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13 NOVEMBER, 1989

     "RUN, RUN, RUN, Filch is coming!" Robyn hissed, poking her head out from around the corner. The dark, flickering shadow of the Hogwarts caretaker and his disheveled little cat, Mrs. Norris, seemed to expand and contract as they moved down the hall towards them. Fred and George, the mischievous Weasley twins, had exploded a Dungbomb only mere minutes ago, and with the warning of Filch approaching, ran frantically down the corridor and hid behind a suit of shining armor, trying to conceal their fiery red hair from view.

     However, that was in vain, as Mrs. Norris, with her mangled fur and lamp-like yellow eyes, came strolling down the hall and straight over to the suit of armor. The Weasley twins groaned in defeat as the ugly cat began mewing loudly, calling Filch right over to them.

     "I've got you now," the caretaker muttered, pulling Fred and George out from their hiding spot. "Oh, this is the last time you'll be pulling any sorts of this nonsense...where's that Abrams girl?" At the sound of her last name, Robyn shrunk back into her dark alcove in the wall, trying to conceal herself in the shadows. Mrs. Norris wasn't fooled, however; she paraded right over to where Robyn was hiding, and the frantic shooing motions Robyn made with her hands didn't stop the dust-colored cat from letting out a long, high-pitched meow.

     "Come out, Miss Abrams," Filch sneered, his jaw quivering. "You three have got a lot to answer for...going and undoing my hard work...come, my sweet," he beckoned his cat before leading them down the halls and down the stairs to his office.

     Robyn glared at her fellow pranksters, who were stifling laughs. Why are they laughing? We're in so much trouble, she thought. Raising an eyebrow, she looked as George grinned and pulled another Dungbomb from his pocket, mouthing the word "distraction," before stuffing it back into the pocket of his robes.

     Robyn nodded in understanding, snickering quietly, but stopped abruptly when Mrs. Norris turned her head back and hissed at her. From then on, Robyn, Fred, and George remained silent as Filch pulled out a large ring of old keys, shuffling through them until he found a certain one, separating it from the others, fitting it into the lock on his office door and prying it open. As he did, a large creak echoed out throughout the otherwise dead silent hallway.

     Robyn followed Fred and George into Filch's office. George immediately hopped into one of the two student chairs in the office, but Fred hung back and pulled back the second chair for Robyn, dramatically flourishing his hand, gesturing for her to sit. Rolling her eyes, she tucked a lock of brown hair behind her ear and sat down in the chair.

     At this point, Filch had gone into a back room to search for papers, muttering things about how the three deserved to have their internal organs removed, if not that then at least receive a detention. Mrs. Norris perched on top of a file cabinet, her glowing yellow eyes peering at Robyn in a most uncomfortable manner.

     "Move, you," Fred tried to push his twin out of the way so he could sit with him; George, however, was resistant, which ultimately ended up with Fred sighing in defeat and sitting on top of his identical twin, George letting out a pained "oomph."

     "Get off, you fat lard," George wheezed, shifting uncomfortably beneath the weight of his twin. "You weigh more than you think you do." But he refused to move. So with a great heave, Fred was on the floor at Robyn's feet and George was able to get air back into his lungs.

     "Bloody hell," Fred muttered, picking himself up off the dirty floor. Mrs. Norris' eyes narrowed, if that was possible for a cat to do, and hissed threateningly at the three first-years, as if saying, do that again and I'll get Filch.

     Fred sent the filthy cat a challenging stare before brushing himself off and leaning against the back wall, taking his brown eyes off of Mrs. Norris to scan the room for anything interesting. Robyn leaned back in her seat, closing her eyes and just taking a few deep breaths, the rush of sneaking around still wearing off.

     "What do you think that is?" George whispered. Robyn was tempted to open her eyes, but knowing the twins, it was probably best not to know what it was that they had found.

     "Whatever it is, it's in a drawer marked 'Confiscated and Highly Dangerous.' And you know what that means," Fred responded in that same quiet tone that could only mean trouble.

     "We have to see what it does."

     Okay, that's it. Robyn shot up in her chair, catching the twins precisely as their hands were reaching into the file cabinet drawer to grab a bit of scrap parchment sticking up. Fred and George froze, staring at her like they had both gotten caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

     "What do you think you're doing?" she hissed. "Did you happen to forget that there's a certain Filch-loving feline sitting right above-"

     But Mrs. Norris was gone, the only evidence of her departure being a swinging cat door at the bottom of the door to Filch's back room. Robyn slumped back in her chair with a heavy sigh, and the two redheaded boys shot each other a terrified look before they both raced back to the empty chair, scrambling to be the one to sit down.

     Finally, it was Fred who claimed the chair, and George was forced to be the one standing against the wall.

     All three of them weren't surprised when Filch came storming through the door, a look of pure fury on his face, especially when he noticed the open cabinet drawer and his already bright red face turned an even redder shade. "Messing with confiscated items...marked 'dangerous' for a reason...I'll have them this time, I'm sure...they'll be in such trouble for this..." He glared at the three students before planting himself in the chair across the desk and beginning to write furiously on a piece of parchment.

     Robyn glanced up at George, who was nodding towards Fred. In a sudden flash, George had dropped the Dungbomb, releasing an extremely foul odor into the air. George grabbed Robyn's hand and yanked her out of her chair, then threw open the door that led to the outside corridor.

     The both of them ran as fast as they could, Robyn considerably slower than George. All the way, she cursed her short legs, until they were finally safe by Gryffindor Tower.

     "Would've been nice to have a warning, thank you," Robyn panted, sliding down the wall next to the portrait of the Fat Lady.

     George laughed. "It wouldn't have been as fun if I had warned you, plus you probably wouldn't have run as fast."

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ONCE FRED HAD CAUGHT UP, parchment in hand, the three of them clambered through the portrait hole and into the Gryffindor common room.

     They raced up to the reading room, where a portrait of Myriadd, a former professor and Head of Gryffindor House, was hung on the wall. When the three approached, Myriadd pulled her fur cloak tighter around her, until she realized it was them and laughed softly. "Of course, you three again," she said. "Password?"

     The blue fairy she was holding flitted about in the portrait, making little squeaking noises, as if to say hello. Robyn smiled and waved at it.

     "Pig snout," George replied, and the portrait opened, revealing a secret crawlspace. One by one, the three ducked into the dark, narrow passageway, crawling until they reached the other side, which opened up into an abandoned bathroom.

     Several Dungbombs filled the sinks, non-explodable, luminous balloon sat uninflated on the counters, and Chocolate Frog cards littered the floor. Robyn, Fred, and George had set up a shop here, selling inventions the three of them had come up with and created. The unused bathroom was also a meeting spot, where her, Fred, George, and a couple other of their friends would come together to plan special pranks or other surprises for their classmates.

     "So what does it do, exactly?" Robyn asked. They had cleared a spot on the floor and were sitting in a circle, the piece of parchment in the middle.

     "We don't know," they replied in unison.

     Robyn paused. "So you're telling me that you're so interested in this thing, but you don't even know what it does?!" she yelled, her voice raising louder and louder with every word as she grew more and more frustrated with the two.

     The twins shared a look before shrugging. "Well, it was in a drawer marked 'Dangerous,' it has to be something interesting," said George.

     "If I had to guess, it was probably made by some kid Filch didn't like, someone who got in trouble a lot?" Fred wondered curiously. He took his wand from his pocket and pointed it at the parchment.

     "What are you doing?" asked Robyn.

     Fred shrugged absentmindedly. "We've got to start somewhere. I'm getting into trouble."

     Nothing happened.

     George rolled his eyes. "That's pathetic, Fred." He moved Fred's hand out of the way, and pointed his own wand at the parchment. "I'm up to no good."

     The parchment flickered to life, and for a brief moment, they could see the words Moony and presents ink on to the parchment, before it faded away again.

     Robyn gasped slightly, her eyes widening. She wracked her brain for something that could fit into that phrase. She pointed her wand at the parchment, saying, "I swear I'm up to no good."

     Once again, words began to form onto the parchment, forming the words Moony, Padfoot, Prongs, and Marauder's, before they faded away yet again.

     They were getting somewhere. Clearly, though, there was one more thing they were missing. But what else fit into that phrase? A solemn look crossed over George's face as he concentrated, and that's when it started to hit her.

     "I swear I'm seriously up to no good," she said, and the entire phrase nearly revealed itself onto the parchment. They were so close, Robyn knew it. There was just something that they weren't getting right, but what was it?

     "How did that even work? That makes no sense," Fred muttered. He pointed his wand at the parchment one final time, frustration written clearly across his freckled face. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

     The three of them stared in awe as words began to flood the page. Robyn read aloud:

     "How did you think to say that?"

     Fred grinned at Robyn. "It just popped into my mind. Maybe I'm just a genius."

     George shoved his twin's shoulder. "Right. If you're a genius, then I'm a complete mastermind. We all know I'm smarter than you."

     "Well if you're smarter, I'm definitely better-looking."

     "Boys!" Robyn yelled, catching both of their attention. "It's not just a piece of parchment, look." She picked up the parchment and opened it, revealing a large drawing. But as they looked over it, they realized it wasn't just a drawing –

     "It's a map," the twins said.

     As they examined it closely, they realized it was an entire map of Hogwarts. And they noticed that everywhere, there were little dots, and next to all of those dots was a little name, penned in miniscule ink on the parchment, that moved around through the hallways and classrooms.

     "Look, there's Rose, on her way to Potions," Robyn said, pointing to a particular dot labeled Rosaline Figg, which was moving along down a staircase to a large room labeled "Dungeons."

     "It's us!" George exclaimed, pointing to three little dots up in a room labeled "Sixth Floor Bathroom." And lo and behold, Robyn Abrams, Fred Weasley, and George Weasley were all written in tiny little writing, right in the positions that they were in.

     "These 'Marauders' were brilliant!" Fred said. "Whoever 'Moony,' 'Wormtail,' 'Padfoot,' and 'Prongs' are, we're going to owe them so much."

     Robyn laughed. "Now I'll let you two figure out how to close it back up." And with that, she leaned back, closed her eyes, and listened to her two friends point their wands at the parchment and say all kinds of strange phrases, trying to make the words and the map vanish.

     I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.