The castle corridors were chilly, the air circling around any being brave enough to venture through the mazes. Three souls were sneakily making their way to a set location, two of them snickering together as the third was silent, her steps soundless.

The two quieted as they looked at a worn piece of parchment, their eyebrows raising in surprise. Walking through a layout of the castle was a lone name, one they knew well.

Lyssa Grivas, the infamous Shadow of Hogwarts. The girl could go anywhere in the castle undetected and sneak away right under an administrators nose. No one knew how the girl accomplished this feat, not even the Weasley twins who were staring at her name printed plainly on the Marauders Map. The parchment had been borrowed from their brother's friend, Harry Potter, who they had given the map to in third year. They had borrowed it on the pretense of a prank that would surely drive Filch crazy.

Now, however, their attention had been grabbed by Lyssa's name. It wasn't one they saw much when they had owned the map. The girl knew how to stay inconspicuous even on a map that showed everyone's name.

"You thinking what I’m thinking, Georgie?" Fred questioned, smirking at his twin.

The other boy grinned, nodding his head as they hurriedly darted through the chilly corridors. They wanted to intercept the sneaky female as quickly as possible. Besides, she was a complete enigma. She never showed up to class except for tests, yet she knew all of the material. She had never been berated, never brought to Dumbledore's office. Not even Snape had snapped at the girl, though he did show his normal amount of disdain. Maybe it was because she could easily pass his Potions exams? That always made the greasy git grumpy.

The two boys rounded a corner, looking around rapidly before their eyes darted to the map. Fred's eyebrows furrowed as he exchanged a glance with George. The map said she was right on top of them, and the map had never been wrong.

"You boys should be sleeping." A silky voice purred into their ears. The twins shivered, freezing in place. It was obvious where Lyssa was now, the only question was how she had gotten there without them noticing.

"Really, I expected better than this from the deadly duo. I could hear you from three corridors away." Lyssa lazily pointed out, gliding around the two and coming to a stop in front of them. Black shaggy hair went to the girls shoulders, the ends cut in a haphazard manner with bangs drifting over her right eye. Both of her irises were an amber color, flecks of red and gold drawing the boy's attentions. Dressed in simple dark jeans and a black hoodie with black sneakers, the Gryffindor girl could easily melt into the shadows, befitting her nickname.

"Guilty as charged." Fred grinned, leering down at the girl with mischievous brown eyes. The redhead let out a gust of hair as his twin elbowed him, sending a glare to the buzzkill he was quick to snap. "What?"

"Don't flirt, she may bust us just to spite you." George pointed out.

Lyssa snorted at the thought. "Oh please, you two amuse me too much for me to do such a thing. Though, your sneaking skills are a tad disappointing."

"Coming from the Shadow herself, I'll take that as a compliment."

Both Lyssa and George sent Fred an unimpressed look. Glancing at the less idiotic twin, Lyssa tilted her head. “What hair-brained scheme have you numbskulls come up with now?”

“I take offense to that.” Fred piped up, only to be ignored as George sent Lyssa a grin.

“We’re turning the entire fourth floor corridor into a soapy mess.”

“Fun. Avoid Mrs. Norris, she’s near the old waterfall painting glaring at the fishes.”

“Thanks.” George nodded, going to head off in the opposite direction before Fred frowned, staring at the girl seriously as he lost his mischievous persona.

“How do you know where she is?”

Lyssa stared at the boy for a moment, debating with herself. Should I give a hint or completely avoid the truth? If I give a hint, there is always a risk of them finding out.

Oh well, it was seventh year and she didn’t really have anything to lose. Especially with that Umbridge-toad invading Hogwarts.

“I hear her mumbling.” With that, Lyssa turned and disappeared through teh dark corridors. Both boys blinked, sharing a confused look before looking down at the map. Their eyes widened in surprise when they saw the amber-eyed girl was already down on the third floor.

“She’s weird.” George muttered.

“Attractive though.” George sent Fred an amused glance.

“From what I saw, she wasn’t too impressed with you.”

“Yeah, but she obviously thought we were hot.”

“Now why would you say that?”

“Because she couldn’t keep her eyes off us.” Fred grinned widely, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. George sighed, shaking his head before walking down the hall, away from Mrs. Norris.

“Let’s just hurry up before Filch comes by for his wife.”

____

“Hermione.”

The bushy haired girl glanced up, surprised to see the Weasley twins leering down at her, both of them dressed in casual clothes. Friday classes had already ended with only a slight mishap that could be blamed on the entire fourth floor being coated in self-multiplying soapy suds.

Raising an eyebrow, Hermione waited as the twins exchanged a glance before George spoke. “Is there a way to get from one floor to another in the span of a minute?”

“What?”

The twins exchanged another glance before Fred specified. “Without the use of a broomstick or Apparating since Hogwarts has a block on that.”

“Why are you asking?” Brown eyes narrowed suspiciously, making the twins raise their hands innocently.

“We borrowed the map, ya see--”

“And we were just walking around--”

“When we bumped into someone--”

“Attractive, she was--”

“Shut up, Fred. Anyway, she kind of--”

“Disappeared. When we looked at the map, she was--”

“Already on the third floor, almost on the second.”

Hermione blinked in surprise, following the conversation easily due to hearing the back-and-forth manner of speaking the twins were accustomed to. Frowning, her mind started to skim over the possibilities of such an action.

“Did she say anything else?”

“She warned us about Mrs. Norris, said something about ‘hearing her mumble’.” George remembered.

"And that she wouldn't tell on us being out in the corridors since we're amazing."

"I believe she said 'amusing'. The only one here that's amazing is me, Freddie."

Fred glared over at his twin while Hermione quietly laughed even as her mind searched for clues. Able to move through a whole floor in a minute, heard Mrs. Norris 'mumbling'...

"Animagi?" She muttered under her breath curiously. Sirius Black had been able to move quite a ways in his Animagi form. Hermione felt her mood dip at the reminder of the Black family patriarch.

"What was that?" George questioned.

"Who is this person?" Hermione asked in returned.

"Lyssa Grivas."

"The Shadow?" Harry questioned, sitting across from Hermione in a plush Gryffindor-red chair.

"The very same."

"Oh, well that explains your questions. I never really thought of it. She's not in the dorms a lot, though when she is there's a lot of explosions. Well, there were before someone complained and she used a silencing spell on her room."

"She has her own room?" Fred questioned jealousy.

George rolled his eyes before something caught his attention. "Explosions?"

"She's a pyromaniac to the core. Reminds me a bit of you two and Seamus."

"Wicked." The twins had mischievous grins spreading across their faces.

"Back to your question. I'll see if I can find out how she does it."

"Thanks Hermione." The twins echoed, starting to walk away.

"Just promise not to experiment on the second years."

"Hermione!" They whined, turning back to her with pouts. "You already have us staying away from the firsties!"

"Your pouting is unseemly. Along with asking others for clues when its fairly easy to figure out." A calm voice pointed out, causing the twins, Hermione, and Harry to jump. Standing behind the two twins stood Lyssa, her amber eyes half-lidded.

"Lyssa!" Fred greeted warmly,