章 119: A Dark Tide Rising
Paris, June 7th…
"Harry, you need to wake up," Sirius said, roughly shaking him awake.
Slowly, Harry opened one of his eyes and fought the urge to hit his godfather. "Go away," he muttered, closing his eyes and pulling the sheets over his head.
With a sigh, Sirius said, "No, we need to go Harry, please get up."
After the Quidditch match had ended, Sirius had immediately taken Harry back to their tent to celebrate Bulgaria's victory. His godfather spent most the night praising Viktor's talent while mercilessly demanding details about his godson's girlfriend. All the while regaling Harry with stories about his numerous girlfriends at Hogwarts. At some point, Sirius had pulled out a large bottle of Ogden's finest Firewhiskey, and began pouring shots.
From that point on, the night was mostly a blur for Harry. He vaguely remembered Viktor stopping by their tent to personally sign a jersey for Nymphadora, and Sirius all but demanded that the Quidditch super-star stay for a drink, but everything else was... gone.
Just thinking about the burning liquid made Harry's stomach turn, and he pressed a pillow over his head to further block out the light in the room. Feeling more sick than he had in his entire life, Harry heard Sirius again tell him to get out of bed. In that instant, Harry decided he hated Sirius. He couldn't remember half the night, but he felt like he had just gotten to bed an hour ago. His entire body felt tired and his head was pounding.
Losing patience with his godson, Sirius vanished the pillows and sheets before dropping some clothes onto his godson's bed. "Get dressed Harry. Our Portkey leaves in ten minutes."
"Ten minutes," Harry groaned as he opened one of his eyes and slowly got out of bed to put on his clothes. When he was fully dressed, Harry casually sent a pack spell at his trunk before leaving his room. He found his godfather quickly walking about their magically expanded tent, casting spells to pack various items and pieces of clothing.
"All set Harry?" Sirius asked the moment he saw his godson enter the room.
"No, it's too early," Harry said bitterly, "and I thought we were going to stay in Paris for breakfast?"
"First of all, it's half past eleven Harry," Sirius commented distractedly as he quickly went about summoning various items and sending them into his open trunk, "and your mum and dad called this morning. They want us to head back, so we'll grab some food back in England."
"Why?" Harry asked tiredly. "They seemed fine with us coming back a day late when we left."
"Things change, Harry," Sirius said evasively. "Are you ready to get going?"
"I guess. I was hoping to see some of Paris though," Harry said, his head aching with every step he took.
"Sorry Harry. I promise to take you another time," Sirius said as he reached into his pocket to remove the small dish towel Portkey that they had taken to France. Together, the two walked outside and Harry watched his uncle casually shrink the magically expanded tent until it was pocket sized. Extending the Portkey to Harry, Sirius said, "Don't worry, everything is going to be okay."
The odd comment caused Harry to look at his godfather in confusion, and, for the first time, he realized just how ragged Sirius really appeared. His godfather looked like he had aged an entire year in a night. He had bags under his eyes, and a haunted look on his face. Abruptly, Harry realized that something was wrong, but before he could ask, Sirius said, "Lemon Sorbet," activating the Portkey.
Harry had taken international Portkeys before. He had even traveled much further distances than from Paris to Godric's Hollow; however, he had never taken a Portkey after drinking. The sudden jerk of the Portkey activation combined with the spinning was simply horrible. The moment the Portkey landed, ending the nauseating trip, Harry fell to the floor of his living room, his entire body shaking.
"Harry!" Lily shouted in horror, seeing her son collapse. Fearing the worst, she raced over to him only to stop when Harry suddenly leaned over and emptied the contents of his stomach all over the living room floor.
Extremely lightheaded but feeling significantly better, Harry wiped his mouth on the sleeve of his robe before hesitantly standing up. Turning around, Harry saw both his parents and professor Dumbledore were standing not a few feet from him. He was about to say something when he suddenly felt his stomach twist in an uncomfortable fashion. Bringing his hand to his mouth, Harry took two steps towards the bathroom before a conjured bowl appeared directly in front of him. Without hesitating, Harry vomited in the bowl and sagged to his knees in relief.
His relief was short-lived when he looked up and saw his mother staring at him. She took one look at his appearance before angrily saying, "James, go get a hangover cure for Harry."
"Could you get two mate?" Sirius asked hopefully, leaning precariously against the door.
"No he cannot," Lily snapped, turning to glare at Sirius.
"Lily," Dumbledore interjected, "I believe we will want everyone at their best for this discussion."
"Fine," she said before turning to Sirius, a look of rage on her face, "but we will talk about this later Sirius Black."
Nodding his head in acceptance, Sirius took a seat on the couch and a moment later James returned with two yellow potions. Harry brought the potion to his lips and immediately swallowed it in one gulp. The potion seemed to immediately hit his stomach, and Harry began to feel incredibly light headed. Shaking his head a few times, the feeling eventually passed, and he realized that his head no longer felt like he had been trampled by a herd of Hippogriffs.
"Um, thank you," Harry said sheepishly.
"Harry, why don't you take a seat," Dumbledore said, conjuring a very comfortable straight back chair with his wand.
Remembering Sirius' cryptic statement of everything being alright, Harry nervously took a seat. He looked at his parents in confusion, noticing that, like Sirius, they had bags under their eyes and appeared very tired.
"Harry," James said in a strained voice, "last night your brother and Ron were out late playing on the Quidditch pitch... Peter was there."
Harry felt his heart stop and, for a moment, he forgot to breathe as he envisioned his brother being cursed off his broom by a murderous madman. Instinctively, he reached into his robes and drew out his wand, which emitted a few purple sparks. A thousand horrible scenarios were racing across his mind. If anything happened to his brother, he'd kill Pettegrew.
Shaking his head, Harry cleared his mind and did his best to calm down. He never noticed Dumbledore's look at him in concern before he too began utilizing Occlumency.
"We were very lucky, Harry. Peter didn't have a wand, so he was stuck waiting for Nathan and Ron to land. Fortunately, your uncle Remus had literally just stumbled into Fred and George Weasley planning a prank." James hesitated before bitterly saying. "They were using the Marauders' Map."
"What's the Marauders' map?" Harry asked, looking at his father in confusion.
"It was a map of the castle that we created when we were in school," Sirius said, beginning to look just as depressed as his best friend. "It shows everything and everyone inside of Hogwarts, and the immediate grounds. It doesn't matter if the person is invisible, disguised... or transformed. The map tells exactly who and where you are at all times."
Harry looked between his father and godfather in utter astonishment. Shaking his head in denial, Harry wanted to scream that they were lying. That if such a map existed, and his family knew about it, they would surely have used it. It would be idiotic, asinine even, not to use such an advantage. As Harry continued to stare at the seemingly broken visage of his father and godfather, horrid realization began to creep into his mind.
They were serious.
"Why?" Harry asked with dawning horror. "Why didn't you tell anyone about it? Why didn't you use it before?"
"We thought it was destroyed," James said somberly. "Filch confiscated it from us during our seventh year. He was fairly new at Hogwarts back then, and he had a reputation for just outright destroying banned items."
"But you could have made another one," Harry protested. "We could hav–"
Sirius shook his head. "No, Harry. It's not that simple. The map, it was an accident. I was just messing around with a piece of parchment, trying to get it to swear at people using our nicknames. Remus was practicing the Protean Charm next to me, and your father thought he was working too hard. He jokingly hit Peter," Sirius' expression darkened at the traitor's name, "with a tripping jinx who crashed into Remus. Remus ended up sending his spell right at the parchment I was enchanting, and the two spells somehow ended up creating the map."
"We tried to duplicate the effect over the years," James said. "We could never get it to work."
Reaching over, Lily took her husband's hand and gave it a squeeze. "When your father first showed the map to me, Harry, I thought it was brilliant. I tried creating a similar one, but it didn't work. The map was a completely unique magical artifact."
Harry couldn't believe it. Turning to Professor Dumbledore, Harry said, "Sir, surely you could manage to make one, right?"
Dumbledore nodded. "I believe I have an idea what happened, Harry, and I might, given my position as Headmaster, be able to create a similar map of Hogwarts. Unfortunately, I was not aware that such a thing was possible, and in the years that have passed since the map was confiscated and thought destroyed, I dare say your family forgot about it."
"How do you forget about a one of a kind magical artifact?" Harry demanded.
"Harry," Dumbledore said sharply, his icy blue eyes radiating a calmness and power that Harry had rarely seen from his grandfather. "I assure you that I discussed at length the error your father and his friends made by not informing me about the map. They are all painfully aware of what their actions have cost us, you need not increase their burden anymore than it already is."
Realizing that Dumbledore was right, Harry nodded his head. Muttering a quick apology to his parents and Sirius, Harry asked, "Did you catch Peter? Now that you have the map?"
"Unfortunately, we did not," Dumbledore said. "As soon as your uncle saw Peter's name, he immediately went out to warn your brother and Ron. They flew inside, and Remus was able to use the map to track Peter throughout the grounds. By the time Remus was able to force Peter out of his animagus form, they had cleared the anti-disapparation wards and Peter escaped."
"But what about Peter?" Harry asked. "Is there a plan to catch him using the map?"
"Peter saw the map, Harry," James said, his tone regretful. "He told Remus that one day we wouldn't see him coming on it."
"Fortunately, now that he is aware of the map, I doubt very much that Peter will make an attempt on Nathan's life at Hogwarts," Dumbledore said strongly. "I have managed to charm the map to immediately alert me if it detects Peter's presence, and it appears that he has left the immediate area. Rest assured that I will remain vigilant, and I will do everything I can to catch him."
"Thank you, sir." Harry said, feeling emotionally drained.
"Harry," Lily said softly. "Why don't you go get some sleep. You look exhausted."
Not willing to argue, Harry hugged each of his family members before excusing himself to go to bed. As he climbed up the stairs, he couldn't help thinking about how Nathan was still in trouble. While they could see Peter coming to Hogwarts now, that didn't mean his brother was completely safe.
Reaching his bedroom, Harry pushed the door open and stepped inside, a look of determination on his face. If Peter tried attacking his brother here at home or at platform 9 ¾, Harry would show him just how much he improved as a duelist this year.
Summoning the spell list Professor Rosier had given him at the end of the year, Harry took out a quill and began marking the spells that he needed to practice sooner rather than later.
週次パワーステータス
-- 推薦
ランキング 
-- 推薦
チケット