Mischief Managed

Chapter 01

'BLUDGER!' a strong voice boomed over the pitch.

Several heads were lowered. A satisfied grin spread over the teenage boy's face, a Beater's club in one hand. He was handsome, in a dark, rugged sort of way. A feature which was quite well appreciated among the females, as he knew very well.

'Heads!' The boy bellowed and the people on the pitch ducked once more as a heavy-looking black ball zoomed back in his direction.

'C'mon Prongs, help me tackle this one,' he turned to his friend nearby.

A boy with equally messy dark hair, but donning glasses, grinned in response. The duo pounced on the Bludger spectacularly, receiving enthusiastic applause from spectators; most of whom were female.

'Sirius, I take it you're aware James fancies Lily?' The voice came from a fair-haired boy, and he said it with a hint of sarcasm.

'Course Moony,' Sirius replied, 'Don't mean he can't have a bit o' fun once in a while, though. On the other hand, you, Remus, can learn from us.' He winked at him with a well-practiced smile.

Remus rolled his eyes. 'Right. Because being quite nearly attacked by a swarm of females is my dying wish. Oh, I've been meaning to ask you: have you seen Peter lately?'

'Nope, dunno where he is,' Sirius shrugged casually, clearly not caring, 'ask James.'

Remus glanced in James' direction. He was showing off with the Snitch again, much to the delight of his audience. There was, however, one girl who was seemingly uninterested in the performance. Her hair was a vivid red, her eyes the brightest green, and she was reading a Muggle novel quite carelessly. Glancing back at James, Remus wasn't surprised to see his friend look disappointed.

'Won't give up, will he?' Sirius commented, knowing was Remus was thinking.

'Yeah, well, Lily's made of stronger stuff than ... well ... that,' he nodded at James' audience of ecstatic girls.

Sirius chuckled. 'Can't blame them. Not many can resist dashing good looks of our calibre.' He put on a playful smile for emphasis.

Laughing, Remus stood up. His laughter died as he noticed the time. 'Oi, it's getting rather late. Don't want Epley to catch us out at this time.' He was, of course, referring to their batty astronomy professor, who had a tendency to take late evening strolls.

'Good point,' Sirius nodded. He glanced in James' direction, 'Seems like Evans is gone anyway, so let's retrieve Prongs, shall we?'

'Sure, just --'

'OI! Oi, James!'

'-- not so loud ... ' Remus winced.

The trio headed back to the castle, Sirius talking the loudest as usual.

'-- and then she said, "Oh Sirius, thank you, you devilishly handsome god, you,"' He said the latter in a strained falsetto voice.

James laughed and Remus cocked an eyebrow.

'Alright, so I made the last bit up, but she was plainly thinking it!'

Remus chuckled. Sirius always had tales of knights-in-shining-armour and their ladies. Sirius tended to take the role of the knight. 'Ah, by the way. That rumour about Lenore Woodrow liking you? Not true, not one little bit.'

Sirius put on an exaggerated frown. 'Hmph. Her loss. Always knew that Woodrow girl was odd. She's no idea what she's missing?'

'And what's that? Better looks than those of me? I seriously doubt that,' James grinned, amused. 'Pumpernickel,' he added, gaining access to the common room.

The three took seats on a plush red sofa by the fireplace. The Gryffindor common room was quite large. The fireplace was still burning from previous students. Several red couches were arranged around the room, and there were a few tables too. James took a seat in a recliner.

'Anyone up for a bit of fun before we're off for bed?' he said with a knowing smile. He pulled out a piece of parchment that looked like it'd been through quite the adventure. It was completely blank, but Sirius had already leaned in, knowing what to do.

'I solemnly swear I am up to no good,' he stated clearly. 'Or, at least, James is.'

Black ink seemed to be materialising on the parchment in distinctive patterns. After a moment's wait, the once-blank parchment had become a detailed and complex map of the school grounds. Tiny dots were strewn all over the page, each with a name written in miniscule print beneath.

'Let's see what good ol' Snivellus is up to,' James grinned.

'Oooh, yes, let's!' Sirius responded with the enthusiasm of a child opening their Christmas presents.

Remus was clearly not as enthusiastic, but looked in, interested, anyway.

Their eyes darted to the Slytherin dungeons. Most of the students were in bed, being midnight and all. Not to their surprise, one particular student was not. Inspecting the student's dot closely revealed that he was indeed Severus Snape.

'What is that little bugger up to?' James commented. Snape's dot was circling the Slytherin common room, taking sporadic pauses here and there.

Sirius shrugged, 'No idea, get your cloak Prongs.'

'What do you plan to do?' Remus questioned idly.

'Get into their common room, silly!' Sirius said, genuinely surprised.

'But do we know their password? No.'

'Ah, and this is where my charm, humour, and wonderfully appealing features come in.'

'You plan on wooing the password out of whatever guards their common room?'

'No,' Sirius chuckled, 'But I did ... woo, as you say, the password out of a lovely Slytherin girl by the name of Rachel Vane.'

Remus put on his sarcastic face. 'Right. Should have seen that one coming. Off we go, I suppose?'

'Yes, off we go,' James replied.

The three just barely fit under James' large invisibility cloak. If one glanced carefully enough, one would see toes and feet appear in the corridors once in a while.

'Ouch! That doesn't go there!'

'Was just my elbow Moony, no need to get uptight.'

'This is awkward on so many degrees.'

'I think you've just grown too much.'

'Shush!' Remus' voice cut them off mid-banter. They heard footsteps from a distance away. 'Alright, I think they've gone. Keep going!'

After manoeuvring their way down the stairs and through corridors, the friends had made their way to the dungeons. It was dank and smelled strangely of the many potions that were created.

'I think I can smell him already …'

'James, that's what the dungeons always smell like.'

'Oh right, forgot.'

They approached a stone enclave that had a different feel than the other stones on the walls. These did not have fungi and mould about them and seemed overall a lot cleaner.

'Sirius, go on,' Remus prodded.

'Erm ...Serpenti,' he said awkwardly.

The stones remained firm and still.

'It was Serpentia,' James said.

'Oh, right. Sorry!'

Several of the stones started to shift in position, and slid in an easy manner away, revealing a large hole in the wall leading to the common room. The common room was long as Gryffindor's was high. Carved chairs dotted the room and an elaborately designed fireplace stood in the centre of it all.

'Awkward place, isn't it?' James whispered, astonished.

'Shh, I see him!' Remus pointed a finger at a corner of the room. And there indeed, a grim looking teenage boy sulked in the corner. His black hair was in no particular hairstyle at all, it lay about his head awkwardly and gave him the impression that he had just woken up. He was brewing a potion of some sort, it seemed. He took alternate glances between his cauldron and a battered copy of Advanced Potions. If one took a closer glance, they'd see the thin scribblings of a true potions master. The textbook's instructions were crossed out and rewritten in several places. One of the words written in the margin read Levicorpus (n-vbl).

Without warning, Snape rose several feet into the air, dangling from his foot as if held by an invisible thread. He yelped and hung their helplessly.

'Uh oh,' an alarmed James said.

'Prongs, what did you do?' Remus whispered anxiously.

'I dunno, but let's get out of here!'

Fleeing the common room, they didn't stop running until they reached the ground floor.

'What the bloody hell happened there?' Sirius said, exasperated.

'There was this spell or summing in his book. I dunno, I just thought it out and he just ... -' James imitated Snape rising into the air '- yeah, that's it.'

'D'you reckon he'll just hang there 'til morn'?'

James shrugged and grinned, 'If we're lucky.'

'Come now, let's get to bed. I bet he's wailing for help right now and we don't want to get caught,' Sirius urged.

Remus and James nodded in agreement and ran up the several flights of stairs to the common room, not bothering to be careful with the cloak's position. They entered their dorm room quietly, trying their best not to wake anyone else. James went to bed and fell asleep quickly, dreaming bizarrely of flying snakes and diving for emeralds in the red sea.

Author's Notes

Pretty much the Marauders' hijinks. Hope you find it enjoyable. Watch out for cameo appearances. Did anyone get the symbology in James' dream? I made it rather obvious. :B