Last big prank I

A week had passed since James joined the Dragon Club. When he told the marauders the news he realized that it was a famous club at Hogwarts. Sirius, Lupin, and Peter knew all three clubs. The only one who didn't know about them as well as James was Toby.

Joining the club was a wise decision on James' part. He could go whenever he wanted, and if he didn't go nothing happened. A nice bonus was the library which had books he didn't find in the secret room or the Hogwarts library.

However, the best of all was the dueling area. Besides practicing with Gwen, he was able to practice with Erika, who was very friendly, albeit with a quirky personality.

Unfortunately, he did not have real duels with Erika, but she helped him to improve several charms such as Aeromanteo. Erika's casting speed was very fast. James could deflect 3 out of every 10 Vermillious she threw at him.

"Good job, you managed to deflect four out of ten Vermillious today," Erika praised James, who was sitting on the floor sweating. They had been practicing for almost two hours non-stop. He couldn't believe how Erika couldn't get tired. Even the last few Aeromanteo, he was having trouble throwing them correctly.

"We should add more rest time..." complained James. Even William wouldn't make him train that long without stopping.

"Stop complaining, don't even use full speed. I could even use non-verbal magic and it would be much harder," said Erika, and James grimaced.

"Another thing. When you learn Protego in the future, will you still use Aeromanteo?" asked the girl, looking strangely at James.

Erika knew Aeromanteo was very difficult because of the reflexes part. Although useful especially when you don't know how to cast Protego a charm from higher years at Hogwarts, but once you know how to cast this charm, Aeromanteo will become useless, as Protego is much more effective.

Just by casting Protego an invisible shield covers a larger area than the Aeromanteo which must be cast at the right time and in the right direction.

'She's kind of right, but I already cast Protego...' thought James as he thought about how to answer her.

At first, he learned Aeromanteo, as the fatigue it gave him was less as opposed to Protego, but as he gets older and continues to practice Protego this problem could be solved, making Aeromanteo less useful.

James, however, is not so much in agreement with this. Aeromanteo's main advantage is how easy it is to cast and how little magic fatigue it causes.

If James had been casting Vermillious for two hours on Erika and she could only use Protego, she would most likely not have achieved such a feat, as it causes great fatigue.

On the other hand, James managed to cast Aeromanteo, although he faltered in the last minutes, he managed to cast it even though he failed. Therefore, in a long battle, he will be able to continue defending himself if he has great control of Aeromanteo. He could use Protego first and Aeromanteo later.

James explained this point to Erika, "Mm, you have a point, but what duel could last an hour or two?" asked Erika doubtfully.

"I don't know..." said James, scratching his head. He hadn't thought of it for an official duel. He thought of it as a war and prolonged battles where you face several enemies without rest.

"Well, never mind. Tomorrow we'll continue practicing. I'm hungry," said Erika, grabbing her belly that was making a strange noise, "See you," she added as she quickly left towards the big dining room.

James didn't care much about Erika's strange personality. He got used to it in the last few days.

He could tell that Erika was a fan of the Marauders, although he didn't know they were called that. This he knew, because she wears a necklace in the shape of a miniature dungbomb.

James curiously asked her why she had such an ugly necklace, and she told him that she thought the dungbomb prank in the Slytherin common room was hilarious. So she bought this necklace, and according to her the rules were made to be broken.

'Could it be that she created the fan club...' thought James with a strange expression. He remembered that Sirius had said there was a fan club.

James also started to head to the castle. It was late, and they would most likely all be at dinner. As he arrived in the main hall he noticed only one person, Narcissa Black, was concentrating on writing on a parchment.

Of all the people in the Dragon Club, Narcissa was the only one who looked at James with disapproval. Most likely because her cousin Sirius is his best friend and is against his family's supremacist ideals.

James walked to the door and did not say goodbye. He knew it would be useless, as he would get no response. As he reached the Great Hall, he could see that the marauders were eating at the head of the Gryffindor table.

"Hey, what pranks are you guys planning?" asked James as he sat down across from Sirius and next to Toby. When he sat down, the marauders' chatter stopped, and they were silent.

"We can't plan any pranks if you're in that club all day..." said Sirius, hiding his anger.

Since James joined the club, he started spending less time with the marauders. He was practically going every day to the club except the days he had quidditch training.

Then at night, he would continue his practice in the secret room and was usually alone, as the others started to get bored with practicing so strictly every day, the nightly explorations of the castle decreased as well.

Compared to the first months of the first year, where James was literally with them all the time, now he spent very little time with them. For this reason, he also began to put off talking to Lupin.

Add to all this the time that had to be spent studying and doing homework, so there was almost no marauder activity, no exploring, and no pranks.

"Well, today we can explore the castle or plan a prank or two," suggested James as a plate appeared in front of him.

"Aren't you going to the secret room?" asked Lupin with a raised eyebrow.

Lupin also wanted to go back to night explorations or minimally exploring in the afternoon after school, but with James practicing at night or going to quidditch practice or his new club it was impossible.

"I won't go. I can give up some free time," James replied. It wasn't bad to give himself a break every so often.

"Good..." said Sirius with a slight smile. The others were also happy that their pranks would finally return.

"What shall we do?" asked Peter. They could either explore the castle or plan their next big prank.

"Both. First, we'll plan the prank. Then when it's curfew we'll continue exploring," replied Sirius in a low tone so no one else would hear them.

The marauders ate quickly and went to their dorms. Since they would be talking about their next big prank it was best to be cautious and not have anyone overhear them.

"Okay, brainstorm. This will be our last big prank of the year. It has to live up to the other two," Sirius said as he held up a journal.

Since the first prank, Sirius started to write a diary of the marauders. In this diary, he explained all the pranks they played and the process. According to him, it will be an invaluable object in the future and a bible for future pranksters who follow in their footsteps.

"Who will the prank be aimed at?" asked Lupin.

"Slytherin of course," replied Sirius instantly.

"Rabastan and his gang don't bother us anymore. Since the duel against James, they've kept quiet. Will we continue to target their group?" asked Lupin.

"Mm..." Sirius was thinking. It was true what his friend was saying. Ever since the duel Rabastan didn't even face them or try to bother them anymore. His pride had been trampled, and he had become a quieter and more shy person.

'Pranking him won't be as much fun as it used to be...' thought Sirius a different target came to his mind.

"What about Severus Snape? In Potions class, he's very arrogant and thinks he's superior to everyone," Sirius said. He had seen the greasy-haired boy's behavior and didn't like it.

Despite the rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin, Sirius didn't want to target people he didn't even know and hadn't teased him before. This was as long as the prank was on a smaller scale, as the dungbomb prank involved the entire Slytherin common house.

Lupin, Peter, and Toby nodded, agreeing with what Sirius said. In the Potions classes, they shared with Slytherin, Slughorn several times chose the groups, putting students from both houses in one group.

The professor was doing this to improve the relationship of both houses so they could work well as a team, but it wasn't working very well.

Peter was the unfortunate one who had to share a class with Snape. When the class was over, he complained the whole time to the marauders saying that Snape kept telling him hurtful and derogatory remarks, as he wasn't very good at Potions.

With this Peter was aiming for James and Sirius to decide to play a joke on him and calm his frustration, but since James was mostly busy they couldn't do it.

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