The Infamous Marauders

Chapter Nine

Authors Note: Finally, I will be posting again, sorry for the long break, now university is done for the summer I should be able to post regularly.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters featured in this story they belong to the wonderful J. K. Rowling.

Mid October 1976

Monday mornings always guaranteed one thing in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and that was mayhem in the Marauders dormitory. Dirty clothes were thrown across the room, meltdowns over hair could be heard, someone would always wake up late and someone would probably be missing a shoe. Remus sat on his bed and chuckled at the complete madness unfolding in front of him, he cast tempus in the middle of the room which only caused James' wails to grow louder.

Once they finally made it down to the hall fully clothed with shoes on each foot there wasn't long left of breakfast, Remus was bursting with excitement to tell his friends about his idea unfortunately people constantly surrounded them, it would just have to wait. They wolfed down their food and left to try make it to lessons on time, the first lesson of the day was Transfiguration and a scolding from Professor McGonagall was never pleasant.

"Settle down" The professors voice quickly silenced the incoming students, with a flick of her wand the door shut behind the last student once everyone was seated the lesson began "Today we will be looking further into our topic of human transfiguration, specifically how to transform the colour and style of hair, now can anybody tell me some professional applications of such a spell"

Multiple hands shot up, Minerva selected Marlene first "Hairdressing Professor?"

"Yes, that is a perfect example thank you Miss McKinnon" She scanned the room and then selected Lily "Miss Evans?"

"When being an Auror" Sirius snorted at her answer, Lily shot him a glare before continuing "Part of Auror training is concealment and disguise, if you are able to swiftly and effectively change your hair it could act as a quick disguise"

"Excellent Miss Evans' can you also tell me the incantation to perform such a transfiguration?"

"Crinus Muto"

"Wonderful, five points to Gryffindor"

McGonagall continued with her lecture explaining the pronunciation, wand movement and theory behind the spell, it didn't take long for James to realise he had fell victim to this very spell a few weeks ago. It seemed Sirius had also come to the same conclusion as he sniggered at James' look of humiliation. After the theory had been discussed McGonagall allowed the students to begin casting, Lily of course was able to change her hair on her first go and transformed it to a shocking azure colour that reached the floor in shiny waves, which caused her friends to stop their own casting to admire her hair. The marauders unfortunately were having more difficulty, after a few attempts Remus could change his eyebrows gold, however the rest of the boys couldn't even change a single arm hair a different colour.

"I don't get it" Sirius whined "Considering what we can do how is this so hard?"

"I told you this type of transfiguration is different, other types rely on what's within you whereas this is about visual intent the way the incantation is powered is completely different maybe if you had read over the topic you would know that" Remus huffed out before turning back to his mirror and changing his eyebrows to a different colour.

James and Sirius looked at each other moodily before accepting defeat and pulling their books from their bags to read the chapter on Crinus Muto, meanwhile Peter had somehow managed to transfigure the desk to sprout hairs causing an uproar in the classroom, a flustered McGonagall soon rectified the desk whilst scolding Peter on his wand movements and aim.

After a busy day of lessons the boys finally made it back to their dormitory, when Remus entered the room Sirius and James were heatedly discussing Quidditch tactics for the upcoming match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. He cleared his throat to gain their attention, they could talk easily for hours on end about tactics if they weren't interrupted, they turned to Remus with expectant expressions.

"I have come up with the ultimate Halloween prank" this declaration was met with three grinning faces. "We use the room of requirement to set up a haunted house and then invite all the older students, I was thinking at the end of the haunted house there could be a dance hall for a Halloween party, what do you guys think?"

Instead of looks of excitement which Remus had expected he was met with confusion, the silence stretched and Remus began to feel rather awkward maybe his idea wasn't as good as he had thought…

"Haunted house?" James asked with confusion.

"What's a haunted house?" Sirius continued from James.

"Come on you guys you know what a haunted house is, the places where you walk through and are scared by people in masks jumping out?" Remus responded.

"Sorry you lost me with this one Moony" Sirius answered with confusion still etched across his features.

What followed was a very long and tedious conversation explaining haunted houses and other muggle Halloween traditions, the number of things different between the wizarding and muggle world amazed Remus, having connections with both he had never realised the extent of the differences until Sirius point blank refused to accept that muggles portrayed witches as green and warty.

"I mean my great Aunt Cassiopeia had a huge wart on her chin but I think she's an exception Remus you must be wrong" this resulted in minutes' worth of laughter from the rest of the boys.

Eventually everyone seemed to grasp the concept of a haunted house and were eager to spook their friends "Muggles honestly have such good ideas" James cackled with a rather menacing glint in his eyes. The boys spoke late into the night deciding how they could charm and transfigure scary ghouls and monsters to pop out of their haunted house.

The rest of the week was busy, with Quidditch practice for James and Sirius, prefect rounds for Remus, many trips to the kitchens for Peter, research for their Halloween prank and the approaching moon tiring out all the boys, they also were due to start their practical potions lesson the following week so Remus encouraged the boys to read over the relevant chapters in what should have been a free period much to James and Sirius' horror. The marauders could be seen talking in hushed tones wherever they were spotted, a clear sign to the rest of the school that something mischievous was approaching.

Once the weekend finally arrived most of the marauders decided to have a well-deserved lie in, all except James who woke up early Saturday morning to go flying. Despite his confident facade he was worried about the upcoming match, he had faith in his team but as captain he was nervous about letting his team and house down. Flying always seemed to clear his head though, he walked across the grounds towards the forest just as the sun was beginning to rise, he wanted to fly but not on the quidditch pitch that would only make his nerves worse.

James was not expecting to see anyone else awake this early on a Saturday so it came as quite a surprise when somebody else was in the air on a broom.