Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and I never will. THERE!

Ouija Board

Plip, plop, plip, plop.

Rain tittered against the windows in a rough manner. The storm had been going on since last week. It was like someone jinxed a huge storm cloud over the school, endless rainy weather doing nothing to improve the miserable states of the students.

Entering his dormitory, Remus Lupin wiped his feet on the Welcome mat his mother had made for him over the summer. So far, the mysterious dirt tracks he had been finding on his bedspread lately were diminishing, so that was good.

"Oh, you're back," said Peter Pettigrew, settled cozily into his bed, a mystery book propped up against his knees. "How was Divination, then?"

"Awful," muttered the boy, shaking his head to get rid of the water droplets. "Professor Steele had us go outside for today's lesson. We were supposed to try to communicate with the storm spirits to lay off with the crummy weather."

"That sounds like good fun."

"In a tin foil hat?"

"It could've been worse...you could've been naked."

The boys' staircase echoed with laughter. The sound was coming closer and closer until their door was pushed open and James and Sirius entered. They were holding their stomachs, and practically bent in half howling with mirth, before falling over onto the Welcome mat. It was a wonder they even made it up the stairs.

Remus and Peter waited ten minutes for the boys to calm down to ask:

"What's so funny?"

This set them into a flurry of giggles again, and they didn't stop until Remus shook his head, sending a splattering of water onto the boys.

"Now look what you did!" snapped Sirius, flicking the water off his clothes. "I was all clean before you decided to spread your sick germs." A large grape juice stained decorated his white shirt, and there was a smudge of dirt on his cheek. "I'll have to take a shower now." He stood up, shot Remus one more dirty look, and entered their bathroom.

James stood up, stretching languidly before he delved into the tale. "Remember that creepy girl from second year? Anne Dowling? The one who always wears black lipstick and growls when you look at her? Well, Sirius and I thought it would be fun to add a little life to her, so we charmed her clothes to change colours! She didn't like that one bit, and she said we'd be getting a taste of our own medicine soon."

"And?"

"And what?"

"Why is being threatened so funny?"

James snorted like he couldn't believe Remus had just said that. "Because it was a girl who'd threatened us, mate. A girl."

"So?"

James closed his eyes, raising his face heavenward as if pleading to someone to give Remus some common sense soon. He faced his friend again. "Girls just like to talk, they can't take action. They're too busy worrying about their hair to do anything, anyway," he said, before throwing himself onto his bed to take a well-deserved nap.

The bathroom door opened, and Sirius exited. "How very peculiar," he said.

"What? Did you forget to condition?"

Sirius gave him the finger before continuing. "While I was taking my shower, the lights kept flickering on and off, and when I got out to investigate, my toothbrush levitated for thirty seconds before falling back down."

"It could've been accidental magic," replied Remus, grabbing a towel to enter the bathroom himself.

Sirius furrowed his brows; he hadn't had a magical outburst since he had gotten his wand. He yawned, and decided to drop it. It was too late in the day for logical thinking. Grabbing a magazine, he sat beside Peter and looked at the pretty pictures.

The third year dorm was quiet, save for the thunder banging the castle like a drum and the snoring of the boys.

Suddenly, their window slammed open, flooding the room with the whine of wind and the screech of the freezing rain. Three heads popped up beneath blankets, confused and disorientated. James, putting the pieces together, got up and closed the windows.

He turned around, scowling. No one ruined his sleep and got away with it. "OK, who's the smart guy who decided to open the windows?"

"It was probably the wind," said Remus, and Sirius nodded his agreement.

"But the windows were locked tonight. I checked."

Before they could ponder this, a loud shout sounded from Peter's bed. A few moments later, Peter slapped away his curtains and ran out of bed. He was breathing as if he ran around the castle three times with weights tied around his ankles and his eyes were wide and frightened.

"Someone yanked my leg while I was sleeping!" he shrieked. "I woke up, and there was this…this thing standing by my bed. All bright and hazy, and I tried to yell, but it was like it was squeezing my throat, and then it just…it just disappeared."

This was all too creepy to be discussing at three o'clock in the morning, so Sirius tried to flick on a candle to bring some light into the room, but the fire died. He tried starting it three more times, but it still went out. James smirked before using his own wand light to engulf the room.

He quickly wished he hadn't.

On the opposite wall, in bright green paint, was the word: APOLOGIZE.

The windows opened again. James' homework on his desk got tangled in the wind and fluttered around the room in a confused haze. The bathroom door slammed opened and then closed. Open, close, open, close, over and over again.

"What's happening?" exclaimed Peter. "Make it stop!"

And then it did. The windows closed and locked itself, the flying homework flitted to a stop, and the bathroom door stopped its constant creaking. On the far right corner, a drawer quietly opened.

"Of course!" said Remus, striding toward the dresser. He took out a square board and a funny little heart-shaped piece of wood. "My Ouija board!"

"Your what now?"

"Ouija board. Professor Steele each gave us one at the start of term to communicate with spirits and ghosts. Maybe that thing Peter saw wants to talk to us?"

"Worth a shot," said Sirius. So they sat around the board. On the board, there was a Yes on one side and a No on the other. It had every letter of the alphabet, and numbers 0 to 9. Remus ordered them to hold the heart-shaped piece of wood called a planchette on the middle of the board.

"First, we need to call on it. I need complete silence," he said, closing his eyes. "Spirit, this is a safe place. We only wish to communicate with you. Please come through and talk with us for a while."

The planchette was still.

"Who are you?"

As if coming to life, the planchette moved to the word No.

"Are you a girl or boy?"

No.

"How did you die?"

No.

"What do you want?"

The planchette moved to the letter A. Then P. and then O, L and O again. G. I. Z. E.

APOLOGIZE.

"Alright!" snapped James, moving his hand away from board. "This is just a waste of time! There's no ghost in here. It's just a load of codswallop!"

"James –"

"No! You were probably just having a nightmare, Peter."

"James –"

"And all that freaky stuff happened because of the heavy wind –"

"James!"

"WHAT?"

"Behind you!"

Whipping around, James swallowed down a scream. A girl with long blond hair and vacant blue eyes was floating, her white dress barely brushing the ground. She didn't speak. Her eyes roamed over the boys, confusion apparent on her translucent face.

"W-w-what d-do you w-w-want?" James knew he shouldn't be scared of her. It was just a ghost! They had hundreds of them around the castle. But they never, ever went up to the sleeping quarters. That was just too personal.

Her head jerked up, lips curling into a snarl. In a flash, she was floating right in front of them. So close, they could feel the coldness radiating off of her. "APOLOGIZE!" she shrieked, her eyes rolling to the back of her head. "APOLOGIZE!"

And then she vanished.

It took the Marauders 2 seconds to jump down the stairs. Anne Dowling was sitting by the fire, a book on her lap and a cup of hot chocolate in one hand. She observed the panic-stricken boys with a calm air. "Yes?"

"Sorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysorry!" They chanted on their knees, hands clasped.

She took a sip of the drink, mulling it over. "Do my homework for the next three months and I'll think about accepting your apology."

"Of course!" said Sirius, standing up from the floor. "Anything!"

"Just make that thing leave us alone!" said James, rubbing at his strangely watery eyes.

"You mean Stacy? Oh, she's harmless! You should just meet her brother, Luke! That guy is a beast!" Anne shook her head as if she was talking about the weather and not her two pet ghosts.

The Marauders took this opportunity to climb upstairs. Throughout the years, they would never forget this night. For this was the night they learned a very valuable lesson. One that they would always be looking back on with a painful grimace and bottle of firewhisky:

Never mess with girls.

A/N: I changed the title! The reason is because there are so many Mischief Managed-titled stories around here, it's very difficult to distinguish our story from others. So voila - Masters of Mischief (Also because its acronym is MoM, and that makes me happy).

Thanks to: shadowkat678, Hpdwlotr24 (she's definitely a bamf!), Remus' daughter, Harry1675, chaosshotgun, Chuggamuffin, Our Mismatched Socks and Guest (credits go to them for the last chapter! Thanks so much!) for reviewing.

Next chapter is going to be good. It involves clubs and drama and heartache and yeah. Thanks in advance to Crystalline-Enchantix for the idea! All credits go to her!

Also, have you ever encountered any ghosts? Or anything close to that? Review to let me know! :DD