The Marauders and the Year it All Began

Chapter Eleven: April Fools

The planning had been completed, but the hard part had not even started. It was finally April First and it seemed that Professor McGonagall was bracing for the worst as she cast several worried glances towards the boys throughout the hour.

Very fortunately, for the Marauders at least, the first of April was a Saturday this year. As such, they could get the entire prank set up away from the watchful eyes of the professors and prefects. They had even managed to not pass any teachers in the hour beforehand, this being for the best because Peter had a terrible poker face when it came to their professors.

"Okay guys, are we ready?" James saw fit to 'rally the team' before they began their biggest prank ever attempted.

"I was born ready," Sirius said with a laugh, "Let's just get on with it."

"Remus, Peter?"

"I'm ready, James. Not like I can chicken out now."

"Wouldn't be the first time," Sirius muttered under his breath.

"Do you really want to start with this now?" Remus shouted incredulously.

"Knock it off you two!" James scolded. "We need to be one hundred percent focused so put off your little quarrel for a few hours okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," Sirius said.

"Didn't even wanna talk about it in the first place, so yeah." Remus agreed still holding his sarcastic tone.

"Great then I think we're all ready." James spread out a piece of parchment with the finalised plan. "Ok Remus and Peter you're going here," James pointed to the x on the paper. "Me and Sirius"

"Sirius and I," Remus corrected.

"Are gonna be here," James stuck his tongue out at Remus symbolising the fact he was ignoring the correction.

"And remember what Stebbins said about the word change," Sirius added. "If we screw this up then we'll most likely be caught and we won't have even made an impact beforehand." The Marauders all nodded their heads, agreeing on the details, and moving to start the plan. Unlike last time, they were not caught by Mr. Filch and the incantation worked.

For possibly the first time in Hogwarts history, pure chaos ensues. The incantation in question would cause a person to only be able to speak gobbledegook, the language of the goblins. This wasn't nearly enough, however, and together the four boys had hexed the entire school, including themselves.

It was not that the boys wanted a taste of their own medicine, but it seemed like the best option for two reasons. Firstly, it would take a little bit of suspicion off of them; after all, who would hex themselves? Secondly, the boys could not seem to make the spell work for the whole school while still excluding themselves. Regardless of their abilities, or lack thereof, it had been decided that they must also be subject to the spell.

Immediately after the spell took effect, the Marauders ran towards the Whomping Willow. This was the place they had decided upon earlier and was just about as far as they could get from where the incantation was said. Once they had all arrived, standing a safe distance away from the tree to avoid its wrath, they celebrated. While their exclamations might have been in a different language, they understood each other pretty clearly.

Letting out heaving breaths, still a little tired from all the sprinting. The boys began walking towards the courtyard where an abundance of students was loudly arguing. Entering into the crowd they tried their best to look inconspicuous.

In mere seconds, a very flustered Minerva McGonagall emerged from the castle with a concerned Professor Flitwick. The latter went around to see a few students, being a part goblin himself he could understand what the kids were saying, but with all the frantic yelling he could not figure out what happened.