Object of My Desire
Chapter 1 - 'We Solemnly Swear...'
"I don't know how this entertains Muggle children for hours upon end."
George looked up from his bed to his darling twin. The boy was sitting on the floor, bouncing a small ball against the wall. "It's entertained you since dinner."
Fred sighed, ignoring his brother. "I mean, it doesn't explode, or stink, or transfigure or anything. It does nothing but bounce, bounce, bloody bounce."
"Then do something else."
"I don't know what to do."
"Figure it out."
"But you're bored too… you figure something out."
George flipped over onto his back and stared up at the ceiling. "Well, we could play Exploding Snap."
"Nah," Fred mumbled. "Did that this morning. Ginny's getting too good." He sighed, still bouncing the ball. "We could draw the layout for Weasley's Wizard Wheezes."
"Did that yesterday," George answered. "Along with answering the four orders we've already gotten." He perked up. "What about Canary Crèmes… the Creevy kids haven't had feathers in a while!"
"Hermione warned them," Fred replied. "Said something about us glaring at them in the common room and that could only mean 'that those boys are up to no good'. And that's a quote." He stopped bouncing the ball long enough to hold it up to George. "By the way, what did she say this was called again?"
"You're bloody brilliant," George mumbled, a grin curling his lips.
Fred smiled. "I know. But what did she call it?"
"A bouncy ball, but that's not why-"
"A bouncy ball!" Fred exclaimed. "So simple, yet so informative. It's a shame a Muggle came up with it… this would be such an asset to the wizarding world. Do you think that if we made it talk or something-"
"Quit about the ball!" George snapped, shooting up from the bed. "There are more important things to discuss!"
"But I like that ball…"
"But we could be up to no good," George replied slowly.
Fred paused for only a moment before his eyes lit up with understanding. "We could even solemnly swear…"
"Does Harry still have it?"
"I would assume so. It's probably under his bed. Everything of importance is under a bed," Fred answered.
The pair jumped up and ran out of the 7th year dormitories, down the stairs and to the door of the 5th year rooms. Fred took a quick look down, making sure the common room was cleared. He produced a small metal hook from his robes and proceeded to force the locked door open. "The Muggle burglaring arts are quite overlooked, don't you agree, dearest Forge?"
George laughed quietly as the door popped open. "Undoubtedly, honored Gred." The pair slipped in and closed the door behind them. He plopped down on Ron's bed as Fred started to rummage under Harry's bed. "Any luck?"
"But of… course!" Fred exclaimed, yanking a large, blank piece of parchment from underneath Harry's bed. "The boy really needs to learn to hide things better. It could fall into the wrong hands."
"Such as us."
"Well put," Fred replied, slipping the roll into his robe's liner pocket. "Let's escape before ickle Ronnikins protests to our little thievery."
Fred and George stared blankly at the empty parchment. "Well… here we go," George finally broke the silence.
"Yes. We have it."
"Now what shall we do with it?"
"We've never been at a loss before."
"Are we just getting old?"
"By Dumbledore's wand, you're getting daft. We're not old, we've just-"
"-done so many things that we're running out of good, original ideas," George finished. He sighed and tapped his wand against his chin. "There has got to be something we haven't done. A place we overlooked. A Slytherin we could bother. A Snape we could slip up…"
Fred shrugged. "What are we waiting for? We won't find anything staring at a bloody, blank piece of parchment." He pulled his wand from his belt loop and tapped it against the paper. "I solemnly - sweet Merlin!"
George lost it as Fred realized his wand had suddenly transfigured into a rubber chicken. "The look on your face!" he squealed. "H-Hermione… book… Muggle gags… so worth it…"
"Dear Forge, you really should remember to breathe," Fred replied, tossing the prank wand over the other side of the bed. "Purple has never been your color." He pulled his real wand from his robe sleeve and smiled. "Remind me to write that one down!" he said before commencing to tap the parchment. "We solemnly swear that we are up to no good!"
No sooner had the words been uttered did the parchment become the infamous Marauder's Map… the delightful bequest of ones Moony, Padfoot, Prongs, and Wormtail to the succeeding generations of pranksters and other curious oddities of Hogwarts. Dots and names fluttered across the pages, zipping up stairways and stalling in hallways… nothing terribly out of the ordinary. The hidden hallways remained empty, as always.
"Just waiting for a little Weasley magic," Fred mumbled happily.
"Well," George started, "what shall we do? We've explored every place in the bloody castle… twelve times over!"
Fred nodded seriously. "Quite a problem, dear brother…" he trailed off, shifting the parchment and his wand into his left hand and reaching into his robed with his right.
"What are you doing?"
"Getting my ball," Fred replied, matter-of-factly.
George rolled his eyes and tried to grab the map. "You and that stupid toy!"
"Let go of the map!" Fred snapped. "I've got it!" As soon as the words slipped from his mouth, the map did the same - slipping out of his grip… along with his wand and Hermione's bouncy ball. He grumbled and dropped to the floor, searching for his wand, map, and ball… and not necessarily in that order. He found his wand atop the map. After placing his hand on his wand to make sure he doesn't lose it, Fred reached for the bouncy ball before it rolled too far away. "Stupid bloody bouncy ball…" he mumbled. "I thought you bounced back…"
"Hey, I never noticed that corridor before!" George exclaimed, hovering over his twin and, more importantly, the map.
Fred picked up his wand, the ball, and the map and held it in front of them. "You're right. There's a new one… by the statue of Murkmus the Mystified. On the second floor." He grinned devilishly. "Well, I think we just found where we were off to."
"Why do you think we've never seen this corridor before?" George asked as the pair slunk through the hallways.
Fred shrugged. "I don't question good fortune."