chapter 7
About forty minutes later, Mrs Miller arrived in a cab. She looked the same as always; old and agitated, as if everything went to slow for her. After another three-hour drive they were finally back at the orphanage. It was almost like time had stopped when she'd left and only now it started running again. Everything looked the same, from the old shrieking gate to the trees in the yard.
It was near midnight and that meant everyone was already asleep, so Gabrielle was sent straight upstairs to the girls room. She tip-toed through the house and, as she'd hoped, Fletcher was waiting for her at the top of the stairs, close to squealing when he saw her. She ran up as quietly as she could. "Finally!" He exclaimed, too loud.
She shushed him and whispered, "Shh, don't get us busted."
"I won't, I just have so much to tell you." His smile suddenly disappeared. "Perhaps I should start with the story Mrs Miller came up with to tell the others after you left."
Gabrielle raised an eyebrow, urging him to continue.
"Well, she kinda told everyone you had to go to a 'special school' because you had some kind of.. special condition." He failed in his search for better words.
"Special condition?"
"She basically told everyone you were retarded." Fletcher blurted out.
She felt stupid as she should have expected something like this. Of course Mrs Miller wouldn't tell anyone that she was a witch, if Mrs Miller herself even believed that. But still, she could have been a tad bit more creative with her back-up story.
She was just about to say something as someone, supposedly Mrs Miller, started to come up the stairs. Without saying goodbye, they left for their rooms as fast and quiet as humanly possible. Trying not to wake the others up, Gabrielle silently found her way to her bed.
So there she was, right where she started; laying in her old bed, staring at the ceiling. Far away from Hogwarts and its magic.
xxx
After two weeks of being stared at and talked about by the other children, which was basically the same at Hogwarts, Gabrielle finally came to her last day at the orphanage. Honestly, she didn't know what to think. She was happy to return to Hogwarts and to see Fred, George and Angelina again, but also sad that she had to leave Fletcher behind.
They'd had quite the catching-up to do. He'd told her about his new school, about how it was horribly lame and how the other kids were unbelievably dull. In return, she'd told him about her studies at Hogwarts. Even though she'd been aching to tell him about her adventures with Fred and George, something in her head told her she shouldn't. Perhaps it was because she empathized with the fact that he's stuck here or simply because he wouldn't have believed her any way.
So, instead of telling him about all of the exciting stuff, she'd shown him some of her spell books and her wand (which he'd expected to have been more magical, as his reaction to it had been "Really, that's it? A bloody stick?"), making Hogwarts sound almost like any other school. Except for the magic, of course.
"So you'll be back by Easter, then?" He asked her as they waited outside for the cab to come pick her up.
"Yeah, only for one week, though." She said, suppressing the chill that rolled down her back. It was snowing and her coat wasn't that thick. Fortunately, the cab arrived just then. About to say their goodbyes, Fletcher grumbled something inaudible, with a painful expression on his face.
"What was that?"
His frown deepened as he reluctantly said "I'm gonna miss you."
She laughed and punched his shoulder. "Ouch!" He grumbled, rubbing the sore spot, "What was that for?"
"I'm gonna miss you, too." Gabrielle grinned as she got in the cab. Just like last time, she watched him through the back window as they drove away, and she continued to look even when he was long gone.
xxx
"Oi, Black!" She heard the distinct voices of the twins calling her name as soon as she stepped foot on platform 9 3/4. She turned around to see them standing a few feet further. Judging by the abundance of red hair, they were with their family.
She made her way through the mob of people standing between them and then stood in front of the Weasley family. Including the ones she already knew; Charlie, Percy and the twins. However, the ones she didn't know were pretty obvious. The small boy with the long nose was Ron, the only sister was Ginny and the other two were their parents, Molly and Arthur Weasley. Despite already knowing their names, she pretended she didn't as they introduced themselves.
"Hello, dear, you must be Gabrielle! Fred and George have told us so much about you." Their mother came up to her almost immediately with a tight embrace. "I'm Molly, their mother. And this is my husband, Arthur." Mrs Weasley continued as she let go. Her husband popped up beside her, smiling as he shook her hand.
"Nice to meet you." She mumbled while smiling back. Mrs Weasley then introduced two youngest children. "And that's Ginny, our youngest, and Ron- What are you two doing?!" The sweetness in her voice was soon replaced with a sort of motherly annoyance as she saw that Fred and George had given their younger brother a Hiccough Sweet, causing the poor boy to start hiccoughing unstoppably.
"Why do you always have to bully you brother like this? What has he ever done to you?" She yelled at them, but they continued to laugh at their sibling. Even Mr Weasley cracked a smile, only when his wife wasn't looking, of course.
"Sorry, mum, but we've got a train to catch!" Fred grinned as he took Gabrielle by the arm. "See you in three months!" George said as he took the other and they pulled her on the train without bothering to wait for a reply.
They didn't let go of her until they'd found an empty compartment. "Shouldn't we go look for Angelina and Lee?" She asked as they closed the door behind them. "We've got something to show you first." Fred said mysteriously as he reached inside his coat. As she'd expected, he pulled put the dreaded piece of parchment otherwise known as The Marauders Map.
"Honestly, this again?" She asked, irritated.
"Shut up and listen." Fred said as he laid it down in front of her.
"It's been giving us hints." George continued as he tapped it with his wand. The words It is good to be up to no good appeared.
She read the words aloud and shot them a confused look, "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Wait, there's more." George said as he tapped it again. The previous sentence vanished and another took its place. Solemnly swear that you will use this map for the right purposes.
"Now that's just weird." She noted. "So, what are you looking for? A password?"
Fred nodded, "We think so, yeah. But we just can't figure it out."
"It's got to have something to do with these two sentences." George added.
At first, they thought what they could mean, but when the three of them couldn't come up with anything they started looking for possible combinations of the two.
"I solemnly swear I will use this map to do good." Fred began, without luck.
Gabrielle grinned, "Don't make promises you can't keep, Fred." He shot her a dirty look and turned back to thinking, which seemed to take a lot of effort. After a while he gave up, and apparently so did George. They just sat there, pouting and staring out of the window.
"Fine." She grumbled while pulling out her wand. They looked at her expectingly as she thought about the right combination. It took her a minute or so to think of a decent one. When she finally did, she cleared her throat to try it out.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
xxx
"You did it!" Fred exclaimed before she even noticed what had happened. It wasn't writing that had started to appear on the parchment, it were lines. Lines which came together and parted again, forming some kind of blueprint. Which, when she thought about it, was actually kind of predictable, as it was called the Marauders Map. They unfolded some more of it and it soon became clear what it was.
"Is that?" George asked unbelievingly.
"No, it can't be." Fred mumbled.
"But it is." Gabrielle said, smiling.
They looked at each other for a while, their eyes full of mischief. "Think of all the pranks we can pull off with this!" Fred said, dozens of ideas already coming to mind. Gabrielle unfolded the map a bit further and muttered "No way."
"What?" They asked in unison.
"Look at this." She pointed at several passages leading out of the school. There were seven in total, all going in different directions.
George pointed at one of them and smiled at the memory. "This is the one behind the statue on the fifth floor."
"Oh yeah, the one Filch doesn't know of. Do you think he knows about the others?" Fred asked curiously
"Only one way to find out." Gabrielle muttered and a grin appeared on their faces. She looked at them and asked,
"Prank?"
"Prank."
