A Flash of Green

James whistled happily to himself as he got out of bed very early on Halloween morning. Earlier even than Remus. He loved Halloween. It was his favourite day of the year. Well, he supposed birthdays were excellent as well, and Christmas; but today was Halloween, and he was sure that this one would go down in history.

Remus was already beginning to stir; he always slept lightly. James wasn't sure if it was a symptom of his lycanthropy or just of years spent sharing a dormitory with him and Sirius, which was, as Remus had protested loudly and often, a nervous business. There had been those months in third year when they had thought that hexing people awake was the pinnacle of humour. Peter, who had never mastered sleeping lightly, had born the brunt of that stage.

Peter still slept deeply. He only groaned and pulled his blankets up past his nose when James opened their three windows with a bang. Sirius, however, threw a pillow across the room, mumbling angrily and incoherently.

"James, mate," Remus called, "it's bloody cold out. Is it absolutely necessary to keep the windows open all the time?"

James took one last deep breath of fresh air and turned away from the window; they had this conversation every year as the weather got colder. He hated how close the dormitory got without any air. It made him feel trapped. "Stop your wining, Moony, and don't be a pansy; it's a beautiful day."

"Too damn cheerful," Sirius complained from somewhere beneath the blankets piled high on his bed. "Moony, make him stop."

James laughed, feeling suddenly giddy. "And what isn't there to feel cheerful about?" he asked, pulling the covers back. "It's Halloween and we're about to pull off the best prank in the history of Hogwarts."

Sirius kicked at him listlessly. "Hate you," he mumbled. "Bloody wanker." James prodded him until he got out of bed, still muttering vague threats about how James wouldn't be so cheerful once he was through with him.

"You know," Remus observed as they pushed Sirius into the washroom, "you would say that it was a beautiful day if it was twenty below and a blizzard."

Sirius hated mornings; it always took the combined effort of James and Remus to get him out of bed and into the shower so that they could all be downstairs in time for breakfast, where he would drink gallons of coffee and hex any first years who got in his way. James was convinced that the only reason that Sirius got his worst marks in Charms was because it was their first class every morning.

Halloween or not, today was no different. James and Remus nudged Sirius out of the dormitory and into the common room, Peter trailing behind them and yawning hugely.

Most people had learned to stay out of the Marauders' way in the mornings. Sirius was plain dangerous and Peter just sat nodding to himself over his porridge. Remus spent most of his time at breakfast hurriedly editing the paper that he had meant to read over the night before. That left James with a lot of free time on his hands; he doubted that the rest of the school realised that most of his pranks were developed over buttered crumpets. Of course, he could have planned them during class, but there were always so many people around in class that he got distracted. Besides, it seemed to be just a bit too obvious.

This morning James sat looking up at the professors' table and thinking about that night. They would do it right after Dumbledore's speech and just after the headmaster sat down, when everyone was sure to be looking up at the head table. Right before everyone left the hall. It was only an added benefit that he would get to watch McGonagall working herself into more and more of a frenzy as the feast passed without anything going wrong.

She must have noticed him staring because she glared down at him, looking both angry and worried. Hoping to throw her off track James looked over at the Slytherin table and smirked. Hurriedly she leaned over and began conferring with Slughorn and Flitwick. James was quite sure that the three of them would be taking the table apart piece by piece before the feast, looking for curses. They wouldn't find any, of course, but James felt touched by their belief in the Marauders' skills. In fact, with the notable exception of Dumbledore, all the teachers seemed to be watching Gryffindor table much more alertly than usual.

James sighed; he supposed that the last three Halloweens had been nervous ones for the Hogwarts staff. They had been surprised the first year when four little Gryffindor boys had set off a hundred of Filibuster's wet start fireworks during dessert. Second year, when all the Slytherins' hair had turned red and gold no one had been surprised to see James Potter and Sirius Black dragged out of the room by McGonagall. It had been a childish prank, James admitted now, but in second year it had seemed the height of cleverness.

By the time that third year had come around they had discovered the way to navigate the kitchens, and consequentially everyone's dessert had exploded in their faces, triggering a massive food fight. James was still proud of their prank in fourth year. It had required a tricky piece of magic - much harder than anything they had tried before. They had animated the figures on the house banners and prodded them into a duel across the huge hanging in the Great Hall. If the professors had allowed the fight to continue, James was sure that the Gryffindor Lion would have won. Admittedly, however, he hadn't been counting on the Slytherin Snake being quite so venomous. McGonagall was positive they had been behind that prank, but the fact that she had never been able to prove it was one of the Marauder's proudest accomplishments. It drove her crazy, and James was hoping for a repeat this year.

The key to evading capture, they had discovered, was to perform as many innocuous spells as they could between the time of the prank and the time he was questioned. This stopped the professors from summoning the shadow of any incriminating spell from their wands. By that standard, today's prank should be easy enough to pull off. Remus was the only one who even had to use his wand that night, and for reasons James had never understood McGonagall had always questioned him last.

He almost had to laugh as he turned back to his breakfast. All the professors were watching alertly for any signs of trouble, but the trap was already set. They only had to spring the trap; that was where it could all go wrong. They somehow had to divert attention away from Moony for long enough to trigger the spell. Dumbledore's speech should help, but James wished he had a more sure-fire way to accomplish it. He didn't like relying on anything that he couldn't control. The trigger was fairly complex, and Remus would need some time. James glanced across the table at Sirius who was still staring morosely into his coffee. They could come up with something after lunch, during Transfiguration.

* * *

The classroom was absolute chaos. The lesson that day had been Transfiguring cats into parrots and the half-transfigured creatures clawed and flapped around the room frantically, their various composite parts working together awkwardly. James was amusing himself by surreptitiously sending sparks out of his wand to frighten Lisa Boland's cat into jumping off the table the moment before she cast her spell. She was getting more and more frustrated as she chased the spooked animal around the room for the third time. James chuckled to himself as she dove awkwardly under a desk, robes and hair flying everywhere, just missing the huge tabby.

Slightly bored, he looked around the room where most students were still struggling to transfigure their cats; Remus was quite close to succeeding as was Lily Evans, the pretty red head sitting two rows in front of him. James had hoped that she would try out for the Gryffindor Quidditch team that year. She had the kind of natural athleticism that would have allowed her to succeed at any sport, regardless of experience.

As he watched, she finally completed the transfiguration and smiled contentedly at her bird as it flew twice around the room and then flew up to roost in the rafters with James and Sirius' birds.

James found himself smiling in response to her happiness. Still grinning, he summoned the birds to the back of the classroom and winked when she looked back at him. She rolled her eyes and turned back to Audrey Ramsey, but not before he saw her mouth curve into a badly suppressed smile. He watched her for a few more minutes as she helped Audrey correct her wand movements. Smiling again -no wonder she had got appointed prefect -he turned back to see what Sirius was doing. He was leaning lazily back in his chair, idly throwing balls of parchment at Peter's head. One ball was caught in Peter's shaggy blond hair, but Peter was still looking resolutely at his cat. Peter was often one of Sirius and James' favourite targets when they were bored and this seemed to be his new favourite strategy for dealing with them. James had to admit that it wasn't very effective, in fact he and Sirius had a sort of informal competition going to see would could get him to break down fastest. Sirius seemed to be doing a good job at the moment. Although he still hadn't turned his posture betrayed his increasing irritation.

James was about to stop Sirius when he began to see the outline of an idea. "Sirius," James hissed and kicked at one of the carefully balanced legs of Sirius' chair. All four legs landed on the ground with a slam that made everyone in the class turn and look at them. McGonagall coughed sternly at the front of the classroom, however, and they all turned quickly back to their work.

His momentary irritation already faded, Sirius turned to James. "What is it?"

"I was thinking that we might need a distraction," James answered. "You know, tonight. Moony needs to be able to get that spell off."

"You're right." Sirius considered this thoughtfully. "We need something that will draw attention away from us."

James grinned at his friend and leaned forward. He felt very pleased with himself. "No, we need to make sure that no one is looking at Moony. Think about it." He held up a hand to forestall Sirius' comment. "If we pull anything it won't be ten seconds before the entire school is watching all four of us. There's not much we can do about that. So let's make sure they'll be watching someone besides Moony." He leaned back and smirked at Sirius.

"Come on," Sirius said, dipping his head to look up at James. "I know you've got a plan."

"James has a plan?" Remus asked, turning around in his seat. "Should I be worried?" He glanced quickly over his shoulder to the front of the classroom then grinned at them settled back to listen.

"What plan?" Peter finally abandoned his work to look back at James in avid interest.

"To keep people from looking at Remus," James explained. He turned back to Sirius. "We have to make sure that no one is looking at Remus while he is casting his spell."

"What am I doing?" Peter asked eagerly.

"Nothing this time, mate," James answered. "We did most of the work last night and this will work better with only the two of us." Peter looked slightly disappointed. James felt a bit bad about that, but there wasn't much he could do - the last thing that they needed at that point was the potential for something to go wrong and Peter tended to perform poorly under pressure. "Here's what we'll do..."

* * *

The Great Hall was noisy that night with loud chatter and the clatter of plates and dishes as the feast was served. Halloween seemed to excite the students, although no few of them prodded suspiciously at their food before eating it. James looked down at his own plate, which was piled high with as much food as he could get and topped with a potato carved in the shape of a pear. They would have to pay a visit to the kitchens soon, he decided; the house elves had much too much time on their hands.

As the last few students finished their dessert and the dirty plates began to disappear, Dumbledore cleared his throat and stepped towards the podium. James glanced down at his friends, it was about to start. Remus' foot was tapping slightly under the table, a sure sign that he was about to act. Peter's eyes were darting around the Hall and Sirius was smiling elatedly at James, his whole body tensed. James noticed that although most of the students were paying attention to Dumbledore, there were a good many glances aimed toward the back of the Gryffindor table, including those of most of the teachers. More and more glances were turned their way as Dumbledore finished his speech and sat back down. Surmising that they would indeed need a distraction James looked over at Sirius and nodded once, unnecessarily as it turned out. Sirius was already in action.

He jumped up onto the bench and began to sing. It was the new Celina Warbleck song, a romantic duet with Fenton Hughes. It was currently number one on the Wizarding Wireless Network. The entire hall was staring rather blankly at Sirius. James had only an instant to glance down and see Remus begin the spell before he had to jump up and belt out Fenton's reply. The entire hall was laughing then and, Merlin, James wished that he had taken into account their actual musical abilities when he had come up with that plan.

He breathed a sigh of relief and slid back into his seat when the hall suddenly went dark. "Doo do." It lightened a little bit and all the students looked up to see the jack-o-lanterns chanting in unison. "Doo do, doo do, doo do." There were scattered giggles as the muggle born students realized what theme the pumpkins were singing. Remus' father had taken them to a muggle movie theatre that summer. They had loved Jaws.

Suddenly a bird shrieked loudly through the Hall. Everyone whipped their heads back around to the front. Where Slughorn usually sat was a fat walrus, James had been inspired by Sirius' brief stint as a manatee. Hagrid had been transformed into a great shaggy bear. It hadn't really made that much of a difference in his appearance. James actually thought that he may have been slightly smaller than usual. Where Flitwick usually sat was a rabbit, his ears and nose twitching nervously as he looked down at Hagrid.

By now the Hall was in an uproar. Students seemed torn between laughing and rushing up to help. Several were staring at the four boys in shock, not believing that even they would have dared to transfigure a professor.

Up at the front it was chaos. Dumbledore was sitting serenely in the centre of the confusion, his eyes twinkling. He was looking out at the student body and James could have sworn that his eyes rested on them for just a minute too long. But the other professors had been turned into various creatures, magical and otherwise. They were all croaking and cawing and roaring their displeasure. Some of them were attempting to lift their wands in hands recently turned to paws, causing jets of sparks and bunches of flowers to shoot from the ends.

Dumbledore turned his head and began to look up and down the professors' table as he reached slowly for his wand. He was apparently looking for someone in particular.

James searched the room himself, looking, no doubt, for the same person. Where is McGonagall? The joy of pulling one on her had been what had attracted James to this prank in the first place. If she had escaped he just didn't think that he'd feel the same about it.

Peter echoed his thoughts. "Where's McGonagall?"

"I don't..." Remus was scanning the ceiling intently. "No, wait, there she is." And there she was. James looked up above all the chaos and all the noise to see a brightly coloured parrot circling overhead.

Seeming to spot them at the same time that they spotted her, McGonagall gave a screech and dove at them, barely missing their heads with her talons before flying up to the front of the Hall.

Dumbledore looked at her unblinkingly for a moment when she landed on the table in front of him. "Why, Minevera, you are looking quite festive." She screeched at him and he chuckled. "Yes, I suppose so, well..." He lifted his wand. "...Stand back from there."

Dumbledore waved his wand, and with a bang of displaced air McGonagall reappeared, standing on the raised platform. After shooting them one angry glance, she turned back to the table and began changing her colleagues back to their natural forms.

Seeing that the Deputy Headmistress had the situation under control, Dumbledore turned back to the wide-eyed students. "I suppose that the feast is over for this year, you are free to return to your common rooms."

No one moved. The entire student body looked expectantly up at McGonagall as she finished her job and turned back to the Hall. "POTTER, BLACK, LUPIN, PETTIGREW!" she bellowed. "To my office NOW!"

Sirius' shoulders were shaking with suppressed mirth, and Remus' jaws and fists were clenched so tight in an effort to keep a straight face that James thought that he was in danger of breaking a tooth. Peter was giggling openly to himself and James didn't even try to hide his grin as he bowed slightly to the croud before following McGonagall out of the Hall.