Sirius met the other marauders in the common room around an hour after the last period finished, holding a bottle containing a liquid that looked very similar to what had been in our butterbeer glasses on Saturday.

"Perfect," said James, grinning. "How did you convince Evans to help you?"

"I said it was a prank on you," said Sirius.

"What, and she agreed to help because she thought it was for me?" James said, his grin dropping. Sirius just nodded. "Well, I'm sure that's a sign that she is secretly in love with me..."

"Yeah, maybe..." said Sirius. "Anyway, we should change our alarm to six-thirty in the morning. If breakfast starts at eleven, the food should start coming up around six-thirty, so if we coat their food with the potion before they come, we should be able to get away with it."

"Alright, that's a good plan," said James,

I went to bed half an hour earlier than usual that night, because I was sleep-deprived enough from all the full moons, so even missing out on half an hour of sleep mattered to me.

When we got up the next morning, I still felt tired as hell, so maybe it didn't matter how much sleep I got.

James grabbed his invisibility cloak, then the four of us snuck to the Great Hall, with the voice-changing potion in Sirius's hand.

When we got to the Great Hall, all the bowls and plates were already set out on the tables, but there was no food yet.

"Why don't we just smear it over their bowls?" I suggested, and the other three nodded in agreeance.

"Do you know how long it lasts?" Peter asked Sirius.

"Around a week, although it slowly becomes less intense after a few days," said Sirius. "The only cure is time."

James, Peter, and I all laughed, then approached the teachers' table, and smeared the potion over all the bowls and plates on that table.

Once we were done, we all went back to our dormitory to get ready for the day so it looked like we'd gotten up normally like everyone else.

Soon enough, we were back in the Great Hall, eating our own breakfast, and it was hard not to watch the teachers.

"What have we got first, Moony?" Sirius asked.

I grabbed my timetable from the pocket of my trousers. "Herbology. How do you think Sprout will react?"

"Well, she's head of Hufflepuff, so she'll be patient, but I think she'll be internally really pissed off," said Sirius.

"And then I've got a spare second, then after lunch, Transfiguration and another spare," I said.

"Oh, god, I can't wait to see McGonagall," James snorted.

As soon as the bell rang, Sirius, Peter, and I practically raced to the greenhouses, dying to hear Professor Sprout's new voice.

She came to the greenhouse soon after, her face pink, and let the class in without saying anything. The class sat down and she walked into the storeroom, then dragged out a blackboard on wheels and a piece of chalk, then wrote:

DOING THEORY TODAY. EVERYONE START AN ESSAY ABOUT THE DEVIL'S SNARE, 1000 WORDS MINIMUM. IF NOT DONE BY THE END OF THE LESSON, WILL BE HOMEWORK.

"Ugh, seriously?" Sirius muttered. "Come on, I want to hear her speak."

"I'll try and get her to speak," I whispered, then raised my hand.

Professor Sprout nodded to me, an acknowledgement that I could say whatever I needed to say.

"I can't really read what you wrote sorry, Professor," I said, even though I could read it clearly.

She opened her mouth, then closed it again and motioned for me to come up to the board. Once I was right in front of it, she pointed to her writing.

"Oh, OK... thank you," I said, then returned to my seat.

"Are you alright, Professor?" Sirius asked, and Professor Sprout just nodded, then pointed at Sirius's paper.

"Well, that was crap," said Peter as we walked out of the Greenhouse.

"She's clearly embarrassed about the way her voice sounds," said Sirius, sighing.

"Or maybe she knows it was us and she doesn't want to give us the satisfaction of hearing what our potion did," I said.

"Oh, yeah, that's a good point," said Sirius. "Anyway, I gotta go to History of Magic. See you guys at lunch."

At lunch, Sirius and James told Peter and I that History of Magic had been another disappointment, as Professor Binns didn't eat any breakfast because he was dead and didn't eat at all.

"Do you reckon the Potion would have worked on him even if he did take it, though?" I wondered aloud.

"I don't know, I don't think he's capable of consuming anything," said Sirius.

"It'd probably just fall right through him," said James, sniggering, and looking up at the teachers' table. The teachers were all talking quietly amongst themselves and looking around at the students. "Do you guys think they know it was us?"

"They can't know for sure, but they probably suspect us," I said, looking at the teachers' table. Professor McGonagall was glaring at us. "They definitely suspect us."

"Well, with these sorts of things... it always does seem to be us, doesn't it?" said Peter. "And stop looking at them. They'll definitely know it was us if you stare."

"Wormtail's right," said James, tearing his gaze away from the teacher's table and back to his half-eaten sandwich.

As James, Sirius, and I made our way to the Transfiguration, it was hard to keep our excitement down. We'd spent the rest of lunch betting on how Professor McGonagall was going to react, but still, none of us knew what to expect.

Professor McGonagall approached her classroom a minute after we arrived, her lips thin as she pulled out her wand to unlock the classroom door and let us all in.

We all filed into the classroom and stood behind our desks as she stared at us all in a terrifying silence.

But the silence didn't last long, because she soon said, "You may all take a seat."

I had to bite the inside of my gum to stop myself from laughing out loud, and from one glance at Sirius and James, I could tell that they were both in the same situation.

It didn't sound like I'd expected, but it still sounded hilarious. It's hard to describe, but if you've ever heard someone's voice after they breathe in helium, it sounded like that, but a lot higher, and also sort of like a toddler.

McGonagall's reaction to it was to act completely unbothered. She clearly was not going to let her voice sounding weird get in the way of her teaching, unlike so many other teachers would.

At the end of the lesson, Lily pulled James, Sirius, and I aside to confront us about McGonagall's voice.

"You used that potion we made, didn't you?" she said to Sirius, who nodded sheepishly.

"God, I can't believe I trusted you..." she said.

"You're not going to snitch, are you?" James asked.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Come on, we're not in first year. Just, when the teachers find out, don't tell them I was involved."

"Whoever said the teachers will ever find out?" James asked, messing up his hair.

"Come on, Potter, they always find out," said Lily.

"Yes, we won't tell them," said Sirius, glancing at James. "We should go, Prongs, we have a muggle studies class to get to. See you, Moony."

Sirius took James's shoulders and guided him away from Lily and I before he could once again embarrass himself in front of Lily.

"Some of the pranks you lot do are really stupid, you know," Lily said to me, as she turned to walk to the common room.

"Yeah, I know," I said, laughing, and then I walked with her.

The teachers found out, of course, just like they always did, and all four of us marauders had to write lines for three hours straight.

But after that, September flew by in what seemed like just a few days. As October arrived, it began to get chillier, and the other marauders and I were spending less time outside and more time in the castle.

But of course, James continued with his ridiculous amount of Quidditch practices, and I felt sorry for the rest of the team, who had to spend countless hours flying through the autumn wind.

Peter seemed to agree with me, because he said, "Honestly, now I'm glad that he didn't put me on the team", as the entire team came back into the common room on the first Saturday afternoon of October, all shivering and dripping wet from the rain.

"Potter has completely lost the plot," I heard Marlene mutter to Dorcas.

Even Sirius seemed to agree, but of course, he would never say a word against James, so he continued to defend his friend.

"We're not going to win if we don't practice," he said to Marlene after hearing her speak to Dorcas. "Plus, it's your last year. Don't you want to win in your last year?"

"Of course I want to win in my last year," said Marlene, through gritted teeth. "But I don't want to spend my entire last year practicing."

And the argument stopped there.

The full moon was the next Friday night, and the other marauders (well, James and Sirius, with Peter not too sure) really wanted to go to the forbidden forest in their Animagus forms, with me in my werewolf form, and they wouldn't stop begging me all day.

"I just don't think it's safe," I hissed during lunch. "You said there won't be anyone in the forest, but what if there is? What if there is, and I hurt them? Or turn them into a... a you know what?"

"We'll be there," said Sirius. "If we can keep you under control in the shack, we can keep you under control in the forbidden forest. Plus, the chances of a human being in the forest are slim to absolute zero."

"But even if I wasn't a danger, last time we went to the forest it was really dangerous. Like, James got hurt by a giant spider dangerous."

"I'm still alive, though, aren't I?" said James. "Plus, surely as a stag, no spider would dare attack me. And I can just hit it with my antlers if it does try."

"And I'll be fine because I have sharp teeth, and you have sharp teeth as well, and Wormtail can easily hide," said Sirius.

"Maybe Moony's right," said Peter. "It might be too dangerous..."

"Thank you!" I said at the same time as James cried, "Peter!"

"Come on, Moony," said Sirius. "Just this once, and if something goes wrong we'll never leave the shack again. And all the blame will be on us."

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Pleeeeeeeeeeease?"

"Padfoot, stop it," I said, standing up because the bell was ringing. "I'm not changing my mind."

"It will be fun. C'mon, we're not going to be at Hogwarts forever. We've got to make the most of it. The forest is a huge part of the school that we've barely seen!" said Sirius, squeezing my hand under the table.

I sighed. He wasn't going to stop begging me. "Fine. But I swear to god, nothing better go wrong."

"It won't, I promise," said Sirius, squeezing my hand again. "Thank you for trusting us, Moony."