**OK! Sorry this is taking me so long to update and stuff, reason is half homeword and half my stupid computer keeps playing up and the connection breaks before I get halfway through updating.
Evil Snapple Pie – you're back! Yay! Yes Australia is cool, I was going to live there a few months back but the whole thing blew over. I wasn't too keen on going anyway because I'd have had to learn Japanese – I don't want a fifth language thanks! Especially not that one. You always go to the gold coast (where ever that is)? Doesn't that get boring? That's interesting how you are writing your story. Mine just kind of write themselves, I never have them planned out beyond a few chapters. It gets boring if I know what's going to happen.
Skahducky – **weirdo portal voice** your wish is my command…
Marauder – he he he! No seriously, I have got to get better at this…
Alexa Black – WHAT CHICKEN?
Not Sure – **to portal voice** What do I say to people who don't say anything significant that I can answer? **Weirdo portal voice** Just say thank you…** **back to you** OK then, Thanks!
Amazing Typo – What, you live in France? Really bad luck if you do.
Anyway… I won't keep you except to warn you that this is a kinda weird chapter
**
Harry Potter does not belong to me, or I would be extremely rich and not have to waste my precious time with you lot! Just kidding.
More Pressing Matters - Like Voldemort. Chapter 4 –
Completely forgetting about Fred, George, Remus and Sirius, Ron and Hermione leant eagerly over the map with Harry.
Fred and George went pallid when they saw what it was, and starting coughing urgently, signalling to Harry not to wake the map in front of Sirius and Remus.
Sirius was gazing at the tatty parchment – he hadn't seen the thing since he was at school after all. Remus was looking at Fred and George, puzzled.
Harry whipped out his wand. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." Fred and George looked at him in horror. Remus stared at them.
"I can't believe it!" said the twins together, as Harry searched the map frantically with his eyes. "We kept that secret for the best part of five years! And you're just going to show it to people willy nilly?"
"You kept it secret?" said Sirius.
Harry ignored all of them. Dumbledore, where was Dumbledore? He wasn't in his office…
Ron snorted and leant back in his chair. "They knew about it before Harry did," he told the twins, indicating the two men. And then as an afterthought he added, "they knew about it before you did even."
The twins gaped. Then they grinned. "The third generation?" said George. "You were the Marauders before us?" asked Fred.
Sirius snorted even louder than Ron had. "Even better," he grunted, "we were the first. Padfoot, at your service."
"WHAT?" said Fred and George in very loud unison. They sat there, stunned, as Harry shook his head and let Sirius pick up the map.
He stroked it fondly. "I love this thing," he said. "It's the best thing we ever made. It was all James' idea of course…"
"Harry's DAD?" cried Fred.
"Oh hell, Fred, we dumped flour on Padfoot's head! Oh @!?#, that rhymed!"
**I seriously didn't mean for that to happen…**
"Hang on," said Fred. Neither of them seemed to realise that everyone else was too busy perusing the map to take the slightest notice of anything they were saying.
"I think I get it. Sirius is Padfoot 'cause he's an animagus like we saw in court, Professor Lupin's Moony 'cause... well… you know… Harry's Dad's Prongs 'cause he practically smashed up the whole courtroom with those hooves, **again, reading the prequel really might be a good idea here ** and Wormtail…" Fred swallowed hard. "Oh."
"Where is he?" said Harry thumping the table. "He hasn't been at Hogwarts since Monday, I've been checking."
"Dumbledore or Snape?" asked Sirius vaguely, his rough fingers tracing the lines that pictured Gryffindor Tower.
"Either," said Hermione, "both are worth worrying about."
"I'm not worried about Snape," said Sirius with meaning. Ron grinned agreement. "As long as he does what he's meant to and stay on our side I don't give a damn what happens to him."
"Hear, hear," said Harry, Ron and the twins.
"No," said Sirius. "It's Dumbledore I'm worried about. He's staying in a Ministry building for the moment, when he needs to be at Hogwarts."
"Why is he at the Ministry?" asked Ron at once.
Hermione sighed. Really obviously.
"Well, he's got to keep track of things, hasn't he?" she said. "It doesn't make sense to do it by owl all the time, or things would never get done."
"But then why is Minerva still at Hogwarts?" asked Remus, pointing out a dot at the far end of the map.
"Minerva?" exclaimed Sirius. "You call her Minerva?"
Remus went red. "As a colleague..."
"Yeah, whatever," said Sirius with a very restrained smile. "You just wanted a chance to say it."
Harry remembered that Professor McGonagall had taught the Marauders when they were at school as well. He imagined calling his teachers by their first names (except Remus because he did that anyway) and shuddered.
"Too right," said Sirius, noticing. "Have you got over her yet, Remus?"
Everyone except Remus burst out laughing at the look on his face.
"I never ever liked…"
"Don't kid yourself," said Sirius. "You had a major crush on her, admit it, the hot, interesting Transfiguration teacher…"
Ron rolled around on the ground, his sides splitting. Harry nearly fell into the remains of his apple crumble as he doubled up in his chair.
"Oh come on," said Remus. "She was hot back then. Everyone in the year had a crush on her at some point."
"Well, I didn't. I also nearly had a severe heart attack when she came out to Hagrid's house at the end of last year to take me to Dumbledore's office and I realised who she was. If I hadn't been so worried about Harry I would have collapsed right there and then…"
The mere mention of the night made everyone stop laughing.
The deadly silence was only broken when Harry said, "look, Hagrid!"
Everyone craned their necks to look. A large dot labelled Rubeus Hagrid had just sidled onto the map from the entrance to the Forbidden Forest.
"Good," said Remus. "It's about time." He stood up.
"You're not going?" said Fred, downcast. He obviously wanted to hear more about the previous interesting story.
"I must," said Remus. "I need that information. See you back home," he added to Harry and Sirius. "I'll see you all later."
And he dissapparated.
"Oh, great," said Ron. "Just when it was starting to get interesting."
"Never mind," said Sirius. "You brought your Firebolt didn't you Harry?"
Harry had.
"Good," said George. "Let's play some Quidditch!"
There followed a very useful game of conker Quidditch.
It was useful mostly because Sirius was there. The man was a fanatic. The twins got so many tips from him that Harry remarked that it was a shame Oliver Wood wasn't there to see them play better than they'd ever played before.
He got pelted with unripe conkers for that one.
As for Harry himself, he had a whispered word with Ron while Sirius was showing the twins the 'Black Bouncer' a move he had invented himself that had a double purpose: to swing the club at a Bludger so that it hit the other Beater's head exactly, and, more importantly, make it look like the other player's foul.
Ron secretly waited until all three had come back their end of the field, both twins very bruised, Sirius looking extremely happy, until he whirled his arms very fast around his head while he was about twenty-five metres up in the air, and then let go so that the conker flew in a completely random direction.
With all eyes on him (and not realising it) Harry sped off in a completely different direction – straight down.
He pulled out of the dive when the broom handle was about twenty centimetres from the floor. Hermione, who was watching, screamed very loudly. Harry landed and wiped his forehead. The other four landed beside him.
Harry looked accusingly at Ron. "Why didn't you follow me?" he asked. "It was a competition, remember?"
Ron shook his head. "No way, Harry," he said. "That Wronski Feint was even better than Victor Krum's. I am not about to risk my life to lose against you, thanks."
Sirius pulled Harry into a huge hug. Harry pulled away after a few seconds, nursing bruised ribs. He wondered sometimes whether Sirius knew his own strength.
"You must be an amazing seeker, Harry," said Sirius with pride and sadness in those sunken eyes. "Your father is so proud of you, wherever he is."
Harry thought about that when he lay in bed that night, staring up at the patterns the stars made on the ceiling. He had felt half embarrassed, half scared, he decided.
Maybe if the others hadn't been there he would have told Sirius about the house in the clouds.
**See? What did I tell you? Love Laterose ^ ^**