Meeting the Marauders

You're the Marauders?

"Fred?"

"Yes George?"

"It's our last year at Hogwarts."

"Yes, I am aware."

"And we still haven't figured out who the Marauders are."

Fred frowned. "You are quite right George. Our only lead is the nicknames."

The twins sat down at the long table and each took a plate from the stack in the middle. George took out his wand and summoned a quill and a piece of parchment. He neatly wrote Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs at the top of the paper. They both studied the names for a couple seconds.

"The only thing I'm getting is that Prongs might have something to do with a fork," Fred finally said, picking up his.

George sighed. "That's the only thing we've been getting for years. And everybody uses forks, so that doesn't really narrow it down."

"Well... alright then, let's move on. Maybe Padfoot liked to wear slippers. Who do we know that likes to wear slippers?"

"But it probably isn't someone we know, that's the issue."

Again, both stared at the paper.

"Hang on," George said, "What if Wormtail had a pet rat? You know the creepy pink tails of those things. They do sort of look like worms."

"Well Scabbers was our family's pet rat, wasn't he? And nobody called any of us Scabbers. Besides, loads of students have pet rats."

"I prefer owls myself." Fred and George looked up and saw Harry entering the room, along with Ron. They took seats across from the twins. "Too many bad experiences with rats." Harry smiled sadly.

"You're right, us too," George said.

"Say, Harry," Fred added, "you don't by any chance, have a clue who Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs were, do you?"

A shocked expression came across Harry's face."Wait, nobody ever told you?"

The twins gasped. "You mean you know?" They both asked incredulously. "And you didn't tell us?

"I guess it just never came up," Ron said, shrugging.

Fred and George glared at their brother. "You knew too?" Fred cried.

"What does he know?" Ginny asked yawning. She and Hermione sat down at the table, carrying stacks of Mrs. Weasley's waffles.

Harry snagged the first waffle off the top of the pile. "I guess you lot never told Fred and George who the Marauders are."

"Oh, that," Ginny said calmly. By this point, both Fred and George were fuming. How was it that everybody knew who their idols were but them?

George focused on the weakest target. "Ronald Bilius Weasley, I swear, if you do not tell me right now, we will set a horde of monster spiders into your room." Ron turned pink.

"Don't tell them!" Ginny cried. George stared murderously at his little sister. "They should find out for themselves."

Fred threw a piece of waffle at her.

Just then, Sirius walked sleepily into the room. He picked the piece of waffle out of Ginny's bright red hair and zinged it back at Fred. "I could hear you lot yelling all the way up from my room," he said coldly.

"Sorry Sirius," Harry said, "Fred and George were just wondering who the Marauders were."

Sirius perked up. "Who the Marauders were? Hmm, sounds familiar. Oh! You mean as in Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs?"