harry_potter_06

Disclaimer- I don’t own Harry Potter.

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Albus, John, Rose, and Amanda all agreed to wait until after dinner to visit Matt in the Hospital Wing the next day. They had the afternoon off, but Kaden didn’t, and he wanted to come along. Kaden seemed even happier now that he was no longer excluded from anything that Albus did. Gone were the days where Albus would be able to sneak off to the Room of Requirement without Kaden, now that he knew about the room. Of course, Albus supposed he could just ask the room not make itself noticeable to Kaden, but Kaden could probably guess that he was in there anyway.

“You have to be quiet in the Hospital Wing, Kaden,” Albus explained as they walked there after dinner, “Or else Madam Pomfrey will throw you out.”

“I’ll be quiet,” Kaden assured him.

Albus pushed open the door and everyone followed him inside. Madam Pomfrey was pouring a bluish potion into a bottle and looked up when she saw Albus and his friends enter. She raised her eyebrow and peered at Kaden curiously.

“He knows now,” Albus explained when he saw the nurse’s curious look.

“Huh,” Madam Pomfrey shook her head, “You’d better keep it quiet, Kaden. Don’t go telling the whole school about it.”

“I won’t,” Kaden sighed, “Why does everyone think I will?”

“Because they know you,” Albus smirked, “Now let’s go.”

Albus led his friends over to the only occupied bed and pulled back the curtains. Matt was awake, but he looked exhausted as usual.

“Hey, how are you?” Albus asked.

“All right,” Matt replied.

Albus, John, Rose, and Amanda crowded around Matt’s bed like usual, but Kaden had frozen in place and was staring at Matt. For the first time in his life, he was speechless.

“What’s with you, Kaden?” Matt asked.

Kaden shook his head and then went over to the bed. “Er, nothing. I just didn’t really expect, well…” Kaden gestured to Matt’s arm, which was bandaged and in a sling.

“Oh, yeah, told you it was horrible,” Matt said, “Broke my arm last night.”

“I didn’t know that’s what would happen,” Kaden said quietly.

“Only happens sometimes,” Matt explained.

“But he always looks like he got off worse in a duel,” John commented, gesturing to the gash on Matt’s cheek.

“It heals,” Matt shrugged, “So, what’s new with you lot?”

“Not much,” Rose said, “But what happened in Potions on Monday? Were you all right?”

“Oh, yeah, I mean I slept the entire rest of the day and all night and all day yesterday, but I’m no worse than usual.”

“You slept for that long?” Kaden looked astonished.

“I’ve slept for longer than that,” Matt replied, “Record’s four days.”

“Four days?!”

“Yeah.”

“But why did you sleep that much this time?” Rose asked, “Was it the potion?”

“Yeah. Actually, one of the active ingredients in the Drowsiness Potion is also in the Wolfsbane I take, so it was like I got a double dose. That’s why the potion had more of an effect on me than everyone else and why it took so long to wear off.”

“That makes sense,” Rose said.

“But Madam Pomfrey said I can’t finish making that potion next week,” Matt continued, “Because it seems to affect me more than it’s supposed to. Malfoy won’t be too happy.”

“He wasn’t that bad about it the other day, though. The potion seemed to make him too sleepy to care,” John laughed.

“Hopefully that’ll happen next week, too,” Matt said.

“I don’t see why it wouldn’t,” Rose commented.

“So,” Albus lowered his voice, “We’re going to start looking for that Wizard’s Finger Print charm as soon as you get out of here.”

“Excellent,” Matt grinned, “I’ll be out by Friday, probably.”

“We’ll do it over the weekend, then,” Rose said, “Along with studying for exams.”

“Don’t remind me,” Matt groaned.

******

The rest of the week passed by very slowly. Albus was excited about finding the Wizard’s Finger Print charm, so that didn’t help matters. After what seemed like forever, Saturday finally arrived and Albus and his friends found themselves holed up in the library, searching as many books as they could.

“Look in the index,” Rose instructed as she dumped a huge pile of books onto the table, “Just look up ‘Wizard’s Finger Print’ and if it’s not there, don’t bother searching that book.”

“What would we do without you, Rose?” John laughed as he took the book that was on top.

“Oh, it would take you until sixth year to figure this out,” Rose grinned.

“You’re probably right,” John agreed.

Albus had to agree with this. Rose had done most of the work for this map, even though it was Albus, Matt, John, and Kaden who were supposed to be the new Marauders. But it’s not like Rose wouldn’t benefit from the map, so Albus tried not to feel guilty about it.

Albus grabbed a book and opened it up to the index. He ran his finger down it until he got to the Ws. Nope, Wizard’s Finger Print wasn’t there. Albus sighed and reached for another. No such luck with that one either. The morning progressed like this and Albus became increasingly disappointed that they hadn’t found anything.

“This is hopeless,” John sighed and tossed a book onto the table next to them, which was being used as a discard table.

“We’ll find it eventually,” Rose assured him.

“I’m bored,” Kaden announced.

“Me, too,” Amanda agreed.

“Keep looking,” Matt told them as he grabbed another book.

“It’s got to be here somewhere,” Albus said.

Albus went through another five books before he actually found one that had Wizard’s Finger Print in the index. Everyone else had found books that contained it, but didn’t give the incantation. Albus excitedly flipped to the page given in the index and quickly scanned it.

“I think I’ve found it!” Albus shouted. The book had given a two paragraph explanation of the charm, the incantation, and the proper wand movements. “Look,” he handed the book to Rose.

“This is it,” Rose grinned after she read the page, “Go check it out and we’ll go to the Room to try it.”

Albus walked quickly over to Madam Pince and handed her the book, which was entitled, 101 Charms Every Auror Should Know. The librarian glared at him for a moment and then checked the book out for him. She handed it back to him and rattled off her usual warnings about defacing library books.

“It should be relatively simple,” Rose explained as they entered the Room of Requirement, “But I think we ought to try it out with scrap parchment first.”

“Definitely,” Albus agreed. He set the book down on the table and opened it up to the correct page. “I’ll read what it says.

“‘The Wizard’s Finger Print is an extremely useful charm, especially for those involved with Magical Law Enforcement. When performed correctly, the charm will reveal a wizard or witch’s full name, birthday, a list of places where he or she has lived, any sort of special abilities or abnormalities, and a few personality characteristics. The charm has been useful in identifying bodies, as well as discovering whether or not a witch or wizard is under the influence of Polyjuice Potion. The Wizard’s Finger Print is not fooled by Polyjuice.

This particular charm is quite controversial, given the fact that it reveals large amounts of personal information. In the wrong hands, the charm can be used to steal another’s identity. It gave the Department of Magical Law Enforcement in Spain a particularly hard time in the 1930s, when a group of thieves used it to gain access to various bank accounts.

A relatively simple charm to perform, all the caster must do is wave his or her wand around in a circular fashion, clockwise (as shown in the diagram on the opposite page), then point the wand at the finger in question, say the incantation, and push the finger down onto a piece of parchment. No ink is necessary. The incantation that is used is Digitulus Scripsi.

Once the finger print is on the parchment, a different incantation is needed to reveal the information. Simply tap your wand to the finger print and recite Acclaro.'”

Albus looked up from the book at his friends. “Seems simple enough.”

“Kind of strange, though,” Matt commented, “That someone could get all that information just from your finger print.”

“Let’s try it,” Rose suggested as she pulled out a roll of parchment. She ripped it up into six pieces and handed them out.

Albus pulled out his wand and watched his friends do the same. “Er, I’ll just read the instructions and we can do it at once.” Everyone nodded.

“All right,” Albus began, “Wave your wands in a clockwise circle. Then point your wand at your finger and say ‘Digitulus Scripsi’. Then push your finger onto the parchment.”

Albus waved his wand, muttered the incantation, and quickly pressed his finger onto the parchment. He set down his wand and picked his finger up, revealing a finger print. “It worked!” he shouted excitedly, “Did yours work?”

“Mine did,” Rose announced, holding up her parchment.

“Me, too,” Amanda, John, and Matt said.

“Mine didn’t,” Kaden sighed.

“You moved your wand counter-clockwise instead of clockwise,” Rose told him, “Try it again.”

This time, Kaden succeeded in performing the charm.

“Now we’ve got to see if we can get the information from them,” Albus said, “The incantation is ‘Acclaro’.”

Albus pointed his wand at his finger print and muttered, “Acclaro.”

Nothing happened for a few seconds, and then words started appearing below the finger print, much like the way words appeared on the Marauder’s Map. Albus stared in awe as he looked down at the parchment.

ALBUS SEVERUS POTTER
D.O.B. June 28, 2005
Born in London, England
Other places of residence- None
Hair Colour- Black
Eye Colour- Green
Special Magical Abilities- None
Abnormalities- None

The list then went on to describe Albus’s personality. It was so accurate that he was kind of freaked out by it. How could a charm get that much just from a finger print?

“Did yours work?” Albus asked everyone.

“Mine did,” Matt said quietly. Albus and Matt swapped parchments and Albus looked at Matt’s.

MATTHEW CONAN ECKERTON
D.O.B. February 6, 2005
Born in Brisbane, Australia
Other Places of Residence- Caloundra, Australia; Thetford, England
Hair Colour- Blonde
Eye Colour- Blue
Special Magical Abilities- None
Abnormalities- Werewolf

“This is mad,” Albus muttered as he handed Matt back his parchment, “Did everyone else’s work?”

“Yeah,” Rose announced, “But it’s kind of scary, really.”

“It worked,” John said.

“Mine, too,” Amanda and Kaden said at the same time.

“We should try it on the Map now,” Albus announced.

“We should probably burn these first,” Matt gestured to his parchment, “You know, so nobody finds them….”

“Oh, right,” Albus agreed, realizing that Matt probably wouldn’t wand a piece of parchment laying around the school that said he was a werewolf.

Rose collected the parchments and tossed them in the fire while Albus rummaged around in his bag for the Map. He found it and set it down on the table. Everyone crowded around it, staring at it.

“This is it,” Albus grinned as his heart hammered, “I hope it works.”

Albus, Matt, John, and Kaden all performed the charm to get their finger prints onto the map. A minute later, there were four finger prints on the map. Nobody said a word as they performed the revealing charm on them, but Albus could feel the excitement building. This was it. In a matter of minutes, they might have the new Map revealed. Albus and his friends had been working towards this ever since the beginning of the school year.

Albus stared at the Map after everyone had finished performing the charms. Nothing happened for the longest time, and Albus was beginning to think that they had guessed wrongly about the Finger Print Charm being the correct charm to reveal the map. Then, the finger prints suddenly disappeared into the map.

“Why’d they do that?” Kaden asked.

“Dunno,” Albus shrugged. The finger prints hadn’t disappeared when they tried the charm on regular parchment.

Then, words began to appear on the map. Everyone leaned in towards it and Albus read the short phrase.

‘Please sit patiently while the map assesses your Marauder attributes.’
“I think it’s working!” Albus shouted.

“I think you’re right!” John exclaimed.

“Here it goes,” Albus grinned as the phrase melted away and new words began to form on the map.

‘Congratulations! You have successfully decoded The Marauder’s Map: Second Edition. Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs are proud proclaim Matthew Conan Eckerton, Kaden Peter Dursley, John Malcolm Brickston, and Albus Severus Potter the next generation of Marauders.

‘Please use the Map wisely, ensuring that you cause as much mayhem as possible. From now on, simply press your finger to the four paws on the front of the map and say ‘I solemnly swear that I am up to no good’ to reveal it.’
“We did it!” Albus shouted. He jumped up from his chair and high-fived Matt and John. “We’ve got the new map!”

“Yes!” John shouted, “All that research finally paid off!”

“I can’t believe we’ve finally done it!” Matt exclaimed, “This is brilliant!”

“So what’s so special about this map?” Kaden asked, “I mean, how’s it different from the other one?”

“Not sure yet,” Albus grinned and sat back down. “Thanks, Rose, for all the help.”

“No problem,” Rose smiled, “I’m glad we’ve got it working, too.”

“Me, too,” Amanda agreed, “Because the four of you will have to let us use it.”

“We will, but only the four of us can actually get it to reveal itself,” Albus replied.

“So you can open it and then give it to us,” Rose laughed.

“Look!” Matt pointed to the map, “It’s doing something else!”

Albus turned away from Rose and looked back at the map. The welcome message was slowly disappearing and new lines were forming on it. At the top it said ‘The Marauder’s Map: Second Edition’. The rest of it looked exactly like the regular Marauder’s Map.

“It looks the same,” Rose commented.

“I know,” Albus groaned, “I thought it would be better.”

“Maybe the Marauders just wanted to create a prank that would outlive them,” Rose suggested.

“You’re probably right,” Albus sighed. After all that work, the new map was no different than the regular one. For Albus to say he was disappointed was an understatement. He could see the Marauders doing something like this, but it was still incredibly disappointing.

“Well that sucks,” John muttered, “All that research for nothing.”

“All that work for just a prank?” Amanda asked, “Would they really have put that much effort into a prank?”

“Yes,” Albus and Rose said at the same time.

“It is kind of funny,” Kaden remarked.

“You’re just saying that because you didn’t spend the whole year on it,” Albus snapped, “If you’d spent a year trying to figure that thing out, you’d be angry, too. But you just found out about it a week ago.”

“And whose fault would that be?” Kaden asked. “You’re the one who didn’t trust me.”

“I had a good reason not to!” Albus shouted.

“Oh, quit fighting,” Rose said, “There’s nothing you can do about it now.”

“Wait,” Matt said quietly, “There’s three numbers at the bottom.” He pointed to the bottom right hand corner.

Albus peered down at the map and saw that there was a number one, two, and three at the bottom. He didn’t think they had been there on the other map.

“So that’s the difference?” John asked, “Wow, that’s exciting, three numbers.”

“Tap your wand on the number two, Albus,” Rose said.

Albus shrugged and did as he was told. He let out a gasp as all the ink disappeared and then began to return, forming a new pattern.

“Bloody hell, that’s Hogsmeade!” John shouted.

It most certainly was Hogsmeade. This part of the map detailed the village of Hogsmeade as well as it depicted Hogwarts on the other part. Albus stared at it and saw Honeyduke’s, the Three Broomsticks, Dervish and Banges, Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes, the Hog’s Head, the Shrieking Shack, and all the houses that created the little village.

Then there were the dots. Just like on the regular Marauder’s Map, this one showed all the people in Hogsmeade as labeled dots. Albus peered down and saw his Uncle Ron’s dot moving around in Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes. There were various other dots in the shop as well, although Albus didn’t recognize any of them. All the buildings on the map, with the exception of the Shrieking Shack, were filled with various labeled dots.

“Whoa,” Albus grinned, “I guess it wasn’t a joke.”

“This is incredible,” Rose said.

“We are going to have so much fun next year in Hogsmeade,” John grinned.

“Wish I could go,” Kaden said.

“You’ll get to eventually,” Amanda reminded him.

“I am so glad this wasn’t a joke,” Matt commented, “Think of everything we can do with this.”

Albus was thinking the same thing. He was sure the Marauders had created this in order to aid with their pranking of students in Hogsmeade. Albus wasn’t really one to prank people. Sure, he did it on occasion and certainly enjoyed observing other people’s pranks, but he wasn’t that good at coming up with them. However, he was thinking that the map of Hogsmeade would be useful if they ever wanted to sneak into the village when they weren’t supposed to. Combined with the Invisibility Cloak, he could get away with anything in Hogsmeade.

“Wonder what the number three does,” Matt mused.

Albus shrugged, “Only one way to find out.” He picked up his wand and prodded the number three.

The lines of ink that made up Hogsmeade began to disappear. A few seconds later, ink formed once again to create words on the parchment.

‘By now, you have surely discovered the map of Hogsmeade. Be sure to use that to create as much mischief as possible.

‘At the beginning of our sixth year, we decided we needed a new project to work on. The Animagus process was long since completed, and we were bored. Yes, I suppose we could have concentrated more on homework, but that would have been even more boring.

‘So eventually we decided that we needed a place of our own. A common room of sorts that only we knew about. Sure, we had the Room of Requirement, but as we discovered in our fourth year, it wasn’t always available.

‘Thus began the long process of finding an empty room in the castle that nobody knew about. Well, a place everyone except Dumbledore didn’t know about.’

‘Even Dumbledore doesn’t know all the secrets of Hogwarts, Padfoot.’

‘I know, Moony, but I think Dumbledore knew about this room. He just didn’t bother to get us to stop using it. He had other things to worry about.’

‘Just get on with it.’

‘Patience, Moony, I want to explain it properly. Anyway, once we found this room, we used a variety of spells to make it our own. We also concealed it and charmed it to only open for us.

‘Since you have proven yourselves to be the Next Generation of Marauders, this room will open for you as well. We would like to pass it on to you.’
“We get our own common room?” John asked, “Brilliant!”

“There’s more,” Albus said.

‘Ah, but Padfoot, do we want to make this easy?’

‘Why of course not, Prongs. Do we ever make things easy?’

‘You’re right. We always make these things as difficult as possible. Opinions, Moony, Wormtail?’

‘I agree, difficult would be best.’

‘Excellent, Moony’s on board.’

‘Difficult is fine.’

‘And Wormtail agrees. So, we are not going to make it easy to find the room.’

‘Thus, we leave you with instructions. We have set up a sort of hunt throughout the school and grounds. The first clue will lead you someplace, where you will find the four paw prints carved somewhere in that place. Tap it with your finger and it will give you another clue.

‘And now we will give you the first clue. Find the place where we rest our heads, but the answer is not our beds.’

With that, the map went blank once again. Albus quickly grabbed a piece of parchment and a quill and scribble down the first clue.

“If we can find this room,” Albus began, “It’s going to be awesome.”

“It will be perfect for studying,” Rose commented.

“I don’t think that’s what it’s supposed to be used for,” John laughed.

“I don’t care,” Rose replied.

“Imagine, our own common room,” Matt said, “I think this will be even better than the Room of Requirement.”

“Yeah, because it’ll be ours,” Albus agreed.

“Although the Room has always been available when I’ve wanted it,” Matt commented.

“Still, our own room will be better,” Albus said.

“Oh, definitely,” Matt agreed.

Albus and his friends spent another fifteen minutes in the Room of Requirement trying to decipher the clue. Nobody came up with anything and Rose decided they should all study and figure out the clue later. Albus couldn’t argue since he had put off his homework long enough, and he had Quidditch practice the next day.

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A/N: I’m leaving for vacation on Saturday and will be gone until late on Tuesday, so if you review after Friday, I won’t be able to respond to it until sometime in the middle of next week. I will respond eventually, though!

Thanks to my beta, Dancer_of_Starlight. Thanks as well to drownzer, Moonylupin, tranc3rooney, sinwillys822, phoenixy_friend, EvilChaos, Denas, XDNLxtlz99, Luke, BElestrange, Jen, and Padfoot_15 for their reviews!
Disclaimer- I don’t own Harry Potter.

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For the next few days, Albus found his mind drifting to the clue every time he tried to study. It was driving him mad. Where else did he sleep besides his bed? None of his friends had come up with anything either. Rose didn’t seem to be putting much thought into it, since exams were only a month and a half away. She seemed to think that Albus ought not to focus too much on the clue either, but Albus couldn’t help it.

Albus was completely ignoring Professor Binns’ boring lecture the following Wednesday and focusing solely on the clue. A place to sleep, he thought as he tapped his quill on his book. He sighed and lifted his head up. Rose was the only one actually taking notes. John’s eyes were drooping and Albus was sure he’d fall asleep soon.

Sleep! Albus grinned to himself. That was it! The History of Magic classroom was the answer. It seemed obvious to him now. Everyone except perhaps Rose had fallen asleep at one time or another in that room.

Albus quickly scribbled the answer onto a piece of parchment and handed it to Matt. Matt read it, smiled at Albus, and passed it on to John. The note made its way to Rose and Amanda after that, who turned around and nodded to Albus.

Once Professor Binns stopped his lecture and everyone hurried to leave the room as soon as possible, Albus purposely spilled his ink onto the floor.

“I’ll just clean this up, Professor,” Albus said as he bent down.

“Yes, yes, Mr. Pewter…” Professor Binns responded absentmindedly and drifted through the chalk board.

“Ok, any ideas where the four paw prints could be?” Rose asked as she quickly cleaned up the ink with a wave of her wand.

“No idea,” Albus replied, “Probably one of the desks, since that’s where we sleep. Let’s just split up and look.”

Luckily there wasn’t a class in the room at that moment, so Albus and his friends had as much time as they needed to look. Albus started his search in the front, making sure to inspect each desk carefully.

It was John who found the paw prints, about twenty minutes after they started searching. They were on one of the desks in the back. Albus and the others hurried over to it and John pointed it out.

Sure enough, there were four tiny paw prints etched into the bottom of the desk.

“You do it, John,” Albus told him, “You found it.”

“All right,” John said and touched the paw prints.

It was kind of awkward to have all five of them underneath the desk at the same time, but they managed. Albus watched as the paw prints disappeared and words replaced them.

‘Find the place where we play, and make the Slytherins pay.’

Albus groaned as he got out from under the desk. He scribbled the new clue onto the piece of parchment below the old one.

“Any ideas?” he asked, as he and his friends left the room.

“Nope,” John shrugged, “But how would they make the Slytherins pay them? Were they betting with them? And how are we supposed to know where they made bets with them?”

“It’s wherever they played,” Matt said.

“But where was that?” John replied.

“I don’t think it means the Slytherins paid them,” Rose commented, “I don’t think it was meant to be that literal. It probably just means they got the Slytherins back for something, or beat them at something.”

“And it’s got to be the same place they played something,” John said.

Matt stopped in his tracks, “Of course! It’s the Quidditch Pitch!”

Albus turned around to look at him, grinning. “Why didn’t I think of that? They played Quidditch there, and beat the Slytherins.”

“Let’s go down to the Quidditch Pitch, then,” Matt said.

“Let’s eat first,” John suggested, “I’m starving.”

“Good idea,” Amanda agreed.

“I think we should study after lunch,” Rose sighed.

“You can,” Albus replied, “But I want to go to the Quidditch Pitch first.”

Rose groaned and followed Albus and the others to the Great Hall. They were late for lunch, since they spent so long in the History of Magic classroom. Kaden demanded to know where they were, and became very excited when Albus whispered that they were following the clues for the map. He was a bit disappointed that Albus would be continuing to work on it after lunch, since Kaden had classes, but Albus assured him that they would update him later that evening.

Albus, Matt, and John ate a very hurried lunch, as they wanted to get out to the Quidditch Pitch as soon as possible. Rose announced that she would not be going with them because she wanted to devote the afternoon to studying. Amanda agreed with her since her Astronomy grade was abysmal at the moment.

Albus was very relieved to see that the Quidditch Pitch was completely deserted when he and his friends entered it a few minutes later. This may have been because of the torrential downpour, but Albus didn’t mind getting soaked.

“Any ideas as to where it would be?” John asked.

“Maybe the goal posts?” Albus suggested, “They couldn’t have put the prints on the ground.”

“Let’s get looking, then,” Matt said.

Albus, Matt, and John each started inspecting one of the goal posts. Albus looked carefully, but couldn’t find anything. Neither did John or Matt. The three of them ran to the other side of the pitch and began to look at the other three posts.

“You know, I’ll bet they etched them up higher,” Albus realized as he finished inspecting his goal post. “It would make it harder.”

“You’re probably right,” John agreed.

“Let’s go,” Albus started running over to the changing rooms. He kept his broom in his dormitory, but there were plenty of school brooms in the changing rooms. They would suffice for this.

Albus wrenched the door open and led his friends over to where the school brooms were kept. He handed each of them a broom and the three of them headed back out into the rain.

Albus kicked off from the ground and flew directly towards the goal posts. His broom listed to the left and Albus was really grateful he got to play Quidditch on a superior broom. Despite the mediocre broom, he was still faster than Matt and John, and made it to the goal posts before either of them.

It didn’t take Albus long to find the prints. They were etched on the very top of the middle goal post.

“Found them!” he shouted at John and Matt. The two of them immediately flew over to Albus.

“Go on, let’s see the next clue,” Matt said.

Albus touched the prints and strained to make out the next clue through the pouring rain.

“‘Find the place we got when we’re not feeling our best, one of us goes there more than the rest,'” Albus read and then looked up at his friends.

“Hospital Wing,” Matt said immediately, “That one was kind of obvious.”

“Somehow I don’t think riddles were the Marauders’ strong suit,” Albus commented as they flew back down to the ground.

“Makes it easier for us,” John grinned.

“Not really,” Matt said, “You know how hard it’s going to be to search the Hospital Wing for four tiny paw prints? What do you suppose we’ll tell Madam Pomfrey? ‘Don’t mind us, we’re just searching your entire ward for some carvings that were left here decades ago.'” Matt rolled his eyes.

Albus didn’t say anything as they walked back to the changing rooms. Matt was right. It would be extremely difficult to search the Hospital Wing for the next clue. Madam Pomfrey was always there. They could never get the place empty in order for them to search.

“Anyone got any ideas as to how we can do this?” Albus asked as they walked back to the castle.

“Not a clue,” Matt shrugged.

“Hey,” John turned to Matt, “Maybe you can go look for it the next time you’re there. During the night or something.”

“Are you mad?” Matt laughed, “She’d wonder what I was up to. She’s always got an eye on me. Must be some kind of sixth sense. If I so much as turn over in bed, she comes out of her room and asks me what’s wrong. I can only imagine what she’d do if I started searching the whole place in the dead of night.”

“Didn’t think of that,” John replied.

Albus sighed dejectedly and decided to just go to the common room and do his homework. He had been neglecting it the whole week and figured he would have to do it sometime. Rose would at least be happy.

Rose and Amanda were feverishly working on homework when Albus, John, and Matt entered the practically deserted common room. The boys settled down at the table Rose and Amanda were sitting at and reluctantly pulled out their books.

“Success?” Rose asked without looking up from her book.

“Yeah,” Albus whispered, “But now we’ve got to find the next clue in the Hospital Wing, which should be pretty impossible.”

Rose thought for a moment “Yeah, that will be difficult,” she said and then continued her reading.

Albus tried his best to concentrate on his homework for the rest of the afternoon. He did manage to write an essay for Potions and read a chapter of his Herbology book, but after that he just couldn’t do anything else. John was all too happy to stop doing homework as well, and the two of them played chess until dinner.

After dinner, Albus and his friends went to the Room of Requirement, as Albus had promised Kaden he would tell him about the new developments with the map. Kaden was a bit jealous he didn’t get to fly around the Quidditch Pitch looking for the next clue.

“I thought you didn’t like Quidditch,” John said.

“I just said I think football is better,” Kaden explained, “That doesn’t mean I don’t like flying.”

“Well, we’re going to have plenty of other clues to work out,” Albus reminded him, “Like the one we’re working on right now.”

“And what’s that one?” Kaden asked.

“‘Find the place we go when we’re not feeling our best, one of us goes there more than the rest,'” Albus told him.

“Where could that be?” Kaden asked.

“The Hospital Wing,” Albus said, “We’ve already figured it out. We just don’t know how to get in to look without Madam Pomfrey there.”

“Hmm…” Kaden walked slowly around the room, “Shouldn’t be that hard….”

“And why’s that?” Matt asked, “She’s always there.”

“We’ve just got to get her out of the room for a while,” Kaden said, “My friends and I at my old school did it a few times with teachers. You just use a distraction to get them out of the room for a few minutes or so.”

Albus was amazed that his cousin was able to think of that. Albus always thought Kaden wasn’t too bright, but he did come up with good ideas every so often.

“That might work,” Rose said.

“And how are we going to get her out of the Hospital Wing?” John asked, “She’s always in there.”

“One of us just has to pretend to be ill or injured,” Kaden explained.

“We could use a Fainting Fancy for that,” John suggested.

“No we can’t,” Albus said, “She’s seen them too many times. No way she’d believe it.”

“She would if I did it,” Matt said quietly.

******

Albus had been thoroughly surprised by Matt’s willingness to eat a Fainting Fancy to trick Madam Pomfrey. He had become much more outgoing since the previous year. Albus figured it was because he was more certain now that none of his friends were going to announce to the entire school that he was a werewolf.

Albus and his friends immediately formed a plan once Matt had so willingly volunteered to eat the Fainting Fancy. It would take place the following Saturday. Matt, Amanda, and Kaden would be stationed on the grounds, as they figured it would be best for Matt to faint as far away from the Hospital Wing as possible. Albus, John, and Rose would hide next to the Hospital Wing underneath the Invisibility Cloak and dash in as soon as Madam Pomfrey left. They figured it would guarantee them twenty minutes of searching, perhaps thirty if they were lucky.

Saturday arrived and Albus was eager to put the plan into action. Rose figured it would be best to do it in the morning, when most students were either sleeping or lounging around in their common rooms. It would be better not to attract too much unwanted attention.

Albus, John, and Rose headed up the stairs after breakfast, while Matt, Amanda, and Kaden went out onto the grounds. Once Albus, John, and Rose reached the Hospital Wing, Albus pulled out the Invisibility Cloak and threw it over them.

“And now, we wait,” Albus whispered.

“Shush,” Rose hissed.

About twenty minutes later, Kaden came running down the corridor with a fake worried look on his face. Albus only hoped that Madam Pomfrey wouldn’t be able to tell it was fake. Kaden ran past Albus and into the Hospital Wing.

Not even a minute later, he burst back through behind Madam Pomfrey.

“And where is he?” the nurse shouted.

“On the grounds,” Kaden told her.

“Hurry up! Show me where!”

Madam Pomfrey and Kaden disappeared around the corner and Albus, John, and Rose hurried into the Hospital Wing.

“I’d say we’ve only got twenty minutes,” Albus muttered, “She’s fast.”

“Let’s get looking,” Rose said.

Only one of the beds was occupied and the curtains were drawn around it. Albus hoped the paw prints weren’t on or near that bed. He quickly ran to the nearest bedside table and started investigating it.

Five minutes passed, then ten, then fifteen, and still nobody had found anything. Albus was beginning to get worried. They couldn’t pull off a stunt like this again.

“Found it!” Rose announced. Albus breathed a sigh of relief. He hurried over to the farthest bed and bent down next to Rose.

“Where is it?” John asked.

“There,” Rose pointed to the right side of the bedside table.

Albus craned his head and saw the carving. He quickly touched it and watched as the words materialized.

“Hurry,” Rose said, “I hear footsteps.”

“Write it down,” Albus said as he shoved the piece of parchment that had the other clues on it to her, “‘Find the place where we are served and waited on, they even have pie of pecan.'” Albus stood up as Rose scribbled it down.

“They’re coming!” John seethed as the door opened.

Albus quickly pulled out the Invisibility Cloak and threw it over the three of them.

“Tell me again what happened?” Madam Pomfrey asked exasperatingly as she levitated Matt onto a bed.

“Er, he just fainted, Madam,” Kaden said.

“What were you doing?” she asked as she waved her wand over Matt.

“Just sitting and talking,” Amanda said.

“Hmm…” Madam Pomfrey muttered, “This particular fainting looks an awfully lot like the kind that results from eating a Fainting Fancy.