Hey this is the Halloween chapter and one of my favorites from this story, I really hope you guys like it and I would love to hear what you think! Thanks to elizabethmota62 and MarySylvaLyon for following. Please enjoy!
It was the Halloween feast that landed them in trouble. It wasn't planned, the opportunity just popped up and who were they to deny opportunity her pleasure?
James was psyched for the feast. He spent the day running around, half in costume, Vampire fangs and cape. McGonagall had twice told him to take them off and wipe the fake blood from his chin. James would only do so when she was around, the rest of the time he was in bloodsucker mode.
He made a habit of bothering Lily Evans, sneaking up behind her and asking to suck her blood. She did not find it funny and threatened to jinx him if he didn't stop. He finally did when she jabbed her wand in his face.
He spent the rest of the day avoiding her.
Sirius laughed it up. Most of the school was in good spirits, especially the spirits. Peeves was more than happy to give people a good scare, although his idea of a good scare was to push suits of armor over on people and laugh when they screamed. He'd also taken to hurling pumpkins at people from balconies or dropping them from ten feet above their heads. Several people were in the hospital wing because of his antics.
It was opportunity that came when Peeves cornered them in a dead end hallway. He cackled with glee and was about to throw a grinning and still burning jack o' lantern at them when Sirius was struck by a sudden idea.
"Peeves," He said. "How would you like to come to the feast?"
Peeves stopped mid throw and hovered in front of them, arms still raised. His little eyes narrowed as though he was thinking quite hard. Then he raised the pumpkin again. "Made a promise!" He said sweetly. "Promised not to interrupt dinner I did." He made to throw the pumpkin again but Sirius yelled.
"Wait, c'mon! It's a holiday, they can't keep you out on a holiday!"
Peeves hesitated again. They could almost see the nasty little gears working in his head. His eyes darted between the two of them and then he lowered the pumpkin, grinning wickedly.
Sirius smirked and glanced at James who looked both horrified and impressed. "Yeah, come give the feast a surprise." He said.
Peeves drew himself up, smiling in a nasty way, as though he had some horrible little secret. "Ooh, give the school a surprise?" He asked.
James swallowed. "Yeah! The Slytherins would love it!"
"Oh, yeah!" Sirius added, nodding furiously. "It would be the biggest surprise of the whole year! You could get everyone: students, teachers, Filch."
Peeves buzzed, evil plans concocting in his mind. He was so absorbed by his thoughts that he tossed the pumpkin against the wall, letting it smash, inches from where they stood. He soared off, cackling a little and muttering to himself.
Sirius looked at James, unsure of what they had just done. James's cape was sliding off his shoulders, he shrugged it back into place.
They hurried on to class, a little afraid of what would happen at dinner.
"What took you guys?" Peter asked when they swung into their seats, a second before the bell rang.
Sirius shrugged. "Ran into Peeves."
"And you got away?"Remus asked with raised eyebrows. "He didn't throw a pumpkin at you, did he?"
"Tried." Their explanation was cut short by Professor McGonagall marching into the room.
"Take those ridiculous things off, Mr. Potter." She said, not even looking at James as she strolled by. He took off the cape but left the fangs in.
They spent the rest of the class in quiet excitement, unable to focus on a single thing. Towards the end of class, Sirius leaned over to Remus and Peter. "Hey," He whispered. "Watch out during the feast. I think Peeves is going to do something."
Remus glanced towards McGonagall. "Why?"
"I mighta given him the idea."
Peter's eyes widened. "Why?" He squeaked.
"He was gonna smash a pumpkin on us!"
James nodded. "So, if he shows up, I say we leave."
McGonagall cleared her throat and they fell silent. Remus looked exasperated.
"What kind of idea did you give him?" He asked once the bell rang.
"Nothing much, just gave him the notion that he should show up at the feast. James here said he should aim for the Slytherins."
"Well," Peter grinned. "At least there's a chance he'll take them out."
They laughed, heading to Gryffindor tower and amused themselves with forecasts of what Peeves might do until dinner time. James thought he might turn over the staff table but Sirius thought it might be another round of pumpkins. Peter guessed maybe a fire and Remus guessed maybe even an attack on the teachers. As it turned out, Remus was closest.
By the time they arrived at the feast, most of the school was already seated and all was well. Sirius and the others settled in to eat and it wasn't long before they forgot about Peeves. They were almost finished with the main course and were just about to embark on a promising dessert when disaster struck.
There came a sudden gust of wind and something came whooshing through the doors and with that 'whoosh' came a shower of spiders, snakes and lizards. Peeves flew over the four house tables showering bugs and reptiles over the food and students. He doubled back several times to shove small lizards down the back of a girls' robes. Then he headed straight for the staff table next, arching in a graceful loop over their heads and flinging insects down on their plates and heads.
Several of them jumped to their feet and cursed. McGonagall instantly fired a spell at him but missed. Peeves flew back over the students who were now fighting for the door. He began dropping plates of food and cups down over their heads. Students cried out and pushed one another more violently.
Sirius, James, Remus and Peter all ducked under the house table and squatted down, watching people's legs pass in a frenzy of excitement. They looked at each other in shock and huddled lower.
Then there came an echoing bang and silence fell.
They froze under the table for a second. The feet had stopped and the yelling had ceased. Then Dumbledore's voice rang out through the hall.
"PEEVES!" He said. He was not yelling but his voice still carried with astounding force. Sirius and James poked heir heads out from under the table and searched for the ghost. He had pulled himself up in front of the staff table and swept off his hat.
"Evening, headmaster." He said pulling into a bow that was more insulting than anything else. "Happy Halloween."
Sirius watched Dumbledore lift and eyebrow. Professor McGonagall drew in a breath as though she was going to scream. "What do you think you are doing?" She cried.
"Why, just giving the school a trick. That's all." He gave a blinking imitation of innocence.
"How dare you!" She barked.
He buzzed excitedly. "Only following orders, ma'am."
Under the table, Sirius's blood ran cold. He and James exchanged wide eyed looks of horror.
"Who told you to do this?" McGonagall asked, voice ripe with fury.
Peeves gave a gleeful and wicked laugh and pointed to where Sirius and James's heads stuck out from under the table. "That's them, ma'am." There was a nasty glint in his eye as he pretended to wipe away a tear. "Didn't want to do it, but they insisted!They threatened poor old Peeves, said they'd do nasty things to him if he didn't wreak the feast."
His disgusting act of contrition did not make much an impression but McGonagall's eyes flared up. "Potter, Black! Get out from under there!"
They scampered up and ran to the staff table. "We didn't tell him to do this!" James yelled. "We just didn't want him to drop a pumpkin on us!"
"Then what did you tell him?" She was so angry the color had drained from her face.
"We said. . ." Sirius looked at James for help. "We said. . . we were just trying to talk him out of smashing a pumpkin over our heads! I didn't think he'd do it."
James nodded. "I didn't think he'd do anything this crazy."
"Lies, lies, lies." Peeves chortled. "Said that I could get the teachers. Told me to bother poor Mr. Filch. Poor, poor man works so hard for these students!" He wiped another sanctimonious tear from his eye. "So terrible! Wretched, wretched boys! Ought to be ashamed of themselves!"
"That's enough!" McGonagall barked. "Peeves, I want you out of here. Don't you ever let me catch you in here again." She turned on James and Sirius. "As for you two, my office. NOW!"
Sirius and James ran so fast that they reached her office before she did. She came in moments later, followed by Dumbledore. Sirius caught his eye and thought the old man almost smiled at him.
"This is. . ." McGonagall sank into her chair. "An absolute catastrophe!"
"Now, now, Minerva." Dumbledore said quietly. "We must take into perspective that no real harm was done." Sirius and James gave each other hopeful looks. "It was only bugs and lizards. In fact, I'm a little surprised at Peeves lack of creativity."
She looked at his as though he was insane. "But, professor Dumbledore, the feast was ruined."
"Yes, yes it was. Perhaps a light detention is in order. Of course, I'll leave that up to you." He inclined his head slightly. "They are your students after all." He smiled. "Well, I think Ill return to the feast. Dessert should still be safe to eat."
Sirius groaned inwardly. If they wrote his mother again, he'd probably get another howler.
"Yes." McGonagall said, taking out a quill. "Detention, both of you will get three days worth of detentions. You'll be helping Mr. Filch around the school." She gave them a sharp look. "However, not together. I don't think that would be much of a detention." She began writing and then looked up. "Well, go on! Get out." They started to leave. "Back to your common room. You can skip dessert."
They ran into Remus and Peter outside the door.
"What happened?" Peter asked anxiously. "Dumbledore said you weren't in trouble."
"We got detention." James said.
"Well that's not so bad." Remus said.
"And McGonagall won't let us eat dessert." Sirius added.
"Terrible." Remus said, shaking his head.
"Oh, shut up. Hey, bring us back some desserts, will you?" James said. 'Sneak them back!"
Peter nodded as they walked back towards their split off. "Sure!"
"You know, it was kind of funny." James said after a while.
"Yeah, well, not for that girl who got the snake shoved down the back of her robes." Sirius chuckled.
Remus smiled. "I wonder if the rest of the school noticed that it was you guys?"
"Dunno. Find out for us, will you?"
He nodded and then they split up, Remus and Peter heading for the great hall and Sirius and James for Gryffindor tower.
"It has certainty been a night." James said. "Hey, think Peeves got Snape?"
"Oh, I hope so!"
They laughed and climbed through the portrait hole. They had the common room to themselves.
"They better hurry up with those desserts!" James said, sinking into one of the best chairs by the fire. "I didn't get to eat that much."
"You ate three servings." Sirius corrected.
James waved him off. "I'm a growing boy!"
"Yeah, full of shit and still growing."
They laughed and stretched out in front of the fire. A moment later, Peter and Remus came climbing through the portrait hole with a plate of cakes.
So I hope you guys liked this chapter, the next one is detention and a few other things I hope you like it! If anyone has any story suggestions, I'd love to hear them.
Thanks for reading.