Hello everyone! Here is chapter 3 finally! And time to bring in the twins. (:
Let me know what you think. Feedback is the most helpful way for me to know if the story is going well or if there is something I need to work on.
Read and enjoy!
-EmLights
Thank you to my lovely beta Orodruin for always helping me out!
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Chapter 3: Twin Conspirators
A loud crash erupted throughout the upstairs and purple smoke started to fill the room. They both came running out, identical grins splashed across their faces as they went flying down the stairs.
"FRED AND GEORGE WEASLEY, WHAT ON EARTH DID YOU JUST DO!?"
They were only a few steps away from breaking through the front door and getting away, but Molly Weasley was quick to zone in on the two troublemakers.
"Yes Mum?" Fred asked innocently.
Mrs. Weasley's face burned bright red with anger. "You two… can't turn my back one second…! Third time this week… when your father gets home…! go clean it up, whatever it is, and stay in your room until I say so! We will be having a long talk later this evening!" They turned to head back upstairs, and Mrs. Weasley added to their receding backs, "AND NO EXPERIMENTING!"
The twins waited until they were safely into their room, before high fiving and breaking out into stifling laughter.
"Part one of Operation Save Sirius Swiftly and Send Scabbers (to Azkaban) has begun!" George exclaimed.
"We may have to change that name, oh brother of mine. What about Operation Mess with Ministry while Maneuvering our Marauder Miraculously back to Moony (and Harry)?"
"Or Operation Watch Wormtail Wet himself as Padfoot Prances Proudly to Prongs Jr. (as a free man)."
"How about Operation Twin Tricksters Triumph over Testy Traitors (and save Sirius in the process)?"
"Hmm… we may have to think of some better names for our daring rescue."
Fred commented with a determined look in his eye. "This is serious, or rather FOR Sirius." The two eight year olds cracked up yet again, before starting to clean the rather pungent liquid that had surfaced on the floor of their bedroom from their accidental potions mishap earlier.
Mr. Weasley came through the floo with a sigh. After a long day of dealing with a dozen jinxed pairs of muggle shoes and an obstinate wizard denying his involvement, he was looking forward to a delicious homemade meal and a loving family awaiting his return. Instead, he entered his home to find an irate wife waiting impatiently for him to arrive to discipline his rather rambunctious twin boys.
"Arthur, just you WAIT until you hear what your sons did!"
He closed his eyes for a moment and then readied himself for the fiery temper to be unleashed from his lovely wife.
Mrs. Weasley explained rather vociferously all the things the twins had done just in the past week, including making all of Percy's books yell out obscenities every time he opened one, convincing the Ghoul in the attic to moan Bill's name above his room at night, and turning Ron's teddy bear into a spider, scaring the poor child into hysterics.
"Classic," Fred muttered after the mention of the spider incident, causing George to cover up his laugh with some feeble coughs.
"This is no laughing matter! You boys have no discipline and are driving me up the wall! I don't know what to do with you two anymore!"
"Mum, you're very right," Fred began solemnly. "We have been acting very childish and disrespecting you."
"Yeah, mum. We are very sorry," George added. They both hung their heads dejectedly.
"If you think sorry is going to cut it this time…."
"Oh, we know Mum. We went too far with our pranks. We thought all afternoon about what we could do to make it up to you. We thought maybe if we were able to observe people who are responsible, like Dad, maybe it would give us some motivation and inspiration to stop our childish pranking and be more respectful like Percy."
Mr. and Mrs. Weasley looked taken aback. Fred and George held on to their earnest expressions until Mrs. Weasley began nodding her head thoughtfully.
"Yes, maybe going to the Ministry with your father for a day would be of some good to you boys. What do you think Arthur?"
"If you think this will be good for the boys, then I think it's a great idea." At this point he would agree to anything his wife said.
"Alright then, it's settled. Fred, George, you will both be ready by seven tomorrow morning to go to the Ministry with your father. You will cause NO trouble, and do whatever you are told. If I hear any type of complaint, you two will be grounded until further notice!"
"The boys won't cause any trouble, will you boys?" Mr. Weasley looked over to the twins nodding eagerly back at him. "See? Tomorrow will be very exciting for you two! I'll get to show you everything I'm currently working on. I might even let you take a peek at the sound contraption that plays muggle music with ekletriticity. It's incredible!"
"Sounds great, dad."
"Can't wait."
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"Fred, hand me five lacewing flies," George whispered as he stirred counterclockwise over a simmering cauldron. Another cauldron filled with a dark green liquid sat finished on the other side of the room. Fred handed the flies over silently before returning to a small brochure of the Ministry he had been restlessly flipping through for the past half hour.
"Another five minutes, and it's done," George said finally, trying to stifle a yawn.
"Excellent," Fred remarked, grinning. "Then we can give our little rodent friend a taste."
This potion was a special concoction created by George during the war to keep a person sleeping until a second potion, the dark green one that had already been completed, was administered to the person's skin. The difference between George's potion and other sleeping potions is that George's finds the drinker incapable of any motor function for an hour after they awaken. The potion was very commonly used against death eaters during interrogations, because it caused all of their movements except the mouth and eyes to be completely useless.
Once the potion was finished, Fred slipped a bit of the first potion into Scabber's water bowl before heading off to finally get some rest for the big day.
As they got into their beds, George turned to face his brother.
"We have everything planned perfectly… except how we are going to ditch Dad in the Ministry."
"Don't worry brother of mine, I have an idea."
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"Alright boys, get ready for an exciting day!" Mr. Weasley said with enthusiasm.
"We are all ready, dad," George replied.
"Yes, it will definitely be an eventful day," Fred added, patting his front right pocket none too delicately.
Mrs. Weasley had dressed the two of them in their best outfits, Bill and Charlie's old suits. George's pants were worn and half an inch short, and Fred's suit couldn't button in the front. Even with these particulars, the twins strutted toward the fireplace, feeling wonderful and determined. This would be the day that they would officially begin to change the future for the better.
"You guys get into trouble and then get to have fun going with dad to work," a six year old Ron said miserably at the kitchen table. "I'm stuck here with Mum and Ginny." He made a disgusted face.
"Don't worry ickle Ronnikins," Fred stated, "we will tell you all about it one day."
"Yeah, and you may need to keep our Ginny on your good side," George added, grinning. "She could turn into a little spitfire in the future."
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"And here is the office for Misuse of Muggle Artifacts!" Mr. Weasley said with a grand gesture to the small room with two cubicles on each side. "And this is my coworker, Mr. Perkins." A balding old man with thick glasses waved nervously at the twins.
"This will be easier than I thought," Fred whispered to George. George sent him an inquiring look, but Fred turned his attention back to Mr. Weasley.
"So dad, what exciting things do you have in store for us today?"
"Well first I want to show you boys this wonderful contraption called a walky-man."
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"Fred, we've been here for hours, what are you planning?" George whispered as they sat in the back of the cramped office as their father explained another piece of something muggle. Fred just grinned and replied, "Any minute now."
As if on cue, there was a loud crash outside the office. Mr. Weasley and Mr. Perkins kept checking outside the office but couldn't see anything amiss. As the loud explosions continued, a man came hurtling into the room, almost knocking the office door off its hinges.
"Arthur, we have a problem. There are these… these muggle things causing mayhem on the second floor! They keep exploding desks and attacking people with paint! None of the workers know anything about these muggle things; we need your help."
Mr. Weasley took off, while yelling over his shoulder for Mr. Perkins to watch Fred and George.
"I'll be back soon boys," He called over his shoulder, "Please be safe and stay here!"
Mr. Perkins sat at his desk, anxiously fiddling with his hands and darting glances around the room. Fred grinned and approached the man from behind. He stuck his hand into his pocket, pulling out a fistful of powder and blew it into Mr. Perkin's face.
"What…." Mr. Perkin's began before dropping his head and letting out a large snore.
"Brilliant," George said in awe. "But what was the deal with the explosions?"
"I'll explain later. Let's get to Madam Bones' office and put on a show." They both navigated the ministry flawlessly, with the blue print engraved into their memories. They stood in front of their destination only moments later, after easily bypassing the secretary. George took in a long breath, looking uncertain for the first time.
"Ready, Freddie?" Fred glanced to his brother and nodded quickly. They both straightened up their postures and dusted off their jackets.
"This is for Harry," Fred whispered, before turning the knob and entering into the office.
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Amelia Bones sat in her office, working on an extremely important paper on Gavin and Hannah Troughburrow, who had recently been detained after their abduction of stray animals and pets had escalated to kidnapping muggle children with magically spelled sweets. The minister expected it to be completed by the end of the day, and the nuisances down on the third floor were taking their dear time bringing the relevant documents to her office. She heard her door open and expected it to be her secretary, Mrs. Walsh, with some more papers.
"Portia, just leave them on the desk, please," she muttered, not looking up from her writing.
"Hello there," Fred said softly. "Are you Mrs. Bones by any chance?" Madam Bones glanced up from her paperwork to notice two red headed boys standing in front of her.
"Yes, and who might you be?"
"Fred and George ma'am. We came to talk to you about something." Fred took the opportunity to shuffle his feet and give a frightfully accurate picture of a child who was uneasy and afraid. Madam Bones immediately turned her attention to the boys, the paperwork forgotten on her desk.
"What is it child?"
"Please Mrs. Bones. We saw our brother's rat turn into a man and start mumbling about how he framed some guy named Sirius Black, and how his master would have been so proud of him if the Potter brat hadn't ruined his plans. He was mumbling like a mad man. We tried walking in to catch the man, we thought he had broken into the house, but when we entered the room, all we found was this rat." George held up a large grey rat for her to see. Madam Bones didn't notice the dark green stain on George's hand.
"Please, Mrs. Bones, we couldn't go to our father cause he would have thought we were just joking and then the mad man would have known we were onto him," George interjected softly. Fred turned and nodded seriously to him before continuing.
"And we heard him another time, he kept saying something about how his being secret keeper was the perfect way to get into the Dark Lord's inner circle and that the Potters were so clueless and how his life is ruined. He would say things like 'Master, oh master, I failed you.' All of it doesn't make sense, but he kept talking about Harry Potter like he was a bad guy, so we figured he wasn't a good man. And the fact that he is sleeping in the same bed as our brother is really gross, so we knew we had to bring him in."
Madam Bones stared at the twin boys incredulously. They really expect me to believe this farfetched story?
"I know it's hard to believe," Fred included, "but we heard about a spell that can detect whether an animal is actually a man or not, so we knew since you are such a smart witch that you would know someone who could check for us. We just don't want a mad man in our house anymore. Especially one that talks about You Know Who."
Madam Bones, deciding to help put these boys' minds at ease, called in an auror to perform the animagus spell on their brother's pet rat.
One spell later and an unidentified man appearing in place of the rat, Madam Bones' office became chaotic. The man was for some reason unable to move but was slowly regaining the usage of his extremities as the aurors strapped him down to a chair with anti-animagus spells in place. More aurors and high ranking ministry officials were called to assist in the identification of this man and to interrogate him on the now much more plausible story the two young boys had given her.
Speaking of the two boys, she couldn't find them anywhere. She even sent her secretary, who was having a minor panic attack over the chaos, to go and search for the boys. When her secretary came back unable to find them, Madam Bones figured they must've gotten scared over the appearance of that man and ran off.
Well, first things first, figure out if there is truth in what those boys said. The priority right now is seeing if we have indeed found another of You-Know-Who's followers and to see what this secret keeper business is. Also, we need to see if Harry Potter could be involved.
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Fred and George high fived as they returned to their dad's office, elated about how perfectly their plan had worked. Only twenty minutes had passed since their father had left, and it seemed he was still dealing with the explosions.
Fred reached into his right pocket and pulled out a different type of powder and blew it into Mr. Perkins face again.
Mr. Perkins sneezed violently, waking himself up from his slumber.
"Are you okay sir? You seemed to have fainted," Fred asked with concern.
"I'm, I'm okay, must've gotten worked up with the, with the explosions." He muttered.
Fred and George sat against the wall, feeling very content. Their father came back ten minutes later, looking a little confused.
"Well, the rubber ducks have stopped dive bombing the desks and squirting out paint," he said with a sigh. "But rubber ducks aren't even supposed to do that, so my expertise wasn't very helpful today."
"Hmm, that is very strange," Fred commented, and it took George every ounce of strength not to lose his composure.
Fred and George spent the rest of the day following their father obediently, and finally, it was time to go home.
As they exited the fireplace, Fred and George found their mum standing expectantly in front of them.
"Well, how did it go?" she asked impatiently. Fred and George glanced at each other before breaking out into radiant smiles.
"It was perfect, mum."
"Exactly how we wanted it to be."
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End of Chapter 3
So reviews are always lovely, but let me know how it was! Good or bad, feedback is wonderful. Thanks for reading!
-EmLights
ATTENTION: I need to know if you think Harry should live with Sirius. Yes? No? Not yet?