At midnight, everyone in the dormitory went to bed.
Fred quietly pulled back the covers, got out of bed, walked to George's bedside, and gently nudged him twice, making a shushing gesture.
George slowly got up, put his robes back on, picked up his wand, and tiptoed out of the room, while Fred quietly closed the door behind him.
The two walked up the spiral staircase and entered the Gryffindor common room.
The lounge was empty, and the fire in the fireplace had died down. The two didn't leave immediately, but instead found an armchair and sat down.
Fred pulled the old parchment from the pocket of his robe and tapped it lightly with his wand. "I solemnly swear that I have done nothing wrong."
"Me too," George muttered beside him, immediately bringing his lit wand closer to illuminate Fred's Marauder's Map.
After the castle map was drawn up, Fred spread the Marauder's Map on the table, and the two began to look for Filch's name. The annoying caretaker was resting in a bedroom next to the caretaker's office on the first floor, while his cat, Lady Lorris, was patrolling on the fifth floor.
Peeves, the mischievous one, was in the History of Magic classroom on the second floor, while Dumbledore was pacing back and forth in the headmaster's office.
"Where's Percy?" George asked in a low voice.
Fred pointed to Percy's dorm room and said, "Sleeping."
"Okay, let's begin our night tour!" Fred and George high-fived each other, put away the Marauder's Map, and prepared to set off.
However, as soon as the two climbed through the portrait passage, they were spotted by the fat lady: "Where are you planning to go at this hour?"
"A night stroll, madam," Fred grinned.
The plump lady was also taken aback, never expecting that someone would talk about night tours so confidently.
"Hurry up!" George, who was behind him, gave Fred a push, and the two quickly disappeared around the corner of the corridor.
Standing in the dark and silent corridor, the Weasley twins began to get excited. With the Marauder's Map in hand, the entire Hogwarts Castle would be completely open to them.
As for Filch, they'll never catch them.
"Albert will definitely regret not coming with us on this nighttime stroll," Fred said to George with amusement after confirming Filch's location again.
"I think Albert might not come on our night tour until he learns the Disillusionment Charm," George said, his voice brimming with barely concealed excitement. "However, this is our first time using the Marauder's Map, so using it alone is quite nice."
In fact, the twins were not very willing to share the secrets of Marauder's Map with too many people.
"Once we figure out all the secret passages in the castle, we'll definitely give them a real scare," Fred said smugly.
During the day, there are some secret passages they cannot openly attempt, but at night, with no one in the castle, there is no need to worry too much, making this a good opportunity.
Fred took the Marauder's Map and went to the front. The corridor was pitch black and eerie. With each turn, he felt his heart pounding.
This is an exciting feeling!
"Stop!" Fred quickly extinguished his wand and made a shushing gesture to George behind him.
"What's wrong."
"It was Nick who almost lost his head."
After about thirty seconds, Fred, under George's cover, relit his wand and checked on the location of Nick, who was almost headless.
"They're already far away!" Fred said.
The two tiptoed down the stairs and stopped in front of a statue of a knight in armor on the seventh floor.
On the Marauder's Map, an ink dot marked "Fred" is tapping the knight's helmet visor with a wand, and a spell appears next to it: "Mouth to Door".
The two looked at each other, speechless.
"I'll try, to turn a mouth into a door." After George turned off the light, he picked up his wand and tapped the helmet visor of the stone knight's armor.
The knight's helmet statue suddenly bent down, and his open mask suddenly opened and continued to expand, like a person bending over and opening his mouth wide enough for a slightly thin person to enter.
Fred glanced at the Marauder's map, and after confirming that no one was around, he quickly went inside, with George following closely behind.
This was a narrow, secret passage, the ground covered in dust and cobwebs.
"I dare say no one has walked this road in a long time." Fred used his wand to push aside the spider webs in front of him and made his way forward with difficulty. The road went down and there was a door at the exit, a stone door. When Fred and George were about to pass through, they found themselves blocked by a wooden door.
"Where is this?" George asked.
"Fourth floor, I remember where this is. Some doors, once opened, lead to another stone door that can't be opened."
"I dare say this is a one-way passage," George said, pushing the stone door open.
Some of the doors at Hogwarts aren't real doors at all; they're just sturdy walls that look like doors. Now it seems these are indeed doors, and even doors to secret passages. However, you can only pass through the other side of the door, not enter directly from this side.
George carefully left the wooden door slightly ajar, and just as he raised his wand, a complaining voice came from the portrait beside him, which was dressed in a sleepy outfit and wearing a nightcap.
"Watch out, kid, we're going to sleep."
"Oh, sorry!" George immediately lowered his wand and said to Fred, "Let's get out of here first."
"This way, I know there's another secret passage here!" Fred led the way quickly, and they stopped by a vase on the corner of the third floor.
George stepped forward and tapped the vase twice with his wand. "Turn left, turn right."
A slight scraping sound came from the vase, and a black dot suddenly appeared in a landscape painting hanging on the wall next to it. The black dot gradually enlarged, and soon a door appeared. George stepped forward, reached out and grabbed the doorknob, and gently pushed it open, revealing the entrance hidden behind it.
Once the two entered, they discovered that it was actually a secret passage leading outside the castle, with the exit located on the mountain path leading to the shipyard. The entrance was hidden by weeds, and more importantly, no one could clearly see that there was a secret passage.
After the twins came out, the mountain wall at the entrance gradually returned to its original state.
"Who would have thought there was another entrance here?" Fred reached out and tapped the rock on the mountain wall. It was hard and unyielding. He couldn't believe there was a door here.
"How are we supposed to get in? Don't tell me we're going to be stuck here in the wind all night." George hugged himself, shivering in the night wind.
"Let me see." Fred glanced at the Marauder's Map, and sure enough, it still showed them how to open the entrance.
"Strike the protruding stone three times," he muttered to himself, searching for the stone described on the map, "to quickly open the hole."
Suddenly, the stone wall changed, and a hidden stone wall appeared in front of the two of them, slowly opening up.
The two quickly crawled inside. The night air was a bit chilly, and George almost caught a cold, sneezing several times on the way back.
"Are you alright?" Fred asked.
"I think I've caught a bit of a cold," George said, rubbing his nose.
"That's enough for today, we have class tomorrow." Fred covered his mouth to stifle a yawn.
George agreed.