Chapter 19
Bedposts And Broomsticks
Jon wasn't around the next day, and Harry didn't know whether he was off in the Shrieking Shack or somewhere else. He looked for Deirdre in the Great Hall during lunch but Luna said she'd left right after breakfast.
Aware that Luna was a bit sensitive to gossip, having been the subject of much idle chatter, even from Hermione when they first met her several years before, Harry nevertheless ventured to ask her, "So have you heard anything about her and Jonathan Crown lately? Are they, erm –"
"Snogging?" Luna suggested.
"Something like that," Harry nodded.
"Well, I heard this morning that they were seen holding hands; where, I don't know," Luna said, looking around, vaguely, as if she expected Deirdre to turn up at any moment.
Harry was surprised. He hadn't expected either Hermione or Ginny to spread that around so quickly. "Who told you?"
"What?" Luna said, as if she'd forgotten what they were talking about. "Oh – I'm sorry, Harry, I'm just… worried about Neville, I suppose…"
"What's wrong with Neville?" Harry asked quickly. In spite of not caring too much for Neville's bluster these days, he was still a fellow Gryffindor and Harry had known him practically since their first days at Hogwarts together.
Luna didn't speak for some time. Harry was beginning to wonder if she'd forgotten who she'd been talking about, but suddenly she looked at him and said, "He's talking to other girls."
"Oh." That brought Harry up short. "Er, that sounds rather normal to me."
"I know that doesn't sound disturbing to you," Luna continued, looking away from him, her face uncharacteristically sad and lonely. "But it's not really normal for Neville. Since we've been together I've hardly seen him look at another girl, much less carry on a conversation with a group of them. About me," she added softly.
Harry tried to recollect when he'd ever seen Neville talking with a girl, any girl. Of course he had; it just wasn't something he thought about much. And now to hear from Luna that he was discussing her with other girls… "You mean, he talks about you and him with other girls?" Harry ventured.
Luna looked at him and shook her head slowly and sadly. Tears were gathering in her large eyes, making them appear even more pronounced than usual. "I'm sorry, Harry," she said, wiping them away with one hand. "I'm not trying to lay my problems at your feet. I shouldn't have said anything. Excuse me." She stood and walked away, out of the Great Hall.
Harry rejoined Ron and Hermione at the Gryffindor table. "What happened, Harry?" Hermione asked, watching Luna as she passed through the doors to the Entrance Hall. "Luna looked upset."
"She's upset about Neville," Harry said as he began getting his breakfast. "She doesn't think he's acting normally lately."
"That sort of seems like the pot calling the kettle black," Ron said, looking amused. "I mean, she was wearing a cork necklace just now, wasn't she?"
"Ron, stop being a git," Hermione said sternly. Ron fell into a sullen silence. "What Neville doing that's upsetting her, Harry?"
"Well, talking to other girls, she says."
"Oh." Hermione fell silent for a moment; Ron was looking at askance at her with half a smirk on his face.
"About her," Harry finally added.
"Aha!" Hermione looked both vindicated and concerned. "That doesn't sound at all like Neville, Harry," she said, throwing a frown at Ron.
"Ginny and I were talking about it the other day," Harry remembered. "I suggested that he might have been Imperiused, and she agreed with me."
"It'll be hard to tell if he's been Imperiused," Hermione said, thinking out loud to herself.
"Magic always leaves traces," Harry said, remembering something Dumbledore had told him in the cave where they'd found the fake Horcrux. "Professor Dumbledore told me that."
"Well it might've, for him," Hermione said, archly. "But he had a lot more experience than we have, didn't he?"
"That's true," Harry agreed. He wondered if Fred and George might know something about magical detection Hermione didn't know, or wasn't sharing with him.
Hermione got to her feet, picking up her book bag, and Ron did the same.
"Where're you two off to?" Harry asked.
"Some research in the Library," Hermione said. "There must be a way to detect if someone's been Imperiused, especially since so many Death Eaters claimed they were Imperiused by You-Know-Who after his first disappearance."
"Want to join us?" Ron asked. He had a pleading look on his face, but Harry shook his head.
"In a while," he said. "I've got some things to think about."
While he was thinking of it, Harry wrote a quick note to Fred and George, asking them if they had any ideas on magical revealment spells, and ran up to the Owlery to send it. He talked softly with Hedwig for a minute, stroking her feathers and promising her a piece of toast upon her return, then sent her on her way.
Afterwards, not quite ready to rejoin Hermione and Ron, he wandered out onto the school grounds, strolling aimlessly along until he found himself near the Quidditch pitch. It reminded him that Gryffindor needed more practice; their first game was only six weeks away and they'd only been out a handful of times so far. He walked over and sat against one of the walls of the broom shed, out of sight of the school, thinking about Quidditch training. If Jon was going to come through with brooms for them, Harry thought, he should probably get on with completing them rather than running off to who knows where with Deirdre Recaunt.
Why shouldn't he be able to do that, the voice in the back of his head piped up. After all, you lost valuable time with Ginny doing things for others. That was different, he reminded himself. He wanted to help Dumbledore find the Horcrux; and the fight between him and Malfoy, that got him detention for most of last May and June, and cost him time with Ginny, well – that had been something almost beyond his control. Except for hitting Malfoy with Sectumsempra, the voice said.
The sound of boots tramping across grass brought him out of his reverie, and Harry glanced around the edge of the broom shed, then quickly ducked back: it was the Slytherin team heading toward the Quidditch pitch for practice. Not wanting to deal with six or seven hostile Slytherins, whether Malfoy was with them or not, Harry pulled out his Invisibility Cloak which he'd fortunately carried with him, and slipped it over himself.
Once under the Cloak, Harry peeked around the broom shed again at the advancing Slytherins. There were seven of them, including Crabbe and Goyle, but no sign of Malfoy. They were all carrying their new Firestars. Harry frowned; strange that Malfoy, whose parents (well, mother, Harry corrected himself; Draco's father was still in Azkaban) had bought the team members each a new Firestar, was not even taking Quidditch practice. What was he up to now?
A motion in the corner of his eye caught Harry's attention, and he turned to see a most unusual sight – a portion of someone's robed leg had appeared off to his left as a sudden gust of wind passed through. The leg disappeared again, as if someone had quickly covered it up, but Harry was sure of what he'd seen – someone else had an Invisibility Cloak!
Making sure his own Cloak was covering him, Harry left the cover of the broom shed and moved toward where he'd last seen the leg. He carefully scanned the grass ahead of him, watching for telltale signs – and sure enough, blades of grass were moving or being pressed down, as if invisible feet under an invisible cloak were moving through it.
Harry followed the moving patch of disturbance to the school gates and through them. With seventh-year liberty, Harry knew that people would be walking back and forth between Hogwarts and Hogsmeade fairly often now, but at the moment the road seemed quite clear. Harry stopped near the gate; the grass, which had helped him trace the path of the person wearing the Invisibility Cloak was now replaced by road, which was no help at all. Harry waited, watching for some sign.
He was rewarded a few moments later when Draco Malfoy's head suddenly appeared in the shadow of the wall. Harry exulted to himself at catching Malfoy in the act of doing something sneaky. But what was he up to?
His question was answered a few moments later as Malfoy, evidently not accustomed to using an Invisibility Cloak, adjusted it clumsily as he seated himself on his Firestar – Harry saw the tip of the broom moving around in front of Malfoy's face before he adjusted his Cloak to cover it. Malfoy kicked off, pointing himself northward before slipping the Cloak over his head so he entirely vanished.
Harry cursed, wishing he had his own Firebolt so that he could follow Malfoy wherever he was going. Northward? There wasn't anywhere north of Hogwarts Malfoy could be going except –
Azkaban.
That was it! Malfoy must be going to visit his father in Azkaban prison. Harry could easily imagine why – Malfoy had been made a Death Eater now that he was of age, so that Voldemort could have more than one agent here inside Hogwarts, along with Snape. The real question, with Dumbledore now dead and Malfoy's mission seemingly accomplished, was – why?
In the shadow of the wall where Malfoy had taken off, Harry took off his own Invisibility Cloak, replacing it in his robe, then walked back up the dusty road to the Hogwarts front doors. Once inside, he glanced around the entrance hall and, seeing no one around, stepped over to the book where the log of seventh-years taking weekend liberty was kept.
Scanning the page quickly, Harry saw no line containing Malfoy's name; only a few students were out today, and those who had written destinations in their entries had only put Hogsmeade down. Harry flipped back to the previous weeks' entries; Malfoy's name was not in the book. Wherever he was going, then, he didn't want it listed in this book or even that he was gone.
Making his way to the Library, Harry found Hermione and Ron studying (much more Hermione than Ron, of course). Joining them, he told them in hushed but excited whispers about witnessing Malfoy's secretive flight northward.
Ron nodded in silent agreement as Harry spun his tale, but Hermione, while not disagreeing, took up the task of devil's advocate. "Not signing out isn't good, of course, but it doesn't prove he's a Death Eater, Harry," she pointed out reasonably, which Harry had to grudgingly agree with.
"But there's not many places north of here within broom's distance except Azkaban," Ron pointed out. "What I wonder is why he doesn't just Apparate there?"
"Well, besides the fact that Apparition in or out of Azkaban is rigidly controlled, Ron," Hermione said, giving him a condescending look, "Malfoy may just not want to try and Apparate that far in one go."
"Plus," Harry added, "Malfoy seems to have abandoned both Quidditch and Crabbe and Goyle – I saw them with the Slytherins at the Quidditch pitch earlier, when Malfoy was sneaking away. I wonder if that means he's working directly with Snape now."
"What could he and Snape want around here now that Voldemort's dead?" Ron asked.
"To close the school," Hermione said suddenly, her eyes wide. "Oh, no! Maybe that's why Voldemort told Draco to kill Dumbledore so the school would be closed! But when the school was reopened anyway he needed Snape, and maybe Malfoy as well, to try and find other ways to shut it down."
Harry gave her a significant look. "You know that doesn't work out if Voldemort is gone, don't you?"
"Oh yeah, that's right," Hermione said, frowning. "Well, we don't think he's gone anyway, do we?"
"No," Harry agreed grimly. "But I'd think the most powerful Dark Wizard in the world could defeat Neville Longbottom."
"Well, you beat him," Ron said.
"No, I didn't," Harry disagreed. "I don't even remember what happened beyond a flash of green light and dreaming about riding on a flying motorcycle. The magic my mother invoked is what saved me, not anything I did." He sighed. "I hope Neville did beat him, and that his Death Eaters need to collect him and bring him back before he's a threat again. We need every edge we can get against Voldemort."
Harry then expressed his desire to renew the search for Voldemort's Horcruxes, and both Hermione and Ron nodded as he pointed out the need to hunt unceasingly for them until all were located and destroyed. Hermione promised to continue the search, as did Ron, starting as soon as they could, leaving Harry feeling much better about making headway against Voldemort.
Harry loitered outside the school in the late afternoon, wondering if he could catch any sign of Malfoy sneaking back inside the school, hoping his experience at using an Invisibility Cloak would give him an advantage in spotting telltale signs; he'd even got out the Sneakoscope Ron had got for him while on holiday in Egypt several years ago, in hopes it would go off if Malfoy came near him while under his Invisibility Cloak. Malfoy never turned up, although Harry learned that his Sneakoscope had developed a knack for finding lost or hidden objects – he picked up two Knuts and a Sickle under a rock on the grounds, and found a fake wand hidden in the hollow of a tree, which turned out to be one of Fred and George's gag items.
Two nights later, Harry was awakened by a hand gently shaking his shoulder.
"Wuzzat?" Harry muttered, pushing the hand away. "Ron, I'm tryin' to sleep."
"It's not Ron, it's Jon," the voice said. Harry's eyes came blearily open and he tried to focus on the person standing above him. He grabbed his glasses off the bedside cabinet.
It was indeed Jon, fully dressed and looking around furtively at the others sleeping in their own bed. "Sorry to wake you this early, Harry, but I just finished."
"Finished what?"
"Come down to the common room," Jon whispered. "I'll show you."
Sleepily throwing on a robe over his nightclothes, Harry followed Jon silently downstairs and over to the fireplace. This early, of course, the common room was completely empty. Jon placed his hand on a certain stone in the wall to the left of the fireplace and said the phrase that caused the doorway to open. Reaching inside, he pulled out a broom and handed it to Harry.
In the dim light of the few lamps left burning in the common room, Harry could just make out writing engraved into the wood: "Crown Jewel #001 for Harry Potter." He hefted the broom. It was light, lighter even than his Firebolt, and the wood felt highly polished and smooth as he ran his hand along the shaft.
Jon was grinning. "The rest of them are in here as well," he said, indicating the secret passageway. "Seven custom-made brooms for your team, Harry. Each of them faster and more agile than a Firestar."
"Excellent!" Harry said, looking at his broom. Having flown some of the best brooms in the world, Harry knew what a well-made, world-class broom felt like, and this broom felt very good in his hands. He held it out tentatively and let go; the broom hovered at exactly the right height for him to easily mount it. He wished he could take it out to the pitch and fly it right then; all thoughts of sleep had vanished from his brain.
"Oi, what's up down here?" a voice from the boys' dormitory staircase said softly. It was Ron, who padded over softly to join them. "What've you got – oh, wicked!" he exclaimed as he saw Harry's broom. "Where's mine, then?" he asked automatically.
Jon grinned and, reaching into the secret passageway, pulled out a near-identical broom with "Crown Jewel #002 for Ronald Weasley" on its shaft and handed it to Ron.
"I've got the rest of them here as well," he repeated for Ron's benefit as Ron goggled over his new broom. "Number 003 for Ginny, number 004 for Demelza, 005 for Ritchie, 006 for Jimmy and 007 for Natalie." He laughed. "I almost wrote 'James Bond' for Natalie's name."
"Why?" Ron said blankly.
Jon looked at him for a moment before he shrugged and said, "Not important."
"What do you think we should do with them?" Harry asked Jon. "Leave them here?"
"Well, we can," Jon said with a shrug. "I doubt anyone'll find them in the secret passage. I hoped we could give them to the other members of your team tomorrow evening, but I don't want that passageway to become common knowledge. I thought if we hid them under your bed we could have them fly down the stairs and up to the team member they belong to."
"Sweet," Ron observed.
"I dunno if we can get seven of these brooms under my bed plus my Firebolt," Harry considered.
"We can put some under mine," Ron said. Harry and Ron carried their brooms up to their dormitory, with Jon levitating the remaining brooms behind them and once in the room having them silently slide under Ron or Harry's bed. They went back to bed, and Jon back to his own dormitory, but Harry didn't sleep a wink more that night, thinking about the brooms, wondering how he'd be able to wait until that evening before showing them to his team.
Getting through the day was one thing, Harry knew; getting through Defense Against the Dark Arts class, however was going to be quite another. Snape, never a compassionate teacher, had become quite overbearing in his treatment of the Gryffindor students lately, and Neville in particular. What was interesting to see, however, was how Neville now dealt with it. No longer frightened or shy, Neville answered Snape's derisive remarks directly, if quietly. A few times Snape had even taken points from Gryffindor for getting "cheek" from Neville, something that had never happened in earlier years in Snape's Potions class.
Tuesday's double Defense Against the Dark Arts class found the seventh-years beginning the study of advanced defensive techniques such as the Rebound Spell and Spellcatcher Charm.
"These spells," Snape said, in an annoying, arrogant tone, "are extensions of basic spells used to enchant objects for magical use. Who can tell me these basic spells?" Ignoring Hermione's hand, which had instantly gone up as he began the question, Snape looked around the room, and finally pointed out a Ravenclaw student, Su Li.
"The basic spells are the Repelling Charm and the Enchanting Charm," Li said easily. Hermione lowered her hand.
"Correct," Snape said. "A point for Ravenclaw." This evoked smiles from Li and the other Ravenclaws in the room.
"And how do the Rebound and Spellcatcher Charms differ from these basic spells?" Snape continued. Hermione again had her hand in the air; this time she was only one with her hand up.
Snape's eyes seemed to look everywhere in the room except at Hermione's raised hand. Finally, he turned to her, reluctantly, and with a small gesture bid her answer.
"The Rebound Charm sends the spell effects back upon the caster," Hermione said, "while the Spellcatcher Charm temporarily holds a spell until the person catching it releases it."
"Simplistically put, but in essence correct," Snape sniffed. "The Rebound Charm is an example of riposte; in dueling, it is a counterattack made immediately after a defensive move. In this case the counterattack is made with the attacker's own spell. Can anyone name a spell this will not work on? Potter, even you should be able to answer a simple question such as this."
Near the back, Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle sniggered. Ignoring them, but determined to be as uncooperative (yet correct) as possible, Harry said, "the Killing Curse."
Snape's gaze remained on Harry for some seconds. "Try to do better than use such an obvious example next time, Potter. One point from Gryffindor for resorting to triviality."
"Sir," Jon said, "a more pertinent question might be –"
"Mr. Crown," Snape cut over him. "You have not raised your hand for permission to speak." There were more sniggers from the back of the classroom.
Jon raised his hand. After several moments Snape gestured perfunctorily toward him, and Jon continued. "A more pertinent question might be, why do certain curses such as the Killing Curse, the Cruciatus Curse, and the Imperius Curse not respond to the Rebound Charm? The Rebound Charm is a recent spell, developed partly as a defense against those very curses. Yet it is ineffectual against them. Why is that?"
"I should think the answer would be obvious," Snape arched an eyebrow at Jon. "Evidently you are not as intelligent as you've led us to believe, Mr. Crown."
Jon did not react but Harry saw the muscles of his jaw clench. He was probably biting back a response, something Harry'd learned to do after many classes with Snape.
Snape was looking about the room. "Does anyone have the answer for Mr. Crown? No?" He turned and walked slowly back to the front of the room. "I think Mr. Crown's question presents us with an opportunity for independent study. Each of you will deliver an essay of not less than twelve inches, describing the origin, use, and application of both the Rebound and the Spellcatching Charms." The class collectively groaned. "Be sure," Snape added loudly, over the groaning, "to include why these spells will not work against the Unforgivable Curses. Remember to be specific – I do not want to see generalities!"
It was a time-honored, effective technique, Harry knew – setting students against one another by making them "responsible" for extra homework. Snape had used it on him as well in the past. He would've expected most of the class to recognize it as well, but a few students who walked past Jon muttered, "Thanks a lot, Crown," or something similar. Jon ignored most of them.
Even Malfoy couldn't resist having a go at him. "I guess you're not smart as you thought, Crown," Malfoy drawled as he, Crabbe and Goyle walked past him as he walked with Harry, Ron and Hermione. "Snape got you good."
"I don't have to prove I'm smarter than Snape, Malfoy," Jon shot back, "when I've already proved I'm smarter than you."
Malfoy's pale features flushed. "Oh, yeah?"
"Snappy comeback," Jon smirked. "Did you think that up all by yourself?" Crabbe and Goyle scowled at him, cracking their knuckles menacingly.
But Jon ignored them, turning instead down a different corridor with Harry, Ron and Hermione that would take them to the Gryffindor common room. "Have a nice time writing that essay, Draco," he said airily over his shoulder, leaving Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle glaring after him.
"What I don't understand," Hermione said to Jon later, after they had gotten settled around a study table in the common room, "was how you couldn't know why those spells don't work on the Unforgivable Curses. It's clearly spelt out in Confronting the Faceless –"
"Oh, I know why," Jon said, "but there wasn't any point in telling Snape. Once he realized I knew he would've dismissed it as unimportant. Instead, he turned it into a homework assignment for everyone as I hoped he would."
"You mean you arranged for us to get more homework?" Ron said incredulously.
"I thought he let us off rather easily," Hermione said matter-of-factly. "He usually assigns 18 or 24 inches for essay questions."
"That's such a comfort to me, Hermione," Ron said balefully, measuring out a foot-long piece of parchment.
A few hours later Harry and Ron were putting the finishing touches on their essays to Snape, after having their first drafts read over by Hermione and Jon, when Jimmy Peaks and Ritchie Coote turned up in the common room. Natalie and Demelza, who'd each been studying at different tables in the common room as well, saw them and approached as well.
"Oi, Harry, here we are," Demelza said as they stopped beside Harry's table. "What's up with today's practice?"
"Oh yeah," Harry said, remembering what they were going to do. "We're still shy Ginny, though." At that moment the portrait swung open and Ginny dashed in.
"I'm here!" she said, skidding to a halt next to Ron.
Harry stood and, raising his voice so the entire common room would hear, said, "Listen up, everyone! I have an announcement! Jonathan Crown, our exchange student from America, has graciously donated his time and materials to put together some gifts for the Gryffindor Quidditch team as a way of showing support for his adopted House. I'll leave it to him to hand out the presents. Jon, it's all yours."
Jon, who had stood along with the others when Harry began speaking, moved into the center of the common room. "Thank you, Harry. I saw, earlier this year, that the Slytherin team had gotten a present of seven Firestars." There were assorted murmurs and grumblings; it had been a sore topic that Slytherin now had such a clear advantage over everyone else. "Exactly, it doesn't seem fair. Well, I wanted to do my part to even the odds a bit, at least for the Gryffindor team. Will the team members form a circle with me in the center, please?" They did so: Harry, Ron, Ginny, Demelza, Jimmy, Ritchie and Natalie. Jon had them step back so the circle was about six feet in diameter. "Now here's my present to the Gryffindor team." Jon stepped out of the circle, held his wand high and shouted, "Accio Crown Jewels!"
There was a swooshing sound as seven brooms suddenly flew into the room, high over their heads, forming a seven-pointed star above the circle, the tails of the brooms just touching each other. As Jon pointed his wand at them, the tails slowly dipped and the brooms lowered into a vertical position in front of each member. The rest of the common room ooooh'ed as each broom came to rest in front of a Gryffindor team member.
"If I did that right, you should each find your name on the broom in front of you," Jon said.
"Oh my gosh!" Jimmy Peakes exclaimed. "Lookithat!" He took careful hold of the broom floating in front of him, gazing along its shaft. "Crown Jewel #006 for Jimmy Peakes!" he read aloud.
Demelza, after holding her broom for several moments, rushed over and hugged Jon tightly. "Oh, thank you!" she said, her eyes bright with tears of joy. "Nobody's ever given me anything like this before!"
Ritchie was still staring silently at his. "Do I haveta give this back after Quidditch is over?" he wanted to know.
"No," Jon shook his head, smiling. "It's yours forever."
"Cool!" Ritchie beamed. "Thanks!"
The crowd had broken into smaller groups as each Quidditch team member showed their new broom to their particular circle of friends.
"Let's get to practice," Harry said, and they all dashed out to the Quidditch pitch.
What a practice it turned out to be! Even as lukewarm as Harry felt toward Quidditch lately, he still enjoyed being in the air and flying, and the new brooms were definitely an improvement even over his Firebolt. They spent the first ten or 15 minutes of the practice just flying around on the new brooms, getting used to them and testing their capabilities.
"Fantastic!" Ron shouted as he swooped by Harry at one point. He'd used a Cleansweep 11 up until then although, having flown on Harry's Firebolt, he knew just how slow the Cleansweep was in comparison. Now capable of going more than twice as fast, Ron couldn't resist pushing the new broom to its limits a few times.
"You're never going to go that fast as a Keeper!" Harry shouted back at him, laughing. But the mood was infectious; all of them were like first-years who'd just gotten the hang of flying and were really trying it out.
Finally getting them to settle into drills, Harry watched, impressed, as Ginny, Demelza and Natalie put on a dazzling display of Quaffle-passing as they drove toward the goal posts, flying rings around Jimmy and Ritchie, who were defending at first as Chasers rather than performing their normal function as Beaters. The only downside was how frustrated Ron was getting as he was scored against time after time.
"Give it some time!" Harry shouted at him as Ron narrowly missed a hard-driven goal by Demelza and cursed loudly at himself. "You've got to get used to that broom!"
He put Jimmy and Ritchie to work as Beaters, using a new set of hard rubber Bludgers rather than the normal iron ones – they tended to prevent more severe injuries during practice. Both of them, already well-versed in the use of Beater bats, really came into their own with the improved speed and maneuverability of the new brooms. A few times a well-aimed practice Bludger even managed to make one of the Chasers fumble the Quaffle, which Harry, watching from below, would catch and zoom back to the opposite end to toss back into play.
He finally ended practice with Ron taking some penalty shots from the other team members, giving them each three goes starting with Jimmy and Ritchie, who were not as adept as the Chasers which, Harry hoped, would give Ron a leg up on saves at first. Ron did admirably throughout, saving all of Jimmy's and Ritchie's, two of Demelza's, and one each of Natalie's and Ginny's, giving him 10 saves out of 15. They ended with an impromptu race around the pitch, which Ginny won, although Ron protested that this was because she called for the race after she took off.
"Incredible," Ron said in the changing room afterwards. "Just incredible! He really did a marvelous job on these brooms, Harry."
"Ginny thought so," Harry couldn't keep himself from saying.
"Well, yeah," Ron agreed, his smile now gone as he thought of Jon's last remark. "But," he added. "He may not have meant it the way we thought, you know."
"Oh, you think he didn't?" Harry looked at him coolly, eyebrow raised.
"Well, with us standing right there, why would he say something like that? I mean, he's not stupid."
That, Harry had to agree with. "But he's human," he added.
Ron shrugged. "We all say stupid things sometimes, don't we?"
Harry laughed. "D'you remember what you asked Lavender about in Trelawney's class once, about Uranus?"
Ron grinned. "Yep. She turned red as a beet. Course, Trelawney gave us loads of homework for that."
They both laughed, and Harry decided that Jon's comment wasn't nearly as bad as he'd thought. Although he hoped Jon would never say anything like it again in his hearing.
Some time later, Harry and Ron made their way back to the common room to put their brooms away for safekeeping. As with his Firebolt, Harry no longer kept his brooms in the Hogwarts broom shed, which was neither completely secure from the elements nor from potential thievery. Not having seen Jon in the common room itself, Harry knocked on the fifth door from the bottom of the steps, the room that Jon shared with four second-years. "Come in," Jon's voice replied.
Harry and Ron walked in with their brooms. Jon was on his bed, reading. There were two other boys in the room, talking quietly. They stopped immediately as they saw Harry and the brooms. This room, which had been Fred and George's during their stay at Hogwarts, was where the male students sorted into Gryffindor last year had been assigned; Harry couldn't even remember the boys' names. He hadn't been present at their Sorting in any case; he'd been hit by a Total Body-Bind spell from Draco Malfoy who caught him using his Invisibility Cloak in the Slytherin's compartment on the Hogwarts Express and had been left there to make the trip back to King's Cross. Fortunately, Tonks had rescued him from the train before it left Hogsmeade Station.
Both of the second-years rushed over, their eagerness to see the brooms overcoming their shyness in front of the seventh-years. "Can I hold your broom, sir?" one of them asked breathlessly.
Harry smiled at being called "sir." "Sure," he said. "Catch!" and tossed the broom toward the boy, who flinched back. Fortunately, as Harry planned, the broom hovered in the air, ready for Harry to mount. The two second-years looked at it, wide-eyed with wonder. "Go ahead," Harry urged, "take hold of it."
Reverently the boy who'd asked to hold it grasped the broom and held it as if it were finest crystal. "It looks fast," the other boy said excitedly. "What kind is it, a Firestar?"
There was a chuckle from Jon's bed. "No," Harry said, smiling as well. "It's a Crown Jewel."
"Huh," said the other boy. "Never heard o' that. Same name as Jon's, then?"
"Yeah," Ron said, as if it should be obvious. "He built them, you know."
Both boys looked quickly over at Jon, who was now watching the proceedings, having turned his book over. "Jon!" the first one exclaimed. "Did YOU really make this broom?"
"I did indeed, Ian," Jon nodded. "I made all seven for the Gryffindor team."
"You DID?" Ian yelped. "Can you make me one too?"
"And me!" the other boy chimed in.
"Well, I'm afraid not," Jon said. "You're not on the Quidditch team, you know." As both boys slumped, downcast, Jon sighed and said, "Tell you what – I have some models I made of those brooms. I'll bring you each a copy – yes, one for you as well, Martin. And I'll bring one for Oliver and Daniel as well."
"Thank you!" both boys chorused.
Jon glanced at his watch. "You haven't been down to eat yet, have you?" Both second-years shook their heads. "You'd better scoot then, they'll be closing before too long." Both boys waved goodbye and disappeared out the door.
"Blimey," Ron said, looking at his own watch. "We'd better get down there too if we want to get something to eat tonight!"
"We just wanted to thank you again for the brooms," Harry said to Jon, walking over to stand next to Jon's bed, an ornate oak four-poster with canopy, as were all the beds in the room. "They flew really, really good."
"Fantastic," Ron echoed.
"Good," Jon said, sitting up. "I wondered for a bit if it was the right thing to do, you know."
"Why?" Ron said, looking puzzled. He leaned against one of the bedposts and Harry did the same thing at the opposite foot of the bed. "What's wrong with giving us brooms? The Slytherins got new ones, too."
"Well, the Slytherins getting those Firestars gave them an unfair advantage over the rest of the Quidditch teams, didn't it?" Jon pointed out.
"Well, yeah," Harry said. He looked around; there was a low whistling coming from somewhere he couldn't quite identify. "But that was because the other Slytherins made Malfoy do it or they'd throw him off the team. Except I don't think it matters – I saw him on Monday flying off somewhere while the rest of the Slytherins were at practice on the pitch."
"Well, me giving Gryffindor those brooms now gives you the same unfair advantage, doesn't it?"
"No," Ron disagreed.
"Not really," said Harry. "You did that by your own choice, didn't you?"
"Yeah," Jon agreed.
"We didn't force you to do it, so they're gifts, freely given and freely accepted," Harry finished. The whistling was becoming quite annoying.
"Yeah, I came to that conclusion too," Jon said.
"What is that sound?" Harry finally said turning away to listen, but the sound was gone. He listened for several seconds. "Did you hear a whistling sound a few seconds ago?" he asked either of them.
"I thought I did, but it's gone now," Jon said. Harry leaned against the bedpost and the whistling sound began again.
"There it is again!" Harry dropped his broom, which promptly began to hover beside him, and looked through his robe's pockets. Finally, in a left side pocket, he pulled out the Pocket Sneakoscope he'd used a few days ago in a vain attempt to locate Malfoy under his Invisibility Cloak.
"Why is it whistling?" Jon asked. "I thought it was only supposed to do that if it was near someone untrustworthy."
"It's just a souvenir," Ron said dismissively. "I got it for Harry while I was in Egypt on holiday with my folks. It's not very reliable."
Harry held the Sneakoscope out in front of himself, toward Jon. Its whistling diminished, so he pointed it at Ron. The whistling almost died away. Keeping it near himself, however, brought the volume of whistling back up.
"I guess you're not very trustworthy, Harry," Ron joked.
"Ha-ha," Harry said, annoyed. "But it's been in my pocket all this time and didn't go off until now. Hmm, I wonder." Harry stepped away from the bed then moved the Sneakoscope close to the bedpost. The whistling got stronger.
"Does that mean the bedpost is about to break?" Jon asked, amused.
"It means that there's something hidden nearby," Harry said. "I noticed the other day this Sneakoscope would find things that were hidden; I don't think it works on untrustworthy people anymore, or it would have been whistling like mad near Snape today."
"You know, this is the bed that Fred slept in," Ron said matter-of-factly.
They all looked at the bedpost. Having a brainwave, Harry took out his wand and tapping it against the bedpost where the Sneakoscope seemed to whistle loudest. "Specialis Revelio," he murmured, but nothing happened.
"Nothing magical there," he said, disappointed.
"Try Dissimulis Revelio," urged Jon. "It will show if there's anything unusual about that section of the bedpost.
Harry tapped the bedpost again, this time using Jon's spell. A section of the bedpost glowed blue for a fraction of a second.
"Oho," Harry said. He pushed against the wood in several places until a section of it slid aside, revealing a small hollow, inside which was a well-worn piece of parchment.
"They never told me about that!" Ron said, outraged, then stepped over and repeated the spell on George's bedposts in several spots, but no hiding place was revealed there.
Harry unfolded the piece of parchment. It was in Fred's handwriting. "It's from Fred," he said. "It says –"
Fred –
Remember to put this back into its hiding place, and check it every day. Also, remember to read the other side.
Turning it over, Harry read the other side aloud as well,
"Chartered Accountancy: A Muggle Approach"
By Purus Nilem
Muggle Studies Section. Check out and read the front piece.
"Why in ruddy hell would Fred care about a book on chartered accountancy," Ron began, but Jon and Harry were looking at each other with sudden enlightenment.
Chartered accountancy?
"That's the book!" Jon said. He jumped out of bed, his reading forgotten. "Is the Library still open?"
"Yes!" Harry said. "Let's go!" He started for the door, but Jon grabbed his arm, stopping him.
"Put the parchment back first, Harry!" Harry complied, snapping the bedpost back in place, then he and Ron launched themselves up the steps and into their room, stowed their brooms under their beds, then dashed downstairs to the exit of the common room where Jon was waiting, door open.
They rushed down to the fourth floor and along the corridors, dodging around other students in their haste, and resumed a more sedate pace only at the entrance to the Library itself; Miss Pince, the librarian, did not look kindly on noise or running within the Library. She did not look very kindly on many students either, if Harry's experiences with her were any indication.
Miss Pince looked up, her eyes narrowing with suspicion as the three Gryffindors entered the Library. It was nearly empty, Harry could see. Jon turned and walked down the corridor toward her. The Muggle Studies section, as it turned out, was next to the Restricted Section, which Pince sat near in order to keep students from accessing their shelves without proper authorization. Her eyes narrowed at their approach and she watched them like a hungry bird of prey watches the approach of unwary mice.
Jon nodded pleasantly as they stopped before her desk. "Good evening, Miss Pince, and how are you today?"
Jon was apparently in here quite often, and must have shown impeccable care toward the books he'd read, because Pince actually favored him with a thin smile and nodded in return. "Good evening, Mr. Crown. And what can I do for you –" she jerked her head almost imperceptibly toward Harry and Ron "– and them, today?"
"We're just going to look through the Muggle Studies section for a bit," Jon told her, pointing to the shelves of books beyond the Restricted section. "Looking for a few books on chartered accountancy," he added.
Pince gave him a curious look. "Homework assignment?"
"Well, extra credit, actually," Jon smiled, moving off toward the books. Harry and Ron smiled nervously at her but she only glared at them coldly for a moment before turning back to her work.
"Okay," Jon said, walking slowly down the first row of shelves. "Let's see… ah, here we are!" He glanced through the section on Accounting, but no book by Purus Nilem turned up. There were no more than a half-dozen books on the subject in the section.
"What do you think?" Harry whispered after they had looked on adjacent shelves for several minutes, coming up empty.
"I dunno," sighed Jon. "I can't believe someone has it checked out. But we'll only ask Pince as a last resort. She'll get suspicious if we ask her about a specific book. Let's just try searching all the shelves. And, quietly," he reminded them. "We don't want to disturb Miss Pince."
It was several minutes later before Ron, looking around a corner of shelves, motioned them to follow him several rows over from the Accounting section. In the section on Transportation, between a book on Muggle automobiles and one on airplanes, sat Purus Nilem's masterpiece. It was not a very big book, perhaps an inch or so thick. Jon slid it off the shelf and opened it.
Thumbing through the pages, he snorted. "Pretty dry stuff." He flipped back to the front, where the sign-out page was magically added in, and pointed to it. "Everyone else must think so as well," he said with a laugh. "Nobody's checked it out."
"How can that be?" Ron wondered. "I thought the note said to check out the book. We should see at least Fred's name in there, unless he snuck it out every time."
"It said to read the front piece," Harry said. Jon flipped to that page. Nothing looked unusual about the page except for a short hand-written poem written near the bottom. It said,
The numbers herein count silver and gold,
Yet three of these numbers, renowned of old
The perfect, the power, and the count of our noses,
Will reveal the secrets the Marauder's Map poses.
"That's it!" Ron exclaimed softly.
"Let's get out of here," Jon said. "I'll check this out. Harry, you and Ron wait outside the Library door. Pince will be less suspicious if I do it alone. She's used to me checking out books."
Harry nodded, and he and Ron made for the door as Jon went up to Pince's desk. He appeared at the front door within a minute, saying "Let's go!" and they returned to the common room to show Hermione.
"It seems pretty straightforward," she said after reading the poem on the front piece. The first perfect number is six."
"Right," Jon concurred.
"But what does it mean by 'perfect?' " Ron wanted to know.
"Just a mathematical meaning," Jon said. "It's also used in Arithmancy. A perfect number is a number whose prime factors also add up to the number itself. 1 plus 2 plus 3 equals 6, and 1 times 2 times 3 equals 6."
"Then the 'power' is the most magically powerful number, seven," Harry said. Both Jon and Hermione nodded.
"Which leaves only, 'the count of our noses,' which means – what?" Ron asked.
"Since it's about the Marauder's Map, and there were four Marauders," Harry deduced, "it seems a pretty good guess that the last number is 'four'."
"And there are four of us here," Hermione noted. "A good sign, I'd say."
"So let's give it a try," Jon said. "Tap the book with your wand and say the numbers, Hermione."
"Alright," Hermione said, taking out her wand. She placed the book on the table before her then, taking a deep breath, she said, "Six, seven, four," tapping the book with each number.
The book began to spin. Faster and faster, until it was only a blur, it whirled around and around before their amazed eyes, until finally it slowed to a halt. Hermione and others stared at it and each other in amazement.
It was no longer a neatly bound textbook on chartered accountancy. Instead, in roughly-bound brown leather, it lay before them with its title in gilded lettering across the front:
The Making of the
Marauder's Map
By Remus Lupin
Hermione reached up and opened it slowly. The pages were several types of parchment and were unevenly sown into the book; it had obviously been assembled over a period of time.
"Interesting," she said, looking through the pages. "Most of this looks to have been written by Professor Lupin back when he was a student at Hogwarts." She turned to the first page of the book, a hand-written entry titled "Introduction," and read:
To the Hogwarts Student Who Finds This, Greeting!
This book is the culmination of six years of education and research at the greatest
school for magical education in the world, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!
I am Remus Lupin, also known as "Moony" because of my "furry little problem,"
as my good friend James Potter, aka "Prongs," tends to call it. We, along with
our friends Peter Pettigrew, also called "Wormtail," and Sirius Black, called "Padfoot,"
have compiled this book in honor of our collective achievement, "The Marauder's Map."
The Marauder's Map, as you will learn from the following pages, is a Map of the school of
Hogwarts and its grounds, but it is not just an ordinary map. Hogwarts, it is claimed,
is Unplottable, but you will see on the map that it has indeed been plotted! How, you
will undoubtedly ask, could that be? You will see, as all will be revealed within these pages.
But before we continue, let us first discuss the Map itself. It is a large single piece of parchment
with enchantments to make it Unbreakable and resistant to Fire, Stains, and Magical Erasure.
It appears blank to preserve its secrets from prying eyes, especially from those of
Slytherin House, who might use it for foul (as opposed to "no good") purposes.
When the Map is blank, it may be activated by tapping it with the wand while reciting the phrase,
"I Solemnly Swear that I am Up to No Good." This will reveal the school grounds and building with all
seven floors, including the dungeons, the 142 staircases (we counted them all!) and all secret doors
and exits we've found in the last six years. If you're not sure how to work a secret door or exit,
just tap it with your wand and help will be displayed on the Map.
When you've finished with the Map, it may be deactivated (made blank again) by
tapping it with your wand and saying, "Mischief Managed."
While the Map is activated, you will see numerous tiny figures moving about on it. Any being with a mind
within range of the magic (that is, whatever is Plotted on this Map) will be shown on at its current location with a
small label. For example, Yours Truly would be shown as Remus Lupin. If you do not see whoever
you're looking for, simply tap the Map and say their name; if they are present their name will glow for a few seconds.
We leave the Map, and this record of its creation, for future generations to enjoy and to learn from.
Mischief Managed!
Remus J. Lupin
Gryffindor 1971 - 1978
"Wow," said Harry, as the four of them looked at one another. "I wish I'd known a few of these things before now!"
"Just think of the spells that must've gone into making that Map," Hermione marveled. "I can't imagine how they managed to map Unplottable ground!"
"We can use this!" Harry suddenly exclaimed.
"For what?" Hermione asked.
"Isn't it obvious? To remake the Marauder's Map!"
Hermione gave him a curious look. "Don't we have other things to take care of?" she said, being deliberately vague in front of Jon.
"Oh, yeah," Harry said. "Well, we can do this as well."
"And the Mystery Vault!" Ron reminded him. "We're still going to see the Tournament, aren't we?"
Harry flopped back into one of the chairs. "Blimey," he said wearily. "It's turning into a busy year, isn't it?"
Before falling asleep that night, Harry took off his robe, wrapped Lupin's book in it then placed it inside his trunk, where he would be sure of finding it the next day. He wanted a chance to look it over very carefully to see just how much trouble creating the Marauder's Map would be.