Second Year: We Call Ourselves: The Marauders!

He was with her again. That greasy haired git, Snivellus Snape. What was it about that plain and gloomy Slytherin that entranced her so? She should be with someone extravagant, bold and daring, someone who was every bit as outstanding as she was and lived up to her fiery looks and pretty personality. She did not deserve gloomy, glum and greasy. Not in the slightest. It was that git's fault too, hasn't he learned anything from that Bat-bogey hex? Or that Sardine hex? Nothing good will come to him if he continued spend his time with Lily Evans. He needed to shove off, that's what.

It was their second year in Hogwarts, and even after an entire year of being surrounded by Gryffindor members, Lily was still hardly ever seen with anyone other than the Slytherin boy, Severus Snape. Or as James liked to call him; Snivellus Greasy. He was rather proud of the nickname as he didn't think there was another one quite as accurate—or insulting.

In the span of a year, James Potter had risen through the ranks of popularity at an alarming rate. After his little performance on the broom during their first class with Madam Hooch, he was immediately reserved a spot in the Quidditch team for the next year by Mobius McGonagall, whom he later learned was the reigning captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Apparently, being chummy with the older students seemed to have placed him on the pedestal with his peers—most of them, at least.

Lily Evans, exceedingly pretty and not to mention, the brightest witch of their year, was not impressed with James. Every time a professor called on her to answer a question, there would be nothing but confidence in her reply and he had yet to see her give a bad answer. If anything, the seniors should be kissing her feet for racking up the points for Gryffindor instead of his. Everyone liked him and yet Lily Evans would still look right past him in the corridors to smile at a certain greasy-haired Slytherin ponce. Oh, what he would give to learn a hex that would make the snivelling snake disappear!

Which reminded him of his current predicament. He'd earned himself a detention during Professor McGonagall's lesson when he, instead of turning rabbits into slippers, chose to conjure pigeons from his wand and have them rain bird droppings all over the classroom. This effectively evoked cries of disgust from the girls and appreciative claps on his back from the boys.

He had intended for them to be doves but he figured they were no different, they served the same purpose. Now, every time Lily Evans looked down at her poo-stained robes, she would only think of him. Not the most romantic way of getting her attention, or sanitary, but he reckoned if it would take her mind off slimy Severus, he'd no regrets.

But because he didn't know the vanishing spell for his mess, he was going to have to spend his lunch break scrubbing bird poo off the desk of classroom 1B as detention with McGonagall. She should've just taken points off Gryffindor and be done with it, Lily gave them loads to spare.

"James!" at the sound of his best friend's voice, James turned to see Sirius running towards him. "Where ya off to, Great Hall's the other way" he skipped on the last step so that he gained a little height off the ground to throw an arm around James' shoulder and force him to stumble forward. The little gesture caused a smile on James' face, he'd only known Sirius for a year and they already felt like they'd known each other for years.

"Classroom 1B" James answered sulkily, continuing down the corridor and towards his designated destination. "I have detention, remember?"

"Oh… well, that's too bad." Sirius answered, sliding his arm off of James' shoulder before his eyes caught sight of something worth his attention in the courtyard. "Wait here," he said and James came to an abrupt stop, watching as his friend bounded across the courtyard whilst trying to pull something out of his pockets. James' squinted his eyes, already having a vague idea on what the suspicious object was.

"Is that…"

After walking right up to Professor McGonagall, Sirius threw something on the ground that sent the good professor reeling backwards. She shouted something barely audible to James due to the distance before a smug looking Sirius came skipping back to him, carrying the faint scent of diarrhea on him.

"Bloody hell," James took a step back and covered his nose as soon as Sirius was close enough for him to smell the full effect of the putrid odour on him. "What is that?" he choked out, his eyes watering.

"Dungbombs, I got them the other day at Zonko's. They're pretty amazing, aren't they?" he boasted proudly.

James waved at the air in front of him to try and diffuse some of the smell off their surrounding air supply. "Clearly. Why'd you throw them at McGonagall for?"

"I was trying to get myself a detention from her."

"What? What for?" He knew the only person who could match the number of times he'd been put in detention was Sirius but he didn't think they were actually competing for it.

"So we can ransack her classroom and jinx her equipment."

At this, James' couldn't help but smile. "And? Did she give it to you?"

"She didn't. She took 5 points off Gryffindor instead."

As the sarcastic comment rolled onto the tip of his tongue, James was forced to swallow his words when Sirius cut him off.

"But! When I asked her if I should spend detention with you she said 'Well you might as bloody well. I'll see you in detention with Mr. Black!' so what d'you reckon is in that classroom of hers. I heard she's been using it for her transfiguration classes since ever." Sirius nudged him in the side as they walked.

"Don't know, but its McGonagall so I wouldn't expect much of a haul from her classroom. She's way too uptight for any fun." James shrugged.

"You're right, but if we jinxed the equipment for the next group of students, d'you reckon she'll suspect us?"

"She's going to be in the room with us and if her next group of students complain about biting equipment immediately after our detention in that very same room, don't you think she'll do more than just suspect us?"

"Ah, but fret not! Her next group of students are fifth years, which means they won't be using the equipment, they'll most likely be working on conjuration spells. The third years that come after them; however are going to be in for a surprise when their teapots start biting them. She'd have no proof."

"How come you know McGonagall's schedule?"

Sirius merely shrugged "It was on her office table and I memorized it while she was yelling at us for Sardine hexing that prat from Slytherin"

James stopped in his track and shot his friend a disbelieving look. When Sirius realized that James was no longer by his side, he turned to return his friend's look with confusion.

James grinned before he resumed walking. "You're ruddy brilliant, d'you know that?"

"'Course I am"

…

As they turned the corner to the classroom, James came face to face with none other than Lily Evans, looking rather put out, whose robes were also disappointingly clean of poo stains. She must've used a Scourgify spell on herself. Damn her superior intellect.

"Oh? Has Ms. Evans earned herself a detention as well?" Sirius commented smugly. Lily simply rolled her eyes and hugged her books tighter against her, not saying anything. James knew there was no way she'd have gotten a detention, but he was curious of why she was here, so he prodded.

"I didn't peg you for a troublemaker, Evans. We might get along after all."

"I didn't get detention!" she snapped all of the suddenly, her cheeks tinted red with embarrassment or anger, James couldn't tell, but he very much liked her flustered. "I've simply forgotten my textbook, is all" she added quickly before turning slightly away from, intent on ignoring them.

"Then how come you're out here instead of in there? You wouldn't happen to be waiting for me, were you?" James smirked, leaning in towards her to gauge her reaction. As expected, her cheeks coloured even more and she looked away from him.

"Stop teasing me, Potter. You know we're not supposed to enter a classroom without a teacher."

At that, James and Sirius looked at each other before promptly bursting into fits of laughter. "Oh Evans, you are such a goody-goody" James sniggered, clutching his stomach and trying to reel in his laughter. By now, Lily had turned completely red with embarrassment and her green eyes alit with fury.

"Unlike some people, I would like Gryffindor to win the house cup this year. Because of your stunt with Severus last year, we ended taking second to Slytherin." she snapped in a huff, trying not to let the embarrassment get the best of her. Especially since James Potter was as boastful and arrogant as they came, it would do her no good to stoop to their level.

"In case you haven't noticed, Evans. I helped win the Inter-house Quidditch Cup last year. I've earned back the amount of points I've lost from Gryffindor by twice the amount" James retorted. "Probably."

"You're weren't allowed to play last year. You were on the bench the whole time!" Lily argued back.

"Minor details." He brushed past her, waving his hand dismissively. The two boys had chosen to leave her behind and moved to push the doors of the classroom open, the abandoned redhead couldn't help but protest. They were supposed to wait for Professor McGonagall's arrival before they could enter the classroom. "Oh don't be such a prig, Evans. Get in here." Potter told her before promptly pulling her into the room despise her blatant protest.

A sliver of guilt instantly wormed its way into her heart when Lily stepped into the Professor-free classroom. She really didn't want to get into trouble; however, when she tucked her book against her chest and turned to run out of the classroom, his voice stopped her.

"Is this your book, Evans?" she turned around to see him leisurely sitting on her desk that now been thoroughly covered in dried bird droppings as he casually flipped through the contents of her textbook. "Can I copy your extra notes? I hadn't bothered paying attention to McGonagall's lesson today"

Lily marched up to him and snatched the book right out of James' hand. "It's Professor McGonagall. And why bother? You're already top of the class" she added her book into the stack of books she's holding in her arms and frowned at him.

"Me? Top of the class? Hardly, I don't even do her homework," James brushed off her supposed compliment and hopped off the desk.

"That spell you used earlier in class was a Bird-Conjuring Charm taught to the 6th years for their N.E. . It is hardly anything 2nd years such as us should be capable of doing"

"Really?" James feint surprise, "I hadn't noticed," he shrugged and ran his hand through his hair to further mess it up. Lily could already feel the pride and arrogance rolling off of him in waves.

"You-" she huffed, her chest puffing and eyes glimmered with knowing. She knew exactly what he was playing at, the arrogant, boastful, pompous arse! Without another word, she stormed out of the classroom, forgetting her worries of being caught in a room without a teacher.

James watched as she left, grinning as he replayed the way she fumed and scowled at him in his head. She was unbearably fun to mess with. Moments later, the smug Gryffindor was startled out of his thoughts when he heard something clatter to the floor. "I've found the teapots!"

Before McGonagall promptly entered.

…

Tomorrow on the 31st of October 1972, would mark the first year anniversary in which the first year boys of Gryffindor had decided to team up with the goal of becoming mischief legends, whose names will go down in Hogwarts' history for generations and generations to come. However, instead of planning for their grand prank for the Hallowe'en feast that's going to be held in the Great Hall tomorrow evening, a trio of boys found themselves in quite a pickle.

"Do you think he could be?" A nervous voice asked, sounding a little frightened.

"It's starting to look that way, innit?" This time, a firmer voice had answered sounding almost sarcastic.

"We'll just go ask him" a smooth confidence voice said.

"B-But he's never talked to us about it"

"If our guess is right, he won't deny it. He may have been hiding it from us but he's never lied"

"You're right, James. Let's hop to it then, nothing good's going to come from us sitting here and gossiping like birds anyway. Get off your arse, Peter"

"Nothing bad will happen either" the last boy in the room muttered under his breath.

"Pete!"

"Alright, alright!"

And so, as the rest of the students were busying themselves with preparation for the Halloween celebration, three gryffindor boys marched their way to the hospital wing like men on a mission. No one spared them a second glance, being too excited over discussing prospective events and sweets for the greatly anticipated night.

…

He felt like crap. Had it always felt like this a day before the full moon? Maybe it had something to do with the fact that his friends were probably busy planning their grand prank to make every mischievous act ever done in Hogwarts look like a badly timed farting chair jinx and he wasn't included. He had been looking forward to it ever since they talked about it in the train compartment, but as the date approached and he crossed checked it with his calendar, he realized that Hallowe'en fell on a full moon this year so he couldn't participate in their prank.

Rooming with James, Sirius and Peter had been the best thing that's ever happened to him. Being surrounded by people who knew of your condition growing up, you tend to grow tired of their pitiful glances and the way they walked on eggshells around you, as if a smallest thing could upset you. It wasn't like that with his new mates, they treated him with callous comments and basically like any other person in the world. That was just what he needed from them—from anyone.

He groaned, turned over to lie on his side and pulled his blanket over his head. He wanted to be in Gryffindor tower with his friends, talk about the Hallowe'en feast like everyone else, he wouldn't even mind if he had to be stuck with the Slytherins for a whole day, anything but be holed up in the hospital wing and left alone to dread the arrival of the full moon. Why couldn't he be normal? The tear stung as he squeezed his eyes closed. He's already done this a million times, crying has never got him anywhere.

"Remus? Remus, you in here?" that sounded like Sirius.

Sniffling back his tears, he wiped his hand over his face before throwing the covers off of him. "Sirius?" Not just him, apparently James and Peter was also paying him a visit. "What are you lot doing here? What about the Hallowe'en prank?" he asked, confused.

"Thing is, we've got something to ask you" Sirius began in all seriousness.

Swallowing, Remus looking back and forth his friends. "W-What is it?"

"Peter, ask him" Sirius nudged Peter's arm, however the boy simply reeled away from the touch as if it burned him.

"M-Me? Why should I be the one to-"

However, before an argument could break out, James stepped forward with the question, taking note of their privacy with the lack of people in the wing. "Remus, are you a werewolf?"

If it were possible, Remus had paled even further. He hadn't expected that. No, he knew they would eventually find out about it but he didn't think it'd be so soon or expect them to question him about it so straightforwardly. Denying it would be futile now since they had guessed so accurately. He looked up at their expectant eyes, feeling his throat close up in fear. In the end, he only managed to mumble a defeated, "Yeah."

"Oh" was all James had said.

It was over now, they would treat him like a freak and look at him with the same eyes, filled with unnecessary pity and wariness. He didn't need that from them, if they decided to tell the rest of the school, it would be the end of him. He wouldn't even be able to make new friends. But he couldn't find it in him to burden them with keeping his secret. He would be all right.

"Wicked!" Sirius had cried. "That's bloody nifty. I've always wanted to be a werewolf, or a big dog of some sorts. Something that screams rebel, y'know what I mean?" Sirius was looking at him. Was he expecting him to say something? They should be telling him that they couldn't be friends anymore, not telling him about some childish fantasy of wanting to become something he never will be.

"Does it hurt when you transform?" Peter had asked him meekly. But as he opened his mouth to say something, James had interrupted.

"I've got it!"

Peter squeaked at the suddenness of James' exclamation "G-Got what?"

"Fireworks!"

The three boys stared at him blankly.

"For Hallowe'en"

Sirius looked bemused "We want to sabotage Hallowe'en, James. Not help them celebrate it!"

James ignored the comment and continued, his eyes sparking with inspiration and excitement as he explained his plan to them. In the midst of their planning, Remus found himself giving input as well. Before he knew it, everyone had grabbed a chair and huddled close to his bed, leaning over and chatting with one another as if nothing had changed "Stop!"

Three heads turned to look at the only person in bed. "Did you not like the sprouting leg idea?" Sirius asked quietly, he personally thought it was a brilliant idea.

Blinking twice, Remus shook his head before finally bring his mouth to say the words "Why are you still here?" he asked them, looking almost afraid of the answer.

"What do you mean? We're planning for the prank, of course" Sirius had said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I mean, you know that I'm a werewolf now. Shouldn't you be— I don't know, worried? Afraid? Something? You're roommates with a werewolf."

"Are you annoyed that we didn't find your secret brilliant? Because I did," Sirius gestured to himself then pointed at James and Peter who were sitting across the bed. "It's those two who didn't think your Lycanthropy was cool."

"I thought it was bloody wicked too!" Peter snapped back.

"You lying ponce! You were so reluctant to leave the room when we decided to come visit him!" Sirius physically pointed at him accusingly.

"No one thinks you're any different, Remus" James has said finally. "If anything, we're just annoyed that we can't do anything to help you get through it, mate" he shrugged

Surprised by James' compassion and grateful for it, it was from that day onwards that Remus had decided that from then on, he would forever be indebted to them. "Sorry about this, guys" he muttered quietly.

"No worries, mate!" Sirius patted him on the back with more force than necessary. "We'll be sure to prank the shit out of this Hallowe'en in your honor! They won't know what hit them!" he proclaimed loudly.

"Of course they won't know who hit them because we haven't decided on a name for ourselves," James added thoughtfully.

"How about the Prank Gang!" Peter suggested.

"Don't be daft, that's a terrible name. What about The Mischief Brothers" Sirius said.

"The Brothers in Mischief?" James perked up.

"They-who-leave-no-one-unpranked"

James and Sirius had stopped their brainstorming to shoot Peter an unimpressed look.

"Really?"

"W-What?"

"What about the Marauders?" Remus suggested quietly.

Quickly thinking through the definition of the word, the three boys shot him a quizzical look. "In what way?"

Remus shrugged "We're sort of that. In an adventure seeking, kitchen raiding, trouble making sort of way." There was a pause "Also, I just thought it sounded cool" Cooler than what you lot have in mind, at least. He added mentally.

The biggest grin spread across his friends' faces as soon as he looked up. "Then it's settled! We'll call ourselves, The Marauders!" Sirius stood from his seat and thumped his chest for effect.

…

That night, as Sirius, James and Peter were preparing the pranking goods by jinxing the pumpkins stashed in kitchen for tomorrow's decorations. Peter had made a mistake in the charm. Instead of rigging the pumpkin to shoot up skywards upon hearing the line 'Bollocks', He had made them grow legs and duplicate instead. Prompting Sirius and James to help him give chase to his rampaging pumpkins. In the midst of the chaos, Sirius had accidentally stubbed his toe on one of the table legs and swore the right word at the wrong time, causing the simultaneous explosions of all the rigged pumpkins in the room and spraying the entire kitchen with pumpkin innards.

Peter had slipped and crashed on his back, effectively knocking the breath out of him. As Sirius and James turned to try and help him, they were suddenly attacked by angry, kicking pumpkins.

That was how Remus had found himself waking up in the hospital wing after his full moon transformation in the company of his three, very rowdy and equally injured mates. Nonetheless, it was safe to say that the first ever Marauder Grand Prank had ended up in complete and utter failure. Oh… well, there was always next time—they will always be a next time.

Right?

TBC