Chapter 115: Party The Night Away

"It's party time!!" Sirius shouted the moment the Marauders entered the Gryffindor common room, looking kind of messed up. Everyone turned to check out what was happening.

"What party??" Lily looked up and asked first. The group of girls was chatting with some fifth and sixth-years. In fact most of the students were just hanging out and lazing around in the common room before returning home the next day. It was just that afternoon that the seventh-years had just been officially graduated from Hogwarts and followed by their dinner as celebration.

"The Party-of-the-century." James grinned as he announced. The Marauders had declared many impromptu parties over the years and it was no surprise that they did it again.

"What's going on??" Lily stepped forward to ask James.

"We're going to have an outdoor party. This time we're going to invite the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. And we made it impossible for the Slytherins to sabotage. I explain to you next time, but just gather the rest of the girls and remind them to bring along a windbreaker and scarf or something. It will be cold." James told Lily apart from the rest of the Gryffindors. He had the windbreaker that he received from the girls for his previous birthday tied around his waist. "I'll get you another of mine since you don't have any decent windbreaker."

"Okay, I'll inform the other girls." Lily shot a quizzical look but nevertheless still left the common room and headed towards the girls' dormitory.

"I'll get the guys." James told Sirius and he left for the boys' dormitory.

"So all of you go get your windbreakers before we leave for the party." Remus told everyone in the common room. All of them left for their respective dormitories excitedly. "Consider that done." Remus told Sirius as he showed the thumb-up sign.

"We're ready!!" Alex and Ted came rushing down with three other first-years, all of them having their windbreakers in their hands.

"You guys are really fast, but we've gotta wait for everyone." Before Sirius completed his sentence, another three groups of students came down to join them. Within ten minutes, nearly most of the Gryffindors were crowding around the common room murmuring excitedly.

"Sonorus." Remus said. "Is everyone here??"

"Yeah!!"

"You bet!!"

"All of you have your windbreakers with you??" Everyone held out his or hers respectively.

"Yeah!!"

"Why do we need the windbreakers for??"

"Let's hit the dance floor." Sirius called out and the fifty over students exited the Gryffindor tower. "You'll find the need of it soon enough."

"What's going to happen??" Lily caught up with James who stood out from the crowd due to his height, holding an addition piece of clothing. She tied James' blue Nike windbreaker around her waist as she asked.

"You'll see." James grinned mischievously. "Just keep yourself warm later on." He patted Lily's head as if she was a little child.

"Let's hit for the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff." Sirius joined Lily and James who were behind the group. Remus and Peter were still in front leading the Gryffindors to their party location.

"Seriously, why do we need a windbreaker?? It's summertime." Lily gave a puzzled look while twiddling the loose ends of the sleeves.

"You'll see later. Just keep it tight." James tightened the windbreaker around Lily's waist that made her squirmed a little. "Do you want to join them or come with us to the Ravenclaw tower??"

"I'll join you guys. I can't find the rest of them anyway." Lily stood tiptoed and looked ahead at the large group of Gryffindors for her roommates.

"Alright, we're turning this way." James and Sirius went the opposite way from the others.

"This is so confusing, how do you guys know where's where??"

"We've learnt the whole castle by heart."

"There we go." Sirius exclaimed and said the password to Ravenclaw tower.

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"Is there something I should know regarding this??" Stefanie asked Remus as she held up her white Addidas windbreaker.

"You'll know soon enough. It's the Marauders' surprise." Remus winked. The two of them were walking hand-in-hand leading the group of younger Gryffindors outdoors.

"Hold it!!" The students stopped in their tracks suddenly.

"Hello, Mr. Filch. How nice to see you." Remus said politely, and the tone of voice definitely infuriated the caretaker.

"What do you think you all are doing?? Creating a riot??" Argus Filch said in his most unfriendly tone. In his opinion, having such a big group of students together was definitely a bad idea.

"We're going outdoors." Remus answered as a matter-of-fact.

"What are you all planning to do?? Look like I've to get all of you for detentions." Filch was eyeing the Gryffindors with an intimidating glare. Some of the first and second-years backed off slightly out of fear.

"Mr. Filch, I don't think any students should be given detention now that we're already into the holidays. I'm pretty sure our last official schooling day was last Friday." Remus winked at the students while Filch's back was facing him. "Another thing is that now is only eight-thirty in the evening, we still have at least an hour before curfew. But then again, we're having holidays now, so there won't be any curfews at all." The caretaker was speechless, even his cat, Mrs. Norris, and was not making any sound. "Gryffindors, let's move on." With that, Remus led the whole group down the moving staircases, toward the Entrance leaving Filch stood rooted at his previous location.

"That was great!!" The Gryffindors clapped and cheered for Remus' cool move.

"AAAHHH!!" Some of the students behind started shrieking. The seventh-years who were right in front turned back. Apparently Peeves the poltergeist was floating upside-down in mid-air and dropping some sort of soft rubbery stuffs at the group of Gryffindors. It seemed like he was enjoying himself and followed the students as they tried to duck away.

"Stop that!!"

"I'd stop doing that if I were you, Peevey." Remus said pleasantly. "You never know what can happen to them." Obviously Peeves could not be bothered with Remus and he started throwing more of them down.

"Waddiwasi." The soft rubbery stuffs on the floor shot up and hit straight at Peeves from all directions and sent him flying up a few floors.

"AAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!!" Peeves' retreating voice could be hurt as he shot upwards.

"Bravo!!"

"Cool!!" The Gryffindors clapped and cheered at Remus again, but this time was for pissing Peeves off.

"The incantation is Waddiwasi. Mainly used to direct a soft mass from one location to the next." Remus told the group. "Actually I'm still attempting to aim stuffs into his nostrils, but as you all can see, it isn't very successful even after seven years of training." The Gryffindors looked at him with even greater respect and admiration while laughing at his little joke. "Alright, let's move on."

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"Yes, over there. That way." James pointed at the group of students who appeared to be dancing away near the lake. The loud music could be heard all the way from the Entrance Hall.

"Cool." The Hufflepuffs literally ran all the way towards the party point. Sirius had directed the Ravenclaws there first while Lily and James went to inform the Hufflepuffs.

"Now for the excitement." James told Lily.

"What excitement??" Lily tilted her head and gave James a cheeky look; her emerald green eyes sparkled with mischief. James stood at the Entrance Hall steps and faced the castle and he seemed to be reaching out for something in his pocket.

"This." James held out a piece of folded parchment. Upon unfolding, the words written on it looked like an extremely long incantation of many advanced charms and spells.

"What's this for??" Lily read and frowned slightly. "I don't understand. This point number three is for wind to cool a room," Lily pointed at the third paragraph on the parchment. "But this part is for heat, in the dungeons corridors??"

"Let me do the work first. Don't disturb me until I completed the whole thing alright??" James told Lily in a slightly solemn tone that was not even used during the actual serious matters. He pointed at the castle with his wand. Although he could perform wandless magic, it was not safe to display anything outside especially when nearly all three houses were present, regardless if they were watching him. He looked at his parchment; said a paragraph of incantation in a clear voice, and looked at the parchment again for the next instruction. After repeating the same thing for more than ten times, and having many different colors of sparks shooting out from his wand, he put down his wand and kept it in his Levis jeans back pocket.

"Okay, so what was that??" Lily asked since she did not see any significant changes in the castle entrance or anywhere else.

"Let's move and take a closer look." James gave his lopsided grin and took Lily's hand as he led her back to the castle.

"It-it's snowing?!" Lily asked in surprised.

"Phew. I'm glad I did it correctly." James told her. "See, now this windbreaker comes in a handy." He tugged the windbreaker that was tied on Lily's waist.

"Cool. Shall we get indoors and explore?? It's a strange phenomenon to snow indoors even though Dumbledore charmed the ceiling to snow, it never did."

"And that's why we're doing it for real." James grinned mischievously.

"Cool." Lily ran slightly into the snowy corridors. "How long is this weather going to last??"

"We estimated it could last for at least three days. But the effects will wear off slowly after one day. But the good thing is that if anyone attempt to use magic to reverse the effects, it will get worst."

"So if I use some reversal spells on this snowy weather, it will get colder. And if I do it over there, it will get hotter." Lily pointed at the corridor leading towards the dungeons. It looked a little similar to the famous Sahara Desert, and it definitely looked scorching from afar. "Why do I detect that you guys are attempting to roast the Slytherins??"

"We would love to!! Trust me. It would be wonderful if that happens." James joked. "But honestly, the idea of eating a roasted Snape doesn't do good with most people appetites."

"Yeah, along with a grilled Goyle and country-baked Crabbe." Lily chirped in. "And the – hmm - mashed Malfoy potato. They definitely don't sound good." A thick layer of snow had covered the steps until it looked like a slope instead of staircases.

"I can't agree with you more." James took Lily's hand and led her up several flights of snow-covered steps. It seemed like the moving staircases had frozen along with the weather, having many icicles dangling from the edges.

"This scene looks quite spectacular." Lily leaned against the edge of the rails to look at the many flights of snow-covered aligned staircases.

"Let's go upstairs." James took Lily's hand again and led her up another flight of steps or perhaps slopes.

"Why are we going up for??"

"To warm yourself. Do you know that the temperature in here is zero degrees Celsius?? Or even lower than that."

"I can feel that." Lily rubbed her hands together to generate some heat. Luckily she was wearing track shoes; otherwise her feet would be frozen from all the walking on snow.

"Now it's time for some fun." James conjured something that looked remotely like a sleigh, just a flat piece of wood with a handle in front and on both sides.

"Oh, no!! No!! No!!" Lily retreated backwards as James moved forwards to grab her.

"This is going to be so fun." James said enthusiastically.

"You're so not going to make me get onto that thing." Lily stared at the dangerously simple-looking sled.

"Well, you don't have much choice." James carried the struggling Lily easily and placed her in front while he sat protectively behind her. "I won't let you fall, I promise." He wrapped his right hand around Lily waist affectionately while using his left hand to support both of them.

"No!! No!! No!! I don't like this." Lily muttered and kept her eyes shut tightly as she sat cross-legged in front of James. Both her hands were gripping tightly at the handle in front of her.

"Okay, there we go." James shouted and with a jerk, the sleigh slid down the snow-covered staircases at high speed.

"AAAAAHHHHHHH!!" Lily screamed at the top of her lungs.

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"You can't be serious!!" Stefanie commented in astonishment, eyeing the realistic-looking snow falling in front of her. "This?!"

"Well, then what did you think you're looking at??" Remus laughed. "Television??"

"N-no. But how did you guys managed to do this for real?? Not to mention that it's all over the entire castle!!" Stefanie shook her head in disbelief. "Brrr.. it's freezing here." She zipped up her white windbreaker and kept her hands in the front pockets for some warmth.

"Anyway, it's done and up. So let's have some fun." Remus suggested with a naughty look plastered on his face. He was leading the way up the flights of steps, which had become mild slopes with all the snowing throughout the last hour or so.

"We can use the broom to fly upstairs or something. Where're you going to take me to??" Stefanie paced up to catch up with Remus.

"If we fly up, it's going to be even colder with the wind against us. By jogging up, we're generating heat in our body so we won't feel that cold." Remus continued to jog slowly up the slope as he spoke, slowing down once in awhile to wait for Stefanie.

"That's a good point. But I'm just not prepared for a snowy weather." Stefanie lifted up her legs as she strode across some thick layer of snow-infested steps. "Thank goodness I'm not wearing heels or slippers. My sneakers are freezing and so totally soaked."

"Imagine this weather continue to snow. You'll be hidden inside in no time." Remus pulled Stefanie as she struggled to get out from a large pile of snow.

"Thanks for reminding me about my height."

"Well, short is good."

"Ahem."

"Petite women are the most gorgeous ladies around." Stefanie laughed at Remus' exaggerated comment.

"Why did I feel like it's getting colder?? The wind seems to get stronger and snow even harder." Stefanie looked up at the snowflakes showered on them.

"Someone out there must be attempting to reverse the effects or trying to get rid of it."

"Are we going back to the tower?? Is it going to be cold inside??" Stefanie jumped around a little to produce some body heat.

"We're going back to the tower to get some warmer clothes for us first. Then we shall have some fun upstairs." After another few flights of steps, they were at the entrance of Gryffindor tower.

"Dungiebombers. Where??" James had insisted on creating a rare word for password so that it's easy to remember but yet could get confusing for some.

"Say Astronomy Tower??"

"Say that again." Stefanie threatened in a joking manner.

"Astro – ahh." Stefanie stuffed a newly conjured cushion into Remus' mouth as she dashed into the warm Gryffindor common room.