Disclaimer: Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, and my inspiration, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.
Chapter 1
The Gryffindor common room was never quiet, at least when the Marauders were at Hogwarts. At the moment, three Marauders were in the cozy common room, and the first of them was studying, as he knew he should be, for the exams were nearing. Another was in the armchair by the fire combing his long mane of hair, gazing into a looking glass, and attracting much attention from the females. The third was lying on the couch, fiddling with his wand, incredibly bored. But the last Marauder was alone in the hospital wing, due to an accident involving a certain Slytherin, the roof, his lack of balance, and three troublesome friends.
Remus looked up from his books. "Oh Padfoot," he sighed tiredly. "Shouldn't you be studying?"
"Maybe."
"You've become obsessed with that thing," Remus said. "I wouldn't be surprised if I'm trying to reason with Narcissus himself!"
Indeed, Sirius had begun to form a habit of peering into the hand-held looking glass.
"Who's that?" he scoffed.
"Binns mentions him in class today."
"You actually listen to him?"
"A little. Plus, I researched him afterward. Mythology is kind of interesting, actually."
Sirius tossed his mirror aside and sat up. "Oh, I'm Remus and all I do is study!" he mocked, "Everyone should grab their books and follow in my footsteps of being a goody-two-shoes!"
Remus rolled his at his friend.
"Hate to interrupt a very interesting discussion about studying," James butted in, sarcastically. "but I'm bored. Do you want to do something?" he asked.
"Oh, go play with that snitch of yours," said Remus, turning back to his essay.
"Dude, what the heck?"
"Didn't you hear them arguing?" asked Lily who was over by the girls' dorms.
"Uh…no…I didn't. I was too absorbed in my thoughts of how bored I was and how much I love you. Hey Evans, you know," said James cheesily, putting on his charming smile, "I'm free next Hogsmeade weekend. What do you say to a butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks with me?"
Lily rolled her eyes.
"No." Lily tiredly left the room. It was her typical response to the question. Sometimes, when she was feeling agitated, she would say that she would rather go with something gruesome, like the giant squid. Other times, when she was especially cross, she'd say that she hated James more than she hated Voldemort, which obviously was false because, as everyone knows, Voldemort is the most hated (and evil, scary, and dark) wizard to walk the earth. But lately she had been just plain tired of it all, and didn't put too much effort into her responses.
"Well that's number 100," said Sirius nonchalantly.
It took Remus a few seconds to register what he had said. "Are you counting the amount of times James has been rejected by Lily?" he asked, amused.
"Yep. Started in first year, too."
The two laughed.
"That's so surprising!" Remus got out.
"What? That we're already at 100?"
"No! That you can count that high!"
Sirius opened his mouth to make a come back, but no words came out, so he closed it.
"Guys, like I said before, I'm bored! Let's do something!" James said, trying and succeeding to change the subject.
"Okay… let's prank Snivellus!"
"Alright! What should we do?" asked James.
After a bit of thinking, James burst out, "I've got it!"
"What is it, Prongs?"
"Steal his wand!"
"And…" added Sirius, "his clothes!"
Remus looked at his best mates, who were slapping high-fives with evil looks on their faces. "Right… and how are we going to do that?" he asked with his arms crossed.
"Well…we'll figure it out as we go along," said Sirius.
"Yeah! Let's go!" said James as he scurried toward the door.
After one last glance in the mirror, Sirius followed.
"Wait! Guys!" cried Remus, running to catch up, "Be careful. We don't want anyone else in the hospital wing."
"Sometimes, Moony, I feel like you're our overprotective mother," said James.
"But Peter has been in there so long! I feel bad for the guy, considering the injury was our own fault."
"You're coming, Mama Moony?" asked Sirius.
"Yes, I think I'll tag along, but please don't call me that."
"Okay. Let's go!"
The three ninjas darted along the walls, unnecessarily hid behind plants, and acted as though they were super spies all the way down to the tree by the Black Lake known as "Snape's tree". Or at least, that's what the Marauders liked to call it. He was almost always there studying. Severus didn't have many friends.
"Okay. Snape's at his tree studying. Let's do it!"
"Petrificus Totalus!" shouted James as he jumped out from the bushes. Snape was as still as a board.
"Accio Snape's shirt! Accio Snape's pants! Accio Snape's wand! Accio Snape's socks! ..." And Sirius went on until Snape was left frozen in his tighty whities. James started a happy dance.
Sirius joined in.
"Umm…maybe we should escape the crime scene before someone catches us?" said Remus, raising his brows.
"Right!" said James and Sirius.
They all ran back inside the school, leaving an almost naked Snape in their dust.
"Now! To hide the clothes!" said Sirius excitedly.
"I know exactly where!" Remus exclaimed. "Follow me."
The Marauders ran up seven flights of stairs and reached a very empty wall.
"Where … is … it?" asked James, exhausted.
"Give me one sec," said Remus. Then he began to pace back and forth in front of the empty wall saying, "I need a place to hide something."
Suddenly, a door appeared on the once empty wall. The Marauders went inside.
"Whoa," they all said. In that room was a bunch of interesting things such as books, statues, and anything one might find in their attic.
"Welcome … to the room … OF REQUIREMENT!" announced Remus, dramatically, "So just throw Snape's stuff anywhere. Unless he knows about the room and suspects it, he'll never find his stuff. I learned about this room in some book from the library. Very useful book."
Sirius set down the clothes and wand.
"Oi, James, fancy a look around?" asked Sirius.
There was no answer.
"Prongs?" cried Remus as he and Sirius stepped over various things to look for James. Eventually, they found him eyeing what looked like a large cabinet.
"Oh, hi guys, sorry I wandered off. Hey, why don't we play a round of hide and go seek? Nosies! NOT IT!" said James, touching his nose.
"NOT IT!" said Sirius, doing the same.
"Alright! I'm it then! Go hide!" Remus turned around and began to count.
James turned to his friend.
"Padfoot! I've got a great spot! Here!" he said pointing to the large cabinet.
"Yeah, but hiding together's no fun. I've got to find another spot," whispered Sirius. James opened the cabinet and climbed in. Creeeeeak! Slam!
"…59…"
Sirius scurried behind a marble statue with a wig and some sort of tiara on top.
"60!" Remus turned around and looked at the statue behind which Sirius was hiding. "Hmmm…no statue that I know has hair like that…Come on out Pads! I've found you," he said.
"Humph," pouted Sirius. He came out from his spot.
"I give you all that time, and that's where you hide?"
"Yep, but you'll never find James!" He grinned.
"Well, I did hear a door slam," said Remus as he walked towards the cabinet. He opened it. Creeeeak!
"Empty?"
"What? How?" asked Sirius.
Remus went into a full-blown explanation. "Well, the door does creak when opened, quite loudly, so if James did escape after he went in… you saw him go in, right?"
"Yep."
"Anyway, if he did actually go shut himself in, there is no way he could get out without the door creaking really loudly!"
"Ummm…in English?"
"James is either still in here, or…"
"No way!"
"Mmm hmm!"
"That isn't possible!"
"It is!"
"So what do we do? Go in after him?"
"Precisely."
"You first!"
"If you insist."
Without looking back, Remus hopped into the cabinet and closed the door.
Oh no! Oh no, oh NO! I'm not doing this, Sirius thought. But James is gone! He argued. But I don't know where I'll go! You're a Marauder for goodness sake! Do it!
Sirius jumped into the cabinet before he could have any second thoughts and slammed the door.
There was a flash of light. Then, there was a noise that sounded to Sirius like the wind whipping against your clothes when on a broomstick. Sirius waited for the noise to stop, but it didn't. And so, Sirius pushed open the door.
"Aaaaaah!" he screamed as he fell onto the road. Sirius was scraped, but not horribly. He looked up and saw the truck that had plopped him onto the road. The truck was an 18-wheeler with loads of cabinets strapped onto it.
"Agrios Jr.'s Furniture Store" is what Sirius made out after studying the back of the truck for a bit.
"Padfoot?" someone groaned.
"Moony?"
"Yeah, over here."
Sirius turned his head and not 50 meters behind him was Remus; he didn't look so good. Sirius ran over to his friend, whose ankle was swelling like mad.
"Oh, broken ankle. Here," Sirius grabbed his wand and healed Remus's ankle and his own cuts.
"Thanks."
"Don't mention it."
"Let's find Prongs; he'll be down the street a bit," suggested Remus. They walked down the hilly road about a kilometer before they saw James.
"James!"
"Pads! Moony! So where are we?" asked James.
"I don't know. We should ask someone," replied Remus. Sirius rolled his eyes.
"The only problem is that we're in the middle of nowhere and no one is around to ask!"
Remus turned his head to the left.
"'Pick your own strawberries'," he read off a white sign by the side of the road. James and Sirius looked over and saw that behind the sign was a line of evergreens, some strawberry fields, and a big, blue, house.
"Okay. You win, Moony. We'll go talk to the people from the strawberry farm," sighed Sirius. (He hated when people corrected him.) Then he, James, and Remus started up the large hill toward what appeared to be a sweet and innocent strawberry farm.
