Chapter 30: Three Years Came and Gone
"What a week." Lily exclaimed to no one in particular. They had gotten back their results the day before. James, as usual, topped the level for Transfiguration while Lily topped Charms. Sirius topped for Defense Against Dark Arts while Remus for Muggle Studies, Arabella for Divination and Stefanie for Care for Magical Creatures. Even Peter topped Herbology for his first time.
"Three years just flew passed." Lily said as she settled on the couch beside James. It was the last second day of the term before they had to leave for their summer holidays. They were spared from the practices this week and the group was enjoying their short-lived freedom to the max. In four years time, I'm going to graduate from the place I call my second-home.
"I can't believe Dumbledore wants us to practice our powers during the holidays. He had written to my father to tell him that we're entitled to use our magic outside school but must never allow anyone else to see us." James said happily. Hmm.. maybe for once I can come up with a decent prank in the holidays. Who can I prank?? The neighbors?? The Marauders had just finished their one-week detention from the prank they pulled a fortnight ago.
"It had been an eventful year. I wonder what's for us in our next four years here." Lily sighed. The group had gathered together in front of the fireplace. It was dinnertime and neither of them was into the mood of having dinner in the Great Hall. Sirius and Remus had offered to go to the kitchen to get seven sets of dinner. Arabella, Stefanie and Peter had tagged along with the two guys, leaving Lily and James in the common room by themselves since everyone else was at the Great Hall.
"Four years is a long time. But I'm sure we'll have the best time of our lives here. Fion always said how much she misses her life here in Hogwarts." James said, stretching lazily in the couch.
"The future had already been planned for us. We've a task to fulfill." Lily pointed as he turned and looked at James. Hmm.. he looks cute lying there. I still think he looks wonderful in his specs.
"I'm sure everything will turn out fine." James said and turned towards Lily, and caught her off-guard for staring at him. Why is she looking at me like that?? Something on my face?? James wiped his face quickly.
"Hope that's the case. We're training really hard for that." Lily turned back and stared blankly at the fire. What am I trying to do?? Stare at him?? Argh..
"So what are your plans for this break??"
"Practicing my powers??"
"Other than that??"
"Don't know. Hope my parents haven't planned anything for me. Besides I think we'll need to gather at your place for practice." Lily said as she thought of the letter she wrote home telling her parents not to plan anything for her this summer.
"How are you going to practice?? There isn't a hospital wing at my home."
"I don't know."
"Anyway, I'm sure Dumbledore will think of something. This summer is going to be really fast."
"Definitely. Training is tiring. But at least during the break we don't have any lessons and homework to deal with."
"True. We can start planning our holidays when the rest get back."
"Yeah. I'm starving already."
"So am I." That was like a final statement. The two of them just sat at their respective couches and stoned.
"We're back!!" Sirius yelled as he hopped into the common room ten minutes later, breaking the peace in Gryffindor common room in the last ten minutes.
"How's the conversation??" Arabella asked, eyeing Lily and James and back to Lily again.
"Just like that." James told Arabella truthfully. Lily eyed Arabella suspiciously. Arabella returned the look with a not-so-innocent-looking grin.
"Anyway we gotten seven different varieties of pizza for dinner." Remus said proudly.
"Hawaiian, Pepperoni, Supreme, Curry Chicken, Seafood Supreme, Vegetarian and Stuff-crust chicken." Stefanie listed the seven pre-cut pizzas and aligned them on the table magically.
"Why do you need five people to get seven pizzas??" Lily asked curiously, eyeing Arabella and Stefanie.
"We just want to get familiarize with the route to the kitchen, just in case." Arabella said, with an ultra innocent look plastered on her face. Stefanie was suddenly looking very angelically innocent.
"Yeah, right." Lily muttered.
"Chow time!!" James shouted as he reached for his first slice of the Stuff-crust chicken pizza. The rest grabbed a slice of pizza each and started eating.
"So what's the end-of-year prank this time??" Lily asked the Marauders in generally.
"We had already planned that. All the props are ready and waiting." James said smirking.
"So what is it??" Lily pestered.
"Only the Marauders know."
"Fine." They continued eating their pizzas. The girls ate about four slices each while the guys ate at least double of what the girls had ate.
"Are we going to spend the night sitting here??" Sirius asked playfully.
"No, we're going to spend in the dorm with Joey and Samantha." Lily replied coolly.
"What about you guys??" Arabella asked the guys.
"Only the Marauders know." James replied again.
"Fine. I thought we're friends." Lily pointed.
"Yeah, but only guys can be a Marauder." James said as he helped himself with another slice of pizza.
"Let's play a little bit of truth or dare. But we keep whatever we know purely in this room." Lily suggested. The five third-years were having a small slumber party in their dormitory. It was one of their few gatherings.
"Ok, let's use this bottle to select." Arabella suggested as she took a new bottle of Evian mineral water bottle out from the magical bag. Lily, Arabella and Stefanie had made a dash to the kitchens after their dinner to gather some snacks for their all-girls slumber party.
"No magic on the bottle ok??" Joey said because Arabella's face was plastered with an obvious cheeky look.
"No worries." Arabella assured. "Whoever use any magic to force the selection must go to the boys' dorm to get their underwear."
"That sounds like a good dare you know." Lily said devilishly.
"I thought you just said keeping tonight purely in this room??" Samantha joked.
"I eat my words then. I must say Bell had came up with an awfully good dare!!" Lily replied grinning.
"Imagine every single dare was to go to the boys' dormitory to get their underwear. They'll realize that all their underwear went missing overnight!!" Stefanie said. The five girls started giggling.
"Ok, let me spin this bottle." Arabella said. She turned the bottle forcefully. The bottle twirled round and round and finally it stopped at Joey.
"Truth or dare??"
"Truth."
"Who do you have a crush on??"
"Ricter Davis from Ravenclaw. And probably Remus as well." Joey said, blushing very furiously. Stefanie looked at her, rather amazed at her honesty.
"Stef getting competition ooh."
"You like Ricter too??"
"Nope."
"Then must be Remus." Samantha said grinning while Joey was still blushing away. Stefanie kept quiet but smiled instead.
"Joe, your turn to spin." Lily said to the blushing girl. She calmed down a little and turned the bottle gently.
"Bell, truth or dare??"
"Dare."
"I dare you go to the boys' dormitory and take Sirius' underwear over."
"No problem. Be right back." Arabella said and left the dormitory. The girls started eating their snacks while waiting for Arabella to come back.
"Ta-da!!" Arabella returned five minutes later holding plain blue boxers and swinging it wildly.
"How do we know if it's Sirius' boxers??" Lily asked, laughing at Arabella's triumph grin.
"I'm sure. Look at this little word here at the waistband. The room looked rather disastrous and clothes were scattered all over. I went straight to his trunk to take clean underwear. I don't trust those on the floor." Arabella said. "I think the guys labeled their underwear in case of wearing the wrong one. And I realized that they actually all have single colour underwear." The four girls started laughing hysterically.
"Let's continue, Bell." Arabella flunked Sirius' boxers under her bed and spun the bottle.
"Stef, truth or dare??"
"Truth."
"What's your wildest fantasy with Remus??" Arabella asked. Stefanie blushed at the question while Joey started blushing a little as well.
"Kissing."
"Only kissing??"
"Yupz. With the beach and starry sky as well."
"Ok." Lily said, not convinced at Stefanie's confession. Stefanie took the bottle and spun.
"Sam, truth or dare??"
"Dare."
"Get two boxers belonging to two different guys from the third-year boys' dormitory." Arabella exclaimed before someone else came up with another dare.
"What's with the underwear frenzy??" Stefanie asked in amazement.
"I just want to make them lose their underwear overnight." Arabella said, having a triumph smile on her.
"What's the point?? We're going back tomorrow anyway." Joey pointed.
"We can create a prank with those underwear tomorrow morning at breakfast if we could gather enough boxers." Lily suggested.
"That's a great idea. Ok, two different boys' boxers. No problem." Samantha said and she left the room. The four girls started chatting and eating while waiting.
"Back!!" Samantha said, holding green boxers and red boxers.
"One from James and one from Remus." Lily said, laughing. Samantha threw the boxers to a corner while Arabella crawled under her bed to retrieve Sirius' boxers to add to the pile. Samantha spun the bottle and it turned back to Arabella.
"Why is it me again??"
"Because it's not us."
"Ok, dare."
"Three different boxers."
"Deal." Arabella left the dormitory. Within five minutes, she returned holding a pile of boxers of four different colours.
"I thought we only said three??"
"I figured that I probably have to run there and get more and more each time. I took every single piece that I can find in their trunks and on the floor. The only boxers that I did not touch are those on them." Arabella said as she dumped the pile of boxers at the corner and went to their bathroom to wash her hands.
"It gets boring if every single person answer dare. Shall we just make it truth??" Lily suggested.
"Alright." Arabella spun the bottle. The bottle pointed at her again. "Not counted, I can't choose myself." She spun the bottle again and it pointed at Lily.
"Shoot."
"Hmm.. When did you fall for James??" Samantha asked cheekily.
"Back in first year I supposed. I don't really remember actually. I think after the revenge we had on them on the second week of school. I thought he looked cute in the boxers with the 'I Love Mummy.'" Lily said and all of them started laughing at the memory of the three eleven-year-old boys wearing nothing but boxers in the Great Hall. Lily took the bottle and spun. The bottle pointed at Samantha.
"So who do you like??"
"Jun Chang."
"WHAT?!?"
"Just joking. I'm not a lesbian don't worry. Ok, I like Leo Jordon."
"He's graduating at the end of this year."
"Yeah, and I barely know him." Samantha said with a rather disappointed tone.
"There'll be a better guy out there."
"Definitely." Samantha took the bottle and spun. The bottle pointed at Arabella again.
"Not again!! Let's do makeover after this."
"Ok, it's like three and this game is getting a little boring."
"Shoot the question."
"Do you like Sirius??"
"I don't!!"
"You don't??"
"I don't!! He's so annoying and irritating and boring and perverted and sicko and-"
"You sure know my brother well enough to discover all that."
"You don't need to know him well to discover that. Everyone can see."
"I can't."
"Neither can I. I think he's a funny guy."
"He's pretty nice and humorous."
"Oh great. You all are targeting at me."
"Just admit that you like Sirius."
"No. I don't!!"
"You do."
"No." Arabella said and she covered her ears. The four girls started laughing at her.
"Let's do something with the boxers. Shall
we display them in the common room and hang them at the entrance or
something??" Stefanie said, looking over at the heap of boxers at the corner of
the room.
"Let's chain them in alternate colors." Lily said as the five girls grabbed their wands and magicked a string to connect the entire long chain of underwear.
"Done. Let's head down to the common room." Stefanie said as she levitated the series of flag-like boxers down with the four girls following behind.
"Let's hang around the four corners and the entrance as well."
"Make it low enough so people could notice their little names on the waistband."
"How about we hang around the circumference of the common room??"
"Ok."
"We need a charm that can secure this so that no one can take them out before everyone sees them."
"No problem." Lily muttered a complicated sounding charm.
"What did you do??"
"Try pulling the boxers from the location??"
Don't pull me!! Don't pull me!!
"The boxers are talking!!" Arabella
exclaimed at the screechy sound the talking boxers are making.
"That's right!!" The five girls started giggling softly.
"Let's return. We mustn't let anyone know that we did this." Lily said as the crept silently back to their dormitories at four in the morning.
"Let start with our makeovers and then we can head down for breakfast at seven." Stefanie said.
"Guys!! Wake up!! It's time for the prank!!" Remus went round the three beds and shook James, Sirius and Peter vigorously. Remus was the only early bird. James had the most difficulty in waking up every morning.
"Five more minutes!!"
"It's five already!!"
"Don't disturb me!!" Remus conjured up three pail of icy cold water above each of the sleeping boys head. With a snap of his finger, the three pails emptied their contents onto the sleepyheads.
"REMUS LUPIN!!" Sirius yelled and jumped up of the bed. It was a rather cold morning. With the icy cold water, it was practically freezing. Peter jumped up in fright as well and followed into the bathroom.
"Oldest trick in the book." James muttered and in his subconscious mind, he muttered the drying spell without his wand and returned to dream land.
"JAMESIE!!" Remus shouted and jumped onto James.
"Aahh!! What are you trying to do??"
"Wake you up!!"
"You're mad!!"
"I'm not!!"
"Who cares??"
"You care!!"
"I don't care!!"
"You do!!"
"Whatever."
"Jamesie, you better get up now. It's five fifteen." Sirius said sleepily, but nevertheless, awake as he walked towards his trunk.
"Ok, I'm up." James surrendered and walked
towards the bathroom to wash up.
"Did anyone see my boxers??" Sirius asked. He had been digging his trunk, looked under his bed and searched the floor for his spare underwear.
"Not like we're going to steal them anyway."
"I need to change!!"
"For what?? You wet your boxers last night??"
"No, of course!! It's hygiene."
"Sirius is not that hygienic."
"Whatever."
"JAMES!! Can you hurry up??" No reply.
"I think he dozed off inside." Sirius said and went into the bathroom to see James sitting on top of the toilet bowl with a toothbrush in his mouth half snoring away.
"WAKE UP!!"
"Huh?? Okok." James stuttered in his foamy mouth. He got up and went to rinse off the toothpaste and splashed water on his face.
"Let's go." James instructed in the half-awake tone and they headed out of the dormitory. They tiptoed down the staircase just in case if someone might be awake in the common room.
"Ok, invisibility time." Remus said and Sirius covered the four of them in the automatically enlarged invisibility cloak.
"What are those little flags hanging around the common room??" James asked. The sun had not risen and the common room was rather dark except for the light from the half moon outside.
"Don't know and don't care. Remus, you brought the bottle right??"
"Yep. Safely in my pocket. You can trust me with this." Remus said as he petted his bulging pocket.
"Let's hurry. Dawn is coming in soon." James said as they walked briskly down the moving staircases.