Halloween, 1940
«October the 31th, 1940
It's been the best Halloween ever!!
Lyall, Monty and I have been planning the best prank ever!!...»
When Remus read this he felt shocked and amused at the same time. Sirius laughed, seeing the expression on Remus' face.
"I guess the history repeats itself, doesn't it?" Remus laughed.
"Damn right you are. I was surprised to find that your father and my uncle were like you and me."
"Well, not exactly like you and me"
"Of course!! There's no one like me and you, Moony."
Remus laughed again and continued reading. He found it amusing but endearing at the same time that his father had a group of friends like The Marauders and that they also pulled pranks. Not on the Sytherins, or a specific target, like Snivellus, but they did pull pranks.
«...We've been planning it for weeks now, and it turned out even better than we thought it would.
We had the idea on late September. We wanted to do something great for Halloween, and we've been doing research in the library for the spells we would need. Lyall did most of the charms work, because he's top at that subject, and then he taught us how to do it.
We trasnformed all the armours to have pumpkin heads instead of their usual helmets, and then, during the feats at night, the pumpkins flew off their armours and all around the castle and the headless armours were looking for them, running after them and bumping into things or even themselves. It was hilarious and so chaotic. Lyall, Monty and Iwere laughing so hard in our tables, watching everybody's shocked expression. Even the principal laughed. After the feats, though some of the armours had found their heads and were back on their usual position, there were stilll a few that were running after the pumpkins. But the initial shock had calmed already.
Before we got to bed, our headmasters had a chat with us. I had to go to Slughorn's office...»
"Wait, wait, wait. Slughorn?!?! Slughorn was already at Hogwarts back then???" Remus asked, surprised.
Sirius nodded, smirking. "It seems so. But why are you so surprised? It's obvious that he's an old man.
"Yeah, but... I don't know, I didn't think he'd be there when my dad was 11..." Remus said, a bit too shocked with something that wasn't that big of a deal.
"Well, please, resume your reading" Sirius said, jokingly
"Okay, I'll continue reading..."
«...To talk aboput the prank. It was obvious that the teachers knew who had done it, since we were laughing like madmans instead of being shocked like the rest of the Great Hall.
The office was actually pretty big; it seemed smaller from the outside. There was a small fireplace with a crackling fire in it that warmed the room, a desk on one side of the room, two big sofas in front of each other with a small coffee table in between and the walls were filled with shelves with all kinds of bottles on them, some empty and others full of shiny or foamy liquids of various colors with small handwritten labels or other ones overflowing with books. There was a big hourglass with green sand that ran slowly. When i knocked the door and stepped inside, looking amazed at my new surroundings, Slughorn turned to me, a small smile on his face. He seemed pleased to be wtih me.
"Mr Black," he said, excitedly. "Glad to see you here. Happy Halloween."
"Happy Halloween, professor."
"I bet you already know what you're doing here, right?" I simply nodded. I wasn't nervous or scared, I knew that Slughorn wasn't like my roommates or the other Sytherins.
"That was a really good idea, mister Black. You and your friends are really talented wizards for having been able to do such advanced magic."
"Thank you, professor. W've been doing a lot of research for it, honestly." I don't know why I told him that, but I'm writing exactly what I said.
"You surely did. Who were the other ones that ypu planned the prank with?"
Sughorn probably saw that I was nervous about telling on my friends, but he gave me a reassuring smile.
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. You're not gonna be in any trouble. Of course, according to the rules of this castle, I'll have to take points of your house because of the chaos you have caused, and the other head masters will do the same, but I'm not gonna give you detentiopn. I fact, i wanted to confgratulate you. You've demonstrated to be a very clever wizard and to show that you're capable of doing a lot of things."
I smiled at his words. I never thought that doing that prank would have such a positive repercutions. I wanted to know how it had gone for Lyall and Monty, but they'll have to wait. I nodded in acknowledgment and he kept talking.
"I don't know how you'd do in your other classes, but you're excelent at potions so far, and now you've showed your skills at charms and transfiguration too. I'm sure you and your friends will make great things together." I was proud of myself by then. I hadn't made the most research, nor I had taught the others the spells, but the idea of making the pumpkins heads fly through the castle had been mine. Monty had suggested the transfiguration thing. After all, we had all done something for this prank, and that's why it turned out amazingly right. Everyone laughed, teachers included. Even the principal. I don't thik I'll forget this ever.
Slughorn dismissed me and I ran through the hallways to meet with Lyall and Monty adn get to know how it had gone for them.
We met again in the clock tower, it was the closest place for all of us. If Filch or a prefect asked what were we doing after curfew out there we had th excuse (it wasn't exactly an excuse because it was true) of being talking with our head of houses.
Lyall said that it had went well for him. The head master only took 10 points from Ravenclaw, and congratulated him for such a great exhibition of magic. It's the charms professor, Ravenclaw's head of house. And Lyall is great at charms, and that prank has proved it. Monty said that it had also went well. Also 10 points from Gryffindor. He said that Dumbledore laughed at the memory of the prank and asked him about who else had done it with him. He didn't tell on us. I told them all that happened inside of Slughorn's office, how he had also congratulated me and all. So it has been a great Halloween. Well, now it isn't Halloween anymore. It's already midnight. I guess the teachers were in a good mood, because it didn't have the repercussions we thought it would have. But it was the best day of my life.»
That's how the entry ended. Remus was happy that the prank had gone well for them. The pranks the marauders did weren't as successful. The teachers always rested a lot of points from them. And on top of that, they were four Gryffindors, so they were at least 40 points less, ten each. However, since these three were from different houses, it didn't have as many negative repercussions.
"How did we never think about this?" Remus said. "Or why didn't you suggest it, if you already knew?"
"We're better than this. Our pranks are way more complicated and amazing."
Remus smirked at Sirius, and he smiled back. That Sirius Black smile.