The Half Blood Prince Revealed

Summary :

Harry's summer before sixth year is no different from the others. Around every corner surprises, good and bad, and adventure of all kind await. And it looks like the gods have finally granted Harry a possibility for a nicer life. What will this mean for his 6th year at Hogwarts ?

General Disclaimer :

I am just playing in the sand of JKRowling's literary produced beach and am attempting to build my own sandcastle for others to enjoy.

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25 Of Islands, Maps and So Much More

Harry woke up on Thursday morning with a feeling of anticipation, the memories of blue skies, sunshine, water, wind and seagulls high in his mind. The reality was less interesting, as outside he could see a cloudy overcast sky and it was drizzling.

Despite going to bed so much later than usual, Harry was up at his usual early hour and decided to head for the fifth compartment in his trunk. As with the other three rooms – Harry didn't think you could really call them compartments – a door appeared. Stepping through he found himself in a short hallway. Immediately to his right was another door. It led to a grand looking bedroom with a four-poster bed very close to the door, and a dresser and a cupboard. This time the furniture was dark and upon closer inspection was probably not new. Walls were painted mainly cream with minimal Gryffindor touches of red and gold. At first the position of the bed didn't really sit right with Harry, who'd gotten used to his large bedroom in Black Manor, but it made some sense taking into consideration the presence of the additional Potter security features. For an auror, maybe wounded, to be only a few paces away from a bed providing safety and healing could be a lifesaver. Across from the bed, above a simple mantelpiece hung a painting, depicting a similar view of Potter Manor as the wall hanging in the study room. With less of the surrounding landscape in the picture though, the house looked even larger than Harry had guessed yesterday. He hoped Remus had visited the place at some stage so he could tell him about it.

On the other side of the hall a much smaller room stood empty, but from the padded walls and floors Harry figured this might be the workout room. Three more paces along the corridor and Harry ended up in a sitting cum dining room cum kitchen. In an L-shape open plan area he first encountered a sitting area with comfortable looking couches, a few small bookcases along one wall, and little side tables in between the furniture. A magical painting hung above the mantelpiece, this time depicting a stormy sea and an old sailing boat fighting through the waves. It was painted so realistic Harry could almost feel the rolling motion of the vessel and the salt wet spray in his face, hear the thundering wind.

In the dining room area stood a large table, seating 8 people easily. The matching dresser contained, as Harry curiously checked, what had to amount to a full chic dinner service. And when he looked closer, it even sported an albeit small version of the Potter crest in the middle of each plate. Harry had to chuckle at that. Would an auror on duty go all the way to get out the best china for the quick snack he'd be lucky to be able to finish ?

The kitchen looked immaculate and very like the muggle kitchen from Privet Drive. Maybe his grandfather had taken into consideration that his daughter-in-law was a muggle-born witch when creating this trunk.

The only room he'd not yet seen was the bathroom, so opening up the last door should hold no surprises. But two steps into the room and Harry felt like he was walking underwater. The floor, walls and ceiling were made up of small blue and aqua-coloured mosaic tiles depicting an underwater world. What made the effect even more spectacular was that just like in the moving paintings, you could see the occasional dolphin or an entire school of small colourful fishes glide by. Harry remembered seeing something similar on television as a young boy when they'd talked about some sea park opening up where you could take a walk through a see-through tunnel under the water.

Upon closer inspection of the room there was both a shower stall and a huge bath. It looked more like a small swimming pool but it too was made of tiles and once filled with water it was sure to look amazing.

Harry could hear someone call his name, so made his way out of the bathroom. Looking towards the front door of the suite, he could see Remus' stunned look seeing the door in the trunk. With a last look at the painting in the sitting room, Harry returned to his bedroom in Black Manor and nearly gave Remus a heart attack in the process as to that man Harry had appeared out of nowhere.

"We got a little worried when you didn't appear downstairs. I should have guessed that the lure of the trunk would be too great." laughed Remus.

"I couldn't sleep so read the manual last night and looked through 4 of the 7 compartments but I got too tired so I saved seeing the travelling home for today. Have you ever been at Potter Manor, Remus ?"

"Oh yes, Harry. I was there with Sirius and your father for Easter in our fourth year and visited again several times after that. The summer holiday after our OWLs was when Sirius moved out of Grimmauld Place and got to stay at your grandparents' house. I spent more than a few weeks there too. It's strange really, Peter was invited as well every one of those times and there was always some strange reason for him not to be there. Anyway, Harry, I'll tell you more about the place later, and maybe you'll find some pictures among that treasure box, but let's go get breakfast now OK ?"

Harry spent breakfast time telling them only a little about what he'd found so far in his trunk. He was a bit hesitant at spilling all the trunk's surprises so held back quite a bit. After all he still had the information from his grandfather to read through and after that he'd allow them entry in his trunk so they could see it for themselves.

After another interesting session on old magic brought by the combined forces of Mr and Uncle Black it finally stopped raining during lunch time so it was decided to get a little game of quidditch going after lunch. Unfortunately within half an hour they had to give up as once again rain was pouring down. In an effort to get rid of some of their excess energy Remus suggested to run another DADA session, a plan that met with general approval.

During dinner that night Hermione and Ginny had been asking Remus about classes and courses and it had Harry thinking that the holiday was well and truly half way. It got him thinking of the DA classes, both the new and the old, and while in the mood for some pre-course work, Harry decided to set up some sort of an agenda of things to do in the different sessions.

After writing down the spells and charms he remembered teaching the DA he asked Hermione to look through the list certain she'd be able to come up with any he'd missed. With the combined assistance of Ginny, Hermione, Neville, Ron and the twins Harry was quickly able to produce a complete list. Remus took a look at the list of things the DA had practiced and voiced his astonishment over their accomplishment. With his help they also came up with a lesson plan of sorts for the Advanced DA. With a good few months worth of plans, Harry also suggested they could also ask the other DA members for suggestions.

Happy with the progress they'd made, Hermione suggested playing a game of Wizarding Taboo. What made the game difficult was that the clues the game offered and you weren't supposed to use while trying to get your team members to guess the word, were those you associated most with the word in the first place and you had to dig deep to come up with alternative clues.

When Harry had to make the others in his team guess the word "kitten" the game came up with these five clues : "soft", "furry", "purr", "small animal" and "a young Professor McGonagall" and it had Harry tongue tied and blushing for a short while. His team was unsuccessful in guessing from his other clues – it had felt as if his mind had gone blank – but were in stitches when they read the clues Harry'd been given. Harry himself in the mean time while still smiling was listening to the conversation Hermione, Ginny and her mum had. It seemed Ginny would have loved to have a cat, but with money so tight, the cost of one was a bit too high.

They laughed more than they were able to guess the words and they all got into bed still chuckling at some of the hints the twins had come up with.

Friday morning dawned, a radiant sun shining and busy at trying to evaporate all the moisture the rain of the last days had left behind. The newspaper carried a headline that nearly had Harry choking on his toast.

So sorry, Mr Potter. You are in the news again !

By R.E. Porter

After last week's report by Ms Rita Skeeter and the avalanche of support for both Mr Harry Potter and his guardian, today Mr Potter once again made the news, albeit in an indirect way.

"It is the view of the Ministry that a theoretical knowledge will be more than sufficient to get you through your examination." With this slogan Professor Umbridge taught the students at Hogwarts the theory behind Defence Against the Dark Arts, totally omitting any practical defence study. Especially for OWL and NEWT students this was not good news. And as the results show, the DADA scores were the lowest ever, neither was it for any other Hogwarts student.

But Mr Potter and his friends, certain that Lord Voldemort had indeed returned, wanted more practical knowledge and set up the Defence Association, also affectionately known as the DA or even Dumbledore's Army. Immediately after its creation, Professor Umbridge disbanded all student organizations thus making it illegal. But Mr Potter and his friends were not giving up and were able to set up weekly meetings on an irregular timeframe in order to practice Defence Against the Dark Arts. Sadly, near the end of the school year one of the members of the DA snitched to Professor Umbridge, thus not only ending the DA meetings but also actively removing Headmaster Dumbledore from the school.

"And how does this relate to today's news ?", do I hear you ask yourself. Yesterday afternoon, in a small muggle village dementors showed up. They weren't happy with just sucking away all happiness from the muggles but actively tried to kiss a 9-year-old muggleborn witch-to-be. The presence of her cousins, both members of Mr Potter's DA, saved the girl and most likely more people in the village from a fate worse than death.

Both boys, Messrs Colin and Dennis Creevey, claim their success stems from Mr Potter's demonstration and insistence that students can perform the Patronus charm.

I contacted several new graduates from Hogwarts and was quick to identify those who joined Mr Potter in the DA. Their grades are far superior to those of their classmates.

"Despite being angry and frustrated with the teachers (most were under heavy scrutiny from Professor – High Inquisitor – Headmistress Umbridge) Harry was a great teacher. I've gained more confidence and practical knowledge in those classes with Harry than I've done in the past few years. Professor Lupin was the only exception to the list of bad DADA teachers we've had !" states one of them.

On another note, as a result of these bad DADA results several parents have pressed charges against both Professor Umbridge and the Ministry for the ridiculous ministry guidelines that resulted in these low scores. A few parents even lodged complaints against Professor Umbridge for the use of a blood quill on her students while in detentions.

Be sure to look out for more on the Umbridge case in later editions.

Not happy to find his name plastered all over the newspaper headlines yet again Harry couldn't help but smile at the article anyway. Colin and Dennis Creevey, his two biggest supporters, would have to be the ones ! He was proud of their achievement though, they hadn't been able to come up with more than wisps of silver-white vapour at the end of the school year. With some time to spare before class would start Harry decided to write a few notes, the first of which to the Creevey brothers. A note also went out to Paul Watkins, regarding both the werewolf plans and the paintings and he asked if R.E. Porter might be his reporter friend. A third note was sent to Tonks, as he'd just remembered she was supposed to come on Saturday morning for DADA classes, but they'd booked Saturday morning for potions class as well and asked if it would suit to switch the class to the afternoon.

It was raining again by the time lunch started so Harry asked for help in sorting through his huge pile of pictures and photographs from the Black vault. Hermione had read a useful spell and they tested it out on the first 10 pictures they removed from one of the boxes. It looked to work fine, so they assembled all the pictures, Hermione cast the spell once more and for a few moments they found themselves in a whirlwind of pictures, but soon enough these settled down again, neatly piled in several stacks.

Picking up the last stack he found photos of a very young Sirius, a younger boy, with only a passing resemblance to Sirius, probably his brother, and a man who was most likely Sirius' dad. Remus, who was looking over Harry's shoulder confirmed his suspicion and added the picture was taken just before Sirius had started at Hogwarts. They found more pictures of Sirius and his family, strangely all dating before his Hogwarts years. But Remus explained that those later pictures might not have survived the wrath of Sirius' mother once he left his home. They also came across pictures of Uncle Black in his younger days and so many more people they didn't recognise. Sadly Mr Black and Uncle Black were able to identify only a few of them. Nevertheless Harry decided to have them all put into photo albums. It might not be possible to match names and faces for now, but maybe someday they'd find a way …

After the success with the Black family pictures, Harry got his limited stack of Potter pictures out, Hermione cast her spell again and it was with some trepidation that Harry started looking at these pictures. But Harry was pleasantly surprised to find various pictures of his parents, Sirius, Remus, a baby version of himself crawling on the floor, pictures of his grandparents taken in some grand room with a view Harry now suspected might be from Potter Manor. Remus too had leafed through the many pictures a small smile playing on his face. The more they returned in time the more fun it became for Harry. He noticed more baby pictures, this time his dad was gnawing on some or other toy and for the first time Harry had pictures of more than two generations of Potters. Ginny laughed as she saw some of Harry's ancestors and she couldn't help but tease him a little. Harry himself had paid more attention to the person as a whole, Ginny had seen however, that all the Potter men had very messy black hair.

They finished putting the pictures in photo albums by teatime and decided a swim would be nice to fill the time until dinner. By dinnertime Harry had received answers to the notes he'd sent earlier. The Creevey brothers regaled him with page after page of details of what had happened but stressed the fact they were happy Harry had taught them so well. Mr Watkins confirmed Mr Porter was indeed his friend Robert and that he'd sent a note to the painter on Harry's behalf already and expressed his interest in this new venture of his. From Tonks came a hastily scribbled note saying she'd surely find a way to entertain herself until the afternoon. After dinner Harry explained he wanted to check out the rest of the Potter trunk and the instructions from his grandfather and made his way up to his bedroom.

By the time Harry was ready for bed, his head was spinning. The trunk was a real miracle and Harry was wondering if this might be "the power the lord knows not". The idea behind the Potter Security Movement Protection was the safe location of the main trunk and the possibilities of the study room portals. As long as Harry carried around his little trunket he would have a way to escape from any location, no matter how well protected or guarded that place might be. With a notice-me-not charm it would be highly unlikely it would be removed from his person. If someone did try, that person would end up being stunned. Two taps of his fingers would get him the trunk, his thumb print and his voice to say the password gave access to his study room, which in turn would give access to whatever location Harry decided to set up behind any one of the four remaining wall hangings. Once he arrived at his new location, he needed to shrink his trunk and the safety measure would actively remove the trunk from his erstwhile prison, returning it as trunket to the first compartment of the trunk as it had upon first use.

His grandfather also spoke of several other features that didn't make any sense to Harry and he suspected they might be typical auror tactics related. He would have to look out for some auror manuals in his extended library. The other thing Harry could do was to allow people all kinds of different access to his trunk. He had immediately given Remus as well as all "his" house elves access to all areas of the trunk. He would give his friends a tour of the 5 first compartments and set up unlimited access to the library for them. They would also be allowed in the study room but only when Harry himself was around. He was still in doubts about what he'd do with Seamus and Dean once they returned to Hogwarts but decided that could wait for a few more weeks. He already had one location in mind to set up behind the wall hangings, but had to be at Hogwarts to set it up. He'd need to think about what room at Black Manor would be best suited to connect with anyway.

Breakfast Saturday morning was a strange affair. They were all bouncing between anticipation and apprehension regarding the upcoming potion lesson. First thing Elijah did was to hand over the draft version of the Wolf Liar plans and it was a bit of an anti climax when they next ended up reviewing their ingredient supplies and getting an overview of what they would be learning in the upcoming months. Elijah did mention he had an appointment with Professor Dumbledore on Tuesday at Hogwarts and would be having a look at the room they would be using. Their new teacher did say that from looking through the notes Harry and Ginny had made in class they lacked some basic knowledge about the ingredients and movements they used. From both their notes he was able to gather that the teacher might have been giving them the information in such an underhand way it would be easy to overlook. Elijah said he was working on a sort of manual for them, just to give them an overview of the basics they were supposed to know by now.

Elijah left just before lunch, promising to bring a potion ingredients list and the manual for their next class.

After a light lunch, Tonks got to see the lists they'd made earlier in the week regarding past and future DA classes. She was well impressed with the list and made a few suggestions for the Advanced Class. She ended up demonstrating them and Harry was quick to note them down on the list.

After dinner it was an eager Tonks who asked about the Potter trunk and Harry invited her, along with the others for the tour he'd planned to give them. As expected, Hermione was enamoured by the size of the library. The study room was a big hit for various reasons but the travelling home compartment hit the jackpot. Especially when Ron discovered the cool box to contain not only butterbeer and snacks but also firewhiskey to boot.

To Harry's surprise it turned out the work out room wasn't as empty as he had thought. Tonks had stepped inside to show them a few basic auror work out manoeuvres. The room had automatically provided her with the targets and objects she needed for her exercise. And the bathroom, well, Harry wasn't disappointed to hear the various reactions to his underwater paradise.

On Sunday morning Tonks suggested another short DADA session to practice the new spells they'd learned the day before and they eagerly accepted. Professor Dumbledore joined them for lunch and well after dessert had been served handed over the list of those who'd registered for the DA. Originally only 9 students had signed up, the 4 of them included. But after the article on the Creevey brothers had appeared several people had recognised the name they'd seen on their school letters and written in to ask to sign up after all.

When Harry looked over the list he was happy to see the names of most of last year's members but was surprised to see 2 of the original 9 to be Slytherins.

Harry's gut reaction was to decline their request and from Ron's reaction he'd had the same idea.

"Sir, are the two Slytherin students 6th years like us ?"

"Yes, Harry. They are. I see you have doubts to allow them to join you and I know I have no say in the matter but let me just ask you what the reasons would be not to include them ?"

Ron was quick to answer in Harry's stead.

"They are Slytherins, sir, isn't that reason enough ?"

In order to divert the situation a little Harry asked for some additional information.

"Professor Dumbledore, is there a certain procedure we need to follow regarding these study groups ? I know we have until the end of the second week to confirm if we continue or not, but what of confirmation of participation or notice of rejection ?"

"There's nothing about that written anywhere, but I believe most students take the cordial way to go about these things. Depending on the amount of people you need to contact it's done either in person or with a brief note."

"Thank you Professor, for letting us know these names already. We'll keep you updated on the situation, sir."

"That would be much appreciated, Harry. Thank you."

When Dumbledore retreated to the library, Ron was quick to pick the subject back up.

"Harry, are you mad ? You're surely not thinking to allow these slimy Slytherins in, are you ?"

"My first reaction was the same as yours, Ron, but think about it. For the last 5 years we've had at least shared potions classes with the Slytherins. Can you tell me who they are let alone what those two girls look like ? Because I certainly can't. They were not in the Inquisitorial Squad and they haven't ever said or done anything against me or us as a group, as far as I know. So please, just think about it, and we'll talk it over some time next week."

After a few moments of silence, Harry continued on a completely different note.

"Is everyone else just as sick as I am of all this rain ? Would you like an afternoon in the sun for a change ?"

Tonks, Ginny and Mrs Weasley smiled at the droll idea to change the weather just like that, but Harry warned everyone they had 15 minutes to prepare for an afternoon on a hot beach.

Harry himself first talked to the elves and told them where they were going and then told Professor Dumbledore to prepare for a move and to hold on to the book he was reading, that it would make the trip along with him.

Within 15 minutes everyone gathered in the Main Hall talking excitedly, not knowing what would happen. Without anyone noticing Harry said the incantation while thinking of sun and the white beach at Black Manor Island. The others were so preoccupied they hadn't even registered they'd moved house so Harry was quick to pretend nothing had happened. He walked closer to Professor Dumbledore and with a loud voice, asked if he wouldn't prefer to sit in the library to read the book. The headmaster must have realised what was going on and quickly played along. When he entered this library he couldn't help but be amazed at the view from the windows. It was a beautiful sunny day, and the white sandy beach, the green and lush foliage and the bluest sea presented quite a perfect picture after the dreary English summer so far.

The others in the hall only now stirred and were both disappointed and quite amused with Harry's prank. It wasn't until Tonks made her way back to the kitchen that they realised Harry had indeed been able to change the weather ! When Hermione wanted to go outside she found she couldn't open the doors. Ginny spotted the sun cream lying on the kitchen counter and suggested they might have to use that before being allowed out. When everyone was smothered in a good layer of the protective cream the doors swung open and they felt a wave of heat hit them.

They spent the rest of the afternoon and evening on the beach with either Dobby, Winky, Blythe or Beatrice providing them with plenty to drink or another tube of the sun cream to top up their protection against the sun. Dobby and Blythe produced a lovely dinner they ate in the relative coolness of the kitchen, only to return lazing on the beach shortly after. Even Professor Dumbledore had opted to take a seat in the shade of one of the palm trees and the house elves had taken turns to laze in the special little sun chairs that had appeared.

They returned to Black Manor and the cold English summer late that same Sunday and when asked, Harry replied he'd been thinking to spend at least a week there, once Hermione's parents joined them the next Friday or Saturday. Tonks immediately told Harry she'd come along if that was no problem and Harry laughed at her eagerness but quickly nodded his approval.

The lot of them went to bed with a lingering warm glow to their skin and happy smiles on their faces as they fell asleep.

With Remus going to Hogwarts for the day on Tuesday Mr Black and Remus switched their class slots so on this Monday morning they were once again put through their paces for a rigorous work out in DADA.

When they emerged from the third floor classroom just before lunch they decided to take a quick breath of fresh air so walked to the quidditch pitch to pick up a broom. Despite the slight drizzle they spent the next few minutes flying round the pitch and over the forest before returning now slightly damp to the house feeling refreshed and ready to take on the rest of the day.

After lunch Mrs Weasley said she would return to the Burrow for a few hours and that with Harry's permission she'd take Winky to bring back any produce from the Weasley garden that could be used in the next days. Harry gladly agreed and suggested that maybe Beatrice and Blythe might like to go too even only to just look around another home and garden. The two house elves perked up at the idea of an outing and Mrs Weasley gladly took off with her unusual visitors.

With the rain now coming down steadily and swimming out of the question so soon after lunch Harry asked Remus about the Marauder Map.

"Remus, how did you guys make the marauder map ? Could we make a similar one of the manor and grounds here, do you think ?"

The twins upon hearing Remus helped make the map stuttered a "What?" and Harry couldn't help but laugh at their surprise.

"I'm sorry guys, didn't I introduce you properly ? Gred, Forge, please meet Moony, one of the four Marauders."

"You ? Moony ? But ? Who ?"

The others were in stitches at the flabbergasted look on the twins' faces but Harry took pity.

"I realised you only heard us refer to Padfoot as Snuffles so you wouldn't have added up the clues. Have you ever really looked at my patronus, guys ? That's Prongs, my dad's animagus form and Sirius was Padfoot, Remus was and is Moony and …"

Harry stopped, he was still getting mad at the thought of Peter Pettigrew and had trouble to continue, but the twins had emerged from their surprise and finished the sentence for him.

"… and Scabbers, or Pettigrew is Wormtail, the rat."

"Yes," continued Remus, "and for what it's worth, at the time we were at Hogwarts, and making the map, I truly believe he was still our friend. It wasn't until after school, when we parted company, each following our own path in society that he was lured to the Dark. Originally it was just James, Sirius and myself, but with only the four of us in the Gryffindor dorm, soon enough Peter tagged along, and he has always remained a little bit of the outsider. He was dominated by his mother before school, in some way a bit by us while at school and when he left I guess he just needed someone else to "guide" him and he unfortunately ended up with Voldemort.

But enough of that. What happened is sad but it did happen and there's nothing we can do to change it. If you want a map of the manor and grounds, I'll gladly help. Too bad the Marauder Manual was destroyed, we kept all our notes in there."

Harry looked up at this, surprised to learn Remus thought the book was destroyed.

"Wait a minute, Moony !" he said and quickly ran up to his room and retrieved both the Marauder Manual and "Wolfie's Friends" from his old trunk.

"Did you mean this ?"

Remus beamed with happiness as he recognised the book. Harry was quick to explain.

"I found it amongst Sirius' things in the Black vault. There was also this other one, but I'm not sure you know of it ? It's about their research to become animagi."

Remus shook his head, too overcome with emotion. He smiled though when he saw the title of the book.

"Only Sirius, that daft bugger !"

Wanting to give Remus a little time to reminisce Harry started to gently direct everyone out on a small mission.

Hermione and the twins would look for additional help in the library while Ron and Neville prepared the formal dining room by moving a few of the chairs to the side. Ginny collected quills and inkwells and upon Harry's directions retrieved a blank notebook from his supply.

Harry went to ask Mr Black for some large parchments and explained the project they would be working on. Curious about the Marauders Map Harry went to retrieve it to show it to Mr Black. He was well impressed with the handiwork of the youngsters and was wondering out loud whether the boys would have asked Hogwarts for help.

Seeing Harry's curious look Mr Black explained how magical buildings with time would sort of think for themselves and develop human like characteristics. Mainly this would be about ways to please and protect its master and his guests. With a simple structure like Black Manor this would result in things like swimming aids for those the house sensed had need of them, or personalised brooms and clothing, or sliding banisters, and even providing images like you see from a pensieve. With a structure like Hogwarts it would manifest itself differently taking into account the size of the building and the fact there were so many guests or pupils most of the time.

It somehow made sense to Harry but he'd come back to the subject after he'd had time to process the information some more. For now they made their way back to the others.

Armed with ink and quills and several large sheets of parchments and a notebook to record the details of their work the group trooped into the large dining room and set off to produce the first ever Mischief Makers Map.

Harry spread the first parchment out on the table and they were away for an afternoon of discovery and fun. Harry especially enjoyed the notes the marauders had made and that Remus would now read out loud. The twins came up with outrageous suggestions to 'better' the map but research often showed that an albeit much toned down version could work. Neville came with a suggestion that as the grounds were included it would be good to have nametags showing different species. This time it was Mr Black and Remus who came up with the altered solution to the problem. Hermione was casting the required charms and Ginny was noting down all the used incantations with references to the books they'd used for their research and the alterations they came up with. By the time dinner arrived they had finished the incantations and the lay out of the house was on paper. Outside of the house they'd drawn they could see several labels in the middle of blank space. If the weather permitted they would go exploring the grounds tomorrow to flesh out their map.

After dinner the twins were asking Remus question after question about his marauder days and it didn't take long for everybody to stop pretending they weren't listening in on the conversation.

On Tuesday morning Mr Black told them a little of the Ministry and its working in his days and the many changes that took place throughout his lifetime alone. Knowing both Neville and himself would probably be covering this subject at some point in their Wizarding Society class, Harry took copious notes and asked questions when Mr Black said something that didn't immediately make sense to Harry. With Mr Black a pureblood wizard his knowledge of muggle society was limited and dated back to his own era so it sometimes took Hermione's further explanation before it became clearer for both Harry and Mr Black.

With Remus still gone that afternoon, they had decided to start work on the easy outside part of the map. Harry wanted to pick up the Mischief Makers Map but instead took hold of the spare empty parchment.

With the large blank sheet still in hand he was thinking it would be nice to have a look at what the finished product would look like. Mr Black had mentioned to ask the Manor for assistance. Sensing what felt very much like a chuckle Harry stared in awe at the text and lines that suddenly appeared on the parchment. Quickly spreading the sheet out on the table he heard Ginny who'd come to look for him gasp as she too took in the details that were visible. Little nametags looked different for girls, boys, ghosts and house elves, and the beings out in the grounds appeared as little drawings of their species with sometimes undecipherable names attached.

The others come to take a look too and with Ron and Neville's help they spread the three maps out to compare the three designs. The biggest difference was the mono colour version of both the wizard made maps, while there was plenty of colourful use on the Black Manor made map.

Neville asked if there was any way to set up some security measure, so that people or beasts or beings that weren't supposed to be wherever they were to show up clearly.

No sooner had he finished speaking when a red coloured tag was seen moving inside Hogwarts. Within seconds Lily was off with the map and a note from Harry for Remus. All they could do now was to wait !

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Author's Note :

It's been longer than I expected since my last update, my apologies for that, but real life doesn't always play nice. That said, I should be back to more regular posting, only not to the weekly update as before but instead every other week. That should give me the opportunity to run a little ahead again.

Thanks for reading. Would love some feedback from you though. If you have any questions about the story, please don't hesitate.

Have you enjoyed this (and previous) chapter(s) ? You might be interested to know the story is a few chapters further along and offers a little extra info and pictures on my yahoo group (for link see profile page).

cheers

kadedeetje