The inspiration came from a very long time ago, when Wally was just a small lad, really, and he'd gone to a carnival with his uncle Xavier and his step-cousin Marjorie and her mum. Marjorie was small then, even smaller than Wally, who at the time had only been 8 or 9 or maybe 10, he couldn't quite remember, but it was before Hogwarts, he was certain of that much anyway... Marjorie wasn't much fun being that she was in a pram everywhere they went, but Xavier was always good for a laugh.

The carnie had come to Little Hangleton on a lovely Summer day and they'd all gone and eaten loads of food like candy floss and meat on a stick and other muggle treats of that sort. Xavier had won stuffed animals for Wally and Marjorie both and listened with fascination as Wally told him about the time he and his friends had thrown rocks at the old Riddle house at the edge of town and made wishes breaking window panes and how the crazy old gardener had nearly skinned them alive with his pruning shears. Xavier was that kind of fun uncle, even if he was an auror.

Wally missed him now. He'd been killed by Death Eaters during an attack on the Ministry. But that wasn't relevant to the planning for the prank, so he hadn't told Dex and Oliver all the details about that - so never mind about that - but what was relevant was the brilliant ride that they'd gone on called an OCTOPUS.

"And a squid is sort of like an octopus, in a way," Wally explained.

This, Wally said, was the most funny prank idea he'd ever had and it was perfect because Peeves always was telling them how much James Potter fancied the Giant Squid.

"That Potty Wee Potter,

he's such a rotter," sang Peeves, spinning about,
"Made the squid fly up out of the water!

Impressing a Lily, he royally failed -

as through the air ol' squiddy sailed.

Date me Evans' Potty wailed!

Lily said no to a date with Potty,

but listen to this you've heard it from me -

the Squid would've dated him gladly!"

"I love when Peeves makes up songs," Oliver laughed.

"Especially about the Marauders," agreed Wally, who felt Peeves had been their main source of hilarium since the four Marauders had graduated. Peeves was always spinning and singing about them all day everyday and it was a riot. Even the kids who hadn't been at the school to know who the Marauders were knew who they were because of Peeves. Their names and pranks were living legacies because of that poltergeist and his obnoxious songs.

"I think it's about time James Potter got a reunion with his lover, the squid, don't you lot?" Wally had said, grinning mischievously when he found out James was coming to visit.

So it was that as the Gryffindor team celebrated their win, hoisting their two star players - Oliver Kent and Alice Longbottom - up on their shoulders and parading up to the castle, Dexter and Wally had high-tailed it to finish the preparations that they hadn't been able to do in advance, not knowing precisely where the set-off point would be for their prank. But Dumbledore had announced the celebration luncheon at the Great Hall upon the Gryffindor win and they knew precisely what would do best.

"Okay so when they come in you've GOT to distract Lily before she goes and tries to sit next to James, alright?" Wally said, speed-talking to Dexter as he waved his wand to make the plan work. "Gosh this is gonna be so fun. I can't believe I thought of this. I mean we thought of this, of course, we all have done it, not just me, of course. But blimey this is gonna be good. I'm so excited. So yeah you've got to distract Lily. Make her laugh or something so Sirius doesn't get suspicious. He will be on the look out, you know he will, after the prank war last year, he'll be watching for anything we do that looks funny."

And Sirius really was on edge. He kept glancing at the DWO every time he went to move through the entire match, so Wally was right that he would be even more suspicious when they went up to the castle and as they went in the Great Hall, he kept his eyes on Wally the whole time. Wally, it seemed, was the ring leader of the DWO, much the way he, himself, Sirius, had been the ring leader of the Marauders. Which was why he didn't notice because it was Dexter that distracted Lily and Wally seemed occupied with Oliver, so certainly there couldn't have been anything too horrible at the unplanned celebratory lunch, yeah?

Except the moment the fourth Marauder's bottom hit their seat (the last one to sit had been Sirius himself), a loud snapping sound could be heard as the chairs clamped onto their waists with a belt and tightened.

"What the hell?" Sirius said, and he struggled to get up.

Remus looked around, "Oh no," he murmured.

Suddenly a large banner dropped from the ceiling and there was a picture of the lake on it and in the middle of the lake, hovering over the water, was a the giant squid. The squid looked to be in a right mood, flailing his legs all angry and slapping the water with all eight tentacles.

James laughed, "Hey, look, it's the squid."

Sirius looked at James.

James looked at Sirius.

They both knew at exactly the same moment.

"Oh shiiiiiiii---" James gasped and with four very loud cracks, the seats the Marauders were in completely disappeared from the Great Hall.

Minerva McGonagall was on her feet in a second, her eyes wide, jaw dropped. "WHAT IN THE NAME OF MERLIN ---" 

Suddenly, on the banner, in four of the arms of the giant squid, appeared four chairs and four Marauders in those chairs. 

"---iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!" James was still yelling, his voice magnified over the whole of the Great Hall.

Laughter was already fluttering through the on-lookers as Peter covered his eyes on the screen and Remus had gripped very, very, very hard onto the chair seat, looking a bit green about the cheeks. Sirius was grinning, arms over his head like he was on a roller coaster.

The squid paused in his thrashing to see what he had stuck to the suckers of his tentacles, holding all four up so he could see them from his giant squid eyes.

Wally cleared his throat and stood up, holding his wand like a microphone as he stood before the banner, looking rather like a news reporter on the muggle telly.

"We're live from the grounds of Hogwarts, where the Giant Squid has just caught the notorious four Marauders of Hogwarts!" Wally said. "Squiddy. It's been years since Potter levitated you over the water... Are you over that humiliation?" he paused, as though listening for an answer, then, "No? Revenge is the ticket... Alrighty then!"

And the Squid started to spin...

His tentacles swooped up and down and out and in and the chairs flew along, stuck to the suckers, with the Marauders stuck on them, dipping in and out of the water with great splashes and shouts from the four boys, whose limbs were flailing and clothes were dripping. James and Sirius were laughing a lot harder than Remus and Peter, though Peter looked as though he was starting to think it fun as he was dunked below the water and brought back out. At some point, James's glasses fell off and Lily covered her mouth with her hands as she watched in shock as the Squid finally managed to shake the chairs from his tentacles and all four of them went flying into the water, the belts releasing as they fell, the chairs disappearing ("so they wouldn't get hit in the heads, you see," Wally explained later), and the Marauders disappearing below the surface with great big splashes. 

The squid dove under the moment the spell work had released him.

There was a long, breathless pause as the entire Great Hall watched the screen until the Marauders heads popped up on the surface. First Remus, then James, Peter, and finally Sirius. And, seeing they were all four alright, the entire room burst into laughter and applause.

Sirius shook his fist at the castle, "Those little f----" but the feed cut off and Wally was left standing before a blank banner.

Wally stared at the screen, turned to the room at large, grinned, and announced, "DWO FOREVER!" 

McGonagall was running down the center of the hall, her wand out, "DWO DETENTION IN MY OFFICE," she shouted, as she pushed through the doors of the Great Hall. 

Wally hooted and jumped down off the table, where he'd been standing for his news broadcast, running after her.

Dumbledore and the rest of the staff hurried after her as well as everyone in the hall, who all took this as a cue to follow, rushing and jostling, fighting for the best possible view of the lake from the steps of the entry hall and the grounds going down to the lake. 

James and Peter were on the shore and Sirius was pulling Remus from the water, already emerging, their clothes sopping wet, hair hanging bedraggled and stringy over their foreheads. "Accio glasses," James called, and his glasses sailed from the center of the lake to his outstretched hand. He pressed them on his face as Sirius, having deposited Remus safely on a rock, turned and drew his wand from his pockets as Lily ran passed and threw herself at James, hugging his neck as though she'd been worried he might be hurt.

Dexter, Wally, and Oliver came to a stop where they were, halfway between the edge of the lake and the front line of the crowd of students.

"YOU THREE!" Sirius shouted, "You think you lot are funny, do you!?" his voice rang with anger.

Wally paled. For the first time he questioned if it'd been a good prank after all. If he'd pissed off Sirius Black, then certainly it had ben a horrible idea. Maybe they'd gone to far. What if James didn't want to be Oliver's trainer anymore? Wally stammered, "I - I -"

"I THINK IT'S FUNNY, TOO!" Sirius shouted, and he waved his wand and all three of the seagulls were airborne, flying about in a very similar fashion as the Marauders had done at the end of the tentacles of the Squid, though the DWO flew about without any chairs and no squid holding onto them, only Sirius's magic.

"MR. BLACK!" Professor McGonagall shouted, "PUT THEM DOWN!"

Sirius grinned, "With pleasure, Minnie." And he lowered his wand and all three of the boys flew into the lake the same as the Marauders had done, Wally being the one screaming "oh shit" as James had done, until they landed with splashes.

The whole school set to laughing as Dexter, Wally, and Oliver's heads popped up on the surface a moment later, shocked and shaking water from their hair.