Fred and George and the Toilers of Trouble (Year 1) ✔

Chapter 20:10

With the aid of the map and the Invisibility Cloak, the task was far from difficult. And once they were comfortably inside the Great Hall, crawling out from under the Gryffindor house table with the cloak balled up inside Fred's robe, they went virtually unnoticed. The only ones looking for the twins were Charlie, Lee Jordan, and Angelina Johnson.

Shaking her head sourly, Angelina waved them over to their usual seats.

"Is there a secret hatch in the floor?" she asked, making room at the table.

"Whatever could you mean?" George inquired innocently. "We've been here the entire time."

"You're always disappearing, aren't you? Where'd you go?"

"Downstairs...practicing some broomstick maneuvers," said Fred.

"Well, that's a lie," said Charlie. He strode up to them, looking stern. "As your brother, and your prefect, I'm telling you once and for all that you need to stop sneaking away to heaven knows where."

"Sure, we sneak away...but Heavens doesn't have a clue where we've gone. Does he, Percy?" Fred asked to their older brother, seated across the table.

"Who is Heavens?" asked Lee with a giggle.

Percy rolled his eyes. "No one. My brothers are fools."

"That's not a nice thing to say about Charlie," Fred argued.

"Why...he's the Captain of the Quidditch team!" said George.

"Yes, and as your Captain," Charlie continued, grabbing both of them by the back of their necks, "let me remind you what I said this morning. Insubordination will endanger your positions as Beaters." He relaxed his grip. "Although, after what happened with Sparrow, the team is glad we can put the Toilers of Trouble speculation to bed. I just knew you wouldn't do that to us."

"Wait..."

"What have we missed?"

"It was Tonks, that menace from Hufflepuff," said Charlie, sounding cross. "She's been following Victor Sparrow, the Ravenclaw. You might recall him as the boy we saw picking on our dear brother in the windows of that cafe on platform nine and three-quarters. Well, Professor Parsimonae must have poured an elixir into her ear. Tonks thinks herself a Magical Investigator-in-training. She tracked Sparrow back to a secret room he's been keeping since his first year at Hogwarts. He had loads of contraband in there, things he'd stolen from the castle over the years. And it's believed that he was responsible for accessing the dormitories over the Christmas break. That, and he's being blamed for the damage caused by the Toilers of Trouble."

"He should be blamed. It's him. Of course it's him," Percy declared, the irritation showing on his face. "Snape is sure of it. He also thinks they've yet to discover Victor's remaining rooms. That Mayhem Orb is still missing, you know. Priceless. Not to mention what was stolen from the students. I'm just glad we can put this behind us and get on with our studies. I'm tired of this constant confinement in the Great Hall while the professors deliberate over his future. Just expel him and be done with it! We're here to learn magic, not mess about with such nonsense!"

"When did Mum get here?" asked George.

"Not sure," said Fred, playing along. "But do remind the old girl to owl us a pair of socks. The Venus plant was recently in need of a late-night snack, and the cupboards were dreadfully bare."

Percy scoffed, packed up his things, and moved to the other end of the table. Charlie followed. The moment the four of them were alone, Lee and Angelina leaned in for the real story.

"So now it's Sparrow who destroyed the paintings?" Lee asked in a whisper. "I'm so confused."

"Victor? No, he didn't do any of that. He couldn't have," said George.

"Why are you taking his side?" Angelina questioned.

"Because he thinks like we do. He wouldn't steal from other students."

"Lee swears up and down that it must be the Slytherins."

"I mean look at them. Marcus Flint, Ian Parsimonae, Oscar Meaney, and Tenice Montague. They've been laughing their heads off since Snape brought them here."

The twins rocked back to glance inconspicuously at the Slytherin house table, where the group seemed to be reveling in some privately shared triumph.

"It was Montague's idea, I swear it," said George confidently. "They either couldn't find the treasure, or were unable to get Aruzula's help. And Montague wasn't about to walk away empty handed. So he convinced them to steal things from the other dormitories."

Fred gave a somber expression. "Who cares if Victor Sparrow had a room full of things he shouldn't have taken? And where's the proof that he's the Toilers of Trouble? They have none. He's not responsible for anything they planned."

"Then who is?" asked Angelina with concern in her eyes.

The twins looked across the Great Hall before answering as one reticent voice.

"We are."

In the silent seconds that passed, they expected Angelina to stand onto the table so everyone could hear her scolding them. But she did something else entirely.

"Fred and George Weasley," she began in a hush, sounding even more like their mother than Percy. "You can't let Victor take the blame for what you've done!"

"They've got him locked away."

"What can we even do?"

"You're the resourceful ones. Figure it out!"

She turned her back to them and Lee raised his eyebrows in agreement. Needing a moment to think, the twins snuck back under the table where Fred lit his wand and inspected the Marauder's Map.

"Filch is on watch at the door. Which means —"

"— the Owlery is unguarded. Do you think we should —?"

"I do."

And just like that, they covered themselves once more in the Invisibility Cloak, escaped from the Great Hall, and rushed to the Owlery. Hiding behind a loose stone in the tower wall was a crumpled sack waiting for just such an occasion — a dormant prank they had baked during the holiday. It was in the Owlery, because the twins had Errol fly the biscuits to the castle, upon hearing a rumor from Charlie that the caretaker relished frisking every returning student for smuggled goods.

While George pocketed one of the flakey biscuits, Fred took a leaf of parchment from the postal box on the wall and quilled a note, before stuffing it hastily into a Hogwarts envelope. They whistled, and a spotted brown owl swooped down to George's arm to retrieve the mischievous missive.

"This goes to Victor Sparrow. He's here...at the castle."

"Ancient Runes classroom."

"We'll make sure the window is open."

"Give us ten minutes, yeah?"

The owl pecked at Fred's finger and took flight through a narrow opening in the wall.

"I hope this works, George."

"Me, too, Fred."