Dumbledore waited patiently as the four young Gryffindors pulled themselves up from the heap. They stood shoulder to shoulder in a line, the two twins trying to convey an aura of innocence about them which, mainly due to the soaked, ripped clothes of Fred and the large bump on George's head, failed miserably.

Harry looked quickly around the room. It was rather small and practically bare. There was only one other door, which was behind Dumbledore, and a large mirror hung next to it.

"Well?" Dumbledore asked expectantly, his eyes twinkling beneath his glasses.

"Ahh well what happened…" Ron started but his words faltered as the headmaster's gaze fell on him.

"… was that I was sleep walking," Fred said stepping forward and picking up from his younger brother.

"I never knew you suffered from that particular aliment," Dumbledore said in a deeply concerned voice.

"Years I've had it Sir, years," Fred nodded enthusiastically, "now I'm not one to complain, so I never mentioned it before."

"That's very noble of you," responded Dumbledore smiling kindly at Fred, "although I'm not sure if my sentiments are mirrored by your associates."

Fred frowned slightly before looking over at the other three, Harry had taken to intently examining the ground, Ron's hand was massaging the bridge of his nose as he gently shook his head, and only George was looking directly at him, hands on hips with a disappointed look on his face.

"Sleepwalking?" George scolded, "seriously is that the best you could come up with?"

"Well I didn't hear anyone else coming up with any suggestions," Fred explained.

"Actually I was just about to say that Peeves had shown us a shortcut up to the Fat Lady and we had got lost and ended up here," said George.

"Oh, that's a much better excuse then sleepwalking," Fred looked over at Dumbledore, "is it too late to change our story?"

"Sadly it is Mr Weasley," Dumbledore said softly, "now I believe Professor McGonagall has spoken to you about sneaking around the school at night, did she not?"

"Yes Headmaster," answered Fred.

"And do you recall just exactly what she said?" Dumbledore's gaze swept from one twin to the other.

"That if we were caught outside of the Gryffindor Dormitories once more this year when we weren't suppose to be she'd be cancelling all our Hogsmeade weekends for the rest of our time at school," said George glumly.

Dumbledore slowly paced along the line of boy considering his next course of action. Each of the foursome held their breath, as they waited fro the Headmaster to decide their fate. Although from the sounds of it Fred and George were going to get the harder punishment Harry was sure that he and Ron wouldn't be getting away completely unscathed.

Harry knew that Dumbledore would always worry most about the safety of his students, so wandering around the bowels of the castle late at night was certainly not the smartest way for them to spend their time. Add to that the fact that they were with Fred and George, who were the human equivalent of lightning rods in a storm when it came to attracting trouble, and you had a recipe for more peril and danger then even the Forbidden Forest could offer.

Dumbledore paused and turned to them with a solemn look etched on his face. Silence filled the room as the seconds slowly ticked by. It seemed to go on for a lifetime and it probably would have continued if a rather red faced Ron hadn't started gasping for air after holding his breath for too long.

"Well, I suppose that means you had better not get caught on your way back to beds doesn't it?"

All four boys snapped their heads up from the ground and stared at Dumbledore, Harry cast a sideways glance over to Ron who looked both confused and relieved.

"So we aren't in trouble?" Ron asked excitedly.

"Trouble?" frowned Dumbledore, "I very much doubt if I could possibly punish you for doing extra school work?"

"Er… I'm sorry what?" said Fred

"Ahh… you see the NEWT exams were particularly tough this year so myself and a few of the other teachers devised a kind of assault course for the Seventh Years to try out," explained the Headmaster smiling at the four of them.

"Er…yeah…" Fred replied with the same sense of confusion that people experience when they accidentally turn two pages at once whilst reading, "I'm sorry what?"

"So let me get this straight," started Ron, his jaw firmly set, "we took part in a test?"

"That's right, and you did remarkably well considering your ages," Dumbledore smiled down at them, "we shall be no doubt expecting great things from all of you in the future."

"So… what happens now?" asked Harry cautiously.

"Ah… well technically all four of you should be punished for wandering around school at such a late hour," the Headmaster said severely before breaking once again into a smile, "however on the other hand since you know doubt wanted to put in some extra scholastic effort?"

"What?" said a startled Ron, "we didn't mean to…ouch."

"Sorry Ron," apologised George, "I seem to inadvertently trodden on your foot. No doubt what you were about to say was; that we didn't mean to wake anybody up with our late night school work."

"Oh yes," stammered Ron finally catching on, "that's what I was definitely going to say."

"Now as you know," continued George, "Fred and I are very studious individuals… what was that Ron?"

"Sorry George, just a slight cough I have picked up, must have been from the water."

"Right," said George casting a sceptical look at his younger brother, "as I was saying. Fred and I are very studious individuals, and we felt we should impart some of our hard earned knowledge onto our younger brother and his best friend."

"…and as you know it's very hard to keep a secret around here," continued Fred, "and we overheard some seventh years talking about this place where we could give our skills a practical work out…"

"…yes. So we came down here hoping to get come extra work done," George interjected as the flow of the lie took hold, "and we decided to bring along Harry and Ron for some additional lessons that they might not have experienced otherwise."

"I thought it might have been something like that," said Dumbledore nodding, "but what was that you were saying a moment ago about 'sleepwalking'?"

"Oh that?" said Fred waving a hand dismissively, "I was just being modest about our after hour study group, I didn't want to imply that we weren't being taught everything we should be during our regular lessons."

"Ahh… how very considerate of you, but I'm glad I found out as surely this deserves some kind of announcement to the school," Dumbledore said, his eyes sparkling brightly, "nothing too over the top, just a brief acknowledgement of your willingness to put in a little extra work outside of normal hours."

"Now Headmaster," Fred said quickly, "don't you think you are jumping the wand blast a bit there?"

"Yeah," agreed George, "I mean Fred and I have reputations to uphold."

"That's right," continued Fred, "people here have a certain expectation of us. I mean how would it look if George and I start getting announcements saying how well behaved and goody-two shoes we are?"

"Well it would probably make people think you are following in your brother Percy's footsteps," concluded Dumbledore.

"My point exactly Headmaster," said George gravely, "and no one wants that."

"I think it would be best for all concerned," Fred continued, "if we keep all of this between ourselves."

"Well if you think it's for the best," Dumbledore said kindly, "but I think we should tidy you up a bit first George. It looks like quite a bump has formed on your forehead."

"Oh this?" said George pointing to his head, "this is nothing you should see what happened to the thing that gave it to me."

"I very much doubt that the wall suffered any permanent damage," said Dumbledore as he waved his wand over George's bump, "there that's better, not as good as Madam Pomfrey I'm sure but I don't think she would appreciate being woken at this time of the night."

"How did you know that?" asked a surprised George.

"It wouldn't be a very good way of testing students if we didn't have a way of keeping an eye on you now would it?" Dumbledore turned around and stepped over to the large mirror hung on the wall, "this mirror here allows the observer, in this case me, to watch what is going on in all of the test rooms, in case a student got into too much trouble and needed assistance."

"So you were watching us the whole time?" asked Fred.

"Not the whole time," admitted Dumbledore, "when you opened the portrait door, an Intruder Alarm set off alerting me. I set one up as I didn't want any student to go through the test unsupervised. Luckily it didn't take me long to get here, so I didn't miss much."

"Er… Sir?" asked Ron unsteadily, "how come when you knew we were down there you didn't just come and get us out?"

"Oh I have great faith in all my students," replied Dumbledore, "I was certain after your adventures with Professor Quirrell that you and Harry were more then equipped to deal with the situation, and your brothers here have always shown that they are more then capable with getting themselves out of whatever trouble they have fallen into. Much to the displeasure of Mr Filch I am sure. Now," he clapped his hands together and rubbed them, "I'm sure you are all looking forward to a nice long sleep, please don't let me detain you any further. If you go through that door it'll lead you up to a passage way near to the clock tower, just tap the suit of armour on the shoulder three times with your wand and it'll move aside for you."

George led the way, followed by Harry then Ron with Fred bringing up the rear. Just as he was about to leave the room Fred turned around.

"Headmaster, George and I accidentally left some bags…" he stopped as Dumbledore had raised a hand.

"Don't worry, you bags have been safely returned to your rooms," said the Headmaster reassuringly, "they have been completely untouched aside from being moved. I doubt even Merlin himself would be brave enough to look inside one of your bags without being invited to do so."

"Oh ok, thanks Headmaster," Fred waved as he turned to leave, "goodnight."

"Goodnight, Sir Fred," came the reply.

"Look, I'm just saying it wasn't my fault I set it on fire."

The four of them piled through the portal door into the Gryffindor common room, Fred still complaining.

"Ok, ok… I think I'd admit that you didn't do the single dumbest thing tonight," said Ron.

"Yes, that honour goes to our brother George here," Fred wrapped his arm over his twin's shoulder, "I'm sure that's the last time that wall messes with anyone else, it'll be too afraid it'll get another head butt."

Their laughter slowly petered out as they saw Hermione sat in an armchair in front on the fire, arms folded with a withering look upon her face.

"Er… you know George," said Fred quickly, "I think I'm gonna go and check our bags so see if everything is there."

"Good idea Fred, I'll help" agreed his twin before turning to the other two, "two-headed monsters, nearly drowning and swinging blades are one thing, but as for an angry woman, I'm not touching that with a ten foot broomstick."

As the twins swiftly departed the common room their voices filtered back down.

"Would would you use a ten foot broomstick for George?"

"I guess you could use it to fly a load of people at one time. A bit like a flying bus or something."

"Hmm… we should look into building one. Might be some money in it…"

Their voices became quieter and quieter until they were just a distant mumble and the only sound that could be heard was the soft crackle of the burning fire.

"Well?" asked Hermione.

"Well what?" replied Ron trying to sound innocent.

"Where have you been?" she demanded, "I had forgotten one of my books so I came back down to see you," she pointed at Harry accusingly, "disappearing through the portrait. I've been absolutely worried sick."

"Ahh Hermione I didn't know you cared so much about us," Ron said grinning.

"Actually I was more worried you were going to do something that ended up losing us House Points."

"Just relax Hermione," said Harry settling down into one of the armchairs as Ron sprawled across another, "everything was fine. You see what happened was this…"