Sirius was so not in the mood to work in Charms that day. He'd already tricked the (unfortunate) person next to him into eating a vomit flavoured Bertie Botts Every Flavour Bean, and let off some small fireworks from Zonko's. Needless to say, Professor Flitwick wasn't very impressed with Sirius.

But Sirius was bored and he had nothing to do! There was no one worth talking to within distance and there were no Slytherins in the class to pick on! He decided that Prongs would entertain him. Looking over, he saw James chatting to Lily; Sirius decided that could easily be interrupted so he got up and sauntered over to his best mate.

"What's up, Prongs?" Sirius greeted. He nodded to Lily, who said a simple "Hi" in return. James had an amused smile on his face. "Bored already, Padfoot?"
"Yep!" Sirius didn't like standing when everyone else was sitting, so he looked to his left. Marlene McKinnon was sitting there, watching him. She could guess what was about to happen. "Scoot over, McKinnon. Give a man some room."

Marlene remembered Flitwick's warning at the beginning of the school year about sitting in the wrong seats, whereas Sirius obviously didn't. She stood and offered Sirius her chair with a smirk. "Well, that's very kind of you," Sirius said snootily. Marlene didn't know what would happen, but she knew she wanted to be far away from Sirius when it did. She went and stood behind James, who was also grinning widely, just as Sirius sat.

A loud buzzer started ringing throughout the class. It reminded Lily of the buzzer muggles used at basketball tournaments. Sirius looked up in surprise, just as a cauldron of white slime emptied itself over his head. He tried to jump off his seat, but found he was now glued to it. Glitter was then dumped over that, causing Sirius to shout.
"Do you know how hard this is to get off your body?" he yelled in outrage. "This will be in my hair for weeks!"
"We know," Marlene sniggered. "The question is, how do you know?"
Sirius, unperturbed by Marlene's suggestion, yelled "A real man plays with glitter! So what?"

The class started laughing at Sirius, and he grinned, thinking that what he said was funny. He soon realised that they weren't laughing at what he said, rather, at him as a whole.
"Prongs, what are they laughing at?" Sirius found he could now get off the chair and stood. He patted himself down quickly, making sure all his essential body parts were there. He didn't realise a couple had been added.

Remus appeared at Sirius' side with Peter. "Nice tail, Padfoot," Remus smirked.
"I prefer your dog one," Peter added.
"I dunno," James sniggered. "This one's a nice change."

Sirius, horrified, patted his back and backside until he found the accusing tail. It was thick and fluffy, and he turned in circles trying to find it. This caused more laughter.

Finally realising what he was doing, Sirius stopped spinning. He looked at Lily sternly. "Be honest, Evans," he said. "Do I have ears?"
"Two sets," Lily giggled. Sirius reached up to the top of his head to find a pair of new, long, floppy ears.

"What am I?" he cried out in terror.

"Mister Black!" Professor Flitwick had finally decided it was time to intervene. "Do you not remember my warning at the beginning of term?"
"No," Sirius grumbled.
Flitwick clucked his tongue. "You will do well to remember it in the future. Would you like to see your punishment?" He waved his wand and conjured a full-body mirror that was twice the size of him and handed it to Peter, who held it in front of Sirius.

"You turned me into a bloody bunny rabbit?" Sirius shouted. His ears stood erect, but Sirius couldn't stop pulling them down around his face in shame. "I eat these for dinner!"
The marauders couldn't stop laughing as they remembered that Sirius liked to chase hares and rabbits for entertainment on the full moon.
"Well now you have experience in being the victim," Professor Flitwick said sternly. "Think twice before breaking my rules again."
He waved his wand and Sirius was returned to his normal state. The class sighed in disappointment.
"This is all your fault, McKinnon!" Sirius growled when the professor was out of earshot. "You knew this would happen!"
Marlene returned to her seat, pleased that nothing happened to her. "Of course I didn't," she said. Then she grinned. "You looked fabulous though."
"A real model," Remus added.

James was trying to return to a state of composure, for his best mates' sake. "At least he didn't leave you like that all day," he said comfortingly. Lily, beside him, had her hand over her mouth to muffle her giggles. At Flitwick's command, everyone returned to their seats and work.

Sirius frowned. That wasn't the type of entertainment he had in mind when he went to visit Prongs! "I hate bunnies."

Once the class returned to order, the noise level back to normal and Sirius was out of sight, Lily had the urge to question James.

"So, Sirius has a dog tail, huh?" Lily asked casually. She hadn't missed Peter's passing remark.
James winced. "Do I have to answer that?"
"No," Lily said, twisting her self-inking quill between her fingers. "But I am curious."
"I'll tell you another time," James promised. Lily nodded.

"Well, alright. So for Halloween, which is now two and a half weeks away," Lily reminded James, "What do you think of floating pumpkins?"
"That's a good idea," James agreed. "We could dress the statues up as well, and I'm sure I could convince Peeves to be a nuisance."
"More of a nuisance than usual," Lily teased. "Maybe he could throw lollies at the first years?"
"Or dungbombs," James corrected. "He's got to get some sort of enjoyment out of it!"
Lily smiled but felt bad for the first years. "Are you planning some sort of prank for Halloween?" she asked. "You've been very quiet this year."
"We've only been back a month," James said. "Besides, it's out NEWT year. We need to concentrate."

Lily doubted that was the reason but let it slide.

"I'm sure Sirius could cook something up. Maybe we could put a troll in the dungeon or something. He said he had seventy-two prank ideas for this year."
Lily gasped. "Seventy-two?"
James smirked at her reaction. "Do you prefer our quietness now?" Lily nodded. "That's what I thought."
They got back on track. "The elves look after the food," Lily said and checked off something on her list. "Maybe we could get Hagrid to carve some pumpkins for the Entrance Hall?"
"He's grown some coloured ones this year," James said unnecessarily.
Lily was writing notes on her list. "Why don't you ask Sirius what he's got in mind?" Lily suggested. "Try to coordinate it with our other ideas."

Lily didn't see anything wrong with using what she had at her disposal. The marauders were good at pranking and it would offer quite a bit of entertainment for the students.

James was grinning. He never thought he'd see the day when Lily was encouraging him to prank. "Oi, Padfoot!" James yelled. Sirius turned his head reluctantly (he was still a bit upset over the bunny incident). James waved him over, but he shook his head firmly. "No way, Prongs!" Sirius called. "You can come to me!"

With a sigh, he left Lily at the table and went over to Sirius. "Plans for Halloween?" James asked.
Sirius sulked. "You said no pranks."
"I said one per month," James corrected. "Anyway, this is a perfect opportunity. Lily actually wants us to prank!"
"Lily wants us to, so that makes it okay? Suddenly we can do what we've always done because we have her permission?"

James noticed that Sirius was very upset. "What's wrong, mate?" he asked. He leaned on Sirius' desk.
"I was humiliated, Prongs!" Sirius exclaimed. "My pride is ruined!"
James rolled his eyes. "You humiliate yourself on a daily basis."
"True." Sirius nodded his head and just like that, he was over it. "Well, I was thinking of putting something really dangerous in the Slytherin common room, like a dragon or something." Sirius checked off his fingers. "I was gonna charm the brooms to fly backwards for a day. Also, how about letting our furry little problem out one night? Let it roam about the castle?"

James was shocked. "Sirius. Funny, not deadly. Merlin."
"Well there goes about ten of my ideas," Sirius grumbled.
"Think of pumpkins," James suggested, "and dressed-up statues."

Sirius thought for about five seconds. "We could have a pumpkin parade," he suggested. James leant on the desk on his elbows, sticking out his ass. "Pumpkins on the head of the statues and bewitch them to walk about or something?"

James grinned. He could always rely on Sirius. "That's excellent. Keep thinking, write them down or something. Lily will want to know." Pleased with his success, he returned to his desk to inform Lily of the plans.

"That's good," Lily agreed after James had told her. Then she started giggling uncontrollably.
"What?" James asked with a smile. "What have you thought of?"
"Well," Lily began, trying to hold back her grin, "do you think it would be possible to transfigure the owl's heads so they're pumpkin shaped?"
"No," James said. Lily looked disappointed. "But we could make the owl post actual pumpkins until they fall on the tables?"

Lily was pleased with that idea and wrote it down. "This is going to be a really good Halloween," she said happily.