The Marauder's Map

Chapter 2

(Fred's POV)

"Fred, wake up! C'mon you two, we'll be late for breakfast!"

It took me a minute or so to realize that someone was yelling my name. Yet the caller was at least one bed over! So I rolled over to my left, opened one eye, and sniggered. Lee was standing over my four-poster, attempting to wake up George but thinking he was me!

'The git forgot we switched yesterday!' George rolled to face me, smirking with his eyes half-closed. We were used to people getting us mixed up whether we'd planned it or not.

'So I noticed. Play along, see how long it takes him to figure it out.'

'Should we tell him about the map?'

'Nah, he'll probably blab it out by mistake. Besides, we need to keep some trade secrets.'

'Hell yeah.'

"Come ON, Fred! Quit fooling around for once!" Annoyed, Lee shook George again.

"What, and... *yawn* ruin our reputation?!" George said indignantly.

"Such blasphemy!" I joined in, putting my hand over my heart in mock hurt as we both sat up in bed.

Lee laughed and shook his head, dreadlocks flying in every direction. "Point taken!"

"Oh, don't say that-" I joked.

"-we already get enough taken off-"

"-courtesy of Snape!"

"Slimey git's got no sense of humor..."

"You know what I mean!" With that, Lee headed downstairs to the Common Room. George and I high-fived, pulled our sweaters off, and traded them back over the gap.

My vision suddenly went black as a foul odor assaulted my nose. "You sweat too much, you know that?" I teased, pulling the offending sweater off of my face.

"And I suppose you're just the Prince of Freshness, aren't you?" came the reply, but he was grinning.

"Nope, just fellow Prince of Pranks." I grinned back at him, and we got out of bed and traded places.

We never could stay mad at each other; it's like being mad at yourself. They say nobody knows you better than yourself, but I think we're an exception to the rule because we're a part of each other, an inseparable pair, one genius made two, and we wouldn't have it any other way.

"Got the map?" Since the dormitory was otherwise student-free, I fished it out of yesterday's robes and held it up before stuffing it into a fresh set as we got changed.

Soon, we had climbed out of the portrait hole and started to head downstairs when George pulled me off to the side. "Something wrong?"

"No, I just remembered the map showing the entrance to a secret passage right around here somewhere..." he whispered back, studying the corridor wall.

"Come to think of it, so do I. Might as well see where it leads." I pulled the map back out, made sure no one else was looking, and tapped it with my wand. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

"Who needs to swear it? When are we ever up to any good?"

"Never of course!"

Sniggering softly, we pinpointed our location on the map, then searched for the passage in question. As it turned out, the entrance was hidden behind a tapestry to our right at the far end of that very corridor. We shoved the tapestry aside but only found solid stone behind it.

"That's odd, it should be right here..."

The torchlight was dim, so I muttered, "Lumos!" and held my wand closer to the masonry. Now the outline where the tapestry had been could be seen more clearly. Wait, that wasn't just where the dust ended... I put my back to the wall and gave it a good push. It swung back a little. "A-ha! George, this is it! Give me a hand!"

Together, we managed to get it so that half of the stone "door" was sticking out into the corridor and the other half was in the passageway. Once we stepped inside, it swung back into place on its own. "Probably just needed a little elbow grease to get it working again after years of non-use, eh Fred?"

"More than likely. Come on!" In the torchlight we could see a long, wide spiral staircase leading downward. Eager to see where it led, we raced down and came to a halt at a large wooden panel at the bottom.

George and I took another look at the map. My dot-self was pulling at something on the panel. I looked up and spotted something unusual sticking out of it. I tugged at the object, which felt like a book, and the panel slid away, revealing an empty, abandoned classroom. There was nothing of interest inside, so we exited and found ourselves a floor above the Great Hall.

"Convenient little shortcut," George remarked, tapping the map. "Mischief Managed!" Both our stomachs grumbled their complaint, so I pocketed the map and we joined the other students heading down for breakfast.

In the Great Hall, we sat down on either side of Lee. "Just what were you two up to last night anyway?" he asked. Across the table, Angelina and Alicia leaned in to hear.

I grinned mischievously. "Getting our revenge on Frary-"

"-who was cavorting with Mrs. Norris."

Lee sniggered while the girls gave us disgusted looks.

"So of course Filch caught us-"

"-but we gave his office-"

"-a niiice coat of dung-"

"-before making our escape."

"You know-"

"-the usual."

The resulting laughter was cut short as a large shadow loomed over our heads. George, Lee, and I looked up, half expecting to see Snape, but met McGonagall's stern gaze instead. A pair of detention slips fell onto the table in front of my plate and George's.

"Mr. Filch has informed me of your little 'misadventure' last night, and thirty points have been taken from Gryffindor. You will report to the dungeons at nine o'clock this evening for detention. Is that clear?" McGonagall explained, as if daring us to protest.

"Yes, Professor," we chorused.

She took her leave, and a few seats down, Percy glared at us over his horn-rimmed glasses. We glared back until he went cross-eyed due to said glasses suddenly being turned into a horned beetle. "AAAAAHHH!!! GETITOFFGETITOFFGETITOFF!!!!"

He made a big scene of it, making even his fellow Third Years chuckle. George blew on the tip of his wand and we high-fived again. "A fine work of Transfiguration if I do say so myself!" Snooty prat that he is, Percy's always been our favorite prank target, Filch aside.

"Ugh, detention in the dungeons. You know what that means of course..." I groaned.

"Fun Time with Snape," George agreed sarcastically.

Angelina made a face. "There's nothing you can do about it though. Plus knowing Snape he'll probably take more points off just for talking." At that, George and I looked at each other and grinned evilly.

"'Lina you're a genius!" I slapped a hand on her shoulder.

"What are you two plotting now?!"

I lowered my voice a bit. "It's simple, really-"

"-we'll give Professor Greaseball-"

"-the old Silent Treatment!"

Lee and the girls stared at us in disbelief, probably figuring even we couldn't pull it off given half the time we never shut up. But then, they didn't know that we don't need words to communicate. George and I have our best-kept secret, the one thing we swore to each other we'd never tell anyone: the telepathic bond we've shared practically since birth. It was perfect for pranks that required stealth and/or us to split up. To say nothing of our current plan to drive Snape insane.

"Good luck, you need it," Angelina said finally.

"You two are insane!" said Alicia.

"You just noticed-"

"-that just now?"

"Boys..." Angelina muttered, shaking her head.

The bell rang some minutes later, so we headed for the Big Snoozefest - er, History of Magic. Seriously, old Professor Binns can put anyone to sleep the way he rambles on. Maybe there's something in Bill's old Transfiguration book on how to turn a textbook into a pillow... Once we were there, we filed in, sat down, and each pulled out a quill and roll of parchment.

Not that we planned on paying attention in class, hell no. Not when there was a better option that required a lot less work. Once Binns had phased through the blackboard, we pointed our wands at the quills and whispered, "Dictatio," before promptly going to sleep.

(One Hour Later...)

"*YAWN* Let's go, Fred, class is over." George nudged me in the shoulder.

"Mmm, right..." I pointed my wand at the quill in front of me, which had just finished scribbling down what I had said. "Finite Incanto."

It fell flat on the parchment, and I quickly stowed both away in my rucksack, silently thanking whoever invented the Dictation Charm. After our first lesson with Binns, we'd realized we would need such a spell if we were ever going to survive the class, and looked it up in the library the same day. I know what you're thinking: "The Weasley Twins actually did something constructive? Hell has frozen over!" What can I say? A prankster's gotta do what a prankster's gotta do.

'Reckon there's any secret passages down in the Dungeons?'

'More than likely. Bet one of 'em leads to Filch's favorite torture chamber.' We both sniggered, earning odd looks from those around us as we went off to our next class.

I started to reach into my robes to check the map, but immediately put my hand back down. The last thing we needed was for the whole school to find out about the map before we could fully utilize it. If the teachers saw that it had been recovered, undoubtedly they'd put it under lock and key somewhere, or worse, burn it.