The Weasley twins sneaked into the Forbidden Forest, wanting to have a close encounter with a Fire Dragon.
According to them, they wanted to get some dragon scales that had fallen off, or dragon dung would do too.
But they were caught by Hagrid, who was furious and punished them by making them clean the pigsty for half a month.
"Cleaning pig dung, washing the pigpen, and bathing the piglets..."
Fred laughed and said, "That's our job for the next half month."
"Percy was pretty mad, complaining that we disgraced the Weasley family."
George was washing the ground with a hose, giving a piglet a bath on the side.
Fred asked, "Vid, what brings you to us?"
"Remember last term, when you told me about the secret passage out of Hogwarts?" Vid asked.
"Of course!" Fred said. "Don't tell me you're only just now making use of it."
"Well, I left school for a bit a few days ago, and the passage is longer than I thought."
"Hogsmeade is fun, isn't it?" Fred leaned on a shovel, his chin on the handle, and winked: "You didn't get caught by Frum, did you?"
"Frum?"
"The owner of Honeydukes," George explained.
"Oh, no, I didn't," Vid said. "There's just something that's been puzzling me..."
He looked at the twins and said, "You said you saw me come out of the corridor with the mirror, and we met in front of Paracelsus's portrait..."
"Huh? Is that so?" Fred couldn't quite remember. He scratched his head and said, "Probably."
"But when I came out of the mirror corridor, I checked that there were no other students around."
Vid said, "Later, someone told me you should have just come from the Gryffindor Common Room."
The person who told him was, of course, Zoe.
Not much could be hidden in this castle from the house-elves and omnipresent portraits.
"Hmm..." George tilted his head and asked, "So what?"
"You have a magic item that shows everyone's whereabouts, right? It's supposed to be a piece of parchment?"
Vid asked sincerely, "Can I borrow it to study the alchemy on it? I promise I won't damage it! Rent is one Galleon a day, okay?"
"One Galleon? That's not cheap!" Fred said, then shook his head. "But no."
Vid was taken aback and offered, "Then... two Galleons?"
"It's not about the money," Fred said solemnly. "The Marauder's Map is a precious gift passed down…"
George nodded and sighed, "We owe them so much... how can we use it to make money?"
"You can study the Marauder's Map for free," Fred nodded seriously and said, "but there's a condition..."
"Don't let anyone else see it, especially the professors and Filch..."
"Also... we must learn from our predecessors and help the new generation of rule-breakers..."
The twins burst into laughter.
Then Fred pulled out a square piece of parchment. It looked very old and was blank.
"We stole this from Filch's office. He had it locked in a drawer labeled [Confiscated Supplies, Highly Dangerous]."
George said, "He taught us more than all the teachers at school."
"Remember the spell." Fred drew out his magic wand and lightly tapped the parchment: "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good!"
Thin lines of ink spread out like a spider web, and several lines of green text began to appear—
[Supplier of Assistance to Mischief-makers]
[Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs]
[Proudly presents]
[The Marauder's Map]
In no time, the parchment transformed into a map of Hogwarts, detailing every corridor and room.
Tiny black dots moved across the map, with tiny letters forming names beside them.
These letters were much smaller than they appeared in movies.
Places like the hall, common rooms, and classrooms, where there were more people, looked like a swarm of ants gathered together, making it hard to see clearly.
But the Weasley twins weren't interested in the students converging there; they were probably only concerned about where the professors and Filch patrolled during night walks.
"When you're done, just tap it and say 'Mischief managed,' and it becomes a blank piece of parchment again," said George.
Vid looked at the twins, whose smiles bore a bit of goofiness, as if they didn't realize they had handed over something so precious.
Vid folded up the parchment and smiled, "Can I invite you to study it together? I remember you're also learning alchemy?"
Mentioning this perked up the Weasley twins: "Of course! But the magic on the Marauder's Map is pretty complicated!"
"We've been working on some prank candies recently, but the damage is a bit much..."
Before George could finish his sentence, Hagrid's voice came booming: "Hey, I hope you're not just chatting and have already finished cleaning the pigpen!"
The twins stuck out their tongues and quickly resumed washing the pigpen.
"Hey, Vid. Don't follow in their footsteps and treat life as just a game."
Hagrid came over with a big bucket of feed, nudged the piglets crowding the trough with his finger, and then poured in the feed.
Vid asked him, "Is the Fire Dragon safe in the Forbidden Forest?"
"No worries, nothing in the Forbidden Forest can harm Nobeta."
Hagrid said fondly, "Ah, thankfully Dumbledore allowed her to stay... for Nobeta, the most dangerous thing in the world is humans... her original habitat was full of them too..."
As he spoke, he picked up a few grown piglets to inspect them closely before putting them back in the pigpen.
"So.. she won't harm the animals in the Forbidden Forest?" Vid asked.
"Dumbledore reached an agreement with the Centaur Tribe," Hagrid said. "Nobeta lives far away and has promised not to hunt near the school or harm intelligent creatures. She's a good girl, isn't she?"
Vid looked at the burn marks on Hagrid's arm and couldn't bring himself to nod.
Hagrid invited him, "Why not come to my hut for a cup of tea? I've just made some rock cakes."
"No, thank you," Vid declined. "I still have homework to do."
Bidding farewell to Hagrid and the Weasley twins, Vid returned to the Room of Requirement, and the first thing he did was unfold the Marauder's Map and look toward the Gryffindor Common Room.
If expected, there should be an extra name there—
"Wormtail" Peter Pettigrew.
One of the Marauders, a friend of James Potter and Lupin, the true betrayer back then.