Chapter 88: What's the prank??
"This idea is totally a stroke of brilliance!!" Sirius exclaimed.
"Obviously." James boasted. "Afterall, it's my idea once again."
"So can we get on to doing it??" Remus reminded the group. The four Marauders were hanging out in the boys' dormitory having a no-life sunny afternoon indoors.
"Ok, so what do we need to start now??"
"We need-" Remus read from the long list of ingredients needed for the Shrinking Potion that was drastically modified by the four of them. "Three strands of Unicorn hair."
"Down." Sirius placed the three strands of unicorn hair into the bubbly honey gold solution, which turned silver upon the addition of new ingredients. "Next."
"Daisy roots."
"Chopped ones."
"Wait, we need to simmer it down for five minutes until the silver color gets a little more thicker."
"Sirius, concentrate on the potion!!"
"I'm concentrating!! The simmering part is in a smaller font."
"That's not exactly a good excuse considering you've perfect eyesight, while the myopia me noticed the small font."
"Never mind."
"Next add four Widelia petals." Sirius added the four small yellow petals into the thick syrupy boiling liquid and instantly it changed color again.
"Leave it to boil for one hour." James read and then they charmed the miniature fire, which was glowing in the middle of their dormitory to extinguish by itself after an hour of burning.
"Meanwhile I think we can get some food from the kitchens."
"What would be the prank by the Marauders this year??"
"I bet it's going to be great."
"Well, it's always fun and everyone get to participate."
"Everyone is talking about our end of year prank." Remus commented. The four guys were walking along the corridors and they had already walked passed at least seven groups of students talking about them.
"Definitely."
"Our pranks are well, amazing??"
"So you guys care to share your amazing idea with us??" Stefanie asked as the two girls joined the group.
"Unfortunately, no." Sirius said, giving Stefanie the sad puppy look.
"Why not??"
"Because you gals going to be part of it."
"Part of your prank?!"
"Everyone is going to be part of it, we too are going to join in the fun."
"If you guys are thinking about drugging
the drinks again, then I think can forget it." Lily said. "We overheard some
Slytherins talking about not touching the food and drinks until confirmed safe
to consume.
"Those scaredy cats."
"Scaredy slithering slimey Slytherins."
"You bet."
"So what do we do??" Peter asked.
"No problem." James and Sirius assured him. "Plan proceeds as usual."
"What if-"
"Well, no worries Wormtail."
"This portion we can use as backup." James instructed. "Then we just use this amount into the pumpkin juice for breakfast tomorrow.
"Let's have an early rest." Remus laughed. "I got this feeling that tomorrow is going to be a tiring day."
"All ready." Sirius gave thumb-up signs at their prank preparations, which he had set them nicely on James' table.
"Prongs and I are going to the kitchens." Sirius said excitedly. "We shall leave the Gryffindors to you."
"No worries." The four guys sneaked out silently in darkness. James and Sirius crept down to the common room and then headed towards the kitchens in the Invisibility Cloak, while Remus and Peter went upstairs to the seventh-year boys' dormitory to do a part of their prank.
"I can't seem to find my broom anywhere." Lily was looking around her dormitory.
"Lils, you'll find them when you're not hunting for it. Can we get down for breakfast??"
"I'm starving." The four girls woke up earlier than usual to do a little dressing up. By now they were pros at this and needed very little time to look perfectly with make-up and hair styled.
"Ok, coming." Lily scanned her dormitory for a last time before dashing out to join her three roommates who were waiting for her by the door.
"Everyone is looking at us." Remus commented. The Marauders walked into the Great Hall and all eyes turned over to look at them. Everything was perfectly normal.
"Well, they're expecting something." Sirius said, smiling at a few girls here and there.
"No worries, the back-up is in our dorm." James said confidently.
"Let's start the breakfast, I'm getting kinda hungry."
"Hey guys." Stefanie called out.
"Morning." The guys replied, with the mouth already filled with toast and scrambled eggs.
"Looks like some people are hungry today."
"We're hungry everyday."
"We're growing boys."
"If you few are growing anymore, you would hit the ceiling."
"So, everything's normal??"
"What's not normal??"
"Nothing."
"Then??"
"Strange, today is the last second day of the year."
"We're well aware of that."
"No pranks??"
"Not yet."
"Okay. So when??"
"Only Marauders know."
"These guys are always like that, thinking they're so high and almighty."
"Well, their egos are a little too big."
"The eggs taste nicer today." James said suddenly to nobody in particular.
"What??" Lily and Stefanie stopped eating their eggs immediately and gave the scrambled eggs on their plates a suspicious look.
"Nothing." Sirius gave a super sweet smile. Lily and Stefanie eyed the eggs apprehensively. Some of the students nearby also started studying their eggs. "There's nothing wrong with the eggs." Sirius said and put a big piece of yellow food into his mouth and started chewing. He swallowed everything in his mouth with a rather loud 'groop' and opened his mouth for the girls to check. "See, nothing wrong."
"I never said there were anything wrong with the eggs." James said innocently. "I just commented that the taste improved."
Breakfast hour was ending soon and some students had already cleared since nothing unusual had happened to them. Many students were expecting some sort of abnormality to happen.
"Where are you guys going after this??"
"Nowhere in particular."
"Wanna go Hogsmeade??" Stefanie suggested.
"You girls go ahead without us."
"Remus??"
"Well, let's go for a while." Remus placed his right hand on Stefanie's shoulder.
"Then I guess I better not go." Lily commented.
"It's alright, let's go together."
"Nah, I give it a miss."
"So see you guys later." Remus and Stefanie left the group to head for the tunnel towards Hogsmeade.
"I've got something to do too." Peter said and left the group hastily.
"That's left the three of us, how about a day out at the lake??" Sirius suggested.
"Sure." Lily and James agreed and the three left the Great Hall for the morning.
"Just tell me pleasey please!!" Lily was tugging the sleeve of the two guys who were sitting on both her sides facing the lake with Giant swimming around and his tentacles sticking up now and then.
"Prongsie, your darling is begging you."
"Paddy, you dearie is asking you."
"Fine." Lily finally stopped bugging the two guys.
"Shall we go somewhere else?? It's kinda boring sitting here facing Giant." James asked.
"I love my Giant, it managed to grow to this size all thanks to me."
"I wonder if it's really grateful to you for making it so humongous."
"Of course it is."
"Still nothing happened??" Stefanie commented. Everyone was gathered together for the end-of-year feast on the last day of the semester. The long anticipated prank by the Marauders never seemed to appear, or at least yet to, had made the day more boring than usual.
"You'll see." Remus gave each guy a wink.
"Hmm.. Something is bound to happen after dinner. I knew it." Lily said certainly.
"-May the feast begins." Dumbledore finished his speech with food appearing on the plates. The Marauders were contained with excitement to be listening to Dumbledore's end-of-year feast speech, while the girls were still trying to find out their prank. Apparently they had not given up since breakfast.
"Finally." Sirius dug hungrily onto the plate of mash potatoes in front of him.
"Sirius, you never knows when one day you might just choke."
"I'm not worried about that. My throat is big enough for everything to flow downwards."
"And his stomach is bottomless."
"Seeing Sirius' eating habit can really well – slim us down."
"Huh??"
"It's a nicer way to say that we lose our appetite."
"Oh."
"Shall we make our speech??" James said an hour later. The plates, though refillable, were getting emptied, while most students had already sat back and chatting away more than eating their main course.
"Sure." Sirius agreed.
"What speech??" Lily inquired.
"Listen first." Remus smiled.
"One.. Two.. Three." James signaled.
"Marauders, Marauders, we are the strong and almighty ones." The four guys chorused together in perfect synchrony.
"Everything seems to be expanding." Lily commented, looking around her.
"Or are we shrinking??" Stefanie turned around to see the students at the other tables.
"Ahhh!!" Some screams could be heard from the first and second years that were not very used to such strange encounters.
"Ah, our school pranksters are doing their job once again." The tall and humongous looking Dumbledore said from the front of the school, his voice boomed and the students could feel the chairs vibrating.
"Pass down this message." James turned to tell the fifth year guys who were sitting on his left. "Accio your broom." Sirius turned to his left while Remus and Peter turned to their right to pass the same message down the Gryffindor table.
"No wonder you guys chose to sit at the center." Lily told the guys. "Thought you guys wanted more attention."
"Well, that's one of the reasons."
"Then the other is to pass the message."
"That's right."
"Stef, I can't see you now." Lily shouted rather loudly across the table, which was now higher than the mere sixteen centimeter herself.
"The table seems so huge suddenly." Stefanie replied loudly.
"I thought I just told you gals to accio your broom over??" James told the two conversing girls.
"Don't tell me you want to try another way of landing on the ground besides using a broom." Remus joked. Both girls reached towards the edge of the chair to take a peek. The once normal sized chair suddenly looked so huge that the ground seemed like a few meter drop.
"Accio Thunderbolt."
"Accio Nimbus."
The Gryffindors started accioing their broomsticks over to the Great Hall. Suddenly there was an influx of flying-matchsticks look-alikes entering the Great Hall and landed at the chairs next to the students.
"Wow, our broomsticks shrink with us." Someone from Gryffindor commented.
"Looks like no one noticed we charmed their brooms." Sirius said with a sad tone.
"They'll know soon enough."
Suddenly there was a huge shiny broomstick flew into the Great Hall and landed on one of the Slytherin chair with a loud 'tud'.
"OUCH!!"
"Crabbe and Goyle!! Are you two mad?!?"