Dumbledore made no mention of the Minister's visit, though the school was buzzing about it. That night in the Gryffindor Common Room, a good portion of the house stayed up discussing what had happened.
"He looked really off-put," Frank Longbottom noted. "Something's going on- he probably needed Dumbledore's advice."
"But for what?" Fabian Prewett asked. "There wasn't anything big in the paper."
"I bet that there's more to the story than what they're letting on," a seventh year said skeptically.
"So you think they're hushing it up?" Gideon said.
"The Ministry May be full of slugs, but I don't think they're that bad," Fabian shrugged.
"Anyway, it would have gotten out by now, right? You can't hush up something for too long," a fifth year said knowingly.
"There's something off about it, whether they're covering it up or not," the seventh year decided.
"There is something off about it," James agreed quietly.
"Yeah, and we'd know what if we had followed them," Sirius said. He had been insisting that they should have tailed the Minister since breakfast ended.
"Like Reighlit said, you can't keep something quiet forever," Remus said. "We'll know soon enough, I bet."
"That's his name?" James said.
"Yeah," Remus said.
"Didn't know that. Isn't he the bloke who-"
"That's not the point of this conversation," Sirius interrupted. "The point of this conversation is to figure out what's going on with the Ministry."
"We can't figure anything out until we have more information, and I don't think it's our place to go nosing around looking for information when it'll get out soon enough," Remus said.
"It's not like we would get caught-"
"Sirius, this is the Ministry of Magic that we're talking about. You can't honestly think that-"
"We'll make a decision when we have more information," James said. "I'll look through the Daily Prophet again and tell you if I see anything suspicious. Unless we see something else that's off, or hear something, we let the matter drop for now, got it?"
There was nothing to be found in the Prophet, nor was anything heard, other than the whispers that something was off.
With no definite information, life at Hogwarts continued relatively normally.
Normally alternately included James asking Lily out, Lily saying no, Sirius discreetly hexing Snape (though less vigorously), homework, and games of Wizards' Chess.
One such game was going on with ongoing unhelpful suggestions from Sirius to Peter, who was playing James.
"Alright, go to E-five, he can't get you there," Sirius advised, looking skeptically at the board.
Peter made the command, and the animated bishop slid across the board.
"Bad move," Remus said, watching as James' queen gave a hard blow to the bishop with her scepter.
The bishop crumpled.
"Okay, you can still win- put your knight to B-three, yeah," Sirius said.
Peter's piece was captured yet again.
"Try H-"
"Maybe don't listen to Sirius," Remus suggested.
"Come on, Moony. It'll work this time!"
"I don't know, you've left Peter short handed-"
"That's not Sirius, even though he is helping. That's just my great chess skills," James said.
"You were beat by a first year that one time-" said Sirius, but was cut off.
"Don't question me," James said, "Or I will have no choice but to question you, the great Sirius Black."
Sirius gasped dramatically. "How could you ever do such a thing?"
"Desperate times call for desperate measure," James said gravely.
"You can't be that desperate, can you?"
"I can."
"Oh, woe! Woe to me and to you and to the rest of the world!"
"Woe?" Peter asked.
"Tremendous woe," Sirius nodded. "James has questioned me, the incredible Sirius Black, Marauder, prankster extraordinaire, hater of homework-"
"If anyone should be in woe, it should be Peter, he's down to six pieces," Remus said dryly.
Peter nodded.
"Come on," Sirius said. "Don't steal my thunder."
May began, but regardless of their decision not to do anything until they had more information on why the Minister of Magic had visited Hogwarts, the Marauders still looked through the Daily Prophet carefully everyday, at least twice.
Disappearance in Manchester.
Undiscovered Colony of Merpeople in the Nile River in Egypt.
Death in Dufftown.
Murder in Edinburgh.
New Invention That Allows You to Travel by Kelpie.
Rights of Bertie Bott's Passed to Bertie's Son Elliot.
Each headline seemed pointless.
They weren't getting anywhere.
Friday appeared to be another day of useless headlines.
"Looks like they discovered some new constellation," James said uninterestedly, looking at the black and white picture on the cover of the paper.
"Really? Great. My parents are going to be thrilled, probably have another kid just to use the name," Sirius said boredly. "What's it called?"
"I don't see how they would use it for a name, it's called Dark Mark or something like that."
"Let me see," Sirius said, grabbing the paper from James. "Oh, they'll love this one. Evil-sounding name, a snake in it-"
"I don't think that's a constellation," Remus said uneasily.
"What else would it be?" Peter said.
"Read the article," Remus said.
Dark Mark Over Oxford
Yet another Wizard was found dead. Jonas Quintus, twenty-three, was found dead inside his home last night by a friend who had come for tea.
Harvey Knoll discovered him inside the entry hall, mouth seemingly open in mid-speech, toppled over and unmoving.
"He was jus' layin' there, still as a stone," Knoll said, tears in his eyes. "Motionless an' cold. Real cold. You ain't ever want to seen some'un like that."
The death of Quintus has raised a number of questions in the Wizard in world.
Many people have been asking, "Why Jonas?" According to the people who knew him, he was a friendly face, social, and kindly opinionated.
No answer has been found yet to this question.
The more popular topic of debate is focused on what was found in the sky above his home when he was discovered.
A crudely vivacious green skull with a snake protruding from its jaw has been found above the homes of ten different people, now all assumed deceased, in the past six weeks. Many people have been dubbing it "The Dark Mark" in correlation with what is found where it is put.
"It's a horrible thing," one witch said when asked about it. "Finding one of those above your home…. What you find inside is certainly dark. As for the Mark part, it's been showing up again and again, someone's behind it and wants us to know these deaths and disappearances are all connected."
Who is behind this Dark Mark? No one has answers, and the Ministry of Magic has not had any leads.
"Whoever murd'red Jonas an' all them others, they should be locked up fer it," Knoll stated. "I'm pos'tive that was a killing curse used, an' that's a ticket to Azkaban."
The search for the identity of this murderer is ongoing. The Ministry of Magic has asked that if you have any information regarding the Mark or it's perpetrator, that you come forward at once.
The boys were silent for a minute.
Then Sirius spoke.
"Bloody hell," he said softly. "I bet that's what the Minister was here for. Dumbledore probably knew one of those blokes."
"And the Minister would be one of the first to know because he's top of the Ministry," James nodded. "That's why he was here- he probably was giving Dumbledore the news."
"Why would be look worried, though?" Peter said. "He didn't look sad, he was worried."
"Probably about how Dumbledore would react," James suggested. "We've never seen Dumbledore upset, Maybe that's scary to witness."
"I don't know…."
"Well," Sirius said, "We know what's going on now."
"Not really," James said. "You know what the Prophet said- they haven't got a clue who's behind these attacks."
"I bet that's why the Minister was here," Remus said, "He probably wants Dumbledore's help to figure out who's behind it."
"Or what they want," Sirius said darkly.
No one said anything.
"Great discussion, mates," said James.
"Absolutely brilliant," said Sirius.
"Couldn't have been better," added Peter.
Remus gave the other three a look.
James shrugged. "Just trying to defuse the tension."
Nobody spoke.
"We've got History of Magic," Remus said at last. "We should go."
"Yeah," James said.
All of Hogwarts had read the article, it seemed.
That was all that people talked about.
"The Ministry didn't mention the Mark in any of the other articles," a Ravenclaw was overheard saying in the corridors between Lunch and Charms.
"I knew it was covering something up," the seventh year Gryffindor said grimly. The mood in the castle was at an all time low, there was no debating that.
Hence why the Marauders decided that a distraction was in order. Namely, a prank.
"I can't take any more of this!" Sirius said during Care of Magical Creatures. Evan Rosier had brought up the Mark again. For the fifth time that hour.
"Everyone's really off-put about it," James said.
"So what do you suggest?" Remus said.
"A prank," Sirius decided.
"A cheerful prank," James agreed.
"A cheerful prank for the whole school."
"A cheerful prank for the whole school that will take everyone's mind off of things."
"A cheerful prank for the whole school that will take everyone's mind off of things and get them to stop talking about that bloody Mark."
James and Sirius smirked at each other.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"That depends on what you're thinking."
"You know what I'm thinking about."
"Then, yeah, I'm thinking what you're thinking."
"What are you thinking?" Peter asked.
"Of a prank," Sirius said.
"We know that, but what kind of prank?"
"We told you, a cheerful prank for the whole school that will-"
"We heard that.
"Brilliant, then let's start planning," James said.
None of the teachers knew exactly how the Marauders managed to set loose a herd of ostriches on the school. All they knew was that one minute things had been normal.
Then all of hades had broken loose.
It started when dinner was set to begin. The Great Hall's doors were closed. Usually they would be open, but no one paid this any mind. None of them knew what the closed doors were concealing.
Inside the hall, the Marauders were each astride a giant bird, with the exception of Remus, who had volunteered to get the doors.
"Alright," James said, "Unleash the birds."
Remus pulled one of the doors open.
At Sirius' battle cry ("BIRD POWER!"), the ostriches surged forward, and the students crowded before the Great Hall turned and ran.
The students split one of two ways; down the corridor or up the staircase.
The majority of people went down the corridor, so that was where the ostriches went.
They raced through the school, thundering past a taken aback McGonagall, who had been one of the classrooms. She froze in surprise at the sight of the crowd of shouting students. That was, until she saw James, Sirius, and Peter astride the birds and Remus running after them.
"Hi, Minnie!" Sirius called.
McGonagall sighed and said, "Mr. Black, Mr. Potter, Mr. Pettigrew-"
"We know, Professor," James assured her.
As he disappeared around the corner, Sirius shouted, "We'll come to your office for biscuits later!"
With another sigh, she made to follow, pulling her wand out.
The ostriches continued to terrorize the students and the few teachers who had been caught up in the commotion without a good way to stop the birds.
"Boys, if you could stop the birds-" Slughorn started to say, but broke off with a yelp as one of the ostriches sped past him, just barely missing him.
James, Sirius, and Peter exchanged grins.
The fun came to an end when McGonagall cast a handy shield charm between the students and birds.
"But Minnie," Sirius said, "Could we have five more minutes?"
"Mr. Black, if I May ask where you got the birds?" McGonagall prompted.
"Hypothetically," James said, "We transfigured them."
With a short flick of her wand, the ostriches shrunk and flattened out, their plumage yellowing and crinkling.
James, Sirius, and Peter fell to the floor, landing on the untransfigured parchment.
It was then that Remus, who had fallen behind, caught up, breathing slightly heavily.
"Mr. Lupin, May I ask if you were a part of this?" McGonagall said, turning.
"Er-"
"It was only us three," James said.
Peter nodded.
"Very well, then," McGonagall said. "You can head to dinner- assuming the ostriches didn't demolish the food. Mr. Potter, Mr. Black, Mr. Pettigrew, you three will come with me." With that, McGonagall gave her wand another flick, vanishing the paper, then made down the corridor.
James, Sirius, and Peter followed.
McGonagall led them to her office and had hardly gotten out the words, "Have a biscuit," when Sirius was seated and munching on a biscuit.
Holding back a sigh, she said, "Would you three mind explaining to me why you thought it would be a good idea to unleash ostriches on the school?"
"Well, Minnie," Sirius said, "Everyone's been talking about that snake thing- you know, the Mark."
"Everyone was behaving too seriously for Sirius' liking," James said.
"Exactly," Sirius said. "Only I wouldn't ever act like that-"
James groaned. "Not that joke again!"
"Of course, mate. Anyway, the point of setting ostriches on the school was to take everyone's mind off that stupid snake. And to remind everyone of bird power." Sirius grabbed another biscuit.
McGonagall gave them a slightly exasperated yet amused look.
James shrugged. "It's first-rate thinking."
"Hypothetically," she said slowly, "That's a good idea. But in the future, please keep the ostriches and biscuits eaten to a minimum."
The boys nodded.
"I'm going to have to give you a detention tomorrow night, though," McGonagall said.
"Alright," James said.
"Unless, hypothetically, of course, we could skip that detention?" Sirius asked hopefully.
"Hypothetically, Mr. Black, that is not an option," McGonagall said, almost looking as though she would smile.
"Well," Sirius said, "You can't blame me for trying."