The Prisoner of Azkaban | Hermione Granger x Male Reader (Book Three)

14. Hogsmeade

Y/N's POV

To everyone's delight except me and Harry's, there was to be another Hogsmeade trip on the very last weekend of the term.

"We can do all our Christmas shopping there!" said Hermione. "Mum and dad would really love those Toothflossing Stringmints from Honeydukes!"

On the Saturday morning of the Hogsmeade trip, me and Harry bid goodbye to Ron and Hermione, who were wrapped in cloaks and scarves, and then we turned up the marble staircase and headed back to Gryffindor Tower.

"Psst, Harry, Y/N!"

We turned, halfway along the third floor corridor, to see Issac, Fred and George peering out at us from behind a statue of a one-eyed witch.

"What are you doing?" asked Harry curiously. "How come you're not going to Hogsmeade?"

"We've come to give you a bit of festive cheer before we go," said Fred, with a mysterious wink, "come in here..."

He nodded toward an empty classroom to the left of the one-eyed statue. We followed them. George closed the door quietly and then turned, beaming, to look at us.

"Early Christmas present for you two," he said.

Issac pulled something from inside his cloak with a flourish and laid it on one of the desks. It was a large, square, very worn piece of parchment with nothing written on it.

"What's that supposed to be?" I asked.

"This is the secret of our success," said George, patting the parchment fondly.

"It's a wrench, giving it to you two," said Fred, "but we decided last night, both your needs are greater than ours."

"Anyway, we know it by heart," said Issac, "we don't really need it anymore."

"And what do we need with a bit of old parchment?" said Harry.

"A bit of old parchment!" said Fred. "Explain, George."

"Well...when we were in our first year, young, carefree, and innocent-"

"We let off a Dungbomb in the corridor and it upset Filch for some reason-"

"So he hauled us off to his office and started threatening us with the usual,"

"-and we couldn't help noticing a drawer in one of his filing cabinets marked Confiscated and Highly Dangerous."

"Don't tell me-" I said, starting to grin.

"Well, what would you've done?" said Issac. "I caused a diversion by dropping another Dungbomb, Fred and George whipped the drawer open, and grabbed, this."

"It's not as bad as it sounds, you know," said George, "we don't reckon Filch ever found out how to work it. He probably suspected what it was, though, or he wouldn't have confiscated it."

"And you know how to work it?"

"Oh yes," said Fred, smirking, "this little beauty's taught us more than all the teachers in this school."

"You're tricking us," said Harry, looking at the ragged old bit of parchment.

"Oh, are we?" said George.

He took out his wand, touched the parchment lightly, and said. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

And at once, thin ink lines began to spread like a spider's web from the point that George's wand had touched. They joined each other, then words began to blossom across the top, great, curly green words, that proclaimed:

Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, Prongs and Stripes
Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers
are proud to present
THE MARAUDER'S MAP

It was a map showing every detail of the Hogwarts castle and grounds. But the truly remarkable thing was the tiny ink dots moving around it, each labelled with a name in minuscule writing. Astounded, I looked at it. A labelled dot in the top left corner showed that Professor Dumbledore was pacing his study, the caretaker's cat, Mrs Norris, was prowling the second floor, and Peeves the Poltergeist was currently bouncing around the trophy room. And as my eyes travelled up and down the familiar corridors, I noticed something else.

This map showed a set of passages I had never entered. And many of them seemed to lead-

"Right into Hogsmeade," said Issac, tracing one of them with his finger, "there are seven in all. Now, Filch knows about these four," he pointed them out,"but we're sure we're the only ones who know about these. Don't bother with the one behind the mirror on the fourth floor. We used it until last winter, but it's caved in, completely blocked. But this one here, this one leads right into the cellar of Honeydukes. We've used it loads of times. And as you might've noticed, the entrance is right outside this room, through that one-eyed statue."

"Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, Prongs and Stripes," sighed George, patting the heading of the map, "we owe them so much."

"Noble men, working tirelessly to help a new generation of lawbreakers," said Fred solemnly.

"Right," said Issac briskly, "don't forget to wipe it after you've used it-"

"-or anyone can read it," Fred said warningly.

"Just tap it again and say, 'Mischief managed!' And it'll go blank."

"See you in Honeydukes," said Issac, winking.

They left the room, all three smirking in a satisfied sort of way.

We stood there, gazing at the miraculous map.

But even as I stood there, flooded with excitement, something I had once heard Mr Weasley say came floating out of my memory. Me and Harry looked at each other, and at once we knew what we were going to do.

We traced the secret passage to Honeydukes, then Harry rushed off to get his invisibility cloak. When he arrived back we went to the witch.

What did we have to do? I quickly took out my wand and tapped the statue. Nothing happened. I looked at the map. The tiniest speech bubble had appeared next to my figure. The word inside said: 'Dissendium.'

"Dissendium!" I whispered, tapping the stone witch again.

At once, the statue opened wide enough, we glanced quickly up and down the corridor, then I tucked the map away again, and we were off.

Halfway through this passage, I tapped the map and whispered. "Mischief Managed!"

It took ages, after what felt like an hour, the passage began to rise.

Ten minutes later, we came to the foot of some worn stone steps, which rose out of sight above us. Careful not to make any noise, we began to climb. Then, without warning, my head hit something hard.

It seemed to be a trapdoor. I stood there, listening. I couldn't hear any sounds above me. Very slowly, I pushed the trapdoor open and peered over the edge.

We were in a cellar, which was full of wooden crates and boxes. Me and Harry climbed out of the trapdoor. Harry threw the invisibility cloak over the both of us and we started creeping upstairs.

Honeydukes was so crowded with Hogwarts students, we edged among them, looking around.

There were shelves upon shelves of the most succulent-looking sweets imaginable. Creamy chunks of nougat, shimmering pink squares of coconut ice, fat, honey-colored toffees, hundreds of different kinds of chocolate in neat rows; there was a large barrel of Every Flavor Beans, and another of Fizzing Whizbees, the levitating sherbet balls that Ron had mentioned, along yet another wall were 'Special Effects' sweets: Droobles Best Blowing Gum (which filled a room with bluebell-colored bubbles that refused to pop for days), the strange, splintery Toothflossing Stringmints, tiny black Pepper Imps ('breathe fire for your friends!'), Ice Mice ('hear your teeth chatter and squeak!'), peppermint creams shaped like toads ('hop realistically in the stomach!'), fragile sugar-spun quills, and exploding bonbons.

The two of us admired everything for a good ten minutes, and then we set off. Looking for Ron and Hermione.