Harry paused, taking a deep breath before slipping open the door and sliding in. He left the door open so his godsister, or whatever archaic and formal relation Felicity was, could get in, but left his invisibility cloak on for now in case someone else happened to come along and decided to investigate the open door. He would whip it off when he was sure that it was the Hufflepuff that was joining him.

He wished she had beaten him here, though. First because he was ten minutes late thanks to getting held up leaving Gryffindor tower and she was generally on time or early from what he could tell so far. Second because he didn't want to spend anymore time debating whether this was a good idea or not. The plaque was Black family history, and Sirius had a very strong opinion on it. Besides, it wasn't the main reason he had asked her to meet him in the middle of the night again. They could have stared at old trophies anytime.

He heard movement by the door and looked up to see Felicity standing in the partial opening looking confused. He whipped off the cloak, as planned, to reveal himself in an emerald green pajama set and hoped it didn't give her a heart attack. "Tonight will be a night of surprises," he said mildly. "I guess you could consider that the first one. Glad you made it."

He moved over to stand in front of the plaque, making sure to leave room for her to see it. He wanted to see if she would pick up on the plaque as the reason they were there, or better yet pick up on the fact that it was a minor detail and there had to be a bigger reason they were there. He needed to figure out just how deep into the Black/Potter family secrets he was going to drag her, though the cloak was already a pretty big commitment. He probably needed someone to talk him out of this crazy plan entirely. None of that was going to happen on its own, however, so Harry was stuck in place, physically and mentally, until the Hufflepuff said something to break him out of his head.

It had been a long day and Felicity was exhausted, but she knew she had made plans with one Harry Potter for the evening and there was no way she would ditch him. Her tired eyes weren't quite as sharp as usual, however, and she'd very nearly been caught on her way to the trophy room by that damn caretaker's cat. To avoid a detention, Felicity found herself halfway across the school in the wrong direction and very much late for her meeting.

With a groan, the Hufflepuff opened the cracked door and peered about for Harry, regretting that she hadn't grabbed her robe. The flannel gown, while fine for the common room and her dorm, was proving a bit drafty out in the castle. She shiverred when the Gryffindor appeared out of nowhere and waved about a shimmery cloak. Could it really be that he had a cloak of invisibility?

After sputtering at him a bit, Felicity cleared her throat and mind and looked at the plaque he pointed out. Sure, it involved their ancestors, but they surely couple have noted that during normal hours of the day, right? She shot him a look and grumbled. "You had better have made me narrowly avoid detention with Filch for something more important than an old award we could have looked at earlier..." she growled at him, clearly tired. Normally the blonde would still have been sweet and caring even if she'd been caught, but tonight she was simply too tired to keep her bubbly mood.

With hands on her hips, the girl impatiently tapped her foot at her friend. He had better have a good reason for more sneaking around!

“Hm,” Harry said, shaking his head and trying to piece together what the Hufflepuff had said as he came back to the present. “Oh yeah.” Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea after all. Felicity seemed to be incredibly peeved to be meeting him at this hour again. The test thing before was fine, but maybe she wasn’t cut out to have this kind of excursion regularly like he did. Harry would have to take that into account going forward.

“The plaque is just an interesting little trinket that I was going to use as an excuse to get you here, since I dug up the version at home when I was staying with your dad a couple of summers ago and he had some things to say about it.” That was sure to make her feel bad about her anger and get this going in a better direction with them on happier and less grumpy terms. Anything Padfoot seemed to be a trump card that got the older girl into an infinitely more compliant mood. “But if you don’t want to hear about the plaque or what he had to say, I understand,” Harry said, attempting a sad and defeated smile.

He kept talking as well without giving her a real chance to butt in. This was a calculated risk, but Harry was fairly confident that she was as naturally trusting, at least with him, as he had been in general up until about June, so there should be no reason that this wouldn’t work. At least, that was what he told himself earlier when he was coming up with this plan.

“I guess I should just let you get back to bed and deal with all of this tomorrow when there are lots of people around to see and we can’t talk about anything private,” he said, giving a big fake yawn to show that he was tired as well and that this was a relief. He also gathered up his cloak, clearly preparing to slip it back on and disappear entirely from where she could reach him. “Or, I could skip ahead and show you something really cool.”

Felicity was taken aback by Harry’s reaction to her sour mood. It seemed like he felt so bad for upsetting her or whatever that he would completely scrap their little meeting, which was definitely not what the blonde Hufflepuff wanted. She frowned at him and opened her mouth to speak, only to be cut off by more words from the black-haired boy. He seemed determined to play on her guilt, and it was almost working until he cut her off a third time.

Finally, she placed her hands on her hips and glared fully at the boy. ”Hush!” she barked, unknowingly sounding a lot like her father. ”I’m not going anywhere, so you can stop with the sob story about how you’ll just head back to your tower and sulk. Now tell me about my dad and show me all your fancy stuff before I kick your butt!”

Obviously, she was using her anger at the caretaker and that damned cat to her advantage, but she really wasn’t too concerned with it. Harry deserved it a bit after trying to guilt her so badly. It wasn’t very nice, really. ”You should know something about me, Harry,” she said slowly, licking her lips and looking at him with heated eyes. ”I don’t do anything I don’t want to. So if I didn’t want to be here, I wouldn’t be.”

Resisting the urge to pounce on the boy, Felicity instead studied the words on the plaque, trying to figure out its significance. Hopefully Harry would hurry up with his story, since she had no idea what was so damned special about it. She also wandered what else he had planned for them tonight. It seemed promising, based on the eager gleam in his eye though…[/color]

There, for the first time that he remembered, Harry saw a flash of her father in Felicity. Rather than making him sad like he thought it would, it brought a nostalgic smile to his face. He wasn’t sure if it was the bark like shushing, the happy threats, the independent sense of adventure, or some combination of those, but Harry was sure of one thing. If the Hufflepuff could really make him smile about his godfather again, he would have to keep her around.

“Calm down, calm down,” he said with a smile. “Take a look at this.” With that he pulled out the Marauder’s Map and spoke the incantation to make it active. “So, this is the intended use of this piece of parchment,” he said, indicating the map. “What you saw the other night is just an added bonus that Professor Lupin showed me one night.” He took a step back to let her study it for a moment before he finished explaining.

“It shows every hallway in the castle, every secret passage in and out, every single inch of the grounds, even those that Dumbledore himself doesn’t know about. It also shows every single person in the castle, even if they are somehow invisible. It is quite literally the most magical item I have ever seen. Our dads and Professor Lupin invented it while they were still in school. Mostly Professor Lupin, I think. He always seemed like the brains of the operation to me.”

He stopped, letting the information sink in before he continued. “Oh, and one other thing that I need an answer to before we can continue in any fashion. When I am in my invisibility cloak, I show up on the map. I checked. When Dumbledore is being creepily invisible he shows up, I checked. I have had this map for almost three years now, and only one time did someone not show up. The night we met in the library you weren’t on it. What did you do to trick something that Dumbledore can’t trick?”

Felicity felt herself calming down as Harry revealed the true nature of the map he’d let her use to talk to their dads. It was amazing! Every single detail of the castle was right there before them. Little dots danced across the pages with familiar names scrawled below them. ”So, wait. You mean this is really Dumbledore in his office? And that’s really Filch patrolling the halls? Looks like he’s about to catch whoever that set of footprints is…” The name wasn’t familiar to her, so she wasn’t sure which unfortunate student was going to be caught out of bed. This was incredible though!

Her eyes flashed to the Trophy Room and focused on the two dots that were very close to each other. Their names made her grin, but Harry’s words had that grin fading quickly. Everyone showed up on the map. Always. So how had she managed not to? There was only one answer to that, and she wasn’t so sure she liked the implications of it.

[color=#FFFF99]”My mum. Um… Harry,”[/i] she said softly, looking into those emerald eyes with slight concern in her own. How close had her mum and Sirius been anyway? She’d thought they were just fooling around together or something. Obviously her mum loved him, but… why wouldn’t she have told him if he cared enough about her to teach her about something so special as this magical map? ”It’s a spell my mum told me to use. I thought it just enhanced my disillusionment charm or something… She said it would protect me from being spotted out of bed.”

She wanted to ask the Gryffindor what he thought of this revelation, but it seemed her tongue had stopped working momentarily. All she could do was wait for her brain to calm down as thoughts raced. What if her mum hadn’t been so bull headed? Would she have had a dad in her life when she was younger? Would he have escaped the terrible fate he’d been subjected to? Maybe he could have avoided Azkaban… Or maybe he would have been weaker when he did go there and wouldn’t have survived. The what ifs weren’t going to help anyone, so she shook her head and focused on the here and now and Harry.

”If it fools the map, do you think it would fool the Headmaster?”

The crazy passion in Harry’s eyes faded a little as the girl watched the map with the kind of awe that he remembered from the first few weeks he had it, when it was the coolest thing he had ever seen in his life and not just another tool in his arsenal of rule breaking and world saving. The rest of the crazy and whatever fond nostalgia shared space with it disappeared in an instant, replaced by stunned confusion.

Harry wasn’t sure exactly what he had expected to explain the Hufflepuff’s temporary disappearance from the map, but it certainly wasn’t this. Fred and George had told him the map was foolproof. Then again, as far as they knew, it probably was. For all he knew, Felicity was the first person since her mother to use the spell. Then again, Lupin had essentially treated the map as infallible as well. Surely if there was a spell that could leave him in danger when relying on the map, the professor would have warned him. That meant that Lupin had no idea about the spell. Which could only mean one thing…

He was broken from his reverie when Felicity jumped the train straight off topic and to crazy land. Apparently she still thought that finding a way to steal or use the Headmaster’s pensive could be considered a good idea in some universe. “Honestly, I have no idea how the spell works or what it does,” he said, trying to temper her expectations, “but even if it made you somehow not exist while under it, I’m not sure we could ever sneak into Dumbledore’s office without him knowing about it before the door even opened.”

Apparently he had been a little bit too harsh, because the older girl suddenly looked like he had kicked a puppy or something. “I’ll tell you what. We really don’t know anything about the spell at all. Why don’t we go see your mom on the next Hogsmeade visit, and while we’re there we can see if she knows anything about how it works or if she was left as much in the dark as she left you.”

There, that should at least buy Harry a little bit of time. Not that he was sure what he was going to do with it. Felicity didn’t seem capable of letting anything go that he really wanted her to, and he certainly wasn’t breaking into the Headmaster’s study for any reason short of the world ending in fiery death if he didn’t. Maybe a different plan would come to him in the intervening time, though.

Even though she was disappointed to hear Harry’s reluctance to try to get to the pensieve in the Headmaster’s office, Felicity was excited at the prospect of going to see her mum next Hogsmeade weekend. She knew that the spell excited her friend, and that her mum would be ridiculously happy to meet Harry. It would be a wonderful trip home, as long as Harry wasn’t too put off by their meager dwelling.

”Okay, Harry. That sounds good,” she said softly, considering whether or not she had anything else important to talk to him about. It was getting late and they were probably pressing their luck still being out of bed.

A thought came to her just before she started saying they should part for the night. She bit her lip and looked at him with hope shining in her eyes. ”Say Harry, you’ve heard about the costume ball, right? Well, I was hoping maybe… if you don’t have a date planned yet… well,” she peered into his eyes and a blush flushed her cheeks. ”Harry, would you like to go with me?”

Harry had, in fact, not heard a word about the costume ball before this. He tried to listen to the gossip more this year, but if it was immediately apparent that it had nothing to do with one of his friends, the Headmaster, or the general Death Eater organization he pretty much blocked whatever it was out and moved on about his day.

“Costume ball?” he asked warily, trying not to let his sudden fear show in his eyes. The last time there had been a ball he had been forced to attend and dance. It had ended with Parvati and Lavender not speaking to him for a week because he ignored the one he went to be ball with. It also included an entire night of Ron and Hermione fighting, plus the realization that his first ever mentor was a half-giant, which was apparently bad, because it meant he had a genetic leaning towards ripping off people’s arms if they made him angry, which probably explained why Hagrid loved raising monsters so much.

Shaking himself back to the present, Harry looked at the Hufflepuff apologetically. “Look, balls are really, really not my thing, Felicity. You want basically anyone else in the castle there with you.” The girl immediately looked hurt by his words, and Harry decided he needed to at least try to make it better. “There is almost no way I’m going to a ball of my own free will, but if you don’t find anyone else to take you come find me before the thing and I’ll see what I can do.” He offered the older girl a small smile, hoping that would make her happy and hoping even more that she would find someone else and he wouldn’t have to deal with it.

“Here watch this,” he said, trying for one more thing to cheer her up. He glanced at the Map one last time to make sure they were clear for now, since he wouldn’t be able to reactivate it until he was clear of the Hufflepuff now, then tapped it with his wand and said the words to wipe it blank. “Pretty cool, right?” he asked with a grin. As he slipped the map into his pocket he caught sight of his watch. It was later than it should be.

“Okay, that’s enough for one night,” he said. “We’ll do this again soon, though, alright Felicity?” That said, he turned towards the door to go.

She felt her heart drop as soon as Harry said the words ‘costume ball’. It was obvious he hated the idea of it even happening, let alone his going with her. It was instinctive for the poor Hufflepuff to want to bury her head in the floor somewhere and suffocate on the stone. Her cheeks were flushed pink with embarrassment and she tried to get it to go away as he obviously noticed and was trying to make her feel better. This was horrible. Why had she said anything?

”Of course, Harry, I mean, you hated that Yule Ball,” she murmured, already walking toward the door. ”I don’t know why I thought you’d enjoy dancing in costumes. It’ll probably be stupid anyway. Don’t worry. I-I’ll find someone else to go with if I really w-want to go.” Her voice was cracking and she took a shaky breath, willing herself to calm down. Now was so not the time for a breakdown.

She watched him clear the map and smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. It was a pretty neat trick, but she was too distracted by her raging emotions. All she wanted to do in that moment was run to her dorms and smother herself with her own pillow. Of course he wasn’t interested in her! He probably thought of her like a bloody sister! He had thought of her dad as a dad too, after all.

When Harry turned to go she let out a sigh of relief and actually sped past him, looking back to nod her head, willing the tears not to fall while he could see them in the moonlight. ”Yeah, H-harry, of course!” she said, squeaking a bit at the ‘course’ but not bothering to try and fix it. She turned her head quickly and literally ran away from the boy, a sob escaping and echoing in the corridor as she flew along it. The Hufflepuff could only hope Harry hadn’t heard it. Merlin, she’d just made things awkward.