The Secret of the Marauder's Map; The Room of Requirement

She had privately taught herself quite a few spells as well, but her progress had not been particularly fast. She could quickly get the hang of simple spells, but the more difficult ones required time and research.

To avoid getting discouraged again, Hermione looked at the Black Lake and said softly, "I read in a book that an entire Merfolk tribe lives in the Black Lake. I wonder if that's true."

"It is." Wayne skipped a stone across the water, but it only bounced three times before sinking into the lake.

"You can occasionally see them through the windows in the Slytherin common room." Wayne shook his head with a sigh. "But those Merpeople are way too ugly. They have absolutely nothing to do with the legendary mermaids."

Hermione crossed her arms and sneered. "And what would you do if they really were mermaids?" Wayne grinned. "Then I wouldn't mind getting another pet." "Hmph!" The little witch pinched Wayne, turned, and walked away. "Hey, why are you pinching people for no reason again?" "None of your business!"

"Hey." Wayne was so annoyed he laughed. "You're being completely unreasonable."

"What, not convinced?" The little witch said provocatively. "I just can't stand you daydreaming in broad daylight. If you've got the ability, go catch a mermaid and keep it."

"What if I really do catch one?" Wayne raised an eyebrow. "If I really catch one, then what?"

Hermione thought about it. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them clearly stated that mermaids did not exist anywhere in the world.

It was merely humanity's imagination, so she immediately made the bet with complete confidence.

"Fine, just wait." Wayne agreed. "If I don't find a mermaid before graduation, I'll grant you one condition as well." "It's a deal!"

The two high-fived, both wearing victorious smiles.

When they returned to the common room, Cedric and the others had also come back from Hogsmeade. Seeing Wayne, they first handed him a Butterbeer, then Cedric lowered his voice and said,

"The thing you asked me to buy is in the dormitory. I'll bring it to you later." Wayne nodded, indicating that he was in no hurry.

Cedric handed him some sweets from Honeydukes as well. "Where are you teaching me to make maps tomorrow?"

"Just find an empty classroom. There are too many people in the common room."

After popping a milk caramel into his mouth, Wayne no longer felt like going to the Great Hall for dinner. Hufflepuff's little wizards truly deserved their reputation as foodies. Nearly everything they brought back from Hogsmeade was snacks, and quite a few people enthusiastically shared some with Wayne.

Taking advantage of everyone being gathered together, he took out his quills and made another round of sales.

Two Galleons per quill was indeed expensive, but Hufflepuff had no shortage of poor students. Hannah tearily took out another two Galleons and bought a Nonsense Quill. Less than a month after starting school, the little girl had visibly gained a whole round of weight, and more than half of her allowance had gone toward desserts and snacks.

Even Wayne felt a little bad watching her, and he could not help saying, "Hannah, don't you want a Plagiarism Quill too?"

"No." The little girl sniffled. "No one lends me their homework to copy anyway."

"I can lend you mine."

"Th-then another one?" Hannah took another two Galleons from her shriveled little stash and reluctantly handed them to Wayne.

Cedric stared at him as though he had seen a ghost. Did his conscience not hurt at all?

This round brought in over a hundred Galleons, and Wayne left in high spirits.

He planned to have a chat with Malfoy. How could the noble Young Master Malfoy use such a Standard Edition? Wayne had specially prepared high-end custom versions made with Unicorn feathers and Clown-faced bird feathers, and they were not even expensive.

Just ten Galleons. Sunday.

That morning, Wayne was going to teach Cedric how to make maps. The two found an empty classroom on the second floor.

Wayne took out parchment and specially made ink, then began explaining.

The most basic version was not difficult. Draw the map with the special ink, mark each staircase with its corresponding code, and it could synchronize in real time with Hogwarts' moving staircases.

All Cedric needed was the Marking Charm and the spell to reveal what was hidden. After ruining a few maps, he had basically mastered it.

But the Pro version was much harder. The main issue was displaying the little wizards' locations in real time. It required an extremely special Tracking Charm, as well as the Magic-Linking Charm, to establish a connection between a little wizard's magic and the parchment.

After a week, Cedric could only be considered to have barely grasped it, and his success rate remained low.

There was no helping it. Wayne could only turn into a Charms class professor and begin explaining some spellcasting techniques.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Someone suddenly knocked on the classroom door. Cedric's hand trembled, and his spell failed again. "Who is it?"

Annoyed, he opened the door and saw two grinning figures outside. "Why are you two here?"

"Obviously, we came to find Wayne."

Cedric stepped aside and led them in, still looking puzzled.

"How did you know Wayne was here?" "No comment."

"This is the twins' greatest secret."

George and Fred sang in unison as they approached Wayne, wearing ingratiating smiles. "Young Master Lawrence, how has your weekend been?"

"If you're feeling too lonely, we can introduce you to two Gryffindor beauties."

Wayne shuddered and pushed them away in disgust. "Stay away from me. If you have something to say, say it. Don't make me sick."

The twins exchanged a glance and said in unison, "Wayne, can you teach us how to make those quills?"

Fred added, "We're not asking you to teach us for free. Name your price. Even if we have to go hungry, we'll scrape it together."

Cedric rolled his eyes. "The school meals are free." "Get lost!"

George punched him, then looked expectantly at Wayne again.

Yesterday, in the common room, they had happened to see Harry using a Nonsense Quill to rush through an essay. They had immediately been stunned.

The twins felt that making such things was incredibly interesting, as if they had suddenly found the meaning of life.

When they asked around, they discovered that it was Wayne's work again, and they were completely convinced. They had not even figured out the principles behind the map, yet he had developed new magical items. After a whole night of inner struggle, the twins could no longer hold themselves back and came looking for him, shameless as it was.

Academic barriers in the Wizarding World were not particularly severe, but once money was involved, things became confidential.

If they had not been so overwhelmingly curious, they would never have done something so rash. They had made up their minds that no matter what conditions Wayne proposed, as long as they could meet them, they would agree.

Fred and George looked earnest and serious, and Wayne had never seen them like this before.

After pondering for a moment, he said,

"It's not impossible for me to teach you. I'm teaching Cedric how to make maps right now." The two immediately looked at Cedric, who had been watching the show, as though asking why he had not invited them to join such a good thing.

Cedric hurriedly said, "Why are you looking at me? I'm working for Wayne too."

"That's right." Wayne nodded. "I provide the materials and the techniques. He handles the production and sales, but only gets twenty percent."

"If you can accept those terms, I can teach you too." "Oh, right."

Just as they were about to agree, Wayne interrupted again. "I want one more thing: that map you have."

Fred asked in surprise, "How did you know?"

That map was the biggest secret they had discovered that term. They still had not completely figured it out, so why did Wayne know about it?

"Last time in the Trophy Room, you were too slow." Wayne smiled. He was extremely interested in the Marauder's Map.

In Harry's hands, it was just a map, useful at most for avoiding Filch. But in Wayne's hands, it was excellent research material, and its value could not be compared.

So hand it over already!

The twins huddled together and whispered for quite a while before finally saying,

"We agree, but can you let us use it a little longer? We haven't memorized all the secret passages yet."

Wayne readily agreed. "No problem. Just give it to me after Christmas." Cedric alone looked utterly confused. "What are you even talking about?"

There have been so many more flowers, ratings, and monthly votes. Thank you all for your support.

The Secret of the Marauder's Map, the Room of Requirement

Since Wayne had already called them out on it, the twins stopped hiding it and took out a parchment map.

Fred cleared his throat and pointed his wand at the parchment. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Ink spread like threads across the once-blank map, quickly forming a complete layout.

Unlike the map Wayne had made, this one covered an enormous area: the entire castle, the lawns outside, the Quidditch Pitch, and part of the Forbidden Forest.

Wayne's map only covered the castle's teaching areas. It was nowhere near as extensive.

Most impressively, the map was filled with densely packed names. Some clustered together, while others were moving.

Cedric's eyes widened. "Where did this thing come from? Wayne, did you make an even more advanced version?"

"I'm not capable of that yet." Wayne took the map, and after only a moment, he discovered contract magic, a large number of tracking spells, and magic related to names.

Had Sirius Black and the others really created the Marauder's Map while they were students? Wayne fell into deep doubt.

How had a few students made something this incredible? "Invisible and unseen."

Wayne took out his wand and cast a Stealth Charm on himself.

Immediately, Wayne's name vanished from the map. Only the names of the Weasley brothers and Cedric remained in the room.

"It can do that?" Fred stared at the scene in shock.

George explained to Cedric, "Fred and I were serving detention with Filch. He had us cleaning rooms, and we took this from his drawer." "It took us a lot of effort to crack the mystery."

Fred cut in, "George nearly threw this parchment away. Good thing he didn't."

The two exchanged smiles.

Wayne studied the map for a while longer. When he did not find Peter Pettigrew's name on it, he returned it to the twins.

That made sense.

Not to mention Peter Pettigrew was one of the map's creators, but with his cowardly nature, he had probably used every spell possible to hide his information.

It was only natural that Wayne could not find him.

Fred carefully put the map away. Since they could still use it for a few more months, they needed to quickly record all of Hogwarts' secret passages.

Since he had agreed to teach them, Wayne simply taught them together.

He first had Cedric continue making maps on his own, then explained the quill-selling business to the twins.

The two were social butterflies. Aside from Slytherin, they had friends in every House.

Wayne did not want to spend too much energy on management, and neither Hermione nor Cho had much interest in it.

The twins had come at exactly the right time.

In the original timeline, they had run Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes with great success, proving that the twins had considerable talent in business as well.

For every quill they sold, Wayne would give the twins ten percent. If they made it themselves, he would give them twenty percent.

Fred and George had no objections to that whatsoever.

Once it involved something they were interested in, even their mischievous personalities could settle down and learn patiently.

The twins were brimming with enthusiasm for making prank items and interesting magical objects. They listened more attentively than they ever did in class.

If Professor McGonagall saw them, she would probably be furious enough to give them detention.

After explaining the spells, Wayne took out some ordinary feathers and handed them over, along with some Potions that provided magical power.

Only feathers soaked in the potion would become special materials suitable for making magical quills.

By noon, the three of them still did not want to leave, but Wayne had to go. "What are you going to do?" Cedric asked. "I promised Hermione I'd teach her the Shield Charm this afternoon."

"Ooh~" George let out a strange cry. "So it's Miss Know-it-all." Cedric grinned lewdly. "Tsk... Wayne, you're making your move early." Wayne was not angry. He merely looked at them with a half-smile. "There are only so many students in Hogwarts. Your future wives will most likely be chosen from here too." "Unless you don't mind waiting until seventh year."

"Then you can make your move after your future wives have become a lot of people's ex-girlfriends. That way, they'll have more experience too."

With that, Wayne left the classroom, leaving the three staring at one another. "Hiss..."

Cedric sucked in a breath. "That actually makes a lot of sense."

That situation really did happen, and not infrequently.

For example, Quidditch team captain Woodley's girlfriend was the ex-girlfriend of a sixth-year prefect, while that sixth-year prefect's ex-girlfriend was in turn the ex-girlfriend of a Ravenclaw prefect.

Every school year began like a transfer window. This person changed girlfriends today, that person changed tomorrow.

Cedric shuddered.

No, he needed to learn from Wayne and start cultivating one early too.

Fred and George felt the same way, but their minds were now entirely occupied with making magical items. After grumbling for a while, they resumed practicing their spells.