"Psst."
Remus looked around. He was sitting in the library trying to find a source for his divination essay. He couldn't see anyone nearby. He went back to his book.
"Psst. Moony."
Remus grinned as he realized it must be James under his invisibility cloak. Closing his book he just said, "Where?"
There was a moment's silence. "Binns' office. Ten minutes."
"Got it."
Ten minutes later Remus slipped into the office of their lone ghost professor, Binns. Sirius was already waiting there, sitting on Binns' desk. No one was entirely sure why Binns needed an office, and a desk, since he was a ghost, but he had them nonetheless.
"Is this your idea?" Remus said.
Sirius shook his head. "Not mine, Prongs started invisibly psst-ing at me when I was in the shower, he said it was important, and now I'm here."
Remus took note of Sirius' wet hair. "Do you think it'll take him long to find Wormtail?"
"Probably," Sirius said, "I think Wormtail's trying to chat up some girls, so James won't have much luck with his invisible signals."
Remus started opening the drawers in Binns' desk, Sirius smirked and joined him. "Looking for anything in particular?"
"Not really," Remus said, "I was just wondering what kind of things a ghost would even keep in his desk." The boys rummaged through the desk, and in the end turned up a number of things they hadn't expected.
Laying them out on the floor, Sirius took stock of the findings. "So we have here, one heart shaped box of candy that molded a long time ago."
"Perhaps from an admirer?" suggested Remus.
"And a muggle torch," Sirius continued, looking at the silver tube.
"Probably confiscated from a student." Neither boy had ever seen Binns confiscate something before, they tried to imagine how it would look for him to take the torch from a student and toss it into his desk.
Sirius shook the image from his head. "We also have a nice gold pocket watch, a packet of cigarettes, a 45 of Bing Crosby's White Christmas, a snuffbox, a latin manuscript, a dagger with some mysterious dark stains on it, and a pack of cards that look like boring muggle cards."
Remus poked at the various objects, "Maybe the other teachers just use Binns' desk to store stuff they don't want in theirs?"
"Probably," Sirius laughed a little, "I wonder who got it with the dagger though, that has to be blood."
"Maybe Binns?" Remus shrugged. "Maybe he kept it hoping someone would avenge his death, but he's so boring nobody bothered."
Sirius laughed again, then picked up the cigarettes opened the foil seal, and tapped one out. Lighting it off the end of his wand he took in a drag. "No way Binns was murdered, that would actually make him interesting on some level. Binns probably just bored his own body to death."
"We're here." The door to the office slammed open. Peter and James entered the room, James had his cloak draped over his arm. Catching sight of the junk strewn across the floor, James waved his wand over it, sweeping it to the side. "Come closer men, there is much to discuss and not much time."
Seating himself on the floor and crossing his legs, James waited for the others to do the same. They sat in a circle and James killed the lights in the room. Sirius provided a small flame that sat in the middle of them, casting a ghoulish light over them.
"What's up, Prongs." Peter's eyes were shining with anticipation.
"We have a very important decision to make this evening men, and we only have a day to accomplish our task. We must make the right call, it's imperative. If we mess this up, we'll regret it for the rest of our lives." James' voice was serious, the light was reflecting in his glasses casting an eerie pall on his features.
"Knock off the theatrics, Prongs, tell us what's going on." Sirius cut to the chase.
"Very well," James dropped the mysterious language, "we have been invited to a secret Halloween party. Cordella Pennypacker graduated a couple of years ago, she lives in the village and she's decided to throw a Halloween party. From the looks of it, it's going to be the best party ever. Everyone who's anyone will be there, and that means that we have to be there too."
"We're going to sneak out?" Sirius looked excited.
"Obviously." James smirked. "But that's the easy part. The hard part is making sure that we have the best costumes of the entire party. Also, we have to go as a group."
"Why?" Remus didn't looked thrilled at the thought, and Sirius was also less than enthused.
"Because, we are the Marauders, and as such, we have a reputation to uphold, unless you want to go to the coolest party ever without a date or any good reason to not have a date, like being part of the coolest group costume to ever be seen in Hogsmeade."
The other boys thought about it for a moment, then they nodded in agreement. Not having dates to the hottest party in Hogsmeade would be the lamest thing they could do, but if the four of them had an awesome group costume, it would more than make up for their datelessness.
"What if we get dates before the party?" Sirius was pretty certain he could land a date before the October 31st deadline.
James looked skeptical. "Do you really think that everyone here could get a date cool enough to go to this kind of party by Halloween?"
Sirius looked around in the dim light, from Remus with his graying hair and tired eyes, to Peter who was nervously running a fingernail over his wand ruing the varnish, to James with his crazy hair and dumb round glasses. "I guess you're right."
"So, enough objections, time to think. We need a group of four, that would be the best group Halloween costume in the history of group Halloween costumes." James flourished his wand and cascaded the group with glittering sparkles. "Now think!"
"What about a rock group?" Remus suggested, "We could go as the Beetles or something."
"The who?" James, Sirius and Peter said at the same time.
"You know, the muggle rock and roll singers that everyone likes."
The other boys exchanged blank looks.
"Never mind." Remus sighed.
"What if we do the group from the Wizard of Oz?" Was Peter's idea. "Padfoot could be the Tin Man, Prongs could be the Lion, Moony could be the Scarecrow, and I could be-" Peter's face fell as he realized the last person in the group.
"Dorothy?" Sirius said harshly as the others laughed at the idea of Peter in a gingham dress and red heels.
"What exactly are you trying to say with that whole Scarecrow thing?" Remus eyed Peter.
"It wasn't meant personally, I was just naming stuff." Peter shrugged innocently and edged a little away from Remus.
"So you don't think I'm like the Cowardly Lion?" James too, gave Peter a keen look.
"Okay, okay, we can drop it, it's the only group of four I can think of, unless you want to do a golfing foursome."
"This has to be cool, Wormtail, our reputations depend on it. No boring golfers, and no groups where anyone will have to cross-dress. Now, more suggestions, keep them coming." James adjusted his glasses and rained more sparkles down on the group.
Sirius brushed away the sparkles, annoyed at the shiny flakes that covered his wet hair. "Why do you keep doing that?"
"It's to motivate you to think, the longer we're here, the more glitter covered we become. If you don't want to look like a tacky wedding you'll think of an amazing idea and quick."
"I'm about to think of something you're not going to like very much," Sirius muttered as he swept sparkles off of his sleeve.
There was a moment of silence as the boys thought about groups of four that would make good costumes. "A barbershop quartet?" Remus finally ventured.
"Absolutely not. Next!" James waved his wand and more of the glitter appeared.
Sirius waved his wand attacking James with all the glitter that had previously covered him. "I have one: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. I dibs Death, no, War, no Death, I want Death."
"I like it," said James, "I'll take War, Moony can be Famine, and Wormtail will be-"
"Pestilence," wailed Peter. "I don't want to be Pestilence, no one will think I'm cool, War and Death are both really cool, but Famine and Pestilence are not."
"I agree," said Remus, "No girl is going to want to hang out with Famine and Pestilence at a party, I'm not doing the Four Horsemen."
With half of the group refusing to play along, James knew this idea was also a nonstarter. "Fine, no Horsemen, but it's still a good backup. What else?"
"I know," said Peter, "The Four Founders, there's four of them and everything. Padfoot can be Salazar, Prongs can be Godric, Moony can be-" Peter puttered out as he realized that the remaining two founders were women.
"Look," said James, "While Rowena and Helga were amazing witches, I don't think anyone will take us seriously if we dress as them, Founders are out. Next?"
"What about the Four Cardinal Directions?" Remus suggested. "Padfoot can be North, Prongs can be South, Wormtail can be East and I can be West."
"I like it," said James slowly.
"But..." Sirius looked a little confused, "How do you dress as a direction? I mean, what does North look like?" The four of them thought for a long moment, then collectively sighed.
"Next," said James with a bit less enthusiasm.
The silence grew deeper as the boys pondered. The minutes dragged by, but still no one offered any further ideas. Once, Sirius opened his mouth like he was about to say something, then he promptly closed it again. The quiet was beginning to feel uncomfortable. Sirius had finished his cigarette and flicked the butt away from him. Looking for something else to do with his hands, he reached for the muggle playing cards and began to shuffle them. Peter sat straight up. "I have it."
The other three looked at him. "What is it?" James asked, fearing another bum suggestion like the Three Wise Men, or a quidditch team.
"The Four Kings from a deck of cards. Padfoot can be the King of Spades, you can be the King of Clubs, Moony can be the King of Hearts, and I can be the King of Diamonds."
"I like it," said Remus, "this way no one gets a crummy costume."
"We'd all be recognizable." Sirius nodded.
"No one would have to cross-dress," James added, "I think we may have a winner here." James looked around to the group, "Any objections?"
The others shook their heads.
"Then it's decided. The Four Kings it is. This meeting is adjourned."
The Halloween party was easily the coolest party the Marauders had ever been too. There were actual alcoholic drinks to be had, the food was excellent, and the people were top notch. Half of the people there had already graduated, giving the party an air of sophistication, while the other half of the attendees were the most elite kids at Hogwarts, or soon would be once word of them attending this party got back to the Hogwarts rumor mill.
James, Sirius, Remus and Peter had managed to pull together four excellent costumes that managed to walk the narrow line between cool and pretentious. Together or apart, they garnered looks from students and graduates alike. The consensus of the party was that they had the best costumes of the night. As James surveyed his friends who were mingling throughout the crowd he had more than a little pride in his group of Marauders. It was his last year at Hogwarts, and a lot of major changes were coming towards all of them. The world was a dark place and soon they would be in the middle of that darkness whether they wanted to be or not. But the fact remained that while they would always be able to manage apart from one another, they would always be at their very best together.
The End