DISCLIMER: This is all JK Rowlings info, I just let my imagination put it into story form.
A/N: First Harry Potter Story...just starting to get a feeling for writing the characters JK Rowling put together in such awesome detail I can't hep but imagine what happens next.
STORY NOTES: This story begins just after the Hogwarts Express leaves Kings Cross in the epilogue. Fred Weasley II and James Sirius Potter are in the same year at Hogwarts.
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: : A NEW GENERATION OF LAW BREAKERS : :
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"Did you get it?" Fred asked of his cousin when he appeared in his compartment on the Hogwarts Express.
"Did I get it?" James scoffed. His cousin seriously underestimated his mischievous ways. He pulled out of his pocket an old and very worn piece of blank parchment.
"That's It?" Fred asked. They had heard their fathers talking about the great times and semi-illegal adventures had thanks to the wonders of the Marauder's Map. And now, they had it. "It looks like nothing."
"And that's where Granddad Potter's genius kicks in!" James exclaimed. James Sirius Potter was named for two of the four noble men who worked tirelessly to help a new generation on lawbreakers in creating the aid. Fred named for half of the next generation to free it from Filch's file drawer prison. Now in their 3rd year at Hogwarts, they had mastered the basic wayward adventures in the castle. They had officially graduated. James Potter and Fred Weasley had every intention of living up to the reputation their names predecessors laid as master mischief-makers. "It doesn't look like anything puckish."
"So…." Fred started; he craned his neck to see out into the hall, no one was paying attention. Then pulled out his wand, 12 inches, oak, whippy, flourished it and spoke the words "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." (Extendable ears were still a best seller at Weasley Wizard Weezes) At once, thin ink lines began to spread like a spider's web from the point that Fred's wand touched. They joined each other, they crisscrossed, they fanned into every corner of the parchment; then words began to blossom across the top, great curly green words that proclaimed:
Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs
Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers
are proud to present
THE MARAUDER'S MAP
"Wow." They both awed as they watched the map redraw itself in front of their eyes. "Look there's Neville, I mean, Professor Longbottom in the green houses."
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"Ginny, Have you seen the Marauder's Map?" Harry Potter called from the study. He had been rifling through his desk looking for the spare bit of parchment that held so many secrets of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
"Top center drawer." Ginny called back from the kitchen just off the next room off to the left. It was getting late in the day and supper was being prepared. But for the next 3 months only 3 would eat at the rustic, abused, wooden table that sat in front of the kitchen fire.
"Not there." He called pulling open another drawer and shifting through its contents.
"What do you need it for?" She asked coming into the room and leaning against the door jam. Her fiery red hair was shorter now, and she had rounded with age, but she was still as beautiful (if not more so) as the day she threw herself into his arms after winning the Quidditch cup in his 6th year.
"Just….you know." He said a little sheepishly looking up and meeting her warm smiling eyes.
"No, I don't know, what are you planning on doing with that map when you find it." She asked. Humor was evident in her voice.
"Just thought I'd watch the sorting is all." Harry said defiantly. She wouldn't say no, if anything, she would tell him to put it away, and eat dinner or do a chore, but in the end would watch the new dots sort themselves into the house tables.
"You can't wait for Al's owl later tonight or tomorrow morning to find out which house he has been placed in?"
"Can and want to are two very different things Gin." Harry smirked. Sure he could wait, but Albus Severus was so much like Harry, he couldn't help but have a softer spot for his middle child. Ginny saw the thought going through Harry's head, if Albus did get sorted into Slytherin, then Harry would want to know straight away. He would not wait to send the owl congratulating Al on making Slytherin. It would be there waiting for him in his dorm room when he made it there from the start of term feast.
"Did you check in the Hogwarts, A History book?" Ginny asked sympathizing with her husband of 15 years.
"Why would it be in there?" Harry asked reaching for the new (and autographed) version of Hogwarts History. The book finished last year was updated to include the events surrounding the rise and fall and rise and fall of Lord Voldemort, his relationship to the school; the DA; the battles for Hogwarts; complete with interviews from Harry, Ron, Hermione, the DA, and the Order of the Phoenix. It also added a history of Hogwarts Quidditch written by none other than Ginny Potter. And Rita Skeeter did not get her talon-ed fingernails anywhere near the story.
"Well, it's Hogwarts." Ginny shrugged watching Harry Flip through the pages. Harry had finally actually read it. There was even a chapter on the school's house elves!
"Not here." Harry admitted dropping the book and a stack of other papers onto the desk.
"James was in here earlier." Lily Potter said coming up and hugging her mother's leg. "Mummy, when will dinner be ready?"
"Just a few minutes pumpkin, why don't you wash up." Ginny said patting her only daughters rear end in the direction of the bathroom. She turned back to Harry, he was thumbing through the top drawer again and shaking his head.
"James." He said in a sigh, although it held a hiccup of a laugh.
"I'm sure Fred was behind this too." Ginny laughed. Yea, when they named their eldest James they had expected a little bit of tomfoolery, but he was channeling both his father and grandfather in his rogue ways. He was a little trouble maker that liked a laugh. His cousin (and best friend) was exactly the same as the first Fred Weasley. James and Sirius. Fred and George. Harry and Ron. James and Fred. It was a never ending cycle.
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Two owls arrived the next day from the Potter household. The first belonged to Albus and held a note of congratulations on making Gryffindor, and a package of forgotten socks. The second belonged to Harry and Ginny, and held in its beak was a red envelop that was dropped in front of James. It began to smoke at the scenes. James face drained of color. His mothers fury could make a full-grown wizard cower, a trait inherited from her mom, and scary enough, a trait Lily was already picking up on.
"Do you reckon they found out you took the…"
"Uh Huh." He nodded, carefully tearing at the envelope. Not that it did any good; the entire hall would here the scolding he had in store. And on the first day of classes too.
"JAMES SIRIUS POTTER." Screamed Ginny Potter's voice "HOW DARE YOU TAKE THAT PARCHMENT, YOUR FATHER AND I WERE GOING MAD LOOKING FOR IT, NOT THAT YOU CARE, SHOW NO REGARD FOR US, DO YOU KNOW WHAT KIND OF TROUBLE YOU COULD GET INTO! IF YOU PUT ONE TOE OUT OF LINE, WE'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT HOME." It seemed like it was done, James color had not returned. The Howler had not burst into flames yet, there was more to come….
"James Sirius Potter." Came the much deeper voice of his father. "Use it well." A rosy color started to flush James' cheeks, and he started to laugh. It was all for a scare. He didn't care…that much. Use it well, oh they had every intention to.
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A/N2: So what did you think...please let me know.