Chapter 4: “The Brilliant Quartet”
Their second year at Hogwarts came quicker than any of them thought. Sirius was ecstatic that the summer was over, as his family had ignored him and blamed him for everything, as much as possible. He was pretty sure he would never be forgiven for being in Gryffindor. It was, of course, made more bearable by his friends, who each sent him letters regularly, full of sympathy and support. He spent hours replying, writing individual letters to James, Lola, Remus and Peter, taking time to tell them everything, and writing to make them laugh. He found comfort in it, and he missed them each strongly.
And then, all of a sudden, he was back on the train, sharing a compartment with his four main friends and Lily, who was luckily in an agreeable mood. They spent the journey playing exploding snap and talking about their summers.
“You know, I started having predictions, and stuff,” Lola was saying, “about really weird things. I’d think ‘the phone’s about to ring’, and then it would!”
“What’s a phone?” Sirius and James asked. Lola and Lily spent five minutes explaining the concept of a telephone, yet when the two were still clueless, Remus declared it as ‘Muggle magic’, and they shrugged and went back to discussing the possibility of Lola being a seer.
“Can you see anything now?” Remus asked her, “The weather at Hogwarts or something?”
“Foggy,” Lola told him, then her hand flew to her mouth. “You see? I shouldn’t have any idea what the weather will be like, we’re nowhere near there yet! But I’m sure it’s foggy! I can’t explain it.”
They marvelled at this for a while, until the conversation was somehow steered to Quidditch, and Lola’s predictions were temporarily forgotten about. It wasn’t until the train began slowing, that they even looked out of the window properly.
“Where’s Hogwarts?” Lily asked, desperately trying to get a glimpse of the castle.
“It’s there,” Lola informed her, “you just can’t see it. Because of the fog.”
“She’s right!” James exclaimed, also peering through the window, in amazement. “You really must be a seer, Lola!”
“Well, we’ll leave it a while before we come to conclusions,” she laughed, although inside she was feeling a little shaken.
It was a few weeks later, when they were sitting in the dorm one evening, that it was decided the four boys would need a name for their group.
“One which makes people sit up straighter when they hear it!” described Sirius.
“One which lets people know we’re serious about our art of mischief making!” James added.
“One which has a deeper meaning, too, not just any random thing,” Remus chipped in.
“One which is really cool!” Peter finished off.
“How about ... The Amazing Foursome?” suggested Sirius.
“No, that’s stupid! What about The Brilliant Quartet?” James wondered.
“I have a much better idea. Instead of it saying that we’re great, how about we just have one word that focuses on the mischief part?” Remus said. The others agreed.
“Like ... The Intruders?” suggested Sirius.
“How about The Prankers?” Peter piped up. He sounded proud of himself.
“I’ve got it! It’s perfect!” James cried, standing up. He flourished his arms, and proudly stated, “The Marauders!”
His three friends sat in silence, until Remus murmured, quietly, “You’re right. It’s perfect.”
That night, they drafted a list of rules that each Marauder must abide by. The first, and most important, being, “A Marauder must always help another Marauder in need.”
Their first true prank came on Halloween, during the feast. They decided this, because they wanted as many people as possible to be there. It had taken a lot of work and planning on their behalf, and they had sneaked into the Great Hall the night before to set things up. No one else, not even Lola, knew what was going to happen, exactly.
The day passed by smoothly enough, although everyone was excited, and their concentration was anywhere but on the task the Professors gave them. Even Lily was caught up in the days festivities, nearly setting Lola’s robes on fire during charms. The Marauders found this immensely funny, but soon stopped laughing at the look on the girls’ faces.
The hours ticked by slowly. But finally, the students were gathered in the Great Hall, devouring everything put in front of them. While they ate, there were several performances. The ghosts acted out various tales, and some dancing skeletons came in. But the best act that night, was the stunt that the teachers were not aware was even planned.
On the staff table, were five or six pumpkins, purely for decoration. During dessert, fountains of sparks sprung up between them. The room was soon filled with gasps of awe and delight. Professor McGonagall began to pull out her wand, but Dumbledore stopped her. Just as the golden fountains were about to get boring, the pumpkins started emitting tiny bursts of sparks into the air, which exploded, much like fireworks, only in miniature. These got bigger and bigger, until they were a normal size. Then, the pumpkins themselves rose in the air, and exploded impressively, showering the professors in the orange fruit. The display continued for a couple of minutes after this, accompanied by the raucous laughter from the students.
James nudged Sirius and pointed towards Lily and Lola. They were laughing, and watching the fireworks with admiration. Sirius was happily surprised to see Lily doing this, although he doubted she would have if she had known who had pulled off the prank. And he was ecstatic that Lola seemed to have enjoyed it. He missed her still, and wished she would spend a lunchtime or an evening with them once in a while.
As far as he knew, she was still having predictions, and this was pretty much confirmed when she saw him looking, and spoke to him. “Impressive,” was all she said. In that one word Sirius knew that she knew they had set the whole thing up.
He grinned. “How did you guess?”
“Well, I woke up this morning, and I knew you four were going to something. I just knew. And I was right, wasn’t I?” she raised an eyebrow, pleased with herself.
“Yes,” he admitted, strangely glad that he was talking to her.
“It happens all the time. Last week, I told Lily to duck down, and a couple of seconds later, a stray bludger went flying past her, just missing her head. There was no way I could have known about it, but I saved her from being knocked out cold!”
“Wow,” Sirius breathed, staring at Lola in amazement. “I’m friends with a seer,”
“Well,” she laughed, “I wouldn’t say that just yet!” But Sirius was pretty sure he was right “ Lola was different.
After that night, the Marauders steadily grew more famous “ or infamous, you could say “ at Hogwarts. Teachers were more wary of them, Prefects and the Head Boy and Girl looked disapprovingly at them as they passed, but students grinned, and clapped them on the back in the corridors. All four loved the attention, and basked in it, perfectly at ease with knowing that almost everyone in the school knew who they were.
One night around Easter, they were sitting on their beds, and talking about things whatever came to mind.
“So, what about ... I dunno, girls. Aren’t we meant to like girls?” James asked, as though it had been playing on his mind for a while.
“Well, come on, we’re only twelve,” Remus pointed out, “It’s not like there’s a hurry.”
James looked unconvinced. “Last Christmas, my cousin was round at ours, and he was boasting about all sorts of stuff. I didn’t get most of it, but he told me that I should have girlfriends by now.”
“In the plural?” asked Peter, laughing.
“Maybe he was joking,” Sirius mused, “Yeah, that’s probably it. I bet he was joking. Still, this is a good subject to pass the time with. If you could go out with any girl at this school, James, who would it be?”
“I dunno,” James shrugged, “I don’t know any girls. That’s why I didn’t get it,” the other three stared at him incredulously. “What?” he asked, perplexed.
“What? This castle is full of them, that’s what! What about Lola? Or Lily? Or there’s that Tara girl they talk to sometimes. Or ... or ... Moaning Myrtle?” Sirius suggested.
“Well, naturally Myrtle is top of my list!” James said, grinning. “Such a fetching attire!”
Sirius and Remus laughed. Peter noticed this, so he laughed too.
“Okay, come on, joking aside. James, who do you like?” Sirius pressed on.
James sighed, and screwed his face up in deep thought. “Well ... I suppose Lily’s quite pretty ...”
“Result!” cried Sirius, a little louder than was necessary. “Although, she is a little obsessive over rules, it’s nothing that bad. Remus, what about you?”
“Um, I don’t really like any girls yet. Like I said, I don’t see the rush,” he muttered, looking away.
“Me neither! Girls are boring. And they smell like flowers,” Peter said, supporting Remus, before James or Sirius could jump in and start chastising all over the place.
“Well, if you two are so old fashioned, that’s fine by me,” Sirius began, annoyed at his friends’ reluctance towards the fairer sex, “although I would ask out the fair Lola Armstrong in a second.”
“Really?” asked Remus, “But she’s a seer.”
“Your point being?” Sirius challenged him.
“Well, she might see that you two will break up one day, and then she’d be really paranoid and weird,” Remus explained.
Sirius thought about this. It was true, but now he had announced the feeling that had been nagging at him for a few months, he couldn’t shake it off. If anything, it was stronger, “Well, I’ll ask her out tomorrow anyway,” he decided.
“No way,” Lola said. Sirius pouted. “It’s out of the question. I’m far too young to start dating.”
“But “”
“Sirius, I’m not saying I don’t like you. I do, just give it a couple of years, okay?”
Sirius deflated, and he walked dejectedly back to his friends. It was a weekend, so the four were sitting under a beech tree in the grounds, and had been watching Lily and Lola, who were by the lake. “Your turn,” he told James, who reluctantly stood and began to walk towards Lily.
The three remaining Marauders couldn’t see quite what was happening, but it looked as if Lily was telling James the same as Lola had done to Sirius. Except that Lola hadn’t looked quite so angry. James came back, fuming.
“I don’t believe her! Just who does she think he is?” he ranted, sitting down.
“She said no, huh?” Sirius sympathised.
“You bet she did! Didn’t even give me hope for the future, just ruled it out forever!”
“Well, lets show them both!” Sirius suggested. “From now on, we’re going to be bigger, badder Marauders!”
“Sirius, ‘badder’ isn’t a word,” Remus told him, but he was ignored.
“Starting with Severus Snape!” he continued, ignoring Remus, “Yesterday he tripped me up in the corridor, and called me a blood traitor. I would have done something, but there were too many teachers and beefy Slytherins about.”
“That ugly greasy kid?” Peter asked, and Sirius nodded. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
Sirius shrugged, “I forgot. Now what should we do to him?”
The four boys sat, thinking. “Let’s curse his hair green!” James cried, happily. The others agreed that it was an excellent idea.
From then on, the Marauders annoyed Snape as often as they could, cursing and pranking him. It was never anything dangerous, they just had fun letting off steam whenever he was around.
One day, however, during lunch, he came up to the Marauders, who were outside under the beech tree again. Peter noticed first, as Remus had been reading, and James and Sirius were taking turns to set things on fire, and then put it out again. Not in the least bit sensible, but fun all the same.
“You four! Marauders, you call yourself?” he sneered. The four boys stood, Sirius and James at the front, the other two behind. “What’s your problem?”
James spoke first, “We don’t have a problem! You’re confusing us with yourself.”
“You need a taste of your own potion!” he hissed, his fists clenched and nostrils flaring, which unfortunately made his nose look even larger, and the four Gryffindors noticed this.
“We’re just having some fun,” Sirius told him, reaching for his wand, just in case.
Snape was quicker. Remus was thrown backwards against the tree. Peter gasped, and both Sirius and James jumped on Snape. They hit him again, and again, both in a rage. Soon, they were being dragged away by McGonagall. She was furious, but the boys didn’t care. All they would say is that they would do it again, until she gave them detention, deducted fifty points from Gryffindor, and let them go.
Remus recovered quickly, but Snape had to stay in the Hospital Wing for a few days. After that, there was a war between him and the Marauders. This behaviour did not at all impress Lily or Lola. Lily, especially, began to like the four boys less and less each day.
But they no longer cared, and when the year came to an end, the Marauders were sad to leave Hogwarts. Sirius especially, wished that it could go on longer, and had to be practically dragged away from the Hogwarts Express.
He stepped out into Kings Cross Station and slowly and begrudgingly made his way towards him family, who didn’t even notice that he was silent all the way back to Grimmauld Place.
AN: Ah, another chapter completed. Thanks to my brother “CheeseKing” for the idea about the pumpkins. You got me out of writer’s block, and I thank you. Please review ... what did you like? What didn’t you like? I need to know what’s good AND what’s bad, so I can learn from it.