At the end of October, they had their first snow. It was slightly earlier than the year before, but a lot of the students loved the beautiful white snowflakes coming down.
Sirius, Regulus, Capella, Severus, and Narcissa were heading up to the headmaster's office on Saturday morning, excited to see what they would be playing that day. However, just as they were approaching the gargoyle, a huge snowball landed on their heads. They jumped in surprise, the cold, melting snow dripping off their heads.
"PEEVES!" Narcissa shrieked.
Peeves gave them a smug look. "Aww, are you cold?" he asked in a mocking tone.
"How did you even get a snowball up here?" Regulus asked angrily.
"I don't tell little firsties how I do what I do!" Peeves sang before zooming out of sight.
"We're not ALL firsties!" Sirius exclaimed.
"Why does he ALWAYS sing about everything?" Severus asked. "And why in Merlin's name did he throw a huge snowball at us?"
"Peeves threw a giant meatball at Andromeda when she was in her fourth year," Narcissa informed them.
"That's even worse!" Capella exclaimed in horror.
When they got to the headmaster's quarters, Melania took one look at them and burst out laughing.
"You're all soaking wet!" she exclaimed.
"Peeves," Regulus grumbled.
"At least it was only a snowball, not a meatball," Narcissa pointed out.
"Meatballs?" Lyanna asked. She had started coming on Saturday mornings.
"Yes. Peeves threw a meatball at Andromeda in her fourth year," Narcissa explained.
"Eww!" Lyanna exclaimed. Everyone laughed. Melania waved her wand and they were dry once more. Little did they know, this was not the only surprise they would be getting that day.
Lunch came, and the Blacks walked to the Great Hall together. Everyone in the Great Hall always looked forward to Saturday afternoons, the one day where they got to see the Blacks enter at the same time, all united.
They separated so Arcturus and Melania could go to the Head table while the rest went to sit at the Hufflepuff table, where James, Lily, Alice, Mary, and Amelia were talking. They loved not having to sit at their own house tables.
The food didn't take long to appear.
"What in the name of Merlin?" Sirius asked, gazing at the food. It was the most interesting, yet disgusting food choices he had ever seen. There was treacle tart with gravy, chocolate frog soup, and chicken with chocolate sauce.
"This is disgusting!" Capella exclaimed.
"Why would the house-elves do this?" Severus asked.
"Something tells me that someone must have convinced them to do this," Amelia commented.
"I don't think I can eat any of this!" Mary said, looking green.
Others in the Great Hall were starting to react. Some were laughing, while some were clearly disgusted. Even the staff were looking horrified.
"How…" Professor Sprout was saying.
"What were the house-elves thinking?" Professor McGonagall asked, clearly unhappy.
"This is impressive!" Flitwick squeaked. "Chocolate frog soup! I can say I've never heard of that before!"
"I think the students are having even worse reactions than we are," Slughorn commented. Lily was trying to scrape the gravy off of the treacle tart, but was not successful.
"Dinky!" Arcturus barked. Dinky popped into the Great Hall. "Dinky, what is the meaning of this?"
"It was Peeves, Master Headmaster Black," Dinky explained. "Peeves told the house-elves to play a prank on the students by giving them odd food."
"I should have known," McGonagall muttered.
"And you listened to Peeves?" Arcturus asked.
"Yes, Master Headmaster Black," Dinky admitted. "Dinky tried telling the house-elves not to listen to Peeves, because house-elves are ordered to make good food, but the other house-elves wanted to go along with Peeves' idea."
Arcturus and McGonagall looked furious. "They know better!" McGonagall snapped.
"While I do not mind a joke now and then, when it comes to students getting food to eat, that is no time to play around," Arcturus told Dinky. "You will immediately get the students proper food to eat, and I will go to the kitchens soon to have a word with all of the house-elves. Be sure all of the house-elves are aware that I will be there soon to talk to them."
"Yes, Master Headmaster Black. Dinky is sorry, Master Headmaster Black," Dinky said sadly.
"As the head of the Hogwarts house-elves, I expect you to alert me to situations like this," Arcturus said sternly. "Let this be a lesson learned."
"Yes, Master Headmaster Black," Dinky responded. Dinky popped out of the room to follow through with the orders given by the headmaster.
A few minutes later, the disgusting food on all the tables disappeared, replaced with food that actually looked and smelled good. Everyone was relieved.
"Oh, thank Merlin!" Alice exclaimed.
"Good, because I wasn't eating that treacle tart with gravy!" Lily said.
"Attention please!" Arcturus called out. The Great Hall fell silent. "I found out that Peeves was behind this. He told the house-elves to give us all rather… interesting food." Some people laughed. "I will be sure this never happens again. I do hope you are all still hungry enough to eat, after all of this. Please, enjoy your lunch." When he finished, he headed out of the Great Hall to head to the kitchens.
"I will never forget this!" James said with a laugh.
"Oh, me neither," Severus muttered.
"I hope to never taste chocolate frog soup again!" Capella declared.
"Or chicken with chocolate sauce!" Amelia added.
"Well, at least we can finally eat," Sirius said, grabbing a piece of normal chicken.
Everyone enjoyed the rest of lunch, wondering what Peeves would do next.
That evening, as the Marauders headed to dinner, they found themselves slipping on the floor of the Entrance Hall.
"Whoa!" Alice exclaimed, nearly slipping. "What in the name of Merlin?!"
Suddenly, a dozen water balloons fell on them. They were now drenched.
"PEEVES!" Lily and Mary shrieked.
Peeves could be heard laughing as other students started arriving in the Entrance Hall, on their way to the Great Hall. The incoming students were also hit with water balloons, causing chaos as students tried to not slip on the wet floor as they tried entering the Great Hall.
Professor McGonagall finally turned the corner into the Entrance Hall, surveying the situation.
"Peeves!" she yelled. "Enough of this!"
Peeves cackled. He threw a water balloon at McGonagall, soaking her. McGonagall glared at Peeves.
"You've caused enough trouble for one day," she declared. "The Bloody Baron will be hearing about this." With that, she waved her wand, and the floor suddenly dried once more. "Head to dinner, all of you," she said, heading off to find the Bloody Baron.
As everyone went to eat dinner, they wondered what kind of adventure would be in store for them next.