Here's the next chapter, for all you who've been waiting patiently. . . and some not so much.  It's much lighter-hearted then the last chapter, but there won't be too many more like this one, at least not that I can see.  Still, it's shaping up nicely.

I remember when it was only one part and I had no idea what would happen to it.  Thanks to everyone who's been helpful, especially my little brother, Spibro.  I couldn't do it without you groaning and saying "Do I have to listen to you read your story to me?  Can't I just play my game?"  Thanks bro!

:P

Wolf-Child

The map didn't turn up the next day, or the day after.  Harry didn't tell Fred or George about it, nor did he mention the snogging session he almost interrupted.  The suicidal boy was another secret he didn't even tell Ron or Hermione.  However, he did spend his time scanning the Slytherins for a gray-eyed prefect.

            After the Christmas Holidays, Sirius assigned group projects to his DADA class.  Ron, Hermione, Harry, and Draco were in a group together, studying Dark Objects.  The four met in the library after classes.  Hermione deposited a stack of books on their table.

            "These looked promising.  Here Ron, Harry, go through these four.  Malfoy, you can take these two, and I'll take these," she said in her 'scholar' attitude, passing out thick, dusty tomes.

            "Why don't we include some genuine Dark Objects in our project?" Draco asked, pushing Noko's face out of his book.  Apparently the little puppy loved the taste of moldy book pages.

            "I'm sure you'd have no problem providing them," Ron sneered.

            "I think it's a good idea," Harry interrupted, as the glares between Draco and Ron grew suffocating in their intensity.  "But only objects that lost their magic, like Riddle's diary."

            "You know about Riddles' diary?"  Draco stopped trying to glare Ron's freckles off and sounded genuinely surprised for once.  "Do you know what happened to it?"

            Whatever reaction Harry was expecting, that wasn't it.  "Uh, Riddle was destroyed.  Why?"

            "Pity.  He was fun to talk to."

            If it was humanely possible, the trio would have face vaulted.  "Fun to talk to!" Ron cried.  "Are you crazy?  He was Voldemort!  He nearly killed my sister!"

            Draco shrugged.  "But if you get past that, he's quite nice."

            Ron's face was changing colors rapidly.  Hermione placed a restraining hand on his shoulder.  "Draco, do you know of any other Dark Objects we could use without getting in trouble?"

            Draco tapped his chin with his quill.  "Hmmm, yes, actually, I might.  What about this?"  He pulled a very old and familiar piece of parchment from his bag.

            "That's mine!" Harry said.  Madame Pince shushed him, so he lowered his voice.  "I've been looking for that since the ball."

            Draco studied the map.  "Useful thing, this is.  Where'd you get it?"

            "I could ask you that myself."  Sirius and Remus came up behind Draco.  "I know that map was confiscated when Filtch caught Remuff . . ."  Remus clapped his hand over Sirius' mouth.

            "Hush Paddy, they don't need to hear that.  The map is Harry's now, never mind how he got it . . . Yuck!  Sirius, that's disgusting!"  Remus pulled his hand away from Sirius' mouth and wiped it on the taller wizard's robes.  Sirius had licked it.

            The trio grinned, but Draco ignored them.  "I think the map's malfunctioning," he stated.  "You two professors aren't on it."

            "It's not malfunctioning."  Remus leaned over Draco's shoulder and touched his wand to the map.  "Howl, bark, woof, woof, oh this is degrading."

            As they watched, words appeared under the header, in a curly script.

            "Lady Love would like to offer her utmost apologizes to Mr. Moony and claims her mind had gone blank when deciding on a password for him."

            Below it, more writing appeared in a different hand.

            "Mr. Moony would like to assure Lady Love he doesn't mind and knows all too well what it feels like when your mind goes blank."

            "Lady Love?" Harry asked. "Who's she?"

            "Lily," Remus said quietly.  "Lily's Marauderette nickname was Lady Love, given to her by Sirius due to her relationship with James.  It was her idea to put the Concealment Charm on the map to hide the Marauders and herself, and she came up with the passwords."

            "I'm feeling ignored," Draco stated.  "Who are the Marauders?"

            "The Marauders were my dad and his three friends when they were at Hogwarts.  Remus and Sirius were Moony and Padfoot.  My dad was Prongs, Peter Pettigrew was Wormtail, and I guess my mom was Lady Love.  They were pranksters extraordinaire and made this map.  Someone gave it to me third year, and I've had it ever since," Harry informed Draco.

            Noko climbed into Draco's lap and studied the map.  "Who dat?" she asked, pointing.

            "That's Blaise Zambini."

            "Dat?"

"Professor Snape."

"An' dat?"

"Ja. . ." Draco trailed off.  "Does the map show dead people?"

"No, only Peeves," Sirius said.  "Why?"

Draco set the map on the table and pointed.  Pacing a small room on the third floor, there was a dot labeled James Potter.

Ooh, cliffhanger again!  Don't fret, as we speak I'm almost done handwriting the next chapter.  All I'll have to do is type it up, and bada-bing, bada-boom, the next installment is here.

However, I will warn you, from now on, the story will get decidedly darker.  There will be at least one, probably more, character death(s).  Getting to James won't be as easy as they think it is, and what happened to Noko's daddy will come back into play.  Suicidal boy's father is putting his plan into action.  It's already gotten started.

And I will not tell you who Fred was snogging in the rosebushes, but yes, it was Fred, not George or Lee.

Still no picture of Noko?  ~sigh~  I was hoping someone could draw better then me.

~Crawler