Remus bent over in concentration. He only had an inch left; he could
finish his Transfiguration essay before he had to be at the prefect
meeting at eight.
Except what if Terri was there early, and he was there early? They could talk. Talking would give Remus an excuse to look her in the eyes, which he seldom did. Well, actually, he looked into her eyes a lot, but not often was she looking back into his.
But if he went without finishing the essay, he'd have to finish it when he came back, and ten to one he wouldn't feel like finishing it. If he'd successfully talked with Terri, he would feel more like going and sitting in front of the fire and rehashing the conversation again and again, analyzing it until he had covered every possible meaning of what had been said.
He sighed. He had always been the one who overanalyzed everything. It would be best for him to finish the essay and get there on time with everyone else.
He only had half an inch left to go when he heard a voice. "Coming, Remus?" He turned and saw Lily looking at him. "To the meeting, I mean," she added.
"Oh," he said, doing some quick thinking. He could still finish the essay -- he didn't have much more to go -- but if he stayed and finished the essay, he wouldn't be able to walk to the meeting with Lily. Lily was a good friend of Terri's, and possibly Terri and Lily might sit together at the meeting. If Remus walked with Lily, he might have a chance at sitting in close proximity to Terri, and perhaps even walking with her (and Lily, of course), on the way back from--
"Remus?"
"Oh," he said again. "Yeah, coming." He stuffed his things into his bag and picked it up. He'd just take it to the meeting with him; he didn't want to go put it in his dormitory and keep Lily waiting longer than she already had.
"Something bothering you?" she asked, looking at him intently.
"What? Oh, no!" Remus said, visibly flustered, as he held the portrait door open for her. She climbed through, and he tried to think of something plausible. "Just a lot of homework to think about -- keeps me busy, you know --" "Uh huh..." Lily said, and Remus could tell she wasn't buying it. "So, who's your patrolling partner?"
"Um, Terri. Swann, I mean. Terri Swann," he said a bit too quickly. "She's my patrolling partner. We patrol together."
Lily glanced at him.
"Who's yours?" he asked quickly.
She shook her head. "Snape, actually," she said. "I swear Dumbledore does things like this on purpose."
"How horrible is he?" Remus asked.
"Not too bad. He doesn't listen to me, and when I try to talk he hardly answers, but he never tries to curse me or anything," Lily said.
Remus nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, Dumbledore probably does do things like this on purpose."
They walked in silence for awhile, and then Lily sprang a question on Remus -- a question he had been silently begging her not to ask.
"Are you interested in Terri, Remus?"
He nearly choked and he stumbled as he was walking. "What?" he asked, a little too quickly.
"You heard me," she said, smiling.
Remus glanced around to make sure nobody was near. "Don't say anything to her or anyone else," he said, his voice pleading.
Lily looked shocked. "Of course I wouldn't!" she said.
Remus sighed with relief.
"I think you're a very good match," Lily added.
He looked at her. "Really?"
She nodded. "You guys would go great together, I think. It's too bad she's got that new boyfriend of hers." "New boyfriend?" Remus said, stopping in his tracks.
"Oh -- yeah," Lily said, looking awkward. "That 7th year Hufflepuff Amos Diggory."
"Got a thing for seventh years, has she?" he said dully, thinking also of Fabian Prewett.
Lily smiled at him. "Don't worry about it," she said firmly.
Remus wished he could stop worrying about it, but it was near impossible for him. "Right," he said, and held the door to the meeting room open for her.
Terri was already there, and she smiled her characteristic half smile at the two of them as they came in. "Lily!" she said excitedly. "And Remus!" she said, still smiling. "Come on, you guys, have a seat." Lily sat down on Terri's right, and Remus sat down next to Lily.
"Have you guys met Amos?" Terri asked, gesturing to her left. Remus found himself looking at the person he aspired to be -- Terri's boyfriend. He was rather tall, and had a large, broad-shouldered build. His chest was puffed out importantly and Remus saw the Head Boy badge on it. Remus recognized him as the Keeper of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team.
Remus gave him a quick smile and nod, but couldn't force himself to saying anything to Amos.
"We're going together to Hogsmeade next weekend," Terri said, inclining her head ever so slightly towards Amos. Remus could tell she was quite excited.
"How nice," Lily commented, glancing at Remus. A fixed smile was across his face.
"Very nice," Remus said, trying to relax. He was saved from further forced conversation because Dumbledore walked into the meeting room.
"Hello, all prefects," he greeted them. "As you know, the threat of Lord Voldemort has been growing, as the staff and I would like to ensure the safety of all students as much as possible. Therefore patrol duties have been doubled."
There was a low murmur of dissent among the prefects. Dumbledore smiled sympathetically. "I know that this is a trying time for many of you, and that there is already a good deal of homework for the fifth, sixth, and seventh years. However, I must ask you to do this because we need the extra help to assist in keeping our school safe.
"Teachers will continue to do the patrolling on the weekends. The rest of you will now have two nights a week of patrolling as opposed to one, and each session for these nights will be two hours long, to be shared with your patrol partner. If the Head Boy and Head Girl would help me hand out new schedule sheets--"
Amos Diggory leapt up, as did a seventh year girl Remus did not know. Looking at his new schedule, he saw that his patrol partner had not changed, and he smiled. Apparently, he had Tuesdays and Fridays patrolling from nine till eleven with Ms. Terri Swann. The other prefects may not like this double-effort arrangement, but Remus thought it just fine.
"If no one has any questions," Dumbledore continued, "Then we are all dismissed." No one had any, so the meeting broke up.
"Care to walk with us?" Lily asked Terri and Amos.
"I wouldn't be going your way," Amos said, and gave Terri a goodbye peck on the cheek. Remus tried not to stare.
Terri hurried to join Lily and Remus. "What do you guys think about these new schedules?" she asked.
Lily grumbled. "They could be worse, but still, four hours a week patrolling with Snape? Nobody would wish for that."
"I don't think they're so bad," Remus said, which was a huge understatement for him.
Terri smiled slightly. "No, they're not. I hope we'll get to talk a lot more while we patrol, Remus," she said. He opened his mouth to respond, but she said, "Well, I go this way. I'll talk to you both later."
When she was out of earshot, Lily looked at him. "What are you thinking?" she asked.
"I'm thinking my Tuesdays and Fridays are looking to be a lot better, and I'm thinking Gryffindor needs to beat Hufflepuff in the Quidditch match next month," Remus said, completely honest.
Sirius had other plans than essays and prefect meetings after dinner. Right after he had finished, he went to meet Layne at the dancing house elves tapestry on the fourth floor. She was waiting for him and pulled him into a long kiss as soon as he was there.
"Hey," he smiled at her, pulling away.
She didn't say anything, just wrapped her arms around his neck and looked at him expectantly.
"I've got a Transfiguration essay to finish before tomorrow," he said, not expecting her to really care.
She merely quirked an eyebrow at him a fraction of an inch.
"That's what I thought," he said.
She smiled mysteriously and pulled him into another much longer kiss, to which he naturally didn't object.
"McGonagall's a hag," she said, pausing.
"She's not really. She's a big old softy on the inside," Sirius said. "Unlike you. You're a veritable bitch."
Layne merely smiled, not bothering to deny it. "She gives too many detentions. Especially to me."
Sirius shrugged. "I don't mind; I never do detentions alone. I at least have James to talk to nearly ever time." Layne tilted her head slightly. "Doesn't she separate you two?" she asked. "I mean, after you guys took Mrs. Norris and locked her in the Vanishing Cabinet. Filch was pissed.
Sirius smiled reminiscently before replying. "Yeah, but we can still talk even if we're not in the same detention," he said casually. Layne threw him a questioning glance, and he smiled. "C'mon, you don't need to know everything about me. I'm a man of mystery."
"Right," Layne snorted. "Anyway, did you see Marcus today?"
"Yeah. He cornered me after my Charms class and said something along the lines of ÔI wish you the best of luck, mate, because she's going to give you hell, and no hard feelings, because I don't miss her.'" Sirius said, grinning.
Layne smirked. "Well, I don't think I'll be as rough on you as I was on Marcus." "I just hope you don't cheat on me like you did him," Sirius said, keeping his voice light and joking as though it didn't make a difference to him one way or the other.
"I hope you don't cheat on me!" she countered, and he looked offended.
"I haven't cheated on a girl since fifth year!" he said, frowning at her.
"Which was last year," she reminded him.
"Well, it's a long time for me," he said, shrugging.
"Anyway, if you cheated on me, or I cheated on you, it would make a hell of a story," Layne declared.
"Story?" Sirius asked.
"Yeah. The most flirtatious couple at Hogwarts -- and probably the most physical -- cheating on each other," she continued.
Sirius shook his head at her. "You're just interested in me for that title, aren't you?" he asked, pretending to be affronted.
"I'm interested in you for the same reasons you're interested in me," she replied smoothly. She pecked him on the cheek and walked down the hall.
Sirius shook his head again. He'd never met a girl like Layne -- a girl so interested in titles and her reputation. He had to admit, Layne's reputation did give his own a run for its money.
Sirius woke up for the second time on Halloween for breakfast. He and James, Peter, and Remus had been up an our previous, stealthily going down all the halls they knew and preparing for their Halloween prank.
It was different than all their previous pranks. It wasn't taking place at the feast that night, it was going on the entire day. It should prove to be very entertaining and also, they thought, very frustrating.
They were right. People came down to breakfast looking in wonder to see there was none. They glanced around, looking at the teachers, who were also looking confused and a bit suspicious. Dumbledore called the attention of the hall, and said, "Please sit at your regular house tables. I am going to the kitchens to see what this is all about. Don't worry." He seemed neither overly concerned nor agitated by the missing pumpkin juice, toast, and scones.
Upon his return, the entire Great Hall looked, to their great surprise, at him and found him leading a long procession of house elves that were carrying a great deal of dishes for breakfast. Apparently, the house elves had not been able to get the food to appear on the tables, or in fact magically move it in any way. They had to physically carry it into the Great Hall, which had never been done before.
Things continued like this all day. The lessons had to be canceled because everyone found their wands wouldn't work properly. Nobody could get in and out of their common rooms -- for the Gryffindors, the Fat Lady's portrait wouldn't move. In fact, all the portraits had ceased movement. The prefects couldn't get inside their bathroom. The suits of armor didn't speak to anyone, and the pumpkins that were supposed to float in the Hall for Halloween had all fallen to the floor before breakfast.
Owl post was another thing. There were no owls coming in; instead, inside the Owlery there were hundreds of new small boxes, each bearing a student's name, and if you forgot the owls that had delivered the letters to these boxes it was not hard at all seeing it was a Muggle post office of sorts.
Most of the students, seeing as they were locked out of their common rooms for the day, had spent the day on the grounds, watching the gold and red leaves begin to fall from the trees and looking across the lake. All of the sixth year Gryffindors had decided to spend the better part of their day lazing about by the lake as well -- in separate groups, of course, because Lily would not stand for being in the same area as James. However, the girls did visit where the boys were to ask them how they did it, which was a question that many had been coming and asking them. Nobody was fooled by their innocent eyes and their exclamations of "Why are we always blamed?" They did, however, let the Gryffindor sixth year girls on the joke.
"Well, it was really complicated. Merlin had once created a spell so powerful that, although it was magic, undid magic for a limited time-- no magic attempted in that room could be used for twelve hours if the spell was used. It was ridiculously hard to find, the spell. We eventually found it in the Restricted Section--Peter had to ask Trelawney for a note so he could look in a book about Merlin and see how great of a Seer he was," Sirius told them, gesturing at Peter. What a brilliant plan.
"Once we got it it took the better part of the month to get it down -- we couldn't use it outside, because that's too large an area for the spell to work, and it's a very difficult spell. That's why everyone can use their wands out here, but I don't think they know that, and we're not going to tell them. The hardest part was the Great Hall, it took Sirius, James, and me to get it to work in there," Remus continued.
"And the Owlery? Did you just conjure a couple hundred little boxes?" Vesta asked.
"Yeah, actually," James said, although he was looking and smiling at Lily.
"Brilliant," Alice said admiringly, and the rest of the girls agreed, although Lily grudgingly so. Sirius grinned.
"My idea," he proclaimed.
"You wouldn't have thought of it if Peter hadn't been able to control his wand that day," James argued.
Sirius shrugged. "Still my idea. As if anyone else in this school could have the incredible genius to come up with a prank so that a magical institution couldn't use magic."
Renee smiled. "It sure is amazing. You guys are going to be really powerful wizards. It's quite terrifying." Sirius beamed. "I love inspiring fear."
The house elves had not been able to use their magic for the feast, so the entire school ended up eating a Halloween feast of pumpkin juice, sandwiches, and various fruits. By the time dinner was done, however, the ability to use their magic was being restored, and some students were able to return to their houses.
"It was a brilliant plan and everything, but I don't know how Muggles can live without magic," Sirius heard more than one random student say, and he grinned. The teachers hadn't been able to prove the Marauders had done it and therefore they had escaped punishment. To add to the glory, the entire student body was a combination of furious and revering of the four. As Sirius got into his four-poster and closed the drapes, he reflected upon the prank, and upon the furious gazes of the Slytherins who had been unable to return to their common room until an additional three hours after the feast. It had been a very successful day in Marauder history indeed.
A/N: Well, I've started AU (Act Up) and it's going to be much harder for me to update, but I'll do my best! Thanks to Jewels for reviewing -- and no, I don't mind the long review; I loved it! Credit to Footloose (and probably other things), where I got the title for this chapter. Please review. Thanks!
Except what if Terri was there early, and he was there early? They could talk. Talking would give Remus an excuse to look her in the eyes, which he seldom did. Well, actually, he looked into her eyes a lot, but not often was she looking back into his.
But if he went without finishing the essay, he'd have to finish it when he came back, and ten to one he wouldn't feel like finishing it. If he'd successfully talked with Terri, he would feel more like going and sitting in front of the fire and rehashing the conversation again and again, analyzing it until he had covered every possible meaning of what had been said.
He sighed. He had always been the one who overanalyzed everything. It would be best for him to finish the essay and get there on time with everyone else.
He only had half an inch left to go when he heard a voice. "Coming, Remus?" He turned and saw Lily looking at him. "To the meeting, I mean," she added.
"Oh," he said, doing some quick thinking. He could still finish the essay -- he didn't have much more to go -- but if he stayed and finished the essay, he wouldn't be able to walk to the meeting with Lily. Lily was a good friend of Terri's, and possibly Terri and Lily might sit together at the meeting. If Remus walked with Lily, he might have a chance at sitting in close proximity to Terri, and perhaps even walking with her (and Lily, of course), on the way back from--
"Remus?"
"Oh," he said again. "Yeah, coming." He stuffed his things into his bag and picked it up. He'd just take it to the meeting with him; he didn't want to go put it in his dormitory and keep Lily waiting longer than she already had.
"Something bothering you?" she asked, looking at him intently.
"What? Oh, no!" Remus said, visibly flustered, as he held the portrait door open for her. She climbed through, and he tried to think of something plausible. "Just a lot of homework to think about -- keeps me busy, you know --" "Uh huh..." Lily said, and Remus could tell she wasn't buying it. "So, who's your patrolling partner?"
"Um, Terri. Swann, I mean. Terri Swann," he said a bit too quickly. "She's my patrolling partner. We patrol together."
Lily glanced at him.
"Who's yours?" he asked quickly.
She shook her head. "Snape, actually," she said. "I swear Dumbledore does things like this on purpose."
"How horrible is he?" Remus asked.
"Not too bad. He doesn't listen to me, and when I try to talk he hardly answers, but he never tries to curse me or anything," Lily said.
Remus nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, Dumbledore probably does do things like this on purpose."
They walked in silence for awhile, and then Lily sprang a question on Remus -- a question he had been silently begging her not to ask.
"Are you interested in Terri, Remus?"
He nearly choked and he stumbled as he was walking. "What?" he asked, a little too quickly.
"You heard me," she said, smiling.
Remus glanced around to make sure nobody was near. "Don't say anything to her or anyone else," he said, his voice pleading.
Lily looked shocked. "Of course I wouldn't!" she said.
Remus sighed with relief.
"I think you're a very good match," Lily added.
He looked at her. "Really?"
She nodded. "You guys would go great together, I think. It's too bad she's got that new boyfriend of hers." "New boyfriend?" Remus said, stopping in his tracks.
"Oh -- yeah," Lily said, looking awkward. "That 7th year Hufflepuff Amos Diggory."
"Got a thing for seventh years, has she?" he said dully, thinking also of Fabian Prewett.
Lily smiled at him. "Don't worry about it," she said firmly.
Remus wished he could stop worrying about it, but it was near impossible for him. "Right," he said, and held the door to the meeting room open for her.
Terri was already there, and she smiled her characteristic half smile at the two of them as they came in. "Lily!" she said excitedly. "And Remus!" she said, still smiling. "Come on, you guys, have a seat." Lily sat down on Terri's right, and Remus sat down next to Lily.
"Have you guys met Amos?" Terri asked, gesturing to her left. Remus found himself looking at the person he aspired to be -- Terri's boyfriend. He was rather tall, and had a large, broad-shouldered build. His chest was puffed out importantly and Remus saw the Head Boy badge on it. Remus recognized him as the Keeper of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team.
Remus gave him a quick smile and nod, but couldn't force himself to saying anything to Amos.
"We're going together to Hogsmeade next weekend," Terri said, inclining her head ever so slightly towards Amos. Remus could tell she was quite excited.
"How nice," Lily commented, glancing at Remus. A fixed smile was across his face.
"Very nice," Remus said, trying to relax. He was saved from further forced conversation because Dumbledore walked into the meeting room.
"Hello, all prefects," he greeted them. "As you know, the threat of Lord Voldemort has been growing, as the staff and I would like to ensure the safety of all students as much as possible. Therefore patrol duties have been doubled."
There was a low murmur of dissent among the prefects. Dumbledore smiled sympathetically. "I know that this is a trying time for many of you, and that there is already a good deal of homework for the fifth, sixth, and seventh years. However, I must ask you to do this because we need the extra help to assist in keeping our school safe.
"Teachers will continue to do the patrolling on the weekends. The rest of you will now have two nights a week of patrolling as opposed to one, and each session for these nights will be two hours long, to be shared with your patrol partner. If the Head Boy and Head Girl would help me hand out new schedule sheets--"
Amos Diggory leapt up, as did a seventh year girl Remus did not know. Looking at his new schedule, he saw that his patrol partner had not changed, and he smiled. Apparently, he had Tuesdays and Fridays patrolling from nine till eleven with Ms. Terri Swann. The other prefects may not like this double-effort arrangement, but Remus thought it just fine.
"If no one has any questions," Dumbledore continued, "Then we are all dismissed." No one had any, so the meeting broke up.
"Care to walk with us?" Lily asked Terri and Amos.
"I wouldn't be going your way," Amos said, and gave Terri a goodbye peck on the cheek. Remus tried not to stare.
Terri hurried to join Lily and Remus. "What do you guys think about these new schedules?" she asked.
Lily grumbled. "They could be worse, but still, four hours a week patrolling with Snape? Nobody would wish for that."
"I don't think they're so bad," Remus said, which was a huge understatement for him.
Terri smiled slightly. "No, they're not. I hope we'll get to talk a lot more while we patrol, Remus," she said. He opened his mouth to respond, but she said, "Well, I go this way. I'll talk to you both later."
When she was out of earshot, Lily looked at him. "What are you thinking?" she asked.
"I'm thinking my Tuesdays and Fridays are looking to be a lot better, and I'm thinking Gryffindor needs to beat Hufflepuff in the Quidditch match next month," Remus said, completely honest.
Sirius had other plans than essays and prefect meetings after dinner. Right after he had finished, he went to meet Layne at the dancing house elves tapestry on the fourth floor. She was waiting for him and pulled him into a long kiss as soon as he was there.
"Hey," he smiled at her, pulling away.
She didn't say anything, just wrapped her arms around his neck and looked at him expectantly.
"I've got a Transfiguration essay to finish before tomorrow," he said, not expecting her to really care.
She merely quirked an eyebrow at him a fraction of an inch.
"That's what I thought," he said.
She smiled mysteriously and pulled him into another much longer kiss, to which he naturally didn't object.
"McGonagall's a hag," she said, pausing.
"She's not really. She's a big old softy on the inside," Sirius said. "Unlike you. You're a veritable bitch."
Layne merely smiled, not bothering to deny it. "She gives too many detentions. Especially to me."
Sirius shrugged. "I don't mind; I never do detentions alone. I at least have James to talk to nearly ever time." Layne tilted her head slightly. "Doesn't she separate you two?" she asked. "I mean, after you guys took Mrs. Norris and locked her in the Vanishing Cabinet. Filch was pissed.
Sirius smiled reminiscently before replying. "Yeah, but we can still talk even if we're not in the same detention," he said casually. Layne threw him a questioning glance, and he smiled. "C'mon, you don't need to know everything about me. I'm a man of mystery."
"Right," Layne snorted. "Anyway, did you see Marcus today?"
"Yeah. He cornered me after my Charms class and said something along the lines of ÔI wish you the best of luck, mate, because she's going to give you hell, and no hard feelings, because I don't miss her.'" Sirius said, grinning.
Layne smirked. "Well, I don't think I'll be as rough on you as I was on Marcus." "I just hope you don't cheat on me like you did him," Sirius said, keeping his voice light and joking as though it didn't make a difference to him one way or the other.
"I hope you don't cheat on me!" she countered, and he looked offended.
"I haven't cheated on a girl since fifth year!" he said, frowning at her.
"Which was last year," she reminded him.
"Well, it's a long time for me," he said, shrugging.
"Anyway, if you cheated on me, or I cheated on you, it would make a hell of a story," Layne declared.
"Story?" Sirius asked.
"Yeah. The most flirtatious couple at Hogwarts -- and probably the most physical -- cheating on each other," she continued.
Sirius shook his head at her. "You're just interested in me for that title, aren't you?" he asked, pretending to be affronted.
"I'm interested in you for the same reasons you're interested in me," she replied smoothly. She pecked him on the cheek and walked down the hall.
Sirius shook his head again. He'd never met a girl like Layne -- a girl so interested in titles and her reputation. He had to admit, Layne's reputation did give his own a run for its money.
Sirius woke up for the second time on Halloween for breakfast. He and James, Peter, and Remus had been up an our previous, stealthily going down all the halls they knew and preparing for their Halloween prank.
It was different than all their previous pranks. It wasn't taking place at the feast that night, it was going on the entire day. It should prove to be very entertaining and also, they thought, very frustrating.
They were right. People came down to breakfast looking in wonder to see there was none. They glanced around, looking at the teachers, who were also looking confused and a bit suspicious. Dumbledore called the attention of the hall, and said, "Please sit at your regular house tables. I am going to the kitchens to see what this is all about. Don't worry." He seemed neither overly concerned nor agitated by the missing pumpkin juice, toast, and scones.
Upon his return, the entire Great Hall looked, to their great surprise, at him and found him leading a long procession of house elves that were carrying a great deal of dishes for breakfast. Apparently, the house elves had not been able to get the food to appear on the tables, or in fact magically move it in any way. They had to physically carry it into the Great Hall, which had never been done before.
Things continued like this all day. The lessons had to be canceled because everyone found their wands wouldn't work properly. Nobody could get in and out of their common rooms -- for the Gryffindors, the Fat Lady's portrait wouldn't move. In fact, all the portraits had ceased movement. The prefects couldn't get inside their bathroom. The suits of armor didn't speak to anyone, and the pumpkins that were supposed to float in the Hall for Halloween had all fallen to the floor before breakfast.
Owl post was another thing. There were no owls coming in; instead, inside the Owlery there were hundreds of new small boxes, each bearing a student's name, and if you forgot the owls that had delivered the letters to these boxes it was not hard at all seeing it was a Muggle post office of sorts.
Most of the students, seeing as they were locked out of their common rooms for the day, had spent the day on the grounds, watching the gold and red leaves begin to fall from the trees and looking across the lake. All of the sixth year Gryffindors had decided to spend the better part of their day lazing about by the lake as well -- in separate groups, of course, because Lily would not stand for being in the same area as James. However, the girls did visit where the boys were to ask them how they did it, which was a question that many had been coming and asking them. Nobody was fooled by their innocent eyes and their exclamations of "Why are we always blamed?" They did, however, let the Gryffindor sixth year girls on the joke.
"Well, it was really complicated. Merlin had once created a spell so powerful that, although it was magic, undid magic for a limited time-- no magic attempted in that room could be used for twelve hours if the spell was used. It was ridiculously hard to find, the spell. We eventually found it in the Restricted Section--Peter had to ask Trelawney for a note so he could look in a book about Merlin and see how great of a Seer he was," Sirius told them, gesturing at Peter. What a brilliant plan.
"Once we got it it took the better part of the month to get it down -- we couldn't use it outside, because that's too large an area for the spell to work, and it's a very difficult spell. That's why everyone can use their wands out here, but I don't think they know that, and we're not going to tell them. The hardest part was the Great Hall, it took Sirius, James, and me to get it to work in there," Remus continued.
"And the Owlery? Did you just conjure a couple hundred little boxes?" Vesta asked.
"Yeah, actually," James said, although he was looking and smiling at Lily.
"Brilliant," Alice said admiringly, and the rest of the girls agreed, although Lily grudgingly so. Sirius grinned.
"My idea," he proclaimed.
"You wouldn't have thought of it if Peter hadn't been able to control his wand that day," James argued.
Sirius shrugged. "Still my idea. As if anyone else in this school could have the incredible genius to come up with a prank so that a magical institution couldn't use magic."
Renee smiled. "It sure is amazing. You guys are going to be really powerful wizards. It's quite terrifying." Sirius beamed. "I love inspiring fear."
The house elves had not been able to use their magic for the feast, so the entire school ended up eating a Halloween feast of pumpkin juice, sandwiches, and various fruits. By the time dinner was done, however, the ability to use their magic was being restored, and some students were able to return to their houses.
"It was a brilliant plan and everything, but I don't know how Muggles can live without magic," Sirius heard more than one random student say, and he grinned. The teachers hadn't been able to prove the Marauders had done it and therefore they had escaped punishment. To add to the glory, the entire student body was a combination of furious and revering of the four. As Sirius got into his four-poster and closed the drapes, he reflected upon the prank, and upon the furious gazes of the Slytherins who had been unable to return to their common room until an additional three hours after the feast. It had been a very successful day in Marauder history indeed.
A/N: Well, I've started AU (Act Up) and it's going to be much harder for me to update, but I'll do my best! Thanks to Jewels for reviewing -- and no, I don't mind the long review; I loved it! Credit to Footloose (and probably other things), where I got the title for this chapter. Please review. Thanks!