Chapter 8
"Remus, Remus wake up!" James said sharply but hushed. Remus opened his eyes and saw James, Sirius and Peter standing over his bed. They were already dressed in their robes, but it was still very dark. Confused, he looked to his digital alarm clock.
"It's only 4:30am! What are you doing?" Remus grumbled back. He sat up in his bed and rubbed his blue eyes.
"Marauding in the moonlight, come on. Get dressed we'll explain in the common room." Sirius said with a smirk on his face and the boys left Remus alone with the 10 other sleeping boys. Remus silently drapped his clothing over his slender body, and excitedly tiptoed to the common room.
"We made a plan for a hilarious prank when you were gone yesterday." Peter said. James brought out a folded sheet of paper that had messy cursive on it.
"Wake the school with Twist and Shout blasting through the halls." James said. Remus smiled. That will be excellent!
"In order to do this though, we need to first stand outside the four Hogwarts house corridors. I will go to Slytherin, Peter will be outside the Hufflepuff, James will go to Ravenclaw, and you can stay here."
"I forgot, what do we do next?" Peter asked. Remus could tell that Peter was very nervous as his entire body was sweating.
"Then at exactly 5:15am, we will point our wands to the ceiling, cover our ears and say the spell we made up last night. "Beatles, we seek out, play us Twist and Shout."" James said.
"This is brilliant." Remus said holding back his laughter. The boys synchronized their watches and deployed to their positions.
Remus looked to his watch. 5:14am. Hopeful they're actually there and not pulling a prank on me! Shit. Maybe they are. No. I trust my friends. Remus pointed his slender brown wand to the ceiling and covered his ears. "5:15. Beatles we seek out, play us Twist and shout!" The peaceful silence of Hogwarts was suddenly broken by John, Ringo, George, and Paul's lively beat and electric guitar. He heard some thuds and screams coming from the dorm rooms above him. Remus also heard the echoes coming from the other directions of the school so he knew everyone followed through. Remus smiled and laughed as he lowered his wand letting the song play out. However his joy was quickly turned to fear as he felt an angry hand grasp his shoulder. He turned to see the bratty Gryffindor Prefect, Brian O'Connor, red in the face.
"You're in huge trouble bloke. If you're lucky, you'll be suspended instead of expelled." Brian smugly said. Oh no, I blew it. I'll be back home with mum in no time. Remus thought anxiously. Brian then grabbed his ear and pulled him through the halls toward Dumbledore's office. The talking paintings yelled at him and called him a hooligan for waking them up so early. But as they met an intersection of four hallways in the last hallway before dumbledore's office, Remus saw James being pushed by his shoulder by the Ravenclaw Prefect, Sirius practically being dragged by the Slytherin, and Peter frantically begging a girl Hufflepuff Prefect to be forgiven. Once the marauders and the Prefects saw each other, they stopped and laughed hysterically.
"Nice work lads. I think we definitely got these Posh Prefects Twisting and Shouting." James said between chuckles. That made the boys laugh even harder. The Prefects became furiously continued and dragged the laughing boys to the entrance of Dumbledore's office. Professor Mcgonagall was waiting there in her nightgown and cap with her arms crossed and a face like she ate a lemon.
"Gentlemen, do you have any idea how much trouble you are in? You managed to break 5 different rules in the time span of 15 minutes. Prefects, thank you for your service, you may return to bed as I take these . . . marauders to Dumbledore." She growled. The boys didn't say a word and followed her down a flight of stairs. As Remus entered his office, seeing all the books, collectibles, magical objects, and dust he thought what a pack-rat Dumbledore was. In the middle of his clutter, Dumbledore sat in his desk and the boys stood in front of him.
"Professor, these are the culprits of the interruption this morning. Professor Mcgonagall said, still fiery. The boys looked at their shoes, bracing themselves for their punishment.
"I really do like the Beatles, but I wish you would have rather picked "She Loves You" instead. That's my favorite." Dumbledore said with a smile. The boys looked up confused, so did Mcgonagall.
"Sir, these boys broke five school rules." Mcgonagall said questionly.
"Yes, but they were just having a bit of fun, so they won't be suspended or expelled. You can decide how to punish them otherwise." Dumbledore said calmly. Mcgonagall wasn't happy with his decision, but didn't question it.
"You will each lose 10 points from Gryffindor and see me in detention after school today." She scowled at the children. "I am very surprised with each of you. Especially you, Remus. I expected better." Remus hung his head in guilt. He liked Professor Mcgonagall and didn't wish to anger her, but he loved pulling the school's leg.
Then the four were released back to their rooms. When they got into the Gryffindor common room, they laughed.
"That was excellent. We need to plan our next prank right away." Sirius said.
"But you heard how angry professor was. We were almost expelled!" Peter said.
"But we weren't." James added, laughing.
"No offence, but that prank was too sloppy. We were literally caught red-handed. But with me helping to plan the next one, I'll find out a way for us to get away with it." Remus extended his thought. "I am the smart one, remember?" Remus said jokingly.
"Good idea, Remus." Sirius said.
Brian came stomping down the stairs into the common room. "Are you guys packing?" Brian said poshly.
"No, we got off with one detention." James said with a smirk on his face.
Brian's face matched the color of his red hair. "You might have gotten away with it this time, but I'll be watching you four like an owl from now on, so don't you dare try anything!"
"We'll be perfect little wizards, we promise." Sirius said sarcastically. Brian rolled his eyes and stomped away. "Marauders on three. One. Two. Three."
"Marauders!" The boys screamed and laughed. Their long reign of terror on the student body of Hogwarts had only started.