The Marauding Five - Year One

The Marauding Five : Year One

Chapter 8: The Day Goes By

The Marauders were having their breakfast when Owl Post came as thousands upon thousands of owls swooped down. But instead of the usual tawny brown owls, snow-white ones and barn owls, a flock of rainbow colored owls replaced them.

The owls swept to their owners as they looked at their owls with horror stricken faces. Radish, Lotus, Jackpot and Soots flew respectively to Remus, Lily, James and Sirius. Radish was brightly colored in a color of a very red beetroot, Lotus has a soft tinge of pink about her, Jackpot was given the color of a mahogany and Soots, being like it’s name, was blessed with soot-black coat. The Marauders see that as nothing new, for they’d dyed their owls in their chosen color when they dyed the owls in the owlery the night before. Lily had decided to give them their name colors, but James’, being ‘Jackpot’, had no specific color and was chosen mahogany brown by Lily. They made sure to feed their owls themselves, as they’d mixed the color-changing potion (courtesy of Gram’s newest discovery) into the owl’s food when the house elves fed the owls.

They laughed at the faces of those whose owls were in transparent-ghost color. Some had the color to match the ghosts’, and Peeves transformed himself into an owl, scaring the wits out of everyone by blowing their letters at them when they opened it. The professors stared unapprovingly at them, but the four wore their most innocent expression, making the professors pass them and turn to Snape. After all, they were the best students, aren’t they? Their jokes were always directed to Severus Snape and Mrs Norris and Filch (doing a great favor to everyone), and there’s no reason to doing it to the whole school.

As Lily was drinking her pumpkin juice, a tiny squeak came from behind her, making her spurt it all over Thomas’ face, as he’s sitting opposite her. He glared angrily at her as Lily turned to face the squeak, thinking it as Flitwick. After all, who else had a squeak that high? Lily gulped. She’d used a charm in the owl’s food. Maybe Flitwick had discovered it and will take points off Gryffindor? She didn’t mind losing points, but when she heard that Slytherin house had the House Cup for ten years in a row, she’s determine to change that. Flitwick, being Ravenclaw’s house teacher, may be taking points off her as she’d made the Ravenclaw owls all luminous, some in a horrid purple. The other three start twitching in their chair.

To the Marauders’ surprise, it was no Flitwick but…

‘PETTIGREW!’

The boy nodded meekly at them.

‘Just what are you doing here? You’re supposed to be in your house, Slytherin,’ Lily said, disgust at a Slytherin being at the Gryffindor table.

‘Right. No Slip-the-rims allowed in the Gryffindor table,’ James said, biting into his cereals as the four turned their back to him.

Pettigrew squeaked again. ‘I- I- want to th- th- thank y- y- you f- f- for s- s- saving m- me f- from that h- horrid s- s- s- squid.’

‘That’s before we knew you’re a Slytherin. If we knew better, we should’ve let you drown and be made a dinner to that creature. I simple had no idea how we’d lose our minds by saving a Slytherin when he could’ve done us such a huge favor by getting rid of a Slytherin,’ Sirius replied coldly with an equally cold expression. His long hair drooping about his face added the effect.

Pettigrew whimpered.

‘C’mon, leave those egoistic prigs alone, Pettigrew,’ a cold, snarling voice drawled.

‘Hello Severus! How’s your owl? It looked kinda green, don’t you think so? Not to mention with red and purple spots all over it. Some food you gave him or is it natural? Maybe it’s sick with owl-pox, as I’d never seen an owl like that, despite the colored owls all around. None of them had those magnificent spots – they don’t have any, in fact – as yours do,’ Lily said cheerfully, spinning around.

‘Yep. I envy him. Please, tell me how you did that! Soots’ tired of staying black!’

‘My owl’s a her, Black. And what name is Soots?’

‘Someone speaks when he named his owl Tally. Why? Had a crush on her? Boy, a Slytherin and a Gryffindor! When will the wedding date be? Had you decided to give her an oily, greasy ring, decorated with a picture of yourself and some green and silver slime balls on it? Interesting, I must say.’

‘Watch it, Potter,’ Severus snapped as James hummed a wedding march. Severus had a crush on Chapman, and when he got an owl for Christmas, he’d name it after her.

‘Ugh. Severus Snape, Order of Snape, first class, Slimeball gits and Slytherin pigs, fall in love? Okay, let the bludger kill me or just gag me with that snitch,’ Lily and James said as they pretended to vomit and fainted on the floor.

Severus glared.

‘I don’t recall you invited, Severus. Where’s the invitation card to enter Gryffindor? Oh look! What’s this on Tally’s leg? A letter in red again? Tsk tsk, you really should find out who sent these howlers, Severus,’ Remus tutted in disapproval.

‘Now, how about opening it? Or did you expect it to burst open itself? Maybe you should just walk back to your table. Maybe I could send you off with that spell I’d just found? It sends whomever you want to wherever you want. I must say, I should send you to Egypt or the Amazon forest.’

‘Lupin, where’d you been yesterday? I recall you were absent again. How could you have been able to coop with the studies? I think Potter, Evans and Black let you copy their works, didn’t they? You couldn’t have finished your homework with the amount of time you’d been missing from school.’

‘Sorry Snape. I let no one copy my work. Hey, anyone interested in Exploding Snape? Or should we use the curse Remus is talking about?’ Lily asked brightly.

BOMB!

The Howler in Tally’s (Snape’s owl) leg went off, leaving the owl battered as she stared at her owner angrily from her purple (dyed, yet again, by the Marauders) eyes as she flew off in a huff, not before scratching the greasy haired boy deeply.

Snape howled loudly as he ran back to the Slytherin Common Room (wherever it is) with Pettigrew tagging alongside.

‘A howler wasted. I spent some time in making that,’ Lily sighed sadly as se stared at the little red bits on the ground. James picked them up, trying to make out the curse in it and the song. Every time Lily sent a howler, it’ll always be in a shape of a ludicrous song or a nasty poem along with a nasty curse to go with it.

‘What is it about anyway?’ Sirius was sniffing at the red bits, seeing if she added stink pellets in it.

‘The same ol’ thing. A song and this time, three curses to go with it.’

‘Nice going, Lily. I detect a stink pellet,’ Sirius said as he draw his nose from it.

‘What curse?’

‘First, the chicken pox curse, making him look like his owl.’

‘Groovy! You could put it on him when we meet later. No lessons on Sunday though.’

‘Then?’

‘It’s the curse of bogies. I’d managed to find the advance version; and it’s nothing like the one Corn taught.’

‘Eeew. We can learn it later and put it on Severus.’

‘Lastly?’

‘The best one yet. It’s the repeating hex. Whatever you say to the hexed, he’ll repeat whatever you said and start and end it with a chosen phrase. My favorite one.’

‘And just what did you make him say?’

‘Do say it’s "THE MARAUDERS RULES!!!"!’

‘Close, James, but it’s "The Marauders are so much better off than me. They have everything and I have nothing. They have good grades and I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m a greasy slimeball, crazy git and an absolutely ludicrous Slytherin."’

‘That’s long. I thought we were only allowed to put a couple of words!’

‘Found an advanced version, yet again.’

‘Must’ve taken you long.’

‘Right on the nail.’

Lily sighed sadly as she stared at the bits on the floor.

‘Let’s just forget this. How about getting Mrs Norris? That furball scratched me yesterday!’

‘Well, there’s always and itching powder-’

‘And then again, a stink pellet-’

‘How about tying a packet of mud with a hole under it? Wherever she goes, the mud’ll fall off. And Filch’ll have a time cleaning it!’

‘Good one. But how can we tie it?’

Silence.

‘Forget this. I wanna go to the common room. How was it last night, Remus?’ Lily asked as they walked from the Great Hall. ‘Awful. Had a hard time controlling myself,’ Remus replied bitterly. ‘Too bad we can’t help. If we can, I always will,’ Sirius put in as he patted his friend sympathicly. They reached the portrait of the Fat Lady.

‘Password?’ she asked sharply to them. Bad mood, Lily said to herself. ‘The Fat Lady has the most awesome portrait of all,’ Sirius replied simply as Remus grinned. ‘I don’t recall it being that long.’ ‘Sorry Black. You know the rules: No password, no entering. Nice attempt to calm me down, though,’ the Fat Lady said disapprovingly. ‘Well, what happened?’ James asked in a concern tone as the four sat in front of her large portrait.

‘We’re ready to listen,’ Lily added.

‘No kids. Sorry, but unless you want to get in, you can’t bother chatting here.’

‘Fine. Burning Phoenix. We need to get some things.’

The portrait swung open as they climb in to gather things from Lily’s Prank Trunk. They ran into the first year girls’ dorm, and swung the door open. Sirius had said, ‘Even if no one’s there, we still have to do so to show that we’re the Marauders entering. Hey, we have our pride and dignity!’

They stared at the sight before them.

Tally was sitting in front of her dresser, rollers in her hair. Sita was still lying in her bed, pajamas and all. Nina and Pertsy were playing a game of wizard chess. The usually empty girls dorm was full with it’s occupants today. The four girls open their mouth wide to begin their screams. Remus waved his wand at that very moment, and slugs start pouring from their mouths when they opened them. The girls gasped, horrified, and ran straight out towards the Hospital Wing.

‘That should get rid of them.’

‘They’re using my chess set! Knight, why’d you let them use you??’

‘Mistress, they threatened to change us into a normal chess set, and we wouldn’t want to be it! It’s so boring!’

‘They threatened you? They should’ve known better than to mess with the Marauder’s things!’

‘Hey, I can always do that to their things. Besides, they aren’t good with Transfiguration, as they’re the worst in class (besides Severus), so they couldn’t even transform my chess set into anything at all.’

‘But-’

‘No worry, I’ll take revenge. I’m no Marauder if I don’t.’

‘That’s better.’

Lily bowed.

She went to her bed and muttered the password (Severus Snape is an ugly git) before it opened to reveal her Prank Trunk. Loads of things had been added since the boys last see the contents of it. More Dungbombs, a set of fake potions ingredients, automatic fireworks, bursting cauldron, screaming banshees-

‘Where’d you get all those new stuff Lily’?’

‘Oh, them. Gram and Mrs Potter sent them to me.’

‘How come mum never sends any to me?’

‘Beat me with the Bludger.’

‘I certainly will.’

‘Not that way, Sirius.’

‘Fine. It’ll be better to chase the others anyway.’

‘Right. So anyhow, Gram loves to make new tricks, now that I’m not home. Here’re some of her creations.’

Lily pulled out a couple of tall bottles.

‘These, are one of her best. Bursting Butterbeer. Well, it’s my favorite anyway. Whoever who drinks this has this feeling like they’re going to burst and – Sirius! Don’t drink it!!’

Sirius was feeling thirsty, so when Lily pulled out the butterbeer bottles, he’d popped the cover open and was already gulping it. Lily moaned as Sirius start growing fatter and fatter, and his robes expanded along with his body. Soon, he was taking half the room as they watch him swell larger with horror. Sirius was almost positive that he’ll burst when he shrinked back to his normal size in a loud ‘pop!’.

‘Forget the explanation. The proof’s right in front of us!’ Lily said, grinning from ear to ear. The others stared, awed at the effect. ‘Uh… has it any side effect Lily?’ Sirius asked as he checked himself. ‘As far as I’d known, no. Well, I tried it, and it was a horrible fright to me. I thought Gram had sent me butterbeer!’ Lily exclaimed as she remembered the time when she took the bottle. They laughed, at the thought of Lily’s horrified face and her being as fat as Sirius had.

‘I wasn’t as fat as Sirius though. It seems that it’ll expand you until at least half the room you’re in. I was in the toilet at that time. You know, butterbeer not allowed for first years,’ Lily said as she giggled at that thought.

‘Well done! We should offer it to our dear Severus Snape, Order of Snapes, Slimeball gits and Slytherin pigs. I’m sure he’d be glad to have it!’ James chuckled as Remus rolled behind him. ‘Imagine his face!’ Remus choked as he imagine Severus’ oily skin expanding, oilier than ever, and his greasy hair left a chunk over it.

‘Now, how shall we pull it?’ James pondered.

‘We could do it in the Great Hall,’ Sirius put in helpfully.

‘Gosh! And what would the teachers say?’ Lily asked with a pretence of shock on her face.

‘No. Better, what would they do?’ Remus said to Lily.

‘Detentions.’

They checked the Prank Trunk for more tricks, making it messy. Lily had it cleaned the day before. Packets of powders of one side, the boggart boxes on the other, Zonko’s products in a corner, her Gram’s inventions in the other, thick books piled neatly and the miscellaneous took over a huge section of the large trunk.

‘How about sneezing powder?’

‘What’s this Lily?’

James pulled out two big book, titled The Advance Book of Potions, Hexes, Tips and More On Playing Your Enemy and Simple Hexes, Potions, Charms and Defenses Against Your Enemies.

‘Oh, that. That’s where I got the advance version of the Repeating Hex, Chicken Pox Curse and the Curse of Bogies. It came yesterday, from mother and Gram. Mother doesn’t like playing tricks, but she enjoyed others doing so, so she got me the advance book. And how did you think Severus’ owl got that weird pox? Thanks to the simple charms,’ Lily replied, grinning broadly at the thought of Severus’ owl.

‘Knowing you, you’d have memorized the whole book by now,’ Sirius mused as he look at the thick books with interest.

‘Right.’

‘Good. We wouldn’t want to read books this thick. I mean, look! This simple hexes book is as thick as five of my hands stacked up! And the advance book – it’s as thick as our heads put together.’

‘Count yourself lucky then. I’d memorized exactly everything.’

‘I know I’m lucky enough to have a friend like you.’

‘I thought you didn’t.’

‘Well… if you don’t want me to, it can always be fixed.’

‘Forget it, James.’

‘Hey, how about giving Mrs Norris a new fashion?’

‘Let’s see…’

Lily rummaged deep into her trunk, almost falling over in process and the boys had to hold on to her to prevent her from falling in. After three minutes, Lily grinned happily at what seemed like little white fish biscuits.

‘Charmed Cat Food,’ Lily exclaimed happily. ‘I made it myself.’

‘You made them? How come we’re never told?’

‘Hey, I just made them last week!’

‘You could’ve told us by then.’

‘Forget this. Like I said, I’d charmed it to do whatever we want it to. We just need the correct phrase though. What would you want it to do?’

‘Make Mrs Norris have a pair of antlers. Gives her a nicer picture and it shows that Filch has a better taste.’

‘Okay, let me try, but no promises!’

They nodded. Lily raised her wand over the biscuits saying:

‘Charmed by Lily Evans, the brains of Marauders,

little biscuits, give Mrs Norris a pair of antlers!’

They watch as it gave a slight shimmer and faded into a brown, biscuit color. Lily grinned happily.

‘That should do the trick. Knowing that greedy cat, she’ll gobble it up.’

They ran out, carrying a bottle of the Bursting Butterbeer under Remus’ robes and Lily holding the charmed biscuit. Scrambling out of the portrait hole, they started their search for Filch’s cat.

Peeves swooped up to them and they explained to him their plans for the cat. To their delight, the poltergeist had agreed to bring them Mrs Norris, saying ‘I’d always hated that cat and Filch. Kept scratching me in my school days. Goody for ya to think of this!’

They waited outside of the Great Hall, and five minutes after, Peeves flew up to them, carrying a horrified Mrs Norris. He threw her down harshly. The cat landed on her feet, shaking and quivering. Lily walked up to her casually, saying ‘Oh, you poor kitty! What a treatment! Want a cookie? I have one…’

Mrs Norris agreed reluctantly as Lily fed it the biscuit. The cat chewed it up greedily as a weird feeling came up to it. Why, oh why, is there something on her head? It seems to be heavier than usual…

She glanced at the nearby mirror, only to mew frantically at her reflection. On her head, was a fine pair of antlers, strong and thick. She yelped and jumped down, quickly running from Lily, making mental notes not to get near the Marauders. The Marauders laughed gleefully, just before a dark shadow loomed before them.

McGonagall had seen what happened.