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“Potions! Potions potions potions! Potion. Potions?” Draco threw his hands up in frustration.
“I'm sorry, Draco. I can't figure it out either. George said it's a vocal-affecting jinx cast in the Great Hall triggered by saying certain words out loud. I can't figure out why it's affecting the Slytherins so much.” Rigel paused. “Do you, by any chance, remember the last word you said before it started affecting you?”
Draco flushed and looked away. Pansy sighed.
“Rigel… I think you should ask the twins for a list of the trigger words, perhaps?”
“Potions potioning potion!” Draco looked panicked.
“What is it, Dray?”
“POTION. Potions potable potion, potion,” he said, almost tearfully. He looked regretful.
“Don’t worry, Dray, it'll wear off naturally in a day or so. But it'd be easier for me to figure out how to break the jinx now if I had the trigger words.”
Draco deflated and nodded.
“Potion potion…”
He took Rigel's hand and seemed to be trying his best to do an impression of a kicked puppy. Rigel softened.
“Whatever it is, it's okay, Dray.”
“I wouldn't be so sure about that.”
Rigel turned at the voice and frowned mildly at George.
“That's rude, George.”
George grinned, and it was equal parts carefree and… mean. He was holding a thin booklet in his hand, which he offered to Rigel with a flourish.
“Here's the list of words that trigger the jinx, puppy. The way to break it is to simply say it out loud again together with the proper jinx-breaking incantation.”
Rigel stared and took the booklet. That was… surprisingly easy, for the Weasley Twins.
“Potions! Potions potions potions potions. Potions potions,” spat Draco, his cheeks flushed with anger.
George laughed as he walked off.
Rigel looked down at the booklet. The title was written in a bold red font.
The 1988 ICW List of Blood Supremacist Slurs
In one world, Fred and George steal a suspiciously blank piece of parchment in Filch’s office during their first year.
In another world, Rigel Black makes a mistake. She forgets her school books and her spare bit of parchment in the Gryffindor common room. After a lifetime of living with pranksters, she really should have been more wary of the pranksters living in Gryffindor.
The Map was created by Marauders and designed to recognise true mischief makers. It was never a matter of whether the twins could crack the password. It was only a matter of when.
In one world, Fred and George use the map to spread even more chaos, much to the despair of their professors.
In another world, well…
Harriet Potter, said the Map. Seated between Pansy Parkinson and Draco Malfoy.
George looked across the Great Hall at the Slytherin table before sharing a long look with his brother. The map never lies.
On the one hand: Their puppy was in danger. She was surrounded by enemies. One wrong move, and she would die.
On the other hand.
George felt his mouth curling into a cheshire grin, matching the one on Fred's face.
“You thinking what I’m thinking, Gred?”
“Way ahead of you, Forge.”
They were playing a game of wizard's chess while their puppy had already graduated to seven dimensional tic-tac-toe.
This prank was amazing. Legendary, even. A seven-year long prank!
They had to help her see it through.
In the end, nothing really changes much. Much to her relief, Rigel finds the Map at the bottom of her shoulder bag half a day later. She never questions the twins’ sudden interest in training her in the ‘art of pranking’. She gets mildly annoyed when her Slytherin friends get pranked for expressing blood supremacist views. She never makes the connection between their sudden protectiveness over her and the few hours she had lost the Marauder’s Map.
Nothing really changes. Until everything is changed.
Because in every universe, Fred and George Weasley are indisputably the allies of Harry Potter.