bleak, cold, miserable January day. Quidditch practice had been cancelled because of the strong winds, even though their match with Slytherin was only a week away, so she didn't even have that to channel her anger into. At least her mum hadn't banned her from quidditch, she thought. That would have been unbearable.

With a sigh, she picked up her quill again and tried to force her mind to focus on the Defence Against the Dark Arts essay she was working on. It was actually quite an interesting topic, on the use of the Fumos spell by Grindelwald and its implications for defensive magic today. That reminded her – she was meeting Snape for her first defence lesson that evening! Something to look forward to after all, she thought with a wry smile as she started to write.

Predictably, Bill Weasley followed her down to the dungeons when she made her way down after dinner.

"Really, Bill? What exactly do you think I'm up to?" she asked, unable to help herself as his familiar silhouette appeared at the end of the corridor behind her.

He narrowed his eyes at her. "I know you're doing Snape's dirty work. I know he was there with you, in Knockturn Alley. I know he covered for you, for some reason. What exactly are you doing for him?"

Marian rolled her eyes. "Why don't you come in with me? I'm sure Snape'd love to explain it all himself. Just come on in and have a cup of tea with him, have a good catch up, why don't you?"

His frown deepened but he didn't reply, just followed her silently. When Snape bade her enter his office, she'd given Bill a mocking little wave goodbye before slamming the door in his face.

Snape raised an eyebrow. "Should I enquire what that was all about?"

Marian flung herself inelegantly into the chair in front of Snape's desk. "Not worth your time. Just Bill Weasley, being a giant prat. Charlie told Bill about Knockturn Alley and now Bill's trying to ruin my life."

"Good heavens. How dramatic," Snape drawled, looking bored. He flicked his wand at Marian, forcing her chair to go scooting back against the wall, ignoring her splutter of surprise. "On your feet, wand out. Now – for today, I wish to see what you can do. Expelliarmus!"

And the duel began. Well, it wasn't much of a duel. Marian managed to hold onto her wand, barely, and dodged the next hex, but her shield dissipated under the power of the curse he hurled at her next.

"Pathetic, Baker!" he hissed, dragging her roughly to her feet, ignoring her singed hair. "I believed you had some modicum of talent as far as duelling is concerned. Prove it to me!"

Marian had also believed herself something of a duelling star – before then, anyway. She was quickly disabused of that notion. Snape was faster, stronger, more powerful in every way. While she had defeated Bill on several occasions, as well as Merula and Charlie and even Diego, who was generally regarded to be one of the best duellers in the school, she didn't stand a chance next to Snape. After an hour, the longest she'd managed to hold out against him was ten minutes.

Eventually, he lowered his wand. He wasn't even out of breath, Marian realised with disbelief. She herself was a sweaty mess.

"Well," Snape said, eyes travelling over her, taking in the bruises, small cuts and singed hair and clothes. "I suppose you are not the worst opponent I have duelled with, but you are far from the best. We have considerable work to do. Read this." He pushed a large leather-bound tome into her arms, with the title, 'The Dark Arts: Outsmarted'. While Marian sighed and opened the book, Snape healed her injuries and conjured a glass of water for her.

"Thanks," she said in some surprise as he handed it to her.

He nodded. "Focus on the chapter on 'Mind Magic'. I want you to summarise it for me once you are finished." He retreated behind his desk and pulled a huge stack of parchments towards him, beginning to mark them with rather vicious slashes of red ink.

When she finished, Marian closed the book. "I think I understand, sir," she began. "Legilimency can be used as a weapon in a duel, by allowing a skilled legilimens to either predict what moves will be made against them and act accordingly, or by purposefully planting deceptive ideas in an opponent's head."

Snape waved a hand. "Such as?"

"Erm, I suppose… when we were duelling, you could send me an image of something happening in my peripheral vision, making me turn around, leaving myself open to attack from you?" Marian considered for a moment. "Or even… I'm not sure if this is possible, but could you send me a vision of smoke? Like the fumos spell we've been learning about in defence, but a vision of it, so I wouldn't be able to see?"

Snape smirked. "Indeed. Five points to Ravenclaw." He stood up, moving around the desk. "In our defence lessons, we will focus on using your legilimency abilities to aid your defensive spellwork. You are… agile, your spellwork is above average and you think quickly, but you are predictable. If you truly wish to defeat Rakepick, then…"

"Is that what this is for?" Marian interrupted eagerly. "You think I'll have to fight Rakepick to…"

"Do not interrupt me!" Snape's voice was quiet, but Marian shut up immediately. "I do not know, but she is clearly intimately involved in this, if not the ringleader, and she is a formidable opponent. Do not underestimate her."

Confined to the castle and with no hope of leaving any time soon, Marian had no idea how to get in contact with Mundungus Fletcher and therefore, of finding the Marauders Map.

"There must be other maps of Hogwarts," Rowan suggested one evening, when Marian was moping about despondently. "We could go to the library and…"

"We've tried that!" Marian snapped. Skye, Tulip and Murphy all looked up from their homework at her tone. "We've done all we could, all right? We've spent hours and hours poring over dusty old books in the bloody library and what have we found? Nothing! Nothing at all! This whole year, we've spent so long looking for something, some clue, some way to find the next vault, and we've found nothing!"

"Hey, we'll find something," Murphy said, laying a reassuring hand on Marian's arm. "Don't give up – we'll just have to…"

"No!" Marian cried, pushing his hand off. "Stop! We've done enough, ok? We've spent most of the last five years here trying to solve this stupid mystery and what do we have to show for it? Nothing! We're no closer to finding Jacob than we were five years ago, and instead we've broken about five hundred school rules and wasted so much time and nearly been expelled on so many occasions and now if I do anything else, and I mean anything else, Bill will have me expelled or my mum will yank me out of school and I'll never see any of you again and…" She ran out of breath and took a great heaving gasp for air.

"Woah!" Tulip looked impressed. "Don't bottle it up or anything!"

The only person who really seemed to understand how Marian felt was Penny. Any cheer she'd managed to salvage before Christmas had ebbed away over the holidays. Her normally bright face was pale and she had dark circles under her eyes.

"Christmas was a nightmare," she'd confessed to Marian one day when they were sitting in the potions lab together. Penny was attempting an extra-strong wit-sharpening potion, to help her think of how they could break out of the deadlock they were in, to think of a new way of working out where the vault was. "It was just… awful. Mum was inconsolable. She kept crying during lunch and Dad just didn't eat anything, just staring at where Bea sits. Where she sat, I mean. Normally. And I felt like… I feel like it's my fault, you know? I'm her big sister – I am supposed to look out for her! And her very first term away from home, she gets sucked into some creepy cursed portrait! It's been months now, Marian! Months!"

Marian ground the scarab beetles so hard that they were just grain and had to be thrown away.

Every quidditch practice in the lead up to the match was downright dismal too, on top of everything else. The wind and rain were unrelenting, leaving the whole team drenched and shivering by the end of every practice. Marian couldn't get the double somersault to work with her broomstick slippery in the rain and Skye had to be taken off to the hospital wing with concussion on the Thursday before the match after missing her broom altogether and crashing head-long into one of the goal hoops. Orion berated both Marian and Skye for "allowing discord and narrow-mindedness to quash his dreams of magnanimous supremacy". By Friday morning, nobody would talk to Orion.

Even Murphy, who was usually the cheeriest and most optimistic person in the world, as far as Marian was aware, was depressed.

"They have a new captain. And two new chasers. And we didn't get to see them play for long enough during the Gryffindor/Slytherin match for me to fully assess their strengths and weaknesses and create a compatibility report for the team," Murphy monologued during dinner on Friday. "All I can say is that Higgs has caught the snitch 3.87% of all matches that he's played in, as far as I am aware. But what are the chasers like? Do they work well as a team? Have they finally finished with their fearsome fouls? Have they…?"

"Give it a rest, McNully!" Skye groaned, massaging her head. Madame Pomfrey had let her go reluctantly but had tried to forbid her from playing quidditch. Skye had refused. "We'll just do our usual thing: be the best and ignore Orion. It usually works out pretty well for us."

Marian snorted. "Nice. Can't wait to hear your pep talks next year as our quidditch captain, o-fearsome-leader-to-be."

When Marian and Murphy eventually retired to the armchairs by the fire in the common room to discuss strategy for the match, the best they could come up with was to stick to what they knew and hope that their huge point lead would remain in their favour.

The day of the match dawned. It was still mostly dark at nine o'clock, when the team gathered for breakfast.

"Visibility is poor," Murphy announced, shaking droplets of water from his blonde hair as he arrived at the end of the table. "Wind from the North. Wouldn't be surprised if it starts snowing actually."

"Fan-fucking-tastic," mumbled Marian. "Warming charms all around then?"

Skye nodded grimly. "Layer up everyone. What was that water-repelling charm again? Think we'll need it."

"Specially you, Anthony!" Marian gestured at the tiny Ravenclaw seeker, who was already shivering in his seat. "You're highest up and you're the smallest."

"And they'll pick on you. Definitely," Skye agreed.

The pitch was more mud than grass. By the time they reached the changing rooms, they were all already mud-splattered and bedraggled. They changed into their quidditch robes in near-silence, then sat and waited for Orion to arrive.

Ten minutes before the match was due to begin, they began to get worried.

"Where the hell is he?" Skye was pacing about the room, looking a little demented. "Where in Merlin's saggy pants is he?"

Andre was drumming his fingers restlessly on the bench. "This is not like him. Orion's vivifications are usually at least half an hour long. He's not even changed yet!"

Murphy's forehead was creased in thought. "He's been rally nervous about the match. I mean, at least 27.6% more nervous than normal!"

"He mentioned something about quidditch scouts coming to the match," Marian added. "That'd make anyone nervous!"

"If they actually turn up," Skye said, peering out of the doorway towards the pitch, shielding her eyes against the rain, which was coming almost horizontally in through the doorway. "Wouldn't blame them for staying at home in this weather!"

The minutes ticked on, with the whole team becoming increasingly agitated as there was still no sign of Orion. Could he be in the hospital wing? Marian wondered. Perhaps one of the Slytherin team had got to him – they weren't exactly known for their sense of fair play. By the time Murphy had to leave to head up to the commentary box, panic was setting in.

"Don't panic!" Murphy cried, his voice louder than ever. "Whatever we do, we shouldn't panic! Where the hell is he?"

"Can we get someone to stand in for him?" Marian asked, trying to stay calm.

"Who would stand in for him now? We've never practised with another chaser! They won't know any of our moves!" Skye was clearly freaking out, one hand in her hair, yanking out clumps of it and littering the floor of the changing room with blue strands.

Madame Hooch appeared in the doorway. "Well, Ravenclaw, time to… what are you still doing down here, McNully? Off you go! The match is about to begin!" She shooed a desperate-looking Murphy out of the room.

"But Madame Hooch! We don't know where Orion is!" Skye wailed. "We don't have a captain! We're down a chaser!"

Madame Hooch frowned at her. "What's that, Parkin? No captain? Where is Amari then?"

Everybody shrugged. Marian bit her lip in thought. This was going to be a disaster! It was bad enough playing Slytherin without a proper strategy, but playing with one player down… especially when that player was the team captain… they were going to be utterly destroyed!

"Well, chaps – nothing we can do! The rules state that the match will be forfeit if one team calls off, and I'm sure you don't want that, eh? You might want to think about getting yourself some reserves for the future! Off we go now! Come along, that's it!" She firmly hounded them out of the changing room and off into the centre of the pitch. Immediately, the cheers and boos of the crowd echoed around them. Clearly, most people had still turned out to watch the match, despite the terrible weather.

Skye grabbed Marian's arm. "What are we going to do, Cursebreaker?"

"What can we do?" Marian shrugged. "We'll just have to do what we did when Orion was injured last time. Do our best and try and cover, I guess!"

Skye groaned. "This is going to be a bloody bloodbath, isn't it?"

When the whistle went, they soared upwards into the air. Skye caught the quaffle and sped up the pitch.

"And here goes Parkin! Ravenclaw look like they're going to do their best, despite being down a player, not to mention the team captain… almost intercepted by Flint, but narrowly avoided there… and is this going to be a goal already?" Marian thanked Merlin for Murphy's commentary because it was so difficult to see that she really didn't have much of a clue what was going on around her. "And… oh, blocked by the Slytherin keeper and captain of the team, Dodds! Bad luck, Ravenclaw!"

The match seemed to stretch on and on. Marian and Skye did their best but by the time Dodds called for 'Time-Out', they'd only scored three goals to Slytherin's six. Andre apologised profusely for letting the goals in.

"It's not an excuse, right, but the quaffle is so slippy with all this rain!" he complained, blowing on his fingers to try to warm them up.

"S'not your fault," Skye replied tiredly.

"Yeah, normally we'd be able to keep the ball away from you, make Dodds work a bit harder, but without Orion…" Marian trailed off.

"When I see him, I'm going to murder him," Skye said.

"Me too. I'll help," Andre replied gloomily.

Marian nodded. "Yeah. Me and all. Catch the snitch, Andrew, and do us all a favour please?"

They'd hardly been back in the air for more than a minute when Murphy excitedly announced that Andrew Davies from Ravenclaw was diving for the snitch. "And this is just what Ravenclaw has been hoping for… he's hot on the trail, but Slytherin Seeker, Terence Higgs is hot on his tail. Davies has a 4.9% advantage because of his height, but Higgs has a top of the range broomstick, after all… and Higgs is closing in… COME ON, DAVIES! And…. Ohhhhhh, Slytherin seeker Higgs has caught the snitch after elbowing Davies in the face. Still a win though, I suppose. That means Slytherin wins, 210 points to 30. Well done Slytherin." Murphy couldn't sound more dejected if he tried.

All that anyone could talk about in the common room was the absence of the Ravenclaw team captain. No one had seen him since the previous afternoon, it turned out. Professor Flitwick seemed rather concerned and sent the ghosts out to search for him through the castle. The common room was subdued, despite the steaming mugs of hot chocolate that had been sent up by the house elves to warm everyone up after the match. By the time night fell, and most people were starting to head up to bed, there was still no sign of Orion.

Marian, curled up against Murphy on one of the sofas, was reluctant to go anywhere until they knew what had happened to Orion. Murphy had been unnaturally quiet since the match and she knew he was worried about his best friend.

"Hey, he'll be all right. I'm sure he will," she whispered to him, trying to reassure him.

"You can't know that!" he replied, rubbing the heel of his palms into his eyes wearily. "What if he's… I don't know… hurt somewhere?"

Before Marian could answer, a second year girl hurried over to them. "Excuse me, but there's someone asking for you outside! A Hufflepuff, that one with the crazy hair?"

Marian and Murphy exchanged mystified glances. "Tonks? What does she want?" Marian wondered as they hurried out.

Tonks wasn't alone – Penny was beside her and they were both practically vibrating with excitement. "Wotcha, gang!" Tonks exclaimed.

"What is it? Have you heard something about Orion?" Murphy asked breathlessly.

Tonks drooped a little, her excitement fading. "Oh, sorry, guys. No."

"But listen to this, Marian! Listen, listen!" Penny grabbed something in Tonks' hands, a piece of parchment by the looks of it. "Tonks is the most brilliant and most amazing… just listen!"

Tonks snorted. "Right. Thanks, Pen. But anyway, right, here's the thing. My dad, Ted, he's got an old pal, right, from Hogwarts. Thought I recognised the name when you mentioned it before, Marian, but I wasn't sure, so…"

"Oh just get on with it!" Penny interrupted, whacking her on the arm.

"Gotcha. Right. So. Cut to the chase – my dad knows Mundungus Fletcher. That's the guy you were looking for, right? Right, so didn't want to say anything and get your hopes raised, but I asked him over Christmas and he said to me, 'Dora, what in Merlin's name are you doing asking me about old Dung Fletcher?' and I said to him, 'Dad, I'll…'"

"She sent him an owl and he's replied about the map!" Penny interrupted, shoving the parchment into Marian's hands. "Look!"

Marian, hardly daring to believe their luck, read the letter. The handwriting was a disaster – Professor Snape would have had him in detention for a month, Marian thought distractedly as she tried to decipher it.

All right, Dora? I met you when you were just a basin of gravy with green hair and red eyes. Creepy, I thought to meself, but gave me a right bubble bath! Anyhows, this map of yours. Fingers and joints, I don't have it no more. Got mugged, is what happened, matter of fact. Just having a little business meeting down Knockturn, know where I'm at, and next thing I knows, I'm flat on my back in the street and whatever little bugger did it, I don't know, but I've not got it no more and that's the fact of the matter. If you'd asked me a month earlier, I coulda helped you but that's what life's like innit? Now if you'd be interested in a glass eye, worn by Grindelwald's mother no less, I can help you out. Lemme know anyway, sweetheart.

Your old pal,

Dung

"It was stolen!" Marian groaned. "Fantastic! What a fabulous end to a fabulous day! Actually, what a fabulous end to a fabulous…"

"No, wait!" Murphy interrupted, grabbing the letter from her. "Didn't you hear what he said? 'If you'd asked me a month earlier'!"

"So whoever stole it must have stolen it around the middle of December? Hold on, that's when…"

"When we… I mean, when you, were looking for him! When you were at Knockturn Alley!"

"Of course! It could have been one of those dark wizards, that same day!"

"Or it could have been coincidence. But you know what I think about coincidences," Murphy said, grinning.

Marian rolled her eyes. "It must have been Rakepick! She knew we were there, she knew we were looking for the map! I bet Bill told her, the little…"

Penny interrupted Marian for the third time. "It means somebody else has the map anyway and that means there's a good chance it's here somewhere! That somebody at Hogwarts has the map!"

Before they could discuss the development anymore, however, Professor Flitwick appeared at the end of the corridor. "Ah, Miss Haywood, Miss Tonks – I believe it's nearly curfew, is it not? You should head back to the Hufflepuff Common Room. And Miss Baker, Mr McNully, into the common room with the two of you, please. I am afraid I have some unpleasant news."

Marian felt the bubbling excitement she'd felt at the news of the map disappear as abruptly as it had arrived. Orion!

"I am afraid that we have found Mr Amari," the tiny Charms professor began but was immediately interrupted by Murphy.

"How is he? Is he hurt? Where was he?"

Professor Flitwick gestured at Murphy to be quiet. "He is… unhurt, my boy, but he is… indisposed." He sighed as he looked around at the silent students in the common room, who were all listening with bated breath. "He has been trapped in a portrait like poor little Miss Haywood. I am afraid he is another victim of the cursed vaults."