Chapter Eight: Prank to Define all other Pranks
James couldn't wait, as his heart pounded loudly in his chest, more from adrenaline than fear, as he and his friends made their way, as silently as they could, through the hallways. While, they slowly made their way down to the dungeons. They had already avoided a potentially nasty predicament with Peeves involving a slingshot and Filibuster’s Fireworks as he taunted one of the many ghosts residing at Hogwarts.
"That way," Sirius whispered with a quick gesture toward the right staircase at the end of the hall that would lead them into the deepest parts of the castle.
The four boys crouched under the invisibility cloak as they walked in unison towards the staircase, trying their best to keep quiet. This proved to be difficult because Peter kept tripping and stepping on the back of James's heals as they went along the dark hallway. Every so often James would wince in pain as the boy’s clumsy foot trampled on his own. All the while, he tried to keep his voice from expressing the pain this caused by lashing out at the small boy. They didn't need to blow the big prank because of a bit of accidental stepping on feet. They had waited too long for this moment to ruin it with such foolishness.
And indeed that day at school had proven to be very difficult for them to withstand. The clocks had been so slow that they seemed to be moving backwards rather than forward as they had waited for their final class to end. Which, it probably also didn't help that their last class was also their slowest class on any normal day, without adding a big thing like their prank to wait for on top of it. But somehow, they had lived through it. They had gone to dinner without acting too suspicious, at least, that is, no one outside of their little group would have thought them to be up to anything. But once they had left dinner and returned to their common room they had secluded themselves up in their room, where they went over every key detail that they would need in order to get this prank completed perfectly.
After that they had had to wait another extended period of time before they were sure every other person in their own common room was tucked away safely in their beds. When they were sure of that fact, they whipped out the invisibility cloak James had inherited from his father, who he had gotten from his father ... well you get the point. James honestly had no idea how old the cloak really was, just that it proved to be very useful during times like these.
"Here it is," Peter stated.
They stood there staring at a large stonewall. Peter muttered the password just loud enough so that the wall could hear and instantly a hidden door opened up to a large long room with a low ceiling, at least compared to the Gryffindor common rooms'. They walked in and stared open mouthed at the elaborate fireplace and the green antique furniture that surrounded it. James nudged Sirius and Remus in their sides and motioned to a staircase in which he saw a Slytherin boy walk up seconds before. Sirius was too busy to notice the tap on his side, as he was occupying himself by giving his cousin death glares even though he knew the girl couldn't see him. This fact, though, most likely made it all the more fun for him. Eventually, Sirius did move when James took the initiative and began to walk towards the stairwell.
Sure enough the staircase did lead to the Dormitories. They looked up at the carvings in the stone above them, looking for the first years level. They found it, making good time, and went to walk down the long stretch of stone hallway that held gothic style sanctuary doors that lead to the bedchambers themselves. None of these doors were open, but they had already expected that.
The Slytherins had a general personality that needed solitude. No doubt it was probably torture for them to even have to share a dorm with someone else, even if it was a fellow housemate. It was just how they were, as Sirius had explained earlier. Yet, even though the four had expected such findings, the Slytherins’ need to have the doors to their rooms to be closed did still pose as a bit of a problem.
"What do we do?" Remus whispered in James's ear.
Sirius answered his question by walking over to the nearest door (taking the other boys with him) and opened it. He looked in but when he only found a few unfamiliar faces he closed it once more. More than likely a very odd sight for anyone situated within the comforts of that particular room.
Following his lead they each walked together, under the cloak, and made their way down the hall opening every single door as they went. Each time they opened a new door they got a different reaction from the people inside. Some stared at their door just waiting for someone to come and jump out at them (Sirius assumed that they had taken Professor Malvitz's speeches to heart), others screamed obscenities at them only to find that, apparently, no one was there. And, the most interesting reaction was from little Travis Travers, who had chucked his shoe at them and yelled for whoever it was to go away in a very scared high-pitched voice. It appeared that their little interrogation had left the boy only a little paranoid.
They only had to go down merely two more doors before they found Snape's room. The room was empty except for the furniture and an essay, for Transfiguration that was sitting on a bed and had Snape's name on the top right hand corner. James, out of curiosity, picked it up and started to read it and silently chuckled to himself as he did. Snape was going to fail that essay. James only put the parchment down when Sirius poked him in the side with his index finger and pointed to a small stuffed bear, that looked like it needed to be retired it was so old. It was sitting on Snape's pillow. The four boys began to laugh out loud as they only began to imagine why on earth he had a teddy bear, but they quickly stopped when Secutus Avery came in and glared around the room for the source of the voices he had just heard. He walked around the room, carefully inspecting anything and everything that could possibly be out of place. During this inspection he came within an inch of them leaving them with no room to back up. When he, seemingly, found that no one was there he just left the room. Leaving the four boys alone once again.
"That was close," Peter said, as the boys let out a large sigh of relief, not even realizing that they had been holding their breaths in the first place. The others nodded at Peter's words, after they had been fully processed. Then they made themselves comfortable by leaning against the back wall of Snape's room.
They waited patiently for Snape to make his appearance. They didn't have to wait any extensive period of time before the greasy haired boy strode into his room. James felt his mouth drop at the site he saw, not entirely sure if anyone should see such a thing as this. Yet, at the same time all four boys could not pry themselves away from the site as they cast the spell that would be documenting this whole event until they decided it should stop. But with every move the boy made it was harder for them to refrain from going into hysterics. No wonder he didn't have any friends!
The show was cut short when a very angry Avery, who had stormed into the room, which made Snape go incredibly red in the face, yelled at Snape for being such an idiot. The four boys chose that time to quit the spell and quickly exit the room; without disturbing anyone by making the door open for no real reason at all.
They ran out of the Slytherins’ common room, not caring if anyone heard them or not, now that they had accomplished their ultimate goal. Once they were safely outside of the common room and away from the dungeons, they burst out laughing. They were practically on the floor in complete hysterics, with tears rolling down their faces they made their way back to their own common room.
~*~*~*~
In late October, the four had decided to finally use the incriminating evidence that proved the inevitable: Snape was indeed a loser. On the night of the Halloween feast the boys were positive that they had to show what they'd seen that fateful September night. That way they were guaranteed that everyone would be there to see "Snape's episode" as they had now begun to refer to it as.
They had horded the information they had gathered for far to long, telling themselves that it wasn't the "perfect time" to show it yet, or that they needed to lie low for a while because they had managed to receive another detention (James and Sirius now had a running count on who would have more by the time they graduated. Sirius was winning 25 to 10.) Remus had managed to get another bout of the flu and Sirius and James had had to take him down to the Infirmary after Defense Against the Dark Arts the week before. When they had taken him to Madame Pomfrey, though, she had said something along the lines of, "Remus should have come to me sooner" -- which both boys thought very strange, but basically shrugged off. It was probably just Madame Pomfrey's being fussy, as she typically was about things like that.
But now that everyone was in good health and they had spent many nights in their dorm room laughing at the scene they had seen a million times before (which they also all knew was the real reason they had kept the "episode" to themselves) they had decided to share the joy. They had sat down the night before and decided that at the feast, during dessert, they would share their little secret with the school. A little trick whilst they had their treats. Only they didn't want to be found out, so that made things a little more complicated. But that was no matter to the four boys, either way the prank was going to happen that night and it was going to be good! Snape was going to be so sorry he'd ever even tried to mess with any of them.
So on the night of October 31, James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter all went down to dinner and sat themselves down next to Lily Evans and the Weasleys, trying their hardest not to look like they were up to no good. Which, amazingly, had proven not to be difficult at all. By this time, all of the boys had grown quite good at acting normal in the midst of being little pranksters at work. A very good skill to have for someone in their “special” line of work.
They ate their dinners in the midst of jumbled conversations about the Chudley Cannons (Sirius' favorite team, which James despised with a passion) and how they had started yet another losing streak in this new season of National Quidditch. When James had voiced his already known opinion of the “great” Chudley Cannons, Sirius was only too pleased to start his infamous rant about how exactly they could make a winning team again. James was also kind enough to then point out that Sirius had never even seen them as a winning team because the last time they won a game was in 1892. When this was announced everyone seated around them, including Lily, laughed while Sirius just glared at his best mate and continued on with his rant.
It was only too soon before they had started on dessert, assorted Halloween candies from Honeydukes, as their fellow students began to dig in. All the while, they looked around at their public, seeing if they were completely ready for the scene. They smiled slightly at each other, finding that they were ready, and gave a few simple looks at each other. Severus Snape's fate was sealed.
Remus uttered the spell as quietly as he could without anyone noticing him do so and soon the enchanted ceiling changed from its deep navy blue color, with its dusting of sparkling stars that matched the real outdoor scene exactly, to the interior of Snape's room. It took the students a while before they even noticed the change but as soon as Snape came into the image: He had everyone's attention.
James looked over at the Weasleys, while Snape's image began to dance with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waste, his wet hair dripping down his back. All of the Weasleys seemed to be enjoying the seen, as Chris pointed openly at the sight and made his own comments to his brothers. It sounded as if he were making cementations to the scene that was unraveling before them. James chuckled to himself as they all laughed openly at Chris’s insults.
Sirius leaned into them and smiled smugly, "At least we know now that he does wash his hair."
The four boys snickered at the comment and Peter added, one of his few clever moments, taking a leaf out of James' book. "It may be only once a month, but at least he does wash it."
They laughed again as the image of Snape picked up a brown hairbrush and started to hum to himself as he brushed his hair and pulled it back into a slick ponytail at the nape of his neck. The students around them began to laugh and point plainly at the scene, as the boy’s humming slowly but surely turned into words.
Severus Snape was standing in front of everyone, be that not of his own free will, singing, "I feel pretty, yes, oh so pretty." As he danced around his room grabbing his pajamas from his bed stand and gracefully attempted to put them on, as his “original song” became a very deranged version of the Beatles song: "Help."
"Help, I need somebody,
Help, not just anybody,
Help, you know I need someone, help."
It was the funniest thing any of them had ever seen before. They had now officially showed the school the funniest part. For they had spent plenty of their own time up in their room reliving that moment in time. They had thought nothing could beat the real thing, but now that it was spanning the width of the enchanted ceiling the four boys couldn't help but laugh along with their fellow classmates. Then out of nowhere after humming the first verse (obviously he didn't know all of the words) he struck up the opening lyrics for the bridge in a high pitched, squawky voice.
"Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate you being round.
Help me, get my feet back on the ground,
Won't you please, please help me."
Then Avery stormed into the room, just before Snape even got the chance to go into an even worse version of the chorus, yet again. Once Avery had processed what exactly he had just walked in on, he began to yell as many foul words as he could. Snape, the poor boy, whipped around so quickly that he didn't even have time to compose himself for the verbal whiplash he was about to receive and hence let his face turn the darkest shade of crimson anyone had every seen. All in all making for a very promising joke that the whole school was busying themselves with.
Remus leaned in, "Didn't know he could be any color aside from a pasty white."
Sirius chuckled, "Yeah." He then nodded toward the Slytherin table where Snape sat next to his only “friend,” Avery, and a few other Slytherin boys that he no doubt shared a room with. As he watched him intently, he found that Snape did not appear to be pleased with these new revelations. Actually, one could barely see the top of his forehead as it threatened to break the previous record it had made for blushing, as he sank into an even bigger slouch. Apparently, he was trying to hide underneath the table.
"Doesn't look so smug now, does he?" Sirius finished very proud of himself.
As the image faded back into the dark night sky, chatter broke out across the hall and Snape took this as his only chance to depart from the Great Hall. He left in such a rush that his dessert was left untouched. Everyone else, though, seemed to be both baffled and amused at the fact that anyone could have managed to pull off such a wicked trick. All the while, the four boys made a quick check of the head table to make sure that no one was looking at them as they began to swap high fives underneath the table.
Dumbledore quickly ordered the hall to remain quiet, after he consulted Professor McGonagall about something, more than likely it was about "Snape's episode." After he had exchanged these quick words, he stood up from his seat and congratulated the pranksters for their enthusiasm but encouraged "whoever it was," though the old man was looking directly at the four of them (all of which looked forward as if nothing had even happened), to come forward or use such enthusiasm in their studies. Then he winked at them. He then waited for a moment to see if anyone would turn themselves in. When no one did, he sighed outwardly and told the students, as a whole, that they should refrain from making such trouble and then he bid them all goodnight.
Peter was the only one who seemed remotely stressed by Dumbledore’s winking at them as they stood up from their seats to leave the Great Hall. "You think he knows?"
Remus nodded. "I think he knows everything that happens here."
Sirius sighed at his two friends. He honestly didn't care. He would probably be concerned if they had actually gotten caught but since they hadn't, he just wanted to drop the subject altogether. "He didn't stop us, did he?" No one answered. "There, we didn't get caught, that's all that counts."
James just shook his head and led the way to the common room, he offered the password, and went inside. The room was empty except for Lily Evans and a few Weasleys, who were sitting by the fireplace talking enthusiastically with each other. Sirius, Remus, and Peter all decided that they wanted to go to bed but James had suddenly found that he wasn't tired. So, as they filed up to their dorm, he unconsciously found himself looking over to where Lily was situated on the couch.
He enjoyed talking with her and found that over the last month if he could get alone with her or even just say "hello" to her, it would make his day. Despite Sirius’s need to make snide comments about the two of them "getting together," which was just “sick and wrong” as James had pointed out. He was just fine being friends with the young girl. The idea of going any further was just weird.
James sighed deeply and walked over to her. He then sat down next to her, as smile had planted itself firmly upon his face as he greeted her. "Hi."
"Hi," she retorted non-enthusiastically.
James’ smile faded slightly at her cold tone. He didn't entirely know what to make of this. "What's wrong?"
She looked at him with a glare that seemed to say, “you should know” and he suddenly understood. "It was you, wasn't it?" she said, sounding completely disappointed in him. It was odd for him to find that he felt like he had been beaten as she said this. He bent his head down under the weight of her words and nodded. "Why?"
Suddenly his feelings changed from hurt to anger. He didn't understand why she was so upset by this. It was only a bit of fun and games; no real harm had been done. "Snape is an insufferable prat," he said clearly by means of an explanation, hoping that that would be enough of an answer.
Lily nodded. "I can't say that I don't agree with that, but you still shouldn't have done it." Then a smile teased at the corners of her mouth completely defeating her plan of being “the sensible one.”
"It was funny, though."
James laughed at the sudden change in her mood, and he began to relax, yet again. "Yeah, it was, and if you're worried about another incident with Snape, we only finish what he starts. So if something happens that's like what happened tonight, just know that he deserved it." He looked into her eyes. "It's our form of justice."
She nodded torn between chuckling at the smirk on his face and still being mildly upset by his “form of justice” and simply looked down at the small watch that hung on her wrist. Obviously, it was wizard made do to all of the different knobs that were on the edge of the small circular face, and she let out a resounding sigh.
"I should probably be getting off to bed," she said softly, giving James one last small smile before she stood up from her position on the couch. He nodded and walked her to her staircase, without thinking twice about it, and then after she had disappeared from view he hurried up the staircase that lead to the boy’s dormitories.
He managed to get into his room without making too much noise. Once he was inside the safety of his room he found his three friends already tucked away in their beds. Remus was fast asleep, probably because he'd spent all of last week in the hospital with the flu. Peter was lying with his eyes shut, his breathing was soft, but since he wasn't snoring James knew he wasn't asleep yet, and Sirius was wrestling with his sheets trying desperately to get comfortable, as he had done for as long as James could remember.
It was just another typical night in the boy's dormitory; nothing special was going to happen tonight. They'd done their job and made the students laugh a bit in the process of the days event. That was all they could ask for (aside from getting through to Snape that they were in charge and he was indeed an insufferable git). James went to sleep with the pleasant newly made memories that were floating through his head of his first Halloween feast.
A/N: Okay, I have to thank my friend Kara Black for helping me with this bloody prank ... cuzz I over thought it when I was planning things and she helped me find my way back to ground one.
I'd also like to thank everyone who's reviewed thus far on my story ... I love you all for everything. More of this story is on its way. It’s not over yet. HA!