Be Here Now
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
A/N: Hey everybody!
Temy the Bloodedge: I'll have to check out your stories! Thank you, and here are a dozen cookies. You can choose your flavor. The wonders of technology.
E. Katherine Valentine: Haha I loved that review. Thank you, and yes. Lol! You can have a cupcake.
OliWest: Take your pick. ;) Thank you!
twilightstargazer: Okay, thank you! I might go back and revise that a little later, so thank you so much for that! For future fights, I'll do a bit more detail. I hope I can deliver. I've been planning this since I first mentioned the prank. Or even before. Lol!
Chapter twenty-eight: THE PRANK! I hope you enjoy it!
x.o.x.o.x.
"Tomorrow we will begin our revenge on Maya," Lily says, satisfied.
The Marauders and the girls (plus Dorcas) had finalized their plans for the next day. Lily and James were civil to each other, but things were strained. Neither was keen on breaking up yet, though, as it had just been a fight.
"Good. We're finished," sighs Hilary, leaning back.
Dorcas looks at the clock. "It's nearly eight."
Lily nods lazily. "Hey, where have Kate and Naomi been lately?"
Hilary's lip twists into a sneer at the mention of Naomi. "As for Naomi, I don't give a crap. For Kate… I don't know. Probably been spending time with her Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw friends."
"Weird, don't you live in the same dorm as them?" Dorcas questions.
Sirius nods. "Yeah, that does seem weird." He looks at his girlfriend.
Hilary glares at him. "Quit looking at me, alright?"
"Okay, okay, jeez! PMS," mutters Sirius.
Lily groans. "Let's go, James. We have to patrol tonight."
James nods and gets up. "Bye, mates."
"Bye, James," Sirius, Remus, and Peter chorus.
"Bye girls," he adds.
"Bye James," mutters Hilary.
"Goodbye," chirp Alice and Dorcas.
"Bye everybody."
"Bye Lily!"
x.o.x.o.x.
Lily leans across the table to whisper to Hilary, "I wonder when Santiago will show her face."
Hilary smirks. "When she does, it'll create quite the spectacle."
Alice, who had overheard, nods, giggling.
"There she is," hisses Dorcas, jerking her head toward the door.
At first, no one notices anything wrong about that day. And then slowly, more gazes drift to Maya Santiago at the Hufflepuff table. It was hard for your eyes not to draw there, because it was quite the spectacle, as Hilary had guessed.
Maya's usually slick brown curls were neon orange and as frizzy as one's hair could get. Somehow, she had managed (wink, wink) to get her school uniform to look slutty. Her buttons were unbuttoned as far as the Marauders and girls would dare to let it go, her skirt was hiked up too far, and she wore no tie or jumper.
The pranksters successfully swallowed a laugh each.
"Miss Santiago!" Professor McGonagall's voice cuts through the eerie silence as every student examines Maya's appearance.
Maya looks up in confusion. "Yes, Professor?"
Again, each of the pranksters swallows a laugh successfully.
"I must ask you to go change! This is a school, not a strip club! Your outfit is not in any way acceptable for school!"
Maya looks at McGonagall in oblivion. "Professor, what are you talking about? My uniform is just the same as ever!"
"Did you add that?" Remus hisses across the table at the girls.
James, Sirius, and Peter lean in discreetly.
Hilary, Alice, and Dorcas shake their heads vehemently.
"I did. The outfit looks perfectly fine to just Maya. Even if someone else were to put it on, it would look slutty," Lily says proudly.
They all chuckle softly and turn their attention back to the scene.
"I will escort you to the Hufflepuff dorms, Miss Santiago. And get your hair back to normal!"
x.o.x.o.x.
In their first period class (double Herbology with the Hufflepuffs), another prank occurred.
"Take out your books and turn to page 157, please," Professor Sprout calls over the din of laughter and talk.
Obediently, every student takes out their books and turns to page 157.
Maya, not being one to follow directions right after they are given, lifts up her bag a minute late. Everything in the bag spills out from the bottom.
Sprout shakes her head in disappointment. "Miss Santiago, you already created a distraction this morning during breakfast. Must you create another disturbance in class? Fix your bag and collect your things quietly. Please do not interrupt our class once more."
"Why should I, you fat old hag?" Maya blurts out. Realizing her sentence, she claps a hand over her mouth.
Sprout's lips press into a thin line not unlike McGonagall's. But Professor Sprout was a happy-go-lucky person normally. "Excuse me, Miss Santiago?"
"You're a fat old hag with no knowledge, a terrible teacher, and the worst Head of House," Maya explodes. And then again, she claps her hand over her mouth.
Sprout's lips turn white. "Detention, Miss Santiago. What has gotten into you? Fix that bag this moment with your wand. If you refuse to do so, you will serve another detention for every ten minutes you delay."
"Oh, that bag won't repair," mutters James to the others. "I jinxed it so that no repairing charm except a very powerful one will work."
"Brilliant," breathes Peter.
James beams at him.
x.o.x.o.x.
That day, all their classes were with Hufflepuff. They had planned it that way, so that not only would the Gryffindors be glad to see Maya go down, but the pranksters could be on hand in case of emergencies.
In Transfiguration, Maya prompts a big laugh and an embarrassment.
"Miss Santiago, what is the difference between a werewolf and an Animagus?" McGonagall asks. They are reviewing.
No one notices Remus paling except his friends and girlfriend, all of whom pale as well.
"Your bun looks sexy like that," Maya blurts. Then her sentence seems to process in her mind and she gasps aloud.
McGonagall looks taken aback. "Excuse me? Detention, Miss Santiago. I would expect such a comment from Mr. Black, but you?"
"Oi! I resent that comment!" yells Sirius over the laughter that Maya's (forced) statement had caused.
x.o.x.o.x.
James, Lily, Sirius, Hilary, Remus, Dorcas, Peter, Alice, and Frank walk down to the dungeons right behind Maya and her gang.
Peter glances behind them and squeaks, "Peeves approaching."
A wicked smirk passes over Lily's lips. "Ah, our next stage."
Peeves nods respectfully toward the Marauders, and drifts silently over to above Maya's gang's heads. He's holding a gigantic bucket of different sized water balloons.
"COWABUNGA!" he shrieks, and upturns the bucket.
Water rains down on the girls, and people around them begin snorting with laughter.
"Third stage, complete," declares Sirius through his laughing.
x.o.x.o.x.
Potions was the fourth stage. Usually, there were only Slytherins and Gryffindors for Potions, but there had been a mistake and just for today, it would be Gryffindor and Hufflepuff that had double Potions together.
"This could be my favorite part," mutters Remus.
Knowing his meaning, his friends nod and grin before facing front.
"Welcome, welcome! This should be a more peaceful class than usual. Alright. Take out your books and begin brewing the Draught of Living Death. We are beginning to review for your NEWTs at the end of the year, which are drawing up quickly. Begin!" Slughorn declares jovially.
Lily and James, Potions partners for the year, begin setting up their cauldron and getting ingredients while watching Maya's movements.
Maya glances at her book's cover to check if it is the right one, and flips it open.
Knowing Maya is a terrible Potions student, Slughorn strides over following his belly to read over her shoulder. As soon as he finishes a sentence, his face turns bright red.
"Miss Santiago! What kind of Potions book is this?" he exclaims, his face still red.
"What did you do?" whispers James to Lily.
Lily grins. "Quite the romance novel."
James snorts a laugh, and covers it as a coughing fit.
"And Miss Santiago! These sentences you wrote are not appropriate at all! And in neon pink ink!" cries Slughorn. "I'm afraid I'll have to give you a D for this one. Dreadful!"
Maya flushes. "But Professor-!"
"No objections, Miss Santiago. Rethink your actions."
x.o.x.o.x.
"I think this part is my favorite," murmurs Hilary as the group sits down for dinner. Actions had been repeated, and Maya had received more detentions in a day than Sirius and James received in two weeks.
"That's just an accomplishment," jokes Sirius.
Everyone laughs and doesn't touch their forks. This would be a day to remember.
As the Great Hall fills up, the place gets louder with talk of (no doubt) what had happened throughout the day. Stories from Gryffindors and fellow Hufflepuffs of Maya's had spread through the school from House to House and year to year like wildfire. There was no doubt in anybody's mind that everyone in the school, including the professors, knew every little detail of what had happened that day.
For the second time that day, the Great Hall falls completely silent. This is because Maya has just left Hufflepuff table and is dressed in a full chicken suit. She stands right in front of the High Table.
"Cluck cluck!" she yells, and begins doing the chicken dance to provided music.
Silence reigns for about a second, and then every student bursts into laughter.
The laughter slows, however, as Maya finishes the dance with a goofy, "YAHOO! HOOPLA!" and screams, "I LOVE GRYFFINDOR AND MICHAEL NOTT!"
Another round of laughter bursts out as Nott (A/N: Theodore Nott's father) growls from the Slytherin table and threatens to take someone's head.
"I'd say that was a success," surmises Alice.
"Definitely," agrees Dorcas.
"Oh, it's not the end just yet," Lily says with a glint in her eye.
"Huh?"
x.o.x.o.x.
Everyone's question of 'huh' is answered that night when Maya Santiago's shriek shattered windows all over Hogwarts.
She had found mice crawling around in her bed, and for good measure, Peter had transformed and lay under her pillow. She had gotten all the mice out by tossing them out the window and had gotten into bed (in her slutty pjs, of course) when Peter crawled out and clawed at her face, which prompted another glass-shattering shriek.
Oh yes. It was a successful day.
x.o.x.o.x.
A/N: Well? I think in the next chapter McGonagall will ask if anyone knew who had pranked Maya. Since, of course, with the Marauders, of course someone had to prank her! Until chapter twenty-nine…
~TrueLoveIs4ever