Author's Note

Yeah, I'm really sorry I'm late for updating. I got sick, didn't go to class yesterday and then got attacked by Zombies. Long Story… but I have unfortunately I have joined the undead…

Disclaimer- I still don't own Harry Potter, but still feel responsible for reminder my faithful readers (To be honest, this is for me more than it is you). [Just trying not to get sued]

So on with the story -

Chapter 14- I Solemnly Swear to Pull Epic Pranks

Charlie walked up to the stairs to his dorm at five in the morning. He tried to be very quiet so he wouldn't disturb his roommates. Opening the door very slowly, he could make out the sleeping figures of the marauders in the early morning light. He crept in and closed the door behind him.

Charlie took two steps and in mid stride felt his foot hit something. He was knocked off balance and let out a yelp as he went down. He skidded across the floor and crashed hard into James's trunk.

James bolted upright with a shout and leaped onto Sirius's bed who yelled in agony as James had driven his elbow into his stomach. Peter fell off his bed and started screaming like a little girl. Charlie groaned and tried to push himself upright. He glanced toward his only roommate who had yet to make a sound.

Remus looked over at a clock near his bed, and sat up like a zombie; He had a distinctly dead look in his eyes, and Charlie braced himself for what would inevitably happen next.

Brandishing a textbook in one hand and his wand in the other, Remus yelled "YOU TOSSERS! It's five in the morning." Everyone went quiet except Sirius, who was still groaning.

With a flick of his wand, the room was flooded with light. From his spot on the floor, Charlie could now see that . James was hugging Sirius, Sirius was trying to pry him off and Pete was huddled in his blanket under Sirius's bed with his head poking out looking up at Remus. "What the hell are you idiots on about?" Remus said a little calmer, putting his book down.

James finally released Sirius from the bear hug. "Well, I was sleeping and I heard someone yelp and then my whole bed moved… so I jumped over to Sirius's bed to… err… wake him up?"

"You impaled me with your elbow, you arse!" Sirius shoved James off his bed, and James just sat on the floor.

"I'm sorry…" Charlie muttered. His roommates all stared at him. He swallowed. "I was trying not to wake you guys up, but I tripped over something." He looked toward the door, but he saw no obstacle that he possibly could've tripped over. James smiled sheepishly and ruffled his hair.

"Oh yeah. Sirius and I noticed that you weren't back at like 11 so we set a tripping hex in front of the door for a laugh… but I guess we fell asleep." He grinned up at Sirius. Charlie rolled his eyes. He was only faintly annoyed but judging Remus's expression, .

"Anyway, why did you get in so late?" James asked, looking at Charlie trying to deflect Remus's evil glare.

"Mercy and Oakley roped me into something stupid." He said, not in the mood to elaborate. He just wanted some sleep.

"What were you doing?" asked Peter, who had finally emerged from underneath the bed.

"You'll see." Charlie said, cryptically. 'If they hadn't cast that tripping hex, I might have told them. Might as well keep them guessing.' He clumsily rose to his feet and collapsing on his bed. He felt himself sink sleepily into the warm darkness caused by his face in his pillow.

Through a sleepy fog her heard the other boys talk.

"He could fall asleep in a coffin" James said.

Sirius chuckled, and responded"Lucky fellow, What do you guys think about trying to find out what Charlie was up to?"

"Are you serious? But it's so early" Peter's quiet voice said.

"Are you kidding? I'm always Sirius." Charlie could almost see the smirk on his face

There was a soft thud and an oomph on the other side of the room. "That's getting old, Black." Snarled Remus, who was still considerably pissed off. "I'm not going anywhere," he added.

"Well I'm in." said James. There was some rustling, and the quiet squeak of the door as they left the room. In the silence, Charlie sank into the darkness.

888

James, Peter, and Sirius ran around the school but couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. It was around seven now and by this time people were started to emerge from their houses. Soon a rumor started buzzing around. People were gathering in groups, grabbing their friends to tell them the news. James, Sirius, and Peter stopped near a couple of Hufflepuffs in their year.

"… Humongous slide… Astronomy tower," a slim girl with purple hair that James recognized as one of the girls in his Charm's class. He didn't know her name.

The other girl was in his class as well. Her hair was short and black, and he vaguely thought her name might have be Kat… or something. He walked up to them. "What did you just say?" He asked the purpled haired one.

"Erm, someone put a slide on top of the Astronomy tower?" She said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, and no one knows who did it." Piped up her friend. James smirked. He had a feeling he knew who was behind it.

"Do you think the teachers will let us use it?" He asked. Regardless, he wasn't about to let a silly thing like teachers stop them from checking it out.

"I think Flitwick said it was safe, but McGonagall said whenever they find out who did it, they will be in a ton of trouble." Said the purple haired one.

"Thank you." He said, leaving the girls behind him. He told Sirius what he had overheard, and with a grin they both took off toward the Astronomy tower followed by Peter, who was managing to keep up with them rather well. They were intercepted along the way by an irritated Professor McGonagall.

"Potter, Black, and Pettigrew! I don't suppose you have any idea how a giant slide ended up on the balcony of the Astronomy tower?"

"Why do you always assume when something happens that it is us?" asked Sirius indignantly.

"Because you have never given me any reason to think otherwise Mr. Black." She said sternly.

James grinned. "As much as we would like to take credit for this one, I can honestly say we had nothing to do with it."

"Really, Professor!" Peter said earnestly.

McGonagall sized the three up with narrow eyes. She sighed. "Well, seeing as I have no proof, I'm going to let you off this time. Behave yourselves." She said finally walking away.

"Let's go get Moony! We should try it out." James said excitedly.

"So this is why Charlie got in so late?" Peter asked.

"Probably, but we can ask him." James said. They ran back toward the Gryffindor common room. After climbing through the portrait hole, they saw Oakley and Mercy by the fire.

"Charlie said it was Oakley's idea. So just let him sleep, I'll ask those two." James said. "Go get Moony, but don't be an idiot. I swear, he was going to strangle the lot of us this morning."

Sirius grinned. "I wouldn't dream of it." Peter and Sirius headed for the stairs up to their dorm. "Pete, so how mad do you think he would be if we drenched him?"

James shook his head and walked over to Oakley and Mercy. Mercy was curled up in a ball and she was staring with her tired eyes at Oakley with a concerned expression. Oakley was drinking what appeared to be black coffee and between sips was a consistent flow of chatter.

"Morning" James said cheerily. Mercy looked up and smiled. Just as she opened her mouth to respond Oakley leaped into the air.

"Hullo James! Excellent to see you. Absolutely spiffing. Marvelous morning, isn't it? I love mornings! It's a great feeling to know you didn't snuff it, yeah?" James stared at Oakley baffled.

"I suppose…" He said.

Oakley took another swing of coffee and continued. "Mercy doesn't like coffee for, which is weird, yeah? I mean her dad drinks probably two pots of the stuff every morning and her mum likes to have a cup or two once in a while. Is liking the taste of coffee genetic? Because if it is she should totally-" James mouth dropped open a little bit. But Oakley kept going, hardly bothering to take a breath as she discussed Mercy's distaste of coffee with herself.

James shot an apprehensive look at Mercy. "Help me…" He muttered. Mercy rubbed her eyes and finally spoke up. "Oakley, give me that coffee before you talk him to death." Mercy said, grabbing the cup out of her hand. Oakley stopped her chatter and sat down on the couch grumpily. James stared at her with wide eyes. "Morning James. Oakley and I didn't get much sleep last night so she thought it would be a grand idea to drink coffee." Mercy put the coffee cup on the table next to her side of the couch.

"Riiiiiiight… Well I actually came over to ask you guys about a certain slide from the top of the Astronomy Tower." James said. Oakley immediately began rambling again.

"Is it all over the school already? Do they know who did it? Can we-" Mercy smacked her upside the head with a pillow.

"You can't prove we had anything to do it," Mercy said smirking at the indignant expression on Oaks face. Oakley snatched the pillow out of Mercy's hand and whacked her upside the head. "Hey, watch it!" She said, tucking the pillow under her arm. "Anyway, this story sounds interesting. Do tell more" Mercy smiled teasingly.

James explained what he, Sirius, and Peter had found out about the slide. As he was talking a surly-looking Remus was being dragged down the stairs of the boys dorms by Sirius followed by a laughing Peter.

"…So McGonagall thought it was us. But I think we both know who it actually was." He said grinning. "I assume?"

Oakley smirked, "Well, you know what they say about assuming. I makes an-"

Mercy shoved her pillow over Oakley's face again, effectively cutting off the burst. "So the teachers are actually going to let the students use it? That's awesome… but a little surprising."

Oakley pulled the pillow off her face and looked over at James dubiously. "You are serious, right?"

"Actually I'm Sirius." Sirius said grinning; Oakley rolled her eyes. "Black, heaven help you if I hear that joke one more time." Sirius winked at her, and she chucked the pillow at him, which he dodged, grinning cheekily.

"Yeah the teachers are letting students use it, but they said that if they find whoever's behind it, there would be trouble." James said to Mercy, because she appeared to be the only one still listening.

"Well let's go get Charlie and try it out!" Oakley said as she stood and sprinted up the stairs to the boys' dorm.

"Wait, you guys went through all that effort but didn't even use it?" James asked in amazement.

"I thought it would be more fun when we weren't about to collapse." Mercy said, looking over at Remus. Her eyes widened as she tried in vain to not to smile his moody expression. "You know it might do you some good." She said. Remus shook his head. Mercy grinned at him, and James watched as he let out a reluctant smile.

888

All day, students of every house were running up the stairs and riding the tube back the ground. The more daring students, such as James, Sirius, and Oakley took it on headfirst while others (Charlie cough cough) tried to slow their decent with their hands.

At 8:30, Charlie, Oakley and Mercy got into position for their plan to get rid of the slide.

Mercy perched herself on one of the beams above the astronomy tower. She pointed her wand at the entrance of the slide, and conjured some thick metal bars that ran across the entrance of their project. There were several complaints from students who were in the line. She crouched down on the beam, trying to hide herself from the curious eyes of those looking for the instigator of the spell.

She cast a bunch of red sparks down the hallway, and the attention of those in the line was immediately drawn down the hall way. Oakley climbed on top of the slide, and dropped through it. Pointing her wand at the slide, she muttered, "Glisseo" and zoomed down the slide. She flew out of the end of the slide laughing, and took off in a jog as she tried to slow her momentum.

"Everyone's out Char! Do it." She said, stopping next to her blond haired friend. He pointed his wand at the slide.

"Reducio!" The slide began shrinking, detaching from the tower and slowly plummeting downward.

"It needs to shrink some more," Oakley said worriedly, it would be harder for him to hit it now that it was moving. She looked over at Charlie, who looked determined.

"Reducio!" He said again, and the red beam made contact with the slide once again, which shrunk further and fell to the ground with a light thump.

Oakley grabbed now pocket-sized slide and put it into her bag. She grinned over at Charlie, "Nice shooting, cowboy."

"You didn't think I'd hit it, did you?" he smirked over at her. She shrugged.

888

"We are totally doing that again." Oakley announced as she, Mercy, and Charlie walked into the Gryffindor common room.

"We can't do the same thing twice." Mercy said, stretching and letting out a long yawn. "I'm exhausted; at least clean-up was easier than putting that monstrosity together. I'm going to bed."

"But it's only 9:30!"Oakley said, her face fighting a yawn.

Charlie noticed and rolled his eyes. "We were up all night, and we have class tomorrow." He said.

Mercy nodded in agreement. "I think I'm allowed to go to bed early tonight." She yawned, rubbing her eyes.

"Night Merce." Charlie said as she went up the stairs to the girls' dorm. He turned to address Oakley. "She's right, I'm off to bed. And we are not doing anything like that for a looooooooong time." He said, and then clapped her on the shoulder. "Night Oaks."

He then went up to his dorm. He peered down at Oakley from the top of the stairs. She stood in the middle of the common room staring into the fire, but then with a sigh of defeat meandered her way up to bed. Charlie opened the door to his room and with a triumphant smile, collapsed onto his bed

Authors Note

Hey, If you got this far, I would love it if you were to shoot me a review! Please? Make my Day?