The Forgotten Twin

Chapter 26

Sadly, over the third task drew nearer, Hermione and Delilah had no luck catching Rita. Delilah, however, met up with Fred and George as often as possible to plan a special treat to spice up the third task.

"I still think letting Dobby and the house elves in would cause a stir," George insisted.

Fred shook his head.

"Afterwards they would make food and everyone would be glad they were there."

Delilah stared at the distance, ignoring most of their ridiculous suggestions. .

What should they do? Glitter and confetti attack? Have the house elves come and cater but with Fred and George's creations such as Canary Creams? Have a fake dragon attack the crowd? Put glue on the chairs so that everyone's pants got stuck?

"Hey I have an idea," Delilah stated, interrupting Fred and George's argument. They turned. "What if we did something a bit more... simple? We could place smoke bombs, fireworks, that type of thing, and then set them off all at once. No one would be hurt, but it still would cause some surprise and chaos."

Fred and George agreed for the first time in weeks and they quickly planned it all out.

"Great, now that that's settled, we need to decide what to do about Bagman," Fred declared, narrowing his eyes at the wall.

"You still haven't gotten the money?"

George bitterly shook his head.

"He finds an excuse every time we corner him, we're planning to write a letter today."

"So we need to play dirty, like him."

"Yes, but we can't put it in a letter, that's blackmail!"

This obviously was an old argument.

"Delilah, what do you suggest?"

"Well, why don't you do it in a way that he knows it's blackmail, but it technically isn't."

Fred and George paused.

"That... might actually work," Fred stated.

They both started talking while writing the letter out, occasionally asking Delilah for advice. They finished a few minutes later, and together they headed up to the Owlery, Delilah right beside them.

As they started up the Owlery steps, George brought his concerns up.

"I swear, this seems like blackmail."

"If you phrased it right, then no one other than you and Bagman will call it blackmail. For example, if you say what you want and remind him about the conversation you overheard with the goblins, without going into details, just saying that you heard him talk to them, it technically is just stating a fact."

Fred stared at her.

"You know, sometimes I forget that you belong in Slytherin."

From anyone else, she would have been offended. But Fred's tone was more admiring and fact-like than anything, so she just laughed with him.

"That's still blackmail, that is, we could get into a lot of trouble for that," George pointed out, reminding them of the conversation.

"We've tried being polite; it's time to play dirty, like him. He wouldn't like the Ministry of Magic knowing what he did," Fred stated.

"I'm telling you, if you put that in writing, it's blackmail!"

"Yeah, and you won't be complaining if we get a nice fat payoff, will you?"