Disclaimer: all J. K. Rowling's brilliant idea. I don't own any of it.
An: I hope you enjoy the chapter, Please review. A simple it's good is enough.
Pranks Amid Death
A few days later the boys where beginning to settle into their Hogwarts habits. Their classes with the exception of charms and defense against the dark arts had gotten of to good start. Charms had started of with Ms. O'Connor's test and had been getting progressively more difficult since then.
In fact yesterday they had gotten their graded tests back and predictably the second he got it back Sirius flipped it over and yelled "damn" Ms O'Connor had just said, "I'll see you Friday, please prepare you compliments, with a little groan Sirius had resigned himself.
The Defense against the dark arts teacher was a middle aged man of absolutely no knowledge.
He had the odd quality of being so absolutely average your eyes almost slid off him. He had brown hair blue eyes and was of average height. Although new this year most of the school felt that there was already nothing to learn from him, nothing more to him. He was also the head of the Slytherin house and let them get away with almost anything.
He would have been bearable if he hadn't clung to the belief held by all teachers who do not now their subject that he could get through the year looking intelligent to his students and the staff by keeping up a perpetual mountain of work on his students back. This first week alone they had already had 2 essays and a "quiz" on all the magically developed countries and their dark magic history.
Today however was Sunday and as they had some prank planning to do the marauders woke up bright and early. After their usual morning argument with Remus about how his, according to Sirius, "cruel and unusual torture was a form of harassment" Remus asked, "Why did it take you so long to wake up today anyway, I was afraid I had beaten you into a vegetative state.
James was quick to answer, "Peter is just always like that but me and Sirius have real exc- reasons. Longbottom has been killing us and honestly I can't say I blame him this year Quidditch is the most important thing in Hogwarts. I mean we have practices every day from 4 to 7. And we have a ton of homework from everything forgive me if I don't wake up early"
The boys found themselves in the common room where they saw Margaret and lily disappearing through the door.
Margaret was one of the few girls in the school who could rival Lily Evans in anything so it was obvious that the two immediately became fast friends. She looked quite a lot like lily she had shoulder length dark red hair but with a slightly darker complexion. She had very dark almost black brown eyes and was of a middling height. She was a good student. The type of student that didn't speak up in class much but was not shy in the least. Her grades were not as good as Lily's but not because of inferior intellect but rather because she didn't care as much. She was and had been for 3 years in the slight conundrum of being friends of both lily and the Marauders.
As they ran forward to catch up with the girls Remus continued the argument,
"James it is 11:00 if I hadn't woken you up we wouldn't have enough time to practice and pull the prank also breakfast is almost ending." Rationalized Remus.
"What are you talking about" asked Margaret.
"My cruel and unusual forms of punishment" answered moony sarcastically.
"it is torture" said Peter, "see that bruise right there" he pointed at his arm, "Moony's work the first day of school."
"What did the big bad wolf do" teased Margaret.
"No, no he was human" said Peter stupidly.
"as always" added James, " anyways he levicorpused us out of bed and onto the ground and then summoned some lake water to splash us a bit"
As they walked into the great hall Sirius asked, "Moony why does the clock say 8:30"
"Because it is 8:30 said Remus brightly, "just practicing for the tape"
"What tape" asked Lily who had been silent throughout the conversation.
"just a little audition tape for the school play" answered james smoothly forgetting in his nervousness at actually having a 2 sided conversation with Lily that the school didn't do a tape.
"Good job Remus" said Peter admiringly, "what do I get to say in the tape"
"You'll find out soon peter, you'll have as big a part as the rest of us" assured James, happy with the happiness his words had evoked in Peter at being included.
James happy that Lily had decided to live and let live was suddenly surprised to see Sirius start sprinting towards the Gryffindor table. Having shared a dormitory with Sirius the last 5 years had taught him a few things about this childish and immature individual. This idiosyncrasy however was known to everyone, Sirius loved to eat the last pancake left on the plate.
Oh sure the plate would refill itself 15 seconds later but eating the last pancake on a large platter always made Sirius feel like he had accomplished something, it was so fulfilling.
The reason for his sprint however was because someone was reaching towards it. Coming to an abrupt stop in front of the last pancake Sirius calmly said to the small 1st year, "Don't touch the pancake, it's mine" as soon as the trembling child backed down Sirius grabbed the pancake and began to prepare it with zeal.
Meanwhile the marauders and the girls where pursuing idle chatter over school and other just when the conversation was beginning to get interesting (Quidditch) they heard a loud yell and turned to watch Sirius topple of the bench a bit of pancake in his mouth as he fell a fork fell from his mouth. A few seconds later they heard a sob from the young child who Sirius had challenged over the pancake. Lily rushed towards him saying, "It's okay, Sirius isn't hurt just erm"
"Stabbed the roof of his mouth with his fork, he was a little excited about the pancake." Said James helpfully noticing that nobody was helping Sirius up. As of one mind both lily and James realized that there had to be something else bothering the child they looked down and saw spread out on the table a few tear drops marring the official document a statement confirming the deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Flanagan.
Realizing the situation James said to Lily quietly, "you deal with Sirius I'll talk to him" he then turned to the young boy, "want to go see the headmaster" said James kindly. The boy nodded his head apparently not yet ready for words, he looked shocked and stunned.
James decided to help the boy, "You know while I was in second year I got a letter, just like this one It told me that My parents and my 10 year old sister were dead." He said bitterly, "the ministry expressed their condolences" remembering that this wasn't about him he turned back to the boy in the beginning I was in denial, in a way I still am, whenever I am back at the house I always expect to see my dad reading the newspaper, or my mom playing with Izzy.
When you lose a someone close you think you will never learn to enjoy life again, luckily I had my friends and they were able to help me get through it" they had arrived at the staircase, "Dumbledore helped me a lot to."
Since the marauders came up to Dumbledore's office once a month in their invisibility cloak to figure out the new password James was well informed and he said, "Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans." They went up the stairs in silence and when they got to the top James said, "you're going to get through this if you need any help just ask for James Potter." hoping he had made a difference in the poor kids life James' thoughts turned back to his own family.
Meanwhile at the great hall Lily Margaret and Remus where talking about James family lily started, "so how did James react when he found out" she asked.
"He was furious didn't cry like Flanagan did he just went straight into denial, tried to kill the owl that brought the letter. Me and Sirius grabbed him and took him to Dumbledore's office after which he left Hogwarts for around 2 weeks.
When he came back we didn't do any pranks for 3 months it felt like James had been replaced with a replica that was just going through the motions. His grades dropped he didn't even try to maintain friendships and he even lost interest in Quidditch, he dropped out of the team.
We obviously were desperate to draw out the old James what we ended up doing was telling him that we had gone into the forbidden forest to investigate the rumors of an Acromantula clan living in the forest.
We hid in Hagrid's hut and grabbed him before he went in. He got mad at us but from then he got better, I guess he just learned to live with it. His parents died at the hands of Voldemort so now James says that he is going to be an Auror." After this monologue and a bit more talking James appeared through the doorway. Lily noticed he looked saddened.
"Lily" james said in a low voice, "Since you're a prefect I was wondering if you could talk to Dumbledore about something on my behalf"
"Sure" she responded, "what."
"well watching that kid suffer through what I have gone through reminded me the horror that letter brought. I thought that the boy needed some human help or even just presence. I was wondering if you could ask Dumbledore to start stopping these letters from reaching students and telling them personally, one on one."
"Yeah I'll go right now responded Lily, "good idea, it seems less traumatizing" and with that she left."
"Come on James snap out of it" pleaded Peter.
Don't be insensitive chided Remus, "You know today is the anniversary of his parents deaths."
"Come on" yelled a completely healed Sirius attempting to distract James, "lets work on the little surprise for the girls."
"We've got to go to Hogsmeade first" said Remus exasperatedly.
"Let's take the witch statue, its closest" suggested Peter. As they were walking towards Hogsmeade Lily was talking to the headmaster.
They had just finished talking about the boy and the letter and Lily was getting ready to leave when Dumbledore asked, "On a different note, I am beginning to think about choosing the Head boy and girl. A few people that came to mind were you, Snape, a few of the current prefects and James Potter, I was wondering about your opinion of james Potter as a leader. The main reason that I am considering him is that he would be a charismatic leader and people (excluding Slytherins) would listen or obey him."
Although Lily was surprised she wasn't shocked, especially in light of this mornings events she realized that although he was primarily a immature prankster there was another side to James that she had never seen, she answered cautiously, "I think that although has many qualities that would undoubtedly make him a good leader as of now he is to immature to be a leader and role model to the school, he already has enough influence over the school population as it is, also I think that he would let himself and his friends get away with to many things."
Dumbledore seemed to consider her response and got up and opened up an object that Lily recognized as a pensieve, "I'm sure you want to be outside enjoying your Saturday Ms. Evans, so thank you for your time and I'll see what I can do about changing the way the students receive the horrible news.
At the same moment the marauders where hauling 5 cases of filibuster's fireworks towards there dormitory's. The way they saw it, it was always good to have a stash, not to mention they were going to use a few cases that night, A nice delayed welcome back for the girls.
Lily was absorbed in her thoughts when she suddenly crashed into someone. Hearing a male voice say, "Watch it mudblood" She whipped around to see Severus Snape and then she smiled because behind him one after the other James Remus Sirius and Peter walked out of a mirror. Unsettled by the smiling Lily Snape asked, "what's so funny mudbl-"
"What did you say" interrupted James contempt in his voice
"Mudblood answered Snape calmly trying to rile James.
Never, insult her again or else you will have me to answer" Said James threateningly.
"Ooh" said Snape in mock fright, "Gryffindor chivalry how noble, pity your parents aren't here to commend you for it"
By now Remus and Sirius were looking enraged, peter was a mixture of anger and fear of the ensuing fight. James and Snape were both looking at each other with contempt and had drawn their wands and Lily was unsuccessfully trying to mediate.
A few seconds later James decided that he had had enough of Snape and screamed "Stupefy"
Snape avoided the stupefying spell and laughed as Lily and Remus bounded forward to restrain James. Snape then strode off laughing. Remus and Lily were having a difficult time restraining James. Even after Snape had disappeared from view he was grunting, "Snape, twist his neck, I'll show him, parents" Finally he had calmed down enough too be released and when he had gotten ready to speak he said to Lily, "Don't ever let him treat you like that, you are much better than that, much better than him."
When Lily thought he had finished she said, "Thank you for helping me but don't do it again I can fight my own battles. As for being better than him I know that I am better than him. Don't treat me like a scared insecure little girl. I know that I am better than him I know that I am better than you. If I need help I'll ask for it, you are no better than him. You think that you're better than me, for different reasons perhaps but you are just as bad as him, you don't respect me"
"Lily" James responded tried to respond this, "I do respect you and don't ever compare me to snape, at least my hair isn't greasy."
"James give it up" advised Peter, "And no when she was RESTRAINING you she was not latching on to you in her time of need"
"Yeah I know" said James in an attempt to be nonchalant, "So are we still doing that prank today?"
"Hell yeah" answered Sirius confidently
"What time do we set the fireworks" asked Peter
"12:00" answered Remus, "OK lets divide up the jobs, and make the tapes"
That night when they were sure that the girls were asleep James and Sirius took out their brooms and ushered Remus and Peter onto each. They then got on the back and departed from their window.
They flew to the girl's side of the tower and searched for an open window. Luckily for them one of the 6th year girls had left hers unlocked. They crawled in as quietly as they could. Sirius and James then returned to their room to get 2 cases of filibusters fireworks.
There Peter and Sirius planted the filibusters. They put 2 on the ceiling with concealments on them, 1 in Lily's closet, one in Margaret's and one underneath each of their beds. Then they planted 4 on the walls.
Each firework had a code phrase that would set it off if said within a 100 foot radius. The 4 on the walls had the same phrase, the others each had a unique one.
Meanwhile James set a spell on the room that would make the boys voices be heard there between 1:30 and 3:00 Am exactly as they had been spoken in the boys dormitory between 4:30 and 6:00 pm and another spell of the same kind between 4:00 through 4:30 Am in the girls room and 6:30-7:00 pm in the boys dormitory. He then set a spell on the room that would record all noises there between 1:00 Am and 5:00 Am.
Remus was setting sound proofing charms all over the room and double checking everyone's work. When they were all done the four boys crawled through the window onto their waiting brooms and entered their dormitories.
At exactly 1:30 James pronounced, "Via Flaminia." Milliseconds later one of the fireworks on the ceiling exploded into 4 blue arrows that whizzed around the room ricocheting off of everything as if they were rubber. The girls woke up with screams, Margaret actually fell of her bed. A few minutes later however the 4 girls had calmed down and had scoured their room to find more fireworks.
Unfortunately for them however the fireworks were all well concealed. A few minutes later however the voices of the marauders were projected into their rooms. "Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, And Prongs apologize for waking you. Unfortunately however you may have a rather interrupted night's sleep tonight. We apologize for the inconvenience." This whole speech was interrupted by quiet sniggers in the background.
14 minutes later the voices started up again, "OK because we regret the trouble that we are causing you we are going to tell you when the explosions come. You have around 67 seconds lets count down… 7, 6, cover your ears Padfoot, 2, 1, 0" nothing happened, "Oh that was fun can't trust us can you. For example you will find that underneath Margaret's bed is another firework, its concealed" 10 seconds later as the girls peered under the bed the firework exploded sending the actual bed a few feet upward and thoroughly frightening them.
The girls attempted to leave only to find that the doors had been sealed. Life continued like this until around 3 in the morning when the explosions finally ceased.
To the boys however this was only the sign to start the second phase of the plan. When, through their recording spell, they could no longer hear the girls talking and they were sure that the girls were sleeping they split up again. Remus, Peter and Sirius sent James back into the girl's dormitory and then went to the charms classroom lighting all the candles on the way.
Luckily the way to charms was completely devoid of windows, so they did not have to create a fake sun. They then proceeded to change all the clocks on the way to charms and light all visible hallways. The whole plan hinged on that the girls would be to sleepy and nervous to notice the little abnormalities between 5 in the morning and 11:30 Am. Once in the charms classroom they set up more fireworks in the entrance and made themselves comfortable.
Meanwhile James was working on making it look as if it was day outside by transforming one of his hairs into a candle and then multiplying it so that the candles surrounded the Gryffindor tower. Although their wasn't a sun that wouldn't be a problem because being "11:30Am" the sun would be almost directly overhead and not visible from the window.
James then climbed into the room and changed all the clocks to say 11:30. He unsealed the door, and checked the time, 11:29. As he closed the dormitory and slid down the stairs He knew that the girls had just been rudely woken by 2 firecrackers and 2 arrow fireworks and where now being treated to a recorded fake debate between Remus and Sirius about the moral implications of letting the girls oversleep and waking them up at 11:30.
He rushed towards charms changing a few missed clocks on the way, and adding a bit of light. As he ran into charms he saw the other marauders planting fireworks throughout the class, "So Remus, Sirius wasn't happy interrupting the girls night sleep and just had to scare Flitwick out of his mind to" said James.
"Yeah pretty much said Remus, "the only reason that I am agreeing to do this is because there is no way that we can be caught we just have to set a code word like; the, a, like, question, or Flitwick and let one of the first years say it while we are in Arithmancy or something."
"Clever, Sirius idea" said james appreciatively.
Just at that moment a rat scampered into the room and transformed into Peter, "the girls are coming, they bought everything" he said.
And sure enough not 20 seconds later the girls rushed into the classroom, Lily already saying, "I am so sorry that we are late prof-.)
Suddenly sirius uttered, "G'day Mate" and fire works exploded from all around the room.
Looking at the girls remus tilted his head quizzically and asked, "what are you doing up at 5 Am"
"We were just-" said Margaret, "Oh you guys are so dead"
An: please review. I am ignoring a lot of Homework to do this so make it worthwhile.