The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part Two

Hey Look, It's The Squid

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?