Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
A/N: Gideon and Fabian most likely didn't attend Hogwarts the same time as the Marauders, but I felt like having them in the story.
The Marauders Year 1
Chapter 20: I DECLARE PRANK WAR!
Grinning, James nodded his head towards his friends. They smiled and stood up. After making sure no one was watching them, the boys snuck out of the common room. In the corridor, James threw the cloak over them and they began their silent trek down to the kitchen where they could finish their plans without being interrupted by students and teachers trying to figure out what they were planning.
For the past few days, the boys have been using all their free time and meal times to work on their April Fools prank. Being known for pulling pranks, the students and teachers watched them worriedly. The boys wore mischievous looks so everyone knew that they should be worried. April Fools was the best day for the pranksters at Hogwarts. As a tradition, Dumbledore made it so no prankster could get in trouble on April first for pulling pranks. The Headmaster loved pranks and thought that they made life at Hogwarts more interesting and fun.
When the Marauders reached the painting of the bowl of fruit, James pulled the cloak off and stuffed it into his pocket. Sirius tickled the pear and pulled the painting opened. He led his friends into the kitchen, but froze at the sight of two identical looking boys with orange hair sitting there, talking quietly with each other. At the sound of the painting opening, the boys looked up at the four boys.
"Well, well, look who it is." One of the boys said.
"The famous first year troublemakers," The other boy grinned.
James pulled the painting shut and looked at the twins. "Who are you two? I don't think we've met you."
"We are the famous troublemakers of Gryffindor." One of the boys said.
"Then how come we haven't seen any chaos from you two since we started?" Sirius raised a brow.
"We're fifth years. We put a hold on our pranks for a while because we have O.W.L.s this year. The professors have been giving us too much homework to plan anything yet." The second boy said.
Remus sat down. "So, what are your names?"
"I'm Gideon,"
"And I'm Fabian."
"Nice to meet you," James replied. "I'm James Potter."
"Sirius Black."
"Remus Lupin."
"Peter Pettigrew."
Gideon grinned. "So, what are you four planning?"
"Whatever do you mean?" Sirius asked innocently.
Fabian snorted. "Please, we've seen you four,"
"Actually, everyone has seen you four." Gideon interrupted.
Fabian nodded his head. "We have all seen you four secretly plotting something. You have the whole school worried."
"And you have been going to the library a lot of late. We've seen you going in there. What have you been researching?" Gideon asked curiously.
Remus rolled his eyes and smirked. "If you really think we're going to tell you, you're sadly mistaken. You have to wait like everyone else."
Gideon and Fabian shared disappointed looks. They were both frowning, but there was an amused look in their eyes. Fabian turned back to Remus with a smirk on his face. "So, we have a question for you four. You see, unlike everyone else in this school we are not idiots."
"We've pulled enough pranks to know that there is always a symbol from the prankster in their prank. You just have to look close enough to see it." Gideon continued.
"The Marauders just appeared this year."
"The Marauders love pranks and always appear at a holiday."
"You four play pranks when there is no holiday around."
"We saw your mark in your pranks and the same mark in the Marauder's pranks."
"So, we deduced that you four must be the Marauders, right?"
James grinned and looked at Sirius, Remus, and Peter. Sirius grinned at James. He wasn't all that surprised that these two were able to figure it out. They seemed smart and if they were as good as prankster as they were making it sound, it would make sense that they would realize who the Marauders were. Remus sighed and leaned back on his hands as he stared at the twins with evaluating eyes. Peter just looked at everyone nervously.
After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, Remus sat back up and clapped his hands slowly, almost in a mocking manner. "Congratulations! You are the first ones to figure out the truth about us being the Marauders. Good job!"
James and Sirius snickered at Remus.
Gideon and Fabian smirked. "Knew it." They said together.
James cleared his throat. "If you would excuse us, we have some last minute plans we need to work on."
The bespectacled boy motioned his friends to follow him out of the kitchen. Remus and Peter followed quietly, but Sirius started complaining about being hungry as they left the kitchen. Remus rolled his eyes. Sirius could never stop eating. He was like a garbage disposal.
"We have to beat them." James said as soon as the painting to the kitchen was closed.
"What are you talking about?" Remus asked.
James turned to look Remus. He looked at Remus as if he just missed the most obvious thing in the world. "Gideon and Fabian, of course. We have to beat them. We must become better pranksters then them."
Remus rolled his eyes, but Sirius smirked and nodded his head in agreement. "We can't let them beat us at pranking this school."
"You guys are unbelievable. They are just pranks. It's not a game of who is best at pulling pranks or who pulls the best pranks." Remus replied, rolling his eyes again.
Sirius and James sighed and looked at each other sadly. Their looks made it look as if someone had died with how sad their looks were. They stopped walking and turned to face the boy who was walking behind them with a frown on his face. His arms were crossed over his chest as he stopped too and looked at Sirius and James with a raised brow.
"Remus, Remus, Remus," Sirius shook his head sadly. He put his hands on Remus's shoulders and buried his face in Remus's shoulder. Sighing dramatically, Sirius lifted his head and looked Remus in the eyes. "Have we taught you nothing?"
"Oh, and what have you been teaching me?" Remus asked, voice dripping with sarcasm.
Ignoring the sarcasm, Sirius continued. "We've been teaching all about pranks and how we must be proud of what we do. Pranks are our life here at Hogwarts. We must be the best at what we do."
James swung an arm around Remus's shoulders. "He is correct. Do we really have to go over this lesson again for you to understand that we shall not allow anyone to best us at what we do? I don't want to have repeat lessons, but I will if I have to get you to understand this lesson. It is very important that you…..and Pete know this."
"I didn't say anything. How did I get dragged into this?" Peter asked, looking at James confused.
James leaned past Remus's shoulders to look at Peter. "Do you know this lesson?"
Peter shrugged. "Yeah. It's kind of been drilled into my brain."
"At least someone listens to us when we talk." Sirius commented dryly, giving Remus a fake angry glare.
Remus snorted and pushed Sirius off of him and began walking away. As much as he liked his friends, they could be a tad annoying and a little too dramatic at times. If he spent every waking moment with them, Remus was sure he would go insane. No one could hang with James and Sirius and say that they wouldn't go insane. It just wasn't possible.
Laughing loudly, Sirius ran after his friend, completely ignoring James who was yelling at him in a whisper to be quiet or they were going to be caught being out of bed passed curfew and get another detention. They still had to finish their April Fool's prank and couldn't afford a detention. The detention would take their planning time away. Sirius didn't seem too concerned about that fact and continued to run down the corridor and yelling. His footsteps were echoing around the empty hallway.
Throwing an annoyed glance back at Sirius, Remus took off down the hall to get far away from them before anyone showed to find out where the noise was coming from. He wasn't going to get in trouble for being out after curfew again. There were only a few months of school left and Remus didn't want any more trouble. His mother would murder him. She hated it when he misbehaved. She wanted him to be a perfect little boy and get the best grades and be the top of his class because he needed it because of what he was. He was supposed to the best in everything and never do anything wrong, which meant no fun, because his mother wanted him to succeed in life and he would have it harder since he was a werewolf.
Turning down another corridor, Remus skidded to a stop as he came face to stomach with McGonagall. He looked up into her scolding face and went to take a step back from her since he was only inches from her when a body slammed into him from behind, making him stumble forward and knocked into McGonagall. McGonagall took a few steps back, shocked from the weight being propelled at her. She wrapped one arm around Remus's shoulders to keep Remus from falling over, while Sirius stumbled back from the surprise of slamming into Remus. James rounded the corner just in time to catch Sirius before he fell onto his butt. About a minute later, Peter joined them, gasping for breath and massaging his ribs.
"Sorry Professor." Remus mumbled shyly, looking at the ground.
McGonagall released Remus, allowing him to walk over to his friends. "Why are you four out of bed and running around the castle?" Her hands were planted on her hips as she gave her students a steely glare.
James and Sirius shared a glance and burst into speech at once.
"Well, you see, Professor,"
"We were in our dorm trying to sleep,"
"But just as we were beginning to drift off into dreams….."
"About candy, chocolate, girls, Evans, coughJamescough,"
"I don't dream about Evans! I don't even like her!"
Sirius snorted. "Please, I see the way you look at her. You are always watching her. We all know you like her."
"I do not watch her!" James screamed. "She is so annoying and interfering."
"Boys!" McGonagall scolded. "Quiet!"
The boys fell silent and turned back to look at their professor.
McGonagall looked at each boy in turn before focusing her gaze on Remus. "Lupin, tell me the truth. What were you doing out of bed?"
Remus looked at his friends nervously, biting his lip. His friends glared at him, a warning to be quiet. Sighing, Remus looked back at his professor. "Well, Professor, it is true that we were in our dorm trying to sleep. But then I remembered just before I fell asleep that I forgot my book in the library. I was worried that it wouldn't be there tomorrow because you know that Madam Pince would have done something with it. You know how she is with books. Or maybe a student could have taken it. Anyway, I couldn't sleep, knowing that my book was out there in the library, all alone. I decided to leave to go get it, but as I was leaving, I woke James and he asked me where I was going, so I told him. And James refused to let me go by myself, heaven knows why! So, James got up and then he woke Sirius and Peter, deciding to make it an adventure to go to the library to get my book."
McGonagall held up a hand to stop Remus. "I just wanted to know what you were doing. I didn't need the whole story, but I do see a few flaws in your story. Firstly, where is this book you were looking for? Secondly, you are nowhere near the library. And thirdly, tomorrow is April first. Do you honestly think I'm going to believe you weren't plotting?"
"To answer your first question," Remus reached into his robe pocket and pulled a book out, "this is the book we went to find. Next, we aren't near the library because we were on our way back to the common room, but we took a wrong turn, into a secret passage, I think, and ended up down here. And lastly, do you really think we are plotting something at this time of night? If we are going to prank tomorrow, we're going to set it all up tomorrow as it is a Saturday. We have all day to get the prank set up and don't need to worry about classes."
When he was finished talking, Remus risked a glance at his friends. Peter was bouncing from one foot to the other nervously, looking between McGonagall and Remus, not really sure if he should do or say anything. James and Sirius looked a little shocked, but managed to cover it up by looking at McGonagall in a calm and cool way. They had amusement shining in their eyes and were smiling, both had their arms crossed. Nothing about their postures revealed anything as this was their normal behavior. Actually, if Remus didn't know any better, with just this one glance at his friends, Remus would assume that Sirius and James were twins, especially since Sirius's hair was still short from when Remus cut it. The only difference between them was that James had hazel eyes and glasses while Sirius had grey eyes and didn't wear glasses.
Remus looked back at his professor, expectantly. He looked her in the eye and put his hands in his pockets to hide that they were shaking. This was the first time that he ever actually had to come up with a lie on the spot that didn't involve him having to leave for the full moon or anything else to do with him being a werewolf. He was especially nervous because it was a teacher he was lying to and making up stories to.
Not being able to find anything wrong with the story, McGonagall sighed. She really thought she caught them in the act of pranking. "Twenty points from each of you for sneaking out after curfew and detention. Now go back to your common room."
"Yes ma'am." The boys chorused.
As soon as they rounded the corner, James turned to Remus with a shocked look on his face. "How the hell did you come up with a lie like that and actually get her to believe you? You suck at lying."
Remus grinned. Truth was, he told her the lie like he was telling someone a story. If was acting like it was a story he was telling and not a lie, it was easy to get someone to believe you. This was the first time he tried that theory out. Now that he knew he could do it, it would be much easier to get out of trouble when they were caught doing something.
"So?" Sirius prompted when Remus didn't reply.
Smirking, Remus began to walk away. "It was easy, but that's because I'm the only one of the group with a brain. I don't expect any of you to be able to come up with believable stories off the top of your head like I just did."
James and Sirius gave Remus evil glares as he walked away.
"You know we have to get back at him for that comment, right?" James asked.
Sirius nodded his head.
The boys sat in their corner of the common room around the table where they always worked on their homework and planning pranks when they could. Pieces of parchment sat in the middle of the table with the boys hunched over them. Remus was scribbling on another piece of parchment that was in front of him. It looked like a diagram of something sinister, well sinister to anyone who wasn't a prankster.
A squeaking noise brought the boys out of their planning. They were the only ones in the common room and were surprised at the sudden noise. They looked towards the portrait hole as it closed behind Gideon and Fabian. The twins grinned at them when they saw them.
"What are you four up to?" Gideon wandered over to them.
As soon as the twins started moving towards them, the boys slammed their hands over their parchments to keep everything hidden on them while they gathered the papers up in their arms.
"Aww, don't you want to share?" Fabian pouted.
"We told you earlier. You have to wait like everyone else." James replied as he stood up. He nodded towards the twins and led his friends up to their dormitory to continue to finalize their prank without anymore interruptions.
Fabian grinned and followed the boys up the stairs. "Come on, don't be like that. Maybe Gideon and I can help you."
"We don't take help from anyone outside of the first year Gryffindor boys." Sirius called over his shoulder.
"Trying to prove something?" Gideon grinned.
"Of course, that we are the best pranksters ever." Remus explained before closing the bedroom door.
Gideon laughed. "Didn't they already prove that?"
"By being the Marauders?" Fabian asked.
Gideon nodded his head. "We certainly didn't pull pranks like that in our first year."
"That's because there are only two of us, while they are four of them. They work well together." Fabian replied.
Remus dumped his parchments on James's bed and smiled as he listened to Gideon and Fabian talk about them and give them all those compliments. He still hated having his werewolf hearing to eavesdrop on others, but Remus decided to just embrace it now, instead of hating it and wishing he didn't have it. Wishing did nothing for him. It was better to get used to the fact that being a werewolf gave him heightened senses, strength, and great balance. Those skills were useful at times.
Sirius looked up from the parchment he was looking over and raised an eyebrow. It was very rare to see Remus smiled. Very few things could make Remus smile or laugh. Even when they did prank, Remus didn't laugh at all of them, sometimes he barely smiled at them. It made Sirius think that, like himself, Remus had a dark past. Sirius had to live with a bunch of pureblood freaks who hated muggle-borns and muggles, even half-bloods didn't mean much to them. He had to grow up around them and listen to them saying horrible things about magical creatures and muggle-borns. His family was full of dark witches and wizards that agreed with what Voldemort was doing. It is why Sirius pranks. He feels that everyone can do with a laugh and pranks were his and James way of giving everyone a laugh and making people smile. He loved pranks and making people smile. Remus, though, did pranks just to help James and Sirius keep their pranks perfect so no one got hurt and that they didn't get caught. Sirius wondered if Remus even enjoyed them anymore like he did when he was younger.
"What'cha smiling at, Remus?" Sirius asked, flopping down on his bed and staring at Remus.
Looking at Sirius, Remus frowned. "What did you just say?"
"I asked, what'cha smiling at, Remus?" Sirius repeated.
Remus growled. "You are butchering the English language. Don't speak like that."
Sirius sat up and stared incredulity at Remus.
James looked up from his plans and grinned. "Why? Does it bother ya if we do butcher de English language?"
Remus looked between the two boys, eye twitching slightly.
"Me thinks it does bother de little boy." Sirius smirked.
Remus whimpered at the butchering of the language and covered his ears. He sat on his bed and faced the wall so he couldn't hear or see his friends killing the English language. People butchering the language annoyed him greatly. He always had to be grammatically correct and so does everyone around him.
"Remus?" James questioned, but received no reply from him. He didn't really expect to get a reply though. Remus had his hands smashed so hard against his head that it looked like he was trying to squeeze his head.
"Does butchering the English language bother him that much?" Peter asked.
Snickering, Sirius looked at Remus's back. "Who knew something so small could annoy him."
Yawning, James looked at the clock to see it was a little past midnight. "Come on, let's go to bed. It's getting late."
"Who wants to tell Remus?" Peter yawned. He covered his mouth as he fell backwards onto his bed, dead asleep.
"I'll tell him." James grinned evilly.
"What are you….?" Sirius started to ask.
"BANSAI!" James yelled as he propelled himself from his bed to Remus's bed, his robe whipping behind him. He landed on Remus and both boys tumbled off the bed. One of them shocked and confused and the other was laughing his head off.
The boys landed in a tangled mess of limbs on the floor. James's glasses were hanging on one of his ears. Remus was trapped under James and mumbling something incomprehensible because his shirt was in his mouth. His golden, mysterious eyes were out of focus from the tumble.
Laughing, James pulled his trapped arm out from under Remus and pushed his arms up so he was kneeling over Remus. He fixed his glasses and grinned at his disheveled friend. "You know, Remus, you shouldn't plug your ears like that. If you didn't, I wouldn't have had to tackle you to get your attention, but that was fun."
Remus pulled his shirt out of his mouth. "For who?" He grumbled.
"Don't be like that. You need to learn to have some fun that isn't pranks." James replied. "There are more fun things to do that don't involve pranks. You should discover them."
Remus rolled his eyes. "Is there a reason as to why you tackled me in the first place?"
"It's getting late so we're going to go to bed. I thought you would like to be informed of that fact." James explained. He pushed his glasses back up his nose as they were sliding down since his head was bowed to look at Remus.
Remus grunted and pushed James off of him. James fell backwards and hit his head on Remus's bed.
Remus stood up and brushed himself off. "Don't tackle me again."
"Awww, you're no fun." James pouted.
The scene of him pouting actually looked really funny to Remus and Sirius so they both started laughing. James had his arms crossed and his bottom lip pushed out. It looked funny because he was lying on the floor with his head tilted up to stare at the ceiling because it was propped up by Remus's bed and his glasses were askew again.
James pushed himself off the floor and glared at them before stomping over to his section of the room. "Jerks." He mumbled.
Sirius and Remus continued to snicker at James as they got ready for bed.
The next morning James was woken up by something being splashed onto him. The substance felt sticky to James. He groaned and was almost afraid to open his eyes. But he was James Potter and James Potter is not afraid of anything. So, James reached over to his nightstand and felt the sticky substance slide down his hand and drop to the floor. He grabbed his glasses and jammed them onto his face, running his sticky hairs in his hair and on his face with something tickling his nose. Opening his eyes, James saw Sirius standing over him with his arms crossed and a smug smile on his face. A bucket was hanging on his arm.
"What did you do?" James growled. He sat up and looked at himself to see that he was covered all the way from his torso and up in maple syrup and feathers. He clenched his teeth and looked at Sirius.
"April Fools!" Sirius said happily and ran out of the room.
James clenched his hands and threw the cover of him. He stomped into the bathroom to take a shower to get the syrup and feathers off of him. Good thing that today was a Saturday or he would have been late to class because it took him an hour to get the feathers and syrup off of him. Another half an hour to get washed up to so he wasn't sticky anymore. Though, even with all the washing he did, he couldn't the smell of syrup off of him.
After getting dressed, James stomped down to the Great Hall where his friends were relaxing and waiting for him. James sat next to Remus and glared at him and Peter. "Did you guys know he was going to do that?"
"Do what?" Peter asked confused.
"Throw maple syrup and feathers on him." Remus told Peter before turning to James. His eyes shined with amusement. "No, we didn't know."
James nodded his head and became friendlier with Peter and Remus, but kept glaring at Sirius with venom in his eyes. "I will get you back." James hissed.
Sirius smirked at him. "You can't prank me, Potter."
James gritted his teeth. "Watch me."
"Guys," Remus looked between James and Sirius. "Don't we have a prank to pull today? You don't have time to have a prank war again."
James and Sirius whipped their heads around to glare at Remus. "Butt out, Remus!" They screamed together before they went back to glare at each other.
"What are the rules of our prank war?" Sirius asked.
"Guys, I really don't think you should have another prank war." Remus said warily. "It could cause a lot of problems and get in the way of our Marauders Prank."
"SHUT UP, REMUS!" James and Sirius yelled.
"MR. POTER! MR. BLACK! THERE IS NO YELLING IN THE GREAT HALL!" McGonagall yelled from the Head Table.
Sirius and James nodded their heads sheepishly at her.
"You just yelled yourself, Professor! Isn't that hypocritical of you?" Remus asked, raising a brow.
McGonagall gaped at her student, before blushing and turning back to her plate, refusing to reply to her student.
Remus smirked and turned back to his plate to continue eating.
"How come when we get smart with Minnie we get yelled at but when Remus gets smart with her she doesn't say anything?" Sirius whined.
"She likes me more." Remus replied, grinning.
"But I'm more loveable than you." Sirius pouted.
Remus smirked. "Apparently she doesn't think so."
For a few minutes, silence reined over the boys as Sirius pouted.
The silence was annoying James so he coughed to get Sirius's attention.
"Right, so, what are the rules of our prank war?" Sirius asked, turning his attention back to James.
James cleared his throat and spoke in the way an official would when he was explaining the rules. "To win the Prank War, you must have the most points at the end of the game. Rule 1: No physical harm shall come to any who participate in this Prank War as a prank until after six p.m., but nothing too dangerous for the physical pain. Nothing that will make someone bleed. If it is really dangerous, then it won't count and the team that did it will lose five points. Rule 2: No one but the participants in the war can fall to the pranks. If anyone outside the participants is victim to one of our pranks then the prankster loses a point. Rule 3: The Prank War begins at nine a.m. and ends at midnight. Rule 4: Only Marauders may participate in the Prank War. Rule 5: The Prank War will be teams of two against two."
"LEAVE ME OUT OF THIS!" Remus screamed.
"Mr. Lupin, no yelling in the Great Hall!" McGonagall scolded.
"Rule 6: Each prank that is pulled earns each team one point. If both members of a team falls victim to a prank then the team that pulled the prank gets two points." James continued as if Remus didn't yell. "Rule 7: The invisibility cloak may be used in the game. The team who gets to it first gets to use it. The cloak must be where everyone knows it is so it is fair game for getting it. Rule 8: If the opposing team manages to steal the cloak during the war, they get to use it. At midnight, the team with the most points wins and the winning team gets to decide something the losing team has to do. It can be embarrassing, funny, in public or private. The winning team decides."
Sirius nodded his head. "That sounds fair. I have no objections."
"I do!" Remus growled. "I want no part in this."
James and Sirius continued to ignore him. "If there are no objections, then the Prank War begins now. We just need to pick our partners."
Remus looked at Peter to see that he looked excited at the idea of the Prank War. He was going to be no help to him to get out of this stupid game. Remus looked down the table at Lily. Maybe she could help him. She had promised him that if he even needed help to escape his friends and their antics she would make up an excuse and get him away from them.
"I GET REMUS!" James and Sirius yelled at the same time.
Remus looked at James and Sirius and growled. The idea of helping either of them in the Prank War was painful, especially since he wasn't in the mood to do any pranking.
"Black, Potter, what did I tell you about yelling in the Great Hall?" McGonagall screamed at them.
The boys ignored her and started arguing about whose team Remus was on. While they were arguing, Remus rolled his eyes and slipped out of his seat. Maybe he could slip out of the Great Hall without them noticing and hide so he wouldn't have to take part in the Prank War.
Remus got a few feet away before Peter decided to be mean. "Hey James, Sirius, Remus is leaving."
"WHAT?" James and Sirius yelled. They whipped around in their seats to glare at Remus's retreating back.
"Black, Potter, stop yelling right now!" McGonagall growled. "If you don't, I will give you each a detention."
Sirius and James ignored her and jumped out of their seats. Sirius jumped over the table and he and James chased after the unsuspecting Remus. They lunged at him, knocking him the ground. James sat on Remus's back and Sirius on his legs.
Remus groaned under their weight and whacked his head into the floor a few times. It was foolish of him to think he would be able to get away from his friends when they wanted to have a Prank War. "I hate you guys. I hate you so much."
"So, who gets Remus on his team?" Sirius asked airily.
"I do since I claimed him first." James said.
"No, you didn't. I did." Sirius growled.
"No, I did."
"No, I did."
"I did."
"I did."
"I did."
"I did."
"I did."
"I did."
"OH, FOR THE LOVE OF MERLIN! WILL YOU TWO IDIOTS GET OFF ME?" Remus yelled at the top of his lungs.
Sirius and James fell over in shock at the loudness of Remus's voice.
"Sheesh, you didn't need to yell." Sirius said. He smacked one of his ears to get his hearing back.
"BLACK! LUPIN! POTTER! I HAVE HAD IT WITH YOU THREE! TWENTY POINTS FROM GRYFFINDOR!" McGonagall yelled angrily.
Sirius and James looked at their professor, then at each other. They grinned and stood up and faced their professor again.
"Excuse me, professor, but we need your help to solve a disagreement." James said innocently.
Professor McGonagall looked at them warily, as did everyone else in the Great Hall. If James or Sirius were acting all innocent, it couldn't mean anything good. "What do you need help with?"
"Well, you see, we're going to play a game and we need teams, but James and I both want to be on Remus's team. Who do you…," Sirius grabbed Remus's jacket as he tried to sneak away from Sirius and James again and pulled him back towards them, "think should be on Remus's team?"
McGonagall looked between James, Sirius, and Remus and shook her head. "What kind of game is this?"
"We can't tell you that." James said as he slapped a hand over Remus's mouth to stop him from telling McGonagall their plans.
"Nothing good can come from either of you being on Remus's team." McGonagall sighed. Remus knew more spells than most first years with all the reading he did and Sirius and James were smart and would be able to pick up on the spells he taught them easily. Not just that, but James and Sirius were huge troublemakers. She knew nothing good was going to come from the game these boys were going to play.
"So, Professor?" James prompted.
Professor McGonagall looked between the three boys again. She saw Sirius determined and evil grin. James looked mischievous today and Remus was giving her pleading eyes to stop this madness. Knowing there was nothing she could do to stop whatever James and Sirius were planning sine they weren't any classes because it was Saturday and they haven't done anything wrong yet, Professor McGonagall had to ignore Remus's plea. "Sirius and Remus are a team." She said after a few minutes of thought. Remus would be able to control Sirius. He was the craziest of the four boys, but she was confident that Remus would be able to control him in whatever the game was that they were going to play.
"YES!" Sirius screamed, pumping a fist into the air.
"Damn it." James swore under his breath so McGonagall wouldn't hear him, yell at him, and possibly give him a detention.
Remus groaned and fell to the ground. He buried his face in his arms.
James sighed. "Peter, you're on my team!"
Sirius pulled Remus to his feet and looked at his opponents. "On GO! the game begins."
James nodded his head. "1…."
"2.…"
"3…."
"GO!" Sirius and James yelled together.
Sirius grabbed Remus's arm and pulled them out of the Great Hall.
"Where are we going? I thought this was a Prank War." Remus asked.
Sirius looked at him over his shoulder as he continued to run down the corridor. "We have to try to get the cloak first and some prank supplies from our dorm. You have all that prank supplies you got for Christmas and your birthday that we can finally use and I have some things we can use."
Sighing, Remus tugged his arm free and raced after Sirius.
"Cheer up, Remus. This is going to be fun. It's a War game, sort of. Don't think of it as a Prank War, but as War between friends for fun." Sirius said.
A blue curse flew over their heads causing Sirius and Remus to duck their heads. They looked behind them to see James and Peter chasing after them with their wands drawn and firing spells at them.
Jumping to the side to avoid another spell that was fired at him, Remus growled and decided that he had had enough. He drew his wand and started to shoot hexes back at his opponent. Out of the corner of his eye, Remus saw that Sirius had stopped running and was shooting hexes at James and Peter too.
Remus fired a jelly-leg curse at Peter and turned his attention to James to help Sirius take him down. He watched Peter out of the corner of his eye in case he got up.
"That's considered a prank, right?" Sirius asked Remus. Remus nodded his head, making Sirius smirked. "That is one point for Team….."
"I get to pick the name of your team and you can pick the name of ours." James interjected. "Your team is Team Lion."
Sirius smirked. "And your team is Team Evans."
"WHAT?" James screamed angrily, cheeks turning red and he was waving his wand arm in the air.
Snickering, Sirius fired a Trip Jinx at James, but he ducked so the jinx went over his head. James laughed. "Give up, guys. You can't beat us."
Something flared inside of Remus at those words. He felt the desire to win this stupid war now. It was now a matter of pride in winning the game. Actually, now that Remus thought about it, it was always about pride since the losing team will most likely have to do something embarrassing in front of the whole school if James or Sirius have any say in it which they do. Remus wanted to win now. He wasn't going to let James hurt his pride. The werewolf inside him wouldn't allow his pride to be hurt.
"Sirius," Remus growled as he deflected a jinx."
Sirius paused for a second to blink in surprise at Remus's tone before going back to the battle. "Yeah Remus?"
"Hold these two off. I'll go get the cloak and supplies." Remus hissed, his grip tightening on his wand.
"How long do I need to hold them off?" Sirius asked as he ducked another hex.
Remus jumped behind a suit of armor as a jinx came flying at him. Peter was back into the battle. "I just need a few minutes."
"How are you going to get to the tower that fast?" Sirius asked.
Werewolf speed Remus thought….."I just need a few head start." Remus said. He crawled out from behind the suit of armor and raised his wand. "Expelliarmus!"
Peter's wand went flying out of his hand and to Remus, who caught it expertly. He pocketed it and turned to Sirius for confirmation of his plan.
Sirius nodded his head, so Remus took off down the corridor.
"He took my wand!" Peter screamed, looking annoyed.
Sirius fired a hex at Peter that changed his skin color to pink. "Another point for Team Lion!"
James clenched his teeth. "Tarantallegra!"
Sirius's legs started to dance uncontrollably.
"Point for Team Evans!" Peter declared.
James and Peter grinned and ran off down the corridor, leaving Sirius alone to dance.
Remus burst into his dorm and dropped to his knees in front of James's trunk. Remus plunged his hand into his pocket for Peter's wand and threw it onto James's bed so Peter could get it and so that Team Evans would know that he was there before he threw the trunk lid open and starting throwing everything in the trunk out of it as he looked for the invisibility cloak. He wasn't exactly sure as to where James put his cloak.
After a few minutes of searching everywhere in James section of the room Remus found the cloak in James's nightstand. Just as he reached for the cloak, Remus heard feet thundering up the stairs. Remus grabbed the cloak, jumped onto his own bed, and threw the cloak over himself just in time. As soon as he turned invisible, the bedroom door was slammed open and James and Peter burst into the room, the latter rubbing his ribs and breathing heavily.
James's eyes swept over his area of the room and he let out a strangled scream as he looked at the mess. "REMUS!"
Under the cloak, Remus winced from the volume. He clamped his hands over his ears as they continued to ring.
James ran over to his nightstand and yanked the drawer open. He pulled it out of the nightstand and dumped all his possessions out of it onto his bed. He pushed everything around on his bed as he looked for the cloak. After a minute of pushing everything around, James fell to his knees. "That prat has got the cloak."
"So, what do we do now?" Peter asked.
"Find that prat and get the cloak before he gets to Sirius!" James screamed and ran out of the dorm with Peter following behind him, who slammed the door shut behind him.
Remus waited a few minutes to make sure that the team wouldn't come back before he jumped off of his bed. He shook his head, amused. His friends were really not observant. If they were observant then they would have noticed the bed being pushed down as if someone was standing on it. They could have easier caught him if they noticed. He would have to teach his friends to be observant when this game was over. For now though, Remus threw his trunk open and grabbed the pranking supplies he got for Christmas and his birthday. He shoved them in his pocket and threw the cloak back over himself and leaving to find Sirius.
Remus ran down to the corridor where the two teams fought the first time in this game. He didn't meet James or Peter on the way down there so he was beginning to worry about where they were. He would expect them to be going down this way to wait for him to go back to Sirius.
That thought got Remus to slow down and start to walk slowly along the empty corridor he was in. James and Peter would be waiting near Sirius for him. They might be trying to ambush him when he goes back to get Sirius.
Remus continued down the corridor to meet Sirius more quietly and with softer steps so as to not alert James and Peter to his presence when he reached Sirius. He turned right at the end of the corridor and saw Sirius still dancing in the middle of the hallway. Remus walked over to him.
"Sirius," Remus whispered in his ear, "I'm back. Where are James and Peter?"
Sirius's eyes roamed over to the nearest suit of armor.
Remus followed his eyes to look at the armor. He nodded his head before realizing that Sirius couldn't see him. Shrugging, Remus turned back around to the armor and walked silently over to the armor. He peeked around the armor to see James and Peter crouched there, each looking at a different end of the corridor. Smirking, Remus pulled out a smoke vial and two dungbombs that his father "improved" for him for his Christmas present. He walked back over to Sirius and drew his wand. "Finite Incantatem!" He whispered, pointing his wand at Sirius.
Instantly, Sirius's legs stopped dancing and Remus turned back to the suit of armor. As soon as James and Peter saw Sirius's legs stop dancing, they knew that Remus was there, so they jumped out from behind the suit of armor with their wands drawn. Remus didn't give them a chance to do anything. He lit the dungbombs and slipped a hand out from under the cloak and threw them at Peter and James.
The dungbombs exploded, but instead of just giving off an odor, silver and green paint exploded out of them and onto a surprised James and Peter with the horrible smell.
"What the hell?" Sirius asked, shock in his voice and on his face.
"Two points for Team Lion!" Remus's voice came out of nowhere.
"REMUS!" James yelled angrily. He looked directly where he saw Remus's hand come from earlier. He lifted his wand to hex Remus, but before he could, he heard glass shattering on the ground and white and gray smoke appearing, blinding all the boys.
Remus pulled the cloak off and stuffed it in his cloak. He grabbed the back of Sirius's cloak and ran off down the hallway.
"Finally using the vapeur bombe I gave you months ago I see." Sirius said. He pulled himself free and started to run aside Remus. "What were those things that covered Peter and James in paint? I thought they were dungbombs."
Remus spared his friend a glance. "They are dungbombs, just improved ones I got for Christmas from my dad. He put magically paint inside them and kept the odor in them too."
"What's the difference between magically paint and regular paint? I never knew there was a difference." Sirius asked curiously.
"Magical paint doesn't come off floors, walls, clothes, etc. It only comes off skin and hair. To get it off everything else, you need to perform some charms or use this magically paint remover. I don't know the spells though or have any of the paint remover." Remus replied.
"Who cares what the spells are? I'm sure Flitwick will be able to get it cleaned up in a jiff. We just need to worry about winning this war." Sirius replied.
Remus nodded his head. "What do we do now?"
"James and Peter will be coming after us. Let's be ready for them." Sirius grinned evilly.
James wiped the paint off his glasses and put them back on. "Where the hell did Remus get those?"
"We'll have to ask him later when the game is over." Peter replied. "Do we chase after them?"
James shook his head. "No, that's what they want. We have to go set up a prank for them somewhere else."
Each team got their prank set up in their own area of the castle. The trouble with this was that they had to make sure that no one but their opponents stepped into the trap. If someone else stepped into it, they would lose a point. Neither team wanted to lose points. They all wanted to win badly.
"A decoy?" Remus suggested.
"What?" Sirius asked.
"James isn't stupid enough to follow us. He knows that we are going to set up a prank for him. He won't follow us. But what if we sent someone to find him and Peter and lure them back here so they can step into our prank?" Remus explained.
Sirius nodded his head. "It's a good idea, but what if they have a prank set up? We would be walking right into it."
"Sacrifices are necessary to win a war." Remus replied. "We give them one point if we have to if it means they walk into our prank."
"Or we could…" Sirius stopped and smirked. "I'll go get Team Evans here. You stay here and make sure no one walks into our prank."
Remus was a little wary of letting Sirius be the decoy, but nodded his head anyway.
With the approval given, Sirius jumped to his feet and ran off down the corridor. He skidded to a halt when he reached the corridor where the paint dungbombs went off. He looked around the corner to make sure that James and Peter were gone and that their prank wasn't going to go off there. The only person he saw in the corridor was Flitwick, who looked amused as he cleaned the paint up.
Sirius chuckled and rearranged his face into that of an innocent expression. He walked around the corner and smiled innocently. "Hello Professor."
"Hello Mr. Black. Would happen to know where the paint came from?" Flitwick asked cheerfully.
"No sir." Sirius replied convincingly as he walked passed.
When Sirius rounded the corner at the end of hallway, Sirius dropped the innocent look and smirk. He took off running down the hallway. He needed to find a student, any student would do.
Leah Peirs, a first year Hufflepuff girl with auburn hair that reached her shoulders and bright sage eyes, rounded the corner and ran into Sirius, who was turning the corner to. She fell to the ground and glared up at Sirius.
"Oh, I'm sorry Leah." Sirius smiled charmingly at her, making her blush.
"It's alright, Sirius." Leah replied.
Sirius held his hand out for her and pulled her to her feet. "So, where are you heading on this fine Saturday afternoon?"
"Oh, nowhere really. I'm just walking." Leah said, smiling a little.
The two set off down the hallway together. Leah didn't even realize that Sirius was leading them around the castle. She was just following him because he was holding her hand and any girl would be out of their mind to not follow someone as handsome as him.
Sirius looked at the pretty girl he was leading into the prank that James had set up. He almost felt guilty doing this to her. She didn't deserve it, but he wanted to win this game, damn it! He would not lose to James Chrysanthos Potter! He would just have to make it up to Leah later.
Where are those two? You think they would set up their prank somewhere where I would walk into it. How am I supposed to find them? Sirius smiled at Leah.
"Are you finished, Peter?" James grunted.
Sirius's ears perked up. He stopped and pulled Leah to a stop today. He put a finger to his lip to tell her to be quiet. Sirius looked around the corner to see Peter standing on James's shoulder and hanging something over the bar of one of the torches that was sticking out of the wall.
"Yeah," Peter replied.
James sighed in relief and let go of Peter's feet, making the shorter boy topple to the ground. Peter hit the ground and groaned. "Did you have to drop me?"
"I couldn't handle your weight on my shoulders anymore." James rubbed his sore shoulders.
Sirius turned back to Leah, who was watching him confused. He smiled at her and walked around the corner while pulling her along. He slowed his pace so Leah would overtake him.
James and Peter looked up when the two rounded the corner. They looked shocked at them. James saw Sirius slow down and Leah walked pass him. His eyes widened when he realized what Sirius was doing.
"Leah," James called and jumped forward a little to try to stop the girl.
Not realizing that he was trying to get her to stop, Leah continued walking. As she was walking, she felt something dig into her ankle. Before she could even react to something digging into her ankle, a net fell onto her making her fall down onto her back, followed by balloons filled with glue and little plastic bedazzled gems that girls used to decorate their clothes.
James and Peter gaped at that, while Sirius smirked at them. "Team Evans loses a point." Sirius mouthed at them.
"Oh, damn it, Leah, I'm sorry." James said.
Leah screamed. "You prats!"
James glared at Sirius. "Low Black, very low. Using her as a decoy."
Sirius shrugged. "I'll do whatever it takes to win. In case you didn't know, I have three points, while you guys have none."
"Remus got most of those points." Peter growled.
"Like it matters, we are still beating you losers and at least we are not pranking innocent bystanders." Sirius said smugly.
James let out an enraged scream and lunged at Sirius, whose eyes widened and turned around and took off down the corridor, back to where Remus was waiting for him. Growling, James followed him. All rational thought lost as he chased after his best mate, waving his wand crazily in the air.
Peter sweat dropped as he watched them running away. He heard a grunt and looked at the angry girl trapped under the neat. He looked between the retreating forms of his friends and Leah. Seeing that she was angry and realizing he would rather walk into a prank then deal with an angry girl, Peter took off after his friends, leaving the poor girl there.
James threw a trip jinx at Sirius, who tripped and fell onto his face, than James hexed him with a boil hex. "Two points to Team Evans. Take that Sirius!"
Sirius growled and stood up. He pulled his wand out and cast a stinging hex at James, who screamed in shock. "Point to Team Lion! Score six to two."
A rain cloud appeared above Peter who finally caught up to them. A thunder storm started on him.
"Point to Team Lion! Now it's six to two." Remus said as he pulled the cloak off of himself.
"REMUS!" Sirius yelled. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be making sure no one walks into our trap."
"McGonagall appeared and before I could get out of hiding to warn her, she walked into it. So, we lost a point for that." Remus replied.
"WHAT?" James, Sirius, and Peter yelled frantically.
Remus smiled. "Don't worry. She doesn't know what we are doing because she didn't see me. This cloak really came in handy. It was really funny, but I think we should avoid that part of the castle today."
The other boys nodded their heads in agreement before departing in their own directions. They decided that they would go their separate ways and play their Prank War in a different way. A way that would not end in them getting themselves caught by a professor. They were already almost caught by two professors.
All day the boys had to keep their guard up for the enemy. If they let their guard for even one second they could be pranked. None of them could afford to be pranked if they wanted to win this war.
By dinner time, the other students and the teachers were on edge. Pranks were being played all around them and they were sure that it was James, Sirius, Peter, and Remus doing. They all knew those boys would do something today. What they hadn't expected was that it would be them pulling pranks all around the school. They thought it would be a big prank on the whole school at some point during the day.
The marauders were annoyed though. All the students and teachers were getting in the way of their war. Earlier, James threw water balloons at Remus when he saw him walking by. He got a point for that, but then lost it when one of his balloons hit a passing by student. Or when Sirius gave Peter a plate of cookies filled with hot sauce. Evans took one of them after Peter ate one, making Sirius lose the point he got. It was starting to annoy the boys.
By six the boys were getting desperate for points. They need to get points to win this game and no students or teachers were going to get in their way anymore. Not now that causing physical pain counted as a prank.
At this point, James tripped Sirius down the stairs and Sirius countered by setting James's jacket on fire. Luckily, Remus was watching nearby that he put the fire out with a water charm. After putting the fire out, Remus cast a tickling charm on James before running down the stairs to reach Sirius and help him up.
All four of them were trying to make it to dinner, but they were having difficulty with that because they were all pranking each other as they were walking. Each team wanted to win badly.
By the time that they reached the Great Hall, dinner was halfway over and each of them was bruised with scratches and little cuts on them. In addition to looking like they were in a fight, Sirius's short hair was now spiked and the tips of the spikes were blue. Remus was soaking wet from the water balloons he got hit with recently and his shirt now read, 'I like ponies!" James was walking backwards and was still covered in the paint that Remus threw at them earlier. None of the boys could figure out what spell Remus used to make James do that. And Peter, besides being covered in paint too, still had the storm could above him and was sneezing uncontrollably.
"This is getting ridiculous." Remus growled, running his hand through his short, wet hair. His wet shoes were making squeaky noises as he walked and it was annoying him.
"Just think, we still have five hours to go." Sirius replied, grinning. He, unlike Remus, was enjoying the game.
Remus rolled his eyes and grabbed a napkin nearby and dripped in his goblet of water. He squeezed the excess water out of it and placed the damp napkin on his cut lip, wincing as it stung a little. Five more hours of this torture? How was he supposed to survive?
The boys just barely started to eat when McGonagall marched over to them. "Black, Lupin, Potter, Pettigrew, I want to know and I want to know now. What are you four doing? Students and teachers are being pranked left and right and your four looked beaten up."
Remus growled. He has had enough of this game. "It's a Pr…"
Sirius, James, and Peter slammed their hands over Remus's mouth at the same time, making the young werewolf fall off the bench from the force of three hands slamming into his mouth.
McGonagall raised a brow at the odd behavior. She crossed her arms and glared at her students.
"We are just playing a game, Professor." Sirius said innocently.
Remus bit the hand that was on top of his mouth, which happened to be James's hand. He yelled in pain and pulled his hand over. He waved it in the air and glared at Remus. "That wasn't necessary."
"Yes, it was." Remus replied.
"Boys!" McGonagall said angrily.
Remus rolled his eyes. "Honestly Professor, what does it matter what we are doing today? It's not like we can get in trouble today since it is April first. We are just playing pranks, though we did have a big prank planned for today that we spent weeks planning, we aren't going to be able to pull it now since these three idiots forgot about it and decided to have a Prank War instead!"
"Whoopsie," Sirius grinned.
McGonagall sighed, turned around and walked away. She really didn't want to know.
By the end of the day, Team Lion had the most points and won the Prank War. And as for what the losing Team Evans had to do, let's just say that April 2nd of 1972 was never spoken of again at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Team Lion Team Evans
11111111 1111111
A/N: Vapeur bombe (French): smoke bomb
Please review!