JAMES POTTER and the heir of the defeated

MISTAKE OF THE MARAUDER'S MAP

After the game ended, Aditya didn't stick around for too long. He still had to write a foot-long essay for Slughorn's Potions and an equally long essay for Longbottom's Herbology.

Albus, Lily and all the Weaslys had congratulated him. He didn't notice though. He was just thinking about the way Angel manages to look beautiful all the time. Aditya sighed. How could he ever dare to ask her out. Everytime he try, there is this one guy Nick Selvig, who always appears just as he was about to speak to her. Aditya is not scared of him, but then, if he argue or fight with him, he might look bad infront of the five-foot, one inch girl whom he seriously loves.

He was slowly making his way to the common room, shouldering the two brooms, which was completely inconvenient. Random people were patting him on his back and many were complimenting him about his performance.

"Aditya wait!" cried the voice of Angel from behind. He turned to look at her. His heart leapt out of his mouth as usual. He said something really intelligent like,

"Uh..." as one of the twigs of his broom found it's way to his eye under his black rectangular specs.

"Ouch," he screamed. Angel hurried towards him and wrenched his hand apart from his eye, took off his specs and stood on her tip-toes to blow his eye. Adityas' heart skipped a beat.

Angel was busy blowing his eye. But she couldn't feel the frantic, beat of his heart against hers. If one could listen, the best of Aditya's heart alone might've told how much he loves Angel.

"There, that's better isn't it?" she asked him, picking up his Cleansweap eighteen.
"Yeah, great," said Aditya. She handed him his specs and he put them on. Together they walked to the common room, not looking at each other, but blushing.

"Password," asked the portrait of the Fat Lady.
"Horse plume," said Angel to her. The portrait swung open and they entered into the common room. It was completely full with mostly fifth-years, who were trying to get a lead on their homework.

"Have you seen James?" asked Angel. Aditya shook his head.
"Last time I saw him was after the match, Veronica had called him for a stroll," he said.

"Oh, OK, see you Aditya, great play," she said and hurried off to her dormitory. Aditya hung his head low and slumped in one of the chairs by the fire. John Finnigan came to his side and asked Aditya to lend his Defence Against the Dark Arts essay. Aditya handed it. He thanked and went.

"Why the low face mate?" asked Albus. Aditya quickly changed his expression.

"Nothing Albus, just thinking about homework." he lied. Albus looked suspecious but didn't ask much.
As they were talking, the portrait swung open and James entered quitely, followed by Veronica. Albus giggled. All the people in the common room, cheered for him. James raised his hand meekly and sat next to Aditya. Veronica went into her dormitory silently.

James picked up his parchment and started writing Herbology homework. But he was distracted. He kept on scratching and scribbling the parchment until Aditya asked him what was the matter.

"It's Veronica," said James. Aditya looked at him smiling. James smiled back. Albus had left them to meet one of his friends.

"Did you...?" prompted Aditya. James smiled once again and Aditya whooped, frightening a batch of second years who were working nearby.

"So, what about you and Angel?" asked James. Aditya splattered.
"M-me and A-Angel...n-no nothing a-as such," he finished with difficulty. James smacked his head.

"Come, on, seriously? Did you think that nobody would notice you looking at her hoping against hope that she would look back at you?" he asked.

Aditya make an indistinct noise.
"Why are you so scared to ask her out?" asked James again.

Aditya burst out.
"Well I'm not exactly the Prince charming kind of way. She might've been getting atleast a dozen proposals a day, and maybe from some of the coolest guys in her year,"
"So, I probably don't stand a chance." he said. James looked like he wanted to punch him, but controlled himself.

He then started lecturing Aditya about how girls think and why he shouldn't get the inferior complex. Aditya merely nodded at this as he made his way towards his dormitory with James after dinner.

*

James ​and Aditya changed into their night clothes. They stretched on their respective four poster beds and started at the top. After about an hour or so, they heard the low snores of their friends. Aditya slowly got up and put on his glasses. He picked up his fourteen inches, cherry and Dragon heartstring wand and crept on to James's bed.

"Ready?" whispered James. Aditya nodded and picked up his wand,
"Lumos," he muttered. The tip of his wand ignited, casting ghostly lights upon their faces.

"Let's check wether the coast is clear," said James. He bent and picked up an old dirty, yellowish parchment and placed it infront of them. He took his wand out and touched the centre of it with the tip of his wand and said,

"I solemnly swear that I'm upto no good." As soon as he finished saying it the map of Hogwarts was displayed to them. The Marauder's map is a good tool for rule-breaking. It shows the complete map of the school, along with the people in it. The exact movements of the people within the castle are shown with inky footsteps along with the name of the person. The map never goes wrong. No person is concealed from it. It had been previously used by James's  father Harry Potter. Before him were his uncles Fred and George and before them, it was his granddad, James Potter along with his friends, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew.

"OK, McGonagall is in her study, Filch is in his office with Mrs. Norris, and Peeves is in the fifth floor. Shall we?" asked James.

"Yup, it's now or never," said Aditya. They got up from James's bed and slowly pulled on the Invisibility cloak on them. They picked up their wands and the map and slowly made way towards the common room.

"Who's it?" asked the Fat Lady. But they didn't answer. They made their way down to the stairs leading to the Hufflepuff common room under the great hall.

Everything was fine, until they had noticed the name.

They walked to the kitchen, tickled the Peach in the painting, which turned into a doorknob and looked down at the map to see if the coast was clear.
For a moment, all the air left in their lungs was sucked out. They couldn't believe their eyes. The map fell on to the floor from James's hands. Aditya was dumbstruck.

How could it be possible? But he was...? Could the map be wrong? But no his father had told him the map was never wrong. But then how?

Walking towards the Forbidden Forest, with Araxas, was a man whom they knew as a legend. The man they knew to be dead!

Yet they couldn't explain the inky footsteps, moving towards the Forest, with Araxas, which were named clearly, shining under the light of their wands, as Severus Snape...

***