Chapter 3:
Inter-House Cooperation
Ronald Weasley sat alone in the Gryffindor common room that night.
The fire was little more than embers at this point, but he couldn't bring himself to break eye contact with the dying light source. It had been a whole day since Dumbledore summoned him, Fred, George and Percy to his office where their parents sat waiting for them. They expected the headmaster to explain the condition of Harry and their sister, who they at that point assumed had been ushered to the now barricaded hospital wing. They had not expected to spend the rest of that day helplessly watching their mother weeb.
Ron still couldn't manage a tear of his own. He tried to force it, as if it was his duty to show some outward sign of his inner suffering, but he just didn't have it in him. Maybe it was that whole 'denial' step of dealing with death that people talked about. Maybe he'd already counted her as dead after the blood on the wall said as much, or maybe he'd come to accept it in his days of waiting. Harry's death, on the other hand, he simply didn't believe.
His best friend was invincible. Full stop. He couldn't have died. Ron was proof positive that the boy-who-lived could swan dive into the mouth of an active volcano with a barrel of exploding ginger eyelashes strapped to his back and he'd crawl out of the crater with nothing to show for it but singed robes. What hope did some legless lizard, no matter how magical, have against the force of nature that was Harry Potter? Ron could more easily stop a hurricane by spitting at it.
It was ridiculous. It was asinine. The fact that Dumbledore thought so low of Ron's intelligence that he thought he'd believe such a lie was insulting!
He almost jumped when Fred and George crashed into the cushions on either side of him with identical sighs, very rudely breaking him from his thoughts. They sank into a deep slouch as they joined him in gazing at the embers. They sat in silence for some time, undoubtedly looking the pinnacle of despondency to an outside observer.
"So. You guys aren't going to try and cheer me up?" He asked his brothers when the silence dragged on too long.
Fred grunted. George chuckled.
"Even we can recognize a lost cause when we see one." said Fred.
"We just wanted to see if your coping method was better than ours." said George. "I gotta tell ya, this isn't doing much for me."
Ron grimaced and grabbed the bucket of sand from the edge of the hearth. He threw it, pale and all, into the firebox, extinguishing what was left of the once roaring flames. With that chore done he stood up and stretched the kinks out of his back, looking from Fred to George.
"And what was your coping method?" Ron dared to ask.
The two proceeded to have a full-length Aristotelian debate with nothing more than eyebrow movements, hand waving and shrugs. Fred launched the discussion with a toothy wince and raised shoulder. George countered with a thumb to Ron and a wave of his hand in a 'Get it over with' motion. Fred responded with a two-handed movement indicating himself and George and then waving one hand over his head indicating the ceiling or castle at large. Eventually Fred relented to a particularly persuasive eyebrow wiggle and nod towards Ron from George and produced a square piece of parchment before unfolding it.
It was blank, marked with more wrinkles than a retired scarlet woman and bore stains of what he hoped was coffee. Ron took it, struggling to hold the wall-chart sized piece of paper. The thing was nearly as big as he was. He turned it over, examined the back, turned it over again to examine the front and turned his gaze to his brothers with a suspicious glare. They answered his unspoken question by simultaneously tapping the parchment with their wands and speaking in stereo.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
Lines of ink spread across the surface of the paper like impossibly thin roots of a plant. They grew over each other in checkered patterns, merged into larger lines and framed the edges and corners of the parchment with swirling patterns. Green letters, written in impressively beautiful calligraphy, grew from the black ink and proclaimed:
Messyrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs
Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers
are proud to present
THE MARAUDER'S MAP
"We've been looking for the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets." Explained Fred as Ron examined the details of the table-sized parchment.
He found the Gryffindor common room with ease where he spotted three dots indicating the three Weasleys. Their names hovered over the dots exclaiming who they were. The dormitories were not shown, which made sense considering it was seven rooms spread over seven identical floors magically occupying the same ten meter by ten-meter space. However, the entrance to the common room showed a list of everybody occupying them in random order.
Names of young students like 'Longbottom, Neville' sat beside names of older students he knew like 'Woods, Oliver' and older students he didn't know like 'Pettigrew, Peter'. He felt guilty at the epiphany of realizing he didn't know the names of any of his upperclassmen that weren't related to him or on the Quidditch team. He considered vowing to remedy that issue but discarded the vow almost immediately. He'd never actually go through with it. Too much work.
The girl's dormitory was also hidden and near the entrance thirty-three names were listed compared to the thirty for the boy's dormitory. Both were shy of the normal thirty-five and Ron counted three of the missing boys currently loitering next to the fireplace. He stared in confusion as he tried to figure out who else was missing before remembering Percy went on prefect patrol an hour earlier and noticing that the name 'Potter, Harry' was missing from the list.
"And hoping in vain to find Harry or Ginny sneaking somewhere around the castle grounds." Added George after the few minutes of silence.
Ron nodded and searched the entirety of the map for the hospital wing when his heart leapt.
"Hermione and the others are moving!" he said, placing the map on the floor so Fred and George could see it for themselves.
Sure enough, Hermione was up and about in the hospital wing. She wasn't the only one. Justin, Colin and Penelope were all with her huddling near the center of the ward along with a fourth person.
"Whoa. The map's never done that before." commented Fred.
The name for this mysterious fifth person was illegible, not due to any smudging or poor penmanship, but because it kept changing. Before Ron's very eyes it went from 'Gar Marmelo Rester' to 'Hamra Momel Pisley' to 'Tarevry Joelo Weattle'. Madame Pomfrey was notably missing from the hospital wing, but Nicholas De Mimsy-Porpington was just outside of it in the hallway.
"A mystery for later I suppose." George said in defeat.
Then something else happened. The dot labeled 'Finch-Fletchley, Justin' seemingly flew across the room towards the entrance of the ward, stopping just shy of the hallway beyond. The dot labeled 'Clearwater, Penelope' followed suit as Justin walked back around to join the other dots on the map.
It wasn't uncommon for objects to mysteriously fly across rooms, but Peeves was several floors down and on the other side of the castle if the map was to be believed.
Then Hermione followed Penelope's example.
"What are they doing?" Ron asked.
The bushy-haired girl roared with laughter as she slid across the magically slicked floor, taking care to keep her arms wrapped around her knees and her skirt in place. The girl clearly learned a lesson from Penelope failing to keep prudence in mind when she made the dive.
"Congrats guys." Said Penelope as Hermione brushed herself off. "You've mastered the glisseo charm!"
Tom nodded in encouragement as he kneeled down and rubbed the slick floor.
"Not a single bump or rough spot to be found. Couldn't have done it better myself." He lied.
Colin, a miniscule boy with mousy hair, beamed at him as he stood up.
"You wizards sure do suffer from a lack of water slides in your world." He said with a toothy, though not quite Granger-toothy, grin.
Both Justin and Hermione laughed but seemed to agree. Tom had never heard of a water slide, but he could guess what it was.
"Well, I hate to break it to you, Creevey, but you're a wizard too. But I'd say this is a decent replacement, am I right?" Said Justin.
The other three nodded and Tom, deciding to act like he knew what they were talking about, nodded as well.
"Next summer let's go ahead and try to transfigure one of those giant water slides next to the lake. Like the ones Americans have." said Penelope, who Tom was fast starting to like.
"Oooh. That would be great! Maybe we can pool our money to buy one of those floating bouncy castle blocks for the lake too!" said Hermione, who he was fast starting to dislike.
What in the blazes was a floating bouncy castle block?
"Oh! I visited my cousin in the states once and we went to a waterpark with one of those." Justin explained. "I think they just call them inflatable blobs. You jump onto it on one end from a platform and it flings whoever's on the other end into the air. So much fun."
Tom tried to ignore his developing headache and keep a friendly exterior, but he was failing.
"You guys! We didn't teach you this spell just for fun. It could really save your life!" Tom half-chastised.
"It's true." Said Penelope. "They really should start teaching it to first years. Imagine if you'd known this spell when you fought off that troll last year, eh Hermione?"
Troll? Hermione had fought a troll? Tom didn't recall that. You'd think that would stand out in the jumbled mess that was his mind. But a glisseo charm definitely would have made short work of a troll. They have neither good balance nor good observational skills.
"Yeah. It's ridiculous." Justin added. "You never start a sorcerer in D and D without the grease spell. This should be taught in the first lesson."
This comment got him strange, almost disgusted looks from his fellow Muggleborns. Tom decided not to ask what 'D and D' stood for.
"By the time they teach it to fifth years you get nothing but immature laughter." Penelope went on. "By then they can all only come up with naughty uses for it."
"Really?" said Colin. "Because I'm coming up with plenty of naughty uses for it myself."
Penelope did a poor job of hiding her shock at hearing those words from an eleven-year-old boy. Tom hoped he had a better poker face. He made a mental note to visit the boy's home unannounced at the first opportunity. Something untoward must be going on there and he'd have to put a stop to it, just like he'd done with Dennis and Amy's mother in that cave.
"I'll have to show this to the Weasley twins." Colin added before mumbling to himself about a scheme involving somebody named Snape, a cauldron of chicken grease and a sack of itching powder.
Ah, innocence. Tom scratched off 'Subjecting Mister and Misses Creevey to a fate worse than death' off of his mental to-do list. It was for the best. He doubted he could outdo his work on Amelia Benson nee Bishop.
"Children!" They all whipped around to see nearly headless Nick's flopping head peering through the floor. "Madam Pomfrey is coming. Back into your beds. Hurry!"
They thanked their partner in crime and all rushed back to their own beds, flinging the sheets over themselves. His fellow inmates were a little too enthusiastic in their attempts to mimic deep and even breathing. They were terrible at pretending to be asleep.
Madam Pomfrey strolled into the hospital wing moments later. She carried a pile of clean linen high enough to hide her head. She lightly placed the top section of the stack on the railing at the foot of Creevey's bed, doing her best not to wake him up, and walked across to where Penelope 'slept'. A split second later the medi-witch landed on her back with a sickening thud as the sheets and blankets she carried flew in every direction as if scattered by a gust of wind.
Everyone made a show of waking up at the noise, a much more impressive display of acting skill than their fake sleep, and Tom spied Hermione surreptitiously cast the counter for the glisseo spell from the bed beside him. He couldn't hear her incantation, but he did pick up the very grown up swearing she whispered under her breath at how stupid it was to leave the spell active.
"Madam are you okay?" a tall red-haired boy - Percy, Tom recalled - said in concern as he ran in and tried to help her to her feet.
Pomfrey refused his hand, opting to rise on her own. Her movements were delicate and slow. Tom noted the hand she used to check her waist as she stood and realized broken hips were probably a sensible concern for a woman her age. Not that she looked particularly old. Not at all.
"Madam, you are overworked." said Sir Nicholas as he floated up to her. "Perhaps you should hand over your duties to Mister Weasley a bit early and call it an evening?"
Percy, to his credit, didn't comment on the ghost's suggestion but did do his usual display of preening by standing up straighter. Tom spotted the red tinge to his ears, and so did his girlfriend if her knowing smile was any indication. Pomfrey didn't say anything. Staring off into space. After a moment she waved for Percy to take over and left the hospital wing with a knight as her escort. She deserved it.
They all said goodbye to Pomfrey and Sir Nicholas and with them their chance at an evening of fun.
With the return of 'adult' supervision they all got back into their beds and this time genuinely tried to go back to sleep instead of pretending. This proved difficult for Tom. The excitement of glisseo sliding with his new not-quite-friends would take a while to wear off and Tom usually had enough difficulty winding down on excitement-free evenings. He considered the idea of summoning a house elf to bring him some hot apple cider, a drink which never failed to put him right to sleep, but discarded the idea. For one thing, he didn't know the names of any current house-elves in Hogwarts and for another he didn't want the youngsters around him to discover that they could lazily summon house elves any time they wished. It wasn't good for your work ethic. It was dreadful for your waistline.
He was on the cusp of blissful sleep when a thundering crash echoed from the hallway outside of the hospital wing. Tom sat bolt upright in his bed just in time to see Percy drop the book he was reading and sprint out of the room to investigate. That guy sure could move when he felt like it.
Silence rang after the door slammed shut behind the prefect. Looking at the other prisoners told Tom that he was the only person having difficulty falling asleep.
"Wha was that?" Colin grumbled at a whisper.
Before they could wager a guess, the lavatory door opened and out stepped their answer.
"Fred!" Hermione half asked and halfaccused.
He shushed her before sneaking across to the door his older brother had just slammed shut. He cracked it open and peered outside.
"It's George, actually." He said, still whispering as he gently closed the door, holding the handle down to make sure it closed silently. "Now come on, you're all going to want to be a part of this."
He walked back over to the lavatory and removed a shoe which he used to prop it open. He hobbled his way over to Hermione's bed and conjured a Granger sized pillow. He unceremoniously shoved the girl out of the bed and tucked the pillow in like his own child. Her replacement was convincing enough.
Hermione tried to object but George shoved her along towards the lavatory. The rest of them didn't bother trying to resist, and to be fair Tom was sure none of them would choose an evening in the hospital wing over an adventure with the living bludgers anyways. Penelope even helped to conjure pillows for stuffing the sheets before joining them at the door.
"I'm staying." she said as George slipped his shoe back on. "But you guys have fun.
"Trust me Penny." said George. "You don't want to miss out on this."
She looked at him smugly. "As if I'd rather miss out on the chance to spend a few hours alone with my boyfriend in a room full of comfy beds? Not likely. Now get going before I decide to act like a proper prefect." She turned on Tom, pointing what she must have thought was an authoritative finger at him. "You be sure to give me all of the details later. Alright?"
"You got it." said Tom. "I suppose we couldn't have picked a better person for distraction duty. Later."
With that the sole Ravenclaw of their group closed the door behind them and they were down to one Slytherin, one Hufflepuff and three Gryffindors. Tom didn't appreciate the demographic shift.
"All right come on. Quickly!" whispered George as he led them down the rows of toilets and shower stalls.
He stopped near the very back of the tiled room and wiggled his way into a gap between two showers. Tom heard the telltale tapping of a wand against stone before the redhead whispered the password to what would no doubt become Tom's favorite secret passage in the coming days.
"They cured my scrivener's palsy. I need to go catch it again." George said.
The redhead squeezed back out as the grinding sound of the opening passage echoed throughout the room.
"All right. Mystery man. You first." said George, motioning for Tom to squeeze into the dark cavity.
Tom looked over both of his shoulders as if expecting to find a previously unseen man standing behind him. Apparently, George was referring to him.
"We need somebody at the bottom to catch these midgets if they slip and fall." said George, indicating their smaller companions with a thumb. "You're the biggest person here."
Tom shrugged in agreement at this reasoning and pushed through. The secret passage was barely more than a manhole with what looked like a fire escape ladder. George's concerns were valid. The bars were as slick as you'd expect a fire escape ladder beside a communal shower room to be. He almost slipped and fell four times himself.
The ladder was three stories high and spat him out into a first-floor corridor, the one opposite the first floor of the hospital tower. He was greeted by George's other half and the last person he wanted to see.
"Who're you?" Ron asked rather rudely.
Tom shook his head.
"Can't say. Headmasters orders." He told Ron before turning back to yell up the ladder. "I'm down, send the next person. But be careful, the bars are slippery."
Hermione came next and upon reaching the bottom she immediately embraced Ron in what he could tell was a bone crushing hug. The only kind of hug she ever gave. Not that Tom had ever personally experienced one.
"It's so good to see you, Ron! It's dreadful that they aren't allowing visitors." Hermione said as she broke the embrace.
"S'fine. Who's your new friend?" he asked, pointing at Tom.
"Can't say. Headmasters orders." she repeated Tom's lie, turning away from her friend to slyly wink at Tom.
And like that his fondness for the beaver started to grow back.
Colin almost made it all the way down but slipped at the last eight-foot stretch of ladder, falling safely into Tom and Fred's waiting arms. Justin and George joined them soon after. Each was greeted by a duet of hugs and when they all arrived his six companions wore nothing but smiles.
"That's everyone. Penny decided to stay back and 'distract' Perc." said George.
"Right then. You want to tell them, or should we?" said Fred, clasping Ron on the shoulder.
The youngest Weasley glanced between his two brothers pleadingly. They gave him no quarter and he audibly swallowed before sticking his chin up and practically glowing with Gryffindor courage.
"Dumbledore says Harry and Ginny are dead." Ron told them.
Hermione, Colin and Justin all visibly paled as their smiles melted away. Tom noticed George strategically positioning himself to catch them if the news turned out to be too much to grasp. Tom mirrored the sentiment and stood behind Justin, who was the first to recover.
"You snuck us out of the hospital wing to tell us THAT!" he said venomously. "No wonder they won't let you guys visit. I really didn't need to hear that while my joints are still part stone."
Tom flinched at the idea of how painful walking must be for them all. This entire ordeal was fast becoming nothing more than a guilt-fest for him. Leave it to Hermione to improve the mood.
"You don't believe him." Hermione said in an impressively serious voice.
Ron locked eyes with her and nodded, just as seriously.
"The old man refused to answer any of our questions." said Fred.
"Everything we know, we learned from Ron." said George.
They all turned their attention back to the smallest ball of freckles, who gulped again.
"The heir of Slytherin kidnapped Ginny. Harry and I tracked down the entrance to the chamber and went after her." Ron explained, speaking at speeds that outstripped Hermione's usual breathless tirades. "We also kidnapped Professor Lockhart, who turned out to be a fraud and almost got us killed when he tried to obliviate us and caused a cave in. We all survived but Harry and I were separated, he went on and I went back to get help. That's all I know."
They all took a moment to digest that.
"Let me guess." said Tom, breaking the silence. "You're going to do what all students do when the adults refuse to give us answers. You want to go find out the truth for yourself?"
Fred and George both beamed at him. Sometimes it really was that easy to earn somebody's friendship.
"Exactly." said Ron.
"And we figured." started Fred.
"If we're going to enter a basilisk's lair." continued George.
"We ought to bring along the champs who beat it in a staring contest." finished Ron, grinning widely at the success at completing the twin's line of thought.
Justin barked out a laugh, but it held no humor.
"I wouldn't say we came out on top in those contests." he complained.
Ah. Right. Hufflepuff. Cowards. The lot of them.
"And I don't fancy a rematch." added the youngest Gryffindor, timidly.
For shame, Colin.
"It's not about revenge." said Hermione, turning her hissing voice between Colin and Justin. "It's about doing the right thing and helping our friends!"
The girl was either secretly a master manipulator or had the uncanny ability to luck her way into saying the right thing. Both of the boys stood up straighter, Colin at the mention of doing the right thing and Justin at the word friend.
"So, what's the plan?" asked Tom.
"Simple." answered Fred.
"We're kicking down the door to the Chamber of Secrets and turning the place upside down until we find our answers." explained George.
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