The Marauder's Map

Castiel woke up the next morning across from an extremely glum Harry. They smiled faintly at each other, but neither felt like saying much. Madam Pomfrey insisted on keeping them both overnight. Harry left as soon as he could on Sunday morning but Castiel stayed behind, curled up in his bed until Dean came to find him.

'What're you still doing in here, man? Harry left hours ago.'

Castiel shrugged.

'Are you okay?' Dean waited patiently for an answer.

'I don't understand,' he said. 'Why do the Dementors affect me so badly?'

Dean grimaced and sat down on the bed. 'Thing about Dementors is the worst, and I mean the worst, magical creatures in the world. Like, even No-Maj's can feel 'em. They suck out all your happy memories and good feelings and stuff.'

'Have you seen them before?'

'Yeah. It wasn't fun. They make you relive your worst memories. We all know why they affect Harry so bad, heck I'd be more surprised if they didn't. The question is, what happened to you?'

Cas bit his lip and rubbed his arm.

'I was in a potion accident,' he said quietly. I survived with some – scars. My mother did not.'

'Wow. I'm sorry, man,' Dean said sympathetically.

'When they come near me, I hear her screaming. I hear myself and I can smell the burning-' He cut himself off with a shake of his head.

Dean looked at him for a moment. 'I'll show you mine if you show me yours.'

'What?'

Dean put his foot up on the bed and lifted up his trouser leg. A burn scar snaked up his calf and stopped just before his knee. 'Azazel set fire to our house when he was trying to kidnap my brother and me. I got Sam out and picked up these gnarly scars but my mom didn't make it.'

'I'm sorry, Dean.'

'Don't be. It was a long time ago,' he said, putting his foot back on the ground. 'Your turn.'

Cas unbuttoned the cuff of his sleeve and rolled it up. He felt much more comfortable showing it to Dean than he expected.

Dean whistled at it. 'How far up does that go?'

Cas patted the top of his shoulder, then buttoned his sleeve back up.

'You don't like showing it off, huh?'

'No.'

'That's a shame. It scores ya all kindsa brownie points with the ladies,' Dean winked. 'Mine does.'

'I don't understand. Hermione and Ginny already like me.'

'Oh boy, do you have a lot to learn,' Dean smiled. 'Are you coming down to lunch, or are you just gonna mope around here all day.'

Cas nodded. 'I'll come.'

'So, who have you told about that?' Dean asked as they left.

'Just you and John.'

'John? Really? Not Sherlock or Hermione?'

'No, why?'

'You just seem closer to them than John.'

'He's a lot easier to talk to than Sherlock and Hermione is very busy.'

'You know, that makes sense,' Dean grinned.

The violent weather of November faded into a chilly haze of rain that persisted well into December. Wood regained some of his manic energy when Ravenclaw's defeat of Hufflepuff put Gryffindor back in the running for the Quidditch Cup. He worked the team as hard as possible, and two weeks before the end of term, the sky lightened over the newly frosted grounds. A Christmas buzz filled the air, Professor Flitwick immediately decorated his classroom, and everyone began talking about their holiday plans. Castiel was going home, as were Dean and Hermione, but everyone else had decide to stay for the holidays.

They were all surprised by another Hogsmeade trip on the last day of term. Harry resigned himself to not being able to go and decided to look through some magazines for a new broom. The spare Gryffindor Nimbus Two Thousand and One was suitable enough, but Harry felt uncomfortable on it and thought that he should have his own.

The morning of the Hogsmeade trip found a very determined Castiel and a twitchy John.

'You ready?' Dean asked Cas.

'Didn't you already say that?' said John.

'Uh, no?'

'I swear you did,' John frowned.

'Yeah, okay, let's go.'

In his determination to not let them affect him anymore, Cas attempted to march past them alone. Fortunately, Dean was close enough to catch him when his knee failed. They made their first stop at Honeydukes, where they tried to find more sweets that Harry hadn't tried yet. Ron saw a sign in a corner that read 'Unusual Tastes' and dragged them over to it. The shop was extremely crowded and they had to squash in beside a group of sixth years to get a good look at the odd sweets. Ron immediately a jar.

'Blood pops?' Dean said, wrinkling his nose.

'Urgh, no, Harry won't want those,' said Hermione, 'they're for vampires.'

'Fine,' said Ron. 'What about these?'

He grabbed a jar full of Cockroach Clusters and shoved it right under Hermione's nose.

'Definitely not,' said a voice.

Ron nearly dropped the jar as Harry appeared behind them.

'Harry!' Dean said delightedly. 'You grew a pair!'

'How did you get in here?' Sherlock asked.

Harry dropped his voice so that none of the other students could hear him. 'Fred and George gave me this map,' he told them. 'It shows Hogwarts and all the secret passages. It even shows everyone walking around and stuff!'

'That is so cool!' said Dean.

'How come they never gave it to me!' said Ron, outraged. 'I'm their brother.'

'But Harry isn't going to keep it!' said Hermione. 'He's going to hand it in to Professor McGonagall, aren't you, Harry?'

'No, I'm not!' said Harry.

'Are you crazy?' said Dean.

'If I hand it in, I'll have to say where I got it.'

'But what about Sirius Black?' Hermione hissed. 'He could be using one of the passages on that map to get into the castle!'

Dean put his arm around Hermione. 'Come on, lighten up, Hermione!' he said. 'It's Christmas!'

Hermione hesitated.

'Are you going to report me?' Harry asked her.

'Oh, of course not, but honestly, Harry-'

'Seen the Fizzing Whizbees, Harry?' Ron interrupted, grabbing him and taking him over to the barrel.

'Where are John and Sherlock?' said Cas.

Hermione looked around and frowned. 'They did this last time too. They're probably up at the Three Broomsticks,' she said.

'Let's pay for this and go,' said Ron.

'I'm telling you, something's up with that John kid,' Dean muttered to Cas on their way out.

They arrived at the warm, noisy bar and found John and Sherlock waiting there with a table and Ron went off to get drinks as they all sat down. Once he returned, a breeze riffled through the bar and Harry choked on his Butterbeer at the sight of Professors McGonagall and Flitwick, Hagrid, and the Minister for Magic. Ron and Hermione shoved Harry under the table and Sherlock whispered 'Mobiliarbus', gently lifting and moving the Christmas tree beside them until it blocked them from view. They sat completely still and silent while Madam Rosmerta brought over some drinks.

'Join us, why don't you, Rosmerta?' they heard Fudge say.

'Well, thank you very much, Minister.' She sat and she and the teachers complained about the Dementors to the Minister.

'A necessary precaution… unfortunate, but there you are,' he said uncomfortably. 'I've just met some and they're in a fury against Dumbledore – he won't let them inside the castle grounds.'

'I should think not,' McGonagall said sharply. 'How are we supposed to teach with those horrors floating around? I've had both Edlund boys collapse in my classroom because of them.'

Castiel turned slightly red, but was surprised to hear of Gabriel's troubles.

'They are here to protect you all from something far worse… we all know what Black's capable of…'

'I still don't believe it,' said Madam Rosmerta. 'I remember when he was a boy at Hogwarts. The last I would have thought to go over to the Dark side.'

'You don't know the half of it,' said Fudge. 'The worst he did is not widely known.'

'The worst? What could possibly be worse than murdering all those people?'

'You remember him at Hogwarts, so you will remember who his best friend was?'

'Of course,' she said, 'quite the double act, Sirius Black and James Potter.'

Sherlock sucked in a sharp breath and Ron kicked Harry under the table, who had dropped his tankard.

'Precisely,' McGonagall continued. 'I don't think we've ever had such a pair of troublemakers-'

'I dunno,' Hagrid chuckled. 'Fred and George Weasley could give them a run fer their money.'

'Potter trusted Black beyond all his other friends,' Fudge explained. 'Black was the best man when he married Lily, then they named him Harry's godfather.' Fudge then dropped his voice. 'Not many people know that the Potters knew You-Know-Who was after him. Dumbledore had a number of spies and one of them tipped him off. He advised them to go into hiding and, obviously You-Know-Who is not an easy man to hide from, so he told them that their best chance would be the Fidelius Charm. As long as the Secret Keeper refused to speak, You-Know-Who could have spent years searching their village and never find them, not if his nose was pressed against their living-room window.'

'Dumbledore offered to be Secret Keeper himself, but James insisted that Black would rather die than reveal where they were,' said McGonagall.

'It was barely a week after the charm was performed before he betrayed them,' Fudge sighed sadly.

'Filthy, stinkin' turncoat!' Hagrid said loudly. 'I was the last ter see him before he killed all them people! It was me what rescued Harry from Lily an' James's house! Jus' got him outta the ruins, poor little thing, with that great slash across his forehead, an' Sirius Black turns up on that flyin' motorbike he used ter ride. Never occurred ter me what he was doin' there. Thought he'd jus' heard the news o' the attack an' came ter see what he could do. White an' shakin' he was. An' yeh know what I did? I COMFORTED THE MURDERIN' TRAITOR!' Hagrid roared.

'Hagrid, please!' McGonagall hushed.

'How was I ter know he wasn' upset about Lily an' James? It was You-Know-Who he cared about! He comes up to me and he says "Give Harry ter me, Hagrid. I'm his godfather, I'll look after him." But I had me orders from Dumbledore. But what if I'd given Harry to him, eh? I bet he'd've pitched him off the bike half way out ter sea.'

A long silence followed.

'Well, he didn't manage to disappear,' said Madam Rosmerta. 'The Ministry caught up with him the next day.'

'Alas, if only we had,' Fudge said bitterly. 'It was not us who found him. 'It was little Peter Pettigrew, another one of Potter's friends. Maddened with grief, no doubt, and knowing that Black had been their Secret Keeper, he went after Black himself.'

'Pettigrew, that little fat boy who was always tagging around after them?' said Madam Rosmerta.

'Hero-worshipped Black and Potter,' said McGonagall. 'I was often rather sharp with him. You can imagine how I- how I regret that now…'

'There now, Minerva, Pettigrew died a hero's death,' Fudge said kindly. 'Eye witnesses told us how he cornered Black. He even managed to pull his wand, but naturally Black was quicker. Blew him to smithereens…

'I was Junior Minister in the Department of Magical Catastrophes at the time and I was one of the first on the scene. I'll never forget it. The crater in the ground. Bodies everywhere. Muggles screaming. And Black standing there laughing, with what was left of Pettigrew in front of him… a heap of bloodstained robes and a few – a few fragments…

'Well, there you have it, Rosmerta. Black was taken away by twenty members of the Magical Law Enforcement Patrol and Pettigrew received the Order of Merlin, First Class. Black's been in Azkaban ever since.'

Madam Rosmerta let out a long sigh. 'Is it true he's mad, Minister?'

'I wish I could say he was,' Fudge said slowly. 'I met him on my last inspection of Azkaban. He spoke quite rationally to me. It was unnerving. You'd have thought he was merely bored – asked if I'd finished with my newspaper, said he missed doing the crossword. I was astounded at how little effect the Dementors seemed to be having on him, and he was the most heavily guarded in the place.'

'But what do you think he's broken out to do?' said Madam Rosmerta. 'Good gracious, Minister, he isn't trying to rejoin You-Know-Who, is he?'

'I daresay that is his – er – eventual plan,' Fudge said evasively. 'But we hope to catch him long before that.'

There was a small clunk of glass on wood.

'You know, Cornelius, if you're dining with the Headmaster, we'd better head back up to the castle,' said McGonagall.

They all headed out, once more letting snow flurry through the door while Madam Rosmerta returned to the bar.

Once they were gone, Ron and Hermione pulled Harry out from under the table and the rest of them found it difficult to meet his eyes. They silently agreed that it was time to leave and crept quietly out of the pub.

Welcome back everyone and thanks to Keysmash5955, Guest, TsubasaKEI and Tacosaurus for the reviews :) I hope everyone had a good Christmas/ holiday you happen to celebrate. It's been a while but I finished the semester and have a couple weeks before I need to start on my dissertation. The next chapter is a big one so I hope to see you all soon :) and by big, I mean important.

On another note, I was wondering how many of you might be wiling to read something original by me? I haven't done anything with this piece yet, just putting the feelers out. See you next time!