Chapter 361: Marauder's Map (Edited)

It took some time for the four of them to wrap the four hundred presents, and Fish put them all away in his magic bag before politely thanking the Flumes and Harry.

"Thank you, nya."

The kitten hugged each of the three, instantly making them feel like all their hard work had been worth it.

Harry then put on the invisibility cloak and followed Fish and the others out of the basement.

The Flume whispered to Fish and Harry to be careful, then headed to the front to serve the customers and sort through the piles of coins on the counter.

Fish led the invisible Harry to Hermione's side, and of course, Miss Sharpay and a few other Gryffindor girls were there.

"Are you guys done shopping nya?"

"Of course," Hermione waved the bag she was holding, "I got a bunch of mints, mom and dad love those snacks."

The other girls soon gathered around his, sharing their shopping experiences with Fish and scooping some out and shoving it into the cat's arms.

Harry carefully dodged the girls swarming around him, suddenly realizing that he wasn't making a good choice in following Fish...he was so popular that he risked exposure by staying with him.

But he couldn't leave, because Harry's excuse was that there was no danger in staying with Fish, and if he ran away, the cat would be looking for him everywhere, and even the teachers would know.

So Harry had to keep dodging the girls around him, while trying not to make any noise.

Luckily, Fish noticed Harry's situation just in time and waved his arms around shouting, "Stop circling Fish!!! Fisch is going to be mad nya!"

?(? `w′?)

"Well, let's stop crowding around Fish and get on with our business."

Sharpay also stepped forward to help Fish chase the others away.

Since we had already gone through town with Fish last time, everyone quickly calmed down, laughed and said goodbye to Fisch, and dispersed into small groups.

Hermione was the only one who stayed with Fish.

Although the other girls were somewhat upset, they accepted the fact that Hermione and Fish were best friends.

However, there were still some who weren't going to admit defeat, the cat still hadn't got the hang of it, so they still had a chance!

"Where did Ron nya go?"

(°w°≡°w°)

Once the group of girls dispersed, Fish and Hermione walked out of Honeydukes and stood looking down the street.

She knew that Ron and Harry were getting along very well, so she wanted to let him know.

"Ron, I suppose he's gone to the Three Broomsticks with the boys."

Hermione said with a frown and a dismissive expression.

"What do you want with him?"

(?ΦwΦ?)?

The kitten looked around again, then slunk off into a deserted alleyway and waved mysteriously at Hermione.

Hermione's face flushed instantly and, although she knew Fish was unlikely to do anything to her, Hermione couldn't help but imagine some of the romantic scenes she'd read about in books about isolated alleys.

Especially when he squirmed toward Fish and the kitten turned his head toward her, Hermione immediately closed her eyes, shy and expectant, and clasped her hands behind her back, one foot slightly tilted back.

Fish, however, merely brought his head close to Hermione's ear and, covering his mouth with his hand, whispered in her ear, "Harry's next to me with his invisibility cloak nya."

The cat's hot breath hit Hermione's ears as he spoke, causing them to blush,

It was only after hearing what was actually said that Hermione, her cheeks flushed, immediately pulled away from Fish with a hiss and looked around in fright.

"Ahem... Hello, Hermione."

Harry's mocking voice sounded from the side, making Hermione's neck turn red with embarrassment.

?(●?w?●)?

Fish scratched his head in confusion, wondering why Hermione was so excited.

Only after Miss Know-it-all managed to suppress her embarrassment did she snap out of her astonishment.

"Harry!" cried Hermione, "What are you doing here? how did you.... How did you show up in Hogsmeade? Didn't Professor Dumbledore say that the invisibility cloak couldn't hide you from a Dementor?"

"That's right," Fish said as he looked curiously in Harry's direction, "How did you know about Grandfather Ambrosius' secret passageway? It's a place even Fish doesn't know about."

"Here's the thing, George and Fred gave me something amazing..."

Harry lowered his voice and spoke Marauder's Map to them.

Fish wasn't interested, he knew Hogwarts like the back of his hand, he could locate it by smell and hearing, and he had the [Animal Tracker] spell.

But Fish had a thought.

"On that map, can you see where Black nya is?"

?w?

"I'm afraid... it won't work..." said Harry at first, but after a moment's thought, he replied with a bitter smile, "It's hard to see where Black is in a dense mass of dots that keep moving."

"Then this map is no big deal."

Fish immediately lost interest in the Marauder's Map.

And Hermione said seriously, "Harry, you should give it to Professor McGonagall."

"I won't!" Harry quickly refused, "If I do, I'll have to tell her where I got it from! Then Filch will know it was stolen by Fred and George."

"But what about Sirius Black?" said Hermione through her teeth. "He'll use one of the secret passages in the map to sneak into the castle! The professors had to know about it."

"He couldn't have gotten in through a secret passage." Harry immediately retorted, "There are seven secret passages on the map, aren't there? Fred and George think Filch already knows four of them. The other three, one has collapsed and no one can get through. The other one has the Boxing Willow planted at the entrance, so there was no way around it. The one I just used... well ... Mr. Flume said it would be clogged tonight."

At that, Harry sounded regretful, obviously, if he hadn't been found out today, there was no way he would have been able to sneak into Hogsmeade just once.

After learning that Harry only had this one chance today, Hermione finally said no more.

"Okay," she said, but she still had a worried expression on her face, "But you must stay close to us, and you must never take off your invisibility cloak... and you must be back before sunset."

Hermione pointed to a sign on the Honeydukes door and said, "Dementors will be patrolling the streets of Hogsmeade at dusk, it would be bad if they saw you."

"I know, I know," Harry replied impatiently, "Let's go to the Three Broomsticks and find Ron."

"Hmph!" Hermione grimaced scornfully.

Harry understood perfectly well the meaning of her grimace, but he wasn't going to explain much....

He didn't want to explain himself about his own reputation, which Fish had inadvertently tarnished anyway.

And besides...

Hermione herself was no better than him when it came to Fish, so why should he despise him?