Chapter 272: The Marauder's Map
After leaving the headmaster's office, it was already noon. He went to the Great Hall for lunch, attended classes in the afternoon as usual, and then used the Time-Turner again to return to noon, heading into the Forbidden Forest far from the castle to practice magic.
Those Dementors might be able to stop young wizards, but they couldn't stop him.
Moreover, his excursions from the school to practice magic had been authorized by Dumbledore, so it wasn't a violation of school rules.
If a Dementor dared to block him, even if he killed it, the Ministry of Magic wouldn't have much to say.
He practiced various spells until evening, returned to Hogwarts for dinner, and then spent time in his dormitory reading magical books.
At night, he usually didn't read in the common room, since that was when students from all years gathered there to brag and play. He wouldn't be able to read peacefully and would inevitably become the center of attention.
There was no helping it—being too outstanding was a burden in itself.
At ten o'clock, he once again turned the Time-Turner, returning to five o'clock in the afternoon, and went back to the Forbidden Forest to continue practicing magic.
Around 9:30, he began heading back to the castle. On the way past the greenhouse, he plucked a leaf from a mandrake and put it in his mouth—tonight was a full moon.
Just as he entered the castle and was about to return to the Slytherin dormitory, he unexpectedly ran into the Weasley twins in the hall.
Originally, George hadn't planned on bothering with them. The Weasley twins sneaking around and breaking school rules at night was nothing new. He wasn't a teacher, so there was no need to worry about it.
However, this time, he stopped.
Because the Weasley twins had a map in their hands—and the map revealed his location.
"Huh? It's George. George is near us—he's right there!"
The Weasley brothers suddenly turned their heads toward George, who was hidden using a Disillusionment Charm.
Seeing that he'd been discovered, George voluntarily lifted the charm and smiled as he sent them a voice message:
"Good evening. You know, wandering around this late is against school rules."
"Us breaking the rules is nothing new. But I never expected you, George, to be out violating them too. Looks like we're the same kind of people."
The Weasley twins laughed heartily as they approached George, clearly approving of his nighttime stroll.
George looked down at the map in their hands.
"What's this? It can even see through my Disillusionment Charm?"
Of course, he knew what it was. It was the Marauder's Map, a magical artifact jointly created through alchemy by Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black, and James Potter.
It not only displayed all the secret passages inside the castle that had been explored by the four during their Animagus transformations, but it also clearly showed the changing locations of every wizard present in the castle.
It had also been enchanted with the Charm of Enlightenment, giving it a certain degree of intelligence, and it even mocked their old enemy Snape.
From the Marauder's Map alone, one could see that the four of them truly possessed extraordinary magical talent.
Even though the map had been primarily created for pranks, it incorporated many advanced spells and was considered one of the most sophisticated magical tools.
Hogwarts Castle was no ordinary place—it was filled with all kinds of magical wonders—but the Marauder's Map could still show the location of any wizard inside it.
And it didn't just track specific wizards—it could track every wizard in the castle, even animals like cats.
Not even Dumbledore was exempt.
If used for security purposes, it could display the names and positions of any intruders within its range. It was vastly superior to modern surveillance systems.
Even in a place fully equipped with modern surveillance, if someone transformed into a mosquito and snuck in invisibly, they wouldn't be detected.
But on the Marauder's Map, they'd have nowhere to hide.
With such a valuable artifact, there was no way he'd pass up the opportunity.
He didn't need the map to monitor the movements of Hogwarts' wizards—he wanted to reverse-engineer the spells and alchemical techniques used on the map.
That way, in other worlds, he could create similar magical tools.
"This is a great item."
The Weasley twins tapped the parchment in their hands with their wands and declared:
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
In an instant, fine lines of ink spread out from the tips of their wands like spiderwebs, intertwining and stretching to every corner of the parchment.
Then a line of green cursive words appeared on the parchment:
"Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs, purveyors of aids to magical mischief-makers, are proud to present—the Marauder's Map!"
Then the green script disappeared, and a map filled with many small black dots appeared before George.
"Amazing, right? We found it back in our first year, in Filch's drawer. That was after we threw a Dungbomb in the corridor."
The twins excitedly recounted their heroic tales of outwitting Filch during their first year.
But they suddenly stopped halfway—because they saw that Filch and his cat were now patrolling the second floor and were about to enter the hall. If they stayed here, they'd be discovered.
"Let's hide in a secret passage first. We'll tell you more later."
"No need for that."
George reached out and grabbed the Weasley twins, directly merging them into one of the hall's mirrors and entering the Mirror World.
"Whoa! What spell is this? We've never heard of it!"
The Weasley twins looked at the reversed Hogwarts in amazement, then noticed Filch just outside the mirror in front of them—yet he couldn't see them at all.
Their eyes sparkled with excitement.
If they could learn this spell, their prank capabilities would skyrocket.
Just imagine—after pranking Filch, they could watch his furious reaction face-to-face without being discovered. How fun would that be?
They could even use a magical camera to capture his angry face.
"This is called the Hungarian Mirror World. It's a spell I invented myself."
After Filch left, George brought the twins back into the real-world hall.
After Dumbledore had believed the story he made up, he had warned George not to tell anyone about it to avoid unnecessary panic.
So from then on, any magic he used that didn't belong to this world would be attributed to newly invented spells of his own.
"Want to learn it? If you want, I can teach you."
George's tone was filled with temptation.
The Weasley twins nodded excitedly like pecking chicks.
"Yes! We want to learn!"
"You can. But I have one condition—you'll have to trade me the Marauder's Map."
George smiled.
(End of Chapter)