The Marauder's Heirs

A much livelier vibe than usually greeted them in the Great Hall the next morning. It wasn't a surprise, with classes starting on Wednesday, they were so close to their weekend. Fridays were half days for most students, which only added to the weekend air.

"Why can't we just enjoy the week and the weekend, then start on Monday?" Ron asked as they sat down at the Gryffindor table. Siria nodded.

"That'd be nice," she agreed. She shoveled some eggs onto her plate.

"I wouldn't mind Herbology," Neville confessed.

"Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll just forget about today," said Ron.

"They won't 'just forget', Ron," Hermione tsked. She scooped up some strange leafy greens on Siria's plate. Siria tilted them onto Hermione's.

"Siria, set an example," Hermione nodded in Colin and Dennis's direction. The Creevey brothers were sitting with some other fourth and second year students. She added more of the greens on Siria's plate.

"They're not paying attention to what I eat," Siria dumped the greens onto Hermione's plate with the others. "I don't like it."

"It's just kale, Siria," said Hermione.

"I eat so many vegetables for you, at least let me turn down this one," Siria argued.

Professor McGonagall handed out their schedules. Siria groaned.

"Today's not that bad," said Ron. "I mean, Divination might be a laugh, if she stops trying to kill you off."

"Look at tomorrow," Siria told him.

"We got a break… oh," Ron groaned. Siria leaned her head on his shoulder and sighed.

"Yeah. Double Potions, with the Slytherins then the Ministry woman," Siria noted.

"But, we've got Herbology today," Neville said with a small smile. "Friday's light."

Cedric Diggory waved from the Hufflepuff table. Hermione waved back and nodded. She put more eggs on Siria's plate. Siria pressed her lips together, as she was still eating her first serving.

"How about Friday, for the mini first meeting?" Hermione asked. She grabbed a piece of toast and buttered it.

"Sure?" Siria agreed. She looked across the Great Hall, to Cassius. "I just don't have anything planned yet, you know?"

"Oh, I don't think we'll have the lessons yet," said Hermione. "We have to clean out the Chamber, first. No one is going to want to practice there, if it smells like it did last year."

"Great," Siria sighed and accepted the toast from Hermione. "Exactly how I wanted to spend my first weekend— cleaning."

Divination was possibly the most bearable session Siria endured. Professor Trelawney told them they would be tested in June, but implied Divination was above such things as exams. They were assigned a dream diary. Ron confessed to not remembering most dreams. Siria did not look forward to writing "I dreamt of a dark corridor with a locked door" for as long as the diary was kept. After Tom Riddle's diary, she did not want any association with such things. [B5, 237-238]

Herbology brought another lecture on O.W.L.s. "Before getting too worked up about any subject, talk to the Professor, your Head of House, or Madam Pomfrey," Professor Sprout advised. "Tests are already stressful for some students and a lot of pressure is put on O.W.L.s. You'll get more homework than you're used to, and on more advanced material. Ask for help. You have two years worth of students that have taken theirs already, your families, and your Professors. No one needs to prepare alone."

"Potter-Black, er, Siria!" Lily Moon tapped Siria's shoulder. She was so close Siria could smell the citrus body spray, which she hadn't noticed before. "Hi, Siria."

"You can catch up," Hermione told Siria.

"What?" Ron asked. Hermione grabbed him by the arm and marched him back toward the castle. Siria chuckled.

"How was your summer?" Siria asked down at Lily Moon, who was over a head shorter.

"Fine. Yours?" Lily Moon asked while she dragged her feet. Siria walked much slower than usual to match her pace.

"Fine," Siria scrunched up her face.

"She just said hers was fine," Siria told herself. Lily Moon's round face was completely pink.

"Could I— if— would you like to meet me in the library tomorrow evening?" Lily Moon stammered. "Just the two of us?"

"Sure," said Siria.

"Really?" She asked. "You and me, together?"

"Yeah. Did you want me to meet you there after dinner?"

"Yes! Or, if something else would be better?"

"It's the library, I think I'll manage," Siria smirked.

"Would you, maybe," Lily Moon stopped on a step, so Siria paused as well. She felt like a giant. With her heels and the extra step, Siria towered over her. She backtracked and stopped on the step below. Lily Moon bit her lip. "Could we consider it a study date?" she asked. She dropped her gaze to Siria's boots.

"I'd love to call it a date," Siria smiled.

Neither Hermione or Ron asked Siria anything about Lily Moon over lunch. Siria suspected that it was Hermione's idea. On their way to Transfiguration, Ron nudged Siria in the ribs. He raised an eyebrow at her. She rolled her eyes.

"I'm going on a study date," Siria told him, with a large grin plastered on her face. Hermione smiled.

"Oh, are you?" Ron asked. He had never sounded so much like Fred and George. Siria knocked her shoulder into his.

"Shush, you," she told him.

"Lily Moon sure is short though," Ron noted.

"Don't be silly, Ron," Hermione said, "Siria's just tall." Siria smiled, but looked down and combed her bangs with her fingers.

"And, she's not exactly, you know," Ron outlined an hourglass with his hands.

"Mate, I'm like," and Siria made a curveless figure. "Besides, you aren't curvy either," and Siria made a mock swing of her leg to trip him, "gangling thing."

"Twig," Ron taunted back.

"Bite me," and Siria snapped her teeth, a wide grin over her face.

Professor McGonagall spent the first half hour of class lecturing on O.W.L.s. She explained that O.W.L.s affected not only what classes they could take next term, but their future. Siria's stomach turned. If she had to die for Voldemort to be killed, would her O.W.L.s even matter? Remus and Sirius had written hundreds of letters over summer, asking for people's thoughts on how Siria could grow old and for the piece of Voldemort within her to die when she did. They took over the practice room at least once a week, kicked Hermione out of the study, and had even taken day trips away. Despite their smiles about it, Siria felt they weren't any closer to a solution.

"Potter-Black," Professor McGonagall said, from right in front of Siria. "I understand you're anxious about your O.W.L.s, but you have the rest of the year to prepare." She placed a large stack of bound parchment before Siria. "Your father tells me you still can't make a bridge, but that you've finished this year's spells… again," she said. Siria thought there was a shadow of a smile on her face. "I've added some more spells for you and Ms. Granger."

Hermione eyed the bound parchment for a moment before she slid it closer. She turned each page with focused care as she examined the spells. Siria looked to the snail in front of Ron.

"Shouldn't we, I don't know, show we know the spells?" Siria asked. "I really don't think my vanishing spell is all that good."

"Mr. Black informed you vanished a moose, but you don't think you can vanish a snail?" Professor McGonagall asked.

"A moose?" Siria heard Seamus whisper to Dean. She scrunched up her nose in her attempt to stifle the blush.

"But it was kind of small for a moose and he transfigured it, so…" Siria realized she didn't know where she was going.

"It was rather large," Hermione said without any thought. "The most I vanished was a golden retriever, though it was a boulder first." Professor McGonagall raised a knowing brow at Siria, who sighed. Siria scooted her chair against Hermione's and stared at the page for the needle to ballista bolt spell. She leaned an arm on the desk and felt like it was going to be a very long day.

Thunder rolled in halfway through their Astronomy lesson. Professor Sinistra cancelled their practical lesson, which Hermione took as a sign that they should go to the Chamber of Secrets.

"Okay," Siria said. In the Chamber of Secrets, lit by their wands, Hermione, Ron, and Siria pulled a very old, worn piece of parchment and a piece of lined paper out. Siria opened the parchment up and Ron took one side. They put their heads together over the parchment as Siria tapped it with her wand and said "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Ink appeared on the old parchment and drew out Hogwarts. Siria's chest thundered in her ears as her heart raced. Ron found Moaning Myrtle's bathroom on the Marauder's Map and pointed it out. Hermione unfolded the lined paper and put it beside the bathroom on the map.

"I have found a secret passage," Siria said with her map on the sinks in the bathroom. Tiny letters that read "Password?" appeared over the sinks. "Anything in Parselmouth," Siria said and the words replaced "Password?" on the Map. Hermione squeezed Siria's hand and Siria nodded. Siria pulled the pen from her ear and touched it to the parchment.

"I have found a new room," Siria told the Map. Black ink pulled from her pen and onto to the Marauder's Map. It followed the tip of the pen as Siria drew the path to the Chamber of Secrets. When she drew the Chamber, her name appeared on the map with Hermione's and Ron's.

"Brilliant," Ron grinned at their names once Siria finished. He patted her shoulder. "Now we just have to make the passage out." Siria nodded with the parchment pressed down by her fingers. She had done it, she was going to do it. Siria Potter-Black carried on the legacy of the Marauder's: an Animagus and cartographer or, at least, an map editor.

Hermione pulled Siria's bag closer. She pulled out a dark green book that was covered in colored tabs. Siria took the book and opened to one of the bright blue tabbed pages. There was a picture of moving hands that took up the top half of the page, with Korean below the photo. Ron picked the Map up. He and Hermione took turns turning the Map.

"It's here," Hermione insisted.

"No," said Ron. "It can't be that way. It's too close the prefect's bath."

"Well that's too close to Snape's office," Hermione told him. Siria sighed and stared at the ceiling. She hadn't ever actually seen it before. When she hadn't been fighting for her life, she had been training to fight for her life. Even when she had glanced at it, she had not seen it.

Siria extinguished the tip of her wand. It made the ceiling more noticeable in the darkness. "Look," Siria said.

What?" Ron asked.

"The ceiling," Ron and Hermione eyed the ceiling.

"It's the sky…" Hermione uttered. She extinguished her wand. Ron put out his wand. In the darkness, light trickled down from the ceiling. Clearer than through their telescopes, the stars and planets provided a soft glow of light.

"How?" Ron asked.

"Salazar Slytherin… synced the ceiling of his Chamber with the night sky," Siria figured.

"Wait!" Hermione lit the tip of her wand again. She pressed her nose to the Marauder's Map. "If that's there… then…" Hermione slid the Map from Ron's grasp and walked very slowly, in half steps, with glances from the Map to the ceiling. Hermione muttered under her breath in the usual incomplete sentences of "if that's here… there is… so then…" before she stopped.

"We'll want to make it here," Hermione told them at the feet of Salazar Slytherin.

"Then that's where we'll make it," said Siria. She pushed her glasses up and took a deep breath. Ron cast Lumos with his wand and hovered over the page.

"We're about to one up your dads," Ron said with a smile. Siria filled her lungs and nodded.

"Let's hope we've got this right."