Potter Spawn

Chapter 8

The Junior Marauders were following Percy up to the common room, being nice and obedient first-years, when a bad, bad dog came along and destroyed their innocence.

Hey Harry! You wanna see the Marauders room?

Harry, who had heard enough stories about this magnificent chamber, lost his sense to the allure of a promising adventure.

Totally! You'd show it to us now?

'Course, pup. Follow me.

"Guys", Harry whispered.

"We can easily find the common room with the map. The password shouldn't be a problem- the fat lady would surely be kind enough to let in a few poor little first years that have gotten lost."

"What are you getting at?", Hermione whispered suspiciously.

"I'm saying", the black haired boy replied with a mischievous glint in his eye,

"That I know a much cooler place to go now. We'll go to the marauders room and take the secret passageway that lands us directly behind the portrait of the fat lady's friend in the frilly beige dress! From there, it's only like a minute to the common room."

Ron seemed delighted while Neville and Hermione appeared sceptical.

"But that's against the rules!", the girl whisper-yelled.

"What if we get caught?", Neville added, shivering at the thought.

"Oh come on, don't be such spoilsports! It'll be fun! Breaking the rules is the whole point, besides we're pranksters and pranking is always against the rules!", Ron hissed excitedly.

"Which way, Harry?"

Harry pointed to their left, which was the corridor Padfoot was looking at.

"There", he whispered and they crept- Hermione a bit hesitantly and Neville a bit- well, timidly- away from the group.

They hasted through the corridors, always following Sirius' instructions. Finally, they skidded to a stop in front of a suit of armour.

"Latrones", Harry gasped the Latin word for marauders, out of breath.

They watched in wonder as the suit pulled a key from a leather necklace it had been wearing and pushed it into a brick. Surprisingly, it turned out to be a hidden keyhole of sorts, as there was the sound of an old key turning in a rusty lock and then the wall split in half. They gasped at the sight of the stone simply melting away.

Their breath caught in their chest at the splendidness of the room. It was not of an enchanting medieval beauty like the rest of the castle, but simply had the air of a comfortable living room. However, it was much bigger than your usual living room. Also, there were a few too many explosives, potions and magical artefacts, some of them damaged, some most likely dark, for it to be a family space.

The walls were raw stone. Pinned onto them were funny snapshots, cartoons and masses of notes. They were certain to either be on pranks or Lily Evans, Potter now. Around the room, there were red sofas without any real order, tables with cauldrons and ingredients, books, rolls of parchment and quills, and red carpets with burn holes in them. On some of the walls, there were shelves filled to the brim with finished, unfinished and half finished projects of the marauders, books on spells and ink-splattered parchment. A few muggle notebooks and some magical plants had made their way into the mix and an outdated calendar hung on the wall, full moons marked with a red circle. Everything was scratched, dented or patched in one way or the other, which just made it better. The only thing that put the atmosphere a bit off was the dust, but the room had a secret that was the best thing about it.

"Clean yourself", Harry spoke and all of the muck vanished, leaving behind the perfect chaos that had been lying underneath.

Sirius let uttered a delighted bark Harry interpreted as a laugh and jumped onto the sofa. The hyper dog's godson was still quite in awe of this place but had caught himself by now, while his friends were still staring at everything open-mouthed.

Finally, Hermione was the first to say a word.

"This place is perfect for planning pranks."

Ron suddenly grinned.

"It's brilliant!", he yelled while sprinting into the room and flinging himself onto the sofa like Sirius had done just moments before. Laughing, Harry followed suit.

Neville walked up to a plant that was placed on one of the shelves.

"Mimbelus Mimbeltonia!", he spoke in a pleasantly surprised way.

"Those are rare and have a great defence mechanism, so don't try to touch them or you'll end up covered in green goo! This is amazing!"

Hermione, meanwhile, was running her fingers over the spines of the books.

"My goodness! Some of these books are so advanced- others are so rare I haven't found them at the bookshop! And I'm pretty sure some of these are forbidden! Where did the marauders get them all?"

Harry grinned.

"First, we're marauders now as well, so it's our successors. And secondly, most likely from either the Potter or the Black library, the dark ones most likely from the Black one. I'd advise you to only take away one book at a time though and preferably read them here. It's a magnificent collection and it would be truly unfortunate to lose anything. Not that I don't trust you, of course! And lastly, let's look into these prank diaries tomorrow because I for one am dead tired, but want to start pranking as soon as possible."

The others agreed and Harry called out:

"Oh passageway to the lady with no taste, show yourself to the troublemakers!"

A door appeared on one of the walls, rumbling, and they stepped through.

...

Harry flopped back onto his bed, exhausted.

"Holy fricking chocolate frog! This has been the best day eve-e-er!", he yawned.

"Can't wait for our first prank", Ron mumbled into his pillow. Neville m-hmed in agreement before starting to snore. Ron, too, seemed to have fallen asleep.

Harry felt something heavy drop onto his bed, then the something made its way under his blanket and cuddled up to him. It was warm, furry and absolutely gigantic.

"Good night, Sirius", Harry muttered.

"Yap."

With his godfather finally by his side, the boy with the lightning scar fell asleep. 

Sorry for the wait!