AN:/ Hi! I'm not dead yet. I know nothing really happens in this chapter, but I promise it will pick back up in the next one. And Yes, I know it's been a long time, but life and writers block will do that to a person. The main reason I was gone for so long was that for the life of me I could not figure out what was going to happen next. I think I've got a rough idea now, but if you have any suggestions I'm all ears. Hopefully I'll get the next one out to you soon. You can't hold me to it though. And sorry again that this chapter is really kind of dull, but i needed it as a primer to ge things moving the way I want them to again. Enjoy.

Batman Doesn't 'Do' Magic

Chapter 10

by: deadlydaisy8o8

Originally Uploaded: Sunday, July 13, 2014, 12:37AM

If Batman were accused of obsession over the case of Sirius Black because tracking down criminals was something that was familiar and comforting in this strange new world, Batman would vehemently deny it. Indeed the only reason that Batman was using his current facilities with such vigor was because while he was here he was the most equip to deal with the likes of an escaped mass murderer and it would be foolish to let his expertise go to waste and put others in danger.

This was what had lead to Batman's presence in the library in the first place. Batman had established his security, obtained a discreet way to properly fuel and maintain himself, mastered a defense against all of the beings and creatures immediately in his vicinity. Having little else to do or accomplish, it was only fitting that now that Batman had his own safety established and under control that he should work towards the safety and security of others. Naturally the first place to start this task was with research on the most relevant threat, that of the escaped mass murderer.

Batman was disappointed, but not surprised, at what he found. According to the records he could deem reliable, Sirius Black had gone to prison without a trial. Something that Batman found very irritating. Besides the lack of due process it seemed that the sequence of events that occurred leading up to the arrest of Sirius Black were not confirmed with any hard evidence beyond that of a disembodied finger and a lot of hear-say from people who did not know what was going on as it happened.

There was no solid evidence to support the conviction of Sirius Black, or enough evidence to confirm the death of Peter Pettigrew. Batman had seen enough missing body parts to know that a missing finger was not going to kill anyone, at least not quickly. Also to the best of Batman's knowledge there was not a spell or any magic that could be preformed that could vanish a person except for a particularly small and specific extremity.

If there was one thing that Batman did not like in his criminal cases, it was lose ends. In the case of Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew, it seemed that there were hardly any ends that had been tied up. The persecution and sentencing had happened quickly, or rather not at all, and the greater issue of the defeat of "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" had vastly overshadowed any second-guessing of the man's true guilt.

And then three nosey teenagers had interrupted his research. This was inconvenient at best. Luckily by this time, Batman had most of his research done, or he had known enough to come back to the articles later and have an idea of what to look for.

However any further investigating that needed to be done into the murder of Peter Pettigrew was put abruptly on hold as the discovery of an unknown element in the hands of those who could not be trusted with it.

In the moment he had had to choose between the cloak and the map. The cloak, an effective means of disguise and deception, could not be trusted in the hands of those without the training or knowledge to use it properly, or to protect it from the possession of those who could do ill with it. The map, a vessel of potentially crippling information, was also an item that needed to be removed from the dubious care of children unable to curb their curiosity enough to resist following an unknown potentially deadly bat-creature.

The circumstances and resources available to him meant that Batman deemed the map more volatile in the hands of nosy teenagers, and it was on this item that he focused his efforts. The map had been simple enough to lift from the inexperienced and easily deceived teenagers. It was his examination of the article once he had returned to his rooms that proved more troubling.

It was obviously of magical operation. The map unfolded many more times than its thickness would indicate and the ink on the paper shifted and moved with the subjects it was tracking. As far as Batman could prove, the map accurately plotted the locations of every person and sentient being in the castle, including a cat by the name of "Ms. Norris"

Of course the only immediate proof that batman had of the map's function was the movements and existence of his own marker on the map. This had been Batman's main concern when he confiscated the map. He did not need anyone, especially a group of untrained teenagers, having a means to track or locate him. More alarming was that upon further inspection; it appeared as if all of the names that appeared on the map were the subject's full birth given names.

The first manner of business was to determine if this map put his identity in danger and if the three disobedient teenagers had any indication that he was anything other than Batman. It was a matter of relief and curiosity to discover that the name written above the indicator of Batman's position was indeed "Batman".

There were several explanations that sprang to mind in order to explain this anomaly. One was that when Batman had arrived in this dimension he had been in the guise of Batman. This being said, he had technically been 'born' with the name here. Another was that the map recognized that most of the deceiving of his true personality took place under the name Bruce Wayne and it had selected the 'truer' name. Yet another was that because he was from another dimension, the map was unable to read him properly or decipher his unknown origins.

The reason behind the concealment of his name, and only his name, on the map was not of paramount importance, however. Instead of lingering on the phenomenon, Batman laid the map out on the desk in his rooms and settled down to start observing and documenting in a way he had been unable to do up until this point. The surveillance that the map allowed Batman to conduct in lue of his technology was not what he would have preferred, but it was far superior to having no surveillance at all.

Besides determining the extent of the breach in his own security that the map had caused, the second matter of business was to observe and evaluate the persons deemed most dangerous up to this point in time. It was perhaps fortunate that the majority of the castles inhabitance were asleep as most everyone was aligned in neat rows in their dorms. The lone dot of Albus Percival Wolfic Brian Dumbledore was easily spotted in the rooms connected to the headmaster's office. Serverus Tobias Snape was also in his rooms, not far from where Batman's own marker sat.

Minerva McGonagall, Rubeus Hagrid, Remus Lupin all were in their beds at the hour of three in the morning. Batman then moved to look for the three that had tracked him to the library. He found them in Gryphindor Tower. However they were not in their dorms. The three of them were sitting on a couch and an armchair around a fire. Batman studied the three for a moment, wondering what they were going to get themselves into before a cursory glance at the rest of the tower revealed that there was a name out of place. The name stood out, against the rest of the children aligned in neat rows, while this one was askew.

Peter Pettigrew

Batman stopped for a moment and just examined the name on the page. It was possible that there was a third year Gryphindor student he was unaware of that was named Peter Pettigrew. However, why that student would be sleeping on top of the trunk at the foot of a bed, rather than on it was not readily apparent.

It could be a mistake; Batman had seen with his own misidentification, that the map was not infallible. But then the reason for this particular glitch was not easily forthcoming.

It was then that movement off dots nearby on the map caught his attention. He watched as Hermione Jean Granger, Ronald Billus Weasley, and Harry James Potter moved up the stairs and to the spots they had left vacant in the uninterrupted rows of sleeping students. He watched as Ron and Harry took up the remaining beds in the Gryphindor third year dormitories, leaving no extra space for an extra person. And the name Peter Pettigrew remained, motionless at the foot of Ronald Weasley's bed.