The Marauders

Chapter Three – I feel pretty, oh so…

The three remaining Marauders sat talking quietly in hushed voices.

'There's no way we'll be able to get Prongs back without getting into trouble again. It's impossible!' Sirius groaned. 'And I'm hungry.' Remus shot him a warning glance and Sirius stopped clutching his stomach.

'We could always just ask for him back.' Offered Peter.

'Yeah, sure Wormtail. 'Cos that'll work. Snape isn't after all the slimiest git I've ever met…oh no! Wait! Yes he is!' Sirius scowled at his friend before Remus pushed him off the chair he perched on.

'Hey!' protested Sirius from where he lay sprawled on the floor.

'Oh shutup Padfoot. There was a reason why dogs weren't meant to talk you know.' Sirius straitened up at Remus' obvious loss of patience.

'Sorry' he mumbled and pushed himself into a sitting position.

********************

Sirius moaned and let out a huge sigh.

'I'm bored! We haven't done anything mean to Snape for a week!'

'That's because we don't know what they'd do to James if we did.' Remus answered, his nose stuck in a book.

Sirius banged his fist against a tree and the tree banged back.

'Hey!' it cried. Sirius yelped and jumped back.

'What the- '

'Sshhhhh.' hissed the tree.

'It's me, raven. I transfigured myself into a tree to hide from Professor McGonagall.' Sirius stared blankly at the tree. Raven was in the same year as them and also in Gryffindor. She had a knack for getting into trouble with McGonagall, nobody really knew why, so it went unquestioned.

'Okay…don't you think you should change back now?' questioned Remus. One of the tree's branches sway violently up and down, almost catching Sirius round the back of the head. Remus registered this as a nod but Sirius noted it as an act of aggression and pulled out his wand.

'Lhûnus!' he yelled. The tree-Raven- shrieked as she waited for something horrible to happen to her. She froze for a few seconds and then started shimmering. Slowly, the brown bark faded and became a bright dazzling blue.

She transfigured herself back and stared, screaming, at her blue arms. Sirius stared, surprised that his spell hadn't worked as planned, but he laughed none-the-less.

Peter's eyes were wide with shock but then a smile slowly formed on his face.

'That's perfect!' he cried. Raven glared at him and pouted.

'No it isn't!' she screeched, 'I'm blue!' Sirius stopped laughing and turned to Peter.

'You're brilliant Wormtail!' he ran over and clapped him on the back. 'It's the best idea we could've asked for! Right Moony?' Remus lifted his head at the mention of his name and raised an eyebrow.

'I was thinking of something a little less conspicuous, actually. But it won't get us into trouble…'

But there was no changing Sirius' mind. The Slytherins were going to feel a bit down tomorrow. They were going to be blue.