Chapter 95: Budding Pranksters
"It wasn't us." James told Professor McGonagall.
"Who in history of Hogwarts would pull such a prank besides the four of you??" Professor McGonagall said. The Marauders were called to her office as some of the students had injured themselves in a way or another while other first years were scared to tears. "Mr. Potter, I think better of you. Being a Head Boy, you ought to-"
"We really didn't pull that prank. Our own dorm was misted as well." Sirius added.
"Professor, it really wasn't us. If it were we, we would admit for sure. But it wasn't." Remus tried to reason with Professor McGonagall.
"Then who could it be??"
"It must be someone from Gryffindor."
"What a prank those guys played." The four girls managed to figure out what the Anti-mist Charm was after a while and de-mist the whole girls' dormitory.
"I didn't thought they would be pulling a prank." Stefanie said. "Remus didn't mention anything to me."
"Well, they did something with the Sorting Hat." Samantha reminded.
"I knew about that. But not this." Stefanie frowned a little.
"Maybe they thought of it last night??" Lily suggested.
"Perhaps, but I still felt that it was someone else."
"Everyone believed that it must be the Marauders. I mean who would pull a prank like this on the first day of school?? The first years were terrified." Joey commented. There were first-years beside them and some looked rather petrified from the morning incident.
"At least McGonagall is interrogating them now. We'll know soon enough."
"Who pulled the prank this morning??" James asked the group of students who were gathered in the common room after a whole day of lessons.
"If no one admits, we will have to use Veritaserum." Remus told them. Some of the younger students gave him a blank look. "For those of you who don't know what Veritaserum is, it's a truth potion. You'll answer the truth to whatever questions we ask without knowing it yourself."
"We are giving you all one more chance to admit. It will start off with the guys, from first year onwards." Protests could be heard from the male dominated region of the common room.
"McGonagall had asked me to find out who are the culprits of this morning prank, especially since some of the students were injured." James said with authority. "If the culprits don't own up by themselves, we'll have to do this until we find the one."
"Save the trouble. We're the one who did it." A first year called out. Everyone in the common room turned to face the young wizard at the back of the room.
"What's your name??"
"Alex Weasley."
"And Ted Tonks." The two boys stood up among the group of seated audience.
"Very good. That's all for the night. Alex and Ted, we need to speak to you." James told the group. The rest of the innocent parties left the common room and returned back to their own dormitories for the night.
"So can you tell us how did you did it??"
"We just used to Misty Charm which I read from my brother's magic book."
"But you guys barely learn to use your wand and you two can do something so advance." Sirius was surprised at the two juniors idea.
"Well, we're going to be pranksters and break the detention record." Alex said confidently. The Marauders could not help but laughed at the budding pranksters.
"Well, we're not stopping you but don't tell Minerva that we're encouraging you to do that." Sirius told the two boys. "We need someone to take over us after we left and you two are ideal for the job."
"You're kidding me." Lily was surprised.
"They're really budding pranksters." Stefanie shook her head, laughing as she spoke. "Hogwarts is in chaos."
"That's pretty amazing for first years." Lily added. The Marauders had just informed the girls about the prank played by two first years.
"They've the potential." James commented. "I don't think we thought of something that advanced when we were in first year."
"I don't think you guys thought of anything in advance of your years."
"We are too advanced for you girls to understand anything."
"Anyway what happen to the two of them??"
"A week of detention for both, starts today."
"This is only like their second day of school!!"
"Kids nowadays." Remus shook his head in disbelief.
"You sound as if you're very old."
"We're like seventh year and they're in the first."
"Come to think about that, we're quite old actually."
"Thanks for the reminder but I don't like to remember the fact that I'm old."
"Lily, oooold little Lily." Sirius said in a singsong manner.
"Ooooold Sirius" Lily replied.
"It's kinda strange that we're not serving detention today." Sirius commented loudly. They were into the second week of school and all of them were actually resting and relaxing in their dormitory instead of serving detentions.
"What were we doing on the second week of school last year??"
"I think we were serving detentions??"
"Doing what??"
"Washing toilet??"
"Cleaning trophy room??"
"Actually I can't remember. We been through so much detentions until I forgot all about it."
"Too bad Minerva gotta divide her attention between us and the two boys."
"Padfoot, I know you love Maggie's undivided attention, but it's about time she move on with new boys."
"Don't deny that you too enjoy Maggie and Albus attention more than I do."
"I didn't say I love their attention."
"If you guys are not going to start doing your homework, I can assure you two that you will get Porky's undivided attention tomorrow morning." Remus mentioned casually.
"Oh ya!! The potion homework!!" James jumped out of his bed and get a head start on his expired assignment.
"Moony, why didn't you remind us earlier?!?"
"Sorry, just can't bear to interrupt you guys dreaming about Maggie." Remus grinned at his two best friends.
"AAAHHHH!!" A scream echoed in the Gryffindor tower.
"What's going on??" Stefanie stopped brushing her hair suddenly.
"Someone fell down??" Lily guessed and opened her dormitory door to check but unable to see anything.
"You better go and check it out." Joey told Lily. "Prefect and Head Girl ought to do something."
"You've got a point." Lily nodded. "I see you guys later." She grabbed her book bag and went down the staircase at her fastest speed.
"Hey Lily." The fifth and sixth year prefect called out.
"Hey girls. Any idea what happened??"
"No clue. We heard the scream and that's why we're checking it out."
"AAAAHHHHHH!!" Another scream echoed through the tower.
"We better hurry." Lily told the two junior prefects and going down two steps at a time. "WOOOAAHH!!" She made a quick grab on the handrail by the side of the spiral staircase to prevent her from falling. "Careful!!" She warned the two girls behind her who grabbed onto the handrail immediately.
"What's going on??" The sixth year prefect asked.
"Look." Lily pointed downwards with her left hand while her right hand held tight on the handrail as she steadied herself.
"Woah!! Where did the steps gone to??" The fifth year asked. The first few steps that led up the girls' dormitory had disappeared and replaced with a soft bouncy mattress underneath. There were two girls bouncing up and down on the mattress.
"Warn the girls behind." Lily instructed the two prefects who went a few steps back to warn the girls about the direct fall.
"Aaahhh!!" This time it was a scream from the boys.
"HELP!!" The two girls who were bouncing up and down the mattress called out to Lily.
"Grab my hand." Lily held out her left hand while keeping her right hand tightly on the handrail and at the same time keeping her feet steady on the last step. "Bounce closer."
The two girls tried bouncing closer to the last step and one of them grabbed Lily's hand. With the help of a few other girls, they managed to pull the second year back to the solid stairs. After a few more bounce, they retrieved the third year from the bouncing mattress as well.
"Finite Incantatum." Lily waved her wand and the bouncing mattress reverted back to the first few solid steps of the girls' dormitory. To prove to the rest of the girls that the steps were the normal solid ones, she walked down herself confidently.
"Bravo Lily." Someone gave Lily a pat on her back.
"Aaahhh!!" A boy yelled.
"Looks like the guys are suffering from the same fate." The girls laughed at the comment. There were two guys bouncing up and down at the bottom of the boys' dormitory.
"Chaos early in the morning." Sirius shook his head.
"Wake up Padfoot, its morning." Remus laughed at his sleepy friend.
"Aaaahhh!!"
"Did I hear someone screaming??" James asked.
"There were quite a number of screams in case you guys hasn't heard anything." Remus told him.
"I really didn't." James admitted. "Let's go and take a look."
"Prefect instinct."
"Make it Head Boy instinct."
"I'm really starting to hate his Head Boy instinct." Sirius muttered.
"Aaahhh!!"
"I think something is wrong." Remus
frowned, as the yells got more and more frequent.
"STOP!!" James called out. Even the Marauders got a shock at James' outburst.
"Help!!" The guys who were stuck bouncing up and down called out. The books and bags and wands that had dropped were bouncing up and down with their owners as well. It was a rather messy bounce indeed.
"Wingardium Leviosa." James used a simple spell to leviate all the bouncing students off the mattress onto the solid ground of the common room before reverting the mattress back to the original steps.
Most of the girls were laughing their hearts out at the common room because it was a rather funny sight to watch more than ten guys bouncing up and down along with their belongings.
"Ted and Alex." James called out to the massive group of Gryffindors who were gathering in the common room during the breakfast hour.
"Over here." Alex waved to catch James' attention. The two guys were literally rolling on the floor laughing out loud at the corner of the room, which gave a good view.
"Very funny huh." James said, grinning at the two guys.
"Don't you think so??"
"Wait till McGonagall hear about this."
"I reckon you guys won't tell them." Ted stifled his laughter.
"We won't but someone else would. The whole house is up witnessing this and you can't expect anyone to keep hush about this."
"Erase their memory??"
"If you two dare to do it, you gotta bear the consequences."
"That's the advise from the professional pranksters."
"You guys are professionals??"
"Definitely."
"But it's always us that play the pranks. You guys haven't done anything since
the school year started."
"If you guys got N.E.W.T.S around the corner and McGonagall and Dumbledore breathing down your neck and with a hell load of responsibilities, I wonder if you still have the time to pull any prank."
"Well, N.E.W.T.S seems like a long way for us." Ted told them.
Most of the Gryffindors had left for breakfast since lessons were starting. It's rather strange to have the entire house in the common room for breakfast to start with.
"It was a long way for us six years ago, but look at us now." James placed his arm behind the two guys and led them out as they talked.
"Tell us about your pranking history. It seems interesting." Alex requested.
"That's a whole lot of stuffs. But you can ask your seniors. They can tell you some of them."
"Nothing beats hearing it from the great prankster himself."
"How did you become the Head Boy when you're the school prankster??"
"The four of us are the Marauders, Hogwarts infamous and soon-to-be-legendary pranksters. We played a whole load of pranks and did detention of every type before. Even Filch could not come up with new detentions for us."
"I think I've heard some of the students talking about you guys along the corridors. You guys must be popular."
"Everyone at Hogwarts seems to know one another. So it doesn't make much of a difference. Anyway you'll get to see and perhaps, experience our pranks soon enough."
"Why soon and not now??"
"That's because all our pranks are well-planned and with proper equipments."
"Sounds cool."
"It is." The professional prankster and the two amateur pranksters talked all the way to the Great Hall.
"TONKS AND WEASLEY!!" Professor McGonagall called out before the few managed to enter the Great Hall.
"You'll get used to that." James said softly to the two guys. The Marauders laughed at James' comment for they could visualize the whole scenario. "Hello Professor." James greeted Professor McGonagall brightly.
"Morning James. I need to get this two boys to my office now." The three of them exchanged a look before going their separate directions. The Marauders went into the Great Hall for breakfast while Ted and Alex followed Professor McGonagall back to her office.
"Morning girls."
"Hey guys. Looks like the two boys are in for another detention."
"It's only their third week and they just finished their detention like two days ago."
"Well, they are just so Marauders."
"We clicked off pretty well."
"Looks like six years of age gap aren't too much."
"Brains of pranksters flock together."
"You guys better buck up if you don't wanna lose your title as the school's prankster." Stefanie teased.