Sirius nodded and said to Remus, "Remus can we talk to you in the other room?"
Remus realized what they were going to do. When ever someone cracked at Hogwarts, James, Sirius and Remus normally went into an empty room with them and talked to them. If they couldn't calm them down, they dragged them to the Hospital Wing so Madam Pompfrey could.
"No, I'm going to go to bed. We can talk tomorrow." Remus said stiffly.
"I think talking with them is a good idea Remus." Lily said quietly. "I think you'll feel better if you did."
Lily knew what James and Sirius were trying to do, because she would sometimes accompany them to talk to people; this wasn't the first time one of the Marauder needed "the talk".
The first was Remus, when they were going to take their NEWT's in two weeks. Of course they asked him in the Library, where he basically lived. They cornered him and asked him if they could talk. Remus wasn't looking at them when he said yes. Before he knew it, he was dragged out of the Library and pushed into the Hospital Wing were he had to stay for the weekend.
Next was James, it was one week to go until the whole mess was over. James didn't want to forget anything because he wanted to become an Auror. Nobody noticed anything until one night in the Common Room. It was after dinner when Lily, Remus, Sirius and Peter found James studying in a corner. They asked him if he ate anything and James snapped at them to go away. They didn't and sat down beside him. They kept quiet until the Quidditch team came in. James' friends left him to go get the team. As soon as his friends returned with the team, James's wand shot out of its holder, and his book from the table into Remus's and Sirius's outstretched hands. The eight people had a really hard time dragging James into the Hospital Wing and keeping him there. Dumbledore even came by to tell him to stay in there until Madam Pompfry said he could go.
"No, I don't think I will. I'll talk in the morning." Remus said stubbornly. He didn't want to go anywhere with them. He knew he was being childish but he couldn't help it.
"Remus, you're acting like a child, Ginny doesn't even acts like that." Sirius said.
"I don't care. I don't need "the talk"." Remus said.
"Yes you do! You yelled at James for trying to find out what's wrong with his son!" Lily said in disbelief. She never thought she would see the day, when Remus Lupin would need "the talk" and would be to stubborn to go.
"What's the talk?" Harry asked from the doorway.
Everyone jumped and turned to look at Harry. He looked fine to a stranger but to everyone else they knew he wanted to talk to Ron and Hermione.
James looked at Harry like he did with Remus. He could tell he was under strain and it was a lot. Would Harry be the same as when I had "the talk"? Now that could be interesting. Me and Lily combined and Remus and Sirius giving the talk to him; wouldn't miss that for the world.
"How long were you there?" James asked.
"When Remus started to yell." Harry said normally like this was nothing.
Ron and Hermione looked at one another scared. Harry isn't this quiet. He had something up his sleeve.
"You heard that?" Remus asked Harry.
Harry nodded and said, "You're under stress; everyone can see that. I've been looking at mum and dad's pictures and noticed you weren't thin. You weren't fat, but not this thin." Harry started to walk toward Remus slowly. If he learned anything from the Dursleys is walk and speak slowly if you wanted them to listen to you. "What happened the night when mum and dad were killed? Your heart must have been torn. Your two best friends dying, then one gets supposedly killed and the other a traitor. I've looked at the pictures a lot and you're always care-free, smiling, and laughing. Is that why I never hear you laugh? Is that why?" Harry stopped in front of Remus and looked him square in the eye. "Remus, trust me when I say this: talk with them. It makes a world of a difference."
Harry stepped out of the way so James and Sirius could walk by and drag their friend out. When the three men were out, everyone was looking at Harry. They've never seen anything like that before. Remus was always the one to keep it together and Harry was the one to start to shout.
Harry looked around the room. All eyes were on him and he got that feeling in the pit of his stomach again. He didn't think he was that bad.
"I'll just go…" Harry's voice trailed off.
"Where the bloody hell did that come from Harry?" Ron asked. Mrs. Weasley was so surprised she didn't even scold Ron for swearing.
Harry shrugged is shoulders, "I don't know. I was looking at the pictures of my parents and noticed Remus wasn't that thin. I heard him down stairs and made the connection."
"But-but Harry, where did that speech come from? I've never heard you say anything like that before?" Hermione asked still staring at him.
"I don't know Hermione, but it worked didn't it?" Harry said.
After everyone stopped staring Mrs. Weasley noticed the time and announced that everyone should go to bed. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny didn't like that idea so Harry voiced out his opinion.
"Mrs. Weasley, don't you think we should stay up and see if Remus is okay?" Harry asked as politely as he could.
Before Mrs. Weasley could say anything Lily stopped an argument from forming.
"You can see him in the morning Harry!"
"But I wanted-"
"NO! GO!" Lily yelled.
Harry didn't know what he was getting into, but he learned fast. Never argue with Lily Potter. He jumped off the chair and hurried out the door. Ron, Hermione and Ginny didn't need much more persuasion. They followed Harry out the door, and into their rooms.
Back in the room Fred, George were laughing and planning. They found out that when it comes to rules, Lily Potter should not be told. But it would be interesting when Harry and Ron want to go off into the night for something. Hermione wouldn't approve of it and she could threaten to tell Lily. They could add to the torment of doing things that Harry couldn't; because of Hermione telling Lily, and Lily getting angry at Harry.
Bill, Charlie, and Tonks were even laughing. They never saw Harry respond like that before. They would never let this down. The famous Harry Potter running out of the room because of his mom.
"That works." Fred and George said laughing.
"I have never seen Harry like that before." Tonks said.
"Well I figured Harry wouldn't be that different from James so I tried it. I knew Harry wasn't going to argue back with me, like someone I married. Oh, hello James." Lily said as her husband and two best friends walked into the room.
"What's wrong with Harry? We just saw him walking down the hall with his friends laughing at something." James said.
"He wanted to argue with me, so I did the only thing I would do." Lily said with innocently yet an evil look.
James, Sirius and Remus burst out laughing. They knew only to well what Lily would do, and it was a real disadvantage if you didn't know what to expect.
"So Remus how did it go?" Lily asked him.
James and Sirius burst out laughing again and Remus said stiffly, "Fine."
"What happened?" Lily asked James and Sirius.
"He wouldn't talk to us so we did the only thing we could think of." James said trying not to laugh as it didn't work. He was laughing to hard to continue so Sirius did for him.
"I summoned a Calming Drought and shoved it down is throat."
"It was beautiful." James said doubling over and wiping a tear from his eye.
"It wasn't that funny James!" Remus said annoyed. He felt he was going to be getting more annoyed more often.
"Yes it was." James said barley breathing and crying more then ever.
"James, breath!" Sirius said. "Look at him Moony. Did you have to do that? You know what James would do afterwards."
"It wasn't my fault! He's the one that shoved it down my throat!" Remus yelled. He heard a thud coming from outside the door. Lily walked over to find Harry the same way as James.
"Harry what are you doing here?" Lily and Hermione asked.
"What's wrong?" Ron asked his best friend who was on the floor laughing silently. He looked in the room and saw James the same way. "What's going on?"
Fred and George picked up Harry and put him on a chair and Sirius and Remus did the same for James.
"Should I tell them or you?" Sirius asked Remus. He got a look instead. "Ok, I'll tell them. Remus wouldn't talk to us so I summoned a Calming Drought and James shoved it down Remus's throat. You should have seen his face afterwards." Sirius said while wiping a tear from his eye. "It was bloody funny. Of course James can never keep a straight face in a situation like this, so that's why he isn't breathing."
It seemed like it was true also. His face was turning red, with Harry following suit.
"Harry breath!" Lily shouted but Harry and James were doubling over in pain because they were laughing so hard. Lily turned to Sirius and Remus. "You two are in huge trouble. You know what James does when he can't stop laughing. Now think about what I do when I can't stop laughing and here is the huge problem."
"Shit!" They said in unison.
They turned to Harry and James. All they had to do with James is put him in another room and he'll stop, but Harry was going to be a problem. When Lily can't stop laughing, she tends to stop breathing for a few moments. Nobody wanted to see if he had his mother's traits and hoped for his father's.
"We'll go deal with James…" Remus trailed off when he saw Harry calming down.
When both of them were calm enough to take a Calming Drought Remus insisted on shoving it down their throats. Everyone agreed to it and Remus had the pleasure of doing it with James first. He did it slowly so he wouldn't choke to death, only a little. Sirius was kinder to Harry then Remus was to James. In fact, Sirius insisted that Remus helped James. He felt a little pay back was in order.
After the Potter men were done choking and coughing, everyone had to go to bed. In other words: Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny, with maybe Fred and George talking in Harry and Ron's room.
Everyone trouped up to bed tired and some, sore from laughing to hard. After Mrs. Weasley made her rounds, the twins Apparated into the bedroom to talk with Harry. Hermione and Ginny came in five seconds later.
They thought Harry was lying down on the bed thinking about what happened. They waited for ten minutes and still Harry didn't say anything.
"Harry?" Hermione asked softly.
Harry replied sleepy, "What?"
"Do you want us to leave so you can sleep?" Ginny asked.
"No, I'll get up." Harry said. He wanted to talk to Ron and Hermione about today, but he was so tired.
"In other words, yes, Hermione." Ron said. "I don't think we would get much out of him."
"I can still hear you Ron! Uff!" Harry was hit with a pillow. "Stop that! I wanted to talk to you about today anyway."
"Night Harry." Fred and George said.
"See you in the morning." Ginny said thru a yawn.
"Night Ron. Don't let Harry get up." Hermione warned Ron.
"I won't. Night everyone." Ron replied to Hermione.
After everyone left the room Harry wanted to check the distraction but was almost hit with a shoe.
"Ron! What are you doing?" Harry said annoyed.
"Harry just go to sleep, listen to Hermione for once." Ron said tiredly.
Harry wasn't going to listen to Hermione, and he tried to get up once again, but this time Ron said something Harry would listen to.
"I'm going to tell Lily you barely got any sleep tonight if you get up." Ron threatened. He wasn't going to play any games tonight with Harry. Both of them were too tired to.
The threat worked. Harry looked at Ron with wider eyes then normal. He knew that Ron was serious and Harry didn't want to get yelled at by Lily again.
"Ron, I just have to check one thing in my trunk." Harry said, trying to compromise with him.
"If you want to get yelled at." Ron said shrugging.
Ron lied down and waited for Harry to fall asleep. It didn't take long for Ron to hear soft breathing by Harry. He knew his threat would work so he fell asleep.
In the morning the Potters slept in. Tonks, Charlie and Bill spent the night at the Black house so they could have more time with their families and to make sure the Potters didn't try and escape. Sirius had put a charm on James and Lily's door so they couldn't get in or out. They didn't have to worry about them braking free because Remus snuck in and stole Harry's wand from James. But with Harry it was different, if he wanted to get them out, he could by stealing Ron's wand. So in the end, Bill went in the room and stole Ron's wand. He put a note on Pig and told the little owl as soon as Ron woke up, to give him the letter.
It all went smoothly that morning for the Weasleys. Ron got the letter and got back his wand. Hermione was dropped off at her house, but nobody was home. After fifteen minutes of waiting, her parents pulled up in the drive way. Hermione introduced Tonks to her parents. Hermione found out that morning that her parents were going on a trip in Africa for a few months. It was for their job and Hermione had a choice to go with them or stay at the Black house.
Before making a decision, Hermione told her parents what happened to Harry. They instantly said that she should help her friend because all they would be doing in Africa is working in a small shop in the hot weather. She asked them if they didn't mind and they said no. So Hermione went back to Black Manor with Tonks, who decided not to touch anything that looked breakable in Hermione's house.
When Hermione got back to Black Manor, Ron was up but not Harry.
"Why isn't Harry up?" She asked Ron.
"I don't know. I think he was more tired then he realized. Why aren't you at your parent's house?"
"They are going to Africa and they said I could stay here for the summer."
Harry woke up to someone yelling. He thought the voice was familiar but he couldn't put a finger on it. He walk out of the room and looked down the hall. He saw Sirius yelling at a door.
"Sirius what are you doing?" Harry said yawning.
"WHAT HE'S DOING IS OPENING THIS DOOR!" James yelled.
"Morning Harry." Sirius said smiling. "I was talking to James and Lily, not the door. But I think the door would be a little nicer to me then James is right now."
"Hmm…" Harry said not fully awake. "You know, you could let them out."
"Why would I want to do that?" Sirius looked at Harry like he had three heads. "I think you're too tired this morning Harry."
"Well I'm not the one who's going to become a 'hot dog'." Harry said with a smirk. "Remember, Prongs has antlers, Padfoot doesn't."
Harry walked down the hall into the kitchen. Behind him he heard a crash and a yelp from a dog. Harry ran into the kitchen, to run into Remus.
"Harry what's going on?"
"You want to move out of the doorway. There's a dog running for his life from a stag. It seems the dog locked the stag in, and he isn't happy about it."
From behind Harry, Padfoot and Prongs came into view. Padfoot was running at top speed and Prongs wasn't too far behind. Harry and Remus moved out of the way just in time. Padfoot went under the table and Prongs stopped in the doorway. Prongs turned into James but Padfoot didn't change back into Sirius.
"Get out here Sirius! YOU DON'T LOCK ME IN ANY ROOM AND GET AWAY FROM IT!" James bellowed.
"James, you're not going to get him out that way." Remus said smiling. "There's only one way to get him out."
"But I don't have a wand." James said frowning. "Harry…"
"I don't know where mine went. I think some someone was making sure we didn't escape last night." Harry said turning to Remus. "You haven't been planning anything, have you?"
"Me? What are you talking about Harry? I wouldn't do that!" Remus said innocently. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Harry studied everyone in the room. Ron, Hermione and Ginny meet his gaze. But Sirius, Bill and Charlie wouldn't. Harry walked slowly over to Sirius and said calmly, "Padfoot come out here."
Padfoot crawled out from under the table but the opposite side from Harry and James. He turned back into Sirius.
"Now what a moment, Potters. You don't know what you're getting into." Sirius said a little panicked.
"We do, but you don't." Lily said from the doorway. "It looks like Sirius found our wands from the rubble. He saved our wands all these years James. Don't go to hard on him."
She threw a wand at James and a wand a Harry. They both caught them before they touched the ground.
The Potters walked in the middle of the room and pointed their wands at Sirius.
"Harry, you can't use magic!" Hermione squeaked.
"Actually, he can. Before Dumbledore left yesterday, he thought it was a good idea to charm the house so that anyone under age can use magic and the Ministry not know about it." Remus said. "But that doesn't mean Harry should. Harry think about this. Do you really want to start a prank war against the Mauraders?"
"First, we Potters have some unfinished business with a mutt," Harry said focused on Sirius then on Remus. "and a werewolf. Sirius could never pull off something this big without help. It was either you or the Weasley's and I think it's you."
"Harry don't jump to conclusions without facts." Sirius said hurried. "You don't know it was us. For all you know, it could be Bill that did this."
Harry looked at Bill again. He wasn't looking to together this morning. He was shifting in his chair, glancing at Harry or Sirius. He didn't even want to look at James in fear of what he would receive.
"Bill, did you take a detour in our room last night?" Harry asked innocently and curiously.
"No, I don't think so." Bill said thoughtfully. The one down fall of having a younger sister that liked the person that you're trying to lie, to is her telling the truth.
"That's not true! I heard you talking to Charlie about it this morning!" Ginny said astonished. She didn't know that her older brother would lie to the Potter's, with their wands out.
"Ginny keep your mouth shut." Charlie muttered to her, but Harry heard.
"What? You knew? I thought at least it was Fred, George, Ron, Hermione and Ginny."
"What! We would never do that." Fred and George said. "We would rather prank you until next Tuesday."
"Harry, you know me better then that! I would stand up to you instead of being sneaky!" Ginny said. "You know that."
"Harry we would talk to you instead of doing that. We would only do that if we had no choice." Hermione said.
"You shouldn't look at us mate, but Bill and Charlie have been acting weird…" Ron said slowly.
"RON!" Bill shouted at his youngest brother. "You're not supposed to say that!"
"And neither were you." Charlie said shaking his head at his older brother. He turned to look at Harry, James and Lily. "We thought it would be best if you didn't have your wands. If we knew Fred and George, they would want to get out of here. And we were right."
The Potters didn't show anything on their face but on the inside, they were squirming.
"What are you talking about? We didn't even have our wands, how were we supposed to get there?" James asked. "Flying over every town in broad daylight?"
"You know I only have one broom. No matter how good it is, it's not going to hold three people." Harry said.
Lily wasn't getting into the argument like her husband and son. She was looking around the room to see where Sirius and Remus were. If she knew anything about them is how to distract James. Since Harry was so alike, he fell for it too. She didn't see Sirius or Remus so she knew something was up.
James and Harry stop arguing when they noticed neither Remus nor Sirius were arguing. The Weasley's, Tonks and Hermione saw what Sirius and Remus were trying to do so they tried to keep the Potters busy arguing but they forgot about Lily.
"What's wrong?" Hermione asked. She got an angry glare from Harry and James in return.
James didn't know if Harry knew what to do in a situation like this, but Harry was already looking around the room for any signs of the last two Mauraders. James and Lily quickly looked around but found it was a Remus and Sirius free room.
The Weasley's and Hermione tried to keep the Potters distracted, but it didn't work. The only reason is that Tonks didn't join in was because she knew that look on their face. It was determination.
Harry was the first to react to a stunning spell heading to James. He quickly pushed James out of the way and jumped back so he wouldn't get hit. Harry and James shot the same spell back to the sender who was Sirius. He divided out of the way before he got hit, like Harry did. Lily shot a leg locker curse towards the opposite direction from where Sirius was. Sirius had been the diversion so Remus could try and get one of the Potter's down. They proved to go down fighting.
Everyone started to take sides. Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred and George took to the Potters and Mr. Weasley, Mrs. Weasley, Bill, Charlie and Tonks took to Remus and Sirius's side.
Harry was pleased to see his friends join his side, but wondered what would happen to them. Both teams where dancing to not get hit, but a spell that would fly toward their head. The D.A. tranning kicked in.
"Ron, Hermione go on the left! Fred, George go on the right! Ginny, Dad go in the back!" Harry commanded.
The fellow D.A. members quickly followed his orders. James almost didn't, but changed his mind when a curse almost hit him.
Sirius, Bill and Charlie where in the back, Tonks and Remus where on the left and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were on the right. Once Harry started to bark out orders like he had before, they soon adopted a leader and followed him. Sirius was the leader because he had the most experience being an Auror, because he was one.
Harry and Lily leaped from group to group helping them. Harry kept on barking out orders, only the D.A. members would understand. James and Lily had to fight for themselves when things changed.
"No! Go over there Dad!" Harry would yell or "No! Stop fighting him and get on the other side!"
The room was full of sparks, bight light, yelling and laughter. It was fun playing around like this. Harry's team was slowly winning by the things they would do. James and Lily caught on quickly, when they saw small pranks or tricks being played. Harry was ordering his team to play, but in a way that the person fighting, would have to start on a new person every few minutes. He was keeping it fun and making his team lively on their feet.
James started to do some tricks he knew like turning people's hair pink, lime green, purple and his favorite, orange. But he only did that to Remus, Sirius and the Weasley parents. But he changed that when Charlie turned Harry's hair bright pink. For pay back, Harry and James both turned Charlie's hair a different color. It came out to be half bight blue and half lime green.
Lily did some fancy tricks like tying people's shoe laces together, or a little gray cloud in their face. She started to do that to only Sirius and Remus but that change when the Weasley's, on the other side, ganged up on Harry. Lily made all their shoe laces tie together and a fog around each of their heads.
Once she did that, Harry's team quickly got everyone in a corner. But James called everyone back. He knew when somebody cornered Sirius it was all over because Sirius would turn into Padfoot. He would bounce on people's feet, toes or annoy them too much so they couldn't concentrate.
He knew Padfoot would be going for Harry so James started to yell at Lily.
"It's time! Do it now Lily!"
There were three popping noise and instead of Lily, James and Sirius, there was a fox, a stag and a dog.
The other team scrambled for cover as the fox and the stag advanced on them. The stag bent his head down like he was going to plow something over, and charged.
"Look out! He's going to charge!" Remus called to everyone. When Prongs charged everyone had to be careful.
As Prongs charged, Shadow or Lily, snatched everyone's wand; Harry's team screamed and clapped. The animagus's turned back into people, and Lily and James bowed.
"I didn't know Lily was an animagus! Why didn't you tell us Harry!" Bill said grinning.
"I had no clue, but foxes are clever. I think you can get your wands back now." Harry said grinning bigger then ever. He never had so much fun, even after winning all the Quidditch games.
"That was brilliant!" Ron yelled. "I wish I could do that!"
Ron, Hermione, and Harry looked at each other. Could they really pull it off? Should they?
"Let's do it!" Harry said quietly so no one would hear him.
"Now this is a sight to see," exclaimed an amused Dumbledore from the doorway.
Everyone turned to look at the group of people standing in the doorway. There was: Dumbledore, McGonagall, Kingsley, and Moody.
Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling more then ever, Kingsley was laughing silently, Moody's mouth was twitching and McGonagall's mouth kept on twitching, trying not to smile or burst out laughing. She was very happy to see everyone with different a color hair and skin.
But no one cared. They had the most fun in a long while. To see everyone happy and enjoying themselves was a treat all together. Plus Harry's normal black hair, was bright pink, James's was purple and Lily's was gray. The Weasley's looked at their hair and lined up because their hair resembled a rainbow and Sirius finally turned back. He was grinning from ear to ear. He hadn't had this much fun since they were at school.
A/N: I hope you like this chapter. I had a lot of fun writing it.