The Infamous Marauders

Chapter Twelve

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

Halloween 1976

Halloween was finally upon the sixth-year pranksters, for once all the boys were willingly up early, they only had limited time to set up as they planned to throw their party after the Halloween feast, they would secretly release the details throughout the day in hopes of not attracting attention from the teachers, Remus had an extra afternoon class so the other three would be starting the set up earlier with Remus joining them later. Their early morning was necessary to transport transfigured decorations in secret to the Room of Requirement, the Marauders had spent many late nights transfiguring all manner of items into decorations for their haunted house extravaganza.

They would be working to a schedule, ensuring one of them was in the room at all times so their progress wasn't lost, Remus was the one selected to call forth the room, once the door materialized the four boys rushed in directing their levitating decorations behind them.

"Wow" James exclaimed in awe, the entrance into the room was a creepy long stonework passage with dark recesses, the boys followed the passage around until they emerged into a large hall, inside the hall were tables and chairs arranged neatly on the side of the dancefloor.

"This is looking eerie already" Peter added.

It had been agreed Peter would be staying in the room first as he didn't start lessons until later that day, the boys had promised to bring him food from breakfast before they headed off to Potions, Sirius and James then planned to hex boils onto one another to be able to skip class faking going to Madam Pomfrey when in fact Sirius had brewed a strong Furuncles Potion the night before to counter the hex. Remus hadn't approved of this part of the plan but agreed with the time frame they had set it would make things much easier.

By the time Halloween feast came around the boys were exhausted, Remus had agreed to stay in the room, whilst the boys made an appearance at the great hall, there was an excited buzz of chatter between the older students, James and Sirius had dropped hints of a party tonight on the Seventh-floor encouraging people to dress up. Short notice for fancy dress simply didn't exist in the wizarding world where you could transfigure clothes into anything your imagination wanted. The feast seemed to drag as anticipation for the Marauders party increased, some students, such as the Ravenclaws were sceptical on the Marauders intentions as a Halloween prank had not yet occurred, however only an idiot would turn down going to a secret party in Hogwarts so they dismissed their doubts.

After the feast Sirius, James and Peter hurried up to the room, when they arrived they found Remus putting the final touches to their buffet table, there were some surprise treats that once eaten would cause peoples skins to change colour or cause people to sprout horns or fangs. Which brought the boys much amusement when they were testing them prior to Halloween. Remus was already in his costume which was a vampire, which he found quite ironic due to the natural hatred between werewolves and vampires. The rest quickly got changed, James dressed as the giant squid, Sirius decided to dress up as a bright orange pumpkin and Peter was wrapped up in numerous bandages as a mummy.

The first group to arrive on the seventh-floor corridor were a group of sixth and seventh year Gryffindor's, confusion began to spread as they realised they had been guided to an empty corridor void of doors, suddenly a large oak door materialized on the wall earning a few gasps. James and Sirius strode through the door, laughter at their costumes rippled through the crowd.

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen, tonight is the night" James paused dramatically, silence descended as everyone eagerly awaited the next words.

"For the infamous marauders Halloween" Finished Sirius.

As the boys began their dramatic introduction students from other houses began to join the crowd.

"A warning dear friends for you must beware"

"Behind this door you may just get a scare"

"To get to the party you must face your fears"

"Take this creepy pathway with your peers"

"So, take on this challenge the haunted trail awaits you"

"The party is waiting, please come on through" As Sirius said these last words James flung open the door his tentacles flapping wildly as he spun to face the students, presenting them a shadowy corridor.

Frank Longbottom and his friends were the first to enter, followed swiftly by other Gryffindor's, Sirius and James hung back to follow in the last of the students, as the door would fade once they shut it.

Lily had stood throughout the speech rolling her eyes them boys sure knew how to lay it on thick, she couldn't believe she had agreed to come to this but her roommates Dorcas, Marlene and Alice would simply not listen to her when she said she wanted to stay in to practice some new charms. So here she was stood in her transfigured costume, she had to admit if only to herself, it was fun to dress up on Halloween it reminded her of going trick or treating as a child with Petunia. Tonight, Lily had decided to dress up as a witch, a muggle version, green skin, warts, and all.

Soon her group was faced with the entrance to corridor, hesitantly she stepped through as they did so a blanket of fog shrouded the doorway "No turning back now" Marlene giggled.

Green ooze dripped down the walls and cobwebs littered the ceiling as they walked through the girls could see dark alcoves along the walls, Dorcas looked nervous as they approached, suddenly a ghoul burst headfirst at the girls causing them to screech as they ran further forward.

"Merlin! Only those silly boys would make getting to a Halloween party so creepy" Alice laughed uncertainly.

Dorcas looked just about ready to faint when bats came swooping down at them, eventually they made it to the end of the corridor, after being scared by spiders, ghouls, vampires, bats and numerous other creatures.

Lily gasped as they entered the large dancehall it looked magical, a mixture of pumpkins and candles floated overhead providing a warm glow to the room, on one side of the hall was a long buffet table laden with treats. "I can't believe those four did all of this" She spoke to her friends.

"It's amazing" Marlene agreed.

Remus stood beside Peter watching as the students arrived, many scared faces quickly turned into awe filled ones as they too entered in to the hall, the music from the wizarding wireless played loudly thanks to a variation of the sonorous charm applied to it.

"I think this has worked pretty well" Remus commented.

"It has, I can't wait for people to try the food with the charms on" Peter whispered conspiringly.

The hall was soon filled with people, Sirius and James jogged over to the other boys pulling them towards the small stage.

"Can we please have your attention" Sirius loudly shouted, Remus took his wand lowering the volume of the music.

"Thank you for attending our Halloween party, we hope you didn't get too much of a fright on your way here" James chuckled.

"We have many treats in store for you fine ladies and gentlemen tonight, but beware not everything may be as it seems" Sirius warned.

"So be careful as you never know if you will be having a trick or treat"

"Now please enjoy" As Sirius finished, the boys all bowed low, Remus discreetly flicked his wand turning the music back up high.

Hours later many students were sporting extra horns, fangs, claws and in some cases spiky tails dancing wildly to the music aided by the smuggled in Firewhiskey, some people were also rather drenched after playing bob for potatoes. It was meant to be bobbing for apples however Sirius had arrived with potatoes claiming they were similar enough as they had used the last of the apples for toffee coated ones.

James had tried to coerce Lily into dances many times that night, instead of her hexes at his bad attempts of wooing her she had just skipped away dancing with her friends, much to James' disappointment. All the four Marauders were now rather drunk, the punchbowl had far too much alcohol in and Remus was dreading how painful his head would surely feel in the morning.

Sirius sidled up to Remus swaying slightly "Fancy a dance Dracula?"

"Sure, you bloody pumpkin" As soon as the word left his mouth Sirius grabbed his hands and span him wildly onto the dancefloor.

Both boys were laughing hysterically as they danced around the room to a fast-paced tune, the track ended and a slower paced song came on, they looked at each other awkwardly before releasing their hands and stepping apart, around them drunken couples danced to the music.

Remus didn't quite understand why he felt so awkward as the slower tune had come on, they were only dancing jokingly, his head felt rather fuzzy due to all the alcohol he had consumed, probably not his wisest idea as a prefect. He looked over to Sirius who had gone to talk James, they looked a right pair the pumpkin and the squid. Two seventh year Hufflepuff girls approached them and soon they were out on the dancefloor, Remus felt a slight jealously at this however he was uncertain why.

It was rather late and time for the party to come to an end, the Marauders had one last trick up their sleeves, the music came to a stop, the floating pumpkins dropped lower in the air and people looked around confused suddenly the pumpkins burst drenching everyone in a gloopy orange slime. Many of the girls in the room looked furious whilst most the boys began laughing, Lily quickly whispered to her friends and the girls rushed to the food table grabbing cauldron cakes and jelly slugs throwing them at the Marauders, causing a large food fight to break out. Many cleaning and vanishing charms had to be performed before the students could sneak back to their dormitories that night.