Runaway love | Jegulus

Chapter 14

"I think this is a bad idea. I'm technically still a Slytherin" Regulus whispered to Sirius.

"It was YOUR idea and it's too late to back out now" Sirius smirked back. Regulus rolled his eyes at his brother and continued to pick nervously at the sleeve of his robe.

It was dinnertime and the Great Hall was filling up quickly, with excited and hungry students. The Marauders and Regulus were sat in their usual spot at the Gryffindor table, except they were all sat on the same side, facing the Slytherin table. The boys had been the first students in the hall that evening, and they'd sat patiently, waiting for the rest of the school to arrive. All of them were bouncing with nervous and excited energy. Something was about to happen. Other Gryffindor students, who had grown used to the odd behaviour of the Marauders, were catching on to their excitement and were readying themselves for whatever mess was about to unfold.

"Why are you sat like that?" Lily questioned as she, Mary, Marlene and Dorcas sat opposite the boys. None of the boys acknowledged the girls joining them, they just repositioned themselves to ensure they could still see the Slytherins. Marlene, who was not one to suffer fools, took this very personally. She threw her, unfortunately empty, water goblet at James's head. As it connected with James's forehead it knocked the boys out of their fixated trance.

"Ow!" James exclaimed, rubbing the spot on his forehead where the cup had hit him. He glared at Marlene, who flashed him a huge satisfied smile.

"Why are you sat like that?" Lily repeated.

"We all wanted to look upon your beautiful faces during dinner this evening." Sirius replied with a wink.

"I would believe it if you weren't all staring past our beautiful faces and looking at..." Lily turned around in her seat, following the boy's eyelines. She whipped back quickly. "Severus?!" She said half whispering, half questioning. The boys all just flashed her a smile and went back to their staring.

"Here we go!" Remus laughed, nudging Peter who looked almost as nervous as Regulus.

The Slytherin table was finally full, every student awaiting their food. They were all too busy talking to notice anything different about their table or about the atmosphere in the room. It was quiet, too quiet. The Gryffindor table were constantly being loud and boisterous at dinner, McGonagall had to tell them to behave every day, without fail. But today she was reading at the teachers table, not needing to sort out the Gryffindors because they were behaving. Snape glared between her and the quiet Gryffindor table. McGonagall seemed to realise that her table were waiting for something to happen at the exact same moment that Snape did. She closed her book quickly and looked at the Marauders, searching for any sign of mischief. Snape made eye contact with Sirius for a second. In that second, he realised something bad was about to happen because Sirius smiled at him, a gloating smirk.

BANG!

As the food appeared across the Slytherin table, each tray and plate exploded into a puff of red smoke. Every Slytherin student was coated in the powder, creating a sea of red. The whole Gryffindor table burst into laughter, clapping and cheering as their House colour flooded the room. The girls joined in the laughter at the prank, Lily even flashed James an impressed smile. Regulus allowed himself to laugh as the Slytherins all tried to desperately dust off the powder, causing it to fill the air around them.

"And now for the best bit! Go on Reg!" James whispered, bumping shoulders with Regulus.

Regulus took a deep breath and pointed his wand at the Slytherin table. He muttered a spell and watched as any left over powder shot into the air above the students. As they all stared up at it, Regulus flicked his wand transforming it into a giant, roaring lion. The lion pranced up and down the Slytherin table, knocking over plates and cups of water, sending everyone into a frenzy. Gryffindor cheered even louder, as their mascot terrorised their enemies. Just as the powdery lion was about to pounce on snivelling Snape, Dumbledore arose from his seat and banished it in a puff of red smoke.