Miranda Black and the Chamber of Secrets

Chapter 14 - The Marauders Map

I woke up early in the morning and heard male voices downstairs. It wasn't unusual that some people got up early, but these voices were hushed as if talking about something really serious - which made me very curious. My witch clock said I should still be asleep, but I wanted to go investigate. I hopped out of bed and walked down the stairs after wrapping a warm robe around myself. I reached the bottom of the stairs and peered into the darkness of the Common Room. A tall red head and a boy with glasses were in the corner, both with quite serious expressions. Harry and Ron, of course.

"Early morning, huh?" I decided to investigate further by talking to them.

"Miranda!" Ron exclaimed, "Uh, yeah, early morning,".

"Why, what's up?" I asked. Before I'd headed downstairs, I'd checked a regular clock and learned that it was just before 6am.

"Just talking," Harry replied.

"About what?" I asked. "What's so important that you can't talk about it in front of your sleeping friends...you know, up in your dormitory?"

"Dumbledore," Harry answered.

"What about him?" I questioned.

"Well, me and Ron sneaked out to Hagrid's last night - "

"How? Why?" Harry quietened me with a stern look.

"I have an invisibility cloak. We hid under it and sneaked out. We saw Hagrid being taken away to the prison for wizards, Azkaban. And Dumbledore, well, he left too," Harry explained. I stared at him.

"Dumbledore? Gone?" I bit my lip and shook my head, "No, he can't be gone. That is bad news."

"He's gone. And there's absolutely nothing we can do about it," Ron said. Feeling like I had investigated enough, I said my goodbyes and went back up to my bed.

-

Not long after that morning, the weather started to warm up. The snow started to melt into the ground and flowers sprung up from the newly unfrozen ground. Dumbledore was still gone, meaning that everyone was much more worried then they were when he was still here.

One night, I saw Harry with his Invisibility Cloak slung around his arm. I asked him if he was sneaking out again but he told me no, and to not worry about him. I brushed it off, and then played a few games of Exploding Snap with him, Fred, and George. We played four games and in each one a different person won.

After Fred made up a victory chant as he won the fourth game, we all started to yawn. It was a mutual decision to go to bed. As I took one last look at the common room, I noticed Harry lingering around with his cloak. I narrowed my eyes at him suspiciously but went up to my dormitory without any questions.

"Hey Ginny. Care to join me in examining the Marauder's Map?" I asked as I saw my flame haired friend sitting on her bed. The map would allow me to spy on where Harry and presumably Ron were going while being in my comfy bed.

Ginny nodded. I grabbed the map out of my trunk and she came and sat on my bed. I sat down next to her and opened the map. My eyes were alert and I instantly spotted the names I was looking for - Harry Potter and Ron Weasley.

I watched them carefully, keeping track of where they were headed. They went out of the main door and down into the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Then they disappeared. Ginny looked up at me confusedly.

"I think that because the forest is out of bounds, it doesn't show up on the map," I guessed. Ginny nodded, "I wonder why they went into the forest..."

"Should we keep watching this and see when they come back?" Ginny asked.

"I guess so,"

I put the map between us and we watched it carefully. After quite a long time, their names reappeared, moving much faster then when they went in. I turned to see Ginny's reaction, but she had disappeared and wasn't in her bed. I guessed she went to the toilet and didn't tell me. It was odd that I hadn't even heard her leave, but that girl could be very quiet when she wanted to be.

I took a few deep breaths and looked back at the map. Harry and Ron must have been running. They were just coming into the Common Room. I put the map down and checked the room once more for Ginny. No sign. I would do this alone then. I padded silently down the stairs, and jumped out of the darkness as soon as I heard the two boys.

"Sneaking into the forest are you? What are you guys doing that I can't know of?" I demanded, my voice trembling with frustration.

"How do you know where we were?" Ron asked me.

"I already told Harry this," I answered, "I know everything!"

"Okay then. Why were we down there?" Ron questioned.

"Obviously I don't know that. That's why I asked you," I said.

"We can't tell you that," Harry said. I glared at him angrily but decided I had better leave them alone for now. Once back upstairs, I fell asleep as I saw Ginny asleep on the floor beside her bed.

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I know that was veeeeeeeery short but guess what???? The next chapter will be longer...i hope! lol...this isnt a very long story, i just realised that. LoL Plz enjoy the rest of the story.. I am thinking about a sequel and yeah. So Enjoy plz and i'll LOVE you so much!  Hope you like it.

Love and Butterbeers,

Amzaza