Mischief Managed
My first Muggle Studies assignment for Professor Queen
Summary: My friends and I had once again gotten into a bad situation. Here the four of us sat, grins on our faces, ready to take the heat for an amazing prank. However, two of us, Sirius and I, were one detention away from getting expelled. I had no idea how we were going to get out of this one.
We ran through the hallways, laughing our asses off the whole time. We had just charmed the bathtub in the prefect's bathroom to turn to Jello whenever anyone tried to take a bath in it. Yes I know, 'But James! You're head boy! You should be more responsible." I know, I know… But it's my last year at Hogwarts, and my friends and I want to go out with a bang. We were already halfway through the school year, and we hadn't pulled nearly as many pranks as we had intended. We had to step it up.
As we ran, none of us noticed Filch's cat, Mrs. Norris, chasing after us. Next thing we knew, we were sitting in Filch's office, stupid grins on our faces. We had been in this office so many times, it was like a second home. We waited for Filch to show up, to give us detention, and make us reverse the charm on the tub. He slinked into the room and sat down at his desk, turning and pulling four files out of the cabinet behind him. Two of them were massive, and only held together by industrial strength rubber bands. I smirked and looked at Sirius, who was staring at the pair with fondness.
Filch sneered at us, and then smirked, and in his gravelly voice said, "You do know that if you two," he pointed at Sirius and I with crooked fingers, "get one more infraction on your record, you can be expelled." All four of our faces fell, and Filch's smile grew wider, showing more of his rotten yellowed teeth.
Shit. I couldn't get expelled, I hadn't even taken my N.E.W.T.'s. There was no way that I could get a job without a diploma. Even if I could, I couldn't use magic, they would snap my wand! I had to get us out of this.
Filch left to get McGonagall, and the four of us turned to each other. "As much as I love this prank, we can't a detention." I said, mild panic creeping into my voice. "Listen, I have a plan. We need to sneak out of here, get to the prefect's bathroom, and remove the charm before Minnie sees it. We can't get blamed for something that never happened right?" Remus looked at me questioningly, "That's stupid, what if we get caught, we don't have the map anymore, remember?" I grinned. "A wise muggle once said, 'If stupidity got us into this, why can't it get us out?'" Remus sighed, "Fine, but we can't get caught…" "Don't worry," I said, "We won't."
Later, we sat in the common room by the fire. The portrait swung open and McGonagall stepped through, then started walking straight towards us. "I don't know how you boys managed to erase all evidence of your wrong doing, but I would expect that it never need to happen again." She gave us a small smile, and walked back out. After the portrait closed, we all leaned back in our chairs and breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
Just a short one-shot about the marauders getting into trouble. The quote in the story is by Will Rogers