scars || sirius black

27 - prank war

On the 6th December, the Prewett twins announced that, for their birthday this year, they were declaring a prank war against the Astrals and Marauders for the next two weeks until the day.

They'd somehow managed to persuade Kingsley Shacklebolt to be the judge as one of the only impartial Gryffindors in the whole school.

By the next morning, the Marauders had kicked it off with a classic hair dye trick on the entirety of Ravenclaw house. After that, everyone was on their guard.

The Astrals spent hours pouring over their unused pranks and the ones they could amp up for the end of the fortnight.

Fabian and Gideon were relentless in aiming for teachers and ghosts, whilst the Astrals fulfilled some of their own personal vendettas.

The Marauders, however, hit anyone and everyone. They attacked randomly and with varying degrees of severity, generally just leaving destruction in their wake. 

The twins' pranks were always meticulously thought out and showier than everyone else's but the Astrals were working their way up, saving their best for last. They had started with some classic configuration spells and slippery floorboards, but as the week went on their began some more intricate ones; for example, they'd enchanted all of the books in the DADA classroom to whirl around the fourth floor corridor and they set loose a herd of hippogriffs (including a really cute baby one that refused to leave Emmy's side, much to her delight).

Their final prank took place the night before the twins' birthday. 

All six Astrals cast simultaneous spells to change the position of the stars in the night sky from the view of anyone standing in the Astronomy Tower. It certainly made for a very interesting lesson!

Their professor was convinced the world was ending, hauling Professor Dippet and McGonagall up to the tower to show them. It was absolutely hilarious, but unfortunately they did get caught (Kingsley deducted far too many points for that).

However, the Marauders had equalled it with a prank that had made every single flagstone in the castle make a range of noises depending on who was standing on it.

The Hufflepuffs had obnoxiously loud giggles following them everywhere, the Ravenclaws had the scratch of chalk on a black board, the Slytherins were accosted with the sound of burps (Really mature, huh? thought Emmy) and the Gryffindors had cymbals clashing with every step.

It was hilarious apart from the number of people with splitting headaches by the end of the day. A furious Madam Pomfrey was ranting in the Great Hall at dinner time but miraculously none of them got caught.

The twins meanwhile had recreated the entire dinner scene from Beauty and the Beast. It was utterly spectacular, and Emmy had the song stuck in her head for the rest of the evening.

She was humming it as she tidied up their room, wanting to get a head start on her packing for the holidays before the chaos of the Prewetts' party and the Yule Ball the following day.

The twins and the rest of the Astrals were down in the common room, pre-emptively celebrating the twins' birthday as they waited for Kingsley to announce the winner at midnight.

James and Lily were absent though, having secretly headed down to the kitchens to collect the cake the house-elves had baked for them. They liked to pretend they weren't together, but with the kiss in front of the entire school at the quidditch match and the amount of time they spent together, it was too obvious. And whilst James kept begging for a date, Lily always refused.

She said she just didn't want the commitment of a relationship right now, rather was like Emmy and Sirius really. Everyone kind of knew how close they were, but only the other Marauders really knew how loved up they were.