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CHAPTER SEVEN

— moony, wormtail, padfoot, and prongs

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MADAM POMFREY INSISTED ON KEEPING Harry and Juliet in the hospital wing for the rest of the weekend. Harry didn't argue or complain, but he wouldn't let her throw away the shattered remnants of his Nimbus Two Thousand. He knew he was being stupid, knew that the Nimbus was beyond repair, but Harry couldn't help it; he felt as though he'd lost one of his best friends.

He had a stream of visitors, all intent on cheering him up. Hagrid sent Harry a bunch of earwiggy flowers that looked like yellow cabbages, and Ginny Weasley, blushing furiously, turned up with a get-well card she had made herself, which sang shrilly unless Harry kept it shut under his bowl of fruit (Juliet thought it was adorable). The Gryffindor team visited again on Sunday morning, this time accompanied by Wood, who told Harry (in a hollow, dead sort of voice) that he didn't blame him in the slightest. Ron and Hermione left Harry's bedside only at night. But nothing anyone said or did could make Harry feel any better, because they knew only half of what was troubling him.

Meanwhile, Juliet had her own stream of visitors, though she didn't need that much cheering up; she didn't feel as down as Harry was feeling – her team had won the match and her broomstick was still intact. Kate, Will, and Callum visited her numerous times throughout the day, with various snacks and treats, and accompanied her with jokes and laughter.

"Am I still the best Quidditch player you know?" Juliet asked Kate, grinning.

"Well, I think Callum overtook you this time." Kate replied, giggling, and Juliet threw a pillow at her.

Various Hufflepuff team members visited Juliet with a variety of gifts ranging from flowers to Honeydukes best chocolate.

This included Blake Morely, who handed Harry a sympathetic bar of this Honeydukes chocolate before approaching Juliet's bed with a gorgeous bunch of tulips.

"Oh these are beautiful, Morley! Thank you." Juliet gushed as she looked over them.

"Well, you still have to pay me back." He said jokingly, "You know, for being your knight in shining armour and all..."

"Hey!" Juliet laughed, "It's not my fault the goal post was there!"

Blake stayed with Juliet for a while after that, where they talked about anything and everything all the way until dinner. Harry didn't seem to have much to say during this. Juliet found that she and Blake got on well – their personalities clashed well and Juliet saw herself becoming good friends with him.

Anytime the pair weren't with their own friends, they were talking to each other – somehow never running out of things to say. However, they often found themselves zoning out and dwelling on the other worries of their lives (mainly Sirius Black related). Since Halloween, Harry hadn't tried to bring up Black to Juliet, not really wanting to talk about it himself.

Subsequently, It was a relief to return to the noise and bustle of the main school on Monday, where they were forced to think about other things, even if Harry had to endure Draco Malfoy's taunting. Malfoy was almost beside himself with glee at Gryffindor's defeat, and took every chance he could to mock Harry's fall.

Another thing the two were grateful for was the fact that Lupin was now back to work, even if he looked more worn out than ever. Juliet knew that the full moon had taken a lot out of him and, again, prayed no one would make the connection between the timing and the lunar calendar.

Lupin smiled at them all as everyone took their seats, and they burst at once into an explosion of complaints about Snape's behaviour while Lupin had been ill.

"It's not fair, he was only filling in, why should he give us homework?"

"We don't know anything about werewolves... two rolls of parchment!"

"Did you tell Professor Snape we haven't covered them yet?" Lupin asked, frowning slightly.

The babble broke out again.

"Yes, but he said we were really behind"

"He wouldn't listen–"

"–two rolls of parchment!"

Professor Lupin smiled at the look of indignation on every face. "Don't worry. I'll speak to Professor Snape. You don't have to do the essay."

"Oh no," said Hermione, looking very disappointed. "I've already finished it!"

They had a very enjoyable lesson. Professor Lupin had brought along a glass box containing a hinkypunk, a little one-legged creature who looked as though he were made of wisps of smoke, rather frail and harmless looking.

"Lures travellers into bogs," said Professor Lupin as they took notes. "You notice the lantern dangling from his hand? Hops ahead – people follow the light – then –"

The hinkypunk made a horrible squelching noise against the glass.

When the bell rang, everyone gathered up their things and headed for the door, Juliet among them, but–

"Juliet, Harry, I'd like to have a word with you," Lupin called, "Can you wait outside for a moment Harry?"

Harry nodded and left the room, leaving just Lupin and Juliet.

"Are you alright, Juliet? I heard you fell in the match," Lupin said warmly.

"I'm good, just crashed into a goalpost." Juliet shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly, and Lupin laughed wholeheartedly.

"You Blanchards and your Quidditch immortality. Your mother used to always wind up in the hospital wing during her matches, and merely claim she had just a scratch – caring more about her broom than herself."

Juliet laughed as well, "Yeah, that sounds like mum."

"I was wondering something else..." Lupin began slowly, "Were the dementors a reason that you crashed?"

"Um," Juliet said, taken aback, "I guess... they stopped me from swerving and being able to hear or see anything."

"I assume you'd want to protect yourself from them then," Lupin added, clearly avoiding the topic of Juliet's father.

Juliet had no idea where this was going, "I suppose,"

"How about I teach you the patronus charm? It can help you in your next quidditch match, and with other–" Lupin cut himself off, clearly not wanting to bring up Juliet's father.

"Isn't that supposed to be a really difficult charm? And when will you have the time?"

"Yes, but I know you, and I believe you can do it. Don't worry about my schedule."

"If you think I can, then I'll do it,"

"Then it's settled – we'll start after Christmas, I have too much to do before then."

With the anticipation of anti-dementor lessons, where Juliet was most likely to have to see her father again, and the fact that Ravenclaw all but demolished them in their Quidditch match in November, Juliet hadn't been in a very good mood.

To everyone's delight except Juliet's, there was to be another Hogsmeade trip on the very last weekend of the term.

"It sucks that you can't go to Hogsmeade again," Callum had told her, "At least you can get more of the Herbology project done with Harry before Christmas. I don't think I can bear another session without Hannah talking my ear off."

"Hey! Hannah's nice." Will protested.

"No, she is really nice. But I can only take so much of her talking about her excitement for her trip to France this Christmas."

Juliet was grateful to her friends for their constant avoidance of talking about Hogsmeade, but it didn't make her any less bitter seeing them and the rest of the school go off to the popular village on the Saturday morning after.

Like last time, Juliet heard her name being called from behind her. And like last time, she turned to find Harry Potter walking toward her.

"Hey, Juliet. Do you want to do some more Herbology again? Sprout's been loading us with way too much research."

Juliet nodded with a smile, and the two set off toward Gryffindor Tower so that Harry could get his stuff. Snow had started to fall outside the windows, and the castle was very still and quiet.

"Psst– Juliet! Harry!"

Startled, the two spun round, half-way along the third floor corridor, to see Fred and George peering out at them from behind a statue of a humpbacked, one-eyed witch.

"What on earth are you two doing?" Juliet said to the twins, incredulously.

"Yeah, why aren't you guys going to Hogsmeade?" Harry added.

"We've come to give you two a bit of festive cheer before we go," said Fred, with a mysterious wink. "Come in here...."

He nodded toward an empty classroom to the left of the one-eyed statue. Harry and Juliet just looked at each other in confusion but followed Fred and George inside. George closed the door quietly and then turned, beaming, to look at Juliet and Harry.

"Early Christmas present for you poor sods," he said.

Fred pulled something from inside his cloak with a flourish and laid it on one of the desks. It was a large, square, very worn piece of parchment with nothing written on it. Juliet immediately took three steps back. She knew the twins, and it was always safer to assume they've got something up their sleeves – she had been unfortunate enough to learn this the hard way. Harry just stared at it.

"What's that supposed to be?" he said.

"This, Harry, is the secret of our success," said George, patting the parchment fondly.

"It's a wrench, but I suggested we give it to you," said Fred.

"I thought we should give it to you, Julie," George said.

"Of course he did," Fred said, a slight, almost unnoticeable, joking tone in his voice.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Juliet asked.

"Nothing." George said quickly, shooting Fred a glare.

"Yes, that's besides the point. We decided last night, your needs are greater than ours." said Fred.

"We know it by heart," said George. "So we bequeath it to you. We don't really need it anymore."

"That's oddly kind of you...?" Juliet said, eyeing the paper with great suspicion.

"And what do we need with a bit of old parchment?" said Harry.

"A bit of old parchment!" said Fred, closing his eyes with a grimace as though Harry had mortally offended him. "Explain, George."

"Well... when we were in our first year, Harry – young, carefree, and innocent –"

Juliet snorted. She didn't think Fred and George had ever been innocent in the 13 years she had known them.

"Well, more innocent than we are now – we got into a spot of bother with Filch."

"We let off a Dungbomb in the corridor and it upset him for some reason–"

"So he hauled us off to his office and started threatening us with the usual–"

"Detention, disembowelment, etc and we couldn't help noticing a drawer in one of his filing cabinets marked Confiscated and Highly Dangerous."

Juliet was highly aware of where this story was going to go.

"Don't tell me–" said Harry, starting to grin.

"Well, what would you've done?" said Fred. "George caused a diversion by dropping another Dungbomb, I whipped the drawer open, and grabbed – this."

"It's not as bad as it sounds, you know," said George. "We don't reckon Filch ever found out how to work it. He probably suspected what it was, though, or he wouldn't have confiscated it."

"And you know how to work it?"

"Oh yes," said Fred, smirking. "This little beauty's taught us more than all the teachers in this school."

"That is a very bold statement." Juliet said, still not believing a single word. Harry didn't believe them either.

"You're winding us up," said Harry, looking at the ragged old bit of parchment.

"Oh, are we?" said George. He took out his wand, touched the parchment lightly, and said, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

And at once, thin ink lines began to spread like a spider's web from the point that George's wand had touched. They joined each other, they crisscrossed, they fanned into every corner of the parchment; then words began to blossom across the top, great, curly green words that proclaimed:

Masters. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs

Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers are proud to present,

THE MARAUDER'S MAP

It was a map showing every detail of the Hogwarts castle and grounds. But the truly remarkable thing were the tiny ink dots moving around it, each labelled with a name in minuscule writing. Astounded, Harry and Juliet bent over it. A labelled dot in the top left corner showed that Professor Dumbledore was pacing his study; the caretaker's cat, Mrs. Norris, was prowling the second floor; and Peeves the Poltergeist was currently bouncing around the trophy room. And as Juliet's eyes travelled up and down the familiar corridors, she noticed something else.

"These passages lead–"

"Right into Hogsmeade," said Fred, tracing one of them with his finger.

"There are seven in all. Now, Filch knows about these four" – he pointed them out –"but we're sure we're the only ones who know about these. Don't bother with the one behind the mirror on the fourth floor. We used it until last winter, but it's caved in – completely blocked. And we don't reckon anyone's ever used this one, because the Whomping Willow's planted right over the entrance. But this one here, this one leads right into the cellar of Honeydukes. We've used it loads of times. And as you might've noticed, the entrance is right outside this room, through that one-eyed old crone's hump."

"Moony, Wormtaill Padfoot, and Prongs," sighed George, patting the heading of the map. "We owe them so much."

"Noble men, working tirelessly to help a new generation of lawbreakers," said Fred solemnly.

"Right," said George briskly.

"Don't forget to wipe it after you've used it or anyone can read it," Fred said warningly. "Just tap it again and say, 'Mischief managed!' And it'll go blank."

"So, you two youngsters," said Fred, in an uncanny impersonation of Percy, "Mind you behave yourself."

"See you in Honeydukes," said George, winking. They left the room, both smirking in a satisfied sort of way.

Harry and Juliet stood, gazing at the miraculous map.

"Do you think we can trust it?" Harry said, voicing Juliet's exact concern.

"I don't know," she said warily, "I mean... Fred and George have been using it for years and they've been fine. I can't believe they never told me about this!"

"What do you think we should do?" Harry asked.

"I think there is only one thing we can do," Juliet said, a grin creeping on her face.

"Let's go to Hogsmeade."

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author's note!

updated reckless driving and felt like updating void too bc it's been WAY too long

hopefully i'll get motivation to keep writing void because it has a special place in my heart<3

love u all lots, keep voting and commenting your opinions because it truly makes my day!!

published: 8th september 2024