{1} The Marauders and the Whomping Willow ✔️

Chapter 11: James and His Broom

"Honestly that Lily girl is so weird." said Sirius after James explained what he had done to Severus after their detention. "I don't understand why she hangs out with that greaseball anyway."

"Maybe she likes him." suggested Remus looking up from his parchment of planning. "Maybe he's not as bad as he seems."

"Really Remus he's a Slytherin!" James enunciated the last word.

Sirius grimaced at his words, Peter noticing his discomfort said:

"My Aunt was a Slytherin. Not all of them are evil."

"Yeah well Snivelly is." protested James. "If you ask me he's probably the one sneaking around the school. Which is why he knew we were behind the prank. He probably told McGonagall."

"Say Remus is your plan finished yet?" asked Sirius.

"Almost." said Remus scribbling down something else. When James tried to peer over his shoulder the other boy gave him such a sharp glare that James eventually turned away and looked across to the window.

"James how good is your broom?" asked Remus after while.

"It's the Nimbus X."

"That's the second fastest broom so far." whispered Peter awed.

"Okay good." said Remus writing something down. Finally he put down his quill and presented to his friends a parchment with untidy scrawl that barely anyone could read, save for the title Operation Shadow.

"Can't read anything." muttered a frustrated Sirius.

"Well its going to take a while to do." started Remus. "Possibly the whole year. So I've decided the split the plan into a series of steps."

"Why's it going to take so long?" asked Peter.

"Because." said Remus. "We need to be careful. We need to create an image so infallible that we won't get caught and by suspected by the intruder."

"So what's our first step?" asked James.

"You said it yourself. I solemnly swear I'm up to no good. We're going to make everyone think we are the biggest trouble makers to ever step into Hogwarts."

"Aren't we already?" asked Peter.

"Yeah but we need to make it more obvious."

"Won't we be drawing more attention to ourselves?" Asked Sirius.

"No wait I think i got it." Said James. "Alot of the plan involves sneaking around so if the intruder ever catches us they'll assume we are just up to our usual pranks. Besides pranking is fun."

"It just sounds to me you all just want a noble excuse to prank." said Sirius. "I'm in. But how would the intruder know that we're pranking though?"

"That's the catch." said Remus. "They aren't an intruder."

"Wait what do you mean?" asked Peter.

"When McGonagall said you can't apperate in school grounds it got me thinking because this 'intruder' definitely apperated." said Remus. "So I went to up to library and looked up all there was on Hogwarts security."

Remus took in a deep breath before continuing.

"You can't apperate too and from Hogwarts. But there is no reason you can't apperate within Hogwarts."

"That explains it." said James. "But wait that would mean..."

"The intruder is really someone in Hogwarts." finished Remus.