Chapter Two: Preparations
Remus Lupin sighed as he stared in frustration at the open textbook in front of him. Although the brilliant idea he had come up with this morning had virtually erased all his embarrassment at being dressed as a giant pink flamingo, it still had its limitations. For one thing, the Sleeping Draught required very exact amounts of diced beetle wings. And every time he tried to measure the cursed things his huge wings got in the way. As much as he wanted to start on the difficult potion today, he had to accept that it was impossible dressed like this.
“All right class, you are dismissed until Monday, so enjoy your weekend,” Professor Slughorn’s booming voice announced.
Immediately the classroom was full of students grabbing up books, chairs being pushed back, and the general bustle of pupils exiting the last class on a Friday. Remus rushed for the classroom door, only to have his giant wings lodge in the door frame. But he after several tugs he finally managed to join the river of students flowing toward the Great Hall.
The mood was jubilant at the Gryffindor table full of Gryffindors making their plans for the coming weekend. Remus looked around for Sirius but couldn’t find him until his new partner in pranks called to him.
“Oy! Flamingo Man! Over here!” Sirius was sitting at the back end of the table with his arm around a pretty black haired girl wearing Ravenclaw robes.
“Hi, Remus.”
“Hello, Adrianne. I suppose that this means Sirius talked to you about our plan?”
Adrianne smiled. “Yes he did and I think it’s an excellent idea. It should be pretty easy for me to set up Lily, and you can take it from there.”
“Great! I need to finish the Sleeping Draught, which will probably take me another six days. How about you set it up for next Friday night?”
“No problem. Now I’d better be getting back to my own table. I’ll see you tonight Sirius.” She smiled at Sirius, then rose and turned toward the Ravenclaw table. Sirius watched her with admiration on his face.
“What a girl. Well, I told you it wouldn’t be a problem to get her on our side. How did your potion go?”
“Not all that well, to tell you the truth. This idiotic costume makes it impossible to get anything done.” Remus attempted to get a spoonful of soup to his mouth but finally gave it up.
“Brilliant, isn’t it? I do love being successful, and I’m sure my friends wouldn’t blame me for having that simple happiness.”
‘Ha ha. What are you doing with Adrianne tonight, planning more details of the prank?”
“Hardly. It seems that Adrianne is as attracted to me as I am to her. We’re going out tonight.”
“Well enjoy yourself. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go up to bed. I can’t do anything with this absurd flamingo suit on, and I can’t take it off till tomorrow, so I might as well get some sleep.”
“I’ll see you in the morning, mate.”
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The next morning couldn’t have come too soon for Remus. As soon as he awoke and perceived that the sun was up, he was up, out of his ridiculous costume and into his normal robes. He was halfway down the stairs to the Potions dungeon when he met James coming up.
“Moony! So sorry I missed the show yesterday, did it go well?”
“Of course, I was humiliated beyond my wildest dreams, you are an utter genius, and I will never forget that you aren’t afraid to do anything.” Remus shamelessly uttered anything he could think of that would satisfy James and let him get to his Sleeping Draught.
“Glad you enjoyed it. If only that stupid Head Boy meeting could have waited for one more day, then I could have enjoyed it myself.”
“Yeah, well, too bad. Anyway I’ve got to run, so I’ll see you later.” Remus tried to quickly exit the scene but James grabbed his arm.
“And what’s so urgent? I’ve never known you to leave your books and homework before nine thirty.”
“If you must know I’m going to meet a girl and I don’t want to be late.” Remus had never been a good liar and only hoped that James would accept the story and not look at his face.
“Oh ho! Who is it then?”
“You wouldn’t know her, she’s in Hufflepuff and she’s only a sixth year.” Remus desperately wrenched his arm away and dashed down the stairs. James watched in amusement.
“Strange chap, isn’t he?” Sirius had been at the top of the stairs long enough to watch Remus’s escape.
“You never know with the bookworms. Who would have ever thought that Remus would care about girls?”
“Oh, I’m sure that she is a fellow homework lover. That’s the only kind Moony would ever go for. And by the way, I apologize for not being there when you got back last night, but I had an appointment with a lady and a broom cupboard. How was the meeting?”
James grimaced at him. “How is any meeting?”
“I thought you would have loved it. After all, Evans was there, wasn’t she?” Sirius grinned at James.
“Oh shut up.”
At this moment Peter Pettigrew appeared out of the dormitory, his eyes full of sleep and his clothes tousled.
“I thought I heard your voice James!” Peter was obviously excited to have his hero back where he could follow him around like a little lost puppy.
“Yep, here I am. Listen, I’ve just got back from Quidditch practice so I’m starved. Let’s go grab some breakfast and then we have the whole day to do whatever we want.”
Sirius, James, and Peter started down the stairs, with Peter badgering James to tell him exactly what happened at the meeting yesterday.
“Well Wormtail, I would have told you last night but when I came in at the late hour of 8:00 you were already snoring like a baby.”
“I was tired. You shouldn’t be mean to me just because I don’t stay up till three in the morning like you,” Peter whined. “Tell me, James, tell me what happened.”
James rolled his eyes at Sirius over Peter’s head. Sirius grinned and then began skipping several stairs at a time since he obviously had no interest whatsoever in the contents of James’s meetings.
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The dungeon was deserted when Remus arrived. He put his cauldron on the fire, found his place in the Advanced Potions textbook, gathered up the necessary ingredients, and started what was to be a three hour long session of potion brewing.
As he watched the potion start to bubble slowly, he couldn’t resist a little evil laughter.
“Soon, Lily Evans, you will not mock me and force me to wear ridiculous costumes. No, when I am done you will give Remus Lupin the respect that he deserves!”
The only thing missing from this mad scientist scene was thunder and lightening.
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“Lily, I have a big favor to ask you,” Adrianne began, somewhat nervously. The two witches were sitting outside by the lake, lazily doing their homework.
“Let me guess, you want to look over my Transfiguration. I thought Ravenclaws were supposed to be the smart ones.” Lily sounded bored.
“No…it’s not exactly help with homework I need. But if it was, there’s no one better to ask than the Head Girl. It’s just that I have this date for Friday night in Hogsmeade and I’d really feel a lot more comfortable if you came with a partner of your own.”
“And who am I supposed to go with?” Lily trailed her fingers through the water. “As you remind me every other day, I don’t have a boyfriend.”
“Well the guy said that he had a friend who could take you out, so I think that everything would just be perfect if you’ll say yes.”
“Who is the guy, and who is his friend?”
“It’s a blind date. I’ve never actually formally met the guy. My friend who set it up has been our messenger, but he sounds really nice, so I’m sure his friend will be great.” Adrianne looked pleadingly at Lily, putting on her infamous puppy dog eyes.
The red haired witch heaved a great sigh. “I suppose so. But just this once, and I’ll never let you talk me into it again.”
“Yes!” Adrianne happily went back to her homework. “Don’t worry, you will love it. I’ll bet this date will be in your memory forever!”
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Remus Lupin smiled evilly as he added the poured the last drops of the green potion into the bottle he was holding. After a week of laboring in the potions room as soon as the final class let out, he had finished the tricky Sleeping Draught. Not a moment too soon either. The date was set for tomorrow evening, and Remus and Sirius would need all the time left to get the other details set up. He hoped that Sirius had remembered what he was supposed to get done, because Remus wouldn’t have any spare time him.
Remus carefully tucked the dark green bottle under his robes and started out of the dungeon, anxious to get the precious liquid hidden before any harm could come to it. As he climbed the flights of stairs to his dormitory, he reviewed in his head what he would need to get done before tomorrow night. First, he would have to finish and mail his letter to The Three Broomsticks, then study the complicated enchantment that he would need to use tomorrow. And he still had to get his homework done.
He was relieved when he finally reached the seventh floor portrait hole and after giving the password, “unicorn tail,” was able to slip up to his dormitory and begin the rest of the preparations he would need to get done.
“Come on mate, when have I ever set you up with someone you haven’t liked?” Sirius looked offended. “It’s just one little date, and then it’s over. And I promise that I’ll never ask you to go on anything like this for the rest of the year.”
James sat up on his bed and looked over at Sirius. “Sirius, there’s only one girl in all of Hogwarts that I would be interested in going out with, and she thinks that I am a stuck up prat. So no, I am not interested on going on a blind date with you and your latest girlfriend. And for the record, you have never set me up with someone that I have liked.”
Sirius sighed. “This is going to sound harsh, but it’s the truth. Lily Evans is never going to come around. She is never going to realize that you are a basically nice guy. She is never going to fall in love with you. So why don’t you actually look around and notice that there are other girls in this school besides your favorite red headed witch? I think that a date would do you a world of good.”
James glared at Sirius. “Sirius, I love her. I can’t just give up on her.”
“Well, let’s look at it from a different angle. Maybe Lily will be in the Three Broomsticks too, and then she’ll become wildly jealous and fall in love with you. She just takes you for granted right now.”
“All right Padfoot,” James growled. “But if this goes wrong, or Lily gets the wrong idea from it, I’m going to hex you with the worse curse I can get Remus to teach me.”
Sirius grinned. “It’s a deal. But I can promise you that this is going to be the best date of your life.”
“If my memory serves me correctly, you’ve said that every time you’ve set me up on a date. And it’s never been the best date of my life. Have fun cooking up more diabolical schemes, I’ve got Quidditch practice.” James grabbed his broomstick from the wall next to his bed where it was propped up and left the dormitory. Sirius smirked.
‘Getting Adrianne to convince Lily to go on a date, check. Convincing Prongs to go on a date, check. Now all that I have to do is find a ring, and I know just the place to go.”
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Zillah the house elf worked hard in the kitchens of Hogwarts all day, but his favorite time was at night. That was when he got to time with his collection of shiny things, which he collected in the course of three years at Hogwarts. He was a veritable mockingbird with an eye for anything that glinted in the sun. Not very many people knew about the collection. He kept it well hidden in a secret compartment behind a section of wall in the kitchen. But one boy had figured out his secret.
Zillah worked in the Gryffindor common room each night. He entered as he usually did, using floo powder to go through the fireplaces. He had barely stepped out of the fireplace when a voice called his name.
“Hey Zillah, how’s it going? I haven’t seen you for a while.” Sirius Black stuck his head over the top of the armchair where he had been waiting. “I have to talk to you.”
Zillah inwardly groaned. He had always liked the Black boy because he was constantly sneaking down to the kitchen and taking food back to his dormitory. He often told jokes to the house elves there and had made many friends. But Sirius had once discovered Zillah depositing items into his treasure trove, and though he had promised not to tell anyone, Zillah didn’t like the idea of anyone where his treasures were kept.
“Hello Master Black,” squeaked the house elf. “Is there something that I can be doing for you?”
“As a matter of fact there is. I need to borrow a ring for awhile, and one with a big diamond. Do you happen to have anything like that?”
Zillah nodded. “Yes I does. But I would not be wanting it to get lost, master Black. It is the bestest thing I have found.”
“Oh, don’t worry about it. In fact, I have something to replace it for the time that I’ll need it, and I think that you’ll like it.” Sirius pulled a ruby necklace out from his robes with a flourish.
Zillah’s eyes widened. He had never seen anything so beautiful. The rubies gleamed in the firelight, twinkling like a million red stars. Without asking permission, he reached out and touched the necklace.
“You can have it if you’ll get me the ring.”
“Yes master Black. I will return shortly with the ring that you is wanting.” Zillah turned to the fire and returned to the kitchen.
Sirius set the necklace that he had stolen from his mother on the chair beside him and sat back with a satisfied smile. “Getting a ring, check.” He checked his pocket watch and was glad to see that it was now two o’clock on Friday morning. In seventeen hours, the first phase of their plan would be getting started. He couldn’t wait.
The Ultimate Prank by Midnight_Unicorn
Chapter Notes: I was very happy to see all the nice reviews for Chapter One! Here's Chapter Two!
Chapter Endnotes: Like it? Hate it? Let me know what you think in a review! Thanks for reading!