A/N: No, the story is not over, I meant the chapter.
The Junior Marauders
"Oh come all ye faithful, er..."
"Joyful and triumphant," Sandy told the suit of armour they were passing.
"Why does the staff even bother with that charm?" Drake wondered. "I mean, the armour only ever knows half the words, and it's distracting."
"Harry! Wait up!" The three Slytherins turned to see a blonde Gryffindor chasing them.
"You two go ahead, I'll catch up," Harry muttered. Doubling back to his cousin, he asked quietly, "What's on your mind, Dud?"
Dudley lowered his voice dramatically. "It's time for Hogwarts to meet the Junior Marauders."
Harry nodded. "Shocking as this may be to you, I've been thinking…" Here he paused for the reaction he knew was coming.
Not one to disappoint, Dudley gasped theatrically. "Was it painful?"
"Torturous. But, before I passed out from the agony, I decided that if we're going to call ourselves Junior Marauders, we ought to become Animagi."
"True. But until then, let's focus on the pranking aspect. I've got a plan…"
Harry didn't see much of his friends for the next two days. Every spare moment was spent in the library with Dudley, trying find the right spells to make their first Hogwarts prank as memorable as possible. They decided to do it at dinner, the day before the Christmas holidays.
"People will be discussing it in the Common Rooms for the first part of break that way," said Dudley. "And whoever goes home will probably tell their parents or siblings."
"We should probably prank ourselves, too, to throw off suspicion."
"Are you mad? What's the point of a prank if you can't take credit for it?"
"The point is not making Snape hate me. He ignores me in class, but I can tell he doesn't like me. He was the first Marauders' favourite target, remember? I'd prefer not to get on his bad side, if I can help it."
"Fair enough, I guess. So what colour should we use? Something vivid…"
"Not a house colour."
"That limits it to orange, brown, pink, purple. "
"Not pink. Not brown, either, it isn't bright enough. I say we go with neon purple."
Harry and Dudley went down to the Great Hall together on the night of The Prank. They had managed to plant inconspicuous spell-holders, disguised as ornaments, on each of the twelve Christmas trees that decorated Hall. At exactly six-thirty, the time-delayed spells erupted in a shower of purple sparks. The students took cover under the House tables, but most had already been hit. Whenever a spark touched a human, that person's hair was Transfigured into bright purple feathers.
The shower of sparks only lasted a few seconds – Dudley and Harry knew that everyone would hide as soon as it started – but very few people dared leave the shelter they'd found under the tables. Hufflepuff and Gryffindor had taken the most hits, being on the edges of the Great Hall, but Ravenclaw and Slytherin had also gotten their fair share of sparks.
"Fred and George Weasley!" roared Professor McGonagall, somehow intimidating even with purple feathers spilling out from under her hat.
"We'd be proud to take credit for this—"
"But for once—"
"We didn't do it!" protested the twins.
"Nice job by whoever did, though."
"Calm down, Minerva," said Headmaster Dumbledore. "Innocent until proven guilty. This was not done with ill intent, and I very much doubt that there has been lasting damage to anyone. No doubt this charm," gesturing towards his own purple-feathered chin, "will wear off soon enough."
He was right, of course. The charm would only last until the students got into bed. Harry and Dudley had agreed that, while feather pillows were comfortable, feather hair might be a bit too awkward.
Harry suddenly had a disturbing thought. According to Uncle Remus, the Marauders had gotten away with just about everything, but they were all Gryffindors. Remembering the Prefect's words on his first night, Harry wondered whether Dumbledore would be nearly so forgiving if he knew that one of the pranksters was a Slytherin.
What did it matter, he asked himself, it wasn't as if he was going to confess – Snape, who had somehow avoided the sparks, was looking like he might attack whoever took credit for what had happened.
Sandra took hold of her long feather braid and pulled it around to get a better look. "This isn't too bad. It might be a bit hard to sleep with, but at least it looks okay. Of course, hair is one of the easiest things to mess with, and there are already so many potions and spells on how to do it. It was clever to hide the spell inside Christmas ornaments, no one looks twice at those…" She kept up a steady flow of compliments on the prank, including the effort involved in time-delayed spells and a few suggestions on how to improve it. Harry tried not to blush.
A/N: Like in my Animorphs story, this was supposed to be longer, but I wanted to post something to prove that the story hadn't been abandoned. I haven't had access to a computer all summer until the past week. Next chapter involves the Philosopher's Stone plot.
Regarding the most recent book: I've had to change my plotline, but I think my story works out better this way. I was, of course, surprised. I expected Dumbledore to die, but I'd thought it would be of a heart attack or something else non-magical – I mean, he's ancient. He's got to have some age-related problems. I'd also thought, like many other people, that Harry would be feeling rather anti-Dumbledore, at least for a while. Still, the Snape-didn't-really-spy-for-Dumbledore-but-in-fact-still-serves-Voldemort works better for the story I'm doing, I need to make him rather dark.
Regarding Hermione: No offence to her fans, but I'm not overly fond of Hermione. I put her in Ravenclaw to get rid of her without killing her, although she might show up in a minor role later. I can't write her very well (I tried, but it sucked, so I deleted it), and I think she'll be happier in Ravenclaw, with people who share her bookishness.
Regarding Harry's wand: Sorry if that makes anyone uneasy. I didn't know that the wood was symbolic, I just figured that the Druids used yew trees to make their magic wand, so it's probably really powerful. My computer won't let me onto JKR's web site for some reason, I think our connection to the Internet has a few glitches. In my story, the wand is symbolic to the Harry-Voldemort connection going a bit deeper than in the books. See the next chapter for details (well, vague explanations and Harry's means of finding out about the Stone, anyway.)
