Chapter-14

The Weasley twins were pranking all first years, especially Slytherins. I was even subjected to two or three pranks. The Twins seem to prank the students and leave as they wish without being detected, which made me really envious as they have a marauder map.

I am usually on constant alert, vigilant of my surroundings. But they can do the same, without much effort and more. It made me more determined to have the marauder map.

As soon as I learned the invisibility charm, I followed the twins in the castle last week to learn their pattern. I was planning to confront them, so I followed them to an empty classroom on the fourth floor; They disappeared, the room was empty. I couldn't find them anywhere in the room.

I realized there is a secret room in this classroom and the twins are using it. Secret rooms usually require a password to enter. I don't know if the twin can use the map or not, it usually requires an incarnation. They may use it just like a map.

If they knew how to use it, they could easily find out that I was waiting for them outside the secret room. It will remove the element of surprise if I were to negotiate with them and problems for me. So I left the room.

The next day I went ahead of them to the empty classroom on the fourth floor. I waited for them to come to the room.

The door to the classroom opened, they were startled to find someone inside the classroom.

"Ah, what do we have here"

"Isn't he the Slytherin that we pulled a prank the other day"

"Yeah, he is. Maybe he lost his way around the castle, want us to lead the way to the common room"

"Maybe he came to take revenge on pranking him" as they moved their hand to find their wand in their robes.

I can clearly see their action, using their talks as a distraction, they are planning to attack surprisingly. I already had my wand on my hand.

'Accio' wand

As I cast the charm, two wands flew towards my hand.

Accio is the Summoning Charm that can cause an object at a distance from the caster to fly into their arms.

When their wands flow out of their robes, the twins start to panic and show signs of fear on their face. They would have thought I was an innocent first year who didn't have much magic practice.

Once their wands are removed, these wizards and witches are the same as the muggles, who they despise passionately. Without a wand, most of them are incapable of casting any form of magic. They can be easily killed.

"So how are you guys?" I greeted them with a polite smile while maintaining direct eye contact.

"What do you want?" One of the twins asked while trying to regain their composure.

"Nothing. I just wanted to have some friendly conversation with you guys" I explained.

"Return our wands, then we can have the conversation"

" Hey, you guys were the one, first to reach your wands to attack me, and I just tried to defend myself" as if I was going to give back their wands.

I may have more magic and greater control of magic over them, but I don't have confidence in beating them if they had their wands. They are in their third year, they know more spells and jinx than me. They are better at using their wand

Amelia refused to teach me anything about the wizarding duel other than the rules, saying I was still a child, and she was too afraid to attack me as I may accidentally get injured.

Susan on the other hand, who is the same age as me still doesn't know how to cast magic properly. So I could not even practice with her. All I practised was how to cast a summoning charm with her.

"What do you want?" One of the twins asked.

"Jason bones first-year Slytherin" I introduced myself.

"George Weasley"

"Fred Weasley"

"The third year"

"Gryffindor"

"Mmm. I heard that you are best at pranking people, you guys even made some prank on me" I complimented them, which made them feel slight ease.

"So you are here for revenge ah?" Fred exclaimed.

"Oh no, you guys misunderstood me. I came for other matters" I said. Revenge is too easy, I can easily do that without even them knowing.

"What other matter?" George asked.

" Everyone knows that you are the one pranking the other students, but they still haven't got you guys. It made me think, you are good at covering your tracks. It's as if you guys disappear from the scene. So I got curious and followed you, to this empty classroom"

"So"

"I think you own some object that helps you in moving around the castle without anyone noticing," I explained to them, ``I cannot directly say that you have the map that I want.

"So what if we have something like that?" Fred asked defensively.

"I was hoping to borrow it, and I will compensate with gold" when I said gold it made their eye-shine and it became easier to get their trust. Not because I was trustworthy, It was because I cast legilimens on them during our entire conversations.

" How about it guys interested?" I casually asked.

"So let me get this straight, you want in on our secret"

"And you will pay in gold for it"

"You can decide the amount," I said. I have some galleons with me. Amelia gave me to spend it in Hogsmeade if I ever visited. I can also just ask her if I need more.

"We can decide the amount, in loaning our secret," Fred asked, astonishingly, to make sure that I do not cheat them.

"Yeah--, it's your property, so you get to decide the price" I assured them.

Though Weasleys were a pure-blood wizarding family in Great Britain. They were called as a blood-traitor among the pureblood families, for their sheer lack of money and their sympathy for Muggle-born wizards. Even some Muggles made wizards and witches view them scornfully.

So as soon as I mentioned money the twins fell for it.

They looked at each other secretly, communicating through each other's eyes, after a few seconds they made the decision.

"We have a map of the entire castle, it shows the secret room and its password," George said.

" And we want a galleon a week for the map", Fred added.

"Mmm. Then it's a deal. But it's lower than I expected, and I was even prepared to bargain with you guys" I added to invoke their curiosity.

George said some incarnation, and he pulled the bench, a secret passage that appeared on the place where the bench was before placed. And he alone went inside.

"So how much do you expect that we would ask for?" Fred asked curiously.

"A high price and I was even prepared for it" I smiled at Fred.

"How high was it?" George came out of the room with a parchment in his hand.

"It isn't wise to discuss it after we have a deal" I shook hands with them.

"How long do you want to rent the map?" George asked.

"About two-month" as I took gold coins from my pocket and passed them.

"Hey, it's only eight galleons," George said as he passed the extra coins towards me.

"That's for any damage that I might have caused" I refused the gold. It also made them smile, they understood the implication I made, not to disclose any information about the deal.

I took the map and bid my farewell to them, leaving the place, quickly as possible.

I checked the charms that I placed in my room for any possible intruders, as soon as I entered the room I locked the door and jumped on my bed. It drained me mentally in talking to the twins.

It was the first time for me to cast legilimens on two wizards simultaneously, I always work on one at a time. Though they showed hostility at first since I surprised them and took their wands, after complimenting them and mentioning they can name the price of their goods, made them lower their guards.

I only influenced them throughout the conversation in trusting me as their friend, any more than that will cause them to be aware of my doing only result in a battle of wills in their mind.

They won't be hostile towards me unless I attack them first. Keeping the twins on my side will be huge benefits, cause in a few years they will be joining the order of the Phoenix.

Another thing is they can communicate telepathically, at first I thought they were annoying people by finishing each other's sentences. It was nice to hear at first, but having a conversation with two of them will be annoying if they behaved like that in the entire conversation.

It was like they have one mind and two bodies. I heard that twins might have lifelong connections with each other, but this is my first time seeing one. Just Looking at them made me extremely curious to look into their mind. I had to resist the urge to pry open their mind, as I still do not have sufficient skill in mind arts.

It will be interesting to see how they will perform in different types of circumstances.

I closed my eyes and fell asleep.