Chapter 38

The New Slytherin

The beauty of Hogwarts never ceased to amaze Remus. He watched open-mouthed as the school got closer and closer, just like he did the first time.

"Merlin! How I missed you!" Sirius yelled at the school when the carriage landed and he got out. James smirked when a large amount of the students stared at them.

"Just ignore him. He's gone crazy." He told the onlookers. The ones that had remembered his insanity turned back to the school while the rest just kept staring. "Come on Si. We all know you're insane, there is no need to remind us." James smiled at his best friend, and everyone continued walking to the school.

"But I liked reminding everyone." Sirius whined.

"Well wait till after the feast." Remus added. "I'm starving and you're making us wait even longer."

Sirius laughed. "Fine, but it's got to come out sooner or later."

James stopped. "Why do we have to wait until after the feast?" He asked getting a familiar look in his eye.

"I... am... hungry." Remus repeated slowly as though he was talking to someone who barely spoke the same language.

"Why can't we do it during the feast." James asked now that they were one of the last ones to the castle. Now no one could over hear them.

Sirius smirked. "James is right. Someone has to welcome the new students, and who better to do that than..."

"They Marauders!" James and Sirius finished at the same time, giving each other a high five. Remus chuckled, he should have known. Pranks were the only thing these two thought about.

"We can use Remus' new fire spell thing." James said excitedly.

"But that is only for the warning. What should we do for the prank?" Remus asked.

"Peter and I fond a spell over the summer that makes screaming sounds come from like everywhere. We could use it to scare everyone."

"Awesome! That would work perfectly with a spell I found believe it or not in our home library, I got desperately bored. It causes all of the lights to go out no matter what the lights are from."

"But won't that block the light from the fire in the message?" Remus asked.

"Not necessarily, the caster can choose if any light made while the spell is in effect, will show be hidden." Sirius said, rather proud of himself.

"What if we make it rain?" Peter asked and they looked at him in confusion.

"Why would we want it to rain?" Sirius asked.

"If it's dark they won't know it's just water." He said quietly as though regretting saying anything.

"And they might think it's blood! Peter you're a genius!" James said completely forgetting that it had taken almost a week just to teach Peter how to make it rain in a building.

"Wouldn't they know better after what we did last Halloween?"

"Not really. People don't really think right when their scared." Sirius said as they sat down in the great all where they usually sat, which thankfully was still rather far from where everyone else was.

"That and they won't recognize the handwriting." James added.

"They won't?"

"Um...No, I mean I know you'll want to change your handwriting, but I doubt you'll be able to do it exactly like Sirius did." Remus went a little pale.

"Me?"

"Well ya, You're the one who found the spell."

"I thought Sirius was doing it."

"I'm turning off the lights, remember?"

"Then James?" He was half begging by now.

"Noise maker." He said quickly. "You're the only one that knows how to do the spell right now, Rem." Remus moaned.

"Don't introduce us as the Marauders until it's over." Sirius said, a little teasingly.

"All right." Remus said worryingly.

"Calm down, It'll be dark, no one will see you."

"Should I make it sound like you do?"

"No. Do it how ever you want but don't make it like mine. It'll make it less obvious."

"Look! The Fresh Meat is here." James said pointing to the first years, that were now walking into the room. Sirius chuckled at the nickname.

The watched the first years nervously pile into the room. James wasn't surprised to see Sirius' gaze fall on, and never leave, one individual. He elbowed Peter and kicked Remus under the table. The looked at him and he pointed at the object of Sirius' interests.

"That's Sirius' brother, Regulus." He whispered and they looked where he was pointing. Remus turned back to him with surprise, James didn't blame him. Sirius and Regulus may have looked extremely alike, but they couldn't have been more different. Even before they had become friends, Sirius had always had a casual aura around him. Even in nervousness he remained calm and laid back. Not Regulus. Even this far away it was obvious Regulus was very regal. He was important and he knew it.

Despite how similar they looked, no one would be able to tell they were brothers. Cousins maybe, but not brothers.

"Are you sure?" Remus asked proving his train of thought.

James nodded, and Remus turned back to Regulus. The first year seemed determined not to look in their direction. Every once in a while his head would begin to turn towards them a little, but he always caught himself and stared straight ahead.

McGonagall began calling names and there were two people with last names beginning with A before...

"Black, Regulus!" The entire room went silent. Everyone wanted to see if the youngest black would follow in the foot steps of his parents or in the foot steps of their heir.

To James' surprise Sirius turned around in his seat when McGonagall placed the Sorting Hat on Regulus' head. He closed his eyes and slowly got tense during the time Regulus was up there. Remus noticed and put his hand on Sirius' shoulder.

"It'll be alright." He whispered, but he spoke too soon.

"SLYTHERIN!"

Sirius winced at the sound of the word, before putting his head in his arms and hiding his face. Remus gave James a pained look while trying to comfort Sirius. He turned to look at the front of the room, where Regulus was heading to the Slytherin table. Remus couldn't tell if he looked happy about his sorting or not. He sat down between a Black Remus didn't know and one he recognized Sirius had called Andromeda. Andromeda was watching Sirius with concern. She met Remus' gaze and the expression on her face made it clear she had been hoping for the same thing Sirius had been.

"Maybe it won't be so bad. Just because he's a Slytherin doesn't mean..."

"That's exactly what it means." Sirius interrupted, not looking up. "It means he doesn't want anything to do with me." He seemed to choke on the words.

"You don't know that." James protested.

"I know Reggy. I know what it means."

Thankfully Sirius had the entire sorting to fix his carefree mask before the feast began and their prank was set to begin. He was almost done picking up the pieces when Dumbledore stood to speak. He said mostly the same thing as last year. Forbidden Forest was Forbidden, magic wasn't allowed in the hallways. Junk like that that made James decide to try and break as many rules as possible this year. Finally the food for the feast appeared.

"Would you like to start, Sirius." Sirius nodded attempting to act like he was cheered up. James saw right though it though. He was hoping this prank would cheer him up.

Sirius pulled out his wand under the table and muttered a spell. Many people screamed in shock.

"I'll go next." Remus said wanting to get it over with.

It is a pleasure to meet the lovely students and staff of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!

Now was one of the very few times being a werewolf came in handy. The absence of light didn't hurt his visibility at all. Everything just changed colors. He could see everyone's reactions. James was right. The differences in grammar and handwriting completely hid that it was the marauder. The change from paint to fire didn't hurt much either.

James didn't give Dumbledore a chance to answer. Suddenly there was screaming coming from everywhere, and not just from the spell. Everyone seemed to think that it was the person beside them that was screaming, causing them to scream too. Remus smirked. This was fun.

It is a shame it was for such a short time!

Remus heard Sirius laugh beside him and James nudged Peter who jumped.

"Wha?" He asked. "Oh." He took out his wand and it started raining. The screams were louder. The rain fooled everyone, they actually thought it was blood. He turned to Regulus out of curiosity. He was standing, and soaking wet. He looked like he was going to faint.

"Is your brother afraid of blood?" Remus whispered forgetting that he wasn't supposed to be able to see anything. Sirius stiffened.

"Stop!" He told James and Peter, who did instantly, apparently they had heard what Remus whispered, because they didn't ask any questions. The lights suddenly came back on. Remus continued, signing the prank to the Marauders.

Welcome to Hogwarts.

From the Marauders.

There was a silence before people reacted. A few people laughed, able to find humor in being scared half to death. Most of the students were still scared, people looked to their friends to make sure they were okay. Lilly Evans even ran clear across the room to the Slytherin table to check on Snape. Despite getting dirty looks from everyone at said table.

Sirius turned to the Slytherin table. Regulus was dead pale, and was staring at himself as though he was trying to figure out if the water really was just water. Sirius looked like he was about to run over there but held himself back. He was mouthing to himself over and over 'he's not a baby.'

Dumbledore stood looking rather upset, it was rather clear that no one was hurt, but he didn't like to be threatened twice, by the same people. "Is the Marauders still in the room?" He asked thin air.

Remus gave James and Sirius a desperate look. "Do I answer?"

"If you want to." Was all James said. Remus made a quick decision.

Maybe. It would depend on what you want from us Dumbledore.

Remus couldn't bring himself to call Dumbledore by his first name like Sirius had.

"Are you the same person or thing that you were last year?" he asked a little confused by the obvious difference.

You could say that if you wish.

"You aren't going to give me a straight answer are you."

It would depend on your definition of a straight answer.

Sirius snickered quietly. "You're good at this. You should do it more often."

"Thanks" Remus replied proudly.

"Why are you here?" He seemed determined to get some answers from them.

Why shouldn't we be here?

Dumbledore sighed, but McGonagall answered for him.

"No one invited you here, and you are scaring the students that's why!"

You don't want us here? I'm hurt. Perhaps we should be a little more creative, that would keep you entertained. Yes?

James was having trouble keeping quiet. He wanted to laugh so bad.

"That isn't what I meant!" McGonagall said looking harassed. That obviously wasn't the response she was hoping for.

I believe it is. You are just unwilling to admit it. You want to look good for everyone around. But we know. We know you are enjoying this just as much as we are. You can not fool the Marauders.

James couldn't hold it in, he hid his face in his hand and started laughing quietly. There was a pause while McGonagall slammed her head on the table, realizing she wasn't going to get anywhere by arguing with them.

If that is all my dear friends I bid you adieu.

Remus turned from the good bye as it slowly began to fade away. He filled his plate with food and began eating with a smile on his face. He thoroughly enjoyed messing with them like that. It was a lot funner then he thought it would be.

"Now aren't you glad we let you do it instead of Sirius?" James said noticing his smile. Remus just nodded. Sirius put his arm around Remus' shoulders.

"You make a wicked Marauder!"

A/N) I used a font called BrockScript for Remus' writing. It is really fancy looking. I don't know if I downloaded it or if it comes with the word document so if you want to make it look more realistic just paste it into a word document and use that font for the writing on the wall.

Sorry if this prank was lame, but I have a good excuse! The Marauders only had like half an hour to think of it, thus explains why it was um.. uncreative.

Also about Regulus, I really have no idea why I made him afraid of blood. I think it's because in my mind, Regulus is an innocent child who has just had really bad influences. I love Regulus, I did even before finding out he was a good guy. He's life has been almost as hard as Sirius' but unlike Sirius his heart wasn't strong enough to betray the people he loved, even if they are horrible people. He isn't as strong minded as Sirius, and because of that he makes some really bad choices. But in the end he realizes that sometimes you have to hurt the people you love to make the world a better place for them to live in. He realizes Sirius was right, and he doesn't just sit there and cry about it. He died for it. Just like Sirius would have done.