Chapter 98: Prankfest
"That's certainly a good beginning of this major prankfest." Lily agreed as the Marauders were telling the girls about their prank the night before.
"Hope they get stuck indoor for the entire day." Joey said wistfully.
"It would be better if they get stuck inside permanently." Samantha commented.
"We hope for that too. But unfortunately our dear old Porky will be the hero to save the day." Sirius told them. "He's always there to rescue the Slytherin's ass."
"That's not exactly a good term to use." Stefanie raised her brows.
"You're starting to nag." Sirius raised his hands defensively. "But please spare me. Nag Moony all you want and I don't care."
"Hey!!"
"Isn't it sweet having someone like Stef nagging at you??" Sirius told Remus. "Sirius, mind your words. Oh Remus, your manners." He faked a high-pitched voice trying to imitate an exaggerated version of Stefanie's action, which earned him a punch on his stomach. "Ouch!!"
"You deserve that, you know??" Remus grinned at his good friend. The eight seventh-year Gryffindors were heading down for breakfast together, one of the rare moments where everyone was out at the same time.
"How could you do that to me??"
"Padfoot, spare me!!" Remus pretended to shudder at the idea of Sirius' facetious whining. The group started laughing at the funny exchanges between the guys.
"Hmm, this is a Slytherin-free morning." Stefanie commented. The group just stepped into the Great Hall full of chattering among the students from the various houses.
"For once, none of them is punctual for breakfast."
"Not even the ever hungry Snivellus."
"Since when is Snivellus ever hungry?? I thought it had always been 'the ever hungry Sirius'??"
"Let's wait and see what happen."
"Luckily our first lesson for today isn't Potions."
"At least it's our all time fave, Transfig."
"But there's a possibility of getting it from Maggie too."
"What happened?!? The door is stuck!!"
"Someone help me!!"
"What the hell.."
"What's wrong with this stupid door??"
"Heck, why can't the door be opened??" Everyone in the Slytherin tower was locked in their dormitory for the door could not be opened, to the courtesy of the Marauders.
"It must be the Marauders!!"
"I swear it's those greasy Gryffindors!!"
"Mr. James Potter, I'm so ashamed of your behavior as the Head Boy." Professor McGonagall scolded. The Marauders, once again, were standing in a row in her office after the first Transfiguration lesson.
"I apologize for what happened to the Slytherins this morning." James' tone was apologetic but he was far from that.
"No apology is going to be accepted if you don't stop doing all these unacceptable actions." Professor McGonagall gave a soft sign. "You four are in the seventh year, the oldest students, who should be the most matured, are playing these pranks on the other houses. This is totally disgraceful, to our house, and to yourselves."
"We wouldn't do anything if they hasn't angered us in the first place." Sirius spoke out bluntly. "Those disgusting Slytherins had been bullying our junior Gryffindors, and we're the only ones who can do something to them."
"This is no excuse for these intolerable behavior. The teachers are here to deal with these types of situations, and not up to the older students. And definitely not by pranking as a revenge."
"Professor, may I say something??" Remus asked.
"Yes, you may."
"In the teacher's eyes, we're doing the wrong things. But from a student's point of view, this is absolutely proper. All we did was connecting the doors of their dorms so they can't open from inside. No one was hurt or anything. And besides, Professor Porky rescued them by the first lesson."
"I'm not going to waste anymore time to explain what you did was wrong. Detention with me starts next Monday." Professor McGonagall told them.
"How long is it going to be??" Sirius asked.
"Till the four of you learn your lesson."
"Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer." Alex sang out loudly as both boys walked along the corridor. The other students looked at them as if they were Christmas-deprived since it was about a month more before Christmas.
"Has a very shiny nose." Ted continued the next line to the tune.
"Rudolphus the red-nosed Slytherin." Alex repeated the same tune with different lyrics.
"Has a very red nose." Ted followed up. The guys kept repeating these two lines all the way as they walked along the corridor for their dinner.
"What's with the red nose reindeer??" James asked the singing duo.
"For a moment I thought I heard the red-nose Slytherin word." Remus laughed.
"Rudolphus the red-nosed Slytherin." Alex sang out loud.
"Has a very red nose."
"And if you ever saw him."
"You would even say it glows."
Ted finished the stanza for the Marauders to get the idea.
"You two painted Rudolphus' nose??" Remus asked quizzically.
"Nope."
"Cursed his nose??" James raised his brows.
"Some sort." Alex grinned.
"Your brother was the Head Boy back then and you're the young Hogwarts prankster after us, what a contradiction." Sirius commented. Alex was Arthur Weasley's younger brother.
"Being the Head Boy is so bor-ing." Alex told them. "He seems to be so busy even during the break."
"Well, he might not be busy with school work." James grinned.
"Then??"
"Then it's for him to know and for you to find out." Sirius explained in a joking manner.
"By the way what did you guys did to the Slytherins this morning??" Ted asked.
"Nothing much actually. All we did was connected the seven dormitory doors with a rope. Then connect both the ropes together at their common room. And we simply charm it to tighten and unbreakable."
"So they can't open their dorm door from the inside." Alex's eyes widen at the idea of that brilliant prank.
"That simple??" Ted was surprised.
"Yup. One of the simplest pranks we played so far. No preparations need."
"But how did you all get inside the Slytherin tower??" Alex was curious.
"This is for us to know and for you to figure out." The Marauders exchanged a wink between them and laughed at the ignorance of the two younger boys.
"Potter, change my nose back at this very instant!!"
"Hohoho, Malfoy, getting so Christmassy already." James smirked as he laughed at the sight of the red-nosed Slytherins who just headed over at his direction. "Nice nose you've got there."
"I'm warning you!! CHANGE MY NOSE BACK AT THIS INSTANT!!" Severus shouted at the Gryffindor boys.
"Don't you think Snivellus looks good with his nose red??" Sirius said in a sarcastic tone. "He needs some color on him desperately."
"We shall change it back ourselves." Lucius told his cronies as he turned the opposite direction and stomped off angrily. The other Slytherins shot the Gryffindor boys a look of hatred before following Lucius again.
"You guys did it on all the Slytherins??" Sirius widened his eyes in amazement.
"We drugged their water pipe leading towards the Slytherin tower." Ted boasted.
"That's a pretty good idea." James encouraged.
"We never even thought of that before." Peter admitted.
"And how did you two discover that pipe??"
"We happened to stumbled across it at a broken wall, then we followed the water flow and found that it leads all the way to the Slytherin tower." Alex said softly. "There was an opening, or interconnecting pipe or something at that broken wall. I supposed Filch wanted to do something with it."
"He wanted to fix the leakage or something. So we injected the coloring dye into pipe."
"Where did you find that potion or whatever that was??"
"It was in one of those Christmas decoration books. It was meant for animals to get their noses red for the Christmas season."
"I never knew there was something like that."
"Well, it was a joke book full of Christmas ideas. Not meant for human pranks, but who cares?? I don't take the Slytherins as humans." Ted said in a rather nasty way.
"You two are brilliant." Sirius was giving the two young boys an encouraging pat on their backs.
"Jeez, the next generation has much better ideas than us." Remus commented.
"Due to technology advancement." Ted gave a naughty boy grin.
"So how long is this going to last??" James asked.
"Only twelve days unfortunately." Alex winked at Ted. "But it counts from the moment they consume the water."
"In other words, it will last if they continue to use the water from that pipe." The Marauders laughed in amusement.
"Did you check to make sure the water won't backflow or something and end up at the Gryffidor pipes??"
"Erm.. we didn't."
"It's a good thing that we had used the anti-smelly charm in our room." Sirius commented.
"There is the name for the charm and it's called Malodorous-Free Charm or MFC for short." James corrected him as he added some absurd looking ingredients into the caldron as Remus stirred the liquid inside.
"Sometimes don't everyone just wonder how the famous Sirius Black ever get a passing grade." Remus laughed as he paused to let James dropped some biscuits inside.
"Can't they use a simpler word like Smelly-free, or Anti-smell, or Smell-off Charm?? That word is just so difficult to remember."
"Padfoot, you're seventeen and not seven anymore. It's time that you should use some difficult words. Besides we learnt that somewhere last year."
"Alright, save the crap and carry on with Procedure Stinko." Sirius avoided the topic of correction. "We need to make sure this is smelly enough and charm it to fight the different charms in case those Slytherin brains thought of that."
"What have you guys been doing?? There's this stench of decomposed stuffs emitting from you." Stefanie told the Marauders as they were having their dinner together.
"Our body odor is developing the fragrance." Sirius joked.
"A fragrance would be an overstatement to this reek." Lily teased. "Seriously you guys better get a bathe, or at least use some concealing charm."
"What have you guys been doing?? This smelled a little more horrible than sour cream." Stefanie shot the guys the I-know-you-guys-are-up-to-something look.
"Don't forget the wardrobes." James instructed. With that, guys sneaked up to the seventh-year Slytherin boys' dormitory silently. Once inside, they did their respective duty for their prank. James poured the liquid onto the beds and stained the curtains; Sirius opened all the trunks and splashed the gooey stuffs on their clothes and uniforms; Remus kept watch and charmed the sleeping guys into a deeper sleep while helping Peter to pour the fluid at various spots of the room.
After finishing three quarters of the bottle each, they crept to the entrance of the dormitory while Remus cast the Malodorous-Free Charm and lifted all the other charms he cast earlier. Hiding in their Invisibility Cloak, they walked out briefly while trying to keep themselves from laughing. Along the way, they scattered some of the whitish mixture on the carpets, sofa and tapestries.
With all the shortcuts they discovered in the past few years, they reached the Gryffindor tower safe and sound, free from the teachers and Filch.
"It's going to be a 'smelly' day tomorrow." Peter commented.
"Today you mean??"
"Their newly developed body odor."
"We must get a decent bathe or else we're not much of a difference from them." James said and broke into a run up the boys' staircase. All four boys ran up the spiral staircase three steps at a time but James outran all of them.
"PRONGS!!" Sirius called out. "If you are not out at this instant, I'm coming in."
"Padfoot, you've been using this statement for the last seven years and we all know very well that you're not going to do that."
"Woah!! What's that smell??"
"Disgusting smell!!"
"Who's that??"
"Smell like something decomposed!!"
"Makes me feel like puking."
"What smell is that??" Lily asked James. They had stopped by Professor Dumbledore's office to give him some updates of their Night-Flying plan and were now heading to the Great Hall for lunch. It was a Hogsmeade weekend and most students were already out.
"What does it smell like??" James grinned.
"Erm.. something sour and decomposed??"
"Think along the line of milk, together with a whole load of other decomposable foodstuffs."
"Eewww.."
"This stench is quite lasting actually."
"I need a mask!!" Lily was covering her nose and mouth with her palm. "The smell is getting stronger."
"Here comes Potty and the Mudblood Head girl." Severus taunted. Lucius and the rest of the Slytherin gang smirked. They seemed to be totally unaware that people were shunning their way due to their odor.
"Buzz off!! We're walking here!!" Lucius said with authority but neither James nor Lily moved aside.
"Did you not hear us??" Vaness repeated. James and Lily were trying their best not to laugh and puke at the same time. Still, neither of them moved out of their way. In the end the Slytherins detoured beside two and continued trotting off with 'smelly authority'.
"Go!!" James grabbed Lily's hand and dragged her into a run.
"W-what??" Lily was running along before she realized what was happening.
"I'm suffocating!! Get some fresh air!!" James was leading the fastest way to the entrance.
"Did you see that??" Remus asked Stefanie. The duo was walking hand-in-hand towards the Great Hall when two running figures brushed past them.
"Lily and James." Stefanie replied with a grin.
"Hand-in-hand." Remus' eye had the naughty glint.
"Let's get out of here. There's a strange smell." Stefanie ushered Remus towards another direction.
"This is the smell of Malfoy and Snape." Remus told her. "They must have walked passed her, say five minutes ago??"