Chapter 13: Marauders

"Alright show it to me again." Sirius rubbed his hands ready, just before he took the last of the raspberry danishes from the tray. James looked at it wearily. "Danish first."

"What?" Sirius asked flabbergasted. "This is the last one!"

"Exactly." James pointed out. He sighed and took out the parchment from his bag, unfurling it for all of them to see. Peter looked at it skeptically while Sirius was looking at it deep in thought. James grinned. With Sirius distracted, Peter eating and Remus being Remus he slid his hand quietly over to Sirius's plate and took the danish.

"Put it back, James." Remus said from behind his book. Although Remus's head wasn't visible from behind the book- James was flabbergasted at how he had known.

"How do you do that?" James asked dropping the danish and pulling back his hand. "You've got a bloody book in front of you- and I was so quiet."

"Hey! That's my danish, James!" Sirius pointed out. "What's mine is Remus's. You steal from me, you're stealing from Remus."

James rolled his eyes and turned to Remus. "How do you do it?"

"I've been told I've got the ears of a rather large wolf." Remus said quickly smiling like he had just said something clever. James rolled his eyes and turned to Sirius. "So what do you think Sirius?"

"I think you shouldn't be taking my danish. No one takes Sirius Black's danish."

"I meant the note." James said looking pointedly at the parchment in between them.

"It's odd." Sirius turned to Peter. "Of all the parchments- you just had to pick the most cryptic one, didn't you Peter?"

"At least I grabbed one." Peter replied pulling over the jug of juice and a goblet. "I recall watching you and James just drooling over Emma Vanity."

Remus chuckled and put his book down. "Alright- let me see it."

James, Peter and Sirius looked surprised, but nonetheless slid the paper over to Remus.

"That's all it says." Peter explained quickly. "I've double checked for invisa-ink and hidden messages. I even tried a spell- although I think I did it wrong..."

"James and I even went to the trouble of searching all the bathrooms in the castle." Sirius added. "If you ever want a laugh I could tell you about the time when James fell into the chamber pot on the 7th floor..."

"What are you looking at?" A girl's voice asked from above them.

There was a sudden panic scuffle as Remus slid the parchment to Sirius, who shook his head, and threw it at James who looked bewildered that Sirius had thrown it at him in the first place, and promptly forced it into Peter's hand who had no one else to give it to, so he crumbled it up and hid it behind him.

"What are you guys hiding?" Marlene McKinnon demanded, narrowing her eyes, looking squarely at James. She turned her eyes to Sirius briefly before going back to James.

James had no idea what to say-Marlene McKinnon could squeeze even the most guarded secret in his heart out of him in a heartbeat.

It's my test from last week." Peter said quickly looking so defeated that James even believed him. "They wanted to see it- I said no but-" He looked up at Marlene and mumbled quietly. "Please don't ask me how I did. I don't want to talk about it."

Marlene McKinnon looked down at Peter and smiled. "Oh I got a bad grade on that too. Don't let these idiots make you feel bad. I know for a fact James made his first 'P' on that test." She grinned and swiped the danish from Sirius's plate in one swift motion before walking away. "Thanks!"

"She took my danish." Sirius breathed looking at his now danish-less plate.

"She did." James nodded.

"I would say so too." Peter added laughing.

"All facts point to yes." Remus finished.

"She took my danish!" Sirius repeated. "She took Sirius Black's' danish!"

"Indeed." Remus said. He pointed his wand at Peter and the parchment immediately flew into his hand.

"How did you do that?" James asked surprised. "I can't even do a summoning charm!"

"I wouldn't expect someone who got a 'P' on their charms test too anyways." Peter grinned. "I actually got an 'A' on mine."

"E." Sirius said before turning back to Remus. "Teach me that one. Today."

Remus simply smiled and looked at the parchment. "So just three words huh?"

"Bathroom." Sirius said nodding in James direction. James scowled. Searching the bathrooms for clues had not been the highlight of his day.

"Spiders." Peter shuddered.

"Toads." James finished. "What do you think it means?"

3 pairs of eyes turned to Remus who looked at the parchment closely. "Well this parchment doesn't seem to be new- it's old. If I had to guess I would say years and years old. The handwriting is faded as well and seems to be most likely written by a boy- the curvy slant could be of a girl's but I would go with boy if I had to choose. Moreover the three terms are written rather quickly like someone was in a hurry- meaning there was some incident that forced this person to write this. The lack of bullet points also point to it being rushed because normally when making a list a person would use mentioned above bullets." He looked up at the rest of the boys. "These are simply notes someone wrote."

"You got all that from a piece of parchment?" James asked looking at Remus in awe. "From a piece of parchment?"

"Remus you're amazing." Sirius said. "Absolutely brilliant. You're teaching me that too."

Peter just blinked and looked at Remus wordlessly.

Remus shrugged. "I'm just stating the facts. So you see it's just notes a Slytherin student wrote once upon a time and probably don't mean anything." He turned to Peter. "They are not in fact a secret message of any kind like Peter was hoping-" this time his gaze was directed at James. "or a Quidditch plan like James was hoping or-" Sirius was grinning by the Remus turned to him. "-what Sirius you cannot be possibly thinking of what I'm thinking you're thinking!"

"Indeed Remus." Sirius picked up the parchment and held it up in the air like it was a block of gold that he had discovered. "This is going to be an inspiration for Hogwarts first annual prank!"

"A little louder Sirius," Remus rolled his eyes "I don't think the Hufflepuffs at the end heard you."

"Sirius grinned. "It's going to be perfect-those Slytherins won't know what hit them."

"They don't care." Remus said "James tell him."

"I don't know Remus- I kind of like the idea of pranking Slytherins. Imagine if Snivelly was the one wrote this."

"Severus isn't on the Quidditch team!" Peter said.

"This isn't a note about Quidditch!" Remus protested. "It's just a parchment that ended up in the Slytherin changing rooms and it's been here for more than a year- or years actually-"

"Who cares?" Sirius said turning to them. "Either way we get a great prank out of this. So ideas?"

"Again," Remus asked as he followed a practically skipping Peter. "Remind me why are we doing this in the middle of the night?"

"It's much more fun that way." James whispered leading the way. "And no one will be able to point it back to us. We are currently sleeping in our dorms."

"Well the makeshift James, Peter, Sirius and Remus made up of pillows that is." Peter added.

"We're going to get caught." Remus said finally.

"Come on Remus- it'll be fun. And everyone will want to know the people who did this prank right after. Don't you want to be noticed?" James asked grinning.

"Not really." Remus said. "I prefer to stay in the shadows."

"Nah," Sirius said. "Everyone wants to be looked up at, to be noticed, you're just being modest."

"Shhh." Peter pointed to to the hall where he could hear the sound of a boy and girl's voices getting closer.

"Prefects?" Peter squeaked looking terrified.

Sirius turned to Remus. "I thought you said they would be gone by now."

"That is what I said!" Remus said breathing hard. "It might just be students out of their bed."

"Or other pranksters." James narrowed his eyes. "I don't like the idea of someone trying to steal our idea."

"No, you would be the only three to do something this stupid." Remus folded his arms as they hid behind a large pillar. The voices faded away and Sirius sighed.

"Four." James said finally.

"What?"

"Four idiots. You're one of us now, Remus." Sirius finished grinning.

Peter laughed as Remus looked away, shaking his head. Sirius immediately got them started on the plan. "James will take the right and Remus will take the left. James knows transfiguration better than any of us so he'll do the seats and Peter will finish it off with the details- our charms extraordinaire."

Peter grinned at the title and practically beamed at them before running away to get started.

"That was nice of you, Sirius." Remus whispered to him.

"What was?"

"Telling Peter that."

"Well kid needs someone to tell him. He's not half bad."

Remus smiled and found his wand. "I still don't know why I'm doing this- but at least I'm with you guys."

"You're one of us now, Remus." James said. "You're our friend, and we don't leave out friends hanging."

Both boys smiled at him. "Now hurry up we only have about 3 hours at the most before the Prefects start their morning patrols."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

It took exactly three hours like Remus had predicted but by the end of it, they were done.

"Imagine the look on everyone's faces when they wake up and see this." James said admiring their handiwork.

"We're going to act like we're super surprised." Sirius grinned. "Like we have no idea who did this."

"But we are super impressed with them." Peter agreed.

"You know," Remus said finally speaking. "These pranksters do need a name."

The other three turned to him. "Really?"

Remus nodded.

"So what are you thinking Remus? You're the wordy one." Sirius asked.

"I'm thinking..." Remus mused thinking hard before the word finally came to him. "Marauders. The Marauders."