Chapter 119: Marauder's Map

"Don't you think this is just an ordinary old piece of parchment." George said. "Just do this."

He tapped his wand lightly on the parchment and said: "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

After a while, faint ink lines began to spread like a spider web. They crossed each other, crisscrossing every corner of the parchment: then a row of large letters lined up at the very top, and the curved green text bloomed like flowers, declaring:

Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs

Gentlemen who provide help for magical mischief makers

Proudly present

The Marauder's Map

"How is it?" George said proudly. "This map shows all the details of Hogwarts, including the castle and all secret passages."

"But the truly rare place is that it records the movements of everyone." Fred pointed at the map and said, "Look, Professor Dumbledore is pacing in the Headmaster's office. Mrs. Norris is sneaking to the second floor to forage. Peeves is jumping around in the trophy room..."

Harry didn't take in a single word of these, his whole mind was placed on the names of the four founders. Kalan's words floated in his mind once again.

"Prongs James, Padfoot Sirius, Moony Remus, and Wormtail Peter."

This was something left behind by his own father and his good friends from school days.

"Thank you, George, Fred." Harry tried to calm his excited mood. "This is of great significance to me."

"Of course, but if you want to hide it." Fred didn't seem to notice Harry's strangeness and explained to himself: "Mischief managed!"

Following this small spell, the ink lines on the Marauder's Map disappeared, leaving only that tattered piece of parchment.

"Well then, young Harry," George pretended to be the grotesque appearance of Percy and said: "Behave yourself."

The twins were very satisfied with their actions and left the room with a smile.

Harry held this map tightly in his arms. He could fully imagine how high-spirited his father was when he was in school, and how many whimsical ideas he had practiced with his friends. The faces he saw in the mirror and the afterlife world floated before his eyes again, as if James were holding his hand and taking him to tour this ancient castle, not forgetting to tease and giggle at him.

But there was always one thing lingering in his heart, and that was Sirius's betrayal. Harry sighed. If there was an opportunity, or if there was a plan, he would definitely not let that traitor go.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." Harry recited the map's spell softly, browsing this magical map.

Soon, he discovered a problem: he couldn't find Professor Lupin on it.

Today wasn't a full moon, but whether it was the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher's office or classroom, other teachers' offices, or even the student dormitories, he couldn't find the name Remus Lupin.

Perhaps the map couldn't track the four founders, Harry thought secretly. They always had to leave some backdoors, in case the map fell into someone else's hands.

But if that were the case, it also meant he couldn't use the Marauder's Map to catch Sirius.

Harry put the map away gently and returned to the common room. He knew it was time to start drawing Torchwood's own map.

For a long time after that, Harry put his main energy into the Marauder's Map, striving to study the spells and principles it used.

This made Ron feel very dissatisfied, and he sharply commented on it as "the bookworm phenomenon has appeared human-to-human transmission." Harry was satirized by him several times and had to use his private stash of Honeydukes to apologize to him, which barely got the matter over with.

Finally, through Harry's unremitting research and several discussions by Torchwood, they determined what method their map should adopt.

The Marauder's Map made by the older generation, Harry was certain it was a very powerful "Homonculous Charm." This spell could display the positions of everyone within the map's range, and it could identify Animagi, Polyjuice Potion, and various invisibility means.

But there were many places where the Homonculous Charm could be improved, such as being unable to identify people with the same name (in England, father and son having the same name is very common), and once someone left the map, the names on it would disappear.

Aiming at this point, the Torchwood children believed that a 3D map could perfectly solve these problems, binding the Homonculous Charm with Transfiguration, changing ink dots into miniature human figures. And those who had disguised themselves, after discussion, were considered to still show their original appearance, but with a phantom image of the disguise effect added above their heads as an indication. For those who had left the school, the character model would stay at the exit they passed when they left.

At the same time, Lu Na also completely sorted out the movement patterns of every staircase, and Trig also found almost all the secret passages. Harry also told him about the passages on the Marauder's Map as a supplement. At the same time, because the original Marauder's Map didn't contain the Chamber of Secrets, everyone discussed and decided to add this small room that had troubled them for a whole year last year into the new version of the map.

When all the preparatory work was ready, the next step was to overcome the spell problem. Actually, the children present weren't very proficient in spells, and some ideas were difficult to realize.

However, Torchwood wasn't entirely composed of young students. Harry let Hedwig take a letter back to Downton and retrieved Tang Mu Riddle's diary. Under the gaze of everyone, Tang Mu generously contributed many practical magical tips.

"I suggest putting Tang Mu's diary in the headquarters for public exhibition." Trig said. "Everyone can ask him questions at any time, using him as Torchwood's think tank."

Regarding this, Tang Mu didn't express opposition, so the children sealed him into a glass exhibition cabinet, cast a spell together to lock the cabinet, and placed a Quick-Quotes Quill on it, so that anyone could ask him questions at any time, but at the same time, no one could secretly take the diary away.

In order to supplement the original Homonculous Charm, Harry, with the convenience of the Invisibility Cloak, cast associated Tracking Charms in multiple places at Hogwarts, which could generate more realistic miniature people based on real-time images, or confirm whether they had disguised themselves.

Originally, Trig also suggested adding a recording and storage function, but it was rejected by Jin Ni once. And when the whole map was nearing completion, they discovered that this idea was quite difficult to realize.

Currently, the Torchwood version of the Marauder's Map was just based on the basic architecture of the older generation's Marauder's Map, drawing the appearance more exquisitely and patching it up. To realize more functions, with their spell level, even with Tang Mu's assistance, they still couldn't do it.

Before Christmas arrived, they used the free time brought by the holiday to complete all the work with high enthusiasm. However, just after all the arrangements were completed, a trace of strange emotion couldn't help but well up in the hearts of everyone present. Harry accurately summarized this emotion as "wearing silk in the dark."

"I think we'd better invite some people to visit." Trig said excitedly. "If possible, I really want to let Mother come and take a look."

"Hmm, I originally planned to invite those classmates in the Forbidden Forest last term." Harry hesitated. "But if that were the case, Torchwood's confidentiality would be challenged."

"So, your mother happens to be the best choice." Malfoy said with a smile. "She won't talk around, and we are also very happy to let her see the great achievements Torchwood has made."

On the day before Christmas Eve, Harry, with Jin Ni and Ivy, waited early in the corridor on the fourth floor; their newly built headquarters was hidden somewhere on the fourth floor.

Not long after, Pansy and Lu Na also came, followed by Malfoy who was lecturing Crabbe.

Finally, Trig led a tall girl up the stairs. Mrs. Fontroy had dyed her hair blonde and specially wore a Slytherin school uniform. She looked radiant, like a seventh-year senior.

"Cassandra." Malfoy called the fake name that was wrong but ended up right with great solemnity, "Welcome to visit Torchwood's headquarters."

In front of a bare wall, he raised his wand lightly and recited: "For you, I have returned."

Then, the wall became unreal; it revealed a kind of illusory mist, Malfoy tapped lightly with the wand tip, and a doorway appeared on the wall.

Walking into the doorway, it was a comfortable large living room, beautiful fabric sofas sat on thick wool carpets, tea cups and fruit plates were placed on the long coffee table in an orderly manner, and there was also a huge snack rack.

In one corner of the living room stood a miniature model of Hogwarts Castle. This time, Malfoy gave the opportunity for demonstration to Trig.

He raised his wand in front of the sand table and said loudly: "For Hogwarts!"

One after another, little people appeared around the castle one after another; they were exactly the miniature models of everyone present. Little Harry with glasses pointed his wand at the sky first, red-haired Jin Ni followed closely, the tips of their wands released a nearly transparent light beam, and finally, little Malfoy's light beam converged into it, and a ripple shaped like a protective shield slowly descended.

"Now, we can use this sand table to view any corner of the castle, from any angle, hiding any wall." Trig waved his wand, and half of the castle was hidden, revealing a cross-section.

Bustling little people were moving inside; they could see house-elves preparing food in the kitchen, children laughing and playing in the common room, professors some were nervously preparing lessons (like Lupin), and some were sleeping soundly (like Haipu).

"That's great, children." Mrs. Fontroy said with surprise, "You are truly amazing."

"Let's take you to see the conference room." Trig said, tapping his wand again, whispering: "No one can run forever."

The protective shield rose again, and the sand table turned back into that untouchable model. ===== CHAPTER 120 =====