The Return of the Marauders

The Return of the Marauders

"James, I told you to keep that toad under control!" Ginny Potter yelled at her son, as the amphibian leaped onto the back of a passing girl, who began to scream. James and his twin brother, Sirius, laughed at the sight. Their brothers, Albus and Brian laughed in response, while the girls, Lily, Molly screamed in sympathetic terror.

"Exclusio!" Harry Potter said, and a jet of magic lanced out, enveloping the toad. It dropped off the panicking girl, a third year by Harry's quick assessment, and fell to the ground. He swept it up in one hand before another passerby could kill it with an ill-placed foot. "Listen to your mother, James! Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters is not the place for a loose pet." He handed it back to his son, and then beckoned one of the porters over to take the boys' luggage.

Ginny Potter shouted orders and gradually got the Potter clan under control. Harry was thankful that baby Kay was at home with the twins, sleeping.

"Why did you want a toad anyway?" Ginny asked, idly massaging her belly. The baby in her womb rolled over and went to sleep. "They went out of style years ago."

"It's the latest thing, Mum." Sirius answered for his brother. "It's new and retro at the same time!"

James saw his mother's motion, and then asked, "Do you think it'll be a boy or a girl?"

Harry and Ginny exchanged glances. "Well, after four girls, a new son might be nice, but after watching the two of you, I think another daughter might be more peaceful." The twin boys looked at each other, grinning.

Harry looked at his twin sons, James and Sirius. Black-haired and slender, they were similar to him in appearance, but possessed of the freckles and the easy self-confidence of their mother, Ginerva Weasley-Potter. Both of their eyes were the pellucid blue of the Weasley family, as well as the mischievous temperament of their uncles, Fred & George. They had been a handful to bring up, and now, like all the 11-year-old children surrounding them, they would soon be on their way to Hogwarts. He almost pitied the new headmistress, Melinda Merrythought.

He glanced over his shoulder at the half-concealed bodyguards lurking in the crowds. As Minister of Magic, he had 24-hour protection. At first it was embarrassing; but now, in the wake of the attempted kidnapping of his twin daughters, he welcomed their presence. He knew that the house guards would assure the smaller children of safety.

"Daddy, can't I go?" Lily asked, plaintively. "I'm ready. I'm really ready to go to Hogwarts."

"Sorry, dear." Harry gave his eldest daughter a consoling pat. "You've still got two years to go."

Ginny was hugging the boys and telling them to dress warmly. "I'll miss you both. Write often!"

Sirius Potter pecked his mother on the cheek, and then did the same to his sisters. "Don't worry, Lily," he said to his sister, who was very put out, and pouting with her lower lip stuck out. "We'll send you some souvenirs. Maybe an acromantula! The forest is supposed to be teeming with them!"

Harry, normally tolerant of his sons' antics, showed his legendary temper. "You'll do no such thing!" Several other parents looked over, stunned at the shouting. Ginny flushed in embarrassment. Emma and Charlotte hid their faces in their mother's skirts; they hated it when their father raised his voice. "Ron and I barely escaped those spiders with our lives! Your mother and I didn't raise you to lose you like that!"

Sirius gulped. "I was only kidding, Dad." He glanced at his twin brother, "Come on, James, let's find a compartment." The two boys leaped aboard the train and disappeared. Ginny and Lily waved, and then moved toward Harry. "A bit harsh, don't you think?"

Harry was still fuming. "I love them both, Ginny, but they've got no idea what they're talking about. Those spiders are killers. Merlin's Beard, they tried to take over the school! Your own brother, Percy, is half-dead from defending Hogwarts from their attack last spring!"

She nodded and then took his hand. "I know, dear, but humiliating them in front of everyone is a bad way to discipline."

Lily, showing her perception, spoke up. "Besides, Daddy, every time Uncle Ron tells that story, James and Sirius always hide their eyes when he gets to the part about the giant spider. They don't say so, but I think they're afraid of spiders."

Harry looked at his daughter as the train started to pull away. Sometimes he couldn't believe his little girl was only nine! Then his eyes fell upon a bag. "Damn!" he said and picked up the case. "Sirius forgot his books! Be right back!" Harry signaled his guards with an 'all clear', pushed his way through the crowd and leaped aboard the last car of the train as it pulled away. He flashed his Ministry ID to the conductor, and worked his way up the corridor, looking into the compartments before he finally spotted the two boys.

"Sirius you forgot your book bag," Harry said as he stepped inside the compartment.

"Thanks, Dad!" The boy stuffed it into the luggage rack and then looked back at his father, who was still standing there. "Look, I really was kidding about the spider!" His father interrupted him with a raised hand, and then smiled. "I've also got a surprise for you two." He reached inside his cloak and brought out a folded piece of parchment. "I was going to send it by owl, but now's a perfect time. I think you both know what this is."

Sirius gasped. "The Marauder's Map!" He took the item from his father with trembling hands. "I can't believe you'd give this up, Dad!" James was goggling at the cherished heirloom, the legacy of his namesake.

Harry chuckled, ignoring the rapidly changing scenery out the window. "Well, it's no use to me in London, so use it well. Just remember the words to activate it, and to wipe it." The boys nodded, having heard them at bedtime stories many times. "Now, I've got to get back to your mother before she gets suspicious." He smiled at them both, winked, and then Disapparated in a loud crack.

James and Sirius Potter looked at each other, holding the map in common. "The return of the Marauders!" they said together, and began to laugh. The future suddenly looked more exciting than they could have believed possible.

By the time the Hogwarts Express pulled into the station, James and Sirius had already targeted a number of potential membership possibilities for the New Marauders, but they decided to wait until after the Sorting. They kept mum about it as Hagrid herded all the First Years onto the boats for the ceremonial trip across the lake. The Hogwarts gamekeeper put them both into his boat, and teased them so much about their names and their heritage that both boys became convinced that he knew what they were up to. "An' I'll tell ye', Sirius, yer namesake was in detention almos' as much as he was on the Quidditch Pitch!"

James asked, "What was his position, Uncle Rubeus?" Hagrid, of course, was not in fact their uncle, but the Potter children always thought of him as such. He could be relied upon for unusual sweets, or very funny stories, and he seemed to enjoy having the various Potter children clamber about him during his visits.

"Beater, but he sometimes doubled as a Chaser in a pinch. O' course, James and Sirius were grea' friends, almost like brothers, so you two got'em beat in tha' respec'."

A tentacle of the giant squid passed over the boats, and Hagrid bellowed back over his shoulder that it was nothing to be concerned about. The quay, their final destination was rapidly approaching. "Hey Hagrid," Sirius Potter piped up, "Dad told us that the Board of Governors is talking about making you the new headmaster."

Hagrid chuckled. "Now why would I be wantin' that? More trouble than it's worth. All those decisions, an' politics an all tha'. Nah, I'm happy where I am, teaching Magical Creatures an' gamekeepin', an' huntin' werewolves, an stuff like tha'. Bin doin' this for years, an' it suits me fine!" He glanced at the two boys, and ruffled their hair with his dustbin-sized hands. "Didn' I hear yer Mum's expectin' again?"

The two boys nodded. "Yeah, bet it's another girl. Four in a row so far!" Sirius moped.

"Consider yerselves lucky, boys. I never had any brothers or sisters, though I woulda' liked some." He looked at their skeptical faces, and then drove home his point. "Me Mum left me Dad when I little, and me Dad died in me Second Year. Imagine bein' that much alone, not even a brother for company?" The two boys glanced at each other, hardly able to conceive of a life without their twin around. "The one love of me life, Maxime, well we visit, but she doesn' wan' ta marry. We're together, we break up, we're together, we break up." He gestured as he spoke, and the boat wobbled a bit, making the boys nervous. He stopped and grinned. "Be glad yeh come from a big family, boys. Yer Dad an' me, we know what it's like to have nobody."

James and Sirius were silent for the rest of the trip across the lake.

Later, as they plodded up the steps with the rest of the First Years, they looked back now and then at the line of fellow first years. The unspoken communication they had known since birth allowed them to mutually weigh the prospects of their new gang. Here and there were precocious students like themselves; but who to choose? The boys drew up shortly as Hagrid stopped in front of the slim, handsome appearance of Professor Horace Slughorn, second in command of Hogwarts. The potions teacher, returned to his youth via a misfired spell during the last war, welcomed them. Hagrid nodded to the man, and then left them. Professor Slughorn patiently explained the ground rules of Hogwarts, but James and Sirius tuned him out, having heard this as a story from their parents many times. They followed the Potions Professor into the great hall, and then waited through the sorting, not really paying attention to what was happening. All their thoughts were on the map, and what it meant to them.

At last their moment arrived. "Potter, James." James walked confidently up, not seeing Professor Slughorn's sudden jolt at the sound of the name. James waited as the hat was placed on his head. "Gryiffindor!" the hat shouted, and he ran to his expected table. Amidst all the shouting and congratulations, his joy suddenly turned to horror. Sirius might not get this house! What would they do? Sirius had the map in his back pocket under his robe! What if he ended up in Slytherin? What would happen then? He began to bite his nails in anticipation.

"Potter, Sirius." Sirius walked up, almost mimicking his twin brother and sat on the stool. Professor Slughorn put the hat on his head. The hat twisted, thought a moment, and then shouted, "Gryffindor!" James Potter almost collapsed in relief.

"We got the Potters! We got the Potters!" a thin brown-haired girl was shouting in glee. She clapped the boys on the shoulder and sat down next to them. "This is great! I've heard so much about you guys!"

"Who are you?" James asked.

"Don't you recognize me?" the girl said in confusion, and then brightened. "Oh, that's right. You guys were both in body casts when I visited your family; you were pretty out of it." She smiled. "I'm Ramona Lupin!"

***

Although it was their first night at Hogwarts, both Potters stayed up late in the Gryffindor Common Room talking with their new friend, Ramona. Like them, she had grown up hearing of the exploits of the Marauders, as her father had been a member of the group. She knew all the adventures by heart, as well as the ones that hadn't gotten into the book he'd written for their father, because they were too unbelievable. So, when the two broached their idea to her, she agreed wholeheartedly. "Yeah! So you've got the map, too? Great! Dad told me how it was made, so I'd been planning on making one myself."

"Can you?" James asked, looking surprised. "I thought it took all four of the Marauders; their combined wand strength together to forge it."

Ramona smiled at them, and for a moment, her mother (famous for her power and inventiveness) peeked through. "There's shortcuts everywhere, but let's just stick with the original, huh?"

Sirius nodded, and then looked around, making sure they were alone. Then he drew out the rolled map and spread it on the table in front of them. Raising his wand of fragrant rosewood, he tapped the map saying, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good!" The featureless parchment bloomed into inky life, revealing the passages and corridors of Hogwarts School, alive with patrolling prefects and the form of Peeves the Poltergeist, currently swinging on the chandelier in the main hall. "Cool!" said Ramona, gazing at the map with wide eyes. "It's just like my Dad always said."

"Speaking of him," asked Sirius, frowning a bit. "Did you inherit his...uh--"

"Am I a werewolf, you mean?" She smiled, and shook her head. "Not exactly. Let's just say I'm not quite normal during the full moon, but it's nothing dangerous." They waited for her to go on, but she grinned at them. "Why spoil the surprise?"

James smoothly changed the subject, and pointed at the map. "Head Boy coming this way." He pulled out his own wand, ash with the hair of a hobgoblin in the center. "Mischief managed!" The map blurred, and became a blank sheet of parchment. He quickly stuffed it under his robes. "So we're agreed? A threesome until we can find a proper fourth?" The others nodded, and James stuck his hand out, and Ramona and his brother clapped their hands on top of his. "We'll talk about this at breakfast tomorrow!" Kenway Shacklebolt entered the Common Room just as the trio broke up and headed for their respective dormitories.

"Lucky, aren't we?" James asked his brother as they sought out their beds.

"Lucky, hell! This is fate!" Sirius said with a grin.

"So I was thinking," said James, around a mouthful of waffles and syrup, "that we make the Shrieking Shack our headquarters."

"Why there?" Ramona asked, as she speared a sausage with her fork. "Didn't your dad always use the Room of Requirement for his group?"

"It's not on the map," Sirius pointed out. "With the 'Shack, we'll be able to tell when somebody's coming. Besides, your Dad used the place for his transformations, so there's a bit of tradition involved, right?"

Ramona nodded. "Okay, I can see that. When?"

Sirius looked at his brother and then at Ramona, "How about tomorrow night? We're still getting used to our classes, so they haven't passed out any homework yet."

Ramona nodded. "Makes sense. What about cover? Do you guys have your Dad's Invisibility Cloak?"

James smiled. "Of course. Got it in my trunk."

Ramona nodded, "Okay. I'll see you in the Common Room tomorrow night at 11:00. Bring along any notes you have of prospective members, and we'll take them to the Shrieking Shack for our first meeting!"

***

The corridors were dark and filled with shadows, but the trio had the map, and made it outside and across the grounds undetected. The brothers Potter were grinning, but Ramona in particular seemed to be enjoying every minute of their adventure. She seemed intoxicated by the cold night air, and when they finally got to the Whomping Willow, she was the first to whip out a wand and cast an immobilizing charm on it.

The passage at the tree's base was overgrown, but they located it without too much trouble. Once inside, and on the way up the passage their excitement broke, and they ran, laughing the rest of the way. "I can't believe it!" Sirius cackled, looking over his shoulder at the mousy-haired girl. "We're doing it!" Up through the trapdoor and up the creaking staircase, startling a roosting bat in the process, the trio plunged into the dusty, decaying room where they stopped, gasping for breath. At last, James stood up ignited his wand into a flare of luminescence and declared, "I hereby announce the return of The Maruaders!"

Ramona laughed, and then said; "Our first order of business should be finding a fourth member, preferably female." Unnoticed, the previously startled bat flew into the room, and hung from an overhead beam.

"Why a girl?" Sirius asked.

"Well, if we're caught someplace, or if a teacher asks where we're going, we can claim to be on a double-date."

"Brilliant!" James said.

The bat suddenly dropped down beside the students, blurred, and became a red-haired girl wearing a Ravenclaw robe and a big smile. "Can I join, then?"

And that was how the new Marauders met Mildred Worple.