Memories they would never forget
“Three..” James looked cheekily at the Marauders.
“Two…” They all grinned at each other.
“One…” All of a sudden, the Great Hall went absolutely wild, actually, only the Slytherin table did (it totally wasn’t targeted).
“You never cease to amaze me, Padfoot.” James and Sirius went into an over-the-top bear hug and jumped on each other through the thrill and excitement whilst Remus rolled his eyes and grinned at his friends as Peter was quietly snickering along.
They were all hiding behind the staff door that is used to enter the Great Hall; they could all see the Slytherin students groaning and muttering empty death threats towards the Gryffindor's under their breaths, wiping off the now splattered mixtures of food off of their disgusted faces and school uniform.
“Oh my god -Prongs, look! Snivellous has all the mashed potatoes in his greasy hair!” Sirius pointed over to the side of the Slytherin table where Snape was sitting.
“Haha! We got ‘em good. Now that is an image that is staying in my head forever. Great idea, Moony!” He slapped Remus on his back heartily. “It wasn’t just me, if you get caught I swear to God-”
“Shh, relax Moons, we have this under control, don’t we Wormtail?” Sirius insisted, as Peter nodded his head enthusiastically.
Remus was leaning on the wall next to the door, regretting he let the Marauders do this as Professor McGonagall went over to the Gryffindor table to investigate what was happening. She walked to where the rest of the Marauders’ friends were. “So I expect this is the rest of your lot’s doing?” McGonagall raised a scolding eyebrow at Lily Potter, crossing her arms at them all scattered over the Gryffindor table. “Actually, Miss-”
“Of course it’s Potter and his unbearable goons!” Snape called out, pronouncing ‘Potter’ with a hard ‘P’ sound. He stood up, looking furious with the leftovers of his mash and peas now dissolving into his damp clothes. “What proof do you have, then?” Marlene shouted out, obviously knowing Snape was stating the obvious, but wanting to stick up for her friends nevertheless.
“Are you that thick in-” Snape’s voice got moulded into the voices into the majority of the Hogwarts students shouting amongst each other, making chaos and the noise was ,quite frankly, ear-splitting as you like.
“See all the mess you have made now?” Remus questioned, arms crossed towering over them all. James looked at Remus with a glint in his eyes, “Mate, don’t hit me, but you frighteningly look like McGonagall.” He half-joked, hearing little chortles from the others near him. “Come on Moony, lighten up. Besides, you helped us plan this.” Sirius had his eyes peeled on the Slytherin table, not missing the way his little brother had already cleaned himself up with a spell, clothes as clean as you like. He rolled his eyes at that. What a toff.
They kept on watching the disaster they created. “Oh look, big ol’ Dumbledore is getting up, ruining all the fun, what is this? The fun police?” James got a few things out of his pockets and showed the rest of the group; four Wildfire Whiz-bangs. Sirius had that look on his face where he could cry from the marvellous objects in James’ hand; “Wicked.” They all smirked at each other, in a (sort of) huddle. James placed each firework in the Marauder’s hand. They all cast a spell on the explosions so they would explode whilst in the air. "Right, big throw guys." Sirius said as they all nodded at each other and in the space of five seconds, there were students pointing at the lobbed fireworks in the air.
As soon as Dumbledore spelled away all the splattered foods, cracks and boom’s and bangs filled the room with flashy images from the magical fireworks making out to be each of the Marauders Animagus.
Prongs, the Stag; sprinting and leaping over the dusty walls and ceilings, darting through the green-house students. Wormtail the rat; frantically speeding and running along the Great Hall tables, flicking food at the pupils, getting confused and shocked glances from the students. Padfoot the black-haired dog; the barks mixing into noises of students laughing, teachers muttering to each other disapprovingly, and Slytherin students yelling to each other as they were getting chased by the firework-Padfoot. Last but not least, Moony the Werewolf (but the firework isn’t actually a werewolf as that would risk outing Remus’ identity); a medium sized coyote marching up to the steps (where Dumbledore usually stands) and it lets out a blasting howl that gets the attention of everyone in the room.
As the howl started to die down, all the creative fireworks dissipated into thin air. The Marauders looked thoroughly pleased with what they just managed to do, quietly managing to close the staff door without any suspicion. As they walked into a corridor, checking on the Marauder’s Map for no intruders, they sprinted, jumped, shouted out incoherent words into the air with all their energy bursting through their veins, unable to contain their enthusiasm and pleasure of one of the best pranks they’ve managed to do.
Sirius belted out a thundering ‘Whooooooooooo-ooooooooooop!!!!!!!!’ jumping on Remus’ back. They were all running on the thrilling sensation and adrenaline on the after-party of their wicked jaw-dropping pranks. James ripped out a dramatic impression of a gorilla beating his chest making the others practically die of laughter. Remus swiftly got out his polaroid camera and shot a quick photo of Prongs, that's something he won't ever forget. “Guys, let’s have after-one-of-our-amazing-pranks photos!” Remus turned the camera around and they all huddled together- Sirius is on Remus’ back, his black hair sprawled all over the place, James with a smile like a sudden beam of light, standing on a statue in the camera’s view doing a pose with his arm over the statue’s metal soldier making a funny face, and Peter down below with his thumbs up smiling back up at the polaroid. Remus took quite a few photos to save. As the photos were printed out, they all were muttering little jokes and banter back and forth, strolling back to Gryffindor common room without a care in the world.
They all cherish this friendship, they couldn’t bear to part from one another. Where would they be without Prongs’ boastfulness, his arrogance and mischievous and without Padfoot’s being a big jokester, his bundle of energy, and don’t forget his cockiness. Where would they all be without Moony’s intelligence, good sense of humour and without Wormtail’s shyness and quirks.
In these times, they need to create these memories for when they need their spirits lifted up, they need to look back at these heart-warming reminders to point out the admiration and the connection they have with each other.
This would be a memory they would never forget, even in the darkest of times.