Chapter 37 - Halloween Prank -II

There was a lot of excited whisperings among the students after the messages were completed. Even some of the teachers were discussing the event amongst themselves.

Dumbledore did not say anything and was calmly eating his food. Flitwick and Minerva were smiling.

Snape could not control his anger anymore. He stood up from his seat and shouted, "Stop the drama this instant. Just wait. As soon as I find out about the identities of you four, I will make sure that you will spend rest of the year scrubbing cauldrons in the dungeon and then get expelled."

Leo "Hey Slyde. I won our bet. You now owe me 5 Galleons. I told you that Snivellous was going to be the first to lash out despite his good emotional control."

The children started snickering after hearing the nick name for Snape while Snape tried to destroy the Howlers. He was unsuccessful as the letters were protected by some shield.

Leo "Didn't think we would remember the name the original marauders had for you? We are trying to copy them so we made sure that we researched a lot about them. You were their favourite target weren't you Greezy git."

Raven "You couldn't get revenge on them so you decided to take revenge of the students of this school especially the Gryffindor. We have monitored your behaviour and we do not like you."

Slyde "Since you are responsible for encouraging the Slytherin house to bully others and also responsible for them not get punished, we decided you would be one of our guinea pigs for testing our new prank spells. Enjoy the smile on the face you will have for the rest of the week. Who know it might change your character for the better."

Leo "Hey twins, I challenge you to a prank war. Let's see who gets the most laughs. Goodbye"

The twins said, "We accept your challenge."

Raven "Boys remember that only harmless pranks are allowed. We don't want anyone getting hurt except the bullies. If you don't want to become one of our targets, make sure that you follow that rule. You don't want to be on my bad side. Goodbye"

It was said with a sickly sweet voice that made the twins gulp due to fear.

There was another bang and the whole great hall was covered in smoke. After the smoke dissipated, everyone was shocked. All the students had their appearance and robes altered to match the colours of another Hogwarts house.

The Gryffindors now had green hair with Slytherin robes while Slytherins had Red hair with Gryffindor Robes. Similarly, Hufflepuffs had blue hair and Ravenclaws had orange hair. The professors were not affected by the pranks and some of them had disappointed expression on their faces.

What made everyone laugh was Snape. He was smiling. It was the first time anyone had seen him smile. Everyone could see from his face that he was angry but still he had a smile on his face. This contradictory expression made all the students including the Slytherin laugh. Snape tried to remove the spell for some time before giving up and storming out of the great hall in a hurry. Everyone could hear him cursing the marauders as he went past them.

Dumbledore stood up and said, "What a brilliant application of your studies. Make sure that the functioning of the school is not affected by the pranks otherwise I would have to take action against you. Now let's continue the Halloween feat."

With that everyone stopped the laughter and discussions and concentrated on their dinner. After dinner everyone went back to their House common rooms. Some tried to unsuccessfully get rid of the effects of the prank spell while others just accepted their appearance.

The spells were modified versions of existing spells. I modified the Howler for the letters. It now spoke using real time words. Whatever I wrote on a parchment would be spoken by the Howler at the same time. So during the prank, I was writing what each letter would say from under the table and the letters were loudly speaking the words with suitable expressions.

For the four different voices used, I modified the Sonorus charm to speak at different frequencies. I tested out different modifications until I selected my favourite four voices. Now the professors would be looking for a group of genius 4 students to put blame on.

The disadvantage of the spells I used was that only one howler could speak at a time as I was giving real time instructions. So I was quite busy. To not get noticed, I used notice-me-not charm on my hand while writing.

The prank on the students was a potion I had mixed in with all their drinks earlier, it activated on my signal. For Snape, I used the cover of the smoke to send the spell at him. I could see clearly despite the smoke and thus I was able to aim correctly. I was not able to remove the light from that spell so the cover of smoke was required. The spell would last for 1 week and there was no counter for it. It would be a fun week for everyone.

I was now sitting in the common room with my friends and discussing the prior events.

Damien "So what do you think of all this, Charles?"

I replied "I don't think Orange hair suits me very well. I think green would have been much better."

Elena "I think so too. Orange looks the worst. I would not have minded any of the other 3."

Damien "I agree but I was asking about the group called new marauders."

Elena "I support them too. I also want to get my hands on the spells they used. It felt like the howlers were alive and they even spoke to Snape and the Weasley's."

Damien "I am looking forward to seeing the smiling Snape for the rest of the week. He is going to have to deduct a lot of points during this week as no one would be able to control their laughter around him."

I added "I want to learn the identities of the 4. Those spells were new and if the 4 crafted it themselves then they must have above NEWT level knowledge. I would like to learn from them."

Damien "I don't think they will come out in the open. They would not want Snape to find them. I am sleepy after that huge feast. I am going to sleep. let's continue the discussion tomorrow. Goodnight."

So we decided to end the discussion and I went to my room. I called Sherry and told her to find who all continued Bullying event after my threat. It was easy for her to find the culprits as she could ask the other elves without causing any suspecion. I would have my list of targets ready tomorrow morning.