betterinbronzeandblue:

Lily Potter sat on her bed with a piece of folded up parchmentin front of her. She had finally nicked the map from her where her brother,James, kept it hidden. Lily had spent an entire summer looking and she’d almostgiven up until she realized the Halloween feast tonight would keep everyonebusy for a few hours. As much as she hadn’t wanted to skip the feast, shecouldn’t pass up the opportunity to nick the map. It was a good thing too.James, probably less concerned than usual about the map’s safety now that hewas busy snogging his new girlfriend all the time. Either that, or he’d rushedoff to stuff his face at the Halloween feast and not bothered to hide itproperly. Lily snickered, his knickers drawer, really? 

She’d known about the map, of course, since James firstnicked it from their Dad’s office during his first Christmas break home fromHogwarts. They had overheard their Uncle George talking to Dad about it,
although Lily had a sneaking suspicion that maybe Uncle George had wanted them to learn about it because
she was quite sure his eyes had flickered towards their hiding spot on the
stairs. James was the only one at Hogwarts then, so she hadn’t minded much when
he’d been the one to find it. It wasn’t of any use to her. Now, though, she
felt she deserved a chance to pull some pranks of her own without the worry of
being caught. Not to mention the secret passage ways to Hogsmeade would be
great to have access to. 

Now, if only she could remember how James had accessed it. He’d
certainly bragged about figuring it out enough. Lily swore at herself for
deciding to ignore his bragging, she could only remember how to close the map. That
wasn’t helpful at the moment though. She hesitated, holding her wand above the
old parchment, then tried the first thing that came to mind.

“Open,” Nothing. Lily mentally rolled her eyes at herself, that
had been a stupid guess. Who in their right mind would make it that easy to get
in?

“Please show me Hogwarts?” Again, nothing.

“I have things to manage?” That was a stupid variation on
how to close the map, but Lily didn’t know what else to do but try anything
that popped into her head. She was not going to give this back to James after
finally getting ahold of it.

Thirty minutes later Lily was running out of ways to try and
open the map. What was the point of going to the trouble of getting the map if
she couldn’t use it? She was mindlessly tapping her wand on the parchment out
of irritation.

“Oh come on, I just want to pull a few pranks without
getting caught–Oh!” 

To her surprise words
started to form on the page. 

Mr. Moony offers his
compliments to whoever is wanting to create some mischief, but must sadly
inform them that unless you swear we can’t share.

Mr. Wormtail solemnly
agrees, it’s such a shame they won’t be able to manage.

Mr. Padfoot would like
to point out that even if they were up to no good, they couldn’t out-prank the
Marauders. We are the Kings at this school.

Mr. Prongs agrees and
wonders who might possibly be trying to swear they are up to no good? 

Lily was stunned, this was the oddest map ever. The words
started to fade and she quickly tapped the map again, deciding to just go with
it.

“Lily, my name is Lily.”

Lily?

The writing seemed to almost hesitate, then started up again
as her name faded away.

Mr. Moony is wondering
why Lily would be pulling a prank?

Mr. Wormtail thinks
Mr. Prongs is sharing things he aught not to be

Mr. Padfoot thinks Mr.
Prongs is trying to impress Miss Prongs and deserves a detention cleaning
bedpans in the Hospital Wing, the prat.

Mr. Prongs thinks Mr.
Padfoot is a git and is sure Lily could pull a prank if she was serious.

Mr. Padfoot thinks
there’s a strong possibility that Miss Prongs is, in fact, not serious.

Mr. Moony would like
to share his disapproval in Mr. Padfoot’s poor taste in jokes.

Now she was really confused. She felt like she was being
discussed by people–not even people, but a map!– as if she weren’t in the room!
Lily tried not to feel insulted, she could pull a prank better than almost anyone.
Kings? She may as well call herself Queen then. After all, everyone knows who
really runs things in a kingdom. She’d learned from James, after all, and
watched out all the ways he got caught. Lily almost never got caught, not to
mention that she’d perfected the art of talking her way out of trouble. And if
she could just figure out how to open this map, there would be no more
obstacles to trying to out-do James.

“I pull amazing pranks!” she said indignantly while tapping
the map again, before reminding herself she was getting huffy with a map.

Mr. Padfoot is sure
Miss Prongs can pull pranks now since apparently Mr. Prongs wants to assist her
with our secrets.

Mr. Moony wonders if
Miss Prongs should focus on her homework instead?

Mr. Wormtail wonders
if Mr. Prongs is thinking with his head?

Mr. Prongs would like
to inform everyone he has no idea what they are talking about.

Mr. Padfoot would like
to kindly ask his best mate to come off it, and thinks Mr. Prongs is trying to
hard to win Miss Prongs over.

Miss Prongs? Win her over? What the actual hell was going
on? Lily was starting to think maybe the magic on the map was starting to wear
off. After all, it had been her dad’s while he was at school, and her Uncle’s
before that. And it sounded like these people had made the map, and who knows how
long ago that was. She looked down to see three different handwritings that all
seemed very busy picking on the one called Mr. Prongs while continuously
referring to her as Miss Prongs, which seemed to be a running joke. She signed,
if he was being singled out then she guessed she should probably use that to
her advantage. Boys were always so obvious. 

“Mr. Prongs, I, Lily, request assistance opening the map,”
she made herself sound as confident as possible. The written argument between
the four of them stopped mid scroll and faded.

Mr. Padfoot wants Mr.
Prongs to know he’s going to break his broomstick the next time he sees him.

Mr. Prongs would like
Lily to know she can always ask him for help.

Mr. Moony would like
to inform Mr. Prongs that he’s pathetic.

Mr. Wormtail agrees
that Mr. Prongs is…up to no good.

Mr. Padfoot thinks Mr.
Wormtail should shut his fat mouth

Lily grinned, “I swear I am!” only the handwriting from Mr.
Prongs appeared after that.

Do you solemnly swear?

“I solemnly swear! I solemnly swear I’m up to no good!” Lily
almost yelled, laughing triumphantly as the map blossomed over the pages like
watercolor with hundreds of labels in the Great Hall. It was obvious why James was
so keen to keep this nearby.

“Bloody hell, this is fantastic!” She wanted to jump up and
down like a five year old at Christmas. Once she had calmed herself down she
watched the map until the giant mass of students in the Great Hall began to
disperse towards the four Common Rooms.

Reluctantly tapped the paper and whispered “Mischief
managed.”

Of course she would be sharing this with her friends
tomorrow, but for tonight she just wanted to keep the victory to herself. There
was something about the map that she felt almost drawn to. It was silly, she
thought, to be affectionate towards a map, but here she was, grinning like she
just made a new friend. Climbing into her bed, she drew her wand one last time
for the night, and tapped the map.

“Thanks Mr. Prongs, you’re the best.”

Lily felt a bit stupid, but she did owe him. Whoever he was.
However this charm worked, the person who cast it trusted her for some reason.
She wondered vaguely why as tucked the map away where she was sure her brother
wouldn’t look. Not that it mattered much, she thought. As far as she knew,
there was no way for him to get up to the girls’ dormitories. She smiled into
her pillow, all the while missing the last message scrawled across the paper,
fading into nothing.

Always for you, Evans.