The Marauder's Map

With James following behind in the invisibility cloak, Harry thanked Tom, and the duo made their way back to the small area behind the Leaky Cauldron that contained the entrance to Diagon Alley. James tossed the cloak into the air, and, hitting it with a shrinking charm on its way back down, caught it, and put it in his pocket. He was clearly enjoying his new wand, giving it a flourish and tapping the stone that led to the alley. He made a beeline for Quality Quidditch Supplies, stopping outside the window to view the contents therein. Harry stared with him, but after a moment, glanced sideways at him.

"What was your last broom?"

"A QuidditchMaster Lightning. It wasn't that manoeuvrable, but damned fast. Nothing like that in the window, though - don't QuidditchMaster make brooms anymore?"

Harry shrugged. "I haven't heard of them. I've got a Firebolt: Sirius gave it to me as thirteen years worth of birthday presents. It's absolutely amazing. It was limited edition, though, so you probably can't get it any more." He paused. "Were you a seeker as well?"

James looked up for the first time, surprised. "Seeker? No, I was a chaser. How did you become a seeker?"

Harry shrugged again. "Neville - he's the other guy in our dorms - had got a remembrall from his grandmother. We were having out first flying lesson, and Malfoy... Now I come to think of it, did you know his Father?"

James furrowed his brow, trying to remember. "I seem to remember someone called Malfoy - his seventh year was my first year. Slytherin prefect."

"That would be Lucius Malfoy. This is his son. First name's Draco, but we just know him as Malfoy, for obvious reasons."

"Slytherin?"

"Course. Anyway, he took the remembrall, and threatened to leave it in a tree. I went up there to get it back, and he dropped it down from about fifty foot. I caught it, and McGonagall saw me through a window. I thought she was going to expel me at first, but then she told me I was in the house team!"

James, who had been grinning since the bit about flying up to get the remembrall back, started laughing. "You must be good, even I wasn't on the team in my first year." He paused. "You know, that Malfoy guy sounds like Snape, when he was at school."

"From your description, he probably is. Come on, let's go in."

After looking at all the different models available, from a Comet two-ninety to the latest racing broom, the Pulsar. Eventually it came down to a choice between that, a Nimbus 3000, or a Cleansweep Nuclear SE. The Pulsar won out, not least due to the three year warranty included in the price. James shrunk it down to the size of a match, placed a location charm on it in case he lost it, and added it to his already crowded pocket.

James looked satisfied with his purchase as they wandered out of the shop ten minutes later (Harry had not been able to resist buying a few refills for his broomstick servicing kit). He consulted his list of equipment.

"Anything else you need?" Harry asked, looking over his shoulder at the parchment.

"Don't think so... What about an owl? I'm probably going to need to use one a lot over the next few weeks."

"I've already got one," Harry replied. "Hagrid got her for my eleventh birthday. She's called Hedwig."

"Weird name. When is your birthday anyway?"

"Last day of July. Yours?"

"Last day of October."

Harry stopped suddenly, and glanced at James sharply. "Halloween?"

James looked puzzled. "Yes, why?"

There was a pause before Harry replied. "Nothing. Never mind."

They walked on a bit, but it was in an uncomfortable silence; James could tell Harry was keeping something for him. Harry, meanwhile, was remembering his promise to himself last night. I had finally found someone I can trust implicitly. I am not going to have any more secrets from James.

He kept walking, but finally spoke. He could not, would not keep anything from him.

"Halloween was the night that you were killed."

James' eyes widened, but he stayed silent. However, the tension that had been in the silence before - not that anyone other than them could have noticed it - had vanished.

He glanced at the display of clocks they had passed before, and gave a start. "It's half past five, we're supposed to be back at Dumbledore's by six."

Harry nodded, and they started back to the Leaky Cauldron. James got out the invisibility cloak behind the pub and threw it over himself as they trooped in. After walking straight over to the nearest fireplace, Harry took a large handful of floo powder, larger than he needed, and throwing it into the flames, muttered, "Hogwarts, Headmaster's office." He stepped in, motioning for James to follow him before the fire went back to normal.

A few moments later they both tumbled into Dumbledore's office, James clutching the invisibility cloak tightly. Dumbledore looked up, smiling.

"Excellent. You have everything you need?"

"Yes, Sir - at least, I hope so..." He dug into his pockets, checking that nothing had fallen out in the floo journey. Dumbledore turned to Harry.

"Your father will have to stay here for now so I can arrange for his arrival. You will see him in about an hour, when he is Sorted." Dumbledore turned back to James, and Harry took that as his cue to leave. Throwing one last glance at them, he turned and left the circular office, and made his way back to the Gryffindor common room.

He was met by Ron and Hermione at the entrance hole, who immediately started questioning him on what happened. Harry held up his hands to plead for silence.

"We went to Diagon Alley to get James's school stuff. He got a new wand, books, robes, a broomstick..."

Ron interrupted. "Which broomstick did he get?" Hermione looked at him irately, as if she could think of nothing less important at the present moment than which broomstick he got. Harry, however, answered.

"A pulsar."

"Really? Wow... We need a keeper now that Wood's left, is he going to try for that?"

"I don't think so," Harry replied. "He said he was a chaser. I remember McGonagall saying he was a really good player back in my first year; I don't think he's going to want to change position."

"But we've got three chasers - Alicia Spinnet, Katie Bell, and Angela Johnson."

Harry shrugged, but before he could reply, Hermione, who looked like she was getting very annoyed with this conversational tangent, interrupted. "Where is he now?"

"Err... I left him with Dumbledore, to make arrangements for his Sorting."

Hermione looked slightly alarmed. "Sorting? So he may not be in Gryffindor."

Harry started to reply, but Ron got in before he could. "He'll be in Gryffindor."

"How do you know?" Hermione questioned.

"Because the fifth year boys' dormitory has somehow changed shape to accommodate six people instead of five."

Hermione relaxed. "It's charmed to automatically morph to accommodate however many people are going to be in the house that year," she explained to Ron. "I read about it in Hogwarts: A History."

Harry hadn't commented, settling for merely smiling slightly. He had never had any doubts that James would be a Gryffindor.

Hermione was thinking. "I wonder what the teachers will think when they see him. They'll recognise him, surely. They'd never buy Dumbledore's shipped-over-from-America story."

"Dumbledore's told them the truth. They had a staff meeting this afternoon, with everyone, not just the teachers. Snape was furious. They haven't met him yet, though. Except Lupin."

Hermione raised her eyebrows, but didn't ask the obvious question of how they could have known that Snape was angry if they weren't there. Harry winced slightly as he realised his slip-up, but luckily Ron interrupted. "Lupin? He's teaching Defence again this year, then?"

"Yup. Arrived late last night. Wasn't he at lunch?"

"No," Ron replied, puzzled. He shook it off. "This could be so amazing. Your Dad and us... Do you think he could teach us how to become Animagi?"

Hermione frowned slightly. "It took him three years to become one, and he was supposed to be one of the brightest students in the year. Remember what Professor McGonagall said in the third year, about him and Sirius? Both exceptionally bright, of course, but I don't think we've ever had such a pair of troublemakers."

Ron stared at her in amazement. "How do you remember exactly what she said two years ago?"

"I listen, Ron," she said, exasperated. She turned to Harry. Harry, however, was looking at the clock on the wall. "It's nearly half past seven, we'd better be getting down to dinner."

Ron glanced at the clock as well, and nodded. They stood up, Hermione smoothing her robes, and trooped down to the great Hall.

They were a little early, but there were a few other people there as well, and more were coming in every second. However, all the teachers were there except for Professor McGonagall, and most of the conversation around the hall seemed to be centred around Remus, who was sitting at the head table pretending not very successfully to be utterly oblivious to the pointing and muttering. Harry perked up his ears: there seemed to be some quite fierce arguments, conducted in whispers, going on at some of the tables, but no outright fear seemed to be displayed except from the first and second years, who had not been taught by him two years ago. Most of the Slytherin table were muttering to each other, scowling. Harry looked up and caught Remus's eye; he nodded, gave a brief hint of a smile, and turned back to his conversation with Dumbledore.

Once the hall was full, and the stream of students entering had ceased, Dumbledore rose, and the hall fell silent.

"I have a few announcements, which I am afraid you will have to suffer through before that excellent feast. Firstly, I would like to welcome back Professor Lupin, who has returned for a hopefully permanent position, teaching Defence against the Dark Arts." There was quite a lot of applause, mostly from the Gryffindor table, but also from the third years and above from the other tables (with the exception of Slytherin). Dumbledore went on.

"As I am sure everyone in the third year or above knows, Professor Lupin is a werewolf." None of the first or second years looked surprised at that, Harry noted; although some of them shrank back into their seats, the rumour having been confirmed. Dumbledore waited a moment, and continued. "I sincerely hope that no student will hold against him something that he has no control over, and I can assure you that, thanks to the Wolfsbane potion which Professor Snape is kindly brewing for him, he is of no possible danger to anyone. Any evidence of bigotry and prejudice will be investigated most carefully, but I have faith that none of you will fall into the ever present trap of narrow-mindedness.

"Secondly, I would like you all to welcome a new student into our Fifth year, James Potter, who is the brother of one of our other fifth year students, Harry Potter. He has just returned from America where he was sent to escape Voldemort, and was not able to arrive in time to attend the normal Sorting, so he will be sorted now. Minerva?"

The great oak doors swung open, and Professor McGonagall walked in, James walking behind her. The teachers, with the exception of Dumbledore, were staring at him wide-eyed; with one or two of them going pale, as if they were muggles who had seen a ghost for the first time. None of the students seemed to have noticed, however; most seemed to be glancing between him and Harry, and there was renewed whispering, but this was quickly silenced as McGonagall took out the familiar Sorting Hat, and placed it on a three-legged stool. James strode confidently up to it, seemingly enjoying the way the whole school had their attention fixed on him. Harry didn't notice this, though; he was concentrating on James, who was lifting up the Sorting Hat. He had to struggle a bit to pull it down over his head, Harry noted; the Hat was designed for first years, not fifth years. He succeeded without too much trouble, though, and true to form, a shout of "GRYFFINDOR" reverberated around the hall a few seconds later. After pulling the hat up off his head, (which pulled his hair back as well, giving it an interesting wind-swept effect), he placed it back on the stool, and walked over to the space Harry had left between him and Hermione. Dumbledore stood once more; but it was only to say "Tuck in", and food appeared in the golden dishes in front of them.

Harry and James immediately started eating: they hadn't all day except for the pastries in Florean Fortescue's. Hermione, however, turned to James.

"So what was it actually like for you at Hogwarts? I mean, all we know," (she indicated Ron and herself), "is what Remus and Sirius have told us, which isn't much, and the fact that you had an invisibility cloak and made the Marauder's map. Except you became an animagus, and were Head boy, and..."

James cut off the stream of prose with a wave of his hand. He put down his fork, and looked thoughtful.

"I suppose I'd better explain from the beginning. I'd known Sirius for ages; he used to come round to my house long before we went to Hogwarts. We met Remus and Peter on the train in our first year. Remus was quite reclusive, and Peter was just nervous. We were the only four Gryffindors in our year, so we all shared a dormitory. My Dad gave me a lot of tutoring in magic and how it really worked before I came to Hogwarts, so I found I had a bit of an advantage over them - when you've been learning how something works since you were born, you find it much easier. So I found myself starting to help the Sirius and the rest of them - mainly Sirius - in their homework. Sirius learnt really quickly, and soon he was as good as me. Remus, though, preferred studying from books; and Peter never really seemed to get the hang of anything, though he tried hard enough.

"It wasn't until our second year that we started playing pranks. We'd discovered about Remus at the end of our first year, and we were looking for ways to help him. In the summer holidays I found my Dad's old invisibility cloak in the attic - I think he'd forgotten about it - and brought it to school in the second year. We could keep him company in the hospital wing, even when we weren't supposed to be there. And that opened the door to the whole of Hogwarts at night, which we could explore. Sirius and I had been playing pranks and practical jokes for years on my parents when he came over, and with the school at our disposal at night, we started to try it here. We told Remus all about what we'd done too cheer him up when he was in the hospital wing, and he started coming along too: he was a great lateral thinker, came up with loads of ideas for pranks. We brought Peter in on it too - he was wondering where we were every night. The professors worked out it was us eventually, and we started being more open about it - playing jokes, hoaxes, mucking around in class - you know the sort of thing. We used to get loads of detentions, but in never bothered us. We'd also all started working on being animagi, but we didn't succeed until the end of last year, when we also made the Map, to stop us getting caught so much..."

At this last sentence, he glanced at the clock on the wall behind the head table. "I'll tell you more later; if I don't start eating now, I won't finish before they bring the deserts out." He started eating at top speed, but when the main course was cleared away and the deserts brought out, he glanced at Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"Do you want to have pudding, or shall we go up to the dorms? I need to unpack all my stuff."

The others nodded, Ron doing so rather reluctantly, and wandered back up to the boys' dormitories. Once in there, James started emptying everything he'd brought in Diagon Alley out of his pocket, and started engorging them all back to their normal size. Ron sat on his bed, and turned to James, but before he could speak, Hermione interjected.

"Can you show us your animagus transformation? I've read a lot about them, but I'd like to see what's it's really like."

James grinned. "Sure." He dropped the book he was enlarging on the pile, and started concentrating.

A few seconds later, he stopped, and looked down at himself, puzzled. "That's funny. It's never failed before. Not since I learnt how to do it, anyway."

Hermione looked thoughtful. "Did you use the venenum method when you made yourselves animagi?"

"Venenum? You mean with a potion? Yeah, why?"

"Hermione nodded. "You're forgetting that you're in a new body now. Any potion that you drank in your old one won't be there any more."

James gulped, but nodded. "Oh yeah, I'd forgotten." He paused, but looked up again. "Oh well. It'll only take a fortnight to brew up the potion again."

Ron looked up at him, puzzled. "If it only takes a fortnight to brew, why did it take you three years to become an animagus?"

"If you just drink the potion, and try to transform into an animal at random, it'll completely muck you up. You'll only transform some parts of your body, or just mutilate yourself, and you won't be able to change back. It'll only work successfully if you work out exactly what animal your personality fits. And it has to be exactly - if you get the wrong markings or something, you're toast. So obviously, you can't just guess - you need years of concentration, meditation, and mind-altering potions to discover it inside yourself. That's what takes so long."

Ron nodded. "So you don't have any choice in what sort of animal you have?"

"Nope - the animal chooses you, not the other way round. It's based on your character, personality - even what you wear, if it's become an integral part of yourself, comes out through the markings on the animal." He tapped his glasses, which were an exact copy of Harry's, courtesy of James' transfiguration skills and an effingo charm.

Harry, however, was thinking hard. "So, does that mean that I'll be able to become an animagus without needing to have to meditate to discover it inside myself, because mine would just be the same as yours?"

James shook his head. "I don't think so. Remember, you're - you're Lily's son as well, so you may not be the same animal as me. And even if you were, I couldn't just describe it to you, you need to see it exactly as it will be, and the only way to do that without actually transforming is to do it in your minds eye."

Harry looked thoughtful, but suddenly smiled. "No, it isn't. And my animagus will be the same as yours."

James frowned. "How do you know?"

"Have you ever heard of the Patronus charm?" Harry asked.

"No, what does it do?"

"It's a projection of your personality in animal form. Its magical energy is provided by your own happiness, so it's used to ward off dementors. Watch." He only needed to concentrate on one thought - he was with his Dad again... "Expecto Patronem!"

A silver stag erupted from his wand, trotted over towards James, and bowed its head.

This was the first time that Harry had cast a Patronus where there were no dementors nearby to sap its energy, and he had the time to actually stop and look at it properly without it fading away. He realised that it wasn't really silver, but it glowed with such a bright silver light that you could easily be forgiven for thinking that it was. It had reddish-brown skin, long, curved antlers, and green eyes with white, circular markings around them, as well as a lightning-bolt shaped patch of white fur on its forehead.

James stared, wide-eyed, for a good thirty seconds, then reached out, and stroked it with one hand. He gave his head a shake, as if to clear it.

"If we knew about this when we did it... You're sure that your animagus will be the same as this?"

"Well, your animagus is a stag, my patronus is a stag," Harry replied. "As you're my Dad, it's pretty logical that my animagus form will also be one, as will your patronus."

"Well, we can test the latter easily enough, anyway. Did you say you had to concentrate on something happy?"

"Yup - the most easy thing is a happy memory, because you've got a much more vivid mental image from a memory than something you make up."

James shut his eyes and concentrated, and, lifting his wand, shouted, "Expecto Patronem!"

Another stag erupted out of his wand, and trotted over to join the first one, which had nearly faded away. Harry concentrated on his happy memory, with his wand pointed to it, and it strengthened immediately.

The second stag was slightly different from Harry's. Apart from the forehead markings and eye colour, its antlers were taller, and more ostentatiously curved; and its tail was longer. It was holding itself differently too; more upright and proudly that the Harry's. As they reached each other, they bowed, until their antlers were just touching. Harry and James looked at each other, and they faded away.

James was still looking annoyed over having just done three years of hard work only to find that he didn't need to have done it, when Ron interrupted. "So that means that we can all become animagi too!"

Harry looked up, and nodded. "Probably. Come on, let's find out what animal you both are."

Ron and Hermione both lifted their wands, and concentrated; Ron had his head resting on his arm and his eyebrows creased, and Hermione had shut her eyes, a look of calm appearing on her face. Hermione went first. "Expecto Patronem!"

A shining stream of silver flew out, which quickly formed itself into an otter, with thick, wavy fur, grey-brown on the outside but with a creme-coloured belly, a short, black snout, and large, brown eyes visible beneath the silver glow. It gambolled around her, staring up at her. Hermione's eyes shined with delight, but James frowned. "Don't they live in the sea?"

"Mostly, yes," Hermione answered.

"That's going to be a bit of a problem for getting around the grounds, then, isn't it?"

Hermione nodded reluctantly. "I see what you mean. My Patronus is just gliding on the floor, but a real otter won't be able to do that." She looked up, her Patronus starting to fade away. "I'll still be able to go in the lake, though."

James nodded thoughtfully, but Harry looked up at Ron. "Let's see yours, then?"

"I can't seem to find a happy enough memory," he said, looking up.

"I'd have thought you'd had loads of happy memories, living with your family."

Ron looked annoyed. "That's the problem. There's so many happy memories, happiness was the norm. I can't find a really happy memory to contrast it with. You see what I mean?"

Harry did. The fact that he hadn't had any truly happy memories before coming to Hogwarts meant that when some really happy ones came along, like what he found out that he was going to Hogwarts, they made such a contrast that concentrating on them was easy. He looked at Ron. "Try it anyway, see if we can see what animal you are."

Ron nodded, creased his forehead, shouted, "Expecto Patronem!", and was rewarded with a cloud of silver vapour, which hung in front of Ron, but with not nearly enough shape to identify what animal it was. Ron looked very disappointed, and the silver mist faded quickly.

"Don't worry about it, I'm sure that you'll learn to do it properly, given practice," Hermione assured Ron. He didn't look happy about it, but nodded his head.

"OK then. James, can you remember the ingredients of the potion?" Harry asked.

"Not really - well, some of them, but it's very complex to brew, and I'll probably get it wrong. There's a book in the library that tells you how, though - shall I put on the cloak and get it?"

Harry started to nod, but Hermione interrupted decisively. "It's our first day of school tomorrow, you should all be getting some rest - it's nearly eleven o'clock!" Ron opened his mouth to argue, but Hermione threw him such a sharp look that he closed it again. "Well, goodnight," she said, and walked out of the door, heading over to the girls dormitories.

James raised his eyebrows, but Harry was getting out his timetable. "Let's see, what have we got tomorrow... History of Magic, double Potions, Divination and double Defence Against the Dark Arts." He groaned. "Apart from defence, that's the worst Monday we've ever had."

"What d'you think Snape's going to be like in Potions?" James said.

Harry grimaced. "I don't want to think about it. Oh well, at least we can look forward to Sirius coming - Dumbledore said he'd be here tomorrow, didn't he."

James nodded, and started levitating his books and equipment, which were lying around the room having been returned to their normal size, down under his bed. He yawned, and climbed into his bed, still in Harry's old T-shirt and jeans.

"Good night."

"Night."

They were asleep by the time Seamus, Dean and Neville walked in, yawning.