May 6, four hours after the prank.
“This is all the girl's fault” Sirius complained as he lazily rubbed the trophies.
The Marauders were all in detention. Even Remus the goody two shoes prefect Lupin. He was not a goody two shoes; actually he was the mastermind behind most of their pranks, but the girls have managed to get the four of them in trouble.
“I can believe they got us in detention.” Added Peter mopping the hall.
“You have to admit it was bloody brilliant” said Remus, who was dusting the shelves where the trophies Sirius was cleaning went.
“Moony!” wined Sirius.
Remus laughed and got closer to give the raven haired Gryffindor a kiss on the temple.
“Now I know Lily is my dream girl” said James, who up until that moment had been awfully quiet thinking about how they were in detention due to the girls but he, James Potter, he specially owned his detention to Lily Evans.
“Here we go again” said Peter, owning a nasty look from Sirius. James didn't notice.
“Looking good boys.” Saluted Mary, as she, Marlene, Dorcas and Lily walked by them giggling.
Sirius stuck his tongue out.
“We'll get you back, you know?” warned Remus squinting his eyes at the girls.
“Sure you will.” Taunted Marlene as she surrounded her girlfriend with her arm.
Once the girl had turned around the corner, the boys resumed their cleaning duties, or rather their detention duties.
“Remember boys” started Lily with her back turned as the girls started to walk towards the end of the corridor. “It is all about not getting caught” she turned her head lightly and winked at James.
The messy haired boy seemed to melt at the spot. His cheek rested on the top of the mop as if he was holding to it in order to stand.
“I'm gonna marry that girl one day lads” he said, starting to mop again with a sheepish grin. “You'll see.”
“Who the hell did we ended up here?” complained once again, Peter while trying to remove a smelly purple stain from the floor.
.
September 28, six months before the prank.
It was an easy answer. The girls had planned this prank several months ago. And it had all started when Sirius had bragged about his boyfriend being the best prankster of all Hogwarts. Normally this wouldn't have cause any fuss, but Sirius had got into a row with Marlene.
“My boyfriend plans all of our pranks, and they are legendary. Therefore, we are entitled to the best pranksters. Even the Prewetts had already stayed long behind us.” Said Sirius, who was currently sprawled on top of Remus.
“What are you talking about, Sirius? You are always getting caught. Lily always pranks you lot and NEVER gets caught. Now, that is a real prankster.” Fired back Marlene.
“Don't yell Marls” said Dorcas, who was almost asleep with her head on her girlfriend's lap. Marlene leaned forward to kiss her lightly as an apology. Dorcas smiled.
This was normal in the common room. The marauders and company were all laying on the couches and everyone was watching amused the row between Sirius and Marlene. Those two would often biker just for the sake of it. It was until Sirius made the following comment, that the room felt silent.
“Please, you girls don't have the intellect to do pranks on our level.”
“Pads.” Remus warned, combing his fingers through Sirius's hair.
“Oh really?” asked Lily indignantly.
“Lils he didn't mean it like that, you know it.” Said James before the argument went any further.
“Well then, what did he mean?” asked Mary in the same tone of voice as Lily. James exchanged a look with the other boys.
“Fine” said Dorcas who seemed shaken out of her stupor by the discussion. “We girls don't know how to prank as well as you boys.”
Marlene, Lily and Dorcas snapped their heads in disbelieve.
“Come on Marls. Let's go” she continued pushing Marlene by the hand.
The blond girl reluctantly followed and once they had reached the stairs, however, Dorcas leaned to her ear. Marlene turned around, and she made a sing for Mary and Lily to come.
“We are so gonna prank them, aren’t we?” said Mary once they had all reached their shared dorm.
Marlene and Dorcas had a wicked smile. Lily had stayed with her back to the door, but the other girls turned around to face her when she spoke with an evil grin in her face.
“Oh, we are not only going to prank them. We'll be doing something far, much better.”
And that's how the planning had begun.
It was, to say the least, an elaborated prank.
The girls spent the following two months planning their pranks. They would target the Marauders individually, and then they will get all of them in trouble as a group. But there was something even better awaiting them once they had gone out of detention. Then November and December were spent researching useful spells and other shenanigans to use for their Machiavellian plan. When they returned from Christmas break, it was all about assembling the plan. Honestly, with Lily coordinating, Mary´s spell work , Dorcas brewing and Marlene light feet adn thief-like habilities, it was as easy as taking candy from a baby.
.
May 7, one day after the prank
“You guys are the worst” said Sirius, letting himself drop on the seat between Remus and James. “I'm sore from all the cleaning.”
“You were just polishing the trophies!” grumbled Peter.” James and I had to make all the scrubbing. THAT was exhausting.
But Sirius ignored Peter. He made his puppy eyes. The eyes neither James nor Remus could resist. Remus shook his head, conscious he was giving in to his boyfriend's whims, and wrapped his arms around him.
“Poor you” mocked Mary.
“This wouldn't have happened if Sirius had just admitted Lily was a better prankster than Remus and that we are at your level.” Cleared Dorcas. “So, it really is all on you.”
“Well, let me correct something there. We are above your level.” Intervened Lily. “We didn't even get caught.” She smirked.
James was beaming at his girlfriend.
“So how did you do it?” asked Remus.
“It wasn't that difficult. You lot, are way over yourselves to even have noticed when we put the prank in motion.”
“Are you going to insult us or explain us?” said Sirius impatiently.
Remus bit his earlobe lightly as a warning, but it had a different effect on Sirius, whose cheeks turned crimson.
“As you are so desperate to know… I guess we will try to explain it to you boys. Just tell me if there’s something you don't understand.” Said Mary, mocking them with an evil grin.
“It was awfully easy to prank you boys. Maybe next time we'll prank the twins and see if they are actually a challenge.” started Lily. “Ever since the girls and I went back from Christmas, we agreed we had to keep you lot out of trouble. If you didn't do anything, the teachers would get suspicious. Everybody would know something was up. Something big. So all we had to do from January to February was to keep you out of trouble. You should have seen Slughorn on the last meeting. He was on the edge because everyone was expecting a brig prank.”
“Which we delivered” interrupted Mary.
“Remus was easy.” Continued Dorcas. “Marlene only had to approach him and asked him for help on herbology, and there went the master mind of the marauders. Now you couldn't do anything big. Peter was also easy. All I had to do was find someone better at wizard chest than him, and he spent all his free time trying to beat the Ravenclaw gal. But still we were left with the havoc you and Sirius create on your own.”
“But I knew just who I could turn to, in order to keep both of you occupied enough.” resumed Lily with a grin.
“No!” Sirius said, jumping up from his seat. “You didn't!”
“Oh, but we did.” Said Lily in a low, vicious tone. “I convinced Regulus to help us out…”
“You turn my little brother against me? How could you?” said Sirius, putting a hand on his chest.
“You did what? How did you…? But you… Sirius, but he… why on earth… how?” James couldn't articulate.
Lily smirked.
“Well you see. He was the key for both of you. I knew I would have to distract you with something big. So I convinced Regulus to act sketchy around Sirius in exchange for some quidditch tactics from the Gryffindor team.” James looked dumbstruck. He wasn't even able to mumble anything this time. “Really, it was a win-win. When the slytherings beat you up the first match, I knew James would double your training. And, as promised, Regulus started acting sort of shady, which kept Sirius occupied as well. Besides, we kept you occupied enough to give you the sensation you weren't spending enough time with each other, didn't we? So when you were all together, you talked about other things rather than pranks. Or in case of Sirius and Remus, you didn't talk, rather did some other interesting things. Are we right?”
“You Miss Evans are an evil woman” accused Sirius who was blushing.
Remus had his face hidden on Sirius's neck, but he was also embarrassed. It was fine the girls knew they were predictable, but Remus didn't like the thought of the girls knowing what he and Sirius did on their alone time. The boys in fact had fallen for every trap the girls had set.
“That I am. Anyway. You were kept out of trouble and the professors were getting suspicious.”
“Now we had to make you look sketchy, so they would know that you were in fact planning something.” Continued Marlene.
“We set you up all February. There was that time McGonagall caught you with a mysterious stain on your trouser. Suspiciously similar to the stains that our charm left on the corridor. The ones you lot had to clean up.”
“Oh, so it was you who left that boxy thing on the hallway?” asked James.
“I knew you'd be curious” shrugged of Lily. “Then we set up Peter. He was on his way back to the tower, it just so happened that Kettleburn was near and Mary turned a portrait into water. Kettleburn mention me this, thinking it had been Peter and I said that I had seen Remus borrow a copy of nature advance charms, “Peter must be practising, but I can possibly know what homework those boys are practising for” I said to the professor. Kettleburn put two plus two together.”
“The next step was quite simple.” Continued Dorcas. “We knew if we included Remus as a target on the prank, he would definitely know something was up before we even set up the charms. So I brewed polyjuice potion of the girl’s loo at the second floor, since no one ever enters that bathroom.”
“All we had to do was steal a few jumpers from you, Rem. And since Sirius always steals them, we knew you wouldn't make much of some missing sweaters. That's how we got your hair.” Explained Mary. “After we set the charms, I drank the polyjuice potion and made sure McGonagall saw me putting up the last spells. When she called out, I started running towards the great hall. Dorcas put up the water charms to turn everyportrait into a waterfall and then made sure Remus was out by the green houses-“
“Oh, so you were the student who wanted to review for an exam?” interrupted Moony.
“Yeah, we knew you'd helped, even if you didn't know who it was. So we left you a note and as predicted you went out early in the morning, so Sirius wouldn't get the chance to figure out there were two Remus.”
“So at the same time Marls distracted Sirius with a little bickering on the duelling hall. When the time arrived, I, polyjuiced into Remus, ran to Sirius, grabbed him by the hand and told him to run. Now, McGonagall hadn't just seen Remus, but she had also seen Sirius. We passed by James with our charms perfectly timed, and Lily was in charge of framing our beloved captain.”
“You did?” asked James, turning to Lily.
“I did. I caught up with you before you entered the great hall. We knew the charms would explode on the corridors. I had you standing under the chandelier because I knew the purple goo wouldn't get to you there. And I stood in front, knowing it would get to me. When Sirius and Mar as Remus passed us running, I knew the charms would explode and if everything was according to plan, McGonagall would be behind them and end up cover in purple goo and already soaking wet from the water charm.”
“But why did you also… why did you get dirty on purpose?” asked James.
“Easy. McGonagall was furious. She had already seen two out of the four marauders. When the charm exploded, and it got me and not you, it seemed as a perfectly planned prank from you guys. You were all clean up, while I only had to act as furious as her.”
James remembered the scene. “James Potter, you have to be this immature?!” Lily had yelled at the time, just as McGonagall was arriving to her side. It had definitely worked.
“You are bloody brilliant” beamed James, giving Lily a big wet kiss on the cheek. Lily laughed.
“I have to admit, girls. You did a genius job. I really thought that was Moony.” Said Sirius
“Don't even remind me.” Said Mary, scrunching up her face.
Sirius blushed, he had told Remus about his little mistake, of course; it still felt weird to know he had kissed for the first time his boyfriend and turned out it wasn't even his boyfriend.
“Then all we had to do was to enjoy watching you clean up our mess” said Dorcas ignoring the other two persons.
“I felt kind of bad for McGonagall, but it had to be done.” Added Marlene.
“Marauders” announced Sirius theatrically, “We have been outsmarted. But you know what this means”
Remus rolled his eyes, already knowing what was coming. Still, he couldn't help but smile.
“This means war!” roared James.
“Oi, our prank is not done yet boys” interrupted Mary.
“Is not?” asked Peter. “But you already told us everything.”
Marlene looked at her watch and as if she was waiting, the first students started arriving. The classes had finished. Marlene pointed at them with the index finger.
“I heard it wasn't the marauders” said a small first year boy with brown mousy hair.
“Yeah, they always use fireworks or dung bombs.” Agreed another one.
“You think it was the Prewetts?”
“No” intruded a blonde girl. “I heard they were some girls from years above.”
“The marauders got caught for a prank that wasn't even theirs?” asked the boy in disbelieve. The blonde girl nodded. “Lame”
Sirius and James jump to their feet. They shared a horrified look. The girls and Remus laughed.
“You…” blabbered Sirius pointing his fingers at Lily. But he couldn't even finish the sentence. Then he turned to James. “Are we lame, James?” asked with those sad puppy eyes. Remus couldn't help but embrace his boyfriend.
But James had the same face as Sirius. They all laughed again. The sound filling the common room earning them a confused look from the students arriving.
“That’s what you get, lads.” Mocked Mary.
“Next time, remember not to mess with women.” Finalized Lily.
James put himself together and addressed Sirius.
“You know what this means, don't you?” a shit eating grin had started to form in his face.
“Oh! Oh!” screamed Sirius. “Moony, you know what this means?!”
It seemed that Remus was never thrilled for their pranks, so it was very unsettling for the girls when the tall boy started to smile slowly.
“An even bigger prank.” Announced Remus.
“To get our honour back!” exclaimed James.
“Damn right!” added Sirius.
“These boys.” Marlene rolled her eyes.
“Our boys.” Corrected Lily with an amused smile.