The day I was a Marauder
I sat with Lily on the steps of the boys dormitory. Mary and Marlene were still packing and Lily needed to gift Remus a reading aid. Lily had combined magic and muggle technology to make it which meant it worked without having the repeat the spell and Remus could read in the summer. I had applauded her genius, but still think that someone could just teach him how to read. Both Sirius and Lily chose the harder magical way instead of just sitting the boy down and teaching him. I still hadn’t figured out how to help with the werewolf thing, maybe I needed to learn how to combine magic and muggle.
“I can’t believe you knew for almost two years.” Lily sighed. It seemed like twenty secrets ago I found out about Remus’s reading problem.
“Well I really only knew because I have a small understanding of Latin.” I shrugged. I found languages so fascinating, who knew it would actually help me.
“And they say I’m the clever one.” Lily nudged me and smiled.
“We’re all clever in different ways.”
Steps started at the top of the stairs, Lily and I stood and made way. Unfortunately for Lily, it was James not Remus.
“Oi.. my fan club has finally arrived!” James grinned like an idiot.
“In your dreams Potter.” Lily scoffed.
“Aw what’s the matter Evans? Can’t take this amount of awesome so early in the morning?”
“You are unbelievable.”
“Indeed I am.” James’s smile never broke, I think he and Lily both secretly liked the banter even if James wanted to be mates and Lily would rather die.
“James is Remus up there?” I asked interrupting them. Lily’s face readjusted like she had forgotten why we were here.
“Mmm.. not sure.”
“How are you unsure? He’s your roommate?” Lily asked.
“Well we have a lot going on today so I’m really not sure where everyone is.” James swayed onto his toes then back down again. I had no idea what he was up to, but this time I wanted to know.
“Let’s go check the great hall.” Lily sighed and turned around.
“Ah ah ah.” James ran to face us. “You get my dear twin for the next two weeks, I get her today.” James held onto my hand like he was protecting me.
“Check the great hall and the library, I’ll see you later.” I told Lily who nodded like she sort of understood. I wondered if she thought of her own sister and if they would ever be close anymore. James and I left the common room and he pulled out the cloak.
“What’s the plan?” I asked.
“First we have to set a mild explosion on the seventh floor then let Mcgonagal see us together on the third floor. Then we avoid the third floor.” James smiled.
The two of us walked under the cloak to the nearest bathroom. James began explaining their master plan and everyone’s part to it. I was just glad to be included. Apparently the boys would be running around all day just to explode the toilets but that wasn’t even the biggest part. The main plan was happening tonight at the great hall, but that was a boy thing. I wasn’t included in the planning or execution, I just get to know what it is.
When we reached the boys bathroom James whipped the cloak off and began folding it. I had never been in here before and it was a lot dirtier and smellier than the girls. I understood why James wanted to blow it up.
“We’re leaving this here.”
“Won’t it get wet?”
“Not if Peter picks it up in time.” James left the cloak on under one of the sinks. Peter and Remus were supposed to be busy getting supplies to later tonight, I tried to think of why the cloak was needed but maybe the boys just liked using it.
“What spell? Bombarda?” I got my wand out of my pocket.
“We’re not actually blowing this up!” James snatched my wand out of my hand. “You were honestly on board with just blowing up the bathroom?”
“Look at it! It’s disgusting!”
“But- huh….” James looked around like he just now noticed it was a mess. “We’re blowing up the water!” He corrected. He waved my wand toward the toilets and said “spumam ad sero.” I knew sero meant late, but I would have to look up spumam. Pink bubbles shot out of my wand and flew to the toilets. I waited for something to go boom or explode or really do anything, but nothing happened. I looked to James.
“We’ve got a few hours to do the same to all of the rest!” James smiled and I sighed. This was a tad boring. James handed me my wand back and I repeated his action in the girls lavatory. James didn’t follow me inside, because he’s a baby and can’t go into a girls bathroom. When I finished the two of us ran to the third floor, how he knew Mcgonagal would be there, I didn’t want to know. That could only lead to something creepy or weird. Or both. I was a faster runner than James, I’ve had lots of practice running through this castle, he was more used to the restrictions of the cloak.
We slowed down once we arrived to the floor. Sirius was supposed to have already spelled these bathrooms just without the time restriction. It was set to go off any minute and Sirius was supposed to be far from here.
We leaned against the wall and James took out his own wand and made bubbles fly around me. I popped most of them, but I let some fall on me.
“How are we supposed to find Mcgonagal?” I asked.
“She’s going to find us, trust me.” He put his wand away and smiled. I definitely trusted James, but how did he know all of this?
“Mr. Potter, Miss Potter.” Mcgonagal appeared out of nowhere behind us. I looked at James like I was saying wow you’re good and James nodded. “What are the two of you doing here on such a nice day? I would think that the last day would leave the two of you with your house mates.” The professor eyed us. She had many valid reasons not to trust the two of us, why would we be here on the last day?
“Well professor…” James started, but that seemed to be all he had. I had to cut in.
“We were looking for you actually.” I said and James nodded. “I was wondering if next year we would study more advanced transfiguration like turning water into some more malleable like a stone. James said that that was more fourth year material and I couldn’t wait all holiday before knowing.” I smiled at the professor, James looked at me dumbfounded that I just came up with that. Truth is, I have been wondering that I just never asked.
“Well as you know, each year gets harder and we will most certainly perform more precise and difficult transfiguration. I believe there are some lessons similar to the ones you describe in the third year curriculum and-“ Mcgonagal was cut short by a BOOM across the corridor. Pink foam shot out of the bathroom and at us. We all backed up, but the foam was still coming.
The genius part of this is that Mcgonagal can’t exactly blame James for this. First off, why would he get himself wet and why would he stay here after. And if she can’t blame James, she can’t blame the marauders. James would’ve known about this and wouldn’t be caught dead standing here. Me being here only proves that, I don’t normally get caught in their idiocy. If she can’t pin them for this than all of the others couldn’t go under their name. The boys would repeat someone else’s prank that’s no fun. I believe Remus came up with this part of the plan.
“My shoes!” I stuck to my part of the act. The foam was about as tall as my knees. I tried to reach down, but James stopped me.
“Wait! We don’t know what’s in that, what if it’s a potion that makes hair grow or something?!” James pretended to be disgusted.
“Eww!” I joined him.
“Y-yes, come let’s get out of this mess.” Mcgonagal looked so confused at the two of us. I could tell she wanted to blame james but she had no reason to. She lead us out of the foam and instructed us to go to the tower and change while she found filch and cleaned the mess. James and I left before we burst out laughing.
We left our shoes and socks in a closet on the third floor then spent a whole hour spelling both the girls and boys bathrooms on the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh floors. Sirius was in charge rest.
“Thanks for coming along.” James smiled.
“Of course, you should invite me along more, Mcgonagal trusts me more.” I smirked and James agreed. “You have to go now to plan more right?”
“Yeah, but I’ll see you after dinner and we’ll ride the train back together right?”
“Right.” I watched James run away and do whatever business he had left.
“What was that about?” Mary and Marlene can from behind me and locked my arms with them.
“Nothing just… don’t use the bathrooms anywhere but our dormitory’s.”