𝕭𝖆𝖙𝖙𝖑𝖊 𝕾𝖈𝖆𝖗𝖘 || Fred Weasley

49

"Severus... "

He looked up. "Minerva, Malfoy. What did she do?"

"Picked a fight with Potter in the Gryffindor common room," said McGonagall. "Care to explain yourself?"

"Lavender and Parvati let me in," Cassie explained, angry just by thinking about it. "Snape, here, has been teaching him Legilimency, isn't that right? And he's been practicing, invading my mind— "

"That is Professor Snape to you, Malfoy," Snape sneered. "I agree, invasion of privacy like that deserves fifty points from Gryffindor."

"And entering the Gryffindor deserves— "

"No one was seriously injured, unfortunately. Twenty points," said Snape. "That sounds fair."

Professor McGonagall left. Cassie looked at Snape for a moment longer.

"Thanks, Professor," she said. "I managed to block him out before he got too far."

"Your secrets are an important piece of information, Malfoy," said Snape lazily. "It is crucial to keep it locked away otherwise the whole world will know."

:::

Students were standing all around the walls in a great ring. The teachers and ghosts were also in the crowd. Prominent among the onlookers were members of the Inquisitorial Squad, who were all looking rather pleased with themselves, and Peeves, who was bobbing overhead, gazed down at Fred and George who stood in the middle of the floor with the look of two people who had just been cornered.

"So!" said Umbridge triumphantly. "So you think it amusing to turn a school corridor into a swamp, do you?"

"Pretty amusing, yeah," said Fred, looking at her without the slightest sign of fear.

"I've got the form, Headmistress," Filch said hoarsely, waving a piece of parchment. "I've got the form and I've got the whips waiting... Oh, let me do it now... "

Cassie and Addy glanced at each other, then both looked at him as if he were madder than Sirius.

"Very good, Argus," she said. "You two are about to learn what happens to wrongdoers in my school."

"You know what?" said Fred. "I don't think we are." He turned to his twin. "George, I think we've outgrown full-time education."

"Yeah, I've been feeling that way myself," said George lightly.

"Time to test our talents in the real world, d'you reckon?" asked Fred.

"Definitely," said George.

And before Umbridge could say a word, they raised their wands and said together:

"Accio brooms!"

There was a loud crash. Fred and George's broomsticks, one still trailing the heavy chain and iron peg with which Umbridge had fastened them to the wall, stopped sharply in front of the twins, the chain clattering loudly on the flagged stone floor.

"We won't be seeing you," Fred told Professor Umbridge, swinging his leg over his broomstick.

"Yeah, don't bother to keep in touch," said George, mounting his own.