First of all I want to say thanks to all my reviewers! Y'all are awesome. There's a response to everyone's reviews at the bottom. Thanks again!
Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Harry Potter. All of that belongs to the wonderful J.K. Rowling!
[A/N: This is taking place while the boys are down by the lake, after summoning the grindy-lows]
Chapter 2: Mad, Flying Grindy-lows
"Albus, what do you think those boys are up to?" Minerva McGonagall asked the renowned Headmaster of Hogwarts.
"Oh let me exercise their creativity, Minerva. They're just boys, they'll grow out of it," Dumbledore said eying four of Hogwarts most notorious pranksters.
"I just don't know. Lupin maybe, he's always been a good kid, and Pettigrew- well I just think he goes along with it because they accept him. But Potter and Black, Dumbledore I don't think they'll ever stop being childish," said McGonagall.
"Isn't it wonderful though, how the four are so united? Sirius and James especially. Never would I have thought that a Black and a Potter would be friends… brothers more like. They way that Martha and Christopher [A/N 2] accepted Sirius into their home was wonderful," Dumbledore declared.
"Yes but even so Albus, that is not a bucket that is about to be used to mop the floors. I just wish I could see what was in it. Never have I had four students pull so many tricks and get away with it. They just never leave any evidence. One of these days though, Albus, I'm going to get them for something," said McGonagall. It was true, although everyone knew the boys pulled the pranks there was never enough evidence to convict them for it. Even worse, the four were perfectly aware of that.
Dumbledore just chuckled and continued to watch the young men.
[This is now after Peter and Sirius left]
"What do you think Sirius is going to do?" Remus asked James.
"There's no telling Rem, could be anything. I have a feeling it's going to be brilliant though. What do you think he wants us to duplicate? He never did say." James said peering into the lake.
"I have a feeling he'll be coming back to tell us soon. Just wait…" Remus said, but was interrupted when Sirius came flying back down the slope.
"Oh, by the way it's my broom I want you to duplicate. Just make them slightly smaller. Big enough to fit a grindy-low, but not too big," Sirius said in one big breath before running back up the slope. Before he was out of sight he yelled, "Oh and remember, CHEERING CHARMS!"
"Well I supposed that answers our question then."
"Yes James I suppose it does. And what an interesting answer we got." Remus replied pulling Sirius' broom closer to him.
"Right, well lets get started then," James said pulling out his wand. He said the shrinking spell [A/N 3]. The broom shrunk to a slightly smaller size and then Remus took over for the duplicating.
"Duplicatus," said Remus, and then there were two brooms. For the next ten minutes Remus repeated the spell until there were twenty-six brooms. While Remus was duplicating the brooms, James was casting cheering charms on all of the stunned grindy-lows. "This certainly is going to be interesting. I wonder what Sirius is up to…"
[Sirius and Peter are up in the boys dorm]
"Alright Sirius, are you going to tell me what's going on now?" Peter asked.
"Yes my good friend, that I am going to do." Sirius stated, but continued to pilfer through his trunk.
Peter waited a few minutes before asking again, "Sirius what are we planning."
"Oh right sorry, we are going to enchant the grindy-lows to," here Sirius sighed dramatically, "them to sing 'Celebration' by Kool and the Gang."
"What by what and the what?" Peter asked looking shocked by the words that had just come from Sirius' mouth.
"It's a muggle song Pete, a lovely one at that. You remember this summer when we all went to over to Rem's house?" Sirius asked and continued when Peter nodded, "well remember that song that he played on the recorded player?"
"I believe it was a record player, but yes now that you mention it I do know what you're talking about." Peter replied, but then looked horrified, "You mean to tell me you're going to enchant those grindy-lows to sing?"
"That's not all mate, those grindy-lows are going to FLY!" Sirius stated looking very pleased with himself.
"Right… right." Peter just looked around the room before sitting down on his bed.
"Anyway… I need you to look up a sticking charm alright?" Sirius said holding up a book in triumph.
"Yeah, yeah I can do that. May I ask what you're going to be doing?" Peter asked grabbing the charms book out of his bag.
"I will be looking for the singing charm mate. This has to go well Pete, everyone's so upset with everything that's happening. It all has to be perfect, okay?" Sirius said while standing up from his crouching position on the floor, "Let's go down to the lake okay? Bring your book with you so you can finish looking up the sticking charm. I hope James and Remus have finished their part."
The two walked out of the dorm and down the steps to the common room. Lily and Amelia Bones were sitting quietly over in the corner talking to each other. After Amelia said something Lily would laugh and shake her head. Sirius noticed that Peter kept glancing over at them while they made their way to the portrait hole.
"Say Pete, you don't happen to like Lily do you, 'cause you know James'll kill you if you try to… make a move," said Sirius.
"What? Like Lily? No, no… I, well I kind of have feelings for…" Peter trailed off, unable to finish his sentence.
"AMELIA? You like AMELIA?" Sirius practically yelled for the whole common room to hear.
"Shh… Sirius there is a reason I don't tell you people these things. You have a way with letting the whole world know." Peter said glancing over to the two girls who had looked up when Sirius had shouted Amelia.
"Is there anything you need, Sirius?" Amelia shouted to the two boys across the common room.
"Hm? Oh no, nothing at all… just er… wondering if that was you over there," Sirius said, not so intelligently. Amelia gave him a queer look, but decided not to say anything and turned to talk to Lily again.
"You should say something to her. I mean she's a sixth year, I'm sure she'd love to go out with a studly older man like you," said Sirius, grinning at Peter.
"Incase you haven't noticed, she's going out with Mark Alexander, a seventh year 'studly' Hufflepuff. He's the captain of the quidditch team, prefect, winning good looks-" Peter was saying but was cut off by Sirius.
"Is she going out with him, or are you Pete. You sound like you're more attracted to him then to her." Sirius said, mocking his friend.
"Oh don't even say that, you know I'm not… homosexual."
"You can say gay Pete." Sirius said laughing at his friend.
"Right, well that you know I'm not. But she's got someone I don't think there's any need to pursue her, when there's no chance." Peter said.
"My friend, you are a MARAUDER! That's so much better than a stupid Hufflepuff. Have some pride man, fight for your girl!" Sirius said, standing on the nearing chair and raising his fist in the air.
"Oh get down you wanker." Peter pulled Sirius down off the chair and dragged him off towards the portrait hole.
Sirius got one last word in before he left, "Amelia! Peter wants to meet you after dinner under the birch tree by the lake!"
"Alright, yeah see you there Pete," Amelia said smiling at them.
Peter and Sirius continued their way out of the common room and down the winding stairs until finally they reached the first floor and the doors. Knowing that they were cleared of all people Peter finally said, "You are the biggest git I've ever met in my life. I had absolutely no intention of telling her what-so-ever. Now what am I doing to. Obviously she'll expect me to have something to say. What should I tell her. Should I just say that you were being a wanker, or that I wanted to… wish her luck on her Defense test tomorrow? Yeah I think that's what I'll do." Peter finally finished ranting and they left through the double doors.
"Unless you want her to thing you're a prat, I'd just go with 'Amelia I know you're going out with Mark, but I like you and I think we should give this a shot.' I'm pretty sure that'd be the best thing to say. I mean what's the worst that could happen?" Sirius asked his friend.
"Famous last words," James said overhearing their conversation. "What are you talking about?"
"Peter likes Amelia," Sirius told them.
"You like AMELIA?" Remus shouted at him.
"Why does everyone shout when I say that? Yes I bloody well like her, I might even being in love with her. I don't think it's any reason to shout."
"You LOVE her?" This time it was James you shouted.
"Again with the yelling, why must you yell? Asking in a nice calm voice wouldn't hurt, would it?" Peter was on edge as it was, thinking about the meeting that night, and he wasn't quite in the mood to deal with his friends at this point.
"Anyway, did you get the brooms duplicated and the cheering charms done?" Sirius asked, interrupting whatever was going to be said next.
"Er, year we did. The grindy-lows are still out though. Don't know when they'll wake up. I supposed we could enervate them if we need to. Anyway, what did you to go and do?" Remus asked them.
"Pete is working on a sticking charm and I am working on a singing charm." Sirius stated proudly. Both Remus and James looked at Sirius as though he was crazy, which he probably was.
"A singing charm? What are you going to teach them to sing?" James asked his insane friend.
" 'Celebration' by Kool and the Gang." Again Sirius said this with pride.
"You're nutters you know that right," Remus said looking shell-shocked.
"So I've been told. Anyway now that almost everything's done and it's almost time for dinner, we shall perform the last of the of the spells and then we'll be done. Sirius grabbed the book he brought down with him. He flipped through the pages and found what he was looking for. He sat down in the grass and scanned the page. After about five minutes he seemed to find what he was looking for. He got up from his spot on the ground, and walked over to the bucket-o-grindy-low. He pulled out one of the creatures and said "Oralalus!" The grindy-low twitched and then awoke. Not only did the creature have a wide grin on his face, but he was also singing. Once again Sirius stupefied it, but then he immediately woke it up. The grindy-low, it appeared, was still very happy and singing.
"Alright then, looks like the spell worked. Let's get going." Sirius then preformed the spell on all of the grindy-lows. James picked up the bucket and struggled under its weight. Remus threw the almost forgotten invisibility cloak over the bucket so it looked like James had his arms circled in mid air. Remus took the cloak off the bucket and threw it over both James and the bucket. Nodding his head the boys set off towards their dorm.
[At Dinner- from Lily's P.O.V. though still 3rd person]
Lily sat down next to Emily VanSluth, another seventh year. "Hey Em, how's everything going?"
Emily was a slightly shy girl who kept mostly to herself. She was friendly when she needed to be, but liked to be introverted most of the time. "Hello Lily, I'm going well, how about yourself?"
"I'm doing just fine." Lily started to ask Emily about the Transfiguration project which was due in a week but was interrupted when James Potter, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, and Remus Lupin all came into the Great Hall. Lily used to think very lowly of the boys, but when James had become Head Boy and she had to work with him all the time, she was becoming tolerant with them. All of the boys looked to be out of breath and extremely pleased with themselves. Lily just knew they had been up to no good.
James, leading the group, choose a seat a few down from Lily and Emily. Lily overheard him tell Sirius "that was brilliant mate, it's going to be a riot!" Oh what are they up to Lily was dying to know. She didn't have to wait long. Just after the food appeared on the table, Lily heard a song coming from somewhere above her. She, along with many other people, looked up to the ceiling. When she saw what it was that was causing the sound she was in shock.
"Oh my God," Lily breathed. About twenty-five grindy-lows sitting atop brooms, wide grins on their faces, were singing "Celebration" in horrible voices. They were flying overhead and would occasionally drop a water balloon on someone's head. Then in bright pink sparkly letters words appeared above the teachers table 'No Grindy-Lows were harmed in the planning of this Mood Lightening Spectacle.'
When the general shock wore off people started laughing. Lily looked around the hall and saw people who she hadn't seen smile in a long time, shaking with laughter. She saw people who usually had tears in their eyes with broad grins on their faces. She noticed that even the teachers, who usually disagreed with any pranks, smiling at the laughing student. She found herself laughing at everything that was happening, even through the tragedies that had struck recently. Lily then looked to the four boys to her left, the four people in the hall looking the happiest, and she found that she didn't hold any hatred to them at the moment. In fact she was quite pleased with them.
Lily got up from her seat and, dodging a water balloon, walked over to the Marauders. When she got their she heard Peter say, "Look at Amelia, look how happy she is. I haven't seen her like that since, she heard about Edgar." Lily noticed that he had a slight twinkle in his eyes. Lily made her face up to look stern and then cleared her throat.
James looked up to her with a smile that quickly faded when he saw Lily's face, "Er… Lily, how are you this fine evening?" He stood up so he could look fully at Lily.
"I was doing fine until I saw this display. Now I'm brilliant." When she said that she threw her arms around James, who looked completely taken aback.
"I—Well I'm glad, it was our intent to lighten the mood all we could." He said getting over his initial surprise. He gently put his arms around her back and patted lightly.
Lily pulled back and said, "Well you all did a pretty damn good job. I haven't seen this many people smile in a long time. Thanks!" With that she stood on her tip toes and gave James a small peck on the cheek before going back to Emily.
[Back to the P.O.V. of Marauders]
"Wow," was all James could say as he watched her walk back to her seat. "Did she just… hug and kiss me? ME James Potter?" Before anyone could answer he sat back down and said, "Well we all knew it was bound to happen sometime."
End of Chapter 2
[A/N 2]: Martha and Christopher are what I am choosing to call James' parents because I really could not think of anything better.
[A/N 3]: I'm not sure if there is an actual incantation for the shrinking spell so I just decided to leave it at that.
Response to Reviews:
Christine- My first reviewer! Thanks so much. I think I've decided to have Amelia and Peter be some what of a thing. However I might just have Peter like Amelia and nothing come of it. Thanks again for your review.
Marie49- Thanks for your review! It was so sweet! I'm glad you like my style of writing! I hope the prank was all you expected it to be. I'm delighted you think I have talent! Thanks again!
Serenity- Amelia and Edgar Bones are both mentioned in Order of the Phoenix. I'm not going to go to much into the Peter and Amelia thing, but it is going to be slightly mentioned throughout the story. The next chapter will have their meeting, but after that there probably won't be too much more. Thanks for the review!
Desi-Siriuslovesyou- Thanks so much for you review! It was really sweet. As you can see, I decided to put Amelia and Peter together. I thought that was a really good idea, so I used it. I read and reviewed your story today, and I liked it a lot! You are definitely a very talented writer! I'm so glad you like my story so much, I was very flattered. Thanks so much for your review, it was very sweet of you!
I wasn't going to end it there, but it just seemed like a good place to end it. I am looking for a beta reader if anyone wants to help then email me at Gibby969aol.com. Thanks for the review!
Until Next Time-
SaltPepper531