"Watch it, Sirius," James hissed in the darkness. Remus, Peter, James, and Sirius had all stayed up until the clock chimed with the twelve of midnight. It was time to take the plan into action. Sirius ihad/i to get in trouble for this. Besides the fact that he was up in the middle of the night, they would be doing something to change something huge in Hogwarts. There is no way he would still be invited to the honors dinner. He didn't want to be.
Sirius bumped into James again. "Sirius! Stop dazing off into the, what must be, deep thoughts in your mind. I don't want to get caught," he whispered irritatedly.
"Geez, who got your bonkers in a twist…" he muttered quietly. Peter laughed.
Remus tapped Sirius' shoulder. "He's right though, mate. If I get caught I don't even wanna know what mum's gonna do to me," he explained shuddering a little. Sirius gave him a lopsided smile and turned back around. He hadn't really thought about what his own mom would do to him if they went through with this…But it was too late to back out now.
"Hurry, Jamesy," Peter squeaked in anxiousness. Sirius rolled his eyes.
"Sirius, if you don't take your hand off my butt, I swear it, you will not be Harry's godfather," James said with a chuckle.
"You even have his name worked out! What if you are unable to produce babies, eh? And that's not my hand, I'm just walkin' a little too close to you," Sirius snickered.
"Ugh," was all James said. They laughed. "Here we are," James whispered as he opened the door to the Great Hall. They walked inside, the lighting was very dim.
James gasped. They were not the only ones in there.
"Stop," James whispered urgently to the troops.
They all haulted on the spot. Sirius bumped into James' back again, and he kept down the scream. Remus gulped loudly. No one noticed. Just as James sighed with relief, Peter's sneakers slipped on the hall and made a loud squeak. Sirius gasped. James turned to him furiously. Sirius gave him a very rude gester with his finger. He turned, still irritated, and Sirius was starting to get fed up with it. God, what was going on with him today? Sirius asked himself.
They all looked at the Gryffindor table where Proffesor Dumbledore sat, speaking to Lillian Evans.
"Your pride and joy, James," Sirius whispered into his ear with a grin. James gave him a small smile, the smallest that Sirius had ever seen him give. They listened carefully as Dumbledore spoke to her.
"Don't let me catch you out of bed again, Miss Evans," he told her nicely laughing as he did so.
She smiled at him and stood up. Dumbledore turned around to watch her go. Then, he stared straight into James' eyes. He gulped. He quickly turned his head to look behind him. There was probably something behind them. He flipped his head too quickly and gave Sirius' nose a blow.
"Ow..." Sirius groaned quietly in pain.
James gave him a pained smile. "Sorry buddy."
He turned back to Dumbledore, who was beaming at them. He walked up to James, leaving his cloak on.
"Whatever it is you all are up to, make sure you just don't ruin the nice, polished, wodden tables. We just cleaned them today."
With that he walked off. Remus, James, and Sirius all laughed and Peter just shivered with nervousness.
"Miss Evans!" shouted Proffesor Dumbledore as he left the hall. She turned to him with a soft smile on her face that James just loved. "Come into my office. As you are up and so am I...Well...I don't have to give you these news, but I should. It's not fair that you find out from the press."
Lily looked nervously up at him, but left walking behind him.
"Come on," Sirius whispered to James, "Let's get this over with. Hopefully he won't bust you guys for it, too."
James nodded with a gulp. What could be wrong with Lily?
Sirius noticed his expression. "I'm sure everything's okay, Prongs," he told him trying to relax James up a little. It seemed seeing Lily already calmed him quite a bit.
"Yeah, let's do this," James said with a sigh.
"All right!" Remus exclaimed excitedly.
"Oh my God!"
"Have you guys seen the Great Hall?"
"Yeah, but who did it?"
"Only Merlin knows the answer to that, but whoever did is a complete genius!"
"Let's go look!"
The commentaries filled the Gryffindor Common room early that morning as the students awoke, from the early birds of five o' clock in the morning to the ones who rushed at seven thirty. The word was spreading, and as James was shaken awake by a small, frightened boy, a boyish smile couldn't help but creep itself upon his face.
"Jamesy! Everyone is talking about it. Are you sure we won't get caught? We can't have this happening to us in this year of Hogwarts," Peter squeaked anxiously with his hair all about as James tried to gather his strength. He squinted his hazel eyes and picked up his glasses from the bedside table, still smiling.
"So, how is everyone reacting!" Sirius exclaimed as he jumped up from his bed and excitement trying to fit his slippers into his feet jumping around the room as he strained to keep balance.
James ruffled his hair and looked at Remus who was already up and by the door to their dormitory. "You will not believe it," he said in a hoarse voice. His fellow Marauders looked up at him in wonder. Remus' face was white and pale, his eyes alert and scared.
"What is it, Remus?" James asked wondering what could be the problem.
"Oh come on, Rem," Sirius asked stepping forth and patting Remus' head, "Don't look so scared, Dumbledore will never know it was us." Sirius laughed and shook his head.
Remus shook his slowly too and gulped. "Dude, it's so not about that.
James gave him an exasperated look and exclaimed, "Well, what happened then!"
"Yeah, Peter's gonna pee his pants soon if you don't tell us!" Sirius replied with laughter. Peter blushed and tried to stop twitching.
Remus sighed deeply. "The Great Hall does not look at all, guys, like we wanted it to," he started, "I went in for breakfast early this morning and it looked"
"Wretched?" James suggested.
"Destroyed?" Sirius put in.
Peter just trembled in the background. Sirius wanted to punch him just to make him stop.
"It looked beautiful." Remus
finished, plopping down on the bed nearest to him with defeat in his
eyes.
