A/N: Thank you for the reviews! And thank you to CC :)

Chapter Five

It did not take long for the rest of the castle to get hold of the gossip which had been yelled throughout Gryffindor Tower. Helena kept waiting to feel some kind of embarrassment, and was thankful and quite proud of herself when she didn't feel any. Nor did she feel any kind of possessiveness over Sirius, something else she'd been slightly concerned about. He was a mate, and because of that she'd defend him to the ends of the earth, but other than that, nothing had changed. She still winced every time a ridiculous chat-up line came out of his mouth (directed at another girl, naturally. He'd quickly learned that cheesiness led to less sex with her), and she still preferred not to know where he was and what he was up to.

Most of the Slytherins had called her a slut within about two days, and there were a lot of crude drawings carved into desks pretty quickly. "What did you expect?" Sirius had laughed when she'd pointed it out to him, "You're really hot. That one in Transfiguration has been there since at least fifth year."

"You put it there didn't you?"

The only caricature that caused a twinge of annoyance was one Lily had tried to hide from her in Charms. It was surprisingly detailed, even down to a caption. Best she's ever had. Helena crossed out the 's' in the second word.

Overall though, the whole school knowing the intimate details of her sex life bothered her not one jot. People outside the castle, however…

Coming to the end of a Transfiguration lesson about three days before Halloween, the class was interrupted by a terrified looking third year, who came in bearing a note. She didn't wonder he looked terrified. McGonagall hated to have her lessons disrupted in any way, and sure enough had already fixed the unfortunate messenger in her sights.

"What is it?" she demanded, voice sharper than a knife.

"Um, I- I- have a-"

She snatched the scroll from him with a sigh through her nose, and then nodded toward the door. "Back to your class, Mr Wallace."

He nodded vigourously and almost sprinted to the door while McGonagall read the message. Judging from the rising of her eyebrows, it was not a welcome one. Finally she let it curl shut again and looked at Helena. "Miss Malfoy, you have a visitor."

"A visitor, Professor?"

"Yes, a family member. You may go after the lesson has finished."

Helena nodded, hiding a smirk. If there was a governors' meeting then her father usually did make a point of seeing her, if only to tell her that her grades weren't good enough and he expected more of her. At least it was one thing she knew wasn't related to the fact that she'd not been sorted into Slytherin. Lucius had done exceptionally well during his time at the school; his younger sister was meant to follow in his footsteps. Potions had always been an area for him to criticise even if she was excelling at everything else. One thing he definitely would not appreciate though was being made to wait. But she didn't think even Abraxus Malfoy was going to come and argue with the Transfiguration mistress.

After the lesson, though, the figure pacing up and down in the entrance hall wasn't her father.

"Lucius! What are you doing here?"

Her brother placed a coldly formal kiss on her cheek. "Narcissa needed to come into Hogsmeade to choose her wedding robes; I decided to come and see you whilst I was in the vicinity."

"Why?" she asked suspiciously.

"Really, Helena, does a brother need an ulterior motive to speak with his younger sister?"

"When the brother is you, yes."

He gestured to the doors. "Let's go for a walk, shall we."

Keeping her hand on her wand, Helena nodded and left the castle with her brother, the normal awkward silence falling between them. It hadn't always been like this. Up until the age of eleven, Helena had looked up to her older brother—loved him, even. She didn't anymore. And he didn't love her, either. The spectre of Voldemort had divided Helena from her family completely, bound Lucius to a stupid sense of duty and who-knew-what-else. While she didn't think he was evil, she also didn't know why she thought that. She had a horrible feeling that she was clinging to the memory of her big brother rather than accepting the current reality. The man next to her didn't even bear a physical resemblance to him.

They got halfway around the Lake before she decided to be blunt. "Why are you here, Lucius?"

He turned assessing grey eyes on her, scanning her stubborn, set expression for a moment. "Very well. Narcissa, through her sister, has informed me of a rumour currently circulating the school; I wished to see if it was true."

"And the rumour regards…?"

"Yourself and your involvement with Sirius Black."

"What of it?"

"Is it true?"

"Why does it matter?"

"Helena, don't be tiresome."

"Don't be interfering."

"Answer my question."

"Well we're sleeping together, would you count that being involved?"

His eyes widened, and Helena laughed. "What's the matter, brother? Not the answer you were hoping for?"

"On the contrary. It's exactly what Father and I were hoping for."

"What?"

"Now that you've come to your senses, both of you, you needn't be ostracised from your family. I'm sure the Blacks will be overjoyed their son has settled on a bride with the pedigree the Malfoy family brings-"

"What? Lucius, we're not getting married! And Sirius would hang himself before he goes back to his parents' 'forgiveness', believe me!"

"But you just said-"

"I said we were sleeping together! I've no intention of marrying him!" Helena turned on her heel and paced away for a few steps before spinning back to Lucius. "Any other brother would go and curse the person who'd defiled his baby sister—your only concern is whether or not I'm sleeping with the right person!"

He grasped her shoulder. "Think, Helena, I beg you. If you continue the way you have been, Father will have no choice but to disown you. Don't be a child; come back to us."

"And do what? Marry some pureblood arsehole and then become a Death Eater, like you?"

He didn't deny the charge, and Helena felt a lead weight drop into her stomach. She hadn't wanted to believe it. Mouth set in a grim line, she shook his hand off. "Don't come to the castle again, Lucius. In fact, don't speak to me again. Whoever you are now, you're not my brother. And I don't want anything to do with you."

He sighed. "We'll talk when you're in a more rational frame of mind. You may go back to the castle, Helena."

"Thank you so much for the permission!" she snarled, storming away.

The anger was still radiating from her when she got to Gryffindor Tower fifteen minutes later, the long walk back from the lake having done nothing to calm her down. How dare he? She couldn't be surprised to find her family trying to organise her a marriage, but to jump on teenage gossip was ridiculous, and to tell her she was being irrational when she refused to believe Voldemort's victory was assured-!

When she entered the common room, she made a beeline for Sirius. "Promise me something."

"What?"

"Never marry me."

"You what?"

"Promise me, Padfoot."

He raised an eyebrow. "It wasn't in the plan, Hellfire."

"You still have to promise me. Even if it's choice between marrying me and death, you have to tell me you won't ever even consider-"

"Alright, alright. I promise I won't marry you," he said, obviously bemused.

"Thank you."

That done, she moved over to where Lily was sitting, already working on the homework McGonagall had given them. She looked up as Helena sat down. "You look annoyed."

"That would be because of my darling brother. Are your siblings so frustrating?"

Lily's mouth turned down at the corners. "Petunia barely speaks to me anymore."

"I wish Lucius didn't speak to me."

"He's still your brother, Helena."

"No. He really isn't."

She got out her quill, inkwell, parchment and books then set about making notes on the creation of portkeys. McGonagall had wanted a little of the history of them, pitfalls involved in their making and the legislation governing use of them. She'd only gotten as far as the second point when Lily began clearing her throat. It took until the third time she did it before Helena looked up. "You alright, Lily?"

"I'm fine."

She went back to her work; Lily went back to clearing her throat. "What?"

The redhead tilted her head across the common room, to where Helena's bedmate was deep in flirtation with Mary MacDonald. "Is that it?"

Lily eyed her appraisingly. "You really don't care, do you?"

"Why should I?"

"You shouldn't."

"There you go then," she answered lightly, returning to her homework. Lily grinned at her for moment before doing the same.

It turned out Sirius was deep in seduction mode. Mary MacDonald being possibly the only seventh year (she wasn't clear) he hadn't yet slept with. And apparently getting a perfect sex record was more important than, say, passing all his NEWTs, so Sirius was focusing on that rather than the mocks they had coming up just before Christmas. Helena on the other hand did care about her exams, so to Lily's approval was focusing on them. Admittedly, she was a little hornier than she'd like to be, but that couldn't be helped. Sirius could be a man-whore all he liked, but she wasn't going to be complicit in him two-timing. That, and she had more self-esteem than to be the bit on the side.

With her days filled with schoolwork and her evenings not filled by sex anymore, she did have time for something she'd been neglecting. A promise she'd made to her friends. With a weekend ahead of her, she picked up quill and ink and made her way over to where three of the Marauders were gathered, two of them playing chess while Peter watched. She sat down.

"Sorry."

"For what?" James asked.

"For not helping you with the map when I said I would. And it would be easy to blame Padfoot, but it would also be unfair. So if you still want my help then I'm here."

"Oh. Well, we did, but we kind've started without you. It's still just a map though. The rooms and everything are on there, and we managed to make it appear and disappear at will-"

"How?"

James' eyes twinkled. "I'll show you. Half a tick."

He disappeared upstairs, and then just as quickly appeared again holding a tattered piece of parchment. He presented to Helena eagerly. She took it with markedly less enthusiasm. "Is this it?"

"Yep!"

"Is it always going to look so…used?"

"Well how else is it going to be disguised when it's blank?"

"True I suppose…" She spread it out over the chessboard, much to the protestation of the pieces. She shushed them and carried on. It really did just look like a tatty bit of parchment. "Okay, so how do I unblank it?"

"Work that out for yourself."

"Prongs, just tell me. You know I hate theatrics."

He grinned, then touched the tip of his wand to the parchment. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good."

"I highly doubt you need to solemnly swear-" Helena cut off, her jaw dropped as thin, curly black lines of ink began to spread out from nowhere. She watched with widening eyes as it continued. A detailed image of the castle first, with a lake of ink in the centre courtyard. "The Marauder's Map," she read, looking up to the top. "Messers. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers are proud to present…"

"Open it," Remus urged.

She did so, and the lines were still unfolding. The parchment had seven layers to correspond with the floors in the castle, and she was looking at the first one. The entrance hall, the Great Hall, the staircases. "This is… Well, I'm a little impressed."

"Only a little?"

"Yes, only a little. But it's a good start. And completely wrong."

"Wrong?"

"Yes, wrong," she said, folding the map up and handing it back to him. "Did you not wonder why I told you you needed to soak the parchment in Hogwarts, or why you needed part of the Sorting Hat?"

"Well you told us we needed to make the parchment, which we did, from scratch-"

"And did you also include some stone from the castle walls, or a splinter of wood from the front doors?"

"Yes."

"Oh."

"Didn't think we'd think of that, did you?"

"Honestly…no." She cleared her throat. "Right, then now we need the piece of the Sorting Hat Padfoot has and some ink."

Once she had it, she disintegrated it into a fine dust and stirred it into the ink, then corked the bottle and shook it up and down to disperse the miniscule particles of the Hat in the liquid. The three lads watched her with curiosity.

"Okay. Let's see if this works… If it doesn't, my grandmother would be ashamed of me."

She uncorked the ink and upended it over the map, the whole bottle. The Marauders all gasped in horror. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Just watch," she urged.

"But-"

"Seriously, James, calm down. Look."

They did look, and the pool of ink was already dispersing, to be sucked into the parchment and disappear into nothing. Helena unfolded the map completely so that it spread out over the surface of the whole table. She touched the tip of her wand to it. "Assimilato."

Immediately, dots of ink welled up onto the surface of the parchment, some moving and some still. "These are all the people in the castle."

"And how exactly do we know who they are?" James asked, obviously annoyed.

"Did I say I'd finished?"

He folded his arms and frowned, but didn't interrupt any further. It was obvious that he wasn't impressed by whatever she thought she was doing. "Nomine ostruvu."

Helena leaned forward, biting her lip. Catching her tense posture, Remus and Peter did the same. James, after a moment and after much trying to look casual, did the same. The first name did not take long to appear. A dot that appeared to be pacing up and down and around a circular room was joined by the suffix Albus Dumbledore.

Helena clapped her hands excitedly. "Yes, it worked!"

Dumbledore wasn't the last; within five minutes the map was covered in names

James clapped her on the shoulder. "Brilliant. Well done, Helena."

"Thank you. I am rather brilliant, aren't I?"

"You are."

"There is something that I can't do though. You'll have to put in the spells to get into the secret passageways. The castle keeps them hidden for a reason; if you want your successors to be able to open them as easily as you can then you're going to have to tell them how to do it."

"That's okay. There are only seven or so," Peter said reasonably.

"Good, then it shouldn't take you too long."

"How do we make the spell appear and disappear when we want it to?"

"Well if you want it to move then it's your basic animation spell. As for the opening and closing incantations, possibly proximity might help and the castle might unlock it for you. If it doesn't then I'll have to do more research into it."

"Well, no time like the present."

"But it's after curfew. Not that that has ever stopped you, mind," Helena added, catching herself. "Can I come with you to check?"

He shrugged. "Don't see why not. We can't use the cloak though, the two of us wouldn't fit."

"Cloak?"

"Have to leave us some secrets, Helena," James smiled, getting up. "Besides, with this thing, we'll know where Filch is the whole time."

The two of them left the tower rather timidly, eyes on the map the whole time. In the common room, Helena had felt completely confident in her cartography skills, and the map seemed to be working fine. It was showing Argus Filch prowling around the north tower, with the cat—she couldn't remember what its name was—doing the same in the dungeons. Helena had hated that cat from the moment Filch brought it into Hogwarts. She'd always been a dog person herself, though had never been allowed to keep one in the manor. Animals were too unclean to be in her mother's house. Bad enough that she had to allow Dobby anywhere but the kitchen. When she was a little girl, she'd managed to talk Lucius into talking their father into buying her a pony, but when she'd outgrown Sparky, he hadn't been replaced by a horse.

"Where are we going?" she asked after a while.

"Fourth floor. There's a passageway behind a mirror up there."

When they arrived, the mirror reflected them in ghostly images, pale and dark in the gloomy corridor. "Okay, let's see…" James pulled his wand out. "Lumos. What does the map say?"

She peered closer at the parchment. "Abra- Oh you are kidding me!"

James laughed. "Don't worry, it's not actually abra kadabra."

"Good." The map wasn't finished though—rather than finish with 'kadabra', the incantation was instead abra laqueur. James nodded approvingly. "That's right. We're good. Well done, Helena."

She shook her head and patted the wall. "Hogwarts did that, not me. I love this castle, I really do. I'm amazed it's not actively sentient. There must be centuries of magic soaked into the walls alongside the spells the founders laid into it."

James nodded thoughtfully, than said abruptly. "I'm going to miss it."

"Me too."

They spent a moment smiling sadly at each other, then James sighed. "Come on, let's go back and tell the others it worked."

She nodded. "Can I have the map? Just for a day or so."

James shrugged. "Sure. What for?"

"I haven't decided yet."

"Okay. When you want it blank, it's mischief managed."

A/N: Review please!