April 1st, the day of the prank.
Time travel is one of the more interesting concepts that humankind has ever thought up. The principal of time travel dates back all the way to the late 1700s, but began truly making its way into the public consciousness over the course of the 1800s, culminating in the classic H.G. Wells novella, The Time Machine. In typical human fashion, the idea caught on and became a catalyst for real, scientific work towards making the fantasy of the imagination of reality.
Human kind often works in this way, where a seeming impossibility is imagined in a form of fiction or art, and then as this idea catches the public eye people work towards making it a reality. Flight, for example, had been a staple of the human imagination since the days of Da Vinci, until it was actualized most famously by the Wright Brothers in the early 1900s.
One of the things that constantly keeps the Wizarding world and the Muggle world connected is that imagination. Both worlds are enthralled with the same ideas and the same human desire to make their ideas a reality. Wizards, of course, have a distinct advantage in magic. They can make the ideas that took humans hundreds of years to life do the same in much less time.
While human beings have yet to make their own dreams of time travel a reality, wizards had. The Time Turner was invented in 1843 by a French Wizard named Luvin Del Mar. It was a process that had taken him around twenty-three years. As with any invention, Del Mar had his own share of misadventures in the Time Turner's creation. For awhile, he could only move the Time Turner itself back through time. It took him roughly four years to figure out the mechanism with which the Time Turner would bring a Wizard with it on its journey. Again as with any invention, it's first iteration was far more simple than it would eventually come to be. The very first Time Turner was only three grains of sand, one for each minute you could travel back in time.
The ideas behind time travel are as important as the idea of time travel itself. There are, of course, two kinds of time travel. Travelling through time into the future, and travelling through time into the past. Travelling through time into the future, as a literary device, was to make a comment about the present. To suggest where the world would end up if the darker portions of the human condition were allowed to run free. As an actuality, however, time travel into the future is borne of a much simpler thing: Curiosity. The only reason for a person to desire to travel into the future is a sheer curiosity of what the world will be like x number of y amount of time from now.
The idea of travelling into the past, however, is a much more interesting prospect. It is a prospect where the literary reason and the actual reason line up. People travel into the past to change things. They find something unsatisfactory about that period of time and, in travelling backwards, hope to change something to make the present more satisfying. All Time Turners are, of course, under strict supervision of their respective Ministries of Magic for precisely this reason. Only those whose purposes for the Time Turner are determined to be benign are allowed to use them. But even those people are using them because they find something about the past needs changing. Maybe it's simply that they feel as though they should be attending two classes that happen to be scheduled at the same time, but something about the time that has passed has failed to meet their needs.
There were a lot of people in 1976 who felt this way.
* * * * * * * *
There was a palpable electricity in the air at Hogwart's the morning of April 1st. With good reason, of course. Over the course of their six years at the school, the Marauders antics on April Fool's Day had earned a reputation. While in the earlier years, their pranks were minor goofs, in accordance with their less than impressive magical skills (though they were beyond what most younger students were capable of). Beginning in their fourth year, however, the day had turned into a sort of spectacle. What exactly would they do? How would the faculty try to plan against their schemes? Would the entire school be involved, or just the Slytherins? The most pertinent question on most students minds was, "How much detention are they going to have to serve for this?"
Oddly enough, the answer to that question this time would be, "None at all."
In the grand scheme of things, in and of itself, the prank was insignificant. It could be reduced to nothing more than a mere distraction. But distractions were what got people by in times like these. Witches and wizards couldn't allow themselves to ponder interminably on the seriousness of the time. Often, they didn't. The Daily Prophet, the words coming from the Ministry of Magic; These, too, eventually amounted to nothing more than distractions, keeping away from the terrible truth of a Dark Lord on the rise. If the April Fool's Day prank was a distraction, at least it was honest, something the Prophet and the Ministry couldn't always claim.
It didn't happen in the morning.
It never happened in the morning. Some of the reason for this was sheer laziness; The Marauders couldn't be expected to wake up early just to satisfy the student body's curiosity about their prank. Most of the reason, though, was the anticipation. The four boys loved the whispers around the hall. They loved people asking all those questions of everyone they knew. The loved it even more when someone had the guts to ask them those questions. There was something about the anxious energy that pervaded that made them feel like they had truly accomplished something, the prank itself almost became a sideshow compared to the emotion of the moments before it.
Then again, the prank itself was always pretty fun.
The foursome was especially secretive this time around about the substance of their prank. Other years, they never exactly let it slip, but some of the questions the students had would be answered before the prank occurred. While some of the mystery was dissipated in this manner, the expectations never ceased. The word would never be completely out on a prank. With this one, however, the group made sure to keep the entire operation a secret. The Marauder's Map, James' invisibility cloak and the Room of Requirement were all used exhaustively for planning.
The secrecy wasn't a mechanism for the hype, as the prank wasn't as flashy or showy as many of their others. That wasn't what it was about. Though the boys discussed that they might, Sirius especially, want a prank that was more outwardly impressive, it was eventually agreed upon that the idea that they had come up with collectively was the right one for the time. If their new goal, as a group, was to bring joy to Hogwart's, to bring hope to Hogwart's, then this was the prank to perform.
Some students heard snippets of conversation from the group, those who were trying desperately to hear something about the highly anticipated prank. Before being escorted unceremoniously out of the room by Sirius, they might pick up a bit of tantalizing information.
Like Remus saying, "Just to be safe, it should probably only last 24 hours."
Or Sirius asking, "I know it's a show of good faith, but do we really have to involve ourselves?"
Or simply seeing James' maniacal grin as he was walking between classes, a particularly enjoyable daydream apparently crossing his mind.
At one point, Marlene McKinnon tried to flirt it out of the boys. Normally not ones to resist the attention of a pretty girl, James and Sirius played along for a bit, but after ascertaining the purpose of her advances, they were quickly put out; They had good-naturedly shunned the Ravenclaw a bit over the course of the following days, turning their noses up at her whenever they passed by in the halls in an exaggerated fashion, to the laughs of many other students, and the blush of the girl.
That April 1st morning, in the palpable electricity, the boys did this one last time as they walked into the Great Hall for breakfast. They knew that all eyes were on them, but they merely grinned in a self-satisfied and conniving fashion, knowing when exactly the prank would take place and how exactly it would be happening. As the other tables whispered amongst themselves, and their own fellow Gryffindors looked warily at them, as if they might spontaneously combust at any moment, the kept smiling. James waved at a group of Hufflepuffs looking expectantly his way. He laughed at those who were worrying.
It wouldn't happen in the morning.
* * * * * * * *
It didn't happen during morning classes either.
Even the teachers seemed to have picked up on the subtle tension of the day. They eyed the group with apprehension at every action, whether it be as simple as walking through the door to the classroom or as suspicious as complex hand gestures towards the others. These gestures, the Marauders knew, were absolute bollocks, something they did to scare the new Defense Against the Dark Arts prof (And why was it that there was a new one every year?) or to annoy McGonnagal, who alone among professors knew that the complicated motions meant nothing.
"Boys," The Gryffindor Head of House said exasperatedly as James and Sirius appeared to be making shadow puppets at each other from across the room.
"Yes, Professor McGonnagal?" Sirius asked, in a tone that could best be described as "kiss-arse."
"Would one of you kindly tell me what I've been talking about?" McGonnagal challenged.
"I'll take this one," James said easily, as the Professor looked him expectantly, "Transfiguration."
"Five points from Gryffindor," McGonnagal said just as easily.
"Hey!" Sirius protested, "But that was right!"
Showing both annoyance and infinite patience, the Transfiguration professor put a tired hand to her face before begrudgingly giving in, "Very well, Mr. Black. If Mr. Potter can give me an answer. A proper answer," She added at James' wide smile, "Then I will give back the points I just removed."
There was a slight giggle in the classroom as Professor McGonnagal turned once again to James, "Well, Mr. Potter?"
"Well, I could be wrong here," James breezed, "But I believe you were telling us about principles that go into transfiguring surfaces when dealing with organic to inorganic transformations," There was a disbelieving lull, though this was an often occurrence - The Marauders goofing off, but still intimately knowing what was going on - it still impressed many students, "Specifically," James continued in the silence, "How by concentrating on the feel of a surface you can more effectively create it."
McGonnagal sighed, "Five points to Gryffindor, Mr. Potter."
Despite herself, Lily couldn't help but smile a bit at the antics of the boys. Normally, it was exactly this sort of behavior that raised her ire when it came to James and the Marauders, et al. But, ever since the party, she started to divide James a bit in her head. These moments, these frustratingly funny moments, were a product of Frank Sinatra. Those nights in the Common Room, those were James Potter. The more she thought about it, Lily couldn't begrudge James wanting to be Frank Sinatra as often as possible. Who wouldn't? As frustrating as they could be, and often were, it was impossible not to respect them. Even if she sometimes thought it a bit showy, the ostentatious manner in which they would display their talents, it was impossible to deny that the group knew the ins and outs of magic, when they could be bothered. It was something she was both jealous of - she wasn't too proud to admit it - and held in admiration.
She was looking forward to the prank, though also dreading it. She had requested it, of course, but she still was a bit nervous about the whole ordeal. While the pranks the boys had been perpetrating recently were enjoyable, both for herself and for the school as a whole, she was worried that the boys might take her vocal agreement for the ordeal too far, not to mention their propensity for dramatics on this day of all days. She was one of the many who were waiting with baited breath during the morning classes.
She needn't have.
It wouldn't happen during morning classes.
* * * * * * * *
It happened at lunch.
Of course it happened when all the students were together at roughly the same time. It just made too much sense. During breakfast, aside from it being "too bloody early for the Marauders" (Sirius' words), many students came in incredibly early to get a jump on the day ahead, or very late, trying to extend their sleep as long as possible without missing a meal. Some students, too many for the foursome's taste, went without breakfast entirely.
Morning classes wouldn't have worked, either. There was no way for them to be in enough places at a single time to pull the prank on the vast amount of students they wanted to. Maybe if they had been allowed Time Turners, but their petitions to the Ministry to obtain four of the items for "mischief and tomfoolery" (Remus' words) were denied outright.
It was almost impossible to tell that it was going to happen at any moment when you looked at them, unless you knew them as well as they knew each other. Their grins were all a little wider, Sirius' a bit more mischievous than the others, Remus', while present, just stretched a bit thin, always worrying, and Peter's was practically giddy with anticipation. James' was incredibly relaxed, a bit of devil-may-care charm present on his features.
Maybe not all of the students were there yet, but James' relaxed smile was merely hiding an anxious impatience. He stood up on the Gryffindor table.
He didn't say anything for awhile, merely kept standing on the table as the student body's eyes began to take notice of the odd sight. The Gryffindors were, of course, the quickest to realize, and any and all conversation at the table quickly quieted when the 16-year old stood. The Ravenclaws, ever aware of their surroundings, were the next, as intrigued by the Marauders as they were occasionally jealous of the foursome's brilliance. The Slytherins, upon noticing, refused to quiet down, instead trying to increase the bombast of their own conversations to draw attention away from James. But the forced hubbub only caused the Hufflepuffs to quickly catch on to what was happening.
Once almost all the eyes of the Great Hall were on him, James held his arms out to his friends, pulling them up on the table with them.
There was no verbal fanfare, only a secret smile between the friends before they simply shouted:
"APRIL FOOL'S!"
Immediately, small objects began to fall from the ceiling of the Great Hall. The Marauders quickly flicked their wands in turn and the objects, as if suddenly reaching the end of their strings, stopped and hovered for a moment above each student's head before falling slowly, like a leaf on the breeze, onto the student body's shoulders.
They were miniature versions of the House Mascots. For each Gryffindor, a pet lion, for each Hufflepuff, a badger, for each Ravenclaw, their own raven, and for each Slytherin their own snake.
The students, a bit awed by the animals, took careful glances at their pets, as if expecting them to do something horrible. Still standing at their tables, the Marauders held out a finger to their own lions. The lions playfully swatted at the boys' fingers and, as soon as the two made contact, the boys' skin color burst into brilliant red and gold. There was a smattering of laughter at the inanity of the boys appearance, quickly followed by cursory touches of their own pets. As soon as the pet made contact with the skin of its student, that students skin would burst into the brilliant colors of that student's house. Even the Slytherins seemed a bit curious, though many couldn't avoid the color change, as their snakes quickly slithered from one shoulder to the other and touched the skin of their necks.
"Once again," James said loudly, and the commotion quickly quieted, "April Fool's."
There was a loud outpouring of applause from the student body.
"The animals and skin color last for twenty-four hours," Remus continued, "If you're a good member of your house."
There was a confused silence as to what that meant but, before any questions could be asked, Sirius interjected, "So show house pride! Me, I'm going to go out and wrestle the Whomping Willow."
The laughter dissipated the curiosity about Remus' qualifier.
Lily Evans smiled at her own lion, which was now playfully gnawing at her ear. The small teeth were soft and its paws clawless, so it felt a bit like someone tugging at her with a blanket. She giggled, grabbing the happy cat in her hands, where it proceeded to bat at her fingers with the energy of a kitten. She laughed even more at the differing color of her hands, the one full, glittering gold and the other a deep, proud red. Looking around the bustling student body, she caught sight of James, receiving pats on the back and general congratulations from other students, many from non-Gryffindor students.
'You gotta have both', he had told her. This was both. It was both Frank and James. They were different sides of the same coin.
She smiled.
* * * * * * * *
April 3rd, two days after the prank.
"Ah, well," James said carelessly, rolling onto his back to stare at the ceiling of the Hospital Wing, folding his hands behind his head as he addressed Lily Evans, "There's always trip fifty-three."
Time travel is one of the most interesting ideas that humankind has thought up and, with the invention of the Time Turner, it had become a possibility for the Wizarding World. It was a dangerous prospect, time travel, and was only really used because there was something about that time that had passed that the person deemed unsatisfactory.
It wouldn't be an entirely inappropriate question to ask of James Potter on the days after April 3rd if he regretted anything about those three days. If James Potter been in possession of a Time Turner (to those that knew him, they wouldn't have been entirely surprised if he did), would have used the object to go back to April 1st and change the outcome of events.
It was a valid question to ask.
After a long silence, Lily spoke again, "You were right, you know."
"'Course I was," It was James' traditional reply to this statement, Lily noted with a bit of humor, "About what?"
"Amos. I told him what you said and asked him if it was true, if he had been a coward about something," Lily confessed.
"Yeah? What'd Diggory have to say?" James tried to play the question off nonchalantly, but he subconsciously leaned forward in his bed.
"He said that he was going to ask me out again, in the library, but he chickened out," Lily said plainly.
"That'd do it," James said simply, trying to betray nothing of his own emotions, and slumped back into his pillow.
"I was flattered-" Lily began
"Sure," James interrupted, "What's not to be flattered by?"
"But I said no," Lily finished.
The bluntness of the statement, it was the type of bluntness James often employed to this same effect, Lily noticed with satisfaction, caused James to stiffen a bit. Other than the very slight movement, his body still betrayed nothing. He kept silent.
"I don't," Lily stumbled over her words a bit, "I don't fancy him," She explained, unsure why she was, "Maybe I did, but after..." She trailed off.
"After, yeah," James supplied for her, offering her a way out of saying it.
"It just doesn't seem right," She took James' silent offer.
She folded her hands together, her nervous energy searching for something to do. She settled for wringing them each in turn, "He doesn't know enough."
"Yeah," James said neutrally, then warmed his tone as he said again, "Yeah, I get that."
It was a valid question to ask, but James Potter would never have touched a time turner on the days following April 3rd.
He had lost the betting pool. He couldn't have been happier.
* * * * * * * *
A/N: Really, the length of time between this chapter and the last one was inexcusable. (Not that I don't have excuses, trust me, I do. :-D ) Hopefully you won't have given up on me after this delay, and hopefully you enjoyed the unveiling of the Marauders prank. It was quite unique, I think. ONTOTHEREVIEWS
Yvonne Park: As always, thanks for reviewing and keeping with the story. It's much appreciated. Hopefully you thought the prank lived up to their magical abilities!
The Third Marauder: Thanks for pointing out the POV switch! Can't believe I messed that up, but I tend to READ HP fanfics while I'm writing them, so I probably was reading a first-person one at the time. I'm glad you enjoy the story! I've tried to flesh out the characters as realistically as I possibly can. Too much fanfiction has the Marauders and Lily as decidedly one dimensional, so I've tried to add depth to them. Thanks for the review!
KaceyO: Thanks very much! I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter, and thank you for continuing to follow it!
mebmarker24: I'm glad the argument worked for you. I hope I satisfied your desire for a reminder of what has happened over the course of the three days. I had a few much more dramatic iterations that I thought ended up far too overwrought and scrapped for the version you read last chapter. As far as your questions, they're very pertinent but, as I couldn't answer many of them in the text of this chapter (what with it being before this chapter and all), I'll try to next chapter. And, if I don't, my author's note will. I promise. Hopefully my wrap-up here was satisfactory! Thanks for thinking so much of this story, and thanks for continuing to review!
majorGIT: Ahhh! So much excitement! Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying the story so much. I know I haven't reviewed (I'm really bad at doing it, though I should), I've been keeping up with your story "What We Knew Was Very Little At All" quite religiously. It's very good! Thanks for keeping up with this story and reviewing!