Chapter 27: Sweet Dreams, Snape
"I'm bored." Sirius spoke the dangerous words.
"Oh, no!" I moaned. "Anything but that!"
"Hey shut it you!" he said jokingly. Several months had passed since the full moon incident and we were all sitting in the common room on a snowy winter night, with nothing to do.
"You suffer from insanity," I moaned at him.
"Suffer? Yeah right, Moony! I enjoy every minute of it!" Sirius told me.
"Well, the fact is, you're still insane," James pointed out.
"Never denied it," said Sirius. "Never will."
"Well, what can we do?" asked Peter.
"We haven't tortured Snape for a while," said Sirius, grinning.
"Well, the last time you tortured Snape look what happened!" I pointed out.
"Well, we'll let him live this time," said Sirius. "But I have an idea. Remember that levitating spell we learned the other day? Well, I figure we could go to his dorm room, and move his mattress into one of the trees in the Forbidden Forest."
"Great idea," said James. "But one question, how do we do it without getting caught?"
"Oh you all worry too much!" said Sirius. "What's the worst that'll happen to us? Detention? It's more fun than nothing!"
"What if we covered Snape in James' Invisibility Cloak?" I suggested.
"That could work," said James thoughtfully. "I'd just have to be sure to clean it afterwards. I don't want Snape grease on it." We shuddered at the thought.
"Well, then what are we waiting for?" asked Peter. With that, we left the common room and headed for the Slytherin one. Of course we knew exactly where it was. We knew how to get into all of the common rooms. The wall slid aside and we entered. The common room was empty. We slipped back the hall to the boys' dormitories. We knew where Snape's was, we'd been there before to play pranks on him.
"This is going to be hard," I hissed, as we arrived at his bed. James slid the curtains back carefully, as not to make a sound. He then pulled out the invisibility cloak, and spread it out over Snape.
"It's not big enough," he whispered.
"Well, at least cover Snape," said Sirius. James did so, so that all could be seen was the mattress on which he slept. Sirius pulled out his wand, and made Snape levitate in the air. He began to make him move out the doorway, and into the hall.
"Of course, no one's going to be suspicious of a big empty mattress being levitated down the hallway," said Peter sarcastically.
"Shhhh! No one will notice if you keep your mouth shut," I muttered.
"Ouch, damn it!" exclaimed Sirius as his foot caught on a suit of armor. James groaned.
"You realize I'm the only one who doesn't make enough noise to wake the entire Gryffindor house when we're out at night?"
"You're being loud enough now!" Sirius shot back.
"Oh, careful!" Peter exclaimed, as Sirius made a mistake and bumped the mattress into the wall. We couldn't tell if Snape stirred, but since we heard no noise, we figured he was still asleep. Carefully, we left the Slytherin Common Room and headed for the Entrance Hall. Then we left through the large oak doors, and headed for the forest. Luckily, no one saw us that night. We arrived at the forest, and James collected the invisibility cloak, Sirius floated Snape to the top of a large tree, made sure the mattress was securely stuck in the limbs, and let him there. We tossed the invisibility cloak over ourselves, Snape grease and all, and made a dash for the castle.
We cheered when we made it back to the common room, but the hilarious part wouldn't come until the next morning, when Snape woke up. We couldn't be out at the forest, but we could see his reaction when he returned to the great hall.
And he did. Halfway through breakfast the next morning, Snape, snow-covered and shivering, dressed in his green Slytherin pajamas emerged into the great hall.
"Potter!" he shouted. "I know this has something to do with you and your little gang!" The hall fell silent, and everyone stared at Snape, then at James and us, who were struggling to hold in laughter.
"What's going on?" questioned Dumbledore, standing. "Mr. Snape, why were you outside?"
"I went to bed last night, in my dorm room, and awoke this morning to find myself and my mattress in the top of a tree in the forbidden forest. And I'm certain it has something to do with them!" Snape spat, pointing a finger at us.
"Now, now," said Dumbledore. "Let's not make accusations. Can you prove that it was James and Sirius?" Dumbledore's eyes twinkled toward us. A smile played on the corner of his lips. Snape frowned.
"Well—er—no," he answered, giving us all glares.
"Well, then perhaps you'd better go warm up," said Dumbledore. "If you're not feeling well, then go see Madam Pompfrey." Snape looked angry.
"I know it was them, Headmaster!" shouted Snape. "After what happened to me last month when…" Dumbledore gave Snape a severe look, and Snape shut his mouth at once.
"Go back to your common room, Severus," said Dumbledore calmly. "I'm certain you'll be needing some rest." Snape glared at us as he left the room. We glanced at each other and burst out laughing. We were back to our usual pranks again.