Author's Notes: This chapter was tough to write only because there's so much going on.
With the promise of anti-dementor lessons from Professor Lupin, Harry thought he might never have to hear his parents' deaths again other than in his nightmares.
Harry's mood took a definite upturn when he watched the match between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff that weekend. The weather had been clear and cheery, though cold, and the match had lasted a good hour and a half. He understood why the jostling crowd around him hadn't initially noticed when his broom had been jinxed his first year or when the Rogue Bludger had tailed him his second year. Instead of looking for the snitch, Harry watched the Chasers attempt to score Quaffles through the hoops and the Keepers defend the goalposts. It was an event unto itself. The Quaffle switched hands so frequently that it was at times difficult to keep up even with Harry's sharp eyes.
November creeped into December and Harry saw no hint of a dementor within the grounds of Hogwarts. The headmaster's past fury seemed to be keeping them at the gate. As the weeks dragged on Harry was sorely missing Quidditch practice. Instead, every morning he did his stretching and workout exercises to keep in shape. One morning, after he'd finished he saw that his roommates were all watching him with curious expressions. He wiped the sweat off his face with the towel he'd transfigured from an old shirt. "What?"
Crabbe and Goyle exchanged a look, and Crabbe nudged Draco gently, who didn't look at either of the large teens behind him.
"May we join in your exercise regime?" Draco asked loftily, gesturing to encompass Theodore in his request.
"I don't see any harm in it," Harry said. He picked up his wand and cast a Refreshening charm before the smell of his sweat and body odor choked them out of the room.
And exercise they did. Every morning at six, Harry woke them up by lighting the sconces on the wall, which burned the same sickly color of the Killing Curse. It was something that Harry only noticed because the frequency of his nightmares and flashbacks had considerably increased because of the dementor attacks.
The first time the other boys blearily got out of bed, Draco complained about the early hour.
Harry huffed. "Then go back to bed, so the rest of us can out-run you when something lethal starts chasing us."
Theodore laughed at Harry's joke, while Crabbe and Goyle tried to hide their helpless chuckles.
Red-faced, Draco stood up straight. "I hardly think that's accurate since you'd be the one staying behind while the rest of us with good sense fled."
"Maybe I wouldn't feel I had the need to if I knew everyone was safe," Harry countered.
After Draco had grumbled about Muggle-raised wizards, he seemed very focused on completing as many sets as he could.
As for the green fire, Draco didn't bat an eye at Harry's request to change them. Now they burned a normal cheery orange. The tension Harry had been fighting for weeks finally seeped out of him, and the following night he found his sleep was not as disturbed as it had been before. He wondered if he might do the same for the Slytherin common room…
It was two weeks before the end of the first term, the sky lightened one morning to a dazzling, opaline white and the muddy grounds were covered in glittery frost. Inside the castle, there was a buzz of Christmas in the air. Professor Flitwick had already decorated his classroom with shimmering lights that turned out to be real, fluttering fairies. The students were all happily discussing their plans for the holidays.
Apparently, Sally-Anne and Theodore had convinced their parents to stay over the holiday with Harry. Sally-Anne had said she needed to use the library extensively for a personal project and Theodore had said that for once he'd like to stay in one spot for more than a few days during holiday. Harry knew it was because they wanted to keep him company and he was glad for it.
Despite Draco's bluster about all the excitement at Malfoy Manor he'd have with Goyle and Crabbe and the presents he'd be sure to get, Harry sensed that his roommate had wanted to stay too. It appeared that Draco's father hadn't forgotten Harry's slight towards him. Harry thought that the grudge might hold for years longer. Harry promised to keep in contact at least once a week using the mirror Draco had gifted him. The other Slytherin girls, besides Sally-Anne, would be leaving for the holiday to be with their families.
Then, to everyone's delight except Harry's, there was to be another Hogsmeade trip on the very last weekend of the term.
"I can get all my Christmas shopping done there!" Theodore had said rather excitedly, and then noticed that Harry was very quiet. "Did you want to give me a list?"
"Yes, if you don't mind," Harry said.
"You ought to pay to have whatever you want wrapped and shipped to the person you want to gift it to," Theodore advised, "It'd be a lot less hassle, and it's really not that much more."
"Thanks. I'll give you money before you leave."
Resigned to the fact that he would be the only third year staying behind during another Hogsmeade weekend, Harry opened his trunk later that day and dug around through the titles of books he hadn't yet picked up to read. He'd already dog-eared the Vindictus Viridian books of curses and jinxes, the book on advanced Quidditch techniques, and The Ultimate Compendium of All Dark Creatures Known and Un-Known by the Nott Patriarchs. Passing over Hogwarts, A History, Harry looked at the two that were left: Magical Snakes and Serpents: A Parselmouth's Perspective by Quinn the Sly and Death Omens: What To Do When You Know The Worst Is Coming by Professor Sibyll Trelawney. Harry chose the one by the Parselmouth. Putting it in his bag, Harry re-locked his trunk and went to his afternoon class.
On the morning of the Hogsmeade trip, Harry handed the Galleons he had leftover from his trip to Diagon Alley last year and list to Theodore. Harry then bid both Theodore and Sally-Anne a quick farewell. All of the students heading to Hogsmeade were wrapped up in cloaks and scarves as it'd started to snow. Bulstrode looked lost in thought, but Pansy, Daphne, and Tracey all waved at Harry when he lifted a hand in farewell. Draco had merely nodded towards Harry with a look in his eyes that he was thinking of more important things. Harry only remembered then that he was supposed to have talked to Draco about Finnigan.
"Draco," Harry called out.
The other Slytherin stopped and turned back with a questioning look.
Harry walked down the steps, until he was close enough that he wouldn't be overheard by eavesdroppers. "Don't take it too far or I'm going to tell everyone what you've done."
When Draco met his eyes, eager malice had alighted in his eyes. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
Harry forced his eyes to grow cold because it was the only thing that Draco would take seriously. "Don't. You don't want to get on my bad side."
Draco bowed, though to anyone else watching it would look like he was mocking Harry. "Less work for me if that's how you want it," he murmured. Then he turned on a foot on the slippery snow. "I can't help you, Potter! You should take it up with your overprotective guardian," he said more loudly. "Crabbe, Goyle!" He barked out.
With an amused snort at Draco's misleading words, Harry turned and entered Hogwarts alone. He went down the marble staircase, heading back to the Slytherin dungeons.
After several minutes, Ginny didn't appear out of nowhere despite Harry's expectation. The corridor was chilly and everything felt quiet and still, even though Harry was aware that it was only the third years and many of the older years who'd gone to Hogsmeade to finish Christmas shopping.
"Psst! Harry!"
He turned with his hand draped over his wand. Fred and George Weasley were peering out from behind a set of armor where an unused classroom lay. Uneasily, Harry stepped towards them. "Why are you down here?"
"We've come to give you a bit of festive cheer for the holiday," Fred said with a mysterious wink.
"Had to send our sister away before we could," George added.
"Come in and have a chat with us." They both nodded toward the empty classroom behind them.
Harry's intuition did not feel that was wise. "I think I'll pass." Before he could whip out his wand, the larger twins grabbed an arm each and dragged him towards the classroom. "Let me go!"
"Blimey, he acts like we're going to drag him through a ritual full of Dark Magic," George said with a laugh.
That confused Harry because prior experience with Dudley and his gang informed him that this sort of situation would inevitably lead to something extremely unpleasant. That was how the world worked.
"Now that you mention it... what do Slytherins do for fun, George?"
"Bully, bully, bully!" They caroused at each other over Harry's head.
"It's two against one!" Harry shouted, not strong enough to wrench his arms from their grip. "Not very fair—"
"If bullying passes for a good time, it's no wonder he's defensive," Fred said with pity in his tone as they kicked the door shut behind them.
"Well, why else would you ambush me and drag me into a classroom?" Harry continued struggling, but they were bigger than him and had a firm hold.
The twins exchanged another look, "And paranoid!"
"Oh, bless him. He doesn't understand," George said.
"Let me go then!" Harry toppled to the floor when they released him on a light toss. The very next moment he had recovered and jumped to his feet. Harry yanked out his wand and pointed it at the twin redheads. "What's this all about?" He kept switching his wand from one to the other.
"Now, Harry. We're freeing you. It's our Christmas present to you," Fred said as if he were three.
That didn't alleviate his worries. He wondered which one he should hex first. "What?"
"Put your wand down and we'll show you," he insisted.
Harry choked out a laugh. "I haven't had the best luck when I'm outmatched and someone tells me to disarm myself."
"Ah, when you put it like that…" George gestured towards his twin. "Go on. Show it to him, Fred."
Fred slowly opened his robes and pulled out a thick folded piece of parchment.
"Put it on the ground and the both of you can step back," Harry said.
"We really need to teach you to lighten up," Fred told him, offering the parchment. "I'm not going to bite. I swear it, Harry."
Harry's eyes darted from one and then the other. George took a step back, showing that he didn't hold a wand in his hands. When Harry thought the both of them had grown exasperated enough, he snatched the parchment from Fred's hands, wand still raised. He flipped it open. The old parchment was blank. "What's this rubbish?"
"What's this rubbish, he says," George said, shaking his head sadly. "That there, dear Harry, is the secret to our success."
Frowning, Harry looked at it more closely. In the back of his mind, he wondered if this was an elaborate trap to lower his guard. What benefit would it be to them? If they were going to bully him, it surely would have started by now.
"It's a wrench, giving it to you," Fred said. "But we decided last night that your needs are far greater than ours."
"What success?" Harry said, eyeing the yellowed, old parchment. "You're a couple of pranksters who drive the professors and Filch absolutely barmy."
"Oh, we're terribly hurt to hear that. I suppose you've never tried to buy a Dungbomb—"
"Or a Stink Pellet," George interrupted.
"Or any of the other Zonko's or Honeydukes' products we regularly smuggle in from Hogsmeade," Fred finished.
"Anyway, we know all the secret passageways by heart, so we bequeath it to you. We don't really need it anymore," George said wistfully.
Harry finally lowered his wand, but didn't put it away. It looked like a piece of parchment. Harry knew that in dealings with magic, just like creatures, harmless-looking objects were often much more than they appeared. Additionally, Ron had said that his brothers knew a way to Hogsmeade as Fred was claiming. "Is this… a map?"
Fred and George lit up with bright grins. "Oh, yes!"
"Where'd you get it?"
The twins exchanged a glance. "Well, when we were in our first year," George began, "young, carefree, and innocent—"
Harry snorted derisively. He doubted they had ever been such.
"Well," George amended, "More innocent than we are now—we got in a spot of bother with Filch."
"We let off a Dungbomb in a corridor and it upset him for some reason—" Fred said as if he had no idea why that would be.
"So he hauled us off to his office and started threatening us with the usual—"
"Disembowelment—"
"Detention."
"—and we couldn't help noticing a drawer in one of his filing cabinets… it had a very interesting label, didn't it, George." Fred grinned wickedly at his twin.
"Don't tell me. Was it marked Confiscated and Highly Dangerous?" Harry said, unable to help the grin forming on his face.
"Told you he was perfect," George said to his twin.
"Right, Harry. George caused a diversion by dropping another Dungbomb, and I whipped the drawer open, and grabbed—that."
"We don't reckon Filch ever found out how to work it. He probably suspected. Otherwise he would have never confiscated it."
"How do you work it?" Harry asked, offering the ragged old parchment towards them.
"Not going to hex us are you?"
"Or send a Jelly-Legs Curse at us?"
With a sigh, Harry holstered his wand in a blatant motion. "There. See?"
"Aw, our favorite Parselmouth trusts us, George."
"I'm the only Parselmouth in Hogwarts," Harry informed him.
"And our favorite," the twins said, stepping into his personal space. Harry forced himself to relax remembering that he would be able to spell off a counter-attack better if he wasn't tense.
"Fred, if you will?" George gestured to the parchment
Fred took out his wand slowly and recited, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." He tapped the parchment, and at once, thin ink lines began to spread like a spider's web from the point that Fred's wand had touched. The lines joined each other, they crisscrossed; they fanned into every corner of the parchment. Ink flooded into shapes and designs.
Then words began to blossom across the top, great, curly green words that proclaimed:
Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs
Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers
are proud to present
The Marauder's Map
"We owe them so much," George said with obvious gratitude.
"Noble men, working tirelessly to help a new generation of lawbreakers," Fred said solemnly.
Bewildered, Harry looked up at the twins. "You're really giving a map to me?"
"Of course. Where've you been? That's what we said, innit?"
"But... but why?"
The twins pulled away. "A little bird told us you've been in detention—"
"With old Snivellus every week this term—"
"More detentions than us even. Right Fred?"
"Can't deny that. Not after what happened to his Potions Lab the last time—"
"Gratuitous explosions—"
"Outright theft of Restricted ingredients—"
"Transfiguration of every cauldron into a Kneazle."
Harry snorted, laughing. He didn't know what any of that had to do with the map but he could imagine that greasy-haired git's reaction to a roomful of Kneazles.
"Oh, you like that? Well, then you should look at the Marauder's map."
"It'll help you avoid getting caught again—"
"And help you sneak out—"
"Or get up to general mischief and mayhem," they said together.
Flipping pieces aside, Harry opened it. He was amazed by the amount of work that must have gone into it. The map showed every detail of the Hogwarts castle and grounds. "Hang on. This is Hogwarts, not Hogsmeade…"
Harry's words faded when he saw that there were the tiny drops of ink in the shape of feet, moving around. And each was labeled in miniscule writing. Bringing the parchment to closer to his face, Harry realized it was a name. The label said Albus Dumbledore and he was pacing in a room that was labeled Headmaster's Study. "Is that… is that really…?" The ramifications of what he held was immense.
"Dumbledore," Fred said with a broad grin.
"In his study," George added.
"Pacing."
"Does that a lot."
Harry peered at it in awe. His eyes automatically moved to another moving label and saw that Mrs. Norris was currently prowling around the second floor. The speedy label was Peeves the Poltergeist bouncing around the trophy room.
"So this map of Hogwarts shows…" Harry began.
"Everyone," George answered.
"Everything," Fred said.
"Where they are—"
"What they're doing—"
"Every minute—"
"Every day—"
Bloody hell, Harry thought. He flipped through the map until he found their location in the Alchemy Classroom. His ink feet and Fred and George's were unmoving. He stepped to the left and saw his left foot move and then his right the very instant he moved. If… If someone ever had gotten a hold of this, he would have been in grave danger if he ever traveled alone. It explained how the Weasley twins had ambushed him in in the corridor during his first Christmas holiday at Hogwarts, how they had ambushed him today.
"Now, there are seven passageways out of the castle," George declared.
"Filch knows these four." Fred pointed at each of them. "But we're sure that we're the only ones who know about these." His fingers quickly went to the remaining three. "And don't bother with the one behind the mirror on the fourth floor. We used it until last winter, but now it's caved in—completely blocked."
George pointed to the one out in the middle of Hogwarts lawn. "And we don't reckon anyone's ever used this one because the Whomping Willow's planted right over the entrance."
Harry's mind immediately flung back to another conversation. 'That tree was planted the same year that I arrived at Hogwarts—'
The Gryffindor Beaters both brought their hands back. "So naturally we recommend this one." Then they pointed to the third floor corridor. "The One-eyed Witch passageway will lead you straight into the cellar of Honeydukes. We've used it loads of times. If there's ever a password to use, the map will tell you all you need to know."
"Don't the owners have a problem with you using their cellar?" Harry asked.
"We have an agreement with the Honeydukes. We help them around their store free of charge and they allow our use of the passageway without informing the headmaster of our unauthorized traveling," George answered.
"They know you're coming. Herman seemed especially tickled by the idea. He said he'd help you with a Disillusionment charm if you'd like to go around Hogsmeade during the day when the dementors aren't patrolling," Fred said.
"Right, best we hurry, Snape is heading this way," George said briskly, pointing at the map. Harry thought they were rather relaxed when the Slytherin Head of House would be nearly on top of them in thirty seconds or less. "Now, don't forget to wipe it after you've used it—"
"Or else anyone can read it," Fred said warningly, "Give it a tap and say—"
"Mischief managed!" George said, demonstrating with his wand.
Harry shoved it into the back pocket of his trousers under his robes, stepped back quickly, and took out his wand again.
The twins looked affronted. "Hey—"
"What—"
"Trust me and play along," Harry said. He was already imagining that they had dragged him in here to do terrible things to him.
In a moment, the door swung open, and Snape stepped in peering at them with a nasty look. "Well, well. What do we have here? Two Gryffindors and a scion of Potter scheming in a dark room?"
"Is that what it looks like?" Harry retorted angrily, wand still pointed at the Weasley twins.
Immediately, the Potions Master's expression shuttered. "My, what would Minerva think, dragging a third year student into an unused classroom… I wonder."
The Weasley twins laughed good-naturedly. "Nothing quite as extensive as your perverted mind can draw up, I expect," Fred taunted.
"We only wanted to cheer him up a bit, since you've kindly left him the odd one out in his year," George said.
"And we would've offered to smuggle you out if you'd given us half a chance," the other stated more solemnly to Harry.
Blinking at him, Harry felt surprised and lowered his wand.
Snape's nostrils flared. "Forty points from Gryffindor, and if I catch you down here again detention is the least of your concern," he said menacingly.
The Weasley twins laughed, smirking in an entirely satisfied way, and ran out of the room, jeering. "Snape, Snape, Severus Snape!" They caroused.
"Ten more points from Gryffindor for being obnoxiously loud in the corridor!" He roared.
Thinking of his cupboard, Harry took in a deep breath. His hand was still tightly gripping his wand. When the Potions Master said nothing else, Harry turned to leave the room.
"Lupin tells me you've asked for extra lessons," Snape said.
Harry paused at the door, turning so he stood sideways in the doorway. "Did he?" Harry wondered if he'd be disallowed from discovering exactly why Professor Lupin was suspect in letting Black in.
Snape snorted. "I will allow these lessons, so long as they lie outside a certain time frame…"
"Yes, sir," Harry said. He neither desired to be infected by Lycanthropy nor wanted to watch the gruesome transformation forced by the full moon. "May I go?"
"Next time, you will be escorted by first or second years should you intend to be somewhere outside of the Slytherin House on Hogsmeade weekends."
A look of anger flashed across Harry's face at the thought of the younger students following after him like a pack of lost puppies.
"No? I could assign outside work to keep you preoccupied."
"I want my cloak back, sir."
"Your Spellfast cloak has not yet been repaired."
"No," Harry hissed through clenched teeth, "My Invisibility Cloak!"
"It is mine as per our agreement."
Harry was stunned, and then anger filled him, and he had to force himself to keep his wand pointed at the ground. "That—but that was my dad's!"
"You will receive it at a later date. I don't trust you not to wander about with Black on the loose," Snape said with harsh tone.
Harry directed a look of pure loathing past the Death Eater. "I don't care about Black. I just want to go to Hogsmeade before I turn thirty."
"Oh yes, you expect me to believe that you want to trot off to Hogsmeade for a spot of fun…? When you actually want to be the one to catch Black on your own..." Snape smirked. "Tut, tut, Potter. Can't be very cunning when I am quite accustomed to how your mind works."
With a wordless growl, Harry stormed out of the classroom and down the corridor. That greasy-haired git!
At the Thin Lady's portrait, he gave her the password and rushed down the stairs into the common room. Furiously walking past several timid first years to the dormitory stairwell, Harry took the steps two at a time.
Once inside his room, excitement flooded through Harry, and he laughed happily in the empty room. He'd finally gotten something past Snape! Harry knew very well it only worked because he believed the lie with everything he had, acted more or less normally, and he hadn't met the adult's eyes, so Snape couldn't read his mind—or whatever-it-was a Legilimens did. That Snape suspected that Harry wanted to catch Black all by himself wasn't exactly a shocker. The adult always presumed the worst case scenario. Why else did he bother to have Harry watched by his housemates?
Pulling the map out of his trousers, Harry toed off his boots and hopped onto the bed. He laid the map out for inspection. He knew it was a powerful magical object that could be used to attack or steal from other students. He also knew that there was no proper justification for its use either. Not only did it present a security breach of Hogwarts, it invaded the privacy of others. Harry was inordinately glad that the twins had decided to pass it along to him and not to Ron Weasley or any of the Gryffindor boys his age. Harry could just imagine the damage and chaos they'd wreak upon their enemies and the school-at-large. The only reason why Harry wanted to keep it was because he had no desire to live through another year ignorant of the dangerous goings-on and evil lurking about.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," he whispered, tapping the map with his wand. After the map had reformed, Harry traced his finger along the One-Eyed Witch's passage to Honeydukes. For a second, Harry thought about going there. Unfortunately, his sneaking out would result in getting caught, even if he'd been Disillusioned by Mr. Honeyduke. In addition, he couldn't discount Theodore's information about any Alerting Spells notifying the headmaster. Harry didn't want to risk the passageway yet.
His finger drew down to the entrance to the passageway where the Whomping Willow was planted. He wasn't insane enough to try to enter it after what had happened last year. Obviously there was some connection between Professor Lupin's arrival as a student and the violent tree being planted...
If there was a passageway meant to be used, then that meant that the Whomping Willow could be stopped momentarily. He couldn't very well ask Professor Lupin about it. For one, the adult might be using it now during his gruesome transformations and wouldn't want Harry to stoop in for a peek, even if Harry asserted that he would never want to do such a thing. For another, it would be the perfect place for an Animagus to hide. Harry knew he was making a lot of assumptions, but it was a thought to keep in mind. Black could just as easily be living in the Forbidden Forest...
Harry decided he would watch the map, try to figure out any unusual patterns of the staff or strangers coming and going from the school, and ignore the rest of the student population out of common decency… Before that, he flipped through the map, searching out the one name that had caused him such misery that year: Sirius Black.
Even though he couldn't find the name, a hatred such as he had never known before was coursing through Harry like poison. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes. He imagined Black kneeling before Voldemort in his deep voice, 'It has happened, my Lord… the Potters have made me their Secret-Keeper…' And then Voldemort was laughing at the news, the same laugh that Harry heard as his mother pleaded to have his life spared. He imagined Black going to his parents' house glowing with happiness after Voldemort had done the deed, happy to have stolen their son from them to raise as his own. Harry imagined Black confronting Pettigrew (a faceless man), likely the only one who'd bore witness to Black becoming a Secret-Keeper, and blasting him into a thousand pieces…
But what if it wasn't him?
Draco's suspicions at Wizarding justice being miscarried hung like heavy doubt in Harry's mind. Harry wanted someone to blame for taking his parents away, for leaving him alone to deal with the horrible Dursleys. Then after he was taken from them, he'd been delivered to the greasy-haired Potions Master who only agreed to the arrangement because of his duty to the headmaster.
Even Hagrid had been unjustly accused fifty years ago, Harry's doubt whispered. Hagrid had been expelled and his wand broken in two without even being a Parselmouth…
That was the decision of a headmaster frantic to keep the panicked students under control, his logic reasoned, you'd think a whole courtroom of wizards and witches in the Wizengamot couldn't have figured out what had really happened for themselves? Azkaban is not a place to send people to for nothing.
But last year, Hagrid had spent time in Azkaban until it was found out who was really opening the Chamber of Secrets…They hadn't known whether or not he was truly the culprit.
Harry blanched in realization. Did magical people not have an enchanted holding cell for the accused? The idea of someone being sent to Azkaban on false charges… The idea that Sirius Black could be innocent led to Harry's horrified realization that innocent people might be feeding dementors this very instant.
His pale fingers traced Rubeus Hagrid's label, meandering around the edge of the Forbidden Forest. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize… should've found out who was doing it sooner," Harry whispered. Hagrid had unjustly spent two months in Azkaban; he had to be very brave indeed to walk knowingly into a dark place full of dementors. Harry would have run away rather than have his good memories stolen or look eye to eye with dark madness.
"Mischief Managed." He tapped the map with his wand.
Harry looked around the empty room. Where could he keep it where it would be safe? If he put it anywhere, it would be found by Draco who couldn't keep his questing fingers from Harry's possessions. When confronted, the other teen had only given a half-hearted apology about it. Harry really hadn't expected anything different.
The parchment was too bulky and noticeable under his cloak and robes to keep it there.
An idea came to him and he jumped up, unlocking his trunk. Digging out his old burlap sack, Harry looked at it for a moment, imagining what shape and form could be most useful for what he needed. Having this visualization in mind, Harry Transfigured it into a small, green leather pouch with drawstrings. He opened it and slipped his thumbs into the neck; it was just wide enough for a rolled parchment to slip through. Then he placed an Extension Charm on it. Taking an essay he'd gotten back last week, he pushed it through and closed the pouch. There was no noticeable bulge or outward defacement.
Opening it up, he reached in and took the essay out, unfurling it to check for damage. It was all right.
Satisfied with his spellwork, Harry grabbed the map and shoved it into the successfully Extended pouch. Closed, the pouch fit into the palm of his hand, a size that would easily fit inside his pocket… Placing it inside an inner pocket of his robes, he stepped in front of Draco's full-length mirror. No one would notice a thing.
With a triumphant look at his reflection, Harry grabbed his schoolbag and bounded back to his bed. He'd get some reading done before lunch…
All through dinner Theodore and Sally-Anne were looking at him nervously. Harry had to think about it for a moment before it came to him. He hadn't been moody ever since they returned from Hogsmeade an hour prior, bearing the gifts he'd asked not to be sent out by Owl Post.
"Don't worry," he told them as they walked to the Slytherin common room from the Great Hall. "I've gotten over not going. Besides, I've met the first years. They're not as immature and nosy as I thought they'd be." Harry grimaced. "Though I could do without their hero-worship."
Sally-Anne smiled. "Well, you are their role model…"
"Some role model I am," Harry groused. "I've probably had more detention from Snape than all the Slytherins combined, and I can't play my favorite sport without getting attacked."
"I imagine the Quidditch scouts would love that," Theodore said and then impersonated Harry's congenial tone, " 'I'm so terribly sorry, sir, but if you sign me on I can only guarantee unlucky things will happen to me, and I don't think you could afford the numerous visits to the hospital I'd require'."
"I already said I wasn't going to play professionally, even before I realized flying on a broom was hazardous for my health."
"Did I just hear Harry Potter say that something was hazardous to his health?" Draco's smug voice said from behind cutting through the crowded Dungeon corridor.
"You shut up," Harry said with a mean tone. There was only one way to relate to Draco, Harry had decided. He turned with playful jig of his eyebrows and continued walking sideways. "And I'll remind you that the Snitch is to be chased, not the other way around."
"How dare you imply that I am afraid of tiny little Snitch," Draco parried with a cruel tone just as jokingly. The shadows played over his face as they passed by the sconces lighting the dungeon corridor.
"No," Harry said, "I'm only worried that you've been on the bench for so long that you've forgotten how to play without me to find it for you first."
Theodore and Sally-Anne burst into surprised laughter, while Draco narrowed his eyes with thinned lips.
Harry's sneering expression melted into a good-humored grin. He stuck his nose in the air with the same attitude as Draco had on many occasions. "I think it's wonderful that a Muggle-raised Wizard's learned how to provoke someone, wouldn't you?" He drawled in a haughty tone he thought was very much Draco's.
"Very spot-on, Harry," Theodore said as Sally-Anne giggled.
The surprise came when Draco let out high-pitched chortle which he then cut off with a dignified cough. "Yes, quite," he agreed. "All joking aside, a certain bully won't be troubling you anymore."
Harry had wondered the very moment he'd gone to dinner when the Gryffindor table remained mysteriously quiet. He'd been a little worried until he'd met the burning blue gaze from Seamus Finnigan, who appeared unharmed from whatever had happened at Hogsmeade.
"You don't say? I'm glad he's come to his senses."
Crabbe and Goyle chuckled nastily, nodding to one another. "Heh, Finny, won't be botherin' ya no more, Potter, not after we were done with 'im," Crabbe said with a lop-sided smirk, slapping a fist into his other hand menacingly.
Harry flicked his eyes to them and then to Draco, raising an eyebrow. How far did they take their bullying?
"Hush up. I've told you before: don't gloat in public," Draco said as if he was exasperated with them rather than angry, a thin line that had taken Harry some time to uncover, since the two hulking teens hardly spoke.
Crabbe scowled and Goyle looked contrite. Harry pondered over whether the two dim-witted boys were more like brothers to Draco than simple lackeys. They weren't treated like Pike Lestrange, but they weren't treated like dirt either.
Sally-Anne and Theodore had pulled ahead of them, chatting animatedly about their parents' plans for the holiday. It reminded Harry of a question he had.
"Draco, when are you available to talk over the holiday?"
Appearing pleased, Draco nodded to himself. "Half past seven, Monday mornings?"
Harry nodded, knowing that everyone would be leaving mid-morning tomorrow as it was.
When Harry woke the next day, he led the daily exercise like it was any other day. In the common room, Draco had excused himself to hurry after a fifth year that Harry didn't know, his hulking pawns following. So, Theodore and Harry left out the portrait-hole.
"Uzbekistan is where Da wants to go next. He wanted me to go with him because the Cryptodingists have recently discovered magical ruins of unknown origin. Da thinks it was a colony of free elves based off the large amount of decorative plateware uncovered. I still told him no. Honestly, how many times do I get the chance to experience normal, age-appropriate activities with a friend?"
Harry thought a colony of free house-elves was a fascinating concept. "Age-appropriate?"
Theodore grinned. "How many wizards do you know have been part of a team to take down a rogue Nundu?"
"A Nundu?" Harry knew it was a type of poison-breathing leopard with venomous claws and was considered more dangerous than a clutch of full-grown dragons. "You killed a Nundu?"
"No, can't use magic outside of school. I was part of the support group providing reconnaissance and such, and if anything went wrong when the attack group charged I was still in the range of—"
"Theo, I need to speak to you. It's urgent," Zabini said, glancing directly at Harry as if to say that he'd prefer if they were private.
After an awkward moment because Harry had expected Theodore to insist on meeting with the Gryffindor later, Harry said, "I'll go on ahead to breakfast, the stairs aren't much farther."
Theodore nodded with a curious look towards the Gryffindor. "Muffliato."
Anything else they might have said filled Harry's ears with distinct buzzing, until he had turned the corner that led straight to the stairs. He was halfway there when he heard wheezing, a rattling like someone with lungs full of water. Harry froze, drawing his wand. The corridor was chilly. He wasn't experiencing any of the other symptoms yet nor was his Bewitched watch cold.
"Lumos Pyros!" He called out to lighten the branched off passageway where the sconces had gone dark.
Stumbling back, Harry let out a startled shout. A tall, black-hooded dementor was gliding towards him with that horrible wheezing sound. A rotten, glistening hand reaching out for him. Scared, he lifted up his wand, thinking of his Slytherin family. "Expecto Patronum!"
A mighty, incorporeal stag burst out the tip of his wand, head full of forward-angled antlers, charging with deadly intent. It was so bright and lovely that Harry's heart was even lighter looking upon it.
Suddenly the dementor let out a scream that sounded like multiple people, and Harry's Patronus ran straight through the creature.
"Harry!" He looked up to see that Theodore had run around the corner, wand drawn. His friend floundered for a moment before grinning. "I see you have things under control…"
"The dementor didn't affect me at all! I didn't feel a thing!"
Theodore glanced away half-amused and half-embarrassed, and then his expression was entirely amused. "Good work! … Too bad that wasn't a dementor…"
Harry turned to see that three shapes were fighting with the large black, torn dementor robe, the bluish-grey arm abandoned on the ground. Confusion filtered through his joy and then anger as three heads popped out.
His Bewitched watch was still warm. Harry should've known it wasn't a real dementor. It made absolutely no sense why there would be one inside Hogwarts! "That was a rather low and cowardly trick for three Gryffindors," Harry said angrily.
A young Gryffindor, who Harry didn't know, was blushing furiously, stammering apologies and feeble excuses about it just being a stupid prank, and the most unassuming Gryffindor of his year, Dean Thomas, didn't meet Harry's flat stare.
Seamus Finnigan laughed. "Did you see his face?" Finnigan mimed a frightened look and weak shout. "Oh, no! The dementor's comin' ta Kiss me!"
The anger Harry had… began to ebb when he realized what the prank meant for Finnigan. He couldn't help feeling a little sorry for him. "You must be an idiot if whatever Draco told you in Hogsmeade didn't frighten you away from being a bully." He glanced at Theodore who was waiting for him by the staircase and then turned his back to Finnigan.
"Oi! Don't turn your back on me, Scarhead!" The hot-headed Gryffindor yelled, but Harry ignored him. His favored nickname among the Slytherins didn't make a very good insult. "Snake-face! Coward!"
Leaving the angry Gryffindor behind, the Slytherins climbed the stairs calmly. Then Theodore said, "Professor Lupin could have hired them to frighten you and build up your self-confidence."
"I doubt it. He's not the type."
"At least you seem to have gotten the hang of summoning an incorporeal Patronus…"
Harry smiled because Theodore was right. He hadn't properly cast his Patronus since Snape's DADA lesson. "So, did Zabini have something urgent to say or was the whole point to separate us?"
"He had to tell me something, but I wouldn't put it past him. More efficient that way," Theodore said amiably. "I don't blame him for his devious tactics… I'd hate to be put in Gryffindor myself with all their blustery self-righteousness."
At the Slytherin long table, Crabbe and Goyle had left room on either side of Draco. Goyle was speaking quietly with Bulstrode and Crabbe was laughing loudly with Pike Lestrange. When Harry and Theodore finally sat down on either side of Draco, they were asked, "What took you so long?"
The two exchanged a glance past the blond teen between them. 'You or me?' Theodore's eyes seemed to say. Harry nodded towards him, not wanting to be the one to tell Draco that whatever he'd done to threaten Finnigan hadn't stuck.
Draco let out an exasperated sigh. "What's the matter? Out with it."
Very casually, Theodore leaned back, gesturing towards Harry. "Finnigan and a couple of accomplices pretended to be a rather convincing dementor," he said.
A look of pure murder flew across Draco's face, and he laid his hands palm down on the table. Since he wasn't going for his wand it meant that he wasn't going to hex Finnigan, who had just rejoined the Gryffindor table laughing about his successful prank.
"I'll take care of it," Draco promised. Harry had never seen his face so sinister. It was too chilling to disbelieve.
"Don't hurt him. It was just a stupid, harmless prank," Harry said.
"What I plan to do will only hurt him indirectly."
"Don't hex anyone to get back at him, either," Harry clarified.
"Please. My plans are more sophisticated than that." Draco turned to Theodore. "Do you still have that Dark Creature Detector you showed me?"
Theodore nodded and the two teens began to haggle over the price for said item, changing the subject entirely.
Scooping up a large scoop of mash, Harry ate. Manipulating a bully to not harshly bully his own bully left him with an unpleasant feeling. If only people treated everyone nicely, then he wouldn't have this problem.