"T-shirts! Support your very own chivalrous Marauders by purchasing an authentic t-shirt!" Sirius called, running from passing student to passing student. "All proceeds support the rightful winners of the prankwar! Only three galleons each!"
Many of the young adult crowd in the corridor was gathered around a small round table where James and Remus sat, holding up t-shirts with cheesy smiles.
"Yes, that's only three galleons ladies and gents." James assured, eyes alight with a childish thrill as he worked the bystanders. "Only for a limited time. And if you promise to vote for us every chance you get, you can get two sickles taken off those three galleons. Guys and gals, we have a real live bargain here!"
Several people rushed forwards, fishing for spare change in their pockets.
"How are we doing?" James asked out of the corner of his mouth, his glasses sliding down his nose slightly as he leaned towards Remus, who was intent on counting the money.
"We're up about twenty one galleons within the last ten minutes." The sandy haired boy muttered back.
"Not bad, not bad." James replied with a serious nod, taking one Hufflepuff's three galleons and handing them a t-shirt in turn. "How's our stock doing?"
"We've got about nineteen shirts left, but I'm sure that'll last us until the end of free period."
Sirius ran up and whispered under the table, "Hey Wormtail, give me five more shirts. They're selling like mad and I'm sweating like a pig."
James grimaced and said, "I'm sure you're thrilled by that fact. Padfoot, But who gave you the idea of pinning your hair back with flowered barrettes to keep it out of your face?"
Out of thin air, a much dreaded blond appeared. "I did, silly billy!" Angie squealed, ruffling James' hair with a giggle. "You MUST know he can't possibly see merchandise with THAT shaggy hair, don't you?"
James nodded dumbly, tuning his girlfriend out completely and shouting, "Support the Marauders and buy a t-shirt, only three galleons!"
Sirius, who had been scanning the crowd looking for more innocent first years to sell the shirts to, brightened up upon seeing someone shove their way through the crowd.
Well, three some ones, but he only seemed to notice the brunette.
Gracie scrunched up her nose; a habit practiced often around Sirius. "Peddling off to all-too-innocent students again, Black? That's a whole new level of pathetic, even for you."
Despite the pure ice layered in the comment, Sirius grinned. He had gotten rather used to the more intense Grace Harlow that had appeared shortly after the New Year's Eve incident.
"Ah, Harlow, always the charmer. I would normally add an extra five sickles to the shirt t-shirt for that but, because you and your friends are looking extremely sexy today, I'll let you by with a simple warning." Sirius said lightly, winking at the three girls.
"Ugh," Groaned Lily distastefully, holding up a grey t-shirt flashing 'I VOTED PRO-MARAUDER' in neon lights repeatedly, "Who designed these pieces of rubbish?"
"That would be me!" Piped up a rather affronted Peter, glaring at the red-head from under the table.
James shook his head while Sirius snatched the t-shirt away from Lily's hands with a sneer. "Of course you won't like THAT one, you silly nit. That's the men's shirt." He handed Emma another one. "THIS is the women's style."
All three girls did not even make an attempt at straight faces as they glanced at the pink shirt flashing, "I LOVE MOONY' in neon blue.
"We also have this in Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs." Sirius added, clasping his hands like a business man closing a deal.
Emma blurted out, "Excuse me, but why would we bother to waste our money on THESE?"
"Because they make your bust look big and your waist look slim." Sirius argued heatedly, nudging Remus with a devilish smile.
Gracie, who had been giving the grey eyed Marauder a look of extreme distaste, suddenly reached forward and touched a lock of Sirius' pinned back hair. "Trying to get in touch with our feminine side, are we Black? It suits you." She said, smirking as Sirius flushed in sudden embarrassment.
"It was my idea!" Angie blurted, popping out of nowhere once more and latching onto James like a parasite. "Doesn't he look great?"
With a small giggle, Gracie gave a twisted smile of malice and pleasure and said, "Really, he looks absolutely GORGEOUS."
Sirius replied, "Well, only you would notice such a small detail, Grace-my-love. I mean honestly, how long were you staring at me before you actually even saw the barrettes, hmm?"
With a narrow of her brown eyes, Gracie calmly flipped him off.
"As I said, always the charmer, Grae." Sirius smiled cheekily, running off to sell more t-shirts before Gracie could bash his head in.
Lily felt a weight on her chest. It wasn't too heavy, but heavy enough for her to notice.
Without a second thought she began to drift back to sleep.
Something was tickling her nose.
"Go away, James." She groaned, trying to roll over and stuff her head under her pillow.
The tickling started again and Lily opened her eyes groggily.
And then screamed.
"What the hell is going on?" Gracie yelled from her four poster.
Catching her breathe, shoving the thing off her chest, and gasping as it bounded away, Lily answered, "There was a...a monkey in my bed!"
"Get out!" Gracie said in disbelief, ripping Lily's curtains open with an excited expression.
Seconds later, Emma let out a shout.
"Was there a monkey in your bed too, Em?" Gracie asked jokingly, not having seen any yet.
"Yes!" Emma squeaked exasperatedly.
"You guys are lying." Gracie said, "There is no way that there could be any...MONKEY!!"
As if on cue, a large orange primate leaped out from under Alice Prewitt's bed and landed on Gracie's shoulder, staring at her with wide eyes.
Gracie jumped back, a mixed expression of amusement and terror clear on her face.
After a moment of contemplation, Emma reached out and tried to pet the monkey. It stared at her blankly, and then shook off her hand before bounding away.
The girls gasped as they followed the monkey's movements, watching it end up with a much larger crowd of monkeys in the center of the dorm room.
Emma turned to her friends. "Was this some prank we had planned that I didn't know about?"
Lily shook her head dumbly. "I wouldn't have stayed in the main dorm if I knew we would be invaded by monkeys." She answered.
Gracie swore.
"Damn Marauders." Emma muttered under her breath, screaming when one of the monkeys pulled extremely hard on her hair.
By mid-day, the entire school was covered in loud, screeching monkeys, courtesy of Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs.
According to the letter written to the Marauderesses, (and delivered by one of the monkeys) the pestering primates were indeed from the muggle world. To be exact, they were called Tamarins, directly imported from the Amazon. The monkeys were spell repellent, simply multiplying when a spell was cast on them. And although the Marauders promised that none were rabid, the monkeys had no problems making themselves at home anywhere they chose, whether it was in the Girl's dorms or on McGonagall's head.
"Did you try vanishing them?" Gracie asked, eyeing one of the monkeys with a glare.
"Vanishing spells don't multiply them, but they do make them angry." Lily sighed, lifting a monkey out of her bag and setting it on the table, watching as it scampered off.
"Did you distribute the t-shirts at all?" Emma questioned, turning a page of her book.
"Yeah, but no one knows who or where they're coming from. It's totally under ground." Lily answered with a wolfish grin. "It seems that we have quite a good amount of fans."
"Good. That's what we need if we want to win this thing." Gracie said.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T KNOW WHO SOLD YOU THAT T-SHIRT?!" Someone yelled from the other end of the Great Hallway.
"And cue the pissed off Marauders." The brunette muttered, looking quite pleased.
Sirius, James, Remus and Peter stalked forward and sat down huffily, digging into their lunch with anger filled vigor.
"What happened?" Emma asked, looking extremely concerned.
"The Marauderesses are selling t-shirts." James answered with a sneer. "But none of the people seem to know who or where they are coming from. Yet almost every female in school is wearing one!"
"They're good." Gracie said with a nod of approval.
"No they're not." Sirius snapped, clearly affronted by Gracie's lack of support for the Marauders. "They stole our idea."
"Then I hope you don't mind if we wear these." Lily said with a warning note, taking her robe off, revealing a light blue shirt that flashed 'Marauderesses are Number 1'.
Gracie removed her robe, revealing a yellow one that flashed 'Support Midnight, Freckles and Frown'.
James turned to Emma anxiously.
"Please don't tell me you have one too, Em."
With a sad smile, she presented her shirt as well, this time green and reading, "Silly boys, pranks are for girls'.
"You guys are so mean." Remus said with a pout, making the girls laugh.
"Well, today isn't all that bad." Lily said with an optimistic smile. "You were able to carry out YOUR hair brained scheme."
"By the way," Gracie began with a sly smile, "What is it with the Marauders and herds of animals? I mean, first it's moose, and then it's monkeys."
"Ha, moose and monkeys." Sirius chuckled to himself, making Gracie roll her eyes.
"It's all a matter of supply and demand." Remus explained, glancing over at Emma, who beamed at him. "We got a huge response with the moose, even though the Marauderesses had a pretty good prank that day as well, the Hermaphrodite."
"But tell me this; how the hell did you manage to transport over one hundred screaming monkeys into the castle without getting caught by Filch?"
"Ah, a magician never reveals his secrets." James said, wincing when Lily slapped him playfully on the arm.
"But really, herds of animals, you guys are messed up." Gracie said, kicking Sirius as he tried to hold her hand.
James looked up from his plate of spaghetti and said, "By the way, Lils, we need to go visit Harry next time there's a Hogsmeade trip."
"Well, sure, why not? When's the next trip?"
James colored slightly, "Valentine's Day."
"Oh."
Silence clouded around the table as the friends kept all attention to Lily and James.
"Well, don't you have to take out Angie?" Lily asked, raising her eyes to his.
"How about we meet there at around four, that way you can hang with your girlfriends and I can take out Angie and then we can visit our child together?"
At the word 'child' Lily blushed deeper. "That's fine, James." She answered quietly.
Another awkward silence.
"Who wants a biscuit?" Gracie yelled, shoving a basket in the middle of the group.
The embarrassing conversation was forgotten quickly as the Marauders and Marauderesses indulged in the food.
"These t-shirts are coming from somewhere. There has to be a person selling them and dealing with the money. But why doesn't anyone know who it is?" James asked, pacing the carpet in the Head's room.
"It's obviously someone in the Marauderesses inner circle, because they obviously need the money for something." Remus suggested, leaning back against the couch as he leafed through his Potions notes.
"But who?" James asked again, stopping and looking up. "It has to be someone smart and cunning and feminist and..." He cut off, staring into space.
"Do remember the night at the ball?" James asked, turning to all three of his friends. It was a good thing the girls were at the Library today.
Sirius whistled, "How could I forget? The way Gracie looked in the snug little dress?"
"Do you remember the prank the Marauderesses pulled, with the exploding balloons?"
They nodded.
"Do you remember what the balloons were filled with?"
"I believe it was a mixture of white sequins and random muggle objects, such as rubber chickens, Chinese finger tricks and yo-yos." Remus recalled, staring intently at the floor.
"Exactly. I noticed something that night, the girls, Lily, Gracie and Emma, wore white sequined masks."
When no one answered, James continued, "Do you ever think it could be a possibility that our friends are the Marauderesses?"
Sirius scoffed, "Be realistic, James. We would know. Have you ever seen them doing suspicious activity? They've always been present for the pranks, not missing. I'm not saying they're not smart enough to do it, but they wouldn't do that to us. We're their friends."
James shrugged. "It was just a thought. I didn't say I believed it. You're right Padfoot, there is no way that those girls could pull off such a stunt with us as the only guys they hang out with."
They continued to discuss Quidditch stunts, but Remus remained silent, pondering and brooding until the bell rang for the next period.
"As I always say, you can always tell if the chicken is fresh, just by how dark the skin is." Sirius explained, leaning on a repulsed Gracie as he tore at a turkey leg for dinner.
"You're such a carnivore." Lily muttered, shaking her head.
James glanced at her incredulously, "Says the girl who just ate an entire t-bone steak without sharing with me!"
Lily simply stuck her tongue out at him.
"By the way, have any of you girls seen Emma?" Remus asked, looking down the Gryffindor table for a pair of familiar violet eyes.
With a warning look at Lily, Gracie answered, "She said she had to go return a book to the library, or Madame Pince would skin her alive. We wouldn't want that, would we?"
Remus didn't answer, continuing to glare suspiciously around the wall.
"So," Lily drawled, trying to change the topic quickly, "Are you guys looking forward to our quiz tomorrow in Potions?"
A conversation ensued, one that Remus fortunately took action in.
Suddenly, Emma walked over and sat between Lily and Gracie. "Hey guys, sorry I'm late. I had to do some last minute homework."
Remus' eyes flickered between Emma and Lily before asking casually. "Really? I thought you said she was returning a book, Lils."
"I was," Emma nearly shouted hastily, "After finishing the homework I needed it for."
Remus scowled and Lily held back a sigh of relief.
"Hey," James said, tapping Remus on the shoulder, "What's with the ceiling?"
The Marauders looked up, jaws falling open as a giant black screen suddenly descended from the ceiling, reaching the floor like a curtain.
"What is it?" Sirius asked quietly, looking almost afraid.
"It looks like a movie theater screen." Lily said, winking at her friends when the boys weren't looking.
A camera snapped out of thin air, remaining suspended as it began to project a moving picture onto the screen.
At the sight of what the movie consisted of, the Marauders' jaws dropped even lower, nearly skimming the floor.
The clip showed the Gryffindor 7th year boy's dorm. Sirius and James were standing in front of the camera, smiling giddily; quite the opposite compared to the present Sirius and James, who looked ready to die.
"Hi! I'm Sirius and this is Jamesie!" The movie Sirius waved, giving a flirty wave.
"And we're going to dance in girls knickers!" James shouted. "We went to Hogsmeade and bought knickers and we're going to dance in them because we're drunk!"
The two proceeded to take their boxers off, revealing pink, frilly and rather tight looking underwear. With a holler, the two began to jump up and down, screaming random things and laughing like children.
"You guys are drunk." Remus muttered from somewhere behind where the camera was filming.
The dance continued on for another minute or so, no doubt giving the entire school enough time to laugh themselves to tears. Gracie laughed the hardest of all.
The movie ended, with only one credit, Brought to you by the Marauderesses; Vote for the Marauderesses!
Cheers erupted around the hall, mixed with the lingering laughter. James and Sirius could not help but join in. Remus looked calculatingly at the floor.
"Well," Gracie began, wiping a tear from her eyes as she looked at Sirius, "I must say that beat any kind of pain I've ever inflicted on you. Oh, revenge is SWEET. Thank you, Marauderesses."
"How could the Marauderesses do that to us?" James shouted once he controlled his laughter, banging his fist so hard on the table that they all jumped. "That was in our dorm! On Christmas! How the hell did they get that footage?!"
Lily cast down her eyes, refusing to look at him. "Hidden cameras?" She mumbled, feeling suddenly secretive.
"While I have to admit that Sirius are justified in our being more than drunk the evening this was filmed, it was an alright prank." James said moodily.
The three girls were silent, though the boys thought it was because they were simply thinking about the prank. In reality they were trying not to laugh.
"I'm going to bed." Lily sighed after a moment of hilarious thought. "Girls, you coming? Or should I wait?"
"No we're done. Let's go." Emma agreed.
The three girls walked off, and Remus stared after them.
"I'll be right back." He said quietly, shoving out of his seat.
"EMMA!" He shouted, catching up to the three girls.
She turned, eyes brightening slightly when they caught sight of him. "What, Moony?"
"Can I talk to you for a minute? Alone?" He asked, looking at her friends meaningfully.
"We'll be down in the fourth floor corridor." Lily said, eyeing Emma before giving a small smile and walking away with Gracie.
Remus waited until they were out of earshot and then rounded on Emma.
"You, Lily and Gracie were the only Gryffindor 7th years besides us who stayed over for the holidays." He stated.
Emma looked surprised at the obvious fact. "Yes."
"And you told me once that Lily, being a muggle, is indeed in possession of a muggle film camera."
She nodded, but stayed silent.
Remus stared at her for a minute, before saying, "You're the Marauderesses."
Nothing about her face betrayed anything, but then again, Remus didn't see her fist clench behind her back.
"Remus, how could you think that? We could never pull something like that off. We don't prank." She said bluntly before starting to turn away.
He grabbed her wrist and wheeled her around, sounding irritated. "Em, who else could have pulled of a muggle based prank, needing both Gryffindor passwords and a complicated spell that would get the camera to work on the Hogwart's grounds?"
"Remus, you of all people should know to trust us. Don't just assume." Emma said firmly, pulling her hand from his. "I have to go."
Remus let her stalk off without another word. Yet, even as she rounded the corner of the hallway, he felt another strong wave of renewed suspicions upon seeing a small tape clutched in her hand. A tape just big enough to fit inside a camera.
"OH!" Gracie yelled triumphantly, punching her fist in the air. "The Marauderesses are in the lead 300 to 295!"
"This isn't something to celebrate, Grae!" Emma shouted anxiously, wringing her hands. "They're onto us! Remus is the smartest and he's already got us practically pinpointed!"
Lily, who was standing with a hand on her hip as she glanced at the scoreboard, looked worried as well. "I agree with Em, we need to be more careful than ever now. If we aren't, they cold easily find out about everything. All they'd have to do is open my trunk upstairs and they'd know all about the Marauderesses, their pranks and their merchandise."
"Look," Gracie began, leaning against the stone wall, "We are talking about the Marauders, the guys who THOUGHT they were the better pranksters. We're kicking their arses, why should we be afraid of them?"
"I guess you're right. But we need to keep the pranking on the down low. If they so much as catch a whiff of next weeks prank on us, we're caught and spend the remainder of the year in detention.
Emma picked up a monkey that had been hopping around, cuddling it as it squawked. "Yep with next week's prank we certainly have no problems ahead.
The monkey leapt out of Emma's arms and rebounded on Gracie's head, who screamed loudly.
"Yeah," The brunette said casually, flinging the monkey away from her head, "Besides narcissistic, perverted males who send platoons of monkeys on us, what's there to worry about?"
A/N: I really need a lot of reviews, people, I'm craving reviews at the moment! And for those of you have not voted on my profile poll, please do. Oh, and thanks for helping me reach over 100 reviews!
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