The Marauder's Map
Miranda Shadowind
A/N: Again, I apologize for the huge delay, but too much has been going on lately. I've got the basic sequence of events down, and hope to finish this before I finish "Switching Hour." Partially because I know this will be shorter in terms of chapter numbers, partially because chronologically it takes place before SH, "What if…?"-ing aside.
Chapter 3
(George's POV)
"To think the whole thing started here…" Fred muttered as we headed down the Charms Corridor. Only I knew he was mostly referring to our discovery of the map.
"We can tell," Angelina remarked, holding her nose.
The smell of dung still lingered where we had teamed up on Frary. No doubt Squib Boy had been up the rest of the night just trying to remove the mess, let alone the stench. I almost felt sorry for the magic-less old bugger… Almost. Ah, who am I kidding, he deserved what he got! Besides, if not for his Squib-dom, knowing Filch he'd probably be ten times as worse, even if that is why he hates students in the first place.
Inside, Flitwick was busy putting large feathers on the desks, which meant we'd be learning Wingardium Leviosa as he'd hinted before. As we started to pass his desk, I noticed that he'd conveniently left his wand out in the open.
'Shall I?' I jerked my thumb toward the wand, and Flitwick's turned back.
'Go for it!' Fred snorted and nonchalantly headed for his desk.
Biting my tongue, I quickly nudged the wand so that it rolled under a pile of extra feathers. This done, I sneakily replaced it with another wand and blended into the other Gryffindors filing in.
'All set!' I sat down at my usual desk toward the back beside Fred, both of us heaving with silent laughter.
'Which one is it?'
'Not sure, but given Flitwick it'll be a riot one way or the other.'
Grinning evilly, we watched Flitwick take the wand and climb up onto his stack of books. "Good morning, Class. Today we will be learning a most uplifting spell, Wingardium Leviosa. You of course remember the little wrist movement we've been practicing, the Swish and Fli-"
*SQUAWK!*
"AAH!!!"
*CRASH!*
On those last three words, Flitwick had demonstrated, only to find that he was conducting class with a rubber chicken. The resulting noise had scared him out of his wits, and, consequently, made him topple off the books. Our fellow Gryffindors burst out laughing, and Fred and I joined in, low-fiving under the desks.
Lee turned around and gave us a knowing look. "What was that?"
Fred glanced around the room for a second, then whispered, "Let's just say-"
"-Fake Wand Test Number One-"
"-of Project Triple-W-"
"-was a complete success!"
Lee grinned and nodded; he knew exactly what "Project Triple-W" was. Fred and I've been working on our own line of joke products: "Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes." We haven't made much beyond the fake wands yet, as we're only First Years, but that'll change soon enough. Mum has no idea, of course. She'd probably skin us alive if she ever found out…
Flitwick got to his feet and located his real wand as the laughter died down. "Yes, yes, very amusing." He examined the wand for a moment, then climbed back onto his stack. "Now, as I was saying…"
One hour of flying and exploding feathers later, we headed for the Big Snoozefest - er, History of Magic. Seriously, old Professor Binns can put anyone to sleep the way he rambles on. Maybe there's something in Bill's old Transfiguration book on how to turn a textbook into a pillow…
[Later…]
"*YAWN* Let's go George, class's over." Fred nudged me in the shoulder.
"Mmm, yeah…" I pointed my wand at the quill in front of me, which had just finished scribbling down what I had said. "Finite Incanto." It fell flat on the parchment, which I quickly stowed away in my rucksack, silently thanking whoever invented the Dictation Charm. 'Reckon there's any secret passages down in the Dungeons?'
'More than likely. Bet one of 'em leads to Filch's favorite torture chamber.' We both sniggered, earning odd looks from those around us as we headed downstairs.
Fred started to reach into his robes, but immediately put his hand back down. I didn't have to ask why; the last thing we needed was for the whole school to find out about the map before we could fully utilize it. If the teachers saw that it had been recovered, undoubtedly they'd put it under lock and key somewhere, or worse, burn it.
Lunchtime found us sitting by Charlie and Percy. Most of the Third Years at the Gryffindor Table, as well as the other three, were abuzz with excitement. "What's all the fuss about, Perce?"
"Time for the 'Geek Awards' already?"
Percy scowled. "There is no such thing!"
"You're probably right, the Ravenclaws would win every year."
Several loud fits of sneezing could be heard two tables away.
"Ravenclaw House is NOT full of geeks!" he exclaimed a bit too loudly, resulting in indignant stares all aimed at him.
I looked at Fred, then back at Percy curiously. "And just how would you-"
"-know something like that?"
"That's… that's none of your business!" Percy was attempting to remain calm, but his pink face gave him away.
"It's the next Hogsmeade weekend tomorrow," Charlie stated, bringing up the original topic. "The other Third Years probably want to get what they can before the school year's over."
"Pathetic really. None of them care that it's the only non-Muggle village in all Great Britain, or of its grand history dating back to…"
Of course, no one was listening. Fred and I learned how to tune him out the way we do Binns a long time ago. I swear, if Dumbledore ever decides to give Binns the boot, Percy would be the perfect replacement. At least in terms of a class to sleep through.
Fred grinned at me from across the table. 'A Hogsmeade weekend! It's the perfect time to slip out and explore the village! There'll be too many other students for anyone to notice a couple of First Years running amuck!'
'My sentiments exactly, but we're not exactly tall for our age. We still might stick out enough for someone to notice.'
'Yeah, but what can we do…?'
Surprisingly, the answer came in Double Potions with the Slytherins afterwards. We'd decided to do our passage hunt after detention, when the risk of getting caught would be lowest. While Snape wrote ingredients on the blackboard, Fred copied them down and I stole glances at the Dungeons section of the map so we'd have some idea of where to look later.
"…Though I doubt some of you are ready," Snape glanced toward our side of the room, "your assignment is to make the Aging Potion. Its effects depend on how much is taken, as well as its strength. The instructions on the board are for a weaker, temporary version. Therefore, any one of you thinking of using the one you make to fool teachers will find it quite useless."
I almost expected him to glare at Fred and me on that last comment, but he didn't. 'An Aging Potion, of course!'
'Who would think we'd actually make something useful in Potions? We'll just make ours a tad stronger than everyone else's.' I pocketed the map, fished out Magical Drafts and Potions, and searched for the original recipe. Thankfully, we wouldn't have to fully improvise, as there were notes on how to make it stronger or weaker according to need. "Here we go, just need to double this and throw in a dash of that…"
I added to the notes accordingly, but not fast enough. Snape was headed our way, so we got to work, pretending to be working on the weaker potion. He stared down at the open book, which I shut at once.
"Misters Weasley, I thought I made it quite clear at the start of class that you would not need your textbook for today's lesson. Are you that hard of hearing or are you simply eager to have points taken from your House? More of which should have been taken off for your harassment of a Slytherin Prefect last night, I might add."
We simply shrugged and slowly followed the "corrected" recipe thus far, barely acknowledging his slimy presence. "Well?! Don't you have anything to say for yourselves?!"
'Not for us… HIM on the other hand…'
I nearly squashed the bits of chopped dragon liver I was holding as I held in a laugh. Yech… I tossed them into the cauldron and casually glanced up at Snape. "We were just curious about the original-"
"-nothing wrong with that, is there?"
"Curiosity killed the Gryffindor. 5 points will be taken for your cheek." With that, he swooped away toward his bitches - I mean House charges. Kinda makes you wonder sometimes, the way he favors them and all…
"Curiosity killed the Gryffindor!" I mimicked half under my breath, scrunching up my nose. "Pity we can't force feed him some of this. Think it'd be enough to turn his hair gray?"
"Who can tell under all that grease?" Fred chuckled, and I joined in.
"Good point." I flipped the textbook back open but hid it on my lap so it wouldn't be spotted again, and we continued.
By the time we'd finished, class was nearly over and Snape was scrutinizing workstations. He was about to examine our cauldron when the bell rang, thankfully. "You will store your potions in the student cabinet, and I will examine them more thoroughly next class." He then stared at Fred and me. "As for you two troublemakers, I will see you in this room at 9:00 tonight and not a minute later!"
"Right."
'See us, yes. Hearing is a different matter…' Fred grinned and dipped a pair of empty phials into the cauldron along with a flask after Snape had left.
'Nyaha, I know!' I took a phial, stoppered it, and stowed it in my rucksack as Fred did the same. 'This should be enough, we just need to be at least two years older.' I labeled the flask and put it in the cabinet on our way out.
'Then it's just a matter of which passageway gets the honor of us going through it first…'