Four broken boys

Ending the year

The exams came faster than expected. They were each given special quills to make sure they weren't cheating and tables in the Great Hall were replaced with endless rows of desks. They all thought that the summer was an awful time to do exams as the the sun burned through the glass windows. Ties were loosened, tights replaced with socks, cloaks and jumpers stripped off as the heat burned through the castle. Students were reminded to drink water while sweating in stuffy classrooms. The first years (never having experienced this before) complained loudly about having to stay inside to study rather than bask in the boiling sun. Although, they didn't really have a lot to complain about anyway since none of them actually did any studying.

Through all of this Sirius and James were planning a prank while Peter helped. Remus denied wanting to have any input because he needed to study. But he ended up doing most of the planning anyway.

"Guys, our prank needs to be so good we get caught." James said one evening.

Remus looked up from his book. "Why?"

"Because last time our prank left people talking about it for weeks but we never got caught so we can't get the publicity we deserve!" James exclaimed.

"We could just have the students knowing but not the teachers." Peter said.

"Yes, that is a good idea," Remus pointed to Peter. "James, are you listening?"

"Huh?" James looked up from examining his foot.

"Only the students know." They both said, rolling their eyes.

"How?" Sirius asked.

Peter and Remus were struck to silence.

"We could make it obvious that we're the Marauders." James said out of nowhere.

"How?" Sirius repeated.

"By referring to ourselves as Marauders." Remus said.

"How?"

"In class." Peter said.

"How?"

They all gave him a look. "Go figure" They said.

For the next two weeks the Marauders referred to themselves as their said name. Some students would look at them curiously, some would just pass it off as a joke. Lily, however, was infuriated by this. James was delighted by this, constantly calling himself a Marauder. Lily decided that she would interrogate Remus on this. When Remus would just say that was their name then Lily refused to talk to him for the best part of an hour.

Snape was also oddly obsessed with finding out what they were up to. He was sometimes found following them during break times. Lily pretended not to enjoy following them, but secretly she wanted to get them into trouble. Although the Marauders were one step ahead of them. Sirius thought it would be funny to mislead them and have one of them being followed while the others planned. Remus had to admit, it was funny seeing Lily and Snape wander round the castle aimlessly. Still, he felt bad that he was purposely causing his friend to be in a bad mood.

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The day of their prank had come. They were all in their positions, corners of the room and in James' case, under the staff table. It was the end of year feast and all the students had gathered in the Great Hall. Peter was a bit put out because he was missing the feast, but he ceased to complain when James threatened to not have him involved in the prank.

It happened when Dumbledore had finished his speech (Remus insisted they had to respect the headmaster). The hovering candles suddenly started moving slowly behind Dumbledore. Some students noticed this and started pointing and whispering as all the candles in the hall gathered together. Once or twice one of them would lose concentration and a candle would drop on an unsuspecting student. Luckily, they never caught fire, although afterwards Sirius said that it would have been better if there was a fire. Teachers left the candles, curious as to what was about to happen.