Year 1: The Legend Unfolds
Chapter Six: Zebras, Pranks and Middle Names
Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognize... so please don't sue me!
A/N: Here is the next chapter. Basically this entire chapter, save the first little bit, is random nothingness because I think when I wrote it originally I was stuck or whatever, so I just did a random chapter, haha. I hope you like it! OH AND BY THE WAY! This chapter contain's the marauder's first prank!!! Monumentous, eh? So please REVIEW at the end of this chapter and tell me what you thought of it!
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A dark figure moved among the crowd of waiting people. He cautiously approached his master and dropped onto one knee, sinking into a low bow.
"Get up," said the shadowy figure on the throne, and his devoted servant stood up. The man's voice was very cold and snakelike, and would send shivers down one's spine. He continued to speak, sounding slightly like a hissing snake, "You told me you have news?"
"Yes master. I have found the boy. He is just a first year. Manipulating him should be easy," The servant said, waiting for his master's reaction.
"Very good. Befriend him. When you gain his trust, take the watch. Report back to me soon. You are dismissed," said the cold-voiced man on the throne. He was clearly pleased.
"Thank you master. I will not fail you," the man said, sweeping from the dungeons.
Somewhere, miles away from Hogwarts, Lord Voldemort was plotting.
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By Saturday, Lily was very happy that it was the weekend. She still had a little bit of homework to do, but decided to wait until Sunday to finish it. There was no rush. She was also excited to go see Hagrid later that day. Since Hagrid's invitation was for 1:30, the girls were going to go to lunch before and eat there– Brighid had been kind enough to tell them that Hagrid's cooking was not exactly what one would call 'desirable'.
Her favorite classes were turning out to be Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts. She was also doing well in Potions, but the idea of spending two hours locked in the dungeons with a bunch of Slytherins did not exactly appeal to her.
She was woken up on Saturday morning much earlier than she would have liked by Marlene screaming.
"What is it?" Lily asked as she sat straight up. She looked around and saw that Alice and Melanie also seemed to have just woken up. Marlene, however, was no where to be seen.
"Uh, Marlene, where are you?" Alice asked, walking over to her bed, which was strangely empty of sheets.
"I'm right here, and I can't get up," said Marlene's voice. It was coming from a jumble of sheets next to her bed, and upon closer inspection, Alice discovered Marlene was tangled up inside of them, "I fell out of the bed, and now I cant get untangle myself," at this comment, everyone began laughing, completely forgetting that it was 8:30, which was a sinful hour on a Saturday morning.
Alice and Lily helped Marlene untangle herself, all the while laughing. Melanie was laughing so hard, she was temporarily incapable of movement. Once Marlene was free of the devil sheets, she started to get dressed, the other girls following suit. Since they were already up, they decided it would be best just to go to breakfast, which started at 9:00.
When they walked into the common room, they didn't expect to see anyone. It was, after all, 8:45 on a Saturday morning. Therefore, they were surprised to see James and Sirius talking to Frank Longbottom in hushed tones.
"Hey," Alice said, walking up to the boys, who immediately stopped talking, "You are up early."
"So are you," Sirius commented (Melanie shot Marlene a dirty glare as he said this).
"Are Remus and Peter up yet?" Lily asked, sitting down on the couch next to Frank.
"Did I hear my name?" said a voice from the boy's staircase.
"Oh, I was just wondering if you were awake," Lily said as Remus sat down on the arm of a chair while Peter sitting on the floor next to James.
"Oh, no, sorry Lily. He isn't up yet," James said, causing the rest of them to laugh, "Well, it really has been nice talking to you all, but if you will excuse us, we have business to attend to. Good day," James said in a fake proper voice, and with that, the five boys left.
"I'd bet anyone 5 galleons they are about to pull a prank," Lily said, staring after them.
After a few minutes the girls left for breakfast, forgetting all about what the boys had been up to.
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"So Frank, you got everything we need for the prank today?" Peter asked Frank in a hushed voice as they all walked down to breakfast.
"Yep. I already charmed them too. How you think of these things is beyond me," Frank said. James had an excellent mind for pranks, but combined with three other marauding pranksters (A/N: tee hee), well... Let's just say there won't be a dull moment at Hogwarts for the next seven years.
"Good. I can't wait, this is going to be so cool," Sirius said, grinning wildly.
When they entered the hall, the only other people there were a few 5th year Hufflepuffs and some assorted Ravenclaws. The boys sat down and began to talk about Quiddich until the girls arrived. Their conversation then turned to how their first week of classes had gone.
Once breakfast was done, the boys went outside, deciding to take a walk until lunch, which was when their prank was to be pulled. They walked around the lake, and everything was quiet at first, but, thanks to Remus, some conversations eventually did come up.
"Hey guys, are zebras black with white stripes, or white with black stripes?" Remus asked suddenly, catching them all off guard. James then cracked a smile, and soon they were all laughing at the randomness of it, even Remus.
"How can you even ask that? Everyone knows the 'black' on zebras is really a deep purple, and its obvious the stripes are the white," Sirius said, rolling his eyes at them. They all stared at him for a moment until they realized he was joking, and, once again, started to laugh.
They continued to talk about zebras, and eventually their conversation ended up being an argument over which was better, chocolate or vanilla ice cream. James and Peter said that vanilla was better, but Sirius and Remus insisted that chocolate was.
"But chocolate leaves that nasty after taste in your mouth," Peter said, making a face of disgust even thinking about it.
"That's what makes it good!" Remus exclaimed.
"We had better go find Frank, lunch starts in 15 minutes," James said, trying to stop what could become a vicious argument over ice cream flavors.
"Okay," Peter said, defeated, and the four boys walked into the entrance hall, almost bumping into Frank himself.
"Come on you guys," Frank said, pocketing his wand, which he had been holding as he walked out of the Great Hall.
They stood outside the Great Hall, waiting until more people were there. After a few minutes, they walked in and sat down at the end of the Gryffindor table. They had decided to pull the prank about halfway through lunch, when there would be the most people there to witness it. Frank had set up everything after breakfast, so they were ready at any time.
About 20 minutes into lunch, Frank got up, saying he was going to the restroom. That was the signal. Frank was going to sneak over to the Slytherin table under an invisibility cloak he had borrowed from his father's friend. When he got there, he was going to signal over to Remus, who was the only one who had mastered the levitation charm in their charms class.
Remus looked over to the Slytherin table, and saw Frank pull the cloak off of his hand, and gave him a thumbs up. Slowly, Remus pulled his wand out of his pocket, pointed it under the Slytherin table, and wispered Windardrium Leviosa. Instantly, a huge collection of Filibuster's Fabulous Wet- Start Fireworks levitated off of the ground, so that they were right in front of where Frank was crouched. He wispered a charm, and water issued from his wand, instantly activating the fireworks.
Catastrophic was putting it lightly.
The fireworks exploded from the Slytherin table, and everyone in the Hall looked in that direction. However, no culprit was to be seen, as Frank was invisible, and already dashing out of the Hall. He casually walked back in to where his friends were, staring in awe at the fireworks, which were now criss-crossing overhead, and as everyone looked up at then, they all saw the fireworks were forming words. James and his friends just laughed, as everyone read the words that appeared to be written in the sky, due to the enchanted ceiling.
Hogwarts welcomes a new generation of pranksters. Victims beware.
Everyone began to laugh in amazement, when suddenly, the fireworks exploded, showering the hall in confetti.
James, Peter, and Sirius were still laughing, and even Remus was cracking up. Frank had left to talk to his other friends, and James glanced over at the girls. Lily was trying (and failing) to hide her laughter, and the others didn't have a prayer of hiding it as they were all cracking up.
By the end of lunch, the boys were still talking about their spectacular prank. They were sure no on knew it was them. They were, however, wrong.
As they walked out of the hall, two boys walked up to them. They were identical twins with messy brown hair (though not nearly as messy as James's) and brown eyes. James recognized them as Ravenclaws of their year.
"Hi," one of them said, sticking his hand out to shake Sirius's, who he was closest to him, "I'm Mike, and this is my brother Matty," he said, gesturing to his brother.
"We just have to congratulate you on the prank you pulled today. It was very well pulled, and we wouldn't have known it was you if someone hadn't thrown a pea at Mike, causing him to turn around right as Remus levitated the fireworks," Matty said, walking forward so that he was even with his twin. James grinned.
"Thanks," he said, looking at them, "I take it you two are pranksters as well?" The twins nodded.
"Excellent. So, do you guys have anything planned for anytime soon," Sirius asked as the six boys walked out onto the grounds and sat down under a large beech tree.
For the next hour or so they sat and talked about pranks, Quiddich, and various other subjects. Remus tried to keep his randomness to a minimum, but managed to spark and interesting conversation about if the Giant Squid was really a vegetarian.
At about 2:30, Matty suggested that they to inside and start their homework. The twins went a different way to get to the Ravenclaw common room, and the four remaining boys walked up to the Gryffindor tower.
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"Those boys truly are geniuses," Marlene said as the four girls headed out to Hagrid's hut. Since they had gone to lunch, they were there to witness the first official prank of the first year Gryffindors... and Frank...
"Believe me, after the first 2 or 3 pranks, it just gets annoying," Lily said. She had to admit that their pranks were funny a lot of the time, but as they were usually aimed at her, she didn't usually enjoy them.
"Oh yeah, I keep forgetting you two knew each other before coming to Hogwarts," Alice said. As it was still only about 1:10 they decided to just walk around the grounds until 1:30.
"Oh yeah, I knew him. I have many a fabulous memory from elementary school that involved him. Did I ever tell you about the time that I fell asleep during nap time in kindergarten and he drew a mustache on my face?" Lily said. All the other girls laughed and even Lily cracked a reluctant smile.
The girls continued talking and laughing until 1:30, when they headed over to Hagrid's hut. Lily reached forward and knocked on the door. Instantly it opened, and they stood facing the large, smiling gamekeeper.
Hagrid ushered them inside, and as the girls walked in they found themselves very glad that they had already eaten– there were some kind of cakes on the table that looked as though they could survive an atomic bombing.
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When they got back to the dorm, James challenged Peter to a game of wizard's chess, and Sirius watched them with interest, as they were very evenly matched. Remus on the other hand, was sitting on his bed, writing in a notebook. It was quiet for a few minutes (with the exception of the chess pieces mutilating each other), but they were saved from their impending boredom, yet again, by Remus's random tactics.
"Hey Sirius, what is your middle name?" Remus asked suddenly as Peter's night captured James's queen.
"Orion, why?" Sirius replied, turning around to look at Remus.
"No reason," Remus said, looking back at his notebook and continuing to write.
"What are you writing about me?" Sirius asked, getting up and walking over to Remus. Remus, however, was too quick for him. By the time Sirius was over at Remus's bed, he had slammed the book shut and stuffed it under his pillow.
"It isn't about you," Remus said matter-of-factly, sitting on his pillow to prevent Sirius from taking his notebook, "I'm writing to my mother, and I am telling her about my roommates."
"In a muggle notebook?" Sirius asked Remus, who nodded, "And anyway, that still means you are writing about me," Sirius said, but Remus didn't answer, as he was already writing again, so Sirius just went back to watching Peter and James. However, they were stopped again by Remus, who started to laugh.
"What now?" Peter asked, looking upset that Remus had interrupted his concentration again.
"Sirius, yo-your initials are S.O.B.?" Remus gasped between laughs. When he said that, James and Peter also started to laugh. Sirius, however, just looked at the others, seemingly confused.
"Yes. Is there something wrong with that?" Sirius asked defensively. Everyone else was still laughing, so it took a while before anyone could answer. Finally, James gained enough control to choke out an answer.
"Well, you see, there is a 'not-so-nice' phrase that also has the initials of S.O.B. Not to mention the fact that your first and middle names are start constellations," James said, and Sirius thought about it for a while before realizing what they were talking about.
"Oh, come on! Like you guys don't have embarrassing initials and middle names. What are yours?" Sirius asked.
"Elliot," James said, "A quite common, normal middle name if you ask me," he finished, grinning.
"Mine is William," Peter said, and Sirius was downhearted that he might be the only one with a bad middle name and initials.
"Wait, what is yours Remus?" Sirius asked. Remus turned red and muttered something incomprehensible, "What was that? Couldn't hear ya buddy," Sirius said, knowing that it must be something bad.
"Does it really matter? My initials are R.J.L., nothing weird about that. Does the middle name make a difference?" He asked, but gave in at the look Sirius was giving him, "Oh, fine. It's Jeremiah," he muttered.
"Instantly, all of the boys started laughing, and Sirius commented about how Remus was 'the master of hypocrisy' (A/N: is that a word?). Even Remus couldn't help but to crack a smile.
"Jeremiah!," James screamed really loudly, sounding slightly like an old lady (A/N: Inside joke with my friends, don't ask), "That's priceless," James continued. Over the next few hours, the boys had some more random conversations, and Peter had beaten James twice at chess, only to lose to him thrice.
Remus was having an excellent time, just joking around with his friends. This was something he had never experienced before. He hadn't had a true friend since he was 5 years old, due to his condition, and he loved it. The full moon was in 4 days, and his symptoms would start to kick in by Monday. He would have to be really careful, or his friends would never speak to him again. And he wasn't sure if he would be able to handle that.
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Yay, chapter 6 done! Did you like it? REIVEW!! TELL ME WHAT YOU THOUGHT!
Next chapter includes... Remus' first full moon at Hogwarts! POOR REMY-POO! So review, and I'll update faster!