Left Behind (A Fred & George fanfic)

5. Plans

Fred immediately followed James upstairs. He saw Percy looking at them, wondering why they were in a hurry, but Fred didn’t really care about that. He just wanted to know what James was about to show him. He knew it had to be something amazing, James expression had already given that away.

They sprinted upstairs – James nearly missed a step of the stairs – and into James’ bedroom.

“So, tell me!” Fred said as he sat down on James’ closed trunk.

“Okay,” James began, “So I was in dad’s office, preparing a little prank, when I saw…”

“WAIT. You prepared a prank… Without me?”

“Yeah, well… Do you want to hear my story or not?”

Fred nodded.

“Ok, dad’s office. And when I glanced at his desk, I saw one of the drawers standing slightly open. I wanted to see what was in there, so I dropped the prank and went to take a look.”

A creaking noise gave away that another person had entered the room.

“Little James Sirius secretly looking into his father’s properties? Causing mischief everywhere he goes? Kreacher should tell his master about this misbehavior!”

Fred froze; he had never liked the house-elf. Fred knew he had nothing to be afraid of, Kreacher was completely harmless, just an old, grumpy elf that had been in the family for a very long time. At least, that was what Fred thought. Harry had freed the elf after the War, but Kreacher had caught a hint of Dobby’s spirit, he appreciated Harry in a way. That’s why, after working in the kitchens of Hogwarts for some time, he had gone back to the Potters to serve them. He was, in fact, a free elf. Fred knew nothing of this story and disliked Kreacher, because he always seemed so irritated and grumpy.

James, however, was more than used to the elf.

“Kreacher, just go away. We all know you’re not gonna tell dad anything unless he specifically asks for it.” he sighed, “Now leave us alone, please, will you?”

Kreacher had no choice but to leave.

“Of course, master, of course.” And so he did, making his way out of the room shuffling and muttering to himself.

Fred put his mind to the secret again and James continued his story. He said he’d seen an odd piece of parchment in the drawer. He immediately walked towards his closet to get it and handed it over to Fred.

“Woah,” Fred said, looking at the front of the paper, “Marauder’s Map? What is it?”

“Just look!” James opened the parchment.

“Is that… It can’t be!”

“It is! A map of Hogwarts!”

“And the moving dots…”

“People, walking there this very moment, at least, that’s what I think. See?” James pointed at a dot carrying the name of ‘Neville Longbottom’.

“That’s Professor Longbottom, walking towards the greenhouses.”

Both of the boys took a minute to admire their latest discovery.

“I do wonder though,” James interrupted the silence.

“What?”

“Who are those people, the creators. Wormtail, Prongs, Moony… Strange names, don’t you think?”

“Are you crazy?” Fred raised his voice.

“Ssssshhhh!” James pointed at the door.

“Who cares where this came from,” Fred continued in a hushed voice, “do you realize what this means? The pranks we can pull off if we can trust this thing? The possibilities we have now?”

James eyes widened and he laughed as he imitated their uncle Ron. “Bloody hell!”

The days passed quickly and soon it was time to go back to Hogwarts. Roxanne and Fred said goodbye to their parents and after a hug and a promise not to cause too much problems at school (the latter was mainly meant for Fred) they left again with the Hogwarts Express. Fred sat in a compartment with James, Louis, Michel, Sophie and Roxanne. Their company caused an awkward but tense silence from both James and Fred, all they could think about and wanted to talk about was the map and the ideas they had to cause the school trouble that even Peeves would cheer for. However, they wanted to keep the map a secret, so they promised each other only to talk about it whenever they were alone.

“Why so quiet, you two?” Sophie asked, she was a muggle-born second year Gryffindor who was close friends with Louis, who was in the same year. “Not planning any mischief, are you?”

“Not yet!” James said.

Fred couldn’t help but laugh.

~

Harry entered his office on the first floor. He’d had a few busy days at the Ministry and after bringing the kids to London, he was relieved he could sit down for a moment. His job as an Auror wasn’t as difficult as 20 years ago, when Voldemort was at his strongest and the whole wizarding world was practically breaking down, but he still had much to do.

He sat down behind his desk, sighed and looked at some papers from the ministry he had to deal with. Suddenly he saw the little Golden snitch lying on his desk, Ginny had probably put it there, he thought. He picked it up and looked at it for a minute. This was the first snitch he had ever caught and he was still pretty proud of it. Not to mention the fact that he had almost swallowed it, instead of just catching it, of course.

He put it back in the drawer he’d found it in and noticed something odd.  The usual bunch of papers was quite disordered and something was missing.

“Ginny, could you come here for a minute, please!” Harry yelled. Ginny immediately showed up in the little office.

“What’s wrong?”

“Did you take the Marauder’s Map out of this drawer?”

Ginny looked at him with wonder. “Now, why would I want to take the Map?”

“I don’t know, but it’s gone. And I didn’t touch it in a long time.”

At the exact same moment Ginny and Harry understood what had happened at glanced at each other.

“James!”

“You didn’t think he actually took the Map without asking, do you?” Harry said.

“It’s James, it’s our kid. Of course he did!” Ginny laughed. “But it isn’t that bad, is it? I mean, he did enter your office and took something without permission, but what’s the worst that can happen once he has the Map? You got it in your third year too. You didn’t misuse it back at Hogwarts, did you?”

Harry threw an unbelieving look her way.

“Never mind,” Ginny laughed, “I take that back.”