Author's Note: Before beginning, I just wanted to point out one thing. I realize that this prank is supposed to take place in the Marauders' sixth year... however as I went on writing where I wanted to take this story didn't work in the sixth year. So I took a little creative liberty and had this take place in their fifth year at Hogwarts. I hope you enjoy it! Please review if you would like to see this story continue!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Harry Potter.

Chapter One: The Prank

The Marauders were inseparable. Ever since their first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry you never saw one Marauder on his own. They went to classes together, ate their meals together, did their homework together, and pulled their pranks together. This had been the norm for the past five years.

So when James Potter stormed into the common room alone late one night, fury raging in his eyes, and stormed up to his dormitory and slamming the door, it got the other Gryffindor students' attention. A strange hush fell over the common room and everybody turned expectantly when the portrait swung open again. It was little Peter Pettigrew, looking much more skittish than usual. His eyes darted around as he hurried across the common room and up to the fifth year boys' dormitory. However a moment later he scurried back down into the common room and dodged to an empty table near the stairs.

Finally Lily Evans, curiosity getting the better of her, carefully picked her way over to where Peter sat.

"Hello Peter," Lily said pleasantly.

"Uh, h-hi Lily," Peter said quietly, his eyes darting to the stairs to the dormitory and shifting uncomfortably.

"It's everything alright?" she asked carefully. "Potter just flew through, he looked pretty upset."

"Um… uh… yeah," Peter stammered. "I think… yeah… e-everything is… will be…. Fine."

Lily looked at Peter skeptically. "You sure, Peter?" she asked.

Peter nodded vigorously, biting his lip as if afraid to say anything else. He was practically trembling. Lily saw that she was not going to get any answers from Peter. She glanced at the stairs to the boys' dormitory. She was a prefect and allowed to go up in times of need.

"Is Black up there?" she asked Peter.

"N-n-no," Peter said.

Lily nodded. "I think I'll check on Potter, he looked pretty upset," she said, standing up.

"He locked the door," Peter told her.

Lily shot Peter a quizzical look. "I didn't think the dormitory doors locked," she said and Peter just shrugged. Lily rolled her eyes. Potter must have used a spell. "I'll take care of it Peter."

She turned and slowly ascended the stairs. She could hear banging coming from the fifth year boys' dormitory. For the first time Lily felt a twinge of nervousness. Something really was wrong.

Lily knocked hard on the door so as to be heard over the noise.

"Go away Peter!" she heard James practically shout.

"It's not Peter, it's Lily," Lily called. It suddenly got very quiet behind the door. Lily paused a moment, but the door didn't open. "Can I come in?"

She heard footsteps, a pause, and then the door opened an inch. James peered out from behind his glasses, a storm raging in his hazel eyes.

"Sorry Evans," James said in a low voice. "Not really in the mood for company right now."

Lily leaned to one side, getting a glimpse of the dormitory beyond. She had never seen the Marauders' dormitory before, but she imagined, knowing Black and Potter anyway, that it wasn't kept very clean. However the scene she glimpsed looked beyond normal teenaged boy messiness.

Lily then focused on James, noticing that he had a very worn look to him. His white shirt was streaked with dirt, his glasses sat slightly skewed on his face as if they had been bent, and if she wasn't mistaken there was a bruise forming along his cheek and jawbone on the right side of his face.

"Is everything alright?" she asked.

"Never better," James said flatly.

"Like that's convincing," Lily muttered sarcastically. She reached out an arm and pushed on the door. James sighed and allowed her to push it open as he stepped back into the room. Lily took in the full wreckage: curtains and tapestries around the bed and in front of the windows were torn down, a trunk had been kicked over, there were even shards of glass from a mirror littered the floor. Lily's eyes got wide. James was on a rampage like she had never seen before. "So you don't want to talk about it," Lily said slowly. "Alright. Just tell me this: is everyone okay? I noticed Black and Remus' absence. How serious is whatever it is that's so wrong?"

"How serious?" James repeated, a hint of dark humor in his voice. "Evans, you have no idea…"

"Well that's obvious," Lily said, sounding annoyed now. "I just want to make sure no one is seriously injured or anything. I could care less if you are having some sort of childish spat with one of your friends, but as a prefect I have to make sure it's nothing that a professor needs to get involved with."

James barked a harsh laugh. "Come off it Evans," he spat. "You are not up here on prefect business. You are curious, just like the rest of the common room."

Lily glared at James and he cheeks reddened. He wasn't completely wrong.

"Fine," she spat, spinning on her heels and starting back toward the door.

"And don't worry your pretty little head about whether or not to get professors involved," James called after her. "They are already involved."

Lily didn't spare him a backwards glance as she marched out of the room and shut the door behind her. But inside her curiosity grew. What happened tonight?

Hours earlier Sirus Black sat with Peter in the library. It was an odd place for him to be seen, but with Remus Lupin off getting ready for his monthly transformation and James off finishing up a detention, he had allowed Peter to talk him into helping him out with some homework. Sirius leaned back in his chair, balancing it on two legs, utterly bored as Peter struggled with a particularly nasty Potions essay.

"I don't reckon Slughorn likes me very much," Peter chatted as he flipped through a book in front of him. "He obviously plays favorites."

Sirius laughed. "Couldn't be that you are just no good at Potions, could it Wormtail?"

Peter narrowed his eyes. "Aren't you supposed to be helping me anyway? Moony said you would since there's nothing else to do until after dark."

Sirius rolled his eyes. He certainly didn't want to be doing schoolwork on a Saturday evening, especially with the full moon upon them. He was antsy for night to fall so that the real fun could begin. He checked his timepiece. Only another hour or so before night fell.

It was then Sirius noticed someone sulking just on the other side of the bookshelf behind Peter. He caught the familiar sight of greasy black hair and suddenly let a mischievous smile overtake his face. If Severus Snape was so curious, always hovering around, trying to overhear the Marauders' private conversations, then, Sirius decided suddenly, he would give him something worth listening to.

"Well, we can discuss it with Remus later on then," Sirius said, letting his chair fall back to stand on all fours and leaning closer to Peter.

Peter shot him a confused look. "What do you mean?"

Sirius lowered his voice only marginally as he caught a glimpse of Snape leaning in closer. "Well, you know tonight we are going to see Remus," Sirius said while Peter looked even more confused. "You know, we will take the secret passage under the Whomping Willow. Just got to prod the knot at the bottom of the tree and it'll freeze up and we can run through to the passage. Then you can talk to Remus about your problem." Sirius had a hard time keeping the grin out of his voice. Peter was looking at Sirius like he had lost his mind.

Peter glanced around to see if anyone had heard Sirius' rambling and Snape darted out from between the bookshelves and hurried off. Peter jumped.

"Snivellus!" Peter hissed. "Do you suppose he heard you?"

Sirius simply laughed. Just then James entered the library, spotting them at once and heading over.

"What are you doing in a library," James teased Sirius. "After all these years I was convinced that you couldn't pass through the door without bursting into flames."

"Seems Peter decided to be an intellectual tonight," Sirius laughed. "You have to stop getting detentions without me, Prongs. I'm dead bored when you're gone."

"Very co-dependant of you Padfoot," James snickered. "Come on, we need to get ready for tonight."

Sirius jumped up, his eyes excited. "I bet this will be a night to remember," he said as they started off.