a thousand apologies to all. i've been a neglectful writer. in fact, ive had this written all along i just completely forgot to put it up. i can only give the same old escuse that i haven't had the time. i add my apologies if you began reading my other story because the development of that has also been posponed. although at least with that story i know where im going. im not sure i like the original way i had planned this story to end so its all up in the clouds at the minute, im just waiting for it to settle. while were waiting here we go, thanks for all your complements and just for you eric there are some hidden clues in here. have fun and i hope everyone has enjoyed their holiday. i myself went to london this week and since it was the first of september, and noone was looking, my sister and i decided to take a run at the platfrom at kings cross. what fun!

kate xx

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

Hogsmeade

Christmas was coming, and Hogwarts was holding a Yule Ball. Of course, being first years this didn't really affect Lucious and the others, only those in fourth year or above were allowed to go, unless they were partnered with an older pupil. Katie had been asked by an older Hufflepuff, David Abbott, but she had let him down gently saying she'd feel out of place at such a ball. All the other first year Hufflepuff girls were green with envy. Lucious however, had felt suddenly overprotective when he heard she had been asked and was extremely relieved that she declined. This had surprised him. Of course Katie was very pretty, she had the most amazing pale green eyes, but he didn't think he himself fancied Katie. If it was a girlfriend he was after Sarah, Marie and Zabina were constantly throwing themselves at him. He just didn't understand why he didn't want her going out with David.

However, the excitement amongst the four troublemakers had nothing to do with the Yule Ball, well not really. It was more to do with the extra Hogsmeade day that had been introduced to give the older students a chance to buy their dress robes. Being a first year, this also, should not have affected Lucious, everyone knows you have to be in third year to visit the wizarding village, yet most first years didn't know about the passage he had found.

It was about a week ago now, that the four had been sneaking through a corridor when they had noticed a statue of a witch they had never noticed before. Being curious as they were they had spent the entire night standing by the statue, trying different spells and incantations to get it to open, they were almost positive there would be one. Lucious noticed that Alice however, simply stood back and was staring at the statue, almost in a dream. When he called her name to get her attention, she immediately looked at him, grinned and said, 'dissendium'.

Miraculously the statue opened to reveal a tunnel.

Max gaped at her in awe, 'Eh, How?'

'One of my many talents,' she replied throwing her hair back, as if trying to mock Max himself, who the other three frequently teased for being full of himself and for constantly messing up his disaster of hair. Max however, in good humour simply laughed at this and led the way through the tunnel. Alice followed, then Lucious, with Katie behind. She closed the door behind her, something the others had clearly forgotten about.

That was the amazing thing Lucious noticed about the four of them.

Max was naturally the leader, he was as Lucious observed a little big headed, but he was a charmer. He was very witty and could quickly fire back insults or make up excuses as the situation suited him.

They also seemed to be no end to his Griffindor courage. Well Lucious saw it as stupidity a lot of the time but he had to admit, Max had guts. He would pull off any spell on any person to get himself and his friends out of trouble. Only he would place a silencing spell on Professor Snape when he was bored of listening to his drawl, or shoot a body binder curse at Filch when they were being followed through the corridors. It was mainly due to his quick thinking that none of their fellow housemates yet knew of their strong friendship.

Alice however was slightly quieter and it had to be said that she was the brains behind the quartet. He had yet to find a spell she couldn't do, or couldn't immediately find in a book and learn. Books were a big thing to her. She also had this amazing knack of discovering passwords through trances, almost as if she was searching the deepest part inside her for the answer. As if it was inside her and she only had to find it. She too was extremely witty, Lucious supposed it came with the brains, but Alice seemed to be calmer, to think about her comments before she said them, compared to Max who'd simply say them in the heat of the moment.

It was thanks to Alice that they'd made many of the potions and mixtures they'd used in their mischief. Although Snape would never admit it, potions were her speciality. She excelled at it. Lucious was amazed at how she only had to look at the instructions once and they were imprinted into her brain, at how she could cut up her ingredients so precisely, yet at an incredible speed. Without her, the jokes would never have been so advanced.

Katie seemed to be the opposite of Alice. She was much more talkative. Lucious wondered if this was because Alice spent a lot more time reading, so was often only half listening to their conversations unless something took her interest. Katie it seemed never needed to look at a book. She could do the work required at ease and that seemed to suit her. Unlike Alice it didn't matter to her if she had yet learnt the fourth year history of magic syllabus. She didn't have time for study; she was simply full of life. Lucious would have described her as the female equivalent of Max, without the big ego and short temper. Lucious often had trouble remembering that she was actually a girl. She was the only one of the four with common sense. Without her, many small things would have been overlooked in prank pulling, whilst the others concentrated on the larger scale.

The thing that Katie had similar to Max was the charm. She could easily replace her mischievous smirk with an angelic smile that would plead her innocent of any crime, and made her an amazing deceiver. What the rest of the school didn't yet know was the real Katie. They knew she was energetic and sporty, not your average girl, but never would she be the one who turned Snape's hair green or added the mixture to the prefects' bathroom so all their skin was stained orange for a week. Most of the younger students made immature comments about the failure of their fake tan, or the stand and tan gone wrong, but not Katie. That way no one suspected the pintsized first year.

However, considering her great spirit, the girl's eyes were extraordinary. People say that eyes are the window to the soul and if that was the case Katie had no soul. Her eyes greatly lacked life. They were somehow misplaced on such a smiling, happy face. He noticed Alice's eyes also, they had the same overcast look and, if Lucious had bothered to look, he would have seen the same feature in himself. It was this mysteriousness that attracted the girls to him.

This led Lucious to wonder what he himself brought to the group. Would they function just as well without them? Yet he knew the answer. It wasn't much but it was he that thought up most of the pranks. He came up with the initial ideas that the others worked on and improved. It had been his idea to wake the entire castle up just last week by throwing cream cakes onto them, and then ordered the house elves to serve nothing but cream cakes for breakfast no matter who told them otherwise. He was also responsible for numerous pranks on teachers, prefects and students alike. Like when they had charmed the superstitious divination teacher's mirror to fall out of her hand and smash every time she picked it up. The first years only wished they could have taken the subject so they could have seen her face. The third years had come out in tears of laughter, wishing to congratulate the brains behind the mischief.

That was the greatest thing about the group of four. Coming from each of the different houses, they had no constant victims for their practical jokes. Usually, the Griffindor got the slytherins, or vice versa, but when all were affected no one knew who to look to for blame. In fact the only people who had not been caught individually by one of their pranks was McGonagall and Potter, though they expected Professor Lupin had known exactly what was going on, even if he couldn't identify the culprits. Lucious personally thought he was just playing along. He seemed to enjoy the little distractions, almost as if they brought back memories that had been unknowingly forgotten. Snape and Filch were however, constant victims of their schemes. This was purely because the reactions they got from these two were unbeatable. Pure rage was shown on both men's faces as they realised what was being done but had little power to prevent it. Especially Filch, whom Lucious had learnt from his father was a squib and, despite the measures he had taken was still unable to do magic.

So that is how they had found the passage that led, eventually into the cellar of a shop in Hogsmeade itself known as honeydukes. So on this particular village day, it was not only the upper students who were busily getting ready to visit their neighbouring town. Lucious met with Max, Katie and Alice outside the statue, they said the password and entered. They had no need of the invisibility spell today. There would be plenty people in the village today to get lost among, besides, there was a secret thrill in the risk they were taking, with the possibility of getting caught. After all Lucious guessed like him, the others must be getting tired of having to hide their friendship and longed for the day they could claim their pranks, even if it did mean punishment.

Thankfully luck was on their side that day. They had butterbeers in the three broomsticks, bought chocolate from honeydukes and visited the shrieking shack to investigate if it was truly haunted. However, they were dying to go into the shop that truly attracted them all. 'Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes', the practical joke shop. None of them had visited the shop in Diagon alley when they went for school supplies. Max hadn't the money, Katie had walked past it because of the discomfort shown by her father, Alice said she hadn't had the time and Lucious; well his father had told him all about the Weasleys and wouldn't let him set foot in the shop. Well what Draco Malfoy didn't know, wouldn't harm Lucious, so he accompanied his friends inside.

By this time it was near the end of the day and they were the only customers in the shop. From behind the counter Lucious noticed two identical smiles. These two he knew by name and reputation. Not only from the warnings his father had given but also from the small area of the corridor by charms which looked like a twenty year old swamp. This was apparently, at Flitwicks request, a monument left to these two trouble makers after they rather splendidly avoided detention and left the school in chaos before flying out the hall window.

Lucious grew rather nervous. What would happen if they recognised him as a Malfoy? Their nephews, Alastor and Harry were bad enough, but to get on the bad side of these two red heads was something Lucious wanted to avoid. The four were huddled round the new product stand in the corner when two simultaneous voices appeared from right behind them, startling Lucious. He had no idea how they had managed to sneak up behind them

'Well what do we have here?'

Lucious noticed Alice try to slip out of view.

'Watch it young Wood' the twin on the left grinned. It suddenly dawned on Lucious. He had heard that the twins had attended Hogwarts with Alice's dad. Surely they had kept in contact and in that case, they would know that Alice was in fact only eleven, and out of school bounds. As this thought processed in his head he saw two faces grin at each other and then look sternly toward him and his friends.

'And what would four first years be doing out of bounds today?'

'Not to mention one Griffindor, a Hufflepuff, a Ravenclaw and a Slytherin' Lucious caught the look of surprise on the twins face when he finally looked toward him. Suddenly Lucious lost his calm. He knew he had been recognised as a Malfoy. Damn that blonde hair. He'd spent ages trying to slick his unruly hair back to fit as a Malfoy and he really wished he hadn't. All the others must have looked just as uneasy as Fred and George's serious faces turned once more into grins.

'I'm Fred by the way,' the one on the left said.

'And I'm George, the other half of the legendary Weasley twins'.

Lucious could hardly contain his surprise when the four of them were invited into the back of the shop for some tea. He had to of course, he wouldn't want the adults to think he was being a snob and turning his nose up to their invitation. That was of course what his father would have done and he was determined to show these two that they were polar opposites. He noticed as they entered that Max gave him a knowing look that he quickly understood. These two pranksters were inviting them in for tea and although they looked like adults, he wouldn't put it past them to test out any new products secretly in their food. After all, being a practical joker himself he knew that one important rule. Never take any food from other people.

The four of them quickly learnt that Fred and George were not going to tell on them. In fact, they appeared extremely impressed that they had not only found the way, but had the bottle to sneak out. They were very curious to learn how they had found the passage, and were quick to congratulate the four on all their pranks. It appeared that, living in the nearby village, Fred and George still kept in touch with those from the school and had learnt from a source, which they wouldn't reveal, all about the mysterious pranks. They had also heard about the fours talent on the quidditch pitch, all being seekers and seemed to be pleased that it was the same students.

They quickly realised the four were responsible and, although they were impressed, what they wanted to know most was why they did not want to take the credit for there ideas. After all Lucious knew that the two had been their generation of pranksters and was sure that they had been proud of every joke they ever played. It suddenly dawned on Lucious that the twins thought they were chicken. Not of causing trouble, but of getting the punishment. He decided to put them right immediately.

'Well, we're all from different houses so, well, no one knows we're actually friends. You've got to understand what an uproar it would cause if they knew we hung out together.'

The twins immediately looked at him, two identical faces. Up till now the youngest Malfoy had said nothing, leaving it to the others to explain their accomplishments. He suddenly regretted speaking up. They were going to say something about his family. What would he do? The others must have realised his discomfort, so must the twins as they immediately smiled at him, nodding in agreement, and moving on to a different subject.

George turned to Fred. 'What do you say we aid this generation of mischief makers with the famous tool?'

'Why that's an amazing idea George, you're a genius'

Lucious couldn't help but laugh at the way the two found something to constantly make fun of. He did however, have no idea what they were going on about.

Fred disappeared into the other room and reappeared holding a single bit of parchment, which looked considerably new. The twins seemed to relish in their confused faces, and showed them the parchment for a couple of minutes, wondering if the four could work out, just as they had done, how to find its secrets. Lucious had no idea what they expected. He watched however, as Alice picked up the parchment looked at it for a while and then returned her gaze to the red heads.

'You're giving us a map?'

Lucious believed this must be one of the few times that the Weasley twins had ever been shocked. They were gobsmacked but pleased. Then suddenly simultaneously Lucious thought it appeared like they both realised something, and exchanged knowing glances. Turning back toward the four they began.

'Not just a map...'

'We present to you...'

'The new and improved...'

'Marauders map!' this last part was said in chorus.

Lucious watched as Fred pulled out his wand, pointed it at the sheet and said 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good'. He leaned in to see the words appear on the parchment.

Messrs Mooney, Padfoot, Prongs, Trick, Treat and Clover
Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief Makers
Are proud to present
The new and improved Marauders Map

He continued to watch as these words disappeared and a map of Hogwarts appeared on the parchment before his very eyes. There were hundreds of tiny dots covering the castle, which, when you looked carefully at, were accompanied by names in tiny letters. This was amazing; it showed every person in the school and their exact location. He couldn't help wondering how easy it would be for them to get about the castle and he now realised why they had been impressed with the four's attempts. They only found the secret passageways as they were shown on the map. The first years hadn't needed a map. Still he could see there were many more passageways they had yet to find that were shown on the map.

The twins began to explain.

'About thirty years ago now, the original marauders were at Hogwarts. There were four in the beginning and they were, and probably still are now, the best trouble makers that Hogwarts has ever seen.'

'Even though we came close'

'Anyway, together they created this map, well not this exact one, but the original'

'However, Filch confiscated the map before they had any real chance to use it'

'About fifteen years later we found it, learnt how to use it, and we owe a lot of our success to those incredible four'

'They were after all the only ones who managed to pull of a prank on old McGonagall, how I wished I'd seen it'

'Still there are many places in the castle not even the marauders knew about'

'Or they found them after the map had been taken'

'And so we decided to improve it'

'We only finished it about a month ago'

'Helped by one of our friends and an original marauder'

'And now, we give it to you. Use it well'

Lucious looked at the others who were just as taken aback as he was. Alice, always the thoughtful one he thought, spoke up.

'But there are only six names on the map, four marauders, plus the two of you and a friend that equals seven'

The twins seemed to look serious for a moment.

'The fourth marauder was deleted from the map. He betrayed the others and quite frankly I don't think he contributed much to the map in the first place' Fred replied. Lucious accepted this; after all he knew many people turned traitor on their friends to follow the dark lord.

Alice accepted this, 'and if only one marauder helped you, then the other two are...?' Lucious knew the Weasleys would understand the question; she didn't need to say the final word.

'Dead? Yes' Lucious noticed the brief glimpse in George's eye when he said this. He wondered if the twins had in fact known one or both of the other marauders before they died.

Alice, always the curious one, investigated further 'so where's the original?'

Fred smiled at her curiosity, 'the other two have it. That is, the last marauder and our friend. See the maps kind of special to our friend too; it's helped him out of loads of trouble. And I don't mean detentions'

'Lucky Git' George snorted.

'The maps always had a sort of sentimental value to us so we thought we'd create another. There's only the two though so keep good care of it. We would of given it to one of our nieces or nephews but quite frankly I don't think we've found one worthy yet.'

The six spent about another hour discussing things: The map, pranks, quidditch, pranks, quidditch, sweets, pranks, quidditch. It seemed they had a great deal in common.

Then it was time for the new generation of marauders to leave.

As they were going Fred and George both shook their hands. They made their usual overreactions full of spiffings, glorious'and splendids but then they became more serious. Lucious half expected them to stop at him but they didn't. Fred smiled.

'Congratulations Malfoy, you must be the first one to ever shake hands with a Weasley.' Lucious gave them the famous Malfoy smirk and then burst out laughing. He had never been able to pull that off like his ancestors.

'Bye Henderson, nice to meet you, careful not to let Harry and Alastor send you mad'

'Bye Wood, we'll see you in the summer to hear more. Say hi to your dad for us.'

'You too, Dursley, watch out Molly or Barty don't catch you and tell old Dudders we say hi'

Lucious saw all the blood drain from Katie's usual happy face. 'What, you know my father?'

'Know him? He was the tester for our very first Wheezes product'

'We owe him so much' they joked melodramatically.

Something dawned on Katie as she remembered her fathers behaviour in Diagon Alley, 'so it's your fault my father hated wizards, what did you do to him?'

The two put on their most innocent face. 'No, no', George replied. 'Your dad hated wizards way before he met us, before even Hagrid gave him a pigs tail when he was eleven.' The other twin snorted. 'He hated Harry, that's Professor Potter to you four, and we just sort of, took a little revenge by feeding him some ton-tongue toffee.' The two began laughing hysterically. 'What a crease!'

The four eleven year olds burst out laughing, thanked the twins repeatedly and left, their arms filled with Weasleys products, some not completely tested that they had promised to try on Snape and owl back the results. The twins told them that the marauders had actually gone to school with the potions master and it was only tradition to keep him as their main victim. Besides, they owed the pranksters so much the least they could do was play tricks on their enemy.

As they left Lucious was sure he saw one twin turn to the other saying 'we taught her well'. But he dismissed it. It had nothing to do with them, so it didn't matter.

They returned to the castle through the tunnel and back to their individual houses, just as the Yule ball was coming to a close. No one had missed the four first years. However on the way back they decided it was time for one thing: To reveal themselves and to have some fun doing it and Lucious, as usual, had an idea.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

come on then, kill me now, theres still no sign of neville meeting his child or ginny breaking down in tears and telling. i'm sorry!