“Where could he be?” Gina paced the boy’s room, worry etched all over her face. “We told him to be back in your room before we came home. He’s not outside, is he? Maybe he went for another ride? Oh, he better not have. He can’t be in the house anywhere, or can he? Maybe-”
“Gina, stop. You’re giving me a headache,” Blake sighed, sitting at the edge of his bed. “I’m pretty sure he’s not outside, but then again I don’t know where else he could be.”
“Could he be in the house somewhere?” Will offered. “Maybe he’s stuck in a room because he didn’t get back in time.”
“Yeah, that’s probably it,” Blake agreed. “Will and I can search the house while you distract Grandma.”
Gina sighed. “All right. Good luck.”
“You too,” the boys replied. Gina headed to the kitchen.
The boys started by looking in Gina’s room, then Harry and Ginny’s room, and even the bathroom, but they had no luck. They couldn’t check the kitchen because that was where Gina and Grandma were. No luck in the family room, either. Will sighed. “He’s not here.”
Blake’s eyes wandered to the door in the corner. A bronze key was in the lock. Blake muttered, “The den.” He pointed it out to Will, and they both headed toward it.
Blake put his ear to the door, but he couldn’t hear anything. “Harry?” he whispered. He opened the door.
Blake had only been in the den once. He was thirteen at the time, and his grandpa showed him his workplace after forgetting to lock it up one night. He had told Blake that he wasn’t allowed to come back without his approval. It looked the same as it did then, except for several papers on the desk. He turned to Will.
“It doesn’t look like he’s in here,” Will said.
“Let’s look around a bit more,” Blake said. “We might as well while we have the chance.”
Will rolled his eyes. “We don’t have time. We still have to find Harry, remember?” But his brother had already started toward the back of the den. Will followed. “Blake, we don’t have-“
“Look at this!” Blake reached into a large chest in the corner. He pulled out a silvery, flowing cloak. Will gaped at it.
“Grandpa has an Invisibility Cloak?”
“Looks like it.” Blake wrapped it around himself. He watched everything but his head disappear. “Wow. Why didn’t he tell us about it before?”
Will shrugged. “He probably uses it for Auror duties. What else is in there?”
Blake’s head looked into the chest. “There’s his old Quidditch robe in here. Two mirrors,” a hand materialized and picked up the two mirrors, “some Gryffindor scarves,” Blake laughed, “some very ugly socks, and an old folded piece of parchment.”
Will reached into the chest and pulled out the old parchment. He unfolded it, but it was blank. He wondered why his grandpa would save such old parchment. A bowl of light caught his eye, and he looked up.
“Blake, look. Grandpa’s got a Pensieve.”
Blake’s head floated over, which made Will feel queasy. “Would you take that cloak off please?”
Blake laughed and took off the cloak so that his body reappeared. He tossed the cloak onto the opened chest. He gazed into the Pensieve. He figured he was looking at the Forbidden Forest from the sky. It was a clearing, with a ring of low fire surrounding it, and two figures laying unconscious, with several other figures leaning over them.
“Do you think Harry’s in the Pensieve?” Blake asked.
“I think so,” Will answered. “Why else would there be a memory visible?”
“How are we supposed to get him out?” Blake squinted into the Pensieve, looking for Harry.
“Grandpa told me how to do it once,” Will said. “I should be able to get him out, if I can find him.”
“Ok, I’ll cover for you. Go get him.”
Will nodded, and leaned close to the Pensieve. His nose touched and he was flung into blackness. Then he was inside the clearing. Glowing embers were all that remained of the circle. Will couldn’t see one of the unconscious figures, but he did see Headmaster McGonagall, Ron, and Hermione leaning over…Harry. Will tensed up. What memory is this?
He looked around for Harry, and found him kneeling next to his unconscious self. Will cupped his hands to his mouth and yelled, “Harry!”
Harry looked up, saw Will, and jumped up and ran to him. “Will, what are you doing here?”
“Getting you out of here. Come on, grab my hand.”
Harry grabbed Will’s hand. Will focused on the present time, and he felt himself rising. He slowly somersaulted backwards, and landed firmly in the den.
“How long have I been in there?” Harry asked, looking shaken and pale.
“We’ve been home for fifteen minutes, so it must have been longer than that,” Blake said. “Ginny’s in the kitchen, but you can use this.” Blake held up the Invisibility Cloak.
Harry grinned when he recognized the cloak. “Where did you find that?”
“In this chest.” Blake pointed at the open chest.
“How could I have missed this?” Harry fingered his Quidditch robes. He saw the two mirrors and his face fell.
Will noticed. “Harry, do you know what this parchment is?” He showed Harry the folded piece of paper.
“The Marauder’s Map,” Harry answered. “It was made by my dad, and Sirius…” Harry’s throat tightened, and he pushed his godfather out o his mind. “Anyway, it’s a map of Hogwarts, and all its secret passageways. And it shows the location of teachers and other people inside of Hogwarts.”
Blake’s eyes widened. “Are you serious? Why didn’t you, I mean Grandpa, give it to us when we first went to Hogwarts?”
“Because he knows you too well,” Will said. He looked at the map with interest. “How does it work anyway?”
“Here, give it to me.” Harry grabbed the map, and then grabbed Blake’s wand. He tapped the page. “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”
A web of ink spread from the wand point, spreading to form the map of Hogwarts.
Blake whistled. “Wow. I should take this with me this year.” He smirked.
Will was about to protest, when a voice yelled outside the door, “Boys? Are you in there?”
Will stuffed the Marauder’s Map in his jean pocket and Harry quickly threw the Invisibility Cloak over himself before Ginny walked into the room.
“What are you two doing? You know you’re not supposed to be in here.” Her face was very stern, especially after seeing the open chest and piles of papers that still littered the floor.
Will squirmed. “Uh, well….”
“I was snooping around in here, and Will was telling me off,” Blake lied. Will stared at him, but Blake shook his head slightly.
Ginny sighed. “Blake, you need to stop wandering around where you’re not supposed to be. You’re just as bad as your father was. Now come on, both of you.”
Will and Blake walked slowly to the door, hoping Harry would take the hint and exit before them. Ginny closed and locked the door behind them, and went to hide the key.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gina paced her room, thinking frantically. They were in trouble now, she knew that much. How am I supposed to tell the boys? Her door creaked slightly, causing her to look up. Nobody was there that she could see. Then Harry suddenly appeared, making Gina jump.
“Harry! Where have you been? What took you so long? Where did you get the cloak?”
Harry sat down on the bed, laying the cloak next to him. “I found the cloak in the den.”
“You were in there this whole time?” Gina asked skeptically.
“Close to it. I lost track of time.”
Gina frowned. “Why didn’t you hear us come in?”
It was Harry’s turn to frown. “I was…caught up.”
Gina backed down. “Well, it’s a good thing you found that cloak, because you’re going to need it, especially now.”
“Why now?” Harry said.
Gina sighed. “Grandma, er, Ginny told me some good news, or so she thinks. On Thursday, Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione are coming to visit.”
“What?” Harry jumped off the bed. “When did you find this out?”
“While I was distracting Grandma,” Gina answered. “The worst part is I think they’re visiting because they think you’re sick. Oh Harry,” Gina moaned, “I don’t think we’ll be able to keep this a secret much longer.”
There was the sound of shattering glass from the kitchen. “Blake and Will must’ve found out,” Harry said.
Gina put her face in her hands. “They’re going to find out eventually, and either way we’re all going to be in major trouble. We really should tell them now.”
Harry agreed, but didn’t say it. “What about Blake?”
“Speak of the devil,” Gina said when Blake walked though the door.
Blake grimaced. “Ok, new plan.”
“I agree. It’s time to tell someone,” Gina said, looking into Blake’s blue eyes.
“No, we don’t need to tell Grandma.” Blake stopped as Gina started to argue. “Just listen for a second. We can tell somebody else, like Uncle Ron or Aunt Hermione. Maybe they could help us change Harry back without anyone else knowing. We don’t need to tell Ginny.”
“No!” Gina yelled. “We can’t keep this from Grandma. We shouldn’t have to begin with! And what makes you so sure Uncle Ron or Aunt Hermione won’t tell her, if they don’t go ballistic themselves?”
“It would still be better than telling Grandma,” Blake retorted. “I’m almost positive she still hasn’t forgotten what I did at Hogwarts last year.”
“Ok, she wasn’t happy about that midnight Hogsmede excursion,” Gina admitted, “but-“
“And then there was that one time in my fifth year with Denise.”
“You said yourself it was nothing more than a kiss, and it was only an hour after curfew…”
“What about the letter?”
“Yeah, that was bad.” Gina remembered the incident where Blake sent hate mail filled with essence of Dungbomb to the Malfoy’s, and he had gotten it. Unfortunately, the head of the family, Draco Malfoy, blamed Harry for the incident, and tried to use the letter to get Harry fired.
“Grandma thinks that I’m nothing but trouble. She just said it a few minutes ago.”
“Come on, she doesn’t think of you that way. She stands up for you all the time when people say that.”
Blake wasn’t convinced. “Only because that’s what family is supposed to do. It doesn’t mean she doesn’t agree with them. Even if she doesn’t think that, she will now. What else could she possibly think? I can hear it now.” Blake made his voice higher, to sound like Ginny. “Don’t worry, I forgive you, even though you performed amateur magic on the love of my life, turning him into an adolescent with serious amnesia, lied about it, and tried to cover it up. I still love you.”
“You’re being ridiculous!” Gina shouted.
“Am I?” Blake challenged.
Gina groaned. “Fine!” she yelled. “If that’s really what you want to think, then fine! We’ll talk to Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione when they come.” She wasn’t happy with herself for caving in that easily. She was very stubborn, and Blake was one of the very few who could win an argument with her.
Blake smiled. “Thanks. And now that we found the Invisibility Cloak, Harry can hide easier.”
The thought of hiding under his cloak didn’t sound appealing to Harry, and it showed on his face. “You don’t have to say under the cloak tomorrow,” Gina said. “We’re going to Diagon Alley tomorrow for my seventeenth birthday.”
“Oh yea, I forgot your birthday was tomorrow,” Blake said. “I can’t believe you hadn’t been talking about it. You must not be very excited.”
Gina glared at him in an amused way. It was a well known fact in their family that Gina couldn’t wait for her birthday; she hadn’t talked about anything else all summer. It surprised her that she didn’t mention it for two days.
Will walked into the room. “Grandma says to come to dinner.”
Gina and Blake left the room. Will stopped Harry. “Listen, I think I might be able to get you to come with us to Diagon Alley.”
“Really?” Harry had to admit to himself that seeing Diagon Alley fifty years into the future did sound fun.
“Don’t get your hopes up yet,” Will warned, “but I think this will work. I just need to sneak into the den tonight.”
“But the key was hidden in a different place, wasn’t it?”
“I saw Grandma go into her room with the key. You could find it while we’re at dinner.”
Harry nodded. “I’ll try. I’ll be in your room once I find it.” Harry looked down the hallway, and headed toward Ginny’s room. Will waited for a second before heading to the kitchen. I hope this works, he thought.