I dedicate this chapter to Pawsfun for a review that genuinely made my day. Right, better get writing. Also I messed up my bloody countdown up by one day because I can't count so ignore the fact I appear to have gone back in time I'm going back to change it later.
*Seven days left*
"One week today then guys" Kara pointed out at breakfast the next mornings after they'd all managed to drag themselves down there from the Head's dorm "Next Tuesday I'll be off"
"Way to kill the mood there Kara" Lily said through a mouthful of croissant "What happened to 'this is going to be the best week ever?'"
"It's like the summer holiday. It's one of the best times of the year, total freedom of school work and responsibility, but you're slowly getting closer and closer to being forced to go back" She sighed into her muffin. Not even food was helping so she knew it was bad.
"Yeah but that just means you value what little time you have even more!" Sasha tried to look on the bright side but her face showed how upset she was about Kara going.
"So that means you'll ditch school for me for the list" Kara looked up expectantly smiling at them all.
"No" Lily said firmly "It means we're off to value what little time you have left in charms" Earning a groan from everybody as they realized it was time to go and actually learn and they had to get up.
"You have to promise to owl me, like every day" Kara continued, slapping everyone until they agreed "And update me on EVERYTHING, and you better invite me to you wedding" She warned James and Lily.
"Waw, that's a bit premature isn't it?" Lily blushed and glanced at James.
"Don't you want to make an honest woman of me?" James gasped and put his hand on his heart "Lily Evans you've broken my heart"
"Oh man up" Lily giggled, grabbing James' hand off his chest and clutching it in hers as they walked along.
"You'll never get rid of him now Lilypop" Sirius laughed "He'll be like a dog just following you around constantly"
"Fine by me" Lily grinned at James just as they came to the charms classroom and sat down waiting for Flitwick to finally get the class under control.
"Ghosts" Flitwick shouted to get everyone's attention, breathing a sigh of relief when it did "Probably one of the hardest enemies to fight. Especially when any physical weapons will just go straight through them, not forgetting the fact you can't kill someone that's already dead. This is why we use the substantive charm. Does anyone already know what this is?" Flitwick looked over to Lily expectantly but was shocked when James' hand shot up just before hers.
"It's a charm able to solidify ghosts leaving them vulnerable to normal injuries" He shouted out proudly as Lily sat staring at him wide-eyed.
"Perfect Mr Potter, now, for this charm we use the incantation Perlutantia, with a circular wand action followed by a sharp flick towards what you're solidifying. For example…" Flitwick pointed his wand and a goblet of water on his desk and used the charm to turn it into a gel-like substance "Solid water, not ice, just solid" He explained, sending the goblet round for inspection.
"Now after an unfortunate incident with fire last lesson" Flitwick raised his eyebrows in Sasha's direction "We'll be practising in the room next door"
As they filed through to the practise room Sirius decided it would be a good idea to practise his wand action and pronunciation, sending Nearly Headless Nick shouting abuse and flying down the stairs.
"Think you need to work on your aim there Pads" Remus mocked. Just before Sirius could prove how good his aim was by demonstrating on Remus they were surrounded by what appeared to be the ghosts of famous people. As they reached the centre of the room they were surrounded by the ghosts of William Shakespeare, Cleopatra, Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Mozart, Einstein, and so many more.
"Urr, Professor?" James stared in shock at everyone "Where did you get these ghosts from?"
"Not real ghosts Mr Potter, they're essentially made from gases, try touching one" Flitwick explained and smiled at his clever work as James reached out and found glass surrounding the ghosts "All you've got to do is solidify the ghosts before they get into the circle surrounding you. If one does the circle will turn red and you're dead.
"This is charms and not Defence Against the Dark Arts right?" Sirius double checked with James but Flitwick overheard.
"This is seventh year Mr Black, we no longer hold your hand through lessons. If you can't do spells under pressure there's no point in learning them" Flitwick nodded before gesturing for them all to practise on the jars of water on the floor.
When they were finally ready Flitwick sent off a flare from his wand and the 'ghosts' shook into action and began to swing towards them. Lily quickly stopped Shakespeare, and between them the first six ghosts were solidified, and dropped to the floor. However as they dropped even more sprung out from the walls, soon a hundred were around them and they were overwhelmed.
"This is impossible!" Kara shouted out before Charles Dickens managed to cross the line and the room went totally red.
"Shit" James muttered to himself, walking head down to where Flitwick stood shaking his head.
"Try again" Was all he said before leaving the room for them to get on with it.
After another five tries James shouted at everyone to stop and gather round.
"What are we doing guys? Wildly throwing around charms in no order in the hope it does something? Flitwick's clearly trying to teach us some bullshit lesson about teamwork, let's figure this out" Sirius nodded and realised James had a point.
"Right then, Lily, James, Remus, Hestia, Dedalus, and Dorcas sit out of the next one, watch for a pattern. Flitwick's gone and tried to make a simple solidifying charm complicated. How do we know Voldemort's got goddam ghosts anyway?" Sirius moaned.
"Do you really want to question what he's capable of?" James raised his eyebrows at Sirius who mumbled a no before slamming his fist down on the button that starts the attack and watched carefully as one by one the ghosts approached the circle, once again after they had fallen at least fifty more came at once, surrounding the circle before the other half of the class were overwhelmed and the room turned red.
"See anything?" Kara panted, shoving her wand into her pocket.
"Yes!" Lily beamed getting up and closing her eyes for a second to think it through "Why are we letting ourselves get surrounded?" she asked, walking around the red circle "We have to protect the circle not let ourselves get trapped in it"
"Of course!" James ran to the other side of the room "They're attacking us, why can't we attack them back?"
Finally it was agreed that half of them had to stay inside the circle and take care of the first 'ghosts' whilst Kara, Sirius, James, Lily, Marlene, and Emmeline went round the sides of the classroom and started solidifying ghosts before they had the chance to get too overwhelming.
"Start it!" James shouted to Hestia as he prepared to run out of the circle.
Sasha and the others had mastered the charm and expertly took care of the first ghosts.
"Hey I'm actually doing it properly for once" Sasha grinned, pulling up a bowl of water and doing the charm perfectly.
Before she had a chance to brag the others came running out from the back following the last few: Queen Victoria, Julius Caesar, Van Gogh, and Joan of Arc were soon solid figures in front of them.
"You have to admire his dedication" Lily marveled at each of the newly solid ghosts when everyone else was high fiving at finally completing it.
"Why does school have to go and get serious?" Sirius moaned as the Marauders made their way to the kitchens after their lessons that evening.
"Why? Would you rather still be finger painting?" Remus suggested, hoping it would show him responsibility's more interesting but failed.
"Yes! I mean I was a damn good finger painter, my talents have never been recognised in one lesson, it's a travesty of justice"
"Come on Pads, you've got to start accepting the world as it is at some point" James got serious as he tickled the pear but Sirius wasn't having it.
"What happened to you Prongs?" Sirius looked hurt "Where's my finger painting partner in crime?"
"He got thrown into a war" James put bluntly, slumping moodily into a chair, not wanting to tell Sirius what was really wrong.
"Well I'm here to take him out of it, how long ago did we pull our last prank?" Sirius looked Peter, James, and Remus in the eye.
"Literally four days ago" Remus pointed out but was drowned out by Sirius shouting.
"TOO LONG, that's the answer, get your act together people we're the Marauders, and this needs to be magnificent.
"What happened to the last two being our final blow out prank?" Peter asked timidly from the chocolate he'd already ordered.
"Yeah, well, I was wrong. The school isn't ready to forget our brilliance yet, get your thinking hats on, we've got to use stuff from the kitchen, and WINKIE? Can I get some thinking pasties while we're at it? Thanks"
"They're going to kill us. Seriously, we're dead men walking. Who's idea was this?" Remus whispered angrily as they were setting up outside the Head's dorm "They'll know it's us OF COURSE they will"
"Calm it Remus, we've got this, why would they think we'd risk ruining James' dorm?" Sirius reasoned, sticking the cellophane they grabbed from the kitchen across the painting "And we're finished!"
"Why the hell are we pranking the people we finally got to like us after six years of hate anyway?" Peter looked around worriedly.
"Because Wormers, we have allowed the Marauders to become infiltrated, and it's time to do something with just us for once" Sirius announced proudly as he folded his arms and looked at their handiwork "Right, let's wait for them"
"They'll think it's Slytherins anyway" James shook off the deceit, and threw on the invisibility cloak.
They didn't have to wait long before Kara, Sasha, and Lily swung open the painting. They were immediately stopped by the cellophane, their faces smushing up against it. Just as they were recovering the boxes of cornflakes tipped over and showered them, milk swiftly following.
"WHAT. THE. HELL" Kara screamed, ripping through the cellophane, looking around, and charging down the stairs looking for her torturers, Sasha hot on her tail.
"Best kitchen attack ever" Sirius grinned at the rest of the Marauders.
Lily hadn't followed Sasha and Kara, she simply brushed of the cornflakes, brushed the milk soaked hair out of her face, and stepped out onto the staircase with a face like thunder, squinting around before she finally found it. Stuck onto the banister opposite the painting was James' mirror so they could watch from under the cloak round the corner. She knelt down, looked into it, and said menacingly
"Just wait. Potter, Black, Lupin, Pettigrew. I'm coming"
"Dear God" James went wide eyed and the Marauders tiptoed away as quickly as possible.
*Six days left*
Lily didn't wait long to get her revenge. The Marauders came down to breakfast the next day to find the girls squashed at the end of the Gryffindor table, and as they got closer they noticed that Lily was hunched over the table with her head in her hands.
"Lily?" James ran up to her and pulled her into his arms "What's wrong?"
"The kitchens" She sobbed "We… saw something"
"Like something from the forest had got in, all of the elves are gone" Sasha added, attempting to look as scared as possible.
James and Sirius, the egotistic show offs they were, puffed out their chests and stuck out their chins.
"We've got this" Sirius announced, spinning round on his heel and marching out with James and Remus, Peter shuffling off behind them looking terrified.
From there the girls ran out of the hall, chucking the invisibility cloak on that Lily had stolen from James' chest the night before, hoping that the kitchen elves remembered what they'd said.
When the Marauders entered the kitchen it was pitch black and no-one was around. Standing shoulder to shoulder they slowly begun to walk through the kitchen, Remus lighting up the room with his wand stretched out in front of him. It was completely silent until the scuttling started. Darting around the room, around the corners and under tables.
"If those girls have just sent us to our deaths" Sirius joked, an uneasy smile on his face.
A loud crash of dropped pots on the other side of the kitchen panicked Peter and he sent spells flying everywhere, shooting kitchen equipment flying.
"WORMTAIL" James yelled at him, grabbing his arm and pinning it to his side, stopping paying attention for enough time for it to creep up on them and grab onto his ankle, making him squeal and start stamping around.
"Oh God my foot's all slimy" James pawed at his foot, now panicking. The thing ran up the walls and they were all covered in a mass of slime and then large, wet, spongey things landed on them, making them fall to the floor and start screaming awaiting the pain.
After a while of screaming and no being eaten alive the lights turned on, the girls threw off their cloak and burst out laughing at the pile of Marauders and cut up sponge on the floor.
"Now THAT'S how you prank someone" Kara shouted in delight at them all.
"W-w-you-WHAT?" Sirius leapt up scowling "WE WERE GOING TO HELP YOU"
"After you turned us into a bloody breakfast bar!" Kara argued back.
"I told you they'd know" Remus sighed, punching Sirius in the arm before resuming shaking the slime out of his hair.
"How could we not?" Lily laughed "A mindless attack with no real meaning disguised at a prank? It's got Marauder written all over it. Plus you left the mirror, you may as well have left a confession"
It was at that point that Sirius snapped, no-one judged his pranking, mindless or not. He bent down to the floor and gathered up a handful of slime and sponge, lobbing it at Lily at hitting her right in the face.
"Oh no you didn't" She couldn't help grinning, throwing it back and ending up in a huge slime war. Even Winkie who had been running around the kitchen making the scuttling noise joined in.
What do you think? I always saw Flitwick as a more logical teacher then just the normal demonstrate and repeat. Plus I was watching the Avengers and reading Maze runner so I was inspired to do something more complicated and charms lessons just aren't that interesting. Reviews are always appreciated, and that's
Mischief Managed