Chapter 22: The Marauders Map
The next full moon was the first that ventured out of the Shrieking Shack and into the forest. James, Sirius and Peter seemed to recall this event with quite a bit of uncomfortable laughter. I had very vague memories of chasing something with Padfoot, but I couldn't remember what we were chasing. I'd often asked, but the three of them brushed the question aside and changed the subject every time. I could only hope that I'd soon be able to keep my mind more during the full moon so that I could prevent the three of them from getting us into trouble. It wasn't long until I could remember nearly all of what happened on full moon. There were only the occasional times when the wolf's mind got the better of me, but Padfoot, Wormtail and Prongs would help me out. All in all, things for me were much better than they'd been in a long time.
By several months into the school year, we had explored all of Hogwarts, inside and out, and discovered just about every secret passage there was. Sirius reckoned that we probably knew the school better than Dumbledore himself. But it was James' idea to create something that would allow us to share our discoveries with future mischief-makers, so that the work and marauder spirit of Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs would be preserved forever.
After our plans had been set, we found ourselves in the library, surrounded by books and several rolls of parchment.
"Well, it looks as though the first thing we've got to do is select our password," said James, tracing his finger across the words on a page of a large book called Preserving and Protecting Your Discoveries. "So, what should it be?"
"Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs?" I suggested. James and Sirius shook their heads.
"Too many people know that we call ourselves that," said Sirius.
"It's got to be something…unusual," said James. Just then, Professor McGonagall entered the library, and looked at us with wide eyes and a puzzled expression.
"Sirius Black, what on earth are you doing in the library?" she demanded.
"Oh, well, Professor, if you'd rather not have me here working on my assignments, I'd be more than willing to leave and go put red and gold hair dye in the Slytherins' Shampoo." He flashed his most innocent grin.
"You'll do nothing of the sort!" scolded McGonagall. "I was simply commenting on how rare it is to find you in a library, Mr. Black. Are you boys behaving and working on school work?" she asked, peering at our books. James quickly slammed his shut and leaned over it, covering the title. Sirius, however, didn't seem worried in the slightest.
"Oh, never Professor," said Sirius. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." He placed his hand over his heart. Professor McGonagall's face twisted into some sort of unintentional smile.
"Just try to stay out of trouble for the day," she said. "If that's possible for you four," she added, before leaving with her book.
"That's it!" I said the second she was gone.
"What?" asked Sirius.
"I solemnly swear I am up to no good," I said. "The password."
"Yeah!" said James. "Good thinking Moony."
"Well, it was actually Sirius," I pointed out. We agreed on that for the password, and 'mischief managed' to erase the map. James looked at the spell book.
"Okay, this doesn't look that hard," he said. "Could you hand me that piece of parchment?" He performed the spell
"How do we know if it works?" asked Peter, staring at the still blank parchment.
"Well, we have to make it say something," said James. Peter grabbed a quill.
"No," said Sirius. "We don't write the map at all. The trick is to make it write itself. See, look at this spell," he pointed it out to us.
"Will you try that one, Moony? It's a charm; I think you could manage it better than me," asked James.
"Sure," I agreed, reading the page. "But what should it say?"
"Hmmm…" James thought. He began dictating "Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief Makers, Are Proud to Present The Marauders Map, how's that?"
"Couldn't have said it better myself," said Sirius. "Try the spell, Moony." I took my wand and performed the spell, concentrating hard on what we wanted it to say and muttering the words. A beam of silvery light came from the end of my wand and glided along the paper. When it finished, the map was still blank.
"Oh," I said disappointedly. "It didn't work! I must've done something wrong." But before anyone could say anything else, black lines began to swirl across the parchment and form into elegant letters.
Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs
Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief Makers Are Proud to Present
~The Marauders Map~
"You did it, Moony. It worked!" exclaimed James. I grinned.
"What next?" asked Sirius.
"We have to make the actual map next, I guess," said James. "Now, here's this spell…" We continued working on our map for several hours, and finally, we perfected it the map part. Then one of Sirius' ideas caused us to work for several more hours to make the map insult anyone who tried to use it without the password. And not just a standard insult either; our personalities were made immortal in that piece of parchment. If I had it today and tried to use it, Prongs, Wormtail and Padfoot would all make replies.
Later, we brought the map to dinner just after we'd finished, still not certain that it would work. We had our plan ready. We'd sit it on the table in plain view, blank, of course, and pretend to be discussing something in hushed voices, hoping to attract attention. And it worked. Our plan hadn't been underway for more than two minutes when Snape approached us. We glanced at each other, silently reminding everyone to act normally. Snape came up behind me and snatched the map off of the table.
"What do we have here?" he asked.
"Hey! Give that back!" I tried to sound angry that he'd taken it.
"Come and get it, wimp!" he said, holding it out of my reach. He was playing right into our hands. I pretended to make some effort in trying to get it back.
"Leave him alone, Snape," said Sirius, standing up.
"So, Black, what's so important about this little piece of paper?" asked Snape. "Some little secret you're working on. Well, I'm going to find out!" He smirked as he pulled out his wand. We looked at each other and grinned. He tapped the paper with his wand. Nothing happened.
"I, Severus Snape, command you to show yourself," he said. My words began to appear first.
Mr. Moony would like to greet Severus Snape and tell him he needs to learn to keep his large pointy nose out of other peoples' business.
"It works!" we mouthed silently to each other as the words appeared. Snape's face went red. Peter's was next.
Mr. Wormtail would like to agree with Mr. Moony and ask Snape where he learned to be such an annoying, nosy git.
We fought to hold back laughter. Next was Sirius's.
Mr. Padfoot would like to ask Snape why he doesn't do the whole world a favor and keep his big mouth shut.
Snape went, if possible, even more red, and looked as though steam could come pouring out of his ears at any second. Finally, it was James' turn.
Mr. Prongs would like to ask Snape if he realizes that if he doesn't wash his greasy hair soon, no girl will ever touch him, even with a ten foot pole!
Snape, looking angry enough to burst, threw the map down on the table, and stormed out of the Great Hall. We soon were an equal shade of red, from laughing so hard.
Our map worked well in other ways too. The most useful being the feature that allowed us to see the location of everyone in the school. We could see when a professor was near us, and know when the coast was clear for pranks, and sneaking through corridors. It was, by far, our most useful mischief-making tool, and the second great achievement for The Marauders.