If Flynn had to choose a favourite day, out of all the days of the week, it would’ve been Thursday and the reason for this was simple. Thursday was when he had a double period for Defense Against the Dark Arts, and while most people would’ve probably thought him insane for thinking that was a reason to be anything other than miserable to be blinded by the shine of Lockhart’s teeth for an hour and a half straight, Flynn couldn’t help but be grateful for the man.
Though a smarter professor might’ve inspected the note from his Head of House excusing him from class for pre-existing responsibilities a little closer, Lockhart was content to simply glance in its direction each time Flynn walked into class and presented it to him, never questioning why the note looked identical each time.
At times, Flynn genuinely wondered if the man was simply illiterate and too ashamed to admit it.
Regardless, Flynn wouldn’t question it, since it gave him several hours of free time throughout the week to do whatever he pleased with it.
Oftentimes, Flynn would use the free period to study or practise on his own, but on Thursdays, Flynn would occasionally choose to spend the time exploring the castle instead, taking advantage of the otherwise rare moments to roam the empty castle without having to deal with teachers or other students.
Flynn didn’t like to think of it as roaming, not wanting to think that he was dedicating his time to something so pointless. He was trying to map out the castle in his mind, and though he was slowly coming to acknowledge that it was an impossible endeavor, not expecting to understand the ever-changing building within the seven years that he would be school there, it wasn’t a waste of time to get more familiar with it, hoping that he would begin to gain a better understand the castle the more he explored if, even if it was just instinctual.
It was on one of these Thursdays that Flynn found himself walking through an empty hallway on a floor that was either the sixth or the fourth, depending on how the castle felt like at the moment, when he heard the sound of approaching footsteps.
Instinct told him to hide away from the unknown threat, but before he could reach the nearest doorway, a pair of students turned the corner ahead of him.
Flynn frowned, glancing at the two students for long enough to decide that he had never seen them before, and continued to walk forwards instead of hiding away, now that they could see him. While it was rare, it wasn’t completely uncommon for him to come across the odd student on his walks, even in the most remote hallways of Hogwarts. The castle did have a tendency to twist and turn, and even a short walk to the bathroom could turn into a larger journey than they expected.
But when the two students stopped in their tracks, Flynn couldn’t help but stop in turn. Glaring up at them, he frowned when he saw a pair of identical grins staring at him from down the hall, far enough that if he wanted to talk to them, he would have to shout.
Gripping his wand in the pocket of his robes, he tried to figure out what they could possibly want, but they spoke before he could even try.
“Ho, fellow redhead,” the left one said. He didn’t shout, but his voice was still loud enough that Flynn could hear him clearly.
“Fancy meeting you in these hallowed halls,” the right one continued. “Shouldn’t you be in class?”
Flynn narrowed his eyes. While his first instinct might have been to assume that he’d stumbled upon a pair of prefects, but even if it weren’t for the sarcastic way that Righty asked the question, he knew that there was always one male and one female prefect for each year.
Though he had never seen them before, Flynn immediately had to assume these were the notorious twin pranksters of Hogwarts. He’d never been caught up in any of their pranks before, not ever being near enough to a crowd that he would be affected by the general mayhem they liked to cause, and he hadn’t expected to ever run into them during his stay at Hogwarts unless he gave them a reason to single him out for one of their pranks.
Which he apparently had, if the way that they blocked the hallway in front of him was any indication.
While the thought of simply turning around and walking away appealed to him, he could only assume that if they approached him once, they would do it again if needed. At least now, they were standing where he could clearly see them.
When he pulled out his wand from his robes, he drew a little satisfaction from the way that both twins flinched back a bit, but they were quick to recover, both shaking their heads in the same disappointed way.
“Tut tut tut. That’s a dangerous thing you're waving around there, mate,” Lefty said. “Could poke someone’s eye out.”
“We’re just here to talk,” Righty said. “No need for any of that, y’hear?”
“Just a little bit of friendly conversation,” Lefty agreed. “You don’t see us whipping out our wands, do ya?”
“So let’s keep it in our pants, why don’t we, firecracker?” Righty said, with an almost silent snicker. “Don’t want to go off for no reason now.”
“Right,” Lefty said. “What about a nice chat, little Salamander?”
“Salamander?” Righty asked, his grin dropping slightly as he turned to his brother in confusion, temporarily seeming to forget about Flynn. “What’s that about, now?”
“A salamander,” Lefty repeated, though with a little less confidence this time at his brother’s reaction. “Y’know? Cause he’s a snake, but he’s got red hair?”
“What?” Righty asked, apparently just as confused as Flynn was.
“Red hair,” Lefty repeated. “Like fire. And salamanders are reptiles, just like snakes, but the Ancient Greeks thought they lived in fire.”
Righty blinked a few times, before recoiling away from his brother in something akin to disgust. “Who are you?” he asked. “Did you accidentally use Percy’s toothbrush by mistake, or something?”
Lefty instantly recoiled at the suggestion and quickly wiped his hands against his tongue, as if he had eaten something bad and was trying to get the taste of it off.
Flynn seriously considered just turning around and leaving, but before he could make a decision on whether it would be worth it, Righty shook his head and turned back to him.
“Pardon my brother,” he said. “As the inferior twin, it seems like he’s taking to puberty a little worse than I am.”
“Careful there, George,” Lefty said. “I know too many of your secrets for you to be spilling slander so liberally like that.”
“Fair point, Fred,” Righty said. “Fair point.”
Flynn was starting to feel a little foolish for taking the two so seriously, when they didn’t seem to offer the same reaction to him. With their wands nowhere to be seen, Flynn wondered if they were confident or stupid, though he supposed that they were still at a distance where they would probably be able to react to any spell he casted in their direction before it hit them.
The same could be said for him, but Flynn refused to put his wand away regardless.
“What do you want?” Flynn asked, too tired of the twins’ byplay to wait for them to finish on their own.
Righty blinked at him in confusion, as if he had no idea what he was talking about, before his eyes widened in realisation and he coughed into his hand as if to clear it.
“Sorry about that,” he said. “We’ve been quite rude to you. Kept you waiting, haven’t we?”
“We sure have, George,” Lefty said. “Well why don’t we get to the point, then?”
Flynn grumbled an agreement that he was sure they wouldn’t be able to hear from so far away.
“Glad you agree, old chum,” Righty said, regardless. “Y’see if you haven’t heard of us, we’re the Weasley twins. Pranksters, truants, most handsome blokes in all of Hogwarts. Besides Filch, of course.”
“Quite famous, we are,” Lefty said, nodding along. “Now you might be thinking why celebrities such as ourselves are approaching you, little Salamander.”
“Sticking with that, are we?” Righty asked.
“And just to be clear, this isn’t a recruitment pitch,” Lefty said, ignoring his brother’s question entirely. “But we’ve been somewhat interested in you for a bit now, even before you broke that poor Slytherin boy’s arm in that dastardly duelling debacle. Call it a professional curiosity, but we’ve been wondering how you’ve managed to pull off a few things that even we’ve had trouble with.”
“Such as skipping Lockhart’s class for an entire year, without so much a hint of detention,” Righty said, finally recovering from his brother’s nickname for you. “And managing to get Peeves to like you.”
“Mind you, we’ve managed to do the Peeves thing too,” Lefty chimed in. “But we’ve been here for two years longer than you have, believe it or not, and we’ve only just managed to reach a mutual agreement with him earlier this year.”
Flynn narrowed his eyes at the duo, but they didn't seem cowed in the slightest, their grins completely unaffected even if they stole occasional glances at his raised wand.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Flynn said.
“Oh, come on,” Righty said. “Help a pair of fellow redheads out, why don’t you? It’s not like we’re interested in busting you.”
“Just pure curiosity, really,” Lefty said. “You don’t even have to worry about us using your methods for ourselves. As we’ve said, we’ve already made an agreement with Peeves, and we love Lockhart’s class. We’re some of his favourite students, you see.”
“Really, it’s everyone else’s fault for not realising how much of a genius he is. Not that he’ll ever think otherwise when we’re around, or he might stop letting us use his name to order more Zonko supplies.”
“Such a good educator, looking out for the students. Really, why are fanged frisbees banned in Hogwarts when they’re so good for helping the young folk building character?”
“Lockhart gets it,” Righty said. “Or he would if he could read. Our running theory’s that he’s too embarrassed to admit he can’t.”
“Not that it diminishes his greatness, of course,” Lefty said.
“Wouldn’t dare to dream of suggesting it,” Righty agreed, with a serious nod.
“So, how about it?” Lefty asked. “Care to share with the rest of the class, Salamander?”
Righty stared at Lefty again, and though Flynn couldn’t make out exactly what he said to the other from so far away, they were both bad enough at whispering for Flynn to make out enough details of their conversation to figure out that they were arguing about whether Lefty’s nickname for him was a good one or not.
Though he couldn’t care less about what they called him, it did give him a moment to think about what they were asking.
He supposed the questions were innocent enough, at least on the surface. Even if he wasn’t sure if the twins were just curious, or had a more nefarious purpose behind their questioning, he had already used Snape’s note with Lockhart for long enough that he thought it might be risky to use it for much longer, and the issue with Hogwarts’ poltergeist? Well, he wasn’t really sure if he could give an answer to the question, since this was the first time he’d ever heard of Peeves having an opinion on him.
Still, it wasn’t like he would give them the answers for free.
“What do I get in return?” Flynn asked.
The twins paused, and turned to him.
“Pardon?” Righty asked. “Sorry, I was a bit distracted by this embarrassment.”
“Glass houses, dear brother,” Lefty said, shaking his head. “Glass houses.”
“What do I get in return?” Flynn asked, before Righty could respond and start another string of banter that Flynn was already getting tired of. “You want something from me? What do you have to offer?”
The twins stared at him, and glanced at each other before bursting out into laughter.
“You hear that, George?” Righty asked. “We’ve got ourselves a businessman here.”
“Ah, yes,” Lefty said, with a chuckle. “A negotiator. Well, if you want something in return, it’ll depend on what you’re asking for, Salad Man.”
Flynn frowned, not having decided what exactly he could ask for in return and if he was being honest with himself, it was difficult to think of anything worthwhile. He didn’t barely knew anything about these two idiots and he didn’t particularly care about them either. Quite frankly, he would be glad if he never came across them for the rest of his stay in Hogwarts. At first he was tempted to request that of them, to simply leave him alone, but he didn’t want to risk coming off as being afraid of them in any way.
Still, he had to think of something he wanted from them.
“Information,” Flynn said.
“Information?” Righty asked. “Like a book?”
“Another redhead falling to the curse of the Percys,” Lefty said, shaking his head. “A right shame.”
“How about a book on the Ancient Greeks?” Righty suggested. “Surely Gred has got a few in his library that he’s already memorised.”
“Oh, piss off, Forge,” Lefty said.
“Not a book,” Flynn said, trying not to get distracted by the banter. “I want information that only you know that’ll be useful to me.”
Immediately, both of the twins stopped speaking, glancing at each other before turning back to him.
“Information that only we know, huh?” Righty said, making it obvious to Flynn that he had something in mind.
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“You wanted information that only I know,” Flynn said. “I’m just asking for the same thing.”
“The slimy lizard makes a fair point,” Lefty said. “What do you say, Fred?”
“I’d say it’s agreeable enough, Fred,” Righty said. “How about the old basic? Honeydukes?”
“Sounds good to me,” Lefty said. “So what’ll it be, Salamander? You give us half upfront, then we give you ours?”
Flynn considered the offer, and though a part of him protested at the idea of offering two pieces of information up to the twins for one from them, he was just doing this for show in the first place. He didn’t actually care about what they had to offer, and it wasn’t worth pushing them for an equal trade when he doubted that they would be happy to find out that he didn’t even have a proper answer for their second question.
“Deal,” Flynn said. “I’m able to skip Lockhart’s classes because Snape gave me a note saying I could.”
Both twins’ eyebrows shot up at the same time.
“The old fake note trick, eh?” Righty asked. “Reliable in a pinch, but it does have its drawbacks. How are you managing not to get caught?”
“Maybe it’s only because it’s Lockhart,” Lefty suggested. “Doesn’t work long-term on most of the teachers, since they’ll eventually figure out that you’re using their name to skip class, but I suppose Lockhart might not care enough about anyone but himself to ask.”
“Pretty ballsy to use Snape’s name though,” Righty said, with a hint of admiration in his voice. “We don’t do it often ourselves, but when we do, we usually use Sprout. She’s a sweetheart. Too good for this school, really.”
“You’ll be stuck washing cauldrons for a century if Snape figures you out,” Lefty said solemnly. “I know he’s a lot more chummy with you snakes, but I’d still suggest using Sprout unless…”
Righty’s smile faltered as he glanced back at his brother, whose expression turned into one of shock.
“Unless what, George?” Righty asked.
“Unless,” Lefty said, pausing as if afraid to continue. “Unless the note’s not fake?”
Righty’s eyes widened, and he turned to stare at Flynn.
“It’s not,” Flynn said.
Immediately, Righty and Lefty hunched over, placing their hands on their knees to support themselves as they made wild retching noises that echoed in the hallway.
“He really is a Percy!” Righty moaned dramatically. “A teacher’s pet!”
“Snape’s teacher’s pet!” Lefty added. “I don’t know whether to be terrified or disgusted. Probably both.”
“We made a deal with a Percy!”
“A sneaky Percy, tricking us with his class skipping to make him think he’s one of us. Wait. He’s still skipping class. Is he really a Percy?”
“You make a fair point. Though by no means can I condone getting chummy with a teacher.”
“We can count it as neutral. Just like how he goes into the Forbidden Forest, but only because he’s allowed.”
They both sighed, shaking their heads with an identical rhythm.
“You’re on thin ice, fake-Weasley,” Righty said. “We’ve come to the decision that you’re still neutral, but be careful. That just means a single misstep can make you a Percy.”
“Or a proper step, in this case,” Lefty said.
“Oh, of course. My mistake,” Righty said. “Well, at the very least, you still have the chance to redeem yourself by telling us how you got so chummy with Peeves.”
Flynn’s eyes narrowed.
“I gave you half upfront,” he said.
“Ah, so you did,” Lefty said, with a grin, unashamed by their lazy attempt at trickery.
“Got a little prefect on our hands, don’t we?” Right said, shaking his head in disappointment. “Enforcing the rules, and such.”
“And such,” Lefty agreed. “Come on, then. We don’t have much time before the period ends.”
When they started to walk away, Flynn’s eyes narrowed and he pointed his wand at their backs. Though he didn’t particularly care about what information they had for him, he didn’t want to let them walk away with the false impression that they could just go back on a deal with him without consequences.
“Where are you going?” Flynn growled.
“To fulfill our end of the deal,” Righty said, turning around and quirking an eyebrow up in amusement at the sight of his raised wand. “What? Did you think my brother was talking to me?”
“It’s better to show you than to tell,” Lefty said, not even turning around as he continued to walk away. “And we won’t be able to show you when the period ends, unless we want to advertise it to the entire school.”
“And we’ve wasted enough time already, listening to you chatter on,” Righty said. “Anybody tell you you talk too much?”
Flynn growled in response, but followed them without another word.
While he kept a fair distance between him and the twins, making sure he was never too far from a room or a corridor he could run down in case they were leading him into an ambush, the route they were taking was innocuous enough, leading to the more central parts of Hogwarts that would’ve otherwise been filled with students if it weren’t for the ongoing classes.
Though a small part of him couldn’t help but be cautious when he realised they were leading him towards the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, the class that he was skipping, they made a slight turn down a hallway that led back to the main foyer until they stopped in front of a statue of a one-eyed witch.
“Isn’t she a beauty?” Righty asked
“That she is,” Lefty asked. “Sometimes I dream about her at night.”
“Every night,” Righty replied. “You should be grateful that we stopped sharing a bed years ago. Sometimes the dreams get a little too much.”
“Oi! That’s my future wife you’re talking about,” Lefty hissed.
“Just because she’ll have your last name, doesn’t mean she’ll be yours,” Righty hissed back.
“Is this all you two idiots had to show me?” Flynn asked, before Lefty could reply.
“Huh. That amount of casual disrespect has got to be worth at least two anti-Percy points,” Righty mused.
“Percy calls us idiots all the time too,” Lefty said.
“Right,” Righty said. “Back to zero you go.”
Flynn turned around and started to walk down the hall.
“Woah, woah!” the twins both said, jogging up to Flynn and grabbing his shoulders, turning him back around. “Fine, fine. We get it.”
Though Flynn wanted to use the wand that was still in his hand to blast them away the moment they had touched him, he somehow felt that he would somehow be letting them win if he let them know they were successfully managing to annoy him. Silently fuming, he let himself be led back to the statue of the witch.
“Pardon us for having joy in our lives,” Lefty said, with a roll of his eyes before he let go of Flynn’s shoulder and stepped in front of the statue.
Flynn almost flinched when he pulled out his wand, but Lefty had his back turned towards him and no tension in his body that made it look like he was looking for a fight. Flynn gripped his wand tight anyways as he watched Lefty tap the stone mound that the witch stood on.
“Dissendium,” Lefty said.
Flynn watched as immediately, the stone quietly split open in two perfect halves, revealing a dark cavern within it.
“Geez, show a little reaction, won’t you?” Righty said as he stepped forward to join his brother and spread his arms out like a showman. “We present to you: The Hole!”
“The witch’s glorious hole,” Lefty said, patting the witch’s head fondly. “Been sliding in and out of this old girl for years now. She’s served us well, and now she’ll service you.”
“The hole leads to Honeydukes,” Righty said. “You’ll be able to go to Hogsmeade on the weekends once you hit your third year, but if you want to get a bit of a headstart, or if you just want to go on the weekdays, this hole will do you good.”
“Just be careful about how long you spend there,” Lefty said. “She closes up after a while, and if you don’t have anyone on this side to let you back, you won’t be able to come back to Hogwarts unless you’ve got some sort of alternative method. We usually ask our friend to keep an eye on it if we ever go on a snack run.”
“So? What do you think? Impressive? Cream in your pants-worthy?” Righty asked.
“Canary creams are Fred’s favourite, you see,” Lefty said, with a shake of his head. “I keep telling him that there are other things to buy, but every time we go, he comes back with his pockets full of them.”
“I do love creaming my pants,” Righty said, with a serious nod. “It’s an addiction at this point. You think you’ll come to love creaming your pants too, or what?”
The twins both gave Flynn a very unsubtle sideways glance, failing to hide the snickers that threatened to bubble up from behind their lips. He didn’t know if they expected him to say that he wanted to jizz in his own pants, or if they didn’t think that he understood what they were talking about and were just laughing at their unsubtle inside joke, but in a moment of insanity, he considered playing along with them at the slowly growing realisation that for the first time in two years, he’d met someone who actually seemed to understand how the castle worked and could teach him about it.
But the moment passed and he scowled at the duo.
“The fuck is a Honeydukes?” Flynn asked.
Rather than being disappointed, the twins’ faces lit up in excitement.
“Ooh, we’ve got a potty mouth, Freddie,” Righty said.
“We already knew that, Georgie,” Lefty said, though he still seemed pleased. “We always check out the House Points board for anyone who shows promise as troublemakers, you see. We like to keep an eye out for anyone who might threaten our position at the top.”
“But we thought it would be some tamer stuff than that, given how the teachers almost always give you points for doing well in class right after they take them away,” Righty said, leaning forward. “Tell me, snakey. Do you really swear in front of McGonagall? Snape?”
“Yeah,” Flynn grunted, seeing no point in lying.
The twins’ mouths split open in identical grins.
“We like you,” they said simultaneously.
Flynn scowled to let them know exactly how much he cared. Unfortunately, that only made them smile wider.
“Well, to answer your question, Flintstone,” Righty said, before frowning. “That’s a mouthful. Mind if I call you, Flint?”
“Don’t do that to the poor boy,” Lefty said, scowling at his brother.
“Oh, right. Forgot there was another one of those out there,” Righty said, shaking his head. “Almost thought the world was a brighter place for a moment. Well, in that case, how about ‘Flynn’?”
“Still too similar,” Lefty said. “How about we give him a suave nickname?”
“Like Salamander?” Righty asked, shooting a flat look towards his brother.
“Why, that’s a wonderful name, oh brother mine,” Lefty said, with a serious nod. “A spark of genius must have inspired you to think of that one.”
“Salamander’s even more of a mouthful than his real name,” Righty said.
“Well, I’d say he deserves the effort,” Lefty said, crossing his arms with a huff.
“Suit yourself,” Righty said before turning back to Flynn. “I’m calling you Flynn. That alright with you?”
Flynn grunted, doubting that his opinion would matter either way.
“Perfect,” Righty said. “Anyways, my dear Flynn. My apologies. It’s sometimes easy to forget, with your stature, that you’re just a second year. Anyways, Honeydukes is a wonderful sweets shop down in Hogsmeade, a nice wizarding village close to Hogwarts. You’ll be allowed to go there on the weekends once you’re a third year.”
“Or during the weekdays, if you’ve got some insider knowledge,” Lefty said, with a wink. “And since Hogwarts students aren’t even allowed out of the castle on the weekdays, most of the folks down there’ll just assume you’re of age, if you’re looking to buy some firewhiskey.”
“We partake on occasion,” Righty said. “But the real perks are in selling our services to the older years who want to forget it’s their NEWT year.”
“A free tip, since we won’t ever compete for clientele,” Lefty said. “Not like a snake would ever trust anything we’d sell them.”
“Frankly, I’m a little shocked that our own housemates do,” Righty admitted. “Ashamed of it even. Maybe we need to spike one of them, just to keep them on their toes.”
“Something to consider for later,” Lefty said. “So, Salamander. Does that answer your question?”
Flynn eyed them warily, not wanting his reaction to show on his face. He didn’t trust them enough to blindly assume that they were telling the truth, but even the possibility that they had told him about an actual secret passageway was something that he had to seriously consider. Even if he never ended up using this one in particular, the fact that they had dropped this piece of information so casually, along with the fact that they had described it as one of their “basic” secrets that they had, made Flynn think that they knew much more about the castle than they were letting on.
“Sure,” Flynn said, not admitting to them that the secret passageway was useless to him, since it required having someone he trusted to let him back into the castle on his return.
“And that fulfills our end of the deal,” Righty said, clapping his hands together, as if dusting them off. “Now, for you to fulfill yours.”
“Why does Peeves like you?” Lefty asked.
Flynn grimaced at the reminder. While he hadn’t cared about giving them a satisfying answer at first, that was before he’d thought that the twins would give him anything substantial in return.
“I’m not sure you’ll like the answer,” Flynn admitted.
Unfortunately, it seemed to have the opposite effect, as the twins’ eyes widened and their already smiling mouths widened even further.
“Oh, don’t you worry about that, Flynnie,” Righty said. “We won’t get angry. Promise.”
“Whatever it is that you’ve done, we’ve probably done worse,” Lefty added. “Or if we haven’t, we’ll do our best to fix that.”
That wasn’t what he had meant and Flynn’s grimace only grew as the twins looked at him expectantly.
“I don’t know why Peeves likes me,” Flynn admitted.
The smiles immediately turned crooked, as the two twins glanced at each other, and then back at him.
“You’re joking, right?” Lefty asked.
Flynn shook his head.
“Never even talked to him before,” he admitted.
“Never?” Righty asked, though he seemed more curious than skeptical.
Flynn shrugged, not thinking the question deserved a response.
The twins looked at each other once more.
“Well, George,” Righty said. “It seems like we’ve been right swindled.”
“It does seem that way, Fred,” Lefty said solemnly. “For shame, Salamander. I had more faith in you.”
“We were on the edges of our metaphorical seats,” Righty added. “Just to have them ripped away. I’d respect it if I weren’t so blindingly furious.”
“Oh absolutely,” Lefty said. “Our trust betrayed, unmendable by even the most powerful of magicks. Unless our little slimy friend has something else to offer?”
Flynn glared at the smiling faces of the twins, who in no way seemed offended despite their words.
In response to their smirks, he gave them a scowl.
“Sure,” Flynn said. “I’ll give you a tip. If you want to get away with causing trouble, just work hard in class.”
The smiles dropped from the twins’ faces almost immediately, and Flynn’s lips curled back in satisfaction at the sight.
“Yeah,” he continued. “As long as you study hard, hand in your work on time, and act like a good student, you’ll get away with a lot of things. Make sure to go to their office to ask for help outside of class too.”
“Stop,” Righty said, with a shudder. “We get it.”
“Maybe you are a Percy,” Lefty said, grabbing his shoulders as if he was protecting himself from a sudden chill. “How could you say such vile things?”
Flynn scowled at them once more, not caring anymore about building a potential relationship with the two. Even if they did know more secrets about Hogwarts, he wouldn’t bend over backwards for anyone.
“Don’t ask me for free shit and complain about it,” Flynn said. “I promised you an answer, and I fucking gave you one. Just because you fucking idiots expected something more, doesn’t mean it’s my fault for not giving you one. I told you all I know. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve fulfilled my end of the deal. If you want to figure out why Peeves likes me, fucking ask him yourself.”
The twins stared at Flynn for a moment, before their grins returned simultaneously.
“Aww, don't get so riled up, Flynnie,” Righty said. “We were only joking.”
“What’s a little scam attempt between friends, right?” Lefty asked.
“We’re not friends,” Flynn growled.
“Oh don’t be so coy,” Lefty said, shaking his head. “We know you like us.”
Flynn glared at him, though he didn’t bother to respond to the claim, not even wanting to acknowledge it.
“Though, even if it was a little difficult to listen to you, with how whiny your voice was, you did make a fair point,” Righty said. “Why didn’t we ask Peeves?”
“Because, my dear brother,” Lefty said, clapping his brother on the shoulder fondly. “As a wise man once said, we’re both fucking idiots.”
“Ah,” Righty said solemnly. “How true.”
Flynn glared at them, mentally calculating the consequences of blasting them with the wand still gripped in his hand, before the murmur of students started to echo down the hallway.
“Welp,” Lefty said, pulling out his wand and tapping the stone statue twice, closing the secret passageway beneath it. “I suppose that’s enough of our time today.”
“See you around, Flynnie,” Righty said, waving backwards as he walked down the hall. “Got to get to our next class early. Real eager to see if your advice works or not. You think it’s too late to try and rewrite four years of bad rep?”
“We might as well give it a try,” Lefty said, his voice trailing away as he jogged after his brother. “It could be fun to act like model students for a few days. I can imagine it would make a few people nervous.”
“Oh, the classic no-prank prank,” Righty said. “Psychological.”
“We’ve been too spoiled this year with Lockhart anyways,” Lefty said. “We shouldn’t become too reliant on having props all the time.”
“Right you are.”
As the duo walked away, practically forgetting about Flynn as they discussed the possible reasons why Lockhart would get fired by the next year, Flynn watched them go until they turned down a hallway and disappeared.
Glancing at the statue beside him, he raised his wand in consideration for a moment before he heard the voices of the students just finishing up with class getting louder as they approached in his direction.
Putting his wand away, he walked away from the crowd.