"Fred… Fred… FRED!"
"What?" Fred grumbled, well kind of… It came out more like "whmph," due to the fact that his face was stuffed in his pillow.
"Come on, wake up!" his brother George whined, poking him in the shoulder.
"It's Saturday, you know, a day to sleep in!" Fred grumbled at him, swatting his hand away.
"But it's the first!"
At this Fred shot straight up in bed, a huge smile splitting his face. It was the first. The first of April. April Fool's Day. A day of mischief. They could cause as much as they want and no one could really get mad at them because wasn't that what this day was for? To make fools of their unsuspecting peers?
That wasn't the best part of today though. It was their birthday! Their first birthday away from home. They are definitely take advantage of this.
"What shall we do first?" was all he said, and an identical grin split George's face.
The two spent the rest of the morning before breakfast devising plans for different pranks to pull throughout the day. After getting back from breakfast their terror would begin. You couldn't pull adequate pranks on an empty stomach.
After they returned, they noticed that two identical piles of presents were resting at the foot of both of their four poster beds. Grinning, the two boys decided to wait until after dinner to open their presents. It was time. Time to pull of the mother of all pranks.
They filled a package of balloons with water and charmed them to float just out of sight of the Great Hall—they had mastered Wingardium Leviosa last October, thank you very much—and then were going to pelt anyone who came through the doors after lunch. It wasn't the best prank in the world, but hey, they were only first years after all.
They sat there for hours, pelting unsuspecting people, students and teachers alike, with their balloons, sometimes with Peeves joining in on the fun. They were having a great time… until they got caught by Filch.
They aren't sure how he managed to sneak up on them, though they are pretty sure it has something to do with the fact that they had just hit Snape with a balloon and were laughing like idiots.
They were marched to Filch's office, not that they would really call it that, more like a broom cupboard. As soon as they sat down, Filch faced them with a grin on his face so big one would think he had just won a million gold galleons. "I've got you now, you will be expelled for sure this time adding in all of your other pranks."
"You can't actually prove we were involved in any of those," Fred told him.
Filch rolled his eyes. "Stay here. I'm going to go get the headmaster and then I will finally be rid of you. Don't touch anything."
As soon as he left the room, both Fred and George jumped up from their seats. This was not the first time they had been in Filch's office, it was more like their tenth if they were being honest, but it was the first time they had been left alone, and they were dying to explore.
They rifled through drawers and cabinets as fast as they could, but still left everything in its rightful place, not knowing when Filch would be back.
"Fred, look what I've found!" George yelled at his brother. When Fred turned around, he saw his brother holding up a blank piece of parchment.
"What the bloody hell is that?" he asked his brother.
"There is a little note here. It says it's called the Marauder's Map. It doesn't say much else though," George tells him. At that moment, they hear Filch's voice coming down the corridor.
"Quick, hide it!" Fred tells him, and George quickly stuffs it into the inside pocket and they both sit back down right as the door opens. They both pull bored looks, not wanting to look to innocent because then Filch would definitely know that they were up to something. Looking up, they see both Filch and Headmaster Dumbledore enter the office.
"Now what seems to be the problem here," Dumbledore asked the two boys and Filch.
"They were pelting students and teachers with water balloons outside the Great Hall," Filch tells him.
"Ah, so that would explain Severus' severe mood earlier. I just thought they had run out of his favorite dessert at lunch," Dumbledore chuckled.
"Headmaster, these two have been causing mischief all year. They have caused more problems than any other first year combined. I strongly suggest expulsion," Filch tells him, getting more and more heated by the end.
"Ah but my dear Mr. Filch, it is April Fool's day. A day of mischief. I do feel there is no reason to punish them for their crimes on this joyous day, especially seeing as it is their birthday also. A marvelous day for any young boy."
"But sir –" Filch started, but he was cut off.
"Not today, Mr. Filch. Now, we shall let these boys be off. If I am not mistaken, they have a pile of presents just waiting to be unwrapped," Dumbledore says. With this, Dumbledore lets them out of Filch's office. "Have a great day boys, and do enjoy your presents," he tells them with a twinkle in his eye of unknown merriment.
Once they round the corner, both boys sprint to their dormitory. After making sure that no one else was in the room with them, they sat down and George pulled out the parchment. They poked and prodded it with their wands for an hour before giving up and deciding to open their presents. Most were from their parents, one was from Ron (it was candy surprise surprise), and a drawing from Ginny. The others were from Bill (he sent them cool souvenirs from Egypt), Percy, and Charlie. After opening all of the presents from their family, they noticed that there was only a letter, that looked quite old, left, but there was no name to tell them who the sender was. The note was written in messy handwriting, addressed to Misters Fred and George Weasley.
Opening the note, there were only two short lines. The first said "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." While the second said "Mischief Managed."
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good? What does that mean?" Fred asked George. But George wasn't looking at him, he was staring at the map that he had sat on his bed earlier. Looking over his shoulder to see what was so interesting about a bit of blank parchment, Fred was surprised to see that it was no longer blank. There were now words forming, "Messer's Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs are proud to present the Marauders Map," Fred read out loud. "Bloody hell, what happened?"
"I don't know, the words just started to appear after you read the note." George then opened the map. "Bloody hell! This is a map of Hogwarts!"
"It's moving! Do you think that those dots are the actual people? Where they are and everything?" Fred asked his brother.
"I think it might be. This is wicked!" George proclaimed. "What does the rest of the note say?" he asked Fred.
"It just says 'Mischief Managed.'" As soon as Fred said the words, the map slowly started to disappear until George was once again holding a blank piece of parchment.
"Those must be the spells to work the map. I wonder who sent them to us?"
"And how they knew we were going to find the map today?"
"Whoever it was, we owe them a lot. This will be a great help in planning our pranks," George said. Looking at each other, the twins that were inspirable smiled identical wicked grins that held promises of mischief.
~ANNOYINGLINEBREAK~
6 Years Later at Grimmauld Place
Fred and George were wandering around Grimmauld Place bored out of their minds. Their mom was keeping a close eye on them after she almost caught them buying materials from Dung again. They walked into the kitchen and found Sirius and Lupin talking together at the table. They looked at each other and decided that now was the time to finally ask the two the question that they had wandered since they met them.
"Did you two happen to know a group of people in school that called themselves the marauders?" Fred asked them. They had decided against asking their parents, well their mom, for obvious reasons.
Sirius started choking on air while Lupin smiled. "I take it you two were the ones that gave Harry the map?" Lupin asked them.
"Uhhh… yeah… yeah we were… how did you know about the map?" George asked him.
"We made it of course, and I caught Harry with it his third year," Lupin told them.
The boys stared at the two men in shock. "You made the map? You guys are like our idols." Fred said in awe.
"So it worked," Sirius said to Lupin with a smile.
"What worked?" George asked them.
"Well you see, our last year of school, Filch caught us with the map and confiscated it. However, before he took it, we charmed it and a letter to appear to whoever was most worthy of the map, no matter how many years it takes. I'm guessing the map picked you two, and after hearing about all of your pranks while I was a professor there, I have to say, I approve," Lupin told the twins.
"So do I. You two cause as much havoc at school as our whole group did, and there were four of us," Sirius told him.
"Can you tell us who the other marauders are?" George asked them.
Right before they could answer, Mrs. Weasely was calling them to get cleaned up for supper. "Sorry boys, looks like that is another story for another time. Thank you though, for carrying on the legacy of the marauders, and for giving the map to Harry when he was ready," Lupin told them. With that the two older men left the kitchen to go wash up for dinner.
Fred turned to George grinning. "I can't believe it. We have known a marauder for two years and never even knew it. And now we know two of them."
"This is wicked," George said to Fred, grinning excitedly. At that moment Mrs. Weasley entered the kitchen.
"I thought I told you boys to go get cleaned up for dinner. Off you go, go on Fred," she said while looking at George.
"He's not Fred, I am!" Fred said before she could continue.
"Honestly woman, you call yourself our mother."
Soooo…. I decided to write a Harry Potter fic this time. It is my first one in this fandom and I decided to write about Fred and George because I swear they are the best characters in the whole series and the movies didn't do them justice! I just really love them, and I have always wondered how they figured out how to work the Marauders Map. So this is dedicated to EpicPickleNinja just because she always proofreads my stories for me and makes them presentable to the public… and without her forcing me to, I would never actually post anything… O! I sadly don't own Harry Potter any more than I own anything else I have written about. Which is to say, I don't own it at all =) OK, well you are looking lovely this fine day, I hope you enjoy my story!