His breath caught in his throat as, for the first time, Albus Dumbledore beheld the wonder that was the Marauders' Map. Before his very eyes line after line began to appear, spreading out across the map in all directions. They showed the walls of the classrooms, the corridors, the towers, the library, the hospital wing, the staff offices and the dormitories. Every stair was delineated, the names and numbers of various places were written in a neat scrawl and, looking closely, Dumbledore say small writing that named every portrait that hung on the corridor walls.
Dots appeared, each with its own label. There were Minerva and Pomona having their usual Sunday tea in Minerva's quarters. There was Severus, making his way back down to the Dungeons. There was Poppy, milling about in the Hospital Wing near an unmoving dot that showed where Dolores Umbridge was currently lying unconscious.
Dumbledore still hadn't decided what to do with her yet.
There were Harry and Ron, making their way up to Gryffindor Tower. Katie Bell and the Weasley Twins were heading towards them. Heading away from the staircase that Harry and Ron were currently climbing were Roger Davies and Patricia Stimpson, the current Head Boy and Head Girl.
Immediately that seemed a little odd to Dumbledore. With Davies being a Ravenclaw and Stimpson being a Hufflepuff, what possible reason could they have for being so near to Gryffindor Tower?
Perhaps they had been talking to a Gryffindor Prefect. Yes, that had to be it.
Ignoring the progress of the three older Gryffindors and the Head Boy and Girl, Dumbledore settled upon watching Harry and Ron make their way up to the Gryffindor Common Room. The two dots that represented the pair reached the entrance to their Common Room and paused, likely to give the password to the portrait of the Fat Lady and wait for the entrance to open.
Moments later the two were in.
Dumbledore gave a satisfied sigh. Harry was back where he belonged. Good.
He was just about to deactivate the map and put it away before the Head Boy and Head Girl could arrive when something on it happened to catch his eye.
Just along from the Gryffindor Common Room, in classroom 7B there were a large number of dots all clustered together in much the same way as there were many dots clustered together in the Gryffindor Common Room.
Many students appeared to have gathered in that classroom, perhaps as many as forty.
Dumbledore frowned. What on Earth could they all be doing in there? Looking at the names he saw that a fair few of them were students in Harry's year. Mostly this group was made up of Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws but, most strangely, there were also a handful of Slytherin students present, including the two current fifth year prefects, Pansy Parkinson and Daphne Greengrass.
This really did not sit right with Dumbledore and to make matters worse he spotted two names that told him that there was something very important going on in that room. Something that he needed to put a stop to.
Those names were Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott.
He sent of several patronuses to carry messages to most of the staff and some, but not all, of the Order members who were currently standing guard around the boundary of the castle's grounds.
The Head Boy and Girl arrived moments later, forcing Dumbledore to leave the rounding up of those wayward students to Minerva and the others.
"Is this it?" asked George, holding up the parcel.
"It is," replied Katie "Now go on, get moving."
"Wait, why do we have to smuggle it out of the castle again?" asked Fred.
Katie rubbed her hand over her face wearily "Because the Ministry is closing in on Hogwarts and I, for one, don't like the idea of some Ministry lackey reading my personal mail."
"Yeah," agreed George "Before we came back to Hogwarts Mum told us to be careful about what we put in our letters because Dumbledore thought that the Ministry would intercept our owls."
Katie had to fight against the unpleasant expression that threatened to mar her face at hearing those words. If only the Weasleys knew that it was actually Dumbledore's lackeys who were intercepting the mail of Hogwarts' students.
Then again, if the Weasley family found out that it was Dumbledore who behind the intercepting of mail then the whole lot of them would likely consider it to be a perfectly reasonable practice.
So rather than point this out she simply said "Exactly. Now hurry up and don't get caught."
Fred snorted derisively and said "Please! Remember who you're talking to, Bell. We are the Weasley Twins. We don't get caught."
"Good for you," said Katie "Now go."
The twins headed off, fully intending to make use of the secret passageway located behind a mirror on the fourth floor corridor. At this time of day this passage was an immensely better option than the one hidden by the statue of the one-eyed witch as that one led to the basement of Honeydukes' Sweet Shop. The one behind the mirror led to a large boulder that sat to the side of the road that lead from the village of Hogsmeade to Hogsmeade Station. It was neither in the village nor in the castle grounds, therefore making it the perfect location to release the owl.
Katie watched the twins disappear down the staircase towards the fourth floor corridor and then turned back.
She had just put a foot on the bottom stair of the staircase that led up to the sixth floor when she became aware of panicked shouting in the distance.
The shouting grew louder and was soon accompanied by the sounds of running footsteps. Many footsteps.
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