Paper House | Fred

[Deleted]

Bern hated the winter months because it meant that he didn’t have the same escape opportunities from his school work. During the spring and eve during the fall, he could leave his homework and his revision to be done later and go spend time outside or with his mates. During the winter the grounds were more or less deserted and his friends were also feeling the need to study. Bern didn’t mind studying, he wasn’t the most academic person, but he didn’t mind doing it to an extent. He needed a break, he needed a reason to put it aside and come back to it later. Instead of going outside during his study breaks, Bern just roamed the castle. He knew it pretty well, he knew all the twists and turns and he knew what most of the doors in the corridors lead to. But walking the halls was still an adventure.

@fred

[Deleted]

There was arguably not a single person at Hogwarts who knew the school as well as Fred Weasley did. His cousin, James, had an ingenious map of the school that Fred had all but memorized, with all of the secret passages in the school marked, even if they needed special instructions to be used. Most of the passages on the map had been closed in for a while, since they weren’t part of the rebuild effort after the Battle of Hogwarts, but if nothing else, studying the Marauder’s Map had been a way for Fred to understand what to look for when searching for secret passages – loose stones or peculiar artwork being two of the greatest indicators. His newest obsession was looking for a passage that connected the third and fifth floors – he was certain there was a way to get between the two floors without using the enchanted staircases, and he needed to find it before he graduated. Fred was inspecting some flagstones on the fifth floor, his nose all but pressed against the ground, so focused on his task that he didn’t even notice someone approaching.

@bern

[Deleted]

Bern hadn’t really been looking where he was going. He often liked to look up when he walked, specifically if he was walking through a place where it was common for the ghosts or poltergeists to hang out and want to terrorize students from above. After a few water balloons to the head, he had learned to scan the ceiling upon turning a corner or entering into a new part of the corridor. He was pretty good at navigating without always looking where he was going, working in the family restaurant over the holidays had helped him with that. However, he hadn’t seen the man until Bern had nearly bumped into him. “Oy, sorry about that, mate. I didn’t see you there.” Bernard admitted, jumping back quickly enough to avoid any collision and give a bit more space back to the individuals. “I was just checking for ghosts since you never really know…” Bern explained, pointing up to the ceiling.

@fred

[Deleted]

One thing about examining flagstones was that Fred was constantly staring and scuffing at the floor, and not really paying attention to where he was going. Focus wasn’t something that people normally associated with him, but when he wanted to be, Fred was good at concentrating. Normally not paying attention to where he was going was still fine, since everyone else would just filter around him, but apparently someone else had the same thought, which resulted in a near collision. Fred only looked up when he heard a voice, apologizing. “I didn’t see you, either.” Fred said, waving off the apology. Most of the time it took two people to run into each other, anyways – it wasn’t necessarily more one’s fault than the other. The other boy explained that he was checking for ghosts. “The ghosts aren’t that bad.” Fred grinned. His reputation as a jokester didn’t stop among the living, and some of the ghosts seemed to see him as more of a partner-in-crime than another student to terrorize, which made his life markedly easier. “Going someplace?” Fred asked, wondering if he could recruit the other boy into his flagstone search project or if he was busy.

@bern

[Deleted]

The figure examining the floor waved off Bern’s apology and the man nodded his head. Once on the subjects of ghosts, which the person seemed to think weren’t that bad, Bern couldn’t help a chuckle escape from his lips. “Peeves, knows he can get a good laugh out of me - I find myself a target more often than not.” Bern admitted. He was a fun loving, guy with a good sense of humor and a talent for his own jokes as well. He wasn’t the best at pranks, maybe because he let himself worry about the feelings and embarrassment of the victims too much. But if they were targeted towards him, he would often laugh them off. It was all in the name of fun. “Nope - just giving my legs a chance to stretch before I remain cooped up in the common room.” he said, causally. “What were you doing? I don’t suppose you were checking to see if your shoes were tied.” he pointed out.

@fred

[Deleted]

Fred smiled at the boy when he said that Peeves knew that he was a good laugh. Fred didn’t think that was because the other boy was funny by himself, though – more like he was fun to pick on. “Peeves is an odd duck.” Fred said with a shrug of his shoulders. It was kind of difficult to be mad at a poltergeist, because he was a poltergeist – messing with people was kind of his whole purpose. The other boy said that he was just stretching his legs before he had to be cooped up in the common room, and Fred narrowed his eyes at the other boy. “You only have to be cooped up if you want to be.” He said. Sneaking out after curfew was kind of Fred’s thing – well, his and the rest of the Marauders. The other boy asked if what Fred was doing, then going on to guess that Fred wasn’t checking to see if his shoes were tied. “Nope, I’ve got that handled… most of the time.” He said, grinning again. “I’m looking for secret passages.” Fred explained instead.

@bern

[Deleted]

Secret passage. Bern’s attention was peaked. He raised his eyebrows, that was exactly the type of thing that interested him. “You don’t say? What sort of secret passage are you searching for?” he asked. Something in the floor that would open up, perhaps? Bern knew about a few secret passageways around the castle, not many, since many were either filled up or left in ruins after the battle. He had heard tell of the marauders before him, those who mapped out the castle and those who discovered the map. Relatives of Fred’s, he knew. Bern had no idea how it would have felt to have family who were so known in their world. The Weasley family were like celebrities, everyone knew the name and everyone knew who they were. His own mother had been involved in the battle of Hogwarts, but, the Ravenclaw hadn’t been much of a fighter until she had to be. No one knew Orla Quirke like they knew Fred and George Weasley. “Need an extra pair of eyes?” he offered.

@fred

[Deleted]

Fred chuckled when the other boy asked what sort of secret passage he was searching for. “I didn’t know there was more than one kind of secret passage.” Except for a not-secret one, but then that kind of defeated the purpose of the title of secret passages. Maybe the other boy would give Fred some clarity on what he meant about categorizing the different kinds of passages – not that it would do Fred much good, considering he was about to blow this joint. He was too excited for that, if he was honest. Having the whole world for his pranks, instead of just a castle, would be fantastic, to say the least. The boy asked if he needed an extra pair of eyes, and Fred shrugged. “I never say no to help.” He said with a smile. “Do you know what to look for?” He was going to guess that the other boy was not a passage expert, but maybe the foundations of passage-finding were self-explanatory enough.

@bern

[Deleted]

Fred countered Bern’s innocent comment with a bit of sarcasm and Bern gave a chuckle. He supposed he had walked into that one. “A tunnel? A door? Are we looking for some sort of trigger? Are you looking for something specific or just secret passages in general?” he clarified. Since the boy was looking at the floor previously, Bern could assume that the passage had something to do with the stones on the floor, however, it was also possible that Fred had just dropped something on his way to locate a passageway. Fred agreed to let Bern help and asked if he knew what he was looking for. Since Bern still wasn’t entirely sure what they were trying to locate, the Hufflepuff boy shrugged. “Anything out of the ordinary?” he suggested with a smirk, casting his glance down at the flagstones as well.

@fred

[Deleted]

Jeez, this kid was more specific than Fred could think to be. The Gryffindor scratched at the back of his head, and resisted the urge to shrug, because that would be the least helpful answer possible. “I guess we’re looking for a trigger to open something. I’m not really bothered by what exactly we find.” The whole nature of exploration was that you weren’t entirely sure how it was going to end, and that was one of the things that Fred liked the most about searching the Hogwarts castle. It was so much older than he was, and the people who had designed it were so much more intelligent, that he could never anticipate what was going to be around the next bend. “That’s about it.” Fred said, noting the boy’s smirk at the words. Maybe he thought this was a joke? Well, he was going to find out pretty soon that secret passages were one of the only things that Fred Weasley took seriously.

@bern

[Deleted]

It was no secret that the castle was full of… well… secrets. Secret tricks. Secret rooms. Secret passageways. However, there were a handful of known secrets. Secrets that were passed down from generation to generation: how to get into the kitchens or room of requirement for example. Bernards mother, a once very bright and overachieving witch, enlightened her children with all that she knew about the castle, which, admittingly, wasn’t much. She had been much more focused on her studies than on exploring the place in which she studied. Most of his Hogwarts knowledge had come from older friends, curious Hufflepuffs who stumbled upon these secrets, who knew the trick steps and who knew which paths to travel to avoid the ghosts. Bern wasn’t so bothered by ghosts and trick steps, though, he had a good sense of humor and if he happened to stumble upon one of these jokes, he knew how to get himself out and shrug it off. Embarrassment wasn’t a feeling that the Hufflepuff drummer held onto for long. Bern nodded, anything out of the ordinary it was. With his head cast down he continued to examine the stone, moving slowly and he walked in case the trigger was something as small as a hairline. “I don't think I've ever heard of a passage on this level.” Bern admitted, maybe the boy, being of Weasley decent, and the son of infamous troublemaker, George Weasley, was the keeper of a family secret that brought him to the third floor.

@fred

[Deleted]

The pair of boys was moving through the hallway at a snail’s pace, but Fred didn’t mind that. It was better to be slow and thorough than to be moving too fast and have to do a second pass of the hallway to make sure they had absolutely looked at every inch of it. Bernard disrupted Fred’s search to say that he hadn’t heard of a passage on that level, and the Weasley boy looked up at him, then smiled. “Exactly.” Fred explained. Realizing that wasn’t much of an answer, Fred decided to explain his entire thought process. “There’s a passage on basically every other floor of the castle – why wouldn’t there be one on this floor, too? What makes it so special that there wouldn’t be passages on it?” It didn’t make sense for a castle to be riddled with secret passages, but for there to be not one passage on an entire floor. Fred thought that statistics were on his side for this search.

@bern

[Deleted]

Fred Weasley explained his interest in this level in a way that Bernard had never thought to think. That was true! He had never noticed. Well, he had noticed, of course, that there wasn’t one on this level when there were so many on the rest of them. But that prompted a whole nother set of questions for the Hufflepuff boy. How did these secret passages ways come to be anyway? They couldn’t all have been built into the castle by the founders. How many of them had come from students over the years who had been exceptionally good at charms and spells and too lazy to make the walk from the towers to the ground floor? “Interesting logic.” Bern agreed, his head still hanging down and his eyes not moving from the stone floor. He decided not to bother the man with the rest of his questions, that was something he could think about another time, probably, while he was bored in a class. “I wasn’t sure if anyone had tipped you off, maybe.” Bern explained the reasoning for his asking in the first place.

@fred

[Deleted]

Bern said that his logic was interesting, and Fred laughed. “I’m no Ravenclaw, but I’m related to some, so I think it counts.” Logic wasn’t what Fred liked to do, but he had a bigger brain in his head than most people anticipated due to his antics during class. You needed to know things to be a good businessman and a good inventor, and running a joke shop was a bit of both of those things, so Fred was trying to keep himself sharp. Bern said he didn’t know if someone had tipped Fred off, and he laughed. “You mean my dad?” His reputation as George Weasley’s son preceded him sometimes, not that Fred minded. He liked his dad, and he didn’t mind the Weasley reputation that much. “Nah. He would want me to make my own way in the world, not just ride on his coattails.” Fred minded a bit more when people assumed that he was only doing things because he was a Weasley, and not because he loved it. He wasn’t going to work for his dad because it was expected of him – he just had the same passions, and that was okay.

@bern