Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe doesn't belong to me, so don't sue me. Pity really, the things I'd do if I did own it…
A/N: At this point I'd like to say a big thanks to Eruaphadriel and KitKat001 who've taken the time to review every chapter I've written so far. Your comments mean a lot to me and inspired me to write this chapter sooner than planned. Thanks.
I'd also like to thank my friend Sam who has found time between burning food in general to read over this chapter and the last one before I submitted them. Big thumbs up to you.
Chapter Four – A Secret Revealed
It wasn't until the next morning at breakfast that Fred and George even thought about the possible repercussions of the actions of the previous night. They knew of course that there would be repercussions, the last time Filch had let a student off the hook for breaking school rules was ancient history, and the fact that they had flouted school rules so badly further decreased their chances of escaping unpunished. But they hadn't considered what those repercussions could be.
The six of them were leaving the Entrance Hall after breakfast, intending to head up to Gryffindor Tower when it happened.
"Mr Weasley." A voice snapped from the bottom of the stairs they were climbing.
Both Fred and George turned, the voice having not specified which of them it was talking to. As their eyes fell upon Professor McGonagall they knew they were in trouble. Her face was hard, cold fury blazed in her eyes, and her lips were thinner than they had ever seen them. When she continued speaking her voice was hard and cold.
"Follow me please."
"Which one of us Professor?" asked Fred, already knowing the answer in his heart.
"Both of you, immediately."
They didn't dare argue. They turned to tell their friends that they'd meet them in the Gryffindor common room later and were met with the look of worry plastered across the faces of both Lee and Alicia, along with the look of puzzlement on Katie and Angelina's faces.
"See you later." Said George glumly, before the two of them turned and made their way back down the stairs.
Professor McGonagall didn't speak as she led them through the dark corridors of the castle and they knew this was a bad sign. They could almost feel the anger radiating out at them from the silence. They knew what had happened of course. Filch had done exactly what he'd threatened to do, gone to Professor McGonagall and reported everything that had happened the previous night. They didn't dare speak to each other as they walked, even in whispers. They were in enough trouble already and didn't want to give Professor McGonagall more reason to yell at them.
When they reached her office Professor McGonagall threw open the door.
"Inside." She snapped.
They trooped in, wincing slightly as the door slammed behind them. Professor McGonagall rounded her desk and faced them, the fury that had been shimmering in her eyes spreading across the rest of her face.
"Never in all my time at Hogwarts have I had two students of my own house disgust me so much! Nothing gives you the right to behave in such a manner; you should be thoroughly ashamed of yourselves! Dropping dungbombs in corridors is one thing, but using them in such a manner and then proceeding to make use of them in Mr Filch's own office is going much too far!"
"Professor…" began Fred quietly.
"I do not want to hear it Mr Weasley! This is beyond excuse! Thirty house points will be taken from Gryffindor for your disgusting behaviour and the two of you will be on detention every night for the next two weeks. I have never been so ashamed to have students as members of my house. Think on that."
Fred and George remained silent, there was no point in arguing, that much was plain. Not that they cared about house points, but they knew others did, and provoking Professor McGonagall to take more would simply be asking for trouble.
"A letter has been sent home to your parents regarding this disgraceful exhibition. You will report back here at precisely nine o'clock this evening for your first detention."
"Yes Professor." They mumbled quietly.
Professor McGonagall simply watched them for a moment. Finally she broke the silence.
"Get out." She spat.
"And count yourselves lucky. If you EVER try anything like this again I will not be so lenient."
The two of them turned to the door and left the room as quickly as they could. As Fred closed the door behind them they could almost physically feel the tension lifting from the air. They walked slowly as they made their way back to Gryffindor Tower.
"Two weeks…" moaned Fred.
"What on earth is she going to have us doing that'll take two weeks worth of detentions?"
"All I can say is that piece of parchment better be worth it." Grumbled George.
"If it turns out that its useless then we'll have added that extra week of detentions for nothing."
Fred groaned.
"Knowing our luck at the moment it'll just turn out to be a piece of old parchment that was shoved in there by mistake. Why something else couldn't have been at the front of that drawer I'll never know."
The two of them turned into the corridor with the Fat Lady at the end of it.
"We should give the thing to Alicia before we do our detention tonight, let her have a look at it. She's good at Charms, she can check for invisible ink and that sort of stuff. Well, not as good as Katie, but since Katie doesn't know about this whole mess we can't give it to her." Fred told George.
George nodded back at him.
"Yeah, if any of the four of us can find out what that parchment is it'll be Alicia. Lets face it; the two of us and Lee aren't exactly great shakes at spells and stuff. Venomous Tentacula."
The portrait swung open in front of them and they climbed through it. They hadn't even had a chance to close it behind them when Angelina reached them. She had strode across the common room to them with the others following in her wake.
"What have you two done now?" she asked.
"Nothing." Replied Fred simply, doing his best to keep his face neutral.
"Oh come on." Added Katie.
"The look on McGonagall's face could have melted ice. You must have done something."
"Don't know what you're talking about." Replied George in exactly the same manner as Fred.
"McGonagall just wanted to talk to us about our Transfiguration homework, that's all."
Both Katie and Angelina looked thoroughly unconvinced, Lee and Alicia just looked nervous. George thought he should try and change the subject before Angelina started to push at them for the truth.
"Anyway, it's the holidays now. We shouldn't be worrying about things like homework. Who's up for a game of Exploding Snap?" he asked hopefully.
"Me." Blurted out Alicia quickly.
"I'll go and get the cards." Added Lee, turning and sprinting up the spiral staircase to their dormitory.
Luckily this seemed to work, Katie and Angelina seemed sufficiently distracted from Professor McGonagall as they began to complain about them always losing at Exploding Snap and how likely it was that the boys were fixing the deck. As Fred energetically denied this ('How could you suggest we could do such a thing?') and guided the two of them over to the armchairs Alicia dropped back to walk alongside George.
"What did McGonagall really want? Was it about last night?" she whispered.
"Yeah. She was giving us our punishments." Replied George.
"What…" Alicia began, but was interrupted as Lee arrived back at the bottom of the stairs and they moved over to the others to start the game.
The day dragged onwards, the six friends spending their time playing different games in the common room, unable to go out into the grounds due to the rain that had started up at around lunchtime. At about quarter to nine in the evening Katie and Lee were engaged in a game of Wizards Chess, the other four watching. Fred glanced at his watch and nudged George, showing him the time. The two of them stood up.
"Hey Alicia, can we talk for a minute?" asked Fred.
Alicia looked up from the board and nodded. Standing and leaving Angelina to watch the match she walked out of the common room with the twins, climbed past the Fat Lady, and walked just out of earshot of her before they stopped her.
"Alicia…" said Fred.
"We can't stay long, got a detention with McGonagall." Continued George.
Fred put his hand inside his robes and pulled out the piece of parchment they'd taken from Filch's Office the night before.
"Here." He said, holding it out to her.
"We thought that you'd be the best person to give it to in order to figure out what it is. You're the best at Charms out of the four of us…"
Alicia blushed slightly as George continued.
"If that parchment is hiding something we know you'll find it."
They grinned as Alicia blushed even redder.
"Umm…ok. I'll have a go at it tonight."
"Great. Give it us back in the morning will you? Not sure what time we'll be back, McGonagall didn't tell us what we're going to be doing."
"Sure."
Fred nudged George again, pointing at his watch. He smiled apologetically.
"Sorry Alicia, we've got to get going. With the mood she was in this morning we probably shouldn't be late."
With one last smile they turned round and left the corridor, leaving Alicia alone. She stood there for a moment, looking down at the parchment in her hands, and thought. Then she tucked it into her robes, turned and made her way back to the Fat Lady, giving the password and climbing through the portrait hole.
"Where've the twins gone?" called Angelina as Alicia climbed through the portrait hole.
"Erm…I'm not sure." She answered.
"They didn't say."
Angelina seemed to accept her answer and turned back to the game.
"Listen, I'm going to go and get an early night." Said Alicia, moving over to the armchairs where the others were sat.
"I didn't get much sleep last night."
She was lying through her teeth there. Last night she'd been asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. But what else could she say? She needed to get upstairs so she could take a look at that parchment. She couldn't look at it down in the common room without Angelina and Katie demanding to know what it was.
"Alright." Said Angelina.
"I'll probably come up in about an hour or so. I'm not that tired yet."
"Ok. See you later." Replied Alicia.
Katie and Lee hadn't looked up from their game. Alicia climbed the spiral staircase leading to the girls' dormitories and entered the room she shared with Angelina and Katie. She closed the door behind her and took out the piece of parchment as she crossed over to her bed (the one on the right). She slumped down onto the bed with the parchment in her hand and leaned over the side, pulling 'The Standard Book of Spells (Grade One) by Miranda Goshawk' out of her school bag, which was lying alongside the bed.
She pulled herself up into a sitting position and opened the book at the Contents page, searching for a spell that could be relevant to revealing invisible ink. She'd decided to start with checking for invisible ink as it was the most obvious way to hide information. Even if it didn't reveal anything it gave her a starting point.
It took her a couple of minutes to find the relevant entry in the contents page and flip to the page it listed, she then spent several minutes studying the diagrams displayed in the book, showing her the correct wand movement for the spell. Finally she was ready.
Carefully she flicked her wand towards the parchment that was lying upon the bed in front of her and said:
"Revelius!"
Nothing happened, the parchment stayed as blank as ever. Alicia tried the spell again, still nothing.
"Not invisible ink then." She muttered to herself, flicking over the page.
She skimmed it quickly, her eyes taking in as much as they could. Her eyes stopped dead halfway down the page at a sentence which read:
'Some magical objects can be charmed to only reveal the information they conceal when the user utters a particular phrase or when a particular person speaks in the object's vicinity, however this is high level magic which will be discussed further in The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 6).'
Her mind buzzed as she considered this sentence. Could this piece of parchment be charmed in such a way? If it was charmed to be voice activated they'd had it. The owner had likely left Hogwarts long ago, and thus the map would be useless. But the idea of a particular phrase activating it…that was certainly a possibility, however there were an infinite number of possible phrases in the English language, how on earth would she be able to find out which?
Deciding to simply guess for now she raised her wand and tapped the parchment.
"Show your secret." She said.
Still nothing happened, the parchment remained as blank as ever. She decided to try again.
"What do you conceal?" she asked.
Once more she was met with the familiar result of nothing. She frowned. Maybe this wasn't the right way to get the parchment to reveal what it was concealing after all. Maybe she was just wasting her time. Deciding to try one more time she tapped the parchment with her wand once more and said.
"I am the owner of this parchment. I command you to reveal what you conceal."
For a split second she thought she had failed once more. Then black lines began to appear slowly on the paper, as if fading into being. She watched as more lines appeared, and the lines became letters, the letters became words. She leaned closer to the parchment, reading the miniscule writing.
Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs would like to congratulate you for gaining possession of this parchment and would like to inquire how it happens to be in your possession.
Alicia blinked. She must be going mad. A piece of parchment was talking to her. Perhaps she was tired after all, so tired in fact that she was hallucinating. She rubbed her eyes then looked down at the parchment once more, the words were still there. She didn't know why she decided to answer the question, she simply spluttered out the answer in shock.
"I…Friends of mine took it from Filch's office."
The words faded from the parchment and once more lines began to appear, forming letters, forming words. Once more she waited until the lines had stopped appearing before leaning in close to read the writing they had formed.
Mr Padfoot would like to congratulate you for removing this parchment from that oaf Mr Filch's possession.
Mr Moony wonders how someone so stupid happened to gain possession of this parchment in the first place.
Mr Prongs agrees with his esteemed colleagues and registers his relief that someone with an IQ greater than a cat's is now in possession of this parchment.
Mr Wormtail wonders whether you know what exactly this parchment is.
Alicia gaped. Had the parchment heard her? It must have done, she supposed, since it was now aware that it had been in Filch's possession. Did it know who Filch was, she wondered. No, it couldn't, she decided. It wasn't all knowing, was it? After a moment she realised that she still hadn't answered the question the parchment had asked her. She supposed she may as well answer, maybe it could tell her what its purpose was.
"No, I don't." she answered.
"I was actually trying to find out when you started…talking to me."
Once more she watched the writing fade and new words slowly form on the page. This time when she read it there was no mention of the odd names it had used earlier, it simply read:
Can we trust you?
Her mouth went dry. This was it, it was going to tell her what it's secret was, she could feel it.
"Yes." She blurted out.
She watched eagerly as more words formed under the question.
In order to make us reveal our secret simply tap the map with your wand and state 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good', and to wipe it clean once more simply tap it again and say 'Mischief Managed'.
Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs hope you enjoy and make good use of The Marauder's Map.
The words lay there on the page in front of her. She had done it. She had found the secret. For some reason she was nervous as she tapped the parchment with her wand once more, stating:
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
At once the writing currently on the paper vanished and once more black lines began to form upon the page, this time forming the words:
Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs
Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers
Are proud to present…
THE MARAUDER'S MAP
As soon as Alicia had read the words they were gone, faded back into the parchment once more. And in its place came hundreds of the lines, all over the parchment. She watch as, this time, the lines did not form words. They formed a sort of map. She realised quickly what it was a map of, Hogwarts. She audibly gasped as her eyes travelled across the map, taking in each and every room displayed and the small black dots that littered amongst them. She saw a black dot labelled 'Alicia Spinnet' at the top of the map's representation of Gryffindor Tower. She was amazed. Oh Fred and George would love her once they saw what this was. She had to show them, now. She couldn't wait until morning.
She stood up, stuffed her wand into her pocket, picked up the map and ran to the door. She raced down the stairs and through the common room, stopping only long enough to open the portrait, ignoring the calls of 'Alicia?' that echoed behind her.
She raced down the corridors, keeping her eyes fixed on the map in her hands.
She took great care to avoid any of the dots on the map. The last thing she needed was someone catching her about the castle with this map and seeing what it was. Finally she came to a halt outside Professor McGonagall's office, gasping for breath. A quick glance at the map told her Professor McGonagall was inside with the twins. It figured, she'd have to wait for their detention to finish. She slumped down onto the floor next to the office door and sat there, waiting for the twins to emerge.
She sat there for just over an hour, her eyes never leaving the map in her hands. She took in its every detail, watching as the small dots moved around the castle's many rooms and corridors. She had tried the 'Mischief managed' spell that the parchment had told her once, just to see whether it would work or not. But she summoned the map back onto the page almost straightaway.
Her head only jerked up when she heard the door opening from beside her. The twins emerged, closing the door behind them, and she jumped up.
"Fred, George!"
Fred turned round in surprise, George nearly jumped out of his skin.
"My god Alicia, don't ever do that again. You scared the life out of me." George told her.
Alicia didn't care, she wasn't listening. She waved the map in front of them.
"I did it!" she exclaimed.
"It's a map! Its amazing, a map of Hogwarts. Every room and person I know of is marked on it! See!"
Fred snatched the map, quickly scanning it with his eyes, George looking at it from over his shoulder. There was a moment's silence before Fred let out a long low whistle.
"Wow…I certainly didn't expect this. This is amazing."
George looked like Christmas had come early as he looked back up at Alicia.
"Alicia…this is amazing. How did you find out what it was?"
So she told them as they began to walk slowly back to Gryffindor Tower. She told them of the map talking to her, of her originally thinking she was hallucinating, of the map insulting Filch (Fred snorted with laughter at this point), and finally of the map instructing her on how to use it.
"Wow…" said George once she'd finished speaking.
"We owe you one Alicia, big time. You've done some great work tonight."
He hugged her and she felt like she was going to burst with happiness. They were so pleased, she was glad now that she hadn't given up trying. She positively beamed as she asked the next question.
"So what are you going to do with it?"
The twins glanced at each other for a moment.
"We're not sure yet." Said Fred.
"I don't recognise some of these passages." Said George.
"We should probably start by seeing where they go."
"Some of them lead off the map." Said Alicia, leaning over and pointing at several of them.
"I think they might lead…"
"Out of the castle." Finished Fred, letting out another low whistle.
"We'll definitely have to check those out."
"Look." Said George, pointing at the map.
"One of them starts in the next corridor. Shall we check it out now? With this little baby I don't think we need to worry about curfew. We'll easily be able to avoid Filch and Mrs Norris."
Fred and Alicia nodded eagerly. Together they turned into the corridor and began moving along it until they were standing where the map showed the passage began. They turned to face the wall.
"Must be behind this statue." Said Fred, pointing to a statue of a one-eyed witch next to them.
"There's probably a password or something…I wonder…"
Alicia let out a small squeal.
"Look!" she squeaked, pointing at the map.
Fred and George directed their gaze back to the map once more and watched as a minute – was that meant to be an arm? – line stretched out from the clump of dots that was the three of them and tapped the statue, a little speech bubble appearing next to them reading: "Dissendium."
They stared at the map for a moment before George voiced all their thoughts.
"Do you reckon we should try it?"
"I don't see why not." Replied Alicia.
"What harm will it do? At the very worst it just won't work."
George smiled at her.
"Alright then."
He stretched out his arm; his wand clutched in its grip, and tapped the statue.
"Dissendium."
Slowly, the statue's hump opened. It made the grinding noise of stone on stone as it moved.
"Looks like the map is right on the mark." Said Fred quietly.
Alicia peered down into the dark tunnel behind the statue.
"There's no light in there." She commented needlessly.
"Lumos." Muttered George, the tip of his wand bursting into life immediately, giving out a small radius of light around them.
Both Fred and Alicia pulled out their wands and mimicked him, together their wands revealing a passage leading away from them.
"Ladies first." Said Fred quietly.
"Fred Weasley, if you think I'm going to march headfirst into that tunnel you've got another thing coming. You two are the boys, YOU go first."
"Fine." Grumbled Fred reluctantly, stepping into the tunnel hesitantly.
George followed him cautiously and Alicia brought up the rear. They were only a few steps into the passage when they heard the statue sliding back into place behind them.
"Onwards then." Said George grimly.
"To wherever this may lead…"
A/N: Another chapter down. Next time they're going to get to Honeydukes, and the others are going to go looking for them. Won't say much more, don't want to spoil it.
Read and review people. It's the only way I can improve. Plus your reviews motivate me to write faster. Once again a big thanks to all who've reviewed so far. I appreciate all of your comments.