Marauders Map (Harry Potter)
Jess examined the boys' dormitory, awaiting Harry. She gazed around, noting how significantly messier it was compared to the girl's dormitory. Harry sat on his bed and collected his items before the two were to head to the great hall. Bored, Jess turned her gaze back to him and caught sight of a blank piece of parchment.
"What's that for?" Jess asked, gesturing towards the empty paper in Harry's hand.
"This?" Harry went wide-eyed, he quickly shoved it into his bedside drawer, "Uh, it's just for my homework."
Jess raised her eyebrows, "You completed it all last night though... with me. If you happened to forget."
"I guess I forgot some," Harry dryly laughed as Jess stepped towards him.
Jess instantly knew the boy was lying. His awkward tone and quick body language exposed his lie completely. The distrust sent a painful pang through Jess's stomach, she thought the two trusted each other completely, ever since they were kids... they told each other everything! What could Harry be hiding from her? Quickly, Harry noticed Jess' saddened expression and stood up. He placed his hand on her waist to guide the girl out of the dorm. Both teenagers were very aware of the hand placement, but neither mentioned it. Jess's thoughts ran wild with ideas of what Harry could be keeping from her.
"I forgot my jacket upstairs, I'll be right back," Jess spoke up.
Harry frowned, "It's sunny outside."
"Gotta be fashionable," Jess smirked and rapidly walked towards the dorms. With a single glance back at the boy, Jess made a swift turn into the boys' dormitory.
Once she made it to the room occupied by Harry and his friends, she darted for the drawer which held the empty parchment, she found the desired item and stared at it with wide eyes. Once the adrenaline had started weaning off, Jess considered how crazy and controlling this came across, either that or just plain ridiculous, but upon remembering Harry's demeanour when questioned about it, she shrugged off the humiliation. She thought for a while before she remembered one of Katia's pranks.
"Is this trick paper?" Jess whispered. She kept flipping through it, hoping that she had missed the clue on how to open it. She couldn't find anything. Maybe she was being paranoid, maybe she wasn't.
"Can you show me your secrets...please?" Nothing happened. "Open sesame... Please just fucking open."
Ink began to bleed onto the parchment, and she finally felt relieved. However, her proud smile soon vanished when she read the writing.
"Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs offer their compliments to Jessica Pennington, never has anyone simply asked parchment paper to 'please just fucking open' but Messr Padfoot would like to mention that her incapability of revealing this parchment shows how pathetic her magic skills are."
Jess' whole demeanour faltered, she felt utterly humiliated.
"Messr Prongs would also suggest not snooping in other people's-" She stopped reading, dropping the parchment, she glanced at the door and noticed Harry standing there.
"What are you doing?" Harry paced towards her with a panicked look.
"You wrote that?"
Harry peered at the parchment on the floor and read the writing, "No! Oh God..."
Jess couldn't look at the boy, "Who are those people?"
"It's my dad and his friends, look-"
Harry was interrupted by Jess' laughter, she placed her head in her hands.
"You genuinely have to believe me. I have no control over what they say, the paper is designed to insult anyone who tries to open it!" Harry picked up the paper, "look, I'll show you what it actually hides."
Harry held the paper tightly in his hand and glanced at Jess, her eyes revealed how desperate she was for an explanation. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," Harry whispered.
They both watched as ink started to bleed onto the paper once again.
"The Marauders Map?" Jess questioned, grabbing the paper out of Harry's grip.
Without stopping the girl, Harry observed as she opened the map. He saw how her eyes widened when she caught on to what the map was actually made for.
Jess grinned and looked back at Harry, "You can see everyone in the school!?"