Disclaimer: I Don't own nothing! I'm just a skint student!

The Lost Marauder

Chapter 11- Silence

The boys had been in school for a month now so they were beginning to get to know each other quite well. Sirius and James had happily stepped into the roles of the leaders of the group, Peter was like their loyal follower and Harry and Remus liked to watch things from afar and chip in whenever possible usually with much more rational and sensible but still fun ideas.

"I'm bored!" James complained.

"We haven't pranked anyone for weeks!" Sirius pointed out irritably

"True" Harry nodded

"Pranking sounds fun." James nodded "I wish you guys would have let me in on that hair thing!" he added pouting

"Well out next time it will be much better." Harry shrugged

"Ooh lets prank Snivellus!" Sirius suggested excitedly "Lets do it today!"

"Yeah!" Peter piped up

"Lets prank all the Slytherins!" James smirked "Now!"

"Lets not!" Remus yawned, he had just returned from visiting his sick grandmother a couple of days before and seemed more run down than ever.

"Aww come on Remy!" Sirius pouted "We need you to be the brains of the operation!"

Despite knowing Remus such a short time Sirius knew exactly how to get to him, he obviously desperately wanted to stay friends with the boys and he loved to be complemented. Harry watched as Remus fought between smiling and scowling.

"It wont hurt anyone unless you leave us idiots to do it by ourselves then who knows how wrong it will go!" Harry spoke up

"Oh ok! but you guys do all the actual pranking I'll just help behind the scenes." Remus sighed "I don't want a detention we've only been here a month or so!"

"Its only a detention!" James laughed

"Anyone fancy a bet?" Sirius asked lazily aiming his chocolate frog wrapper at the bin.

"On what?" Harry asked suspiciously

"Who can get the most detentions!" Sirius smirked

"Sirius detention is not a good thing!" Remus scolded him

"I'll join you in that bet" James laughed "It'll be easy!"

"How about this plan then?" Harry interrupted the conversation rolling his eyes "We need something much more exciting than hair dying any muggle can do that!"

"Turn the Slytherins into snakes, the Hufflepuffs into badges, the Ravenclaws into…" Sirius started

"Something that is actually do able Siri!" Harry laughed

"Harry's right" Remus sighed putting down his book. "We don't know a lot of magic yet if were going to do this we need to pull it off well, if we do use a spell or charm we need to make sure we can perform it first."

"So lets all think on it, I don't know about you guys but I'm hungry!" James told the other boys as he stretched his arms and rubbed his belly. "And if I'm correct its about time for dinner!"

"Fooood!" Sirius grinned jumping of his seat "Race you guys down!" he told the others

"Oi! You got a head start!" James complained following Sirius, Peter on their tails.

"Insane, the lot of them." Remus rolled his eyes standing up and Harry laughed

"Well that's my brother for you!" Harry shook his head "Its nice to be around sane people once in awhile!"

"I bet!" Remus smiled as they climbed out of the common room

"So is your grandmother feeling any better?" Harry asked as they walked

"Oh.. Erm… yeah a bit, she's always ill." Remus said quickly

"Well I hope she gets better soon." Harry nodded sympathetically

"Thanks" Remus blushed nervously

"Want to go do the Transfiguration homework in the library later?" Harry asked "I think Sirius and James were planning a fifty rounds chess tournament and Peter will probably be cheering them on…" Harry rolled his eyes "We should just give him pigtails and a cheerleaders outfit." Remus snorted

"Sure, You know you'd probably be a good student without Sirius to corrupt you!" Remus pointed out as they entered the great hall

"Maybe, but being corrupted is quite fun sometimes!" Harry winked "I'll prove it to you eventually!" Harry laughed "Or he will" he added nodding at Sirius who was already halfway through his plate of food.

Harry and Remus took their seats at the table and started filling their own plates.

"I mufhave anf ideauf forf the prankefuf!" SIrius suggled spat his mouth full of mashed potato.

"Swallow then talk Sirius!" Harry scolded his brother "And what idea is it?"

"You'll have to wait and see." Sirius winked "waiff anf seffe" he added his mouthful of food once more.

The next night Sirius finally revealed the idea to the other boys, producing, to everyone's surprise, a book.

"I believe in the future we shall refer to this as the great silence prank." Sirius smirked

"The great silence prank?" Peter asked curiously

"Yes my dear boys the great silence prank." Sirius winked "its quite simple really, We curse a word that is commonly used in the castle and every time someone says that word their lips are glued shut!"

"That is quite a clever idea Sirius." Remus smiled "Infact its brilliant!"

"Harmless and Funny!" Harry beamed "Genius!"

"Perfect!" James laughed

"Great!" Peter agreed

"This book has all we need, Look 'The cursing of a word is a simple art, it can be used for all sorts of reasons from preventing an enemy from cursing you with a certain vocalised curse or to simply annoy an irritating co-worker.'" Sirius read from the book "'The charm to curse a word is quite simple and it will break after twenty four hours unless the counter curse is used. To use this charm first the boundaries of the area should be decided upon, this can be anything form a building or room to a country or village. Once the area has be specifically decided upon then the next thing to do is to decide upon the word. Then finally the result of saying the cursed word.'"

"So our area would be Hogwarts, the result would be gluing the persons mouth shut and the word would be…?" Remus asked taking notes from what Sirius was reading

"I was thinking Professor." Sirius told the others as Remus took the book off Sirius and read through the charm.

"That's going to have maximum impact! How many times a day do we say it?" James beamed "Sirius you are a mastermind!"

"This is actually quite simple, I reckon with a couple of practices I can do this!" Remus nodded

"Wow Sirius I'm impressed!" Harry laughed "You've come up with a sensible idea for once in your life!"

"Ok guys I'm going to work on the charm then I'll teach one of you and we'll give it a go tomorrow." Remus smiled standing up and picking up the book.

"Anyone for gobstones?" Sirius asked rattling his bag of gobstones at the other boys as Remus left the room.

"Ooh yes!" Peter clapped his hands excitedly

"This should be entertaining." James muttered to Harry who hid a laugh.

After Sirius had thrashed Peter three times, James once and Harry once the boys finally decided it was time for bed. The next morning they awoke to Sirius bouncing from bed to bed excitedly.

"Prank time!" he laughed as James swore loudly

"Your brother is a pain in the backside!" James told Harry irritably

"Wait till we get to seventh year, you'll be cursing the day you met him." Harry told James swinging his legs out of bed only to be wrestled back by Sirius

"You regret the day you met me?" Sirius asked Harry could see he was joking by the smile twitching at the corners of his mouth

"You know I don't" Harry laughed pushing him off

"We should find an empty classroom on the way down to breakfast that way if they have a way of tracing magical signatures they wont trace it back to our dorm." Remus suggested tying his tie neatly

"Nice plan, don't want to get caught yet do we?" Sirius replied putting his shoes on the wrong feet, he swore loudly as he noticed what he'd done and bent back down to sort them out.

"All Practiced up Harry?" James asked picking up his school bag

"With Remy's help!" Harry smiled picking up his own bag

"This is exciting!" Peter chipped in as they left the dorm

"Yes but keep that," James gestured at Peter's mouth "shut. We don't want to get caught!"

"Caught?" A curious voice asked from behind them

The boys turned to see Lily Evans standing behind them, her red hair cascading down her shoulders.

"Sneaking down to breakfast early." James replied tactfully "finally decided to talk to some normal people?" he added with a sneer "That slimy git cant be good for your health."

"Oh get a life James." Lily rolled her eyes "Severus is a wonderful person once you get to know him!" Sirius snored loudly at this

"Wonderful and Severus, not sure those two words fit. Slimy, Sneeky, Ugly, Smelly…"

Lily left the room with her nose in the air a noise that sounded a bit like 'pfft' escaping her lips.

"I swear he's got her under a curse." James wrinkled his nose "Shame because she's pretty." he added a pink tinge crossing his cheeks

"Ooh Jamie's got a crushy wushy!" Sirius teased as they headed down the corridor

"I do not!" James replied indignantly "I was simply stating the fact he is too ugly for her."

"Yeah right." Remus rolled his eyes

"How about here." Harry suggested spotting an abandoned classroom.

"Good plan." Sirius nodded as James led them into the classroom.

The settled down on some of the desks while Remus and Harry discussed the charm for a few minutes before Harry finally attempted it.

"After three!" Remus said as Sirius jumped up and down excitedly "1, 2.. 3!"

"Fixatius Cursative Hogwarts Professor Silence!" Harry said waving his wand in the exact way Remus had shown him the night before. A jet of purple sparks flew from the end and spun in a circle before exploding like miniature fireworks.

"Ok who is going to test it?" Sirius asked his eyes falling on Peter.

"Why me?" Peter whined

"Because if any of us suddenly are quiet they will ask questions." James replied simply, your quiet enough normally for no one to notice until everyone else starts to become silent.

"But…" Peter started

"Just say the word Pete." Harry reassured him

"Professor…" Peter said his mouth immediately gluing itself shut and he let out a series of mumbles.

"Awesome!" Sirius grinned

"Breakfast time?" James asked Peter nodded in agreement.

The boys headed down to the great hall excitedly. They all filled their plates, looking round the room expectantly waiting for someone to be affected by the curse. Breakfast passed without mishap one or two students suddenly became speechless but the professors seemed not to notice. They headed off to their first lesson of the day, transfiguration.

"Settle down!" Professor McGonagall told the excited bunch of first years. "Today we will be moving on to slightly bigger objects and attempting to transfigure Teabags into toads, you will find your tea bags in front of you, please settle down and get out your wands."

The students did as they were told, Peter was struggling more than usual since he was unable to speak the words required and a few other students seemed to becoming affected as they discussed between themselves unknown subjects.

"Professor…" Snape drawled holding up his soggy ripped teabag which Sirius had just ripped apart with a flick of his wand and muttered curse, however his sentence was cut short as his lips glued themselves together.

"Yes Mr Snape?" McGonagall asked Snape tried again to speak but found he couldn't move his lips "Mr Snape you can not just say Professor…" McGonagall was cut short too unable to speak she immediately saw why Snape was struggling.

She looked around the room glaring at the students before writing on the board.

'Who did this?'

Everyone shrugged and a few other students gestured at their own mouths pointing out they couldn't speak either. McGonagall sighed and gestured angrily at the door and the students left.

The five boys headed out into the courtyard for a half an hour of fresh air before their next lesson, History of Magic began. Professor Binns, seemed to not notice the students struggling to get his attention as their voices had just disappeared and by the end of the lesson over half the class were unable to talk and most looked extremely frustrated.

By Lunchtime the school was in uproar. Only a handful of students could still talk and even several of the other professors were also unable to open their mouths. James and Sirius had also taken it upon themselves to mutter the word professor to help prevent it looking like the group of first year Gryffindors were involved as the staff would have noticed the prank by now.

"It seems we have some pranksters in our midst's!" Dumbledore smiled as the food appeared. He waved his wand allowing everyone in the hall to talk once more "Hilarious I must say."

"Albus! This is a serious…" Professor McGonagall started

"A Simple joke Minerva, does not hurt anyone." Dumbledore cut her off "Now enjoy your lunches and head off to your classes! Learning is the most important thing after all."

A/n - I am SO sorry for the lack of updates! I've been really busy! I will try and finish the next chapter ASAP! Sorry again guys!!