Faceless Phantom suddenly reappeared beside Louis, then was quickly reabsorbed by him.
The wall before him trembled faintly. It seemed the chaos inside the Room of Requirement was affecting the outside world as well—but thankfully, none of the dramatic changes had manifested externally. Judging by that, the room was likely still under control.
And based on what Faceless Phantom had seen before disappearing, it looked like two separate, occupied versions of the Room had forcibly merged into one. But since there were no catastrophic consequences, the Weasley twins were probably safe.
While Louis was calmly analyzing the situation, a crooked, twisted door suddenly formed on the wall in front of him. It creaked open on its own—and then, two people were promptly spat out of it.
That was honestly the only word Louis could think of to describe it: spat.
In that brief instant before the door fully shut, Louis caught a glimpse inside. The room was rapidly returning to normal. At that rate, it would reset completely in under thirty seconds.
George and Fred rolled across the floor a few times before ending up right at Louis's feet. Lying on their backs, the first thing they saw was Louis's amused expression.
"Good evening, gentlemen. Looks like you've just come back from quite the adventure," Louis said.
"Louis? What are you doing here?" the twins asked, still not bothering to get up. "Wait, never mind, dumb question—you're clearly out sneaking around too. And yeah, you're right, we did have one hell of an adventure. You won't believe what just happened, we were—"
Fred, just as exhausted as his twin, was clearly still riding a mental high, unwilling to stop talking—
But before he could finish, Louis interrupted him. "You guys ran into the Room of Requirement while trying to escape Filch, didn't you?"
"The Room of what now?" George and Fred turned to look at each other, then spoke in perfect unison, "You know what that place was?"
"Of course. I discovered it a while ago," Louis said with a casual shrug. "I was planning to use it as a private space to practice magic—who would've thought you two would stumble across it too."
"It was an accident."
"Yeah, total accident."
The twins, now rested enough, got up from the floor.
"We had just stepped out of the common room when we ran into Filch. He chased us all the way to the eighth floor—we didn't even have time to cast the Disillusionment Charm."
"Totally George's fault. His charmwork sucks."
"You've got some nerve! You froze up completely back there too."
Just as the bickering was about to escalate into a full-blown wrestling match, Louis stepped in.
"Alright, if you two don't calm down, I'll call a professor over."
Fred and George glared at each other… then looked over at Louis.
"You wouldn't dare. You're out past curfew too," Fred said with a grin.
"No, no, no." Louis wagged a finger. "My dormmates can all vouch for me being in bed."
"No way. They hate your guts—there's no way they'd lie for you," George retorted.
"Oh, they do hate me. But they're also very pragmatic… and obedient. The ones who weren't? Well, let's just say after a bit of… reeducation, they've come around."
"…Good god, is this guy a demon?" Fred whispered to George.
"Yeah, terrifying. But I still want to say—well played," George nodded solemnly.
Watching them mutter to each other, Louis smiled faintly.
"You two got anything else? If not, then you should probably head out."
The twins exchanged a look, then asked in unison, "Can you tell us more about the Room of Requirement?"
"Yeah, we're curious."
Apparently, not even being spit out of a pocket-dimension collision event had fazed them—they even wanted to go back in. Classic Gryffindors.
"That won't do," Louis replied offhandedly. "That room's my little secret. Believe me—it's not easy to get into. You two just got lucky this time. Next time, it won't be so simple."
George and Fred exchanged a glance, whispered to each other for a moment, then nodded in agreement.
"We'll trade one of our secrets for yours," George said.
As he spoke, he pulled out a thick piece of parchment from inside his robes and handed it to Louis.
"What's this?" Louis asked aloud, though in truth, he already knew exactly what it was.
The ultimate tool for night roaming: the Marauder's Map.
A magical artifact created by Harry Potter's father and his gang of delinquent friends (accurately described), this map displayed the movement of every person within the bounds of Hogwarts Castle—unless that person was actively using a concealment spell to mask their presence.
But in that case, even owls wouldn't be able to locate them, which was wildly inconvenient. So, few people ever stayed hidden like that for long.
"This is the Marauder's Map. George and I decided we want to give it to you," Fred explained. He raised his wand to help Louis open the map, then pointed at it and recited, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
"I solemnly swear too," George added softly beside him.
As the incantation took effect, a line of words appeared across the parchment:
"Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs proudly present: The Marauder's Map."
Immediately after, ink spread across the parchment, forming words, then structures—until a full map materialized.
A highly detailed, complete layout of Hogwarts… with names walking across it in real time.
"This map shows everyone within Hogwarts in real-time," George said. "And it also marks out some secret passages, including how to access them."
"That's how we got to know all the hidden routes. Ever since we got this, we've never been caught," Fred added proudly.
"Except this time," Louis said, raising an eyebrow.
"Well… today was a fluke," Fred shrugged. "But the map doesn't show the Room of Requirement. Guess the creators never discovered it either."
"Maybe," Louis replied, eyes fixed on the map—particularly on the Gryffindor dormitories.
The Marauder's Map—what a magical artifact. Honestly, it was practically author-granted plot armor. Hard to believe a bunch of students had made something so powerful.
After getting their hands on it, the Weasley twins mostly used it to prank Filch and memorize secret passages. But they'd overlooked its most powerful function:
Finding people.
Next to the names Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, there was another: Peter Pettigrew.
Louis stared at the map, then glanced at George and Fred with a strange look.
Had these two seriously never noticed a random name hanging around their little brother's room all this time?
Could this be his chance to trigger a "Fool Fate" scenario early? Definitely worth trying.
"Say," Louis asked in a curious tone, "do you guys know a Peter Pettigrew?"
"Who's that? George, do you know him?"
"Nope."
"So neither of you know him. That means he's not a Gryffindor student, right?" Louis asked.
"Of course not. We know every Gryffindor in school," the twins answered proudly.
"Then why is there a person who isn't a Gryffindor in Harry Potter's dorm?" Louis spread the map and pointed directly at the name.
"What?" The twins froze, staring at the spot Louis indicated. Sure enough, right there in Gryffindor Tower, was the name: Peter Pettigrew.
"I don't think this map makes mistakes that easily," Louis said calmly. "Otherwise, you wouldn't trust it so much."
"So then… what exactly is this Peter Pettigrew supposed to be?"
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