Fred and George exchanged a glance after Charms Class, so they went to their office, that is, the disused closet, to discuss Fred's latest prank idea. George illuminated the closet with his wand while Fred took out the Marauder's Map to include the Marauders in their discussion.
"So, Marauders," started Fred. "We'll need your help on a prank."
"Mr. Wormtail wants to hear your idea, which is undoubtedly brilliant."
"In Charms today, Professor Flitwick taught us how to change the colors of clothes and things. So I think we should turn the Slytherin students' robes red and gold."
"Mr. Padfoot wholeheartedly approves of any plan to prank our natural enemies the Slytherins, and is concerned only that this prank might not inflict enough suffering upon them."
"We're only first-years," apologized George.
"Mr. Prongs approves of this prank, as it should cause the Slytherins embarrassment, which is suffering enough, at least for first-years."
"Mr. Wormtail must be a seer, since he knew in advance that this prank proposal would be brilliant, and it is."
"Mr. Moony cannot, in good conscience, endorse a plan to debase Gryffindor colors by enrobing Slytherins in them. Mr. Moony additionally wishes to point out that a prank involving our house colors could incriminate our house. Mr. Moony would rather not help with this plan to turn Slytherin robes red and gold, not when there's a different spell that could turn them transparent."
Fred and George stared at the small, cramped writing. "We don't know that spell," admitted George. "Or we'd do that in a heartbeat."
"Mr. Moony recommends that you look in the library for a book called Household Hints for the Homemaking Witch. It contains a spell for making fabric transparent, in the chapter titled Spicing Things Up For Your Wizard. It also has many other useful spells, such as one for preventing leaks in bathrooms, which can be used to waterproof an entire room, which will be necessary should you wish to completely fill a room with water or other liquid at some point in the future for some reason. Surprisingly, this book is not in the restricted section, at least it wasn't when Mr. Moony's creator found it. They may have moved it after we checked it out. They'd have to make the entire library restricted to stop us from getting ideas for pranks."
After a moment of eye contact between the twins, George was sprinting to the library and Fred and the Marauders were working out prank details.
Their original idea was to enchant the benches at the Slytherin table in the Great Hall to charm robes on contact, but the Marauders pointed out that this would catch only a few Slytherins, as the rest would know to avoid the benches after the first had sat down. The benefits of depriving the Slytherins of seating were discussed, but it was agreed that while this was a fine goal, there were better ways to accomplish it, such as (as Mr. Padfoot suggested) vanishing the benches after all the Slytherins had sat down, or (as Mr. Moony suggested) slowly shrinking them (the benches, not the Slytherins) over the course of a meal. This led naturally to a discussion about shrinking the Slytherins rather than the benches, until Mr. Prongs called the meeting back to order to discuss making the robes transparent.
"Mr. Moony suggests putting the transparency charm on a timer. Timing charms can be found in a book called Perfect Punctuality, hopefully still available in the unrestricted section of the library. It is indispensable for timing pranks to coincide with alibis."
George refused to return to the library so soon after his sprint for the homemaking book, but made a note of the book title.
"Mr. Wormtail thinks that charming Slytherin benches to transfer spells by contact is a great idea, and if we do this right, they won't suspect the benches, so we can use them again for other spells. The timer could be set to go off some time after the Slytherins have got up from their benches, such as in class, or during a quidditch game, so they don't suspect the Great Hall benches at all."
"Mr. Prongs strongly discourages any interference in a quidditch game which might result in the game being forfeited, rather than the Slytherin team unarguably losing."
"Mr. Prongs is right," said George firmly.
"No pranking quidditch games in a way that might forfeit the game," agreed Fred.
"Quidditch practices are another matter," added George.
"They can't very well cast a Finite Incantatem while they're in the air, can they?" said Fred. "They'd risk damaging the flight charms on their brooms."
"Mr. Padfoot is marveling at your mercy, that you want this spell to be so easily broken by a mere Finite Incantatem. Wouldn't you prefer a more interesting countercharm, such as the victim having to say, 'Look at my droopy Slytherin butt!' whilst doing the chicken dance?"
The twins' brown eyes widened.
"We're only first-years," said Fred.
"I just learned how to cast Lumos to make my wand glow," said George.
"And I can't even do that yet," admitted Fred.
"Haven't you got any ideas for pranks we can do with a hairpin and a pocketknife?" asked George.
"Mr. Padfoot apologizes for our excessive enthusiasm, but we are just so excited to be serving our purpose again that we could just, just, write some damn fancy calligraphy!" And indeed he did, every letter a work of art. The flourishes seemed to almost be wagging their tails. "Our modes of expression are quite limited," he added unnecessarily.
"Mr. Prongs will endeavor to take your age and inexperience into account, but also doesn't want to underestimate your abilities. People significantly underestimated the abilities of our creators, which enabled them to get away with quite a lot."
"Mr. Moony will be happy to tutor you in whatever skills are necessary to achieve your pranking goals."
"Mr. Wormtail can vouch that Mr. Moony is a excellent tutor."
"Mr. Moony reminds Mr. Wormtail that as the word 'excellent' begins with a vowel, he should have written 'an excellent,' not 'a excellent.'"
"Mr. Wormtail takes back what he wrote about Mr. Moony being a excellent tutor."
"So, the plan," said George. He looked in the old homemaking book he'd just checked out of the library. "The spell here doesn't look all that complicated. Finite Incantatem does work as a countercharm for it, the way it's presented here at least. If we're going to be casting it indirectly, charming the benches to transfer the spell to the robes, and also layering a timing charm on it, I think that's plenty ambitious for our first big Hogwarts prank, don't you? We'll have to sneak into the Great Hall at night when it's unoccupied to layer all these spells, and the map will be very handy for not getting caught. Fred, you can go to the library this time and get that book on timing spells. We'll learn and practice these spells separately, then work on layering them."
"If Mr. Moony may make a suggestion, perhaps Mr. George should go to the library again, so that Mr. Fred will be free to practice Lumos, which is a very useful spell, under my guidance."
The twins locked eyes and agreed to the plan, then realized that this means of communication might not work for the Marauders.
"Right," said Fred.
Fred couldn't keep reading the Marauders' messages without George's wandlight, so he headed for his dorm to practice there. They had some time before dinner. Fred and George had pushed their beds together to make their own little room inside the first-year dormitory. He pulled the red draperies to enclose this space and followed Mr. Moony's advice. By the time George returned from the library with Perfect Punctuality, he'd got his wand to glow brightly, and was trying the transparency charm on one of his socks. The sock was looking a bit translucent around the toes and heel, but it had been worn rather thin around there anyway so that probably didn't signify anything.
They would have kept working through dinner if not for, "Mr. Moony is confident that you will soon master these spells, and offers a friendly reminder that you, unlike us, need to eat."
"Would you mind terribly if we hide you in a trunk over dinner?" Fred asked. "Or should we keep you in our pockets?"
"Mr. Padfoot recalls that we were in a pocket shortly before we were confiscated by Filch, so the trunk may be safer. We've spent a great deal of time in trunks without any ill effects. Please don't keep us there for very long though."
"Of course not," said George.
Fred and George wondered if their friends at the Gryffindor table could hear their brains buzzing.
"Hey, Gred and Forge!" said their new friend Lee Jordan. "You're late, so I saved you each a potato because I know you like them." He placed one baked potato, each on its own small plate, in front of each of them, setting them down on the table very carefully, not jostling them. There did not seem to be any other baked potatoes on the table, although there were big serving dishes of mashed potatoes.
"No one else has baked potatoes," observed George.
"Well, yeah, they were really good, so they went fast," explained Lee. "I noticed you were late so I saved these for you. Go on, eat them." Lee was smiling, apparently proud of how thoughtful he was to his friends.
Fred and George looked at each other.
"You know who else really likes baked potatoes?" said Fred.
"Our brother Percy," said George.
"Did you save one for him?"
"Um, no, sorry," said Lee.
"Oh Percy!" called the twins in unison. They picked up their plates of potatoes very carefully and carried them all the way to the other end of the table, towards a beacon of red hair over a pale face. Percy, a third-year, was sighing the sigh of the long-suffering older brother. He had plenty of experience at this, having not just four younger siblings to practice on, but two older brothers to learn from. The twins walked past their brother Charlie, a sixth-year, on the way. He looked up with interest when he saw their potato parade. Lee was following them. Most of the Gryffindors were looking on with interest at this point.
"We saved these for you," said Fred.
"Since we know how much you like them," added George.
"And there weren't many."
"Go on, eat them." They put them on the table in front of their brother and smiled.
Percy looked from the potatoes to the twins. "You don't really expect me to—"
"Mum wouldn't approve of you wasting food you know," laughed Charlie from the middle of the table, no doubt relieved to have been bypassed.
"You know who else likes potatoes?" said Percy. "My pet rat, Scabbers!" With a look of triumph, he took the fat rat out of his pocket, where he had apparently been sleeping, and dropped him directly onto one of the potatoes. Scabbers instantly turned from his usual yellowish brown to a bright purple. The purple rat wobbled, staggered into the other potato, and instantly turned green.
"Hey!" yelled Charlie. He got up from his bench and stormed down the hall to Percy's end of the table, wand drawn and blue eyes blazing. Charlie was a stocky, muscular boy, with so many freckles he was almost tan. "Finite Incantatem!" he shouted, pointing his wand at Scabbers, who turned back to his usual yellowish brown. "That is a poor innocent animal, Percy! Your pet! You don't just go subjecting your pet to our brothers' pranks. It's cruel! You had no idea what that prank would be." Charlie's righteous fury was even attracting attention from the other tables.
"Well, that's the point, isn't it? Better a rat than me. That's the only reason to even keep this stupid rat as a pet," grumbled Percy as he stuffed the rat back in his pocket. "To check for pranks set by Fred and George. He's useless otherwise."
"I'll tell mum how mean you are to that rat," threatened Charlie. "He should go to someone who'll take better care of him."
Fred and George patted Lee appreciatively on the back as they left Percy and Charlie to it and returned to their end of the table. There wasn't much time left to eat, so they had to hurry, but they were not averse to talking with their mouths full.
"That's some quick turnover, Lee," admired Fred.
"Flitwick just taught a color-change charm today, and boom, colorful rodent tonight," elaborated George.
"The only hard part was getting the spell to work indirectly, wand to potato to person, instead of just wand to person," said Lee.
"That seems like a very useful technique with much potential for other applications," said Fred.
"Would you teach us?" asked George.
"Of course!" said Lee.
Fred and George's eyes met and they wondered if they should tell Lee about the Marauder's Map. They were so used to being a pranking duo, it felt odd to include anyone else in their secrets. Not yet, they decided. First they'd establish how good Lee was at keeping secrets by trusting him with some less important ones.
"Come to our office after dinner," said Fred.
"You have an office?" asked Lee.
"It's in a secret location," said George.
"So it's very, very important that you don't tell anyone where it is."
"Can we trust you?"
"Of course," said the boy who had just served them pranked potatoes.