Messing with Professors
Looking back, Harry might have made a mistake in allowing a Marauder back into his old hunting grounds. Although he kept his promise not to prank Professor Snape, they probably should have secured a promise that he would not make trouble for any other professors, staff, or students. To his credit, the first day's prank was not technically his fault.
After everyone in the Gryffindor dorm had gone to bed that night, Sirius had changed back into human form and spent some time talking to Harry. Of course, Harry would never give up a chance to talk with his godfather, so he readily spent an hour in conversation with the animagus. During that time, Sirius casually mentioned that he thought his dog name was funny, since the Hogwarts motto was in fact "Never tickle a sleeping dragon." This had led Harry down a trail he probably should not have been thinking as he went to sleep.
The next morning, his plan decided, Harry jaunted out of bed and over to Draco's sleeping form. Draco was then awoken by Harry, tickling him mercilessly. The blond-not at all amused-grabbed his wand and hexed Harry away. Harry was busting up laughing.
"What was that for?" Draco shouted, trying to protect himself from a further attack.
"Well, you know, the school motto." Harry explained.
"What?" Draco replied angrily.
"Never tickle a sleeping dragon." Harry giggled, falling onto his bed. Draco threw a pillow at his friend's face.
"Yeah, never." Draco reminded him as he himself tried unsuccessfully to hold in his laughter.
"Since when do I follow the rules?" Harry asked, innocently. Now, Draco had to laugh. Dragon looked very proud of his godson's clever prank.
However, the rest of the pranks circling the school had Sirius' name all over them. First, there was the attempt at an innocent game of "tag" between Dragon and Professor McGonagall. To his credit, she may have been a bit more receptive if she had not been in her animagus form at the time, and he had not growled at her to start the game. In the end, though, he learned his lesson when he tried the same thing on Mrs. Norris and ended up coming back covered in scratches. How was he supposed to know Filch's cat fought dirty?
The next day, the Slytherins all curiously found themselves sporting either gaudy red or brilliant bronze hair as they walked out of their common room into the Great Hall. Professor Snape was stumped, but Professor Flitwick was both flummoxed and slightly amused at the fact he could not for the life of him change the hair back. To the Slytherins' relief, the dye job only lasted one day.
After that, specific targets found themselves at the wrong end of a prank of which they could figure no reason for. Ron woke up with donkey ears one day after he had told Harry to keep his mutt away from Scabbers. He claimed the dog looked on the rat with murderous rage, but he could not tell the Boy-Who-Lived why he thought so. Yet, the donkey ears stayed for only a few days before they turned back to normal.
A few days following the donkey ears incident, Professor McGonagall was peeved and slightly amused at the fact that she found cans of cat food randomly placed throughout her classroom and office. One time, she even found a note apologizing for an affront she seemed not to remember. What student had chased her around the castle this year?
The twins were called in after a particularly nasty prank was played on Argus Filch. Apparently, a yellow canary had begun to follow him around tweeting every time he opened his mouth. The twins looked awed and very tickled that the professors seemed to think them the geniuses behind the pranks.
"We truthfully tell you that we wished we had thought of these pranks…" Fred had started.
"The person who came up with them is a genius…" George had continued.
"Or a group of masterminds. We cannot rule out that this is a group affair." Fred had corrected his twin. The other had shrugged.
"Either way, it wasn't us." They had both promised before arising to leave. Before the door closed, George had turned around.
"Though we are honored to be considered in your quest to find the prankster." George had joked as they both bowed and the door closed.
Harry had more than an inkling of who was doing most of the pranking. After all, Dragon did have a whole eight hours a day that he was unsupervised. Harry had told Dragon that he needed to stop attacking the professors and student body. For several days, the pranks stopped.
While all this was occurring, Draco became incensed by the fact that he could be so easily replaced by Zabini and Finnegan. It had just so happened that at the first Care of Magical Creatures class, Zabini was attacked by Buckbeak the Hippogriff.
"He could only blame himself, really." Hermione stated as they walked down the corridor. Draco was lost in thought.
"Why was this a fixed point? Why did thishave to happen?" Draco asked, more to himself than to his friends.
"Buckbeak has to die? I bet that was one of the things we shouldn't have changed last time." Harry reminisced. Hermione shrugged.
"I don't think he has to die." Hermione told him. Harry looked skeptically at her.
"Hermione, we already have to go through the Shrieking Shack a third time. Do you really want to do it over a fourth?" Harry asked her. Hermione sighed and shook her head. As they walked off, they never noticed the redhead walking behind them, perplexed as to what he had overheard. Ron thought to himself, What in the world were they talking about?
Remus had heard about the pranks randomly occurring throughout the school. To be honest, it caused him to feel some form of sentimentality as he listened to countless tales of golden-haired Slytherins or cat food infested classrooms. If Remus was truthful, he would even remind himself that those had been some of the exact pranks the Marauders had planned to play before they left school.
He began to question everything he knew, however, when on the first day after the first full moon at school, he found a cup of hot tea placed on his bedside table. At first, he thought it might have been Albus or even Minerva who had taken pity on him. Yet, when he tasted it, he realized it was just to his liking. The thing about all of this was, Remus was very particular in the way his tea was made, and the only people in the world who knew how to make it just right were the Marauders. This concerned him because half of them were supposedly dead.
This was when the pranks began. They started harmlessly enough. The next day after the full moon, Remus walked into his first class of the day-third year Slytherins and Gryffindors-to find his old stuffed animal, a stuffed bunny named Reginald. No, it was not a replica. It was the exact same bunny. Remus knew because the bow had a tear in it right where his paw had gotten stuck one full moon and it had ripped. He had given Reginald to Harry when the child was born, but they had not been able to find it in the rubble of Godric's Hollow.
He stared, eyes wide open, at the stuffed animal before him. The class laughed when he asked who put it there. They laughed even harder when Harry's dog, Dragon, barked in response. Remus just shook his head and began the lesson.
The next day, Remus found himself being followed. No, not by a person like Snape or even Albus Dumbledore. No, Remus was being followed by a floating, stuffed, black dog. The weird part of this was only he could see it. It began to scare him. The dog followed him everywhere. Every time he asked someone to help him get rid of it, they all looked at him concernedly. Professor Snape had even suggested he go to Madame Pomphrey and get his head examined.
Remus was not one to get overly worried. He tried his best to stay calm and let things handle themselves. However, he knew that something was really amiss when he found all of the classroom furniture stuffed into his office one morning. He nearly fainted. This just happened to be the last prank the Marauders had ever pulled on Professor McGonagall. Remus knew Sirius must be on the campus grounds. With his suspicions firm in his mind, he went to the one person he knew would do something about this.
"Yes, Lupin?" Professor Snape drawled as he opened the door.
"First of all, I want to apologize! I understand. I just…I understand." Remus whispered. He walked passed the potions professor and took a seat in the chair in front of Professor Snape's desk.
"Come in, Lupin. Have a spot of tea. Of course, you are welcome here. Yes, please sit down. I so do love your company." Professor Snape gushed sarcastically. Remus sighed.
"Severus, this is important. I think Black is on school grounds." Remus told him urgently. Severus rolled his eyes.
"Lupin," Severus huffed, "I am not usually the comforting type. Yet, as you seem so sure that something is amiss here, I will tell you this once. Black could not get onto school grounds without getting caught. The headmaster would surely know the minute anyone untoward were to walk over the barriers of the school."
"That's just it! Nothing nefarious is going on!" Remus objected. He sighed. "The pranks-all the pranks-that have occurred since the start of school were ones that the Marauders had planned, but never accomplished. The cat food in Professor McGonagall's office, the canary following Filch, and even the Slytherin hair dye incident!" Severus rolled his eyes.
"You see those things as connected because you want to see them." Severus drawled, wondering to himself when he had become a bloody psychologist.
"But there are pranks happening to me. My old stuffed bunny Reginald showed up in my classroom…" Remus started. Snape stopped him.
"Stuffed bunny? Reginald?" Severus had to know. Remus rolled his eyes.
"I was five. Tell me, what were your stuffed animals' names at that age?" Remus questioned.
"Not Reginald." Severus rebutted. "Beside the point, continue."
"Then, there was a black dog following me for a day." Remus listed.
"And that is connected to Black how?" Severus wondered, trying to figure out a way to get the werewolf out of his office so he could get some work done.
"Sirius…the constellation? And Black, his name. A black dog. He was very sentimental that way." Remus explained. Severus huffed.
"Anything else?" Severus asked, not knowing where this was going.
"Do you remember the senior prank on McGonagall?" Remus pondered. Severus looked thoughtful for a moment.
"Which one?" He responded.
"Where the classroom furniture all showed up in her office." Remus clarified. Severus nodded. "Well, now I can't move an inch in my own."
"I'm sure this is nothing more than a prank happy first year." Severus assuaged.
"A first year? You think a first year did this?" Remus rebutted. "Who could have known about that rabbit? How could a first year conjure a black dog?"
"Gifted student." Severus replied.
"Have you seen any so far?" Remus wondered, hoping maybe this was just the case.
"I work in potions, Lupin, not silly wand waving. If you find yourself poisoned, come to me and I will look into the matter seriously. Otherwise, GET OUT!" Severus demanded forcefully. Remus bowed his head sheepishly and walked toward the door.
Before he left he added, "Harry could be in danger." Severus slammed the door in his face. He held his head in his hands. How could he handle these two Gryffindors this coming year?