A/N: Thank you, Super MKatR, for you fantastic work as a beta for this story.

Chapter 16 – New Attitudes

The Marauder's Map was the icing on the cake from the Potter family legacy. Never in Harry's life had he felt so proud of being who he was: the son of James and Lily Potter. He was shocked when he realized he had spent his life completely ignorant about his heritage and no one had cared to tell him anything about his family.

Harry took every chance he got to study the old belongings from his parents and learned things quite interesting. For starters, he discovered that his family was rich, very rich. Amongst all the letters he had retrieved from the cottage was one from Gringotts Bank. The bank was attempting to notify his father of the process of transference of goods after his grandparents, Charlus and Dorea Potter, passed away. Apparently, his grandparents died from dragon pox they contracted during the war. According to the letter, the wizarding financial system was chaotic, and because of that, the transfer of goods was raking more time than usual. In the inventory attached to the letter, Harry discovered that the Potters not only possessed more galleons than he could count, but they also owned properties, lands, titles, investments and a high security vault at Gringotts, which was a privilege reserved only to the elder and traditional wizarding families.

Harry wrote a letter to Gringotts, requesting a copy of his parents' testament. Through that, he learned that he only would have total access to his goods after reaching the legal age of adulthood, seventeen years old. Until then, an additional vault would be annually stocked with thirty thousand galleons to cover any necessity until that time. The only one who could access his goods before that was his legal guardian stated in the testament, Sirius Black. Due to Sirius' legal "incapacity" to exercise guardianahip, the goods would be frozen until Harry's adulthood or emancipation.

Harry never cared much about money. However, he had spent his life surviving with a little more than a beggar would. How wouldn't he be surprised when he found out that the gold that was in his vault when he visited Gringotts was just a small portion of a much bigger treasure? Still, Harry thought the money was the least important part of his heritage. His father and his mother were extraordinary talented and planned to pass on to Harry everything they knew, even in the event of their death.

After the twins gave him the Marauder's Map, Harry remembered the old notebook he had found in the cottage entitled The Marauder's Manual. When he opened it, he wasn't surprised it was blank.

'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.'

Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs are proud to present

The Marauder's Manual

Written in the notebook were careful and well thought out details how to perform the spells used to create a map like the Marauder's Map. It listed out a huge variety of useful and some useless spells, and how to use them to prank someone. It described duelling techniques and defensive spells. There was a variety of healing spells with emphasis in the treatment of werewolf bites. The most amazing part was the whole section entitled "Animagi for dummies" that taught step by step how to become an illegal Animagus without being caught.

After Christmas, Harry started focused a great deal of attention on his mother's diary. Upon reading the first few words, he understood that it had been written with one purpose: to prepare him to fight Lord Voldemort. In a passage of his mother's text, it was written:

"I cannot believe that a prophecy can define the fate of someone, but the Dark Lord does. Unfortunately, in that way, he is sealing the destiny of both of you. Independently of our will, Harry, Voldemort will haunt you while he lives, because he has already marked you as a threat. So you need to be ready, ready to destroy him before he destroys you."

The first time Harry read that, he thought he didn't need to worry. After all, Lord Voldemort was practically dead, right? Then realization hit him like the lightning bolt on his head, being practically dead is not the same as being dead. Voldemort was weak and hidden somewhere, but he wasn't dead. Harry knew it, he felt it. What if someday Voldemort recovered his powers? What if some of his former followers decided to help his master? Voldemort would for sure seek revenge. If Harry was the reason for Voldemort's fall, he would certainly want to eliminate the threat as soon as possible. His mum was right. He needed to be ready. If Voldemort never returned, Harry could just enjoy a quiet and happy life with his friends. Otherwise, he needed to be prepared.

After that epiphany, Harry's behaviour changed so much that even his friends were surprised. Voldemort was known for being one of the most intelligent and powerful wizards of all time. Thus, Harry couldn't afford to be ignorant or weak. He needed to learn a lot to be as good or better than Voldemort. Fortunately, in his mother's diary, Harry always found instruction about what to do.

"Never neglect your school performance. The magic learned in the classroom is as useful as the magic learned outside it. Above all, it's useful to create an image of a dedicated student. When you're seen as a diligent student, the teachers will support you, they rarely will question you if you're studying a subject far beyond your educational level and they'll forgive you more easily when you're caught breaking the rules."

Harry became more responsible with his studies from that point on. He stopped doing his homework at the last minute, he did daily revisions and asked questions of the teachers on class. After a short time, he would add as many points for the House Cup as Hermione in the classroom. Harry replaced all his textbooks with the old ones from his parents, for they had contained important notes to help him in his understanding. In the Transfiguration textbook, most of the notes were from his dad, who seemed to have a natural talent for the subject. But in Potions, his mum was a genius. For the first time, Harry began to understand the art of preparing potions and he was even enjoying it. Severus Snape seemed on the verge of passing out at each potion perfectly prepared by the Gryffindor boy. He made sure to correctly answer each question of the teacher and each time Harry's arm was up as fast as Hermione's, the man writhed with frustration. Harry was having a lot of fun.

Now, Harry could control new spells quicker and his Transfiguration essays were perfect most of the time, which yielded him many compliments from McGonagall, who was very proud of her pupil's dedication. In his free time, Harry sought refuge in an empty classroom or in an isolated part of the grounds to work in his wandless magic and to practice non-verbal spells. He started following the methods his mum taught in her diary.

"Try to do spells in silence as soon as you ca. That way, later it will be much easier. If you start doing non-verbal spells since your first Windardium Leviosa, then when you reach the level of practicing advanced defensive magic, everything will come naturally."

She explained the way she learned to control her own magic to try to help Harry doing the same. Everything was explained with details, examples and stories. Sometimes, his mother would suggest different methods to Harry chose the easiest one for him.

"Everything became easier for me when I finally understood that magic isn't dictated by evocative words or wrist movements. Magic doesn't need those to exist. It's our limited mind that needs those tools. Let go of those limitations, Harry. Feel your magic instead of thinking about it."

Harry's new attitude was leaving most of the teachers proud and his friends annoyed. Ron was bothered by the idea that suddenly Harry decided to be a teachers' pet. Hermione didn't like the competition Harry offered by getting as good or better grades. The girl credited Harry's good performance in the classroom to the collection of notes that his mother had left for him. In her opinion, that was the same as cheating.

'I'm not cheating!' Harry argued. 'I'm learning! My mum's notes are only helping me learn. It's more honest than when you revise my essays and end up giving all the answers, in my opinion.'

'No, it's not the same.' Hermione replied. 'You have access to knowledge that someone else doesn't have, which is unfair to the other students.'

'This isn't a competition! I've told you and Ron that you can also use my mum's notes if you want to. Besides, I've told you why I need to learn. I need to be ready, that's why my mum gave me so much work to begin.'

His friends' immature behaviour left Harry a bit peeved. He tried to use his best arguments to make them understand, to convince them that he wasn't doing in to get attention or to look better than anyone. But it was no use.

'You aren't doing this because of You-Know-Who, you're doing it because you like to be the best at everything!' Ron blurted at one night when they were fighting about the topic again. The whole common room went silent when he talked, but Ron wasn't intimidated. 'Everybody knows that you're the Gryffindor's golden boy. You have fame, money, an important surname, you're the best at Quidditch, you have the best brooms and now also the best grades. Stop pretending that you don't care about all that.'

That was the last straw to Harry, who was already hurt by his friends' attitude. After that night, he stopped trying to argue with them. If Ron and Hermione were already upset, because he had a few good grades, he didn't even want to imagine their reaction when he got to the point he really wanted.

Harry went to bed earlier that night quite sulky. He put on his pyjamas, grabbed the mirror and the Marauder's Map, and lay down in bed with the curtains drawn. Harry had learned new spells with the Marauder's Manual and his mum's diary, and nowadays he had no worries about using them. He cast a Muffliato Charm so that he wouldn't be heard, and with a variation of the Wand-Lighting Charm, he conjured small illuminative dots that floated over his head. He checked the time and knew he still had a little to wait until the predetermined time to talk to Ginny. To distract himself while waiting, he opened the Marauder's Map.

'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.'

The map began revealing its contents, showing the grounds and the lake and the castle with all the corridors and secret passages. Harry had been slowly exploring the castle since Christmas, learning its shortcuts and secret passages and trying to memorize the best routes to go somewhere. During the nights, he watched the routes the prefects and staff used to do the nocturne rounds and noticed there was a pattern. They showed up more in the corridors close to the common room of each house, in the Astronomy Tower and in the dungeons. However, what called more his attention was the persistent vigilance of the teachers, and the head boy and the head girl at the third floor corridor. Also, Harry observed that Professor Quirrel had a visitor once more, the same one. Every night when Harry checked on the map, Professor Quirrel was in his office accompanied by someone named Tom Riddle.

Weird, none of the teachers received as many visits.

Harry saw Snape in the dungeons, Hagrid in his hut, Dumbledore in his office, Flitwick in his classroom, Peter Pettigrew…

Harry froze. The dot named Peter Pettigrew was quickly running through the seven floor corridor. He couldn't believe what he was seeing, his eyes followed that dot with rapt attention, trying to calculate the odds that his mind was playing tricks on him.

'Harry!' The boy jumped. However, it was only Ginny calling in the mirror. When he glanced again at the map, Pettigrew's dot was gone. 'Harry.' She called again.

With his heart pounding, he grabbed the mirror. 'Hi, Ginny.'

'What happened?' She asked. 'You look as you saw a ghost.'

'You're close. I just saw Peter Pettigrew.'

'What? When?'

'Now, in the Marauder's Map. He was in the middle of the seventh floor, walking, when he suddenly disappeared.'

'Harry, are you sure of what you saw? Wasn't it another Peter something?'

'I'm sure! But it doesn't make sense, he's dead!'

'Is he?'

'He's supposed to be.'

'Harry, you told me you read in the Marauder's Manual that the map never lies, right? It's a crazy assumption, but what if he didn't really die?'

'Could he really fool so many people? How can someone pretend to be dead for over ten years and at the same time being so close?'

'Harry, he's a wizard. Wizards can do everything. Besides, he already fooled people before, didn't he? Everybody still believes that Sirius Black was the Secret Keeper.'

'Everybody thinks Sirius Black killed Pettigrew…' Harry concluded. 'But that would be so crazy.'

'Maybe, but it depends. How did Pettigrew die?'

'In an explosion, I guess. I'm not sure…'

'You need to find out what really happened… Research what showed up in the newspapers from back then, especially mentions of the Muggles who died in the same incident.'

Harry nodded in agreement. 'In the library, there are all the Prophets' editions.' He pondered. 'In any case, I can always ask Hagrid.'

'Keep an eye close to the map, because, if Pettigrew's around, he'll show up again.'

'I'll be sure to do exactly that.'

'Perhaps Hermione can help in digging some other important information too.' Ginny suggested.

Harry scowled. 'I won't be asking Hermione anything!'

'What happened? Is she still upset because the whole grade thing?'

'Yes. Apparently, now she and Ron believe I'm somehow a crazy, self-centred attention seeker.'

Ginny lifted her eyebrows in surprise. 'I thought they would have forgotten that silly jealousy after you explained about You-Know-Who.'

'Me too. But they just think I'm making that up or something…'

'That's typical of the prat Ron. He can become so blinded in a fit of jealousy when someone's better than him at something. I don't give more than two weeks to him get real, but it'll take another two weeks to swallow his pride and try to apologise.'

'Maybe, until then, I'll be too proud to accept apologies.' Harry commented, hurt.

Ginny smiled sweetly. 'You know that isn't you.'

Harry gave a half smile, not at all surprised at how easily Ginny could read him. 'No, it's not.'

A/N: Hi! I'm sorry for the wait, but I had a busy week. The next chapter is The-Boy-Who-Told-Jokes. Can anyone guess who this boy is?

Guest: Thank you! I hope you like this one.

scarppy8: Thanks! Flying would be great. Who knows? I hope you enjoyed this chapter.