A/N: Wow I'm managing update faster now, don't expect me to keep updating this fast though, I have homework to do. Thanks to everyone who read Chapter 5: Full Moon, for those of you who didn't, don't worry, this chapter will just continue as if I'd never written a transformation chapter.
Chapter 6: Marauders
Remus's POV
Waking up was a painful experience, I didn't open my eyes because I knew from experience that the light would hurt my eyes after spending the night with wolf eyes. In fact, I didn't move at all, I knew last night must have been one of the worst, most likely because it was a new place, so I knew any movement would hurt.
"He looked awful," a woman was sobbing, I realized with a jolt it was Madame Pomfrey. "I thought he was dead."
"I know, even I did not expect it to be this bad," another voice said gravely.
"Oh Albus, the poor boy, he lost so much blood," Madame Pomfrey sobbed.
"He is better now," the voice said.
"To think he goes through it every month, he'll be lucky if he's out of the Hospital Wing before the next moon," Madame Pomfrey sounded hysterical.
"Can't…stay…classes," I groaned, opening my eyes to the harsh light.
Madame Pomfrey and Dumbledore were stood at the end of my bed.
"Classes!" Madame Pomfrey shrieked. "Classes are the last thing you should be thinking about! You nearly died!"
"Not…normally…this…bad," I croaked.
My throat hurt from the screaming and howling, and I had a headache for the same reason.
"I should hope not!" She exclaimed.
"I shall leave you to your patient Poppy," Dumbledore smiled before leaving.
It was Thursday night before Madame Pomfrey let me out of the Hospital Wing and said I could go to classes, and that was only because I begged her, or she would have kept me longer.
I was kind of scared about walking into the Gryffindor common room, maybe my friends had forgotten about me in the four days I'd been gone, but neither James, Sirius, or Peter were in the common room. Steven on the other hand, was in the corner studying with Lily.
"Remus! You're back!" Lily yelled, jumping out of her seat and hugging me.
I gasped, slightly at the fact Lily cared enough to realize I was gone, but mostly since she'd opened some of my cuts.
"Where've you been?" Lily demanded.
"My mum's ill, I had to go see her," I lied.
"Oh, I'm so sorry; do you want to sit down?" She asked, pointing to the empty chair next to Steven.
Steven gave me a glare that clearly told me I was not welcome; obviously he hadn't forgotten his cold wake ups.
"Thanks, but I'm going to go up to the dorm and catch up on sleep," I smiled.
"Good luck, Potter, Black, and Pettigrew are up there, I doubt you'll get much sleep," Steven snorted.
Saying a quick bye, I made my way to my dorm nervously. Hopefully I hadn't been forgotten in my absence. Sighing, I opened my dorm door.
"Clark, we warned you to…" Sirius trailed away when he saw me.
"Remus! You're finally back!" Peter exclaimed happily.
"Yes! No more taking notes!" James laughed.
"How's you mum?" Sirius asked.
"Not much better, I have to visit her again next month," I sighed.
"Well, until then, we have something to show you! It will help with our pranking, but we didn't want to use it without you," James grinned, reaching into his trunk and pulling out a cloak.
I didn't understand what was so special about the cloak, but I was touched they waited for me.
"It's an invisibility cloak!" Peter gushed.
My eyes widened.
"Really? Wow! You're right, that will help with the prank," I laughed.
"Speaking of which, we should do it this Monday, that way we have the weekend to prepare," Sirius said.
"Deal, but we need a name, so once everyone's been pranked we can stand up and say 'this prank is courtesy of…'" James said.
"I agree, everyone try to think of an idea, we can't pull the prank without a name, so we need one before early Monday morning," Sirius nodded.
"'Hogwarts Pranksters?'" Peter suggested.
"Too lame," Sirius frowned.
"How about just 'The Pranksters'?" James asked.
"Too unoriginal," Sirius thought.
"You try thinking of one then," James pouted.
"We have until Sunday night, keep thinking," Sirius smiled.
I didn't have anytime to think though, since I spent all of Friday and Saturday catching up with everybody.
"Anybody thought of anything?" James asked desperately Saturday night in the common room.
"Nope," I shook my head.
"Nothing," Peter sighed.
"Nada," Sirius frowned.
"There's only one thing for it," James said.
"Do the prank without a name?" Peter asked, James and Sirius looked at him like he'd grown a new head.
"We should go out and find some inspiration," James continued.
"It's past curfew," I pointed out.
"We have an invisibility cloak," Sirius grinned, catching onto what James was thinking.
"Perfect!" Peter clapped.
"Fine," I sighed, seeing I was out voted.
James went back upstairs and got his cloak, we waited until everyone had gone to their dorms before putting on the cloak and leaving the portrait hole.
It was harder then we'd thought to move around under the cloak, but after a couple of hours we'd gotten the hang of it and were moving around the castle with ease.
"Want to try find some secret passage ways? Or the kitchens?" Sirius asked.
We nodded and set off looking for anything suspicious. We passed Peeves; Peeves the Poltergeist was worth two locked doors and a trick staircase if you met him when you were late for class.
He would drop wastepaper baskets on your head, pull rugs from under your feet, or pelt you with bits of chalk.
Even worse than Peeves, if that was possible, was the caretaker, Argus Filch.
Filch owned a cat called Mrs. Norris, a scrawny, dust-coloured creature with bulging, lamp like eyes just like Filch's. She patrolled the corridors alone. Break a rule in front of her, put just one toe out of line, and she'd whisk off for Filch, who'd appear, wheezing, two seconds later.
Filch knew the secret passageways of the school better than anyone and could pop up as suddenly as any of the ghosts. The students all hated him, and it was the dearest ambition of many to give Mrs. Norris a good kick.
Luckily, Peeves didn't seem to notice us as we crept invisibly past. We also had to avoid Mrs. Norris, who it seemed could sense us under the cloak.
By the end of the night, we had managed to find a quicker route to the Great Hall and the Gryffindor common room, but that was all.
We were heading back for some needed sleep when Sirius tripped and the cloak fell off us for the fourth time that night.
"Can we just leave it off? No one will catch us, the common rooms not far now," Sirius whined.
"Fine," James sighed.
"See, I told you no one would catch us," Sirius said as we turned the corner leading to the Fat Lady's portrait.
"Really, Mr Black," McGonagall asked, standing in front of us.
"Um, well, you see," James stuttered.
"Never in all my years at Hogwarts have I had four students out of bed after midnight! Ten points from Gryffindor!" McGonagall exclaimed.
"Ten points!" James cried.
"Ten points each, and detention with me tomorrow night," McGonagall looked about to breath fire so no one argued as she escorted us back to the Gryffindor common room.
"Stay here this time, I don't was to catch you out of bed again, you're like a bunch of marauders!" McGonagall said sternly.
"Marauders!" All four of us exclaimed once in our dorm, we were sat on my bed with silencing charms around us.
"It sounds perfect!" James said.
"Completely us!" Sirius agreed.
"What does it mean?" Peter asked.
"Erm…" Everyone turned to me.
I rolled my eyes and pulled out a battered looking Muggle dictionary.
"'Marauder: Marauders are people who go around looking for something to steal or kill,'" I read.
"Morbid," Sirius snorted.
"Still perfect," James said stubbornly.
"'Synonyms: Invade; attack; ravage; harry'" I finished.
"Fine, Marauders it is," Sirius sighed.
James put his hand in, then Sirius, then me, and finally, Peter did too.
"Marauders," we agreed.
A/N: Quick chapter about how they got their name. Next chapter is the prank.