Unlike the cubs around them lost in daydreams, George and Fred noticed that the parchment in their hands was different from everyone else's. They exchanged a glance, put their maps away at once, and hurried back to the dorm. After confirming no one else was there, they pulled out the maps Loren had given them. One they knew well—the Marauder's Map they'd lent to Loren, who had promised to return it after finishing his research. They hadn't expected him to crack it so fast. The other map had to be Loren's payment.
The two of them pointed their wands at the new map and murmured together, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
The ordinary-looking parchment suddenly turned blank, and a line of words surfaced: "Enter the new password."
Without hesitation, the twins said, "Long live the Lion King."
At the new password, the map transformed. It was a more complete map than the Marauder's Map, with additional regions marked: the Forbidden Forest and the Black Lake. On it, they could clearly see the distribution of intelligent creatures in the Forest; the Lake was the same—they even found several small merpeople settlements. Within "Hogwarts Castle" itself, a few places missing from the old Marauder's Map now appeared—most notably the Room of Requirement, which flashed with a message: "Something's up. Come now."
George and Fred looked at each other, stowed the maps, and left the dorm, heading straight for the Room of Requirement. Passing through the common room, they found the cubs in a heated debate about how to break into the Headmaster's office and make off with the Sword of Gryffindor. The twins slipped quietly around the edge, drew no attention, and made a quick exit.
Meanwhile, Loren took Hermione directly to the place where the Room of Requirement would appear. With permissions, a door appeared at once. Authority was handy—no need to repeat all those fussy steps. Inside, Loren immediately took out the box that housed his alchemy workshop. After leaving a note outside for George and Fred, he and Hermione ducked in.
Today Loren meant to have the twins whip up a little spectacle to draw the school's eyes away from him; at this rate Hermione wouldn't make it to the library for days. She wasn't new to the workshop. She headed straight to the alchemy room Loren had set aside for her, stocked with alchemical reagents and magical tools—the products of her practice. After checking on Peter Pettigrew and Spiderette, Loren joined Hermione in the room and handed her two packets of notes: the Gender-Swap Ring (Youth Edition) and the Gender-Swap Ring (Castrated Edition). She was to read first; once the twins arrived, he'd teach all three at once—much more efficient.
Before long, George and Fred stepped into the Room of Requirement, but couldn't find Loren—only a box on a pedestal in the center, with a white slip of paper beside it. Fred went first, picked up the note, and read: "Knock three times on the left and three on the right; the box will open. I'm inside waiting for you."
Fred passed the paper to George, then went to open the box.
Sensing it open, Loren waved his hand and the workshop's door swung wide for the twins. They climbed in and discovered a vast space within, with several adjoining rooms visible from the entry. The one they stepped into was an alchemy room, packed with tools of every kind. Most were unfamiliar, but the mechanical beauty of the place dazzled them.
Seeing them, Loren waved them to seats and produced bottles of soda, pouring for both—young people should drink soda together. The twins eyed the dark, bubbling liquid, then each tossed a glass back in one gulp—far bolder than Ron had been. As Loren expected, first-timers who slammed a full glass of carbonated drink promptly sprayed it everywhere. He flicked his hand; the screen in front of himself and Hermione shimmered and the sticky spray vanished. Their glasses refilled. The second time, the twins had learned; they sipped carefully, savoring the fizzy bite.
Only after they'd finished did Loren cut in, interrupting their study of the soda. "How's the Gender-Swap Ring research? When can we start producing?"
George set down his glass. "With your notes, we can already make two versions. But it takes us several hours to finish one. We've managed two or three of each. We wanted to build up stock before selling."
Loren raised an eyebrow. He hadn't heard a word about any rings for sale—he'd assumed they hadn't learned the process yet. "What problems are you running into? Say it, I'll solve them. I need these rings on sale as soon as possible."
The twins immediately understood: Loren wanted to use the Gender-Swap Rings to draw student attention away from him. Since he'd asked, they'd deliver. "Our main trouble is the rune engraving," Fred said. "Most of the time to forge a ring goes into carving the runes. If we can solve that, production speeds up a lot." He handed over every ring they'd made for inspection.
Loren examined the rings. The rune-carving… let's say it left something to be desired. Hand-engraving runes—especially on something as small as a ring—wasn't easy. Runes are power-bearing script—like a computer's CPU, while spells are the programs. Botch the CPU and the program won't run.
"All right. Leave the rune-engraving to me. You two can handle the enchantments, yeah?"
Hearing that Loren would handle the hardest step, they nodded furiously. George added, "If rune engraving's solved, we can make a hundred rings an hour."
Loren picked out one decent sample from each version to use as a master. He opened a panel on a machine, placed the two master rings inside, and shut it. With a wave, alchemical materials flew from shelves into the intake chute. He started the device. Lights pulsed across its housing, the frame gave a gentle thrum, and in moments the materials vanished from the intake while the output tray began spitting out rings with perfectly engraved runes.
In just a short while, more than two hundred rings piled up. The twins rushed over to check—each one bore crisp, flawless runework. This machine was a fusion of tech and magic, built to mass-shape alchemical materials and engrave runes fast. Loren had later found it of limited use to him personally: give it a single master sample and, with enough materials and power, it would churn out endless copies. He rarely needed that many items—hence, the device had sat idle.
Now the twins stared at it like it was edible. With this machine, their prank-gear shop could take shape quickly—and ship in volume.
Catching their burning looks, Loren said, "I know you want to open a prank-gear shop. You can use this machine—on one condition: I'm buying an eighty-percent stake."
He showed them a small box, shrank the machine into it, and handed the box to George. "Thank you, sir!" George said, beaming. Fred chimed in at once, "We'll work through the night on the rings. Tomorrow we'll make sure every student at Hogwarts can buy one."
Loren was very satisfied. Once the Gender-Swap Rings hit the shelves, the crowd would stop staring at him and Hermione. The twins packed the box and turned to go—when Hermione, who'd been reading in silence, suddenly spoke. The two stopped at the door, then hurried back. Fred, impatient by nature, blurted, "Hermione, what problem did you find?"
Hermione drew a long breath and answered.
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