At 2:30 sharp I was in the library. None of them had arrived yet. I sat down in a corner to wait. A short while later, a great deal of noise could be heard from the corridors. 

Oh, there they are. The four of them stumbled inside. Padfoot was laughing so hard that Moony had to grab his arm and pull him up to his feet every now and then. Wonder what they've done now. 

Moony seemed quite irritated by fulfilling the duty of preventing his friends from making total fools of themselves. But then, of course there's no point in blaming him. Prongs looked in much higher spirits than usual and his face was set into a permanent irremovable grin. Wormtail as usual was holding a pack of chocolate frogs (and devouring them, of course. Does that even need to be mentioned?) 

After hearing a whole sermon from Madam Pince (during which poor Moony mumbled a lot of apologies) they finally came towards where I was seated. "Sorry we're late," Moony mumbled. 

"Hey Moony you don't have to apologize for everything, y'know," I told him. 

"Besides it was totally worth it," Prongs added. 

Padfoot couldn't simply stop laughing so I flicked my wand and mumbled one spell that I knew would help him, "Silencio." 

Soon enough, his loud laughter extinguished and he was staring at me with wide eyes obviously trying to say something but no sound came out. 

"So why did you guys call me?" I asked politely (internally laughing at Padfoot's absolutely ridiculous expressions). 

Moony suppressed a smile, "oh well, we needed to show you something." 

Prongs was also silent for a short while after which he spoke, "how did you manage to do that? I never got that spell right (not even in my OWLs) and my Specimen always blew up to a balloonish size and would end up making deafening noises." 

I shrugged, "I have a particular interest in Charms. Me and my brothers once used it on our Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor during detention."

"Poor Gilderoy," Wormtail mumbled. 

More like poor us. We have been to Lockhart for detention more than once (for simply stating the truth about him. Pitiful, I know). And it's definitely not our fault that he is so mightily annoying and we always felt like depriving him of the ability to speak. I just didn't find it necessary enough to mention it earlier even though, so yeah we silenced him because we were fed up of his chatter (who isn't?) Literally. And that cost us nearly all of the House points but well... 

Back to the current situation. Moony had performed the counter spell on Padfoot who presumably was indeed furious at me for stealing his preciously loud voice even though it was just temporary. 

"Kat, I swear I'll get you back for this," he spoke still glaring at me as if extremely pissed off at what I had done. 

Oooh a threat. 

"But you can't stay that angry at me, Padfoot," I remarked. 

"And why do you think that?" His glare had now turned into a smirk. 

Oh good, want to play the sarcastic game, fine by me. "Because A) you'll have to tolerate me for goodness knows how long, B) you can't do anything about it, and C) I'm too good to be ignored or threatened or basically being angry at." 

He nodded, "fair point." 

Well anyways I didn't expect him to give up this early in fact I was more of expecting a witty comeback or a funny remark. Well, whatever. Now that everything's quite alright, can I get the honor of knowing why they have called me here? 

Thankfully for me, Prongs took the lead and spoke up, "so keeping all matters aside, we called you here for a very important situation to discuss. Actually, we have another meeting point but I figured you won't know about that yet and since the only place where you can easily go to without my Cloak is the Library so yeah we called you up here." 

And are we going to that another meeting place from here? Seems like yes. 

"There you go," he handed me the Cloak. 

Okay, I understand. I have to become invisible again. Never mind. After I performed the task of being invisible (duh) they led me outside. I silently followed as we climbed up the stairs and climbed then climbed and climbed again until we reached the seventh floor. 

***

Sometimes I wish Hogwarts had an elevator. Would have saved such a lot of time. Anyhow, we passed a corridor and they stopped when they reached a portrait of trolls learning the art of ballet. Pretty interesting. 

"Its always somewhere around here," Prongs mumbled. 

Somewhere around here? Like they don't know the exact place? I voiced out my question to Moony. 

He replied, "uh yeah, it's like a special room. We don't know what it is exactly. But it sort of shifts places. Comes and goes, just like that. Wormtail is quite good at finding it. Though we know that once we are inside, it's quite inaccessible. I'll tell you about it later." 

Cool. A while later Wormtail told us that he had found it. He walked around what he said was entrance about three times with a concentrated look on his face. Soon after the third time, an entrance revealed itself magically in the wall. 

"There it is," Prongs remarked and all of us stepped inside. It was a wide spacious room with couches and comfy cushions and looked really inviting. A bookcase was in the corner and a rug covered the floor. 

"It's what Wormtail's living room looks like. The key to access this room is to walk about the entrance three times focusing on what you need to be in the room. It can turn into a library, a hideout, a cave, Venice, Italy... You simply have to name the place. Magical. We haven't figured out what it really is though but we call it our secret lair," Prongs elaborated. 

Okay. Seems kinda interesting. Oh well, who am I kidding? It's amazing. 

"By the way you can take off the cloak now," Moony remarked. I obliged. But at that moment it struck me again that how much he reminded me of Percy. At Diagon Alley, Perce had said something quite like that. But well... 

I have to stop thinking about my family right now or else I'll look like a complete kid crying my eyes out in front of four boys. Nope, not happening. Never in a million years. And especially not in front of Padfoot. 

"We have assembled here to welcome a new member into our group," Prongs began making himself appear quite important as he spoke in a high commanding voice, "we heartily welcome Miss Kat into the most popular and notorious group Hogwarts will ever see: the Marauders." 

Knock it off, Potter, that's enough for now I guess. 

"And by welcoming her into our group, I meant making her familiar with all the rules and basic regulations." 

Okay. But why does this all turn into a reality show all of a sudden? It's like being introduced to a bunch of adventurous tasks that need to be accomplished in order to reach the next level. Oh well, yeah, I know I'm very random. 

"So Rule number 1," Prongs resumed still keeping an air of mystery about him, "you are not supposed to leak anything which happens within our group. And by anything I mean literally anything we may do or get you to do. Secrecy is our very first principle." 

Then turning over to Moony (who was buttoning up Wormy's rumpled up shirt and patting his hair to fall flat), James spoke, "would you stop acting like his Mum, Moony?" 

He barely shrugged and resumed brushing off the dust from Wormtail's clothes, "well, I act like all of your Mum." 

Padfoot mumbled, "you don't act like my mother though. I don't like her," he paused then quickly reformatted his sentence, "but she hates me more." 

Weird. 

Anyhow, getting on with the rules, what's next? 

"Rule number 2," Padfoot took up from there, "stick together. If one of us gets insulted it's basically our duty to get the person back for this. And by revenge you do understand that it can take any forms, any measures and yet none of the teachers are supposed to find out even a word of it." 

I guess it's Moony's turn now, "the third Rule. Respect each other's thoughts. That's not actually a rule, but I thought it will help. So yeah, respect each other and cooperate. I know most of us can't stand Padfoot's intolerable jokes but unfortunately we'll have to put up with it." 

Oh yes I agree. 

Padfoot raised an eyebrow skeptically, "you did not just say that, Moony. I'm the most hilarious person alive on Earth. My jokes aren't intolerable. Not at all." 

Finally Wormtail spoke up, "Rule number Four. Everyone eats their own food. No stealing." Ha ha, I was expecting that. 

Padfoot raised his wand, "Accio Chocolate Frogs!" And then we had to watch a continuously laughing Padfoot running all over the room with the chocolate frogs held high and an exasperated Wormtail chasing behind. For a whole ten minutes. 

When finally they stopped going all haywire and settled down, Prongs spoke up, "so these are the rules. If we find something else which ought to be added we'll let you know." 

Wormtail mumbled, "why don't you stop acting like the King of the Jungle and tell her the real reason for which we are here?" 

He straightened, "of course. And by the way I rather prefer being called the Stag of the Jungle." I know I'll never get even half of their inside jokes. 

"So yeah back to the point which dear Wormy was mentioning before," he resumed, "we are here to decide our next major prank. The Halloween Hazard." 

Oh, God have mercy on the poor souls then. 

"The Halloween Hazard as you might have guessed will take place during the Halloween feast. And we have to decide what type of things we can do that will scare the guests horrifyingly." 

Okay. Might have a few ideas. 

"But everyone will suspect you guys for all that hazard, won't they?" I stated what I had in mind. 

Padfoot smirked, "not at all. We won't even be attending the Feast in the first place. We're going to Nearly Headless Nick's Deathday Party." 

Wait, does this mean what I think? "You don't mean by any chance that you are going to accomplish the prank by making me doing all the necessities while you people would be attending the Deathday something?" 

Moony nodded, "well precisely. Though I think Padfoot would like to help you." 

Padfoot looked at Moony then back at me, "okay. So it's just me and Kat then." 

Yeah but I seriously don't think... 

Prongs clapped, "extremely fantastic. Just you and Kat then. Don't worry we'll supervise everything but at the time of the Feast we just won't be present at the aforementioned place. And Kat, the Deathday party goes on all night so after you're done with the prank, you and Padfoot will come over there. Though I do regret not having to see the effect of the marvellous scheme Moony told me about." 

Wait, Moony? 

They must have noticed the disbelief on my face because Wormtail spoke, "yes. Moony. Usually he's the mastermind behind all of our fabulous pranks. You missed the Prank Wars which took place last year. Or else you'd know how much Moony's brain works in all possible directions."

Awesome. 

"I'd like to hear about the Prank Wars someday," I replied. 

Padfoot nodded, "sure, why not? I'll tell you tonight." 

Prongs sent a threatening glare in his direction, "if you even breath a single word about my hair I swear..." 

But Moony cut him short, "enough you two. I suppose we should rather be discussing the prank instead of squabbling." 

Fair point. 

They told me the prank and its kind of Top Secret so I'm not mentioning it now. But seriously Moony does deserve high praise. That idea is something I'd definitely like to tell to Fred and George. And wouldn't they be delighted? 

That is, if I do get to see them again. 

"Hey, I'm searching on that time portal thing," Moony whispered so that only I could hear, "don't worry we'll get you back to your own time soon." 

He's very observant. To the extent that it's almost admirable. 

Prongs stood up, "okay okay. Now today's 28th and we have three days more to go. All of you will act according to the plan. Nothing ever will go wrong." 

Yup, can't wait. 

"Aye Aye Captain," all of us saluted which made him laugh. 

No matter what, this prank is surely going to break the records. And none of us can't wait for the big day. 

31st of October, better watch out. Major Prank Disaster coming through.

***