Climbing out of a trapdoor, Harry and Black found themselves in a cellar full of crates.
Cautiously, they took the stairs leading up and walked out into the open, finding themselves behind Honeydukes' counter!
It was so crowded that Harry and Black couldn't tell one word apart from another.
Hogwarts students were everywhere, including a few Durmstrang and Beauxbatons, and all were storming the shelves of the most succulent-looking sweets imaginable.
Hundreds of different kinds of toffees and Every Flavor Beans, Fizzing Whizbees, the levitating sherbet balls, and Special Effects sweets, with uncountable magical consequences to fill a room with laughter.
Harry elbowed Black and nudged his chin toward a corner, where Draco and Ron were standing, buying sweets of Unusual Tastes.
They came around the counter and squeezed their way toward them.
"Pumpkin-flavored one?" Ron was asking. "Black doesn't like pumpkin at all!"
Draco scoffed. "Who cares what he likes!" he said. "I am gonna tell him it's imported from France… Let's buy a dog-flavored one for Potter, too. That will give him and Trelawney something to talk about… Maybe she will agree to go to the ball with him…"
Ron and Draco burst out laughing.
Then, nodding at each other, Harry and Black jumped over them.
"Who dares?!" Draco hissed as something hit him on the head. "Do you know who my— Black? Potter?!"
Ron and Draco's jaws dropped as low as they could, both holding their heads.
With a smirk on his face, Harry told them all about the Marauder's Map, Black taking it out from under his robes to show it to them.
It was still a Storyline Artifact for now.
Once its mission was fulfilled, at the end of the term, it was bound to become an Item.
Till then, Black just had to make sure that the Marauder's Map carried out its purpose as in the original storyline.
"Those two!" Ron ground his teeth. "They never told me about it! I am their brother!"
"You are going to keep it, right?" Draco asked the important question, narrowing his eyes particularly at Harry.
"What?! You think I am going to hand it over to a Professor?!" Harry asked, offended.
"Well…" Draco relaxed. "Who knows what you are going to do or not… especially with a dog in your mouth!"
With a lunge, Draco stuffed Harry's mouth with the dog-flavored toffee, Black and Ron roaring out with laughter next to them.
Honeydukes was just the start, though.
Soon, they headed toward Zonko before going to the Three Broomsticks for warm cups of Butterbeer.
That visit turned out to be a mood murderer, though.
This was not only the students' but also the teachers' last weekend of the term. So, after the boys had settled down with large mugs in their hands, moments later, Hagrid, McGonagall, Flitwick, and the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, entered the inn as well.
Harry hurriedly went under the table.
The teachers probably didn't know that Black had lost his permission form. But they all knew about Harry not even having one. Still, to keep themselves out of the teachers' sight, Black magicked a large Christmas tree from one corner, placing it between the two tables.
Soon, Madam Rosmerta, owner of the Three Broomsticks, joined the Professors and Minister, and the moment the drinks affected them, they began talking about the hottest topic — Sirius Black!
Draco had already told Harry how Sirius had betrayed his parents.
However, it was this group of five who finally painted the full picture.
The Potters using the Fidelius Charm, a complex Spell involving the magical concealment of a secret inside a single, living soul. Them choosing Sirius Black as the Secret Keeper for this Spell. Sirius Black betraying the Potters only a week after the Charm was placed. Voldemort killing the Potters and failing to kill Harry. Peter Pettigrew, another Potters' friend from school days, confronting Sirius later and ending up blown to smithereens, save one pinky finger.
The next half hour passed in utter silence for the boys, Hagrid's drunken roars filling the inn as he cursed Sirius Black.
When the teachers had gone, Harry slipped out from under the table, grinding his teeth.
"I am gonna kill him!" he hissed, in anger, his hands shaking. "I am gonna…"
"Did you even hear them?!" Draco snapped. "Only trained Hit Wizards of the Ministry stand a chance against Sirius Black. It is a specialized branch of Aurors, trained to kill. Can you do it? Can you really do it?! Go on. Kill a lizard or something right now… All you are going to do is give my father enough of an excuse to get you thrown out of Hogwarts."
Harry glared at Draco.
Then, he closed his eyes, chewed on his anger, and sighed.
Lifting the large mug of Butterbeer, he drained it down and slammed it on the table, Black and Ron keeping quiet meanwhile.
"Next rounds on me," Draco said before shouting for Madam Rosmerta. "Another round for our friend — Larry Totter — here."
When she had gone after serving them, Black leaned forward and whispered, "… Between you three, one should ask Madam Rosmerta for the Ball. I know I would have, but my hands are tied…"
Harry, Draco, and Ron together spilled their drinks.
Before they could take out their anger on Black for his shamelessness, though, they saw Madam Rosmerta walking past them, and… kept looking at her, blushes rising on their faces.
By the time the four Gryffindors walked out of the inn, a blizzard had stormed Hogsmeade.
"Shrieking Shack?!" Black suggested. "I bet on Harry's broken broom that none of you can spend five minutes there alone."
After a brief fight in the snow, the boys walked toward the Shrieking Shack.
Before they could reach it, though, a scene immediately made them pause and hide behind a hut.
It was Professor Lupin… walking a few steps ahead of Uncle Black!
And even though they seemed to be coming from the Shrieking Shack's direction, it wasn't that finding that baffled them most.
It was the twisted, facial expression on one of the frankest Professors they had ever had.
Professor Lupin… was boiling in anger!