The Marauders' Years: Year One
Chapter Twelve
The Map
James, Remus, and Peter were quite surprised when Sirius caught up with them during their search of the fourth floor corridor. It wasn'tone of their usual haunts, nor a place they passed through often.
In fact,Sirius had declared that he didn't like that particular floor. The others had been quick to ask him why, and he had replied by saying that, 'There has to be a part of the castle I don't like, andthere doesn't have to be a reason why.'
None of them, except maybe Sirius, could see the logic of this statement, so it was chalked up as more of his seeminglymindless ramblings.
All that taken into account, they were quite curious to know how Sirius had found them there.
James, Remus, and Peter waited expectantly for enlightenmentthat was rather quick in coming; Sirius handed over the Marauders' Map, whilst grinning widely, and began his explanation.
"I was bored."
His rather short explanation.
Remus stared at the piece of parchment for several minutes. "How bored could you have gotten?"
"What'd he do?" Peter asked, peering with interest at the parchment. He was greeted by a few new additions to their sketching, plus six red dots, each labeled in minute writing.
"Wasn't quite sure how to make it recognizeanyone and everyone," Sirius explained, whilst pointing to one of the red dots that was labeled, 'Peter Pettigrew'. "I couldn't find anything on it in the library."
James raised an eyebrow at the other five dots, each with it's own label. Four of the dots which were labeled:Peter Pettigrew, James Potter, Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin, were gathered in the middle of the fourth floor corridor; one of the dots, labeled Mrs. Norris, was disappearing off the edge of the current extent of the map and into the far end of the second floor corridor. The final dot was nowhere to be found."Who else did you put on here, exactly?"
"Just the locations of Mrs. Norris, Filch, and the four of us," Sirius answered, and then continued, "it'd be even better if it would just know who and where anyone was, instead of just knowing where the six of us are. We need to finish drawing up the rest of Hogwarts too."
"This is going to take the better part of all our years at school," Remus said with a sigh.
"That's the fun of it!" Sirius grinned rather maniacally.
Peter just shook his head; he'd never understand Sirius's line of reasoning. How could even more work be considered fun?
-
The first week of January was a whirlwind of activity as the students returned to flood the castle. Remus consulted Hogwarts' extensive library and seemed determined to find out more about the creature. He hadn't told anyone anything about whatever it was he had found out; all he had said on the subject was the short warning he had given to Sirius in his letter.
As soon as lessons started back up, everything, including the Marauders' Map and research, was left for later.
-
"Herbology. I can't stand Herbology," Peter muttered as the four of them walked across the grounds toward the Herbology greenhouses.
"I'd think it would be your favorite subject," James said, drawing his conclusion from the fact that Peter didn't do extremely well in subjects where a wand was required.
"He's talking about the plants, Peter doesn't like vegetables that can eat you in revenge for what you ate during dinner."
Remus rolled his eyes at this comment; Sirius always had to put in his two cents no matter how insane his suggestions were. This action happened to send Sirius's mind once again down the trail of wondering why people rolled their eyes when he was talking.
-
"Welcome back, class," Professor Sprout said as the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw first years filed into the green house. "Please shut the door quickly, you're letting a draught in. My poor honking daffodils were crushed during a snowball fight before Christmas break and I'm afraid too much cold air will finish them off."
Professor Sprout directed them to all to look at two potted plants that were situated in the center of the tables they usually worked at. "Can any of you tell me the names of these plants?"
Sirius and James immediately raised Remus's hand, much to his displeasure, right before a Ravenclaw girl's hand shot into the air.
"Devil's snare...or is it Flitterbloom?" Remus paused, staring hard at the two plants in an attempt to identify them.
"Right on both counts, Mr. Lupin, impressive that you knew that much...I think ten points for Gryffindor will do," Professor Sprout said with a smile, and then busied herself with explaining the lesson. "This one on the left is Devil's Snare and the one on the right is a harmless Flitterbloom."
She pointed to each in turn. Sirius edged closer, trying to see the difference in what appeared to be identical plants.
"Best stay back, Mr. Black. That Devil's Snare is only a cutting, but it will still be rather difficult to get it off you," the Professor warned forebodingly. Sirius immediately jerked back.
"Does anyone know how to tell the difference between them? No? Well, there isn't much of a difference between them, except for one being dangerous and the other being harmless. One of the easiest ways to tell is this..." Professor Sprout picked up a normal tree branch from the table and prodded the Flitterbloom with no reaction, then the Devil's Snare, which immediately wrapped its green feelers around the stick. "Not very professional, I'll grant you, but it gets the job done."
-
For the rest of the lesson, the class studied various other ways to identify both plants, and then moved on to taking care of Flitterblooms. By the end of class everyone had at least a basic knowledge on keeping the plants alive, and as a surprise Professor Sprout gave each of them a Flitterbloom to keep alive for homework.
-
James raised an eyebrow, as Sirius sat his new Flitterbloom onto the table the next morning during breakfast. "What are you putting that there for...?"
"His name is..." Sirius trailed off, a thoughtful expression on his face. The other three Marauders along with most of the younger Gryffindors at the table waited to see what Sirius was rambling on about today. "His name is Bob."
"And who, though I may regret asking, is Bob?"
Sirius stared at Remus as if he had asked a rather stupid question and immediately pointed to his Flitterbloom. "He is Bob."
"You named your homework?" Peter asked, cautiously prodding the plant with his fork. If there was ever a wizard to switch his harmless Flitterbloom for a Devil's Snare, Sirius was he.
Sirius nodded. "Of course! He needed a name, and that name is Bob."
"You realize that err...Bob, is a plant and not an animal or person?" James queried, fervently hoping that Sirius did in fact realize this, and thus wouldn't need to see Madam Pomfrey to sort out his addled brains.
Sirius's answer was halted as the main morning event started up; hundreds of owls were swooping into the Great Hall to deliver mail to the students.
"Someone has gotten a howler," Alice announced, as a horned owl with a red envelope clamped in its beak headed for the Gryffindor table.
"What's a howler?" Lily asked, a confused look on her face.
"Really nasty thing to get, Evans," James informed her with a smirk. "Maybe you'll get one sometime? We can only hope…" This teasingly sarcastic comment resulted in Lily's porridge bowl ending up on James's head, and a triumphant glare from the redhead.
"James!" Sirius muttered frantically.
"What?" James asked distractedly, he was trying to shake the porridge off of his glasses.
"That's my family's owl!" Sirius said, staring at the owl as it flew straight towards them, hooting menacingly.
- Jade-chan
