Do I really need to say this again? J K Rowling IS Harry Potter. If you recognise anything from any movie, TV show, book or whatever else, it's probably because it is from them. If you want my 'full' warning, you can check out either 'Dormant Power' or 'Beginning of the End'.
If you've read both those fics, then you know how my version of it ends…but how did it begin? Again, only some names are mine, everything else is not! I've based this from the Marauders perspective so…well you'll know the story when something happens to a certain someone, even though I don't write about it in this one! Also check out 'The Apprentice', it has some info you won't find in my other two stories (wink, wink!).
Contrary to what the title of this chapter suggests, this is NOT the last chapter of my story (there's one more after it, two including the timeline!).
In regards to the ceiling thing last chapter, I was going for a similar sensation to what Harry experienced in the maze in Goblet of Fire. As for why I allowed Remus to win his NEWT duel…correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure he was the Defence Professor for a while. Plus, he's a 'dark creature', I just reckon he'd kind of be forced to be good at it.
Chapter 21 – The Big Finish
It was two days before the end of year feast, and the four Gryffindors were feeling quite restless since being banned from pranking by their House Head three days ago.
James drummed his fingers on the table. "Ok, so now the question is this; are we going to try to get Peeves to help us?"
"You really think he's forgiven us for the prank we did to him in third year?"
"No idea, Moony. But it can't hurt to ask him. He might be a pest, but he's clearly one of us!" Sirius replied, balancing precariously on the back legs of his chair.
Peter winked at James and screeched in his best possible Lily voice, "SIRIUS BLACK, DON'T SIT LIKE THAT!"
This had the desired effect as Sirius' face paled, which made him lose his balance and topple backwards before crashing to the ground with a resounding 'thump'. As he picked himself up, he heard the annoying sound of his three friends laughing at him.
"Cheers, Peter. I really needed that," Sirius said, glaring at the blond-haired wizard.
"No worries, Padfoot. Only too glad to help," Peter replied with a large grin, while James and Remus continued to laugh.
Sirius just shook his head before addressing his friends. "So, are we asking Peeves or not?"
"If we see him in time, yeah we should," Peter answered.
Sirius nodded before glaring at Remus and James who were still trying to recover from laughing. "Sod off you two. It wasn't that funny!"
"Actually, Padfoot, it kind of was. The look on your face when you thought Lily was yelling at you. You kind of looked like Snape since your face paled so much!"
Sirius then glared at Peter since this comment only made James and Remus laugh even harder.
As the students and Professors settled down for the closing feast, the doors to the Great Hall banged open and everyone's attention turned towards it. The three Aurors on guard silently withdrew their wands for precautionary measures, but they needn't have bothered. When the students saw the four Gryffindors standing there with large grins on their faces, everyone groaned and the Aurors stowed their wands. They knew whatever they had planned it was going to be spectacular, but harmless fun.
James and Sirius quickly moved to the front of the room and cast sonorus charms on themselves.
"Why, hello everyone. We know what you're thinking, and you'd be wrong...for once."
"You're expecting us to do something terrible…"
"Horrible…"
"Humiliating…"
"And downright evil."
"But, as Sirius said, you're wrong. After being banned from pranking the lot of you," James announced, before he and Sirius both glared at Professor McGonagall, "We have come to the conclusion that you all deserve a little treat for putting up with us like you have."
"Tomorrow, we leave Hogwarts for the final time…"
A cheer erupted from the Slytherin table, which was quickly matched by nearly all of the other students who had fallen victim to the Marauders. However, all noise was cut off when Remus cast a mass silencing charm, exactly the same as the one Trent did at Halloween.
James gave his friend a polite nod before continuing. "Thank you, Remus. As I was saying…"
"No you weren't, I was!" Sirius interrupted.
"Fine, as we were saying," James then ignored the 'hmph' that Sirius gave, "In honour of this significant occasion, we thought we'd give you a night to remember!"
"Worthy of such a finale. Who's with us?!" Sirius said, grinning at everyone in the hall.
Several people made to reply, but couldn't since Remus hadn't removed the charm yet.
"Whoops, sorry about that," the werewolf sheepishly replied waving his wand again.
"So, without further delay, we shall bring you our parting piece. Peeves, if you would do the honours," James said, and everyone instantly became quite cautious. Peeves wasn't known to be exactly…helpful.
It was of great surprise therefore, when the Poltergeist came cackling through the still open doors and stopped in front of James and Sirius.
"My pleasure Potty, Blacky, Petty and Loopy."
He then smiled evilly at the staff table before it vanished behind a large plume of thick smoke.
"Thanks, Peeves," Peter said before both he and Remus joined the other two at the front of the hall.
"We have put up with these fine Professors all year, and some for much longer. As James said earlier, we were banned from pranking all of you, but there was nothing said about pranking the Professors," Remus added, a sly smile playing on his face.
The four wizards noticed several students grinning madly at the thought of what might become of their teachers.
"Those who've been to his office know the first thing he does…"
James was interrupted when Remus whispered something into his ear, and he suddenly got a shocked look on his face. "What do you mean they wouldn't…oh, all right then."
He then returned to addressing everyone else. "I have just been informed that it seems as though we might be the only ones who know this. Er, has anyone else been to our Headmaster's office…ever?"
A show of hands was quickly tallied by Remus; thirty, made up mostly by the prefects.
"Right, that's not as many as we hoped. Well, let's just say that the first thing he usually does is offer you a lemondrop," James said, and was greeted by knowing nods from those thirty students.
"Now, please put your hands together for Professor Dumbledore, known tonight as Chief Lemonhead!" Sirius beamed as Peter waved his wand in the direction of where Dumbledore was sitting.
A gap appeared in the smoke, revealing a purple robed figure with a giant lemon and two eyeholes replacing the familiar white beard and half-moon glasses. The stunned silence that greeted this was quickly replaced by a few stifled giggles before everyone, even the Slytherins, burst into raucous laughter.
"Don't worry, the effects will only last until the feast starts," Sirius said, and grinned when he received a chorus of boos and shouts of "can't you leave him like that?"
"Now, now, be nice. Moving onto the House Heads," he replied.
"Ah yes, Professors McGonagall, Sprout, Flitwick and Tuero. What do you think guys, should we leave them in suspense for a little while longer?" Remus casually asked his friends.
"NO!" was the resounding reply from the rest of the student population.
Remus put his hands up in surrender as he, James, Sirius and Peter waved their wands where those four teachers had been sitting. As before, the thick smoke dissipated, leaving everyone gasping at what the four, five including Peeves, had done.
McGonagall was sitting there, with her normal stern look on her face. The only difference was that her face had been transfigured into that of a cat, complete with whiskers and ears. She had a large sign floating behind her saying 'housetrained, very independent, free to a good home.'
Professor Sprout had been given the same treatment as Trent had. In other words, the Herbology Professor and Hufflepuff Head now had a nice tree growing from the top of her head. Remus had figured out how to cancel the time limit so that the charm could be ended whenever he liked.
Flitwick now resembled something of a giant. If his beard and hair was black, he and Hagrid could most likely pass as twins. As it was, he could be mistaken for the grandfather of the half-giant. It was quite a dramatic change for someone used to standing and sitting on books just to see over tables.
It was the Head of Slytherin that caused the most laughter, however. Professor Tuero's face now resembled that of a giant snake, complete with forked tongue as he had found out when he went to speak and a hiss escaped instead.
Peeves then casually blew away the remaining smoke to reveal the rest of the staff. They had been similarly affected, and were changed into something that was considered to be their 'trademark'. Lily had been forewarned about the entire thing, and had managed to borrow a wizarding camera and was happily taking pictures.
The show was complete when a large banner dropped down from the ceiling which read; 'The Great Professor Prank: Seven Years of Madness! – Proudly brought to you by the Marauders and Peeves!'
It then flipped over; 'That'll teach you for not letting us prank everyone!'
The sign then blew a giant raspberry, covering the entire table and staff in spittle, before disintegrating in a ball of fire. Once that had happened, another cloud of smoke engulfed the staff table. Lily then levitated copies of the photos over to the table and waited for the smoke to disperse. When it did, the Professors were back to their normal selves, with varying looks on their faces.
Dumbledore looked positively delighted and his blue eyes were twinkling madly at the photos. Most of the other Professors all found it to be quite hilarious as well, but McGonagall and Tuero looked furious. They both stood up but were quickly silenced by Dumbledore.
"Now, there is no need for that, Minerva, Linus. As they said, you did not mention about not playing jokes on us."
"But Albus! You cannot be…"
"It was just harmless fun, Minerva. I see no reason to punish them for it."
"Fifty points from Gryffindor, EACH!" Tuero bellowed.
Dumbledore just smiled before speaking. "Wonderful display you four. I shall award you those points back, plus an extra twenty each for pulling it off so marvellously."
The four young wizards grinned up at the Headmaster before accepting the applause from their fellow students while making their way to their table for the feast.
James had packed his things and made his way into the Gryffindor tower to check how his friends were doing. Lily had left for breakfast, and James smiled as he knew she'd be waiting for him when he arrived. He opened the dormitory door, and burst out laughing with what he saw. Sirius, Remus and Peter were involved in a full blown war…pillow style. They must have heard someone laughing because James soon got beaned in the face with one of the pillows.
James glared then broke out into a smile, "Right, that does it. You're gone, Padfoot!"
Sirius grinned at him, while Remus and Peter both used this time to whack Sirius in the head. James again laughed as he saw Sirius' face go from amusement to disbelief.
"Darn it, Prongs! I hadn't managed to get hit yet, then you come in and ruin it!"
"Rubbish, Sirius. I got you loads of times!"
"Go bite yourself, Moony," Sirius snapped, but could hardly hide his grin.
James glanced at Remus and Peter and made a silent agreement with them. Sirius didn't know what hit him…well, he did, but he couldn't do anything about it as his three friends pummelled him for a good ten minutes with pillows, Sirius laughing most of the time.
Finally, after they had felt Sirius had been dealt with enough, they collapsed on the floor. James then looked over at his friends, and made a choice, based on what Remus had said that Trent had told him; 'it's in times of darkness that you realise who your true friends are.'
He smiled, these were his real friends, and nothing was ever going to change that. Lily could be the single most important person in his life one day, but these three were like brothers to him. He sighed, something that Remus noticed.
"What's the matter, James?"
"Just thinking."
"That's a first!"
"Oh shut up, Padfoot. I think we should make an oath."
"An oath? What for?" Peter asked.
James grinned, "Marauders forever. Brothers until the very end."
Sirius grinned back, while Remus and Peter both nodded their agreement.
James stood up and held out his hand. Sirius followed by placing his hand on top on James', while Peter and Remus soon caught on to what they were doing. James looked into the eyes on each of his friends, and saw the determination in all of them.
"Forever together, nothing will tear us apart."
The other three nodded, and Sirius spoke up, "Anyone betrays another to the grave, the others are to kill them."
"That's a bit…harsh, don't you think?" Peter said. He didn't like the idea of killing one of his friends.
"No, it isn't. You know, Padfoot, if we'd made this a few years ago…"
"I didn't kill you!" Sirius said, his eyes wide with fear as he saw the smirk his werewolf friend had.
"Ah, but you did on the inside, Sirius. As I told you a little while ago, I'm not sure how long it will take for me to fully trust you again."
"I know, and I'm sorry, Remus. For everything."
"Hey, does that mean we can blame you for everything then, Padfoot?" James asked with a small grin.
"Shut up, Prongs. I only meant about the stupid things I've done."
"So that is everyt…"
"SHUT UP, PRONGS!!"
James couldn't help but laugh, but he quickly regained his composure. "All right, so do we have a deal? If one of us knowingly leads another to his death, the others can kill the betrayer."
James looked at his friends and saw them each nod. They then said at the same time, "Marauders forever!"
The four of them broke apart, and headed down for breakfast, laughing as Sirius' stomach protested about not being fed yet.