Chapter Text
By lunchtime, the twins were still babbling about how they had Moony as a teacher for a year and never knew he was Moony.
"Who's this Moony, dear?" asked Molly. "I hope you're not making fun of Professor Lockhart." She blushed.
"No mum, we're talking about Professor Lupin. Ack! I can't believe we had him for a year and never got to ask him about his years as one of Hogwart's greatest pranksters."
Molly raised her eyebrows. "Well, you'll just have to ask him when we get to Headquarters."
"Yes!" Ron grinned, "I was hoping he'd be there. So he's part of the Order too?"
"Definitely," said Arthur.
"Professor Lupin! Professor Lupin!" Fred and George ran screaming toward their former teacher, who looked up bemusedly from his cup of tea.
"Hello, boys. Good to see you again." The twins stopped two feet away from the older man and stared at him for a few second as if they had been hypnotized.
"Er, are you two all right?" Remus set down his teacup and took both boys by the elbows. "You haven't been eating anything funny have you?" He sat them down at the table across from him.
The twins snapped out of their daze. Then both started babbling at once, so quickly that it was impossible to distinguish which one of them was talking, so everything just ran together into one big sentence. "Sorry, Professor, it's just we've wanted to meet you for such a long time and now we finally know who you are and we just wanted to thank you for everything you've done for us and we owe you SO much, and Ron finally told us and I can't believe he never told us and Harry never told us and we're really glad it's you because you're the best professor we ever had and can we get your autograph?"
Remus furrowed his brow. They hadn't figured out that he was the author of Hairy Snout, Human Heart, had they?
"What's this all about, Fred? George?" The twins stopped mid-babble with their mouths open.
"You're Mr. Moony!" exclaimed George, at the same time Fred said, "You wrote the Marauder's Map!"
"Oh!" Remus sighed in relief. "I'm assuming you two are the ones who gave the map to Harry, then." He sat back down and picked up his tea.
"So can we have your autograph?"
"That map is the secret of our success!"
"Please tell us how you thought of it!"
"Well, certainly," Remus replied. "Marauding with the Marauders - that was the best time of my life. But you can't let me take all the credit. I was only the one who did the tiresome research. James and Sirius did most of the spellwork. Hey, Padfoot!"
"The twins' heads snapped so quickly to look at the kitchen door that they winced and massaged the back of their necks. Their eyes grew wide and took on the hypnotized glaze once more. "Padfoot," they whispered in reverence.
Sirius Black was rather confused as he came into the kitchen to rummage for something to eat and found two identical redheads staring at him as if he were a two-headed hippogriff. "Uh, what's going on? You two are Weasleys, right? Er, are you okay? Moony?"
Remus chuckled. "Well, apparently these two are fans of ours. They're the ones who gave the Marauder's Map to Harry, and I, for one, would very much like to hear how they got it, since I'm not their Professor anymore and I don't have to feel guilty about encouraging mischief-making."
Sirius let out a barking laugh. "Fans of the Marauders, are you? Well, I can't say we didn't have plenty of fans when we were at school! So tell us where you got our map, then."
Fred and George had recovered from their worshipful trance, and identical evil grins appeared on their faces.
"Well… when we were in our first year - young, carefree and innocent-"
Remus snorted.
"-well, more innocent than we are now - we got into a spot of bother with Filch."
"We let off a Dungbomb in the corridor and it upset him for some reason-"
"So he hauled us off to his office and started threatening us with the usual-"
"-detention-"
"-disembowelment-"
"-and we couldn't help noticing a drawer in one of his filing cabinets marked Confiscated and Highly Dangerous."
The end