A/N: Pride of Portree Beater 2 submission for the Daily Prophet competiton You Can't Change the Past
Brains in unknown places
"I've told you not to trust something if you didn't know where it keeps its brain!" From the corner of his eye Arthur saw his elder kids, the two twins suddenly become very quiet and looking down at their toes. Momentarily he turned his attention to them. "Fred, George, have you got something to say?"
The two exchanged a hesitant look between them and then one of them stuffed a hand in his pocket to fish out an old wrinkly piece of parchment. "Speaking on things-" George began.
"-that keep their brains in unknown places." Fred finished. "We…borrowed this from Filch's office a few years ago…" He placed the parchment on the table in front of Dumbledore and glanced again at George.
The boy nodded with a grave sigh. "It's the right thing to do, Gred."
"I know, Forge…" Fred pulled out his wand and tapped the parchment. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good."
Harry and Ron stepped closer to see, as ink suddenly appeared spelling out the words "Marauders' Map". Molly gasped and even Arthur's eyebrows rose. Only Dumbledore's eyes twinkled as if he was no longer surprised by much the wizarding world had to offer.
"What is that, boys?" Molly wrapped her arms protectively around Ginny as if afraid the map would corrupt her like the diary did.
"It's a map, as far as we can tell. A map of Hogwarts that also shows where everyone is at a given moment."
Dumbeldore glanced down at the parchment and smiled warmly. "That seems harmless enough. Intricate and delicate spellwork but probably not dangerous."
There was something else though. Fred seemed reluctant to say it even as George nudged him with his shoulder. Finally the other twin took over. "We thought so too but…Well, we discovered something looking at it last year. We saw…" he actually blushed a bit. "We saw our brother Ron in his dorm. And next to him another name. Another boy…" he cut off.
"At first we thought that maybe it was none of our business to ask. But…but then we realized that there was no boy of that name in his class. So we…investigated a bit further." Fred inhaled, faring surprisingly poorly under Dumbeldore's piercing gaze. "Well, I mean...we finally found a few articles. He…the student was dead. So we thought perhaps he'd been the creator of the map who, you know, as a prank spelled themselves to show up in awkward places to mess with people. I mean, it is the kind of thing we might-" He noticed Molly's glare.
"I mean, obviously, mum, we would not do that." George rushed to defend his brother. "But now we thought maybe…maybe it was not so harmless."
Dumbeldore nodded gravely. "You made a good decision. Now, can you please show me on the map where this dead student is lurking?"
Fred and George rushed over to the map and traced quickly with their eyes, finding the name with the ease of those having spent countless nights studying the layout. "Here, look, it seems right now he's in…in with us. Peter Pettigrew!"
As he said it, a rat ran out of behind a corner in the Dumbeldore's office.
"Scabbers!" yelled Ron.
A blue light struck the rat from Dumbledore's wand and before the eyes of all present, a head shot upwards from the ground with limbs sprouting next to it. One more moment and a man was standing where Scabbers had been just moments ago. A ghost of a smile lingered on Dumbledore's face. "Good evening, mister Pettigrew!"