Minerva McGonagall couldn't sleep. She tried mind you, but night after night she found herself staring at the ceiling of her chambers. Counting jumping kneazles, reciting goblin rebellions from the 18th century, listing the 12 common uses of dragon blood in reverse order, nothing worked. As soon as she began to doze she saw their faces, and they haunted her. The dead faces of her former students.
Minerva had never had any children of her own. She had always wanted them, but there simply never seemed to be a good time. When she and her husband had first married, they had careers to navigate! Children, they reasoned, could always come in a few years. Unfortunately, her dream for children vanished with her husband's early death. As a result, her children were her charges that resided in the Gryffindor dormitory. At the tender age of eleven, they entered her care. They were so young, so impressionable, and so carefree. It broke Minerva's heart to think about the world that was waiting for them outside of these secure walls when they left her at the mere age of seventeen.
The fact was that the wizarding world was at war. Lord Voldemort's persecution knew no bounds. Many witches and wizards tried to stay neutral, if there was such a thing, but Minerva knew just how many of her former students were involved in the fray. It broke her heart to know that her children faced such horrors daily. It was to Minervas ultimate despair that earlier that day, she had received notice of the latest casualties of the war. The Prewett twins.
Fabian and Gideon Prewett had been some of her favorite students. Oh, they had been troublesome pranksters alright! They had been the mentors for Sirius Black and James Potter, leading to the construction of the Mauraders, whom still gave Minerva boundless troubles, but they had been kind, funny, intelligent, and compassionate. It was their faces, amongst many others that Minerva saw night after night when she attempted to lay her head to rest. It was their faces that kept her awake at night.
This night in particular, Minerva had already taken a stroll around the lake, the courtyard, and the East Wing. She could not escape their faces, and she could not find any rest in her solace. As she entered the West Wing however, Minerva was astonished to hear whooping voices coming from the adjacent corridor.
"DEPULSO!" Cried a voice! "DEPULSO!" cried another.
"What on Earth?" Minerva queried to herself.
Suddenly two four poster beds rapidly flew around the corner, hurtling towards her at a terrifying pace!
Minerva screamed and dove for the ground, as the beds went directly over her, sweeping the witches hat straight off of her head.
Minerva jumped to her feet with her wand in her hand right as the two beds fell out of the air, causing a horrible screeching sound as the wooden legs slid across the corridor floor.
Grinning like Cheshire cats, James Potter and Sirius black high fived eachetother on the four poster bed they were both sitting on. "Whoop! You owe us ten sickles boys!" Sirius black cheered sending red celebratory sparks out of his wand.
Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin glared at Sirius and James from their own four poster. "This is bollocks!" Remus complained. "Wormtail can't steer a levitation charm to save his life!"
James reached into the air to catch the money being tossed. "Shouldn't have taken the bet then Moony! We had you beat by half a Quidditch pitch!" he mocked.
"What!" Peter screamed. "That was no more than 10 feet! You blind tosser!"
"Lumos".
It's amazing how a single spell (that wasn't a silencing spell mind you), could cause such silence.
Well, for a solid moment at least. This was the Marauders, after all.
"Professor Minny!" Sirius crooned, "What on Earth are you doing out so late on a night such as this?"
"Yeah Professor," James added. "Isn't tomorrow night your evening for patrol?"
Minerva rubbed the bridge of her nose. Leave it to the Mauraders to memorize and plan around her patrol schedule.
"You boys had better have an extremely good explanation for this." Minerva said in a low, threatening voice. "I have a mind to drag the four of you to Professor Dumbledore's office this instant!"
A sixth voice sounded from behind Minerva, making her jump. "No need, my dear Minerva! I'm already awake!"
Professor Dumbledore strode into the light cast from Minerva's wand, straightening the spectacles on the bridge of his nose. James and Sirius continued to grin; while poor Peter and Remus looked utterly terrified to see their headmaster.
"I must admit however, I am most definitely interested in an explanation as well. Perhaps you boys could step down from these beds while we discuss what in Merlin's name you are doing out of bed at this hour?"
James sat up slightly straighter and cleared his throat. "Ehhem, you see Professor, we can't actually get out of the beds. That would be breaking school rules!"
Minerva's eyebrows jumped to her hairline. "Mr. Potter, what in Merlins name are you on about? Rest assured you have already broken enough school rules tonight to warrant…" Minerva bristled as Professor Dumbledore raised a hand to silence her.
"Please Minerva," the old man said softly. "Very well then boys, I would like to hear your explanation."
"Well you see Albus, may I call you Albus?" Sirius began.
"Professor will do, Mr. Black. Thank you however, for your consideration." Dumbledore said sternly, his eyes twinkling.
"Right you are Professor. Anyways, as I'm sure you know, Professor Flitwick covered banishing charms today in class."
"Of course. That is standard fourth year curriculum" Professor Dumbledore nodded sagely.
"Well, he assigned us to practice the banishing charm tonight for homework." Remus continued. "Unfortunately, there wasn't ample room to practice in our dormitory. Text books kept flying, and James nearly broke a window."
James glared and shushed his friend.
Sirius hurriedly piped in. "Uhm, never mind the window though Professor. I can assure you that our dormitory is in pristine condition, foregoing the beds that are currently among present company."
"Will you please get to the point?" Minerva said sharply.
"Of course professor. Anyways, we tried to practice in the common room, but the seventh years were getting extremely frustrated with us, and threatened to kick us out!" Remus continued.
"So being the model students that we are, we simply had to find a way to practice! It wouldn't do for students of our caliber to not be prepared to demonstrate our charm casting ability for Professor Flitwick next lesson" James explained. "Fortunately, with Remus being an aspiring prefect and all…"
"Merlin knows why." Sirius muttered, just loudly enough for everyone to hear.
"Remus has a copy of 'The Standard and Exhaustingingly Long Book of Rules, Regulations, and Expectations for the Behavior of Hogwarts Students' on hand!" James finished.
"You see professor, we were examining the rule book and we discovered something! The book never explicitly says that students have to remain in their common room and dormitories at night." Remus concluded.
"It doesn't?" Dumbledore queried doubtfully. "Do you happen to have this book on hand?"
"Sure Professor." Sirius said, pulling the book in question out from beneath a pillow.
Sirius handed the book to Professor Dumbledore. "You're going to want to take a look at page 634, Section 7 Article 7."
Dumbledore deftly opened to the proper page and read aloud. "A strict curfew of 8:30 PM is set for all students below fifth year, while a curfew of 9:30 PM will exist for students studying at the NEWT level. After curfew, students are forbidden to set foot outside of their common rooms, and are to remain either in their common rooms, or in their beds."
Professor Dumbledore looked up from the rulebook and raised his eyebrow at the four boys sitting atop the four poster beds.
"So you see Professor," James piped up. "We found our solution! So long as we were in our beds, we could leave the sanctity of our beloved common room without breaking any school rules. So we levitated our beds out to the seventh floor corridor, and began practicing our banishing charms."
"Unfortunately, we were absolutely surprised to examine the results of a banishing charm that missed its mark, and instead hit an object that wasn't banishable." Sirius continued.
"Like a stone wall, Mr. Black?" Professor Dumbledore prompted.
"Exactly, Professor!" Remus exclaimed. "You see, we were shocked that our banishing charms were actually causing our floating beds to repel themselves."
"And why may I ask, were you continuing to levitate your beds once outside of the common room?" Minerva asked.
Peter looked at the beds sitting upon the floor and nervously piped up. "Well, the beds have legs don't they? The rules state that students are forbidden to set foot outside of the common rooms after curfew. We weren't sure if the feet of the beds touching the floor counted."
"Let me see if I understand this, boys." Professor Dumbledore began. "You discovered a loophole in the rule book, allowing you to levitate your beds out into the corridor, and then as a result of practicing banishing charms, you tested a hypothesis about banishing charms on constructed objects, which sent your beds careening down the hallways?"
"That is indeed an apt description of our explanation, Professor!" James smiled.
Professor Dumbledore again glanced at the rulebook, stroking his long white beard.
"I'm afraid you boys overlooked something however." He said slowly. "The rule states that students are to remain in the common room, or in THEIR beds. I see four of you, but only two beds. That means that two of you are out of the common room, but not in your own bed."
James and Sirius paled.
"May I take it then gentlemen, that these two beds belong to Mr. Lupin and Mr. Pettigrew?"
All four boys nodded.
"In that case Mr. Potter and Mr. Black, I'm afraid that I'm going to have to take 5 points each from Gryffindor, for breaking school rules!"
Minerva's jaw dropped. "Professor Dumbledore! That can't be all! What about…" Minerva exclaimed before Professor Dumbledore again raised a hand to silence her.
"My dear Professor, of course that isn't all. These boys showed that they have some real initiative! Can you imagine reading this entire rule book? Also, as a result they brought to my attention a logical fallacy in our esteemed rulebook! I think that deserves 10 points each? Does it not?"
Minerva stared at him incredulously.
"In addition to that, they also performed experimentations with a spell they had just learned. I greatly admire that kind of out of the box thinking. Too many times do we get encumbered by the generic learning process here at Hogwarts. Take another 5 points each for your experimentation gentlemen."
The Mauraders looked like Christmas had come early.
"Now with that being said, first thing in the morning I'll be updating the rule book to make levitating your beds out of the dormitories a punishable offense. Please don't attempt to do that again boys or you will find yourselves in rather serious trouble. Alas! It is getting later by the minute. Might I recommend that you gentlemen levitate your beds right back up to where they belong, and get to sleep?"
"Certainly Professor! Wingardium Leviousa" Sirius proclaimed, flicking his wand. The bed lifted off of the ground, and James lifted his wand and pointed it at the wall in front of him. "Dep…" James trailed off.
After a moment, Professor Dumbledore flicked his wand and canceled the impromptu silencing spell. "Might I recommend gentleman, that you rather walk and levitate your beds back to your dormitory?"
James blushed. "Sure thing Professor. Good night!"
"Goodnight boys. Sleep well." Albus muttered softly as the four lads walked down the hall towards the Gryffindor common room, beds floating ahead.
Once the boys rounded the corner, Minerva crossed her arms and turned to Albus.
"Albus, what on Earth are you thinking? Those boys were careening through here so rapidly, they might as well have been on brooms!"
Albus bent down and picked up Minerva's hat.
"Just imagine if they had crashed into a wall, or hit another wandering student! Someone could have seriously been hurt tonight by their antics! Merlin knows they almost ran me over!" Minerva ranted.
Albus sighed and further examined the hat in his hands.
"Have you heard about the Prewitt twins yet, Minerva?" Albus muttered softly.
Minerva immediately softened. "Of course I did, Albus. It's why I've been wandering the halls tonight. Every time I close my eyes to sleep, I see their faces. I see their faces, and the faces of everyone else I know who's been killed in this bloody war. I can't sleep, Albus."
Albus nodded understandingly. "Sometimes I wonder if I should allow these young witches and wizards' entrance into the Order. I can't bear when a former student of mine, so full of life, so full of energy, falls victim to this war."
"Albus…" Minerva paused. "As much as I can't bear it either, I admire their courage. They want to improve this world for the better, just like we do. Don't they deserve that right?"
Albus sighed and allowed a small smile. "Indeed Minerva. That is always my conclusion, whenever my thoughts turn down that dark path. They have every right. I look at those four boys tonight. The Mauraders, they call themselves. They're intelligent, cunning, talented, and brave. Where do you think they will be in three years time, when they finish here at Hogwarts? Do you think they'll stand by the wayside, and let others try to fix the world problems?"
Minerva didn't answer. She instead turned to look out the window, looking at the moonlight reflecting off the lake.
"I fear they will have a rough time of it when it comes. This war isn't slowing down Minerva, it's only ramping up. This war is far from over, and I worry that those innocent boys will have a part to play in this story yet. Yes, they were indeed reckless tonight Minerva. They could have gotten hurt, or injured another. However, I don't believe anyone is in need of Madam Pomfrey's assistance tonight. I simply can't bear to take the light out of their eyes. The world will do that to them long well before I ever will."
A couple of tears escaped Minerva's eyes as she turned her back completely to her long time mentor.
Albus placed a single comforting hand on her shoulder. "Goodnight Minerva," he said before turning to walk down the hall.
"Goodnight, Albus".
The next morning Lily Evans sat down for breakfast in the great hall next to her friend, Marlene McKinnon.
"Good morning Marlene. Did you see those idiot Mauraders floating their beds out of the portrait hole last night? Absolutely ridiculous, aren't they?" Lily ranted.
Marlene laughed. "Ridiculous? It was bloody brilliant!" she exclaimed. "In all of Hogwarts history, I don't think anyone's ever levitated their beds into the corridor before!"
Lily huffed. "Well I for one don't think it was bloody brilliant. Think of the trouble they could have gotten in! I wonder if they managed to lose more points for Gryffindor."
Marlene frowned. "You know Lily, as much as you complain about those boys, sometimes I wonder if you're not just smitten with them! Besides, Gryffindor has 50 more points this morning than we did last night. I don't think they got in any trouble."
"Don't be ridiculous! Of course I'm not smitten with any of those big headed tossers! I just want Gryffindor to…" Lily trailed off as she glanced at the hourglasses. How in Godric's name had they earned 50 points over night?
Lily glanced down the table towards where the Marauders were dining, and accidentally caught James' eye.
"Alright there Evans?" James called loudly from down the table. "Fancy going to Hogsmeade with me next weekend?"
Lily huffed and blushed slightly. "Has the giant squid learned to skateboard yet, Potter?" She snarled back across the table.
James shrugged and turned his attention back to his pumpkin juice.
"What's a skateboard, Prongs?"
"Not a clue Padfoot, not a clue."
Suddenly, Professor Dumbledore rose and asked for the schools attention. "Good morning Hogwarts students! Before you go scurrying off to your morning engagements, I have a quick announcement to make! As of this morning, it is now against school rules to levitate any of your bedroom furniture outside of your dormitories. Thank you all for your attention to this brief public service announcement, and I hope you all have a fantastic day!"
The Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws glanced at each other curiously, the Gryffindors exploded with laughter, and that evening many Slytherin parents received letters from their children depicting yet another instance of their headmaster's lunacy.
-The End-