Serendipity
Chapter 11: The Origins of the Marauder's Map
By: Ruth3
Disclaimer: Anything you recognize belongs to JK Rowling's brilliant mind.
Author's Note: So, it has been over a year since I have updated any of my fics. To be quite honest, I do not remember where I was trying to go with this specific fic. I am going to pick it up as best as I can, and I hope it ends all right. Yes, I do indeed intend to finish this fic. I am thinking four more chapters after this one (for a total of fifteen) for it to be complete. I am now a sophomore in high school and this month is going to be very hectic for me. I will try to update as quickly as possible, but not too quickly that the fic is rushed and therefore ruined. I have a feeling many of my reviewers have left the world, and that this fic will not satisfy anyone's interest anymore. But, I still hope you attempt to read it, and then drop a review expressing your thoughts.
To my FAITHFUL reviewers:
Sanely Insane – Yes, I hate when errors are made in movies or books. I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.
forsakenphoenix1 – I think JK should write a series all about Lily and James at school up until their death. Enjoy this chapter.
Avalleine – Thank you! Enjoy this chapter.
Rayne Evans – Here is me adding more. Enjoy!
Kk – I agree.
Meg – Thank you. Enjoy.
Lily Natalia Evans – I am glad to hear that. Enjoy.
vanima failiss – Thanks. Enjoy!
Harryschic – It's okay, no need to apologize. Enjoy this chapter.
stormcloud03 – Sorry for my author's block and lack of inspiration that lasted more than a year. Enjoy this chapter.
SilentConfession – Thank you.
pakita88 – I am: gurleygurlpie on livejournal if you would like to add me. Enjoy!
Chantal J – Sorry that this update wasn't soon, but at least I finally got around to it. Enjoy!
newcomer, Caitlyn – Wow, thank you for spending a day reading it! I hope this chapter satisfies you.
Elvlenprincess9744 – Yes, Wormtail is an "evil, foul piece of filth!" Enjoy.
Galadriel Hermione Potter – I just do not think that would be realistic to JK's writing style. But I do like the concept of it. Besides, the Prefects still sleep in their own dormitory, so I do not see why the Heads wouldn't. Enjoy!
SilverBelle – Aha. Yeah, I wish James was my best friend.
Luna Moonglade – I'll be sure to check out one of your fics. I actually love A WALK IN YOUR SHOES as well, it's by far one of my favorites. I will have to check that other one out. Thank you for your recommendations. Enjoy this chapter!
Dark-Magic-Shine – Sorry this took so long. I hope you still enjoy it though.
Lexiegirl – I hope this chapter satisfies you.
Esodes08 – Your review made me laugh. Yes, it's quite sad they didn't live until the 90's or the twenty-first century. Some of my friends get mad at me for being able to type so fast without looking at the keyboard. As if it's really that hard. Enjoy this chapter!
littledynamite6 – Okay, thank you. Enjoy!
sirius-black-92 – I know this wasn't as fast as you wanted, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.
eX Driver Liz – I'm sure the HP novels have answered your question, but just incase they haven't: No, you cannot Apparate on the Hogwarts Grounds.
May – Thank you. Enjoy!
Emerald Desire – I'll try to tone it down a bit, thanks. Enjoy!
salza – Here is the next chapter! Read, read, read away!
Joss – Enjoy!
vickiicky – Enjoy.
– Thanks.
WoW-Girl – I'm going! Enjoy.
iluvhp2noend – Thanks, I thought it would fit nicely. Enjoy.
Courtney! – Enjoy!
Katie – Here is more. Enjoy!
suddenlyreal – Thank you for all of your reviews. I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.
A reader – Thank you!
Dobby's #1 Fan – I love Dobby too, by the way. Enjoy!
Blackgirl5 – Thank you!
Greekchic – I'm thinking fifteen. Enjoy!
jOhNnYs RoXy – Wow, thanks for dedicating so much consecutive time into this story. Enjoy!
Gyant – Here is a new chapter, over a year later. Enjoy!
limbo-gal – Thank you. Enjoy!
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A few weeks had passed since the unexpected and frightening attack occurred at the Halloween Fair. A few students were sent home as soon as their parents heard of the attack being on the Hogwarts grounds. Others (mostly Slytherins) seemed more satisfied and arrogant as ever since the sighting of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. New security measures had been enforced since then, such as: No wandering the castle after dinner, always be accompanied by one or more persons, and the latest scheduled Hogsmeade visit had been cancelled. The professors were anxious and that did not help the students feel any more assured. Professor Dumbeldore wrote to every student's parents explaining that Hogwarts still remained to be the safest place for their children and that classes would still remain on schedule for a ready-to-learn environment.
Lily Evans, on the other hand, had changed since that event. For one, she was much more tolerant towards a boy by the name of James Potter. Her near death experience obviously had some affect on lessening her detest for him. Secondly, she spent more time writing detailed letters to her family, making sure that she did not exclude them from anything that was going on with her at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Thirdly, she devoted more time to her friends than her schoolwork; something she had never done before.
Yet, there was another pupil who changed drastically (or maybe not so drastically) as well. This pupil just happened to be the person who shared Lily's near death experience with her. James Potter also started writing letters to his parents as well; only his letters were not filled with details of his classes, his social life, or his latest accomplishments. No, his letters were filled with an obsession, if you will, of wanting (or in James' words, "I will, no matter what...") to become an Auror; to hunt down the man who put his own and Lily's lives in danger, the man who sees killing as a sport, the man who is feared by everyone (excluding Dumbledore, of course) in the wizarding world.
It was after James' had written his most recent letter to his parents about his new rants about Voldemort that a sudden idea occurred to him. He collaborated with his three best friends on what they thought of his idea (as if their response be negative he would squash the idea anyways) and how it would benefit every single person at Hogwarts.
"So you're telling me," Sirius began. "You want to create a map of Hogwarts and bewitch it so that it shows moving figures of every single person on its grounds?"
"Yes, that's exactly – "
"James," Remus said. "How are we going to be able to first, bewitch the map into showing every student at their current whereabouts and secondly, how the bloody hell are we suppose to get them to move? I bet not even Lily Evans knows that sort of charm work!"
James laughed at his dear friend's ignorance of his last comment, "That's the thing, Lily Evans does know how to do 'that sort of charm work.' Didn't you see the posters advertising the Halloween Fair?"
"Er," Peter peeped. "There were posters?"
James rolled his eyes, "Yes! Lily bewitched them so that a black cat would walk across a fence, or a witch would fly across the paper on a broomstick, or – "
"Okay," Sirius said annoyingly, getting the point. "So why don't you just have Lily make it for us then?"
"That's the thing!" James yelled impatiently. "She taught me how to do it!"
"Oh," his three best friends muttered in unison.
"Besides this map will probably be confiscated if any professor saw it since it will show hidden passageways, spells to mutter to get into a hidden passageway, peoples' whereabouts, and so on! Not even Lily's new kindness towards me will keep her from taking this away or presenting it to McGonagall or Dumbledore," James stated.
"Are you telling me," Remus said. "That we are going to expose all of our secrets onto this map? What if it gets into the wrong hands? We have worked seven hard years to discover Hogwarts' secrets!"
"That's brilliant, Remus!" James cried as Remus looked taken aback. "We'll bewitch it so that one can only read it if one knows the spell to reveal it in the first place. If someone were to pick it up, it would merely look like an unused piece of parchment. However, when we want to use it, we'll merely tap it with our wand and say, 'Review yourself!'"
"No," Sirius said abruptly.
"What do you mean 'no'?" James inquired.
"We are not going to dedicate many tedious hours making this map and then the spell to be able to read it will be, 'Review yourself!' What sort of glory will the map have if we give it that manky name of a spell?"
James laughed and clapped his friend on the back. "You're absolutely right, mate. What do you think then?"
"Firstly, we will call it 'The Marauder's Map'," Sirius stated.
"Good, good," Remus agreed.
"Then we will have it open to say, 'Messieurs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischeif-Makers are proud to present –' "
"What!" James yelled out appalled. "We are not creating this map for mischief, Sirius!"
"Then remind me why are we creating this map again, James?" Sirius asked acidly.
"So that if You-Know-Who steps foot on the grounds then we will know he is here!" James stated matter-of-factly.
"Right," Sirius said obviously bored. "That will be your purpose for the map. However, the rest of us (he nodded to Remus and Peter) will use this map for when we walk around the castle after hours or if we try to sneak off to Hegsmeade or for when we need to nick food from the kitchens –"
"Sirius, this is a serious matter!"
"James," Remus said cautiously. "Maybe Sirius does have a point. If we are going to make something so brilliant we might as well be able to use it more often than randomly check in to see if He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is pacing around the grounds waiting to attack."
"Come on James," Peter piped in. "You have to admit, it will be useful for when we want a midnight snack or seeing if greasy Snape is following us or something."
Sirius beamed, he knew Peter had hit a spot by mentioning Snape. "Well, I suppose that could work," James said slowly.
Sirius, Remus, and Peter looked extremely happy. "That's a good chap!" Remus said.
"You all are bloody blokes though," James stated. "All right, so I like Sirius' idea of the opening of the map. But what should the spell be to open it?"
"How about," Peter thought. "'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good'!"
"That might have been the best idea you have ever come up with, Wormtail!" Sirius yelled clapping him on the back.
"Well, why don't we get started then, shall we?" Remus asked as he conjured up a blank piece of parchment.
While the four Gryffindor students worked extremely hard on perfecting the map; creating what they hoped would be the greatest necessity that Hogwarts has ever seen, outside under a tree Lily and her friends were talking amongst themselves about this and that. Lily was happy to see that although she was not devoting as much time to her schoolwork as she usually did, her grades and performance were not suffering at all. And on a few occasions her new upbeat mood had been pointed out to her by younger students and especially by James Potter and his comrades. Lily shyly smiled to herself.
"What are you smiling about, Lily?" Clara asked.
"Oh nothing," Lily answered hastily, blushing despite herself.
"Come on now, Lily!" Sadie insisted.
"Oh, all right," Lily replied cautiously. "I was just thinking about how much nicer people are to me after the attack occurred."
"People as in plural, or were you thinking about someone more specific? Someone like, maybe say – James Potter?" Haylee asked slyly.
Lily blushed immediately and looked over to the Great Lake, avoiding her friends' piercing stares.
"Lily, if you fancy him – just come out and say it!" Clara said.
"I don't fancy him," Lily told her friends. "I just like that him and I are able to talk without threatening to jinx each other every five seconds. It is much easier to do Head tasks when we are able to concentrate on our work instead of concentrating on what comeback to say next."
"That is true," Haylee agreed. "He is loads better to be around. He no longer has a new girl on his arm every week and I am thinking his popularity has died down quite a bit."
"That is hardly true," Sadie retorted pointing to three tall figures and a group of girls following them.
Lily let out a laugh, "Oh yes, James Potter's popularity has died down quite a bit in the past few weeks. To the contrary, I think he might be even more popular if that is possible."
"Well," Haylee added hastily. "It is true about him not having a new girl hanging on his arm every week."
"Yes," Lily agreed. "That might be so. I think he has been too preoccupied to bother with his Fan Club. I have a feeling he is up to something…"
"Why do you say that?" Clara questioned.
"Besides the fact he has been acting civil towards me; his behavior has been quite peculiar. He is always scribbling long letters during classes. Or he is whispering quickly to his friends about something, and when someone walks by he immediately hushes up. Or he stares fixedly into space and when a gorgeous girl drops a quill and asks him to pick it up, he does not even stir. Oh my!" Lily shrieked with sudden realization.
"What?" Her friends disbelievingly asked in unison.
"James Potter is in love!" For a second, there was a crestfallen look on Lily's face, but it had disappeared as soon as it had come.
"Impossible!" Sadie bellowed. "James Potter doesn't even have a heart! How could he possibly love someone?"
"I don't think that's the question you should be asking," Clara said matter-of-factly. "You should be asking, who is James Potter in love with!"
"I don't know…" Lily contemplatively said.
"Well," Haylee said. "Here he comes now, so you might as well just ask him yourself!"
"Hullo, Evans!"
"Potter," Lily said more acidly than she intended to as she gave him a casual nod.
"How are you doing?" He asked tentatively.
"Fine, and yourself?"
"Not too bad."
"Er," Sirius began after a few minutes of obvious awkward silence. "Did you happen to overhear anything lately?" As soon as Sirius let out those words, he wished he hadn't since James stepped hardly on his foot.
"Overhear something about what?" Lily asked, although she wanted to add a hint of something along the lines about James' love so the conversation could lead that way.
"Nothing," James added hastily, too hastily.
"'Right then…" Lily said in an obvious bored tone. She looked at her friends and indicated that she wanted to leave.
"Are you all right, Evans?"
"Peachy, Potter," Lily said as she turned to leave and began to hurriedly walk back to the castle doors.
"I'll meet up with you all later," James announced as he began to run after Lily, leaving his friends and Lily's friends awkwardly standing together under the tree.
"Evans! Hey Evans! Wait up!"
"What do you want, Potter!" Lily bellowed.
"Why are you mad at me?"
"I am not mad at you," Lily spat.
"Then why are you treating me so poorly? I thought we were on good terms now, you know, after what we went through…" James asked with a sudden ounce of pain to his voice.
"Why don't you go spend time with your girlfriend?" Lily forcefully said as, once again, she turned away from him. However, James caught her by the arm and turned her around.
"What girlfriend?"
"The girl you are in love with, you prat!"
"Excuse me?" James asked utterly confused. Lily searched his face looking for some obvious explanation as she waited for him to admit to his love, but instead all she saw was honest confusion. Lily blushed violently and turned away for the third time as she realized that there was no girl and the purpose for her being suddenly upset was nonexistent.
"Wait, Lily!" Lily stopped dead in her tracks and took a deep breath of air. He had called her Lily.
James caught up with her and stood in front of her, attempting to make eye contact but Lily's eyes were absorbedly interested in her white tennis shoes. "Why did you think I have a girlfriend?"
"I – I," Lily stammered. "Well, for one thing, your attitude has changed. I have not seen you hex Snape in weeks. I have not seen you prank any First Years. I have not seen you try to sneak off grounds or wandering the halls after hours. I have not seen you boast about your looks or your intelligence or your incredible magical ability –"
"You think my magical ability is incredible?" James grinned, obviously pleased.
"- I have not seen you talk back to the professors, or try to sweet talk them either. I have not seen you do one single thing wrong. However, I have seen you spend countless hours writing various long letters during classes. I have seen you whispering amongst your friends and although they look completely uninterested, you still all hush when someone walks by and act like you all are not even discussing anything remotely important. I have seen you not pay any attention to the girls that worship you. I have not seen you throw your arms around a different girl every week. And, and – " Lily said hesitantly as she bowed her head. "You've actually been nice to me."
"Lily," James said softly as he took his finger and placed it under her chin as he slowly tilted her head up so that he could look her in the eyes. "I have not been hexing Snape or setting pranks on the First Years because I have not had the time or the interest to do so lately. And although I have not snuck off the grounds lately, that does not mean I have not been wandering the halls after hours when you have not noticed. And as for the boasting and my behavior towards the teachers, I had not realized it; I guess more important things have been on my mind than my good looks and my brains. And about my confidential discussions with my mates, I am afraid I can not give you a reason for that since it is no more your business than Peeves. I have never been that interested with my "Fan Club" if you will, and as I have previously mentioned; more important things have been consuming my thoughts than snogging a Ravenclaw or spending a wonderful day in Hogsmeade holding hands and drinking Butterbeer," James declared.
"Right," was all Lily could think of to say since she was still completely mortified for her immature behavior. And James' handsome hazel eyes weren't helping the matter either.
"Hold on," James said, "I'm not completely finished yet, for I have not answered your last question." Lily tried to look away, but James wouldn't let her. "No, I want you to look at me when I tell you this. I have been nice to you because I realized that our time to live isn't guaranteed. For all I know, I could drop dead tomorrow. Therefore, I needed to offer you my respect, the respect that I had not given you prior to the past few weeks, the respect that you deserve. Besides, I realized that before we were rudely attacked by You-Know-Who I was having the greatest night of entire existence, and that was because I was with you." At this, Lily went crimson red and harshly turned away because she too had thought that night (besides the part of almost being killed) was one of the greatest nights of her life.
James grabbed Lily's hand. "James, don't," Lily pleaded.
"I'm not asking you to fancy me, Lily," James softly told her. "I just want to be friends with you. I want to be able to walk you to class. Or sit next to you in the Great Hall while we eat dinner. Or walk carelessly around the halls laughing about this and that. Or search for you in the Quidditch stands while I'm high above you, knowing you are there to support me as well as the rest of the Gryffindor team. I want to be able to ask you for help if I am having trouble with Charms. Or give you help if you are having trouble with Transfiguration. Or invite you to study in the library with me and my mates. Or you invite me to study with you and your mates. I just want to know that I can be there for you as you are there for me in the dark times that come ahead of us."
"You could have always asked me to help you with Charms," Lily softly laughed.
"Oh, and have you hex me so that I would have fire coming out of my ears?" James grinned.
"James, I want to be your friend," Lily began. "We have been friends for the past few weeks, haven't we? And I have enjoyed it, really I have. But I heard rumors that you had fallen madly in love with this girl, and I just felt betrayed since you hadn't told me and I just thought we were so close," Lily lied quite lamely.
"Lily, I promise you here and now that I will never be dishonest towards you," James said.
"Okay," Lily grinned. "Then what was your confidential conversation with your mates about?"
"Anything, but that," James laughed. Once again, he found himself in a trance with Lily's soft features: her soft cream face, her little nose, and the little freckles that speckled across her nose and cheeks. Her auburn red hair was lightly waved and fell gracefully along her shoulders. Her eyes were the prettiest emerald green that James had ever seen. Her lips were mixed with the colors of rose and blue, obviously from the cold wind that had started forcefully blowing while they had been talking.
Lily traced James' hazel eyes as they slowly went from her hair to her lips. She couldn't help but notice how his jaw bone was perfectly chiseled. And as James' eyes had fallen upon Lily's lips, Lily's eyes finally fell on James' lips. She noticed how full and perfectly shaped they were, and she felt a sudden twisting sensation in her stomach. In that moment she knew that all she wanted to do was to kiss him, to caress his face, to feel her lips against his.
James realized he was still holding Lily's hand. He took a step towards Lily with her hand still intertwined in his. He slowly released her hand and lifted his hands to her face, gently cupping it. He slowly leaned into her and since she had not tried to run from him, he let his lips touch hers; offering her the most compassionate kiss he could muster.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I hope that was as good as most of you think the story has been. I am pleased with it. Expect the next installment sometime within the week. Please drop a review; I will appreciate anything you have to say. Thank you and have a wonderful weekend! Much love, Ruth xoxo.