Harry's Second Year: The Twins Get the Map and Find Their Brother Has a Man in His Bed
A/N: Welcome back to the "catching up to the AU" portion of this story. Zest IS a Sirimione story, but Sirius and Hermione are still entirely unknown to each other in Harry's Second Year. Sirius is bisexual in this story, having been in a relationship with Remus for an unspecified amount of time.
Thank you to everyone who is reading this story, adding it to their lists, and a cup of coffee to all reviewers! First curtsy goes to LILHOUSELF, who tapped review #100. Thank you!
"This is the best thing ever made by magic," George Weasley murmured. He was still kind of amazed that he and Fred had stumbled upon the words that made a much-folded piece of parchment into the most amazing map in the history of wizardry, but he didn't question the map's veracity as he and his identical twin spread it between them on his bed in the fourth-year boys' dorm. "Look, there's Sirius Black!"
"Our Transfiguration professor, o'course. And Professor Lupin . . . Wait, did you see that, Georgie?" Fred blinked and rubbed at his eyes with the heel of one hand. "Look at their names for a mo'."
George sat up straight and eyed his brother. "I see. They sleep together. We knew that already, didn't we? It's not like it's a secret now, is it?"
Fred's heart was pounding, though, and it wasn't because these two professors were apparently closer than the norm. "No, look. Their names, George."
George peered more closely at the map and saw what his brother saw. Sirius Black. Remus Lupin. And then, there was a shift and shimmer and—
"Bleeding hell!" the boys said in tandem.
"Put a sock in it," Lee Jordan snapped from his bed. "Or go to the Common Room."
It was tempting but, "No thanks," Fred replied, sounding distracted. "It's May, but it's still chilly down there at this hour." He pulled one of George's pillows to his lap and whispered, "Did I really see that?"
"Padfoot and Moony? I think so. Cor blimey, Fred!"
"The Marauders are our professors!" They flashed identical grins at one another as they bounced on the bed in as subdued a manner as they could. Fred tapped the map with a knuckle. "Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs! D'you think either of the others are here?"
George stopped bouncing and had a think. "Well. Padfoot is Harry Black's dad, yeah? And Harry's friends with Longbottom and cousins with Malfoy." He frowned a bit. "Malfoy would not have been a Marauder. No bleeding way. Longbottom, though? Maybe? He might be . . . hm, well, no. Frank Longbottom went to St. Mungo's, didn't he?"
"That's what I heard, yeah." Fred studied the map some more. "George? There's another one . . ."
"Prongs? Wormtail?"
"Wormtail! Hey, look, he's in our tower!"
Caution danced with elation. "Here? Where? Whe—no. Ronniekins knows a Marauder?"
Fred snorted but he also slid off of George's bed. Cool May evening or not, if there was a Marauder in Gryffindor Tower, he wanted to meet him. "I don't know how Ron met him, but I'm gonna meet him as well."
Quiet as cats, the Weasley twins slid from their room and padded down the steps dressed in nothing but their pyjamas until they reached the second-year boys' dorm. They quietly opened the door, hiding the map behind them, and moved between the beds and trunks.
"I don't see a Marauder here," Fred whispered.
"Lumos," George murmured, taking out his wand and using the soft light of the charm to read the map. "Ron Weasley. Peter Pettigrew!"
"Oi! Scabbers!" Their little brother's pet rat squeaked and ran, scratching Ron's neck as it fled the bed.
"No time to explain," Fred called to Ron as George tore out of the second-year dorm. "We need to find that rat!"
In the end, they ran all the way to the professor's quarters, where they banged on the door to the room shared by the other Marauders.
They were not disappointed with the response and, when Peter Pettigrew was eventually caught and detained at the Ministry, Fred and George were presented with a substantial reward in actual Galleons. The best reward, though, was being named as Honorary Marauders by Padfoot and Moony before the ride back to London that June.
"We'll have you over," Professor Black said expansively. "It'll be fun."
It was.
A/N: "Put a sock in it" comes from my favorite spot for British slang: effingpot dot com slash slang.
And finally, I know several of you are wondering, "Where's Hermione?" In brief: I wrote the prologue of this story and moved straight into the story proper, writing thousands and thousands of words before I realized that you, my readers, might be unsettled by my changes to the canon timeline. I decided to write a few vignettes to share with you the moments that I feel are HP Significant but also different for this story. Hermione isn't here yet because, when I wrote chapter one, I gave her what I feel is a Big Entrance and I don't want to lessen its impact by bringing her in any earlier. All elements that differ for her will be soon apparent or are shared in the course of the first few chapters of the story.
See you next week during Harry's Third Year: Moony and Luna Talk Stone Secrets