At Hogwarts, it is widely known that there are several places that no student ever wishes to be, under any circumstances. First of these was the Dungeon. Other than Slytherins, the students only ventured down there for their Potions classes, and then only because they were too terrified of incurring Snape’s wrath to do otherwise. Another was the Black Lake; the legends about the giant squid might not have been completely true, but no one cared to act as a test run to find out. Finally, the place that students at Hogwarts absolutely detested being was Filch’s Office. This wasn’t because of Filch himself, as a pair of dedicated first year Hufflepuffs could take him down if they tried hard enough, but rather because if you were in Filch’s Office, it was a sure bet that you would soon be in detention. It was said that there had been a student, many years ago, who had escaped Filch’s Office without a detention, but it was generally regarded as myth.

At any rate, Fred and George Weasley were currently in this most hated of places, and they were no happier about it than the next student. The two first years were sitting side by side in front of Filch’s desk, as he had gone off to find something or other. They weren’t exactly sure what he was looking for, since neither twin had been listening when the caretaker had said why he was leaving. They knew that it was no good to try to leave, since Mrs. Norris was guarding the door, and she would be able to alert Filch if they tried to get out, even though no one was exactly clear on how she managed that.

The twins were in the dreaded office because they had conspired with Peeves to set off a pair of dungbombs over Snape’s office. When they had first arrived at Hogwarts, and met Peeves, the twins knew that they had found an ally. The poltergeist enjoyed noise, mess, and thoroughly aggravating students and staff members alike. However, there were serious limitations what Peeves could do. Besides, neither Fred nor George had any intention of letting the poltergeist have all the fun, no matter how much they liked working with him.

“So,” Fred said, tapping his wand idly on the chair, “What do you think it’ll be? Clipping the Ticklish Turnips down in the greenhouse? Lines? Polishing in the trophy room? Snape?”

George grimaced at that last option. “I bloody hope it isn’t Snape,” he muttered. “He hates all Gryffindors, and hates us even more. Who knew he would be so touchy about some harmless dungbombs?”

Fred nodded in agreement, and then rose from the chair and began to look around the office.

“What are you doing?” George asked.

Fred shrugged. “Just taking a bit of a look around. Never know where you’ll find something useful.”

George got up and joined him. The office was small, and the main object in the room was a large wooden desk right in the center. The twins glanced at each other, grinned simultaneously, and then Fred opened up the top drawer of the desk, while George shuffled through the paper on the desk.

“What do you reckon’ll happen if Filch comes back?” George asked, flipping over a confiscated charm bracelet.

“Well, hopefully we won’t have to find o- this is strange..” Fred stopped mis-sentence, and stared at what he had found in the bottom drawer.

“Lemme see!” George exclaimed. He went over to where Fred was standing, and saw him holding a blank piece of parchment. “What’s so strange about that?” he asked.

“Well,” Fred said slowly, “it was in the middle of all these other confiscated items. You know, love letters, recipes of forbidden potions, that kind of thing. I don’t think that Filch would have taken an ordinary bit of parchment.”

George took the parchment and turned it over in his hands. “Well, there might be something written on it, but it may just be invisible for some reason. Maybe there’s some spell…” he drifted off. “Quick,” George hissed, “straighten this up! Someone’s coming!”

Fred paled slightly, tossed everything back into the drawer, and hurried to sit down in his seat beside George. A few seconds later, Filch barged through the door.

Ten minutes later, the twins left the office, both with a detention the next Saturday with Professor Sprout. When they were a safe distance from the office, Fred pulled the parchment from his pocket.

“You still have that thing?” George asked, incredulous.

“You didn’t think I would just leave it there, did you? Do you have much homework tonight?”

George shook his head.

“Good. Because tonight, we have a job to do. We have to find out how to read whatever is on this parchment. Are you up for it?”

George grinned. “Ready if you are!”