Chapter 6- Slytherin's spider
"I feel like there should be a lot of these kinds of pictures," said Fred, holding up a moving photo showing roughly 12-year-old, ginger, freckled twins running down a hallway with a thunderous looking Snape in hot pursuit, "That's Snape, right, the one Albus was named after?" George nodded.
"He was a strange one," George said, squinting at the picture, "They said he wasn't a Deatheater, they said he played the double agent for years… but, he was the worst. He sucked the fun out of every room. He took the joy out of everything. Me and Fred, we were good at potions… but Snape wouldn't have admitted that … ever."
"I feel like this might have been why," said Fred nodding at the picture again.
"Well… we might have deserved that detention! But messing with Slytherins was just too fun."
Fred was shaking with nervous excitement. One hand gripping his new, second-hand broom, the other gripping a beaters bat. He smiled widely at his brother who mirrored the same grin back at him. Wood stood before the team, offering encouragement to them all. The majority of the Gryffindor team was new. Oliver Wood was the new Captain and he was very determined that they would do well in their first match. Gryffindor Vs Slytherin. "Your brother was amazing," Wood said, stopping in front of the twins, "I've seen you fly and I know you have the same ability as he did. You have a name to uphold Weasley's." When George glanced at Fred again his face had gone slightly green.
"No one can beat us," George said nudging his brother, "You know, because we are beaters…"
"Terrible," Fred smiled weakly. Wood surveyed his team once more then nodded encouragingly. Together the scarlet team marched outside to stand opposite the sneering Slytherin team. Their team was experienced, all the players had at least a year under their belts and they were good. The Slytherin team had won the last two years since Charlie Weasley had left.
Madame Hooch marched out onto the field, the chest of balls floating beside her. Fred and George stood behind the three chasers; two of which were also flying for the first time, from their point in the line up they couldn't hear Madame Hooch over the roar of the crowd and the announcer's booming voice. Fred's eyes roved around the stands of people. "This is mad," He muttered to his brother, a grin spreading once again across his face. A roar went through the crowd as the snitch and the bludgers were released into the air. Madame Hooch put her whistle to her lips and took off into the sky. Wood and the rest of the team mounted their broomsticks, the twins followed suit. They raised their bats and knocked them together before pushing off from the ground and shooting gleefully into the air!
They flew a lap of the pitch together, then separated, circling the chasers. Together they kept the bludgers at bay. A bludger streaked towards a chaser, George intercepted and put his full force behind hid bat, his whole arm reverberating with the impact, but his aim was good and the bludger knocked a Slytherin chaser from his broom. The Slytherin's booed loudly and several of the players turned angrily towards him. They aimed their brooms and streaked forwards, George spun in the air but in the end, he was riding a broom several years older than the Slytherin team's. Two of them appeared either side of him. George tried to jolt upwards, but his broom just wasn't fast enough, the two Slytherin's crashed into him. George fell.
He spun in the air, trying to reach for the wand tucked into his quidditch robes. Air was whistling past him, then he saw a streak of orange, something slapped against his arm, and gripped, instinctively he clung to the solid object. His whole body jolted and his brother's, straining, face came into focus. The two of them half flew, half fell awkwardly to the ground, collapsing together on the ground. George's heart was racing, like his body hadn't quite accepted that he hadn't plummeted to his death. Madame Hooch had been berating the two Slytherins and was flying towards the collapsed Weasley twins when; "Slytherin have caught the snitch!" The sound of the cheering drowned out everything as the Slytherin's celebrated.
"Good hit," said Fred, now laying comfortably with his hands behind his head, staring up into the sky.
"Good catch, shame you aren't a seeker."
"You're a tad larger than a snitch Georgie… slower too, and heavier…"
"Alright, no need to hurt my feelings."
"I just saved your life." George snorted.
"You'll pay for that," said a gruff, angry voice. The twins squinted up into the looming shadow of the Slytherin George had knocked off his broom.
"For what? It's a game," said Fred, looking away from the hulking brute.
"You just wait Weasley…"
"Oh, wow, well I'm concerned. Are you concerned Fred?"
"Nope, I doubt he has enough brains to think up something that would surprise us."
"Blood-traitor scum!" The Slytherin snarled moving threateningly.
"Oh, hi Madam Hooch," said George lazily. The Slytherin swung round startled. Madame Hooch was several feet away still berating the two that had knocked George from his broom, now joined by McGonagall and Snape. The Slytherin turned back menacingly but the twins were now on their feet, smiling sweetly as the rest of the Gryffindor team joined them.
"They think they are better then everybody else!" Snapped one of the new chasers, Alicia, "Must be a requirement for getting into Slytherin house."
"I wouldn't worry about it," the older chaser said to Fred and George, "His names Flint and he can barely string two words together at the best of times!"
"Looks like he is capable of knocking two ginger heads together though," said Angelina Johnson frowning at the twins.
"Just chuck a spider at him, heard he's terrified of them. Freaked out during herbology apparently," muttered Oliver Wood who was drawing complex Quidditch strategy diagrams and then staring angrily at them. George looked up to find Fred smiling evilly at him.
Marcus Flint tried twice to corner the twins and he didn't seem to understand the concept of failure. The twins easily evaded him, disappearing down hidden passageways whenever they realised what was going on. "He's more ape than man," Fred muttered to George when he noticed Marcus glaring at them again at breakfast.
"He doesn't quite seem to get it, does he."
"Come on, I've got an idea… and I know a great place to find some spiders."
"What are you doing?" Percy asked, entering as the twins were trying to exit.
"Nothing, Perce… what are you doing?"
"Funny. I know that look! Whatever you are doing…"
"Relax Mum, we are just going to the library." Percy glared after them as they left, but they did indeed head towards the library.
Fifteen minutes later the twins were down in the dungeons, near the Slytherin common room. George was peering at the marauders map. "It's clear. You should be able to fit on the ledge there…" Fred nodded, ducking out from the hidden doorway.
"A little help," he called back. George checked the map once more then quickly hurried out to Fred, and knelt to boost his brother up onto a very small ledge, "Do you know a concealing charm?"
"Not one I'm confident I could cast, no." George muttered, "Pull the hood of your robe up. That's better, no one will be looking up anyway…"
"I hear voices," Fred hissed.
"Are they telling you to kill?!" George whispered with fake anxiety. Fred shot him a dark look. George dashed back to the concealed door, hidden behind a long tapestry covered in twining snakes.
The voices turned into elongated shadows and then a group of Slytherin's made their way down the dingy corridor towards their dungeon common room. Fred peeked out as they passed, but their victim wasn't amongst this group. He was built like a troll and stood out in most groups. He let the group pass, then wiggled into a slightly better position, freeing the jar that held the spider from his pocket. It was quite a large beast, large enough to make Fred feel slightly nervous about handling it. He heard voices again, this time he recognised the rough grunting of Marcus Flint before the boy had even come into view. He quickly unscrewed the lid, then ducked his face in the hope that his robe hid him. When the voices seemed below him, Fred glanced out, spotted Flint, removed the lid, reached out and upended the jar. The spider fell, almost as if it had been training for this moment its entire life and landed on the top of Flint's head.
Fred drew back and waited. "Salazar," he heard one of the Slytherin's say as they approached the entrance to their common room. Then he heard screaming. Sniggering, Fred rolled and dropped to the floor, he winced as he landed with a thud but quickly scrambled to the hidden corridor. High pitched screams filled the corridor, more then just Flint's, Fred thought. George was sniggering at the sound of panic coming from the Slytherin common room,
"GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!"
"Come on, we don't want Snape to catch us here," George whispered, the screams suddenly cut off, the pair risked peeking out of their hiding spot only to see that the secret entrance had disappeared, muffling the calamity going on inside the Slytherin common room. The two sped away.
The passageway they were in was a winding one that was more like the scenic route than a short cut, so they exited not particularly far from where they had entered it. They had only got up one flight of stairs when they suddenly heard what sounded like a stampede of feet heading their way. The twins stopped, to see a large number of screaming Slytherin's bearing down on them.
"Help!" A first year cried, "Please, there's a spider in the common room."
"We're Gryffindors," said Fred, "We can't go in your common room."
"Please, you're brave… that's what being a Gryffindor is right?" squeaked the panicked first year. Fred and George eyed each other. They didn't have a secret language and it wasn't really legillamancy but they could tell, just with a look, what was going on in the others mind, "It's a big spider!"
"You'll have to let us in the common room," George said, suppressing his grin.
"This way," the eager Slytherin said, taking George's hand and leading him back down the corridor, which was crammed with Slytherin's pressed up against the wall. It was all George could do when he saw Marcus Flint cowering in terror.
"Surely one of you isn't scared of spiders…" said Fred.
"Most people are still at breakfast," said the first year and now that Fred looked, Flint was clearly the biggest of the bunch, seeing a panicking fifth year had probably freaked the first years more than the spider.
"Salazar," said the little Slytherin to the blank wall, before retreating to a safe distance. They stepped into the common room, the entrance shutting behind them.
The Slytherin common room was dark and dingy. Windows looked out into the depths of the lake. "It's like an evil lair," said George looking around, "I wasn't expecting so many books… there aren't any books in our common room." George ran his finger along their spines.
"We aren't known for being bookish, George."
"No, we're known for being bumbling oafs… now where is that spider."
"I wish we had time to have a proper poke around."
"We will… we know the password, we have the map… There he is!" George pointed his wand at the spider, "Engorgio!"
"That should do the trick," Fred smiled.
"All done," the twins said in unison as they exited the common room. Marcus Flint leered down at them and barged them aside.
"Get out of the way," he snarled. The twins rolled their eyes, "Salazar," he grunted. The Slytherin's trailed back into their common room.
"Either the spider hid or it just ate a bunch of Slytherin's…" Fred mused when no screaming came from the now concealed room.
"What are two Gryffindor's doing down here?" said a slow, cold voice behind them. The twins spun.
"Nothing professor, just being nosey."
"I suggest you return to your own common ro.." loud screaming erupted from the wall behind them, "Stay there." Snape snapped.
"Yes Professor." Snape disappeared into the common room, "Run… run now…"
"Maybe he won't remember it's us."
"Sure, there's loads of red headed twins running around this place…." They trotted down the corridor. The Slytherin common room door burst open and Flint stumbled from the portal, crying and shaking. He looked up at the twins, who smiled and waved, and Flint's eyes grew round with wild eyed fear, realising what the twins had done. The secret entrance opened again and Snape stepped out. "Run… run…" The twins turned to run when a flash went off at the end of the corridor temporarily blinding them.
"And then there's a special potion that you dunk the film in and…" The Weasley twins accidentally collided with the photographer, all of them ended up in a tangle on the floor.
"Mr and Mr Weasley…" Snape hissed, standing over them, his voice getting dangerously soft, "My office… now."
"That was a little cruel wasn't it," Fred said looking again at the picture of the fleeing twins.
"We weren't cruel often. When we were, we regretted it… and it always involved giant spiders. When we were younger we got hold of one of the older boy's wands and … enlarged a spider and trapped Ron in a room with it… never thought mum would let us hold a wand again… heck, I wasn't convinced we would ever see the light of day again..."
"How did you get the photo?"
"The Slytherin that took it thought it was hilarious and gave us a copy of it."