Left Behind (A Fred & George fanfic)

6. The Kitchens

“C’mon guys! Hurry up!” Michel whispered. He tiptoed on enthusiastically through the 2nd floor corridor.

James sighed. “Why did we take him again?”

“He was the one who came up with the idea, wasn’t he? And… Well. I don’t know.” Fred answered, not looking up from the piece of parchment in his hands.

“He’s a bit too happy and noisy about this, in my opinion.”

“What did you say, James? I just can’t believe we’re actually doing this. I mean, you guys are some kind of professionals already, but this is totally new for me. And that map you found, just amazing, don’t you think? I just hope we won’t get caught. Could you imagine the trouble we’d be in if we were? Spurcus would literally kill us! But that’s why it’s so exciting to do this, I think. Don’t you?” Michel just talked on and on.

“Michel, please.” James said. “You had a very good idea and that’s why we took you, but talking that loud at three a.m. will surely wake Spurcus up. So if you don’t mind…”

“I’ll be quiet! I’ll be quiet!”

“That’s likely.” Fred murmured in a sarcastic voice. “Now sssshhh! Here’s the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor’s office. We don't wanna wake him up, do we?”

All three of them silently walked through the rest of the corridor. Once they’d reached the stairs that lead them to the first floor, Fred folded back the Map, so that the ground plan of  this floor was visible.

“Wait a minute! Let me see that other page again.” James urged.

“What about it?” Fred asked as he showed the second floor map to the others.

“Who’s Myrtle?” James pointed at a certain point of the map, somewhere in the girls lavatory.

“I have no idea.” Fred shrugged. “But she doesn’t seem to have a last name. Odd.”

Michel grinned. “Maybe it’s a student! Let’s take a look!”

“Uhm, Michel,” Fred began.

“I don’t think it’s likely any students are on the toilet at this time of night.” James continued.

“Moreover, I don’t know any students that are named Myrtle, do you?”

“What, you never go to the loo while doing a prank?” Michel laughed.

“Let’s just walk on already, shall we?” James sighed.

Only a few minutes later they reached the basements and stood in front of the kitchens.

“But how do we know for sure that no one is going to see us?” Michel asked, slightly scared.

Fred and James looked from him to the map and back again.

“Oh…. right. Never mind.”

They tickled the pear in a portrait (George had once told Fred II to do this in order to get a nice meal outside mealtimes), which then turned into a doorknob. Excited, they opened the door and set foot in a place they had never been before.

“Woah!” Michel exclaimed admiringly. “This is amazing!”

There wasn’t a single house-elf in the Hogwarts kitchens, probably because the headmaster allowed them to sleep at night. Since Professor Dumbledore had been headmaster, the lives of the elves had changed positively. This was a good thing, because the trio didn’t have any difficulties doing their prank now.

They quickly walked towards the four huge tables that corresponded with the tables in the Great Hall, which was right above them.

“How did you even get this idea, Michel?” James asked.

“Oh, I don’t know. My parents were talking about those Weasley Wheezes products during the holidays, about how popular they were so many years ago. But now, not many people buy them anymore. It’s a shame, really.”

“Ah well, my dad came up with other brilliant things since then, didn’t he?” Fred proudly said as he emptied his bag.

The next half hour was spent exchanging the food that was already prepared for the next day with sweets from Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes. Custard creams became Canary Creams,  Fainting Fancies were draped over the sandwiches, even some Nosebleed Nougat was hidden between the breakfast delights, both the orange and the purple version.

“How did you even manage to get all this stuff?” Michel asked.

“Duh, his dad is the owner.” James said.

“Yeah, it was kinda weird, actually.” Fred told the others. “I didn’t know how to get it and since our next trip to Hogsmeade was still so far away, I wrote to dad, asking if he could send some of the old Skiving Snackboxes. Strangely enough, he said yes.”

“Wait, he just said yes? Knowing you’d probably use it on the entire school?” James said surprised. “I thought you’d just slipped into your dad’s office to take some. That’s what I did.” He pointed at the map.

“Yes, but not all of us like to steal from their parents, do we?” Fred said.

“What? I apologized!”

“You did, after you received that howler.”

Michel grinned.

“Anyway, my dad sent me the boxes and a note along with it.” Fred searched  his pockets and took a little paper out of it, handing it over to James. “Here, read it.”

“’So you can continue where we left off.’” James read. “We? As in uncle Fred?”

“I think so…”

Fred walked towards the table that corresponded with Slytherin’s table and took a sandwich. “The more we eat, the less they have, right?”

Michel laughed and took a sandwich too. James, on the other hand, took up the Map once again and looked at it. He saw the three little dots that presented Michel, Fred and himself standing in the Kitchens. But wait… What was that?

“Woah!” James exclaimed.

“What?” Fred and Michel said simultaneously, their mouths full of sandwiches.

James kept his eyes fixed on the Map, not seeing what he had just a second ago. “I thought I saw… Never mind.”