Disclaimer: All characters here belong to J.K. Rowling. Except the poem. I dunno who that belongs to O.o;


Remember, remember
The Fifth of November,
Gunpowder treason and plot;
I see no reason
Why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.
Ladies and Gentlemen, you'll all get fat;
If you don't put a penny in the old Guy's hat.


"So ... is it all ready?"
"How the hell should I know?!"
"Well, do you have the clothes?"
"Check."
"The firewood?"
"Firewood?"
"Yea."
"I think Hagrid took it already."
"That should be about it then... Oh! Do you have Moony?"
"I knew I forgot something!"
"What are you two doing in the dark?"
A blinding flash, Remus turned on the lights.
"Aah! My eyes!"
James clouted Sirius on the head. "Shut up."
Remus grinned and started checking the stuff. After a few minutes he looked up. "Yep. We have it all. Except for one thing."
"What's that?"
"Snape, you morons!"
James and Sirius blinked. "Oh yea... We should probably go get him."
"Who's up for the job?"
"We'll have a democratic vote. Anyone for Prongs to go say Aye. Aye!"
"Aye Aye, Cap'n!"
"No fair! Why doesn't Remus go?"
"Because the votes are two to one. You're up."
"But there are three of us! It'll always be two to one!"
"So? You got voted to go, you go."
Grumbling, James stalked off, and Sirius and Remus grinned at eachother and sat down to wait.
About half an hour later, James snuck in backwards through the door, dragging a limp body with him.
"Geez, what did you do, Prongs? We could get his drool all over us now."
"Well, he wouldn't come quietly, so I knocked him out with a right hook."
"Or you put him to sleep with a napping charm."
James shrugged. "Yea, that works too."
"Well, keep him asleep, it'll be easier."
"Alright. So who's going to dress him?"
"All in favour of Prongs say -"
"Oh no you don't, Padfoot! I brought him down here, I'm not going to dress him as well."
"Oh fine. Moony, do you want -"
"No."
"Guys! Come on, you don't want me to do it! I'll probably maime him!"
"And thats a bad thing? Hop to it."
Sirius tentatively stalked to Snape's slumped unconcious figure, and started to redress him, flinching whenever he accidently touched the cold clammy body of Snape.
When he was finished, he ran screaming from the room, something about washing the grime far far away.
James and Remus set about preparing and decorating the cart, with the hay they had transfigured from the wall tapestry threads (discreetly unravelled by Remus a few days before) and fireworks transfigured from anything around.
When they were done, and Sirius still hadn't returned, they opted to go look for him. So shutting the wall hanging that covered the doorway behind them, Remus and James crept off.
Getting out their map on the fourth Charms corridor, they searched it.
Dumbledore was in his office writing something, Snape was where they left him, McGonagall was in her bedroom, Peter was in the infirmatory again, and Sirius ... Sirius was down in the kitchens.
The two marauders present groaned and set off. They knew the way off by heart, and soon a certain pear was reduced to hysterical laughter.
Grabbing the handle and pulling the door open, the snuck through to find Sirius gleefully stuffing his face with delightfully sticky stuff. His eyes, if possible, lit up even further when he saw his two friends and fellow marauders shaking their heads at him.
"Hey guys!" Food lightly sprayed out, and Sirius stood up, finishing his mouthful and started to lick his fingers clean. "S'up?"
"Sir-EE-us!!"
He glanced up innocently. "What?"
"Did you forget about the plan? About Snape?!"
At the word Snape, Sirius paled drastically, and slowly removed his finger from his mouth, looking down at it in absolute horror.
"What?" queried Remus, starting on the biscuits the beaming house elves had just handed him.
"I didn't wash my hands!" wailed Sirius, hopping up and down on the spot in distress.
James started to laugh, and Sirius glared at him, making him laugh all the harder.
Remus sat down. "Really, Sirius, you left to go wash your hands. Whatever happened?"
"Well, I got all the way to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, and then I realised I was hungry..."
"And thus the stomach rules over all..." sighed Remus, as he got up and thanked the house elves, who beamed againn and got back to work.
James got up from the floor, still giggling somewhat. "Come on Padfoot, lets go wash your hands and go to bed."
"What about-"
"Moony, if you even ask about Snape, I'll hex you."
"No, I was going to ask about the plan."
"Oh. Right. Well, we'll do it tomorrow. I mean, today. Today is the 5th, right?"
"It is now. It just struck 1 AM."
"Did it really? I was wondering why I felt so excited..."
"Calm down a little, Padfoot. They'll suspect something if you're too excited."
"Yea, well, they'll suspect something if I'm too calm as well."
"Point taken..."


The next day, an underlying sense of excitement was in the air so the proffesors thought nothing of the added excitement of the marauders. Knowing, however, that they would take any oppurtunity to cause mischief and chaos, the proffesors kept a close eye one them.
And, as the deeds were somewhat expected, the marauders didn't get too many detentions for lighting the Slytherin's table on fire, or for strategically placing dungbombs set to go off whenever a Slytherin walked by (the teachers weren't fooled however). Dumbledore did come up during lunch when they were in the middle of debating whether to start an interhouse food fight.
"Hi Sir!"
"Good afternoon Mr Lupin. I know you're excited about tonight, but try to keep it minor. That fire this morning was no doubt pretty from the Ravenclaw table, I won't ask what you were doing there, but please. The tables are very old, and I'd like to keep them old, not burnt to a crisp."
"Yes Proffesor..." The three chorused and ducked their heads, grinning at eachother under the cover.
Dumbledore smiled, his eyes twinkling, and he set off to eat his lunch.
"I forget. What were we doing at the Ravenclaw table again?"
"Letting Prongs flirt with Lily and avoiding the blame."
"It didn't work, did it?"
"I shouldn't think so."
"Damnit. Prongs?"
James looked up again, his eyes glazed over in a dreamy expression. "Guys, I've had an idea..."
"God forbid!" Sirius teased, slapping his hands to his cheeks. "Ow. Slapped too hard..." he added a few seconds later.
"Let's explore the roof tonight! We haven't done the west wing yet!"
Sirius literally lit up at the idea, but Remus shook his head.
"Guys, remember Snape."
"Speaking of Snape, I haven't seen him lately. What did you do?"
The new voice made them twist around to see Zack Zambini, Snape's not total friend.
"Beat it, Zambini."
The Gryffindors were already growling and muttering ominously under their breaths, and Zambini, who only really felt safe enough with Snape's quick mouth and mean remarks, smirked and left for the Slytherin table, which had been uncrisped with a recovery charm.


Everything was as reasonably normal as it could be that afternoon. After classes, they went to go visit Peter who promised not to tell anyone about the plan. Remus, who had modified the flame freezing charm (usually it was only the person performing the charm is protected. This time, it could be anyone being protected.) briefly explained the plan.
"First, we collect knuts for the Snape in the cart. So far, Prongs and Padfoot have convinced everybody loudly that they were going to use a fake Slytherin Guy tonight. So noone should suspect a thing. Then Hagrid, by special request built us a stack of bonfire wood in front of the castle. Basically, we'll through Snape in the fire after performing the flame freezing charm on him. Clear?"
"Crystal."
"Oh, shut up."

They crept back to the hide-away room to collect the cart and Snape. To stop the Slytherins suspecting anything, they went to the common rooms of the other three houses only, and wrapped Snape up in James' invisibility cloak when going through the hallways. James only agreed to let them use it because they promised to spend the longest in the Ravenclaw common room.
To prevent James from going all ga-ga on them, they started with the Hufflepuffs, with whom they were friendly until they got irritated, which was usually quite quickly.
"Knut for the Snape!" yelled Sirius, loving all the attention.
"Oooo!"
"You three are so clever!"
"He looks so real!"
"Thank you, thank you! We owe it all to our adoring fans!" Sirius bowed extravagantly, showing off.
"All knuts are welcome, please give generously!" added James, pushing the cart forward.
The Hufflepuffs there giggled, and threw coins into the cart, not bothering to try and miss the 'fake' Snape's face.
Getting irritated with the gushing girls, the three managed to slip away and escaped. Wrapping Snape up in the cloak they headed for the Gryffindor common room, where laughter abounded, and cheers, whistles, catcalls and knuts sent them, still grinning, to the Ravenclaw common room. After collecting as many knuts as they were likely to get (which, admittedly, was quite a lot), they dawdled, waiting for James to stop flirting with Lily.
Tiring of this eventually, Sirius grabbed the back of his robes, Remus took hold of the cart handle, and they hauled him to the Entrance Hall, still grumbling.
"Come on Prongs, we have to start the bonfire."
James cheered up. "Great. Let's get the fire started, and then when everyone's out, we can throw Snape in."
The other two just nodded, walked to their pre-arranged points and started setting random pieces of wood on fire.

Peter was worried. He knew that Remus had reworked the Flame Freezing spell. He also knew that the Flame Freezing spell was also very tricky to adjust. Certainly, Remus was clever, but was he clever enough? Peter didn't like Snape, but he didn't want him being burned to death either. Reaching a decision, he called out to Madam Pomfrey, convinced that the marauders would never know, and he'd be congratulated for saving Snape's life.

A few more students were wandering out now, to watch the impressive bonfire burn, and the spectacular fireworks go off. The marauders stood gazing in awe at the huge fire. There was a thrilled glint in Sirius' eye as he turned to the other two.
"Guys," he whispered confidingly, "let's not put the flame freezing charm on Snape."
James and Remus exchanged slightly nervous glances. Sirius had always been thrilled by the mesmerising thing we call fire, just as Remus enjoyed the quiet darkness, and James loved the free air. It was just there, part of them, and they could usually handle it. This evening was no different.
"Can't Sirius, you put Remus through all that work to make a new spell..."
"The least you can do is use it."
The glint faded out, and Sirius turned to the cart with Snape again. "Alright. Ready when you are, Moony."
Remus nodded and stepped closer, gripping his wand and pointing it at Snape. Murmuring the words carefully, pronunciating them correctly made a thin yellowish orange beam shoot out of his wand and connect with a small red spark on Snape's crooked nose.
Then they picked up his limp body and prepared to fling him into the flames, when, amidst the cheers and cries of encouragement and anticipation, a yell rang out, loud and strong enough to successfully silence the crowd and stop the marauders. There was silence; you could only hear the fire crackling and Madam Pomfrey's footsteps, storming towards them.
Automatically they put on their innocent faces, even though there was no possible way she could know.
"You three! Put that guy down NOW!"
Maybe she could ... and did.
"Yes?"
"Don't give me that!" she thundered, stopping in front of them and pointing at the ground.
They exchanged mutual glances and shrugged, dropping Snape on the floor. There was a muffled 'thunk'.
"Right. Now get inside! Go on, go and see Dumbledore!"
They set off, no one bothering to tell them the way or the password. Everyone knew that they knew it all well enough.
Madam Pomfrey bundled Snape back in the castle; he was still lying motionless, now on a magical stretcher. Students started to guess what had happened, and either stared into the fire with shock, anger, or the faint beginnings of amusement on their faces.

"Who told her?" growled Sirius, slamming a fist into a statue on the way. "Oww!" he added, starting to suck on his injured knuckles.
"No one knew but us..." trailed off Remus. "No one but ..."
"Peter!" snarled Sirius, mentally cursing Peter.
"Calm down Padfoot, here comes Dumbledore."
Dumbledore stopped a few feet away, his normally benign face stern. "Explain."
The marauders immediately felt more guilty.
"Um, well, it was only in fun sir. Remus even made a protecting spell, and we were going to modify his memory!"
They carried on in this manner for about half an hour until Dumbledore's lips twitched. "Very well. Don't do it again, ever. This might be the last time we celebrate Guy Fawkes because of this. As it is, you will get detentions every week until January."
"Yes sir." they mumbled, and they ducked away to get to their dorms.
"Damnit, you guys, we never meant to ban Guy Fawkes."
"Hey, its ok. Maybe they're just worried that somebody in the future will try and burn someone. Better sooner than later, especially if more marauder types come to this school."
"More marauder types? No way. We're the best there's ever been, and ever will be."
"You bet."
There were grins all around, and then Sirius frowned. "I can't believe Wormy let us down like that though."
Remus shrugged, while James just looked thoughtful.
"Don't worry Padfoot. He wont do it again. After all, we're the marauders."
"No one can bring us down, not even a perspective ex-marauder!"
"You really want to kick him out Sirius? I mean, yea, he did betray us and all, but he might have just been worried."
"You're too soft hearted, Prongs. Nah, We'll let him stay in, if you want. After all, you're the leader."
"Damn straight."
"Besides." Sirius got up and stretched, half yawning. "Once a Marauder-"
"Always a Marauder!" they chorused together loudly, grinning at each other.
Sirius sat down again. "Now, about that prospective exploration expedition to the roof ..."



AN: Say that 5 times fast. I dare ya. Prospective Exploration Expedition. :D Anyway, yea, this was meant to be a humour ... and I suppose it still is in a way.. I dunno, I guess I wasn't in a humourous mood when I wrote this. I think I wrote Dumbledore wrong...ah well..
Thanks to Admiral Albia for the rough idea! =P
Please review! cheers and white ferrets!! ^^