Arcturus Black
By: Katerinaki
Published: 10/14/2014
Beta'ed: No
Notes: Some canon things and again I think I'm pushing the edge of characterization on a few of the established characters. So please let me know what you think. Thanks!
-Katerinaki
Chapter 10: What the Weasleys Found
"And then on Boxing Day, we went to the local panto about Jack and the Beanstalk. The Muggle one, because Ted doesn't like the wizard one a few towns away. He says it's not as clever." Arcturus slumped back in his armchair in Gryffindor tower with a wide grin on his face. It had been the best Christmas since his mother died.
Fred, George, and Lee were all seated with him in the common room and the four of them had been trading stories about their Christmas breaks. Lee had gone home and he and his parents went to France for a skiing holiday. He'd described a fairly spectacular fall which had cost him a trip to the local mediwizard, but after a quick swish of the wand he had been back on the skis and finished the trip with nothing more than a few rough stops.
Fred and George had been rather quiet while Arcturus and Lee had described their holidays. The twins had chosen to stay behind, but Arcturus thought with a nearly empty castle they would have all sorts of stories to tell. However their silence was becoming suspicious.
"What did you two do over the holidays?" he asked.
Fred and George exchanged a purposeful glance and Arcturus knew they had certainly not spent the holiday in Gryffindor tower playing Gobstones.
"Gather around, my chums," Fred said, and the four of them moved in closer around the low table. "This is what we've been doing during the holidays."
He reached into his robes and Arcturus's mind raced with the possibilities. He did not expect the old, discoloured packet of parchment that Fred laid down on the table. He blinked a few times and then laughed.
"Good one, Fred."
"It's just an old packet of parchment," Lee said, confused.
"Is it?" Fred asked.
"If it's just an old packet of parchment, then why did Filch have it in a cabinet marked 'Confiscated and Highly Dangerous'?"
"Because Filch is a barmy old codger," Arcturus replied. "Everybody knows that."
"And we might've thought that too," George agreed.
"If we had such a narrow mind as yours, Archie boy," Fred added. Arcturus scowled at the jab, sitting back and folding his arms over his chest.
"Alright then, what is it?" Arcturus demanded.
Fred and George grinned from ear to ear. "Watch this."
Fred touched his wand to the parchment. "What are you?"
Arcturus thought surely they were just taking the mickey out of him, but a moment later, lines began appearing on the parchment and these lines soon formed into words.
"Wouldn't you like to know?"
Suddenly Arcturus was intrigued. The words faded after they'd read them but Arcturus was already touching his wand to the parchment. "Are you going to tell us?" he asked.
"Not unless you guess the password."
"See?" Fred hissed, his excitement clear on his face.
"Do you know the password?"
"That's what we've been working on during the break."
"But we haven't had much luck," George admitted.
"But we thought with the four of us, we could figure it out!" Fred declared.
Lee, ever the voice of reason, finally spoke up. "What if it really is something dangerous?"
"Filch's idea of dangerous is a few dung bombs and a fanged flyer," Arcturus replied. The mystery of the packet of parchment intrigued him and already his mind was racing with ways they might be able to figure out the password. "Have you tried any spells on it?"
"Revelio," Fred admitted.
"But it didn't do anything," said George.
Arcturus frowned. If Revelio didn't do anything to the map, then it was under strong protections. He doubted any other spells would be able to help. It seemed that the only way they were going to be able to find out what made this parchment "Highly Dangerous" was to guess the password.
"Let's get to work," he declared.
When Fred and George first revealed the parchment to them, Arcturus thought with four of the cleverest and mischievous minds in Hogwarts working at it, they would have the password within the week. However it was well into the spring months and the four of them were no closer to cracking the parchment than they had been the evening Fred and George first showed it to them. The only headway they had made came with a rather joking try from George. They'd been sitting in the dormitory one night and George had tapped his wand to the parchment saying "I solemnly swear I won't tell anyone else the password".
The parchment had replied with the teasing message "Close." After that it hadn't said anything else, not even when they asked it what it was. The parchment had gone silent and it was infuriating.
"It's probably just one big joke," Arcturus growled, thrusting the parchment across the table when his most recent attempt yielded nothing, again. They were in the library and Lee was actually doing work but Fred, George, and Arcturus were ignoring the fact that they had exams coming up again and had pulled out the parchment for a few more cracks at the password. The vulture-like librarian, Madam Pince, had already been over twice and was sending them more than a few dirty looks, but since they hadn't abused any of her books and still had their schoolwork out as if they were studying, she hadn't kicked them out yet. It would only take one more loud comment from Arcturus, though.
"It's probably an old gag from Zonko's. Trick parchment for people who won't leave you alone."
"But you've seen all the stuff we've tried on it," George insisted. "A cheap Zonko's trick wouldn't hold up to all of that. It would've been incinerated back in February."
When the parchment had gone silent, the boys had taken to trying physical spells on it, but all they had found out is that the parchment never got soggy, never caught flame, and even their strongest Cutting Hex didn't even nick it. Fred and George were some of Zonko's best customers, but even they knew the Zonko's products couldn't stand up to that sort of stress.
Fred was staring intently at the parchment. "Maybe you're right," he said suddenly. "Maybe it is a trick, or a joke. And we've been going about it like the joke is on us. We're the pranksters, we need to start acting like it!"
He pulled out his wand and tapped the parchment. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
And to their astonishment and elation, ink appeared over the whole page.
"You did it!"
"Mr. Black, this is a library, not a games room! Out!"
Arcturus hardly cared though. He, the twins, and even Lee quickly packed their things and practically ran from the library. They found the nearest empty classroom and all crowded around the now completely coloured parchment in Fred's hand.
"Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs, Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief Makers are proud to present The Marauder's Map!"
Fred and George were giddy with excitement. Even Lee seemed to have forgotten all about his reservations and put his head together with them, tracing over the lines that had appeared on the parchment. It was only Arcturus's face that fell and he turned pale as he took a step back.
"It's a map of Hogwarts!" George exclaimed. "Look, there's the Great Hall, and the Hospital Wing, even Gryffindor Tower."
"And look, it shows where everyone is," Fred added. "There's Dumbledore in his study, and look that's us!"
"Wicked!"
But George noticed that Arcturus did not seem to be sharing in their enthusiasm.
"Are you alright? He asked, concerned.
Arcturus's mind was racing. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs. Moony was Remus. And Padfoot, Remus had told him about the Marauders and their school day pranks. But he'd never mentioned a map. He probably thought it was lost. After all, Fred and George said they found it in Filch's office and nicked it from a cabinet that said "Confiscated and Highly Dangerous". That means Filch must've taken it from them. His father the murderer had made this.
"Arcturus!"
He blinked and then realized the others were all staring and Fred had just shouted his name at the top of his lungs.
"What's gotten into you?" Fred demanded. "This is brilliant. We don't have to check around corners and more to see where Filch is or worry about Mrs. Norris or one of the teachers catching us. We'll know everything! Where everyone is—"
"—where everything is," George added.
"The castle will be our domain!"
"I wonder what other secrets this thing hides."
"Only one way to find out..."
"I think we should get rid of it."
Fred, George, and even Lee suddenly looked at Arcturus like he'd declared he had six arms and was running off to join the circus. Then they laughed long and hard.
"Good one, Archie boy!" Fred guffawed, slapping Arcturus on the back.
"You really had us going," George agreed.
But Arcturus wasn't laughing. "I'm serious. We should get rid of it."
The fact that Arcturus wasn't laughing, and in fact stared them down in a way Lee and the twins had never seen before quickly sobered the mood.
"What do you mean, 'we should get rid of it'? Why?"
But how could he explain to them what was going through his mind? None of them knew who the Marauders were, and while Fred and George knew that Arcturus's father was a murderer, they seemed to think it was some big joke. At least, that's always how they talked about it, and Arcturus was fine with that, except when he was faced with something that could very well be...dangerous.
The bottom line was they didn't know what this map was for. Yes, it seemed to show Hogwarts and everyone in it, but it had also coached them as they tried to figure out the password. What other secrets was it hiding? What if, when the Marauders had made this map, Sirius Black was already going bad? He could've planted something in it. Filch thought everything was trouble and should be confiscated, but maybe this time he was right.
But Arcturus couldn't express that to Fred, George, and Lee. As far as they knew, he didn't care one wit about his father or what he'd done. It was a favourite joke for the twins. Lee didn't really bring it up at all.
"Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs," Arcturus said slowly. "They're obviously nicknames. Who doesn't put their real names on a powerful work of magic like this?"
"Geniuses," Fred replied, almost reverently.
"They are hiding, were hiding. Hogwarts is supposed to be Unplottable. How did they make a map? Not with the Headmaster's permission and maybe they had to use dark magic. I don't trust them, and I don't trust the map. We should destroy it."
"We can't, or haven't you been paying attention the last few months?" George replied.
"Then we should turn it in," Arcturus concluded.
But neither of the twins liked that. "Are you mad? This is coming from the mastermind behind the game day prank that people are still talking about! We finally figure out one of the greatest discoveries of our short lives—"
"—and you want us to turn it in?"
No, the twins did not like that at all. But Arcturus wouldn't budge. If there was one thing most adults agreed about him, he was stubborn. He folded his arms across his chest and lifted his nose like he'd seen the purebloods do at the formal dinners and balls.
"It's dangerous," he said with authority and finality.
Fred and George seemed taken aback by his sudden change in demeanour. If they were any other students, they might've listened too. But this was Fred and George Weasley, and if there was one thing they didn't do, it was follow the rules or obey the instructions of others.
"Fine," Fred said at last. "You don't have to use it. C'mon George, let's go try it out." They left the classroom, but not without two identical glances at Arcturus that betrayed the depth of their hurt. Lee hesitated, probably because while he was Fred and George's friend, he was Arcturus's friend first, and his roommate. Lee hadn't wanted to have anything to do with the parchment at first, but when Fred unlocked the secret password he'd been intrigued. Now he seemed torn between the twins and Arcturus.
"I'm sorry," he said softly, before grabbing up his bag and following the twins out of the classroom. Arcturus was left alone and friendless.
"Stupid Marauders," he growled, before taking up his own bag and leaving. He didn't go back to Gryffindor tower like the twins and Lee probably did. Instead he went out to the school grounds and he walked as much as he could until Hagrid the Groundskeeper chased him back inside because it was getting dark. When he returned to Gryffindor tower, Fred, George, and Lee were in the corner of the common room and Arcturus could see they were bent over the map, studying it carefully. They each looked up at him as he passed by, but didn't call him over or ask him where he'd been. Arcturus climbed the stairs to his dormitory and collapsed onto his bed, pulling the curtains. So much for his "friends".