13 Phase one - part 2

There was an uncomfortable moment of silence, as I stared into the faces of James and Oliver Phelps and they stared back at me, and in that time my mind was racing at a million miles per hour.

Why the hell were they here?

I knew that my presence in this world had changed things, but that wouldn't explain why they were here. After all, I'm sure that I'd seen them leave with the rest of Gryffindor so for them to be here they'd have had to have come back from their dorm room.

What's more is that I could tell from the looks on their faces that they were not at all surprised to see me here, which made even less sense since I made sure that I wasn't seen when I came here. But even if I was seen, it'd be by the one of the students in the Ravenclaw group since I used that group as a cover while I sneaked away.

The only way they'd leave their common room and look so unsurprised upon seeing me was if they… already… knew…

Wait…

I forgot about the marauders map.

I completely forgot about the fucking marauders map that shows the exact positions of anyone in the castle, that is more than likely in the possession of the two in front of me.

"Why are you two going down?" but, since I didn't know exactly how much they knew, it was best to just play dumb, "aren't you meant to be in your dorms?"

There was a stretch off silence as incredulity entered their eyes.

"Well, we could say the same to you," eventually one of them spoke, before the other picked up, "aren't you meant to have left with the other firsties? Why're you going up now?"

"I was getting my bag," I turn to give them a clear view of the bag while obscuring my other hand, which was wrapped around the wand in my pocket. While I doubted I'd need to use it, or that I'd win the fight that'll follow, I'd rather prefer to be ready.

"Oh really?" I nod, putting on an expression between confusion and confidence, "Does it have something that'll let you… make a troll disappear?"

Okay then.

Looks like I get to see if my imperious practice is good enough to affect humans or if I can cast it fast enough that I'll get both of them before being disarmed.

"Whoa hey!" apparently noticing me tensing or something, the other twin immediately held up his hands in surrender, "no need to do anything drastic. We were just asking."

"Yeah well, if I find out a way to magic away trolls I'll tell you," I put on an annoyed expression even as plans churned in my head.

The imperius didn't remove memories, at least according to the books, which meant that even if I was able to cast it on them they'd still keep their memories and they'd also have the memories of me casting the imperius on them. Which meant that if I did get them under the imperius then I'd need to remove their memories.

"Oh come on, we won't tell!"

Which meant either the obliviate charm or the forgetfulness potion, both of which aren't feasible. Both because I don't know them and I'd have to drop everything to learn one of those to an acceptable level, during which I'd have to keep them under the imperius.

"You gotta tell us how you got rid of the troll!"

There's also the fact that I don't know how long the imperius would last, and whether it'd last long enough that I'll be able to recast it on them.

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about," in conclusion, the imperius was off the table, at least until I learnt one of the two memory removal methods, "now if you'll excuse me."

"All right, if you don't want to talk now that's fine," surprisingly they actually made way for me to pass, "we'll talk another time."

Taking a deep breath, and resisting the urge to use the last grenade on them, I just ignore them as I walk past them. It's actually a good thing that they didn't take their eyes off me as I did, I'm not really sure I could have resisted the urge to try the imperius on them if they had.

The journey to the room of requirement after that was, thankfully, uneventful.

However, as much as I wanted to return to my room an rest I instead began looking up all memory related magic. While I doubted that the twins were going to tell the teachers, since they would have to explain why they were there as well, I was more worried about them telling other students. Hence the haste in learning memory magic.

Hopefully it doesn't take too long.