When Worlds Collide

Chapter 7 - Explosive Idea

It didn't take as long as the twins had expected for the other boys in their dormitory to fall to sleep. All the same, they waited until the moonlight spilling through the window illuminated George's bedside orb, which upon a whispered 'tempus', portrayed that it was just past midnight.

George slid out of bed, still dressed, moments before Fred too emerged. In silence the two boys mischievously tiptoed out of the dormitory and made their way down the stairs to the Gryffindor Common Room. After checking for any wandering prefects or other late night wanderers, they moved along the wall to a large bookcase that stood next to an ornate red and gold vase on a pedestal.

George twisted the vase a little to the left, at the same time as Fred removed two books from the further end of the bookcase to push on the wall behind. A few moments after, the back of the fireplace slid away to reveal a darkened tunnel. The two boys stepped over the charred wood still in the fireplace, and crawled into the tunnel. Once on the other side George felt along the wall to the side of the entrance until his fingers found a loosened brick. He pushed it to put the fireplace wall back in place.

"Let's hope nobody lights a fire," Fred said. "We'd be toasted on the way back in."

"Who lights a fire in the middle of the night, in summer?" George said. "We can always take a different way back, just in case the house-elves get overly zealous. Ow! Mind where you're putting your bony elbows!"

"Shh!" came the reply before the voice quietened to a loud whisper. "They're just as bony as yours! Besides, I can't see a thing in here! Lumos!"

A yellowish-green light emitted from the tip of Fred's wand, showing the rest of the short passage. They crawled along this to the end, where the light now revealed a corridor. Fred swung his legs over the edge of the tunnel end and dropped down to the gritty stone floor below. He held his wand up high for George to see where to go, and soon the two boys stood at the end of the corridor. It was rather dirty, with spots of algae on the walls.

They began to walk down the stone passage. About a third of the way down the corridor they were looked at disapprovingly by a ghost who had just drifted through the wall. For a moment the boys had stopped and looked at each other in worry, but either the ghost was too used to wandering students to pay much heed, or it just wasn't it the mood to interfere. Whatever the reason, it drifted on through the opposite wall and the boys put on a little more speed for fear of confronting anyone else.

A dilapidated door that almost blended seamlessly into the wall stood open, and the boys could see the room behind it, empty but for an old tipped over cauldron, and a faded cabinet. George made to walk in, but just inside the doorway he stopped suddenly.

"What?" Fred said, his breath hitched. He peered over his brother's shoulder to see if they'd been spotted. He didn't think it would be likely, as they'd travelled this passage plenty of times and never come across anyone else apart from the occasional ghost, but he couldn't think of why else George would suddenly stop.

George turned and said with a mischievous smile, "You know, you're right - doing this in the Slytherin area would be better. After all, it might be loud, and they shouldn't be allowed to sleep if we're not."

"Of course," agreed Fred. "Although, it's a pity that Malfoy isn't here to appreciate a good midnight explosion."

"Hopefully this won't make an explosion though," said George. "All going well."

"That won't," Fred concurred, "but this will." He plunged the hand that wasn't holding his lighted wand into his pocket, and when it withdrew, six small stones of different colours were nestled in it.

George's smile broadened.

"I thought of it when we heard Dumbledore say his password to the gargoyle before," Fred explained. "When he was with Lucius Malfoy - 'popping fizzy pebbles'. Everyone knows not to chew two different coloured ones at the same time, unless they want to hear the bang merely seconds after they mix. Six different colours at once may rouse their whole house!" He looked down at the candies with remorse. "It's a pity to waste good sweets on frightening the Slytherins, but some things in life are an obligation."

"Definitely," George agreed. "It's a pity they won't cause any damage, but with any luck we'll get someone out of bed to investigate."

Fred pocketed the pebbles again and headed off past the open door to a trapdoor further down the corridor. The wooden planks of the trapdoor creaked ominously as they were lifted by a brass ring. Fred held his wand ahead of him, and the blackness below them was eradicated to reveal very steep stone steps in a narrow passage. They carefully made their way down the oddly structured stairs - sometimes they went in a spiral pattern, sometimes zig-zag, and sometimes straight.

George groaned a little as his legs started to get sore from the decent. "How much further?" he whispered.

Fred was running his hand alongside the left wall. His deft fingers found a loose brick like the one above the back of the fireplace. "We've just passed the second floor," he said. His fingers skimmed over the brick without pushing it, and they continued onward down the steep steps.

"...First floor..." Fred said after they'd walked a little further.

George groaned again as they progressed. "Now I remember why I don't take this passage if I can help it."

"Here we are," Fred assured him minutes later. He pushed on a brick near his left shoulder, and they heard a faint click before part of the wall slid backward and to the side. "Sub-ground floor," narrated Fred. "I give you...the dungeons."

They quietly slid into the room the passage had opened into, and looked around as the panel slid shut. They were in a three-sided room that opened out onto a corridor furnished with a lush green carpet strip with shining silver edging, as was visible from dim torches that shone on the wall at intervals above it. The room where they stood didn't appear to have anything in it besides a large table with candelabra, and various portraits, all of which were asleep, fortunately.

"You remember where the secret rooms are, in the Slytherin area, don't you?" George whispered, tentatively.

"Uh...I think so."

George's whisper raised slightly in pitch. "That's not very reassuring after all the effort it took for us to get down here!" He stopped, and appeared to be listening. "Did you hear that?"

A rhythmic muted tapping could be faintly heard from around the corner.

"Quick!" George whispered in alarm. "Turn that out!"

"Nox!" Fred quickly responded in an urgent whisper, and the light from his wand was extinguished.

The boys ducked down behind an intricately carved leg of the table. Normally this would have been insufficient to hide them, but as the room was inky black since the extinguishing of Fred's wand, it would suffice.

Soon a figure came regally striding into view along the green carpet, its black cloak rippling behind it. It was characterised by long white-blond hair.

"Lucius Malfoy!" George whispered behind Fred as the man passed the room's opening. George tiptoed to the edge of the room, now mere inches from the carpet, but didn't peer around. As Fred crept nearer to him, they heard the muted footsteps grow louder as they moved from the carpet onto stone floor around the corner.

The boys now peered around the edge of the room to see where Lucius Malfoy had gone.

"Come on," whispered George, and slunk off in Lucius' wake, Fred following quietly. They took care with looking around each corner before moving down a new corridor. "Keep an eye out for the Bloody Baron," George added to his brother, "we don't need a house ghost alerting anyone about intruders."

Lucius Malfoy turned right again. "Is that another corridor? What if it's an office?" George speculated. "We couldn't follow him in there without getting caught."

"Wait!" Fred whispered to him. "I know where we are now! This is the south side of the dungeon complex. There should be a secret door to that room - yes, it's a room - over there somewhere." He pointed in the general direction of where they'd just come.

They tiptoed back down the corridor they'd walked, and Fred lifted a wall hanging of the Slytherin insignia, revealing an opening at knee height, just high enough for them to crawl through, but wide enough for two or even three. Fred climbed in first, pausing occasionally to wipe grit and dust off his palm that he'd picked up from the passage's floor. The passage sloped upwards, and it didn't take long until the boys had reached what seemed to be the end of it.

"Here," Fred whispered. "This should be it."

He slowly and noiselessly slid the barrier in front of him to his left. A chink of light ahead of them showed them to be behind a closed cupboard of what looked like vials, and a few books. George shifted the books to one side while Fred lifted the vials out of the way, one by one. When the cupboard space directly ahead of them was empty, they shuffled forward a little more, on their bellies, and Fred gently prodded open one of the cupboard doors a little, hoping it wouldn't squeak.

They weren't both able to see, although they could both hear what was going on in the room, and Fred peered out of the widened chink in the cupboards.

He saw that the room was an office - Professor Snape's office, to be specific, as Fred concluded when he looked across the room and viewed the greasy-haired Potions Professor below them, seated at a desk. He wanted to excitedly tell this to George, but didn't for fear of being heard.

"I thought you'd still be here, Severus," came the voice of Lucius Malfoy. He sat regally in a chair opposite the Professor.

"Lucius," Severus Snape responded in brusque greeting. "To what do I owe the pleasure?" His tone implied that Lucius Malfoy's presence was anything but a pleasure.

"You're aware that some students, including Potter and my son, have been taken by the Dark Lord?"

"Due to a speech by Dumbledore tonight, I doubt there are any who do not know," informed Snape with distaste.

"Ah," Lucius responded. "He always has had a tendency to do the most inappropriate things. Surely telling the students what has happened will only cause a panic."

Snape made no answer, but only waited for Lucius to continue.

"Our Lord had made no such mention to me of my son being part of his scheme of acquiring Potter. Are you equally ignorant of his reasons?"

"I take it you have not had much involvement in this case of his, Lucius," Severus Snape concluded.

"I have been otherwise engaged," admitted the Senior Malfoy. "My services to our Lord have been employed in the area of...muggle management."

"Ah," Snape said, knowingly. "It is little known outside the upper circle of our Lord's followers - which is why I am surprised to hear that despite your rank with him you remain unaware - that the transport of others was in actual fact a mistake. A mistake swiftly punished by our Lord. As well as retrieving Potter, the inflicted spell brought back those in his immediate vicinity, it would appear."

Lucius was incredulous. And furious. "A mistake? My son is missing because of a careless mistake?"

"Our Lord is not divulging information to us at this time," Severus Snape informed his visitor in his monotonous drone, "but I believe he maintains control - he has a plan for finding Potter, despite the Concealment Charm."

Lucius was still positively spitting. "Can't he bring back the others?"

Snape mused before answering, "I don't believe so, as they are all covered by the charm." Lucius' lips hardened into a thin line as he wallowed in his frustration. Snape dared to make it worse. "But," he continued, "I think our Lord would not retrieve your son, even if presented with the opportunity."

Lucius sat forward a little and bore a face of utter surprise and denial. "Why would he do that?"

"Lucius, my friend, it is not in our place to question the actions of the Dark Lord..." Snape censured, and Lucius leaned back in his chair in defeat. "...but one might believe that your son has prematurely been presented with ample opportunities to serve."

The room was blanketed in silence as Lucius contemplated this. "So...our Lord is going to use this mistake to his advantage. But Draco has not yet been initiated into our Lord's circle, as he is not yet old enough."

"I'm sure you've raised Master Draco with ample knowledge of our Lord for him to be useful for his purposes."

Lucius stood, a definite mark of pride in his stance now. "I'll detain you no longer, Severus." He moved towards the door. "Thankyou for your..." he hesitated while thinking of an appropriate term, "...enlightening information."

Severus Snape watched as the tall white-haired man left, closing the door behind him with a dull 'thud'.

The Potions master nonchalantly reaching for a quill and parchment was the last thing Fred saw before he inched the cupboard shut and replaced the vials and books. He quickly shuffled back into the passage, followed by George, and closed the secret panel.

The two boys crept back through the passage, and once listening for any wanderers but hearing none, climbed back out past the Slytherin insignia.

"Quickly," Fred whispered, motioning to a narrow side hall. They scampered down the narrow hall until they reached a snake statue with eyes of green gemstone. "Good, it's still here," Fred muttered, and pushed the one nearest the wall. A bookcase opposite swung open a little and they hurriedly trotted through, before it closed again.

"Did you hear all that?" Fred exclaimed to his brother, wide eyed, once they were safely in the hidden passage and striding along its slowly descending length.

George nodded animatedly. "I always knew there was talk of Snape being a Death Eater, but it seems it's true..." He trailed off in thought. "Surely Dumbledore would know, right?

Fred contemplated this. "Dumbledore has known a lot about You-Know-Who's movements in the past - he had to have gotten that information from somewhere. I reckon Snape's probably working for both sides. That would explain why Dumbledore's kept the beast of a man working here instead of firing him long ago for Inflicting Trauma to Students."

"Yeah, maybe," agreed George. "Even though he referred to You-Know-Who as 'our Lord' - which I guess he'd have to do, to avoid suspicion - he didn't sound too happy that Lucius was there."

"He didn't look too happy either," added Fred.

The two boys continued to wander through the dim passage, mulling over this new speculation while looking absently ahead for the door to the unused room they wanted.

"It sounds like You-Know-Who's going to use Malfoy to get to Harry," George finally said.

"Yeah," his brother concurred. "But surely Harry would never trust that excuse for a person? He'd always be aware of Malfoy's associates and contacts."

"I hope so," George said. "Here's the room we want." He ducked into a small nook they had almost walked past, and turned sharply into a stone room furnished with only a cracked porcelain sink with taps that no longer turned, and a old-looking wooden cupboard will small splits along the side caused by the excess moisture of the room. Lumps of stone that had been chipped or knocked from the walls long ago lay haphazardly along an edge of the room. "My mental-map tells me we should now be just below the Slytherin Girls dormitories."

"Right, let's do this," Fred said determinedly. He brought the old black diary that had been Tom Riddle's out of his robes and laid it on the cold floor. "Did you bring Harry's Tempus Orb?"

"I couldn't get into his dorm to get it before Seamus locked it for the night."

"What?" Fred exclaimed in disbelief. "We can't do this without having something belonging to Harry!"

"Fear not, my friend," George assured him. "I have something much better, that I acquired quite innocently before lunchtime today."

Fred knew as well as anyone that anything he or his brother did could hardly be described as 'innocent'. "What did you get?"

George proceeded to slowly draw something out of his robes, and Fred's eyes widened as he saw it.

"By golly," Fred said in awe. "Harry's wand? How did you get hold of that?"

"Let's just say Dumbledore's office isn't much more secure than Snape's. I'll have to get this back soon, though, so let's hurry up."

"Brilliant," said Fred as George laid the wand onto the floor also.

"Okay," George said. "Let's hope we have this right." He withdrew his own wand from an inside pocket of his robes and pointed it at Harry's wand, concentrating hard as he whispered, "Periclitatus Praeda."

A pale blue light seeped from the tip of George's wand and hovered above the wand on the floor for a moment before fluidly encompassing it in its soft glow. It stayed that way for a moment, before the light diminished, leaving Harry's wand lying innocently on the gritty floor.

"Okay so far," Fred surmised, as he pointed his own wand at the old black diary. "Periculosus Venator," he whispered.

Although the light was just as soft and misty as the one from George's wand, this light was a shimmering scarlet. It enveloped the diary before locking onto it with the alarming speed of a striking cobra. Once again all traces of a spell disappeared as the light diminished to leave the diary with its previous appearance.

"Well that part went well, I think," George concluded. He once again reached into his robes to bring out the object that the old woman in the portrait outside of the Great Hall had found so suspicious. He withdrew a small silver plate, square and slightly concave, with an unusual design carved onto the front and tiny grip hooks on two opposite sides. George looked at it in contemplation. "Quite a nifty little belt clip, really," he said. "At least, I think that's what it is."

"It'll work as that," Fred said, as his brother put the silver plate onto the floor and positioned the diary and Harry's wand to either side of it. "Right, here goes."

His face went grim with fierce concentration as he tried to remember the correct words and their pronunciation. "Noceo iuxta laurus."

The resulting yellow light illuminated every nook of the room, and the boys even had to raise their arms over their faces to fend off the violent brightness. They couldn't see what the main beam of light did, as their faces remained covered for the next few seconds. When they lowered their arms, the silver plate sat shuddering a little, before finally coming to a stop.

"Was that supposed to happen?" Fred asked.

"I don't know. I hope it worked." George leaned down and picked up the plate, which was a little warm now. He held it against his belt and the little hooks immediately reached out their fine silver claws to grasp the sides of it.

"There," Fred said, looking proud. "Now we'll know when You-Know-Who gets close to hurting Harry. It'll give Dumbledore a head start at intercepting him, if he knows in advance."

"Excellent," George surveyed of their handiwork, and gathered up Harry's wand and passed the diary to Fred. "I'd better put this wand back now - I'm pretty sure I can do it without waking Fawkes."

They made to head out of the room before Fred grabbed a sleeve of his brothers robes. "Wait!"

He picked up one of the blocks of stone from the floor and after putting the six Popping Fizzy Pebbles down in small colourful pile, brought the block down on them hard.

The resulting almighty 'bang' was only rivalled by the panicked shrieks that followed, and the two mischief makers scampered back to the Gryffindor dormitories through the conveniently available secret passages that received so much more importance to their Hogwarts life than academic study.