Bab 54: The holidays are starting
"James...is this a good idea?" asked Lupin who was under the invisibility cloak. Next to him was James and Toby.
It was already late at night and they had made their way to the meeting point agreed upon by Sirius and the Joker. Currently Sirius was further ahead waiting for the so famous smuggler.
The invisibility cloak at most could carry about 4 people under it, already five was too many, so they played rock, paper, scissors and ended up coming: Sirius, James, Toby and Lupin. Although Sirius would come anyway, since he had the meeting.
James who always agreed with Sirius and any prank against Rabastan and his friends, had a conflicted look on his face. Before coming here, Sirius explained to them the prank and how to use the 100 dung bombs.
The prank was as follows: enter the Slytherin common room under the invisibility cloak and once there fill the entire common room and the boys' dormitories with dung bombs.
The problem was that dropping 100 rotten smelling bombs would leave the Slytherin hall in an uninhabitable state with a smell that would linger for several days. Also, they would be affecting all Slytherin students from first year to seventh year.
If they are caught they will be very screwed, and the punishment could be months of cleaning the trophy room or armor or worse. On the other hand, they will make enemies of all the Slytherin students, though this James doesn't mind so much. They will have the wrath of hundreds of students not just Rabastan and the first years.
"I don't know...for now let's watch" James replied.
Lupin nodded slightly. He knew Sirius was already deep into this prank and he was very stubborn. The only person who could talk some sense into him was James, but if James agreed to the prank, it was impossible for him and the other two to try and call it off.
Sirius found himself in a dark corridor. He was getting more and more nervous and looked everywhere. He didn't want to be caught by Filch and his damn cat.
'Come on, Joker... show yourself' thought Sirius. Finally after five minutes he heard footsteps.
Sirius looked over nervously, ready to escape in case it was Filch. A figure with a black cloak and a clown mask appeared. He walked calmly towards Sirius who was examining him with his light eyes somewhat nervously.
"Is that the Joker...?" muttered Toby looking at the clown-masked figure.
"I hope he doesn't try anything funny" said Lupin with wand in hand, the Joker figure didn't give him a good feeling. James was also watching him closely, ready to act in case he tried anything.
The conversation between Sirius and the Joker lasted about five minutes. At one point a chuckle could be heard coming from the Joker. James guessed it was due to Sirius' request for 100 dung bombs.
Finally, the Joker went back the way he came, and Sirius headed back to where the marauders were under the invisibility cloak. Lupin had to stick his hand out so Sirius could see them and get under the cloak.
They made it back to the dormitory without a problem, "Everything okay?" asked Peter who was standing and walking in circles around the room, clearly nervous.
"I don't know. Ask Sirius" said James as he put the cloak away in his trunk.
"Quite a success. He accepted the order. The bad news is that he'll deliver it to me after Christmas, in early January. Since it's a lot of stink bombs" replied Sirius with a grin.
"How much will it cost?" asked Lupin.
"One Sickle and forty Knuts a unit. I'll pay for it. I'd rather spend the money my mother gives me on these things" Sirius replied trying to imagine his mother's expression if she finds out what he spends the money she gives him on.
"What if the Joker is from Slytherin? When he's in her hall and a lot of stink bombs start going off she'll know it was you" commented Lupin.
"Mm, it's true he'll know it's me, but he won't be able to say anything, as he'll have to show proof and his identity will be out in the open and I think he'll get a worse punishment than us if they find out he's the Joker" replied Sirius who already had it all figured out.
"Besides, it's impossible for someone as cool as the Joker to be from Slytherin" he added in a totally convinced tone.
...
Christmas was close at hand. One morning in mid-December, Hogwarts awoke covered in nearly three feet of snow. The lake was frozen solid. James and Sirius were punished for using Wingardium Leviosa on many snowballs and starting a snowball war with the Prewett brothers.
In the course of the war several innocents were hit by the snowballs.
Luckily the punishment was no big deal and they only had to spend an hour copying 'I won't do it again' in McGonagall's office who every now and then looked up from the papers she was correcting and looked at them with exasperation.
"I'd say it was a draw" whispered Sirius as he wrote.
"A draw? Of course not! Look at your robe" said Gideon Prewett. Sirius's robes were full of snow, clearly it was very difficult to beat the two batsmen of the Gryffindor quidditch team.
After an hour they left McGonagall's office who gave them a warning: next time they repeat the same thing it will be three hours writing instead of one.
"It's getting closer and closer to the vacations" said Sirius walking down the corridors full of icy drafts.
"Yes. I already want to go home" said James who had missed his parents a lot in these months he didn't see them.
"I don't. I just want to rest and not have homework. I'll have to put up with my mother's sermon" said Sirius with a grimace.
"Good luck with that. Lupin and Toby are staying at the castle, right?" asked James.
"Yes, from Toby I can understand since he lives in an orphanage and it's preferable to spend Christmas in a giant castle, rather than in a small room and lots of kids bothering you... but from Lupin I don't understand."
"That's true..." said James thinking about Lupin. From what little he told about his parents they seemed to have a good relationship, while thinking about Lupin a couple of strange occurrences around Lupin came to his mind.
Since they started Hogwarts there is always one day of the month, where Lupin disappears and the next day he is late for classes or if it's a weekend he doesn't show up for several hours. The excuse he gave so far was that he was grounded or had a cold or something like that.
The others noticed this too, but Lupin was reluctant to give any further explanation so they stopped asking about it.
These days James began frequenting the library and continuing to read the defensive magic book. So the explorations with the marauders were less.
The vacations began. Before saying goodbye to his friends, James invited all the marauders to visit him. As expected, Lupin declined and Sirius who wanted to spend two weeks fooling around with James, also had to decline, as his family did not approve of the Potter Family as blood traitors.
"Narcissa, that bitch. Has been feeding my parents information" explained Sirius in a mournful tone, "Apparently, I've disgraced them enough. If I go to your house it will only get worse. Sorry mate" Sirius said with a long face. James didn't think much of it, it wasn't the first time he'd had a friend with a supremacist family on the subject of lineage.
Narcissa Black was Sirius' cousin, she was currently a fourth year and they had crossed paths a couple of times. She had an icy stare and a haughty, arrogant expression. She was not a girl of many words. She barely spoke to Sirius for family matters.
As for Gwen and Emily they managed to go to her house long ago since she had saved Gwen and if the Shafiqs didn't let them go to the Potters' house, they would be showing themselves very ungrateful.
Toby also refused James, as he did not want to leave Lupin alone, although he was eager to see his friend's house. The only one who was allowed to go was Peter who accepted with much enthusiasm.
"I'll send you owls! See if you can come up with any plans for our next prank!" said James waving goodbye to Lupin and Toby.
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