"How can he possibly know all that, he can't have been following us, can he?" George asked after Magnus had narrated the encounter with Draco.
"That git," he spat maliciously. "If I had caught him, he would have ended up in one of the dung balls for a couple of hours."
"Do you think he could have an invisibility cloak?" Lee asked. "I mean, it's the only way he could have seen so much without being seen himself."
Harry and his group suddenly became quite uncomfortable at the thought; such a cloak happened to be in Harry's hand at that moment.
Magnus mulled over Lee's suggestion for a few seconds. It was very possible that Malfoy had been using an invisibility cloak to follow the group around.
Even Hagrid now looked worried at the thought, although he did not mention Harry's cloak.
It was a possibility...
I mean, invisibility cloaks could be bought in Diagon Alley... They were nothing compared to Harry's supposed Death's Cloak that could stand counter-spells and wear... Those ones were just imbued with illusion charms that could wear out. But for a simple task of shadowing someone who wasn't expecting to be followed in the first place, any illusion charm would work.
He suddenly found himself wondering whether there wasn't someone in here with them.
"Can anyone do a spell to check..." he didn't even finish. Fred had jumped up with his wand already in his hands.
The rest, except Hagrid, already had their wands out.
"Homenum Revelio," he cried, pointing his wand at the center of the cabin. They all waited in tense silence for Fred to give the verdict.
Unlike many spells whose results could be seen by both the caster as well as the people around, this one just made it known to the caster of the spell if there were any concealed humans around.
"It's just the eight of us," Fred said, almost with a disappointed look similar to that on his twin's face.
"I was hoping he was around," George declared, pocketing his wand and sitting back.
"Me too, bro. Wanted to make him feel at home," Fred said as they all resumed their seats.
Now that they had established that there was no one eavesdropping, Magnus decided that they might as well get on with the purpose of today's meeting.
"Listen guys," he began, hoping there would be no more interruptions. Time was not on their side, and if they stayed a bit late, the four of them might have to return to the castle inside Pokéballs, seeing they didn't have a cloak like Harry Ron and Hermione.
"It doesn't matter how they found out..." he raised a hand to stop Fred's incoming question, "what matters is they do... or at least they suspect something, in which case, you can bet Snape will do all he can to expose us. We must come up with measures to ensure that doesn't happen. But before that, we have to be able to trust one another, and that means being honest with each other."
He stopped to give them time to process the request. After all, most of them had secrets which they had a right to decide whether to reveal to the rest or not.
A sudden scream, however, seemed to break the deadlock in deciding who was to go first.
"Oh bloody hell... might as well go first," Hagrid said, pushing the curtains away and pulling a large metallic crate toward the center of the room.
"I can't make 'em keep quiet for more than one minute, they keep tryin' to tear each other," He complained before straightening up and facing Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who had quickly retreated at the sight of the creature inside.
He beamed at them as if their terrified faces were compliment enough.
"Ain't he adorable?" he asked as he absently wandered too close to the edge of the cage.
One of the heads, the new head, suddenly lunged with bared teeth as it tried to bite at its owner's foot, but the tiny spacing between the bars stopped it. It instead redirected its anger to the other head but was equally unsuccessful.
From the looks on the three Gryffindor first years, Magnus knew 'adorable' was nowhere in whichever vocabulary was crossing their heads at the moment.
"What... what in Merlin's name is this?" Ron said, edging to the back of the group. Harry equally looked petrified as he clutched at his cloak.
George stepped forward quickly, having seen an opening to mock his brother.
"This is a Zweilous, you blithering coward," he mocked while tapping lightly at the top of the cage.
"Yeah, and these two heads just wanna say hello to you guys... Come on Ron, what you hiding behind Hermione for?" Fred grinned at his little brother, who was watching the two-headed Pokémon with utter dread on his face.
Ron suddenly seemed to realize he had actually retreated behind Harry and Hermione; his face burned red as he forced himself between his two friends.
"Ain't hiding... just got pushed behind by..." he stopped halfway, having seemingly realized that he had walked into his brothers' trap. The damage was, however, already done.
"Oh how evil of us," George grinned at Lee and Fred. "How could we forget how courageous little Ronald is?"
Fred rejoined George and began tapping on the top of the cage.
It might have been luck, or maybe the twins had discovered a trick, but surprisingly, the two heads stopped snarling and froze. It looked like both were listening attentively.
"Come on Ron... just a tap. Little Hagrid here doesn't bite," Fred grinned.
The twins' calm demeanor seemed to convince the three Gryffindor first years that indeed there was nothing to worry about. Their body language eased, and Ron began to move to join his brother.
"Stop, Ron," Magnus warned, surprised at how easily he believed the twins. I mean, he had grown up with them—he expected him to know that whatever these two told you probably meant the opposite.
"Zweilous here bites everything around him."
Fred turned towards him. "His name is Little Hagrid," he corrected in feigned disappointment, "and what are we, Peeves? Course he doesn't bite... see?"
And to Magnus's surprise, he gently pushed his fingers inside and traced a line up and down on the back of the Zweilous. All the while, George was tapping continuously, creating a rhythmic sound.
Magnus knew that Fred had pushed it too far. Any second now and he would lose that finger.
Several seconds passed and then a minute, yet nothing happened.
Fred had in fact gathered enough courage and had now worked his way to the base of the neck where the two heads merged.
Everyone in the room was holding their breath. Fred was about to do the unthinkable. Even Hagrid was looking at him in disbelief. Nobody, not even Hagrid had managed to touch the heads since it became a Zweilous.
Even George's taps had stopped as he too watched anxiously.