Where The Sage Shrubs Grow,

Chapter 7

Sage's POV:
Dinner was almost over and we were about to leave. You could feel the anticipation between the six of us, we were all just waiting to be freed so we could have our last bit of fun before Christmas break when we would be forced to separate. Finally, after what felt like forever dinner was over. I noticed the twins giving eachother a sly smirk. Meaning they had a cleverly devised plan to get to the kitchens and back without getting caught. Me, Hallie, and Clementine casually walked with the rest of the Hufflepuffs back to the common room, once we were at our room we made sure none was around before going in. If anyone saw what the room looked like it would be obvious what our plan was and we couldn't have that happen.

    After about 20 minutes we heard a quiet knock on the door, I assumed it was Clementine since she was in the same house and because the knock was so quiet, but to my surprise it wasn't. It was MC holding a cooler and a speaker, I was mildly taken back by how silent she was since that was kind of unusual for her but also appreciated since we didn't want to get caught. Five minutes later we heard another knock and this time it was Clementine, she had brought the game sorry and monopoly. Now we were just waiting on the twins.
"Do you think they got caught?" Hallie questioned sounding mildly nervous
"Nah their probably just carrying too much food to move fast" I responded with a light laugh

While we waited for the boys I got out the games I wanted to play, pulling out the games clue and scattergories while Hallie pulled out headbands. MC had started setting up a little spot to display the drinks and she set the speaker on the desk by my bed. Clementine just sat on the edge of the mattress and fiddled with her fingernails. After another 10 minutes we were all starting to get mildly concerned so I decided to go down to the common room and peek my head out of the door. As I made my way down the warmth from the fire going heated my feet as I went down the flight of stairs. I got to the door and peeked my head out looking both ways like I was trying to make sure no cars were coming down the road. There were no signs of life either way down the darkened hallway, I slowly and quietly backed into the common room closing the door as silently as I could.
"Hey" I heard someone whisper behind me

I jumped for dear life and gasped so hard I started coughing. I looked up once I had recovered to see Fred and George standing before me with an absurd amount of food in their arms. I was relieved to see them but I also wanted to slap them for scaring me so bad, but to be fair if they had said nothing and I had gotten scared I probably would have scolded them for saying nothing.
"Bloody Hell!" I whispered
"Sorry" they both responded in unison
We made our way up to the room making sure that my coughing didn't wake anyone, luckily it didn't. Once we got there I noticed the girls had gotten changed into their pj's so I decided to do the same. I decided to put on a black spaghetti strap top and a pair of blue pajama pants with the plaid design on them that were too big on me since I had taken them from my brother. When I walked out of the closet everyone was snacking on the food waiting for me to come back so we could start games. We spent hours playing games, everyone seemed to especially like scattergories when I finally gave up playing by the rules and let everyone make up their own words as long as they had meanings to go with them. Even I enjoyed myself, and of course Fred decided to bring twister. That git, no matter how many rounds I played I always lost. At least I got in my daily workout in.

MC decided she wanted to play through or dare after about 8 rounds of twister, we all decided it was a good idea but we are also all on a sugar high so it probably isn't.
"Hmm" MC pondered, since the game was her idea she went first
"Hallie, truth or dare" she finally ordered
"Uh, truth?" Hallie responded, clearly thrown off that she had been picked
MC smirked "Ok, tell us, do you like Karl?"
Hallie's face went up in flames "What?! N-no no I don't!" she stuttered
MC raised an eyebrow at her, clearly not convinced by her response. She just shrugged and moved on "Your turn then" she said to Hallie
"Oh alright, George truth or dare?"
George responded with truth, and Hallie asked him how him and Fred got around the school without getting caught. He gave Fred a slightly concerned look and Fred just shrugged, his way of saying he didn't care. George dug through his pillow case and pulled out a piece of wrinkly folded parchment, we all leaned forward suddenly interested in what his answer was gonna be.

He pulled out his wand and held it wards the paper
"I solemly swear that I am up to no good" he called
Suddenly ink began to appear, spreading like a disease to the rest of the paper. We all began to read the label on the map, Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs are proud to present The Marauder's Map it read. We all looked at the twins in confusion, they opened the map and right before us was Hogwarts. But, it wasn't just a map. It showed, people? Right before us was Hogwarts yes, but it also showed everyone in the school and where they were, and where they were moving to. You could see where they were going, it was crazy.
"it shows everyone, at all times throughout the day." Fred started
"It also shows secret passages, so we use those and we can always tell when someone is coming" George finished
We all stared at them in awe.
"How did you get it?" I questioned
"Nicked it from Filch's office of course, last year" Fred Explained
We talked about the map for hours, how it worked if we could use it at that stuff. Everyone seemed to forget about the game. Eventually we got back to games and once the sugar kicked in again it was all over. Everyone got overly competitive, MC threw a Sorry piece which hit Fred in the head which started a downhill spiral. We were all yelling about who won what round, game pieces were flying and eventually everything turned into a violent pillow fight. It was the most fun I've had in forever.

We partied till 2am, when everyone basically passed out everywhere. I was on my bed, Hallie was on hers, clementine was on the bunk above mine, Fred and George had ended up on either side of me on the bed, and MC had just passed out on the floor. We all slept harder than most of us had slept before, seeing as we wore ourselves out.

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