Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts had had a long tiring day dealing with yet another outbreak of pranks and jokes, he was sure he knew who was responsible - the marauders as usual. When were they ever not responsible ? Those boys must have been put on earth just to torment poor overworked headmasters. He sighed as he climbed the stairs to his office, all he wanted to do was sink into a comfortable chair and partake of some of his favourite muggle candys. At least his office was a haven of peace, the marauders would never dare to invade his sanctuary with their pranks, Dumbledore smiled merrily and his eyes shone.
As Dumbledore reached the last few steps leading to his office door, his nose twitched, something was wrong, something strange ...what was that smell ? Normally a faint aroma of lemon drops lingered on the stairs, but this was most decidedly not lemon drops, indeed it did not smell like candy at all, unless it was a particulaly unpleasant flavour of Bertie Botts beans. Dumbledore wrinkled his nose in faint disgust, as his hand reached for the door knob, whatever could be causing such an extremely unpleasant scent !
As the door to his office opened Dumbledore stood stunned at the sight that met his eyes, socks ! Hundreds of woollen socks in every imaginable colour filled his office, socks covered the desk and chairs, socks hung from the lamps, his floor was carpetted in socks, even Fawkes perch was covered in socks. Socks everywhere, and worst of all these socks stank as only week old dirty unwashed socks can, Dumbledore gasped and reached for a hankie, holding it to his nose as he gazed horrified at his office. He noticed that many of the inhabitants of the picture frames on the walls had already fled from the dreadful stench, only one or two remained, hankies clutched over noses, slightly green in the face. Albus Dumbledore, normally one of the most benign and merry headmasters imaginable felt neither benign or merry at this moment, instead he wished very much that he had young James Potter, Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin there in front of him , an image of what he might turn them into (temporarily of course) calmed him a little. This really was too much, he thought, he'd spent all day dealing with their pranks and mischief, trying to undo the chaos they seemed determined to cause, and now after a long day these boys had turned his office into nothing more than a dirty laundry basket!
Dumbledore strode out of his office intending to send Filch, and if neccessary every professor and prefect to find the marauders when a strange sound from inside his office made him turn around, it sounded like a cough ... and it seemed to come from a particularly smelly pile of socks in one corner of his office, how could that be ? Socks dont cough, unless ...Dumbledore prodded the stinking pile of clothing with his wand, a vivid green sock with garish purple spots said "Ouch!"
"Shut up you idiot!" said a red sock nearby "he'll hear you"
"He already has heard you!" said Dumbledore thunderously, glaring at the socks he noticed how the green one resembled James Potter, the red one next to it bore an uncanny resemblance to Sirius Black and a hideous orange one not far away looked much like Remus Lupin. It appeared that whatever spell the marauders had used to fill his study with smelly socks had backfired and also turned them into smelly socks. Dumbledore's eyes twinkled with supressed laughter and he fought to keep his face from breaking into a vast grin as he noticed how each one of the three socks was wrinkling it's sockish nose in disgust at the aroma of stale cheese and rotten eggs that filled the air.
"What did you have to go and cough for ?" queried Lupin.
"So what, you were just about to sneeze" answered James.
"Entertaining as it is to hear Socks conversing, and it is indeed most entertaining and unexpected" said Dumbledore, "there is the small matter of my office, and the somewhat unpleasant aroma that appears to be prevalent. Since you gentlemen appear to be responsible for it, may I assume that you also know how to, shall one say, unsock and deodourise my study ? Excellent, then I shall leave you to it, and trust that on my return both socks and unpleasant aroma will be gone"
Before they could answer Dumbledore had vanished from his office, closing the door firmly behind him.
"Sirius, you fool, you weren't meant to turn us into socks as well" groaned James Potter.
"I think I'm going to be sick if I have to put up with this stink much longer" complained Sirius.
"Who's stupid idea was this joke anyway ?" Remus demanded.
"YOURS !!!" said the other two in unison, "You said he liked socks, you said it'd be fun to give him some socks!"
As Dumbledore stood outside his study listening to the troublemakers arguing, his eyes shone with humour and a vast grin covered his face. Contentedly he strolled off down the stairs, perhaps today hadn't been quite such a bad day after all he chuckled to himself.