April 1st - Great Hall
Every student was practically trembling in fear as they walked through the corridors that morning all the way to the Great Hall. Older students could be seen walking with a stick in front of them, in order to check for any traps or jokes, while younger students had taken to running as fast as possible in order to avoid them.
In short, the fact that it was the marauder's final year in school, and that they were teaming up with Nephera for April fool's day had become widely known around the school, and precautions had to be taken by students and teachers alike.
One house, however, was much more relaxed than previous years, and that was Slytherin. The feud between Gryffindor and Slytherin was notorious, and so the green and silver house was often the center of the worse types of pranks from the four rowdy boys. This year, though, now that Nephera and the marauders were temaing up, the Slytherins could rest easy, knowing that they would get pranked, but no worse than other houses.
Breakfast was tense, everyone refusing to eat until someone else tried the food first, in fear that there was some sort of potion hidden in the mix. First years, in this case, acted like sheilds of some sort, for they had yet to get used to the marauder's tricks, and so didn't know how to be cautious.
Peter grinned from behind his glass of pumpkin juice, "This is incredible, look at everyone,"
"Especially Snivvelus, and his silky hair, and his perfect bone structure-" joked James, but was interrupted by a swat in the back of the head, courtesy of Peter
Remus too snorted out a laugh, "Merlin they're all terrified,"
"Can you blame them?" asked Nephera, "Previous years have been traumatizing,"
"So why exactly are we not doing anything today?" asked Sirius, James agreeing with him
Nephera shook her head while grabbing some more pomegranate seeds , "Because," she explained for what seemed like the thousandth time, "That was everyone's stressed all day long about what you'll be doing, the best pranks are psychological,"
"And then, by the end of the day when everyone's relaxed," continued Remus, "We hit, and we hit hard,"
Nephera, as usual, was right, for the entire day, people were jumping at every single noise or flash of light they saw.
Their first class of the day, Transfiguration, was by far the most interesting, for McGonagall never believed for a second that the five rowdy students hadn't planned anything, especially when they showed up late to class that day.
"Boys, and girl," asked the Professor, "Care to explain why you're so late?"
The five of them moved to sit at their designated seats, "No reason, Minnie, no reason at all," shrugged Peter
"So you five are not planning anything?" she asked again, raising an eyebrow
They all grinned at her but offered no further explanation, simply unsettling the Professor and the rest of the students more. What the rest of the people didn't know, though, was that it was all part of Nephera's plan.
Every now and then, a controlled explosion set up earlier by Peter would sound across the stone walls of the school, everyone jumping in response. The mousy boy had a slight obsession with fire, which certainly came in useful that day.
With every explosion happening, the students and teachers of Hogwarts tensed even further. Nephera shared Potions with the Ravenclaw's next, and Slughorn was staring at the star student of his house with significant apprehension, "Ms. Winchester," he asked, "Anything I should worry about?"
The girl hummed, smirking as she dropped the dragon scales into her cauldron, "I don't know anything, sir, truly," she smiled innocently
The man sighed, shaking his head, "At least tell me if you stole anything from my potions cabinet," he said
"That I can promise," she reassured
It wasn't a lie, after all, everything they needed for the prank that evening had been supplied via owl by Ailani, who had bought the ingredients in Knockturn Alley.
As the day progressed, the students and teachers at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry had started to relax and let their guard down. It appeared as though they had caught on with the fact that this year's prank, was simply no prank at all.
Alice, Peter, and Nephera were sitting for lunch in the Great Hall, while the other marauders were down by the kitchens, trying to convince the house-elves to drop the potion into the food and drinks served at dinner.
"So what's the prank this year?" asked Alice, "And don't say nothing, there's no way you'll simply let the day pass,"
Peter opened his mouth to say something, but Nephera swiftly kicked him under the table, knowing of the boy's inability to keep a secret, "Nothing, truly," she said as convincingly as she could, "It was my plan, to have everyone stress about it all day long. You lot figured it out faster than I thought,"
"Which is exactly my problem," repeated Alice, "If that truly was your plan, we wouldn't have figured it out. So tell me, do I need to watch out?"
"No," spoke up Peter, "Truly, nothing to worry about,"
The pixie-haired witch hummed in disapproval, her eyes narrowing into slits, "And where's the other three of the band then?"
"Sirius is slightly pissed at me for what I need to do during Easter," replied the Slytherin without missing a beat, "He's uh, not exactly talking to me,"
That wasn't exactly a full lie on Nephera's part. None of the boys liked the fact that she had to go into a foreign realm full of hostile fae, but Sirius especially had been frowning about it ever since she told them what the mission was.
He didn't say anything of the sort to her, but she could tell that it bothered him. Neither of them were good at talking about their feelings, the way they had been raised significantly hindered that, but she knew that this was a conversation they needed to have.
She could understand his vantage point perfectly, after all, she worried about all them the same way they worried about her. But she needed to do this, to make up for all the damage her father had caused before she put him in jail, to avenge Ellie and Tony, and quite frankly, to prove she was better than Riddle.
It was slightly selfish, to be fighting this war simply because she wanted to be the one with power by the end of it, but at the same time, it was simply the way it was. The world hadn't been kind to her, not in the slightest, so she'd fight to keep the people she loved safe, but if at the same time she could gain something from it, then why shouldn't she?
By the time dinner had come, all thoughts of a prank from the marauders had been wiped from the student body's minds, which, of course, was exactly what the marauders wanted.
"Merlin this is going to be fun," said James, practically shaking in his seat as he watched all students file into the room
Nephera grinned, "Shut up, Prongs, don't give it up,"
"Minnie's going to kill us," said Remus, shaking his head, although the smile on his face said that he was just as excited as the rest of them
"Technically, we're leaving for Easter holidays in a week, so what's the worse she can do?" asked Peter
At the mention of Easter break, Sirius tensed next to Nephera, pulling his hand away from where it was situated on her lower back. The girl frowned at that, looking at him although he didn't return her gaze.
Now, she was starting to get annoyed. Deciding that it wasn't exactly worth it, ruining her night over Sirius's mood swings and inability to communicate, she turned her attention back to the rest of them, "Focus, it's happening," she said, taking her wand out of her pocket
A few seconds later, after everyone had already dug into their food and drinks, chaos ensued. For one, the entire Great Hall flooded and filled with water to the brim, while the potions they had added to the food turned everyone into different types of aquatic animals.
Soon, every Professor, and student in the Great Hall was swimming around panicked, trying to understand what and how that happened.
The cherry on top of the cake was that, even though most students had been transformed into large and beautiful fish, Snape, Crouch, and Nott had been turned into different variations of goldfish.
Sirius and James, who were both sharks, had taken to chasing them around the room while also trying to avoid all the Professors, who had been turned into eels. Well, most of the Professors had been turned into eels, with the exception of Dumbledore, who was currently floating around as a rather small and ugly pufferfish.
Needless to say, three hours later when the potions wore off and the water drained out of the Great Hall, the five teens were in deep trouble. Most students found it hilarious after the initial shock wore off, enjoying the feeling of swimming around and messing with their friends in the form of fish.
The Professors, however, were not so keen on the idea, "This is where we run, right?" asked Peter
"I believe so, wormtail, I believe so," replied Remus, clapping his hands together and turning on his heel
The five of them ran in and out of classrooms, through hallways and in front of portraits, trying to get to the Room of Requirement so they could hide from the raging teachers.
There really was no reason to running, for everyone knew it was them who had done it, and it's not like the Professors wouldn't find them the next morning to reprimand them and hand them their detentions, but it was still fun.
Breathless, they ran up to the seventh floor, all of them wishing for a room to let them stay in for the night, that the teachers wouldn't be able to enter or find. Their wishes were heard, for a small door appeared on the empty wall of the corridor, and the five of them ran inside.
Apparently, they ran inside a little too enthusiastically, for they all ended up a giant pile of the floor, but luckily, they were safe from any teachers for the moment.
"Shit, that was brilliant," said James, the others agreeing with him, "Even though it was probably the last prank we ever pull,"
Nephera laughed, pulling herself up from the ground before extending an arm for Peter, "Minnie's going to put you all in detention for the rest of your lives," she laughed, "Slughorn, on the other hand..."
"So what, you're just going to let us rot in detention while you're out there living life because Slughorn's a softie?" asked Remus, pointing an accusing finger at the girl
The Slytherin laughed flopping on one of the hammocks that had appeared in the room, "I don't know, I might be able to strike a deal for my boys, who knows?"
Throughout all this, Sirius had remained awfully quiet once again, the idea that Nephera would be leaving in a week had put a rather large damper on the entire evening.
He watched from afar as his witch joked with Remus and Peter about random topics, his heart clenching slightly at the thought that something might happen to her.
"Pads, mate, you alright?" came the voice of James, who moved to sit next to him on the couch that had materialized at his request
Sirius nodded and shrugged, trying to put on an indifferent attitude, but James knew him better than that, "Talk," he ordered
"It's about Nephera, and easter," replied the raven-haired boy
His brother sighed, throwing his head back and fishing up a carton of cigarettes from his pocket, "Yeah, I'm not a fan of the entire thing either," he admitted,
"I just- I can't lose her, Prongs. After the Ministry Ball, I had a bad feeling, I wanted to tell her to come back to the manor, not to go off alone, and I didn't-"
James knew where this was going, and he promptly interrupted the other boy's self-deprecating rant, "She's stubborn as hell, you know that. Even if you had said something, she would've ended up doing her own thing,"
Sirius scoffed, letting out a dark laugh, "Yeah, I know," he sighed, "But it doesn't make it any easier. I just don't understand why it has to always be her that's in the middle of it all. Hasn't she done enough for the Order?"
"You know she'd never reject a mission from Dumbledore," insisted James, "Not if she thought it made her look weak, and don't pretend as though you wouldn't do the same. Besides, it's Nephera, all right? She's like, the smartest person we know, smarter than Moony, even. If she's accepted a mission, you can be damn sure it's because she's thought everything through,"
James's words did slightly appease Sirius, but not enough. Those brief hours where they thought Nephera was dead back in October were hell for all of them, but for him, it felt as though he'd never feel anything ever again. It felt as though the entire world had collapsed in on itself but at the same time was moving past him way too fast.
He never wanted to feel like that again, that anxiety, that fear, "I'm just sick and tired of this war," he admitted, inhaling the smoke
"So am I," replied the other boy, "But it is what it is, right? And at this point, there's nothing to do but fight,"
Looking at his brother, James knew that there wasn't much he could say to make him feel better. The curly-haired boy understood perfectly, after all, he loved Nephera like a sister, he wasn't a fan of her entering a different realm all on her lonesome.
He knew he'd be worse than Sirius if it was Lily in Nephera's place, but at the same time, the Slytherin wasn't just any person. If she could talk her way out of the Dark Lord killing her, then a conversation with a couple of High Fae would pose no problem whatsoever.
A/N
2.4k words
i can't wait for the easter chapters hehhehe
make sure to check out my Tom Riddle ff, Gods & Monsters, that's on my profile :)
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