Harry Potter: 19 Years Later

Chapter 62: Facing What Needs To Be Done

The three friends stared at the Marauder's map in awe, not quite sure what to say. While Scorpius and Holly watched the map as it constantly displayed movement, representing each person on Hogwarts campus, Albus repeatedly reread the note that was supposedly from his brother James. First of all, the handwriting was way too neat and eloquent to belong to James, whose scripting was always sloppy. And second, the wording of the note was extremely well-written and articulate. Albus concluded that unless James had assistance writing the note, it didn't seem to be written by him.

Another thing that bothered him was the fact that James possessed the Marauder's map. It didn't seem very likely that their father would give away something so important to him to James. Was their father aware that James had sent Albus the map through the mail? Maybe it was a good idea for Albus to talk to his father about it.

His eyes continually skimmed over the last sentence of the note: Do not utter the words below until the beginning of you and your friends' seventh year.

Why did it matter when he and his friends spoke the words that happened to reveal the Marauder's map? Why did it have to be until their seventh year?

And why did weird things always have to happen to specifically Albus and his friends?

"I cannot believe we have the actual Marauder's map sitting right here," Scorpius said, trailing his fingers over the aged parchment. "Are you sure it's real, and not just a fake one James might've made?"

Albus looked at the map closely again, taking notice of each and every detail on the parchment. Tiny tears in the edges and several minor stains on the map further proved it's authenticity. James would've never been able to pull off creating such detail.

"Of course it's real," Albus assured. "Holly said the words that make the map appear, didn't she? If that doesn't prove it's real, then you're mad."

"Okay, so it's real," Scorpius agreed. "But why do we have it now?"

"It's probably just another stupid perk of being reincarnations," Albus suggested, shrugging. Then he glanced around him cautiously, adding, "And we can't let anyone find out we have the map. We already get enough attention as it is."

"What about Rose?" Holly asked, taking both Albus and Scorpius by surprise.

"What about her?" Scorpius questioned, clearly uncomfortable.

"She's one of us too, remember?" Holly told them. "Don't you think she needs to know about the map too?"

Albus knew she had a point. Whether Scorpius or Rose liked it or not, Rose was still apart of their group of reincarnations. This situation applied to her too.

"Alright, so go tell her we have the map," Scorpius replied.

"No," Holly said sternly. "We're going to tell Rose together, as a group. We all need to figure out why we have the Marauder's map, what we need to do with it, and why the note says we weren't supposed to open it until our seventh year. We need to figure this out together as a group, whether you like it or not, Scorpius."

Albus watched Scorpius intently, wondering how he would respond to what Holly said. She was right; together as a group, they could work this out better instead of doing it separately, like they'd been doing for months now.

"Holly, you know I can't..." Scorpius started to say, but was interrupted.

"Scorpius Malfoy, you need to stop being afraid of being around Rose," Holly snapped. "It's not healthy for you two to be constantly worrying about bumping into each other. I get you two had a rough breakup, but it's time to stop avoiding each other. The four of us have a destiny to fulfill, and whatever we're supposed to do, it's not going to get accomplished with our group divided."