Umbridge had no way to prove that the Marauders had been behind the snakes, but rumors flooded through the school.
"It's those Marauder people," a Ravenclaw third year whispered.
"Whoever did that must really hate Umbridge," one of the first year Slytherins commented.
"Umbridge was terrified," snickered a Hufflepuff.
"Glad the snake wasn't in our common room."
"Wish I had thought of that."
"That was the funniest thing I've ever seen."
"You put a snake in her office?" Lily demanded at lunch the next day.
"Who said we did it?" Sirius asked.
"The whole school is talking about the Marauders. That's you guys," Lily said.
"Was there anything that specifically said it was from the Marauders?" James asked.
Lily gave a huff. "No, but-"
"Then it's settled. There is no proof that the Marauders did it," Remus said.
"I thought you were on my side!" Lily said.
Remus shrugged. "The facts don't point that way."
"Well, you can at least admit that a snake was a bit much."
"It was surprising, to say the least."
"It was mad!"
"It's not like she didn't deserve it," Sirius said coolly.
Lily didn't argue any further.
"Anyway, we need to do something soon," she said after a minute.
"Like what?" James asked.
"I don't know, you're the pranksters around here!"
"No one said we were good pranksters."
"Of course you are, you're brilliant! You were the ones who did the teacups! If you could come up with another brilliant idea like that, that would be appreciated," Lily said fiercely.
Peter's jaw dropped. "Did you just call James brilliant?"
"Potter is not- he's not- I wasn't saying-" Lily groaned.
"Thanks, Evans," James said happily.
"Like Dumbledore said, there's hope," Sirius announced.
"Dumbledore?" Lily asked. "What does he have to do with this?"
"Oh, nothing," Sirius said, winking at her.
"I don't like the sound of that. I'm leaving," Lily said. With that, she stood and marched out of the hall.
"Someday," James said.
"Good luck," Remus told him.
"I won't need luck," James said.
"Yes, you will," Sirius said.
They spent History of Magic planning their next prank.
"We should set a niffler loose in her class," Peter suggested.
"No, it's got to be exciting," Sirius said.
"What about slipping something into her tea?"
"We'd get in a lot of trouble if they caught us," Remus said.
"Okay, well, what if we pushed her into the lake?"
"That wouldn't work."
"We could transfigure her into a poisonous dart frog," James offered.
"Yes," Sirius said, grinning.
"No," Peter and Remus said at the same time.
"Oh, come on. You guys are so boring," Sirius complained.
"Putting flamingo feathers in the Slytherin Common Room is boring?" Peter asked.
"No, but turning Umbridge into a poisonous dart frog would be incredibly entertaining," Sirius said earnestly.
"Yeah, but we'd get expelled if we got caught," Peter said.
"What if we didn't get caught?"
"We'd get caught," Remus assured them.
"Well, then what else can we do?" James asked.
"We could try to class early and teach the lesson," Sirius said. "That would drive her mad."
"Is there anything else we can do?" Remus asked.
"Not unless you have any ideas," Sirius said.
Umbridge did not show up to her next Defense Against the Dark Arts class.
"So," Sirius said, striding to the front of the room, "I will be your teacher for today, and you will call me Professor Black."
The other students appeared quite confused.
"You aren't a teacher, Black!" one of the older Gryffindor boys yelled.
"That will be a detention, Prewett."
"You can't give detentions!"
Sirius waved him off. "I'm the teacher, of course I can. Anyway, my assistant teacher will be Mr. James Potter, who will be helping me with today's demonstration."
James waved and went to join Sirius.
"Now, please pair up. There's a spell that we'll be practicing. I want you to repeat after me-"
The door flew open as Umbridge stormed into the classroom.
"Mr. Black and Mr. Potter!" she shrieked. "You dare lock me in my office so that you could perform this- this spectacle!"
"You locked her in your office?" Remus yelped.
"I'm sorry, but there's a lesson going on. You're going to have to save your complaints until after class," Sirius said.
Umbridge paid him no heed. She was beside herself. "Detentions to both of you! Get out of here and report to Professor McGonagall!"
The class was starting to giggle. Umbridge's anger was almost comical.
"Detentions to all of you!" Umbridge screamed. "I will not have you disrespecting me!"
About half of the class had stopped laughing and were looking quite serious. Peter, Remus, and the rest of the class was still chuckling.
Sirius and James roared with laughter, louder than anyone. About half of the noise in the room came from them, which was quite a bit of noise.
The volume of the laughter must have shocked Umbridge considerably, because she had no scathingly sweet remark at first. Then, she seemed to come to her senses.
"Mr. Black, Mr. Potter, Mr. Lupin, Mr. Pettigrew, Ms. Evans, Ms. Micinnon! Tonight at five! Mr. Prewett, Mr. Prewett, Mr. Longbottom, Ms. Smith, Ms. Johnson, Ms. Newton! Six! Ms. Finley, Mr. Wills, Mr. Argent, Ms. Lews, Ms. Denver, Ms. Edwards! Seven!" she screamed over the din. "My office!"
"We'll be there," Sirius wheezed.
Umbridge continued to call out names, days, and times. It took nearly the whole class to assign detentions to the class between the chaos and her rapidly decreasing voice.
When at last the bell rang, the class lept from their seats and rushed onto lunch.
"This may seem controversial, but I think that went well," Sirius said.
"It was worth it, the look on her face was priceless," Peter said admiringly.
"I wish we had a camera, that would have been perfect," James said.
"You locked her door?" Remus asked them.
"Yeah, but what harm did it do?" Sirius admitted.
"She gave the whole class detentions," Remus said.
"I'm not complaining, that was worth the trouble," James said.
"Well, some of us are trying not to get expelled."
"Dumbledore wouldn't expel anyone, everyone knows that," Peter said, shrugging.
"Still, that was the stupidest idea you've had in weeks," Remus argued.
"Then the stupidest ideas are the best," Sirius said happily.