I have a laptop again! I've had the worst luck. Sorry about that I was painting near my laptop and water got on it and it turns out it takes longer than I thought to fix a totally broken laptop especially when it DELETES ALL OF YOUR FILES AND PLANS, so I've spent the last few months retyping whole plotlines and timelines and add that to lost revision notes it's been hell. THEN my charger broke and I had to wait for another one to come. Bleurgh. Anyway I hope this chapter makes up for it
*Two months left*
"Bloody hell has it really only been a month since we came back" Sirius moaned as he lay on James and Lily's sofa in their common room.
"Why would you want the school year to end?" Lily asked as she shoved his legs off her spot and sat down with a bowl of soup.
"Oh yeah, cause you're living it up in here, I still live with Remus and Peter in our standard common room. Think of us in your happiness"
"Pads don't forget they've got to live with you, I feel sorrier for them" James laughed as he pulled up a couple of beanbags as lay on top of them next to the sofa.
"I'll have you know that's… probably completely true" Sirius grinned stretching his feet out again and resting them on Lily.
"Sirius, get your feet off me now or so help me you'll have soup in places you didn't know you could get soup" Lily snapped, and without hesitating Sirius' feet were back on the floor.
"So Pads, not that we don't absolutely love your company, but why have you turned up at eight o clock at night?"
"Well" Sirius clapped his hands and leaned forwards "As you know tomorrow is Halloween, and as you know I hold the title of 'Most amazing Halloween costume in the history of forever', and am thus the current Halloween costume champion of the world"
"Pads you won one crummy competition run by Dumbledore last year" James sighed
"Don't try to make the achievement any less amazing then it is" Sirius continued "So, I'm going to need your help this year to make it so brilliant it'll be enough for people to remember years after I've left"
"Sirius I'm not giving you any money" Lily could remember the last time Sirius needed their help to make people remember him. A lot of money was spent on marshmallows that day.
"I'm offended you would even think that of me Lilypop!" Sirius gasped "No, what I need is your magical ability, great minds, artistic talents… and ten galleons"
"When do you need this by?" James sighed; Sirius would find a way to rope him into it anyway.
"Tomorrow by the evening meal so I hope you've cleared you're schedules, don't worry, it'll be amazing" he beamed before patting James on the head, bowing to Lily, and running off to annoy Remus and Peter.
Dumbledore had barely sat down after giving his speech at the feast when the doors were flung open to reveal Sirius standing proudly in the doorway. He was wearing a huge dragon costume with blood red scales which faded into a glittering gold.
"He's finally done it" Remus sighed, burying his head into his hands "He's finally cracked"
"C'mon Moony, lighten up, it's his last Hogwarts Halloween. Besides if you think that's over the top wait until you see this" James grinned, nodding at Lily. Moving to opposite sides of Sirius they simultaneously muttered "Wingardium leviosa" and Sirius started to float into the air.
"Very good, very good" Dumbledore chuckled whilst McGonagall flapped her arms about in a panic.
Peter dropped his pumpkin pasty in shock as Sirius started flying towards him, fake fire being blown at them.
"Always got to be the centre of attention" Remus laughed. The entire hall was watching him until one of the Slytherins who thought they'd win dressed as an ogre lobbed a cobweb cake at him and distracted James. In the blink of an eye Sirius plunged downwards and landed in a giant bowl of pasta before the hall erupted in laughter.
Panicking, Sirius managed to climb out of the bowl and run out of the hall with tatters of the dragon costume flying off him, knocking James and Lily out of the way as he went. "Worst Halloween ever" he muttered to himself as he ran.
"At least they'll definitely remember you Pads!" James laughed after him.
"Sirius I'm getting the feeling this has something to do with what happened last night" James sighed as he leant against a bedpost watching Sirius shredding pictures of dragons.
"They're from my planning board James, do you know how long I've been planning this?"
"More than you should have?" He laughed, swinging round onto the bed "It doesn't matter, you'll get over it"
"Get over it! This is probably the worst thing that's ever happened to me!" Sirius pulled a pillow over his head.
"I doubt that Pads" James sighed
"Worst dragon related incident that's ever happened to me then"
James Sirius' moods could never be changed so he jumped opposite him and helped shred the dragon pictures.
*One month left*
Sirius had spent the month hiding from everyone and sitting behind a book in lessons because every time he walked past someone they'd re-enact him falling into the bowl of pasta, but he'd finally come out of hiding and had sent out messages to the group to meet for a massive returning prank.
"Wow it's cold!" Lily shivered, huddling into James as they walked down to Hagrid's hut.
"Yeah but knowing Sirius it'll be worth it" James smiled as he remembered some of the Marauder's great pranks, not forgetting the Loch Ness monster prank in the Black Lake in fourth year executed using a lot of green bottles and strategically placed megaphones.
"I don't know about it, I mean we're the head students, we need to lead by example"
"Pfft, Lily the title of Marauder comes before Head Boy any day in my book"
"Where does the title 'expelled student' rank in your books?" Lily laughed as they reached the hut and looped quickly around it into the woods to the base the Marauders had set up there.
Sirius, Remus, Peter, Kara, and Sasha were already sat on the circle of logs in the obviously named leaf base Sirius had put together using a net in first year which only provided camouflage in the Autumn. There were only meant to be four people in there so it was a massive squash.
"Guys, I've thought it through, and it's time to put this into action" Sirius announced.
"I'm scared to ask what 'this' is" Remus nervously chuckled.
"Well, as you all know this is our last year at Hogwarts, and no-one knows if we're going to make it to the end, not forgetting the endless NEWTS if we actually do"
"Thanks for that Sirius, you really know how to lighten up the room" James sighed
"That's not the point. What I want to do is something so awesome, so unbelievably spectacular it's remembered for years to come. No-one will know who did it, but the idea of us will go down in history"
"Yes, because all of your past plans to be remembered have gone so well haven't they?" Remus pointed out before being slapped in the back of the head by Sirius.
"We don't mention the incident anymore" he scowled "Anyway, this'll be better, and more epic than anything I've done before"
"That sounds good Pads, but how the hell are you going to do that?"
"Well, it mostly involves these" Sirius grinned, pulling fireworks, party poppers, and silly string out of a bag "This isn't it obviously; I just couldn't fit the rest of it into the den"
"What do you mean the rest?" Lily stared in horror at Sirius' bag.
"Just come and see" he grinned, leading everyone around the back and pulling off a sheet of leaves from fire extinguishers, broomsticks, and bags of ping pong balls "I have connections in the muggle world" he smiled as Kara and Sasha inspected the fire extinguishers.
"Pads I have no idea what's going on in your head right now, but let's do this!" James whooped, popping a party popper.
"How do I get sucked into these things" Lily sighed as she, James, and Sirius crouched by the entrance to Hogsmeade that Saturday
"Because Lillypop, you're constantly looking for an escape from your dull, work filled life" Sirius suggested whilst leaning on his broomstick with a fire extinguisher in both hands.
"Yeah, that's definitely it" Lily remarked, chucking a ping pong ball at him from the bulging bag she was holding.
"Hey! Offend me as much as you want, but offending the plan is a step too far"
"Sirius the plan doesn't even make sense" James pointed out.
"I don't see how humiliating most of Hogsmeade at once with a ping pong firework extravaganza followed by a foam attack and a final shower of party poppers couldn't make sense" Sirius beamed at his plan "Never before has someone fired, foamed, and poppered an entire street before. We will be Gods"
"Of course we will" Lily shook her head but couldn't help smiling in anticipation. "Ok the Marauders have had a terrible effect on me" She thought to herself.
James was about to pull out the mirror to check on Remus who was round the back of Honeydukes with Kara with the fireworks to send through the windows when his eyes flickered to the outskirts of Hogsmeade near their hide out cave where a hoard of black, cloaked figures were making their way to the main part of the town by Honeydukes
"Holy crap, look" James pointed to the group.
"Oh my God they're going to run into Remus and Kara first" Lily nodded to Honeydukes which was straight on from where they were marching "We need to warn them"
Remus and Kara were pressed up against two large rocks inspecting the crowd that had formed just over the hill.
"Shh Kara" Remus hissed as Kara panted after they'd decided to check them out and had run from their fireworks and leapt over the rocks to get closer.
"Sorry for breathing, I'll just suffocate" she snapped back, sliding down the rock and holding her chest to try to calm down.
"Better you pass out from lack of oxygen then get murdered by a bunch of Death Eaters" Kara was going to make a sarcastic remark back until the crowd started moving towards them.
"They should be here, they better not make us go in there" A deep voice growled before a curse flew out and hit a nearby tree in anger.
"We've been waiting too long, someone will see, let's just go grab them" Someone else suggested, there was a murmur of agreement and the first person sighed.
"Send out the signal then, and remember curse if anyone stands in your way, the Dark Lord still wants to try and recruit the little weeds"
"What the hell are we going to do?" Remus whispered to Kara who just shrugged "Well we need to tell the others" Remus pulled out his mirror only to find James already looking into it.
"Remus? What's going on?"
"We've got a problem, Death Eaters"
"Shit, ok, stay hidden, Sasha and Peter told us they were taking the Shrieking Shack route to Hogwarts to tell Dumbledore, tell us if… got to go"
"Peter you look like you're going to pass out" Sasha laughed as she and Peter ran down the hallway, Peter was bright red and panting.
"I… can't… do… it" He gasped, collapsing on the floor.
"Peter get up for God's sake!" Sasha tried dragging him but grew tired with the effort "Peter you've got to shift a few pounds" She tried to joke, sliding down next to him and nudging him.
"They… almost saw me" Peter sighed.
"They almost saw me too; you don't see me panicking about it, what's up?"
"They don't care about you" The stress was breaking Peter down and he was close to bursting. Rubbing his eyes with his fists he tried to pull himself together.
"Charming!" Sasha raised her eyebrows but noticed how panicked Peter genuinely was "Why would they care about you?" She asked cautiously.
"I…I…" Peter was about to tell her everything when they heard voices coming from outside and had to carry on running to Hogwarts.
Lily, James, and Sirius had to leap round the side of a shop as another group of Death Eaters started to swarm through the main entrance throwing curses and shouting for attention. Eventually the whole street was silent and lined with Death Eaters.
"Right" one pulled himself up onto a porch and shot a flare into the air "We're here to collect the warriors brave enough to fight for the Dark Lord"
There was silence as everyone looked around to see who was going to step forwards. First to go was Bellatrix who skipped to the front and cheered on everyone else. A crowd of Slytherins went behind the line of Death Eaters with one or two Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, some looking terrified, others looking ecstatic. James looked over at Sirius, who was scouring the crowd.
"Where the hell's Dumbledore?" Sirius was looking desperate before his fists suddenly clenched. Regulus came out and high fived one of the figures.
"NO!" Sirius suddenly burst out and managed to grab Regulus' arm before being shot with a curse and having to stagger back to the gate "Don't do it" he cried as James caught him and pulled him away
"Calm down bro, I gotta do this, you wouldn't understand" In that moment Sirius realised he may have escaped his parent's evil expectations but Regulus was still at the centre of it, and he'd done nothing to protect him.
"I hate them" Sirius growled at James, never breaking eye contact with Regulus.
"Sirius it's ok, we'll always, NO!" Lily shoved past James and Sirius and stared in disbelief at the next person to join the Death Eaters. "Severus" she whispered, a tear rolling down her cheek.
"Lily?" Severus' head snapped around at the sound of Lily's voice.
Lily looked him dead in the eyes "Why?"
Severus had no answer, he bit down on the inside of his cheek to stop the tears flooding down his face. He breathed in deeply to try and flush out his conscience "I'm sorry Lily"
"Like you are" She huffed, angrily wiping away the tear "How long were we supposed to stay together and be there for each other again?" Lily referenced a past childhood promise but Severus just turned away and walked back to the crowd but still muttered the answer to himself:
"Always"
It's a tiny bit sad how long it took me to write that, I couldn't get it in the right setting or with the right speech but I'm happy with it now, thoughts? Once again I'm so sorry about how long this has taken. Weird how I finished a Halloween chapter on Halloween though considering I started writing it two weeks ago...
Anyway as always REVIEW, I love hearing from you, it's hard to explain the feeling you get when you get an email saying someone reviewed. But anyway to stop myself sounding totally sad I'll leave
- Mischief managed