Near the end of March, Jeremiah Roberts went to the headmaster's office with a question. He just hoped that the headmaster would agree with his idea.
"Mr. Roberts, come in," Arcturus said kindly upon seeing Jeremiah. "Please sit. What can I do for you?"
"Headmaster," Jeremiah began nervously. "I wrote a list of all of our members, as you requested. You also wanted me to write down ideas that we had for uniting the houses. I have completed that list as well."
"Oh, good," Arcturus said. "Can I please see those lists?"
"Of course," Jeremiah replied, handing over the lists.
Arcturus looked at them for a full five minutes before breaking the silence. "You did well, Mr. Roberts," he praised. "I love your group's vision for this school, for houses to be united. I know I've said it before, but I firmly believe that this school needs to be united, not divided. Ever since becoming Headmaster, I have been fighting for equality, and I will not stop until I see some real progress. This list of event ideas you just gave me is a great start, and hopefully, by encouraging students to go to these events, and making sure that they focus on unity, we can make a difference."
Jeremiah felt hope fill him. "Really?" he asked. "You really think this will work?"
"There is only one way to find out," the headmaster responded. "I will discuss everything with Professor McGonagall, then we'll go from there. We will see what we can do. Thank you for bringing these lists to me. Oh yes, and twenty points to Slytherin for your dedication to this effort."
"Thank you, Headmaster," Jeremiah said with a slight smile. He just hoped that the headmaster was telling the truth, and that changes were coming.
A few days later, at breakfast, the headmaster called for everyone's attention. "Professor Flitwick and Madam Hooch both have an announcement for all of you," he informed everyone in the room.
Professor Flitwick and Madam Hooch stood, Flitwick having to stand on cushions to be seen over the table.
"Good morning, students!" Flitwick squeaked. He seemed excited about something.
"We have some great news," Madam Hooch continued.
"Hogwarts will be hosting its first-ever Game Night!" Flitwick announced excitedly.
There was a loud cheer in the room.
"Brilliant!" some were shouting.
"It's about time!" some were calling out.
The Marauders were interested in this. They had not seen this coming.
"Silence!" Madam Hooch called over the cheering. "Now, as we were saying, Hogwarts will be hosting its first-ever Game Night. This event will take place in one week. It will be held in this room for some of the games, and for others, it will be held outside near the Quidditch pitch."
"The games that will be available are Muggle games like Monopoly, Uno, Yahtzee, Threes, Go Fish, and more," Flitwick explained. "There will also be Wizarding games like exploding snap, and wizard's chess."
There were more cheers before Madam Hooch got their attention. "And for those who would like to do a little Quidditch, we will be holding small Quidditch matches that night," Madam Hooch began before being interrupted by the chatter. Once the chatter quieted, she continued. "As I was saying, we will have small Quidditch matches during Game Night. However, here's the catch: each team will have players from all four houses." There were gasps from around the room.
"This will be the case for all of the games we will be playing during Game Night," Flitwick picked up where Madam Hooch left off. "Anyone from all four houses are allowed to participate in Game Night. In fact, we encourage each and every student to show up to Game Night, even if you only stay for an hour. In fact, if you go to Game Night, you will get extra credit in my class!"
The students went wild. Extra credit was never offered at Hogwarts. This was the first time in Hogwarts history that a professor was offering extra credit. The Muggle-borns were ecstatic seeing as they knew what extra credit was from primary school. Some of the other students, however, did not understand what extra credit was, but they knew one thing: extra credit was a good thing.
"We hope to see everyone there," Madam Hooch finished. There was loud applause from all of the students after the two staff members sat back down.
"I am so excited!" Lily exclaimed. "Game Night sounds like so much fun!"
"Especially Quidditch!" James said excitedly.
"What is extra credit?" Regulus asked.
"It's where a teacher gives you free points towards your grade," Capella explained. "When I was in primary school, one of my teachers, Mrs. Moretti, gave us extra credit once a month, and if we did the extra work, it could make or break our grade. Then I had another teacher, Mr. Colombo, who would give us bonus assignments to every assignment we did, and if we decided to do the bonus assignments, then we would get extra credit on every assignment we did. It's something that Muggle schools do often. Not every teacher did it though. My teachers Mr. Orsini and Mrs. Mandelli never gave extra credit, so if you did not do well on tests and assignments, then you were going to pay the price."
"Wow!" Alice exclaimed. "Hogwarts needs to start doing extra credit like Muggle schools do!"
"Yes, I find it weird that Hogwarts has never done extra credit until now," Lily said thoughtfully. "Do witches and wizards never go to primary school?"
"There are wizarding primary schools," Sirius informed her. "However, not everyone goes to them. It really depends on the family. Some children will be home-schooled by their parents, and some will go to primary school. For example, our father and Aunt Lucretia went to primary school, but Regulus and I did not. Our parents home-schooled us."
Regulus shuddered at the memories. "That was a nightmare," he stated. "I don't know why they didn't just send us to primary school. That would have been much better."
"Agreed," Sirius said. "But at least you had good teachers for your last year of homeschooling."
"Yes, Grandmother and Grandfather were much better teachers," Regulus said.
"I went to primary school," Remus informed them. "I went to a wizarding one. I really wish they had had extra credit there."
"I was home-schooled," Severus said. "Mother wanted to teach me herself."
The bell rang at that moment, signaling the start of the school day.
One week later, over three quarters of the school stood in the Great Hall. Some were there because they wanted to have fun, while some were just there for the extra credit.
"Welcome to Hogwarts' first-ever Game Night!" Flitwick greeted everyone. "You will find games here like Uno, Go Fish, and Exploding Snap. Outside, you will find games like Connect Seven and Quidditch. There are so many more games, so be sure to explore, and play whatever you'd like!"
"Connect Seven?" Lily whispered. "Don't they mean Connect Four?"
"What's that?" James asked curiously.
"It's a Muggle game," Capella explained. "They must have changed the game."
"If you would like to go outside, then follow me!" Madam Hooch called out. "If you'd like to stay inside, then stay here with Professor Flitwick."
The Marauders decided they would start inside, and go outside later on. They started by playing Exploding Snap. After that, they played some Uno. Thankfully, Sirius, Regulus, Capella, Lily, and Severus were already good at playing Uno, so they were able to show James, Remus, Alice, and Mary how to play it.
After Uno, they played Chess with each other. While Sirius and James were playing against each other, Regulus, Capella, and Lily sat, playing Go Fish.
"Regulus, why didn't you go to primary school when you started living with your grandparents?" Lily asked curiously.
"Well, we talked about it, and if I had had more than a year left before starting at Hogwarts, they would have sent me to primary school, but since I only had one year before I would start my first year here, we didn't see the point in me getting used to a school for just one year," Regulus explained. "Grandmother and Grandfather do not like homeschooling, because they believe that by keeping children home, children will not learn social skills. That is why they sent my father and Aunt Lucretia to a primary school."
"Do you wish your parents had sent you to primary school?" Capella asked.
"Yes," Regulus admitted. "I feel like I'm not as outgoing and comfortable talking to people as some other people I know who did go to primary school and had the chance to make friends. My parents always told me and Sirius that we were supposed to make allies, not friends."
"Yet, your father went to primary school, and he told you not to make friends, just allies?" Lily asked angrily. "How in Merlin's name did your father turn out the way he did when it sounds like he was raised by loving parents who wanted the best for him?"
"It's hard to say, but he seemed to change when he came here," Regulus explained.
"Well, let's not talk about this depressing topic any further," Capella said. "It's Game Night, after all! We should be having fun!"
"You're right," Regulus agreed. "Let's go see what Connect Seven is all about!"
The Marauders headed outside, where they played Connect Seven and some Quidditch. The rest of the night passed with fun activities and a lot of laughter. Only time would tell if the game night did anything to unite the houses, even just a little bit. Either way, more events were to come.