The Cupboard Series 5: United We Stand ...

Chapter 30

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," Harry stated, the tip of his wand touching the piece of parchment in front of him.

On the bed opposite, Fred was repeating the exact same phrase, the tip of his wand touching the identical piece of parchment spread out on the bed.

The two of them, along with George and Neville stared in awe as the black ink spread out like a spider's web, detailing every room on every floor in every wing of Diricawl Academy. And it was, finally, after all of these months, every room; in fact, the very last room had been added to the two maps that very morning.

And then, after the school had been completely made bare to their eyes, the last of the ink spots filled in: the inhabitants of the building.

"Still can't believe that the elves show up on these maps," Fred stated.

"They never did that on the Hogwarts' map," George agreed.

"Both Dobby and Remus think that it's because of the elf wards that help protect the school," Harry replied.

And that was the most likely explanation. The house elves had never put up any wards at the old castle, which as far as Harry was concerned, was a major flaw – human magic could be completely bypassed by elves, meaning that any house elf could come and go from the castle. That was not the case here at Diricawl; everyone, no matter what your species, could only arrive or depart the island via the Reception Room in the Security Building.

"Bit disconcerting, though," Neville said, "seeing a dot disappear when you're watching it and to then see it reappear clear on the other side of the map."

As if she was highlighting his point, Neri's labelled dot abruptly vanished from the kitchen only to reappear in the Headmistress' Office.

"This map's a work of genius, though," Harry began.

"And how could it not be?" George asked, puffing up his chest.

"Being created by an amazing ..." Fred elaborated.

"Extraordinary ..."

"Brilliant ..."

"Diabolical," Neville added under his breath, but not quite quiet enough for the twins to not hear him.

Fred and George looked at each other a second before giving a nod.

"Diabolical," they stated together.

"Pair such as us," Fred concluded.

Harry gave the pair a nonplussed look. While they had done the bulk of the work, Harry and Neville had done their share and there had been a few others who'd contributed as well, including the Head Boy and Head Girl.

"As I was saying," Harry said, "the map's quite genius. It picks up animagi, as expected. But I really wasn't sure whether it would even show up the non-magicals, but they're there."

His eyes found Mike and Susan in the sport hall, his Aunt Petunia in her office and Dudley in the computer room.

"So, what now?" Neville asked.

"Now we take it to Remus to get the final spells added – the ones to bind everything together so that they can't be undone and the one to name the map," Harry replied.

"We're thinking that we'll just be ..." Fred began

"Forge and Gred, since we don't have an animagus name," George finished.

"You're Tavi," Neville said, nodding at Harry, "but I haven't got my animagus name yet."

"Won't be long though, maybe Remus can add that bit in later?" Harry suggested.