Mischief Night (Jilytober Day 22)
Prompt: Lily shows the marauders muggle Halloween tricks @jilytoberfest
“Muggles celebrate Halloween too?” James asked, incredulous.
“Of course they do!”
“But they don’t even know about ghosts and trolls, and the like.”
“Well, it’s more of a superstitious holiday,” Lily clarified. “It has origins in many different cultures. It was believed to be a Gaelic tradition, but was then influenced by the spread of Christianity. The version today is most similar to the Christian ideology, but really the version they celebrate today is more about dressing up in costumes, playing little pranks, and getting candy.”
“They play pranks, and are rewarded for it with candy?” Sirius chimed in.
“Well there’s this tradition of Miggy Night–Mischief Night,” she clarified, “I don’t know all the details of its origin, but because of the old religious beliefs surrounding Halloween– Muggles thought little gremlins and creatures came out to play tricks. And muggle children used it as an excuse to behave badly, then blame it on the spirits of Halloween. Now, it’s just the day before Halloween and people play little tricks on one another. They don’t really believe all the stuff about evil and creatures, but it’s tradition now.”
Sirius’ eyes lit up, and he glanced at James meaningfully. “Well I, for one, think it’s about time to introduce some more muggle traditions here at Hogwarts.”
“Oh no you don’t!” Lily protested, “I was just explaining that Muggles have Halloween traditions of their own. Wizards don’t have a monopoly on the holiday.”
“Relax, Evans,” Sirius chided, “I won’t do anything too crazy. Just a few harmless pranks, really.” His face contorted to the picture of innocence, but Lily clearly wasn’t fooled for a second if her firm glare was anything to go by.
“On a completely unrelated note, I just remembered Prongs and I have somewhere we need to be!”
“We do?” James asked.
“Yeah, mate. Remember?” Sirius emphasized, “Really important things to do.” James rolled his eyes at his friend’s overt scheming, but bid Evans goodbye with a transparent excuse about running quidditch plays.
She only rolled her eyes and returned to her work. “None of these ‘harmless pranks’ better reach me!” she called after them.
Over the next week, he and the other marauders planned out their various tricks to celebrate the muggle Halloween tradition. They’d planned a few for the whole school, but little did his fellow marauders know– but he’d planned a few for them as well.
The first of his tricks went off without a hitch.
It was announced by Sirius’ infuriated yell. “Prongs! What the hell did you do to my shampoo?” He stormed out of the bathroom, towel loosely wrapped around his waist– his hair a brilliant gleaming platinum.
“Happy miggy night!” James called, escaping the dorm before Sirius could retaliate.
The next was a group effort. With lots of scheming and sneaking, and a little bribery to a few of the house elves: the entirety of Slytherin house arrived at breakfast only to have their ties and robes change color from green to blue, red, or yellow. Now all sporting uniforms of the three other houses, the Slytherins grew increasingly irritated. Especially when they discovered that any attempt to charm their robes back to normal only resulted in a different house color, now their hair changing color to match.
The marauders had to exit the great hall quickly, unable to conceal their laughter. They were followed by a volley of hexes and jinxes from the Slytherin table– the students having no doubt who had been responsible for their color changing appearances.
James found he loved mischief night. So much so, that he had no qualms spreading “mischief night” to an all day event.
They’d charmed Filch’s shoes with an untraceable extension charm. Every time he stepped down a new corridor, the charmed shoes released a handful of stink bombs– not detonating until he’d reached the end of the hallway. He spent his entire afternoon cleaning up stink bombs, and was unable to catch the culprit responsible– even though it seemed like they were following his every step.
Peter found that none of his school supplies seemed to obey the laws of gravity. One second he’d be taking notes in transfiguration, the next his parchment was flying in the air. McGonagall had scolded him thrice for not taking down important information for N.E.W.T.s.
Remus took a large bite out of a chocolate bar– only to find it had been replaced and transfigured from a bar of soap. He spent the rest of the afternoon hiccupping bubbles.
Lily observed this all with mild amusement and a roll of her eyes. “They’re going to get you back, you know,” she’d said to James, watching Peter’s parchment fly away from him for the fourth time that day– despite his best efforts.
“I’d like to see them try,” James responded jovially. And try they had. He’d successfully avoided a series of unsuccessful pranks from his fellow marauders all day. An edible jelly legs jinx slipped into his tea had resulted in Remus unable to get his legs to cooperate, after James switched their cups at breakfast. A vial of some solution missed James by a fraction of an inch, and only due to his seeker-quick reflexes. He’d dodged the mystery vial, but its perpetrator hadn’t been so lucky. Sirius had spent the rest of the day with his (newly platinum blonde) hair pasted down to his head– unable to do anything about it. James laughed, running his hands through his hair and strutting off down the corridor. Poor Pete hadn’t even been able to finish his attempt at James, before he found himself sticking to every surface he touched.
No, try as they might, the other marauders hadn’t been able to get him back for all of mischief night (day).
The next morning James woke, feeling well rested, and ignoring the murderous glares thrown his way by his roommates. By lunch they seemed to have forgiven him, and were back to their normal cheerful selves. By night they were all joking as usual, Sirius even complementing the ingenious of James’ mischief day pranks.
He smiled to himself as he got ready for the Halloween feast, and subsequent party after. The feast passed quickly and uneventfully, other than the flask of firewhiskey the marauders had smuggled down to spike their goblets of pumpkin juice.
“I’m really glad we’re all friends,” James said, as they made their way to Gryffindor tower for the annual booze fueled Halloween party. “You guys are just the best. Although you didn’t manage to get me on mischief day!”
Remus, Sirius, and Peter shared a knowing look, but laughed along.
They all helped themselves to the drinks, and he must not have eaten enough because it seemed like the liquor was making his lips looser than normal.
“I don’t really like you very much,” James informed a fifth year boy, who had been doing his best to imitate James and the other marauders all year. The boy constantly dogged their steps and was attempting to pull off the same pranks they had in their fifth year. The boy’s face went slack, and James realized he’d spoken out loud. “I am so sorry!” he apologized, “It’s just that you’re quite annoying, following us around all the time. Just be your own person, mate.” He slapped a hand over his mouth, trying to stop the word vomit. “Sorry!” he called after the boy’s retreating figure.
“You should wear your hair like that more often.”
“I had a crush on you in third year!”
“I think you’re pretty fit, for a bloke.”
“I do think I look pretty cool, playing with that snitch.”
The words just wouldn’t stop spilling out of him.
After one too many unintentional truths, James retreated to his room– determined not to do any more damage tonight.
“Potter? You in here?” a dangerously soft and familiar voice called.
She was the last person he wanted to talk to in his current state, and tried his best to stay silent. “Yeah, in here,” his voice betrayed him again.
Lily Evans pulled back the hangings around his bed and took a seat next to him.
“Are you okay? It’s not like you to leave a party early.”
“No,” he confessed honestly, “I keep saying things to people that I don’t mean to say. They’re true, but I really don’t mean to say them. Must’ve had too much to drink.”
“Hmmm,” she hummed, noncommittally. “Like you keep spitting out the truth, no matter how hard you fight it?” He nodded. “Potter, do you know the effects of veritaserum?”
“Yes,” the answer fell from his lips– understanding following soon after. “You’re saying the boys spiked my drink, Evans?” She nodded her confirmation.
“Don’t worry about it too much,” she said, “The effects of the potion should wear off in a few hours. And I don’t think anyone was too offended by anything you said tonight.”
“Good. Gah! That’s just humiliating.” he threw his arms over his face in a belated attempt to conceal his blushing cheeks. She let out a light laugh at his obvious embarrassment. “I think I’ll just hide away here until it wears off then,” he said resignedly.
She was quiet for a moment. He removed his hands from his face to glance at her in question. “Do you have any deep dark secrets you’d like to confess about me?”
He felt his heart race into overdrive and fought to keep his lips pressed shut. He and Evans had just become friends this year. They had been leaning towards that something more lately, but he didn’t want to come on too strong, in case she didn’t feel the same way.
“I–” he tried to force the truth down. “I really–”. He clamped a hand over his mouth as if that could prevent the truth from spilling out. “I really like you Evans. Like I like you a lot.” He couldn’t stop the torrent of truth now that he’d started. “I’ve liked you since I was twelve years old, and would pull on your plaits to get your attention. And I wanted to give you space, and we’ve become friends this year! And I’ve loved being your friend, but I have feelings for you, Lily. And it’s okay if you don’t feel the same way. I’d understand if–”
He was cut off as Lily leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his rambling mouth. The kiss lingered for a moment before she leaned back slightly, their noses still brushing. “I like you too, you daft idiot,” she said, and kissed him again.
James knew he would have been rambling incoherently, if every single thought hadn’t flown out of his head at the feeling of being snogged by Lily Evans.
“Well that didn’t work at all how we’d planned,” complained Sirius from where they eavesdropped outside the dormitory door.
Remus just gave a shrug. “There’s always next year.”
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Also: I have a very busy weekend coming up, so the next few chapters might be a little late, but i’ll do my best to catch up and keep on schedule!! sorry in advance!
