Thanks to:
Caity: I'm glad you like the plotline! I know I enjoyed writing it (it's completed, you see). Thanks!
alan22: I'm happy that you think it's funny. Thanks! lol, I only posted this two days ago…
Danny: NO WAY! I'm fed up with everyone surviving. That's why I said it's different-they find out but still die. If you want to read fics where they survive, go to ff net and search for `Lily and James go forwards in time' or `Harry goes back in time'. I hope that helps. Thanks for the review!
Anonymous: What, has nobody covered it on Portkey yet? Coolie! I'm a first, finally! Anyway, I'm so happy that you like the plot-thanks!
hazeleyedmarauder: You have no idea how happy I was when I read that you were my first reviewer. I've been reading your comments for a while (no, I'm not a stalker, lol!) and I'm so glad you've finally read something of mine! Thanks so much!
Disclaimer: The scene featuring the map and Professor Snape is from Prisoner of Azkaban though I edited it for length and content. Most of it belongs to JK.
Please R/R, hope you enjoy…
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Chapter 2, The Marauder's Map
Lily woke up to find her head buried in the chest of a rather handsome blond boy who was lying under the covers of her bed next to her. Momentarily she freaked out, before realising it was James in his new form. She sighed and slid out of James's grasp, being careful not to wake him. His watch said it was five forty-five in the morning. She knew she wouldn't be able to go back to sleep again, so she went into the bathroom to have a shower. She cleaned and ironed her uniform, dried her now black hair, and de-frizzed the curls, all with several flicks of her wand. She looked in the mirror at her reaction and sighed wistfully, much preferring her previous image.
She then walked back outside and rushed over to her bed. She ducked behind the covers and decided to try and wake up James. She knew from past experience that he wouldn't wake up for just anything. She had to be original.
She sat down next to him and flicked a spell at him that would pour water over his face. Nothing happened. She placed on him `tarantallegra', and nothing happened. Eventually, after a long time of flicking aimless curses at him, she admitted defeat. She ripped the covers away from him. Nothing happened, but she saw something sticking out of one of the pockets of his trousers. Curiosity got the better of her, and she pulled it out. It was apparently blank, but she knew there must have been more to the parchment than that for James to carry it around with him.
Although James was her best friend and she knew about Remus and their Animagi forms, she didn't know about this secret because they hadn't got around to telling her. She decided to do a little bit of investigating herself.
After checking that nobody was awake, Lily touched the parchment with her wand and muttered, "I, Lily Marie Evans, demand that you show me your secrets."
Writing swept across the page, and it seemed that Lily had found out the secret of the parchment.
Mr Moony is wondering why Lily Evans is searching where she should not be for things that do not concern her.
Mr Wormtail says what are you doing up there anyway?
Mr Padfoot would like to tell Lily Evans that she should go and bother someone else, preferably Snape.
Mr Prongs agrees with all of the other Messrs and adds that although Lily Evans is very pretty, she should learn that not everything is meant for her to know about.
Lily stared at the sheet, annoyed that the sheet was solely for the purpose of insulting people. Then she realised she was being too shallow: the boys was never create an insult sheet. It had to be hiding something, and there was obviously a password for it. She thought hard, trying to think of passwords the boys would think up. Finally, she thought it had to do with being no good, as that was the boys' favourite thing to say.
"I am up to no good," she whispered. Nothing happened. "Ugh, wrong track then." But something kept telling her to keep at it. "I swear…I solemnly swear." That sounded about right. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
Lines spread out from the centre of the page and grew until they covered every inch of it. She saw that it was a map of Hogwarts. Words along the top read,
Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs
Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers
are proud to present
THE MARAUDER'S MAP
Lily stared at it in shock, and at all the little labelled dots around the school. She saw that Professor Dumbledore was in his office, Filch was patrolling the fourth floor with Mrs. Norris, and Peeves was terrorising things on the second floor. There were many passages leading to Hogsmeade that she'd never encountered before, and the entrance to the kitchens was proudly displayed. She could see their real names were displayed, which made her a little nervous as perhaps someone else knew the secrets of the map, and could find them. She wondered how to wipe the map clean. She knew it had to be something simple to counteract the long entrance password.
"Thank you?" she tried. "Um…" She noticed the title: Mischief-Makers. Perhaps it had something to do with that? "Mischief Ended." No, that didn't sound right, but `Mischief' did. "Mischief…Finished, Mischief Over, Mischief…" And then she realised. It fitted perfectly. It just seemed to flow. "Mischief Managed," she said, tapping the parchment. The page became blank. She started to smile, and turned to look at James.
James was still perfectly asleep, even though an hour had just gone by. She sighed and did the final last thing that she could think of, after sliding the parchment back into his pocket. She leant over and gently brushed her lips over his, a greeting she did often but never as a wake-up call.
James's eyes shot open. "Huh?" he muttered.
"Hi Jamie," Lily said, giggling. "I just thought you might like to get up before everyone else does and asks why you're in here, and in my bed at that."
"So you kissed me to wake me up?" he asked sceptically.
Lily rolled her eyes. "Get up." She grabbed his hands and tried to pull him out of bed. In the end, she gave a mighty tug and he rolled off the bed and onto the floor with an oomph. She quickly pulled him up and out through the door. They went down the stairs after James said the spell again, and hurried up the boys' staircase to the Fifth Year Boys' Dorm. Lily stood outside knowing that there were five boys in there who she didn't know and three she didn't want to be on the bad side of forever.
James went in, and was out ten minutes later with wet hair and straighter clothes. They hurried down to the Great Hall and had some breakfast, before rushing up to talk to Dumbledore about spare changes of clothes, as they didn't have their trunks with them.
After they'd all been granted permission to go to Diagon Alley to get some new clothes and equipment, they left again to tell the good news to the other three Marauder boys.
They flooed to Diagon Alley and came back several hours later with all their stuff. Luckily it was the weekend, so they didn't have any lessons. Once they'd arrived back, they all headed up to their respective dorms and unpacked.
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Harry, Ron, Hermione, the twins and Ginny were sat down in the Common Room chatting about the new fifth years.
"Has Dumbledore ever accepted transfer students before?" Ginny asked. The twins shook their heads.
"Not in our seven years here," Fred replied. "I wonder why he's doing it now, and has chosen these particular students."
At that moment, James came rushing down the stairs with the rest of the Marauders (though the sextet didn't know that) following them. "Where's Li-Holly?" James asked Ron.
Ron shrugged. "Why?"
Hermione elbowed him in the ribs. "Ron, shut up!" she hissed. "That's rude!"
James shrugged. "It doesn't matter. We just thought of a good prank to play on Snape. I'm surprised I never thought of it before, actually. It would have been more fun before…Anyway; we thought we'd tell Holly to join in the fun."
Fred and George grinned, along with Ron and Harry. "What's the prank? Can we help somehow?"
James grinned and nodded, but asked to know where Holly was first.
Hermione sighed. "Holly is upstairs somewhere muttering about insufferable people and maps."
"Maps?" James asked, suddenly nervous. He patted his pocket to see if his Map was there. It was, thankfully.
"Yes, maps. She was also muttering about how best friends aren't supposed to keep secrets from each other or something."
James's eyes widened. He turned to the rest of the Marauders. "Oh shit! She found out! Why didn't I tell her about the Map before?"
Sirius chuckled. "Because you're an idiot, my dear friend." He clapped James around the shoulders. "Didn't we ever tell you to tell Flower about it?"
James shook his head. "You were telling me she knew too much." He turned to look at the Girls' Staircase. "I guess I'll apologise." He stood at the bottom and yelled, "HOLLY!"
The girl stormed down the stairs a few moments later. "What?" she muttered.
"Sorry for not telling you about the Map."
Lily rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Your password is pathetic, boys, though. I mean, c'mon. It took me five minutes to work out the password for showing the Map and five for hiding it. You obviously didn't think hard enough."
"Ah, dear Flower," Sirius said cheerfully. "You underestimate us. Just because you're fantastically smart does not mean the rest of the people are. I mean, do you ever see Malfoy or Snape getting into the Map?"
Lily chuckled and shook her head. "What would the insults be for Snape, do you think?" she asked.
"Wash his hair," Sirius said, firmly nodding his head.
Harry stared at them, remembering a scene from third year.
- Flashback -
"Show yourself!" Snape said, tapping the map sharply.
It stayed blank.
"Professor Severus Snape, master of this school, commands you to yield the information you conceal!" Snape said, hitting the map with his wand.
Writing started flowing across it.
Mr Moony presents his compliments to Professor Snape, and begs him to keep his abnormally large nose out of other people's business.
Mr Prongs agrees with Mr Moony, and would like to add that Professor Snape is an ugly git.
Mr Padfoot would like to register his astonishment that an idiot like that ever became a Professor.
Mr Wormtail bids Professor Snape good day, and advises him to wash his hair, the slimeball.
- End flashback -
"Yes, quite," Harry said. "It'd also tell him he's an ugly git."
James beamed. "That's exactly what I'd say!"
Lily rolled her eyes good-naturedly. She turned to Harry. "How do you know so much about the topic?"
Harry shifted uncomfortably about his chair. "Um…well…you see…"
Fred beamed at him. "Spit it out Harry, if they have a Map it can't be all bad."
"We have a Map, too," Harry said finally.
"Cool!" James said. "Does it have a password to access it?"
"Yes."
"Did one of you make it?" Sirius put in.
They all shook their heads. Sirius looked put out. "Who did, then, and how did you get it?"
Fred and George grinned. "We nicked it out of one of Filch's `confiscated' drawers," Fred said.
"It was made by our idols, Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs," George replied.
James looked at the other three in great happiness that they were actually idols. Then he realised something. "Can I look at it please?"
Harry handed it over. "You won't be able to get into it, though…" he broke off as James took the parchment.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," he said clearly.
Harry's group stared at him.
"How did you know…?"
James grinned impishly. He looked down at the sheet. And stared in horror.
There, clear as day, were five dots labelled James Potter, Lily Evans, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew.
He showed the Map to the other Marauders and Lily, who all bit their lips and muttered, "Oh Merlin…"
"What's wrong?" Ron asked, wonderingly.
"Um…" Lily began. "We can't really tell you…"
"Of course you can!" Ginny piped up. "We won't tell anyone."
"But you won't believe us…just don't look in the Map for a while," James said. He tapped the Map and said, "Mischief Managed."
Fred looked at James in confusion. "How on earth do you know how to work the Map? You've only been here for a day!"
James smiled even more impishly if it was possible, and said, "That's up to me to know, and you to wonder for a looong time."
"What's your Map like?"
James looked like he wasn't going to reply, but Lily reached across and pulled it out of the pocket of his trousers. She waved it at them.
They looked at the blank sheet of parchment, and one by one their faces changed as they realised.
Although their parchment was a lot newer and whiter, it was undoubtedly the same Map.
"How did you get such a new copy?" George asked.
James shrugged. "Made it. Last year in fact."
"Does it still say…?"
"Yup."
"But then either you copied it…but if you made it last year…you had to have copied it; we've had the Map since first year…"
James shook his head. "Did I tell you that last year was 1974?"
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Haha! Evil cliffie!
I know this story is flying by rather fast. The next few chapters (I've already started writing the third, and I haven't even put this one up yet!) will be very long, have lots of the story in them, and then it'll be into the real story.
I know that the Marauders wouldn't start talking to Harry and co. after only knowing them for one day, but in this story anything is possible. It has to happen like this because the Marauders are in this time for a total of between four and ten days…I don't know which yet.
But then there's a period of time in the Marauder Era and then…more Harry and co.! I bet you can guess what happens, it's not hard…
But it happens in a way NOBODY will guess. That's me, predictable but completely unpredictable. So, expect the unexpected! Anybody who gets it in one, two, three or four goes/chapters gets a chapter dedicated to them, a character named after them in any one of my three stories (whichever they prefer), and a huge bag of internet sweets, whatever kind they want; be it chocolate buttons, pic'n'mix, or Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans (minus all the bogey, vomit, and earwax flavoured ones).
I hope you enjoyed that. If you have any ideas, theories, or reasons to believe that none of this would ever have happened (which it wouldn't, but this is all in good humour), don't hesitate to contact me via email, review or MSN.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that,
lyl,
Jay xx
aka
Jersey Princess aka Sucker-For-LJBFF
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