"I solemly swear I am up to no good." Fred said, pointing his wand at the Marauders Map. He then held it up. "Hurry up." he whispered to George.
"Done." George whispered back, after a minute. "Mischeif managed." he whispered pointing his wand at the map.
"Honestly, woman, you call yourself our mother?" Fred asked, grinning.
"Don't, Ginny, we'll send you loads of owls." Fred said.
"We'll send you a Hogwarts toilet seat." George said.
"George!" Mrs. Weasley yelled.
"You haven't got a letter on yours," George observed, "I suppose she thinks you don't forget your name. But we're not stupid – we know we're called Gred and Forge."
Fred and George, however, found all this very funny. They went out of their way to march ahead of Harry down the corridors, shouting, "Make way for the heir of Slytherin, seriously evil wizard coming through …"
Percy was deeply disapproving of this behaviour.
"It is not a laughing matter," he said coldly.
"Oh, get out of the way, Percy," said Fred, 'Harry's in a hurry."
"Yeah, he's nipping off to the Chamber of Secrets for a cup of tea with his fanged servant," said George, chortling.
"Harry!" said Fred, elbowing Percy out of the way and bowing deeply.
"Simply splendid to see you, old boy-"
"Marvellous," said George, pushing Fred aside and seizing Harry's hand in turn. "Absolutely spiffing."
"Well… when we were in our first year, Harry – young, carefree and innocent –"
Harry snorted. He doubted whether Fred and Georgehad ever been innocent.
"– well, more innocent than we are now – we got into a pot of bother with Filch."
"We let off a Dungbomb in the corridor and it upset him for some reason –"
"So he hauled us off to his office and started threatening us with the usual –"
"– detention –"
"– disembowelment – "
"What are we doing here? Has something gone wrong?"
"Oh, no, Ron," Fred said, very sarcastically. "No, this is exactly where we wanted to end up."
"Yeah, we're having the time of our lives here," George said, whose voice was muffled because he was squashed against the wall.
"Alright, Fred?" George asked his twin brother.
"Alright, George?" Fred asked his brother.
"Bottoms up." they said together putting a vial of aging potion to their lips and jumping across the aging line. They landed on the floor looking at an older version of each other, still entierly identical, with long white beards and white hair.
"You!" Fred yelled.
"You!" George yelled. They both started wrestling, one pinning the other to the ground, then the other flipping them over to gain the upper hand. Everyone around them was yelling and laughing.
At Professor Dumbledore's request, they both headed to Madame Promfrey's office.
"Sorry, Fred." George said, looking at his twin apologetically.
"Sorry, George." Fred said, looking at George with the same apologetic expression.
"It's not your fault." they both said at the same time. "Dumbledore's just smarter than us."
"I'll bet we look hilarious." Fred said, grinning.
"That we do." George said, laughing.
"We can go home over the hols and tell Mum we know what we're going to look like when we grow up." Fred said.
"I'll bet you she would ground us." George said.
"I don't need to bet you." Fred said. "I know she would ground us."
"I've always though Fred and I should've got "E" in everything, because we exceeded expectations just by turning up for the exams."
"Would you like us to clean out your ears for you?" inquired George, pulling a long and lethal-looking metal instrument from inside one of the Zonko's bags.
"Or any part of your body, really, we're not fussy where we stick this," Fred said.
"George," said Fred, "I think we've outgrown full-time education."
"Yeah, I've been feeling that way myself," George said lightly.
"Time to test our talents in the real world, d' you reckon?" Fred asked.
"Definitely," George said.
"Give her Hell from us, Peeves."
"How do you feel, Georgie?" whispered Mrs. Weasley.
George's fingers groped for the side of his head.
"Saintlike," he murmured.
"What's wrong with him?" croaked Fred, looking terrified. "Is his mind affected?"
"Saintlike," repeated George, opening his eyes and looking up at his brother. "You see... I'm holy. Holey, Fred, geddit?
Mrs. Weasley sobbed harder than ever. Color flooded Fred's pale face.
"Pathetic," he told George. "Pathetic! With the whole wide world of ear-related humor before you, you go for holey?"
"Ah well," said George, grinning at his tear-soaked mother. "You'll be able to tell us apart now, anyway, Mum."
"For instance, this new idea that You-Know-Who can kill with a single glance from his eyes. That's a basilisk, listeners. One simple test: Check whether the thing that's glaring at you has got legs. If it has, it's safe to look into its eyes, although if it really is You-Know-Who, that's still likely to be the last thing you ever do."
"Hello, Minister!" bellowed Percy, sending a neat jinx straight at Thicknesse, who dropped his wand and clawed at the front of his robes, apparently in awful discomfort. "Did I mention I'm resigning?" "You're joking, Perce! You actually are joking... I don't think I've heard you joke since you were –"
~0~0~0~0~0
Fred wanted to cry. Where was George? Why wasn't George with him? Why was he alone?
"Don't cry." a soothing voice said from somewhere to Fred's left.
Fred shot straight up and turned his head. He found himself looking into Harry's green eyes. '"Eyes as green as a pickled toad."' Fred thought remembering the poem Ginny sent to Harry.
"You're Lily." he said.
"Yes I am." Lily said.
"You're Harry's mom." Fred said, numbly.
"Relax, Fred." a familiar voice said to Fred's right.
"You're okay." another familiar voice said.
"Remus? Tonks?" Fred said turning to his left. "I'm dead." he said.
"Yes you are." Remus said.
"Hello Fred." Sirius said. "Long time no see."
Fred looked at a familiar looking man sitting next to Lily. "You're James."
he said.
James nodded. "How's Harry?" he asked.
"Good... I think." Fred said, he looked at Remus. "What about George? Is he okay?"
"George is fine." Remus said. "Relax, Fred."
James looked at Remus and Sirius. "Is this the boy you've been telling me about?" he asked. Remus and Sirius nodded. "We need to talk." James said, with a mischevious grin.
Lily shook her head, "Go on." she said to Remus and Sirius, who were looking at her hesitantly. "I'll keep an eye on him." Remus and Sirius nodded and James led them away from Lily, Tonks and Fred. "Boys will be boys." Lily muttered.
"And those boys will never change." Tonks said, smiling softly.
~0~0~0~0~0~
James, Remus and Sirius joined Fred, Tonks and Lily and few minutes later looking very excited.
"Lily, Tonks, if you don't mind we would like to steal Fred away for a few minutes." James said.
"Why?" Lily asked.
"I can't tell you." James said. "We have to talk to him."
Lily looked at Fred. "No you have to tell me first." she said, stubbornly.
"Please Lily." Remus said.
Lily looked at Remus and her expression softened. "Fine." she said. "But only because I trust you, Remus."
"Bloody hell, you're acting like you're his mother, Lils." Sirius said. "You're worse than Molly when I wanted to tell Harry what the Order had been working on."
Remus chuckled, "I remember that." he said.
Fred started to cry again, he looked at Remus and Sirius, "What am I going to do with out him?" he asked.
"We all asked ourselves the same thing, at first." Sirius said. "Then we realized, they are alive and we are grateful that they got to live longer than us."
Fred nodded and Lily and Tonks walked away. "You both look young." he said to Remus and Sirius.
"It was what we looked like when James and Lily died." Sirius said. "We wanted to look the same age as them."
"That's cool." Fred said.
"Fred the reason we wanted to talk to you was because... Well, it seems, we are short a Marauder." Sirius said.
"A Marauder?" Fred asked confused. "Like Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs?" he asked, his eyes lighting up.
"Like them exactly." Remus said. "But we seem to be missing Wormtail."
"What's that got to do with me?" Fred asked.
"Well, we would like you to join the Marauders." James said.
"After all, we need a fourth man." Sirius said.
"And you're just in time." Remus finished, smiling at Fred.
"Me?" Fred asked, shocked.
"Of course. Who else would we choose?" James asked. "If half of what these two told me is true, you're the best man for the job."
Fred smiled, "Are you sure?" he asked.
"Yes we are positive." Remus said.
"What do you say?"Sirius asked.
"Yes." Fred said.
"Told you." Remus said to James.
"Shut up, you." James said, grinning.
"Now he needs a nickname, right?" Lily asked, coming from behind James.
"Lily! This was a secret meeting!" James said pouting. "You always ruin our fun."
Tonks laughed, "Well it's true right, he needs a nickname."
"Well I don't know how to give him one." James said. "He's not an anagimus, and that's how we got our nicknames."
"What about Red? Or Freckles? Or Ginger?" Tonks asked.
"It has to be an animal." James said.
"My last name is Weasley." Fred said, "Maybe it could be Furry or something."
"Furryfury." Lily said, giggling.
"Furryfreckles." Tonks said.
"This is why we pick the nicknames." Sirius said to Fred.
"I don't know I kinda liked Furryfury." Fred said.
"No." James said. "Absolutely not."
"How about Dementor?" Sirius asked, chuckling.
"What?" James asked.
"Dementor. You know, like because gingers are supposed to be able to steal people's souls." Sirius said.
"I like it." Remus said, Fred nodded in agreement.
"Mentory." James said.
"Genius!" Sirius said, laughing.
"Moony, Mentory, Padfoot and Prongs." Lily said.
"Sounds good." Tonks said.
"Of course it sounds good." Sirius said. "We made it up."
Lily and Tonks rolled their eyes. "That's not why it sounds good." Lily said.
"Yes it is." James said.
"No it really isn't." Tonks said.
"Don't lie to yourself." Sirius said.
Fred leaned toward Remus. "Shouldn't you be helping them in this argument?" he asked.
Remus shrugged. "I'd rather not." he said, grinning.
"Are they always like this?" Fred asked.
Remus nodded. "You'll get used to it." he said. "And just to warn you, Lily's probably going to baby you."
"Really?" Fred asked. "I hadn't noticed."
Remus laughed. "She's going to be like your mum when Harry comes around." he said.
"Oh Merlin." Fred said laughing. "Me and George used to bust on-" Fred stopped talking and Lily, Tonks, Sirius and James stopped arguing.