"Wake up you four!" Eleniel called, standing in the doorway of the boys' dorm.
Sirius sat bolt upright. "What's the emergency?" he asked. "We're not out of conditioner are we? Oh my Godric! We're out of conditioner ! We're all gonna die!" he began to panic.
James, Remus and Peter all sat up in bed, sleepily rubbing their eyes and yawning.
"Sirius! Shut up! We've got plenty of conditioner!" Eleniel hollered over Sirius' yelling.
"We're not?" he asked in confusion.
"No" she said shortly.
He sighed and fell back against the pillows. "All that panicking for nothing" he sighed.
"Guys have you forgotten what day it is?" Eleniel asked impatiently.
They all thought for a moment, trying to wrack their sleepy brains. "It's Halloween!" Remus exclaimed suddenly.
"Well done" Eleniel muttered sarcastically.
"It's here! It's finally here!" Sirius jumped out of bed and began dancing around the room in excitement.
Laughing, Eleniel headed across to the door. "Get up and dressed you four, we've got a lot to do before this evening" she reminded them.
That afternoon...
"So, do we all know what we need to do?" Eleniel asked.
The four boys nodded.
"Yes Professor" Sirius smirked.
She playfully punched his arm. "Just remember not to laugh" she sighed.
At teatime...
"So I hope that you will all be ready at 7pm for your Halloween Ball!" Professor Dumbledore announced, beaming around the Great Hall.
The students grinned excitedly.
Suddenly, red letters began forming in the air, in the centre of the hall:
Oh yes, we're really looking forward to it...
The students began to murmur amongst themselves and the Professors looked alarmed.
With a small cloud of glitter, the letters began to change:
There's no need for alarm, we simply want to wish you all a very spooky Halloween!
Like the rest of the school, Sirius, James, Remus, Peter and Eleniel were looking confused, however a secretive smirk was being exchanged between them. Remus was staring intently at the words, which were swiftly rearranging themselves once more:
Enjoy your Ball! Let us hope that there are no...unexpected occurrences!
Professor McGonnagol got to her feet. "Does anyone have any information on these...these marauders?" she demanded.
The students were silent. Out of the corner of her eye, Eleniel sneaked a glance at Sirius and James. Their faces were completely blank, however she could practically see the cogs whirring in their brains.
"The Marauders...I like the sound of that name..." James whispered as the students resumed their chatter and began leaving the Great Hall.
Suddenly, screams began to echo from the doorway. Buckets were appearing in the air and emptying their icy water over the students passing through the door.
The students who were still seated in the hall, collapsed laughing.
Remus and the others were in stitches. "I completely forgot that we'd rigged that up!" Remus chuckled quietly.
"Okay that was AMAZING" Peter exclaimed gleefully.
They waited until no more water was being thrown before leaving the Great Hall.
When they reached the Gryffindor Common room, they all headed up to the boys' dorm.
"We did it!" Eleniel exclaimed happily.
"And no one even suspects that it was us!" Remus added in a low voice.
"Think of all the pranks we could get away with now!" James' eyes were wide just thinking of all the possibilities.
"I'd better go and get ready, I'll meet you in the common room at 6:30!" Eleniel told them, vanishing back down the stairs.
"Come on then guys! We'd better get ready!" Sirius exclaimed.
At 6:30...
Finally the girls were ready.
Lily was wearing a black dress, patterned with skulls and roses and had her face painted to look like a skeleton. Molly was wearing a long, purple and black dress with a silver crown and scary looking make-up (to look like an evil queen). Eleniel, of course, was dressed as a black cat, wearing a skin-tight, black jumpsuit and her face painted to look like a cat.
As the three of them headed into the common room, they found Arthur Weasley waiting with the four male "marauders".
Arthur Weasley was dressed as a pumpkin and as she headed across to the other three, Eleniel could hear Molly teasing him about it.
"Hey gorgeous" Sirius smirked at Eleniel.
She glared back. "Watch it Black" she snapped.
Sirius grinned, revealing a set of extremely life-like vampire fangs to go with his black cape and plain black robes. James was wearing a pirates hat with a white shirt and baggy trousers tucked into boots. Remus was wearing ragged clothes and had his face painted to make him look like a zombie. And Peter...Peter was wearing a sheet with eyeholes cut in it over his head.
"Let's go partay!" James whooped.
As they reached the Great Hall, they spotted Severus Snape waiting for Lily.
Sirius was about to make a smart remark, but Eleniel swiftly elbowed him in the ribs.
"We'll catch up with you guys later" Lily told them, hastily dragging Severus away.
Molly waved as she and Arthur headed across to get drinks.
The remaining five headed out onto the dance floor, laughing as they danced to the Weird Sisters' latest hit song.
Several hours later...
Sirius, Remus, James and Peter were sat at a table, drinking Halloween juice as they watched Eleniel, Molly and Lily dancing.
Finally, the three girls headed over to sit with them. They were quickly joined by Arthur Weasley and Severus Snape (who sat as far away from Sirius and James as he could).
"I've been thinking..." Sirius began.
"What about?" Peter asked warily, Sirius' ideas often led to trouble.
"Why don't we all sneak out and go trick-or-treating?" Sirius suggested.
Molly, Lily and Eleniel looked excited. "Sounds fun" Molly agreed.
"But Snape can't come" Sirius warned.
Eleniel and Molly shrugged. "Fine by me" they said at the same time.
Lily looked slightly put out, but remembered all the times Severus had tried to get Sirius and the others into trouble. "I think maybe they're right Sev, maybe you should hang out with the Slytherins" she said reluctantly.
Severus glared round at the Gryffindors, even Lily, before stomping away.
"Are you coming too Arthur?" Molly asked.
Arthur nodded, his eyes shining. "I wouldn't miss it for the world" he told them.
They rushed down the corridor to where the secret passageway was located. After Molly, Lily and Arthur had sworn not to give away the location of the passageway to anyone, Sirius muttered the spell.
Minutes later, they were running down the dark corridor, giggling and whispering quietly.
As they emerged, sniggering, into the quiet village of Hogsmeade, Remus suggested that they started trick-or-treating at the far end of the village.
"Will we even get anything?" Lily asked.
"Course we will! My parents used to bring me trick-or-treating in Hogsmeade all the time when I was a kid, I always got loads of sweets!" James answered, grinning.
Later...
Laughing, they tumbled back through the portrait hole and headed up to Remus, Sirius, James and Peter's dorm. They emptied their trick-or0treat goodies out onto the floor and began to share them out equally. They all accumulated a total of 3 Sickles, 4 Knuts and a variety of sweets which they swapped amongst themselves. Lily, Molly, Eleniel and Arthur remained in the dorm of the other 4 for an hour, playing exploding snap and sharing sweets.
Eventually, the three girls got to their feet.
"We're gonna head across to our dorm now" Lily told the boys as she stifled a yawn.
"But we've had a great time, thanks" Molly added.
"We'll see you lot tomorrow" Eleniel finished as they headed out.
They turned back as they reached the doorway. "Happy Halloween!" they chorused, grinning.