This is probably going to be my last update before HBP comes out; after that I'll probably be freaking out because all of my stories will then be AU, so don't expect an update too soon after that (I'll be busy rereading it and twisting it to my advantage). Just cross your fingers that JK Rowling doesn't dis-prove Salazar!Harry stories in it or I'll be crushed.
Is this going to affect the future? Or did this already happen and Harry is just making sure that it does happen?
It does affect the future but in a it-already-happened sort of way. He doesn't know what happened so he's not purposely making anything happen. On the other hand, he knows not to prevent anything he knows is going to happen.
Is it actually true about the fact that James and his friends weren't the first Marauders?
No, that's just something that I made up.
How will Harry be in the past? When will Harry's parents get married/ will they find out that Harry's their future son?
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I'd like to own Harry Potter but it's not as if I do. Got it?
Notice thing:
I do not own the idea of Harry Potter being Salazar Slytherin. Therefore, as far as I know, you are all allowed to write your own. In fact I encourage it! I love these fics and there aren't enough of them at the moment as far as I'm concerned. I'm even making a C2 for them! Just be sure that you don't copy my plot…I mean little things like Draco is Godric you could use but I do prefer you use your own ideas. Serphenia as the Basilisk's name is completely mine…Though I suppose you could use it and I prefer credit for it. If you have any questions about this you can just ask.
Enjoy, this is a huge chapter!
:Mindspeech:
-Parseltongue-
Chapter Eleven: Marauder's Nightmare
Harry woke up particularly early the next day and woke Severus. They spent almost a full hour plotting their 'first' prank (for nobody knew that the first prank was indeed Harry's) and how to pull it off. They then spent another half hour brainstorming for future pranks. Harry took up Rowena's job of writing down everything for future reference; cursing and jinxing every page of the notebook when he finished to make sure that the Marauders couldn't lay a finger on the book, let alone read it.
When they were done planning exactly which spells to use, when they would set them, and so on, Harry brought up a topic of conversation that Severus had not yet considered,
"So what should our nicknames be?"
"Nicknames?" Severus asked blankly.
"Yeah, we need nicknames so we can sign our pranks...You know, like the Marauders did when they pranked my hair and Silverfang did last night…" Harry said, trying to think of possible nicknames for the two of them.
"But why do we need nicknames when everybody knows it's us?" Severus asked.
"It's tradition," Harry said, shrugging, "Why question it?"
"But why…"
"Dagger," Harry interrupted.
"What?"
"I want to be called Dagger," Harry said.
"Why?" Severus asked curiously.
"Doesn't matter," Harry said, avoiding the question. The answers were all too personal. "Now the question is what is your nickname going to be?"
"I don't want a nickname!" Severus snapped. Harry briefly considered begging but gave up on it before he started and instead chose the more pushy approach.
"I don't care," Harry said stubbornly, "You need a nickname so I'm going to think of one for you." Severus made an angry noise somewhere between a huff and a growl but otherwise remained silent.
"I know!" Harry exclaimed so exuberantly and suddenly that Severus jumped and nearly fell off of his bed, "Poison!"
"Poison?" Severus asked, an eyebrow raised.
"Well I know it's not the most original nickname in the history of nicknames but it's pretty good. Anyways, your welcome to think of something better (before we actually pull off the prank that is) if you can. Or you can just add something to poison, it doesn't matter much…"
"Okay, okay I get it already!" Severus snapped, "Poison is fine."
They still had a couple hours until they really needed to be at breakfast, so they decided to just stay in the room and do a little schoolwork. Harry couldn't concentrate though; not so soon after having his Marauder side reawakened. Soon he had opened the journal again and was scribbling madly in it. Severus too became bored of his work and walked across the room to take a peek at whatever Evan was doing.
"I was thinking," Harry said, not looking up, "That our first prank is brilliant, it really is, but why not catch the Marauders while their guards are down? If we move the prank we already planned to breakfast (not the ideal time for pranking, I know, but then they'll be stuck with it all day) then we can set up all sorts of little pranks…And even another big one at dinner if we have time to plan it." Severus was smirking, watching the pages filling up with Evans writing and, occasionally, small diagrams.
"That would be extremely cruel," he commented thoughtfully, "But sure, why not? It sounds fun!" With smirks comparable only to the Weasley twins before a particularly nasty prank, the two once again began planning to make the day pure hell for the Marauders.
o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
The Marauders were not morning people; it was a well known fact in the Gryffindor common room. In fact, many Gryffindors had long ago given up on alarm clocks (which had to be specially ordered from magical stores as Muggle ones would useless upon entering the Hogwarts grounds) as the loud, shrill noises that they emitted were often covered up by the racket that went on inside the sixth year boy's dormitories.
This gave Severus and Harry (who had yet to think up any sort of team name) a definite advantage over the Marauders. The Marauders set up pranks mostly at night which allowed more time for them to be discovered, could get them into serious trouble for being out after curfew, and left them sleepy in the morning; more vulnerable to pranks.
Even with these disadvantages, the Marauders did not usually wake up before absolutely necessary (probably because they were not used to any form of competition) and as such any Gryffindor (save the first years) would have been absolutely shocked to see what happened in the sixth year boy's dormitories on the morning of the day that their unnamed adversaries planned to make living hell for them.
Remus Lupin, the werewolf and bookworm Marauder known as Moony to his close friends, woke up much earlier than usual and woke the other Marauders (as was custom). Without him the other Marauders would never make it to breakfast on time, stubbornly defying alarm clocks and rigged buckets of water alike to get a 'few minutes' sleep.
The lycanthrope spent a good half hour trying to wake up his friends without alerting anyone else of their early rising. The sad result was: you can't wake a Marauder without making a considerable amount of noise. In the end, he cast several of the strongest silencing charms he knew on the room before resorting to his usual method of tearing sheets off of beds, pouring buckets of water over random sleeping Marauders, and shouting things like 'We've slept halfway through Transfiguration; McGonagall's going to kill us!' or 'Ah! Prongs wake up, the common room's on fire!' to try and wake up the sleeping Marauders.
Eventually he got the other three Marauders up and dressed as well as thoroughly annoyed at a certain chocolate addicted werewolf. James was a little more disgruntled than the others, having faced the problem of taking a shirt off with a pair of gigantic antler sticking out of his head. Once he had managed to take off the (now torn) shirt he had had to figure out how to put another shirt on.
Finally, when the other Marauders were all ready to go, Remus grabbed James invisibility cloak and the Marauder's map, removed the silencing charms from their dormitory, and dragged the still groggy Marauders to The Room. The Marauders had never really felt the need to actually name The Room, though they occasionally called it the Marauder's Lair or other such titles. Though they shared their dormitory it was constantly searched by McGonagall in her attempts to hinder the Marauders pranks and, anyway, they enjoyed having a secret room where they could plot without being distracted or interrupted.
The Marauders had begun their search for an abandoned classroom that they could use when they first started pranking, though eventually lost hope on finding anything 'just right'. They had stumbled across The Room a few years previous when they were plotting out the Marauder's map and instantly agreed that the small, round tower was exactly what they were looking for. Over the years they had personalized the room; transfiguring some furniture with plenty of red and gold.
Now the Marauders filed into the room, each flopping onto their preferred chairs; Remus sat in the chair by the desk, Peter onto a comfortable armchair, and James and Sirius in beanbags. Remus reached into the desk and pulled out four small, leather-bound journals and a handful of quills and distributed them to the proper Marauders.
The journals were a masterpiece of charms on Remus's part. They were designed after The Marauder's Rulebook in certain aspects. Apart from stating all pranking rules, The Marauder's Rulebook housed the memories and personalities of its makers; much like the Marauder's Map, though a lot stronger as the original Marauders had a lot more knowledge of the complex spells needed.
It had been quite exciting when the Marauders (MWPP) had found out that they could actually converse with the Silverfang, Goldenclaw, Talon, and Stripe (though they didn't know their true identities). The original Marauders had given them advice on pranks, taught them a few pranking spells, and pointed out quite a few secret passage ways that the Marauders had known nothing about. Of course before they could do anything Remus had to put a very complex translating charm on the book, as the original Marauders didn't speak English.
Peter had, in an unusual display of genius, proposed connecting other books to the rulebook so that they would not have to fight over the small one when they wanted to write and crowd around the desk whenever they wanted to discuss pranks (plus the original journal was old and very fragile). Remus had done the spellwork, even adding a small charm so they each had their own ink color…Without the use of ink (for, as Peter had demonstrated, it could get everywhere and was hard to clean up). The journals all had their owner's name on the cover so they weren't mixed up.
We've got a bit of a problem here, Remus started. His ink had originally been blue but he had been mixed up with Talon (who also used blue ink) too much and had, in the end, switched to bronze (well, brown, actually) in honor of his Ravenclawness, or so the other Marauders said.
Oh, really? Remus could tell by the handwriting and color (green) that it was Silverfang that answered him, what's the problem?
Um well, Sirius started, not quite sure how to phrase it, there's this new kid, right? No idea where he came from or how he got here, but he's in our year. (Sirius and James had battled fiercely for the color gold and Sirius had, in the end, won it. James chose instead purple ink in support of his favorite Quidditch team, Pride of Portree)
That's odd, Talon interrupted, I don't think there' ever been a transfer student in Hogwarts before.
Yeah, well, Sirius said, as, I said, we have no idea where he came from. His name's Evan Harrison. His name's not from a wizarding family, as far as I can tell.
What house is he in? Silverfang asked curiously.
I was getting to that, Sirius said, somehow he got himself into 'Slytherin-Gryffindor'.
I don't think that ever happened before either, Talon said.
No, you don't say, Silverfang said.
I was just commenting, no need to be sarcastic! Talon snapped back.
Anyways, James cut in, taking up the story, he slept in our dorm while the Headmaster was working out a schedule. He was rather rude. And Slytherinish.
Well we were being rather rude to him in the first place, Prongs, Remus reminded him.
He made friends with Moony, Peter added in orange ink (tribute to the Chudley Cannons), and Lily.
Oh? Black ink; Stripe had decided to enter the conversation.
Moony and Snivellus were assigned to show him around the castle, Peter explained, no idea how he became friends with Lily. Prongs has been trying for ages.
So what's the trouble, Silverfang asked, is Prongs jealous?
Yes, three people wrote, while James scribbled out 'No!'
Admit it, you are, Prongs, Sirius said, but that's not the problem.
Well then, Red ink (Goldenclaw) asked, impatiently, what's the matter? There was no immediate answer.
They pranked him, Remus said, I didn't have anything to do with it.
WHAT? Large, bold green ink asked. It was the closest Silverfang could do to yelling and it made the Marauders cringe away from their journals. But he was in you house!
They turned his hair into snakes, Remus added, black snakes, as his hair is black.
Did anyone get hurt? Stripe asked.
Oh no, we remembered Silverfang's lectures well enough, James said, they were non-poisonous and they didn't even bite anyone. Well, as far as we know. I mean, they might have bitten Harrison sometime…
Anyways, Remus said, the problem is we were pranked back. Turned halfway into our Animagus forms. It was signed by someone claiming to be Silverfang. There was silence at the other side of the journals.
Well, what was the message? Silverfang asked.
Remus repeated what he could remember,
And then Evan stood up and challenged us to a prank war!
Does he know of your reputation? Goldenclaw asked.
Undoubtedly, James wrote, sourly, he was pretty cozy with Snivellus all day too, when he wasn't with Remus and Lily. There was another silence, while the original Marauders processed the information.
Ah, Silverfang said, our little Pronglet is jealous.
But do you have any advice? Sirius asked, ignoring James's scribbled denial.
Well, are you going to agree to the prank war? Stripe asked.
Of course! Sirius said
Then we can't help you, Talon said, out of the question. It's against the rules. We can recommend books and perhaps teach you a spell or two but no more than that. You have to come up with everything on you own.
But was it really Silverfang that wrote that? Remus asked.
I don't know, Silverfang wrote, as we have undoubtedly explained before, we aren't the real people. We have their memories (up to some point) and their behaviors but no more than that. I'm pretty sure we're all dead by now but there may have been other 'memories' of us woven into the wards after this book was created.
Oh, Remus said. He did remember hearing something like that, but this was a lot more detailed.
But I can give you a bit of advice, Goldenclaw said, if Silverfang really cast that spell, there's no way you're going to change back unless you release the spell on Evan's hair.
Okay, Remus said, Bye. The Marauders (both original and not-so-original) said their good byes before the not-so-original Marauders closed their journals. Just before Remus closed his, he noticed that the original Marauders were continuing their conversation in their native language. He shrugged and turned back to his companions.
"That was interesting."
Sirius snorted,
"That was an understatement, Moony."
"Do you think it really was Silverfang who pranked us?" Peter asked.
"No idea," James asked, "Maybe, maybe not."
"So, how do we release the spell?" Sirius asked. They'd never actually had to do it before. Peter looked blank and James shrugged.
"I'll do it," Remus said, "Of course, it would be a lot easier if Evan was near us but I don't suppose you want to go into breakfast looking like that."
"Definitely not," James said, while Sirius nodded his agreement.
"Thought so." Remus tried to remember the spell and, once he managed to pull it to the front of his mind, performed it. At once, the Marauders changed back to normal. "Impressive. Silverfang would have had to tie the charm we put on Evan to the charms he put on us, so when one is canceled, so is the other. That's some pretty impressive magic."
"Spare us the lecture, Moony," Sirius said, "Please?"
"I'm just saying that that's really advanced magic," Remus said.
"I really don't car how advanced the magic is," Peter said, "I'm starving. Can we please go eat now?"
"It's still early," Remus said, "Nobody's going to be there for about half an hour. Well, maybe some Ravenclaws…"
In the end the end they decided to go anyways, even though they hadn't set up any pranks yet. As Sirius had said, Evan couldn't have time to set up any pranks this early in the morning and, anyways, the Marauders had the advantage of knowing their way around the school. They headed down to the Great Hall (happily fur-less, and antler-less, and nice and normal), laughing and joking as was their style.
As they burst into the Great Hall, they were startled to notice Evan and Snape chatting quietly at the Slytherin table. They glanced at each other, silently agreed the pair must be mental to have woken up that early, shrugged, and sat down at the Gryffindor table. They were even more unnerved to note that, right before they started digging into their food, Evan raised his glass of pumpkin juice in a silent toast, smirked in a peculiar way that set the hairs on the back of the Marauders necks on end, and finished the altogether menacing gesture with a little wave to Remus.
o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Severus watched the Marauders cross the hall with barely contained glee. Despite the fact that they couldn't set their prank off yet (it was much too early and there were too few people around) the anticipation gave him almost as much joy as the actual prank was about to.
"I think you scared them," he commented, watching the Marauders turn white after Evan's little gesture, "Couldn't have scared them too bad, though; they're still eating."
Evan shrugged,
"No force on Earth that I have yet encountered could stop a Gryffindor from eating if the food's right in front of them and they don't have a reason not to."
"That's probably true," Severus said, "I don't claim to be an expert on Gryffindor behavior."
"It would be weird if you did," Evan said, "Your Slytherin through and through. Though I suppose it would be Slytherin anyways, know the enemy and all that stuff."
His companion shot him an amused glance,
"Your right, of course."
"Of course," Evan echoed. There was a silence and then it was his turn to shoot his friend an amused glance, "Stay still, your practically fidgeting. It'll be time to set off the prank soon enough."
"I'm not fidgeting," Severus said, scowling.
"Of course," Evan said, grinning.
Time moved by painfully slow for Severus. He checked his watch constantly and could almost swear that it was moving backwards. Evan was humming a song that Severus didn't recognize, eating and reading and working on an essay that Professor Assero had assigned before he had arrived.
Finally the hall began to fill up until the tables were all filled with students. He hadn't yet asked Evan when they could set it off, not wanting to be accused of fidgeting or whining or whatever else there was to be accused of.
Presently, Evan looked up from his work,
"The hall looks pretty full, doesn't it? I suppose it's time to set it off. Would you like to?"
"No, you do it," Severus said, "I don't know how."
Evan shrugged,
"Remind me to teach you next time." He pulled his wand out of seemingly nowhere and waved it inconspicuously, muttering a password under his breath.
There was an explosion from the Gryffindor table. Well, not quite an explosion, explosions were what happened in potions class as a result of an incompetent teacher, but a large…It was hard to describe. One minute the Gryffindors were shoveling food and chatting happily (somehow managing to do both at the same time, despite the fact that both required the use of one's mouth), the next there was a loud BANG and a giant poof of pink and purple smoke complete with glittering silver confetti.
There was complete silence in the hall (evidently, everyone realized it was a prank, rather than a Death Eater attack, or there would have been pandemonium) as everyone watched with bated breath. The smoke cleared. And there was laughter.
The first Marauder visible (completely out of place amongst pink and purple smoke and sparkly silver confetti) was Sirius. Only he didn't look anything like Sirius any more. She wore a black dress. Black lipstick was visible on pale lips. And plenty of silver jewelry, including piercings. Plus, as if that wasn't enough, there were at least five visible (and very large) tattoos of snakes. A very shocked looking (as well as female looking and Goth looking) Sirius stood frozen (not by spell) in the middle of the Great Hall. And it got better.
Seconds later, the smoke was a bit thinner and James was visible standing next to Sirius and looking even less like himself (or herself) than his friend. Blond hair fell down a little past waist length and she was wearing the most blinding, most pink dress than anyone in the Great Hall had ever seen before. There was so much jewelry on her that it was a wonder that she could even stand up straight; it surpassed even Trelawney on a bad day by far.
Remus was visible next, though she was a bit of a let down. Evan had decided to go easy on his friend and Severus (who was, truth be told, more than a little frightened of the werewolf) had reluctantly agreed. Her hair was cut shoulder length, in a semi-boyish style and was adorned with a baseball hat (turned backwards). A simple outfit of a plain shirt, jeans, and sneakers (though they were out of sight) completed the look.
If the audience were disappointed by the tomboy (for in fact a boyish girl wasn't horribly far from a regular boy), they were less disappointed when they saw Peter. Not a single article of clothing that the former boy was wearing matched. In fact the only thing they had in common was that they looked horrible together. Magenta, lime green, bright blue, and plenty of other painful colors were thrown carelessly together in patterns of stripes, polka dots, swirls, and even plaid in the worst ways imaginable. Severus was quite surprised that nobody threw up but none did, as far as he knew.
They took one look at each other and fled the hall, though not before they saw the most recent message in glowing green letters:
'Brought to you by Poison & Dagger
We hope you have a great day!'
They were heading towards The Room but it was very far from the Great Hall and when they were nearly there they were stopped by the sound of the bell ringing through the hallway. James and Sirius swore loudly (in slightly higher, more feminine voices than usual), wheeling around and leading the other two down to the Entrance Hall and out towards the greenhouses.
As they barreled out of the castle, they didn't notice the barrier stretched across the doorway and, not having the ability to see magic, they didn't see it set off a spell. In their rush they didn't notice that not a bird was singing anywhere in hearing range. Had they noticed, they undoubtedly wouldn't have thought anything about it. They ran on, oblivious to the hundreds of birds that lived in the forbidden forest and around the Hogwarts grounds rise up in a great mass of feathery, black wings; oblivious to the fact that Merlin knows how many birds had a single goal in mind: to make life as miserable as possible for the Marauders.
It was the loss of sunlight that first alerted one of the Marauders. She glanced upwards and gasped.
"Uh, guys? Or, uh…Girls?"
"This had better be important, Moony," Sirius panted, slowing to a stop.
"Look up," Remus said, her mind still trying to process what she was seeing. Peter squeaked. Sirius swore.
"What the…" James didn't get a chance to finish the sentence (which would have, undoubtedly, ended in much profanity). The birds attacked. They swooped down towards the Marauders and pecked at them furiously and, when Remus regained her head enough to cast a shielding spell, they used other means, particularly their…natural ammunition which, for some reason, managed to get through every shield that Remus managed to set up.
Remus, seeing that her companions looked about ready to Avada Kedavra the whole lot of birds, wisely chose to speak,
"Run! We can find cover in the greenhouses!"
They took off as fast as they could but the birds were faster. They were everywhere the Marauders looked and more. Darting about and weaving between each other, dropping their droppings and pecking at them (the shield had gone down when they had started running). They ran to the greenhouses and ran into the one in which the sixth years took classes, slamming the door behind them.
"You're late," Professor Sprout commented, disapprovingly.
"We were a bit, uh, preoccupied," Remus, who (like the other marauders) was covered in bird droppings, said.
"We saw," was the Professor's only comment and the Marauders noticed with red cheeks that everyone in the greenhouse was near the windows where they must have been watching them, only moments before. "Because you have a…reasonable excuse, you're excused from the detentions that I would have given you. However, you would have been late even if you hadn't been preoccupied by this particular occurrence. Five points from Gryffindor. Each." Sirius groaned. "Would you like me to make it more, Ms. Black? Now, as I was saying, this week and next we will be studying the magical properties of various trees used in potions and wands. Can anyone tell me the magical properties of Yew? Yes, Mr. Harrison?"
"I can't believe this!" Sirius hissed angrily, "It wasn't like it was our fault!"
"Do you think there's more?" Peter asked worriedly, "The note said 'we hope you have a great day'...Do you think it means something?"
"And who's 'we'?" James asked, "I mean there's Harrison but who's the other guy?"
"I think it's Snape," Remus said, "They were pretty friendly yesterday…"
"Hiya Remus!" Evan said. He had somehow managed to make his way all the way across the classroom while the Marauders were talking, "Wow, you're a mess." The Marauders glowered at him.
Remus scowled,
"That wasn't very nice of you. What did you do to those demon birds?"
"What makes you think I did anything," Evan asked innocently, "Those birds could have decided to attack you all on their own." He winced as Remus scowled harder. "You really are a mess. Okay, don't tell Severus I did this. Scourgify! Well, that's a little better I suppose…At least we can see your wonderful outfit now." He had purposely didn't put very much effort into the spell, though Remus didn't know that.
"Mr. Harrison!" Sprout had seen him chatting to the Marauders, "What is the significance of Yew in Muggle culture?"
Evan sighed,
"Yew trees are symbolic of death resurrection, as the wood is particularly resistant to rotting. They were once traditional features of Muggle churchyards. Yew has little significance in present day Muggle culture."
"Very good, Mr. Harrison, you were listening after all. Ten points to…" She paused, "Which house do you wish the points to go to?"
"Half and half?" Evan asked.
"Five points then to Gryffindor and Slytherin," the Professor said before continuing with her lecture.
"Professor Sprout doesn't like you much," Harry commented, noticing the venomous looks the normally mild tempered teacher shot the Marauders.
"A prank gone wrong in our third year set one of the greenhouses on fire," Remus explained, "She still blames us for the loss of her precious plants."
"Ah, okay. That would explain it," Evan said, "Anyways, I'd better go. Your friends are looking murderous. See you later, Remus! Have a great day!" He headed back across the classroom to where Lily was sitting while the Marauders glanced at each other, faces white.
Absolutely nothing happened in Transfiguration. The Marauders were so jumpy during the class, though, that none of them managed to successfully transfigure their matchboxes into anything resembling a chess set (even James, who was the best in the class at the subject). They did manage to clean themselves up a bit, though, with a few cleaning spells when McGonagall wasn't looking.
Finally the class was over and the Marauders headed to lunch. They were feeling a bit cockier since they hadn't been pranked yet, despite the fact that Evan had been in the room the whole time. Surely he would have pranked them he had any pranks ready…Right?
They stepped through the open doors leading to the Great Hall. That is, they tried to. As soon as they crossed the threshold they were thrown backward, landing on their rears several feet away. They sat there for a moment, stunned, before Sirius got to her feet and tried to enter the hall. As before, she was thrown backwards, though this time she was thrown into James.
"Hey!" James snapped, pushing her friend off of her.
"Sorry Prongs," Sirius said, staring at the doorway and trying to see an invisible barrier.
James was trying to stare at it too,
"Maybe if we push hard enough…" The two ran as fast as they could into the barrier and went flying all the way down the corridor. Unfortunately for the amusement of everyone watching, they didn't try it again. Instead they walked up to it, just in front of where they thought the barrier was (Peter ended up going a little too far and was pushed backwards a couple feet) and tried to figure out what to do.
"How are we supposed to get in there?" Sirius asked, watching the other students eat, "I'm starving!" Remus admitted to not knowing what sort of spell it was and they discussed their options. None really knew what to do and they finally decided to try one more run at the barrier to see if it would collapse (for lunch was nearly over and they were hungry).
They backed up to almost the end of the hallway and charged at the barrier that they couldn't see. The only problem was, Evan had released the barrier a while ago and they ran right through it. The Marauders realized too late their mistake and tried to slow down but they were leaning forwards too much and soon lost their balance. Sirius tripped first followed closely by James and Remus (who tripped over his two friends). Peter was the last to trip, not having put too much strength in his charge, and tripped over the other three, banging his head quite painfully in the process.
The rest of the day passed slowly and very painfully. Peter ate something in lunch that made him temporarily fall in love with half of the Slytherin population (spending lunch sighing over various Slytherins and even asking Lucius if she could carry his books); they got into a lot of trouble with Flitwick when their books acted up in charms and he even complemented 'whoever cast the charm' for their 'perfect charmwork' when he examined the books; when they finally managed to get some time in The Room they found that it had been decorated with Slytherin colors; and during dinner they unintentionally put on a play for the Wizard of Oz (staring James as Dorothy and Sirius as Toto).
The Marauders dragged themselves back up to the common room, almost too tired to talk. Almost.
"I'm going to kill Harrison!" Sirius said angrily, "How in the world did he get so many pranks set up?"
"I have no idea," James said, "How long do you think we're going to stay girls?"
"Maybe it will be gone by tomorrow…" Peter said hopefully.
"Doubtful," Sirius said, "But at least you aren't covered with snake tattoos."
"It can't be nearly as bad as what I'm wearing," Peter argued. This was something she normally wouldn't do, but she was too exhausted to care.
"Unity conquers," Remus said, yawning, as they approached the common room, silently glad that she was a tomboy, rather than anything that her friend had ended up as. There was a hissing and Remus looked up. In the frame where the fat lady usually sat there was an enormous, black snake.
Peter gave a yell (he had always been afraid of snakes and even more so when he learned his Animagus form was a rat) and backed away from it, his panic overruling the logical part of his brain that knew that portraits couldn't harm anybody. The snake gave what Evan could have told the Marauders was an amused hiss, though it seemed downright menacing to the pranksters. To their very great relief, the portrait swung open without further complaint and the Marauders ran all the way up to their dormitory, slamming the door shut (there were a few yells from those who had been sleeping) and leaning against the closed door.
"What…the…hell…?" James panted. By the looks on the other's faces, they agreed.
Finally, Remus got up,
"We should get to bed, I'm exhausted."
They hurried to change into their bedclothes but found that the clothing ran away from them whenever they tried to put it on. It was quite a sight to see Sirius fighting with hers while rolling about on the floor while James tried to force her way into hers. Peter attempted to stun hers but it had regained consciousness when she had finished changing and was trying desperately to get off of its owner. Remus had given up but realized, upon starting to get into her bed, that the pillows had been animated too and scuttled away from her.
In the end, Remus had managed to un-animate everything (though their bedclothes changed colors and sometimes design to match the dressed they had been wearing, excluding Remus who hadn't been wearing a dress) and they climbed into bed, extremely tired. It was Peter who first noticed the hissing and something cold, scaly, and moving touching his feet. With a yell he threw back his covers to reveal a writhing mass of snakes in his bed. The others scrambled out of their beds as fast as they could.
"Harrison's going to pay!" Sirius hissed, climbing back into bed some time later, after they had finally managed to get rid of all of the snakes, "Somehow, we'll make him pay for what he did to us today!"
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I'm sorry guys for not updating sooner. Apart from myself I have only my crazy muses to blame. They insisted that I write Tainted Betrayal and have been quite insistent that I write a couple others too. They just won't listen to me when I tell them that the next book is coming out in a couple days and the stories will be messed up after that anyways…(sigh)
Anyways, there was a lot of stuff on how the Marauders work in the near beginning of the chapter and then after that…Well, lots of misery for them.
You like the pranks? The girl one was the unanimous vote (pretty much) though I added some to it. The Goth part felt a bit stereotypical, though it wasn't meant to be. I would have made it vague but I don't think my readers would appreciate me dropping details like that.
As ever, prank ideas are greatly appreciated (as are reviews), though I do have a large surplus of pranks to draw upon for a while...Well maybe not, I used an awful lot in this chapter. The problem is mostly that I can't find any pranks to be pulled on Severus and Harry and/or Slytherin house. Apart from the fact that a large majority of the pranks you guys gave me are for the Marauders or wouldn't be quite right on Severus and/or Harry.