Author's Note: I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day! In honor of the holiday of love, I have written a James/Lily one-shot (yes, I know it's a little late for Valentine's Day, but my internet was down so I couldn't post anything all weekend) called 'By The Light Of The Silvery Moon', so check it out and let me know what you think!

Lots of twins in this chapter!

Thanks, Worthfull1

P.S. I own nothing, anything recognizable belongs to the lovely Ms. Rowling. This includes any dialogue that may have been in the books. I'm trying very hard not to quote verbatim, but it may occasionally happen. I DO NOT OWN ANY CANON CHARACTERS, SITUATIONS OR DIALOGUE.

Chapter 34: Shock And Awe

"Harry, mate - what are you looking for?" asked Ron, walking into the boys' dormitory and looking around at the wreckage his best friend was causing. Harry turned around with wild eyes and Ron briefly wondered if he was having one of his visions.

"I can't find it!" Harry hissed, frantically upending his trunk for a third time.

"Can't find what?"

"The mirror! Sirius' mirror! I had it when the DA got caught, but I don't know where it is now!" Harry shouted, dropping to his knees to look under the bed yet again.

After the incident in Dumbledore's office, Harry had been escorted back to Gryffindor Tower by Minerva who had assured him that Dumbledore would let the Order know what had happened. He'd been so exhausted by the whole ordeal - and so relieved that he'd somehow escaped without punishment for the time being - that he'd fallen asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. That is, after relating the events to Ron and Hermione, who had been waiting up for him in the Common Room. The last thing on his mind was talking to anyone, even Sirius, and by the time he'd woken up the next morning, he'd forgotten completely.

"Oh, bugger," said Ron. "Well, where did you have it last?"

"I don't know! I remember talking to Sirius and Remus during the Patronus lesson, but now I can't find it!" Harry paused in his excavation of the dorm to collect his thoughts. "Okay - we were learning Patronus', right?" he asked, trying to use Ron as a sounding board for a play-by-play of that night.

"Right."

"And I was having trouble trying to explain how to summon one, right?"

"Right."

"So I called Sirius through the mirror and he found Remus who talked me through it, right?"

Ron shrugged. "Okay."

Harry blinked. "Oh, right - you were across the room. Yeah, I was talking to Remus... "

"Okay, then what happened?"

"Uh - ," Harry said, trying to piece together the puzzle. "Oh! Neville needed help with the wand movement!"

"Okay, good - keep going," said Ron, sitting down on the edge of Harry's bed.

"Um, uh - I walked over to help him because he looked like he was going to poke his own eye out and - AH!" he said looking up at Ron. "I set the book down on one of the bookshelves!"

Ron looked confused. "Book? I thought you were looking for the mirror?"

"I AM! I was hiding the mirror in a book because I don't want anyone knowing about it!" Harry explained quickly. Ron nodded.

"Okay, so the mirror is inside a book which is inside the Room of Requirement, which we know is being guarded by Umbridge's goons twenty-four hours a day," Ron said, summing up the situation.

"Right! Oh - " Harry's brief glimmer of happiness vanished almost instantly as he realized what that meant. "Shit!"

"Any idea which book it is?" asked Ron.

Harry thought about it. "I don't remember. I just picked up a random defense book."

"Any idea which shelf you left it on?"

"No," Harry groaned. "The Room keeps changing the shelves around depending on what we needed."

"Bugger."

Two days later and they were no closer to figuring out a way to get past the 'Inquisitorial Squad', as Umbridge liked to call her new band of thugs. Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and several other Slytherins of questionable intelligence had been recruited by the new Headmistress and given all sorts of powers. They could dock points, give detentions and generally harass to their hearts content - all with the full approval of Umbridge herself. She had even gone so far as to place three of them around the corridor that housed the Room of Requirement in rotating shifts because she seemed absolutely certain that if she let it be, the DA would be picking up where it left off.

"We could try - "

"Ron, just leave it," Harry said wearily as they sat in the Common Room. The end of the DA had done one good thing for Harry - he was finally catching up on his homework.

"Yes, Ronald, leave it," Hermione agreed. "Harry's supposed to be clearing his mind right now."

Harry sighed miserably. He had an Occlumency lesson with Snape that night and he already knew it would be a disaster. Between the DA getting caught, losing the mirror and his general exhaustion, clearing his mind had become increasingly difficult. Add to that the fact that he wasn't sure at all that Snape wasn't secretly making it easier for Voldemort to get into his head and that he wasn't sure that stopping the visions would be a good thing seeing as his vision of Mr. Weasley had saved the man's life, and Harry was in a right mess. And, for the cherry on top, he'd dreamed about the corridor with the door again just the previous night and he was sure Snape would find that memory.

Checking the time Harry groaned. He was due in Snape's office in fifteen minutes. Stuffing his things in his bag, he went up to the boy's dorm to drop them off, then headed back down to the Common Room. Waving at Ron and Hermione who wished him luck, he exited the portrait hole and began making his way towards the dungeons. Best to get this over with, he thought dejectedly as he once again knocked on Snape's door.

An hour later found a very confused and highly disillusioned Harry Potter heading back to Gryffindor Tower in a haze. Snape had, in fact, seen the dream, but before he could properly interrogate Harry, Malfoy had shown up, interrupting their lesson and saying that Umbridge needed Snape's help with something. Snape had told Harry to wait, but he'd gotten bored and wandered over to the Potions Master's desk, finding his pensieve. Curious as to what could be so important that Snape didn't want to risk Harry accidentally stumbling across it like he'd done during a couple Occlumency attempts where Harry had fought back and entered Snape's mind, he - almost unconsciously - looked into the pensieve.

Minutes later, he was dragged out by none other than Snape himself, who was enraged at the situation. Snape told him never to speak of what he'd seen and threw him out of the room, but not before swearing to never give Harry another Occlumency lesson. Harry had sped away from Snape's office, running through the halls of the school as though Umbridge herself was hot on his heels. Stopping only when he was well and truly out of breath, Harry slumped against the wall, trying to digest all he'd just seen. The memory the pensieve had dropped him into had been horrible.

The Snape in the pensieve had looked to be no older than Harry and he was clearly minding his own business when a very young James Potter and Sirius Black decided it was time to play. Remus and Peter had been there, too - the former trying desperately to ignore what was going on and the latter playing follow-the-leader and going along with James and Sirius. Then Harry's mother had arrived, and that's when Harry's world really shattered. He'd always been told that his parents had been very much in love with each other, but the James and Lily Harry had just seen were anything but.

Harry didn't know what to think. The Sirius and Remus that he knew had told him that his parents were practically saints, and he'd always hated Snape for taunting him about his father, who he said had been cocky and arrogant. It seemed now, though, that Snape had been right. The James Potter from the pensieve had been every bit as horrible as Snape made him out to be and Harry had to wonder if everyone else had been, yet again, keeping information from him. Now he really missed the mirror, but he knew better than to go anywhere near the seventh floor corridor. As Hermione had pointed out - for all they knew, Umbridge may have placed alarms around the room that let her know who was near. Harry thought that was a stretch, but Hermione insisted it could be done, so he had to admit it was possible.

One thing was for sure now, though. He really needed to speak to Sirius.

Nearly two weeks later, the twins came to Harry with a plan. It seemed Ginny had spoken to them about Harry's predicament and they wanted to help. He tried to refuse, as this would surely get them into loads of trouble, but they told him not to worry, they had it all figured out. Harry was still wary, but he did need to speak to Sirius, so he went along with it. Fred and George gave him the specifics and he waited for the go-ahead. Once the signal came, Harry broke into Umbridge's office and threw a handful of floo powder into the fireplace, then got down on his knees and stuck his head into Grimmauld's sitting room.

"Sirius?" he called out. A figure in a chair across the room leapt up, startled and rushed to the fireplace. It was Remus.

"Harry!" he exclaimed. "What's wrong?"

"I fancied a chat with Sirius," he said, suddenly realizing how ridiculous that sounded.

"Okay," Remus said, confused. "I- I'll go get him." He rushed from the room and returned moments later with Sirius in tow.

"Harry!" Sirius said, clearly worried. "What's happened? Are you alright?" Kneeling quickly by the fire, he could tell Harry was upset.

"Yeah, I just needed to talk to you," he said, and gave them a quick rundown on what he'd seen in the pensieve. Judging by the looks on their faces, they remembered that day.

"Harry - " Sirius began. "I'm not excusing our actions, but we were fifteen at the time."

"I'm fifteen!" Harry nearly shouted. "Everyone's always told me what a great guy my father was, but what I saw was not great! In fact, I'm not so sure Snape wasn't right about him!" Sirius didn't like that.

"No, Harry," Sirius said sternly. "Severus Snape and your father hated each other on sight - he is in no position to judge your father's character. And don't think for one moment that he didn't take his opportunities to antagonize us, either. The rivalry went both ways," he added. He took a deep breath. "Look, James was a good man, but we did some stupid things when we were kids. We were arrogant and cocky, but we had every reason to be. We were young, good athletes, good looking - we had everything going for us. Then we grew up."

Harry thought abut that. "But what about my mother? She seemed to really hate him."

The men smiled at that. "Once James deflated his head a bit, she came around," Remus said. "Harry, your parents loved each other very much. Don't ever doubt that. Whatever mistakes we made as teenagers - well, that's all they were - mistakes. We certainly weren't angels."

"Listen, Harry," Sirius said. "Next time you're here we'll sit down and I'll tell whatever you want to know about your parents, alright? The good and the bad."

Harry nodded. "Alright. I'd better go, I don't have a lot of time."

"Okay. Be safe, Harry," Sirius said.

He nodded again. "Bye," he said, pulling his head out of the fire. That conversation had done little to make Harry feel better, but he knew he didn't have time for a real talk. At least the men hadn't simply brushed him off or denied it. Brushing soot out of his hair and off his knees, he got to his feet and slipped out of Umbridge's office to find the corridor in a state of chaos. The twins hadn't told him exactly what their 'distraction' entailed, so he hadn't know what to expect, but this was brilliant. Quickly pulling out the Map, Harry sought out Ron and Hermione, who were in the Entrance Hall and part of a crowd that had gathered around Fred and George who had been cornered by Umbridge.

"I've got you now," Harry heard her say gleefully as he approached the Hall. "Oh, you're going to be sorry! I know it was you behind those fireworks the day after Dumbledore left, too. You're going to pay!"

"You know what?" said one twin. "I don't think we will. I don't see any reason to continue our academic career, do you brother?"

"You know, I don't think I do," said the other. "I think we ought to leave."

"Right," said the first twin, turning back to Umbridge. "We're leaving."

"Accio brooms!" they shouted together, and the crowd ducked as the brooms came hurtling towards them, one of them dragging the chain that had attached it to the wall in Umbridge's office. Fred and George mounted and kicked off, soaring above the crowd and an outraged Headmistress. Turning, they saw Peeves hovering over the chaos, clearly delighted at all the ruckus.

"Give her hell from us, Peeves!"

Fred and George flew to the Shrieking Shack and dismounted. The Shack was outside of Hogwarts grounds, so there were no apparition wards around it. Not wanting to spend the better part of the night flying, they shrunk their trunks and brooms until they could fit in their pockets and, nodding to each other, disapparated. Landing moments later on the front doorstep of their destination, they didn't bother knocking, but opened the door and let themselves in. Making their way into the kitchen, they found it empty, so they continued on to the sitting room.

Sirius and Remus looked up at the sound of footsteps and, moments later, identical ginger twins stood in the doorway. The two men shared a look, then turned back to Fred and George.

"What the hell?!" they said in unison.

Twin grins lit up the boys' faces and they walked into the room with an air of cockiness Sirius recognized from his own youth. They had obviously just pulled off something rather remarkable, and they knew it. As interested in that story as he was, however, what he really wanted was to know exactly what was going on at Hogwarts at that moment. He and Remus had been speaking to Harry through the fire, of all things, not an hour before and now Fred and George come waltzing into Headquarters bold as brass and looking as though they didn't have a care in the world. Sirius pointed to them, then to the sofa.

"Sit," he commanded. They obeyed, still grinning. "Okay, now I want you to tell us - slowly, mind - exactly what the fuck is going on," he growled, taking a bit of pleasure in the way the boy's smiles faltered just slightly. They knew he was innocent of the crime he'd been sent to prison for, but Sirius Black was not a man to be dismissed. It was clear when he meant business.

"Well, Fred and I have been doing a lot of thinking this year - " George began.

" - and we've decided that the world of academia - " followed Fred.

" - while fine for people like our Hermione and the Professor here - "

" - is no longer where we need to be," Fred finished.

"Boys," Sirius growled, pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. He was already on edge from talking to Harry and rapidly losing patience with the twins.

"We've dropped out," supplied George.

"Dropped out?" Remus repeated, not quite sure he'd heard right. "Of Hogwarts?"

"Yes," Fred confirmed. "We really have thought this through, and if we want to get our business up and running, we need to be out of school."

"The joke shop's still on, then?" Remus asked.

"Absolutely," answered George. "Which is partly the reason we're here. You wouldn't happen to still be interested, would you?" he asked Sirius.

Sirius was quiet for a moment. "I'll make you a deal, boys," he said. "You tell me everything you know about Harry and Umbridge and the condition of the school, and I will be your financial backer. Deal?"

The twins agreed immediately and enthusiastically and began filling the men in on the goings on at the school. Some of it Sirius and Remus already knew about from mirror chats with Harry, but since Harry apparently didn't have the mirror anymore (and Fred and George confirmed this), information had been infrequent at best. Fred and George told them all about the day after the DA was caught - how they were all interviewed personally by Umbridge who tried to slip them Veritaserum, how she'd made herself Headmistress and brought out a slew of new 'Educational Decrees', how she'd created the 'Inquisitorial Squad', and how they'd let off a box full of their fireworks that day to properly initiate their new Headmistress.

The men laughed as Fred and George told them about none of the other teachers helping Umbridge get rid of the sparklers, claiming that they weren't sure if they had the authority to take care of them themselves and how they had made the fireworks to reject Umbridge's magic. They didn't know much about Harry's lessons with Snape except that they were over. Sirius and Remus exchanged a worried look about that, but there was not much they could do about it now.

"Thanks," Sirius said, feeling slightly better now that he had the information Dumbledore was so loathe to give. "Now, about the joke shop?"

"Well, George and I have found a shop in Diagon Alley and we've already contacted the owner, but we do need funds," Fred admitted.

"Right," George said. "We've got business plans and everything, Sirius, if you want to see them."

"Yeah, I do," Sirius answered. "Why don't you show Messer Moony here some of your stuff while I look over your paperwork?"

George handed over the paperwork to Sirius while Fred returned their trunks back to their original size and began pulling things out to show to Remus. Sirius had told Remus about the merchandise the twins had come up with after his late-night meeting with the boys in their room during the summer, but Remus hadn't seen anything except the punching telescope that gave Hermione a black eye. The twins had been very quiet about their inventions since the last run-in with Molly, so he was quite surprised to see their full line of products.

There were fireworks, fake wands, the punching telescope (with bruise salve), skiving snackboxes for getting out of class, decoy detonators for making a quick getaway and even a prototype for a shield hat which, in theory, would protect the wearer from mild hexes and jinxes. They hadn't perfected that yet, but it was a serious product that they wanted to make and sell, and they let Remus look over their notes to see if he could find out where they were going wrong. He recommended a few specialty shield charms, and gave them the names of a few books that might help.

"You're, ah - not going to tell our mother we're here, are you?" Fred asked while putting their stuff away.

Sirius and Remus looked at each other. "She doesn't know about any of this, does she?" Sirius asked.

"Er - no," George admitted. "We were hoping to do what we needed to do and tell her about it later."

"How much later?" Remus asked.

"When there was absolutely nothing she could do about it," Fred said.

"So you weren't planning on going back to the Burrow tonight," Sirius ventured. Identical heads shook. "So you wanted to stay here until you could move into this Diagon Alley shop?" he pressed. Nods. Sirius sighed. He didn't like the idea of lying to Molly - about her children, no less - but she hadn't asked him about their whereabouts yet, so until she did, he wasn't lying to her. Technically. On the other hand, the boys were of age and serious about their chosen business venture. They deserved the chance to make it happen without her meddling. And Sirius was absolutely certain she would try to put a stop to it if she knew about this. He looked at Remus.

"Your house, my friend," Remus said with a shrug. "And your bollocks," he added, smiling when Sirius grimaced.

"Fine," Sirius said finally. "You know where your bedroom is."

"Thanks, Sirius - !"

"Yeah, mate - thanks!"

"You're the best!"

"We won't be here long!"

"We promise!"

"And we'll deal with mum - "

"Eventually - "

"And make it clear we forced you into it - "

"We take full responsibility - "

"Oh, shut up, the both of you!" Sirius shouted, but he couldn't hide his grin. "Moony," he said, pulling out his money bag. "Why don't you go get us some food? Enough for four, apparently."

Remus chuckled. "My pleasure, Padfoot," getting up. "Any requests?" he asked, regretting it immediately as a litany of suggestions came his way. Shaking his head, he walked out of the room and grabbed his jacket. "Moony's choice it is, then," he said to himself, shutting the front door behind him.

Author's Note: I know this may read as a bit of a filler chapter, but we are getting into heavily canon events, so there's really no way to avoid certain scenes that are essential to the original story and to mine. Also, I know Grawp comes into the story right about now, but to make it easier on myself, he doesn't exist. At least for now. Maybe later. But probably not :)

Thanks, Worthfull1