Wotcher! I'm back! Sorry for the wait! I really hope you enjoy this chapter!
Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling I'm sorry
-Ivory
There was only one thing that didn't make sense about the Marauder's Map. The map labelled passages and corridors that were nonexistent. When the quartet would go to check them out, they would only find a tapestry or statue or blank wall.
"Maybe it hasn't been updated since the Marauder's time at Hogwarts?" Stella had suggested. "I mean, maybe the castle went through some renovations or something?"
"That doesn't seem right," Lee said, as they stood in front of a statue of a one-eyed, humpback witch.
"Hey, check this out!" George said. He had been scrutinizing the map, to make sure they were at the right place, when he had noticed that Fred's dot had raised its tiny wand, tapped the tiny statue, and said, "Dissendium!"
"Try it," Lee said excitedly, pushing Fred towards the statue.
"Alright, alright," Fred said, straightening up. He tapped his wand on the statue, and said, "Dissendium!"
To their surprise, the witch's hump opened, widely enough to fit a relatively thin person. They all exchanged bewildered and yet excited looks.
"A secret passage?" Stella asked in awe. "Does that mean all of those other supposedly nonexistent corridors are secret passages too?"
"I sure hope so!" George grinned.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's see where this passage leads!" Fred exclaimed.
It wasn't too hard for each of them to squeeze through the witch's hump and slide down into the passageway, the only hard part was the darkness. There were no lights in the passage and they could barely see two feet in front of them.
"Ow! Hey!"
"Sorry, I — Oi! That was my foot! — I can't see anything!"
"Fred?"
"Hey, I'm George!"
"Oh Merlin." They could almost hear Stella roll her eyes. "Lumos."
Stella's wand tip lit up, exposing the passage and revealing the boys' sheepish faces. They quickly followed suit in lighting their wands tips, and examined the tunnel in awe.
"Whoa, this is so cool," Lee said, looking around. "Secret passage!"
"Shall we go down it?" Fred asked.
"We don't know where it leads," George said sensibly. "What if we get lost down here? We may never be found!"
"We won't get lost," Lee said, but he did lay down his hoodie by the entrance. "There. If we get lost, we just need to wander a bit and look out for my hoodie."
"So we're really doing this?" Stella asked.
"Yeah, are you chickening out?" Fred asked with a smirk.
Stella and George exchanged glanced; they both felt hesitant about this, but they weren't chickens.
"No," George said. "We're in."
"Alright! Let's go then!" Lee said, leading the way through the tunnel, Fred close behind.
George and Stella exchanged another pair of hesitant glances, but followed their friends.
"We're lost!" Stella exclaimed angrily. "It's all your fault!"
"We're not lost!" Fred shot back. "It's just taking a long time!"
"We are lost!"
"Are not!"
"Are too!"
"Hey!" Lee interrupted. "There's some stairs ahead! We must be almost there!"
"Wherever 'there' is," George muttered, and the quartet trudged up the steps.
It seemed like they had been climbing forever.
"We're lost," Stella said again, obviously mad.
"We're not — Ouch!" Fred had hit his head on a trapdoor about them. After rubbing his head, he smirked at Stella. "See? Not lost."
Stella crossed her arms as Fred peered through the trapdoor.
"We're in a cellar," Fred said, pushing the trapdoor open all the way and climbing through. "There's candy in here!"
"Candy?" George asked dubiously, following Lee through the trapdoor and then helping Stella through.
They all looked around and found Fred wasn't wrong; there were crates and boxes of candy all over the place. Who needed this much candy?
"Guys! Check this out!"
Stella had climbed up another set of stairs and was peering into another room. The boys quickly followed her up and gasped.
"We're in a candy shop!" Lee whispered, watching as people milled around, sampling and purchasing candy.
"This must be Honeydukes!" Fred said excitedly.
"Oh yeah!" George gasped. "Our older brothers told us about this village that you get to visit when you're in third year and older — "
"It's called Hogsmeade, and there are tons of cool shops, including Honeydukes!" Fred said. "Do you know what this means?"
"We can go to Hogsmeade before we're old enough!" George said.
"I don't have any money with me," Lee said. "Do you?"
"We don't mean right now — "
"But sometime we could!"
"Way cool," Stella grinned, "but we should probably get back before anyone notices we're missing, or else we might never get to go to Honeydukes at all."