Disclaimer - These characters are property of J.K. Rowling.
The Making of The Marauders Map
and the passage of the one-eyed witch.
A bright sun dazzled the students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Three fifteen year olds sat in the shade of the Beech Tree, their knees raised and heads touching. One, a small sandy-haired boy, raised his head and looked over to the great oak doors of the castle, where a tall messy haired boy stood, panting, his eyes darting from side to side. He spotted the three boys and rushed over to them, his cheeks pink and blotchy.
"Wormtail, Padfoot, Moony!" he exclaimed, his eyes sparkling.
"Prongs!" the three chorused, smiling up at him and laughing.
"So..." Remus sighed, "where have you been? Running from teachers again?" he said raising an eyebrow.
"As a matter of fact. No" replied James.
Remus raised his other eyebrow, Sirius and Peter sniggered.
"I...have been in the library," James said with a shudder. He fell down onto the grass and pushed Remus, knocking him over.
"You! In the library!" Sirius said, half-laughing and half-gasping with fake shock. James looked at him, his brown eyes gleaming mischievously. He pulled a piece of tattered parchment and his wand out of his robes and tapped the page, he looked at the other three and spoke, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good"
He looked down at the parchment and lay it on the grass in front of Sirius.
"This is why I was in the...you know"
All four of the boys looked at the object. Words were appearing in curly green lettering, on the page, 'Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs. Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers are proud to present, The Marauders Map'
Sirius looked up at James, his eyes wide
"Well, what is it?" he asked.
"A map you idiot" James replied grinning broadly.
"Yes I know it's a map James" he snapped peevishly.
"Then why did you ask?"
Sirius, having no reply to this just shrugged and lay back down.
"It's a map of Hogwarts, of everything, everywhere" James whispered.
Remus leaned forward very mush caught up in the conspirital feel of the moment. His head was almost touching James' when he opened his mouth to speak,
"What are we supposed to do with it?" he murmured, staring into James' eyes. James sighed and then smiled before head-butting Remus solidly in the forehead. Remus toppled over onto the grass, clutching his head and swearing under his breath, which was very unlike him.
"What do you think we're going to do with it Moony? Eat it?"
Remus lifted his head slightly to look over his knees at James, before groaning and falling back down. James crawled over to his side, "Are you ok Moony?" he asked. Raising his hand, he grabbed a fist full of James' robes and pulled him to the ground. Amid shrieks of protest he administered a merciless noogie.
"Remus, No, Moony, gerrof!" James cried. He pushed away from Remus and sat panting slightly.
"I don't know what came over me" Remus laughed.
After everyone had had the chance to calm down and James had explained what the map was about. Peter said something, which James hadn't thought of at first.
"What if a teacher finds it?" Peter squeaked.
"So what if they do, they won't understand it" Sirius replied offhandedly.
"He does have a point Padfoot" James admitted.
He sat for a moment, deep in thought, until he suddenly had an idea. He muttered a few words and the parchment cleared of its contents.
"What! I didn't mean get rid of it!" Peter said nervously.
"I haven't" James retorted.
He passed the empty parchment to Remus,
"Write something"
"What?"
"Write something. An insult."
"Oh, ok. To who?"
"A teacher, say Snape. It probably would never happen, but you never know"
Remus reached and picked up the piece. He thought for a moment, then scribbled down, 'Mr Moony presents his complements to Professor Snape and begs him to keep his abnormally large nose out of other people's business' he re-read it and handed the parchment back to James who sniggered. He then picked up the quill and also wrote a message, 'Mr Prongs agrees with Mr Moony and would like to add that Professor Snape is an ugly git' he then passed it onto Sirius who wrote 'Mr Padfoot would like to register his astonishment that an idiot like that ever became a professor,' Lastly it was Peter's turn, Sirius was hesitant about giving the paper to him, as he knew that he wouldn't think of a good insult, but he gave it to him anyway and he wrote, 'Mr Wormtail bids Professor Snape good day and advises him to wash his hair, the slimeball' As Peter read out the four messages, the boys cracked up.
"Good one Wormtail!" James said through stifled fits of laughter.
Chapter 2
A few weeks later, Peter, Sirius, Remus and James were wondering the cold corridors under the invisibility cloak that James owned. They paused beside a statue and looked down at the half-completed Marauders Map. Sirius leant against the statue and looked across to James, "You do realise that we have had this map for two weeks and still don't have any secret passages out of the castle on it"
James cocked his head slightly to one side and looked around the group.
"I wish there was a passage under this old thing," he said prodding the statue of the one-eyed witch in its hump. "Even if there was one it would probably have some stupid password like 'Dissendium" he said hitting the hump again with his wand in frustration. To his, and the rest of the groups' surprise, a small gap appeared in the statue. Sirius reached forward and lifted the hump slowly to reveal a long, dark stone passageway. "Well" he said, "here goes nothing I guess" and before the others could reply Sirius had come out from under the cloak and gone into the passage. The other three followed and for what felt like hours they wandered on and on through the tunnel, until finally they hit a dead end.
"Stop" Sirius hissed as they all bumped into each other. James pushed to the front of the line and stopped at Sirius' side. He reached up his hand, trembling slightly, and pushed on the trap door above them.
"Lumos" he whispered and a light appeared on the end of his wand. For a moment he stood transfixed on what was in front of his sparkling brown eyes,
"W..w...w...wow" he stuttered. Rows and rows of boxes filled to bursting with Honeydukes sweets and chocolate lay before them.
"What are we waiting for?" Remus asked in a voice quite unlike his own. They rushed forward, grabbing handfuls of sweets and chocolate and pushing them into their already full pockets.
"Take one, eat one, take one, eat one" James repeated under his breath.
When their pockets were filled and mouths covered in chocolate and toffee, they made their way back down the tunnel. The journey back seemed to take a much shorter time.
Groaning slightly with stomach ache, James checked the map and one by one they climbed out through the witch's hump, and pulling the cloak tightly around themselves once more, they headed off back to the Gryffindor Common Room to get a few hours sleep before breakfast.