Team

Falmouth Falcons

Position

Chaser 1/Captain

Main Prompt

Write about someone struggling to guide or lead others

Optional Prompts

[object] map

Word Count

1,554

Story contains mentions of character death

Though it had been repaired in places, and the ink was now starting to fade, the spell placed upon a simple piece of parchment so long ago still held fast.

The map itself wasn't aware of the passage of time, yet the many students who had found and used it over the years each left a part of themselves.

Many of them have long since passed on, but as long as someone continues to discover the secrets of the map, the Marauders would continue to live on to teach and guide the future generations.

Nearly more than one lifetime had elapsed since the time, and ultimate demise, of its creators. The four teenage friends who had discovered more about the old castle than any who had come before or since. With each spell, and every subsequent use, they had not only left behind the magic, but also imparted upon the map the same sense of wisdom, fun, curiosity and adventure that they, themselves, had once held within them.

When they had gone from this place, the map lay dormant in the hopes that some worthy student would learn its secrets and once again have the mischievous nature needed to discover all that it had to offer.

Since those early years it had been in the hands of many students and read the soul of everyone. They were each, in their own way, different yet also had much in common. The Quidditch players and the book worms, those who had everything and those who had nothing. In one crucial way, they were also very much alike. They all found the map in their search for something more than just their day to day existence, more than what the school said they should be doing, and more than they themselves ever thought was possible.

Once in a while, a brilliant young mind would come along and modify the old map, adding a new path or making changes to one that had been altered. Though the map could never have any emotions of its own, over the years it had felt them all through the students.

It had experienced battles and felt the intense grief as the survivors laid out their dead. It knew the nervous excitement of a first love and the many curfew breaks to find an adventure. There was the anxiety of tests and the sadness of friends parting at the end of each year.

The map could always tell when the time came once again to part with a student. Some only kept it as nervous first years struggling to find their way, while others would use it to sneak around late at night, getting extra snacks or pulling pranks.

One day, a new name appeared on the map. With it being a school, new names popped up all the time, but it was the middle of term, and this was a name the map had become familiar with. First as a boy, struggling to live up to his parents legacy, then as a young man, having finally gained the confidence to be his own person, and now as a ghost, one who had died long before being ready to leave this world, he had returned to the place he had been happiest, where he had both discovered and proven himself time and again.

The map sensed that once again, the ghost would be tested, but the potential outcome was one the enchanted parchment could not foresee.

Neville Longbottom had taken a nap between lessons some twenty years earlier, and like professor Binns, he had never woken up. Not wanting to leave his wife, he had become a ghost and spent these last years with her. Now that he was back at the school, it must mean that she, too, had passed.

Next time the map awoke, things seemed different, but it could not determine what had changed..

That night at dinner, it was revealed that Nearly Headless Nick had finally been allowed to join the Headless Hunt, and had departed from the castle. This was the first time in a long, long while that a school ghost had left the map and it felt so empty despite being full of all kinds of other names.

Then came another surprise, Neville was named as the new Gryffindor ghost, deemed worthy based on his feats during the battle of Hogwarts, when Gryffindor's sword itself had chosen him.

—

After a month, Neville was already struggling with his new position. The map could tell by the way he tried to keep away from the more crowded areas, but the school year was almost over, so maybe he would be used to the idea by the coming fall.

During most of the summer, it noticed that Neville barely interacted with the other ghosts. He chose instead to seclude himself in the more remote areas of the castle.

The map wondered why he seemed to be keeping away from his old common room until a flash of an old memory pushed itself forward. Roommates who used to sit around and laugh while they shared jokes or stories of their home life.

Then it made sense, his reluctance to accept the role was only partially due to fear. It was also controlled by a longing for the fun he had once had in this same place, and the friends he had lost.

—

When the new year started, the map found itself alone and still, like it had so often before when students graduated.

It didn't necessarily have the power to choose who found it, but it could decide who was able to see the secrets.

This time it decided on a familiarly timid first year, one who needed both the extra support and maybe a little push to come out of his shell. There was also the added bonus of the child being in Gryffindor and wanting to help the ghost if he could.

Though Neville was still trying to keep away from everyone most of the time, there were few places anyone could hide from the map, and it would lead the first year right to him whenever the ghost's help was needed.

It wasn't long before other students began to seek him out as well, younger ones asking mostly for directions while the older Gryffindors often had questions about school work.

Never having been one to enjoy a lot of attention and while he answered every question he was still uncomfortable about his role as a mentor, until someone asked him the magic question.

It was nearing the end of the school year and many students were already done with exams while others were waiting on one or two final tests. Many of them were hanging out in the common room, somewhere Neville could often be found these days.

One older girl looked up from her history text and asked him what Harry Potter was really like. Neville's whole demeanour seemed to change as he told them about how he had befriended and fought alongside the boy who lived, regaling them with stories from his youth.

There was no melancholy in his voice, only memories full of fun times and adventures.

After that day, Neville not only became a guide to students who had lost their way, but slowly over the next seven years he would also become a mentor, confident, and even a friend to all who would pass through his house.

Maybe this was the map's destiny, how it had been able to hold on for so long. Neville was now the last person to exist in this world who had met any of the marauders while he was still alive.

Like many things the story of the map turned into a rumor before it became a legend and was eventually forgotten completely.

After helping Neville find his place among the ghosts of Hogwarts, the now ancient and decrepit map was once again left behind as it waited eagerly to meet its new owner, but would they ever come? For as it faded from the collective memory the map itself began to fade as well, becoming a part of the very school which it had helped students navigate for generations.

It could almost feel the wind tugging at a torn corner and once that fell away completely it was as though the map itself let out a breath that it didn't know it could hold, finally relaxing for the first time since its creation and allowing itself to be taken piece by piece and carried out the window on the breeze.

Long ago the map had felt the hearts of its creators cease beating as they left this world for whatever comes next, their laughter dying on the wind that now carried the scattered remains of parchment as it too would join them.

The map may no longer exist in the physical world as it once had, but it would remain a part of the castle grounds for as long as the school itself stood, the spirit of it living on in the hearts of all the students it had once guided. And one day new legends would be created, of the four boys who grew up too soon, and who would forever roam the halls, causing mischief with the help of the ghost map.