Lumos (Book One)

Chapter Eight ~ Things Are Getting Sirius

"Samantha Avery Potter you shall not be leaving this school to go on the Hogsmeade trip tomorrow. Have I made myself clear, young lady?"

Professor McGonagall stood in front of me, arm crossed over her chest and an authoritative glare in her eyes. She had told me I wasn't allowed to go on the trip because of Sirius Black and, me being me, I argued saying that I was perfectly safe surrounded by wizards and witches. Of course, just like every other time I argue with anyone over something, it ended badly.

"Yes, Professor," I grumbled, snatching my bag off my desk and storming out of the room. Draco was waiting for me by the door.

"I heard the whole thing," he said, gently grabbing my hand. "It's fine. I can stay and we can hang out in the common room."

"No you go. I'll just have some twin time with Harry, I guess."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure," I said. I smiled and kissed him on the cheek. "I'll live."

The next morning, Draco left for Hogsmeade with Crabbe, Goyle, and Pugface. I didn't like that he still hung around Pansy because she thinks he's an object that belongs to her, but there wasn't really anything I could do about it. I mean, we weren't exclusive for Christ's sake. We hadn't even admitted what we felt for each other.

I was walking along the third-floor corridor with Harry, looking at the snow through the windows, when we saw Fred and George peering out from behind a statue of a humpbacked, one-eyed witch.

"What are you doing?" said Harry curiously. "How come you're not going to Hogsmeade?"

"We've come to give you both a bit of festive cheer before we go," said Fred, with a mysterious wink. "Come in here..." He nodded toward an empty classroom to the left of the one-eyed statue. Harry followed Fred and George inside. George closed the door quietly and then turned, beaming, to look at us.

"Early Christmas present for you two," he said. Fred pulled something from inside his cloak with a flourish and laid it on one of the desks. It was a large, square, very worn piece of parchment with nothing written on it. We, suspecting one of Fred and George's jokes, stared at it.

"What's that supposed to be?"

"This, Wonder Twins, is the secret of our success," said George, patting the parchment fondly.

"It's a wrench, giving it to you," said Fred, "but we decided last night, your need's greater than ours."

"Anyway, we know it by heart," said George. "We bequeath it to you. We don't really need it anymore."

"And what do we need with a bit of old parchment?" I asked.

"A bit of old parchment!" said Fred, closing his eyes with a grimace as though I had mortally offended him. "Explain, George."

"Well... When we were in our first year --young, carefree, and innocent --" I snorted. I seriously doubted whether Fred and George had ever been innocent. "Well, more innocent than we are now--we got into a spot of bother with Filch."

"We let off a Dungbomb in the corridor and it upset him for some reason --"

"So he hauled us off to his office and started threatening us with the usual --"

"-- detention, disembowelment, and we couldn't help noticing a drawer in one of his filing cabinets marked Confiscated and Highly Dangerous."

"Don't tell me --" said Harry, starting to grin.

"Well, what would you've done?" said Fred. "George caused a diversion by dropping another Dungbomb, I whipped the drawer open, and grabbed--this."

"It's not as bad as it sounds, you know," said George. "We don't reckon Filch ever found out how to work it. He probably suspected what it was, though, or he wouldn't have confiscated it."