Mischief Managed
Saturday, 7 November 1998
“I’ve got it!” Theo nearly yelled out of nowhere.
They’d been sitting in the stands watching the Ravenclaw v. Hufflepuff quidditch match for the last three hours and Harry had lost interest in the game in favor of watching Theo stare into the distance mumbling to himself for the past 45 minutes.
“What’d you get?” Neville asked.
“The map, I figured it out,” he said with a wide smile, “how much longer do you think this game is going to take? It might be good to update some of those locations while everyone is outside.”
“Smart,” Harry said, looking quickly around the pitch, “the snitch only just went into hiding again so we’ve probably got some time, let’s go.”
“Are we bringing Teddy?” Ron asked, holding up the kid who’d been sitting on his lap for emphasis.
“Oh, absolutely,” Harry said with a grin, reaching out to take Teddy from Ron, “as the one of two descendants of the original Marauders, I think it’s his right.”
“We’ll take some pictures so we can show him when he’ll actually remember it,” Theo said with a laugh, getting up to head down the stands.
“Where are you going?” Hermione asked as they all got up to follow.
“Ask me no questions,” Neville said.
“And I shall tell you no lies,” Harry finished with a mock salute, “see you later, ‘Mione.”
“Boys,” she muttered under her breath before turning back to Ginny and Luna.
“Theo if you explain what you’ve figured out is there a chance in hell that any of the three of us will understand?”
“Unlikely,” Theo decided after thinking it over, “I can try to explain, but if I’m right, and I’m nearly certain I am, I have no clue which of the four of them figured it out. If I had to bet, I’d say Remus. From everything I know he was the most academic minded, but I also wouldn’t be shocked if they’d somehow gotten the help of an actual Runes Master.”
“So, you think it’s in the runes not the charms?” Ron asked.
“I think the charms that we’ve tried so far matter for getting the ink to stick to the page and for updating the general shape of the rooms, but from what I can tell the exact size of the rooms as well as the information on who’s in the castle and where they are is somehow tied directly to the ward scheme through runes but they’re blood runes so one of them must’ve been linked to a founder’s family somehow, I’m sure they all added their blood and just lucked out that one of them was able to tap into the wards.”
“It’d be James,” Neville said at the same time Harry said, “my dad.”
“But Neville’s the Heir of Gryffindor?” Theo said, turning to look at Harry and Neville with one eyebrow raised.
“The Potters married into the Gryffindor line around the same time the Longbottoms did, but a Longbottom married a daughter of the main line while the Potters married a daughter of a secondary line,” Neville explained.
“But there’s still Gryffindor blood in the Potter line, probably just enough that my dad’s blood would’ve been able to tie them into the wards but nowhere near enough to actually control the wards,” Harry added.
“And my dad wasn’t an official Heir of Gryffindor either,” Neville said, “you have to call the Sword so if I hadn’t done that in the Final Battle, Harry technically would’ve been able to claim both the Slytherin and Gryffindor Lordships.”
“Huh,” Theo said, “I wonder how many families can realistically lay claim to founders lines?”
“Like all of them,” Harry answered, “Magical Britain is not that large.”
“It all just comes down to what family line another family married into and when, thank Merlin the Goblins track all of it or we’d be in 40 different feudal wars in any given year,” Neville said with a slight shudder.
“Alright,” Ron interrupted, “where are we starting?”
“Founders Tower,” Harry decided, “the Map is in my room so might as well start there.”
“Are we all adding blood like they did or just Harry and Neville?” Ron asked Theo.
“We all will,” Theo answered, “I’m fairly certain that’s also how the Map ‘talks,’ when you try to force it open so if we want all of our ‘voices’ to show up we all need to add blood.”
“Sounds good,” Ron said with a shrug, “let’s do this.”
Sitting around Harry’s kitchen table, Theo instructed each of them to add three drops of blood to the blank parchment. Ron, then Theo, then Harry, then Neville added their blood and as the last drop of Neville’s blood hit the page, dozens of runes lit up and appeared in white ink.
“Hold on,” Ron said, leaning closer to examine the page before he pointed to one rune in the lower left corner, “why’s that one black?”
“It’s Othala,” Harry said before looking to Theo for an explanation.
“I think you might need to bleed directly on that one, Harry,” Theo said.
Harry let one drop of blood fall on the ink, and it immediately glowed white as words started to appear;
Messr. Moony congratulates Prongslet and his friends on finally figuring it out.
Messr. Wormtail echoes Messr. Moony
Messr. Padfoot would like to remind everyone that Prongslet is Padfoot now and he’d like for everyone to stop forgetting that.
Messr. Prongs would like to remind Messr. Padfoot that Prongslet was his kid first so Messr. Padfoot should back off
Messer. Padfoot would like to tell Messr. Prongs to take a breather
Messer. Moony would like Messers. Padfoot and Prongs to shut up. Congratulations on carrying the Marauder’s legacy, we’re happy to have served all your pranking and surveillance needs thus far.
Messer. Prongs wants Prongslet to remember how loved he is.
Messers. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs signing off, Mischief Managed.
Harry looked up from the parchment with a tear in his eye and pressed a kiss to the top of Teddy’s curls, “alright, now we just need to add our names.”
Theo stood up to grab a quill from his school bag and handed it over to Harry with a soft smile.
“Same order but Argos instead of Wormtail?” Harry asked.
“Yes,” Ron said, “and once again I promise not to turn any of you over to a Dark Lord or use any of your children’s blood in a resurrection ritual.”
Harry let out a loud laugh and reached out to squeeze Ron’s shoulder once before picking up the quill, “regular ink, Theo?”
“I can’t figure out any reason why it shouldn’t be regular ink, the blood was only to activate the runes this should be tied to a charm so the magic imbued in the quill should be enough.”
“Alright,” Harry said, dipping the quill into the ink pot Theo offered him and started writing, “let’s see if it worked.”
He withdrew his wand and tapped it to the parchment, saying, “I solemnly swear I am up to no good.” At his word, ink spread across the page scrawling Messers. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs are proud to present the Marauder’s Map; and at the bottom of the page, it now read Messers. Moony, Argos, Padfoot, and Prongs are proud to amend the Marauder’s Map.