The next ten days of the month had flown by without a hitch. Many essays, classes, arguments and banter battles later, James had finally turned seventeen.

In his opinion, he should be the oldest Marauder, but alas he was the youngest. Don't ask James why he felt he should be the oldest because you'd get a bunch of rambling for an answer.

Every year the Marauders held a prank battle between themselves for James's birthday. The usual groups were Remus and James, then Sirius and Peter would partner up. With the girls involved this year, the groups would not only be different, but so would the rules.

Last year, there were no rules once so ever, which resulted in them quickly getting a couple Saturday morning detentions each.

This year the number one rule, was no working with anyone, but your partner. This was put in place because James and Sirius sometimes teamed up against their own partners.

Rule number two was that they could only use one Marauder prank plan, anything else they had to come up with themselves. The Marauders couldn't really afford them using all the prank plans, especially with more teams than normal.

The next rule was by far the hardest to follow, but if you didn't you were automatically disqualified. Your team had to include at least one professor in your prank and the professor had to sign a sheet of parchment saying they were deliberately involved. This was a new rule specifically made by Remus to make things more interesting.

If you didn't follow those rules you were automatically disqualified, but those weren't the only things that required disqualification. If you involved someone outside the friend group, a prank failed or you and your partner got detention, the prank battle was over for you.

The eight of them gathered in the Marauders' dorm before breakfast, tired eyes and all. Marlene grumbled all the way up the stairs about not having enough time to finish her hair until Lily offered to braid it. Alice has been sad for the last ten days without Frank, so her normal giggly self was kind of distant and quiet. Mary was the most morning person out of all of them, perhaps it was because she woke up the latest out of all of them. Lily had barely buttoned her shirt all the way before the girls pulled her out the door.

Sirius had put the girls' names in a hat Remus had conjured. The teams would comprise of one girl and one guy, James said this would be the most fair since you couldn't have two Marauders on the same team. Mary argued that this was sexist and that the girls could still win even if they were facing two Marauders.

The process for picking your partner was simple. Each Marauder would pick a slip of parchment from the hat and the name that was on the parchment was your partner. James would pick first.

"Alright Prongs!" Sirius said shaking the hat as to mix the names around. "Pick a name, any name."

James picked a piece of parchment quickly because he was growing impatient and wanted to start planning his first prank as soon as possible. Sirius's scraggly writing read Alice.

"Alice! Come on let's go!" Before she could protest, he took hold of her hand and ran out the door. Lily silently hoped that James could make Alice smile and laugh today, since she hadn't really been herself lately.

"Okay Wormy! Your pick next!" Sirius shook the hat again, the three names jostled around as he stuck his hand into the hat. The parchment read Mary this time.

"Pete! Let's go!" Mary ran out the door with Peter following her confusedly close behind.

"Moony, you're up! Marlene or Lily!" Remus rolled his eyes at Sirius's melodrama and picked one of the last two names. Marlene. Which meant Lily had ended up with Sirius, however this registered in his mind before her's, so when he threw her over his shoulder and ran down the stairs, she may have been more confused than anything else.

Sirius passed many confused people in the corridors on the way to the Great Hall, including James who laughed his arse off when he saw the two of them. He only put Lily on the ground when he reached the Gryffindor table and smirked slightly at her disheveled appearance.

"Merlin Sirius! You couldn't have let me walk on my own?" He shook his head, shoveling more eggs into his mouth. "Okay, so how does this prank battle thing work?" He swallowed audibly before answering.

"So, you either have to be the last team standing when everyone else gets disqualified or you have to be the first team to successfully complete three pranks to win. Our biggest competition is Moony and Marly because all the professors like him and she's down to do anything. We'll have to try to knock them out somehow," he shrugged during the last sentence he said at the same time Lily snapped her fingers.

"That's it! We'll just knock them out!"

...

James was trying his hardest to crack as many jokes as possible. He had known Alice prior to Hogwarts and even then she was always smiling and happy.

"Ok, so why don't we knock out the Professor requirement first?" Alice nodded deep in thought.

"You have Herbology with Lily and Remus today, right?" She asked the Marauder.

"Yeah," he said slowly, not quite knowing where she was going with this.

...

Marlene and Remus had ended up staying in the dorm, why run out of the room if no one else was there?

"What if we start small? Save the bigger pranks for later and work up to them."

Remus liked that he was with a partner that wasn't terribly impulsive and thought things through. James and Sirius were very reckless and while Marlene was somewhat reckless, she still had the common sense of where to stop. However, she was dating one of the hooligans, so maybe she had worse impulse control than he thought.

"Ok, so in Potions..."

...

Mary had complained about carrying the bucket of paint that she and Peter had acquired for their first prank, so he was now carrying it. It was a good sized bucket, containing around two gallons of red paint.

They were preparing to set up the bucket, so it floated above the Potions door. Whenever someone would pass under it, the contents would spill out on top of them. The bucket was also self refilling, so the prank would last all day.

So, here you find the two sixth-years quiet jabbering about how excited they were for this prank, when a rather stressed looking Professor came flying around the corner. Peter tripped over her legs, sending the paint bucket flying towards her, while Mary just watched it happen, emotionlessly.

"Why do two of my Gryffindor students have a bucket of paint and why is it spilled all over me?" McGonagall's stern voice cut through the quiet corridor as Peter cowered behind Mary, who was anxiously biting her lip.

"I do not have any time for this foolery! You two, detention, with me at 7:00 sharp! I don't care if you have homework or that it's a Monday! You better show up on time!"

Mary looked after the professor sadly, wondering what could've caused her to be so stressed and use such a harsh tone. The only other time she had heard Minnie so worked up about something, was when James and Sirius smashed half the trophies in the trophy case during second-year.

Peter couldn't believe he had been eliminated from the prank battle so early on, damn those new shoes his mother had sent him. It gave him extra time to work on other things though, perhaps the DADA essay on inferi or...

...

For the group's first period on this particular Monday morning they were split up. James, Lily and Remus had Herbology, facing the harshly cold March was harder than one thought it might be. Alice, Marlene, and Sirius were in Muggle Studies, they all chose to take this subject in third-year. Peter had a free period and Mary, she had found her way into the Kitchens.

Alice, Marlene and Sirius were all eyeing each other suspiciously in class, but only one of them had a faint idea what was going to happen in their friends Herbology class.

Professor Sprout had decided that instead of dealing with plants, the advanced class would be focused on taking review notes. Anything they had learned in the past six years was fair game on the exams, so the professor seemed to cover a bit of everything. This was the perfect climate for James to cause some chaos, the diligent note-takers he called friends wouldn't even suspect a thing.

After Sprout assigned a chapter of reading for homework the class could start now, James have her the signal to start the first prank of the battle. She walked swiftly over to Remus and Lily, contemplating why she had agreed to this, but was the real question why not?

"Miss. Evans," she handed her an envelope that was not sealed, but looked like a newer envelope. "The headmaster wants to see you in his office, make sure to read the letter inside on your way."

"Did he say why?" Lily asked looking down at the envelope in her hands. If she would've looked up at James she would've seen him snickering with shaking shoulders. The professor, instead of answering, walked over to Elizabeth White, who was raising her hand patiently.

The headmaster in question was currently talking with the stressed professor who had earlier given out two detentions. She sat in a chair across from him with her lips in a thin line and her bun tighter than usual.

"So, you think this necklace could be in their house?" Minnie asked Albus, her voice steady despite her nervous jitters.

"There is high probability, yes, which puts Miss. Evans in danger. That's your mission, Minerva, to keep her safe and find the necklace."

There was an interrupting knock on the door that made Minnie's head swivel around swiftly and Albus smile. He knew who was at the door and what was about to happen. The door swung open and water came crashing down onto the redhead as soon as she came into view.

Lily coughed and spluttered wondering how on Earth did Dumbledore agree to this. Her robes were drenched through and she silently cursed when she realized her white shirt was now see through.

"Albus! How? Why?" Minnie stood up and performed a warming charm on the cold student, but it didn't work. So, there stood Lily slightly shaking from the cold late March air in front of two of her professors.

"It's all in the name of great fun Minerva! Mr. Potter and Miss. Fortescue made the prank so only they can undo it, off to class, both of you! And Minerva, no detentions for those two students I mentioned!"

They were shooed out of his office and down the steps. The two went separate ways when Lily had to turn to go into Potions. She sure hoped James and Alice used a warming charm right away.

...

Lily walked into a silent classroom where Slughorn was lecturing the boys about something. She could tell not only because one of her favorite professor's attention was all placed on them, but James was doing his signature 'I'm trying not to laugh, so I don't get a detention' face.

She sat down next to Marlene, still sopping wet and turned around to where Alice sat with Mary.

"Use a warming charm or so help me Merlin!" Alice relented right away upon seeing her friend's exasperated face.

"Too bad James didn't get to see you like that, your shirt was seriously see through," Mary laughed as she quietly spoke, this sent Marlene into fits of laughter. Teasing Lily seemed to be their favorite game right now, but she knew how to bite back, before she could retort Slughorn returned the attention of the class to him. Remus took advantage of this.

"Turn your textbooks to page two hundred and ninety six. Today we will be- why are you all laughing at me?"

Remus had hidden his wand to make sure no one had seen it and used it to change the color of Slughorn's pants. It was now the third time his pants were going through the colors of the rainbow when he had realized the class was laughing at him.

"Really as your professor I shouldn't have to ask for respect! Now, stop laughing this instant and turn to page two hundred and ninety-six."

...

The group of friends was sitting around the table in their 'pranking pairs,' as they so dubbed themselves, and were reliving Slughorn's rant about disrespectful teenagers. It was quite funny, even Lily would agree.

Sirius and Lily kept sharing discreet looks, for only they could have an idea of what happened next. A howler flew in the Great Hall catching the attention of all the students still eating. When it landed in front of James, he almost spat out his pumpkin juice. What did he do to warrant that? Mail never came during lunch, so it must've been urgent. James reluctantly opened the howler to hear Sirius and Lily's booming voices.

"HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! YOU'RE FINALLY SEVENTEEN!" Lily's voice shouted. She snickered under his glare.

"TOOK YA LONG ENOUGH, MATE I NEVER THOUGHT THIS DAY WOULD COME! YOU WERE ALWAYS TOO BUSY BEING A MOMMA'S BOY TO TURN SEVENTEEN!" Sirius's voice boomed, he was counting the seconds down on his fingers before he would run out of the Great Hall and he would chase him. 5...

Meanwhile, Remus and Marlene had fallen sound asleep due to the fact Lily spiked their pumpkin juice with Dreamless Sleep Potion. 4...

Mary was laughing at the chaos around her. 3... Even though she wasn't participating anymore, she was having a great time spectating the prank battle. 2...

Sirius got up a second earlier and ran from the Great Hall trying his best not to fall to the ground with laughter. James was chuckling himself as he chased after him.

...

After making it through the rest of their classes, the six of them, (Remus and Marlene were sleeping in their respective dormitories), were running around the upper levels. Currently, Lily and Sirius had been separated from each other trying to run away from their only competition when Lily had shut herself in a broom cupboard. Little did she know, she wasn't alone.

"Shut up Alice, they're about to come down this corridor." It was the unmistakable voice of James Potter. Eyes widening Lily tried to open the door knob and escape before the situation could escalate, but he lit his wand.

"Shit, you're not Alice!"

"Wait, wait James! Before you do anything, I haven't been able to give you your gift yet!" She thrust a small gift box that took up the entire space of your palm and hoped it would take his mind off the fact they were in the middle of a prank battle.

He gave Lily his wand to make sure there was still light in the small broom cupboard. Gingerly, he opened the box and looked at the snitch inside. With raised eyebrows he took it out of the box and immediately it exploded, leaving an ashen face in it's wake.

"Oops sorry! Must've given you a faulty one! Let me just wash that off your face for you."

James didn't have time to close his eyes before Lily splashed water in his face with his own wand and ran out the door. Swearing, he sprinted after her.

Soon, he skidded to a halt in the middle of a corridor seeing Minnie lecture Lily and Sirius about what happened at lunch. As soon as he heard the word detention he whooped and whirled around to where Alice had found herself.

"We won!"

Happy, happy birthday to him.

...

Author's Note:

This took me ridiculously long to finish and I apologize for that. Between my cousin coming over and my sister leaving for college things have been really hectic.

Not only has my life been chaotic, but this chapter was too. I hope you liked it.

The next two chapters are smaller, so they should be easier for me to write. After that, there's a bigger chapter, so make sure to stay tuned. There's about nine chapters left after this one, so we're nearing the end of this book!

I have Sweet Creature by Harry Styles stuck in my head, but I'm not complaining.

Lmao anyways thanks for reading,
-teddy📺