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Gwen didn't say anything else and left the room. After making sure that no one was looking, she took out her wand, pointed it to the parchment and muttered the words.
The Gryffindor girl made her way to the fourth floor and closed the map when she arrived at the destination. Gwen stood right in front of a painting with a bunch of drunken men playing with cards.
The group was yelling so Gwen had to clear her throat to gain their attention. The men stopped singing the drinking song and turned to look at her.
"Go fish," Gwen said quietly and the portrait opened. Gwen had to light up her wand for her to see her surroundings. The room was big but it not to the extreme.
Gwen opened up the map again and tried to find out where the three boys were at. She saw them slowly coming her way. Gwen's eyes wandered all across all the map to pass the time.
She saw that Professor Lupin was in the Headmaster's office, so Gwen took it as that he would be able to teach the next day. She put it in her mental agenda to tell Angelina that there will be no need to finish her essay.
Gwen also saw Cedric's name, he was currently alone in the library. Her heart fluttered when she saw his name written down. Gwen shook the feeling. She didn't want to be one of those people whose whole world revolved around a guy.
Her thoughts were cut off when the painting hole opened again. The twins and Lee all entered and gave Gwen a dirty look. "I can tell that you're all are mad but to be fair it's eleven o'clock so it's not that early." They didn't give Gwen any response.
Fred groaned. "Okay, can you at least tell us the reason why you woke us up so we can go back to sleep." Gwen raised an eyebrow at him and quickly turned to look at the map.
"I think we should give the map to Harry," Gwen exclaimed.
"What?"
"NOOO!!"
"What are you insane, woman?"
Gwen had to shush all of them after hearing their very loud statements.
"Just let me explain myself. I'm saying we should give it to him because let's face the truth, he could have more use of it than us. As you know Harry blew up his aunt last summer-" Fred let out a snort which made Gwen give him a look. Fred immediately stopped and looked away from Gwen.
"Anyway, he blew up his aunt which led to his arsehole uncle to deny signing the Hogsmeade permission form. I think we should hand it to him so that he would be able to sneak into the village, with our guidance of course. And truth be told Harry could have had a bigger advantage in the years prior if he had the map with him. When he could have used the map as an aide during the missions he did to save us and the school, we used it to sneak around the castle and prank people instead."
"She's got a point," Lee stated. Gwen turned to look at Lee with shock. She had thought that it would have taken a lot longer than that.
"You can't be serious?" George questioned, he was astonished as well. Lee shrugged.
"Why not? Think of it as passing down our legacy, or more accurately their legacy." Lee said as he pointed towards the four names on the map.
"And we know this castle pretty well if I say so myself, we can survive without it," Lee added and smiled at Gwen who returned the gesture. "Well, I'm in as well," Fred said. "We can't argue with the boss, over here."
Gwen, Fred and Lee all looked at George and patiently waited for his answer. George sighed as he gave in and nodded his head.
"Fine, we'll give it to Harry before the Hogsmeade outing. That would give us an excuse to not buy him an actual present." Gwen punched the air and yelled yes which made all the boys shush her. Gwen quickly apologized.
Gwen took the map in her hands and gave it a look as she started to reminisce.
"I guess this is where we say goodbye, our friend. You have been with us from the beginning and watched as we set off every prank and trap. You aided us through the years but it is now finally the time to say goodbye. Goodbye Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs. You will be missed but you will stay with us in our hearts. I do hope that we have made you proud. RAISE YOUR GLASS TO-"
Gwen was cut off when Fred cleared his throat. He looked at her as if she was crazy.
"What are you doing? Hosting a funeral for a map?" Gwen looked offended. "You ungrateful child! We don't have a lot of time left with it and you dare to interrupt me as I say my goodbyes?!"
George and Lee let out identical gasps. "FOR SHAME!!"
Fred raised his hands in defence. "Sorry, by all means, continue." Gwen turned back to the map.
"RAISE YOUR IMAGINARY GLASS TO THE FOUR OF THEM!!" The four Gryffindors raised their hands and Gwen looked at the map and said 'Mischief Managed'.
"Let's get out of here. If I stay in here any longer with you three wackadoos I'll be turned infected." Fred stated as he opened the portrait and walked out of the small room.
Gwen was the last one to leave the room and was instantly met with the cold air. She didn't know how she couldn't feel it before.
"Oh my Merlin, it's cold!" Gwen exclaimed as she rubbed her arms to create some friction. George took one look at the shivering girl next to him and took off the homemade knitted sweater that Mrs Weasley knitted him for Christmas.
Gwen was going to deny the offer but when she saw her friend wearing two other sweaters underneath she changed her mind.
George was always more sensitive than others to the cold. Gwen put it on over her thinner sweater. "Thanks. Didn't think it was this cold."
"December starts two days from now, of course, it's cold." George quickly replied.
Gwen had to try her best to fix the sweater as it was way too big but she wasn't complaining since George gave it to her with the kindness of his heart.
The giant sweater did not look good on her fashion-wise but at least it had the letter 'G' on it that matched her name.
"You know what I think? We still have two weeks before the Hogsmeade trip so why don't we do one last giant epic prank! A good way to commemorate the map, don't you think so Gwen?" Fred stated as he nudged Gwen in the ribs.
Gwen's face instantly lit up. She hurried in front of them and started to walk backwards to be face to face with them.
"THAT'S A BRILLIANT IDEA! We'll do it the day before the visit and I know that I haven't been able to prank with you as much as the years before but I swear to you that I will spend all of my free time planning this prank. With some assistance of course. This will be amazing, trust MEEE!" Gwen ended up screaming as she accidentally lost her footing and ended up falling backwards in the middle of the corridor.
"Oh, God! Are you okay?" Lee exclaimed as he grabbed Gwen's hand and lifted her. Gwen stretched her arms to try to regain the feeling of her back.
"Everything's good except for an unstable mind and the loss of my dignity but seriously I'm alright," Gwen added when she saw the worried look Fred gave her.
"I'm going to go to the library if you don't mind."
"As long as you're good.." George said. Gwen waved him off and let out a laugh. "You are all making such a big fuss. I've been through worse."
Gwen had to spend another half a minute reassuring her friends that she was fine. When they finally let her be, she made her way towards the library and hoped that Cedric was still there.
Gwen smiled to herself when she saw that he was sitting by himself around one of the library tables with a shitload amount of books surrounding him.
Cedric could sense that someone was looking at him and looked up from his papers. Gwen quickly turned to look at the books on the shelves and hoped that she was discreet.
"Lyn!" Cedric exclaimed which earned him a shush and a nasty look from the librarian. Cedric blushed madly and started apologizing to her.
Gwen couldn't help but smile at the sight and grabbed a random book from the shelf and sat on the empty chair. The other one was occupied with a stack of books.
"Merlin's beard, how many books do you need?" Gwen asked as she eyed the table.
"I'm trying to catch up on the homework that I didn't get to do with all of the Quidditch. How is Harry by the way?" Cedric asked as he self-consciously cleaned the table from books to leave some space.
"He's physically alright, only minor bruising and what not. He does feel guilty for losing but we all reassured him that we don't blame him." Gwen grabbed the book which was lying open to look at the cover, noting that he was currently working on Transfiguration. Cedric groaned and ran a hand through his hair. "I'm sorry."
Gwen raised an eyebrow in confusion. "For what is sorry about exactly?" Cedric puffed. "You know for winning..." Gwen let out a chuckle.
"You're apologizing for winning? Do you know how ridiculous that sounds?" Cedric couldn't help but let out a laugh of his own. "I know, I'm sorry, I know it's weird."
"Yes and also cute," Gwen added which made Cedric's red cheeks redden even more. Gwen quickly glanced behind and saw that the old Librarian was gone.
With the few moments she had until she came back, Gwen grabbed Cedric's chin and pulled him closer to kiss him gently. It wasn't a long kiss but it was a lot less awkward than the one the day before.
Gwen quickly backed away from him. "I want to take you on a date, one without flying spoons." Cedric finally let out after gathering his thoughts. Gwen chuckled as she played with the end of her sweater.
"That sounds great, when?" Cedric bit his lip in thought. "During the Hogsmeade visit, I'll tell you the details another day." Gwen smiled and nodded eagerly.
"Can't wait." As Gwen was going to lean back in, the two were interrupted by a book slamming on the table which made Cedric yelp with surprise. Madame Pince looked at the two as if she wanted to kill them.
"I'm very sorry, we'll be leaving right now if you'll excuse us..." Cedric apologized as he packed his bag real quick and swung it over his shoulder. The duo didn't hear what else the librarian had to say and ran out of the library, laughing and holding each other's hand.
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