It was a strange sight, to say the least. Remus Lupin, the tallest, strode in the middle, who appeared to be attempting to grow a beard. Sirius Black, on his right, wore a bright pink dress that looked to be a size too small. Flesh colored pantyhose covered his legs, while his long dark hair almost looked... styled. Peter Pettigrew shuffled to Remus’s left, wearing a doctor’s outfit complete with an operating mask.

A boy with dark brown hair whistled as Sirius passed by. “Oy, Siria!” he called, jokingly. “You’re looking better than you did this morning!”

Remus looked at Sirius, who grinned mischievously. “No… No, Padfoot, don’t…” he moaned, but it was too late. Sirius had taken out his matching pink handbag and swung it around with all his strength. The bag hit Patil’s face with a satisfying thud, and the boy fell to the floor, surprised.

“That’s why you never mess with a lady, Patil,” smirked Sirius, dusting off his hands casually before striding away rather skillfully in the heels.

“He’s going to carry a grudge against you the rest of his life, Sirius,” Remus commented, stopping to let Sirius catch up. The boy shrugged.

“I’ll deal with it,” he said.

Too soon they reached the door to Transfiguration. Peter began to squirm and Remus glanced around apprehensively.

“Are you men or not?” Sirius asked. “Be courageous, my fellow Marauders!”

“Since when did he become a war general?” muttered Peter. Remus shrugged lightly.

“Whatever lies beyond the opposite side, we shall not cower in fear! If our enemies have bayonets pointed at our chests, do not tremble! We are the Marauders! They should dread us! When we enter the room, it is they who shall shrink in fear!” At this last statement, Sirius flung open the door and with something vaguely resembling an Indian war cry, hurtled into the room.

Peter bit his lips and looked at Remus, whose gentle mouth was struggling to contain a smile. “If you can’t beat them, Peter, join them,” he said, grinning widely. Letting out a wild scream that sounded uncannily like an Indian’s, Remus dashed into the Transfiguration room, arms high in the air.

Minerva McGonagall must be hearing things. Glancing up, she realized she wasn’t. There was Sirius Black, mischief maker extraordinaire, screaming at the top of his lungs. She wouldn’t settle for this… not in her classroom.

Now Black’s voice was joined with a hoarser one as Remus Lupin propelled himself into the room. She thought Remus had always been the calmer one… well, apparently not.

“Mr. Black! Mr. Lupin!” McGonagall demanded, watching as the two approached her desk. Suddenly her eyebrows furrowed. “Mr. Black… are you wearing… a dress?” She could barely disguise her astonishment as she took in the styled hair, the lipstick, handbag and pantyhose… not to mention the high heels.

Sirius giggled in an unusually high voice. “Oh, Minnie,” he began, blushing. “It’s so good to see you! Remmie and I-”

Remus’s eyebrows shot up so high, they could have reached his hairline. He shook his head violently, making his rather shaggy light brown hair fall into his eyes.

“Yes, Remmie,” Sirius accentuated, making Remus sigh and roll his eyes. “Anyway, dear Remmie and I have so busy lately, we haven’t the chance to come see you sweet old dear. I mean, just gotten married and all that… right, Remmie dear?”

Remus looked pointedly at Sirius before whispering out of the corner of his mouth, “I think we should have rehearsed this.”

Sirius shrugged. “Just wing it,” he advised in his normal voice, and then changed back into the high pitched one. “Right, Remmie dear?”

Remus nodded his approval.

“So, how long have Mr. and Mrs. Lupin been married?” McGonagall asked, deciding to play with the boys. The two gave each other a discreet glance before Sirius burst out,

“Two years.”

“A year,” said Remus at the same time. Once again they looked at one another, and Remus shook his head lightly. He’d do the talking from now on.

“A year and a half, actually. Poor Siria tends to forget things. Anyway, we ran into a doctor while we were in London on our… erm… honeymoon... and he needs some information.”

Peter wriggled a little bit, sweating inside his latex gloves. McGonagall took this all in, watching a solemn looking Remus, a cheery looking Sirius and a nervous looking Peter. What could they want…?

“On what, pray tell?” she asked, eyes narrowed.

“Stuff in the Restricted Section,” blurted out Sirius before Remus elbowed him.

“Be more subtle,” he hissed.

“I think I should take this up with Dumbledore… would you three follow me?” McGonagall said slowly, standing up.

The three boys shuffled behind her as she left the room, but before exiting, Sirius blew a kiss to the class and kicked up his panty-hosed foot. “What? My fans love me,” he explained as all the people looked at him oddly.

As they approached the entryway to Dumbledore’s office, Remus found one last hope. Maybe, just maybe, Dumbledore would understand. He clung onto this hope as he and his fellow Marauders climbed the stairs… One step… two step… He would understand… Remus knew he would…

Dumbledore sat in his office, thinking. James and Lily had been gone for almost a day now- and Filius Flitwick had found nothing on the charm in his books. Should he send letters to the parents of the two missing students? Or wait a bit longer? He was interrupted by an abrupt knocking at the door, and Minerva McGonagall appeared at his door, three boys in tow behind her.

“Albus, I will have you know that these three boys came into class hollering like Indians, while one was wearing a dress and the other a doctor’s uniform. They were trying to get into the Restricted Section of the library for some reason, I believe,” McGonagall stated stiffly, giving a glare at the three boys.

Dumbledore looked over his half moon spectacles, obviously amused. “It appears they were indeed, desperately after something in the library, to go to such extreme measures. Perhaps this has something to do with the disappearance of Mr. Potter and Miss Evans yesterday…?”

“We want to figure out how to get them back,” said Sirius hotly. “No one else seems to be doing a damn thing, and-”

“Watch your language,” McGonagall reprimanded, watching Sirius sternly.

“I mean, what if they never come back? James is like a brother to me, Remus and Peter. We need to get them both back. No matter what.” Sirius sat down then, as if that was all he had to say on the matter.

McGonagall glanced to Dumbledore, who was staring at Sirius with a pondering expression on his face. Finally, the Headmaster said, “I think we can arrange to have Messrs. Black, Lupin and Pettigrew visit the Restricted Section, yes?”

The Transfiguration teacher looked flustered. “I suppose… if you want… but…”

“Brilliant!” Sirius cheered as Dumbledore handed him the slip. “Come on, we don’t have a moment to loose!” He dashed out of the office madly, followed closely by Peter, who slammed the door loudly and nearly knocked over Fawke’s cage. Remus went at a more mannerly pace, but really only because he was in the presence of teachers.

“Would you hold on a minute, Mr. Lupin?” called Dumbledore, and the boy stopped and came back to the desk.

“Yes, Professor?” he asked, a bit apprehensive.
Dumbledore smiled. “You look rather distinguished with that beard of yours,” he said, blue eyes twinkling. Remus blushed and quickly walked out of the room, wondering if Dumbledore was just joking on account of his own beard or he really meant it.

McGonagall turned toward Dumbledore, puzzled. “Why did you give them permission, Albus? They barged into my classroom, disrupted it, and expected to receive allowance to go to the library!”

Dumbledore nodded in agreement and said, “But they did it for a friend. They risked their dignity, their time and detention-free afternoons to help James and Lily. They have loyalty to each other, strong and deep, but I doubt they even realize it. They’re friends, Minerva- true and faithful friends.

“So that is why I gave them the pass. Although, I’m sure, you are thinking right now that Professor Flitwick is researching all he can and has found nothing, how can these boys discover anything? Well, they have determination, Minerva. They will look however hard and long to find an answer. And…”

“What?” McGonagall asked, growing curious.

“I think we could find no better candidates for the Order.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

James couldn’t stop grinning. Here he was, in Snivelly’s classroom- without Lily to control him. She was probably still looking for him all around the corridors…

“Hey.” A blonde haired boy leaned over to James, eyeing Snape carefully as not to get caught. “You’re that new kid, right… Sirius James?”

James nodded. “I thought so,” the kid said. “You know, you might think I’m kind of weird, but you look a lot like…”

“Mr. Flinch-Fletchley… do you have something you’d like to share with the class?” Snape asked, whirling around and stopping his lecture on flobberworm and their uses.

The Hufflepuff looked down and muttered something incoherent, then sat back in his seat.

“Thank you. Now, add the billywig stingers after four seconds of stirring the mixture counter clockwise ten times-”

James yawned. Boring, boring, boring. He had been expecting Snivellus to at least shoot an insult at him somewhere along the line- looks like he even stopped being rebellious. Well, he’d fix that. He’d get old Snivelly into such a rage, his head would fly off. Or so James hoped.

Sliding his wand out of his pocket, James thought of ideas to torture Snape. How about washing his filthy mouth out- no, he used that in his fifth year. Or making him silly walk the entire day? No, he’d used that a week ago. James really was running out of ideas.

Then, he thought of it. The most brilliant idea yet. He checked his pockets quickly. Yes, they were there. He began to chuckle to himself, not quite believing he was going to do it. The two pranks had never been combined before… Oh, well. They’d see soon enough what would happen.

Snape turned around to his cauldron, still giving instructions. James took out the two items and waited patiently until the time was right…

Snape was turning around to face the class… there couldn’t have been a better moment… James threw both of the items and watched eagerly, waiting to see what would happen…

Everyone stared in shock as their Potions master looked in horror at what had happened to him. Instead of his black robes, he was wearing something resembling a Vegas showgirl’s outfit… complete with feathers and purple sequins.

“POTTER!” he roared, completely forgetting James’s pretend last name, but no one noticed. They were too busy falling over in laughter. The scowl so prominent over Snape’s face suddenly disappeared, and an oddly blank look came over his face. That’s when the students completely burst- the moment Snape started chirping like a bird.

James shouted above the roar and Snape’s chirping, “This is what happens when you combine Moony’s Not Yet Perfected Prank- well, it’s perfected now, but whatever- and Padfoot’s new prank thing! The preplanned outfit is inside, complete with the permanent sticking charm on the inner lining! Only three Galleons each!”

Students kept laughing as Snape’s chirping dissolved into barks. James smiled at the chaos he had ensued. He loved his job.

Everyone stopped laughing the moment the door opened. The only sound that could be heard was Snape’s loud barks, as he jumped on the desk and squatted, vaguely resembling a dog on its haunches.

Lupin stepped in, looking a bit perturbed. “Is Professor Snape here? I have some papers that were supposed to get to him-” A sudden ruff cut him off short as he looked up at Snape. Snape in the purple sequined show girl dress, with large feathers in the back, squatting on his desk- was that really Severus Snape?

All the students watched Lupin for a reaction. His face was impassive, just the faint look of surprise in his eyes. Finally, the corners of his mouth twitched a little- and started to chuckle.

That was the signal for everyone to start laughing uproariously, which they all did. Especially James. He’d gotten the older Moony to laugh- something he probably hadn’t done in the past billion years! Score one for Potter- Snape- zero.

The loud barks changed into a distinguished squawking sounds as Snape began flapping his arms and running crazily across the desk. Another wave of laughter swept through the room. Lupin was shaking his head, but he still hadn’t stopped smiling. Yes, this was James’s greatest prank yet.

Lily burst through the door, only to stop and watch in shock as Snape flapped his way across his desk, making odd squawking sounds. She turned to James, eyes furious. “Couldn’t you stay out of trouble for at least one minute?” she yelled, stomping her foot. At least Lupin had decided to do something and was trying to help Snape off the desk, but failing miserably. Snape had just begun bouncing up and down, mimicking a kangaroo, and completely ignored Lupin.

“Apparently I can’t,” said James, grinning widely. “Apparently I can’t.”

Author’s Note: I hope you all enjoyed the Potions class! Oh, and to ink_heart- I finished the picture of Sirius in a dress, though I’m still putting some touches on it. I promise I’ll put it in a chapter before the story ends. So just keep watching for it! (It’s also done on lined paper due to lack of just plain white. Don’t ask why- it’s a long story involving packers, boxes, moving, and airplanes. Don’t forget frustrated mothers.) I was having trouble putting this chapter, it kept getting deleted! So if you’re reading this it finally got through. *breathes sigh of relief* Hmm… the Marauders have finally completed their goal! So it sort of gives you the hint that the story is ending… *sigh* I will have a sequel, no doubt. I apologize for this chapter taking so long; I was moving to Chicago. I’m dreadfully sorry. Anyway, I hope the chapter met your expectations. Next up in chapter 17: The long search for the right charm and Defense Against the Dark Arts class! Wow… this was a long author’s note. Sorry.