Chapter Four
The sight that met Harry and Charles was one that would be forever burned into their minds. There were so many colors, sounds, people, and err things going on at one time. Running through each floor, the two men discovered that it was a different sort of chaos on each level.
One floor was completely turned into animals with rather odd habits, like a giraffe trying to climb the walls, and rabbits trying to beat up a lion that looked suspiciously like Moody. There were objects and color splats flying everywhere, the most random bursts of sound and other motion activated pranks.
There were half naked people running around, random and unorthodox directions being shouted from nowhere, lifts that whizzed about the building before dropping you off in a random corridor, walls that moved, floors that slid, plants and furniture that attacked anything that moved. It was pure chaos and both Harry and Charles had a sinking feeling in their stomachs. At the sight of the cross animal mutations that were rather…adventurous with each other, both men knew exactly who were to blame.
For the first time in the past thirty minutes, there was utter silence as both fathers amplified their voices and yelled, "BOYS!" The word echoed throughout the entire building and four very guilty boys squirmed in their seats outside the Head Auror's office.
"Dang, I told you we'd be caught." Sirius muttered. Severus nudged him with a glare.
"We already knew that genius, but how's about we go at least enjoy what we've done before we're grounded forever?" He suggested. All simultaneously sighing, the four boys exited the Auror Department and soaked up the feeling of pure chaos and anarchy spilling throughout the building in waves.
"Holy," Remus began.
"Merlin's," Sirius picked up.
"Saggy," Sev continued.
"Balls." James finished.
This was wilder and way more awesome than any of them had expected. Some pranks had even joined and mutated into something completely unexpected. Four sets of wild eyes, three green and one hazel, took it all in. Hearing another shout for them by their dads, the boys looked at each other and gulped.
"Aw crap, come on!" James said. He grabbed Remus's and Sev's arms and dragged them while Sirius followed next to them. James had pulled them behind an overturned desk just as both Harry and Charles threw open the doors to the room they were in. They stormed down the middle of the room, magically moving many odd things.
Seeing how calm their expressions were, the boys were instantly that much more nervous. As soon as the two men disappeared into the Auror Department, with James leading them, they ran from the room and out into the full chaos. They ran, jumped, ducked, dodged, and slid past many of their own pranks, getting past way too many near misses.
They continued this with their dads on a manhunt for almost an hour before they were finally tracked down and corned in a room that spun and shot out random objects from the walls. As soon as Harry and Charles had stepped into the room, the four boys knew they were done.
Harry and Charles took a step towards them, and instantly the room began to spin like one of those rides at a carnival. The boys sat down and huddled up, while the men were thrown to the floor in a heap. They jumped up and as soon as they did, two huge globs of purple goop flew from the walls and hit each man in the face.
The boys couldn't help but snicker as it slid down their faces like egg yolk, until they caught sight of the identical glares. "What. Is. This?" Harry asked slowly, using his calm tone that meant that he was really pissed off.
Sirius was the only one brave enough to stammer out, "R-Remus's, err, special pudding…" Only the Evanstons knew what that meant, and Harry's face paled.
"Holy Sh-" He was cut off by Sev.
"Dad, aren't you always telling us not to swear?" He said innocently. Harry shot him a glare.
"Haha." He said sarcastically.
"Come here." Charles stated. The boys slowly stepped forward, and about a foot from the two men, a bunch of odd shiny liquid poured from the ceiling onto them, covering them from head to toe. On top of that, glitter and sparkly specks descended on them.
"What is this?" James yelled.
"I don't know, it smells fruity!" Remus replied. All four boys tried to wipe it off, but as soon as they did, more would pour on them. Swiping a finger on Sirius's face, Harry sniffed the liquid, and immediately a huge grin appeared on his face.
"You know what it is, don't you?" Charles asked amusedly. Harry nodded.
"Are you familiar with muggle girl make-up called…lip gloss?" Harry asked with a huge smirk. All four boys gasped and began to struggle more to clean themselves. Both men looked at each other and fell to the ground in laughter. They hooted and tears even leaked from their eyes as they laughed at their sons' misfortunes.
The four boys looked indignant before gaining identical evil smirks and they pounced on the two men, covering them as well in the lip gloss and sparkles. The men yelled out in shock and soon a wrestling match began, with the men of course faking so as not to really hurt the boys. But then the boys began to shoot prank spells at them, and that's when an all out prank war began in that room.
An hour later, six tired males collapsed on the floor in surrender. It was quiet as all of them caught their breaths until Charles spoke.
"James…" He began.
"Dad, I'm," Charles cut off James excuse.
"No James, listen. What you four did was beyond disruptive…but it was also an amazing display of imagination, creativity, teamwork, and spell work. James, I won't ground you but you have to help clear up this mess, and since I know your mother must've been called, you have to tell her what happened." Charles said calmly.
All of the boys looked at him shocked, but then James shivered and groaned. "Aw geez Dad, not mom!" Charles chuckled and shrugged. "Your fault, come on now." He said standing up. He helped James up and nodded to the Evanstons before leading James out, but not before the boy waved to his new bestfriends.
"Dad we…" All three boys began at once, only for Harry to raise a hand.
"No, I quite agree with everything Charles said. Besides, I can't be mad at the boys who'll probably go down in history for single-handedly taking down the Ministry in the time frame of less than an hour." Harry said with a smirk. All of them stood up.
"Come on boys, let's go help reverse the chaos you all caused." He said wryly. The boys cheered and they dove back into the craziness, reversing and cancelling pranks where they could. It took them hours to fix everything and another hour for everyone to calm down enough to get back to work. Luckily, no emergencies had occurred that needed the Aurors' attention, so all was well.
Many of them were rather embarrassed at being taken down by four little boys but also congratulated them on their smarts. Needless to say, the Evanston boys definitely made a lasting impression on the Ministry, and they never made it to that meeting with the Minister like they were supposed to.
Floo addresses were exchanged as well as promises to get the two families, Evanston and Potter, together for various things, before the Evanstons returned home to their manor to sleep off the day's events. Somehow, an envelope full of pictures was delivered to Harry of that day, and they once again had to enlarge the memory room to add them all.
In The Future
As the three Evanston boys sat together in Sirius's private quarters, since his was the coziest, and began to get their memories of that day, they were all silent with shock and wide eyes.
"Holy shit." Remus whispered, breaking the silence. They all stared at each other, and then fell to the floor in laughter, similar to Harry and Charles had in the memories. They laughed until their faces hurt and their ribs ached, and then laughed some more.
"Oh sweet Merlin! Did you see…" Sirius gasped out.
"And all of the…" Severus added, clutching his sides.
"And then the…" Remus finished, wiping his eyes.
They all sighed happily as they settled back onto their various chairs. "I can't believe Harry didn't promptly ground our asses! We completely took down the bloody ministry for Merlin's sake!" Remus exclaimed. Sirius and Severus grinned largely at him.
"Exactly Remy, we took down the Ministry and Harry didn't ground us, be grateful!" Sirius admonished jokingly.
"Yeah, don't look a gift horse in the mouth." Severus added. They all looked at each other and burst into laughter again; this was too good.