The twins caught sight of Fudge on the 2nd floor corridor right outside Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.
Humming to himself, Fudge stopped to the sound of crying.
"Oh my word, that awful ghost is still here?" Fudge muttered to himself.
The man wandered into the bathroom, knowing that no one would would be in there, and looked around. The twins followed in hot pursuit wondering what the Minister of Magic would be doing in a school girls' bathroom.
"Get on out of here you pestilent ghost!" Fudge hollered at the transparent girl. "You're a nuisance to wizardkind and we don't need to hear your carrying on any longer."
If anything, the sobbing turned into shrieking. Eventually Fudge stalked out of the bathroom and continued on as if nothing happened.
Fred and George exchanged looks as they both silently agreed that they didn't like this man. They had only ever heard about him from their father and from what they could tell in person, Arthur Weasley made a huge understatement by saying 'Fudge is not very nice.'
"Come on let's follow him," Fred said.
"No wait. Shouldn't we say something to her?" George suggested while motioning to Myrtle.
Sighing, Fred quickly nodded. They would be able to catch up to Fudge with the map.
Cautiously walking into the bathroom, George spotted Myrtle by the sinks. She was leaning her nonexistent body weight onto them as though she were still corporeal. Her shoulders moved up and down as she shook from her sobs.
"Myrtle?" George said carefully.
The ghost hastily turned around and shrieked "What are you two doing in here? This is a girl's bathroom. Did you want to tell me that I'm a nuisance to wizardkind? Because if so, I'll just go and kill myself to save you the trouble!" she proclaimed.
Before Fred could laugh at the irony, George elbowed him.
"No Myrtle, we don't feel that way. Actually, we think the opposite. Fudge is a jerk. Don't listen to him okay?" George pleaded.
Myrtle turned her back towards them and glared at the twins suspiciously through the mirror.
"Why should you think differently from him? I'm just a waste of space and I shouldn't have ever come back to this cruel world," she finished dramatically.
Fred spoke up, "Alright Myrtle, just try to take our word for it. We have somewhere to be right now, but Georgie and I will come and visit you soon."
The sobbing only continued and the twins shrugged at each other, threw back on the cloak, and left.
~.~
"Ouch, you stepped on my foot!"
"Oi! Don't shove me!"
"Quiet you prat, someone's coming!"
The twins were slowly making their way up the staircase when a hoard of students started walking down.
"Oh bloody hell. We've got to go back down again before someone bumps into us," Fred complained.
As quickly as they could, the boys started making their way back down the staircase. However, they weren't fast enough.
"What the hell?!" a Ravenclaw girl yelped as she ran into a solid wall of nothing.
The boys were sent tumbling down the staircase. Luckily they had prepared for such events by casting a well placed sticking charm on the cloak. Luckily, they stayed covered. Yet that didn't stop all the students from hearing loud thuds as the boys hit each and every step.
Cringing from the pain that erupted in his shoulder, George prayed that the students wouldn't figure them out. Dumbledore had eyes and ears everywhere and if he started hearing the students claiming that random walls of transparency were popping up around the castle, the first people he would suspect to be behind it would be either Harry or themselves.
Just as the other kids began to inspect the scene, an ink jar flew out from the top of the staircase and showered the Ravenclaw students.
Peeves appeared, cackling contentedly as they ran away screaming.
"Fly away little ravens," Peeves called. He turned toward the twins and stared at them as though he could see them and frowned. Just when the twins thought it was their turn to be drenched in ink, the floating man smirked, winked, and flew off.
"Woahhhh, that was wicked!" said Fred not-so eloquently. "You'd almost think that Peeves was helping us!"
I'm pretty sure he was helping us, George thought in amazement.
The boys picked themselves up with determination. If they didn't get to Dumbledore's office soon, they would miss the whole meeting. It'd been at least 10 minutes since they let Fudge get away. With quickened steps, they climbed the stairs to the third corridor.
Finally the freckled fiends made it to the gargoyle.
"Butterscotch Pixies," Fred whispered.
As though knowing the boys were trying to stay under the radar, the statute made little to no noise as it revealed the hidden spiral staircase. The twins hopped aboard and were brought to a wooden door.
"What do you not understand about that?" the rather irritated voice of Fudge said from inside the office. "The Board of Governors is not happy with the way you're running this school Albus!"
The twins had to get closer to the wooden door to hear Dumbledore's reply.
"Cornelius, I am merely asking what it is about my leadership that would cause the Board to send you over here to complain on their behalf," Dumbledore asked diplomatically.
Sputtering, Fudge spat "Well they disapprove of your staff. Yeah, that's it, they want to see fresh faces."
No sounds came from the office. The twins leaned in closer to the door incase they missed something.
Eventually Dumbledore responded. His voice was unlike his usual cheerful self. "Fresh faces? What do you mean by fresh faces?" he said with a chilly note, eerily quiet.
"U-umm….. Th-they wish to appoint some new professors. The current ones are way to outdated. For example that Binns creature….Ugh. He has been here for far too long. And that horribly plain Scottish woman…...err…" Fudge trailed off. Fred reckoned Dumbledore had glared at him with such intensity.
"We can discuss this later Cornelius. For now let's move onto other matters," Dumbledore suggested.
By that point the twins had stopped listening. Slowly and quietly, they made their way down the staircase and out into the corridor.
"Fresh faces? FRESH FACES?" Fred roared indignantly. "What does that man think he's doing?!"
"Fred calm down! There's no way it's actually going to happen!" George vocalized.
"You sure? Oh I don't know! I hope nothing happens….."
As Fred continued to fret, George was contemplative. What they heard up there was some valuable information. Although it was pretty bad news, there was no way that Dumbledore would ever let something like that happen. Yet the information could be used to their advantage…
"Oi! Fred, quit it! You'll draw too much attention to us!" George cried. "I've got a plan!"
That last sentence alone made Fred turn to his brother. Anything that started with 'I've got a plan' had to mean something good. Fred was extremely clever at times and could handle magic well, if not better than George. However, it was usually George who thought of the schemes.
"Well. What is it?" Fred asked with anticipation.
"The Board wants fresh faces? Let's give them fresh faces," George smirked evilly. "Okay, this is what we're going to do…."
~.~
Fred and George sat in silence on the floor, carving a new tic-tac-toe game into the stone. It was getting close to curfew and if they didn't carry out their plan before then, it would be even harder to accomplish.
Fred sat in nervous anticipation because of what they were about to do. He couldn't believe that George had come up with such a genius idea. It was extremely risky, but if everything fell into place, they would go down in history as the best prankers the school has ever seen.
The twins perked up as the stone gargoyle began to shift out of place. They tossed the cloak over themselves once more and waited.
The pudgy, gray haired man stepped out into the corridor and continued on his way to the entrance hall.
"Petrificus Totalus!" two voices screamed.
The minister was knocked completely off his feet and became as stiff as a board in midair just before he came crashing down. Before anyone could disrupt them, the twins dragged Fudge's body into an empty classroom. The minister's beady eyes swiveled back and forth in an effort to see who the culprits were.
The twins threw off their cloak and the old man's eyes pierced through their very souls. Fred emitted an evil cackle that could rival Peeves and promptly plucked some hairs off of Fudge's head.
"Care to do the honor, brother of mine?" Fred cordially invited George with a gesture of his hand.
"Why certainly old chap," he responded in kind.
George flourished his wand and hovered it over the minister's forehead.
"Obliviate," he chanted.
Fudge's eyes glazed over and his body relaxed despite the stunning spell. After a minute or two, all was finished.
George opened the door and checked to see if anyone was around. With the hallway clear and secured, the twins picked up the minister together and carried him out into the hall.
"Okay Fred, your turn," George prompted.
Fred tossed the cloak over their heads one last time and stuck his arm outside of it.
"Rennervate," he whispered.
And there the Minister of Magic went, walking along without a care in the world, not realizing what had just happened.
~.~
~.~