What was your plan?

As soon as Gerald finished speaking, ink began to appear on the parchment.

Every corridor, every room, and every hidden passage in Hogwarts lay before his eyes.

Hundreds upon thousands of tiny ink dots moved slowly across the map, each labeled with a little name.

Gerald saw that Fred Weasley and Lee Jordan had already left the second floor, and that Filch was pacing back and forth along a second-floor corridor.

Dumbledore was pacing in the Headmaster's Office.

Then he spotted his own name. He was standing in Filch's office on the first floor.

-Awesome!

Although Gerald couldn't approve of some of the things the four of them had done during their school years, he still had to admire their talent.

Creating a magical item like this at fifteen or sixteen was genuinely brilliant.

"Mischief Managed."

The ink retreated into the fibers of the parchment, leaving it an old, blank sheet of paper once more.

Gerald carefully folded it down to the size of his palm and tucked it into the inside pocket of his school robes.

Then he slid the drawer back exactly as it had been and left the office.

He had only just locked the door when another explosion rang out from the first floor.

Then came an even angrier roar from Filch.

"You little brats! I'll nail you to the wall and leave you to dry out alive!"

George ran over, gasping for breath, with Fred and Lee Jordan behind him. All three were panting hard.

"Gerald, come on. Filch has gone mad. He chased us through two whole corridors."

The four of them gathered at the corner of the corridor and started toward the Entrance Hall.

The Entrance Hall led straight to the second floor. That was the escape route they had planned in advance.

But they hadn't gone far when Gerald suddenly stopped.

George and the other two went another dozen paces before realizing he wasn't following and turning to look at him.

"What's wrong? Filch will be here any second!" George's voice cracked with urgency.

Gerald stood in the middle of the corridor, frowning slightly.

Something had suddenly occurred to him.

If I hadn't intervened, how would tonight have played out?

According to the original story's timeline, Fred and George would also have set off Dungbombs in the corridors that night, only to be caught red-handed by Filch and taken to his office for detention.

During that detention, they had obtained the Marauder's Map.

In other words, if they stuck to their original plan, there was a good chance all four of them would still be caught red-handed by Filch.

At that thought, Gerald pulled the neatly folded parchment from his inside pocket and spread it across his palm.

George leaned over to look. "What's that?"

Gerald didn't answer.

He raised his wand and tapped the surface of the parchment.

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

The floor plan of Hogwarts appeared again.

"Merlin's ratty underpants, what kind of magic is that?"

George cried out in amazement.

"Shh."

Gerald held a finger to his lips.

The three of them immediately shut their mouths, but their eyes remained fixed on the map in Gerald's hand.

"This is Hogwarts. Every floor is here. And these moving dots... is that us?"

Gerald pointed to a corner of the map.

All three looked at the spot beneath his fingertip.

Filch's dot was sitting motionless at the corner where the Entrance Hall led to the second floor, with Mrs. Norris's dot right beside his feet.

George's expression changed.

"That's the route we were going to take. If we head down to the second floor from here, we'll run straight into him."

Without the Marauder's Map, the four of them would already have run straight into Filch's clutches, then been dragged by their ears into his office for detention.

Gerald said nothing, merely spreading the map a little farther toward the three of them.

His finger moved quickly across it, tracing a line toward Gryffindor Tower.

"We'll go through the secret passage behind the Boys' Bathroom, then up to the fourth floor. After that, we'll take the West Staircase and circle around to the rear entrance of Gryffindor Tower."

"This map even knows about secret passages?" George looked up at Gerald, his eyes full of delighted surprise.

Gerald folded the map and tucked it back into his inside pocket.

"Let's go."

The four of them moved quickly along the route Gerald had pointed out.

The Boys' Bathroom was on the west side of the second floor. The moment Gerald pushed open the door, moonlight spilled through the skylight, laying a sheen of silver frost across the floor.

"Where's the passage?" Lee Jordan looked around but saw nothing that resembled an entrance.

Gerald walked to the innermost stall and felt along its back wall until he found a stone brick slightly darker than the others.

He pressed it.

With a low hum, the wall slid apart to reveal a passage barely wide enough for one person.

Gerald and the others soon passed through it and reached the fourth floor.

From the fourth floor to Gryffindor Tower, their path was clear.

Filch was still keeping watch at the second-floor Entrance Hall, unaware that the band of "criminals" he was waiting for had long since slipped away.

By the time they returned to the common room, the fire in the hearth had almost gone out, its dark red embers flickering amid the ashes.

Lee Jordan dropped into an armchair beside the fireplace and let out a long breath.

"Tonight was such a rush."

Fred grabbed Gerald by the shoulders, his eyes filled with undisguised admiration.

"Gerald, you're my boss from now on. What was that thing?"

"That thing was just... just..."

George finished for him.

"The greatest pranking tool in history."

"Want to know? Call me Daddy."

"..."

Gerald took the Marauder's Map out of his inside pocket and laid it on the coffee table.

"It's called the Marauder's Map. A few Hogwarts students made it years ago."

Fred reached out to touch the map, but his fingers hovered above the parchment before he drew them back.

"Something this important, and you're just showing it to us?"

"We're partners. I can't make a fortune all by myself."

Fred and George exchanged a glance.

"What's your plan?"

Gerald leaned back in his chair and folded his hands over his knees.

"It's a secret for now. You'll find out when the time comes."

Fred let out a groan. "You're great in every other way, but only telling us half the story is

"driving us mad."

And that was how the events of that night came to an end.

The next few days passed without incident as well. Filch never found any evidence against George and the others.

Early Thursday morning, before dawn, Gerald climbed out of bed.

Two nights earlier, a notice had appeared in the Gryffindor Common Room announcing that they would have flying class on Thursday.

The first-years had been beside themselves with excitement. Even Gerald had started looking forward to it.

But when the day actually arrived, Gerald was the only one who got up early. The other four were sprawled out fast asleep as usual.

After quietly washing up, Gerald put on his robes and went out.

Only a handful of people were in the Great Hall, most of them older Ravenclaw students.

They had their heads bent over books, their breakfasts untouched.

Gerald sat down at the Gryffindor table, and the Golden Plate in front of him immediately filled with food.

His first lesson that day was Potions.

To be honest, he had never particularly wanted to face that class.

Or rather, he didn't particularly want to face the person teaching it.

It wasn't because he hated Snape. When he had read the original books in his previous life, he had even felt some admiration for that complicated character.

But precisely because he had read the books, he knew better than anyone just how perceptive Snape was.

Gerald had far too many secrets.

The memories of events in the Harry Potter world that his rebirth had brought him, and even his immortal cultivation techniques.

Any one of them would be enough to get every last memory drained out of him through Legilimency.

-Screw it. He can't read minds, and there's no way he'd use Legilimency on a first-year. What the hell am I scared of?