Proliferated Petrification

4- The Marauder's Map

The Offices of the Chief Warlock at the Ministry of Magic went unused most of the time. Today, however, they were bustling with activity. By mid-afternoon, Albus Dumbledore had set up a remote command centre for the search of Hogwarts and the investigation into the basilisk. In addition to the DMLE search, Dumbledore and McGonagall had also started their own internal investigation to reconstruct the basilisk's and Ginny's movements and figure out how neither of them were detected. They stood around a large blueprint of the castle on a table that Dumbledore had drawn up with X's and lines drawn across it.

"Miss Granger was attacked here, outside the library," Minerva said, pointing to the blueprint. "However, Mr. Potter indicated that he heard the basilisk before she ran to the library here, at the base of the Grand Staircase—clear on the other side of the castle."

"Yes," Dumbledore agreed. "Now, this was immediately after breakfast, which indicates that 'Tom', in possession of Miss Weasley, left breakfast early to summon the basilisk and attack his next target while the students were on the way to the match." He drew a line from Myrtle's bathroom to the Grand Staircase, making it a dotted line towards the end, since they weren't exactly sure where Ginny had gone.

"But Mr. Potter reported that 'Tom' was already after Miss Granger, even before she figured out that the monster was a basilisk," McGonagall said.

"And so he was. I suspect that Tom moved towards where Miss Weasley knew Miss Granger would be after breakfast and then either witnessed the entire exchange, or at least saw Miss Granger rushing to the library, deduced that she had discovered the nature of the monster, and pursued her more intently." He traced Hermione's and Ginny's likely paths in different colours and then began tracing the plumbing system of the castle along the route wherever the pipes were large enough for a basilisk as large as Harry described to slip through.

"Excuse me, Chief Warlock," one of the DMLE interns interrupted from the door. "There's a Remus Lupin here to see you. He says he has information for the investigation."

"Alright, send him in," Dumbledore said, and a scruffy-looking man was ushered in the door. "Ah, Remus, it's good to see you again," he greeted him warmly.

"You as well, Albus, Minerva," he replied wearily. "I'm guessing you aren't having any better days than I am."

"The worst day of teaching of my career," McGonagall said bitterly. "And I taught you."

Remus gave a weak smile. "I've just been to see Sirius and Harry," he said.

"Excellent. And how are they doing?" Dumbledore asked.

"Sirius is still pretty out of it, honestly. Harry's fine. It looks like he'll be with the Weasleys the rest of the summer. Anyway, I wanted to see you because I have some information—I talked it over with Sirius, and we weren't sure we wanted to give away our secret, but it's for a good cause. You see, when we were students, we created a map of Hogwarts that shows where everyone in the castle is in real time."

"You did what?" McGonagall exclaimed. "No wonder you never got caught out at anything after your third year! You could always see us coming!"

"Ah, the resourcefulness of determined children," Dumbledore said with a smile. "And you think that this map will help us."

"Not as it is now," said Remus. "I thought maybe between the two of us, we could figure out how to get it to show magical creatures. It's tied into the wards, so it can't lie, but it'll need some work to do what we need."

Dumbledore stroked his beard thoughtfully. "Yes…yes…" he said. "I think I see the principles you were working from. I believe it could be useful. Let's see this map, Remus."