In the next week, there were a total of four pranks 'courtesy of the Marauders.' In reality, the Marauders only pulled one of those.

"Okay, you know the spell?" Remus checked.

"Yeah, animata armis," Sirius said.

"Right, I've got the left side of the hall. Peter, you have the right. Sirius, you and Remus split the back," James said.

"On it, let's go," Sirius said.

"What if Filch comes?" Peter asked nervously.

"I've got the cloak, we'll be alright," James assured him.

In the corridor outside the Great Hall, they got to work.

"Is there a timer on this spell?" Sirius asked.

"No, but they won't move until we give them the signal," Remus said.

"What's the signal," Peter asked.

"I'll show you in the morning, if I do it now they'll wake up."

Fortunately, none of the teachers chose to patrol their corridor. The preparation went without any problems.

The next morning, the Marauders went to breakfast early.

"So how do we wake them up?" Peter asked.

"Like this," Remus said. He walked up to one of the iron suits of armor and gave three quick knocks to its left arm.

The statue gave a silent bow, straightening directly after.

"During Umbridge's classes," Remus instructed, "cause a distraction. Do not let her continue any of her lessons. Leave ten minutes before the end of class and return to your positions. Also, give her this note." He passed a piece of parchment with the signature 'courtesy of the Marauders.'

"That's it?" Sirius said. "That's all?"

"Yeah, come on, we've got a lot of statues to go."

They finished the corridor just in time. James knocked on the last statue right as the first trickle of students began to make their way to the Great Hall.

"We just have to wait until D.A.D.A," Peter said.

"That's hours away," Sirius complained. "How am I supposed to wait that long?"

"Patiently," Remus offered.

"That's impossible," Sirius told him.

"With food," Peter suggested.

"That might work. James, you're carrying everything in your bag."

"Only if I can eat it," James said.

"Alright, fine. Just bring the food."

The food was gone before Charms was over.

"That was supposed to last!" Sirius whined.

"Yeah, but it doesn't last if you eat it all," Remus pointed out.

"You had some, too!"

"Good point."

In Transfiguration, Sirius asked McGonagall if she had any spare biscuits.

"No, Mr. Black, I do not," she said, "However, this is class. Even if I did, food is not allowed in my lessons."

"Please, Minnie?"

"No, now please have a seat, Mr. Black."

At long last, it was time for Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"This'll be brilliant," Peter whispered.

"Did you guys plan something?" Lily asked. She had come up from behind them as they moved to take their seats.

"You'll see," James said with a grin.

"For Umbridge or for the class?"

"Umbridge, of course."

"Hem, hem. Mr. Potter, Ms. Evans, to your seats," Umbridge said. She was again clad in pink, and definitely not in a good mood.

"Well, she's sorted out her clothes," Sirius noted. "I might break into her office, steal that jacket. That would drive her mad, there's no way she'll want to be reminded of that."

"Mr. Black," Umbridge warned. "Raise your hand to speak."

Sirius raised his hand. "Sorry, Professor."

"Detention."

Sirius shrugged silently.

Umbridge gave him a pointed look, then began the lesson. "Today, we will be discussing-"

The classroom door opened with a bang. Six large, shiny suits of armor burst in, drawing swords.

A few people shouted in alarm. This was not something you saw every day, even at Hogwarts.

The knights broke into pairs of two and began to fight and joust between and on the desks.

Umbridge attempted vanishing them, but this was in vain, they only fought more vigorously. She then attempted to hex them. "Immobulus!" The spell rebounded, sending her diving under her desk.

"It worked," Peter whispered excitedly.

"Of course it did," Sirius smirked.

"First tap dancing, then acrobatics, now this!" Umbridge said angrily above the din. "Every single hour!"

"We're doing this again," James decided.

"Maybe we shouldn't be talking about success when she could hear us," Remus said, glancing at Umbridge.

"She won't hear us," Sirius said.

The clanging of metal had grown in volume. It now sounded as though twelve suits of armor fought rather than six.

"Everyone out!" Umbridge called over the noise. She was no longer behind the cover of her desk. "Into the corridor!"

Few people tried to leave their desks; The knights were locked in such intense combat it would be dangerous to cross them.

"This was your idea?" Lily hissed.

"Yes, and it's working," Sirius said happily.

"In case you haven't noticed, we can't leave without being impaled!"

"Not yet," Remus said with a knowing smirk.

"Did you consider the fact that these are actual swords?" Lily demanded. "Someone could get killed!"

"Yes, but only an idiot would try and get up now," Sirius pointed out.

"Only an idiot would try something like this!"

"Thanks, Evans. I'm glad we excel at idiocy."

"Sod off, Black."

"Sure thing."

Ten minutes to the end of class, the room grew quiet.

The knights sheathed their swords and marched single file out of the classroom.

"See, Evans?" Sirius smirked. "Told you it worked."

Lily shot a glare at him and didn't reply.

Umbridge attempted to teach the lesson, but no one was listening.

The Marauders hadn't disbanded. Umbridge's clothes swap and the ashwinders weren't a finale of sorts, they were protests of her requests.

Of course, the clothes swap hadn't been the work of the Marauders, but no one knew that.

At lunch, people speculated who the Marauders were. No one suspected the four second year boys that sat at the center of it.

"It's fun, having a secret identity," said James.

"Yeah, especially because we can get away with stuff," said Sirius. "Like D.A.D.A."

"That went really well. Umbridge wasn't happy," said Remus.

"She didn't stick us in detention, either," said Peter.

"I have it tonight, apparently you can't talk in that class," Sirius pointed out.

"You aren't supposed to talk in any classes," Remus reminded him.

"I was apologizing!"

"Yeah, but Umbridge just wants an excuse to use that quill, she doesn't care that you're apologizing."

"Her and that bloody quill. I should turn in the one I nicked from her."

"To who? Minnie can't give it to Dumbledore, not if you stole it, and Dumbledore will have to return it. You're better off keeping it," James said.

"If she doesn't quit, I'm going to shove one of these quills down her thro- wait. What if we stole all her normal quills? She'd have to use them! And then the teachers, we could have them refuse to lend her theirs and she'd be writing with a blood quill!" Sirius said, the plan beginning to formulate.

"Give her a taste of her own medicine?" Peter asked.

"Yeah, exactly."

"Isn't that a little…." Remus hesitated. "That'd lower us down to her level."

"And unmask her," Sirius said. "Come on, Remus, what's more important, our innocence or ending her reign of tyranny?"

"I think that both of those things are important-"

"You're a Marauder, and Marauders aren't innocent."

"Yes, but we haven't tortured anyone yet."

"Well, how else are we going to get her out of here?"

"Not like that, of course. That's what she would do."

"She doesn't have the brains for this."

"But if she did. If she had the brains and was the one being oppressed and tortured, that's what she would do," Remus argued. "I don't want to be like her. I don't think any of us want to, so we should find another way."

"Like what?" Sirius asked.

"Like we've been doing. Driving her mad."

"I know what we could do!" James exclaimed.

"What?"

"In D.A.D.A, Sirius, you mentioned stealing that jacket. What if we got the school to wear clothes like that, that would remind her of that?"

"That would be great," Sirius said, "except for the fact that we don't have access to any muggle stores."

"If we talk to Minnie, I bet she could help us transfigure our robes to muggle clothes."

"Isn't that against the rules?" Peter asked. "I mean, you have to wear your school robes."

"They would be our school robes, only modified. There's nothing against that in the rules," Remus said.

"Brilliant," Sirius said. "But I still think we should use her quills against her."

"We'll worry about whether or not we do it later. I think that we should start with this, talk to Evans about it, she'll be able to help," James said.

"What if we talked to McGonagall about a 'Muggle Awareness Day'?" Remus suggested. "Then we could wear actual muggle clothes without any risk of trouble."

"That would be a good cover," James agreed.

"I'll talk to McGonagall about it," Remus said.

"I'll go with, Minnie'll do anything for me," Sirius said. "Also, she has biscuits."

"Can't you just get them from the kitchens?" Peter asked.

"Yeah, but we can convince Minnie and get biscuits at the same time. It's a double win."

"You're addicted to those," James said, shaking his head. "If you don't marry Minnie, you'll marry them."

"My heart still belongs to Minnie," Sirius assured him. "Though the biscuits are a close second."

"What about me?"

"You're third."

"Remus and Peter?"

"They're third, too."

"I thought we were friends!"

"We are, but I prefer the biscuits."

"I'm offended, mate. Very offended."

"Brilliant. You be offended, then."