She thought her life was over – but fate gave her another chance, in a world of magic. Now, running around Hogwarts with James Potter and his friends, she's about to make choices that will change the future in ways she never thought possible…

Marauder's Phase

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

The Map

No One's P.O.V:

James and Sirius had plenty of time to talk as James helped Sirius to move into the spare bedroom next to Emma's. Emma herself was getting a stray niffler out of the house, swinging her pocket watch back and forth like a pendulum to lure the thing outside. She had her wand in her hand, and would unlock the magical cage using Alohamora. No one would care if she did, since this was an important situation and all. James could've done it, but Emma seemed to like the nifflers and they her and she wanted the chance to use some magic again. Besides, James wanted to find out what had happened to his best mate, and he listened in shocked silence as Sirius told him what had happened, from the moment he had gotten home the night before to the second he had gotten off his motorbike at the driveway of the Potters' home.

"But…what does it mean?" James asked quietly, when Sirius had finished his tale, and was searching through his stuff for something.

"Isn't it obvious?" Sirius asked, checking in all of the pockets of his trunk, clearly intent on finding whatever it was that he had misplaced. "The way Mum was going on about something that she'd heard from those Death Eaters she knows…it's clear that Voldemort is after Emma for some reason…and Mum was talking about handing her over…"

James stood up so fast that he scared the cat that was lounging on the bed beside him. "She can't do that!"

"No, she can't," Sirius agreed, more calmly than he felt. "She doesn't have enough ties to get Emmy over to them like that, anyway. Makes me glad she's not one of them…oh God no…" He said suddenly, standing up and facing James. "Prongs…"

James noted the look on his best friend's face, and said: "What's wrong?"

"I've left the Marauder's Map in my room." Sirius said, feeling like he'd just swallowed a brick. The Marauder's Map, showing all the secret passageways through Hogwarts – not to mention where everyone was and what they were doing – was the last thing he wanted somebody outside of the Marauders to find.

James' face showed that he felt the exact same way and Emma, who had come in to hear the last part of Sirius' sentence, gasped in horror. "We have to get that map back!"

"I know," Sirius said, wishing that he hadn't been quite so angry when he'd stormed out of the house that morning or, better yet, that he'd given the map to someone else. "I know…but the problem is, if I go back there, Mum'll kill me." He hated to admit it, but his mother had been furious with some of the things that he'd said to her, as furious as he'd been with her for even thinking that he'd hand his girlfriend over to the dark side.

"I wasn't talking about you!" Emma snapped, beginning to pace up and down the room as the two boys watched her.

"But old Mrs. Black isn't terribly fond of me either, at the moment." James said, looking like he didn't particularly care what Mrs. Black thought of him.

"Or you either!" Emma said. "I'll go by myself…"

"You can't go!" Sirius cried, before he could stop himself.

Emma looked at him levelly. "And give me one good reason why not, Sirius Black?" She only used his full name when she was annoyed at him. Not even Sirius could escape her temper sometimes.

Sirius and James exchanged a helpless glance. "B-because…" Sirius looked for an excuse, anything to stop his girlfriend from walking into danger. "Do you even know where everything is in my house?" He finally asked her. 'No, she doesn't – yeah, that'll stop her.'

To his surprise, Emma stopped pacing and smiled at him, somewhat smugly. "Sure I do – your room's on the topmost landing, and your name's on the door to one room. Regulus lives in the other room, and he wrote a sign that said: Do Not Enter Without The Express Permission of Regulus Arcturus Black."

Sirius and James looked at her, surprised. And she said: "So, where is the map exactly?"

Sirius said: "And why am I going to tell you where it is?"

She shrugged carelessly. "Okay then, I guess I'll just go searching…hope you don't read PlayWizard magazine or something else that I wouldn't want to see, because I'm going to look everywhere until I find that map."

Sirius cringed. He did, but hadn't actually thought about them since he'd met Emma. "Okay, fine," He muttered. "It's under my bed…but, Emmy, what if you run into a member of my family or something?" He was pulling out the last of his excuses to keep her from going, and she knew it.

"Then I'll wing it," She said. "Your mother seemed to like me a lot…"

Sirius didn't exactly want to tell her why.

"Listen, Siri," She said gently, coming over to him and putting her hands on either side of his face. Looking up at him, it was such a private moment that James had to turn away. "I'll be fine – I've faced dangers before, and I have you for a boyfriend." She laughed softly. "You've taught me more about getting myself into and out of danger than anyone else ever could."

Sirius looked at her for a moment, contemplating what she'd just said, the look in her eyes.

"It's my name on the map too, you know," She went on. "I am a Marauder now, you guys have made that clear, and I intend to make sure you never forget it. Friends make sacrifices for each other." She looked into his eyes. "Partners make sacrifices for each other."

Sirius felt the last of his firm resolute to keep Emma away from number 12 Grimmauld Place slipping away, as he pulled her face closer to his, and their lips met.

"Just be careful," He murmured afterwards, and she nodded. "Take the cloak."

"I was planning on it." She replied.

***

I walked down the street that evening, not glancing back at Sirius who sat, on his motorcycle, waiting for me. But, I could tell that he was looking at me, despite the fact that I was wearing James' invisibility cloak.

Number twelve Grimmauld Place loomed ahead, looking ominous and threatening to someone who was about to break into it. I had never broken into a house before, but Sirius had assured me that there was a way in for people like me and him, and I headed toward the cluster of rosebushes that he had been talking about.

With a furtive glance around me, I tiptoed up to the plants and whispered: "I am sneaking in." I tapped one of the plants with my wand.

At once, a small scarping sound could be heard, and a secret tunnel revealed itself within the thorny plants. Looking around me again to make sure that I was not being watched, I slipped off the cloak and stowed it away under my top (come on, plenty of girls use their bras as extra pockets, there's a Face Book group dedicated to it), before I transformed.

I hadn't been in my Animagus form for awhile, and I was glad to be in it again, but people would have freaked out if they'd seen a pure white wolf standing out the front of an 'ordinary' house, and so I quickly crawled into the tunnel entrance, which closed up behind me.

Thankful that wolves could see in the dark, I crept along the narrow tunnel that only a creature walking on all-fours could have safely navigated. Sirius had told me that he'd used the tunnel when sneaking home late, and that he'd designed it so that he could be the only one to use it, since he was an Animagus. I guess there's not much difference between dogs and wolves.

The tunnel sloped upwards after awhile, and soon I came across a trapdoor, which Sirius had assured me disappeared when it wasn't in use. I transformed, and managed to push my way up, glancing around quickly and, to my relief, the cellar was deserted.

I couldn't hear any sounds coming from within the house, but I took no chances as I hoisted myself out quickly. The trapdoor disappeared as I drew the invisibility cloak around me and, not a moment too soon.

Into the cellar shuffled a house-elf, whom I knew straight away must be Kreacher and, to be perfectly honest, I'd been happy to forget about him up until now.

Now, as I edged around him, I heard him grumbling about Sirius' departure, and it took all of my self-control not to murder the elf for some of the things he said about my boyfriend.

Kreacher took a knife out of a drawer, and stabbed the air with it, muttering something about Sirius' neck.

I nearly lost it then, but I managed to get out without killing anyone.

I hastily hurried up the stairs, heading toward the second-floor-landing, and found Sirius room right where I'd known it would be.

A rush of excitement flooded through me – I was about to go into Sirius' room!!

Glancing around me, I carefully opened the door, and stepped inside.

It was exactly how the book had described it was, from the Gryffindor banners and colours making me feel very nostalgic for Hogwarts, right down to the many pictures of muggle motorcycles.

Everything had been fixed with a Permanent Sticking Charm, and I grinned at Mrs. Black's misfortune, before looking under the bed for the Marauder's Map.

It wasn't there.

Panic flooded through me, but I forced myself to remain calm as I checked through every little nook and cranny to find the precious map, the one that Harry would inherit later on by strange means.

I couldn't find it anywhere, even though I found plenty of other things, some…less desirable than others…

Straightening up, my gaze wandered out the door, and toward the pompous, hand-printed sign that told everyone that the room across from Sirius' belonged to Regulus.

Narrowing my eyes, I crept out of Sirius' room, closing the door behind me, and then faced Regulus' bedroom door.

'Please don't let him be in here…' I prayed, and then pointed my wand at the door (knowing that I was really pushing it with the no-magic thing). "Alohamora." I whispered, and the door swung open.

It was like walking into a sea of green and silver, and I could tell that Regulus was as proud to be a Slytherin as Sirius was to be in Gryffindor. I stopped to look at the Black family crest, painstakingly painted over Regulus' bed, with the motto Toujours Pur (whatever that meant).

Trying to ignore the newspaper clippings about Voldemort, I hurried over to Regulus' desk where, to my immense relief, I saw the blank Marauder's Map lying there, and I hastily grabbed it and put it into my spare pocket.

Then I noticed something, which made me take off the invisibility cloak to get a better look at it.

The Gryffindor Quidditch team had had its photo taken, upon winning the cup, and I had been in the middle, with blood still staining my face from colliding with Regulus and the ground, the cup in one hand and the snitch in the other, and I was still smiling radiantly.

I looked down at this photo now. "What is Regulus doing with this photo?" I wondered, noticing something else as well – where Sirius was supposed to be standing in the picture, ink had been spilled 'accidentally', and it didn't take a genius to guess who had done it. "Oh God, what next?" I wondered, trying to piece together the Regulus-Hates-Sirius-Puzzle, and then I turned around, just as Regulus Black came into the room.

I froze, and so did he, and we both stared at each other.

He looked so much like Sirius, but rather less handsome – but the similarities were still there, and it was scary.

I'm sure my face showed nervousness, but I honestly couldn't read the expression on his face. He was staring at me like he'd never seen me before, eyes darting from my face to the photograph in one hand and the cloak in the other and finally back up to my eyes, violet-blue ones meeting hazel ones.

We stayed there, frozen like that, for what seemed like an hour, but really only a minute had passed when we both heard Walburga Black ascending the stairs.

I unfroze and, without a second thought, flung the invisibility cloak over myself, and stood in a corner of the room, praying that Regulus wouldn't turn me in.

If Regulus was surprised, he didn't show it, but just turned his back on me to speak with his mother.

Throughout the entire conversation, I kept biting at my nails, occasionally biting my fingers to stop myself from screaming whenever Walburga said anything bad about her eldest son.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the point where I almost lost it came.

"I don't understand why the Dark Lord wants this Pax girl so much," Mrs. Black said, as Regulus nodded seriously. "But we'll do whatever we can, won't we Regulus?"

"Of course, mother." He said but, as I watched, speechless, he crossed his fingers behind his back.

"Why, if she were in this room right now, we could keep her here until we contact them!" Walburga looked thrilled at the possibility.

"Course," Regulus agreed. "Cept' she's not, so…" He shrugged.

"Quite right, she wouldn't just wander in so willingly." Walburga nodded. "Ah well…" And she turned and left the doorway.

Regulus and I watched her go.

When she was gone, Regulus didn't turn around. But he said: "Come on."

And I followed him.

***

We walked down the stairs, out the front door and halfway down the street, before I threw the invisibility cloak off and flung my arms around Sirius' younger brother.

He was startled, and I let go of him immediately.

"Sorry," I said, smiling at him sincerely. "But I am thankful – you didn't turn me in. You are more like Sirius than you know, Regulus." And that was all I trusted myself to say, before I turned, and ran down the street to where Sirius would be waiting for me, not daring to look back, but knowing that I may have just made a valuable ally.

If only I could stop him from becoming a Death Eater, later on in life.