Subject: Music History Option 1
Prompt: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
Event: Uneven Bars
Mount: Object - Music Clock (0.2); Pirouettes: Action - Staying Silent (0.3), Action - An argument (0.5), Action - Using a Muggle device (0.4); Release Elements: Word - Heist (0.6), Word - Jewel (0.5); Transitions: Dialogue - "Well, this is a nice change of scenery." / "It's a prison cell." / "I was being sarcastic." (0.5), Dialogue - "What on earth are you doing?" / "Nothing… just livin' on the edge." (0.5), Dialogue - "What does the little blinking light mean?" / "It means… wait, blinking?" (0.5); Dismount: (Scenario) Being caught in the act (0.5)
Chocolate Frog: Gold – James Potter – Challenge – Write about James Potter
Word Count: 2590
The Heist
"And I'm hungry like the wooooolf."
"Moony, would you shut that infernal clock up," James snapped, rubbing his temples as he looked up from the blueprints in front of him. "It's breaking my concentration."
"Lighten up, James," Sirius said, clapping him on the back. "I don't even know why you're going over those plans again. We know every inch of the place. We know where every alarm is. And if, for some inexplicable reason we've missed something, we have Remus on the outside to take care of it."
Sirius smiled at the brains of the operation and gave him a cheeky wink.
"Guys, I still think we need another person," Remus said uncertainly from the other side of the room where he was turning off his musical wolf clock.
"Remus, we are The Marauders," James told him with a look of bewilderment on his face. "We are more than capable of pulling this heist off on our own. Remember golden rule number one: no outsiders. It was the one and only thing we could agree on when we got together, and I'm not about to allow it to be broken because you think we need another person. We go tomorrow as planned."
James rolled up the blueprints on the table and gave his friends a pointed look.
"I suggest you boys get an early night too; we have lots to do tomorrow morning," James said with a smile. "And that means no funny business. I can hear you both through the walls you know, and I'd rather not hear 'Oh Sirius, you are a big boy' all night long."
"You're only jealous you're not getting any," Remus retorted.
""My boy's got a point, James," Sirius agreed, grabbing Remus' arse. "You keep crashing and burning with the 'Flaming Doe'; it's time to give up and move onto some other talent out there."
"Hey, what we have is special," James said in mock offence. "She's just playing hard to get."
"Nah mate, she's just not that into you," Remus told him whilst his boyfriend nodded his head in agreement.
James shot daggers at the pair as he walked backwards towards the door.
"One day you'll see I was right and I will take great pleasure in telling you I told you so," he said opening the door. "And when we have children, our babies will be smart and beautiful."
"Not to mention imaginary," snorted Sirius.
James gave them one parting glare before exiting the dining room and going up to his bedroom, his mind full of images of the beautiful masked woman with the red hair who had beaten them to their most recent score.
~o~o~o~
"Here, take one of these," Remus said, opening a small plastic box and offering it to James.
"What are these?" James asked, picking up the unfamiliar, circular buds and twirling it around between his forefinger and thumb.
"They're comms, you idiot," Sirius laughed. "You know for a 'leader' you really are quite thick sometimes. Maybe it's time we held a leadership vote?"
"Really? Now? When we're about to pull off probably the biggest job of our lives," Remus said, handing Sirius a comm.
"You're right, darling," Sirius whispered huskily, placing the comm into his ear. "But as soon as this is over, I do think we need to have a vote on whether this one should be our leader if he doesn't even know what a comm is."
"Hey, I know what a comm is," James retorted, defensively. "What I meant was why do we need them? We never used them before."
"Because, this time I'm staying on the outside," Remus explained. "How else am I supposed to communicate with you?"
He raised an eyebrow at James and smiled when his friend struggled to form a response.
"Excellent, so do you want to have a look at the animation I whipped up of how you will progress through the building?" Remus asked.
"Absolutely," the two men chimed.
"Well come and have a look then," Remus said, beckoning them to huddle around him in the fairly spacious van.
Remus talked his friends through where they would be entering the museum from and how long they would have at each 'checkpoint' before the alarms would sound. It was all very technical and the other two Marauders were impressed with what he had managed to whip up over the course of the morning.
It was times like these when it felt as though Remus was really holding back a lot of his talents.
~o~o~o~
"Okay, you should see a red door coming up on your right," Remus told them via the comms. "Stop there and it will be unlocked in a few moments."
James and Sirius continued to walk down the endless corridor towards and came to the door that would lead to the jewel; they could hear Remus tapping furiously on the keys inputting all the data necessary to confuse the security system.
"This is always the worst part," muttered Sirius under his breath.
"What is?" James asked.
"The waiting," he answered. " Don't get me wrong, I have complete faith in my guy, but there's just something about waiting for the little red light to turn green that gets me every time."
"Yeah, I know what you mean," James said, looking up at the balcony longingly.
"Don't tell me you're looking for your one true love?" Sirius laughed, noticing James' attention was elsewhere.
"What, no, of course not," James protested. "That would be so stupid."
"He totally was Pads," Remus chirped in as the light on the keypad turned green. "Make your way in lads and try not to make a mess like last time."
"Hey, that one was all James," Sirius whispered. "He got all gooey eyed and distracted."
"Did not."
"Did too."
"Stop bickering. It was both of you," Remus snapped, getting impatient. "Now get in there before I have to reset the alarm, again."
"Yes Sir," James said, saluting the nearby security camera that was being monitored by Remus.
"Moony, I have to say I love this dominant side of you," Sirius said, pushing open the red door. "Maybe next time we role-play, you can be the master and I can be your helpless captive?"
James snorted. "Like that would ever happen."
"You took the words right out of my mouth, Prongs," Remus said, before bringing the conversation back to the matter at hand. "Okay guys, this is where it gets serious. You want to follow the room around until you are directly opposite the door. Make sure you keep to the railing though; remember there are hidden laser beams around the place, and I can only switch them off once, so don't make me do that before you're going for the diamond."
"Roger that, handsome," Sirius whispered, moving closer to the railing and leading James around the perimeter of the display room.
"Beautiful isn't she?" James mused.
"Are you talking about your non-existent Mrs again?" Sirius asked, rolling his eyes.
"No, I'm talking about the Lovegood diamond, you idiot," James retorted, reaching forward and clipping his friend on the back of his head.
"Sure, and oww, that hurt," Sirius whined, rubbing the back of his head.
"Guys, how many times?" Remus hissed. "Cut it out. I can't focus on these lasers with you two constantly being asshats."
"You could do that in your sleep," James told him.
"Not with you two constantly at it," Remus retorted. "Remember what nearly happened at the last heist? If the 'Flaming Doe' hadn't shown up when she did, we would have been done for. So here's what's going to happen now; James you are going to shut up about her, Sirius you are going to stop winding him up, and I am going to turn those lasers off in 5... 4… 3… 2… 1…"
The red lasers flickered in front of James and Sirius' eyes before completely disappearing from view.
"Alright boys, you have exactly two minutes to grab the diamond and get out before the lasers come back on," Remus informed them as they made their way towards the centre of the room. "You don't want to get caught between them because neither of you are the most flexible of people—I still haven't forgotten your humiliating attempts at limbo last year."
"But you've seen how flexible I am between the sheets!" Sirius retorted, leading James across the now laser free floor.
"Uggh!" James exclaimed, wishing the ground would swallow him whole. "I really don't want to know about your bedroom antics; I hear enough of them in the middle of the night."
Blocking out the continuing back and forth between Sirius and Remus, James circled the enclosed diamond.
There was no clear way to remove the casing, which left them only one option.
"What are you doing?" Sirius asked, noticing what James was about to do.
"Nothing… just livin' on the edge."
James drew his arm across his body and pulled it quickly back the way in came.
"Prongs, no."
His elbow made contact with the glass and shattered it to pieces, and James heard a small groan before his comm went dead. One glance at Sirius' face told him that the same had happened to him as well. They were on their own now.
"What does the little blinking light mean?" Sirius asked as James reached forward and grabbed the Lovegood diamond.
"It means… wait, blinking?" James asked bemused. "Run!"
The duo barely had time to move two paces before a huge metal cage came flying down from the ceiling about them, encasing them in the middle of the room.
"Caught in the act," a voice whispered.
James and Sirius' heads snapped towards the direction of the voice and became blinded by the beam of light coming from a flashlight.
"Let's see how the infamous Marauders fair in a prison cell," he said with a smirk. "And you can put that diamond back where you got it from."
The trapped duo exchanged looks, their expressions mirroring each other completely.
"We're screwed," they both said in unison.
~o~o~o~
"Well, this is a nice change of scenery," Sirius said, leaning back against the cold, bland wall, and placing his arms behind his head.
"It's a prison cell," James answered dryly, raising his eyebrows at his friend.
"I was being sarcastic, Prongs," Sirius told him. "And besides, we wouldn't be here if you hadn't been too eager to get your hands on the Lovegood diamond."
"You're say this is my fault?"
"Yes, yes I am."
"Well, maybe if you and Moony hadn't been so busy flirting, I wouldn't have had to act so rashly."
"Rashly? You smashed the case to smithereens, tripped an alarm and got us banged up," Sirius raved, standing up and moving closer to James. "I'd say you did a little more than act rashly."
The sound of metal clinking halted their bickering as they snapped their heads towards the door of the cell.
"Count yourselves lucky boys," the approaching man said. "You've just been granted temporary bail until a hearing next week. Do you think you can keep yourselves out of trouble until then?"
The confined duo nodded their heads respectfully, just as someone else appeared behind the guard.
"Don't worry; I'll keep them out of mischief."
"Remus," they said in unison as the tall form of the speaker came into full view.
~o~o~o~
The journey to the van was a quiet one. Neither of the three Marauders had much to say.
James and Sirius were bitterly disappointed by the loss of their golden opportunity to seize the Lovegood diamond and really make a name for themselves, whilst Remus was fought the urge to tell them, 'I told you so'.
"Rem, I'm sorry," James whispered quietly, breaking the stony silence. "It's all my fault."
"No it isn't, Prongs," Sirius refuted. "It's mine. I should have kept a lid on my lust. A vital job is not the time or the place, and because of me we don't have the Lovegood diamond."
Remus turned to face them as they reached the van.
"Are you quite done blaming yourselves?" he asked. "Because I think you'll find that the heist was a complete success."
"What?" James and Sirius asked in unison, exchanging confused looks.
"I said, the heist was a success," Remus repeated.
"No it wasn't," James said. "In case you missed it, we didn't get the diamond."
Remus raised his eyebrows at his two best friends.
"You might not have, but he did," Remus said, nodding his head to the approaching person.
James and Sirius whipped around to look at the man Remus was indicating towards.
"Him?"
"What?"
"The security guard?"
"Allow me to explain," Remus said, opening the door and climbing into the van.
James and Sirius hopped in after Remus closely followed by the security guard who they were eyeing with a great deal of suspicion, and sat down in the chairs they kept in there.
"First of all, let me introduce you to Peter Pettigrew," Remus said, pointing to the man who had busted them.
Peter gave the duo a shy wave. "Hi guys."
"Peter, why don't you show the boys what you brought for us?" Remus suggested when the other two men made no move to greet him.
James and Sirius watched carefully as Peter placed his hand into his pocket, rooted around for a moment and pulled out the Lovegood diamond.
"What?"
"How?"
"Guys, you were so dead against bringing in another member to our crew," Remus reminded them. "I knew you would never agree to it, so I took matters into my own hands. And after what happened tonight, I think I was right to do so, wouldn't you agree?"
James and Sirius looked down at the ground, knowing full well that Remus had a point.
"Yes," they both said.
"So, would you like to see what you missed?" Remus asked, beckoning them to gather around his computer.
"Absolutely!" they said, jumping up from their seats.
The foursome watched the footage of James and Sirius being carted away in handcuffs, and how Peter used some sleight of hand movements to take the diamond from the broken glass case and place it in his pocket.
"Nice one, Peter," Sirius declared, slapping the newest member of their crew on the back.
"And you know what the best thing is," Remus said once the video finished playing.
"What?" Sirius asked
"They'll be dropping the charges against the pair of you within the next twenty four hours."
"But why?" questioned James. "Why would they do something like that?"
"Because," Remus laughed. "I've wiped any and all footage from their systems, and without their star witness, who incidentally doesn't work at the museum, they'll have no case."
"But the diamond has still been stolen," James stated, feeling rather confused.
He glanced over at Sirius who mirrored his expression completely.
"Has it?" Remus asked, zooming in on the diamond which was still exactly where they left it. "What you're seeing now is an exact replica created by Peter."
"Genius Remus, you absolute genius!" James said, ruffling his friend's hair. "And Peter, excellent job, mate. Welcome to the crew!"
"Yeah, Peter, welcome to the crew," Sirius echoed. "Now, I'm in the mood to celebrate. Shall we get out of here and go to the pub?"
The rest of the group nodded their heads in agreement, and Sirius jumped through to the driver's seat to drive them to their favourite ale house.
It was the beginning of a beautiful new partnership.
