This chapter is dedicated to Tayla Wayland because who else could come up with such awesome names for the Weasley Army?
Disclaimer: Well, maybe, possibly, nope. I don't own Harry Potter and I never will.
"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked Rigel as I looked at the piece of parchment.
"I have no idea."
The letter had arrived at the breakfast table slightly after all the other owls and yet it was just one of the school owls, a self-important tawny. It was sealed with what only could be Droobles Bubble Gum. The letter itself was more intriguing though than its packaging. It seemed to be written in code.
Dear Amira and Rigel,
Lees tq hn sce schrd bkaqqrool on sce fotrsc fkoor as 10. Hs'q swmhbakkw elmsw and ve'kk ze azke so dhqbtqq vhscots hnserrtmshon or sce screas of zehng strned hn zw merfebs mrefebs mrasq.
-Gred and Forge
We glanced in the direction of the mysterious message writers. They were shoveling eggs into their mouths and drinking pumpkin juice. When George saw us looking, he nudged Fred and they both gave us identical smirks. Lee seemed to be trying to puzzle out the contents of his own letter on a napkin.
"I don't know if we'll ever figure this out," I said looking at the letter. It had to be a muggle code too. Lee didn't even bother waving his wand or using a revealer.
"We've got all day though," Rigel said pointing at the only decipherable thing besides our names, the number 10.
"Yeah, but we don't know what it means. It could be room 10, or just a clue in the code. "
"I don't know. I bet we'll have it done by the end of History of Magic. It's not like there is anything else we need to do."
Yep listening to Binns is at the bottom of my priority list. I duplicated the letter, so we each had a copy. Rigel took his usual spot with Harry and Ron, while I made my way to the back corner with Eloise. She was scribbling furiously down some answers to the potions assignment.
Binns began his usual droning. The class fell into the worst type of stupor. I'm not sure but I think it had something to do with Goblins and someone by the name of Alex the Aloof. Which was really odd because none of our textbooks mentioned him. Binns most have lost part of his sanity when he turned into a ghost. That is to say he ever had it to begin with. I pulled out my copy of the twin's note. It made even less sense than our current history lesson. George's handwriting was really atrocious but after some practice I was able to read it. This was complete an utter nonsense.
"Can I see that?" Eloise asked pointing at the cause of all my problems.
I slid my copy of A History of Magic on top of the convoluted letter. "See what?"
"Oh you know what I mean, that letter-thingy-mobobber."
"Really, a letter-thingy-mobobber?"
Eloise let out a laugh, "Well, what else am I supposed to call it?"
I shrugged my shoulders "Dunno rubbish."
"If it's rubbish, can I see it?"
Oh, how am I supposed to get out of this? Well it's not like she'll be able to understand it. I took another glance at Eloise Midgen. She was giving me pleading puppy dog eyes. I suppressed a fit of giggles and handed over the parchment.
Eloise looked at it for a second, before, "THIS IS BRILLIANT!" Her shouting made the entire class turn and look at us. Professor Binns just kept on talking though.
"She's just really excited about um," I now had absolutely no idea what Binns was talking about during our rather odd discussion. Rigel mouthed, "Goblin wars." We were still on about that. I tried to cover up my hesitation. Hermione Granger gave an irritated huff and turned back to face Binns. She wore a strange half amused smile meaning we couldn't have been that bad.
"Nice," Rigel teased after everyone else had turned around. I, of course, did the mature thing and stuck out my tongue. Eloise threw a crumpled ball of spare parchment at the back of Rigel's head before turning back to our mystery.
"Well it's quite simple actually. It's a code."
"No duh!"
"Sh! Just let me finish!"
Eloise wrote out many different combinations of the alphabet. A slight crease seemed to appear in her forehead.
"Well?"
"I need a code word." She turned to look at me expectantly.
"I wasn't given any word."
"It's not necessary a word. It could be a phrase. " Eloise paused before continuing, "Who sent the letter anyways? That always helps."
"Fred and George Weasley, the red-"
"Yeah, I know red headed Gryffindor twins, a bit of Pranksters. They're third years."
"What how could you-"
"Possibly know. Simple Hufflepuffs go unnoticed. I could probably sneak into Gryffindor tower right under McGonagall's nose if I wanted to."
"Wow. That'd be so-"
"Amazing! I know!"
"Can you stop-"
"Finishing my sentences?" Eloise gave me a cheeky little grin. I wanted to start banging my head on the desktop. It was all right when Rigel did it. It was a standard requirement as a twin but this was just plain weird.
"Do you know what it says yet?"
"I'm pretty sure I know how to solve it as soon as we have a code word. Here I wrote it out," Eloise offered the parchment. The alphabet was written along with a new mass of words, if I can even call them words:
Mfft ur io tdf tdise clcrrs ppm po tdf gpus td glpps ct 10. It'r txniccllx fmntx coe wf'll cf cclf tp eircurr witdput iotfs s untipo ps tdf tds fct pg cfioh tus ofe io cx nfs gfct ns fgfct ns ctr.
"What's that mean?"
"I don't know yet. That's the problem. I just changed all the a's to b's, and b's to c's, and so on. It's pretty simple."
"Yeah but why did you do that?"
"See that 10."
"But what's that mean?"
"It means to change around the letters like I did. I forgot what type of code it is… "
"Nah, I think it's just a time or a room number or something."
"I'm pretty positive. Some of the CIA codes worked that way, although their code words were really obscure things like Navajo words, landmarks or Presidents," Eloise trailed off like she was thinking to herself.
"You've cracked CIA codes, like the American Central Intelligence Agency. What happened to MI6? You get through all those yet?"
Eloise gave me a shy smile. "They're too difficult to hack. The U.S has codes everywhere. I'm sure I've only seen the general ones but still that's a good deal of practice."
"A good deal of practice? You could probably be a spy if you wanted to, with cool weapons and heightened human intelligence."
Her smile grew bigger. The braces on her teeth glinted. "I think I like being a witch better. There's more mystery to it."
Eloise seemed to glance at me for reassurance. It was like her confidence could slip away at a moment's notice. I nodded, trying to get her to continue.
"I always liked mysteries. For the longest time, my parents couldn't get me to read anything but Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys or Fairy tales." She blushed like it was something to be ashamed of. "I used to play the funniest games when I was little. My neighbor, Stephan, was five years older than me. He put me through all sorts of weird 'camps' in which I was the pupil and he was the instructor. My favorite was Spy camp. We spent weeks army crawling and watching our parents from behind bushes. Stephan also rigged up these microphones all over the neighborhood. Mrs. Lynde practically screamed when she found the one in the library."
This really seemed like something Rigel and I would do. Eloise might be able to cause a lot of havoc at this school. Hufflepuffs barely got noticed. She could be an evil genius trying to take over the world and still more than half the school wouldn't know the name Eloise Midgen. Eloise would be a great addition to the Weasley Army.
Eloise looked down at her looping handwriting. She crossed out some of the newer lines. "That can't be right. It's too simple."
"What? What is it?" I was practically jumping out of my seat with excitement.
"They used their names."
It still didn't make that much sense.
"The code words were Gred and Forge or possibly Fred and George. Whatever it was it worked!" Eloise handed me the note, now clearly legible:
Dear Amira and Rigel,
Meet us in the third classroom on the fourth floor at 10. It's typically empty and we'll be able to discuss without interruption or the threat of being turned in by perfect prefect prats.
-Gred and Forge
I think I squealed because several people whipped around in their seats. Hermione gave an indignant sigh before turning back around while others (cough Zacharias Smith cough) gave mocking faces and profound insults. Eloise's face turned about 2 shades darker. Rigel glared at the bullies before tilting his head to the side. "Tell you later" I mouthed.
"Class dismissed and I want those 2 feet by Monday." Binns drifted right back through the blackboard.
I turned towards Eloise as I gathered my books. "So how would you like to be part of a secret army? I'm pretty sure we'll be able to find some mysterious code names."
"I'll see you at ten, then." Eloise gave a huge smile before disappearing into the shadows with out a sound. Wow, she was good at that. Note to self, never try to hide anything from Eloise.
/.-=['l;'?* _ _ _ _ _ _ _
"No!"
"Oh give it up, Rigel. She's coming."
"No. I won't stand for it."
"YOU won't stand for it! Who put you in charge?" Rigel gets so pigheaded at times.
"No one. It's just that Puff is going to blow our cover."
"Oh just wait, by the end of the year, you'll have more detentions than she does."
"Is that a bet?"
"Of Course. 2 Galleons." We shook hands.
"This is easy money. A Hufflepuff will never be able to out prank me."
I smirked. "I'll tell Nymphy and Dad you said so."
Rigel got a panic look across his face. The last time something like that happened, he couldn't get the dye out of his hair for a month. Nymphy always swore pink looked good on anybody.
"That was nice."
Rigel and I whipped around. Eloise had emerged from the shadows. She was extremely good at that.
"I mean to stand up for me. Not many people do."
Rigel was blinking every few seconds like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. I couldn't tell what was funnier Eloise skipping happily along the corridor or Rigel just standing there gawking.
Eloise paused at the door and straightened her robes before entering. Far off in the distance, I thought I heard Peeves. I shoved Rigel inside and quickly slammed the door.
Fred and George were sitting side by side on the professor's desk. George shoved a piece of parchment into his pocket. "Glad you figured out our little note-"
"Lee should be here anytime now-"
"He knows the code."
"Who's your friend?"
I glanced around looking for Eloise. She was swinging her feet back and forth as she sat in the corner desk. Eloise bounded off it at the mention of herself. "Eloise Midgen, first year Hufflepuff, pleased to meet you."
Fred and George exchanged looks. "Welcome to the Weasley Army!"
"No way! We're not calling ourselves that!" Eloise, Rigel and I all said.
Lee opened the door and squeezed in. "I think Filch suspects something. He's lurking around the stairs. I dropped a dung bomb over the banister though. That should keep him busy." He plopped down in another one of the desks.
"Now that we're all settled, I hereby call this meeting to order." Fred said glancing at his watch.
"Who put you in charge?"
"I mean who in their right mind what do that?" I asked at the now very irritated Fred Weasley.
"Well obviously, I'm the better looking twin."
Even George rejected Fred as leader at that. The majority of our meeting was spent arguing about how we were going to govern ourselves. You'd think a small prank group would have no order to it but we might have over thought things a bit. I think Lee was even taking minutes. In the end, we were a democracy. It was simple enough…
Until our name came up.
"I still say the Weasley Army," said George.
"NO!"
"Fine! Fine! It was just a suggestion."
"First of all," Rigel began, "We are not your army."
"Secondly, I want to be able to cause mayhem even after you leave. Let the prankster legacy continue, if you know what I mean," I added. There was no way we were being the Weasley Army, absolutely no way!
Eloise sighed, "Plus there's no cool acronym."
"Well, we could be the Mayhem Bandits," offered Lee.
"Still no acronym," Eloise added in a singsong voice.
I have to admit it didn't really sound right either.
Fred snapped his fingers, "I know Midget Minions. It fits especially because of you Firsties."
"I'm not that short. I'm almost as tall as you," I argued.
George covered, "Well Eloise isn't. She might really be a smidgen of a person."
Eloise reached down and brandished a textbook one of the other students had left behind.
"Okay, nothing making Midgen's shortness obvious," Fred amended.
There was silence in the classroom. I wracked my brains for anything worth using. Pranksters Association sounded weird. Pranking for a funner future sounded more like a motto, and most likely some Ravenclaw would point out funner wasn't a word. Order of the Weasels sounded pretty cool and we could just call it the Order for short. It sounded like we were part of something so much larger, like Dumbledore's Order of the Phoenix. But I'm pretty sure Fred and George wouldn't like that.
"George, I think I've got it!" Fred was jumping up and down in a way that was totally out of character for him.
"Does it have anything to do with our founding fore fathers?" George asked.
Founding fore fathers? What's that supposed to mean? I think we were the first group to actual form a group of pranksters since, well since a really long time ago.
"Yep the Mini Marauders!"
I liked the Marauders part. It sounded vaguely familiar too. But "Why the mini part?"
"Well, we aren't the original Marauders and," he paused as if he wasn't quite sure if he dared to finish his thought, "Eloise is just so short."
"FRED WEASLEY, I'M WARNING YOU!" Eloise pulled out her wand and began to wave it in a complicated gesture. Fred began to shrink rapidly.
I walked over to Eloise and tried to calm her down. Fred's rapid reduction in size started to slow down.
"Who were the original Marauders?" Lee seemed completely oblivious to the whole situation. Rigel was teetering on the sidelines, unsure whether he was going to help me or continue laughing madly with George.
A tiny squeak that sounded a lot like "Geniuses" came from an inch tall Fred.
"Can you fix him?" George now seemed slightly nervous as if seeing his twin so small and vulnerable was a very scary thing.
"Um, he now fits our name. Fred's just a really mini marauder," Eloise stammered. Her confidence, along with her anger, was gone.
"You don't know how to fix him, do you?" It wasn't really a question. "Amira, Eloise and Lee start looking in the books for something that might work. George tell us everything you can about these Marauder people."
Rigel always knew how to think when under pressure. He liked to have order, so that certainly helped too. Rigel just had a level of calm higher than most people. Nymphy used to joke that Rigel got enough clear-headedness for the two of us.
I pulled out a book and began glancing through the table of contents. There were spells for everything. Notice-me-not charms and duplicating curses were only the beginning. There was even the method to make flying carpets but nothing on how to bring inch high people to their original height.
"Well, there were these four pranksters at Hogwarts, Moony, Padfoot, Wormtail and Prongs."
Those were the names written along the secret passageway. We found one of their secret passageways.
"Bloody geniuses, they taught us absolutely everything, more than a teacher ever could."
"But how?" Rigel and I were thinking along the same thought process.
"The Marauders left us help," George pulled out the piece of parchment they always had on them. He tapped it with his wand, "I solemnly swear I'm up to no good."
Spiderlike handwriting crept up from the center of the page:
"Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs
Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers
Are proud to present
THE MARAUDER'S MAP""
"Wow!" I gasped. It was amazing, the best thing I had ever seen. It was Hogwarts and everyone in it. Peeves was pestering birds in the owlery while Dumbledore paced his office. Filch marched back and forth in front of the main entrance. Quirrell and Snape were both on the third floor near the forbidden corridor and the monstrous three headed dog.
"Is anyone going to fix me?"
We turned back to our books. It was Lee who found the spell ten minutes later. "Engorgio."
Fred began to swell upwards. Pointing a shaking finger at Eloise, he said, "We don't mess with her."
"Glad you figured that out," Eloise said sweetly.
Just like that we were laughing. The Mini Marauders exited the classroom in high spirits with our first prank already planned for Halloween.
Well sorry for the wait. My uncle/godfather was in a car accident and things were a bit hectic with school starting up soon.