Freedom is fleeting || Prisoner of Azkaban || Ch 11
“But after the Holidays. For now, I need to rest.”
-
Dec 6th
Professor McGonagall was doing the rounds, It’s the week before the holidays and her job is to find out who’s staying behind. “Not many this year.” She talks aloud to herself as she makes her way down to the basement. Slytherins that didn’t go home were few and far between, however – “Professor.” How bowed politely as she looks up from her parchment.
“Ah, Mister Malfoy, Staying behind again this year?” She’s smiling at him like she knows, He doesn’t like that.
“Yes Miss.” His monotone voice matching his poker-face as he takes the quill and writes his name down with his perfect cursive. Strategically planned to be exact but readable, even to the untrained eye.
He looks back up to her, nods and continues down his path as she does her own.
~
She runs into our protagonist next to the library. She raises an eyebrow at his panicked, flushed expression, like he shouldn’t have been in the public library. “Mister Potter.” She offers a warm smile, she’s always had a soft spot for the boy. “Will you be staying here again this year?” She watches as he visibly relaxes and beams a lobsided grin back at her.
“Yes Professor!” He takes the quill and pauses for a moment, spotting the name last put down before scribbling his own name underneath it. As he looks back up he spots Severus saunter down the corridor.
“The next Hogsmeade trip is this weekend. The library will be completely empty.” She speaks low as she looks at him with a wink and walks away.
Harry considers this for a moment, really he does. However, another – more important – thought crosses his mind. Do I need to give Malfoy a Christmas gift now that he’s thinking of being allies?!
~
That’s how he found himself in this situation. Creeping past the Weasley twins in his invisibility cloak. Too bad for him, the twins are more perceptive than their brother.
He’s grabbed before he realises what’s going on and the brothers speak up.
“Clever Harry!”
“But not clever enough.” Their snickering like they’ve just found the worlds best kept secret.
“I’m trying to get to Hogsmeade!” He wriggles around in their grip as they pull him back into the castle.
“We know.”
“Don’t worry~”
“We’ll get you there.”
“Now Harry!”
“Come and join the big boys.”
He thrown onto some stairs inside a secluded room as his cloak is being ripped from his grasp. He breathes deep trying to control himself and get his bearings.
His dizziness fades and he looks back up to the twins, Fred then George – Harry has to remind himself – holding a folded, blank piece of parchment. He looks at the boys like they’re insane, accusatory almost as he says, “What’s this Rubbish?”
The twins look at each other and cackle like a pair of hyenas, but was it that funny?, Harry waits for them to be done and watches as Fred wipes a single tear from his cheek. “What’s this rubbish he says!” Still grinning as George taps the parchment and he continues, “That there is the secret to our success.”
George crosses his arms and turns his body slightly, pouting. “It’s a wrench giving it to you, believe me!” Fred grabs his shoulder slightly as he smiles at Harry, “But~ we’ve decided, your needs are greater than ours.” He turns to his counter-part, “George, if you will.”
George smiles again like he wasn’t sulking, takes his wand - firmly pointing it up as he makes eye contact with the boy in front of him.
“I solemnly swear, that I am up to no good.”
The words a password that rip through the magic protecting the map. Black ink swirls around the once blank parchment and form the following words;
Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs are proud to present the marauders map.
A picture of Hogwarts in the background and other words scrawled along the front as Harry rereads the names again. The names feel so familiar as he reads them out loud despite how foreign they feel on his tongue.
“We owe them so much.” George looks in the distance dreamily. Fred opens the front of the map for Harry and shows him the contents, momentarily distracting him from the names on the front. Harry, bewildered starts looking for names he recognises and it doesn’t take long. George must have noticed who he took notice of,
“Dumbledore.”
“Pacing”
“In his study.”
“He does that a lot.” The brothers are nodding to each other as Harry figures out how the map works. “So this shows-“
“Everyone.” The twins say together, Harry knew twins – muggles – they never acted like this.
“Where they are,” Fred starts it
“What they’re doing,”
“Every minute,”
“Of everyday!” George ends it.
“Brilliant!” Harry exclaims, he really means it too – but something like this definitely wasn’t made by one of the professors. “I suppose you found this in filches office?”
“Of course! First year.”
“There are 7 secret passageways out of the castle, we’d recommend – this one.”
~
He could hear the laughter and convocations of his classmates from the cellar of Honeydukes. His cloak safely covering him as he clambered up the stairs and excited through the main door after someone opened it before him as to not raise any suspicion.
He walks through the busy street of Hogsmeade, clutching his cloak. How do you know what to buy someone for Christmas when you’re not even friendly with them? We couldn’t even stand to be near one another a few months ago…
Maybe jewellery? Something silver to go in his hair or across his face. Something graceful that says thank you but also that you know the person you’re buying for. He looks around at the shops and sees one in particular that the students seem to be window shopping at but not entering. He waits by the door for it to open before heading inside.
He takes the cloak off once he’s sure he’s safe, putting it into his messenger bag for safe keeping before looking around. The shop is clean and lightly decorated, it fancy but not so bright that you’d feel unwelcome. He moves over to the pieces with more detail. Harry had read that if an heir offers you (Another heir) jewellery, and you wear it, it means you accepted their trust and will trust them in return. So Harry, determined to find something Malfoy will like, Looks are the earrings. He gets distracted however by a beautiful silver cuff. A dragon curling around the ear shaped stand, silver but not delicate, detailed and yet so simple. He doesn’t need to think before he buys it. Not sparing a look at the price before he picks it up buys it.
Harry turns to leave before realising that maybe he should grab something for Neville too.. (And why he didn’t think of him first-) because he trusts the griffin whole heartedly and truly hopes they’re already allies. Harry moves over to the necklaces, something drew him over. Nothing jumps at him like Draco’s cuff but he gets a buzzing feeling looking at a particular necklace.
A delicate golden chain holding a golden sword with a deep red ruby in the handle. He picks it up gently as he feels the weight of the gift in his hand. He looks at it one more time, feeling how deep this will go if he buys it for the boy. I need him to know I trust him. Ron be damned. If our friendship ends over this – he was never a friend at all.