The Ghost of His Smile

Chapter 5: The Marauders

Chapter 5: The Marauders

So apparently in the first three weeks of their first year the twins found a ... I suppose you could call it a note but it was more like a record. I suppose you want to hear the story behind it.

So George was doing homework on his bed and one of his quills fell of the bed and slid or rolled or something ... anyway it went under the bed. So he stopped what he was doing (personally I think he was just looking for an excuse to stop doing homework), got of the bed and knelt down. He lifted up the covers and looked under the bed. He saw his quill and for some strange reason the quill had slid a lot further than he had anticipated and he couldn't really see it in the gloom and slight mess that made up the shadows under his four poster bed. So using the illumination spell or lumos (he had learnt it off of one of his older brothers) he stuck his wand under the bed trying to see where his quill had gone. He saw the quill glowing white in the bright light cast from the wand. It seemed to be caught in a grove that was under the bed.

His natural curiosity kicked in and he shoved the rest of the stuff that was under the bed out of the way. He then army crawled so that he was under the bed to his waist. He was perched on his left as his right held his wand. When he looked at the grove now, he could see that it was a rectangular piece of floor board that appeared to be just slightly smaller than the space it was in so that it left the grove in the floor.

With his left hand he tried to move the slab of wood. He pushes and pulls. He tries to pry it up and pushes it further in to the ground. Nothing has the slightest effect on the wood. It remains stationary.

Disappointed he picked up his quill and tried to shuffle back out from under the bed. But as he does he slips and his right hand comes down and pushes against the rectangular slab of wood.

It moved. It shifted. It was only slightly but more than it should have in the minuscule gap it had with the other wood. He stilled and with his left hand he again tried to move the wood, and again he gets a negative result. So he thought back to when he had moved the wood. He realised that he had used the hand that his wand was in. He then tries to shift the wooden slab with his right hand, it moves once again. Still only slightly but still it moved.

So he continues to move the wood centimetre by centimetre. After about half an hour he had succeeded in opening the wood fully. Then gently he lifts his wand higher and scotches forward so that he can see down into the hole that had formed under the shifted wood.

At first he thought it was empty, again disappointed he decides to investigate further. So he lowered his lit wand tip down in to the minute space that was under the floor. Again nothing was revealed, now roughly frustrated he decides that there is obviously no reason for the hidden compartment.

He decided that it was a design flaw, or whatever it hid had long ago been reclaimed. As he is attempting to shift the panel back in place so he doesn't lose anything down in to the hole when they slide under his bed (or are pushed).

But it wouldn't close. It was like something was stuck in it. He tried all the tricks he knew. He tried both hands and his wand tip. He tried wiggling it, and pushing and shoving. He tried forcing it but nothing happened.

Fed up with this he slapped the wood. And finally it bugged. It moved. See the problem was he was being too cautious with the other attempts. What he need was to be rough, to be brutal with the piece of wood. He needed to be ruthless.

Have you ever played with cornstarch slime? Well if you have then you know how it solid when applied with rough or brutish pressure. But if you go slow and at a sedate pace then you can sink right through it. Well it was the exact opposite principle for this slab of wood. The rougher the better. Slow and steady gets you nowhere.

Any way he started jimmying closed. He got about half way before he realised that there was now something stuck to the lid of the block of wood. So as quickly as he could he closed it the rest of the way and unstuck the folded parchment that was stuck to the roof of the little wooden lid.

He grabbed the quill that started all this, the folded parchment and slid out from under his bed. By this time he had been under there for around and hour. He sat back on his bed. Unfinished homework completely forgotten.

Briefly he debated whether to wait for Fred to open the parchment. But thinking on it he didn't know when his Twin would be back and he also didn't know if the note was relevant or interesting at all. So he decided to go ahead and open it.

When he did he realised that there were several pieces of parchment in the folded stack.

The first was a note, it said something along the lines of;

Dear Finder,

Congratulations to whom ever found this note. You have been judged by our wards to be worthy of the honour bestowed upon you by yours truly.

We are known around the castle as the Infamous Maunders. Singly we are Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs.

In these pages you will find a list of all the pranks we pulled off in our time at Hogwarts, segregated in to our years here of cause.

A list of some of the pranks that were never pulled.

A few detailed instructions and plans for these pranks.

A detailed instruction on how to get in and out of the castle, as well as several of the secret passages that lie within the castle as well.

Locations of where we have hidden tools that will help you complete these pranks, including a map of the castle that we created ourselves as we finished  fifth year and a spell book that we had added to throughout our years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Treat this well.

We only ask that you leave our legacy and perhaps yours for future generations. May the mischievous spirit live on.

Sincerely,

Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot & Prongs (A.N. Each different font represents a different hand writing.)

Shuffling through the parchment pieces George did indeed find all that was listed in the letter.

Suddenly a huge grin split his face, and quite coincidentally it is at that exact moment when Fred returned to the dorm, and found his brother smiling from ear to ear while looking down at what appeared to be some old folded parchment.

Please let me know what you think. Reviews and Comments are appreciated. Thanks for sticking with me. I'll try and upload the next chapter ASAP

Love Always,

Mistress XoX