We opened the door ever so slightly more, so we could all get a closer look at what was happening. In the middle of the room, Andrew was bound and gagged, tied to a metal pole that had 2 others supporting it. I almost laughed at the morbid irony of the situation, that a group of pure blood fanatics were using a torture technique commonly seen in Muggle fiction. Sarah was stood next to the setup, looking down at Andrew. Behind her stood Flint, and another older Slytherin I didn't know the name of.
"Welcome to your initiation, Sarah Bagman. Tonight, you will prove you are truly worthy of a place in this noble house, and of your place on the dark side" said Flint. "We started this tradition last year. It was Draco Malfoy's idea, and he regrets being unable to attend tonight due to his injury caused by that mad Hippogriff. Lillian Avery is entombed in detention this evening, and she too expresses her deepest regrets at not being here. However, they both want to forward on their extreme confidence in you completing the task set for you tonight, Lillian in particular, as she did this herself exactly a year ago, and sees many of the same qualities she possesses in yourself."
I thought that was interesting, as we had not heard about or stumbled across Avery's "initiation".
"We have a blood traitor here in front of us. You know what is expected of you. So go ahead, show us. Prove your worth"
Sarah stepped forward, wand raised.
"Incendio!" she shouted.
Flames immediately appeared underneath Andrew, and he cried out in pain as he felt the heat beneath his back.
Amy made to go inside, but I held her back.
"No, not yet" I hissed
"They're torturing him"
"I know, but we need to do this the right way. Hold on."
"Rotata!" Sarah said
The pole Andrew was bound to began to rotate, and now his face was above the flames. He cried out further still.
We shut the door quietly.
"What on earth are we going to do?" I said
"I know what we're going to do, we're gonna go in there and rip them limb from limb!" said Amy
"Look, Amy, we can't just go running in there all guns blazing" said Demelza "We need to think about this carefully. They can easily cause us just as much damage, if not more, than Andrew is receiving now"
"I don't care what damage I receive, if I can save Andrew it's worth it. I've already lost my sister to the dark side, I'm not losing my boyfriend physically too!"
There was a short silence.
"Your boyfriend? You two are official?!" I said, with great surprise. I knew it would probably happen, but not so quickly!
"Yes, we became so yesterday, I was going to tell you later on. Brilliant how one of the first things I have to do in our relationship is save him from the Slytherins!" Amy bitterly replied.
"How would they have known though? Do you think they're doing this because you're together?" asked Demelza
"They probably don't know we're official, but they would have guessed it was coming seeing how flirtatious we've acted around each other! Anyway, look, we're wasting time, we need to get in there and save him!"
She made to get up and open the door, but then a voice sounded from behind us.
"I think we can help!"
It was Fred and George, running towards us, and it was the former who had spoken. They were holding out a piece of parchment in front of them.
Fred showed it to us. It was a very detailed map of Hogwarts, and it showed all of us in this very corridor, our names labelled, and I could see that every inch of the castle was detailed with the exact locations of all it's occupants.
"How, what the-" I said
"We'll explain afterwards, there isn't time right now. Mischief managed!"
The paper went blank.
"Right, take this" said George, and he stuffed a black ball into Amy's hands. "Open the door, and throw this inside, it will create a cloud of dark smoke, which should give us enough time to get in there and untie Andrew!"
There was no time to argue, so Amy just did what George said, and thankfully, it worked!
As soon as Amy threw the ball inside, it exploded and thick black smoke covered the place. We all ran inside, hearing the shouts of confusion from the Slytherins. We reached Andrew, untied him, and then ran away from the room as quickly as we could. We didn't stop until we reached the Gryffindor Common Room.
As soon as we had gotten there, we all collapsed into seats, panting. Harry, Ron and Hermione had to be in their dormitories as they weren't there, so we'd fill them in on what happened the next morning. Andrew had some minor burns to his face and body, but was otherwise unharmed, and he allowed Amy to sit down on his lap, kissing her on the cheek as she did so. He told us that all he knew was that he had been walking to dinner, but had then blacked out, and woken up in the room with the Slytherins.
George said it was likely that a Stunning Spell had been used.
"It was bloody lucky that you guys showed up though!" I said "I don't know what we'd have done otherwise, but why were you down there anyway?"
"We were heading to a quiet room so we could test one of our new products. Instant Darkness Powder. (Yes, this was the time they created it, not 3 years later like Joanne said). We definitely didn't think that was the scenario we'd be using, but we can say that the test was successful!" replied George
"So what was that map you were using then?" asked Demelza, crossing her legs.
"Ah, this?" said Fred, pulling it out of his pocket.
"This is the secret to our success. We found it in Filch's office one day and nicked it. This map has helped us so much over the years. It's an incredible piece of magic, I hope we can meet the creators at some point, if they're still alive"
"Show us how it works then!" said Amy eagerly, jumping off Andrew's lap for a closer look.
Fred tapped the parchment with his wand and said "I solemnly swear I'm up to no good".
The map sprang to life, showing us everything the castle had to offer. We could see Dumbledore pacing his office, Filch and on the third floor, Peeves in the Astronomy Department, no doubt causing havoc, and so on.
"Of course, it took us a long time to work out the right combination of words, but it would show small markings as we got closer and closer, until eventually we got it. We had been making sure the coast was clear in our intended testing spot when we saw the situation you guys were in, so we knew we had to come and help" said George. "But we plan to give this to Harry very soon. We feel like he will need it much more than us in the future. We pretty much know the routines of Filch, the teachers and the prefects by heart now, so we can avoid them when we need to. Please don't tell Harry though, we're waiting for the opportune moment"
"Don't worry, we won't" I said.
"I wouldn't recommend telling the teachers about what happened tonight either" said Fred. "It's very unlikely they'll believe you"
I had to agree with them there, the only evidence would be the word of the five of us.
"Honestly, I'm just glad Andrew is safe" said Amy
"So am I" Andrew replied.
And with a final kiss, they headed up to bed, with the rest of us following closely behind.
