Fred spent one long day after another wandering around Grimmauld place. Hermione was consistently being stolen away by Harry and Ron, which was growing more and more irritating, but generally, one small smile from her could save Fred an hour or so's agony. After that, he and George would put their heads together and decide how they were going to save Christmas. It was Ginny who came up with some of the best ideas, shouting them as she passed.

"Gin, I'm sorry, but Michael Corner is an insufferable idiot," George muttered under his breath. "In fact, any boy you'll ever date is an insufferable idiot. Please remain single forever. Men are stupd, but boys have no brains. By associating with them, you also have no brains. They steal them. Especially Michael Corner. He's a prat."

"Say that any louder and you'll end up hexed," Fred whispered back, spreading out the parchment before him. "We could make fake maps, like the Marauder's, but have them show passageways where there aren't any."

"We could label Trelawney's place the Kitchens," George nodded.

"Did I hear a certain 'M' word?" Sirius demanded. George and Fred whipped around to see him there in the doorway, as if he'd been there for a long while. "You know, I happen to be an excellent map maker."

"Could you every reproduce the Marauder's Map?" George asked.

"It's dead useful," said Fred enthusiastically.

"You told him about that we made the Map?" Sirius asked, sitting between the twins and smoothing out their long roll of parchment. "What am I saying, of course you did. Well, George, the Marauder's Map is something, fueled by an absolute necessity to cause trouble-"

"Check."

"Sneak food from the kitchens-"

"Check."

"Pull girls out of class for a snog-"

"Check."

"And avoid detention at all costs."

"Check," said George one last time.

"You've been pulling Angelina out of class?" Fred asked with a frown.

"Must be one hell of a girl," Sirius' eyes had an odd twinkle to them, though his face had gone strangely sad. He sighed, staring at the wall opposite them. He pulled the stopper out of the ink and overturned the entire bottle of it out the parchment. Fred's eyes nearly popped from his head. Then Sirius tapped the center of the ink splotch with his wand, and the splotch transformed. Hogwarts etched itself artfully into the parchment, accurate down to the number of steps on the stairs by the Entrance Hall. "Now, the problem with duplicating the Map is that whenever we tried-"

"Oh, dear, we are in trouble," Fred and George jumped and whirled instinctually, not prepared for Lupin's spot on impression of Argus Filch. He and Sirius laughed heartily, and the twins nearly had a second heart attack when the man himself stepped out from behind Lupin.

"I'll have you hung by your toes," he growled, then winked, his grey hair shortening and brightening.

"Tonks, you're a genius," Sirius smiled, then made an odd sort of face at Lupin, "You two make a wonderful pair."

"I like to think so," Tonks settled herself across from Sirius, "Is this the Map?!"

"No," Lupin answered, sitting beside her. He threw the twins a measured look. "I expect we will be paid for this consultation?"

Fred gave a wild glance to George. What was happening?!

"Nonsense, Moony," Sirius chuckled, "Care to explain why we couldn't duplicate the Map?"

"Everytime we tried, the people's markers stopped moving, and the Map took nearly three months to create, so we never bothered making more than one," Lupin said.

"They're trying to make an inaccurate map," Sirius explained, "Trick all the less informed first years."

"Your mother would love to hear that," Lupin muttered under his breath.

"There's an armor statue that sits against the wall going into the Prefect's bathroom," Tonks pointed. "That would be a nice secret passageway."

"Good eye," Sirius remarked. Tonks raised her eyebrows, her eyes changing from blue to purple to pink to red to brilliant green, "You took that too literally."

Lupin and Sirius turned away from Tonks quickly when her eyes became green until they shifted back to their ordinary color. They had become the precise shade of Harry's eyes for a moment. The five worked for nearly two hours improvising fake passageways. Fred felt that he'd managed to impress the Marauder's with his knowledge of the real passages (several time they'd tried to put a fake entrance where a real one was).

"You know, our version of Hogwarts is less confusing," George commented. Tonks rotated the map.

"Put a tunnel on to the Quidditch pitch, or Hagrid's Hut," she suggested.

"Lupin, I was wondering if you could teach us how to send messages with Patronuses," Fred asked lightly, pleased with the map they'd created.

"He needs to sleep first, and so do you Tonks," Sirius said begrudgingly, "They've been out and about on secret missions."

"Oh, get over yourself," Tonks said, standing with a yawn. "We both know if danger ever saw that pretty little face of yours , it would stop to take photos."

Lupin sighed as Sirius pulled his long, dark hair back, "It wouldn't be the only one."

"Thanks," Fred said, rolling up their new map.

"Didn't Hermione want you two to lay off the first years?" Tonks asked.

"Believe me," George said.

"This map would confuse Flitwick," Fred beamed.

"We are geniuses," Sirius admitted, standing. "Now, Lupin, I believe some firewhiskey may be in order."

"Count us in," the twins chimed together.

"Remus and firewhiskey?" Tonks grinned up at the older man with a grin, "I'd like to see that."

Fred and George exchanged a glance as Lupin started to smile softly.

"Fred?" Hermione stuck her head in the door. For the first time in too long, the shadows of her best friends did not linger behind her. Fred was beside her in moments.

"See you at dinner," he tossed George the map and tugged Hermione out of sight.

"Don't tell me-" Tonks started. She glanced at her cousin first, then jumped in front of the door.

"Move."

"Sirius, let them be kids," Tonks said. "You can't tell me that you never-"

"That's different!"

"It really isn't," George muttered, muttering a spell. The map folded itself up into a coin sized circle and he put it in his pocket.

"Actually it is," Lupin said, smirking slightly, "I have feeling your flings were a lot less... serious..."

"This again?!" Sirius turned, "It's a fucking star, Remus, it isn't your fault your name is Werewolf McWerewolf, you can blame my ruddy parents on their-"

"Down boy," Tonks snarled, "Your parents didn't name you Nympha-bloody-dora!"

"The hate-our-names club is nice and all, but I really just don't get it," George chuckled nervously. All three rounded on him. He needed to learn to shut up.

His twin could relate.

"I'm contemplating kidnapping you," Fred murmured. "We could go to your parents, they aren't there right now."

"I don't want to talk about my parents," Hermione said, leaning against him. He stood behind her with his arms wrapped protectively around her.

"D'you know that Sirius charmed all the doors so they don't lock," Fred asked, "Well, most of... no it's just your room. I think he suspects."

"Suspects what?"

"That if I could lock that door, we would never leave this room again," Fred whispered in her ear.

"Then we would die in this room," Hermione frowned.

"I would die happy," Fred murmured.

"I like it better when you keep your mouth closed," Hermione sighed. Fred turned her around slowly, grinning wickedly.

"You know, I've never been more excited to prove you wrong," Fred whispered, kissing her forehead. He pulled her chin up with one finger and stared at her for a moment.

"What?" Hermione asked.

"Have I ever proved you wrong before?"

"Fred, if you don't start now, you will never have the chance," Hermione rolled her eyes.

.o0O0o.

Happy Superb Owl Sunday! ;)

FYI, the next chapter or the chapter after that depending on how lazy I am about filling gaps might get a little... dark.

GUYS STOP ASKING FOR SPOILERS ABOUT FRED'S DEATH/SURVIVAL, OR ANYONE ELSE'S DEATH/SURVIVAL BECAUSE YOU THINK YOU WANT TO KNOW BUT IT ONLY RUINS THE DRAMATIC TENSION! I WON'T GIVE YOU A YES/NO ANSWER BECAUSE A) THIS IS CROSS EXAMINATION AND B) TAKE A CHILL PILL IT'LL BE ALRIGHT!

Electrocorrosive: The twin-in-law thing is recurring, that's just how George sees Hermione. I promise that sad but cute will occur. Also, Williams will be back, in a big way.

Infernalbooks: D'awww thank you!

fanficti0naddict: I believe I addressed your concern above; I have a strict no spoilers policy at the mo. Thank you for the love 3

Sparky She-Demon: Thank you, and I plan on having Ron super sleuth/catch them *at-it* at the end of Year 7.

cochran4444: I wrote this fic to prove to myself that I could right romance, because it's so embarrassing for me to even think about it. It takes me a bit (i.e. dark room, no sounds, no people, dead of night) for me to get into the smut sort of mood.

Just'iine: Your English is fine, it's the typos more than anything, and everyone is prone to that. Eventually there'll be lemon, but I've mostly written that for the time periods when Fred and Hermione have to say good-bye to each other (like Bill's Wedding, their stay at Shell Cottage before breaking into Gringott's etc.)

animelover5107: The Lord of the Rings always makes me happier, and I'd just watched the Hobbit so...

StarGirlPotter: That's understandable, sucks, but is also super cute, and, knowing what you do about Pyrrha and Penny... Well, it's easy to see what Cinder was setting up.