It was almost February, and Fred and Alicia hadn't fixed what was wrong with their friendship yet. Of course, they had talked and even shared some laughs eventually, but then they would remember the conflicts they had shared and immediately cease whatever good moment they were sharing and fall in awkward silence. Those were the moments George would have to intervene and try to say something funny to make the tension go away. "Good these chocolate frogs taste nothing like the real ones, right guys" He said once during one of the quiet battles, which didn't help at all, just made the girls feel disgusted, and Fred kind of embarrassed for the bad joke. The only one who seemed to have liked the joke was Lee Jordan, their new friend who seemed to have a new kind of interest in Angelina and Alicia that Fred and George couldn't kind of understand yet. I mean, what could girls offer him that boys couldn't? Not frog jokes, that's for sure.
Now Fred and George were the only ones awake in their dorm they shared with Lee. A slow year for Gryffindor boys, only three male students were sorted into Gryffindor that year, but it was better like this, 'cause the twins would have more control of what happened in their dorm, since Lee didn't seem to care a lot, with the only condition of not catching fire in his sleep.
"Try to poke it again!" Fred said with a slight irritation in his voice.
"Mate, we've tried poking a million times! We tried poking it, hitting it, getting it wet, asking please…" George answered
"Please?" Fred said, looking at the parchment paper as if it could actually work this time
"I'm starting to think this is a prank! Yeah, Filtch pranked us! He knew we would find it so he hid this stupid paper thing to keep us busy so we would leave him and his stupid cat alone. Can't believe we fell for a prank from Filch! Our career is OVER!"
"No, it can't be" George was now whispering, as if he was more talking to himself than with his brother "How would he even know we would be there that night? No, it's not a prank. If only we knew more magic to try with it… Maybe, just maybe, we don't have to if you don't want to, we could ask for help?"
He said the last part with all caution he could gather. Fred knew who he was thinking of asking for help, and he wasn't happy with the idea, but what other option did they have? Asking Charlie? Sure, a head boy would be really happy with the idea of his brothers asking for help with a forbidden item. Could they ask a teacher? Obviously not! Could they write to Bill about it? Well, they could try, but 50% chance Bill would obsess about it "what if it's cursed? What if it's dark magic? What if it hurts you?" He used to be cool but got totally paranoid after he got that job in Egypt. Their only option was way more accessible, it was sleeping in the girl's first-year dorm and had blond hair, violet eyes, and a worrying but admirable taste for the danger.
Fred was looking at his brother as he was ready to punch him.
"Hum… asking for help, that's a great idea!" he said with fake enthusiasm "And who can we go for help? Oh I know, your girlfriend"
"I told you a million times already, ALICIA IS NOT MY GIRLFRIEND"
"Oh yeah? And how many friends do you see out there holding hands and talking SO CLOSE THEY COULD KISS?"
"GUYS" a third voice started, the brothers turned to see that Lee Jordan sat on his bed, looking rather sleepy "I think you all are yelling a little too loud, soon everyone will start knocking. Hey, what do you have there?" He said making his way to the floor and joining the twins, suddenly looking awake.
George quickly hid the parchment paper behind his back, but Fred said
"Nooo, weren't you the one who suggested we find help? So, is there better help than our good, old friend Lee here?" He said while patting Lee on his back a little too strongly.
"I wouldn't say old" Lee started saying, with a proud look on his face "but good, for sure, I would even say th-"
Before he could continue George put the mysterious parchment against Lee's chest with the same strength and intensity Fred patted his back
"Oh, please enlighten us then Lee, our good, old friend! Can you decode this impossible mysterious item?"
Lee noticed that the twins were addressing his name, but looking at each other's eye while talking. He wouldn't dare to say a thing about it though, he was just happy he was being addressed at all.
"Wow, where did you find this? What is it supposed to do? Is it safe?"
"Fitch's office, we don't know, and we don't know. We think you could try to figure it out." Fred said, ignoring George's angry stare.
"Well, if there is any magic in this maybe it can manifest if we just…" Lee went to the side of his bed and got his wand and positioned it with the tip touching the paper "aparecium" he said, and letters started to appear on the parchment.
"Wow" both twins said at the same time
"Haven't you guys tried it? Seriously you should start paying attention to charms class, I mean this is one the simple ones and if you don-"
Once again Lee was interrupted, now not by anything they said, but by their looks
"Who would know that the one we were looking for was sleeping only two feet away." George said, looking at Lee with admiration
"Great, now we have a substitute for your girlfriend!" Fred teased.
Before George could retaliate, Lee spoke
"Look, the letters are moving!"
When the three friends looked at the paper, there seemed that it was in fact listening to what they were saying:
PADFOOT: KNOCK KNOCK
WORMTAIL: WHO'S THERE?
PRONGS: THREE STUPID IDIOTS TRYING TO READ THE MAP!
"It's a map!" Fred said cheerfully
MOONY: FOR MERLIN, THEY DIDN'T EVEN KNOW IT WAS A MAP
PADFOOT: INCREDIBLY STUPID IDIOTS, MOONY, FOR SURE
"Does it do anything else than insulting us?" Asked George
PRONGS: I'M SORRY BURNING MATCH HAIRED BOY, IS JUST THAT YOU ARE VERY INSULTIBLE.
WORMTAIL: HA! VERY FUNNY PRONGS!
MOONY: SO, YOU THINK YOU DESERVE THE SECRETS TO THE MARAUDERS' MAP?
"Hell yeah!"
PADFOOT: THEN TELL ME, CORNROWS HAIRED BOY
"I think that would be me" Lee said, pointing to his dreadlocks
PADFOOT: WILL YOU USE IT FOR EVIL?
"No! No! Of course not, we would never do such a thing!" Lee said, winking his eyes towards the twins.
PRONGS: SORRY, WE CAN'T HELP YOU
WORMTAIL: YEAH, YOU DON'T SOUND LIKE SOMEONE WHO WOULD BE OUR FRIEND
MOONY: AND WE ARE TIRED OF ENEMIES ALREADY
PADFOOT: WITH THAT SAID. GOODNIGHT.
And just like that, the map went back to be a boring blank piece of parchment paper again.
"NOOO! Lee, do that thing again!"
"Aparecium" Lee said, and they waited
"APARECIUM APARECIUM APARECIUM" George said repeatedly after taking Lee's wand from his hand
MOONY: WHAT PART OF GOODNIGHT CAN'T YOU DUNG HEADS UNDERSTAND?
WORMTAIL: MOONY, WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO EXPLODE THEM?
PADFOOT: NO WORMTAIL, NOT RIGHT NOW, MAYBE NEXT TIME
PRONGS: BOOM!
"What do we do?" George said, hints of desperation in his voice "should we try again?"
"No, it said it would explode us! Can it do it?" Lee asked
"I don't know, but I'm ready to find out!" Fred said, getting his wand and pointing at the map "Aparecium!"
This time, instead of appearing the usual black letters, there was a red bold handwriting on it, that said "NO REDHEADED OR CORN ROLLS HAIRED BOYS ALLOWED"
The boys tried the revealing spell a few more times, but it didn't work, after a while not even the red warning was showing up anymore, the map was just a blank piece of paper again.
"Oh no, oh no. We screwed this up!" Fred said with his hands on his head "Now the map will never reveal itself to us!"
"Well, it might not reveal to us" George said "But it might reveal itself to someone else… like, I don't know, someone smart, that we trust, like..."
"Your girlfriend!" Lee said as if he had figured a riddle out.
Fred started laughing hysterically and George threw a pillow at Lee's face, before crawling to bed and closing the blinders angrily. Fred did the same but still laughing. They left Lee sitting on the same spot without understanding exactly what just happened.
Well, if you want to read the rest of the chapter, go check "A Series of Wizidring Twins Mischiefs" in my profile!
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