Disclaimer: I am JKR…in my dreams…sigh

Sirius stared at the Great Hall.

"Hey Sirius! Tried the pumpkin juice yet?"

"Wow! Today's pumpkin juice hits the spot!"

"Sirius, have you ever tried better pumpkin juice?"

"Mm-mm! Mr Black, have you had any pumpkin juice?"

Sirius stared.

"Professor Flitwick!" he asked incredulously.

All the students started jumping on their tables and singing the 'Pumpkin Juice Song' whilst the teachers issued confetti from their wands. Dumbledore stood up at the High Table and said, "I proclaim this day 'School Pumpkin Juice Day' and all classes are cancelled…

"Sirius! Sirius! Snap out of it! Why are you staring out into space and grinning like that?" James said impatiently.

"Oh – er – what's happening?" Sirius said dazedly.

Remus sighed. "We were just discussing what we were going to do now that Peeves has messed up!"

"Well I think that since the potion will last for the rest of the day and there's still the rest of the afternoon and evening to go, we'll have to let it just take place because we don't know any bloody antidote…" James said, trailing off as he saw Sirius staring into space again. "Sirius, what did I just say?"

"Um…this is a wild guess – James raised his eyebrows – but I think you said 'Well I think that since the potion will last for the rest of the day and there's still the rest of the afternoon and evening to go, we'll have to let it just take place because we don't know any bloody antidote'."

James, Remus and Peter stared at Sirius.

"Fine," Remus muttered. "You were listening."

Sirius grinned.

"I vote we go to the Great Hall and see what's going on," Remus said.

"But what if…you know…" Peter said.

"Then we'll just have to see, Peter. I mean, they can't possibly suspect us of anything bad. Not hard working students like us anyway." James said.

"Yeah," Sirius said vehemently.

"Let's go," Remus said wearily, too annoyed to argue over study habits right now.

They walked over to the Great Hall and opened the door cautiously. Nearly everyone they could see was drinking the pumpkin juice. It didn't help that the day was an extremely hot summer one.

His recklessness taking a hold of him, Sirius jumped into the middle of the Hall and before James and Remus could stop him he yelled, "DON'T DRINK THE PUMPKIN JUICE!"

All the students swivelled around and stared at him, wide eyed, most of them swallowing their pumpkin juice in shock. Over at the High Table, Professor McGonagall immediately spat out her mouthful of pumpkin juice, (much to Dumbledore's amusement) all too aware of what the Marauders were capable of.

"Sirius!" Remus hissed.

"Oh…um sorry then," Sirius mumbled, flushing.

He ran out of the Hall to where the other three boys were still standing.

"What did you do that for?" James asked half angrily, half amusedly.

"Now they'll know it was us!" Remus whispered.

"I don't know what happened to me!" Sirius said. "They all weren't acting weirdly anyway."

"It takes a few minutes," James answered.

"Should we check again then?" Peter asked.

"Yeah, but someone put a leash on Sirius or something this time," Remus muttered, grinning.

"Hey!"

"Come on!" James said.

The boys looked into the Great Hall. The whole place was engulfed in purple smoke.

The boys cringed.

"Who knew that there were that many liars at Hogwarts?" Sirius exclaimed.

Remus and Peter glared at him. James, on the other hand, was staring at Lily, who was looking around fearfully.

"Come on," he said. "They know it's us. We should go in."

The four boys walked in, after pulling Peter back through the grand doors after he tried to run away.

They sidled up slowly to the Gryffindor table and sat down across from Lily, trying to ignore all the purple mist that was swirling around them.

"Potter!" Lily said immediately. "What did you do to make all this purple smoke appear? It just keeps appearing from people's ears whenever they say things!"

"What purple smoke?" James said innocently, squinting hard through the haze to see his beloved.

Remus inwardly groaned.

Lily glared at James and pointed her wand at him.

"Oh, you mean that purple smoke," James added hurriedly, knowing all about Lily's aptitude for charms.

"I swear I'll hex you Potter!" she hissed.

Purple smoke immediately issued from both of her ears in copious amounts. Marlene and Alice stared at her, fascinated but James and Sirius, unable to take the sight of Lily with bright purple smoke pouring out of her ears, burst out laughing.

Lily started swearing once more.

"Potter! What the hell did you do?"

James tried to answer but he found he had no air left in his lungs after all that laughing.

"Well we –"

He started laughing again.

"Sorry, we –" he glanced up at the purple smoke again and burst into laughter.

"Potter, you annoying, stupid –"

"Everyone stay calm," Dumbledore's voice echoed through the hall. No one could see him through the dense smoke. "We all know who has done this I assure you that they just meant it as a harmless prank – there came the sound of someone kicking Dumbledore underneath the High Table – but they will be punished, since even the teachers have been affected. Will James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew explain what they did please?"

Dumbledore finally raised his wand and cleared away the smoke with one wave. People all over the Hall kept their mouths firmly shut in case the smoke was triggered again. Everyone glared at the Marauders, including the Professors.

"Hi everyone…" James faltered as no one seemed pleased enough to greet him back. "Um…well we made a potion and by a series of unfortunate and unforeseeable events that had nothing absolutely to do with us, the potion somehow ended up in the pumpkin juice."

James took a deep breath, hoping that Dumbledore would buy his story, but then Professor McGonagall spoke.

"This has to do with what you were discussing with Peeves hasn't it?" she said loudly.

Damn, James thought to himself. He had forgotten that Professor McGonagall had seen them with Peeves.

"Er – of course not Professor!" Sirius said quickly. "Whatever made you think such a terrible thought?"

Professor McGonagall frowned, but Dumbledore interjected.

"I think that we would like to know what this potion does boys." he said.

The four boys glanced at each other. They didn't want to give away their masterpiece, but they couldn't find any way out of it. Not with all the teachers and students watching anyway. Think of the waste if Sirius dropped a dung bomb right when everyone was watching! Absolutely no planning or thought going into it at all!

"Um…if you tell a lie then the smoke will appear from your ears and if you tell the truth then the smoke will disappear if there was smoke in the first place." Remus said bluntly.

The tension around the students seemed to tauten at those words. How could they spend the whole day just telling the truth? The horror!

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled merrily.

"And how long will it last?" he asked.

"For the rest of the day, Professor," James and Remus said together.

"Ah, well in that case, I suggest as since there is no antidote, the rest of the day will have to go along as smoothly as can be. There will be no cancelled lessons. Carry on."

Dumbledore sat down and started conversing with Professor McGonagall who was frowning in between her many gulps of water. She seemed to be trying to wash out the pumpkin juice she had drunk as were the rest of the teachers.

James looked around, noticing that Sirius had been quiet for quite a while. That in itself was a reason to worry.

"Hey, Prongs, try some of the pumpkin juice. It's great!"

James' mouth dropped open and he stared at the half full goblet of pumpkin juice in Sirius' hand for a whole minute.

"Please tell me you didn't, Sirius. Please!"

"Do what?"

"Drink the pumpkin juice,"

"Oh this stuff, yeah I tried some. Pretty good too."

"SIRIUS! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU!"

A/N: Like it? Hate it? Please don't forget to review. I've decided, because I love you all so much, that I will respond to all your wonderful reviews. Thank you so much. I couldn't have gotten this far (I know, I'm only on the third chapter! Ha-ha!) without all your supportive reviews. Ok, I have to go before I start getting WAY too melodramatic…hehe. Don't forget to leave a review:D