Chapter 4: Pranking with the Marauders
A/N This was going to be a filler chapter, but then it ended up being much longer than I thought it would be. Enjoy this long chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter characters or anything Harry Potter related. I do own the OC Jasmine and the plot of this story.
The next morning, Jasmine was woken up by Lily. Once Jasmine was up and out of her bed, she saw that the rest of the girls were still asleep. She gave Lily a questioning glance to which Lily shrugged in response. Then the two girls changed into their robes. By the time they were both up and ready to go to breakfast, the other girls were awake and getting ready. They told us to go on without them and that they would meet us down in the Great Hall.
Jasmine had decided last night that she would eat breakfast with Lily after she spent most of last night with the Marauders. She felt that it was only fair, too bad the boys didn't see it that way. Lily and Jasmine had just sat down to breakfast when Jasmine felt someone sling their arm over her shoulder. She turned and saw Sirius. Then she heard James greet them. "Good morning, Jazzy, Lily-Pad."
Lily gave him a look of disgust before responding. "It was until you showed up Potter," she snapped at him.
"Feisty this morning, Evans. I like it." James smirked. All he got was a grimace in response as Lily started ignoring them. Then he took a seat next to Sirius who was sitting next to Jasmine. On Jasmine's other side was Lily and James didn't dare try and sit next to Lily. He wanted to live through the day.
Jasmine turned toward James and Sirius (his arm was still slung across her shoulders) and spoke to them. "What are you guys doing?"
"Well, love, we are sitting down to breakfast. What does it look like we are doing?" Sirius told her.
Jasmine facepalmed. "I mean why are you sitting here?" Jasmine clarified.
"Sitting with our new best friend of course," James told the girl as he piled food onto his plate.
Jasmine groaned. "Ugh. Guys, I know that we just met and everything, but I wanted to spend this morning with Lily. Just Lily." She emphasized the last part, but she realized it was useless. The boys were no longer paying her any attention.
Jasmine didn't mind the Marauders sitting with them, but she knew that Lily minded a lot. And right now, Jasmine didn't need a pissed off Lily. She really just wanted to enjoy a nice relaxing breakfast with her cousin and only her cousin. Jasmine has been enjoying her time with the Marauders, but she felt slightly guilty about breaking her promise to Lily. Jasmine wanted to make it up to her by having breakfast with just her this morning, but the boys ruined that plan.
While the boys were immersed in their own conversations, Jasmine took the chance to whisper something to Lily. "I'm sorry, Lils. I didn't expect that they would want to sit with me. I really just wanted to sit with you and the girls. If you want, we can get up and move or I can try to get them to leave."
Whispering back Lily said, "No, it's okay, Mina. I know it's not your fault. I'm sorry too for how I acted yesterday. I don't like that you are friends with them, but I know I went a little bit overboard yesterday. I just want to protect you, Mina. You've been through so much already. I don't want to see you hurt again." Jasmine gave her a grateful smile.
Soon the other three girls joined them across the table, just as schedules were being passed out. The girls gave a sideways glance to the Marauders sitting next to Jasmine but otherwise ignored them. As each received their schedule, they started comparing when the classes that they had were. That was when the Marauders joined back into the conversation. She heard them groan about having potions with Slytherins yet again.
"So, Jaz," Sirius turned to face the girl. He had waited impatiently for her to finish talking about her schedule with Lily before he continued. She looked over at him and motioned for him to continue. "So, what classes are you taking this year? You know, besides the required classes." He inquired of the girl who he had once again slung his arm around.
Instead of answering his question, she handed him her timetable. She thought it would be better this way so that all the Marauders would be able to see what she was taking while she could still continue talking with Lily.
The Marauders gave Jaz back her timetable after looking at it for several minutes. Jasmine took it back and the boys went back to their earlier conversation, and she went back to her conversation with Lily.
She and Lily agreed that they would try to sit together in Charms, History of Magic, and Herbology. Lily told her that they should sit together in Muggle Studies, and Jasmine agreed at the time, but later on, they didn't end up sitting next to each other.
Before they could continue their discussion, Lily had checked the time and said they needed to get going if they wanted to make it to Transfiguration on time. They left and the Marauders didn't even seem to notice that they left.
As the week dragged on, Jasmine was learning just what the teachers at Hogwarts were like. Her favorite so far was Professor McGonagall. It helped that she taught one of Jasmine's favorite subjects. It was already Wednesday. By now Jasmine had had Transfiguration, Potions, and History of Magic, which was her least favorite. She never found history all that interesting anyway. Right now, she was on her way to her first class of Muggle Studies. She was a bit nervous, but Lily had prepared her slightly for the class. That fact calmed Jasmine down a little bit but not much. She would probably be fine, but she was still worried about what this class would bring.
Jasmine walked into the classroom and immediately spotted her cousin. Her distinctly red hair had her standing out among the rest of the class. Sadly, the seat next to her was already taken. Jasmine didn't mind though. She understood that her cousin was considered popular at Hogwarts. It made sense that someone would sit next to her before she got to the classroom. Jasmine and Lily didn't walk together because while Lily was off hanging out with Mary, Jasmine was in the library curled up with a good book. It was her favorite and she was surprised they even had it in the library. She would have taken it back to the common room to read or to read later, but Madam Pince told her it wasn't to leave the library. Jasmine didn't really care either way. She was just happy to be able to read the book.
So, when Jasmine saw that her cousin was already sitting next to someone, she cursed herself. She had convinced herself that she could finish the chapter she was on before she had to get to Muggle Studies. She was able to finish the chapter, but she didn't have as much time to get to the classroom as she had wanted.
"Oh well." Jasmine thought. Then she looked around the room for an empty seat. She spotted an open one in the back of the room. There was someone already sitting at the table, but she couldn't tell who it was. Arriving at the table, she cleared her throat to get the person's attention before asking them, "Is this seat taken?"
They shook their head no, so Jasmine sat down in the seat. She couldn't see who it was or if she knew them because their face was covered by their hair. She thought she recognized their hair, but she wasn't sure until they turned around and surprised her.
They turned around and said, "Jaz! Fancy seeing you here." Sirius remarked to the girl who was now gaping at him, which was exactly the reaction he was looking for.
It didn't take her long to get over her surprise and respond to Sirius. Her response was to hit him upside the head. "What the hell, Sirius? You could have told me that you were in this class with me and Lily. You saw my schedule, you ass." She hit him upside the head again.
"Ow! Geez woman, you hit hard," Sirius complained, rubbing the back of his head that he was sure would develop a bruise or a bump later.
Jasmine rolled her eyes. She starts to question why she made friends with the Marauders, or at least Sirius. Jasmine didn't get a chance to actually respond to Sirius as class started.
The class wasn't as bad as Jasmine anticipated it would actually be, especially since Lily had caught her up a bit over the summer. She was also familiar with the Muggle world fairly well since she had been living in a Muggle neighborhood her entire life. By the end of the class, she was pretty engaged in the course material and was enjoying the class. She thought it was interesting learning about Muggles from a wizarding perspective. It was an interesting point of view and Jasmine was glad she ended up choosing this class to take, especially now that she had a friend besides Lily in the class.
After class, Jasmine made sure that Sirius didn't leave without her. She had some questions, and she was going to get answers whether he wanted to tell her them or not. She didn't end up having to catch up to him or anything. He was waiting for her to finish gathering her stuff before they headed out of the classroom together. Sirius was expecting questions from the half-blood who knew he was a pureblood.
"Thanks for waiting for me," Jasmine told Sirius once they were outside of the classroom.
"No problem. I assume you have tons of questions for me," Sirius told her.
"Maybe not a ton but I do have a few." Sirius nodded his head to her to go ahead and continue. "Well, first off, why the hell didn't you tell me at breakfast that you were in Muggle Studies. You saw my schedule when they were first given out. Even if you didn't tell me at breakfast yesterday after seeing my schedule, you had plenty of other opportunities to tell me."
"I wanted to surprise you." Sirius had a huge grin on his face. He knew she would ask that question. When he saw that Jaz was also taking Muggle Studies yesterday morning, he began to devise a plan to make sure she would sit next to him. Lily was in the class as well, so he knew he would have to make sure that someone was already sitting next to her before Jaz arrived. So, using his suave moves, he asked a girl he knew Lily was acquainted with to sit next to her. He had to make sure Jasmine sat next to him. After all, how was he supposed to surprise her if she wasn't sitting next to him? "Plus, where's the fun in telling you?"
Jasmine rolled her eyes in response as she decided that his answer didn't deserve an actual response. Then she asked her second question. "So, why are you taking Muggle Studies? I didn't expect you to be one to take the class."
Jasmine noticed that Sirius tensed slightly before relaxing again. "Well, after Remus showed us some Muggle stuff, he brought with him our second year, I wanted to learn more about Muggles." That was only partially the truth. He had been more interested in Muggles and their stuff after Remus brought some stuff their second year, but the main reason he took the class was to spite his parents. He didn't want to be like them, so what better way to do that than to take Muggle Studies. They were furious when they found out, but Sirius didn't care. Sure, he got a bit injured, but it was nothing he couldn't handle. Though, when the class started, Sirius found that he enjoyed the class. Instead of just taking it that one year like he originally planned, he ended up continuing on with the class.
Lucky for Sirius, Jasmine accepted the answer with another question. "Remus is a half-blood too? I had no idea. Is his mother or his father a Muggle?"
"You can ask Remus right now." Jasmine gave him a confused look. "Look here he comes right now."
Jasmine looked away from Sirius to see Remus Lupin walking toward them.
They called out to him since he had his head in a book. He looked up and joined them on their way to the Gryffindor Common room. Remus put away the book he was reading after Jasmine asked the question she just asked Sirius. The two of them talked about their lives as half-bloods without Remus mentioning his furry little problem as James and Sirius liked to refer to it. Also, Jasmine made sure not to mention what went on with her mother. They talked the entire way into the common room. The entire way, Sirius felt like a bit of a third wheel. He wasn't a half-blood, so he didn't have much to say on the subject.
As the trio entered the common room, Sirius spotted James. Sirius left the two half-bloods to keep discussing their lives in favor of talking with his best mate. James greeted Sirius, and they began to discuss some mischief that they could get into before dinner.
Before Jasmine knew it, her first week at Hogwarts was over and the weekend was upon her. She was enjoying all her classes, especially Transfiguration and Music class, which are her favorites. Muggle Studies is becoming one of her favorites as well. She had never thought to take it before, but it is pretty interesting to see the wizarding point of view of Muggles.
Now that it was the weekend, the Marauders and Jasmine had some more time to discuss the prank they were planning to pull for the following weekend. It was Saturday morning after breakfast that they found the time to gather together in the common room to start conspiring. Jasmine didn't want Lily to know, so she made sure that she wasn't going to be in the tower that morning. Right now, Lily was hanging out with Severus Snape, so Jasmine didn't have to worry for the moment about what the Marauders and her were planning.
They were gathered around the fireplace. James and Sirius were sitting on the couch with Jasmine squeezed in between them. Remus was in an armchair to the right of Sirius and Peter was in the armchair next to James. Jasmine was the first to speak. "Okay, I don't know how you boys have done your pranks before, but I have a ground rule." They nodded their heads. "We are not going to pull a prank specifically meant to torment or bully other students, especially Slytherin. I don't like some of them either, guys, but it is cruel and mean to just torment them." James and Sirius opened their mouths to protest, but Jasmine didn't let them get in a word. "Guys, I am not a bully, and neither should you be." The boys closed their mouths and nodded their heads guiltily.
"So, anyway, I have been thinking about prank ideas all week. I have several ideas that I think would be amazing. My favorite is this one, though." Jasmine took out a piece of parchment that she had written her prank plan idea on. "The only thing that I can't figure out how to completely do is how we can do this all without being seen or heard." She looked down at her plan and then glanced at the Marauders. They all had grins on their faces indicating that they had something in mind, so she gave them each a questioning look. Her unspoken question was answered when James ran up to the dorm the Marauders all shared. What he brought back with him amazed Jasmine.
"We'll use this to get around. No one will be able to see us, and we can do it all the night before." James smiled proudly lifting up the invisibility cloak to display it to Jasmine.
"Is that an invisibility cloak?" Jasmine asked the boy. She was still astounded that he even had one. She had never actually seen one in real life.
"Why yes, it is, Jazzy. What else could it be?" James said before he ran back up to the dorm to put the cloak away. He didn't need any other Gryffindor's seeing his cloak.
Once James was back, Jasmine began to explain the rest of her plan. "Now that we have that issue sorted, here's the plan. I got the idea after a conversation I had with Lily that reminded me of this weird American short story writer and poet named Edgar Allen Poe. He has this poem called the Raven. Have any of you heard of the poem?" She got nods from Remus and surprisingly Sirius. James was shaking his head no. And Peter wasn't really paying much attention.
Seeing as James hadn't heard of the poem, Jasmine explained the gist of the poem. The part that she focuses on is the parts with the raven. After explaining the poem to James, Jasmine goes back to the prank plan. "So, my idea is that the night before we transfigure some objects around the castle into ravens. Then we enchant them to only say 'Nevermore' anytime any student passes one, even us." Before the boys could protest, Jasmine continued to explain her plan. "I'll explain why later. Anyway, I also thought that if we have time, we could also enchant the ravens to follow any Ravenclaws that pass by one of the ravens. Although now that I think about it, we should save that for another time. Maybe we could make it eagles instead. Maybe…" Jasmine trailed off and started mumbling to herself. She was getting lost in the ideas that were swirling around in her head. Luckily, Sirius pulled her out before she got too deep.
"Jaz? Jaz! JAZ!" Sirius shouted to the girl next to him.
Jasmine jumped. "What the hell, Sirius? You didn't have to yell right in my ear."
Sirius rolled his eyes in response. "Well, I think I speak for everyone when I say that your idea is brilliant, Jaz." They grinned at the girl, nodding their heads in agreement with Jasmine's plan.
"Thanks, guys. I appreciate the compliment."
"So, when do you want to pull this prank?" James asked Jasmine.
"I was thinking we could do this all on Friday night so that it would all happen on Saturday. Saturday because that way there is less of a chance of us getting caught. That's why we have to make sure that they still say nevermore when we pass. We only have to pass a raven each once and it has to be in front of a professor otherwise they would get suspicious. Oh, I forgot something. In order for us to definitely not get in trouble, we add a timing component to the transfigured ravens. We have the ravens transfigure back to what they originally were before we transfigured them. I say we set it for until curfew on Saturday. That way if the professors collect the ravens, all they will have left are no ravens and instead just objects," Jasmine explained.
James, Sirius, and Peter looked at her astounded, while Remus just looked impressed. "That is an impressive plan Jaz," Remus told her. "I thought that I was the only one who could avoid being caught with my pranks."
She smiled at him. "Guess not, Lupin. You've got some competition now." Jasmine challenged.
"Guess I do."
Before they could continue their conversation, James spoke up. "That is absolutely brilliant, Jazzy. You thought of everything. That is absolutely amazing. We are so doing this prank. We will have to do a bit more research about the spells we need to cast to make this happen, but we should be able to pull it off by Friday night."
"No need to worry about research. I already know what spells we need to cast. I didn't entirely come up with this whole idea during this past week. I had thought of other parts and pieces previously, so I know how to do that. I know how to do the spells that we need for the most part. I can teach you all whenever you are free. It can be one-on-one or all of you together. I don't mind, either works for me. It might take some time, though. If you have time today and tomorrow, we can get it all done this weekend. Let me know by lunch. I have work I need to do right now. See you later." Jasmine got up from the couch and went to her dorm room to grab her stuff before heading out to the library.
After she left the common room, the Marauders went up to their dorm to discuss. It was only the four of them in the room, which they were all grateful for, especially Remus. He didn't need someone else being suspicious of why he disappeared once a month at the full moon. Once in the dorm, they each sat on their beds. Sirius was the first to speak. "That girl is something else." They all nodded their heads in agreement.
It was silent for a few minutes as they all processed what had occurred in the common room in its entirety. This time James broke the silence. "It's a brilliant plan and if it goes as she plans, there is no way we aren't making her a Marauder. That plan is amazing, and it is going to be hilarious. She thought of everything. I mean she even knows how to do all the spells that we need to do the prank." Then James fell back onto his bed.
Remus was the next to speak up. "She is quite impressive. I feel like she has been thinking about pulling a prank for a while now, though. From what I have heard about Beauxbatons from Jasmine, it is a pretty strict school. She didn't want to get kicked out, so it would seem that she didn't pull any pranks there."
"I'm going to agree with you, Remus. She seems eager as if she hadn't pulled a prank in a while," Sirius said. Peter nodded in agreement. "So, what's the plan for spending time with Jasmine to learn what we need to do? Individual or all together or are we going to do a little bit of both?"
"Well, I'm pretty busy this weekend," Peter said.
"Same here," said Remus. "Peter, if you aren't busy Monday and Tuesday evening after dinner, I bet Jasmine will be able to teach both of us together." Peter nodded his head agreeing with the idea.
"Okay, you two will do it together during the week and James and I will do it this weekend," Sirius said looking at his best friend who was still lying on his bed. "Hey James, you want to start after lunch?"
"No can do, Sirius. I have to finish a bit of homework after lunch."
"Well then, I guess it will just be me with Jasmine after lunch." Sirius eyed his best friend suspiciously. He had a feeling that he might be up to something, but he wasn't sure what it was.
So, at lunch, the Marauders told Jasmine what time would work for them to start learning the spells they would need. James told her he would try to join her after dinner for more learning. He couldn't promise anything though.
After lunch, they all went their separate ways. Remus, James, and Peter went in the direction of Gryffindor tower to get anything they may need. Sirius and Jasmine headed off in another direction, with Jasmine leading at first. After several minutes of seemingly just wandering around, Sirius spoke up. "So, Jaz, where are we going anyway?"
"I have no idea. I'm not really familiar with the castle yet, so if you know a place we can go where no one will disturb us, I am all ears."
Sirius thought for a minute. There wasn't really a great place to secretly learn these spells that he knew of, but they could just use a classroom in a remote part of the castle and then lock the door. They could use the shrieking shack, but that would lead to a lot more questions than Sirius would like. Many of those questions he wouldn't be able to answer without betraying Remus' trust either. So, Sirius relayed the idea of the remote empty classroom to Jasmine. She agreed that that was probably the best solution, so they headed to a far corner of the castle that Sirius knew most people didn't go to, especially on weekends.
As Jaz taught Sirius the spells and enchantment, he couldn't help but notice how good-looking she actually was. When he looked closer, he noticed the differences between Jaz and Lily. Their hair colors were different shades of red. Jasmine's hair, in Sirius's opinion, was way better looking than Lily's. Sirius also noticed that her eyes were different as well. When Jasmine was explaining one of the spells, she looked him straight in the eyes, which gave Sirius the chance to get a good look at her eyes. When she looked at him, Sirius almost got lost in them. The only thing that stopped him from getting lost was Jasmine's voice pulling him away.
As their learning session continued, Sirius kept noticing more and more about Jasmine, but he didn't think anything of it. He knew she was pretty. That much about her was obvious after their first encounter. It was only natural that he would notice that she looked good. He is still a guy after all. He could look, but that doesn't mean he liked Jasmine.
The time ended up flying by rather quickly. Sirius was getting the spells rather quickly, which Jasmine didn't expect to be the case at first. After accomplishing the time spell that they would use, Jasmine said, "Wow, you are getting these spells rather quickly. I was really expecting this to take longer,"
Sirius gasped dramatically, acting like he was offended. "How dare you miss? I will have you know that I am a very talented and brilliant wizard. I have done well in all of my classes so far."
Jasmine giggled. "Oh, I am so sorry. How could I have been so foolish?!" Jasmine stated just as dramatically before they both fell into laughter. They composed themselves before heading off to dinner. As they walked to dinner together, they made jokes and laughed the entire way. They enjoyed their time together, Sirius a little bit more than Jasmine. He didn't realize what that meant though.
At dinner, they met up with the other three boys, who were already there. They saved seats for them right next to James. Jasmine went to sit next to James, but he pulled Sirius into the seat before she could. Jasmine didn't originally see that James had pulled Sirius into the seat next to him because she was greeting Remus and Peter as she sat down. When she sat down, she ended up in Sirius's lap.
Jaz blushed, embarrassed at where she ended up sitting. "Sorry, Sirius. Didn't realize you wanted to sit here." Then she moved to the seat next to him.
Sirius was also blushing slightly. "No, it's fine. I wasn't actually planning on sitting here, but James pulled me down into the seat." Sirius glared at his best friend. Now he was pretty sure he knew what his best friend was planning, and he wasn't about to give in to what James wanted.
Jasmine also glared at James, who was now laughing at the whole situation. He didn't apologize to either of them either being the arse that he is. So, in retaliation, the two of them ignored James until they were done with dinner. By the end of dinner, James was begging them to speak to him again, but he still didn't apologize. The two silently agreed to begrudgingly talk to James again, but only if he came and worked with them on the spells for the prank. He agreed to these terms. So, after dinner, the three of them walked to the classroom that Jasmine and Sirius had been in earlier.
The boys lagged behind Jasmine so that Jasmine was out of earshot of what they were saying. Sirius spoke first. Quietly, he told James, "I know what you are trying to do, Potter. It's not going to work."
James played it off, though. "I have no idea what you are talking about, Black. I'm not doing anything."
"Yes, you are," Sirius told him, trying to keep his voice down so that Jasmine wouldn't hear.
"Then, pray tell, what am I trying to do Sirius?" James asked innocently.
"You know exactly what you are doing." Sirius glared at him.
"No, I do not, so please enlighten me."
"Ugh, fine, Potter. You are trying to set me up with Jaz. I don't like her like that. She is just a friend. I mean I can't deny that she is hot, but that doesn't mean anything. Any male with eyes can see that." Sirius had to work really hard not to raise his voice. He was getting pretty frustrated at James right now.
"Oh, and what makes you think I'm trying to set you up with her?"
"Oh, I don't know, the fact that you totally set it up so that it would only be us this afternoon. I know you didn't have anything to do."
"I'll have you know that I did have something to do."
"What? Bother Lily again by getting rejected by her yet again?"
"Nooo," James said, stretching out the 'o' in a way that gave him away.
"So, that is exactly what you were doing, but that doesn't mean that you weren't trying to set me and Jasmine up."
This went back and forth for a little bit longer with James continually denying Sirius's accusations. They both knew Sirius was right, though. It wasn't until they were almost to the classroom that James finally relented. "Okay, fine. You're right, Sirius, but I just have a feeling about the two of you. You would be great together. Despite your 'reputation' I know you're not actually the player everyone claims that you are. Just give it a chance?"
Sirius shook his head. "No way, James. I'm not going to bring her into the hell that is my life. Plus, I don't even like her that way, nor do I think I ever will. So, drop it."
James didn't get to respond as they arrived at the empty classroom. The subject was dropped as the three students entered the classroom. Not a word about it was spoken for the rest of the night. Instead, they worked on the spells and enchantments that Jasmine was teaching them. They got them fairly quickly being the talented boys that they were. They practiced spells until it was curfew because James didn't have his invisibility cloak with him. They didn't want to chance getting caught. They entered the common room and said good night before heading to their dorms.
The next morning after breakfast, James and Sirius went with Jasmine to learn the rest of what she needed to teach them. By the time lunch rolled around the two had the spells and enchantments down pat. They would definitely be ready.
Jasmine had taught all of them the spells and enchantments easily. The boys didn't have too much trouble with them, except Peter. He had a bit of trouble with some of the spells, but with a little bit of help from Jasmine and Remus was able to get them. After they all learned what they needed to, the week seemed to drag on. To the five of them, it seemed like Friday couldn't come soon enough.
They were all relieved when Friday finally arrived. They did their best not to show their excitement in class in case it looked suspicious. They didn't need anyone catching on to their plans before they even went through with them. It would ruin the prank before it even happened. They all agreed to meet in the common room after Remus finished his patrol rounds with Lily. That way they would have less of a chance of being caught.
Remus got back to the common room to find the boys sitting there. Jasmine was up in her dorm pretending to be asleep. She didn't want Lily to know that she was planning on doing a prank with the Marauders. Lily would try to talk her out of it, or even go as far as jinxing her to stay in the room. Plus, Jasmine knew her cousin wouldn't approve of her actions. So, Jasmine would sneak down to the common room after Lily was in bed.
Once they were all gathered in the common room, they set out with James's invisibility cloak. The cloak was only so big though, so two of them, Remus and Jasmine, cast the disillusionment charms. The charm didn't entirely make them invisible, but it did what they needed it to.
By the end of the night, they had transfigured about 20 ravens around the castle. There were four in front of the Great Hall. There was at least one at the entrance of the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw common rooms. In front of the Hufflepuff and Slytherin common rooms, they put two for each. Jasmine wasn't sure how the boys knew where all the common rooms were, but she wasn't going to question it. They put a raven in the Gryffindor Common room. They put two in the Ravenclaw common room. They were able to solve the riddle with a combined effort. They didn't know the passwords or how to get into the other two common rooms, so sadly they couldn't put ravens in them. Then they put two ravens in the library at two of the tables. The last five ravens were scattered throughout the castle randomly in places they knew that people would be going. They didn't want to put a raven somewhere that no one would be. It would be no fun that way. Then they headed back to the common room. Luckily, they didn't have much trouble and luckily avoided Filch and Mrs. Norris. The group couldn't wait to see how their prank went over the next morning.
The next morning, they say their prank was going completely according to plan. Anytime anyone, including them, walked by a raven would say Nevermore. It was hilarious watching the people jump after hearing the raven they were not expecting to hear speak. The best part is that the teachers seemed to suspect them, at least James and Sirius, but after seeing that the raven still said it when they passed as well, there was less suspicion on them. Some of the professors were still suspicious, though. By the end of the day, most of the ravens had been collected in a cage. The five of them knew that it was a fruitless effort. They wanted to see the professor's faces when they realized that the cage no longer had ravens in it, but they didn't want to chance to get in trouble after all the effort they went through to not get caught. They settled for seeing their faces the next morning at breakfast.
Breakfast Monday morning they were met with the sight of some very angry professors as well as a Dumbledore that looked at them with a twinkle in his eyes like he knew that they had done it. McGonagall had even come up to the four of them. She spoke mainly to James and Sirius, but she told them, "I don't know how you did it, but that was some impressive Transfiguration. I am impressed, but don't you dare do that again unless you want detention." They all gave her their best innocent looks in response. She gave them a tight smile before walking back to the professor's table.
After she left the five of them smiled broadly at each other. "We did it. We actually did it. We got away with a prank." Sirius exclaimed so that only the five of them could hear. James cheered softly as the five of them rejoiced. Then Sirius turned to Jasmine, who was again sitting next to him. "You are a brilliant witch, which is why we have decided to make you an official Marauder."
Jasmine gaped at them in surprise that quickly wore off. "Really?! I would be honored." They all cheered.
Lily walked up to Jasmine as they were still cheering. She tapped on her cousin's shoulder to get her attention. "Mina, what's with the cheering? Did they tell you about the prank they somehow successfully got away with?"
It wasn't Jasmine who answered her though but James. "Well, Lily pad, I'll have you know that Jazzy here just became a Marauder."
"What?!" Lily screeched. Then she pulled her cousin away to go talk to her about this new development. She didn't get the chance to because they had to get to class or else, they would be late. Lily made Jasmine promise that they would discuss this after dinner in their dorm room.
What happened in their dorm room after dinner, was not a secret at all. Lily's yelling could be heard all the way down in the common room. It was mainly just Lily scolding her for making bad decisions. When Lily was finished yelling, they heard Jasmine scream back at her. Jaz told her cousin that could make her own decisions, and that she didn't need Lily protecting her. Jasmine could take care of herself no matter what Lily thought. Then the yelling stopped. It was silent for the rest of the night.
The entire next day, the two girls refused to talk to one another until Lily finally relented after dinner. She reluctantly apologized to Jasmine for her outburst in their dorm. She was just mad that it was official that Jasmine was friends with the Marauders. She didn't expect them to stay friends.
When they were alone, Lily even admitted to Jasmine that she was a little bit jealous about how much time she had been spending with the Marauders lately. She didn't want to lose her best friend and cousin to the likes of James Potter and Sirius Black. Jasmine reassured her that that wouldn't happen. And just like that, they were back to being best friends and acting like sisters.
A/N Please note, the prank that I came up with, within this chapter is not of my own creation. I got the idea from some Tumblr posts. I am not taking credit for the idea, but I thought it would be a good prank for them to pull with Jasmine's help. Also, I am not sure if they would read Edgar Allen Poe in England or Europe in general, but I thought why not.
Dang, this is a long chapter. I was not expecting it to be this long. I guess it will make up for me not posting for a while. I have a busy couple of weeks coming up, so I won't have as much time to run. I am happy to have finally finished this chapter, though. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter.
Until Next Time, Knk6700
