A/N: Thanks to Slytherin66 for the in-depth chats about various prospects of the story, and providing some interesting insights to the characters. Also, I have a request to you guys. Please read the A/N at the bottom.
15. Lonely Marauder
The door flew open.
The Weasley twins were laughing over some joke they shared, and they didn't notice Tonks hastily putting away the parchment in her pockets.
"Oh, hello Tonks." One of the twins greeted her.
"Fancy meeting you in Filch's filthy office." Said the other.
"So what mortal offense did you commit-"
"-to deserve the unpleasant visit-"
"-at the pus- I mean cat lover's office?"
Tonks sighed dramatically before answering, "Well, apparently I've been destroying school property, or so says that pussy. What did you guys do?"
"Ah, you see-"
"We decided to banish some metal armours at Peeves-"
"But Filch didn't find that as funny as we intended it to be-"
"And he's blaming us for creating havoc, funnily enough-"
"So here we are, awaiting our disembowelment-"
"And being hanged at the wrists from the ceiling-"
"-with a shiny, polished chain, no less."
Tonks flashed a winning smile at them. "Well, don't let me hold you up from mourning at the last moments of your life. I think Filch's forgot about me, so I'll see you 'round, gents!" with that, she walked out, smirking at the twins' outraged expressions.
Once she reached her dorm safely, Hestia grabbed her by the shoulder and pushed her to her bed, and proceeded to tell her how she and Edward had sex for the first time. Tonks was happy for her friends, of course, but she was slightly irritated at Hestia's timing, because she really wanted to study the parchment that may or may not be the map she heard of. For the moment, however, she had no choice but to listen to Hestia as she described their foreplay in disturbing detail.
…
"The dementors are coming, Potter!" Malfoy called at him, while Parkinson pretended to faint.
"Hey Greengrass, can you lend your glasses to Draco? He is starting to see imaginary things." He shot back, and Daphne just rolled her eyes at him. She and Tracey Davis have become quite friendly with Harry after a couple of Arithmancy classes together.
"What is happening here?" The silky voice of Severus Snape came out of nowhere and immediately Draco started listing off a number of offenses Harry had never even thought of doing. Not paying any heed to the Gryffindors' protests, Snape docked off thirty points from Harry.
"You might be making a mistake, Severus."
Everyone turned around to see Professor Lupin walking towards the gathered crowd.
"What's that, Lupin?" Snape hissed with venom.
"I believe Mr. Malfoy's accusations were false, as I fortunately happened to be watching their little bickering. So you'll get the thirty points back, Harry, and Mr. Malfoy is to serve a detention with me this evening at seven o' clock. Off you go, now." he finished at the crowd in general.
Harry could distinctly hear "my father will hear about it" from Malfoy.
"Running off to daddy, Draco?" Harry called after him. Malfoy threw him a look of pure hatred before going off with a huff.
"You should stop being childish, Potter." Tracey Davis chided him, but she was smiling.
"Good to see you too, Tracey." He flashed a grin at her, before she shook her head amusedly at him and went away.
"That is admirable, Harry."
He turned around to find Professor Lupin smiling at him.
"Er… what are you talking about, Professor?" he asked, confused.
"Making friends with people from other houses, especially Slytherin. Your mother would have been proud."
"You… you knew her?" he asked, a bit eagerly.
"I did. Now off you go, your friends must be waiting for you."
He was disappointed not getting any details about his mother from his Defence professor, but was glad to know that one more person cared enough to stand up for him. For a boy like him, it was always a pleasant surprise.
He spotted Tonks walking distractedly and approached her.
"What's up Nymphie-Poo?" he asked, once closed enough to her. Tonks turned to him with horror.
"What did'ya call me?" she said, thunderstruck. Harry laughed at her expression.
"Oh come on, you can't say it's not cute." He teased.
"Don't call me that again!" she said hotly, causing Harry to laugh harder. She huffed in annoyance and turned away from him, arms crossed at her chest.
"Aaw, is Ickle Nymmie mad at me?" he said with barely controlled voice. She gave him a filthy look.
"Watch it mister, just because I don't tell you anything doesn't mean you get to show your creativity with my name. So if you want to have children in future, you better stop making up ridiculous names."
Harry was almost rolling on the floor with laughter by this point. With a great effort, he stood up and managed to say, "Okay, I won't. Happy now?" when she didn't respond, he stopped laughing and poked her in the ribs. She, in turn, stuck out her tongue at him.
"So what were you doing?" he finally asked.
"Not telling." She mumbled, pouting.
"Please?"
She shook her head stubbornly. He sighed and said, "Okay, I guess I can live without knowing."
She immediately said, "Alright, I was bluffing. So what do you know about the Marauder's Map?"
...
"UGH! This is frustrating!" Susan complained. The other two nodded in sympathy.
It has been five days Tonks found the supposed-to-be-Marauder's-Map, and after trying to activate it for three by herself she included Harry in. (She planned on surprising Harry by knowing where he was, but that was sadly not to happen). Harry had the brilliant idea of applying Arithmancy. He got some results, but understood none of them. Tonks didn't ever take Arithmancy, so she settled to pestering Harry with "What you got?" every five minutes or so. After a few more hours, Harry gave in as it was getting too late (almost midnight). The next day, he called Susan, who also had Arithmancy, for help. Susan made her first breakthrough not by Arithmancy, but by writing on it. From the colourful replies the map gave, they were at least sure that it was, indeed, the fabled Map. With the help of some advanced Arithmancy books from the Restricted Section (permission coaxed out of Professor Vector by Harry, claiming that he had a insatiable interest in the revealing and analysing sections) they managed to find that the Map was pass-phrase protected, and with some useful spell from Tonks, they came to the conclusion that the pass-phrase was ten words long. Now it was only a matter of guessing it.
As it turned out, however, guessing was not as easy as it sounds.
"Please show yourself, because I intend to cause some trouble." Tried Harry. Tonks shook her head.
"You think pranksters would say please to a map?" Harry scowled.
"I wish to see you because I am up to no good." Tried Susan.
"Too long." Said Harry, glumly.
"I swear you I am up to no good?" Tonks said tiredly. She was already starting to lose hope of ever finding the pass-phrase. At this rate-
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." Harry said, his almost-hundredth try.
With the collective gasps of the three teens, words began to form in the map.
Welcome, rules-breakers of Hogwarts. To activate the map, tap your wand and say the pass phrase again. To clear it, say 'Mischief Managed' and tap again. Happy pranking.
The faces that held exhaustion a moment ago, shone with happiness and victory. Without wasting further time, Harry followed the instruction, and lines started forming from where he touched his wand.
Later that day, Remus Lupin was walking past the Great Hall when he thought he heard someone say the word 'Marauders'. He looked around to see two Hufflepuff girls talking excitedly. They couldn't possibly know about the Marauders, he thought. He probably heard something else that sounded like it.
The Marauders. Four best friends who were the coolest pranksters of the school.
The words sounded bitter even in his head. Two killed, one turned traitor, and one turned a schoolteacher. Coolest pranksters, indeed.
He would be lying if he said he didn't miss the marauders. In fact, he missed them terribly. Apart from his parents, they were the first and amongst the very few that accepted him despite his condition. He remembered that they remained inseparable at school and even in holidays. He, however, didn't expect them to remain so after school. The real world did not care about old friends or sentiments. The real world prevented werewolves from getting a decent job. For months after graduation, he applied for jobs, but his 'furry little problem' made sure that he was deprived from any respectable jobs. He knew there was no point in hiding his identity, magical equivalents of CV will always show mentionable physical conditions. Of course, if he went to Dumbledore, he might've found a way to hide it, but his employees would be bound to be suspicious if he became ill after every full moon. And he refused to take help from his friends, either. He would feel inferior if he did, and pride was the only thing the ex-Gryffindor possessed a lot.
As he worked in a muggle company named Grunnings, he wasn't satisfied by any means. The muggle pound was a weaker currency than galleons, and he barely managed to live on, but it was better than the homeless unemployed werewolf in the magical community. Sometimes he considered killing himself, but he was too afraid to die like this. He wanted to die in a fight, where he fought for something he believed in. He didn't want to die because he was too miserable.
However, a few months after Vernon Dursley, the ex-manager bought over Grunnings, (he disliked the man, and couldn't shake off the idea that he heard the name somewhere in the magical community) the whole building was burned down in a supposed gas leak. That night, he went to a wizard's pub for some firewhiskey, brooding over his recent unemployment, when he heard the rumours that the fire might actually have been magical, he asked an eager gossiper why a wizard would bother a muggle office, the guy looked at him like he was a five year old and said, "Don't you hear anything? The owner is the only relative of the boy."
"What boy?" he asked.
"The Boy Who Lived. Harry Potter."
He felt like someone slapped him across the face.
Harry Potter. He had forgotten about him. And Vernon Dursley is Lily's brother-in-law. Then he realized where young Harry lived. After Black's betrayal and the murder of the Potters, (which devastated him) he asked Dumbledore his address. He wanted to visit Harry and be a part of his life that sustained such losses as a mere infant. But Dumbledore insisted on keeping the address a secret. After a few months, he stopped asking, and after another year of incredibly hard work in Grunnings, he forgot about Harry. He trusted Dumbledore to keep him safe.
When he saw the advertisement in the Daily Prophet about the vacancy of the DADA post at Hogwarts, he immediately applied, and Albus hired him almost instantly. Not only would he get a handsome payroll, he would also get a chance to watch over Harry, (he owed him that after forgetting about him for so many years) and possibly protect him from Sirius Black.
When he met Harry, he expected him to be arrogant like James or charming and hot-headed like Lily, but all he saw was a polite boy who looked content, but had some deep, dark look behind those glasses.
At first he cursed Dumbledore, because obviously Harry didn't have a good childhood (he could only guess how Vernon Dursley treated him, and from what Lily said, Petunia was no fan of magic) but then he thought that it was a remarkable feat that Harry wasn't attacked by Death Eaters or by anyone else, for that matter. He knew that if he was the one protecting Harry, it was highly possible for a massive Death Eater raid and he wouldn't have been able to save Harry.
His heart broke when the boy asked if he knew Lily. He wanted to sit with him all day and tell him all the stories of his parents, but as a teacher, he couldn't do that, unless he wanted to be accused of favouritism. Of course, he cared for Harry, but he really couldn't afford to be unemployed at the moment.
Sighing, he went to prepare for the next class.
...
Harry was watching the Marauder's map with wonder. After they worked out how to use the map, Harry kept it most of the time. Of course, he offered the other two to keep it, but Susan said she didn't really need it, as she wasn't as mischievous as Harry or Tonks (both of them begged to differ on that point) and Tonks said that since Harry found the pass phrase, he should keep it, and she could borrow anytime she needed it.
He watched two dots labelled 'Harry Potter' and 'Susan Bones' beside the lake. An inch apart, 'Nymphadora Tonks' was with 'Hestia Jones' and 'Edward Becker'. He spied Neville and Hannah studying together in the library, accompanied by 'Terry Boot' and 'Padma Patil'. This was fun, he thought. He looked at the Slytherin common room to see Snape surrounded by 'Marcus Flint' and 'Charles Avery'. 'Daphne Greengrass' was going towards 'Tracey Davis'. His eyes travelled to the Headmaster's office, where 'Albus Dumbledore' was apparently having a meeting with 'Minerva McGonagall' and 'Remus Lupin'. 'Rubeus Hagrid' was-
"Are you gonna stare at that thing all day long?" asked Susan, quite amused. Harry blushed a bit.
"Look Neville and Hannah are studying together. Dora reckons they fancy each other. What do you think?"
Susan looked thoughtful for a moment before replying, "I guess they do. Hannah definitely talks a lot about Neville, though she says they are just good friends. They are cute together, though." She added with a giggle, and Harry chuckled. They indeed were cute together.
"Do you fancy anyone, Harry?" Susan asked after a few moments.
"No. You?" he replied, but purple hairs and large eyes flashed in his mind. He quickly put away the stray thought.
"Uh... I'm not sure. I think I kinda like Dean Thomas. He is nice and funny, but I'm not sure if he'll like me back." She blushed deeply. Harry laughed at the girl he considered his sister. Dean was a nice guy, and Susan was quite good looking, too. He could always give Dean a prod in the right direction.
"Tell you what, Sue; I can drop small hints to Dean about how Susan Bones looks like she needs some company-"
"HARRY NO!" Susan wailed, wildly waving her arms and Harry laughed at her panic.
"Why though? Don't you want something to happen? I'm sure Dean will appreciate you properly. You are quite the witch, Miss Bones." He said with a wink. Susan blushed again.
"Thank you Mr Potter, but I am not ready to date right now. Maybe later, I'll tell you, and you can drop your hints. Okay?" Harry smiled and nodded. Falling into a comfortable silence, Harry turned back to spying people in the map.
Susan watched him looking at the map with her thoughts still on their recent conversation. She trusted Harry to keep her secret crush between them, because she didn't want to deal with-
Harry suddenly became tensed beside her, his eyes fixed at a point in the map. Then, he looked at his right and shouted, "DORA!"
A/N: I am quite doubtful about the quality of the summary of this story. I usually use an extract from the story as the summary. So I'd like it if you let me know your opinion of the current summary, or better still, which lines would you want to be the summary to make it interesting and... eye-catching, perhaps? Thank you for your support!
Oh, credits to Teufel1987 for the 'Nymphie-Poo' name.