A Meeting Gift: The Marauder's Map

"I think Dungbombs would be better. Aren't there still some left from last time? This is the perfect chance to use them."

"Dungbombs alone are a little too boring. We should make a prop instead. Something to smack the back of his head with—wouldn't that be perfect?"

Hearing Silan say he wanted to prank Quirrell, the two immediately began discussing it, chiming in one after another.

They never asked why Silan was targeting Quirrell, or why he was specifically targeting the back of his head.

In their eyes, pranks needed no reason.

Digging into the reasons for pranking someone would be far too much of a buzzkill.

"Why not combine them and make a Dungbomb Hammer to smash into his head?"

Just as the two fell into thought, Silan suddenly cut in.

"You're a genius!"

George and Fred cheered. They high-fived excitedly, then turned to Silan in admiration. "I have to admit, you're a prank genius. How did we not think of that?"

"Just imagine it! A Dungbomb smashing hard into the back of his turban-wrapped head. Brilliant!"

"I can now say for certain..." George began.

Fred immediately picked up where he left off. "You really are our relative. You can completely keep up with our train of thought. It's a great idea, isn't it?"

"Luckily, you're not as boring as Ron, or this would be far too dull."

"Is this prop difficult to make?" Silan asked.

Fred stroked his chin and thought for a while. "It shouldn't be hard, though it'll take a few days. Do you need it urgently?"

"I'm not in a hurry."

"We can probably finish it in two or three days."

George calculated it in his head. "We're planning to make it trigger automatically. That way, we'll have an alibi. Otherwise, everyone will know it was us."

Even if they were not there, they would still be suspected... Their reputation preceded them, after all.

But as long as they left no evidence, the professors could do nothing to them.

"Fine." Silan nodded. "If you need my help, just ask."

"No problem."

After settling the important matter, Silan asked curiously, "How did you know I was here in the greenhouse?"

The Weasley twins had come straight to the greenhouse and looked for him as soon as they arrived. They had clearly come specifically for him.

"Oh, we have this."

The Marauder's Map

Fred took out an old piece of parchment, closed his eyes, and made a face at him.

"This is our little treasure." George stroked the Marauder's Map. "When we were first-years, we were just like you—innocent and carefree."

"Yes, except we occasionally threw Dungbombs in the corridors," Fred continued. "Unfortunately, our luck ran out once, and Filch caught us."

"He dragged us to his office and tried to scare us with his same old routine."

"Detention, disembowelment... Well, I admit, the disembowelment part was a little scary."

"Oh, that doesn't matter. What matters is that we found the Marauder's Map in his drawer."

George smiled smugly. "So we threw another Dungbomb and traded for it... One Dungbomb for an old piece of parchment. That's fair, right?"

"This little treasure has taught us more than all the teachers in the school combined." Fred demonstrated how to use the Marauder's Map for Silan. "Want to give it a try?"

Silan took the Marauder's Map and examined it carefully.

The Marauder's Map was a magical map jointly created during their school days by Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black, and James Potter.

It could display the movements of everyone within the school grounds, as well as the secret passages.

It was worth mentioning that a spell had been specially placed on it for Snape.

If he used the Marauder's Map, it would only keep producing insults.

Silan took out his wand and lightly tapped the worn parchment.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Seeing the densely packed names on the Marauder's Map and the shifting staircases, Silan could not help widening his eyes.

It was not because he was surprised, but because his heart ached.

If he had gotten the Marauder's Map sooner, he might have made a huge amount of money by now.

Not earning money was the same as losing money!

Using such a divine artifact as nothing more than a map was far too wasteful.

It was a divine artifact for harvesting young wizards' wallets again and again!

The ever-changing staircases at Hogwarts caused countless newly enrolled young wizards endless misery.

Even though more than a week had passed, many young wizards still had not gotten used to the shifting stairs. They were always late and losing points because of them.

That was a market pain point!

Where there was a pain point, there was demand.

Silan immediately thought that if he hid the names, locations, and secret passages on the Marauder's Map, leaving only records of the staircases' movements, then sold a simplified version of the Marauder's Map...

Wouldn't he be able to harvest those wallets crop after crop?

Every year, new young wizards enrolled. Before they completely learned the staircases' patterns, they would definitely need a map like this.

At that thought, Silan's gaze upon the Marauder's Map grew fervent.

Seeing how reluctant Silan was to put it down, George and Fred exchanged a smile.

"Actually, we don't need it anymore," Fred said.

"Yeah, we've memorized everything. What do you think, Fred? Should we give it to Silan?" George said.

Fred nodded. "Let's call it a meeting gift."

The two of them were still somewhat reluctant to part with it.

But over the past year, they had already memorized all the secret passages.

Clearly, Silan needed this map more than they did now.

"Really? I've never received such a wonderful gift. Thank you so much!"

The Marauder's Map truly was an excellent magical item. For Silan, though, its greater use was still making a fortune.

"Of course. If we ever need it, we can always borrow it again."

"Exactly. We're family."

"Thank you so much. I can really use it."

Silan did not put on a show of polite refusal. He openly put the Marauder's Map away.

Before putting it away, he glanced at the map once more and abruptly spotted Ron's name. Beside it was someone named Peter Pettigrew.

He had been one of James's group back then.

But he had ultimately betrayed his companions and gone to serve Voldemort.

To conceal his crimes, he had faked his own death and infiltrated the Weasley family as Scabbers the rat.

"Do you know someone named Peter Pettigrew?" Silan asked.

"No. We've never seen that name before," the Weasley twins answered at the same time.

All right.

It seemed that ever since Ron had enrolled, neither of his two brothers had noticed that someone named Peter slept with him every day.

If nothing unexpected happened, this situation would probably continue until Ron's third year.

Because Silan had no intention of warning him either.