The Wolf and the Raven

Ch 51 - We Did It!

It rained the day after the party, and the friends spent the day in a slow-motion lethargy, recovering from their cake and butterbeer binge. By dinner time, they were finally hungry enough to rouse themselves from the common room and descend to the Great Hall.

They were picking over their lemon sherbet when James' head lolled back. His friends squinted at him, afraid he had passed out or been hit by some kind of spell. But his eyes were wide open and he was blinking at the ceiling.

"Um, Jamie....?" Branwen poked him.

He jerked his attention back to them, a wild grin on his face. He looked as though he had awoken from a long sleep to find out it was Christmas day. "I have it!"

His friends were eyeing each other with even more concern.

"What is it you have?" Sirius asked slowly. "Dragon pox?"

James punched his shoulder. "Idiot. I have...." he leaned in over the table and his friends unconsciously followed suit. "I have the answer to the problem of the map." He pointed upward. Their eyes followed, but all they could see was the watery grey sky, darkening to a cloudy black night.

"Okay, mate," Sirius leaned back, standing up from the table. "You're barking. Now I'm going to see if I can find Marlene. Or Jemma. Or Nina."

James grabbed his friend by the shirt and yanked him back down. "The ceiling," he continued, "is enchanted to reflect its environment. If we can get the map to do the same thing, it could show us our surroundings in the castle."

His friends were first confused, then surprised, then excited. Then Remus said, "And do we know exactly what that charm is?"

He was met with silence, but James grinned. "We will tomorrow."





Charms was the boys' second class on Monday and they rushed to be the first ones there. When they reached the empty classroom, flushed and out of breath, they made sure they to sit in the second row instead of the first. Lily, who was at the top of their class, usually sat there with Marlene and Mary.

When everyone was settled, Professor Flitwick emerged from his office and mounted the stool behind his desk. He waved his wand to get the class' attention. "Good morning everyone. I trust you had a lovely weekend. Today, we're going to be working on – um, yes, Mr. Potter?"

James' hand shot up almost as soon as the professor had begun. Realising how eager was appearing, he took a moment to affect an air of indifference, then asked, "So, I've been wondering....what exactly is the charm on the ceiling in the Great Hall?"

Lily turned in her seat and raised her brow, but Flitwick looked ecstatic. "What an excellent question, Mr. Potter! I've been teaching here for five years and not one student has bothered to ask about the thing they see everyday."

"Now, many would assume that it is some sort of Reflection Spell, like 'Speculum,' however, you'll note that if the ceiling were reflective it would show the ground below it, rather than the sky above it.

"The actual charm for the ceiling is 'Revelio Locus.' Though simple-sounding, it can be extremely difficult to pull off, especially on a surface area as large as the Great Hall. It is rumoured that all four Founders were needed to accomplish it."

"We were going to work on our Banishment Charms today, but thanks to James' fantastic question, we shall spend some time with this more complicated spell. I won't expect you all to achieve it today, but it will be excellent practise."

By the end of the class, only Lily had managed to get her desktop to reveal the contents of the drawer beneath it.

"Nice job, Evans," James winked at her on his way out of class.

"Potter," she pursed her lips, "what made you ask that? About the ceiling?"

He shrugged. "What can I say – I have a naturally curious mind."

She tried to hide a grin. "Well, just remember, curiosity killed the cat."

"Good thing I'm not a cat then," he smirked.

Sirius grinned and propped an elbow on his friend's shoulder. "You could say he's more of a deer." The boys around him snickered, but Lily, not getting the joke, just rolled her eyes and flipped her long ginger hair over her should before walking away with her room-mates.





The four friends were excited to share their discovery of the charm with Branwen that evening, but she had other things on her mind when she burst through the door of their room. She placed her hands on her hips with a barely concealed a grin. "Well, I hope you boys are happy."

"Actually, I am," Sirius leaned back in his chair. "Thanks for asking, Feathers."

She rolled her eyes. "I mean, are you happy about this?" She slid a book toward him across the table.

It was James' third-year DADA textbook. Branwen inherited all of her brother's books. It wasn't that the Potters couldn't afford new ones, it just seemed redundant to have identical sets of books spilling over through the house. Besides, Branwen enjoyed using them. They often came to her with little annotations from James that helped her in her classes (along with numerous doodles of Snitches and brooms and goalposts). But this was more than just a helpful hint.

The book was opened at page three-hundred and ninety-four, the chapter on werewolves. The main illustration was a wolfish take on Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, only certain "aspects" had been drawn over and enlarged to ridiculous proportions.

Beneath it, certain phrases in the text had been scribbled out and written over:

The Ministry of Magic's policies on werewolves have always been muddled and inefficient ridiculously stupid and full of shite. A Werewolf Code of Conduct Chocolate was developed in 1637, which werewolves were supposed to sign, promising not to attack anyone eat anything (or anyone) sweet but to lock themselves up securely every month. Unsurprisingly, nobody signed the Code, as nobody was prepared to walk into the Ministry give up chocolate and admit to being a werewolf sugar addict.

The boys were howling with laughter at their own antics, even Remus chuckling behind a deep blush.

"It wasn't so funny when I opened my book in class," Branwen frowned. "When that simpering prude Susan Dye saw your little 'enhancements', she practically fainted. I had to use the Confundus Charm to get her to look away before the professor came over."

James waved her concerns away. "It's not like you need to study this stuff anyway. We're probably the top experts on werewolves in the country."

"Probably in the world!" Sirius added, throwing an arm around Remus' shoulder.

Remus shoved him away and shut the book, averting his eyes from the graffiti on the page. "Maybe we should get back to the map."

"Right!" James eagerly explained the new charm to Branwen, then they all set about to practising on their own pieces of parchment. Nothing happened. They agreed to continue practising during the week and to try again after the full moon on Friday.





April's full moon marked the start of yet another try at the Animagus process. Branwen once again brought the Mandrake leaves with her to Shack. She handed them out once Remus ascended into the house. "We really have to make this work," she admonished. "Between the Mandrakes and the moths, I have a proper terrarium on my bedside. Besides, we only have one more full moon this term. This just has to work."

They brought Remus to the hospital wing in the early, freezing hours of the morning. The three boys collapsed into empty beds while Branwen went quickly about tending to Remus. When she was finished, she fell asleep in her usual spot, a chair beside his bed, her head resting by his side.





Branwen awoke to soft rays of chilly morning light and the sound of low murmurs.

"Oh, good! You're awake!" Sirius grinned as soon as he saw her eyelids flutter.

With no chance of faking a continued sleep, Branwen stretched her arms over her head and yawned. James, Sirius, and Peter were on the other side of Remus' bed, huddled over a piece of blank parchment sitting on the boy's lap.

"Rise and shine, Bran," James handed her a cup of tea. "We're going to try this charm one more time, but we're going to do it all together, like the Founders. If this doesn't work...." he ran his fingers through his hair.

Branwen gulped down her burning tea, taking the time to quietly looked Remus over. She knew from her examination last night that he had three long scratches down his left shoulder, and she had removed an alarmingly large splinter from behind his ear. There was no sign of swelling or infection though, meaning she had done her job well. And despite the wounds and the deep purple shadows above his cheekbones, Remus' green eyes were bright, his lips murmuring the incantation of the charm silently.

"You ready?"

Branwen blinked. She was sure someone had something and said it to her, but her eyes had stuck on Remus' moving lips. Her mind seemed incapable of taking in the sight and listening to the voice at the same time.

"Branwen? You okay?"

It was Remus who was speaking. This time the voice seeped through her consciousness. She blinked a few more times before responding. "Yes. I'm ready."

Together, all five of them touched their wands tips on the parchment. They waited for James' signal. "Don't forget to really feel it!" he commanded. Then he nodded. "Now!"

"Revelio Locus!"

It was as though ink was pouring from their wands. It flowed across the parchment, a river channelled into tidy streams of swirling lines and circles. Words bloomed. "Hospital Wing." "Office of Mme. Pomfrey." "Hallway."

Branwen grinned, but not at the piece of parchment. She watched the boys around her, revelling in the pride of their accomplishment. Peter was clapping to himself, a solo performance of applause. Sirius' eyes were so wide, they looked as though they might drop from his head at any moment. When her gaze landed on Remus, she was startled to find that he was already watching her. They shared a wide grin, then James leapt from his seat, shouting, "We did it! We did it!"

A/N: I imagine the Marauder's Map evolving in stages. So right now, there's no code to open/close it, it's not labelled with their names, and there's no Homonculus Charm on it. That all comes in good time.

I also have NO idea what the canon incantation for the Enchanted Ceiling would be, so I hope I'll be forgiven any discrepancies there.