The Marauders – The Prank
Hogwarts Gazette – Friday, September 1 Marauders Tryouts
The Marauders, Hogwarts number one band, have lost a very dear part of their group this year. Danielle Richmond, head singer, graduated last year.
"We won't let our fans down" Says head guitarist, James Potter. "Dan's shoes are going to be hard to fill, but we're going to try."
"Yeah, loosing her has been devastating, but we will prevail!" Remarks Sirius Black, drummer.
"But, since we can't have a proper band without a nice set of vocals, we will be holding tryouts." Promises Remus Lupin, pianist. "You must sign up for tryouts. There will be a sheet on the Great Hall bulletin board from Saturday, September 2 to Friday, September 8."
Once all the slots are full, they'll have to take the sheet down, so sign up soon. Tryouts themselves will be held on September 9th and 10th. They request that only serious musicians sign up because of the intensity of the practices. Weekday practices are from 8:00 to 10:00 and weekend practices are from 1:00 to 5:00. Also, extra-hours will be put in with writing and possibly practicing. Requirements for tryouts are one song that has been preformed by an artist and one that you have written."
The Marauders wishes everybody who tries out good luck and will see you on the 9th and 10th.
Wishing you good luck, and good reading, I'm Rita Skeeter.
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Enter: James, Sirius and Remus.
James was the guitarist of the band, he also sang. He had raven black hair that never stayed down on his head, and the way is flopped over his forehead and into his eyes made the girls want to brush it out of the way. He had beautiful, chocolate colored eyes and he occasionally wore a pare of black wire frame glasses, other times he used contacts. He stood a little over six feet and he had muscles on him that filled his frame out nicely, no doubt caused by five years of Quidditch. He was famous for wearing shirts with clever saying on them, and his pants were always baggy, but not fall-off-your-butt baggy.
Sirius Black was the drummer in their group. He had long brown hair that fell just below his shoulder blades, and he was striving to grow a beard – without much success. His eyes were stormy gray, and they always had a twinkle in them from his smile. He loved to smile and play pranks. It was like his mission in life to make certain people laugh out loud and other people want to wipe the smile off his face. He was a towering six foot six and loved to lift weights. He didn't look freakishly muscular, but he had a nice set of abs. He was one of those people where you either felt very safe with him around, for very threatened. He could always be found wearing a Muggle sports jersey or some strange shirt that you figured he had to have made himself.
Remus Lupin was the shy pianist. His sandy colored hair was wonderfully soft, causing girls to constantly play with it. He was just a bit shorter than James and wasn't as muscular either. Normally, his eyes were a deep brown color, but if you caught them in just the right angle with just the right amount of light, they turned to a golden amber. He was the sweetest of the three and was the first to stand up for his friends. His clothing was relatively normal, sometimes a funny saying popping up, but he tended to stick to earth tones, generally brown and green.
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It was the night of the second, and they already had to take the list down. All 400 slots had been filled, and now the boys had to go through the hassle of putting the names in order.
"Why, in the name of all that is chocolate, did we decide on 400 slots?"
James pointed at Remus.
"Hey! You guys okayed it!"
James looked up, "That was before we thought all of them would be filled within 24 hours."
Remus snatched the list away from Sirius, "I've heard some of these people sing… And they royally suck."
Sirius sighed and sunk into his chair, "How are we going to sort the names? Draw them randomly out of a hat?" His two friends actually considered it.
"Why don't we take all the ones we know can't sing and put them in first, then all the others and be drawn out of a hat?" Remus suggested.
"Sounds good."
"OK."
They each got a highlighter and a section of the list and started putting X's by everybody who couldn't sing and dots by people who were OK then they'd rotate their section of the list. After all that was done, they took all the X's and dots and but them in a "Day 1" list. It came out a little less than 200 people. Then they just randomly picked people for the second half of their list.
Just as they all leaned back into their chairs, James rubbing his hand because he was the one writing all the names, they jumped at the sound of a banging portrait and insane laughter of two girls.
"Did you see Tinker? No wonder she's not a punk! I mean, a nose ring. A nose ring!"
The three boys looked at each other strangely. Who were these girls and what were they talking about?
The girls came into view and Sirius got their attention. "Hey! What're you two going on about?"
A lovely redhead came up and leaned over the table and glanced at their lists. "Well, while you three were working on your lists, you missed out on the biggest prank ever pulled in Hogwarts." She gave them a sly smile and sat in front of the fire, causing her hair to glow.
"Wait… Prank?" Sirius looked at his friends, "Did you two pull a prank without me?"
"Not you, stupid." The other girl, a raven haired girl with a strange sense of fashion came to sit next to her friend. "Us. We pulled the greatest prank ever."
Remus leaned forward. "How many?"
The red head smirked, "Everyone."
"Everyone?"
"Everyone except the five sitting in this room."
"Teachers?"
"I said everyone, didn't I?" She looked at Sirius and James, "Is your friend slow or something?"
"Hey!" He looked indignant.
"So," James leaned forward, "what'd you do?"
The girls smirked and told them to wait.
As if on cue, Dumbledore's voice boomed across the entire castle. "Everyone please report to the Great Hall. There is no need to panic. Repeat, please report to the Great Hall."
The girls grinned and led them to the portrait. The raven haired girl pushed it open to reveal…
Mirrors.
Thousands upon thousands of mirrors, the five of them reflecting as far as the eye could see.
Sirius scoffed, "This is the greatest prank ever? A bunch a mirrors?"
"No," The willowy raven haired girl grinned as they walked to the Great Hall, seemingly unfazed by the dizziness the mirrors caused, "The mirrors were just the shockers."
The boys raised a puzzled eyebrow at each other. At the doors to the Hall, the red head stopped them and pivoted on her heel to look at the three boys with a threatening gaze. "I have to play innocent. Play. Along."
The double doors swung open at her touch and they entered the Hall, which was buzzing with complaints and whines. When people noticed them, they all looked accusingly at the boys, and the three of them couldn't contain their laughter.
All the preps were wearing Goth or punk clothes. Goths and punks were in bright, happy colors and were talking like preps. Slytherins were happy looking and smiling, some wearing Gryffindor colors. Snape had washed hair that was brushed back neatly and actually looked handsome. Bookworms and geeks looked and acted like airhead blonds. Even the teachers hadn't escaped it! Dumbledore looked dark and sinister, but his bright blue eyes were smiling. McGonagall was in a beautiful ball gown, her chocolate hair down and in waves and she actually had makeup on. She actually looked pretty. Hagrid, like Dumbledore, looked sinister and evil. Basically, everybody looked the complete opposite of how they normally looked or acted.
"Could you five please come up to the teacher's table?" Dumbledore's voice was cold and hard contrasting greatly to his smiling eyes.
The five of them got up there, small smiles on their faces, with the read head in the lead.
"Yes, professor?" Her voice was high and innocent sounding. Much unlike the voice they had heard in the Common Room. "By the way… What's with everyone's choice of attire?"
Cain, the nasty Potions teacher, gave them a suspicious look. Well, as suspicious as one could give with a giant smile pasted to his face. "It seems someone," he 'glared' at the three boys, "thought it would be funny to pull a prank."
"Ohhh, so that's what's up with everyone." She looked around the Hall quickly.
Dumbledore leaned his elbows on the table, "And it seems, you five haven't been effected. Care to enlighten us, Ms Evans?"
Her pretty forehead crinkled in confusion. "Well, I don't know professor. Ara and I," she gestured to the raven haired girl, "were up in the Common Room studying for Transfiguration," James was amused McGonagall bought the obvious brownie-points, "when we heard your announcement, Head Master. We came as soon as we heard."
Ara nodded her head, "Lily's right, Professors."
Lies! The boys thought, All lies!
McGonagall looked at the boys accusingly, "So that leaves you three. What's your excuse?"
Before any of the boys could say anything, Lily continued. "For once, Professor McGonagall, they didn't do it." At her skeptical look she continued, "I swear on my wand they didn't do it! They were working on some sort of list. Something about a band they want to start."
The boys smiled, she was good.
"Well than," Dumbledore scanned the Hall, "who did it?"
"My guess would be that somebody pulled the prank on everyone, including themselves so they wouldn't get caught." She did a very convincing job of making it sound like she had just come up with the thought.
"Very well. Before you leave, though, would you have an estimate as to how long this spell will last?" Dumbledore had a small smile and a look in his eye, causing the boys to think that he knew the girls had pulled the prank.
Lily turned around slowly, taking in the scene, then faced the headmaster again. "It was probably a potion, seeing how widespread the result is. And for it to be able to change clothing, it must have been very powerful. So I would say… Forty eight hours. And the mirrors were probably a very strong charm spell, but will wear off within the hour." She couldn't help a small smile creep to her lips.
Dumbledore smiled, "Very well." He raised his voice again, addressing the school, "The potion should wear off by the end of the weekend. Please don't let the change in attire disrupt you from your daily activities. Be careful when walking through the halls, the mirrors may cause dizziness."
The girls turned and walked out of the Great Hall, and the boys followed quickly behind.
"That was brilliant!" Sirius' eyes were twinkling, and then he turned to his friends accusingly. "If we hadn't had to go through 400 names, we could've pulled a prank today too!"
Remus waved his hand in a dismissing manner, "So, what're your names? Are you new? I think we would've noticed you two before today."
The redhead's smile disappeared at his comment, but the other girl started talking before anyone could notice.
"I'm Arabella, Ara for short. And this is-"
"Dumbledore said my name, if they weren't listening, that's their fault." The four others looked at her strangely. She had gone from lighthearted to pissed off in mere seconds.
"Well, if you won't tell us your name, we'll have to come up with one." Threatened Sirius.
Lily seemed to perk up at this. "Do your worst, smart ass."
"OK." Sirius made a slow circle around her, "Red."
Lily smirked, "How ingenious." With that, she sauntered off to the common room, Ara close behind.
