Disclaimer: All characters belong to the J.K.R and this is just a work of fanfiction.
Author notes:
Hi all!
Ahem, I am So so so sooooo sorry!
Yes, I am alive
No, I haven't abandoned this story.
Yes, I may have had a bit of writer's block.
Who said COVID-19 will give time to write? I have been juggling home life and work life and ZERO writer's time… I finally made time over months to sit and write this piece by piece. Not my best chapter but Ihope you like it!
A huge thanks to all those who reviewed, followed and favorited. I love you all!
A huge thanks to my beta HogwartsDreamer113 for her review!
Since it has been super long since I posted: Here is a short summary of what happened so far:
The day the Marauders, Lily and Severus died, they woke up in their eleven year old bodies few weeks before they had to go to Hogwarts and realized they remembered their past life. Once they met each other on the Hogwarts express, with lot of hugs, tears and promises to be do better this time, they exchanged stories for their lives. After the sorting ceremony, Severus challenged a seventh year for being bigot in the common room and won the duel. He also made friends with a group of older Slytherins who also did not like the house's reputation. He also won a duel against Lucius Malfoy and other junior Death Eaters and puts a idea into their heads to doubt the Dark Lord's lineage.
The group of Marauders, Lily and Severus had decided the Room of Requirement was safe place to meet and set it up as their headquarters. Minerva also observed the group as they returned from one of their shenanigan's from the Forbidden Forest and was surprised to see a group of Lions and Snakes getting along like house on fire.
They also experimented with the Room of Requirement's ability and decided to spend all future full moons in the room. They decided to meet Dumbledore to explain that the Room of Requirement was a better and safer option then the Shrieking Shack, and while discussing they also realized that Dumbledore too was reborn and remembered his past memories.
The Group and Dumbledore thoroughly experimented with the Room of Requirement and deemed it safe to use for Remus's monthly problem and used it for his first transformation after he joined Hogwarts. The Marauders also joined him in their Animagus forms and the night was spent with lot of chases, mock fights and wrestling.
The Group had never felt better and promised to make this lifetime the best.
Chapter 15 – Halloween hysterics!
Full moon was done and dusted. Remus felt like a huge weight was removed from his shoulders. He felt so alive that he was looking forward for the next full moon. True, transforming hurt, but he was used to it. At least he wasn't hurting himself. He had achieved a task that was impossible in his past life - he had gained a bit of weight!
Ever since he was a kid, he always admired wolves. They were strong, intelligent animals. When he used to fall sick, his mother always used to read 'The Jungle Book' to him until he slept. It was his favorite book. He loved how the wolves worked in a pack, trained and hunted together, even protected their weak ones. But ever since that fateful night, he hated anything to do with wolves. What was worse, he wasn't even a wolf. He was a monster. He hated his other half. While he slept, recovering from the horror of the full moon night, he satisfied himself with the knowledge that the monster was not let out. He was in his cage, alone and hungry.
When he started Hogwarts and met James, Sirius and Peter, he had a resemblance of a pack. But the fear and hatred increased ten times more. He could never be like them, a normal kid. What would they say when they found out what he was? He often woke up in cold sweat with nightmares of his friends throwing him into a cage or running away as he hunted them. When they finally told him they knew, he waited for the insults, spells and hexes, the howlers from their homes to him or to the headmaster for allowing a monster to attend a school. None appeared. He tried avoiding them. He hid away in the library, but they sought him out like a Niffler to gold. To his utter surprise, they continued to function like normal, and they were even fascinated by his "furry problem".
When he found out that they had taught themselves to be Animagi, just so that they could be with him, he broke down and cried. Right there, in front of them. He cried until he fell asleep and woke up around midnight with Sirius curled around him, Peter on top of his stomach and James near his head, all in their animagi forms. They had a good laugh about his dramatic reaction later that day.
Since then, full moons were no longer filled with pain-filled cries of the wolf yearning to be free, instead it ran with his pack. Everything was perfect. But then, Sirius, ever the immature hothead, led Snape to him during the full moon. Thankfully, James intervened. He shuddered to think what would have happened if he had bit either of them or worse, had killed them. After a lot of apologies and detention, they forgave Sirius and the gang was back to their old ways. The years of Hogwarts passed with laughter and joy.
In a blink of an eye, they were graduating and out in the real world. It was here, he understood the harsh reality. He might have been allowed into Hogwarts and graduated with all 'Outstanding's but he was never going to get a real job. He was rejected everywhere he tried, all thanks to the Werewolf Registry. The only jobs he could take were menial and even those he had to change before they could find out about his condition.
So, when Dumbledore offered him a chance in the Order of Phoenix, he took it. He went on all the missions he was given, even when it broke his heart to be so far away from his pack. He took every chance he could to babysit Harry. But when he returned from the long spying missions, he felt an alien tension in the house of his pack, a tension that was never present before. He started avoiding everyone again, which only made the tension stronger. It took thirteen years to resolve that.
But now, he was free, young and back with his pack who were currently arguing the execution of the great prank war of Halloween.
As per their tradition of Halloweens, it was just sacrilegious not to prank everything in sight on this day. The Halloween of their sixth year was the only time they didn't do a single prank and every resident of the castle was jittery the whole day.
For this year's Halloween, they had something special in mind, and they couldn't wait for the day to arrive.
On the morning of Halloween, Lucius Malfoy woke up just as always, bleary-eyed and with a lot of yawns. He switched off the alarm charm on his wand and got up to perform his morning routine. He proceeded to open the four-poster bed's canary yellow drapes and to change out of his pajamas.
Wait, what?
He turned back to his bed. When he went to bed last night, his drapes were green with swirls of silver! He looked around the dorms and each and everyone's drapes were the same. Cheery Hufflepuff yellow! He reached for his wand and saw something far more alarming. His pajamas were red. Gryffindor red. He did the only thing he thought was appropriate. He screamed.
Soon, the entire Slytherin house was in complete chaos. The older students tried in vain to reverse their Gryffindor red back to the silver or green pajamas to no avail. They tried to pull down the bed's drapes, but it held firm. Everyone scrambled to get ready for the day and breathed a sigh of relief to find their robes normal.
However, when they left their dorms, they wanted to scream again. Their common room was yellow too. Their normally green couch was now black with little yellow badgers scampering over the cushions. The prefects had to restrain some of the students from going back to bed, convinced that this was all a nightmare. When the band of snakes finally reached the Great Hall, they found it in an uproar with teachers and students complaining alike. Apparently, it was not just their common rooms.
The Ravenclaws had woken up to find their common room Gryffindor themed. Early morning study sessions were difficult with tiny lions roaring whenever students sat on top of them. Gryffindors had found their room painted a beautiful deep blue but were too busy trying to get their new Slytherin-themed pajamas back to normal. The Hufflepuffs had a Slytherin-themed common room and none of them wanted to sit on seats with snakes hissing at them.
On the top table, Dumbledore could hardly keep his face straight. Around him, the teachers were complaining how their painstakingly decorated rooms had changed. Minerva was fuming beside him and was scanning the table like a hawk for any clues on the culprits of the blasphemy. Clearly, the Marauders' Halloween pranking tradition was back again. Dumbledore's personal favorite was their (past) fifth year where all the rooms in the castle were charmed to look and smell like a giant gingerbread house. That was one sweet Halloween.
After a lot of fuss, and promises to investigate and unjinx everything, everyone slowly left for their usual classes only to find even their classrooms were jinxed. The defense against dark arts classroom was decorated like a muggle scary house with booby traps and mazes while Binns' classroom looked like a muggle theatre. None of the students paid an ounce of attention to the ghost as he droned on, since all were quite engrossed in an impressive blackboard that showed moving drawings with the stories of various historical exploits.
Out in the greenhouses, Professor Sprout looked torn between being angry or being impressed as all her plants were singing and dancing together. The herbology students were happy to enjoy the show, until the plants finished their dance sequence and decided to scoop mud and throw it at them.
Slughorn's potion's classroom was upside down. Everyone was horrified until they realized nothing fell out of the cauldrons. Though, it was very hard to concentrate for the students as they watched Slughorn's face turn redder by the minute and to work on their potions hanging upside down.
Chaos defined Transfiguration classroom. Everything had been transfigured to animals and were squealing a ruckus. Similarly, in Filtwick's class, a firework show was in progress. Depending on the year, the fireworks increased, and colors changed as per the houses that sat in the seats.
When the day finally ended with lots of tears and screams of frustrations from teachers and students alike, everyone gathered for dinner. But as the students entered the Great Hall, their uniforms changed to various muggle costumes. Some changed to nurses and some robes turned into animal onesies. Some even had tutus or ballerina costumes. The marauders were, of course, dressed in onesies of their Animagi and wolf forms and Severus was glaring daggers at them in his bat costume.
The costume curse did not even spare the teachers. Minerva's traditional green robes changed into a look-alike of her Animagus suit, complete with whiskers stuck to her cheeks. Professor Sprout had a regal Greek gown and a tiara made from flowers and leaves. Madam Pomfrey was dressed in a nurse's dress and blushed a deep red when Dumbledore complimented her. Professor Slughorn was dressed as a crystallized pineapple and Flitwick was dressed in a classic chain mail with long braided hair in a decorated helmet and an axe slung on the back. Hagrid walked through the doors and found himself dressed as his most favorite creature- a dragon. He and Professor Kettleburn, who was dressed as a niffler began debating on their costumes, unaffected by the chaos around them. However, it was Dumbeldore's costume that was the strangest among them all. He was dressed in a handsome three-piece tuxedo with his hair neatly braided and tucked within the suit.
Once the chaos eventually calmed down and all the students were either grumpily or happily (depending on their costume) sitting down at their tables, Dumbeldore stood up, buttoning his jacket and cleared his throat. "Ahem. Happy Halloween my dear students. I suppose we are all following a dear tradition of trick of treating tonight", he chuckled. He spied the fuming face of Minerva beside him and continued, "There has been a jinx cast on the doors of the Great Hall but not to worry, I have examined the jinx and it will wear off when you reach your dormitories. Your robes will be back to normal by the morning. Now, for the feast you have all been waiting for, Tuck in!"
With those magical words, the feast appeared on the tables and all the students dug in heartily. Soon the only sounds to be heard were cutlery and hushed discussions as everyone piled up their plates, tired from the day's hectic pranking. As they ate, they could hear a clanking marching sound. All the students turned towards the doors and they dramatically opened, and the lights dimmed in the hall. From the dark hall beyond the door, the armors of the castle marched into the hall and surrounded all the tables. One armor stepped up facing Dumbledore, stood in attention and then dropped to one knee. Dumbledore too played along and stood up and bowed deep to the chief armor. All the armors then jointly marched to the front of the hall, stood in two straight lines facing the students, and then opened their visors. To the astonishment of everyone, they began singing while the chief armor was finger conducting them. The students sat stumped for a second with mouths hanging open and then relaxed and began to enjoy the show.
Finally, once the desserts were finished and Dumbledore stood up, the armors stopped and bowed deeply to the applause of the teachers and students. Once they had marched out of the hall, back to their places throughout the castle, Dumbledore stood up once more and spread his arms out to the crowd and began, "Now that we have all been fed and watered, let us go and rest our sleepy eyes and tired legs and get ready for the new day filled with lessons and new learnings! The jinxes in all the common rooms and dormitories have been cleared and you all can go ahead and relax. Off you all trot…"
Slowly with benches scraping on the floor, the students still dressed in bright colorful costumes, fumbled their way out of the hall and back to their dormitories. The marauders too got up and were about to slip into the crowd, when they saw Dumbledore standing near the doors staring at them. They both stood staring at each other until the crowd thinned out and Dumbledore walked towards them and quietly said "50 points to Gryffindor for astounding spell work boys. Keep up the good work." The boys stared at their headmaster for the award of points, instead of detention for their prank. With mumbled, "Thank you professor" the boys turned to join their house, when Dumbledore cheerfully added, "Oh, also, for the disturbing the sanity of my staff, one week detention with me. Good night!" and walked off.
With that note, the boys scampered before any of the teachers found out they were behind today's events and once they reached the dormitories, they all fell onto their beds laughing their heart out.
It was another perfect Halloween.