A/N: tseuG- I realize that Andromeda is being mentioned too much, but that is because Harry's activities coincide a lot with canon at this point of the story. Rather that rewriting them all, I wanted to develop other important characters. But don't worry, Harry will be back to focus once I've dealt with the Tonks women. Thanks for the review.

14. Friendly Slytherins and Dangerous Objects

Ted Tonks was a bit intrigued. It was not uncommon for Andromeda to talk about James, but she rarely spoke of Sirius Black after he was shipped off to Azkaban; and even after Sirius broke out, his wife didn't mention him other than the occasion when Harry asked Dora about him. So he was giving her the utmost attention (not that he ignored her normally) when she started a conversation after dinner.

"Today I remembered something Sirius told me after they graduated."

"Um… what's that dear?" he asked, quite bewildered at the sudden mention of her cousin.

"You remember there was a group named the Marauders while we were at Hogwarts?"

Ted smiled fondly. "How couldn't I? Quite the group it was, led by James Potter and Sirius Black, the most popular pranksters of the decade. What about them?"

"Well, shortly before graduation, they played out an act in front of Filch, and that useless squib fell on their bait and confiscated, according to Sirius, 'A Priceless Treasure'."

"Uh… they wanted this treasure to be confiscated? But why? And what was it anyway? A pranking instrument?" he asked.

"Yes, they intended this treasure to be found by a future generation of pranksters, so they let it be confiscated. And the treasure is a map. You can call it a pranking instrument, but it was dead useful, if what I heard was true."

"A map? Of what?" he asked, intrigued.

"Of Hogwarts. It shows all the hidden passage and tunnels inside it, and the tunnels leading out of Hogwarts."

"Wow! That's some serious complicated magic. They made it while they were in school?"

"Yes, in their fifth year, to be exact. After all, three of them were the brightest students of their year. And when Lily started going out with James, she helped to improve some stuff too. But it doesn't just show the way, it also shows the people inside the castle, and the best thing is, even if you are under polyjuice, or hidden in some other way, say under an invisibility cloak or in an animagus form, it still shows your real identity."

Ted's jaws were hanging. How on earth did four fifth years manage to create something like that? He understood how useful that item could be for a prankster. It could warn you of any dangers or obstacles, and show you a way without them.

"Good Merlin! I wonder what they could be if they didn't invest most of their time in pranks."

They sat in a comfortable silence for a few seconds, and then Ted asked, "This is indeed very interesting, but was there any reason you remembered it?"

Andromeda looked a bit grim before answering, "I was just thinking of a way Dora and Harry could go without passing the dementors that would guard Hogwarts."

Ted nodded gravely. The day before, Andromeda has told Harry about the dementors without going in detail about the kiss, and he promised to avoid them whenever possible. He said he wasn't in a hurry to find out his worst memory, and Ted agreed wholeheartedly. He had enough bad memories for a lifetime. He didn't need to refresh his memory with the help of a dementor.

Suddenly there was a noise from the next room that sounded very much like someone losing their footing.

"Looks like Nymphadora overheard our conversation." He said, with a small frown. Andromeda gave him an impish smile which he found awfully distracting.

Nymphadora could wait. He had a better company now.

In the next room, Tonks sighed as a sudden silence fell from her parent's room. A silencing charm. Either they were talking about something confidential, or they were…

"Ugh! I don't want to think about it!" she said loudly, trying to push disturbing images out of her mind. She focused on what she overheard. Filch's office was a place she would have to visit very soon.

What she didn't know was her mother intended her to overhear their conversation.

….

"HARRY!"

"Wake up Harry!"

"Sue, can you do an aguamenti charm?"

"AGUAMENTI!"

Harry woke up, feeling very cold.

"Wha… what happened? Is it you, Sue? Why is my hair wet?"

Everyone sighed in relief. Tonks almost felt like crying. Harry passed out after a dementor came in their compartment and tried to smell Sirius Black… or something like that.

There was a cough and the grey haired new Defence professor came back to the compartment.

"Are you okay Harry?" he asked quietly. Harry looked up at the newcomer, wondering how he knew his name and asked, "Err… I'm okay, but who are you?"

Hermione looked scandalized, but the newcomer smiled before introducing himself. "My name is Remus Lupin. I'll be your new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. Now, please have this." He handed him a large bar of chocolate.

Harry remembered Andromeda saying that chocolate helped to cope with the after-effects of encounter with a dementor. Taking the bar of chocolate, he bit it, and comfortable warmth filled him. He thanked Professor Lupin and offered the rest to Tonks and Susan, who were standing on either side of him.

"You need it Harry, just eat it." Susan said and Tonks nodded. Not wanting to get on the bad side of the witches, he ate the whole slab and gave a fake burp for added effect. Both girls giggled and Professor Lupin chuckled.

"I'll leave you for now. We will reach Hogsmead in half an hour, so you might want to change to your robes quickly." He left the compartment.

"Good bloke, that one." Tonks commented. Hermione looked like she wanted to say something, but she hold her tongue.

After a few moments of silence, he asked them quietly, "Did anyone else faint?"

The witches exchanged dark looks and Tonks said, "No. Now shut up before that dementor looks friendly next to me."

"Never gonna happen." Harry mumbled, causing his friends to look at him worriedly.

"I heard a woman screaming. Wonder who it is." He whispered to himself.

….

"You fainted, Potter? Is Weasley telling the truth? You actually fainted?" Malfoy said in a gleeful voice.

"Yeah, he fainted, Malfoy. Now go to a corner and masturbate over it." Tonks said with venom at the now spluttering boy, and not waiting for a reply, she dragged Harry to the horseless carriages, thinking of what Harry said in the compartment. A woman's scream. She had no idea what bad memories Harry had with a screaming woman, maybe his aunt screaming at him? Though a part of her was curious to know what he heard, the other part firmly decided that he could live without knowing it. It was bad enough that she had to relieve the most horrible things that happened to her.

"What's your rate, honey? Heard you let Harper fuck you for free." A Slytherin jeered.

"How about you take the three of us together and we'll give you a nice tip, yeah?" another called.

"James… and Lily… they are… gone." A sobbing woman was telling her mother.

"You dare to look at my boyfriend? Diffindo!" she screamed as a red light caused a thin cut in her thigh.

"That's only because you can look like their best fantasy in bed! What else would a bloke date you for?"

SNAP OUT OF IT!

With great difficulty, she focused on the entrance to the Great Hall. She didn't notice they have reached here already. A nudge from her side turned her attention to Harry, who was looking at her questioningly, silently asking her about her distracted behaviour. She gave him an easy smile to show it was nothing. He didn't look convinced but didn't pursue the subject any further. With brief smiles, Tonks, Susan and Hannah parted ways with the Gryffindor, where the unusually serious twins were sitting beside a paler-than-normal Ginny.

"Are you alright, Ginny?" Harry asked once he reached the table. Said girl nodded but Fred said in a low voice, "The dementor affected her badly. Shaking like mad, she was." George silently nodded in agreement. Harry could imagine what memories the young redhead had to revisit, considering what happened in her first year. But she didn't faint like you, a voice in his head said bitterly.

….

"I'm really excited Harry, I read about the subject and it seemed very interesting to me. Are you excited too?" Hermione asked, slightly breathless. Harry chuckled at the witch's enthusiasm over a new subject. Gryffindors and Slytherins third years had their very first Arithmancy class in ten minutes. Harry and Hermione were the only Gryffindors from their year to take the subject.

"Yeah, I am a bit excited, I guess. Nowhere near you, though." He said with a laugh and Hermione blushed a bit. Thankfully, she didn't say any more about Arithmancy as they hurried down the corridor that contained the Arithmancy classroom.

Arithmancy, as it turned out, wasn't a very popular subject. Four Slytherin students were already seated when they entered. Harry knew Millicent Bulstrode and Theodre Nott from last year's Duel Club (which discouraged him to join the various other clubs, by the way). The other two, Harry was sure, were called Tracey Davis and Daphne Greengrass. The members of the two rival houses didn't talk with each other, and soon Professor Vector entered the classroom.

"Good morning, students. Welcome to your Arithmancy class. My name is Septima Vector. Please stand up one by one and state your names, it's better to get acquainted before starting the class.

As they all did, Professor Vector checked a register, and apparently satisfied, she started.

"I believe you all have attended your Ancient Runes class? Yes? Good. Arithmancy is deeply connected to runes. As you know, the runes are a language. In your Ancient Runes class, you will be taught how to make sense with random runes strung together. In Arithmancy, you will learn how to manipulate these runes to set up wards, how to calculate with the runes, which will help you to analyse many forms of magic.

Now let us go back to the history of Arithmancy. As you may know, at ancient times, magic wasn't the same as now. It took really powerful wizards to set up wards, which were not very complex, and the spells were far more straightforward than it is now. But at the same time, it was extremely hard to counter a curse or slip though wards because people had little idea about how magic worked. Magic was mostly based on power than anything else, and powerful wizards had godlike images to the rest of the populace.

Then an alchemist named Archimedes came around and did extensive study on both muggle science and magic. He wrote down a particular set of runes on his cupboard in an attempt to stop his servant from stealing. He had destroyed many cupboards and locked many of them permanently, but one day, while taking a bath, he wrote them out again, and when he went to test the cupboard, to his surprise, the wards were perfect. In his excitement, he was said to run naked on the street screaming 'EUREKA!', but that might be another story muggles cooked up. So that was the beginning of Arithmancy.

Now, I will give you a simple task to do. Since we have the advantage of having an even number of students, you will work in pairs, and find out the rune composition of one simplespell. One of you will cast the spell while the other will jab their wand at the incoming spell, and say 'Enodo' which will break down the spell into smaller components. If you need help, you can ask me."

Harry was paired with Tracey Davis and they were to find out the composition of the disarming hex. Once they got past the general awkwardness of a Gryffindor working with a Slytherin, Harry enjoyed the lesson. Davis was a bit slow to cast, but she was intelligent. She even smiled at Harry when they finished the analysis before anyone else could. Hermione and Daphne Greengrass, who were analysing the leviation charm, finished about a minute later, but Nott and Bulstrode were taking forever to breakdown the Aguamenti charm, and were both dripping wet. Professor Vector finally told them to stop and announced that both the other groups have done their analysis perfectly. She, however, warned them not to loosen up as this was just the first class. She listed down a lot of spells, and, to Harry's bemusement, she asked them to find out their compositions as homework.

"I was actually starting to like her." Davis muttered, and Harry snorted quietly. She looked at him half-irritated, half-amused.

"That was what I was going to say." Harry said with a grin.

"Okay students, class dismissed. Don't forget the homework." The middle aged professor told them, before herding them out of the room.

"See you, Potter." Tracey Davis called at Harry, to general surprise, as they parted for their respective common rooms.

"A Slytherin is talking to you? How come, Harry?" Hermione asked once they were out of earshot. Harry shrugged.

"Dunno, she is nice enough for a Slytherin." He said, and smirked as Hermione's mouth became a perfect 'O'.

…

Two floors above, a certain Nymphadora Tonks was cursing heavily. Professor Flitwick had given them an immense load of homework, and when she tried to run away as fast as she could, she tripped over herself, and her bag spilled out all of its contents, including her ink bottle, to the floor. Ignoring the words of sympathy from the Fat Friar, who was floating beside her, she was trying to calm down and pick up all the books and put them back into her bag, but a 'meow' alarmed her, and before she could run again-

"Ink on the floor! You nasty girl, befouling the castle! Come to my office right now." Filch the caretaker growled menacingly at her.

She tried to explain that it was an accident, but the stupid squib would have none of it. Resignedly, she followed him to the gloomy office.

"Destruction of school property… ah! Here it is." The caretaker was muttering audibly.

"Destruction of school property? I spilled ink on the-"

CRASH!

"PEEVES! I will catch you this time!" he roared before running off to investigate, the cat following him faithfully.

She sighed in relief, at least now she could escape. No sooner the thought came to her mind, she spotted a box in the corner, labelled 'Confiscated and Highly Dangerous'. Curious, she opened the box to find an old piece of parchment. She thought about leaving it alone, but then a voice came to her memory.

'They intended this treasure to be found by a future generation of pranksters, so they let it be confiscated. And the treasure is a map.'

Could this be it? It looked old enough to be from James' school time, and it was confiscated as highly dangerous. Maybe there was a way to activate it. Thinking fast, she picked up the piece of parchment and turned to leave.

The door flew open.