Somehow they all got through the next two weeks without any huge incidents. James got a detention for dropping a Dungbomb in History of Magic, and even Sirius miraculously only missed one assignment; a summary for Herbology, but since the Herbology teacher had a bit of a soft spot for Sirius, she allowed him to just stand up and summarize the chapter for the class. He recited, almost word for word, a mixture of James and Remus's papers, but she never noticed.
A few days before they left for the holidays, Sirius decided it was time to start putting his plan in action against Bellatrix. Every since the prank he had pulled on the Hogwarts Express, they had been going back and forth, although he hated his cousin as much as she did him, Sirius's tricks were always funny while Bella's were down right malicious. Now, however, he was ready to get her back for every mean thing she had ever said or done to him or his friends.
The only problem was that, in order to perform the spell, he needed a lock of her hair. Bellatrix would never let any of the Marauders get close enough behind her to cut a lock of her hair off, and Sirius was reluctant to include his friends in this prank; it was between him and Bellatrix. He was sitting in one of the armchairs by the fire late one night when he noticed one of the house elves cleaning.
"Hey, Jilly." he called.
The elf turned around, surprised. "What does sir want?"
"I was wondering if you could do a huge favor for me." Sirius asked. "I'll give you whatever you want."
Her eyes narrowed. "Jilly not want clothes." she said angrily.
"Not clothes, then. Anything else that you do want?" he asked hurriedly.
"Well, sir… Jilly always wanted some chocolates." she said.
Sirius almost laughed out loud. This was too easy. "Ok, I'll get you as much chocolate as you want, if you'll go into the Slytherin Dungeon, to the fifth year girls' dorm and cut off a lock of a girl's hair and bring it to me."
"What does sir want girl's hair for?" she asked suspiciously.
"Nothing important. But it must be a certain girl. She has black hair like mine, about down to her waist. Do you think you could do that for me?"
"Jilly can do it. Jilly knows the girl. Girl is not nice to Jilly." the elf said darkly.
"No, I wouldn't think she would be." Sirius agreed.
The next night the elf appeared with a lock of Bella's hair in her fist. "Jilly got girl's hair. You will give Jilly chocolates?" Sirius handed her a chocolate frog and hurried off to his dorm to perform the spell.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The last day before Christmas vacation started, the students crowded into the Great Hall for breakfast amid beautiful decorations. There were fourteen real Christmas Trees, rows upon rows of holly, mistletoe hanging everywhere, and stockings in front of the fireplace.
As the Marauders entered the hall, Sirius noticed Bellatrix sitting at the Slytherin table with a particularly nasty expression on her face. She turned toward Sirius as he walked in and if looks could kill, he would have been dead in an instant. She was wearing a tall, black witch's hat, which few of the students ever wore, and her hair was done up so that the hat covered it.
Sirius had been in a good mood all morning, looking forward to spending the holidays away from his parents and with James, but his spirits soared at the look on Bella's face. As the four took their seats at the Gryffindor table, he nudged his friends.
"Watch this."
The pointed his wand toward Bellatrix, hiding it from view from the High Table with his body, and mumbled a few words. There was a gust like a strong wind, and Bellatrix's hat was blown off. Her waist length hair tumbled down and they saw that it was had indeed been dyed Gryffindor colors; the red and gold precisely matched the shades on the lion banner that flew above the Gryffindor table.
Over at the Slytherin table, Narcissa shrieked as she caught sight of her sister's hair. Bella looked so furious that Sirius wondered if the teachers would be able to stop her quickly enough if she decided to take her anger out on the people around her with some horrible curse. He laughed along with most of the Gryffindor table and many people from other houses that Bella had made enemies of at one time or another.
"Oy, Bella, did you forget which house you're in? You're with the Death Eaters, remember?!" Sirius called in a highly amused voice.
He was sure he would be cursed right there in the Great Hall and he decided it would be worth it just to see her face, but to his amazement, Bella was able to contain her anger. Breakfast ended, classes drew to a close with teachers assigning mountains of homework over the break, the boats pulled away carrying Remus, Peter and the other students who would be returning home for the holidays, and the castle emptied out except for the few students who would be staying. The holidays had arrived and James and Sirius couldn't wait for the fun to begin.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The other students had hardly been gone an hour when James and Sirius snuck out of Gryffindor Tower under the Invisibility Cloak. They were carrying the remainder of their Zonko's supply and looking for the Slytherin Dungeon. Severus Snape was also staying at school over the holidays, and they felt it was so great an opportunity to play tricks on him that they couldn't miss it. As Peter and Remus left, Snape had made a snide remark about Peter's Muggle family, and although Remus had already punched him in the face, they believed that Snape deserved to pay even more.
They nearly got lost more times than either of them cared to count, but eventually they found the portrait that covered the entrance to the Slytherin dormitories. It was a picture of an evil looking man with a dagger in his hand and blood on his clothes. Now all they had to do was wait for a Slytherin to come by who knew the password.
After a while, a stocky blond girl named Parkinson appeared. Parkinson had an older brother who was one the many Slytherin boys who ran around doing whatever Bellatrix wanted of them. Sirius's lip curled in a sneer as the girl walked past them, and said the password 'Down with the Mudbloods.'
Sirius's whole body went rigid with fury, and he began to shake slightly with the effort of containing his rage. "Racist gits. Fucking pureblooded pigs." he exploded as soon as the portrait closed. He was able to keep his voice to a whisper, but the red-hot anger in his voice would've been enough to scare anyone who heard him. James's face was white with anger also, but he placed a restraining hand on his friend's shoulder.
The portrait swung open to reveal a dank and uninviting common room with a waning fire and greenish lamps. Luckily it was deserted, so they gave the girl ten minutes after the portrait swung closed again, hoping she would go straight to the girls' dormitories. When they felt they had waited long enough, James slipped out from underneath the Invisibility Cloak to give the password and they climbed through the portrait-hole.
Parkinson was gone, which enabled them to move freely around the room without worrying that anyone would see the things they left behind and guess what they were up to. James took out a jar of Itching Powder, and started sprinkling it on everything in the room.
Sirius followed him around pouring a potion that would cause nasty boils on anyone it touched onto the armchairs and letting rats, spiders, and scorpions out of a small cage he had been carrying. Before they left, they rigged the door to the boy's dormitory with a bucket of toilet water from a clogged toilet on the third floor bewitched to dump on the first person to walk through the door.
Snickering quietly to themselves, they headed back to Gryffindor Tower eagerly awaiting breakfast the next morning. They weren't disappointed. Because so few of the students were staying, Professor Dumbledore had decided they should all eat together at one table, and Snape showed up with an ugly bruise his unusually large nose from Remus's fist (Madam Pomfrey had healed the broken bones), a rash all over his arms and stinking abominably.
The two Marauders had to keep themselves from crowing with laughter when Professor McGonagall wrinkled her nose saying, "What is that dreadful smell?"
Snape glared daggers at the Gryffindor boys, as he scratched furiously at his rash. James caught the eye of the enormous gamekeeper, Hagrid who seemed to understand what had happened and was grinning from ear to ear.
Snape left the hall before James and Sirius and was waiting for them right outside the doors with his wand out. James was quicker; he had his wand out and shouted "Expelliarmus" before Snape could open his mouth.
Sirius half expected one of the Professors to swoop down on them, but the heavy doors seemed to muffle the sound of James's voice. Perfect.
Sirius sniffed the air. "Good God, Snivellus" Sirius sneered. "You really should take a shower, you smell worse than a pile of dog shit."
"Go fuck yourself, Black." Snape snarled.
"Language, Snivelly. Didn't your mother ever teach you any manners? Maybe we should wash your mouth out. Scourgify!"
Snapes mouth filled with pink soap bubbles and he began spluttering and gagging. "Mudblood lover." he managed to growl around the soap.
Sirius's eyes darkened and he grabbed Snape's throat.
"I've heard hot sauce works when soap doesn't." James said, his voice full of quiet fury.
Snape cried out in pain as the soap in his mouth turned into hot sauce, James had made it not only spicy, but hot to the touch as well.
"What's the matter, Snivelly, can't take the heat?" Sirius mocked
Snape was about to snarl something in return, but Professor MCGonagall's furious voice, "Put him down right now!" Sirius allowed Snape to fall in a heap on the floor. "Black! Potter! I am ashamed that any Gryffindor students would behave like this! Fifty points from Gryffindor; there is nothing brave about two against one."
Snape was positively gloating. "And you, Mr. Snape!" he wilted as McGonagall turned her angry gaze on him, "I am sure you gave them a reason for this attack. Twenty points from Slytherin, and detentions for all of you as soon as the holidays are over. Now shake hands like mature wizards." when they made no move to shake, her glare became positively venomous. "SHAKE!!!" they did so grudgingly, releasing each other's hand so quickly that it could hardly be considered a handshake.