Chapter Six: We are the Marauders
“I hate them! I hate them! I hate them!” Lily announced as she and Rachel tripped for the three hundred and forty sixth time that day.
“We’ll get them back, Lils. Don’t worry,” Emma announced. The past two weeks had been amazing for her. She had come out of her shy shell, as had Remus Lupin.
Lily tripped once more before pushing herself on the chair at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. “I can’t stand them!”
“Oh, dear. She hates us,” Sirius Black’s voice came from behind her. Sirius and James stood a foot away from her.
Lily whirled around but didn’t stand up knowing that she would only fall on the ground. “Yes, Black. I do hate you.”
“Oh, dear Lily Flower. We can’t have that. Poor Remus was wrong.”
“Where is Remus?” Emma asked, finally noticing that Remus was missing.
“His mother’s sick,” Sirius answered.
“Wrong about what?” Lily asked.
“Remus said that Lily Flower…” James began but was interrupted by Sirius.
“Except he didn’t say Lily Flower. Don’t worry, Evans.”
“…would never ever hate anyone,” James continued as if he hadn’t been interrupted. “I must tell him he how very wrong he was.”
Lily rolled her eyes and turned away from him.
“Go on and ignore us, Lily Flower,” James called, and they took their normal seat a few chairs down.
“Ahhhh!” Lily groaned, wanting to scream. But she didn’t, knowing that it would cause a scene. “I wish they would just shut up for once…”
Christina grinned. “I know what we should do to get them back,” she said. Lily, Rachel, and Emma all turned to her as Christina explained.
The four girls left the Great Hall early for once and hurried up to the common room. No one was there yet.
“This way.” Christina waved them over to the left staircase, which led to the boys dorms. They quickly found the first year dorms and grinned as Lily locked the door behind them.
“Remind me why we’re here again?” Emma asked. James Potter’s things were by far the only ones even close to clean, while Sirius’ things were completely the opposite.
“Okay. We have to find things that they’re bound to touch before tomorrow morning.” Christina spoke up.
“Potter’s chest,” Lily said, pointing. Emma pointed her wand and muttered the curse that could only be removed a week after the person was cursed.
“Remus’ book,” Christina pointed at the Transfiguration book.
“Do you think we should curse Remus?” Lily asked.
“We have to. He’s one of them,” Rachel said pointedly as she cursed Sirius Black’s mirror. It was well-known that he was probably the vainest eleven-year-old boy ever born.
“And Peter,” Lily said.
“His sweets,” Rachel agreed, pointing to the sweets next to his bed. And then the four girls left quickly.
~*~*~
The Marauders minus one hurried up to their room after dinner, laughing about their prank on the girls. They had decided to search for the kitchens, but they needed James’ invisibility cloak. Peter collapsed on his bed and reached for a chocolate frog while James moved to open his chest to find his cloak and Sirius grabbed the mirror like he always did first thing upon entering his room.
“Do you think we should wait until Remus is back?” James asked as the door opened and Remus walked through.
“Don’t worry. I’m back,” Remus said. “What terrible thing are we doing now?”
Sirius opened his mouth to answer, but nothing came out. Remus studied him curiously as Sirius tried to speak, but couldn’t. He pounded his own back as if to make a voice come out, but nothing happened. Peter decided to tell Remus instead, but when he opened his mouth, he found that he had the same problem as Sirius.
“Can’t tell me, eh?” Remus asked.
“We’re going to the…” James touched the chest and immediately his voice faltered. He touched his throat as if hoping the voice would come out.
Remus grinned. “Cat got your tongue?” James glared at him. “Right. Not funny. Sorry. Guess we should just stay here. I have plenty of studying to do.” And he reached for his Transfiguration book.
Sirius shook his head.
“I’m just study…”Remus picked the book up, and his voice was gone as well. He opened his mouth to speak, but of course, nothing came out. Sirius grabbed some parchment and wrote something on it and passed it to James.
It was them, wasn’t it?
James nodded, annoyed anew as he turned to run down the stairs as Sirius wrote something to Remus that told him about their prank on the girls. James found the girls sitting by the fire working on their essays. He yanked on a strand of red hair to get Lily’s attention.
Lily turned and smiled. “Why, hello Potter,” she smiled.
He pointed upstairs.
“What? The silent treatment. I thought I should be the one to give you the silent treatment. Not that I’m complaining.” Lily shrugged. His only response was to glare at her.
“James Potter. Speechless. Never thought I would see the day,” Rachel spoke up, earning a glare in her direction. James reached for Lily’s parchment and wrote on the top of it. Counter curse.
“What are you talking about, Potter?” Lily asked rather innocently. He could do nothing but glare at her. She laughed softly and to James’ annoyance, all he could think about was how great the sound of her laugh was. He groaned inwardly and pushed those thoughts away. He was still at the age where girls were gross. “Sorry, Potter. No counter curse. It’ll last for a week. Sorry. Wait. No. I’m not sorry at all.” She turned away from him. James yanked on her red hair and reached for her parchment.
The four of you are dead. Lily laughed as she turned to him. “What can you do to us? You don’t learn silent spells until sixth year, Potter.” James glared at her, turned, and stormed up the stairs leaving the four girls laughing hysterically.
No counter curse. He wrote down on a piece of parchment and handed it to Sirius. We have to wait it out.
Sirius stomped his foot like a two year old. It was Friday night, and they wouldn’t be able to talk until 7:00, the next Friday night.
~*~*~
Day One:
James Potter woke up Saturday morning when it was nearly eleven. He stood up and glanced at Sirius who was asleep. He opened his mouth to yell Sirius’ name when he remembered. His voice was gone. He groaned, but of course nothing came out. He glanced over at Remus, who was sitting at a desk studying. Peter was also asleep. This was torture, he decided. Not being able to speak had to be the worst thing that had ever happened. He didn’t even want to think about classes next week.
He poked Remus on the shoulder and grabbed a spare piece of parchment.
This is going to be the longest week ever… he wrote. Remus read it and nodded in agreement. It was definitely going to be a long week.
The four boys had fallen into a routine. It was as if they had known each other forever instead of two simple weeks. Remus was always the first one up followed by James then Peter then Sirius. They would head down to breakfast, eat together, hang out during breaks, and go to classes (of course, they were planning pranks almost the entire time). Every Saturday was the same (the two that they had had at least). Remus woke up first and studied. James woke up next and waited for Peter and Sirius to wake up.
James went down stairs and found Lily sitting there. He grinned. She had cursed him, and now she would have to face the consequences. He sat down across from her and stared. Lily was working on her Transfiguration essay. He had found out the hard way that Lily hated studying in groups. She looked up.
“What do you want, Potter?”
He pointed at his mouth.
“I’m working. Now go away,” But James wasn’t planning on leaving. The Marauders had decided the night before. The girls were going to regret cursing them. Sirius woke up an hour later and found Rachel at the lake, sat down, and stared. Remus and Peter didn’t come down the entire day except for meals. And so day one went by.
Day Two:
Lily groaned. The day before had been terrible. She hadn’t reckoned on how annoying James Potter could be. Even without his voice. She woke early deciding to leave the common room long before Potter would even be awake. How could he bother her if she couldn’t be found?
To her annoyance, Potter was already awake. He grinned when he saw her, and she knew that if he could talk he would have already shouted her name as loud as possible. He walked up to her and put an arm around her shoulders and handed her a note.
Where are we going today, Lily Flower?
“Go away, Potter,” She moaned.
He shook his head silently and pointed his wand at the paper causing more words to appear.
If I’m cursed then so are you. You chose to mess with the infamous Marauders.
Lily wanted to scream.
Day 3:
“This is terrible,” Lily moaned as she sat down by Rachel. Sirius had been doing the same annoying things to Rachel, but Rachel didn’t mind as much.
“They could do a lot worse,” Rachel shrugged. Those words had barely come out of her mouth when Sirius came up to them and squeezed in-between them. Rachel rolled her eyes.
Lily sighed. “You were saying?” James Potter came and sat on Lily’s other side. In front of them Emma sat next to Remus who sat next to Christina who sat next to Peter. Lily had to practically shout across the table if she wanted to talk to Christina, the way they were sitting, and vice-versa. Lily rolled her eyes.
“Go away!” she moaned to James, who grinned. Lily bent back and tapped Rachel’s shoulder.
“The old standby,” She said. “Ethan.” Only Rachel could possibly understand. At their old Muggle school, they had known this guy named Ethan Walls who was the most annoying prick ever to cross the planet and also had a major crush on Rachel. As major as a ten year old can have, of course. He had followed them everywhere, and when he had gotten particularly annoying, they started talking about girl stuff (like PMS, even though they were still waiting for their first period).
“Oh, gosh,” Rachel moaned, suddenly clutching her stomach. Sirius and James both looked over at them in worry.
“Oh, Rach. You all right?” Lily asked worriedly as Christina and Emma shot her confused looks.
“I…don’t know,” She moaned.
“Oh. Is it…you know?” she asked. They boys stared. James shot her a look as if to figure out what they were talking about.
“Yes. Cramps,” Rachel moaned and the guys’ eyes widened. Sirius clamped his hands over his ears as Lily tried not to laugh.
“Oh. It’s the time of the month, huh?” Emma said, comprehension gliding over her face. James’ mouth dropped in horror at the change in conversation. Lily noticed with immense satisfaction that Remus and Peter had already disappeared. Two more to go. Christina looked plain confused.
“Am I the only one who hasn’t started yet?” she asked with a disappointed frown. Sirius jumped up and ran to follow Remus and Peter. If James could have spoken, he would have been able to stop Sirius, but as it was he just sat there in pure torture.
“Do you have a pad with you?” Emma asked seriously.
“No.” Rachel groaned.
“Here.” Lily reached into her bag to pull one out that wasn’t there, and James was gone. They waited until he left, and then burst out laughing.
Day 4:
They had McGonagall’s class. James knew that they would end up in detention by the end of the period. They had agreed through passed notes that they would cease all disruptions in that class as to be less noticeable, which meant they had to be on time.
They came to class a minute before the bell and took their seats. McGonagall opened her mouth automatically to reprimand them at the beginning of the class, but paused when she realized that they weren’t doing anything. Sirius tossed a paper at James.
I HATE GIRLS!
I know. James wrote back, and then tossed a glare in Lily’s direction, his cheeks burning at the conversation they had started the day before. In a few years, it wouldn’t have bothered him as much, but as an eleven-year-old boy, it scared him to death. Lily glared back, but she looked like she was in pain. He wondered briefly why that was but was soon distracted.
“Potter?” McGonagall called. “Would you like to tell us the incantation?” James shrugged. “I’ll take that as a yes,” McGonagall said, coldly. James shook his head. “Do you know the answer?” she asked. He nodded. Remus elbowed him, and he shook his head again. McGonagall stared. “You seem to be having some confusion, Mr. Potter. Give me the incantation,” she commanded. James grabbed a piece of paper, wrote it down, stood up, and handed it to her. “Why won’t you say anything, Potter?” McGonagall asked. He shrugged. “Ten points from Gryffindor,” He turned to go back to his seat and tossed Lily the dirtiest look he could muster. She just smiled.
After class, Lily and Rachel ran to the restroom, and Lily collapsed next to the wall, clutching her stomach. “It’s payback. Retribution. Torture,” Lily moaned as she experienced her first ever period. She grabbed a Midol from her purse. Her mum had given her a stash of pads, tampons, and Midol to help her. Midol worked just as well as the potions that they used in the wizarding world. She conjured up a glass of water and swallowed the pill. “It’s because of what we said yesterday,” she groaned dramatically. “Never again.”
Day 5:
The fifth day went the same. Teachers became angry when the boys didn’t say anything and took of points. Sirius was the only one who managed to fake ill.
Day 6:
It was the sixth day. James grinned. Two more days and they would be free. He could speak again. Who would have ever known how much torture it would be to not be able to speak?
Day 7:
The final day had arrived. At 6:30, the Marauders positioned themselves around the girls and waited. 6:32…6:35…6:47…6:50…6:53…6:55…6:58…6:59…
“Guess what?” Sirius said in his annoying voice as the clock changed to seven. All four girls looked up at them.
“You messed with the wrong guys,” James said, relief washing through him at the ability to speak.
“We are the Marauders…” Sirius added.
“…and no one messes with the Marauders,” James finished. “Night.” And the four boys headed up to their room to plan their next prank.