Foreshadowing the Past

Chapter 17

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good!"- Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs

Zack stepped out of the fireplace at the Burrow, aided by a set of strong hands that steadied him and kept him from falling on his face.

"Hello again, Zack!" Fred Weasley said easily, turning toward the fire once more to see that Lucy made it out safely.

"Hello, Mr. Weasley," Zack said, moving out of the way for those who were following behind him.

Lucy was dusting herself off and moving past Zack as he waited for Connor to come through the Floo.

"Just call me Fred. There are going to be a lot of Mr. Weasleys here tonight."

Zack was torn; his parents would never approve of him calling an adult by their given name, but these people were a very informal group, and it could be very confusing for him to address them all as formally as he had been raised to do. He nodded hesitantly, and was relieved when Connor stepped through the Floo, and grabbed his arm to pull him out of the kitchen.

House was older and more...lived in than the Potter home, but definitely had the same feel to it. There seemed to be people everywhere, most of them with red hair and freckles. They found Rachel in the living room, and the three of them headed outside, where most of the kids were running around in the snow, throwing snowballs and shrieking with laughter. Zack looked around in amazement at all of the Weasley progeny and turned to Connor and asked, "How many are there?"

"In total, or just the kids?" he asked.

"Er, just the kids," Zack said, and waited while Connor counted on his fingers.

"There are twenty five of us if you count the Potter kids," Rachel said without needing to count. She picked up some snow and formed it into a tight ball, and just held onto it, waiting for a prime opportunity. She took at deep breath and said, "Me, Connor, Gwen, Prue, Lucy, Ian, Adam, Judith, Brian, Jack, Shannon, Mathew, Maggie, Victoria, Ella, Sarah, Marcus, Peter, Jarod, Aiden, Shawn, Dylan, Arthur, Patrick and Michael."

"Now you're sounding like Adam. I can't believe you can say all of our names in a single breath," Connor said, rolling his eyes.

"How far did we travel to get here, exactly?" was Zack's next question. There was snow here in abundance, but there had been very little at Connor's house. He looked up at the crooked form of the house that could only possibly be standing with the aid of serious magic, and surveyed his surrounding with no idea as to where they actually were.

"A couple of hundred miles, I'd guess. Rachel wouldn't have had to travel as far, as she lives closer to the Burrow." Connor said dismissively, watching with admiration as Rachel suddenly spotted Aiden and let her snowball fly, hitting their cousin squarely in the side of the head. She scooped up more snow, and formed it into another ball. "Listen, Zack and I went snooping around in my attic, and the only thing we found was a piece of parchment...." Connor grabbed Rachel's elbow and steered her toward the side yard, where there was a small stoop that led to a side door into the kitchen, causing her to drop her second snowball.

The three of them sat huddled together, examining the parchment closely, looking of any clues, and didn't see or hear George sneaking up on them. "What are you three up to out here?" he asked suddenly, grinning when they all jumped guiltily and did their best to hide what they were holding without seeming to obvious about it. "Is that... it is!" he breathed almost reverently when he spotted the parchment behind their backs. He crouched down beside the trio and reached out to pull it forward. "Where did you get it?"

"Er, in the attic at my house," Connor admitted, cautiously hopeful that they were about to find out more. Since his uncle wasn't scolding them, he pulled the ribbon and tag out of his pocket and held it out. "In Dad's old school trunk, wrapped in this."

"Does he know you have it?" George asked quietly, looking around them furtively.

"No," Connor said, beginning to feel excited. It seemed that his Uncle George actually did know what was so important about this thing.

"Good lad," he grinned. "Do you know what it is?"

All three shook their heads and waited expectantly for an answer.

"It's the Marauder's Map," he told them importantly. He waited a beat, but was greeted with only blank stares, and so he sighed and added quietly, "A map of Hogwarts. It won't work here, but when you get back to school, you tap it with your wand and say, 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good!' and the map will show up, the entire castle - secret passageways and all - along with everyone in the castle. When you're done, you tap it and say; 'mischief managed!' and it'll go blank. Now put it away before anyone sees; there's more than one person here tonight who'd recognize it."

"I wouldn't want anything to happen to it," Connor said, folding it back up and slipping it into the pocket of his cloak.

"It's charmed to with anti-tearing, anti-smearing, anti-burning and lots of other anti charms to keep anything from happening to it. It can still be confiscated, though, so be careful, especially around Lupin," George told them all conspiratorially.

"Why especially around Lupin?" Rachel asked at once.

George looked around again to be sure no one was there to overhear and said, "He's one of the map's makers. He and Harry's dad and Sirius and another... friend made it while they were students in Hogwarts."

Rachel and Zack shared impressed looks that made George grin.

"So you won't tell my dad?" Connor asked with relief.

George simply winked at them and said, "Tell him what?" before pushing himself to his feet and going back into the house.

The trio looked at each other and grinned, already wondering what use they could put the map to once they returned to Hogwarts.

"I have a feeling that we struck gold on this one," Connor said happily. "Now let's go back inside, because I'm about to freeze out here."

When they got inside, Zack was stunned to find that the rooms seemed to be twice as large as they had been only a half an hour before. He was tempted to run back outside to see if the house was bulging or if it seemed larger in any way, but no one else seemed surprised by this sudden enlargement, so he just followed Connor around the long tables that were being set up. There were glasses and plates and silverware floating through the air as wands directed them to place settings, and Zack ducked a pair of candlesticks narrowly missed his head as they soared past. He followed Rachel and Connor up the stairs, past bedrooms and portraits and bathrooms, all the way to the top of the house until they came to the attic door. Zack expected them to have to knock and give a password as Connor had done at the Potter's home, but Rachel simply reached up and turned the doorknob to admit them.

This attic was very different from the neatly organized one that Connor and Zack had visited earlier in the day. This space was packed to the rafters with boxes and trunks and crates; some were labeled and some weren't. There were two dressmaker's dummies in one corner, and several pieces of furniture that were all in some sort of disrepair stacked precariously along one wall.

"How are we supposed to find anything in here?" Zack asked in dismay.

"The same way everyone else does," Connor answered with a shrug. "Just start digging!"

They each chose a general direction and began opening boxes and peering inside. Most of the boxes were full of old clothes and discarded toys from the older Weasley siblings' childhood, or photo albums. They found old school trunks and empty pet cages, and back issues of Witch Weekly; a large crate of books all authored by one Gilderoy Lockhart, and a stack of old cauldrons as well.

"Blimey," Connor said after about fifteen minutes. "Someone should just come up here and vanish most of this stuff off to a rubbish skip somewhere."

"And if you mention it to anyone, they'll give you the job," Rachel said pointedly. "Only you won't be able to use your wand."

"Right," he said. "It must be getting near to dinner time."

"Hey!" Zack said as the others were closing up the boxes that they had opened. "I've found a box here full of letters from a Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley."

They gathered around the box, but didn't have time to do much more than look at the stack of parchment inside before they were being called down to dinner. They closed up the box and put it near the door to the attic, hoping that they would be able to come back for it before they left that night. They all went down into the general chaos that was the Weasley and Potter families, and sat at the end of one of the long tables, ready to eat. Zack waved to Professor Lupin, who was seated further down the table near Molly Weasley, a bit surprised to see him there.

The meal was merry and loud and Zack found himself just observing it all to file away in his mind as a favorite memory he was sure he would keep for the rest of his life. There was more of the enchanted mistletoe that they had seen in Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, and several women that Zack didn't know had already kissed Zack and Connor on the cheek. The conversation was punctuated occasionally by a huge boom of noise from the crackers set about the table, and Zack actually shouted out in fright when the first one sounded, because he had been expecting the tiny snap that usually accompanied the Muggle version of the same favor. When he pulled one with Lucy, he was amazed when the hat that emerged was not a flimsy tissue paper concoction, but a tiara encrusted with glass jewels, and the toy that tumbled out was miniature set of gob stones. Connor tried to get him to wear the tiara, but Zack insisted that it looked better on Lucy. He pulled another with Connor, and though he knew what to expect sound-wise, he didn't expect a newt to come running out of the tube and straight into the fire. He laughed as he donned the jester's hat that had come from it, and looked around to see that just about everyone at the table was wearing a silly hat, and no one seemed embarrassed about it; Connor's father was wearing a flowered sun hat, while his mother had gotten a purple silk top hat. Lupin was laughing at a joke that Sarah was reading to him while he donned a bright orange porkpie hat.

The meal came to an eventual end, and Connor and Zack were sitting on the bottom steps of the stoop outside, wishing they'd said 'no' to that last helping of pie. The adults were inside, making short work of getting the dishes cleared up and the tables and chairs back to their normal size and number in the house. Adam was sitting on Professor Lupin's lap in a chair on the porch, looking as though he was close to falling asleep, and Rachel, Victoria and Lucy were trying to coax their Uncle Charlie into telling the story about how he had met his wife Brianna when she'd saved him from a dragon where they worked.

"Come on, Uncle Charlie!" they pleaded. "It's so romantic!"

"There was nothing romantic about it," Brianna claimed with a straight face as she came outside for a breath of fresh air. "I ended up having to treat his sorry butt for burns. Literally."

Zack laughed at this, and was just about to see if Connor wanted to play a game of exploding snap with the new set he'd gotten from one of the crackers, when Fred and George Weasley exited the house with a huge box floating in front of them.

"Time for the annual Weasleys Wizard Wheezes fireworks show!" they called out.

It only took a couple of minutes for the entire clan to come outside wrapped in their winter cloaks and gather round. Many of the adult couples stood with their arms around each other, and Connor spotted his own parents leaning against the railing of the porch, his mother securely folded into his fathers arms, held against his broad chest. It gave him a funny feeling inside sometimes to see his parents like this; it was all he knew, but he also knew that his father had grown up with very little affection in his life at all until he'd gotten to Hogwarts. He thought briefly of Andrew and his father being away in St. Mungo's because of mental issues. His sudden shiver had very little to do the cold for a moment, but then his attention was drawn away by a huge burst of yellow and blue high in the sky above the Burrow.

Zack was entranced by the huge Catherine wheels and the floating sparklers that spelled out 'happy Christmas' and shooting rockets that stayed in the air for much longer than Muggle ones might have done if they could have even managed to make them so spectacular. Connor smiled as he watched his friend's reactions to the bursts of light overhead, and wondered what he would have been doing now if he had gone home for the holiday instead of coming here. He was pretty sure it wouldn't have been as good as this!

The fireworks show lasted for almost an hour, and everyone was nearly frozen by the time they all went back indoors. Mulled wine and hot chocolate were passed around to warm everyone up, and then all of the families began to gather their things together and head for home. Rachel disappeared up the stairs of a minute, and when she came down, she slipped the box they had left in the attic into Zack's hands, and he tried his best to hide it beneath his cloak. When it was their turn to go through the Floo, Connor's dad stepped in first with Adam fast asleep against his shoulder. Lucy followed, then Ian, then Zack. When Connor came through the Floo into his own home, he found that Zack had already excused himself and hurried up the stairs.

"Zack," Connor called as he approached his room. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" Zack hissed. "Close the door!"

Connor quickly closed the door and Zack showed him the box that Rachel had snuck out. "Brilliant!" he breathed.

"I was losing my grip on the box when I came out of the Floo, so I just said that I had to go to the toilet as soon as I came out, and ran up here before I could drop it," Zack explained.

They changed quickly into their pyjamas and said good night to the rest of the Potters, then retreated back to Connor's room to take a look through the stack of parchment. Most of the letters appeared to be letters informing Arthur and Molly Weasley that their sons Fred and George had been caught doing any number of things that were against Hogwarts rules and that they were being disciplined for said actions. There were letters of congratulations for all of the children being named prefects for Gryffindor house, except the twins of course, and several letters of reprimand for the other children combined. Connor noticed that his own father's name came up often in the letters that concerned his Uncle Ron.

"Look at this one!" Connor said to Zack as they sifted through the numerous pieces of correspondence.

"Dear Arthur and Molly,

It falls to me once again to write to you concerning your son Ronald, and daughter Ginny. Ronald and Ginny were found in the company of three other Gryffindors (who parents and or guardians have also been notified), out of their Common Room well after curfew hours, and were caught attempting sneak out of the Slytherin House Common Room. Found in their possession was evidence of several items that have been previously been declared dangerous and banned from school grounds by our resident Caretaker, Argus Filch.

While it is my belief that the students were attempting to carry out a prank in the spirit of inter-house rivalry, all are aware that their actions are strictly against school policy and have received one week's detention under the supervision of Head of Slytherin House, Professor Severus Snape. The offending students will also be required to repair and clean any damages caused by the small explosion that resulted from the aforementioned prank.

Yours, as always,

Professor Minerva McGonagall,

Deputy Headmistress

Head of Gryffindor House."

"Explosion?" Zack laughed in astonishment.

"A week with Snape?" Connor added. "Now I wish we didn't have to keep these a secret. The next time I get into trouble, I could just tell them that at least I didn't blow of the Slytherin Common Room!"

The sound of someone coming up the stairs made the boys quickly shove the letters back into the box, and Zack shoved the box into his trunk. They scrambled into their beds, with Zack just barely making it up into his when there came a light knock at the door before it opened.

"You two should be asleep," Mrs. Potter was clearly attempting to look stern, but the twinkle in her eyes gave her away. "The twins and Adam will likely wake you early, so try not to stay up too late. Good night boys."

"G'night Mum," Connor said around a yawn.

"Good night Mrs. Potter," Zack said.

Connor got out of bed to turn out the ornate lantern attached to the wall by his dresser, and opened the window so that Godric could go out to hunt when he liked.

"Won't we freeze with the window open?" Zack asked sleepily.

"Nah," Connor yawned again. "All the windows are charmed to keep the cold out, even when they're open. Now let's get some sleep; tomorrow's Christmas."

It didn't take either boy long to drift off with slight smiles on their faces.