The day before Hogsmeade Weekend, the buzz around the topic of "the youngest Order of Merlin recipient is my classmate" died down a little.
For the young wizards still at school, the real, delicious sweets they could actually eat in Hogsmeade and the joke items that could bring them joy mattered rather more.
Apart from Colin, who still appeared out of nowhere to snap pictures of him, no other young wizards pointed and whispered as Su Er passed, or cornered him to ask whether he knew the Unforgivable Curses. How else could he have subdued such a vicious criminal?
After several rounds of retelling, the Pettigrew in the young wizards' stories had practically become an utterly evil demon who devoured three hundred jin of raw flesh a day-and it had to be babies' flesh...
Su Er was dumbfounded when he heard this story that had been twisted beyond recognition, even though it portrayed him as practically Merlin descended to earth, all greatness, glory, and righteousness.
What even was all this...?
Still, Su Er made no attempt to correct the story and restore it to its original form.
Once the story became so absurd that nobody believed it, it would have reached the end of the road, and the buzz would fade along with it. That was precisely the outcome Su Er hoped for.
"Here, this is for you." After the last lesson on Friday, Su Er stopped Harry and handed him a battered roll of parchment.
"What is it?" Harry looked utterly puzzled.
"A Christmas present," Su Er said with a smile. "Tomorrow's Hogsmeade Weekend. I thought you might need it."
What he gave Harry was, naturally, the Marauder's Map that should have belonged to Harry in the first place. Quite apart from being the masterpiece of Harry's two fathers-one