AN- as I've said in my other fanfics, I'm grounded. So I've been re-reading all of the Harry Potter series again, and I happened to notice something in the chapter "Snape's Worst Memory". While the Marauders do use their nicknames amongst each other, they never openly revealed that they were the alleged pranksters themselves. Some may argue, "but Snape seemed to know, because in the first book when he called Lupin, he knew who the Marauders were." Wrong again. I've checked and re-checked my sources, and while Snape would know who Moony was, (they use there nicknames in public in the fifth book,) he never once mentioned the word "marauders", although he said something about the manufacturers. So this nifty little idea popped into my head. Hope you like. Please, take a second to read and review, even if it's just a smiley or one word. Thanks- Padfoot_puppyeyes
Disclaimer-I'm thirteen. `Nuff said.
Sirius Black-
"Shush, Evans hears us and were in for it! It's her watch tonight!" James Potter hissed. "Ouch, Padfoot, get off."
"Did you ever consider that we'd get too small for all of us to fit under eventually?" Remus's voice was calm, despite the odds of getting caught. If anyone was likely to catch us, it was Evans, and as Head Girl, she seemed pretty eager to rid Prongs as her partner. She'd been determined to prove we were behind the pranks pulled on everyone, including her, and had had it out for us since fifth year, when we'd turned off her alarm clock, switched her robes for clown suits, and left our usual calling card, saying something to the effects of "quit clowning around". There was absolutely no evidence to bring against us, but somehow she'd known anyways. Damn Evans and her intellect.
As I was considering this, Prongs was answering Moony's question. "If you haven't noticed, as we grew so did the cloak. I put an enlargement charm on it second year, when Wormtail tripped on the hem and your feet stuck out. It was too close of a call. I spent days in the library perfecting that one." Under the cloak, James made a face like he was thinking hard, but not really getting anywhere. "Hmm… come to think of it, I think that was the last time I was in the library." I chuckled at the joke, weak as it was. None of us were nervous. That was the whole reason we performed these nightly rituals in the first place, whether they tricked one person or a whole house. The adrenaline rush and sense of humor was just too much for anyone to pass up. Thus, the boys of the seventh year had, in their fifth year, become the Marauders.
"Padfoot, did you bring the potion?" James asked in hushed tones, and I nodded, showing him the vial. "And you're sure it works properly? I do this for comedy, but no one's dying because of my dangerous sense of humor."
"Why do you think Peter missed lessons all day? Yeah, it works, and I'm sure it wont hurt them. All it did to Peter was give him his…voice." All three of us sniggered, amused with the way things had turned out. With any luck, lessons tomorrow with the Slytherins would be amusing. I wont give the prank we were about to pull out to you viewers yet. If I'm going to tell the story properly, I have to tell it in order. Which means I have to tell you how the determination of Evans lead from a simple feud between Head students, (Lily and James) became an all-out war.
The red head had known we were coming. That, or she just always waited outside of the Slytherin Common Room, waiting for pranksters such as ourselves to come wandering over. It really wouldn't have surprised me anyways, since no one but Slytherines liked the Slytherines, and we weren't the only ones wanting to prank them. We were just the only ones brave enough to. Anyways, either way, Evans sat determinedly at the door to our goal. Not that we were going to let her stop us. I transformed into the giant black dog that was my animal form and padded ever so carefully to the bathrooms nearby, were I proceeded to break every mirror loudly, yelling and playing my role as an actor. As planned, Evans came running, eager to tell off some miscreant. The problem was, I thought, as she passed my hiding stop in the hall, she had no idea that she was leaving the area the "miscreants" were entering.
I joined my friends at the front of the Slytherin common room, saying the password. Sometimes, I thank god James became Head Boy. It gives him access to all of the passwords, and before this year, we would've had to have waited for someone to open the door and snuck quietly next to them under the cloak.
Anyways, there they were, many of them sleeping. We weren't planning on getting the girls- there wouldn't be very much humor in that- but aimed for the boys. "Remember, we have a limited amount of time. One of them bound to wake up soon, I mean, aren't snakes usually early morning risers?" James muttered darkly under his breath. I took the blue vial and eyedropper out from my cloak pocket and handed two similar vials to the other two. Combined, the Marauders, minus one, worked diligently to finish handing out all of the contence of the vial. Quietly, I finished distributing the potion remains, and then watched Remus place our calling card with our "signature" on it. Already silently congratulating each other on our overwhelming success, we grabbed the cloak, not bothering to put it back on, and stepped outside the stiff and cold Slytherin Common Room.
We never saw Evans until she took the picture of us and said aloud "I knew it!" She was practically crowing in delight, and raced away, presumably to get the filmstrip published. James started laughing as soon as she turned the corridor. Both Remus and myself gaped at him, wondering if our Prongs had lost his mind, until James answered, between bouts of laughter, at our horror-mingled questioning glances. "Oh, that Evans never stops amusing me! She used a muggle camera!" This must have been the third time Evans had caught us, but it looked like this time we truly were busted. Then James explained, "Oh, you don't remember, do you? I remember when she tried to use a muggle video camera on us, and caught it all on tape, remember that?" We nodded, and I started laughing too as I remembered what had ended up happening to that form of proof. Muggle objects tend to go hang-wire at Hogwarts. That combined with the fact that, if muggle cameras were at all like ours, you needed to use flash in darks places, meant that Evans had lost…again!
The next morning, or later that morning, however you prefer, Evans was looking quirt put out, and sent a glare our way. She knew what would happen if she spoke up without evidence-everyone would laugh or show a form of doubt. So she just kept her mouth shut, but you could already tell she was plotting a new form of proving us guilty. Or she was focusing on her food and the conversation around her. Why couldn't Evans, like the other females of the castle we all occupied, admire the pranks and take the fall when we pulled one over on her? I wasn't sure, but I had to admire her determination on something so trivial. I think that may have been why James was so determined to win over Lily Evans heart. Whatever it was, that was one battle I was pretty sure poor Prongs would never win against Evans.
The Slytherin boys entered the common room as one, and Snape departed the group while the rest sat at the table and began to wordlessly eat. He walked right up to the professor, handing him a piece of paper that I could only assume was our calling card. I'd memorized the words on it perfectly anyways, and didn't need to read it aloud to know what it said. I'd watched James writing it after they had called Peter a squib, and then called "James's Evans'" a mudblood. It had infuriated James so much, he had written this message and thought up one of our best pranks yet.
If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all next time.
~The Marauders
It was worth the weeks of planning to see the sour look on Snivellus's face. "What is the meaning of this, Mr. Snape?" Dumbledore, asked at the Head Table eating breakfast. A blind man could have felt the jovial air around him however. The Headmaster was one of the many reasons we hadn't gotten thrown out of Hogwarts. He loved our jokes, so long as they were harmless. But I don't think even Dumbledore knew exactly who we were, though he may have had an idea. That combined with our pure luck and careful ability to cover our tracks made it impossible to make a connection to the Marauder's pranks and us.
Take last night, for example. We had been sure to hand the house elves a light sleeping drought to put in the Slytherin foods, so we had very slim chances of one of them waking up on us. We wore gloves to cover fingerprints, and often James wrote the card, because of his amazing and amusing ability to change his handwriting.
Anyways, when Dumbledore asked this, the sour look on Snape's face got worse before he managed to squeak out in an extremely high-pitched voice "Every boy in my house has been hit with a potion I have yet to learn." My smile grew slightly wider. James had invented this one himself. The only one better at potions than Snivellus would be James, though he rarely let his talent show through. "I need to find an antidote. I wish to be excused from lessons for my cause."
At least, I'm pretty sure that's what he said. His voice was so high and girly it was hard to tell. By now three-fourths of the Great Hall was laughing at the Slytherin table and urging them to say something.
"Dumbledore excuses Snivellus, but the other Slytherins, squeaky or not, had to attend all of their classes, most of which were with the Gryffindors. So for the rest of that day, and a good portion of the next one, everyone got a good laugh at the Slytherins
But from the glare Lily sent them, this wasn't over.
I NEED 3 REVIEWS IF ANYONE WANTS AN UPDATE!