After the Transfiguration class ended, Draco strode out of the classroom, his gaze sweeping over the crowded people in the corridor.
It did not take him long to spot the Weasley twins. Their identical fiery red hair and tall, handsome appearance always made them stand out in a crowd.
Right now, the Weasley twins are excitedly talking to a boy named Lee Jordan about mutant spiders.
"Wait, George, Fred..." Draco caught up with them.
The twins turned around and looked at him with interest. "Wow! Look who this is. What brings the young master of the Malfoy family here? Is he here to buy our Skiving Snackboxes?" Fred patted him on the shoulder affectionately.
"Of course." Draco proudly raised his head. "This is a big order. We need to find a quiet place to talk."
The Weasley twins exchanged a glance, knowing that he was not there to buy Skiving Snackboxes, but rather for something else important.
They said a few more words to Lee Jordan, patted him on the shoulder, and then followed Draco into an empty classroom.
"What is wrong?" they asked him in unison, sitting casually at the two desks in the front row of the classroom.
"I noticed that your brother Ron keeps a rat?" Draco did not sit down; he leaned against the podium, sizing up the two brothers.
"You mean that hairless, listless rat—" Fred asked, raising an eyebrow with interest.
It is quite rare to see Malfoy, the young master of a wealthy family, so interested in Ron's hairless rat.
"Yes, it sounds like ours." George exchanged a knowing smile with his brother.
"We wanted to use it for experiments—" Fred said with a grin.
"It is a pity Ron never wanted to hand it over to us..." George said regretfully.
Do not underestimate the Weasley brothers' coordinated efforts. If you think they are indifferent to everything, you are sorely mistaken!
Draco could glean a subtle signal from their playful banter: Ron loved the rat. If Draco wanted to conduct any dangerous experiments on the rat, Ron probably would not allow it, nor would the two brothers.
They sided with their younger brother. That was their underlying meaning, though expressed in a subtle, playful, and indifferent manner.
Draco was not in the mood for beating around the bush. He was determined to get his hands on the rat. He interrupted them, asking bluntly, "I would like to know, how many years has it been in your house?"
The answer seemed obvious.
"Oh, that goes back to our childhood—" Fred said in a nostalgic tone.
"Back then we were innocent children—" George made an innocent expression.
Draco's lips twitched.
Innocent and naive? How could they even say that?
Who blew up the toilet seats in the men's restroom, causing Filch to curse for hours in the hallway? Who kept stuffing fireworks into the mouths of salamanders, causing one to suddenly pop out of the fireplace at Hogwarts, crackling and spooking, giving everyone a fright? And who conjured up boils all over their body to scare the female students? Not to mention their constant mischief in the Forbidden Forest, putting on a daily dog-and-rabbit chase with Hagrid...
If these two brothers can be considered innocent and naive, then Draco Malfoy can be considered a pure and innocent flower.
"Mum bought it for Percy in the first place. It must have been eleven years ago, right? Ron was only one year old then, and Mum said he got bitten by that rat and cried." Perhaps seeing Draco's serious expression, which did not seem like he was joking, George finally became serious as well.
Draco quickly calculated the year in his mind—it was 1981.
This was the year Scabbers entered the Weasleys' house as a rat, the year Harry's parents met with tragedy, the year Peter Pettigrew, who was publicly known to have died, was killed, and the year Sirius Black was imprisoned in Azkaban as a murderer.
Everything was connected.
Draco had long thought that Peter Pettigrew was sneaking around like a rat.
But he never expected that he would transform into an Animagus in the form of a rat and hide in the Weasley family for eleven years!
"Do you not think eleven years is a bit too long for a rat?" Draco asked his twin brothers tentatively.
"Indeed," George agreed. "We also thought that rat was a bit strange—"
"Percy and Ron probably fed it too much good food," Fred said dismissively.
Draco covered his face and sighed silently. The Weasley family's nerves were as thick as that Whomping Willow in school!
How come no one noticed anything wrong with this rat that has lived for so long?
This incredibly long-lived rat even followed Ron to Hogwarts, where it lived under the same roof as Harry for nearly two years.
He is a Death Eater! Draco dared not think too deeply about how Harry had been living under the terrifying shadow of death for the past two years.
If Peter Pettigrew wanted to kill Harry, it would be an incredibly easy task.
If he were to become human, pick up the wand of any of the sleeping students, and cast the Dark Lord's most familiar "Avada Kedavra," Harry might be in grave danger.
"May I make a request? Could you steal that rat for me without Ron noticing?" Draco pondered for a moment before making a strange request to the two brothers.
"That is a peculiar request," George smiled, looking at Draco with a probing gaze. "Why does it have to be Ron's rat? Just because it lives a long time?"
"I have no ill intentions towards Ron," Draco said hastily. "I could even buy him a new rat or an owl, but I do have some questions and want to study the rat itself."
"That is not enough. Give us a reason that can convince us," George said solemnly. Fred's face showed a similar expression.
"All right." Draco took a deep breath; he knew these two brothers were not easy to fool—he had no choice but to be honest with them.
"I suspect that rat is an Animagus. You have seen the Marauder's Map, you should know who is next to Ron's name. That rat must be Peter Pettigrew in disguise." Draco's expression was grave. His expression told the two brothers that he was not joking.
"Are you sure? I mean... Peter Pettigrew is dead... is he not? His killer, Sirius Black, is still in Azkaban." Fred became somewhat incoherent. "Dad mentioned it... Black is actually a distant relative of ours."
"But nobody saw how he died. The largest piece of human tissue they found was his finger!" Draco said sombrely. "I wager the rat was missing a toe too."
"That being said, we always thought Percy broke it by accident." George's face also turned pale.
"Think about it carefully! Is there any basis for my suspicion?" Draco's tone was slightly impatient. "Maybe I am overthinking it. But trying it will not hurt, will it? You do not want Ron to be in constant danger, do you? Sleeping in the same bed with a middle-aged man who is supposedly dead and turned into a rat?"
"Of course not." A rare look of worry appeared on Fred's face. "What do you want us to do?"
"Do not tell Ron. You all know how much he treasures that rat. He definitely will not believe you, and then he will argue with you for ages, giving the rat an easy opportunity to escape," Draco said.
"Understood." "No problem," the two brothers said.
"Do not make a fuss about it. Find a suitable opportunity, and steal the rat as if it were a prank. Even as a rat, the Animagus will still have its own thoughts, so do not give it away in front of it and let it know what you suspect." Draco revealed his plan. "I will prepare a special container to temporarily contain it. Then, we will hand it over to the professors. If the rat is fine, we will still return it to Ron, and consider it a false alarm."
"Contain it with a container? Will that work?" George asked.
"There have been similar precedents. You can use an Unbreakable Charm on a container to control an Animagus," Draco said with absolute certainty.
That is one of Hermione Granger's little tricks. In his past life, at the end of fourth year, she used this trick to subdue Rita Skeeter.
Very intelligent. Gryffindor should get an extra fifty points. A slight smile appeared on Draco's lips.
"All right, count me in." Fred nodded.
"Me too," George said, frowning.