Tales of The Marauders

"No Students Out Of Bed At Night!"

There was once four best friends. Their names were James, Remus, Sirius and Peter. They were troublemakers. And they were wizards. Remus was a werewolf and his three friends were illegal Animagi. James was a stag, Sirius was a giant, black dog and Peter was a rat.

One day, they decided to find a loophole in one of the school rules: "No Students out of Bed at Night". Out of all the boys, Remus was the clever one. Well, Sirius was the smartest, he just acted dumb. Anyway, Sirius and James were the biggest troublemakers ever. And little Peter was the observer per say. He assisted in what ways he could.

Anyway, Remus said to the others that the rule says that nobody is allowed out of bed at night at all. Does that mean that they're not even allowed to get up and go to the toilet? All the dormitories have bathrooms of course, but the rule says they aren't allowed out of bed to go. Go figure.

Then Sirius, the most idiotic of the friends, said that they should levitate their beds down the corridors while sitting on them. They'd still be following the rule as they weren't actually out of bed. They were only out of their dormitory. James agreed almost immediately that they should do it. Remus wasn't like them. He didn't like breaking rules but sometimes you have to. And he almost always got conned into it with chocolate. As Peter was the weakest, it didn't take much to convince him.

And so they set up a plan. It was the night of the Halloween feast, and everybody had gone back to their dormitory to get ready for bed. The Marauders were in there own dormitory preparing. At midnight, Sirius and James woke Remus and Peter up. Everybody sat up in their beds and grinned sheepishly at each other. Sirius raised his wand: "Locomotor Beds!" The four beds rose into the air, and with Sirius directing them, levitated down the staircase and through the portrait of the Fat Lady which concealed the entrance to Gryffindor Tower.

Sirius guided the beds along the corridors of the castle, taking them past the Library, the Charms classroom and the bottom of the Astronomy Tower. James owned a magical map of Hogwarts that showed where everybody in the castle was at that exact time. Using this, he told Sirius where to avoid and where they could go. James had so far managed to avoid Peeves the poltergeist, Professor Sinistra, the Bloody Baron and Mrs Norris. The next time James looked down at the map, he was surprised to see the name Minerva McGonagall about to turn the corner and enter the corridor that he had led Sirius down. It was a single corridor with no secret passage ways or tapestries to hide behind. The Marauders were doomed! James looked over at Sirius and saw he was smiling mischievously. James and Sirius high fived. Remus shook his head and said "We're going to get detention again, aren't we?" Professor McGonagall turned the corner and saw four beds gliding along the corridor towards her. Shaking her head, she advanced towards the troublemakers.

"What are you doing out of bed? You all know perfectly well that students aren't allowed out of bed at night!" McGonagall looked at them each in turn with a furious glare on her stern face. Sirius had been waiting for her to say this.

"But Professor, we aren't out of bed. The rule states 'no students out of bed at night'." Sirius just let his smart ass mouth talk his way out of trouble. But instead he made it worse for himself.

"Be that as it may, just because the rule says 'out of bed', does not mean you can levitate your bed down the corridors in the middle of the night Mr. Black!" McGonagall looks at Remus as if to say 'You're a prefect. Can't you control your friends?'

"Well, look at it this way Minerva," James starts but at the use of her first name he stops. He clear his throat and started again. "Look at it this way Professor. If the rules say 'no students out of bed at night', what are we supposed to do if we have to go to the bathroom? I mean, we're not allowed to leave our beds to go, are we?"

"And what if we have an Astronomy lesson in the middle of the night? Or a detention?" Sirius interrupted with a big smile on his face. "Are we just supposed to levitate our beds to the Astronomy Tower and hope we don't get caught because we are 'out of bed'?" Professor McGonagall is speechless. Now that she thinks about it, the rule does seem a bit ridiculous. Students not being allowed to get out of bed to go to the bathroom. Looks like I'll be visiting Albus in the morning...Sirius, James, Remus and Peter all look at McGonagall as she stands there thinking.

"I'll be visiting the Headmaster in the morning. You do have a fair point about the rule. Let us see if we can't tweak it a little. You four had better get back to your dormitories and so help me god if I hear from another teacher that they saw you boys levitating your beds down a corridor, you will all have detention every day for the next month. Fifty points from Gryffindor for cheek Black and another ten from you Lupin. Yes, you Remus. I thought making you a prefect would give you some control of your friends. It appears I was wrong." The Marauders watched as Minerva McGonagall turned around and back around the corner. James pulled out the Marauders Map and muttered "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." Black ink started to appear across the blank parchment.