XXI.
Frank went downstairs to the common room early on Tuesday to find Sirius, Remus, and Peter sitting at a table, bending over a piece of parchment. "Oi!" he called over to them. "What are you doing here? Where's James?"
"Can't say what we're doing, but James is coming back tonight at five o'clock." Sirius explained.
Frank whooped. "So they're all right?"
"They are now, but they were a sight last Monday, nearly unrecognizable!" Sirius said, shaking his head at the memory.
"But they're all right now?"
"Yeah, but still rail thin and pale," when Frank opened his mouth to question him, Sirius continued, "we know what happened, but it isn't our right to tell anyone. It's Lily's and James'. But I'm sure you'll be one of the first to hear their story, seeing as you were in Reading and all…"
"Are you guys going to skip classes today?"
"Yeah, gotta get this set up," Remus answered, smiling.
"Could you tell all the Gryffindors to go straight to dinner after their last class and not to come up until six? It could be your last action as Head Boy," Sirius said, winking at him. "But don't tell anyone about us or Lily and James, we want it to be a surprise!"
"All right," Frank said, "You three might want to go up to the dormitory if you don't want anyone seeing you…"
Sirius stood up. "We'll do that, thanks. See you tonight at six! And don't let anyone in until then."
Frank smiled. "All right."
Apparently Frank had spread the word around that the common room was off-limits, for nobody interrupted the Marauders' work through the entire day. At four-forty-five, they had the whole common room ready, and began their walk to Dumbledore's office.
When they arrived ten minutes later, Dumbledore was sitting at his desk, reading. When they entered, he looked up and smiled. "Ready to bring them back to Hogwarts?"
"Yep, we had the common room off limits all day so we could get it set up," Sirius explained, grinning, "How are they coming?"
"The Floo Network," Dumbledore answered, "I thought it would be easiest."
"Five minutes to wait, then," Peter said unnecessarily.
Five minutes went by, and the fire in the grate turned green. Sarah stepped out, grinning. "Hey, guys!" she said happily. Soon Laurie, Lily and James, who were carrying their trunks, followed her.
"Picked them up this morning," James explained.
"I'm going to go down to dinner, or people will start wondering where I am," Dumbledore said, "You seven should get up to Gryffindor Tower."
They nodded, and the eight of them left to their separate destinations. Arriving at the Tower ten minutes later, Sirius gave the password, "Winter rose", and showed them into the common room.
Their expressions were hilarious, at least to Sirius. Lily and James' mouths dropped open in surprise, and Sarah and Laurie gasped loudly. The room was completely red and gold, with huge banners that proclaimed, "Welcome Home Lily and James". There were streamers hanging from the ceiling and red and gold confetti falling from it like colored snow. There were large posters of Lily and James grinning, sporting positive comments, but there were also some that depicted Voldemort that read, "Die Voldy Die!"
All of the tables, plus more that had been added, were full of food, especially Lily and James' favorites. Chocolate éclairs, apple pies, strawberries with cream…the works!
"It's perfect!" Lily exclaimed to the boys, "And you did this all today?"
"Yep, Frank told everyone that the common room was off-limits, so we could get it done in secret," Sirius explained.
"I think he might have told the Fat Lady not to let anyone in, we heard some yelling from outside…" Remus said, grinning, "some girl, around lunchtime said she needed her Transfiguration book…"
"Hope McGonagall didn't nail her too bad," Sarah said worriedly.
"Don't worry, she'll know why she couldn't get in," James said, smiling. "And what's with the 'welcome home' on those banners?"
"Well, seeing as Reading is sort of nonexistent, we figured that this would be your home, seeing as you're here for most of the year anyways…"
After bring Lily's and James' trunks up to their dormitories, the sat around doing nothing until ten to six, when pounding could be heard on the other side of the portrait hole.
"Let us in!" someone yelled. Sirius grinned wickedly.
"Right, here's your guys' big entrance—James, go get the Invisibility Cloak, and you two go stand on the chairs by the portrait hole," he told them quietly.
"But won't they be confused if they see signs welcoming us back but not us?" Lily asked.
"Nah, once everyone is inside and confused, you two will throw off the cloak—to me—and say 'Hi!' and scare the pants off of the rest of the House. I've got the Head pin from Kristin, and Frank has his, so you can officially be crowned Heads again," Sirius said. "Good plan?"
They nodded, and James hurried upstairs for the cloak. "If anyone is in there—which doesn't make sense because the whole house is out here—let us in! C'mon!" Alice yelled.
"Got it!" James said in a loud whisper, coming down the stairs again with the cloak.
"Great, you two get under it and stand over there," Sirius instructed, pointing at the two chairs. They nodded, and disappeared under the cloak. Quiet footsteps could be heard going across the room.
"What is the meaning of this?" came McGonagall's angry voice.
"I was instructed not to let anyone inside the common room until six o'clock," the Fat Lady said patiently.
"Oh," McGonagall said, and from what Sirius could tell, she was suppressing a smile. "You'll have to wait another five minutes then."
Angry outbursts followed this announcement. "Why won't you let us in?" Alice asked the Fat Lady.
"Because I was instructed not to," the Fat Lady repeated, "You'll see why when you get inside."
Four minutes passed. "Ready?" Sirius said in a whisper that carried across the common room.
"Ready," James answered
The five situated themselves in the middle of the common room and began grinning like maniacs; another plan to confuse the Gryffindors even more.
Another minute passed, and the Fat Lady said, "Ok, it's six—"
"WINTER ROSE!"
"Fine, fine!" she said indignantly, and she swung out to admit them. The first people to scramble inside stopped dead in their tracks, making the people behind crash into them.
"Move!" yelled an impatient boy near the back, "Let us in!"
The people in front moved up slowly, and finally the whole house was staring in awe at the decorations. "So," Vicky said finally, "We're supposed to be welcoming them, where are they?"
The five didn't answer, just stood there grinning as the rest of the house tried to recover from the shock of seeing the common room transformed.
And then, Sirius winked.
James took off the Cloak and threw it to Sirius, who caught it and put it into his pocket. Then, before anyone could realize what was going on, James and Lily both yelled, "Hi!"
Quite a few people screamed and spun around. It took them a few seconds to realize what they were seeing. The first person to recover was Alice, who screamed again, ran up to Lily, and gave her a huge hug. "Welcome back!"
This seemed to break the spell over the rest of the house. Everyone started cheering, and they ran up to the two. "Welcome back!" many people roared; however, Anthony got straight to the point. "Where were you?"
"With Voldemort," James yelled to him over the screaming and yelling. Instantly, the whole House went silent, waiting for him to continue. "Not now," he told them, "maybe in a week or two."
Many groans followed this announcement. Sirius yelled over the noise, "It's not exactly G-rated, just to let you know. If you're at all faint hearted…"
"Would we be in Gryffindor if we were faint hearted?" Anthony asked loudly.
"I dunno, I do wonder about some of you…" he said, smiling.
The House seemed indignant. "We're not faint-hearted!" yelled a fourth year.
"Sure you're not," Sirius said, still grinning.
"Guys," Remus yelled loudly, "We're supposed to be throwing a party for James and Lily, remember? And I believe we have some badges to return!" Frank walked up to James and handed him the Head Boy badge, and Sirius gave the Head Girl badge to Lily. "To our Heads!" Sirius yelled, beginning to applaud, and everyone else quickly followed suit. Both Lily and James turned very pink.
"Let's party!" Remus yelled. Everyone cheered again, and made their way over to the food.
"Attention!" James yelled. Instantly, the whole room went silent. "I challenge you all to a hotdog eating contest!" Many people laughed. "I'm serious!" James said earnestly.
"No, I'm Sirius, but go ahead," Sirius said, smirking.
James rolled his eyes and said, "Whoever beats me will get a surprise…" he noticed skeptical looks on many of his housemates' faces, "I mean a good one, one that will benefit you!"
With that addition, many people volunteered, and Sirius levitated five tables together. "Whoever eats the most hotdogs is the winner!" he declared.
"Hang on," Anthony said, "you haven't said what happens if James wins!"
James grinned mischievously. "You'll have to wait and see, my friend."
"Each of you will have an unlimited number of hotdogs, as well as an unlimited supply of water. If you put your napkin on your plate, you forfeit. Any questions?"
Everyone shook their heads. "Excellent. Just tell your house elf—" he snapped his fingers, and an elf appeared by each contestant, "—what you want on your hotdog. You may…begin!"
And begin they did. Most of the girls, along with the remaining three Marauders, had opted to watch, and most of them were amazed at the number of hotdogs James was putting away. While most of the other boys were on their second, he was already on his fifth.
The first person to forfeit was a first year, after eating ten. The rest of the contestants kept at it. More dropped out at around twenty, while James was still going strongly on his twenty-fifth.
Finally, it was just James and Anthony. James was only slightly slowing down, but Sirius suspected that it was to save himself from indigestion rather than lack of hunger. Finally, after thirty-seven hot dogs, Anthony gave up. James, seeing this, put down his forty-third.
"How do you do it?" Anthony asked him incredulously.
James merely shrugged. "Now, since I won," he grinned, which made many people go wide-eyed with terror, "we play…"
"Marauder Truth or Dare!"