Alistair Rerick climbed the stone steps, entered the common room, greeted Civet who was sitting in the corner, and returned to his dormitory.
He patted the storage pouch inside his robes. It was a magical bag that could hold items ten times its external size, yet it looked no larger than the palm of a hand. Alistair fished out a bag of potato chips, sat down on the carpet, and began to crunch away. He missed snacks so much; the food in the magical world had made him almost forget the taste of normal food—even though he hadn't been much of a snacker before coming here.
Looking at the snacks Cali had prepared for him, he roughly estimated they would last two or three weeks. After falling silent for a moment, Alistair decided to send some snacks to poor, abused baby Harry. He could guarantee that Harry's life before eleven was definitely not pleasant—he probably went hungry one meal and full the next—so he ought to provide some relief to the Savior.
Alistair pulled out another small pouch, which was also enchanted. He emptied its contents and divided the snacks in half, quickly filling the bag with potato chips, bread, chocolate, and candy.
Thinking further, Alistair fished out the snack bag from his bedside table—which was filled with magical sweets like Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans given to him by the Weasley twins, Chocolate Frogs, cauldron cakes, and licorice wands. Alistair placed a whole box of Every Flavor Beans into the magical bag destined for Harry. In truth, he had no desire to try those himself, especially after hearing about earwax and vomit flavors; the mere thought was repulsive. He also grabbed two Chocolate Frogs and two packaged cauldron cakes and stuffed them into the storage pouch.
He began to write a brief letter to Harry:
Dear Harry,
Hello, Harry. I am your senior student. I suppose you must be wondering why your parents are not by your side, but it is difficult for me to explain this clearly to you.
I am sure you have experienced many incredible things, and those stem from your magic. I can only tell you that they were wizards, and you are one, too.
Do not be in a rush to know everything; you will get the answers you want when you turn eleven.
There is a magical bag attached to the owl carrying this. It is a gift for you, filled with various snacks.
P.S.: Be careful when opening the Chocolate Frog; it escapes very easily. Also, the Every Flavor Beans might taste quite unpleasant, such as earwax or vomit.
Your Senior, R.
I hope you can learn more about the magical world before term starts. You should read this book carefully. Furthermore, given your current situation, I suggest you hide them when not in use.
To: Harry Potter, Cupboard under the stairs, Number 4, Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey.
Alistair wrapped up an additional book—*A History of Magic*. This was the book he had asked his family to send over a few days ago. Although he hadn't finished reading it yet, there were several more copies in the library, so he could always read it there.
Alistair stroked Lakley, the well-behaved owl he had bought just before the term started. They were still somewhat unfamiliar with each other.
"I'll give you a bite to eat first. Could you keep it quiet once we reach the destination?" Alistair grabbed a handful of owl treats and held them near Lakley's beak, letting the bird peck at them gently. "You mustn't get caught."
Once Lakley finished the treats in Alistair's hand, Alistair stroked the owl's head. "All right, off you go. Be careful."
Alistair tied the book and the snack bag to Lakley's leg, while the bird still held a letter firmly in its beak.
After sending Lakley off, Alistair stretched, put away the remaining snacks, and opened his wardrobe to get ready for a comfortable bath.
As he was rummaging through his clothes, a tattered piece of parchment fell from his garments onto the floor. Suddenly, Alistair remembered the thing he had completely forgotten about—the Marauder's Map!
Good heavens! He had been too exhausted when he got back that time, so he had simply tossed his clothes and the parchment aside. Fortunately, the house-elf had brought it along when washing the clothes. House-elves took care of many things at Hogwarts, such as providing food for students and teachers, washing students' clothes, and tidying rooms.
Alistair spread the parchment flat on his bed.
The Weasley twins had offended Filch again recently and were dragged off to detention tonight. Lee Jordan's whereabouts were unknown, and Civet was studying in the common room downstairs. Right now, Alistair was the only one in the five-person dormitory!
Suppressing his racing heartbeat, Alistair sat cross-legged on the bed.
He tapped the parchment with his wand and recited, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good!"
The parchment did not react at all. Unyielding, Alistair thought carefully about the conditions for opening the parchment in the novel. It seemed only a spell was needed—did he get the incantation wrong?
"I solemn swear that I am up to no good!" Alistair tried variations one after another.
Still, the parchment remained unresponsive.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good!" A speck of ink appeared on the parchment where the wand had touched, and then spiderweb-like lines began to spread from the center to every corner of the parchment. Cursive green letters began to form right across the top:
Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongz, Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers, are proud to present the Marauder's Map.
Alistair's eyes widened in disbelief. He hadn't expected that he really had the Marauder's Map! Merlin! Had Merlin started favoring him, too? He had actually managed to get the Marauder's Map right from under the Weasley twins' noses!
The map detailed every corner of Hogwarts Castle and its grounds with absolute precision, and even the movements of the tiny ink dots representing people could be seen clearly!
Alistair spotted the Weasley twins and Filch wandering around a second-floor corridor on the map, guessing that they were scrubbing the hallway under Filch's supervision.
He saw Xina and Angelina together in the girls' dormitory, chatting away, presumably.
Until—he saw the tiny ink dot labeled with his own name, located right in the Gryffindor boys' tower. Alistair's smile froze.
What was he seeing? Right behind "Alistair Rerick" was another tiny name—Lease! Merlin! Why did his real name appear on it, too?!
He recalled Lupin saying that the map never lied, but nobody had ever mentioned that even the soul's true name would be revealed!
Alistair frowned deeply. This map was supposed to be handed over to the Weasley twins and Harry Potter later on. If they looked closely, they might notice something amiss with his name.
What was he supposed to do about this? Was he supposed to make up a story? Or tell them that he wasn't really Alistair, but Lease?
"Mischief managed." Alistair felt a splitting headache coming on. Given the current situation, he had no intention of giving the map to the Weasley twins before Harry enrolled.
Because of this little episode, he had completely lost the mood to keep looking at the Marauder's Map.