Happier with you- Charlie Weasley

POA 9

Before she knows it the Christmas holidays are almost here and this weekend is the last Hogsmeade trip. Rory and the twins had decided to give Harry the Marauders map so he could finally experience Hogsmeade like everyone else in his year. On the Saturday morning of the Hogsmeade trip they watch as Harry says goodbye to Ron and Hermione, who were wrapped in cloaks and scarves.

"Psst -- Harry!" He turned, halfway along the third-floor corridor, to see Rory, Fred and George peering out at him from behind a statue of a humpbacked, one-eyed witch.

"What are you doing?" Harry asks curiously. "How come you're not going to Hogsmeade?"

"We've come to give you a bit of festive cheer before we go," Fred said giving him a wink.

"Come in here" Rory pulls her brother towards an empty classroom to the left of the one-eyed statue followed by Fred and George. George closes the door quietly and then turns, beaming at them.

"Early Christmas present for you" he says as Fred pulls the map 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. Harry looks at it thinking it's some sort of joke.

"What's that supposed to be?"

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

"It's a wrench, giving it to you," Fred said,

"but we decided last night, your need's greater than ours." Rory adds smiling at them.

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

"And what do we need with a bit of old parchment?" Rory rolls her eyes as Fred answers him.

"A bit of old parchment!" Fred says 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 --"Harry snorted. "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--" Fred adds "So he hauled us off to his office and started threatening us with the usual"

"detention disembowelment" Rory says mocking Filch

"and we couldn't help noticing a drawer in one of his filing cabinets marked Confiscated and Highly Dangerous" George finishes.

"Don't tell me" Harry started to grin at them.

"Well, what would you've done?" Fred says smirking "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," Rory adds looking at Harry's face before George finishes.

"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?" Harry says looking between Rory and the twins.

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

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

"Oh, are we?" George says as he takes 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: Messrs. 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. Harry bends over it looking astounded. A labelled dot in the top left corner showed that Professor Dumbledore was pacing his study, whilst Filch's cat Mrs. Norris was prowling the second floor and Peeves the Poltergeist was currently bouncing around the trophy room. And as their eyes travelled up and down the familiar corridors, Harry noticed something else.