Chapter 18
"Wake up at once!"
Rebecca launched up in her bed, startled as to why Professor McGonagall's voice was heard throughout every bedroom of Gryffindor Tower.
"Students are to report to the common room and then proceed to the Great Hall under the direction of their prefects!" The message was punctuated with every door being opened with a chorus of bangs.
Fear ignited in Rebecca's veins faster than an enchanted match. Her shoes were abandoned without a second thought, only her glasses being grabbed as she made it to the hall. The few girls out of their room already moved out of her way or found themselves pushed to the side. The stairs were taken two at a time, her attention wholly on the boys filing their way out of their side.
Stumbling slightly on the last stair and crashing into one of the shelves of books, Rebecca saw that Professor Dumbledore was at the top of the boys' stairs, waving them out quickly. Harry and Ron were already downstairs, standing in a pair slightly off of Professor McGonagall. Hermione and Ginny reached the bottom of the stairs just as Rebecca nearly pulled the boys to the ground.
"What's happened? Why're-What is-" She couldn't get a whole thought out, not when she was so lost as to why they were being evacuated out of their rooms.
Hermione, albeit it slightly more calm, was asking Professor McGonagall more questions than there were answers.
Raising a hand for quiet from the frantic children in front of her, McGonagall asked for control. "The first step in any crisis is to maintain ca-"
"Fred, no!"
"CLEAR THE WAY!"
George and Fred's voices interrupted McGonagall all the way from the hall above and there was a collection of grunts and insults as Fred led the barrage down the stairs. The Gryffindors in their way either got the message in time and moved or were moved.
Professor McGonagall didn't attempt any explanation, not when the attention of those around her were focused on the older twins forcing their way to them and running their own checks. George turned Ginny's face up to him, turning it towards the light before doing the same to Ron with the same care.
Fred asked Hermione if she was alright, looking her over carefully and waiting until there was an affirmative before moving onto Harry and Rebecca at once. Fred leaned down a little, laying a hand on Rebecca's shoulder. "What happened?"
"No one's hurt?" George asked, confused.
"I could've died." Ron said without the emotion his words should have brought. "He was over my bed, slashed through my curtains and all."
"W-what?" Rebecca looked to McGonagall for confirmation, Fred watching as the colour left Rebecca's face until she was startlingly pale. "He was in their room?"
"I'm afraid so. To the Great Hall, children. Beds are prepared and the castle is being swept now." Professor McGonagall walked them to the door before leaving them in the charge of the prefects and she returned to Dumbledore to survey the scene of the break in.
Action was all that was keeping Rebecca from tilting over the edge she felt dangerously close to. This was their fault, hers and Harry's. Sirius Black wanted them and in his madness, he'd gotten as close to them as ever.
Ron never slept in the middle of their Great Hall formation, but she moved him towards it and the look on her face left Ron unable to not accept it.
She walked around all of their beds, lingering at the ends of conversations until they wanted to bring her into it and she would make her excuse and move onto the next partnership. When the announcement of lights out was given, Rebecca finally made it to her own cot.
The floating candles were extinguished as if a slow wave blew over them, plunging the Great Hall and its occupants into darkness gradually. Sleep followed the same, gradually, for most.
Rebecca lie on her cot occupied by the stars above. How was it that the Hogwarts they had all known just two years ago could seem so much darker, so harsher in the dark? Sirius Black had made it all the way to one of their bedrooms.
Ages into her thoughts, she noticed that Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore were back from their sweep and now strolling through the sleeping students.
"What are we to do, Albus?" McGonagall asked with a hushed voice, wishing every child in the room peaceful rest after such an evening.
"All that we can, Minerva." Dumbledore sighed. "I fear if there's another incident, term will have to end early." The adults continued on their walk.
"Another incident." Rebecca thought angrily. These weren't incidents, they were break ins. The consequence of another could be much worse than some torn bed curtains. There was no end in sight to either her anger or her thinking, and she wished she could at least be in the privacy of their bedroom so that she could climb into Hermione's bed. "Another-"
Something landed on the feet of her cot. Making sure no professor was near enough to see, she reached down and found an extra blanket.
Fred smiled and nodded for her to take it when she didn't move to cover herself up, but she had to make sure he hadn't done something silly like give up his own. It appeared, however, that he had just managed to procure another.
Rebecca laid back down, finding a modicum of comfort in the blanket that had to have been Fred's for a little. It smelled like him however slightly, the hint of spice...something home-like and cinnamon-related. But there was the something else that guided her thoughts until she slept.
Something green or fresh, wild and free. It smelled like forests after rain or fields warmed under summer sun.
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Morning made its presence known early, far earlier than a lot of them were accustomed to. The multitude of windows surrounding the sleeping school didn't help, though. While some were tucked under pillows or had blankets high enough to block the early shine, most of Hogwarts was awake quite early.
Fred stretched, greeting Harry and Hermione and checking on Ron. Luckily, his brother seemed much more himself and was already realising that for the first time in his life, Ronald Weasley was notorious.
Rebecca, unlike the rest of them, was not yet awake and they seemed content to let her get the rest she could. Fred participated as he had to, quietly laughing where appropriate or shaking his head in invitations to offer up conversation.
George didn't notice his twins absent-mindedness until he tried to get his attention. Fred was looking to the side of Hermione opposite-him, letting his eyes trace of Rebecca's sleeping face more often than not. The tilt of her glasses, which she'd fallen asleep in. The curl of black hair draped down the curvature of her cheek and ended against her jaw.
George threw a pillow from behind him towards Rebecca, making Fred jump and Rebecca blink awake.
"Why She asked, yawning and realising that she had been one of the last to wake.
"Yeah, why?" Fred muttered, looking to George for explanation.
George gave his brother the kindness of waiting for Rebecca to stand so her back was to them before wiping at his lip and mouthing, "Drool much?"
Fred, in retaliation, took his own pillow and sent George sprawling. But, just to be safe, he wiped his mouth on his shirt before anything--if there had actually been anything--could be seen.
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"Is everyone here?" Oliver asked. "Here-here, I mean? This dimension?"
George rolled his eyes while Fred muttered something horrid and continued to tie his shoes while Harry sat on the bench across from Rebecca.
"He's talking about you."
Rebecca blinked, confused. "Who is?"
"Oliver!" Harry snapped. He made himself take a breath before he said something he would regret. "Rebecca, the match starts in ten minutes. Why are you daydreaming again?"
"I'm not daydreaming." Harry wished she had at least snapped back at him, if only to alleviate some of his guilt. "I just feel like there's-like something's off. You know?"
"No, I don't know." Harry grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze. "Please, please don't let it distract you. If we win today, it's only Slytherin between us and the cup."
"Worried about my play?" Rebecca grinned. "Worry about yourself. C'mon, match starts in ten after all."
Oliver's relief was evident at seeing his team focused. "Let's get to the pitch!"
The Ravenclaw team was prepared and, to Harry's surprise, worth a second look. Their seeker was someone he'd never noticed before, a girl with dark hair and-
"No ogling today, mate." Oliver clapped a hand to his shoulder. "Only destroying."
Rebecca didn't notice the interaction, too busy listening to Angelina and Katie's whispers on either side of her about how they were going to pass ahead of each other. How they were going to use the plays they'd practised and perfected and memorised, how they were going to do Gryffindor well.
The quaffle was released with a short blow of Madam Hooch's whistle and Lee's narration began. "The quaffle is in play! Ravenclaw has first possession, passing it around the Gryffindor chasers as they make their way down the pitch-OH! That's going to hurt in the morning!"
George sent the bludger straight at the quaffle-having Ravenclaw and left the perpetrator with a dead-arm and a growing ache.
"The quaffle is scooped up by Angelina for Gryffindor, passed immediately to Katie!" Lee moved forward in his seat, ready to keep track of the ferocity the Gryffindor chasers had brought to the match. "With a back and forth pass to Rebecca and back to Katie, Gryffindor shoots and scores!"
Harry and, who he learned to be Cho Chang, were high above the pitch moving in slow, opposite circles. Cho was above him, but Harry couldn't get himself to go much higher without chase after the dementors from last time. The match was progressing quickly, fair weather and fair luck for Gryffindor leaving the score at 80-0 after the second time he and Cho had launched into motion at a glimpse of the snitch only to lose it minutes later.
Harry didn't know what had happened below, but Rebecca was playing one of the best matches he'd ever seen. She was perfectly connected with the other chasers, taking passes and scoring left and right with impeccable flying between.
Fred watched as Rebecca turned and said something to the Ravenclaw chaser near her, something that brought the Ravenclaw closer and his voice louder. Prepared to intervene, Fred froze as Rebecca dealt with the issue herself.
Angelina threw her the quaffle and, the second it was in her hands, Rebecca turned and raced away with the Ravenclaw sent spinning with her foot 'accidentally' colliding with his broom handle.
Fred raced away to get back to support with George, a smile playing at the corner of his lips.
While the three Gryffindor chasers had by no means slowed down, the Ravenclaw scorers had warmed up a little and managed to get three goals past Oliver. Harry thought he had seen another flash of the late-winter sun reflecting on Rebecca's glasses, but sent the Firebolt into speed as the glint revealed itself to be golden and down by the grass of the pitch.
The Firebolt dove like no other broom, propelling Harry down to the ground so fast it was noticeably difficult for the onlookers to follow the movement compared to the other brooms on the pitch. The snitch flitted up slightly, Harry closing in on it and Cho closing in on him.
Rebecca played on until Cho's scream echoed across the stands. No scream of competition could be mistaken for one of fear, and fear this one was: Dementors appeared behind the snitch.
Harry didn't hesitate, casting the Patronus charm so that the shapes were forced to the ground where they lie still and he only paused the Firebolt's flight when the snitch was in his hand at last.
"Harry Potter's caught the snitch!" Lee shouted, standing with the rest of the cheering on lookers. "Gryffindor wins!"
Rebecca darted to where he was on the ground, holding her wand up to the dementors that hadn't risen yet. These looked different, corporeal in shape and...they wore shoes. "Harry? Are you alright?"
Professor McGonagall was right behind Madam Hooch and both were on the path to approach the dementors. Professor Lupin ignored the creatures and went to Harry and Rebecca, beaming. "Harry! What a patronus!"
Professor Lupin's pride was quieted as McGonagall levitated the sheets off of the culprits behind such an intervention. A slight gasp escaped the man as those guilty were made clear: Crabbe and Goyle, as well as Marcus and Draco. They had meant to scare Harry away from the snitch so that Cho caught it and Gryffindor was officially out of the running for the cup.
"Fifty points from each of you!" Professor McGonagall said strangely level. It was more frightening than if she had screamed it. "As well as detention upon detention upon detention and-Severus. We shall lead these hellions straight to Albus', if you don't disagree."
Snape followed them without a word, his glare silencing any defense from the boys.
"It was quite a go, wasn't it?" Harry asked Professor Lupin as the students began to flood the pitch to congratulate the victors. He held the snitch up above his head, letting the cheers beat the pounding of his heart away from his ears.
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"Here's the tally so far--" Oliver asked for a few minutes of their time before they showered and changed. "Slytherin's 200 points ahead. Next match, after the Easter holidays, we could still win. We just have to catch the snitch after it would push us over 200, only then."
Oliver folded his hands behind him, looking at his team without meeting their eyes. "This is it, my last chance at bringing the cup back to the Tower. I'll never get another shot at it." He grimaced, sensing the reaction he knew he would get. "That's why we're going to have to practise more."
"How much more?" Katie asked.
"You'll have Wednesdays and Sundays off." Oliver said.
"St. Oliver, patron of generosity." Fred grumbled so Rebecca could hear. Fred kept a plain face as she turned her face into her shoulder with a cough to hide her amusement.
Oliver clapped his hands once to get their attention once more and shocked them all further. "Now, as we've already had a match today, I'll let you off without another practise. That's it, shower up and get out!"
Angelina turned to Katie and Rebecca as they peeled off their soiled uniforms in the girls' room. "Can you believe that? He's 'letting us off!'"
"Aren't we lucky?" Katie responded with a little laugh, finding none came from their younger chaser. "Hey,"
Rebecca her back to them, her head under the water and the realisation that there wouldn't be time to breathe anymore racing around her head. Buckbeak's trial was the week ahead, so there wouldn't be more work on that front, but in its place would be examination revisions.
"You're not trying to drown yourself, are you?" Angelina asked.
"No, no." Rebecca managed a smile. "Just thinking things out."
"Easter's in a month." Katie offered. "We'll only have Admiral Oliver for that long. Are you going to that study circle, Angelina?"
"Yeah, I was thinking about it..."
The older girls left Rebecca and she used the minutes between the boys coming out and she finishing to configure some sort of weekly plan. Harry, the first to be finished, put his glasses on as his hair dripped down to his dry clothes and marvelled over Rebecca's performance. "I saw some of those shots! Better than we've ever seen anyone do!"
"I didn't cast a full patronus while ending the game."
Harry reddened, raising his hands in defeat. "It wasn't a full patronus but...it was pretty bloody cool, wasn't it?"
"Oh Merlin, Freddie!" George held his chest and fell to the side, letting the lockers hold him up. "The...the cursing! It's gotten to him!"
"Our ears!" Fred cried, dropping to his knees. "They're ruined!"
Harry rolled his eyes and opened the door to the hall before Rebecca could join their theatrics. Hermione and Ron hurried down the hall to congratulate them individually with slapped backs and hugs.
"You two played marvelously!" Hermione said proudly.
"Thanks, Hermione." George teased as he and Fred joined them.
"You two did as well." Hermione rolled her eyes, accepting George's teasing begrudgingly. "Worked up appetites?"
"I certainly did watching." Ron said loudly before Fred, George, and Harry started talking over one another ahead of Hermione and Rebecca about one aspect or another of the game.
"You know," Hermione said only so Rebecca could hear. "There's no possible way he's hungry. He's done nothing but eat since he woke up! He just wants to be back in the Great Hall so he can be worshipped a little more."
It was true. Ever since the break in nearly a week ago, Ron had maintained a steady standing at the top of Hogwarts' topics-to-talk-about and he had relished every second. "Look!" Rebecca motioned ahead, laughing despite Hermione's annoyance. A second-year Hufflepuff ran up to Ron as if they were best friends and began chatting.
Bringing enough food to last, the picnic tables down at the Black Lake soon ended up being their territory as the sun decided to shine on the slowly-greening grass and warm the students below.
Rebecca was perfectly content as Ron talked with the students who approached them to hear the story of how he woke up to Sirius Black standing over him again because she kept her face to the sun and allowed herself a little longer to rest without work after such a game.
Fred (and the others) had mostly tuned Ron out. They nodded at the right times and shook their heads at the right times, busying themselves with other thoughts.
Harry couldn't help but relive his casting of the Patronus charm and wonder if Cho thought it had been impressive. He hoped she had, or at least brave.
George was running through the ideas of prank-prototypes they had going and what they would try next--Their trio having been as perfect as he hoped.
Hermione was tallying the number of times Ron repeated himself and comparing it to the numbers of times he had contradicted himself, surprised as the numbers stayed fairly close to one another.
Fred, however, wasn't quite so direct in his thoughts. He too wondered where they'd go next in their prank-creating. They had just decided that a group of pranks for illness, to get out of class primarily, but now they needed products to go along with it. With mischief came hand-in-hand thoughts of his mother and father and the ever-growing homesickness that seemed to always plague him after the Christmas holidays when summer seemed so far.
But, as his thoughts seemed to do more often than not nowadays, Fred started to think about every facet of Rebecca. She hadn't said anything in far too long, in Fred's opinion, and he was curious as to what could have held her attention so thoroughly. Bumping her elbow with his, Fred hoped to find out. "Hey, what're you thinking about?"
Rebecca opened her eyes and looked at him, a contemplative tilt to her head. "I was thinking about how cool it would be if people were like plants and could feed themselves from the sun."
Fred looked at her in silent wonder about how such a thought had occurred to her. "What about in the winter?"
Rebecca shrugged and smiled, "Guess you go hungry?"
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Their grouping stayed down at the tables long after the dark, water-heavy clouds had begun to gather in a debate Ron had suggested casually: Which would win, the giant squid or the Whomping Willow?
Harry stood up shouting against the arguments of his greatest adversary: His own twin. "THE WHOMPING WILLOW WOULD DESTROY THE SQUID!"
"I'M SAYING IT WOULDN'T!" Rebecca pointed at the objects behind them. "THE TREE'S RIGHT NEXT TO THE BLOODY WATER!"
"IT'S A BLOODY SQUID!" Harry retorted, scoffing.
Rebecca hit the table in front of her before raising her arms in exasperation. "A BLOODY GIANT ONE!" Just as her voice quieted, the first rain drops began to fall.
George stood up quickly, surveying the sky. "Alright, that's enough for today. She's controlling the weather and I'm scared."
Fred laughed and stood up too, he'd enjoyed watching Rebecca get so heated about such a silly topic. "Yes, let's get in before it starts to rain much harder." Just as he swung his leg over the bench, the sky flashed white and thunder shook the ground beneath their feet seconds later.
Rebecca woke Ron up with a quick shake, relaying that she had won the debate and that it had begun to rain. They hurried up the castle, truly, but the weather was against them and by the time the familiar shadow of Professor McGonagall was in sight they were speckled with mud to the elbows and drenched to the bone.
"She must sleep there." Fred whispered to Rebecca, expecting a detention. "It's the only explanation as to why she's always here."
Unlike the last time they arrived back to the castle soaking wet, Professor McGonagall waved her wand so they were dried and cleaned and left them without a word, only a small smile.
George patted himself and shook his head. "What is happening?"
Hermione started explaining that, in a conversation with Nearly-Headless Nick, she had learned that McGonagall's last match had been against Slytherin and they'd lost after she caught a bludger from an opposing beater. That was why she was so competitive.
With that interesting history, Hermione excused herself to their room to do some work before supper. Rebecca sighed and, after a few minutes had passed, told the others not to wait for them for dinner and that they would eat when they were done with whatever Hermione was working on.
George and Fred nodded, while Harry and Ron were occupied doling out Exploding Snap for the four of them.
Rebecca found Hermione in worse shape than she had hoped: Hermione's head held up by one hand while her quill scratched furiously before crossing out something from before. "How's it going?"
"It's not." Hermione said bitterly. "Turns out, the order of events of the seventeenth Goblin rebellion is just as convoluted as the first sixteen."
Rebecca climbed onto her bed so she was right beside Hermione's desk. "What class is this for again?"
Hermione sat at her desk silent a moment before answering vaguely. "It's complicated."
Rebecca nodded, seeing that there was no way she was going to get any more information regarding the strange school work. "I see." She reached over and grabbed the textbook Hermione had opened and flipped to the beginning of the chapter. "Well, it says here that the seventeenth rebellion started when an opposing lieutenant insulted the forty-third Goblin Prince Elshendrist..."
Nearly an hour and a half later, Hermione had a finished essay and Rebecca had far more information that she ever needed about the seventeenth rebellion. Hermione stood up and stretched, "I cannot believe we finished that. I was ready for an all-nighter to sort it out. And now we can still catch the end of supper!"
Rebecca flopped on her bed. "But now I need a nap."
Hermione laughed, throwing Rebecca her shoes from the door. "Come on now, it's not that far!" Hermione was practically beaming as they walked to dinner. "I'm really, really happy it's us tonight. Just the two of us. I feel like we've hardly seen each other lately with quidditch, Buckbeak, and your illicit activities."
"Illicit activities?" Rebecca asked astonished. "What are you going on about?"
Hermione looked at her friend and raised an eyebrow. "You, Fred, and George don't disappear for hours on end to do school work. Though, I do wish you could enjoy an activity that didn't risk house points, detention, and inevitable rule-breaking."
Rebecca laughed, taking Hermione's worries as care, and opened the door to the stairs to find Fred loitering at the bottom. "Great! Hermione's just gone on about how happy she is it's the two of us and he's gone and waited!"
Hermione's shoulders fell a notch at the sight of Fred grinning up at Rebecca. He went to say something as they got closer, but he was interrupted by Rebecca before he could get anything out.
"Fred, I didn't find that thing I was looking for. I'll have to look again after we go get dinner, if you can wait that is."
Fred blinked before nodding once, the message needing a moment to be comprehended. "Oh, that's fine. I think I'll take a walk. A fruitful walk, I mean."
Hermione and Rebecca had a perfect supper. They chatted and caught up in a way that they hadn't been able to in weeks. "He didn't actually say that, did he?!" Rebecca laughed so hard that her stomach hurt. "Ron didn't!"
Hermione nodded, trying to get enough breath to repeat the best part. "Yes, he did! He-he said Crookshanks was a dirty murderer and that I was," She had to compose herself here. "That I was harbouring a fugitive!"
They laughed only harder, attracting looks from the last handful of Gryffindors at supper, too. Hermione sighed as they exited the Great Hall, checking the time. "Alright, I've had you to myself long enough, I suppose. Fred's bound to be somewhere waiting."
"What do you mean?" Rebecca asked nonchalantly.
"Who on Earth has a 'fruitful' walk, Rebecca?" Hermione asked. "You two are nowhere near as secretive as you think you are."
"Alright, nothing gets by you smartarse. Are you sure? We're only a staircase away."
Hermione shooed her away, telling her to go find Fred before he could cause any trouble.
Rebecca only raised her shoulders as if she couldn't help the validity of her next statement. "There's no trouble-making allowed if I'm not there anyway, fortunately for you." Rebecca set off for the Hufflepuff areas of the castle eagerly, a supper with her best mate and an evening with her...other best-mate? What could make the day any better?
"About time, I nearly digested myself." Fred teased, exactly where Rebecca thought he would be. He was leaning against the wall, his hair falling down around his ears and a grin teasing at the corner of his mouth as it was more often than not.
She rolled her eyes and tickled the pear. "You could have eaten, you know."
"Without company?" Fred asked in shock. "Cruel!"
"Master Fred! Master Just Rebecca! Gonray is so happy to see you again!" Gonray was, really. These students had been some of the kindest to her and she eagerly led them to the pile of pillows students from years before had piled into a seating area for those smart-enough to find the kitchens and daring enough to enter.
"Gonray! How are you?" Rebecca asked with a smile.
Gonray's eyes widened a little. "Oh, asking how Gonray is. Master Just Rebecca is too good."
Fred grabbed at his stomach and made a face as Rebecca looked at him over Gonray's smiling head. "Would it be possible for us to get some dinner, if anything's left that is? He ended up waiting for me," Rebecca lowered her voice as if she didn't want Fred to hear. "Though I asked him specifically not to.
Gonray nodded quickly. "Of course! Anything for Just Rebecca?"
"No, thank you. Supper was as amazing as ever, though." Gonray bowed and left them, leaving Rebecca to slide down the wall to the pillow next to Fred and find him looking at her with a look on her face she couldn't place. "What?"
"Nothing." Fred said quickly, looking elsewhere in the room.
"Why're you staring?" Rebecca wiped at her mouth. "Tart on my face?"
Fred laughed, shaking his head. "No! You-you just have this thing. You're so liked."
Rebecca rolled her eyes. "Clearly you haven't heard the opinion the Slytherin team has of me, or Snape, or the prat who tried to-"
"Where it matters, I mean." Fred amended. "Gonray, for instance. You've always been nice to her."
Rebecca laughed, shaking her head. "You make no sense sometimes!"
Fred laughed with her, after a moment. She couldn't seem to believe that Fred could think she was just good, and he didn't know how to make her believe that he did most entirely.
"Gonray has made all of Master Fred's and Just Rebecca's favourites!" Gonray said proudly, carrying out a serving platter-turned-plate to hold all of the food.
Fred grinned as it was laid across their laps, famished. "Thank you, Gonray. Guess I learned my lesson."
"And what was that?" Rebecca asked, taking a handful of the dessert-foods near her.
"Don't listen to you and we get favourites."
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Harry didn't want to invade Rebecca's privacy, but curfew had passed ages ago and no one had seen her or Fred since dinner. Pulling the map from underneath his pillow, Harry opened it with the words.
They weren't in their usual pranking spots, nor were they in one of the courtyards to stargaze. Harry scoured the map until he found the names he was looking for, tucked close together in one of the squares behind some of the portraits that acted as markers that there were rooms behind.
"Oh!" Harry gasped and folded the map away from them quickly, startling Ron.
"Y'alright mate?"
Harry nodded, reaching for his foot. "Yeah, yeah. Just kicked the post. Sorry." Ron went back to sleep while Harry turned more red and the embers of the fire in their room. Looking ahead on the path that he would suspect Rebecca would take back to the common room, Harry bit his cheek as he found Snape to be patrolling the corridors.
But, near the edge of the map, a new name erased both Snape and Fred and Rebecca from his mind: Peter Pettigrew was back.
Harry had his shoes on and was running down the stairs to the portrait hole in seconds, the map in hand. He wasn't losing him again. The Fat Lady tried to stop him, calling after him to get back where he belonged at such an hour, but her words fell on deaf ears.
Harry was determined to not lose him again.
The portraits on either side of the hall were cursing his name for having a light on so late, a light on while they were trying to rest from their day of gossiping. Peter Pettigrew's name at the end of the hall stopped and turned back at Harry, running ahead of the very name Harry most wanted to avoid at such an hour: Snape.
Peter Pettigrew's name got closer and closer, Snape's name closing in behind it. Turning to his side as Peter Pettigrew was supposedly right next to him, Harry squinted into the darkness as no one appeared.
Peter was gone again, and Snape was still heading straight this way. At the last possible moment, Harry quenched his light and closed the map. "Mischief managed."
The darkness lasted hardly a second as Snape relit the hall and smirked. "Out of bed? Tst-tst. Whenever will the golden twins learn that the rules apply to them too?" Harry scowled, not saying anything yet. Snape took the invitation to go further with his taunts. "Really, it's absurdly genetic. You two walk about here, strutting like your father-"
"Our father did not strut." Harry said instantly, defending his father in the same way Harry had always wanted to be defended. "And neither do we."
Snape kept his wand at Harry's face, sneering.
"Now, if you wouldn't mind, I would appreciate if you would lower your wand." Harry kept his tone light enough to not be blatantly insulting, but he wished Rebecca had been there to manage the poison in her tone she leveled at Snape with frightening regularity.
"What's that in your hand?" Snape demanded.
"A packet of parchment." Harry answered.
"Open it." Harry did as he was told and Snape put his wand to the middle of it. "Revelius."
Words spread across the parchment and Harry's heart sank as he lost the Marauder's Map for he and Rebecca both.
"Read it, boy." Harry skimmed over the words, biting back a smirk. "Out loud!"
"Mr Moony presents his compliments to Professor Snape and begs him to keep his abnormally large nose out of other people's business."
"Why you insolent little-" Professor Snape stepped forward and grabbed Harry by the shoulder roughly.
"Is everything alright here, Professor Snape?" Professor Lupin's voice rang out from behind him.
Snape released Harry in an instant and turned to hold his wand up to illuminate Lupin. "Well, well. Out for a walk in the moonlight, are we?"
"Harry?" Professor Lupin asked, ignoring Snape. "Are you alright?"
"That remains to be determined." Snape interrupted and snatched the parchment out of Harry's hand. "I have just confiscated a rather curious artifact from Mr Potter. Take a look, Lupin. Supposed to be your area of expertise. Clearly it's full of dark magic."
Lupin held it to the light and smiled a little as he read the words on it. "I seriously doubt it, Severus. It looks to me as if though its merely a parchment enchanted to insult anyone who tries to read it." Raising his voice to Harry, Lupin guided. "I suspect it's a Zonko's product."
"Yes, Rebecca picked it up for me last time she went." Harry lied flawlessly.
Snape went to take the paper back and found it pulled out of his reach as Lupin pulled it closer to him. "Nevertheless, I shall investigate any hidden qualities it may possess. It is, after all, my area of expertise." Looking to Harry, Lupin waved a hand down the hall towards Gryffindor Tower for him to lead the way. "Would you come with me, Harry?"
Snape was left in the corridor wondering how he had managed to miss the opportunity to put a Potter in detention.
"I'm sorry professor, I was just-"
"Following a map?" Professor Lupin frowned at Harry and shook his head slowly. "I'm very disappointed in you. Everyone is trying so hard to keep you safe and you're wandering around the castle, possessing something that could lead Sirius Black straight to you, something that could lead us straight to Sirius Black next time he's in the castle!"
Harry turned his eyes to the ground ahead of them. It hurt in an aching, chest-like pain to hear Professor Lupin say he was disappointed in him.
They turned the corner to the stairs of Gryffindor Tower where the castle seemed to be settling and squeaking.
"I'm sorry, professor. I wouldn't have left if it wasn't-"
"Important? What could be so important to risk your safety?"
Harry sighed, averting his eyes from those which were so upset with him to the Fat Lady who was pretending to not listen to their every word. "Peter Pettigrew."
Remus stepped back at the name like he had been slapped. "Where did you hear that name?" His tone was fragile, restrained.
"It's the boy, the one Sirius Black murdered. I've seen him on the map three times now. I saw him again tonight, that's why I was out!"
Remus shook his head and laid a hand on Harry's shoulder. "Listen to me closely: Do not let me catch you out after curfew again. There are some things that simply must not be followed. Do you understand me?"
"I understand, sir."
Remus nodded his head once and clapped Harry on the back. "Good. Then I shall be keeping this and I will see you in class tomorrow morn."
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"Oh, Merlin! Two of you in one night?" The Fat Lady was on edge after the last break in and seeing Rebecca and Fred try to enter the Tower after curfew did not help her nerves. "I had more faith in your sense!"
"Mine?" Fred asked.
"Harry's not in bed?" Rebecca asked levelly.
"His wand charmed with the bleeding sun and following a piece of parchment like a nutter!" The Fat Lady said nearly frantically.
"Which way?" Rebecca asked, looking over her shoulder to go get him.
"Is this smart?"
"I'm doing it." Rebecca answered Fred's worried tone definitely. "But you're not."
"You can't tell me what I can and can't do." Fred said immediately. "If you're running off into the castle, I'm coming with you. Maybe you remember the murderer on the loose? The one specifically after you and Harry?"
"Yes, the same one who attacked Ron only last week!" Rebecca looked up at Fred with a glint in her eyes that he only saw when she was most certainly determined to do something someone had said she couldn't. "It doesn't-Do you hear that?"
Rebecca turned her head to the hall, hearing footsteps approaching and the quiet murmur of voices. "Get inside!"
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"Where have you been!" Rebecca asked, throwing herself around Harry's neck before he had even realised she was there.
"Where have I been? Where were you?" Harry asked quickly. "You never came back from dinner!"
Fred winced from where he was over by the boys' stairs, hoping he wouldn't have to admit to being the reason they were out late.
"It doesn't matter. I saw him again." Fred's shoulders slumped in relief at Harry's dropping of the subject. "Peter Pettigrew was in the castle again."
Fred pointed up towards the stairs and caught Rebecca's gaze. She gave him a subtle nod and pulled Harry into another hug to mouth good night over his shoulder. Fred grinned and left the two of them to theorise why Peter Pettigrew was a continuous loose end in this mystery.
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Bit of a long one, enjoy!
<3