Sneaking to Hogsmeade
James’ POV
There was a week before Halloween and the Marauders had yet to plan any pranks. Even with Sirius being distant, James didn’t want to ruin the tradition. So, Saturday morning, he threw back the curtains to Peter's bed and let the sun soak into the boy's skin. Peter rolled away, covering his face with a pillow and groaning incoherently.
“Get up, Wormy!” James smiled brightly, tugging at his blanket.
“Fuck off,” Peter grumbled.
“We’ve got things to do, come on!” James whined, grabbing the blanket from him and throwing it to the side.
“Prick,” Peter mumbled as he sat up and squinted at James. “It’s a bloody Saturday morning, Prongs, what is with,” Peter waved his hands around, gesturing to James as a whole, “this?”
“Only a week to prep, you’ve got to get up, come on,” James grabbed his friend and dragged him from his bed.
“Could you be any more vague?” Peter rolled his eyes and sifted through his dresser for some clothes.
“I'll be right back, I've ought to go and grab Moony,” James practically skipped out of the door.
He rushed down the stairs, swinging the door to the common room open wide. Remus was lying on the couch reading one of the new books he’d gotten over the summer.
“Moony, dear,” he used an extremely posh accent while speaking with him. “It’s time to plan. Upstairs, now.”
Remus skimmed over a few sentences, bookmarked his page, and looked up. “What?”
“Let’s go,” James was bouncing around on his feet.
“Where?” Remus just looked at him, even more confused than before.
“Up, to the dorm, right now.”
Remus stared at him, sleep still apparent on his face.
“Come on Moony,” he dragged his words as he reached for his friend's arm. Remus didn’t resist, allowing James to pull him upstairs.
“What are we planning anyway?”
“The best Halloween pranks yet,” James gave him a mischievous grin as he opened the door to their room.
Peter had been waiting on his bed, skimming through an old newspaper. He looked up when he heard the others enter.
“Alright, gather ‘round,” James gestured to the floor and the others sat to form a mini circle.
“What’s this about?” Peter asked, still unaware.
“Our Halloween pranks, of course,” James said with splendor.
“But, we’ve never done a prank with just us three?” Peter frowned.
James’ smile faltered a moment, realizing he’d been ok with leaving his best mate out. Not that they were close anymore, but it still felt wrong. It still was wrong. “It’ll still be good, I mean, we’ve got Moony for Merlin’s sake!”
“I am a master prankster,” Remus smiled as he leaned back on the frame of his own bed.
“Exactly.” The three then began to plan out their pranks, listing different ideas as they bounced off of one another. Soon enough they’d come up with a few good ones and had Peter writing down everything they needed to get for the pranks to be successful.
“Ooh, we should mess with the ghosts!” Peter exclaimed, snapping his fingers and pointing to James.
“How, though? It’s so hard to do anything with them.” James frowned, tapping his chin.
“We could enchant them for a short period,” Remus offered.
“With what though?” James furrowed his brows.
“I know a spell to turn people pink,” Peter offered.
“Really?”
“Yeah, we learned it in charms the other year. Think it was for some sort of end of the year project, don’t exactly remember though.”
“How do we know it works on ghosts?” Remus asked.
“We can just hope it does, I mean, we have other pranks too.”
“Maybe we should have a back-up plan for them,” Remus drawled.
“Or,” James offered, “We can trust good ol’ Wormy here and turn all the ghosts pink.”
“Hm,” Remus bit the inside of his cheek as he thought. “I guess so, not very scary but it sure as hell is funny.” He grinned at his friends, showing just as much excitement as them for the chaos to come.
They were trying to figure out how to execute the potion they planned on making when an idea seemed to hit Remus. “Guys,” he said, his eyes seeming brighter than ever. “I know the best prank to pull on Slytherin.”
“Let’s hear it, then,” Peter ushered him on.
Remus’ mouth twisted into an evil grin as he explained his brilliant plan, and by the end, the other two marauders were leaning in so far just to hear him, as if they’d lose it. It was like they were listening to him tell a story in whispers, but it was loud and obnoxious and exciting and they would’ve been on the edge of their seats had they been sitting somewhere other than the floor.
“You, Moony, you are brilliant!” James reached out and planted a kiss on his cheek. Remus smiled a crooked smile, his eyes showing confusion. “Merlin, I love you!” James threw his hands up before standing.
Remus scoffed. “You’re something else, James Potter.”
“Thank you, darling,” James smirked and held out his hand for Remus to take, helping the boy to his feet.
“Wait, how are we gonna get any of this?” Peter pointed to the list in his hand. “We don’t go to Hogsmeade until next month.”
Remus rolled his eyes, “The tunnel, duh?”
James laughed and grabbed the invisibility cloak from under his bed, snatching the marauders map from Remus’ nightstand. “Let’s go, boys.”
They had thrown the cloak on before leaving the dorm because they didn’t want to risk being seen entering the tunnel to Honeydukes. Peter had also needed to change into his animagus because the three of them wouldn’t fit under there. Remus’ height really didn’t help, and the two boys alone were having to shuffle slowly to keep their feet from peaking out.
As James thought about it later, however, he realized that it was stupid and unnecessary for them to wear it while heading to the tunnel.
After a good thirty minutes of shuffling about and hiding from students or teachers as they passed, the trio made it to the tunnel. Gunhildas hump opened up and allowed them to slide into the tunnel, once it shut again they threw off the invisibility cloak. Peter stayed as Wormtail throughout the tunnel, even though he could’ve changed back.
Throughout the hour in the tunnel, they stayed rather quiet, only a few words exchanged between Remus and James. They were relieved to have reached the end when they were met with the familiar wooden door which would lead to the storeroom of Honeydukes.
“Cloak,” James nodded to Remus and threw the cloak over both of them.
“Is it locked?” Remus asked.
“Don’t think so,” James said before trying the handle. It wasn’t locked.
They walked through, Peter still on James’ shoulder, and carefully snuck around the stacks of boxes. It wasn’t going to be easy slipping into the store while it was open, but they did it nonetheless. When they peaked through a crack in the door which led to the main shop, they saw everyone crowded around some new candy.
James thanked Merlin for the easy pass, and quietly opened the door, slowly moving out of the back room. He paused when someone turned around, but they simply gave a confused look in their direction before shrugging it off and continuing to browse.
The boys held their breath as they inched out of the store, making it the front and slipping out with another customer. Remus nudged James to a nearby alleyway and they both hurried over.
James let out a breath. “Bloody hell,” he ran a hand through his hair. “Forgot how terrifying that was.”
Peter changed back from his animagus. “You lot make it too easy for me,” he smirked. “Rat could easily get away with being in the store.”
Remus rolled his eyes and gathered the cloak in his arms, folding it up and placing it under an abandoned crate. “We should really head to Zonko’s now, that place’ll be swarming by noon.” He quickly tucked the map into the pocket of his robes.
“Good idea,” James nodded.
“I thought we didn’t need anything there for this prank?” Peter cocked his head as they walked out onto the street.
“Just stocking up,” James grinned.
“Easier to plan ahead than to sneak over here each week,” Remus nodded his head and rounded the corner with his friends.
Just up ahead was Zonko’s Joke Shop and they could tell it was already busy. For now, though, there wouldn’t be many kids, who were the ones usually swarming the place, since it was so early.
They stepped inside to find ways whizzing about and some people off to the side messing about with popping candies. James walked straight to the dung bombs, grabbing a handful of them and shoving them into a basket.
Remus went to find some bizarre candy for them to test out later, Peter following close behind. James looked at what his friend had grabbed when he finished stock-piling for future pranks, and saw he’d grabbed a few boxes of Berties, and some candies he’d never seen before. It appeared to him that they would change the sound of your voice, or something like that. It wasn’t really clear on the wrapper.
“You grab what you need?” Remus turned around when he felt James’ presence.
“Mhm,” he nodded. “You?”
“Just a few things, and a few gifts,” Remus smiled. “Divert your eyes, I want this to be a surprise.”
“Ok, ok!” James held up his hands in defense as they walked up to the counter to wait in line. James paid quickly, and was turned down when he offered to pay for Remus’ stuff.
“I’m not totally broke,” Remus sighed.
“I know that, Moony,” James rolled his eyes. “Just wanted to be helpful.”
Remus sighed and finished paying for his things. “For the last time, I am not a charity case.”
James frowned. “Sorry,” he muttered.
“Don’t worry about it.”
They continued to the next store, which was Dervish and Banges, where they quickly bought a few things. Peter had been forced to carry their bags and grumbled about it the entire way to Gladrags.
“Always have to do everything for you. Peter hold these, Peter do this, Peter, Peter, Peter.”
“Shut up,” James said playfully as he nudged his friend.
“Never.”
“Both of you shut up,” Remus rolled his eyes.
“But mom,” James whined.
Remus gave him a side-eye and held back a laugh. They entered Gladrags and James immediately walked up to an employee.
“How much for a mannequin?” He asked in all seriousness.
“I’m sorry?” She responded, brushing some of her green hair from her face.
“How much would it cost to buy a mannequin? I need five.”
“Uhm, I’m not sure,” she trailed off. “Why do you need them?”
“School project,” Peter piped up.
She hummed, “My manager might know.”
They followed her to the front counter and waited as she spoke in hushed tones with the person behind it. They watched as she nodded slowly, laughed, and turned back to them.
“Ten galleons per.”
James handed her two pouches, each containing twenty-five galleons, and asked for a moment to look around. She nodded and went to the back to grab the mannequins requested.
“Now, what would they wear?” James tapped his chin and adjusted his glasses.
“We should deck them out in Gryffindor colors,” Peter smiled. “That’d scare the shit out of them.”
Remus chuckled and agreed. “We’re gonna need to tear the fuck out of the clothes but it’s fine, I love that idea.”
“Alright, Gryffindor apparel it is,” James then set off to find anything maroon, gold, or yellow. The three boys had gone in separate directions and met back up after finding a few outfits each.
“Ditch that one, Wormy” James looked at it with disgust. “It’s too pretty to destroy.”
He looked down at the Gryffindor dress in his hands, it was an ugly ball gown. “Dude, what?” Peter looked at James with concern, a smile playing at his lips.
“Please, James, just get rid of the quidditch fit,” Remus groaned.
“But it's perfect, it says me,” James said dramatically. “It’ll be just like terrorizing them in the flesh.”
Remus grabbed the outfit from his hands and threw it on a random rack. “No.”
“Mom,” he whined.
“Oh, shut up,” Remus grabbed the clothes from the others and brought them to the counter. James had chosen a simple gold t-shirt with a maroon sweater, throwing a pair of maroon jeans into the mix. Remus however had chosen two different turtle necks, a skirt, and a pair of ripped jeans. Peter of course had the disgusting Gryffindor ball gown which was mostly maroon, included a gold trim along the neck, and was adorned with golden griffon heads. They had plastered a large Gryffindor crest to the front of the dress, which was what ruined the whole thing. The last outfit was a simple striped shirt white a sweater vest to go over it and a pair of black slacks.
James sniffled, “You’re so mean to me mother.” He gave the boy a deep frown and acted as though he was about to cry.
“That'll be one-twenty-two galleons,” the lady from before said as she counted up the tags.
“Yes ma’am,” James handed her more bags of coins as Remus just gaped at the price.
“Holy shit,” he muttered loud enough for Peter and James to hear.
“So you are broke?” James said to him.
“No, James,” he rolled his eyes. “Just not rich like you.”
They distributed the bags between all of them, kindly asking the worker to shrink the mannequins. Once they reached the alley where they had left the cloak, they struggled to get it over themselves and tried their best to not let the bags make that loud crackling noise. Peter had already transformed back to Wormtail and was sat on Remus’ shoulder this time.
Honeydukes was much fuller than when they arrived, and they struggled to pass through the already narrow aisles. James almost ran into someone as he turned around to glare at Remus for stepping on his foot. Remus had almost knocked over a shelf.
When they reached the back room, they snuck through the door and hurried to the back, where they found the exit. Once in the tunnel the two started swearing at each other for being so stupid and loud.
“You practically knocked over an entire shelf!” James exclaimed.
“Not like you were much better!” Remus said, “You practically ran into some customers!”
“No! That was so your fault!” James waved his hands about. “You stepped on my foot!”
“Ugh! Not on purpose!”
“Not on purpose my ass! That was the most purposeful thing you’ve ever done.”
“That’s so stupud, I have done so many purposeful things in my life!”
“No you haven’t!”
“Have too,” Remus said, exasperated.
“Have not,” a smile spread over James’ face, but he tried to wipe it away.
Peter changed back out of his animagus to shout at the two. “If you don’t both shut up, I’m going to strangle you.” He gave them a serious, deadly glare. “I’m not spending an hour as a rat listening to you two argue over nothing.”
James frowned and gave Remus a disgusted look, who returned it gladly. “Fine,” James rolled his eyes and tried to hold back a smile tugging on his lips.
“Thank you,” Peter sighed, changing back to a rat. Remus helped him up to his shoulder and they walked in a comfortable silence the rest of the way.
After reaching Hogwarts, they watched the map to make sure the coast was clear. Upon seeing that it was, they whispered the code and snuck out into the hall, Remus under the cloak carrying the bags of stuff.
James would allow him and Peter to stay under the cloak to make the trek back easier. He pretended to be talking to himself when students passed, thinking it was funny, when it really just made him seem crazy. Although, the boy didn’t really care since it made him laugh.
When they returned to the dorm, Remus threw off the cloak and stashed the bags under James’ bed. Peter quickly switched out of his animagus and sat down on James’ bed.
“We still have to get Mary and Marlene to agree to this,” Peter swung his legs back and forth.
“Marlene will agree, easy,” James said. “Mary, mm, maybe with a bit of coaxing, but I’m sure she will.”
Remus nodded, “I can get them both to agree, trust me. We’re friends, afterall.”
“Good,” James said as he went to sit by Peter, leaning his head on the headboard.
“I assume we do the portraits,” but Remus was cut off by the opening of the door as Sirius stepped in.
He paused in the entrance, smiled awkwardly, and walked to his bed. “Hey, guys.”
Remus stared at him and got up from his spot on the floor.
“Sirius,” James greeted, although not kindly.
“We can talk more later,” Remus nodded to James and Peter before leaving the room. There was an awkward tension in the air as Peter glanced between the other two boys.
“What were you lot doing?” Sirius asked hesitantly.
“Nothing that concerns you,” James waved him off and got up, heading to the bathroom.
“Oh,” Sirius said quietly, frowning. His eyes wandered to the floor.
James rolled his eyes and went to go shower, already sick of his estranged friend.