The Great Halloween Prank

Remus hurried up the stairs to the boys' dorm on the heels of Sirius. The young Gryffindors burst through the door and collapsed into a giggling heap on the floor. (Although only small patches of the floor were visible beneath the contents of their trunks that were strewn across every possible surface.)

"And… and then… I mean, did you see her face?" Sirius choked out before doubling over in laughter again.

"I was a bit busy running for my life to be honest," James replied, though tears were running down his face as well.

Remus clutched his own aching ribs and looked at the grinning faces around him, sometimes it was hard to believe he'd made such good friends in so short a time. James and Sirius' fearlessness was so infectious, sometimes he forgot everything and stopped holding back and just let himself live and laugh with them. Having friends and being part of a group was a nice feeling he thought. One he wanted to hold onto as long as possible. He didn't know how long it would last. Seven years at most though he hardly let himself hope for such luck.

But for now, he could just enjoy high-tailing it away from the Trophy Room and Hogwarts' bad-tempered caretaker with his friends. His friends. And it didn't matter to any of them that they were probably due another detention. Even if all they'd done was find Mrs. Norris stuffed in the rusty suit of armour outside the Trophy Room. It wasn't like they were the ones to trap the disgruntled cat in there. Sirius had just been teasing her a bit, flipping the visor up and down, when Filch rounded the corner.

And sure, Remus didn't want detentions but he'd only had a couple so far. Besides, he was getting good marks in all of his classes and, unlike the others, the teachers seemed to like him. Compared to James and Sirius' couple detentions a week, there was no reason Remus could be kicked out. Not since he had his nose buried in a book half the time. Unless his secret got out of course. But then that was why he refused not to learn as much as possible while he was here.

"Oi Remus!" Peter poked him, "stop staring lovingly at that disgusting pile of homework on your bed and help us plan the Halloween prank."

"What?"

"Come on Remus. The one we're planning for the Feast tomorrow. Remember?" James reminded him.

Oh right! That was a thing. A thing that he needed to come up with a believable excuse for. Quickly. Because tomorrow evening he'd be shuffling down the tunnel below the Whomping Willow while the others stuffed their faces with Pumpkin Pasties. Last month's transformation hadn't been too bad really. Everything had gone smoothly, he'd only needed to stay in the hospital wing a day and there weren't even any visible scratches to prompt awkward questions.

"Right about that," Remus fidgeted uncomfortably, stalling, "so I… I won't actually be able to help with that. I got a message today that my mum's ill again. I'm going home tomorrow to visit her for the weekend."

It was the same excuse he'd used last month but he'd already explained that it was a long-term illness. They hadn't pushed too much before but it seemed inconceivable that they wouldn't question him now. Surely, he was being extremely obvious about lying. He kept his eyes on the floor.

"Oh, ok then. We can adjust the plans slightly, no worries," James said.

"Yeah, tell your mum 'get well soon' from us," Sirius added, shushing Peter.

Remus' head shot up. That was it?! No questions or protests. Was he a better liar than he thought? They certainly weren't dense. Maybe they could tell he didn't want to talk. He met Sirius' eyes. He looked like he understood. But Remus wasn't even sure what they both understood.

"Ok."

"Yeah, so we'll just…" Sirius jumped straight back into planning the prank. He and James were literally incapable of not causing trouble first-year magic anyway) to childish practical jokes. Remus was pretty certain that the mayhem planned for tomorrow's feast was of the first variety.

James' eyes lit up suddenly as if he already knew what Sirius was going to say, he leaned forwards eagerly, "Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting?"

"If what you're thinking I'm going to suggest is what I'm going to suggest then yes that is the suggestion I'm thinking of. But if you think I'm going to suggest something other than what I'm thinking of suggesting then I'm very offended that'd you'd ever think to suggest, that I would ever suggest thinking of something other than my suggestion," Sirius smirked.

James stared and Peter's mouth was hanging open in confusion. Remus rolled his eyes.

…

Sirius' mouth dropped open. And sure, Remus called him a Drama Queen at least once a day but he wasn't even slightly exaggerating his awe now as he gazed in rapture around the Great Hall. Whoever was in charge of decorating… well, Sirius was speechless. And as any first-year Gryffindor could tell you that was almost as rare an occurrence as a Niffler not going after something shiny, which is to say it never happened.

Glancing up towards the enchanted ceiling, he noticed many large cobwebs spun between the rafters. Some were in tatters, thick with dust and the shreds hanging like ominous curtains, drifting back and forth in a none existent breeze. Others were in perfect form, not a thread out of place. These seemed almost to be covered in a delicate layer of frost, occasionally a glint, a bright sparkle would catch Sirius' eye. The light reflecting from the huge full moon shining in the clear sky above. Sirius chose to ignore the shadowy shapes of the webs' occupants as movement elsewhere distracted him.

Of course, the Great Hall was lit by its classic floating candles but tonight they were especially flickery, casting deeper and darker shadows than usual. Bats flapped noisily in and around the candles, squeaking at each other. Occasionally one would swoop down towards a table, inviting many shrieks from the unsuspecting students devouring the feast below.

By the looks of it, the House Elves had surpassed even the deliciousness of the Start of Term Feast. Sirius could see Pumpkin Pasties, Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Soup, Pumpkin Juice, Roast Pumpkin, Mashed Pumpkin and some less festively themed food for the crazy people more averse to the offensively orange vegetables whose skins were currently part of the decor. Every few feet down the table, a large Jack-O-Lantern grinned toothily out over the sea of pointy hats.

"Come on," Peter tugged on his sleeve impatiently, "I'm starving!"

The boys made their way to Gryffindor table with James pushing Sirius along from behind as he refused to stop being distracted by all the wonderful things to look at. He was always surprised by the bright and cheerful atmosphere of Hogwarts' meals. Back at Grimmauld Place, children were to be seen and not heard, especially not at the dinner table. Halloween had certainly never been celebrated but if it had he knew the Blacks were a 'skeletons in the closet' kind of family.

A far-off howl pulled Sirius from his thoughts and he finally started to tuck into the feast with his friends. Distantly he wondered if Remus was disappointed to be missing all of this, and the prank, because his mother was sick.

Suddenly the ghosts started to converge on the Great Hall, some lingered on the outskirts, almost wary of the rowdy students. But others floated lazily over the tables, scattering sweets over their heads. Glancing towards the High Table, Sirius thought McGonagall looked rather disapproving about that. Of course, extra sugar was never needed to excite the first and second years, and the older years had all been stuffing their faces at Honeydukes in Hogsmeade today. So maybe more chocolate was a bit unnecessary but it was Halloween after all.

Remus loved chocolate, Sirius remembered. He decided to collect some for him before their prank caused chaos to descend.

A few minutes later, the Headless Hunt burst dramatically through the tall windows on one side of the hall, they charged up between the tables and started tossing their heads around. James caught Sirius' eye and they smirked at each other, "That's our cue."

…

James watched at Peter was the first to hurriedly stand up and wave his wand, "Nox!"

Every single candle in the Great Hall immediately sputtered out, leaving just the bats flapping noisily overhead. Someone screamed. James hoped it was a Slytherin. But so far so good, the prank was going to plan. But that was just the easy part.

Then he and Sirius leapt up onto the bench and cast their own spells, "Wingardium Leviosa!" – directing multiple pumpkins towards the Headless Hunt.

Meanwhile, Sirius cast the spell that was the only reason any of them had been to the library all term. It had taken actual and literal hours to find the spell they wanted. Apparently making ectoplasm solid wasn't a commonly needed charm – Merlin knows why!

"Ectcrasolopniumidasm!" Sirius was the only one of them who could actually pronounce it.

…

Last week, Nearly Headless Nick had reported the first-year Gryffindor boys to Filch – with the obvious exception of Frank Longbottom who'd James had known since forever. Frank could be good fun but was a bit boring about sticking to the rules.

Anyway, he and Sirius had been trying to sneak the Niffler which they'd found on the edge of the Forbidden Forest (the one time in six weeks Hagrid hadn't found them sneaking around the tree line and chased them away) into the Trophy Room, when Nick noticed.

And while they all obviously had the greatest respect for Nick, did he really need to rat out his own house? So, this was the revenge plan. And in order to wreak havoc upon the Halloween Feast – which was working perfectly if he did say so himself – they came up with this prank. First turn the Headless Hunt's heads solid. Then levitate the heads into the arms of Nick and finally levitate the pumpkins into the Hunt's hands in place of their heads.

…

All of a sudden, McGonagall called out, "Lumos," and they scrambled down and shoved more sweets in their mouths before the candles flickered back to life. He hoped they didn't look too suspicious but couldn't resist sneaking a peek at Nearly Headless Nick whose expression was rapidly changed from bewildered to irritated.

It appeared that the prank was successful. He grinned at Sirius.

James watched Nick with glee as he threw the heads into the air and glided for the High Table as quickly as he could with the Hunt charging after him, pelting him with pumpkins. One knocked his head sideways!

"It's working just like we thought, look James!" Peter called.

"Shut up idiot," hissed Sirius, "do not be the reason I get more detentions."

They needn't have worried though for the entire Hall was filled with chattering and laughter again. Then Professor Dumbledore stood and even the Headless Hunt pulled their horses to a stop, "Who is responsible for this?"

All the students looked at each other, looking for guilty faces. James kicked Sirius under the table as he joined in a little too enthusiastically. Then he saw Lily glaring at him from down the row. One of the pumpkins must have flown a little off course and landed on her plate because she was covered in feast now.

He looked away quickly. So maybe the prank had backfired a bit. She'd never talk to him now and all he wanted was to be friends. Hopefully she wouldn't tell on them though.

"It was Potter and Black, sir," someone yelled. James jerked his head in the direction of the voice. Snape. Of bloody course it was.

"The feast is over. Please return to your common rooms," McGonagall announced as she stared at them coldly. James looked at Dumbledore though, and really, he looked more amused than annoyed.

"You can't just assume it was us Professor," Sirius called out indignantly as the other students crowded out of the hall, "so a pumpkin exploded on Snape, that's not proof of anything except of an improvement to his complexion!"

"That is enough Mr. Black. Now return the Headless Hunt's heads back to their proper state," McGonagall swept towards them.

Sirius looked at James, his eyes wide, "We forgot to look up the counter-jinx!"