The Easter Holidays went by quickly. James returned from his parents with a smuggled pouch of floo powder.
"We can do ashwinders next week, but we need to do the finishing touches today," he said.
Today was the last day of March, making tomorrow the first day of April.
April Fools Day would be a day to be feared.
The Marauders swore it.
Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter spent the day explaining their plot for Umbridge to Lily, who had offered to help.
"Can you guys do the language spells yet?" Sirius asked, turning to Lily and Remus. "Did you work on them over break?"
"I did," Lily said. "I stayed and practiced over break, but I didn't practice them on anyone."
"Peter volunteers," Sirius said.
"Peter does not volunteer," Peter said.
"Excellent. Sirius does," Remus said.
"No, I don't!" Sirius protested. "I didn't-"
Remus cast the spell on him.
Sirius fell silent and glared at Remus.
"Are you going to say something or are we waiting for the grass to grow?" Lily asked.
"Dankeschön, Remus," Sirius said sarcastically.
"It worked," James said lightly.
"Is that German?" Peter asked.
"Combien de temps cela dure-t-il?" Sirius asked, this time speaking in French
"Is it supposed to be multiple languages?" James said.
"No, it's only supposed to be one language," Lily said, sighing.
"Er…. About eight hours," Remus said, answering Sirius. "That's what you were asking, right?"
Judging by the way Sirius flopped onto the Common Room sofa, that was exactly what he had asked.
"You know French?" Lily asked.
"Yeah, my mum taught me some before Hogwarts," Remus said distractedly.
They spent the rest of the day setting up their elaborate plan, Sirius commentating the whole time.
Of course, no one understood most of it, so it was pointless.
April first dawned crisp, clear, and mischievous. The Marauders' sort of day.
At breakfast, Dumbledore made to formally welcome back the students who had left for the holidays. Welcoming back was very difficult when he was speaking Estonian.
He stood before the quiet hall with a kind twinkle in his eyes. Then Remus cast the spell.
Dumbledore first spoke in Estonian, then Arabic, and finally, Korean, before he gave up. With the ghost of a smile, he returned to sit at the head table.
That was only the first part.
Then the Slytherins entered the hall.
They were a disgruntled, angry bunch, as their hair had been dyed either in scarlet or gold.
The Great Hall, which had been silent, erupted into hurried whispers.
"That's bloody brilliant, they look stunning," a sixth year Gryffindor whispered.
"Yeah, glad they decided to show us some love," another agreed.
The Marauders smirked. This was only the beginning.
The second part was during Defense Against the Dark Arts.
"Today," Umbridge said, "we will be reviewing our unit from before the-"
A creature materialized from above her, falling into her neatly-combed hair and displacing her bow. It was like a platypus, but black, soft, fast, and smaller.
The niffler sat up as Umbridge gave a shriek of surprise.
The class did one of two things: Sit in quiet shock or leap from their desks.
James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter were openly grinning. Lily's eyes gleamed with satisfaction.
"Get off!" Umbridge shouted at the niffler, which was scurrying around her head. "Get off!"
Remus snorted. "It's a niffler, it won't hurt you, Professor," he called.
"It was you! It was the Marauders!" she yelled as another niffler fell onto her.
"What are you talking about? We aren't the Marauders!" James said.
"Yes, you are! You are the Marauders!" Umbridge screeched.
Another niffler appeared, knocking the others off Umbridge's head.
The first niffler scuttled to Umbridge's desk and began rummaging through its drawers, stuffing anything shiny into the pouch on its stomach.
The second niffler made for the door, which was now open due to the students who had fled.
The niffler was loose in the school.
"At least it's a niffler, I heard that a few years ago Kettleburn lost a chimera,"
Sirius said offhandedly at lunch.
"A chimera?" Peter gasped. "Really? Did they catch it?"
"'Course. Right after it at a kid."
"It didn't eat anyone, Sirius," Remus said.
"Sure about that, Moony?"
"I'm sure. It got a bite of the Giant Squid."
"Really?" Sirius asked sarcastically.
Remus rolled his eyes. "Yes. I'm sure."
"We need to initiate Operation Moving Staircase," James said, interrupting the disagreement. "Lunch ends in twenty minutes."
Operation Moving Staircase was the one they were most excited about. This was one of the plots they hadn't mentioned to Lily. They were determined that every Hogwarts Student and teacher would fall for it.
They were on the seventh floor when the chaos began.
A scarlet-haired Slytherin fell from the ceiling, shouting in surprise. He landed only a few feet from the Marauders, rolling down the stone stairs with a loud thumping noise.
"Ouch," Remus sympathized. "We should have used a cushioning charm."
"Nah," Sirius said.
"Maybe," James said, shrugging, "but it's a bit late. Come on, we have to get to Potions."
The Marauders were the only ones who knew which stairs to skip and which ones to use.
Around them, students randomly shot down through the floor, where they would instanously appear on another staircase. If they weren't falling through the stairs, they were being deposited from staircase they had been on before they took the trick step. This meant that people appeared and disappeared regularly, falling from the ceiling or sinking through the stairs.
The Marauders smirked as they made their way to the Potions room, so far unscathed.
"That was bloody brilliant," Sirius said, grinning.
James made to reply when he was flattened by a Hufflepuff that had fallen from the rafters.
"Sorry," the girl apologized, panting as she stood and helped him up. "All these trick stairs, it's mad."
"Not a problem," James mumbled, rubbing his elbow as she hurried off.
Sirius laughed. "Bloody brilliant," he repeated.
They made it to Potions without any more injuries.
Slughorn was late because of "problems with the staircases."
The boys grinned at this.
When Snape walked into Potions twenty minutes late with a murderous expression, it made their victory even sweeter.
In History of Magic, Binns was oblivious to the confusion. That gave James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter the perfect time to talk.
"So, at dinner, no food fight," Sirius checked.
"Yeah, no food fight. But we are going to do the fireworks, right at the end," James said.
"We have those positioned?" Remus said.
"Yeah, we did that last night while you and Lily found the nifflers," Peter assured him.
The students of Hogwarts were, for the most part, nervous. Who had been behind all of this? Dumbledore's speech problem at breakfast? The nifflers? The stairs? The students reasoned that the Marauders were behind it.
The last time the Marauders had done something big was the food fight. That had been messy.
So, naturally, they were on edge.
Dinner began smoothly. Nothing exploded, nor was food thrown. Gradually, the tension in the room eased.
Then Sirius, James, Peter, and Remus lit the fireworks.
The fireworks threw themselves into the air with bright flourishes, rocketing around the Great Hall like a seeker after the golden snitch. Flashes of red, gold, blue, and white filled the room, giving off loud booms.
For the most part, the occupants of the Great Hall stayed and watched the display. Only a few people left to brave the stairs.
When the fireworks ceased, a final message appeared:
This day was brought to you courtesy of the Marauders.
The message faded into the starry ceiling.
Lily turned to look at them.
"You were behind the staircases?" she asked.
"It was a little gift for Snivellus," Sirius said casually, ready to leave the hall.
"Sev? He has a name, you know," she said. The warning in her voice was clear.
"And the rest of Hogwarts," Remus added. "It was for all of Hogwarts."
"Although seeing Snivellus come in to Potions late looking like he was attacked was worth it," Sirius said quietly.
Lily gave him an angry look and hurried off.
"Look out, that's one's trapped!" James called after her as she began to climb the stairs.
Lily managed the first flight of stairs without any problems.
"Today," Peter decided, "was a success."
"Undoubtedly it was the greatest prank Hogwarts has known to date," Sirius agreed.
"It will be the greatest prank Hogwarts has ever known," James said confidently.
"No. I think we can beat it," Remus said, smirking.
"I dunno, that was pretty big," Peter said.
"Well, why not? Next year will be even better!" Sirius said.
"Of course it will," Remus said. "We are the Marauders, right?"
"Right," James said.
They walked in an excited silence as they made their way back to Gryffindor Tower, where the other Gryffindors were buzzing.
"Did you see the red and gold hair? The Marauders are Gryffindor, I'm sure of it," Alice was saying to Marlene and Lily.
"That was a language spell on Dumbledore. It didn't work, but I'm betting it was a fifth year who did it," a sixth year guessed.
"They should have used a cushioning charm on the stairs, that hurt," a girl grumbled.
"Told you," Remus muttered.
"Yeah, but only after," Peter pointed out.
Remus didn't reply.
"Oi! Lupin, Pettigrew, Black, Potter!" Marlene shouted. "Who do you think these Marauders are?"
The boys turned.
Sirius smirked. "I dunno, but they're bloody brilliant," he said.
"Prewett Twins, maybe?" James offered.
"Er, a sixth year or something?" Remus lied.
"No idea," Peter said.
"They were pretty elaborate today, weren't they?" Marlene commented.
"Murderous is more like it," Lily said.
"Yeah, those stairs. Did any of you fall through?" James asked, coughing to hide his laugh.
"Yeah," Alice said, rubbing her head. "Hit myself pretty hard."
"Same," Marlene said.
"Yes," Lily said shortly.
"Did you?" Alice asked.
"Well, James got nailed by a falling Hufflepuff," Sirius said, "It was great."
"Was not!" James protested.
"Wish I saw that," Lily said.
"Hey!"
The girls, along with Sirius, Remus, and Peter laughed.
"It's not funny!" James argued.
"It was hilarious," Peter assured everyone.
"Well, I'm off to bed. Today was pretty intense, and I need some rest," Marlene said, excusing herself.
"We should probably be going, too," Remus said.
"Bye," Peter said.
"Watch out for any trick stairs," Sirius warned the girls, grinning.
"You put them in the Common Room?" James asked as they walked away.
"No, I'm just freaking them out," Sirius replied.
The boys turned to see the Alice tossing books onto the staircase.
"April Fools!" Sirius called over his shoulder as the boys disappeared into their dorm.