Chapter 32

Disappointingly, it was not to be. He assumed that his system will inform him when he found a dungeon, and the Slytherin one elicited no such response. Still, his disappointment was soothed slightly by a tiny little gremlin's presence.

"Harry!" His midget twin exclaimed, leaving her group of Slytherins to run over to him.

He barely managed to shove his book in Ron's hand before she threw herself at him, forcing him to catch her mid-air.

"You are light." Harry barely even felt her weight. "Why are you so light, little sister?"

"We're twins." She mumbled in his neck. "And I'm fine, thanks for asking."

Harry snorted, putting her down. "What could've possibly happened to you?"

She refused to let her feet touch the ground however, hanging onto him as if for dear life. Harry had to peel her away and force her on her legs, quite literally, before she finally stood straight, barely reaching his chin.

Emerald green eyes blinked up at him, glistening slightly as they asked for pity. On her slightly oval face, with a bit of baby fat still clinging, it looked exactly like a stray pup asking for sustenance.

Harry sighed, shaking his head. "Fine, come on. You're sitting with me today."

"Yay!" She cheered, before glancing back at the group of Slytherins, who were all staring at her in varying degrees of shock. "Can my friends come too?"

Shock disappeared behind uncertainty for Davis, while a cold calculating look came over Greengrass's face.

Neither could ever hope to be threats. "Sure, why not?"

Just then, Malfoy and his gang rounded the corner. One look at them and the blonde's feet halted in place, his face barely holding back a scowl as he stared at them with a composed vengeance.

Harry glanced at his twin.

"He tried to make trouble for me in the common room." She whispered in response. "So I hit him with a slug eating curse and he spent the whole day yesterday vomiting slugs in the hospital wing. He's a bit of a joke in Slytherin now."

Face still fixed in a look that promised retribution, he tried shoving past Harry to reach the room's entrance. But all he ended up doing was go sprawling to the ground by his own force, his two stooges looking confused.

The entire group of Gryffindors leapt up in thunderous laughter, and he could've sworn some of the Slytherins did so as well.

Harry frowned, shaking his head as the boy pushed himself to his feet, staring at him in rage. 'Children just never admit their own fault, do they?'

The boy composed himself quickly however, straightening his spine and walking again with his head held high as if unconcerned by the laughter. His wobbling lips gave away his mask however.

"Alright, Children, get in the class. Now." Lily's voice suddenly crept up behind them, snapping with a strictness he'd only ever heard in McGonagall.

Harry turned to see his mother dressed in dark robes, approaching them with a purposeful gait.

The severe expression on her face reminded him of a thunderstorm, threatening to break free anytime now. It must've done to the others as well because they scrambled through the door quickly.

That look dropped however, when Lily's eyes fell on Harry, and the severity melted away in a quickly growing smile that she did her best to control.

He gave Lily a nod, which while not a smile, still managed to sooth her sufficiently, before leading his group inside to one of the work benches.

"Divide yourselves in pairs." Lily commanded once they'd all settled down, her tone perfectly professional.

Harry quickly ditched Ron for his sister.

The boy shot him a betrayed look, and in a rare moment of silliness, Harry smirked at him with a shrug.

They all quickly paired up soon after: Ron with Andrea, Daphne with Tracy, and Neville with Hermione.

"You seem to be in a good mood." Rose commented.

"I am indeed."

Both of them quietened as Lily took the central space, a look of severe grimness on her face as she stared at the crowd of students. An expression he'd never observed on his mother before, and had doubted her capable of producing.

"Potions may not seem like it, but you will soon realize that it is one of the most dangerous types of Magic to study." She started, her tone matching her face in it's grimness. "Which is why I need you to understand what exactly you are getting yourself into."

She waved her hand and suddenly a sea of colours materialised in the air, mixing and combining to form a live image. The image was that of a man with massive boils on his face, all filled with purple and yellow pus. He was screaming out in agony as some unknown hands held him down.

The image was quite gruesome, and it's sudden appearance lend for high shock value, resulting in the kids going pale, some even looking close to retching.

"This was caused by a critical failure in creating an incredibly simple Boils-Cure potion. Something that you will be learning today. If you don't wish to be another victim of some unfortunate potions incident, then you must pay the utmost attention to each and every instruction that I give."

Her speech left the kids much more solemn than before. If caution was what she wanted, then Harry had no doubt that she'd just achieved her goal even better than McGonagall.

"Now, as I said earlier, for our first lesson we will be learning to create a potion that will cure any type of boil. Pay attention and you will have no reason for concern."

Lily was a very good teacher, and this was a completely unbiased opinion from Harry.

She described how to mix ingredients in details, even explaining some specific cases of failure and what might happen to them if they repeated it.

When it came to making the potion, Harry quickly divided the work between him and his sister. Though he was pleasantly surprised to note something amazing.

He had thought his level 36 cooking will be a useless skill now that he had a loving family to take care of his needs. Fortunately potion-making was so similar to cooking that he already had a massive advantage over other children. Add to that his almost superhuman dexterity and he had no doubt that the subject may be just as much a breeze for him as Occlumency or Transfiguration was.

The only vital difference between potions making and cooking was the addition of magic. Each time he made a clockwise or counter clockwise stir, the potion siphoned a bit of his magic, absorbing it as a sort of regent that helped to combine all these different magical ingredients together. And Harry took a particular note of that, memorizing the difference in magical absorbing in counter or clockwise stir. He had a feeling it was something important where this subject was concerned.

The only exciting thing to happen in those two periods was Neville somehow managing to melt down his and Hermione's Cauldron, even with Lily's numerous advice and warnings.

The boy was just too clumsy to operate with anything harmful.

Thankfully Lily seemed to be waiting for something like this to happen and quickly ran damage control, vanishing all the liquid with a swish of her wand.

The look she gave Neville was neither angry nor severe, and Neville was just beginning to relax slightly when Lily spoke. "Your mother tells me you are a dab hand in Herbology, Mr. Longbottom."

The boy straightened up.

"She also said you were quiet talented with handling and extracting ingredients." Lily continued. "Watching your work however, I am beginning to doubt that."

The boy flinched back slightly, his shoulders sagging as he stared down at his feet.

"You will present me with a ten inch paragraph on the similarities between Potions and Herbology, and what common skills are used in both of them. Then, you will note what you did wrong here, and which common skill could've prevented it. Understood?"

The boy nodded meekly.

At the end of the class, Lily collected all of their vials, though she had a message for him and Rose.

"Can you stay after class?" She whispered quietly.

"Sure!...ahh, Miss mum?" His sister asked, growing confused.

Lily smiled. "Just miss is fine, Rose."

She then turned to him, her smile growing a touch nervous.

Harry had no problem with staying back either. "I will be glad to."

The nervous smile turned to one of pure bliss.

With a nod he walked back to his desk, where his friends were cleaning their cauldrons and packing their stuff.

"You all may go ahead." He informed them. "I will be staying for a bit."

"Alright, mate." Ron nodded, shooting a nervous glance at Lily before he leaned closer. "But don't be late for dueling."

"That's after lunch, Ron." Andrea cut in. "We have a charm before that remember?"

Ron hushed her urgently as he whispered out, "Keep your voice down! Don't want to get dressed down like Longbottom, do you?"

He did not hear more of their argument as they walked out of the potions room. The class soon emptied after that, leaving only the Potters behind.

His midget twin ran towards Lily at once, jumping her the same way she did him. "Mum! I missed you so much!"

Lily laughed aloud, swinging the tiny girl around before she put her down. "I missed you too, Princess."

Harry approached her much more civilly.

"Hello...ah," He hesitated, before finally saying it. "...Mother."

It was the first time he'd said that to her, and it felt every bit as strange as he'd imagined it would.

Lily looked close to tears, the smile on her face wavering as if it couldn't decide what its owner wanted.

She settled on leaning towards him slowly, and he hesitated only a moment, glancing at her affection bar for reassurance, before letting himself be taken in her arms. "Thank you."

Harry took a deep breath, relaxing down while hesitatingly patting her shoulder.

She let off soon after, her smile now more stable.

"I'm so glad you two were able to settle in this quickly." She said, before turning to Rose with an arched brow. "But what's this I'm hearing about you cursing the Malfoy boy, Rose?"

"Oh, nothing mum." His twin waved it away. "He was just being a right berk in the common room. Threatening me and Harry. So I cursed him."

Lily stared at her for a few seconds before giving a very serious nod. "That's my girl. Never let anyone touch you or your family. But don't do that in front of any teachers alright? I won't be able to cover up for you every time."

She then turned to him then, the slight smile dropping off into a worried frown. "The portraits have been complaining about you roaming the halls at midnight, Harry. I get that the castle might be a little constraining compared to the free life you've led, and the headmistress understands this fully, but she has told me to warn you that there are some parts of the castle that are still a mystery to us and might prove to be harmful. So just..."

"Not roam the castle?" He asked, frowning.

"Of course not! In fact, I urge you to continue as long as you get sufficient sleep. But limit yourself to the last few floors please." She then began searching for something in her books. "And your safety is the priority. So I wanted to give this to you...Merlin, where did I keep it? Oh! There you go."

She removed a small piece of parchment, unfolding it several times to reveal it to be completely empty.

But if there was something he'd learned about magic, it was that taking anything at face value was bad for one's health.

"This," She began primly. "Is the marauders map."

Her announcement elicited a gasp from Rose. "The one dad and Uncle Siri always bragged about!?"

"The very same. I was shocked to recognize it in hands of the Weasley twins. Apparently they found it in Filch's room. Replicating this has not gone well for me. Even your father doesn't know how exactly they plotted the entire castle, some of which are directly charmed to be unplottable. I am pretty sure it was an accident. The most I could do was add some additional wards, and some minor charms. Well...I hope you use it carefully."

Harry took ahold of it, and Rose quickly came around to peak at his shoulder.

"Touch it in the middle with your wand and say, 'I Solemnly Swear That I'm Up To No Good'." Lily instructed. "And say 'Mischief Managed', to close it back."

Harry repeated the phrase, and suddenly black ink started spreading throughout the parchment, combining into lines that curved into squares and rectangles, indicating the rooms of Hogwarts. Together, they all formed a map that seemed to list every place of the castle that he'd visited, and a lot more that he hadn't.

Then came all the small dotted names of people spread around the map, with one name more bigger than the others; Harry Potter, who the map informed was currently standing with two other people in the potions room.

He took in a deep breath, realizing how truly helpful this thing could be if it is truly what he believed it to be.

"Is this...completely accurate?" He couldn't help but ask.

"A hundred percent, as far as I know." Lily confirmed.

There were seven secret passageways that led from Hogwarts to Hogsmeade, 6 secret doors that connected the multiple towers, 11 staircases that skipped entire floors and travelled to a single destination each time they moved, corridors that led to the outskirts of forbidden forest directly...

Everything that was hidden from the naked eye was plotted on the map. If the dungeons were in the castle, then his job has just become multiple times easier.

"Thank you." He breathed out, grateful and joyous.

"Hmmmm." Lily propped her face on her knuckles, a teasingly thoughtful expression on her face. "I appreciate your gratitude, but you know an even better thanks would be...oh I don't know, maybe a hug? Now, I'm not saying you should consider it of course. But perhaps you could?"

Harry frowned. "That made no sense."

Lily sighed. "You are purposely torturing me, aren't you? I was saying-"

"No, not that. Your last words made no sense."

"Well ignore them then." She whined out with a frown, "They aren't important. I was saying-"

Harry hugged her and she shut up.

It was spur of a moment thing, almost impulsive. Quite unlike Harry, though had he given it more thoughts, he was sure his hesitation would've most likely won.

He quickly disengaged, taking two steps back from the woman who seemed to stare at him in lightheaded shock.

"Did that happen or was I dreaming?" She asked Rose, who had her arms folded and staring at Harry with an angry pout. "This may just be my luckiest day ever."

"You never did that for me!" Rose pointed a finger a him accusingly. "I'm your twin!"

"You have never done anything useful for me." Harry answered calmly.

"Wha-!?" She exclaimed. "I let you use me for target practice!"

"And I taught you the slug spell." Harry maintained. "It was an equal exchange."

Rose sniffed with her face down, kicking an imaginary pebble sulkily.

Harry petted her head a couple of times and she was back to her normal self, beaming up at him.

"Silly child." He sighed.

"Now now, children, as entertaining it is to watch you two together, I think it is time for your lunch." Lily said, standing up. "One last thing Harry, were you searching for something specific?"

Harry nodded. "Secret rooms related to the four founders."

"Hmm...well, this is the sort of things your father would know. Write to him about it, I'm sure he will have some ideas. The only one I know is the chambers of secrets, an ancient legend that no one was able to prove existed. But there are records of it being opened."

The break was close to being over so he and Rose hurried out soon after that, though not before a firm promise to join Lily in the evening for some tea. This time Harry intended to keep his promise, even if he had to skip his planned sessions with Snape.

Soon however, his attention was fixed upon another class he was looking forward to; Dueling. This was a class he did not wish to miss. Not just to compare it with what he was learning from Snape but to also gouge out his future with the subject.

With Remus as the teacher, he held onto the hopes that he may just learn something new.

Who knows, perhaps Snape wasn't as good a teacher that he made himself out to be.

Harry cannot judge without experience.

Whatever the case however, he knew he was on the right track of progression.

Now if only he could find those damned dungeons...

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AN: Done.

So Harry now has the marauder's map, how will it change things? You will soon see. Maybe. No promises.

Also, his magical knowledge is growing quickly, though I haven't demonstrated anything concrete yet. You will soon see that as well, and this one I can promise.

I was suffering from a terrible lack of sleep when writing this chapter so let me know if Harry hugging Lily seemed too jarring or out of character. He was eventually going to become more stable towards a chosen few that are meant to be close to him (can't have any pairings without that happening first), but I don't know if I went a little too fast there.

Well that's about it. I also didn't have any beta this time, and like I said, was feeling incredibly awful when editing it (am still now but nothing a good night's sleep can't cure), so if there are any mistakes present, pls point them out and I'll correct em' quickly.

My discord: discord .gg/9wpfysDGsz to discuss fics and chill.

My Pat reon: www. Pat reon com/ Robs511 (No spaces and a dot before com) for anyone who wants to read upto the next three chaps of all my fics.

Till next time, stay safe and take care!

P.S: The next update (MGO) will be on 30th, while the next MS chapter will drop on 5th of next month.