Ch13: Marauders' Map
It was a stormy day. The winds were so wild that several windows shattered, letting the mingled rain and snow into the corridors. Lessons were canceled and the house elves brought the meals into the common rooms, to spare the students exposure to the weather.
Lilly was quite bored. She had no homework to complete, no unread book and she had listened to her MP3 player so many times by then that she already knew all the songs by heart.
She tried to communicate telepathically with Dianna, who was sitting just as bored in the Ravenclaw common room. She managed to contact her, but a real conversation could not be held. It seemed like such communication took a lot of concentration and quite a bit of magic on the initiator's side. While she could keep such a connection for a short while, Dianna seemed unable to even initiate it.
Lilly started rummaging through her trunk, hoping to find something to occupy her. After pulling out almost all the contents of her trunk she found a piece of parchment which looked quite old and empty, yet it had been put in a protective envelope, so it must have been important. It didn't take her long to recall her conversation with her father before she went to Hogwarts. He had told her then that this was something from his father and it was very useful, yet she had to find how to use it by herself. Lilly had totally forgotten about it up to that moment. She thought it was time to find out.
She put the parchment on her pillow and sent all the other stuff back magically, so that everything settled down nicely. She then sat on her bed and closed the drapes to get some privacy, although she was alone in the dormitory at the moment.
Lilly unfolded the parchment and examined it. She could feel it was enchanted but she didn't know how. She tried to remember everything she had heard about her grandfather. She knew he was a prankster and was full of mischief while he attended Hogwarts. She actually wondered if he had ever really settled down, yet there was no way to find out. He was really up to no good at the time.
Her thoughts came back to the parchment. If it was something prepared by James Potter and his friends then it was probably protected by a password. It couldn't be something too elaborate, of that she felt sure, yet the possibilities were still endless. 'They were up to no good' she kept thinking. She then shrugged and tried her idea. She touched the parchment with her finger and said quietly "I'm up to no good".
Ink lines started spreading from the place where her finger touched. She looked with fascination at the image which was being drawn in front of her. It was a map of the whole castle with little dots moving on it, each with a name attached to it, showing the positions of the castle's inhabitants. She studied the map for a few minutes, trying to understand the magic behind it as well as noticing all the details of the castle of which she had not been aware before.
She found eight passages leading to Hogsmead. She knew most of them were already blocked due to the war – she had heard it during the adults' talks at home. The only one which was probably still open was the one starting under the Whomping Willow, yet she didn't really care. She could freely apparate from Hogwarts, so these passages were redundant for her.
She also noticed some hidden passages within the school, ones that could shorten the way between distant points. One was even connecting the corridor in front of the common room to the corridor passing near the Ravenclaw common room. She knew both her and Dianna would make good use for it.
Lilly heard footsteps on the stairs. Not wanting others to learn about this map she thought of how to turn it blank again. 'What would the marauders use it for?' she thought. 'Probably just for mischief.'
She tried whispering "mischief done". It didn't work. She tried a few more variations on the theme until "mischief accomplished" cleared the map, leaving only a blank parchment in her hand. She folded it neatly and tucked it under her pillow before opening the drapes and joining her classmates in the common room.
The storm died out during the night. Breakfast was still served in the common rooms, as the staff was busy repairing the windows and clearing the corridors from ice and silt, but lessons were supposed to continue as usual. Only Herbology was still canceled. The greenhouse was also affected by the storm and it would take another day or two to make it safe for the students again. This gave Lilly and Dianna some time to spend at the library.
Lilly was glad to spend some time with Dianna. Although kept apart for only a day, she already missed her and they couldn't have a real conversation using telepathy as they had found out. Lilly was anxious to tell Dianna all the details about the map. "Why don't we try to make a better map?" she suggested.
"I don't know how to do it. That is probably the result of some very special spells, ones which we have not learned yet. I doubt they are even taught at all," commented Dianna.
"We have not been taught apparition either," noted Lilly, "nor how to turn invisible or to create shields and pluck wands silently and wandlessly, yet we've done it. We just need to think what it is that we need and how we want it to look. Our magic will do the rest."
Dianna was quite skeptic, but she agreed to help. They discussed what they wanted and how to achieve it a little longer until they decided on the details. Lillian took a large parchment from her bag and placed it on the table. She then held two corners of the parchment in her hands while Dianna held the other two. Both were also holding their wands for better effect. They concentrated on their task for a moment. Faint lines started appearing on the parchment, turning gradually darker until a full map of the castle was drawn on the parchment. Lilly shook her wand over the map and many marked points appeared on it. The dots were of various colors and shapes, denoting the house and the year of the students and a different color for the staff.
The girls were delighted. They started studying the map, talking enthusiastically with each other until they noticed the librarian coming towards them. They went silent at once. Lilly waved her wand over the map and it went blank and folded itself neatly before the librarian had a chance to glance at it.
"Now, girls! You know this is no way to behave at the library! Don't let me catch you talking loudly again or I'll have to ban you from the library."
"Sorry, Mrs. Pince. This won't happen again!" both girls promised. The librarian looked at them some more, as if contemplating what to do and then smiled tightly. "It better not!" she said and returned to her place. She had already known these two were devoted to studying seriously and researching the library, yet such noise could not be tolerated.
It was nearly time for the next lesson. Lilly put the map in her bag as they left the library. "Can we make another map? I'd like one as well." Dianna was already thinking of all the uses she could get form such a map.
"I'll duplicate it before dinner," promised Lilly.
"How will you do it?" Dianna wondered.
"Just the way I made my damping wand," was the answer. "Do you still use your damping wand?" she added.
"Not anymore. I still overpower some spells occasionally but it is quite safe to use now. Do you?"
"Usually not. I still use it during transfiguration, though, as I need finer control for that. The training that we have done really helped me a lot." Lily sounded satisfied.
"It helped me as well. I think we may still need to train a bit, though."
"We can train this weekend. Maybe we can also visit Mom and Dad… Well, MY mom…"
Dianna laughed. "It's alright. I call Lady Black Mamman, so Mom can be Lady Potter."
They hugged each other before parting to their respective classes.
Narcissa left Friday evening, as usual. The girls didn't tell her of their programs, wanting it to be a surprise. Saturday morning, after having breakfast with their friends and telling them they will be practicing some more, the two girls apparated to the house at Godric Hollow.
Nobody seemed to be awake yet. Hermione's car was in the parking, testifying that she was already back from the hospital. "Mom has probably gone to bed as soon as she returned. These night shifts are very tiring for her," commented Lilly.
The girls approached the master bedroom door and listened attentively. They could hear no noise. Lillian made them invisible and they apparated to the other side of the door.
Harry was sleeping peacefully. His head was resting on Narcissa's breasts but he was hugging a very pregnant Hermione to his chest. Hermione seemed to be asleep as well, yet Narcissa was already awake. She was caressing Harry's head fondly with her free hand while the other was cradling both Harry and Hermione. A content smile was resting on her face, making both girls happy.
Lillian pressed Dianna's hand and they both apparated back to her room and played a computer game for awhile.
"Lilly!" they heard Rose before they could even see her. The littler girl hugged her sister fiercely before hugging Dianna as well, though not as enthusiastically. Her voice seemed to wake her brother. James came into the room a moment later, still bleary-eyed. He didn't hug any of the girls yet he stood as close to Lilly as he could.
"Where's Teddy?" asked Lilly a few minutes later, noticing that the older boy didn't join them yet.
"Andromeda invited him for the weekend," Rose told her.
"How come you are here?" asked James.
"We wanted to show something to Daddy and we also wanted to practice a bit."
"How long will you stay?" asked Rose.
"We must not stay much later then lunch." Her siblings seemed disappointed. "We promised Andrew and Julius to be back by dinner. Aunt Minnie would be angry if we are not back by then."
The noise seemed to reach the adults as well. A very sleepy Harry emerged from the master bedroom, wearing his shorts only. "What's this noise, children?" he asked.
"Lilly is here along with Dianna!" a very happy Rose informed him. It took him a bit to digest the information.
"Lilly?" he said, entering her room. "Why are you here?"
Lilly hugged her father first and then she told him: "I wanted to give you back the Marauders' Map. I know how precious it is for you. I also wanted to show you our version of the map."
Harry was still a bit sleepy. "I'm sorry; I just can't follow you. Let's go to the kitchen and by then I may better understand what you're saying." He then remembered his clothing, or rather – lack of. "I'll just wear something before joining you there…"
The four children went to the kitchen. While the house-elves were normally responsible for preparing food at the mansion and at other Potter and Black houses, Hermione made it a custom to not use house-elves at Godric Hollow, which meant that they had to prepare breakfast themselves. Dianna filled the kettle with water and put it on the stove while Lilly prepared all the necessary ingredients for the meal. She was not yet sure of her ability to prepare the meal. Breakfast had always been Harry's specialty.
Harry joined them soon, followed by Narcissa. They didn't want to wake Hermione after her night shift, though. Harry prepared breakfast. The girls ate a bit as well, enjoying the taste of home cooking.
"Now, can you please explain why you came here?" Harry asked the girls after finishing his breakfast.
"I've brought you back the Marauder Map."
"Don't you find it useful?" he wondered.
"It's quite useful, but we managed to make a better one. Do you want to see?"
They moved to the living room. Lilly took the shrunk parchment out of her denim pocket and tapped it once with her wand to enlarge it. She spread the seemingly blank parchment in front of her and then tapped it once again, making the map appear.
Harry could clearly see the improvement compared to the original map. "How did you make this map?" he asked.
"We didn't really make it. We only concentrated on what we wanted to achieve and let our magic do it for us," Lilly told him, leaving her father overwhelmed by the achievement.
Narcissa, who wasn't too interested to start with, came closer to see what impressed her husband so deeply. She took a closer look at the parchment and started noting the details. Once she understood what it was, she also felt overwhelmed.
The girls didn't wait for the adults to gain the power of speech again. "We're going out to practice," they said before apparating to the farther side of the backyard grove.
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