Chapter 52: Making of the Map
"Rem, your M.S. homework??" James was about to finished the homework of his best and favorite subject, Transfiguration. Remus passed James his Muggle Studies homework and started doing the Charms homework, which they had borrowed from Lily for reference.
"What on earth were those people thinking when they set us all these junk??" Sirius complained as he put his finished Defense Against Dark Arts assignment and started Divination with Arabella's assignment as reference.
"We're having O.W.L.s this year, what do you expect??" Remus answered without looking up from his Charms homework, writing quickly and as neatly as possible.
"How could those girls ever finish all their assignments?? We barely have enough time to even eat and sleep." James complained as he wrote in an extraordinary speed for his Muggle Studies homework. "Eight more inches to go." He muttered to himself as he measured the length of his essay.
"Conquered Div homework!!" Sirius cheered as he took James' Transfiguration homework, which was being air-dried in process. "Now for Transfig. Argh!! Twenty inches long!! McGonagall's mad!!"
"Don't let her catch you saying that alliteration!!" James joked as he put the Muggle Studies homework to dry and took Arabella's Divination assignment.
"Any more ink??" Sirius asked. "I finished my bottle after three assignments." Sirius had the tendency to play with his inkbottle during lessons. A week ago both James and Sirius were having an ink-fight at the back of the class during History of Magic. They left the classroom having droplets of black ink all over them. Both guys had found it so stylish that they had those ink spots on them for the entire day.
"Well, considering you had used your ink for more than writing purposes, I'm not surprised." Remus joked as he put his Charms homework aside to dry and started on History of Magic essay with Stefanie's for reference.
"Pete, where's your Herby homework??" James asked Peter after he rushed through his Divination homework, which was purely guessing work.
"On my bed. Help yourself. I'm doing the Transfig now." Peter said as he buried himself in the pile of parchment on another corner of his table.
The fifth-year boys' dormitory had never had so many parchments laid on the beds and floor waiting to be dried. Their own homework, along with the girls' homework were scattered around the room. It was the Easter Break but they were not spared from doing their work. If not for the fact that lessons was starting in two days time, they probably would not even had started doing their assignments.
Knock!! Knock!!
"Alohomora." James used his left hand and pointed his wand at the door. He did not even turned around to see who was at the door or whatsoever. He was simply too busy doing his Herbology homework on characteristics of some rare plant, which to him seems to be rather useless.
"Hey guys, are you guys done with the homework??" Lily called out.
"Wah, I've never seen so much drying parchments and quills and inks in this dormitory before." Arabella said in amusement.
"This is indeed a rare sight. Four pranksters doing their homework together on a Saturday afternoon." Stefanie remarked as she started hunting for her own homework with Lily and Arabella.
"We're not done with your homework yet. Return you girls tonight." James called out. The other three Marauders were apparently too engrossed in their work to reply.
"Ok. We're going out to practice Quidditch. Come find us if you guys can finish before dinnertime." Lily said. The three girls left the dormitory giggling away, laughing at the sight of the guys and their dormitory.
"I'm beat!!" James complained while he gathered his clothes for shower.
"I'm bathing first!!" Sirius said and dashed into the bathroom with just a towel.
"Hurry up!! We need our sleep!!" Remus shouted to Sirius.
"This year seems to be so hectic as compared to the previous years." James remarked as he sat on the floor, leaning against his bed.
"We're having our O.W.L.s this year. Quidditch practices thrice a week. Practice with Dumbledore twice a week. Our night rendezvous once a month and various pranking adventures weekly. Don't you think it's a lot of work??" Remus commented.
"At least you guys don't have prefect duties. I spend once a week patrolling the school from ten to one."
"So how can we reduce our workload??"
"Get the girls to do the homework for us??" Peter suggested.
"Not a wise move. Lily has the same commitments as James and she seems to be taking it quite well." Remus commented.
"How did she do that, I just wonder." James thought.
"I bet those guys never thought of using a time turner." Lily giggled. It was already nighttime and the guys had yet to return their homework and assignments to them.
"Remus has one, doesn't he??" Stefanie commented. The three girls were hanging out together in their dormitory. Their two roommates were still out with their girlfriends from Ravenclaw.
"I don't know. But anyway luckily McGonagall got us one in case we ever need it." Lily commented as she lied on her bed.
"I don't think she trust those four with a time turner. It could be misused. Especially if it's by those four guys." Arabella said. She was repainting her toenails with another shade of pink because some of the polish had chipped off during the day.
"They must we wondering how we're doing our homework and yet having so much fun at the same time." Lily said.
"I'm not surprised. Anyway who's keen on a face mask??" Stefanie asked as she took out her pack of facial masks.
"Me!!" Lily and Arabella chorused and jumped onto Stefanie's bed.
"How long did we take to finish all the work??" James asked tiredly.
"More than twelve hours." Remus checked his watch.
"Shall we do something to reward our hard work??" James suggested. He lied on the floor, eyes closed, too tired to move about.
"A prank??" Sirius suggested with the lack of enthusisium.
"We need something more than a prank." Remus commented.
"How about a map??" James suggested. "We thought of that somewhere in the last few years but never ever managed to do it."
"That's a great idea." Peter praised.
"Let's start on it. We don't have much time till the end of the year." Remus commented.
"So how're we going to start doing it??" Sirius asked.
"We need a parchment, wands, charms, spells, etc." James said as he sat up, taking a piece of unused parchment from his desk.
"Ok, how are we going to put the whole Hogwarts into this small piece of paper??" Sirius pointed out.
"We can expand the paper when we want to use??" Peter suggested.
"Not possible because this map is not allowed in the first place. Hogwarts never has a map." James said, twiddling his wand.
"It's true. We can't let anyone know about this map."
"There's like countless levels and loads of tunnels and numerous rooms in Hogwarts that we've never been to before."
"So how about we design an overall map and we can say a charm to zoom in and out??"
"I was thinking of that as well."
"So how're we going to charm the lines or something??"
"Didn't we learn about some charm that allow lines and words to appear on parchment magically before?? It was created by some handicapped wizard or something??"
"I think I have some idea."
"Let me go get the Charms book." Remus went to fetch his book from his desk.
"We only need to show where each rooms are. So we'll know where we're at that point of time."
"But it's pointless since most of the corridors look identical."
"Then??"
"How about we put markings onto people??"
"You mean those little moving dots or something??"
"Then we can check if there's any one around us or something."
"We can colour code the people as well."
"I don't think we should. How about all those who graduated and the new first years??"
"Then what about putting their names below their little dots??"
"I agree with James for that idea."
"Don't forget our parchment is rather small."
"I know. We can make it smaller."
"Did we learn any charm to make those little moving dots??"
"I don't think so. But I believe there is."
"You sure??"
"I remember Lily joked about it before. She said take a hair of us then charm the hair to move on the chalk drawn table or something. Remember that little game we played when we were a little mad somewhere last couple of months??"
"Yes. The hair and the chalk-marked table of Gryffindor common room."
"We can do something like that except we don't use the hair."
"How are we going to get a strand of hair from every single soul in Hogwarts??"
"What about those visitors and incoming batches??"
"Their names need to be registered with this too."
"How can we register those people in??"
"I've got an idea but I'm not sure if it's feasible enough."
"We charm something from the Grand Entrance?? Like the stair or statue or something??"
"Sounds like those muggle sensors."
"Sensors??"
"It's like scanning the stuffs. Some muggle shops I been to have something like this to check the number of customers they have every day."
"We definitely can't use sensoars."
"Sensors." James corrected Sirius. They had done something on muggle sensors for Muggle Studies before but apparently Sirius had forgot all about them.
"Ok, sensors. We can't use those because they run on electricity."
"We can use charms as sensors."
"Charm the steps?? Everyone who come into Hogwarts have to walk through there."
"We need to find that charm."
"It there such a charm??"
"I don't know. Charms aren't my forte."
"We can't tell the girls about that. At least not yet."
"I agree with James."
"So how're we going to name who's who??"
"It's possible because everyone who step into Hogwarts is registered in a way or another."
"By some quill McGonagall own."
"Great. How to get that??"
"We can borrow it."
"Did you guys ever see it before??"
"Yes."
"How??"
"During my practice I go forward and backward time. Explored McGonagall's office once out of boredom."
"So how does it look like??"
"Something like the Sorting Hat. It can talk and think for itself."
"Sounds amazing."
"It is."
"Why didn't you tell us??"
"It was nothing of significant considering I'm traveling twice a week."
"So we need to borrow the quill??"
"I don't know if it can be borrow."
"How are we going to get it?? Hey Maggie, we're planning to design a Hogwarts map and we would need to borrow your special quill so as we know everyone in Hogwarts??"
"How would she respond??"
"Something more than just detentions."
"Ok, that's out of the topic. So any other suggestion??"
"We can have some charm sensor like stuffs at the statue beside the Great Hall. Everyone goes in there. We can register their name as they enter so as every single soul will appear in our map, even the Hogwarts ghosts."
"Ok, we need a charm on that."
"How about a password to the map?? I don't think anyone else besides us should be able to read it. They should see it as a blank parchment."
"We charm it invisible?? Then we take the visibility potion??"
"It wears off."
"Then password protected??"
"Like a charmed password??"
"What should it be??"
"The Marauders rules??"
"Nah."
"The best guys on earth??"
"Sirius, please think of something better."
"What if we want to pass down to our future generations??"
"You mean your son??" Remus teased.
"Not that!!"
"Anyway I agree with James. We should think of something more prankster style."
"I'm a bad boy."
"There are four of us."
"We're bad boys??"
"Not good enough."
"I'm up to no good."
"Something better."
"I swear I am up to no good."
"How about 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good'??" Remus suggested.
"Bingo!! That's the one!!" James exclaimed.
"Ok. To activate the map we use that."
"Roger that??"
"Mischief off??"
"Mischief managed??"
"Sounds cool. So to activate it, we use 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good' and for inactivation, we use 'mischief managed'?? Everyone agree??" Sirius, Remus and Peter nodded that heads agreeing.
"So what do we miss out now??"
"We're going to charm the lines, add the sensor at the Great Hall to check for current population and at the Grand Entrance for the visitors and incoming students. Then we've password encoded the map. What else do we need??"
"We need to be credited."
"What??"
"Maybe in one thousand years time, the pranksters who own this map should remember who they ought to thank."
"For what??"
"It's not easy to create this map."
"So??"
"I want my great-great-great-great-great-grandchilden to know and remember us. We shall be the legendary pranksters."
"Whatever. So how are we going to put it??"
"Jamesie, Siriusie, Remmie and Petie??"
"Sounds like four girls!!"
"How about nicknames??"
"That four are our nicks!!"
"Something more unknown. What if Maggie picked up the map and found out how to use it??"
"I don't exactly fancied to be credited at that point of time."
"How about something more subtle??"
"Like??"
"James can use, erm, Staggie??"
"Sounds so horrible!! So unmanly!!"
"Excuse me!! Who is the unmanly boy here??"
"Sirius, you can call yourself doggie if James is call Staggie."
"Doggie sounds so eeky!!"
"Then you wanna call yourself wolfie??'
"And rattie??"
"Can we think of something more macho sounding??" James said, exasperated at all sorts of ridiculous nicks Sirius was thinking up.
"I wanna something like Stag, stallion, I know I'm not, but well, a nick anyway. Or spikes or prongs or something more male-sounding."
"Prongs sounds good. Pronggie Jamesie. It rhymes."
"Sirius!! Don't forget who became the poodle first!!"
"And you keep getting pad footed."
"Yeah, you might as well as call me padfoot huh??"
"That's what your nick is going to be. Padfoot. Rem, Pete, agree with me??" Remus and Peter laughed and nodded their head.
"Noooo!!"
"It sounds so disgusting."
"I think it's nice."
"I agree with James."
"Me too."
"Ok, so what's mine again??"
"Spike??"
"Prongs??"
"I think I wanna be Prongs, Sirius is Padfoot-"
"I didn't agree to be nicknamed Padfoot!!"
"You didn't have a choice. We gave you that."
"That's not-"
"Rem, Pete, what about you guys??"
"What about me?? I don't wanna be called pad-"
"Moony?? I thought it sounded interesting since it rhymes with loony and Remmie."
"Ok, subtle enough. You're the only werewolf around so it's better to have something not so obvious."
"Pete??"
"Wormtail??" Peter suggested. Master wanted my nick to be Wormtail and I've to follow.
"Why??"
"Because my first trial was a tail which looks a little worm-like."
"Oh ya. I can still remember how it looks."
"Ok, Prongs, Padfoot, Moony and Wormtail."
"I didn't agree to be called Pa-"
"Mister Prongs, Padfoot, Moony and Wormtail??"
"Rearrange the nicks a little. It sounds a little strange."
"I want Prongs to be the last name mentioned."
"How about Mister Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs??"
"You finally agree to be called Padfoot??"
"No, I don't. That's why I put it second last."
"Padfoot oei!! Padfoot oei!!" James said and pretended to start dancing as he cheered.
"Shut up!!" Sirius said and used his eyes to control a pillow to throw at James' face.
"Ouch!!"
"So Mister Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs are proud to present The Marauder's Map??"
"Add more to it. Introduction not lengthy enough."
"I think it's good enough."
"Alright then. A dramatic opening??"
"Fast is the word since we're going to use it for ourselves."
"Ok."
"So right now, we need to find the charm for the lines, then the sensor charms, then the passwords and miscellaneous of other charms."
"Should be much of a problem since we learned the passwording charm and those activation and inactivation stuffs before."
"Let's aim to get this out in one week??"
"You create yourself. One week?? It's not like lessons aren't enough to kill us."
"One month. We've about one plus month before school ends."
"So one month is our limit. Meanwhile we shall stop exploring the grounds a little."
"Let's have some sleep. The idea of tomorrow Quidditch map isn't very inviting since we're going to play versus Slytherin once again."
"Quidditch match you mean??"
"I'm dreaming."
"You haven't even fallen asleep."
"Do you remember your position for the match??"
"Yes, I'm the Chaser again. Kenneth is taking over the Keeper Position."
"You better not start catching the Quaffle when you are supposed to be throwing it over the hoop."
"I'm not that dumb."
"We don't guarantee that."
"I think we better sleep soon. It's getting late."
"Ok."
"Good night."
"Let's go to the Grand Entrance first." James whispered as the four Marauders moved quietly along the corridors towards the entrance.
"Cut in here." Sirius pointed at the painting. A distant meowing sound could be heard which could mean that Mrs. Norris was around the corner. The four boys said climbed through an entrance at the portrait and walked across the room, which would lead them nearer to the entrance.
"Hey, we missed out the speech bubbles." Remus said suddenly.
"What speech bubbles??"
"We must make the character say the password as well, just in case we forget or to let our future generation know about them."
"Let's add them tonight when we return."
"We're nearing the Entrance, where's the charm??"
"Here, I wrote it down."
"Ok, same for the one at Great Hall."
The four guys moved swiftly and quietly towards the outside steps of Hogwarts. James looked at the parchment and pointed his wand and a step and muttered the charm. Then he pointed to another step and muttered the same charm. The books had said that repetitive charming the same thing would enhance the sensitivity and accuracy.
After saying about ten times, they returned inside and headed towards the direction of the Great Hall. The charm they used was permanent and it can be used for years and years and never wear off.
"My turn to say the charm." Sirius said and took over the parchment. He muttered at least twenty times at all directions of the doorway. James and Remus had to start tugging him backwards to stop him from charming the entrance statues further.
"We need to get back soon. Speech bubbles." Remus whispered and the four guys brisk walked back towards the Gryffindor tower.
"What else are we lacking in our flawless map??" James asked.
"I think it's too perfect." Sirius remarked.
"Ok. Let's do the finishing touches tonight."
"We can try it out in the next two weeks. And by next year we'll know if our charms at the entrances work or not."
"Let's hurry a little." The four boys broke into a slow but quiet jog underneath the cloak.
"Finished!!"
"Completed!!"
"Concluded!!"
"Ended!!"
The four boys were in their dormitory with some food and beverages from the kitchens, celebrating the completion of their Marauder's Map.
"One month of hard work!!" James raised his goblet for a toast.
"It's definitely worth it!!"
"And it's foolproof!!"
"Let's check it out next year."
They had used the map every single night to
make sure it worked perfectly well. They had spent an hour every night
exploring the map, correcting the mistakes and doing the finishing touches to
make it looked perfect in every way.
"First map of Hogwarts!!"
"We might still need to edit it whenever necessary."
"Definitely."
"Editing charm is with me."
They had their map in front of them. Four heads were looking over. On the map, it showed Lucius and Severus and some Slytherins were heading towards the prefects' bathroom.
"They're bringing their friends to the Prefects only bathroom." James commented.
"Shall we teach them a lesson??" Sirius asked cheekily.
"Definitely." Peter agreed.
"Let's go and magicked their clothes away so they've to return to Slytherin tower naked." Sirius joked.
"Make the clothes invisible is enough. They can magic more clothes anyway." James pointed out.
"Add the visibility potion into the bathtub." Remus grinned.
"Ok, let's do it now!!" James instructed. They gathered their pranking equipments and left their dormitory.