A/N: Thursday again! Hope you guys enjoy this next chapter. :).
Time Flies By
The first term flew by quickly. Remus, of course, went off to visit his sick mother once a month and nobody questioned it.
By Halloween the first years had made their good friends. The seven (Ruby-Jane, Mackenzey, Peter, Troy, Hunter, Chris and Kerris) were obviously still great friends, although they didn't hang out in such a group most of the time.
Peter was brilliant and best friends with James, Sirius and Remus, whereas Chris got on best with Frank and Peter. It wasn't that he didn't like the other boys; they just didn't fulfil his intellectual needs.
Kerris was getting on all right alone in Ravenclaw, often seen talking to Ruby-Jane and Peter's sister Alixx, and her friends, when she wasn't in another common room with the other first years.
Ruby-Jane and Mackenzey managed to put up with Abigail and Chantelle the majority of the time, mostly in lessons, but the other girls seemed to be getting on all right, after the initial first impression.
Troy was happy enough being the only girl in Slytherin. No ditties around to be, well, ditties. And Hunter was doing fine, ignoring the rest of his dorm. Hunter and Troy tried to hang out as long as possible when they had to be in Slytherin, just the two of them. There was no one else worth getting to know.
Halloween was approaching, tomorrow! And all the first years were excited. Their first Halloween at Hogwarts!
"Candy, candy, candy!" Sirius chanted, as the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs walked to their last class of the day, Transfiguration.
"Shut up, Sirius!"
"No, can't make me!" Sirius pouted.
Seconds later, four jets of red light hit him, and Sirius couldn't utter a sound.
James smirked. "Me, Remus, Pete and Ruby?" he counted.
"Yep," Remus replied, eyeing the group.
"Why is Sirius madly waving at me, and pointing at his mouth?" Frank came up to them, glancing at Sirius warily.
"He wouldn't shut up about candy, so we put a silencing spell on him," Remus explained.
"Ooooh right," Frank laughed.
Alice, who was with Frank, also laughed. Lily, beside her, rolled her eyes.
"Typical," she muttered, earning glares from the majority of the group. She held up her hands. "All right! I'm sorry! But seriously! You have to admit he's immature at the best of times!"
Ruby-Jane gave her a cold glare. "And you're too prude, but we still hang around with you," She gave a cold smile to go with the glare.
"Because I'm begging you to," Lily snapped back sarcastically.
"GIRLS!" Mackenzey stepped between them. "Learn to get on, already! It's getting old!"
Sirius sighed. "C'mon Rubes, she's not worth it," he whispered to her, casually slinging his arm round her shoulders. Ruby-Jane grinned.
"Neither are you," she giggled, dodging round Remus, Peter and Alice so Sirius couldn't get her back.
Sirius mock glared at her but his reply was cut off.
"How do you know silencing charms anyway?" Alice asked curiously. "Don't we get taught them for OWLS or something?"
"Our parents wanted us to have basic skills," Ruby shrugged. "Being able to silence people was apparently one of those skills,
"And Pete taught us 'cause we were curious," James explained. "Anything to have one over on the Slytherins,"
Again, Lily rolled her eyes.
"Speaking of the Slytherins, who's up for a prank at Halloween then?" James asked glancing around the group.
"What exactly is so special about Halloween that would make your prank more original, Potter?" Lily contemptuously asked him.
"You see, Lily darling, it's Halloween, night of the pranks," James replied, "and that is why it is special,"
"One would think that would be April Fools' Day," Lily contradicted.
"Ah, but April Fools' Day is a day for pranks. They don't count after twelve noon. Halloween is the night for pranks," Remus explained, grinning at the look on Lily's face.
Peter, Remus, Frank and Chris all got on with Lily, but that didn't mean they didn't enjoy tormenting her with James and Sirius. James and Sirius didn't like Lily much, but as their dislike was equally matched with her dislike of them they weren't bothered.
"What kind of prank should we do?" Peter asked.
"A good one!" Sirius exclaimed.
"Are you trying to imply not all of our pranks are good?" James asked incredulously.
"Truth hurts, James," Ruby-Jane laughed.
"It hurts bad," James declared dramatically.
"Drama queen," Frank muttered, grinning.
"Queen sounds about right, actually," Chris added.
"You're confirming that? I thought it was just a rumour," Alice looked serious.
"Rumour? What rumour?" James looked seriously offended and anxious about this supposed rumour.
"I've heard it too," Mackenzey said. "Something about James Potter being a girl, but wanting to be a guy so is trying to trick everyone into believing he's actually a guy,"
"What?!" James exploded.
Everyone, bar Lily, burst into laughter.
"Nice one, Kenz," Alice grinned, high-fiving her.
"Yeah, nice touch with the rumour, Al," Chris laughed.
"Wouldn't have worked without your comment, Chris," Frank said.
James looked confused, so Lily found it in her heart to tell him they were having him on.
"I'm going to kill each and every one of you, one by one, in the most painful way possible," James threatened.
"Please don't," Lily said dryly, "That'd mean I'd have no friends left and I'd have to hang out with you all the time,"
"Okay, I take it back. I'll kill you all after we're out of Hogwarts!" James looked horrified at the thought of only having Lily for company for the next seven years.
They all laughed again, even Lily.
"We'll talk about the prank after Transfiguration, and we'll get Kerris, Hunter and Troy to help too!" James whispered to the group as they entered Professor McGonagall's classroom. The majority of the group nodded or stuck up their thumbs in affirmative as they took their respective seats.
They spent the lesson in nervous excitement, waiting for it to end so they could plan the prank. With the exception of Chris, Remus, Frank, Lily and Mackenzey, the first years listened to barely a word Professor McGonagall said. Alice was busy throwing notes to Ruby, who was in turn swapping notes with Sirius and James. Peter was being passed the notes from Alice and Ruby through Sirius so he could pass them back across to Alice. For some reason McGonagall appeared not to notice the disruption in her class, possibly because they were supposed to be working in pairs turning their match into a quill.
By the end of the lesson Remus, Lily and Mackenzey were fed up with their partners and had moved across to Chris and Frank's table to do the spell together, whereas Ruby and Alice moved up to Peter's table so they could sit with Sirius, Peter and James, who had all already turned their match into a quill once and didn't feel the need to do it again.
The bell rang indicating the end of the lesson, and the two groups of five left the classroom together.
"Right, let's get down to business," Sirius clapped his hands excitedly.
"Kenz and I will go find Hunter and Troy," Ruby-Jane suggested.
"Us too…" Peter and Sirius made to go after the Hufflepuffs, but Ruby turned back.
"They hate Gryffindors, remember? Probably not a good idea," she grinned.
"Makes sense…" Peter laughed back. "Me and Chris will go find Kerris then, and we'll meet you back in the Gryffindor common room?"
The other first years agreed and they separated.
"Where do you think we can find Kerris?"
"What lesson did she have?"
"I can't remember…"
"We could always go wait near the Ravenclaw common room, and even if we don't see her we could ask someone else,"
"Okay," Peter agreed.
The two boys set off together up towards the Ravenclaw Tower. After waiting for Kerris for nearly fifteen minutes they realised she would have probably not left the sanctuary of her friends, and therefore would not be returning to the Ravenclaw Tower. Quickly they left the Tower and hurried to Gryffindor Tower, where Ruby-Jane, Mackenzey, Hunter, Troy and Kerris had not arrived yet. They sighed, and quickly explained to Chris, Frank and Peter why they had not brought Kerris back with them, as James and Sirius enthusiastically planned their prank, completely unaware of anything else around them.
Not long after the boys returned Remus appeared from the boys' dorm, clutching a quill and some parchment.
"Pranking supplies," he said sheepishly, holding up his hands.
Chris laughed and moved up the sofa he was sitting on to make room for Remus.
As Ruby-Jane and Mackenzey tumbled through the portrait hole, followed by a giggling Kerris, an amused Hunter and a sardonic looking Troy, Alice and Lily came over from the group of second year girls they were talking to and the six girls and Hunter sat themselves randomly around the rapidly growing circle collecting in the Gryffindor common room.
"Let's get down to business," Sirius said, earning himself a few weird looks from the group. "Oh, get over it. Think, damn it, think!"
"Is he talking to us or himself?" Mackenzey mock nervously asked, leaning over to whisper to the other girls. She leaned back and looked to the centre of the circle again, only to jump violently as she found Sirius' face… there.
"Both," he told her, before settling back into his place.
She laughed.
"All right, everybody, brainstorm," James looked round the group. Silence fell as everyone pondered over what would make the perfect prank.
Half an hour later the parchment Remus had brought down had been well used. Unfortunately little more than a third was useful suggestions for pranks.
Peter and Frank were playing hangman on one sheet, the girls were all playing hangman on another and Chris and Remus had given up trying to scribble down (mostly Sirius') suggestions as they were just getting stupider.
"Floating confetti!?" Sirius exclaimed.
"What good is floating confetti?" Lily interrupted, looking up from her enticing game of hangman.
"What kind of prank is floating confetti?" Ruby-Jane also looked up.
Sirius was lost for words. At least concerning the questions. "Music that never stops? Teddy bears that never let go? Permanent acne?
"Stupid, stupid and ergh!" Mackenzey offered her input.
"This is ridiculous!" James exclaimed over Sirius, who was still reeling off prank ideas.
"It should not be this hard!" Remus agreed.
"Come on, there are, what, thirteen of us here, and we can't think of a single good prank?" James asked, looking incredulous.
"Apparently not," Ruby-Jane remarked dryly.
"Maybe we should just give up?" Lily suggested looking hopeful.
"No way!" Sirius had finally given up with his list of pranks. "Determination, Evans!"
"I thought she already had enough determination," Alice commented to Frank.
Frank grinned.
"Okay, we need to look at this from another perspective," Hunter said.
"What?" Sirius looked befuddled.
Ruby-Jane rolled her eyes at him. "He means we have to look at it with fresh eyes, so we can come up with something better,"
"At this point in time, anything would be better," Remus added.
"I reckon it should definitely be on the Slytherins," Troy said, ignoring the weird looks some of the Gryffindors were giving her.
"But, you're in Slytherin," James pointed out.
"I know that, dummy, doesn't mean I like the dolts," Some of the group flinched at her language.
"She's always been a bit on the generous side with swearing," Mackenzey laughed slightly.
"Understatement," Peter muttered, swatting Troy right back as she punched him not so lightly on his arm.
"Anyway…" Chris intervened.
"Okay, so Slytherins it is then," Sirius confirmed.
"Especially that greasy little Snape,"
Lily scowled. "He is not greasy!" she defended the absent boy furiously.
"Are we talking about the same Snape here?" James asked, as Sirius said "Ooh, has somebody got a crush? On Snivellus no less,"
"Yes, I do believe we are talking about the same Snape, and no, I do not have a crush on him," Lily snapped. "And don't call him Snivellus!"
"Snivelly?" Sirius offered.
"NO!" Lily roared, her eyes flashing.
"Looks like we need a new nickname for Snapey, boys," Sirius told his friends.
"Sirius, leave it," Ruby-Jane said firmly.
Sirius shrugged. "Sorry for insulting your boyfriend, Evans,"
Lily got half way through saying Snape wasn't her boyfriend before realising it was a fruitless effort and fell silent.
Alice patted her on the back. "They'll learn one day," she said reassuringly.
Lily snorted and ignored the cool glance Ruby-Jane sent her way.
Finally the group settled down again, and another hour later it was time for dinner. They had come no further with their perfect prank, and all were slightly edgy as they went down to the Great Hall.
"Halloween is tomorrow, and we haven't got anything!" Sirius complained.
"We will have, by tomorrow!" James answered determinedly.
"Only if we can learn to work together," Remus said, joining their conversation.
"Well, the majority of us do," Peter replied.
"Yeah, it's just Evans, and me, Sirius and Ruby who don't get on,"
"What's that?" Ruby slid up the bench.
"Just who doesn't get on," Remus said, sliding up more so Ruby could comfortably sit with the boys.
"Ahh. Am I right in assuming it's me, Sirius and James vs. Evans that's causing the problem?"
"No! Well, yeah," Peter admitted.
Ruby rolled her eyes. "She's a stuck up snob," she started, and as Remus prepared to say something she added, "But I'll try to make friends for the sake of… My other friends, and their sanity," she raised her eyebrow.
"Already there, darlin'," James winked at her.
"But who said you were my friend?" Ruby-Jane replied grinning.
James didn't reply. This might be due to the spoonful of mash potato that had come flying out of nowhere and had landed right on James' face.
Sirius, Remus, Peter and Ruby-Jane cracked up, soon joined by the rest of the Hall as they realised what had happened. As James wiped potato off his face, his cheeks flushed. Standing nervously by him was Abigail Harris, who Mackenzey and Ruby-Jane now noticed seemed to have a crush on James. She was also blushing furiously, and wringing her hands.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, it just came off the spoon and went flying, and then soon as it happened it was on your face, and I'm so sorry!"
"It's okay," James told her, "It was an accident, I get it,"
Abigail nodded and scuttled back to the Hufflepuff table.
"She's on my hit list," James stated dramatically.
"Abbie?" Mackenzey asked, obviously hearing what James had said. "Oh, come off it, James, it was an accident!"
"Accident my ass!"
"James, you prank her, and we prank you, is that understood?" Ruby-Jane told him.
James looked at her, then Mackenzey and nodded meekly.
"Good,"
"Now that's settled, it's serious chow time," Sirius declared, plunging into the assortment of desserts that had now appeared on the table.
The rest of the table joined in, and soon each had mouthfuls of their favourite pudding.
"I think I'm in heaven," James beamed, wiping cream from round his mouth.
"Yeah, can you imagine what the actual Halloween feast will be like?" Sirius replied, a mouthful of pumpkin pie muffling his speech.
"Even better!" James nodded, shovelling a bite of his own pumpkin pie in his mouth.
Lily looked disgusted at their eating habits.
"Oh, come on, Lils, they're eleven year old boys, what do you expect?" Alice nudged her.
"I guess," Lily sighed, placing a strawberry daintily in her mouth.
"That's the spirit!" Frank said from across the table.
Lily rolled her eyes. "Only because it makes life easier if I don't have to fight with them all the time,"
"How about you just start again?" Alice suggested.
"It'd be the same," Lily replied, "They're not going to change, and neither am I,"
"All right," Alice said, defeated.
"You never know, one day you might be best friends with them," Frank smirked.
Lily looked at him.
"Or not," Frank added, showing Alice his crossed fingers.
Next to them Chris, Kerris, Hunter and Troy had been sitting in a slightly uncomfortable silence. Then Chris had opened up a conversation window and now their conversation was running with fast succession.
"So, what makes them different from normal wolves?" Kerris asked, her Muggleborn heritage becoming painfully obvious.
"They're almost identical to regular wolves, they just differ in appearance by the shape of the snout, the pupils of the eyes and werewolves have a tufted tail," Hunter told her.
"Can you imagine having to go through that every month?" Troy winced, for once willing to openly participate in a conversation she found interesting.
"It supposed to be painful then?" Kerris asked.
"According to Granddad, very," Hunter replied.
"What you talking about?" Mackenzey joined the group's conversation.
"Werewolves," Chris answered.
"Ooh, that's something that's always fascinated me!" Mackenzey exclaimed, gaining the interest of Ruby-Jane, Peter, Sirius, James and Remus.
"What?" James asked intrigued.
"Werewolves," Mackenzey answered him.
Almost at once Remus stood up quickly, almost knocking over a jug of pumpkin juice, and offering a hasty excuse he ran from the room.
"What's barking up his tree?" Alice asked, also joining the middle group.
"I have no idea," Peter replied, looking completely clueless concerning Remus' departure.
"Me either," James added.
"Nor me," Sirius looked slightly concerned.
Lily had to hand it to them, they weren't particularly mature or sensible or trustworthy or even nice, but they did seem to care about their friends very much.
"Well, I think we've all finished here," Frank said, looking round at everyone's empty plates.
"Yeah, who says we go find Remus?" Chris suggested.
A chorus of "Yeah!", "All right!", "Of course!" and a "Well, duh!" from Sirius was the response to that suggestion.
They exited the Hall quickly, scanning all the places Remus could have gone and pairing off. James and Peter would search the most obvious, the Gryffindor boys' dorm, and the grounds, whereas Sirius and Frank would search the ground and first floors.
Alice paired with Mackenzey to search the second floor and the Owlery at the top of the West Tower and Hunter offered to pair with Lily for the third floor and North Tower.
Chris took the fourth and fifth floors with Kerris, leaving Troy and Ruby-Jane to search the sixth and seventh floors and the Astronomy Tower.
They agreed to meet back at the Gryffindor common room half an hour before curfew. If someone found Remus they should respect his wishes, whatever they may be. None of them had any idea what had cause him to run off.
An hour later it was time to head back to Gryffindor Tower, and Alice and Mackenzey had found neither head nor tail of Remus. True, he had little reason to be anywhere near the second floor, or the Owlery, but it was still disappointing and slightly worrisome.
"Hey, Alice, I'm sorry about Ruby-Jane being so… Ruby to Lily,"
"Don't worry about it, Lily gives as good as she gets," Alice laughed.
"I wish they'd just get on though," Mackenzey sighed.
"Lily said she'd do as much at dinner," Alice revealed.
"Really?" Mackenzey said in surprise. "So did Ruby,"
"Well, there we go,"
"Mm. Do you think James and Sirius are half as bad as Lily makes out?"
"Of course not! They like to have fun, admittedly a little more than most, and they're both gifted academically. Combined, that annoys Lils more than anything, since she studies hard and is joint top with them in most lessons despite her hard work and their virtually non-existing effort. They just rub with her personality, though they don't help themselves snubbing Snape like they do,"
Mackenzey laughed. "I do empathise with the boy,"
"Me too." Alice shook her head. "Though I don't see what Lily sees in him,"
"No, but we can't judge, we don't know him, and didn't she grow up with him too?"
"Yes. And I wasn't judging, I just don't think he has much to offer Lily, other than brilliance in Potions,"
"Yeah, but it's her life,"
"I think one day she may grow to regret that," Alice said darkly, as they approached the small group outside Gryffindor.
"Who regret what?" Kerris asked, looking between the girls.
"Oh nothing," Mackenzey said airily, "Just Lily being friends with Snape,"
"Oh, right. Yeah, I agree with you there,"
"He's not so bad," Troy said, shrugging.
"We didn't think or say he was," Alice defended.
"I know, I wasn't trying to imply so," Troy gave Alice a rare smile. Alice smiled back.
"Has anyone seen any of the others?" Ruby-Jane asked.
"We haven't seen any of the others, or Remus," Chris said, indicting himself and Kerris.
"And we didn't see anyone, never mind someone we knew," Mackenzey added.
"Us either," Ruby-Jane said dejectedly.
"No luck?" Hunter asked, as he and Lily appeared.
"Nope," Troy said, shaking her head, "You?"
"No," Lily sighed. "I wonder what made him so upset?"
"Maybe it was just his time of the month?" Hunter suggested, trying to lighten the situation.
A small whisper of laughter went round the group. Moments later James, Peter, Sirius and Frank walked round the corner together.
"No Remus?" Alice asked.
"No," Sirius replied, scanning the group with his eyes for Remus though it was obvious by Alice's question that Remus wasn't there either.
"Is there anywhere we forgot to check?" James asked frantically. Remus was the one who kept cool in situations like these, not James.
"The dorms again?" Chris suggested.
Quickly the twelve piled into the common room and James bounded up the boys staircase. A minute later he came down, shaking his head.
"Okay," Lily said, taking control. "Library?"
"Check," Kerris said.
"Hagrid's Hut?"
"Check," Peter sighed.
"The lake?"
"Again, check,"
"Owlery?"
"Check," Alice said.
"Double check," Mackenzey added.
Lily sighed.
"Kitchens?!" Sirius jumped up from his seat on the sofa, almost punching Lily but for once she didn't seem to mind.
"I didn't even know you knew where they were?" Alice said confused.
"Of course we do!" Sirius exclaimed.
"But why would Remus be there?" Frank asked.
"He wouldn't," Troy replied.
"Why not?" James asked.
"Because he's right there," Troy pointed to Remus who was hovering on the edge of the group.
"Remus!" Peter squeaked.
"Howdy," Remus replied.
"Where have you been?" Sirius demanded.
"Well if James and Pete here had thought to check the common room and not just the dorms, they would have found me sitting by the window doing my Charms essay," Remus commented dryly.
There was a sigh of relief that circled the group.
"And I'm perfectly fine," Remus added, "I just remembered I urgently had to finish my essay,"
As this was a blatant lie nobody believed it, but nobody questioned it either. To be fair if Remus wanted to tell someone what had upset him so, most of them privately thought it wouldn't be to all of his twelve friends.
"Well, I'm glad you're okay, Remus," Troy said sincerely.
"All right, enough sentimentality," Chris said, "Are we doing anything more about the prank?"
"Well, I'm still up for it," Remus said, backed up by Sirius and James' furious nods.
"Okay, well, we need some ideas, and we have less than twenty four hours to perfect it," Peter said.
"Well the majority of us are Gryffindors anyway, so could we just ignore curfew?" Frank asked.
Lily pursed her lips but said nothing.
"I don't see why not," Hunter agreed. "As long as we don't get caught,"
"We won't," Troy was confident. "We know the castle pretty well by now, enough to avoid Filch anyhow,"
"Seeing as there are three groups of us, I doubt more than two of us would get caught anyway," Mackenzey grinned.
"That's settled then,"
"No objections, Evans?" Sirius had evidently seen Lily purse her lips.
"No," she replied tightly, though it cost her everything she had.
"Good," James said. "Moving on, it's time to brainstorm again!"
It was quarter past eleven by the time the first years had finished planning their prank. They had decided to make it a school-wide prank as they thought it would be more entertaining and challenging, and if nothing else, James Potter loved to be seen as impressive.
Several of the older students had told them to go to bed, and a couple of the times they had had to feign going to bed before emerging a safe ten minutes later.
"This is going to be awesome!" Peter exclaimed excitedly.
"Well, we did plan it," James said, modestly.
"Excuse me!" was Lily's response.
"I meant we as in the thirteen of us!" James argued, disbelievingly.
"Sure," Lily snorted.
"Lily," Alice warned.
Lily waved her away.
"Well, night people," Kerris said, standing up and yawning.
"Night," Remus replied, also standing.
There were a series of goodnights and five of the thirteen exited the common room together.
The five had not gone far before Kerris also bid them goodnight and headed in the opposite direction to Ravenclaw Tower.
"Well, that was fun," Mackenzey remarked.
"Which bit?" Ruby-Jane said sarcastically.
Mackenzey laughed. "It was eventful is all I meant,"
"I know," Ruby-Jane smiled back.
"Remus seemed fine," Hunter commented.
"Yeah," Troy was puzzled. "Seems a bit strange to me, to be honest,"
"Shh!" Hunter hissed.
"Wha..?" Mackenzey said, before Hunter yanked her and Troy behind a tapestry, Ruby-Jane not far behind.
Filch came wheezing around the corner, Mrs Norris at his heels, her yellow eyes glinting dangerously in the dark corridor (not that the students could see this).
"We know they're here, don't we?" Filch cooed to his cat. Mrs Norris glared at the tapestry. Filch stepped forward, slowly, reaching for the tapestry, and when his grubby fingers clenched the fabric he wrenched it up so quickly it would have been impossible to hide. But there was no one there.
"We'll find them, won't we, darling?" Filch looked livid, and shuffled off. Mrs Norris gave the tapestry one last glare before stalking off after her master. It seemed she was satisfied there was no one there too.
A minute or two after Filch and Mrs Norris had left the tapestry moved and Hunter tumbled out from it. Troy exited with slightly more grace (she didn't fall over), followed by Mackenzey, who tripped, causing Ruby-Jane to also lose her balance.
"Kenz!" Ruby-Jane whispered angrily.
"Sorry!" Mackenzey whispered back apologetically.
"Come on! We have to go now, in case they come back," Troy said, helping Ruby-Jane up.
Mackenzey scrambled to her feet and they set off quietly, keeping to the shadows and not attempting to start a conversation should they be overheard.
They reached the Entrance Hall and went their separate ways, Troy and Hunter to the dungeons and Ruby-Jane and Mackenzey to the cellar.
They waved each other goodnight, and silently made their way to their common rooms. Both couples were relieved when they both made it to their respective common rooms undetected, and entered the common room, hurrying to the dorm rooms so not to be suspicious.
Lying in her bed Troy thought to herself that almost being caught had been fun, and tomorrow would be great, bringing up a secret hidey hole the Gryffindor trouble makers didn't know about. She grinned. Sirius would not like that.
The next morning the thirteen students were up rather early for a Saturday, some not of their own accord.
Starting in Gryffindor, Alice had woken Lily up at some ungodly hour singing "Happy Halloween, It's time for a scream!"
Lily had stupidly only put a silencing spell on her bed and not Alice so Alice had performed the counter curse. Mary MacDonald had also been awoken by Alice's chanting so eventually she had the sense to silence Alice with a pillow to the face. Alice continued so Lily silenced her with a spell. Rolling over with a sigh, Lily mumbled a thank you to Mary for her effort to help silence their friend, but as she had already been woken up and couldn't get back to sleep she tumbled out of bed, said a brief good morning to a half asleep Mary and dressed quickly, following Alice who had left the room before Lily got out of bed to find someone to remove the spell.
Lily presumed Alice had gone to the boys' dorm, and as little as she wanted to run into Potter, Black and co, she was excited about the prank too, though she'd never admit it. She quickly ran up the boys' staircase and found she was correct in her assumption.
Alice had more than one reason to go up there though. But she discovered upon arrival that her second reason had already been accomplished, by Sirius no less. Of course, she reflected, that wasn't much of a surprise. So instead she waved madly and pointed at her mouth, indicating she couldn't talk.
Eventually both Remus and Frank figured out what she meant and Frank removed the spell.
"Oh, that's what all the waving was about," Sirius said.
"I would have thought you would have figured that out, Sirius, you were doing it yesterday!" Alice exclaimed.
"That was ages ago!" Sirius said.
Alice rolled her eyes as Lily walked in.
"So, you got it removed then?" She grinned at Alice.
"It was you!" Frank said, in mock outrage.
Lily looked confused. "What?"
"Made her come in her at a time too early to even consider getting up at, even on Halloween when we have an excellent prank to be setting up!"
"Riiiggghhhttt,"
"Frank, you know perfectly well we were all up before Alice even came in here, thanks to Sirius!" James glared at his best friend, who shrugged.
Frank looked nonchalant. "Meh,"
"And it's Halloween!" Sirius defended.
"Oh, Merlin," Remus had a thought, "Can you imagine what he's like at Christmas!" His eyes widened in horror.
"You staying for Christmas then, Remus?
"Um," Remus thought about it. There weren't any full moons that week, so he'd be all right. "Yeah, should be."
"Me, too," Peter said, "Mum and dad decided that they'd treat Caden to a Christmas in Switzerland for being the youngest and therefore still being at home when both me and Ruby are here, and Alixx,"
"I don't know what I'm doing," Chris said.
"Me either," Frank said, "I suppose it depends on who else is staying,"
"Christmas here sounds fun," Muggleborn Lily put in, "But I miss my parents…"
"Eh, my parents are having a break from me and my brothers," Alice grinned.
"I miss my parents, too," James added. Some of the group looked surprised he and Lily shared something. "It's weird being an only child with parents a little older and I want to spend time with them,"
Sirius was silent. He didn't offer any explanation, but merely dressed and waited for the others to do the same. He had, however, perked up by the time they got to the Hall for breakfast.
Already sitting at the Gryffindor table were Ruby-Jane, Mackenzey and Kerris, and the Gryffindors took seats around their friends.
Ruby-Jane looked tired. Peter noticed this, and asked "What's up, Rubes?"
"Somebody," she glared at Mackenzey, "woke me up way too early this morning!"
"Same," Peter looked at Sirius.
"Ahh well, you're up now!" Hunter told them, appearing behind Remus.
"Where's Troy?" Ruby-Jane asked, looking around and not seeing her.
"Setting up part one of the prank," Hunter whispered back, trying to be inconspicuous.
"Ahh, good," Ruby-Jane nodded back.
"Does everyone know what they're supposed to be doing?" James asked, hearing what was going on.
"And when?" Remus added.
Most of them nodded, but they still decided after breakfast they would go over the plan one last time.
When Troy arrived her friends filled her in, even though she had already done most of what was planned for her and they all hurried through breakfast, even Lily, and decided the library would be the best place to go as they wouldn't be overheard, especially at this time in the morning when most people were still at breakfast or indeed still in bed.
It was a very good thing, Mackenzey mused, that they usually sat together and hung out together otherwise people might be getting suspicious. She grinned; this was going to be the best Halloween ever!
In the library the students casually made their way to the back, where the librarian couldn't see them from her usual post (determined by Frank, Alice, Lily, Chris, Kerris and Remus' frequent trips to library so they could study in peace), some picking up books that could be used for first year studying (mainly it was the ones who would actually be seen in the library dallying – there's nothing more obviously up than seeing James Potter, Sirius Black, Ruby-Jane and Peter Pettigrew and Hunter Crowley in the library without being forced, especially in the first term of the year).
Eventually all the students made it to the back where they settled comfortably onto chairs and the floor.
"Right, let's go through it one last time," James said.
"The Great Prank," Sirius declared dramatically.
"Yes, The Great Prank…"
I was going to put the prank in this chapter, but then realised it would be a long chapter, and instead I could put the prank into a chapter of its own… :D So yeah, comments?