Disclaimer: To my dismay I was notified that I don't own the series. What a shame.

A/N: Sorry it's late. Life is crazy. On the upside, I'm immensely happy to say we've reached 300 followers and 30,000 views! And now, time to burrito making.

Chapter 6: Marauding

The atmosphere in Gryffindor Tower was tense, to say the least. Each student that stood before McGonagall had their head bowed, looking at their feet as she glared on in disapproval and quiet fury. All except one, Ron Weasley had his chin held high as he met her gaze.

The professor's nostrils flared, her temper catching up to her.

"Mr. Weasley," she all but shouted, "just what are you so smug about?"

"Harry has been acting differently for the past few months and this was the final straw. He doesn't deserve to be a Gryffindor anymore than a Slytherin does. The others should be thrown into Hufflepuff," responded Ron, his smug mask widening.

"I've not an inkling of what you are referring to, Mr. Weasley, as he's been more of a Gryffindor than I've ever seen. Perhaps you're simply mad at him due to your obvious infatuation with Ms. Granger?" she leered at him, his face paling as faces turned to him.

"Professor, I'm not sure that's quite appropriate-" a sixth year prefect began, cutting cutting off at her glare.

"What's not appropriate is throwing a student and several of his friends from Gryffindor based on unsubstantiated evidence! I have never been so ashamed to be a Gryffindor as today. The house of the brave and courageous should not be the the house of the dull and unthinking!"

"Now, hand over your badges! Each of you! At this moment I'd rather trust the Slytherins!"

Gasps resounded. Ron turned redder than his hair. The prefects blanched and gaped, surprised by her vicious tone.

"Surely you can't mean that?!" cried the same prefect, ignorant to the glare on his head of house's face.

"I do, and if you would be so kind, badges! Now!"

o0O0o

The letter had been written and packaged; Hedwig was off delivering it as of now. One Newton Scamander would be receiving that message in just a few days' time. Meanwhile his house was getting up to all sorts of mischief, much of it courtesy of the wonderful Marauder's Map.

"Hey, look at this, Harry!" Fred called, though they only knew it was Fred because Harry had pranked his hair black and checked the map. The twins had pouted and said that they couldn't do twinspeak without looking exactly the same.

"Where?" the boy in question questioned, wondering what the now goth twin was looking at ("If I really must have black hair, I suppose I'll just have to go goth. I imagine the school will take it as a wonderful prank.)

"Right there. McGonagall in front of all of the students of Gryffindor, I can imagine she's giving them quite an earache," George laughed in mirth, glad the unloyal Gryffs were getting what they deserved.

"Wait, shh!" shushed Harry, a glint in his eyes signalling the terrible joke that he was about to make.

Both twins groaned.

"Listen, I think I can hear her from here!" he joked, the twins sending sidelong glances at him though their eyes betrayed their amusement.

"If you're ever going to be a true prankster you really, really need to work on those jokes," the redheaded twin said.

"Too right, brother of mine. That was painful."

"Come on, I can't be that bad. Hermione wouldn't tolerate me if I was."

"I don't tolerate you, Harry, I just tone you out." Hermione peeked over the couch, laughing at Harry's kicked puppy expression.

"Toughen up, love, the twins have a point. I think you've used that joke ten times since we left lunch."

Harry pouted but didn't respond.

"And there's Dumbledore, sitting in his office, and Trelawney, predicting the future (badly)," Harry wondered for a moment how Fred managed to speak in parentheses, but continued listening,

"and there's Barty Crouch Jr. teaching defense…"

"Wait a minute, what the hell?" the entirety of Scamander house said in harmony.

Ten minutes later they were on Dumbledore's doorstep again.

"Come in, come in." the elderly wizard spoke, his voice seemingly on the door itself.

"Ah, Scamanders! To what do I owe the pleasure?" the headmaster laughed, enjoying every second of the new house.

"Well, sir, we've found a minor discrepancy in the defense classroom."

"Of course, my boy, would you mind showing me?"

Harry handed the map to Dumbledore, pointing at the dead man's name.

"Oh, how I love the things those Marauders invited. How peculiar."

"You know about the Marauders?" Harry questioned, the twins opening their mouths at the same time but closing them as he spoke.

"Of course, they did attend my school for seven years. What liveliness they brought here. That's a story for another time, however. Say, Harry, would you mind if I borrowed this for a while? I may be able to renew it and give it some new features, though I would probably create a replica in order to ensure this copy is safe. I assure you, you'd get both back."

"Of course, professor. I'd love that, though I'm afraid some of us will have to use other methods to ensure our safe passage to the kitchens for midnight snacks," allowed Harry, a pointed stare at the twins sending their elder into chuckles.

"Guilty as charged," the twins offered.

"I'll investigate the matter involving young Mr. Crouch, though I may be forced to stay my hand." the professor admitted.

"What? Why?" asked Hermione, shocked at the idea of the headmaster's inaction.

"Well, my dear, if I were to confront him he may attempt to escape or harm students. I'm sure that if he wanted to harm students, or perhaps a particular student, he would have done so by now." responded the aging warlock.

"That's sensible, I guess." Luna spoke calmly, but sent a look at Neville.

"I… You better make sure he's not able to hurt anyone, headmaster. We're dealing with a supposedly dead man who tort… who tortured my parents." the young man stuttered, likely in shock from the discovery of his parents' attacker.

"Of course. So long as I am in this castle there will be no danger to anyone. I won't allow any more mistakes to happen." said the man with a pointed glance at Harry.

Idle chit chat followed, but the group soon had to leave. Right as they left the office Harry recalled a certain tangy sweet.

"Accio lemon drop!" he called over his shoulder, a bark of laughter emerging from the headmaster.

o0O0o

Classes were once again in swing, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang sitting in on a few, but Scamander House was clueless about it. They were busy learning dueling from Professor Potter, a subsection of their new Defense class. The class had starting with a loud duel between the twins, which Harry had swiftly put a stop to.

"Woah, woah, woah, hold on a minute. Both of you are being far too loud. Volume doesn't have an effect on your magic, in fact, it might even distract you," Harry educated, "Try again, this time quieter."

"Sure thing, boss."

This time the duel was almost silent. One twin to the next shot spells, until something bizarre happened that silenced the both of them shortly before the others' stunner impacted.

Harry's eyes were wide. "What in the hell was that?"

The spells had nearly hit each other, launching face first at each other, but spiralled around the other at the last moment.

"Well, that was pretty."

The group (save for the still-stunned twins) laughed. "Luna, you're a riot," giggled Neville, though he'd insist it was a manly laugh, "But as our resident spellmaking expert, what do you think that was?"

Luna fell backwards, a comfy seat appearing as she fell. "Well, it's probably more of a wandmaking thing than a spellcraft thing, but if I had to guess I'd say it had something to do with them being twins."

"Perhaps Dumbledore will have some input?" said Hermione, "We've bothered him enough today, though, so I think we should wait a bit. It's probably not a big deal."

Harry and Neville agreed as they cancelled the stun on the twins. Neither redhead remembered how they'd been knocked out, but both were pleased that the other had been as well. All of them agreed that the twins should no longer be duelling each other.

"As fun as it is to hurl abuse at my lesser half, I don't think it's in our best interest to duel each other."

"Hey! I'm clearly better! Look at how handsome I am!"

"Gred, we're twins."

When their banter subsided, they realized they were alone.

"Huh. I could have sworn we had an audience. What say we find them?"

o0O0o

"Harry, will you pleeeeease help us find our animagus forms? It totally has applications in defense! Say, for instance, I was an owl. If I could fly I'd be able to escape attacks!" pleaded Hermione, her eyes shining and wide with her hands on Harry's.

"Yeah, mate. I don't think I'm quite a bird but if I was a wolverine or something similar, I could dodge and get through small areas!" added Neville, interested in the prospect of being an animagus.

"You're definitely not a little wolverine, Nev. You're a bear of some sort." said Luna in a dreamy voice, her eyes unfocused and staring.

"Huh? Luna? Are you okay?" asked Neville.

"Hm? Did I say something? Oh, dear. I hope it wasn't embarrassing."

"Luna, you kinda drifted into a trance. You looked at Neville and said he was a bear of some sort, it was kinda like Trelawney, but more real and less obviously fake than her. Is there any Seer blood in you?"

"Yeah, on her mom's side. Sorry, Luna." Hermione said, a sidelong glance thrown at the younger girl. "Anyway, Harry, pleeeeeease?"

The wizard sighed. Learning to be an animagus was difficult work, he'd barely gotten anything yet. So far the closest he'd come to the transformation was a feathery texture on his arms. "Okay, fine. It's hard work, though, and I'm probably not the most qualified to teach it. I can give it a try though."

o0O0o

The twins found them meditating in a room that hadn't been there when they left. It had taken them over an hour to search the castle, dinner would be coming up soon. On the plus side, they'd struck an agreement with Peeves for a new prank and managed to scare Mrs. Norris.

"Well, that's interesting. What're all of you doing?" said Fred, the entranced students startling as the unexpected voice arose.

"Jumpy, are we?"

The group filled the twins in on what had been going on, with the pranksters joining them afterwards. The room alerted them that it was dinnertime after what felt like minutes, each person confident they'd made some progress towards their inner creature.

o0O0o

"Harry?

"Hm?"

"Is there any way for you to get out of the tournament?" his girlfriend asked from her space behind him, arms holding him close. She knew the chances for him being able to get out of it were minimal, it would have been written about or Dumbledore would've known.

"There isn't. Believe me, I've looked…"

"I had a feeling that'd be the answer… I didn't want to believe so. It's just… People die in these tournaments. That's why they were outlawed. After the mistakes the ministry has made over the past three years, and now this, I don't trust them to have made this safe. I'm scared."

"Mione, that's why we're training. My animagus form will probably show itself before those twenty days are over. From what I've seen, it's big. Big enough to survive anything."

"But it could be anything!"

"Mione, do you remember second year? When I was bitten by one of the deadliest creatures known to wizards, thought to be unsurvivable, and then lived to tell the tale? I'll be okay. I might not come out without scars, but I'll come out alive."

She didn't respond verbally, choosing instead to mold her form to him. Several minutes passed into their comfortable embrace before they finally slept.

o0O0o

The next three days passed uneventfully, Harry's form yet eluding him. The others had progressed past the first stage, but were nowhere near discovering their forms, which would be at least a month still. Luna, despite her showing her real personality, occasionally went into a trance during the meditation sessions for their animagus forms. On one of these occasions she spoke aloud, startling the group.

"That's it."

She claimed not to remember what she was talking about, but Harry had a feeling she was lying. A few hours later he cornered her.

"Luna, I can tell you know what you remembered. Please tell me, it could help with finding your animagus form!"

"We've known each other for less than a month but you can read me too well already. Harry… I don't want to. I know what my form is but I don't think I'm ready to tell anyone."

"If you're certain…"

She embraced him, hugging him tight. "Thank you."

o0O0o

"Hey,"

"Harry?"

"We'd like to run something past you." the twins spoke in harmony.

Harry was swinging back and forth in one of the cozy hammocks the room had provided. "You do realise I'm not your head of house? You don't need to run it past me."

The twins glanced at each other.

"Well,"

"You've got a point,"

"But we think it'd only be prudent to run our prank by someone descended from the great Marauders."

Sighing, he acceded. "If you must. What's the idea?"

"We've come up with a potion that would change the colors near you. It's not permanent; we'd like to use it on the Slytherins and make them Gryffindors for the day. Maybe the Gryffindors could do with some stuff as well."

"Huh. That's pretty interesting, makes me even more glad that you're teaching us potions."

Hermione called up from the chair below the loft. "He's right, I think I've actually learned something from your class instead of a book!"

"We're flattered."

Meanwhile in a room nearby, Luna had a peculiar hat on her head. Peculiar in that it was ancient and wise.

"So, you're not Godric Gryffindor embedded in a hat?"

The hat groaned in frustration. This child was enraging, her incessant questioning was getting on his nerves. He thanked Godric he didn't have nerves to begin with. "No, for the final time, I am not Godric Gryffindor. I'm not even his hat! I was created a century after the final founder died! Before you ask, no, I can't tell you who made me nor why they made me."

Luna sighed in disappointment. She'd been hoping he could tell her more about himself, replicating such a powerful artifact could teach her a lot about enchantments. More than anything she wanted to have something to call her own; an artifact capable of searching someone's soul to tell her about them would be immeasurably useful.

Putting the hat down she stared at her notes. Long though they were it told her little, soul magic was highly guarded. Perhaps Harry knew something about it? She doubted it, though she knew of his relation to the Black family. In that moment she realised what she could do.

Tossing her interim head of house to the side, she shifted her room around her. The Room of Requirement liked her for reasons she couldn't determine, another reason she was determined to learn soul magic and make an artifact to read someone's soul.

'Dear Sirius Black,

My name is Luna Lovegood, I'm a good friend of Harry. I'd like to think so at least. I know you're on the run but Harry's told us a lot about his favorite godfather; someone who has resources immensely useful to a Ravenclaw. You see, I'm attempting to create an enchanted artifact, one with the power to read souls. While I've got the Sorting Hat to study, he stubbornly refuses to tell me what enchantments exist on his fabric.

The Black Family Library is well known for it's immensely dark nature; soul magic being considered dark, I'd assume you've got quite the collection of books on it. Mostly I need books on runes and the like, I'm only a third year - I don't know much about those subjects. Any help you could give me would be appreciated greatly.'

Satisfied, she asked Dobby to bring it to the owlery and get an owl to deliver it. She wondered briefly how owls knew where to go, perhaps a bloodline enchantment?

Picking the hat up from where he'd landed, she delved into the history of Hogwarts.

"How old exactly are you?"

"Oh, 6000 years or so. I've lost track over the seasons."

Luna laughed, of course the hat would have an odd sense of humor.

"Why do you laugh, child? I don't kid you, there have been six thousand generations who I've read and assigned."

"Hat, it states directly in Hogwarts: A History that Hogwarts was founded in 990 AD. You're not fooling me. And you mentioned you were made only a hundred years after they died!"

"Preposterous, the castle Hogwarts was built by the druids of yore. Hogwarts is hardly a Latin name, is it? We weren't created by Romans, that's for sure. As for Godric, he was a druid as were the others. Their names weren't Latin either."

"Why don't you simply read my mind for the information? I've read the whole book, there's my proof."

"I cannot! The mind and the soul-" he cut off suddenly, "Bloody, insolent whelp! You did that on purpose! I am strictly not supposed to tell people about my enchantments!"

"So, you do read souls and it is an enchantment that allows you to do so? If you're not oathbound to silence then why mustn't you tell anyone?"

"The druids were the first mages, as your History of Magic class should have told you. They were more powerful than any mages since, shaping the island we lay on through rituals."

"Well, our class never told us about that nor did I know anything about the power of druids. Hat, would it be possible for you to teach us history?"

His anger at being tricked now replaced with fury at the state of history, he accepted. "I can indeed teach. If you haven't learned of that, of what have you been taught?"

"Mostly goblin rebellions, though most children know nothing of it. Professor Cuthbert Binns teaches us, he's terribly dull and sends most of us to sleep."

"Cuthbert Binns… Cuthbert Binns?! There's been a single Cuthbert Binns at this school, and he was at this school over four hundred years ago! Surely they don't let a ghost teach such an important class?"

"They do, I think it's got something to do with budget cuts and the board of governors."

"Budget cuts? Board of Governors? I must be terribly behind on this school's state of being. Hogwarts has no maximum budget, it's attended by over four hundred students and the cost of attending isn't cheap. That's not to mention the private coffers of the founders that were drained into the vault for the school, which should easily fund the school. As for the board, Hogwarts should not have a board of governors. Who is on the board?"

"I'm not sure, I know they're all purebloods and Lucius Malfoy was on it until last year."

"That explains quite a bit. A stunted history of magic would keep students from knowing of the true history of magic and the reason behind magic weakening."

"Why is magic weakening?"

"Very few students are powerful wizards these days. The more druid background they have, the stronger they are in most cases. You're stronger than most, the most powerful I've seen in many a year, however, is Harry Potter. His mother may have been a sleeping druid, which would explain the mark on his soul."

"Mark on his soul?"

The hat sighed. "Ignore it, I won't tell you any more about soul magic. You've given me much to think on, I would ask you to leave me be for some time so I may think of how to progress and return Hogwarts to her former glory."

o0O0o

Harry was thinking about his progress towards the animagus transformation. It had been a full week since his name had come out of the goblet and he'd been steadily gaining land on the transformation, McGonagall was rather impressed that he'd gotten so far already. In just three weeks he'd managed to get immensely far, she estimated that he'd complete the transformation within the next two weeks; just in time for the first task.

As he sat at the front of the room, his friends in front of him, he wondered just what their forms could be. Hermione could be anything; perhaps an owl? She was certainly smart enough to be one, and a raptor would suit her well.

Neville could be a bear, like Luna had apparently seen, bears were versatile and strong. His love of herbology would also fit with a bear, though that wasn't to say he couldn't be anything else.

Fred and George… There were a number of mischievous animals they could be, he supposed they could be terriers or maybe laughing hyenas. He was certain they were some sort of dog, really nothing else would fit them. If they were as dimwitted as they often made themselves out to be, perhaps they would be a pair of chimps, but they were really rather intelligent.

Luna was the only one he didn't have an idea about. He'd known her for but a few weeks, and though they were close, she was an enigma. She was wise one second and playful the next, sometimes sarcastic and sometimes serious. Her mother's death was a part of her as much as any other part. Some sort of polecat, maybe?

As for himself, the creature he caught glimpses of still eluded him. The size of it was odd, it felt huge, he felt fire on several occasions, and he knew he had wings. If he had scales or legs he'd say he was a dragon, but magical creatures were extremely rare.

After lunch, Luna sought him and Hermione out. She found them sitting in front of the windows, admiring the grounds of Hogwarts. Though normally the trees would be losing leaves by now, the magic field around Hogwarts imbued the plants; they weren't without leaves until the first snow of the season. Greenery was framed on either side by the purples and whites of the common room, a nice contrast.

"Sorry to interrupt your couple time, but I need some help with runes and finding some enchantments."

Hermione sighed, still annoyed slightly about Harry's talent in runes, but leaned into him. "It's okay, Luna."

"What runes do you need?' Harry asked, standing and offering a hand to Hermione.

"Well…" their youngest housemate bit their lip, nervous, "I need soul runes. I'm trying to make an artifact that can help you understand yourself or others."

"Soul runes? That's pretty dark stuff, but an artifact like that would definitely have potential." said Hermione, unfocused from the extended period of time she'd spent just staring at the grounds.

"Hm… We'd yet to go over that in the runes class before we'd left and I'd started teaching you guys. I read the textbook for this year and last year, only once were they mentioned. Maybe the room has books on runes we could use?"

Books flew from the library, landing on the couch.

"Neat." said Harry, staring at the books and reading their titles. "Sálrún - A Guide to the Language of Souls, that should have what we're looking for. Are there any other runes you think you'll need?"

"I'd like to have some sort of data recording, if I could get readings on someone's soul and have them recorded… The tactical advantage of that is immense. We could even perhaps tell if people were alive, or what their abilities are. We know now that Voldemort is still alive, we could find out what's keeping him so and easily find and destroy it."

"You're right, that does have a lot of practicality. Tell you what, we can all work on it together. A group project." Hermione added.

Luna beamed, working with friends was much better than working alone. Her friends would be a lot of help. "When do you want to start?"

"I don't think it'd be a good idea to start until after the first task, Harry's energy should be wholly focused on practicing." Hermione stated, firmly against anything with a chance to be detrimental to her boyfriend's wellbeing.

"Of course. I'd hate for him to be injured due to lack of practice. Speaking of that…" the younger girl trailed off, looking at the dark-haired mage.

Sighing, Harry extricated himself from Hermione's grasp. "I suppose I've lounged around long enough. Let's get to work."

A/N: Hey guys, it's been a while, hasn't it? While I began preparations to make a breakfast burrito, one which you may PM me for the recipe, I came to the conclusion that I've been going about this incorrectly. I've decided to give something else a try. If I have a 4,000+ word chapter with a suitable ending I shall upload it assuming it goes more than two weeks untouched. Past a month and I shall upload whatever I have. This will hopefully ensure I get a variety of different chapters in and it will allow me to keep my creative streak going, and hopefully ensure that you all don't get bored with the story because I never update it. Thank you for your continued patience.

By Authorial Decree, no chapter in excess of 4,000 words may go unpublished if the time without edits exceeds 14 days. For all chapters exceeding 2,000 words, you are required to publish them if a month goes by without a new chapter being released.

Your Benevolent Author and Resident Wandmaker,

Garrick Ollivander