From The Beginning Till The End

"So, Peter, tell us more about yourself!" Lily said to the shy boy gently as the septet sat around the fireplace in the Gryffindor common room.

"You can't be shy to be a Marauder!" James exclaimed loudly and gave Peter a slap on his back. Several heads turned around to take a look at James in the common room. The senior students shot him an annoyed look while the younger ones shot him an admiring glance.

"I-My father is a Muggle and my mum was a witch. She died in an accident when I was five. My father had been drinking his nights away ever since my mum died and beat me up now and then. I did not know that I'm a wizard or whatsoever until I received the letter from Hogwarts. I had to practically beg him for ages before he allowed me to come here," Peter said sadly. His gray eyes appeared a little watery.

"Well, this explains your loneliness," Arabella said sympathetically although her insides twitched with uncertainty. She looked at Peter and read his thoughts. Nothing much again. He seems to be thinking of his past. Is he really as what Lils had said? Whatever it is, I don't think I should let my guard down.

"So now, you're part of us, the famous Marauders, and the hottest guys in school!" Sirius jumped up and sat on the other side of Peter. Hmm... is he who he appears to be? In the background, Lily, Arabella and Stefanie were making puking noises away.

"Thank you. I mean it," Peter said, looking at them sincerely. Well, looks like they're not as bad as Master had said.

"I think you should relax a little. We're not like Malfoy or the Slytherins, who despise Muggle-borns. Lils and Bell are Muggle-born too. Besides, the sorting hat had put you in Gryffindor. You belong here," Remus said in a kindhearted tone.

"C'mon guys. We need to come up with a prank before we head down for dinner," Stefanie said, smiling and trying to lighten at mood. He seems really innocent so far. Nothing else in his thoughts except his father. Maybe as what Lil's say, he probably suffered too much.

"Yes, we need a prank. One that is good enough to give a bang to the end of the school year," James mused, eyes brightening at the thought of more detentions.

"Well, we can always have something that really bangs," Sirius responded cheekily, mentally making a list of things that bangs.

"Don't forget we've got our house cup to maintain. Don't go too far with the bangings," Lily warned jokingly. Gryffindor had won the Quidditch cup and house cup once again, for the second time since they were here. People could not help but be amazed that the points had not been taken off yet since the school pranksters were all Gryffindors.

"No worries, Lils. How far can we go?" James grinned and that usually signified that some major prank was being brewed in his mind.

"What about conjuring up some guns that give loud bangs but fire some sort of liquid?" Peter suggested timidly. He kept quiet after speaking up and looked down on the floor. They're really nice to me. How could I do something like that?

"That's a brilliant idea!" James exclaimed, smiling at Peter, charming him with the Potters' smile. Peter's face actually relaxed at that moment. He appeared to be really tensed and uncomfortable. I wonder what's troubling him.

"Sounds like a super soaker!" Lily said excitedly. Lily had owned super soakers, a type of rather large water gun that can shoot water at great distance with some pressure, when she was younger.

"What's a super soaker?" Sirius asked curiously. Being a pureblood wizard with only toys from the wizarding world, Sirius had never seen a Muggle water gun before.

"It is a Muggle toy that shaped like a huge gun but have a container to put water and can shoot out water," Arabella explained in a bright voice. She was rather perked up from the idea of a harmless prank.

"I wonder how they look like," Stefanie wondered. She had never been to a Muggle toyshop before. Living in a wizard neighborhood had its limitations after all.

"Then we can make banging sounds coming out from these guns," Remus added. He had owned a few super soakers before. His parents had made sure that he knew things from both the wizarding world and the Muggle world. He frequented Muggle toyshops especially the one, which was situated rather near to his house, Toys 'R' Us, when he was younger.

"Ok, now we need to carry out the idea. Let's head up to our dorm to do it." James instructed and the six of them followed him up to the second year boys' dormitory.

"Erm... this is your dorm?" Lily asked in disbelief when Sirius opened the door and invited the girls in.

"Of course. We're so proud of this masterpiece. We did all these last week," James said smiling. Lily thought that he had winked at her again.

The boys' dormitory looked like a forest. The supposedly velvet red curtained four-poster beds were now camping tents with mattresses. The cupboards and tables now shaped like trees and shrubs. The original carpet had become normal carpet grass. There was even a waterfall at the part where the last empty bed was supposed to be.

"What's with the forest theme?" Lily asked, totally impressed at the sight.

"We never had a chance to sneak into the Forbidden Forest, so we decided to have a Not-So-Forbidden forest up here," James answered easily, feeling proud of his advanced transfiguration skills.

"This is very advanced transfiguration. We haven't even learned them," Arabella said dreamily, staring at the supposedly dormitory in amazement.

"We borrowed books about Transfiguration from the library," Sirius said and pointed at the pile of books on Transfiguration and Animagi piled at the corner of the room.

"Did Orlando ever come in here?" Lily asked as Remus closed the door behind her. Orlando Wood was the captain and keeper of Gryffindor Quidditch team and the sixth-year prefect.

"This was only created a few days ago. No one knows about this beside the Marauders and now, you three," James replied, touching the mini waterfall and splashing the water for the effect.

"Oh my gosh, it's real!! And how did you guys know there's a waterfall inside?" Lily asked and walked over to the mini waterfall to touch the cooling water.

"We have our sources," James said, winking at Lily again. Lily saw Arabella and Stefanie looking at her with the 'I-know-what-James-did-to-you-again' look. Oh no, this is going to be a long night again.

The septet settled nicely in a circle around the 'campfire' and started their discussion. The 'campfire' was made using the magical blue flames and all the seven wands were stacked in the middle to provide the effect.

James was going to transfigure the seven super soakers from parchments. Remus would help him in transfiguration as he had a clearer idea how the water guns looked like. Lily was going to charm the water into seven different colors. They continued to go about how they were going to walk into the Great Hall with the super soakers without letting anyone see before they finished eating.

"We can use the Invisibility Cloak," Sirius said excitedly. He started dashing towards James's trunk to fetch it.

"Wow! You have an invisibility cloak?" Lily asked James. She had read about Invisibility Cloaks and how expensive and rare they are in books. Arabella and Stefanie looked equally amazed. Well, James is very rich, after all.

"He had gotten it for his thirteenth birthday from his parents," Remus explained to the girls.

"It is not practical. How are we going to carry seven massive super soakers into the Great Hall?" James asked although he had no clue how the super soakers looked like or how big they actually were.

"They're not that big! But seven of them could be rather heavy to be carried around," Lily reasoned.

"How about we all get a different colour liquid and see how many people we can aim?" Sirius jumped and left James' trunk and his invisibility cloak alone to head back to the circle.

"Great. My aiming is rather good. But that depends how good the water gun is," Arabella called out, energized over the idea.

"We can charm the colored water to stay on, or perhaps we can add something like a counter onto these super soakers. They can count the number of people we hit," Stefanie added.

"So right now we need to get the right charms on the liquid first," Remus added suggestively.

"No, we don't. We have a charming dictionary around." James turned and grinned at Lily.

They continued their flawless prank until late into the night when all of them were just too tired to move. Before long, the seven had fallen asleep soundly on the carpet grass in the boys' dormitory.

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"Where's Potter, Evans, the Black twins, Lupin, Figg and Pettigrew?" Professor McGonagall asked the class. Seven Gryffindors were missing in the morning class of Transfiguration.

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"Someone draw the curtains..." James mumbled as he crawled into a 'tent'. The sun was up and sunlight was spilling into the room.

"Ouch, my face!" Arabella yelped in disgust as Sirius' leg just kicked her.

"Ssshhh!"

"W-What...where are we?" Lily opened her eyes and asked, trying to digest the forest surroundings. She soon realized that it was only the boys' dormitory and fall back to sleep on the soft grass.

Knock! Knock!

BbbbAAAAaaaMMMMmmm!

"What's that sound?" Stefanie asked sleepily as she turned away from the door.

"Just the door," Remus replied and crawled sleepily into his 'tent'.

"WHAT ON EARTH IS HAPPENING HERE?" Professor McGonagall's voice boomed across the second year boys' dormitory.

"Oh no!"

"Uh oh!!"

"Shucks!!"

"What on earth had the dorm become? A forest? And why are there girls in the boys' dormitory?" Professor McGonagall barked at the seven of them who had gotten up somehow and stood in a line in front of her. The seven sleepy-faced, second-years looked at her groggily, but nevertheless, they remained quiet and let her continue with the lecturing.

"Ten points off for changing your dorm into a... forest. And five points off for each of you, Evans, Figg, Black. There'll be detentions for all of you for skipping your morning lessons. And-" Even she could not help but looked at the transformed dorm in amazement.

"What time is it now?" Sirius asked, preventing Professor McGonagall from deducting more points off from Gryffindor. They all know she was impartial at rule-breaking students.

"For your information, it is already one in the afternoon and you all had missed your morning classes," Professor McGonagall said sternly at all of them, eyeing each of them.

"Well, my most favorite Professor, you had to see what we had transfigured here," James said and he turned around to show Professor McGonagall their dormitory.

"I've noticed, Mr. Potter."

"We had made full use of what we had learnt from your lessons. All we did were practicing your lessons outside class," James said, trying to flatter Professor McGonagall immensely.

"I don't remember ever teaching you all on transfiguring beds into tents yet."

"No, you didn't, Madam. Due to our passion for Transfiguration, we borrowed books from the library for extra reading," Remus added mildly, making a forested dormitory sounding extremely innocent.

"Oh, well..." Professor McGonagall thought about that for a while. She was not sure if she should be amazed at their transfiguration skills or be angry with them for skipping her class. I must admit they had done a good job on that.

"Besides there's no rule stated that we can't transfigure anything in our own dormitory. Am I right, Professor McGonagall?" Lily said truthfully. She had read the Hogwarts school rules and practically remembered them.

"We had been your most wonderful students in class. Last night we were busy practicing our transfiguring skills on changing our dorm into the forest. We asked the girls to practice here with us, since they're not too good at Transfiguration. We were trying to tutor them," James said giving Professor McGonagall the most innocent and genuine look his sleepy face could muster.

"Well then, no points will be deducted for this dorm transformation and no detentions for skipping my class then. But five points will be deducted from Evans, Figg and Black for being in the boys' dormitory when they're not supposed to be," Professor McGonagall said and turned to walk out of the room. "One last thing. Please transfigure everything back to normal by today." With that, she walked out of the room.

"I can't believe you guys! We just escaped punishments that we deserved!" Lily exclaimed after making sure Professor McGonagall had left the Gryffindor tower.

"Well, this is nothing. Flattery always go somewhere with girls," Sirius said, smirking and grinning wildly.

"Well, we're punished. Fifteen points off Gryffindor for us being here," Arabella added.

"What we said weren't lies, they were just twisted facts," James said, smiling at the girls.

"Let's get out of here before McGonagall decides to turn back again," Stefanie said as she grabbed her wand as well as Lily and Arabella's wands.

"Don't worry. She won't come back until tomorrow at least," James said, crawling into his 'tent' to resume sleeping.

"How would you know? Aren't you all supposed to transfigure everything back to normal?" Lily said, feeling a little sad. She had grown to love this dormitory in just one night here.

"McGonagall never check on us twice a day. Not that I remember, at least. Transfiguring a room back to normal is easy. We can do it tonight. Meanwhile, I think we'll be skipping the lesson for the rest of the day, which is Potions. And I don't wanna go for that," James said peeking out from the slit off the tent.

"Well, as much as we hate Porky, but we'll be going for Potions," Arabella said and she gave a final look of the room again.

"I must say you guys had done a wonderful job at transfiguring your dorm," Lily said and she looked at the four guys who were already inside their own 'tent'. Giving one final look at the room, she walked out.

"C'mon gals, Let's get going. They're already asleep," Stefanie said and suddenly there were four different types of snores coming out from the tents.

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