Scanning the crowd the next morning, Fred checked the sea of first years coming out of their charms classroom. Granger was the first one out, her bushy hair flew behind her as she ran off to her next class. A hoard of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff kids dribbled into the hallway a full minute after Granger disappeared. Sighing in frustration, Fred grabbed ahold of Ron's robes as he and Harry were the last kids to leave the room.
"Why are you two so slow?" Fred demanded.
The two younger boys grinned sheepishly at each other and avoided Fred's gaze.
"Well… we were kind of playing hangman when we were supposed to be practicing," Harry admitted. "Then er- Flitwick held us after class," he finished lamely.
Although Fred wouldn't admit it, he wanted to reprimand his honorary brother and Ron for not paying attention. However, that would be crossing the line way too far into Percy's realm. Also, he was in no place to tell them what they 'should and should not do' seeing as he was currently in the middle of plotting against the headmaster.
Smirking, Fred let it slide and patted Harry on the back, guiding him down the hall.
"Come on little bro, we need to have a chat."
"Hey! What about me?" yelled Ron.
"Shut up!" said Fred's retreating back as he lead Harry down the corridor.
~.~
Once seated in a deserted classroom, Fred wasted no time in getting to the point. "I need your invisibility cloak."
"What? How did you- when did? Who told you?" the boy stammered.
"George and I aren't as thick as we look. We know when our baby brothers are hiding things. Now seriously, we need to get to class and we have no time to waste. Can I borrow your cloak? It will only be for a day or two," Fred finished.
Apparently Potter was used to the whole 'no questions asked' thing, because he consented fairly quickly. "Yeah alright, I'll lend it to you. On one condition." He paused for dramatic effect, "you scare Malfoy with it."
"Wow Potter, you're more Slytherin than I would bank upon. But you've got yourself a deal," Fred said with laughter in his eyes.
The two shook on it.
~.~
That afternoon, up in their dormitory, the twins sat perched on the window sill hunched over the map. The view from their window was spectacular, they could see a good portion of the forest along with the lake. However, their eagle-eye view of the castle from the map grasped their attention far more than the natural panorama ever could.
"Georgie, he's been pacing for hours. We aren't ever going to get leverage on him if he keeps up this nonsense," Fred complained.
George glanced up at his brother just as he was lowering a grape bunch into his mouth and extracting the end piece with his teeth. The juice squirted out and little flecks landed on the map.
"Oi!" yelled George. "Fred, you prat! You're getting the map all dirty. And just because Dumbledore hasn't done anything but stand in his office for a while, doesn't mean that he isn't going to do something. We have to keep watching."
"You know McGonagall's right," said a voice from the corner.
The twins' heads snapped up to see Seamus walking in.
"If you two put forth as much dedication into school work as you did into these pranks, you would be the top of your class," Seamus concluded. "Why are you so devoted to pranking Dumbledore anyways? From the way you two are acting, it would seem like your life depended upon it."
"Because Finnegan. We like a challenge," said Fred leaning forward dramatically. "No one believes that we can prank Dumbledore. And that is the fuel to our flame."
"Think about it," added George, "If someone told you that you weren't capable of blowing something up, what would you do?"
"Hey that isn't the same thing and you know it," Seamus chuckled. "But hypothetically I would burn everything in sight."
The boys spent the better part of an hour playing exploding snap. Since it was Friday, they felt no obligation to even think about their homework. After three games, all of which George won, he decided to peek at the map.
This time Dumbledore was stationary, presumably sitting at his desk. Sighing in frustration, George scanned the rest of the map to memorize the many passageways while he still could. It wasn't too long before he began taking interest in the people rather than the structure of the castle.
Internally rolling his eyes, George saw his wayward brother and Harry strolling up the seventh floor corridor. It was amusing to him that they unknowingly passed by the Room of Requirement- whatever that was.
George desperately wished that he could keep this map. It was so useful, and rather entertaining.
Suddenly, George caught sight of something very interesting in the entrance hall.
He distantly heard Seamus saying that he needed to find Dean, and faintly recognized the sound of the door shutting as he left. He felt Fred brush up against him.
"What's up?" Fred asked.
"Fred look! It's Minister Fudge!" George pointed to the entrance hall and trailed his finger along with the moving name tag.
"You don't think he's going to see Dumbledore do you?" Fred wondered.
"Why else would he be here?" George said with a mischievous grin.
Making a split decision, George hastened for the invisibility cloak and tossed it around himself and his brother.
"We're following him," George simply stated.
~.~
~.~