Title: The Maraudian War (4/7)
Author: Fabs G.
Rating: PG
Summary: When someone threatens to steal the Marauder's title of pranksters extraordinaire, what will they do to see that they keep it?
Disclaimer: JKR owns everything, and she's doing a wonderful job with them. I just borrowed them for a small while.
Pairing: None, but there's extremely vague hints of SBRL
Author's note: Still a short chapter. Next one will be longer, really.
Sorry about last chapter's format -up. It's FF.net's fault, really.
CHAPTER 4
The next day, everyone in the school woke up expectant of the next prank. Though the Slytherins strutted around saying that they couldn't care less about the 'stupid Gryffindor war', often adding their hope of having 'the group of ridiculous four' ripped apart by the so-called war, the truth was that most of them too were expectant of the doings of both the Marauders and The Enemy. It was a secret wish of many how they hope The Enemy belonged to the Slytherin house just because he had brought to shame the group of Gryffindors, but as they would surely have publicized this in their common room (for the sheer pleasure of their peer's praising) they knew they could not hold much hope.
The Ravenclaws, of course, were interested in were both sides were getting their pranks from and how both The Enemy and the Marauders were managing daily (or rather, nightly) pranks that required time and not have their grades drop catastrophically. They answered this theory to themselves, saying that there were many students with equally catastrophic grades to be suspects.
The Hufflepuffs were not interested in techniques, or sides, but in just enjoying the gratuitous fun- and quite wisely so.
The Gryffindors were a case apart altogether. While their loyalty laid, of course, with the Marauders, they couldn't help but wish The Enemy were in their ranks too- most of The Enemy's pranks required a good deal of bravery.
As said, the whole school woke up every morning expectant of the next prank.
The next morning, students meandered into the Great Hall, looking up and down, right and left in search of the next prank. They knew it needn't necessarily happen in the Great hall, but as it was a room that literally everyone showed up in every morning, it was the best place for a prank to get noticed.
The Great Hall was as normal as ever. Even after the proud leaders of the Marauders entered to get Breakfast, the Great hall remained normal- clear blue sky, normal length tables, no charmed hairdos- nor hexed professors either. Everyone was thoroughly disappointed.
Sirius, James, Remus and Peter sat down to eat breakfast, Sirius and Remus looking a bit exhausted- for last night had been the turn of their prank. James had purposely kept himself off classroom so his surprise –and faux innocence- would sound very sincere.
Charms with Professor Flitwick was in order first for the Gryffindors and the Ravenclaws that morning. The four Marauders wolfed down their breakfast and hurried along to class- and as everyone else saw them, so did the rest of their house.
When they were approaching the classroom, they saw that a hoard of people was already stationed outside of it.
"What's going on?" asked Sirius innocently to a Hufflepuffs third year who should have been in Potions.
The Hufflepuff giggled himself silly before answering "Was that sarcasm or a real question?" he asked, still giggling.
"Real question" chorused James and Peter, who were as clueless as the rest of the school as to what was going on in there.
"Well, it seems that someone charmed the Charms ceiling to look like the sky outside: Flitwick's taking care of it" said the boy and then squeezed himself between to seventh years to get a better view.
James turned to Sirius and Remus "I'm disappointed" he said, a hand over his heart.
Sirius and Remus looked at each other, and then squeezed themselves to get to their class, which Flitwick had apparently fixed.
"What?" called James from behind them "What?"
Filing in behind them, James looked up and saw a clearing sky, dark storm clouds apparently disappearing behind the east corner of the classroom.
"Come on in, come on in" said Flitwick, slamming the door behind the last student to enter. "Could take the charm off completely, but at least the storm's cleared out, eh?" he laughed nervously.
He climbed over his usual stack of books and started class, which consisted of charming a small carved-stone lamb into moving around as if he were real.
Halfway through the class, after James had asked 'What?!' for the 100th time, and Sirius and Remus had exchanged about 200 knowing grins, the storm clouds returned.
Every single head turned skywards (or ceiling-wards) and watched the accumulating storm clouds with dread. Sirius smiled in smugness and rested his arm in Remus's shoulder.
Something heavy was dropped on a desk. Alice Rabnott bent down to the floor to get it.
"What is it, Alice?" asked her the girl sitting next to her.
"Its… ice" she said, holding a golf-ball sized ball of ice.
"Not ice…" said a Ravenclaw girl with a bit of dread in her voice and pointing to the still darkening ceiling. "Hail!"
As soon as this word (who had probably been the magical catalyst) was out of the girl's mouth, a sudden pelt of hail dropped on the student's head, and everyone made a run for the door- Flitwick, somehow, charmed himself and hovered over the student's head, out the door quicker than anyone.
The Marauders flew out the door with the equal swiftness as the rest, though more amusedly so. As soon as they were in the hallway, other students in other classrooms bolted from their own rooms, victims of the Marauders as well. From some classroom, heavy snow was piling in the doorway, other spitting gusts of hurricane winds, others had terrible rainstorms and others, like the Charms classroom, had a hailstorm. Down the hallway, near the potions classrooms, James thought he had seen a tornado emerge from one.
Sirius bellowed to James under the noise and hurry of the several storms. "You know, I was going for snow in all classrooms but Remmy here oh-so-cleverly suggested the diversity- never knew you had it in you, Rem!" he bellowed in the direction of Remus.
Remus wondered if the boy could find more nicknames for him "There's a lot of things you don't know about me, Sirius" he said as he kept running away from the flooding classrooms.
While physical mortification had been the aim of the Marauder's prank, as soon as the storm pranks had been cleared by the professors and, as established in a secret schedule by all Gryffindor members and passed on to other houses, The Enemy attacked again with the so-called 'Threshold attack, targeting mostly emotional mortification, and aimed according to year.
For the first years, often the shy ones, a disembodied voice all but screamed "Number 1 or Number 2?" every time someone crossed the threshold of the bathrooms.
For the second and third years, the classroom thresholds had been enchanted to reproduce the students voice every time they entered the classroom, screaming "I refuse to do my homework, professor"
The lightest prank had been for the fourth and fifth years, having remnant football-sized hail dropped from the classroom thresholds, while the sixth and seventh years had been victims of yet another voice-imitating threshold that screamed "I'm in love with Luros!" every time someone crossed it, referring to the sinister DADA teacher.
Sirius painfully discovered this as he was the first to enter the DADA classroom that day.
"I'm in love with Luros!" said Sirius's voice as soon as he entered.
"Why, Black, I didn't know you cared!" growled Luros to him, who had earlier claimed to be in love with himself.
Remus and Peter snickered not so quietly behind him, while James guffawed himself to death.
"Sit down you lot! Now! Black, don't even think of sitting with Potter- have had enough of you two" Sirius automatically went to Remus's side, and the light haired boy chanced a look at him.
Sirius was torn between deep shame at having been such an easy target and deep hatred for The Enemy.
"I'm getting my vengeance" said Sirius "and you're helping me, Rem"
Remus all but disappeared in his seat, nodding feebly, thinking of The Enemy's mortification- he had been targeting the Slytherins, not Sirius!
To Be Continued…..