Saturday morning dawned bright and early. The sunlight through their window was piercing enough to wake the twins at an early hour. Last night had taken a toll on their nerves and they made their way down to breakfast in a zombified mess.
At the Gryffindor table, they placed themselves as far away from the head table as possible.
After filling up his plate George took a glance at the staff. With suppressed panic, George poked Fred and motioned to the offending table.
Dumbledore was seated in the middle as usual. But what really made the twins squirm was that both Snape and Flitwick were haranguing Dumbledore about something. Most likely the Ravenclaws had complained to Flitwick about their encounter with a transparent wall last night. And Snape….well they definitely knew what he was peeved about. Of course the mayhem the twins caused last night wouldn't go unnoticed to the headmaster. However, Dumbledore ignored his colleagues and seemed a bit disappointed as he glanced over at Potter who was loading his plate of food. The younger boy was unaware of his newfound attention as he happily conversed with Ron and Hermione.
"Oh no! He thinks it's Harry!" Fred said.
George grimaced and tried very hard to squash the guilt that was arising in him. "I know. We should probably warn him."
After breakfast the twins stopped Potter in the entrance hall and quickly handed him back his invisibility cloak.
"Harry, we're so sorry," Fred started.
"We did some stuff last night with your invisibility cloak, and we think that Dumbledore is suspicious of you," George finished.
The younger boy stood in silence thinking. His scar was visible through his messy hair and he stood with his hand supporting his chin as he contemplated his response.
"Tell me what you did," Harry finally said.
The twins recounted the entire story and even told Harry of their future plans. It was the least they could do. Harry's eyes grew more round with each word.
Harry smirked to himself when they finished and cheerfully said, "At least Malfoy got scared!" He paused and looked up at the twins, "If your plan weren't so genius I don't think I would be offering this….but against my better judgement, if anything comes up, I'll take the fall for you."
The twins shared looks in stunned silence. If Harry took the blame for them, he was likely to be in detention for the rest of the school year and possibly some of the next one.
"Don't look like that, I'm used to being in trouble. Plus I need to keep an eye on Snape for my own personal reasons as well. If I get detention with him, I can do some investigating!" the boy reasoned.
The twins couldn't believe what they were hearing. Someone wanted to have detention with Snape?! And Harry of all people? Snape hated Harry, everyone knew that.
The older boys shrugged their shoulders to each other and turned back to Harry.
"Alright. We'll take the minimum amount of ingredients we need from the bottles and then give you the rest back. If Dumbledore calls you to his office, have a story ready as to why you took stuff from Snape's storage room," Fred said.
"Don't worry, I already have a story ready," Harry laughed.
~.~
Later that day in the common room Harry was given a note by a prefect to meet Dumbledore in his office.
Turning to the twins, Harry sent them a reassuring wink, and stepped through the portrait hole.
The boys grimaced in guilt. They headed up to their dorm and flopped down onto their respective beds and looked up at the ceiling.
"That kid is a miracle," Fred pointed out.
"I know," George responded.
After a few minutes of silence the door slammed open and the twins sat upright in surprise. Finnegan was standing in the doorway seething.
"What did you buffoons do? I was just walking out of a meeting in Dumbledore's office when Snape came in dragging Harry! He was screaming something about him stealing ingredients from his private stores!" Seamus yelled.
"How do you even know it was us?" George asked, worried that they'd been caught.
"I saw the map put back on Dumbledore's shelf and I know that Harry wasn't outside the common room last night because I happened to be in the same room with him finishing up some late work and then played Exploding Snap with him. Plus no one would be dumb enough to raid Snape's potions except you two!" Seamus spat out.
"Look, don't worry about it. We squared it away with Harry. He agreed to take the blame for us!" Fred said defensively. "Besides, when this is all over, his name will be cleared."
"Oh? How long do you suppose that's going to take?" Seamus roared. "Not to mention the amount of time Harry will have to spend in detention between now and then!"
The twins shared a guilty look but continued in their defense.
"Look Seamus, we feel the same way," George said calmly. "But we didn't ask Harry to do this, he volunteered to. He said that he needed to watch Snape for personal reasons and that detention is the only way he can do it while avoiding suspicion."
"Trust me, we think he's nutters as well," Fred said upon Seamus's confused look.
After a very long silence Seamus asked one last question, "What are you guys planning to do anyways? And if you don't tell me I'll go straight to Dumbledore right now and tell him the truth!"
The twins sighed expecting no less. They were planning on telling Seamus anyway. At the end of their tale, Seamus seemed even more enthusiastic than Harry had.
"That's brilliant!" he conceded.
The door opened once again to reveal Harry. His cloak was all ruffled up and his face was crestfallen as he stood there.
The other boys quickly rushed over to him.
"What happened? You're not expelled are you?" they asked.
"No. Not expelled," Harry replied dully.
He still stood there, not offering up anymore information.
"Well? What did happen?" Seamus finally asked.
Harry glanced at him skeptically and then towards the twins.
"It's alright Harry, you don't need to worry about Seamus. He's helping us as well," George reassured.
Harry exhaustedly began speaking. "Nothing that bad happened. Of course Snape was a nightmare, but it was just how disappointed Dumbledore was that was so unbearable. I wish he would have yelled at me. Instead he spoke with such disappointment and those eyes of his said the rest."
The twins nodded in understanding, they had been on the receiving end of some of those looks as well. They all waited for Harry to continue.
"He nearly pulled me off the quidditch team. Luckily he didn't do that when I told the 'truth' about what happened so readily," Harry said with a slight smirk.
"What's your punishment then?" the boys asked in anticipation.
Harry actually looked up and smiled. "I have detention with Snape for a month!"
Harry's actions and words were so contradictory that all the boys fell over laughing. They were all so ridiculous, George realized. Here they were, risking expulsion for the most stupid things!
Once the boys stopped laughing they all parted ways for the day. They would need a long rest to complete the tasks ahead of them.
~.~
~.~