Hello, hello. An update--Surprising, I know, but here it is! The request was for a "really cool James and Sirius prank", but I decided to involve all of the Marauders. It's not as Sirius-centric as the others, but there you go.

Title: Mayhem, on a Smaller Scale
Length: 1952
POV: Third
Rating: PG

As they had been banned from sitting together since 3rd year in almost every class, Sirius and James' two-way mirrors made frequent appearances during the long hours. At the moment, they were sitting in Potions class with Professor Slughorn, who, while lenient in most circumstances, had a very low tolerance for pranking during his lessons. To prevent most attacks he had assigned James to sit next to Snape, while Sirius was allowed to remain at a desk with Remus. Peter, the poor bloke, was stuck with a Hufflepuff almost as thick as himself. Sirius and James, though, had their mirrors concealed on their laps as they stirred the assigned potion. The directions described a pale blue, rather thin liquid. James' was slightly thicker than it should have been, but he was too busy laughing at Snape's frantic counterclockwise movements. His potion had turned a curious shade of yellow—the color your shin turns about a week after you walked into the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall—and he had no explanation for it.

Sirius had abandoned all pretenses of working as he had his wand out beneath the table and was concentrating on the nonverbal spells he had mastered on his own the year before. Color changing was the spell of choice this class, and so far he had managed a particularly violent shade of pink, and camouflage brown—neither of which were mentioned in any step of the directions in their textbook. His own potion was simmering perfectly at the end product, a colorless potion that was about the consistency of paste. Its constant gurgling noise wasn't affecting his focus, the kind he never gave to his school work.

Slughorn stood from his desk to call time. Snape gave up, letting his ladle fall to the table with a clatter. James filled his flask, having finished his potion almost perfectly, and turned it in to Slughorn's desk. He passed Sirius on the way back to his seat, also carrying his own potion, and they exchanged a discreet look of satisfaction. They had ruined Snape's perfect track record in the class.

The students performed vanishing spells on the remainders of their potions and hurried out of the dungeon classroom. Sirius, out first, waited by the door for James, Remus and Peter. Remus had joined him as Snape walked out, and Sirius took the opportunity to perform a Tripping Jinx, causing the boy to fall to the floor.

"Maybe if you took your fat nose out of that book you would notice your feet falling over their enormous selves." He said, laughing with James, who had exited the classroom in time to see Snape crash to the ground.

"Wash your hair while you're at it, Snivellus!" Called James. Snape collected his things off the stone floor, including his precious Potions book that he was always scribbling in.

"I know it was you, messing with my potion." He snarled, his hair hitting his face as he whipped around to confront the Gryffindors.

"Care to prove that?" Sirius asked, nonchalantly twirling his wand between his fingers before he stuck it in his robe pocket.

"Levicorpus!" Snape's wand had appeared from nowhere, and before any of the other boys could react, Sirius was upside down in mid-air, seemingly held there by his ankle. Remus took advantage of Snape's concentration to cast a disarming spell, the red jet of light hitting Snape's wand and blasting it to the far corner of the corridor. Sirius fell to the floor, remaining there for several seconds to recover his breath. Before James could retaliate for his wounded comrade they were interrupted, giving Snape a chance to retrieve his wand.

"Boys!" The waddling Potions master exited the room, his belly emerging a full three seconds before the rest of his body. "5 points from Slytherin, 20 from Gryffindor—5 for each of you! Magic is not tolerated in the hallways, all five of you know better. Get on to lunch, immediately, before I dock any more points. Mr. Snape, if you could stay behind for just a moment." Slughorn's quivering finger directed the Marauders up the stairs, while Snape remained standing where he was.

Sirius angrily brushed off his robes as they made their winding way out of the dungeons.

"That little snake is going to pay! He can't laugh at me and get away with it! We're pranking him tonight."

"You have detention with McGonagall tonight, Padfoot." Peter reminded him.

"Lines, I'm sure, the evil witch. But you know better, Wormtail. When was the last time a little thing like detention stopped the Marauders from doing what we do best?"

"Okay, so then what's the plan? Prongs?" Peter directed the question ahead, where James and Remus were walking.

"We have Double History of Magic after lunch, that should be enough time to come up with something. We're going to have to get seats together—"

"Like Binns will notice," Sirius snorted derisively. "You don't have Prefect duties with Evans tonight do you, Moony?" The boy in question shook his head, sandy blonde hair moving on its own.

"Lily is patrolling with that Ravenclaw bloke, Calvin."

"Richard Calvin? The smarmy bloke in Transfiguration? What does he have that I don't?" James exclaimed, running a hand through his hair as they entered the double doors to the Great Hall. Taking a seat at the long wooden table, he started to help himself to a sandwich and pumpkin juice.

Remus took a seat next to him, while Sirius and Peter took over the bench opposite.

"Mate, they're just patrolling, not snogging in a corner." James turned to Remus in amazement.

"How do you know? Do you follow them around? For all you know, they sneak off to the Room of Requirement for 3 hours of who-knows-what, Moony!" James stared at his werewolf friend in disbelief.

"Don't you think you may be overreacting just a bit, Prongs?" Wormtail questioned. Sirius' hand dropped onto his opposite shoulder, his arm circling Peter's thin frame.

"Wormtail, mate, Lily Evans has been the love of our dear friend Prongs' life for 6 years. I think this therefore exempts him from any accusations of overreacting He's a little desperate." Sirius confided, laughing at the look of outrage on James' face. He was quickly distracted however by the girl walking behind James' head.

"Oi, Murphy! Looking good!" He catcalled, winking at the girl when she turned. She smiled at him and then hurried to where the rest of the 6th year Gryffindor girls sat. They all leaned in to her, gigging, with the exception of a redhead with a well-known, volatile temper. She looked down towards the Marauders.

"Can't you try to keep it in your pants for an hour, Black?" She asked, disgust literally dripping from each word.

"But Evans, I would hate to deprive you of the opportunity to yell at me Anyways, you can't deny that I'm attractive." She scoffed and turned her back to the four the best she could, considering she was sitting on a bench.

"Padfoot, mate! No hitting on Evans, what have I told you!"

"There is no off switch on charm, Prongs. You just haven't turned yours on." Remus rolled his eyes at his long-haired friend, who was now busy eating his lunch with fervor.

"D'you think you could give that sandwich a break?" Sirius stopped mid-bite, and removing his mouth from around the bread, replied,

"I need my energy if we're going to be up all night!" And then finished his bite.

Half an hour later, while Binns floated through the chalk board, Sirius, James, Remus and Peter secured four seats in the back of the class. Each had a piece of blank parchment on the desks in front of them, although they had no intentions of note-taking.

The parchment glowed individually as each boy cast the spell they had developed and used on their beloved Marauder's Map. Remus started writing, and the others watched as his scrawling penmanship appeared on their papers.

Before we start planning, had any of you seen that spell Snivellus used on Padfoot?

Sirius scowled and wrote, I definitely haven't, but must we talk about my moment of shame right now?

Me neither, Peter wrote, hunching over his desk, his hand cramped around his quill, But how come we can never talk about when you get embarrassed, but it's perfectly okay for you to make fun of me or Prongs?

Because I am Merlin.

James' eyebrow raised in disbelief as "Merlin" finished on his parchment. He looked to his left, where Sirius was sitting on the other side of Remus and looking very proud of himself.

You mean because you're a great prat. (A/N--this is James)

I'm going to have to go ahead and agree with Prongs. Remus nudged Sirius, who kicked him back under the table.

Boys, boys, stop flirting. It's pranking time. Identical grins grew across the faces of the Marauders, and Binn's voice gradually faded out into the background noise of their devious minds.

Later that night, Sirius exited Professor McGonagall's office, massaging his cramped hand. The mirror he had concealed in his robes burned white-hot. He took it out, and spoke.

"Prongs?"

"Yea, mate, we're leaving now—cloak and Map too. Meet you by the Potions room."

"Right." He put the mirror back in his pocket and made his way to the dungeons, keeping to the shadows and checking around corners This was his favorite part about pranking, he could play secret agent to his heart's desire, rolling across the hallways, with his fake finger-revolver at the ready.

He stood outside the door to the Potions classroom, hidden mostly in shadow. There was a tap on his shoulder, and then the shimmering of James' invisibility cloak appeared. Sirius slipped underneath, careful not to trample on anyone's feet—four sixteen year olds under one cloak was getting to be a tight fit. Keeping quiet, the Marauders made their way to the Slytherin dormitories.

Remus whispered the password—being Prefect meant he had access to a lot of private information—and the snakes slid apart, revealing the cold stone interior. Peter remained outside with the cloak as a lookout, for his Charms skills were incomparable to the others'. Remus, Sirius and James crept into the six year dorm room, and began their enchantments.

Finished and thoroughly exhausted, they met Peter and trekked all the way back to Gryffindor Tower, where a very confused Pink Lady let them in. Collapsing onto his four-poster bed being careful to not wake their roommates, Sirius said smugly,

"He'll think before he tries that Levicorpus on me again."

Breakfast the next morning was uneventful until the Slytherin boys showed up suspiciously late. Snape was in the middle, and though the others were doing their best to hide him, the speech bubble that was constantly broadcasting a mix between Snape's actual thoughts and made-up ones from the twisted minds of four Gryffindor boys was unmistakable. The method of writing was similar to that of the charm used for their parchment communication, and a large "dinging" noise much like that of a typewriter could be heard as soon as a thought was finished forming, alerting everyone to its appearance.

The three other houses were in uproar as insult after confession was broadcast. A particularly loud cry of laughter was heard when it read,

My name is Severus Snape and I enjoy licking the bottoms of Gryffindor shoes.

"Classic," James muttered in awe, "Classic."

"Revenge is always best over cereal and coffee, I always say." Sirius said, proudly admiring his handiwork.

"Padfoot, you've never said that in your life." Peter mumbled through his mouthful of toast.

"Well I have now, and so it shall stand for forever."

That's right, I'm back. What did you think of the first update in months? Let me know in a review, and then post some challenges!