Mischief Managed Chapter 9, a harry potter fanfic

Disclaimer: My name is JKR and I'm a fan fiction author… now hands up if any of u actually believed it? That's what I thought…

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Chapter Nine: Halloween (A.K.A. In which the Marauders get in deep over their heads)

While James may have decided there was nothing wrong with growing up, he also found that there seemed to be nothing wrong with having fun sometimes, too. And this is how he came to the conclusion, on a rainy Monday afternoon, the day before Halloween, that Sirius may have had the right hand of it when he suggested a simple solution to all James' problems with Lily.

"It's really simple," Sirius explained easily, a slow, confident grin stretching across his face.

A deep worry line creased Remus' forehead, and it wasn't because the details of Advanced Self Defense Spells particularly concerned him.

"Nothing is ever simple when it comes to you, Padfoot," he murmured.

James shrugged easily, grinning. "Perhaps not, but Sirius happens to be the second most brilliant student in this place. He can't go too far wrong, can you, Padfoot?"

Sirius scowled. "Second?" he complained, sweeping his fringe out of his eyes.

"Your idea?" James pressed, keen to avoid one of Sirius' ego trips.

"Right," the smile returned. "Well, like I said, its simply a matter of transferring Lily's affections from Scummy to you."

"Brilliant!" Peter clapped energetically as Sirius took a mock bow.

James' frown rivaled Remus'.

"All right," he murmured slowly, mulling it over. "But how?"

"A transference spell, of course," Sirius replied, offended that James hadn't really taken to his idea.

"So it's really just a matter of kidnapping Scummy, and performing the spell?"

Sirius beamed. "Exactly."

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It was Halloween – a fact that did not bode well with Remus. In fact, he couldn't help feeling that attempting something as stupid as this seemed, on Halloween, was begging for trouble. Nevertheless, after the annual Halloween Feast, the Marauders hung back as the rest of the school wandered up the marble staircase, their stomachs full.

Sirius, whose appetite was insatiable, continued to eat as the other boys sat around watching him. James kept flickering his eyes toward his watch, a subtle plea for Sirius to hurry up. He appeared, however, to be in no hurry, and as they trouped out of the Great Hall, James was alarmed to discover that it was already 7.30pm.

Sirius appeared oblivious. Pulling out the Marauder's map, he lit his wand with a muttered lumos. It lit his face from below, making him seem even more foreboding.

"Come out, come out, where ever you are!"

"I feel I need to tell you that I want no part in this. I don't like it one bit," Remus announced warily.

"Then why did you come?" Peter asked, confused.

Remus rolled his eyes. "Well someone needs to keep an eye on you lot."

James shushed them impatiently.

The Marauders were huddled beneath the invisibility cloak, behind the statue that stood along the corridor from the Carved Witch. According to the Map, Art was inside with Lily, and (again according to Sirius) it was simply a matter of waiting for him to come out.

"James," Remus ventured, two hours later. "Maybe you should kick him out?"

Sirius shot Remus a silencing glare. Sirius couldn't understand Remus' apprehension at all. Why, it was Sirius, Sirius (!) who had planned the entire thing. Sirius tossed his hair, making it fan out across his face in (if he did think so himself) a rather handsomely rugged way. Someone coughed, and Sirius turned around to glare at his three friends, who were all trying very hard not to laugh, and as a result were rather red in the face.

James allowed himself to crack a rueful grin as Sirius turned back around. As far as James could remember, Sirius didn't even approve of James' crush on Lily, and yet here they were, cramped beneath the cloak waiting to effectively kill Lily's relationship. Sirius, as always, was full of surprises. James shot Remus a furtive glance. He was looking rather pale again, which couldn't be good. It wasn't the full moon for at least another half a month, which meant that Remus must actually be ill… or rather… James sighed audibly, causing Sirius to shush him again. Peter's wand was casting a soft, opalescent glow over the four boys beneath the cloak. Well, at least he isn't sick, James thought, before suggesting that Peter might like to douse the light.

Lily watched Art talking animatedly from the lounge beside her, and inwardly sighed. He had been talking for three hours. Three! No matter how much she tried, she would never be as interested in Quidditch as Art seemed to be – or rather, in Ravenclaw's Quidditch prowess. Being a Gryffindor, Lily was diametrically opposed to appreciating Ravenclaw's Quidditch skill – or, in her opinion, their lack of skill.

And this was probably quite accurate. No matter how much Art boasted about his talent on the broomstick, the sad truth was that Art really wasn't that good, especially if Lily compared him to the Gryffindor team (which she was). James Potter, although it rued Lily to say so, was quite possibly the best flyer Hogwarts had seen in many years, not to mention a great skill with the Quaffle. At least that's what Professor McGonagall had said once. And he was not the only talent. Emmy was a natural on a broomstick herself, and was particularly adept at weaving. Sirius had not only skill on the broomstick but a fantastic eye as a Beater, and a very clever grip at tactics, which is why McGonagall had appointed him as Captain last year. The rest of the team were good, but these three were truly the best, and the best at a level that Art, or for that matter any of the Ravenclaws, could not compete.

Lily was bored out of her brain, to have been thinking about Quidditch.

At that moment, mercifully, the Carved Witch opened to admit one Head Boy. He wandered into the room with a casual air that Lily had to admire. Art had stopped talking the moment that James had entered, and was looking at the tall young man with every sign of great dislike. It was looking like he may have headed straight upstairs, but it seemed that he caught the pleading in her eyes.

"Er – excuse me," James began awkwardly. "Sorry Scamander, but I have important things to discuss with Evans. Head stuff. You understand, of course?"

Art might have spluttered, but thankfully he was more dignified than that. Instead, he allowed himself to peer suspiciously between the two Head Students before scowling.

"I suppose I'll see you later, Lily," Art told her ungraciously, before standing and letting himself out.

Lily turned to James expectantly, and he grinned at her. "You looked like you needed rescuing,' he told her kindly.

Lily looked at him in surprise. "Oh!" she murmured, looking a tad guilty. "Thanks, I guess. There was something you wanted to discuss, though, wasn't there?"

James laughed and shook his head. "No, not really actually!" he paused, and Lily looked at him expectantly. In truth, now his mission to extract Scummy had been completed, James was trying to work out how to make his impending hasty exit less inconspicuous. Suddenly, it hit him.

"-Er, I'm just going to get a book and get back to the library. I'm… studying with Remus."

Lily beamed, and James was relieved to discover that this had been the right answer.

"I'm so glad you're finally taking your study seriously, Potter," she told him warmly. "Now if only you could teach Black to apply himself-"

James headed up to his room, chuckling. "That's wishful thinking!" he called down, and grabbing the closest book (his Potions textbook) James was pleased to hear her laugh in reply.

"Well, Potter, you've inspired me," Lily announced as he made his way back downstairs. "I should get some work done too. Maybe I'll see you in the library in a bit?"

James emerged from the Carved Witch and looked around quickly for his friends. Peter was waiting by the statue, hands stuffed into his pockets in what appeared to be an imitation of Sirius' casualness.

"What took you so long?" he asked conversationally, frowning as he watched James stash his Potions book behind the statue.

"Had a chat with Lily," he murmured in reply, clapping Peter on the shoulder. "Thanks for waiting, Wormtail."

Peter grinned. "That's ok, Prongs. Sirius stunned Scummy and they put him under the invisibility cloak. Remus was levitating him out, and I thought I'd wait for you, just in case I got in the way."

Peter looked a little sad at his last admonition, and James could not help but feel pity for the stocky boy.

"You, get in the way?" he responded lightly, as they began their way up to the Room of Requirement. "Now whoever gave you that idea surely wasn't serious."

"No," Peter responded glumly. "In fact, it was Sirius."

"Sirius was probably in one of his moods," James told him bracingly, making a mental note to have a chat to his best friend about this. There were times when James became extremely concerned about Peter's self esteem, and this was one of them.

"Sirius is always in a mood," Peter mumbled. "He has been ever since you moved into the Head's Tower."

James didn't really know how to respond to this piece of information, and so they continued to walk in silence. He supposed he had, in a way, split up the Marauders when they had never been separated before. Suddenly, James felt terribly guilty, but as they had arrived at the door to the Room of Requirement, he forced this guilt down with a ruffle of his hair.

"Oh good!" Sirius beckoned James forward toward two tables. Scummy was laid out upon one of them, looking very much unconscious.

"You lie on that one," Sirius ordered, efficiently.

"This reminds me a little too much of Frankenstein," James muttered darkly before complying. Remus appeared above him, looking sympathetic. "Sorry, Prongs. Padfoot did the walking and thinking. I was levitating Scummy."

"I was just getting into the holiday spirit!" Sirius replied, affronted.

James shrugged, smiling lopsidedly. "Oh well, all serves a purpose, I suppose."

However, as Sirius had just appeared above him, having handed Peter and Remus white lab coats and having already donned his own, James could not shake the ominous feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"Remind me what you're doing, again?" he asked weakly.

Sirius cleared his throat. "We are transferring Lily's affections from Scummy to you, Prongs. Are you ready?" he asked in a scarily kind, patronizing voice.

James gulped and nodded.

"Prongs! Prongs! Wake up, come on, that's right, open your eyes!"

"Hey guys, Scummy's waking up!" Peter's voice sounded, to James much closer.

Rubbing his eyes, he sat up slowly and looked at his gawping friends.

"So, do you think it worked?" he asked conversationally. That is when he noticed both Remus and Sirius were pointing their wands at him.

"What's going on, Moony?" James appealed to his reasonable friend, whose eyes widened in shock.

"How – how do you know my nick name?" Remus breathed, looking like an animal caught in the wand light of a hunter.

James' hand gestured lazily. "Well obviously, Moony, you're a werewolf and we all go running about in the forest once a month," he replied briskly.

Sirius nearly dropped his wand in shock. "Bloody hell," he moaned, slapping his forehead and approaching James cautiously. "Prongs, is that you?"

James laughed. "Of course it's me, Padfoot. Could you please lower your wands, you're worrying me."

"Perhaps you should be worried – er – Prongs. We need a mirror," Peter murmured. A mirror conveniently appeared in his hand, and he offered it to James tentatively.

James nearly fell off his table. Recovering himself, he turned to Sirius.

"What the hell did you do?!"

Sirius shifted from foot to foot, like a small child who needed to go to the toilet. "I'm sorry," he muttered quietly, staring at the floor. "Merlin, how do we fix this?"

James suddenly smiled. "How about – we don't? Won't be a moment, lads!"

"Hello!" James said to the Carved Witch, smiling brightly. "Could you ask Lily to let me in, please?"

The Carved Witch eyed him suspiciously before vanishing to the other side of the door. James could have sworn he heard her mutter something about his cheerfulness. She sounded sarcastic, for a block of wood.

The door opened, and James wandered in easily, to find Lily lying on the lounge studying. She looked up at him brightly. "Hello again!"

And before James knew it, she had stood up and kissed him.

James froze, watching as the Head Girl resettled herself on the lounge and looked at him expectantly. "Anything you wanted?"

James coughed. "No, just to see you," he told her weakly, settling hesitantly down beside her.

Lily smiled again (this must be a record, James couldn't help thinking). "That's so sweet," she practically purred. "What's gotten into you?" she asked as an afterthought.

James shifted uncomfortably. "Ummm… I just want to spend time with my girlfriend," he replied warily.

Lily raised her eyebrows. "Ok, who are you and what have you done to Art?" she joked. "Really, what has gotten into you?" she repeated, before shifting closer. "Not," Lily continued, "that I mind in the slightest."

And then, much to James' horror, she kissed him again.

James leapt up, dancing away from the couch. "I – I – Ihavetogotomydormitorynow." James stammered, casting one more alarmed look at Lily's hurt expression before hurrying back out of the Head's tower.

Emmeline, Alice and Isadora were busy studying in the Gryffindor common room when someone appeared above them. Much to their surprise, it was Lily, and she was looking as white as Nearly Headless Nick.

"Are you ok?" Alice asked instantly. Being Alice, she seemed to have a sort of radar that picked up that sort of thing.

Lily shook her head slowly, back and forth, back and forth.

Emmeline stood and slung a comforting arm around her shoulders. "How about we go up to the dorms?"

They settled Lily on her old bed, and surrounded her. Emmeline's hand's massaged her back soothingly, while Alice held her hand.

"He – he ran away!" Lily sniffed. She really couldn't understand it. Art had been acting (strangely) sweet and caring, and as she hadn't seen that side of him for quite some time, Lily had only tried to express her appreciation. Or so she explained to the girls.

Emmeline raised her eyebrows. Since when had Art Scamander treated Lily with kindness or affection? In fact, Art struck Emmeline as someone who treated Lily more like a possession or a convenience than anything else. Not that she'd ever been able to say this to Lily.

As Lily continued to explain the incident, something began to niggle Emmeline – that, in fact, Art sounded as though he was behaving just like James Potter.

Sirius, Peter and Remus were gathered around James' body when the Head Boy returned. Slamming the door, he rested with his back against it and looking, it seemed to the boys, deeply traumatized.

"Went well then?" Sirius asked with false cheerfulness as James made his way back to the table.
"Disaster," he muttered, lying back down. "Change me back, Padfoot."

Several hours later, and much to James' alarm, Sirius had been unable to reverse the spell. He sat with his head in his hands, muttering to himself in the corner of the Room, while Peter and Remus sat either side of James on the table, watching over James' inanimate body.

"We had to stun him – you," Remus whispered after a while. "You – he – woke up and Merlin he is insufferable!"

"Except to Lily," James responded dully, not bothering to elaborate. "Are you sure you can't reverse it, Moony?" he repeated.

Remus shrugged, the look in his eyes deeply apologetic. "I don't think I can, Prongs."

"I can't believe it's you!" Peter prodded Art's body, still amazed. "What does it feel like?"

"Obviously no different, since he didn't even notice," Sirius' voice responded dully from his corner.

James slid off the table and approached him, crouching down beside his friend.

"This isn't your fault," he murmured bracingly. Sirius simply scoffed.

Peter cleared his throat, and they turned to look at him expectantly. "This might seem like a stupid idea," he began hesitantly. "But have you considered trying to end the spell?"

There was silence as the other three boys considered it. Suddenly Remus smiled, cuffing Peter gently over the head. "Brilliant, Wormtail," he murmured, looking questioningly to the other two boys. "I think it just might work."

Sirius stood up slowly, and a hesitant smile appeared at the corners of his mouth. "Perhaps," he agreed. "Go on Prongs, back to the table."

"James? James, are you in there?"

James blinked and opened his eyes slowly – and realised that quite to his alarm, he couldn't see properly. He sat up, rubbing his eyes, but this still did not seem to fix his sight.

"Well, am I back?" he asked anxiously.

Sirius, Remus and Peter exchanged looks of amusement as Peter slid James' glasses back onto his nose. "Apparently so," Sirius murmured in his dry way.

James grinned. "Awesome."

Sirius helped him to stand. "I'm so sorry, Prongs," he murmured, patting his shoulder awkwardly.

James gave him a nod of understanding. "It's all right, Paddy. Just think - if it wasn't for the brilliance of Wormy here-" Peter beamed. "Anyway, let's just forget it ever happened."

"One problem," Remus murmured, gesturing to Art. "What do we do with that?"

"Madam Pomfrey!" James yelled, sprinting into the Hospital Wing with an unconscious Art Scamander levitating in front of him. The nurse took one look at the floating young man and gestured that James set him on a bed. "I… I found him in… in a broom cupboard," James panted.

Madam Pomfrey sighed, and shook her head sadly. "Hogwarts these days… well thank you, Mr. Potter, your prompt reaction may have saved this poor young man from the worst of… well, whatever it is."

James nodded, clutching his chest exhaustedly. After declining her offer of a pepper-up potion, the nurse dismissed him kindly.

The Marauders were waiting in the seventh year dorm, and each startled as James entered, grinning.

"It worked, then?" Remus asked hopefully.

James nodded confirmation. "Hook, line and sinker."

James was leaving via the boy's staircase when he ran into Emmeline levitating a sleeping Lily down into the Gryffindor Common Room. Emmeline sighed with relief when she saw James, who walked over to them, looking concerned.

"Thank Merlin, I thought I'd have to get her back somehow. Poor thing's had a bit of a rough night," Emmeline confided. "You couldn't take her back with you, could you?"

James nodded, biting his lip and trying to push away the guilty feeling that was once again rising in his stomach. "Of course," he replied softly, picking Lily out of the air and settling her in his arms. "I'll see her to bed. Good night, Em."

Emmeline watched James carry Lily out of the common room wistfully, before turning to ascend the girl's staircase, shaking her head.

"How're you feeling this morning?" Remus asked as James joined the boys at their usual spot in the Great Hall the next morning.

Helping himself to bacon and eggs, James grinned. "Good as new," he reassured them.

Sirius looked relieved. He opened his mouth, as if to say something, but at that moment, the owls arrived with the morning post. A large, tawny owl landed in front of Remus with the Daily Prophet, as it did every morning. Remus gave the bird a slice of toast and paid it, watching it soar back off with a slight smile on his face. "It's nice to have some regularity," he murmured appreciatively, unrolling his paper.

James nodded happily, glancing at Sirius beside him for agreement. But Sirius didn't seem to be paying much attention. He was staring at the regal grey owl before him with an expression of great apprehension.

"You ok, Padfoot?" James prodded him, concerned.

"Get out of it," Sirius muttered, his heart not in it, as he reluctantly freed the letter from the owl's leg. Before flying off, it pecked his finger quite viciously.

Slowly, with great trepidation, Sirius opened the letter. The boys watched him closely, mildly alarmed at his hesitancy; who was this boy and what had he done to the cynic they all knew and loved?

Sirius' face became suddenly impassive: he closed over completely; shuttering his dark eyes and stretching his long, narrow mouth. Another thing – he had gone awfully, awfully pale.

"Padfoot, are you-"

Sirius stood up abruptly and walked briskly out of the hall. At this point, it was not only the Marauders who noticed Sirius' odd behaviour. In fact, the entire Great Hall seemed to have paused in their breakfasting to stare at Gryffindor's Quidditch Captain as he made his hasty exit. Searching the crowd of faces, James noted that even Lily's lips were pursed in concern. James turned to gaze at Remus, amazed. The werewolf mirrored his look. Only Peter seemed mildly unaffected. Still munching on his toast, he managed to murmur:

"Now what was that all about?"

A/N: What indeed? I think that could be classified as my first ever cliffhanger – exciting! Out of interest, what do you think the letter says? On another note, I'M SO SORRY ABOUT THE SIRIUS PUN. I feel like I've just committed one of the carnal sins of fan fiction. It was completely accidental, and then I was horrified to find it while I was editing. However, because it was accidental, I'm leaving it – but don't shoot me, because I myself am 'over' those puns and I know how you feel. SO SORRY! Please leave a review, even if it IS a flame (I know I probably deserve a few for that one) I have four assessments coming up so i wont be able to update for a while. however, the more reviews you leave, the faster i will update!

One final thought. I have had over 2200 hits on my story, and I'd like to thank you all for taking time out to read it! xx - Lexie