"I vote yes. We should take Snape down a peg," commented Peter, clenching his fist. He would finally get his revenge. Sirius, Lupin, and Toby agreed.
"What about you?" asked Sirius, looking at James, who so far said nothing.
"I don't know... It seems too much to make it the main target," replied James doubtfully.
Snape's tongue was indeed sharp and arrogant. James could see it on the Hogwarts Express when he said he wanted to be in Gryffindor. However, James realized that Snape was not a boy who picked on or mistreated others like Rabastan and his gang, who would cast hexes on Gryffindor students or make derogatory comments because of lineage.
Snape was simply arrogant because he was so good at potions.
"Are you serious?" asked Sirius, getting up from his spot and looking at James quizzically. The others were also surprised by the presumed refusal.
"Don't tell me it's because of that know-it-all?" by know-it-all Sirius meant Lily Evans.
Some time ago James started sitting in Transfiguration with Lily, though this was because of McGonagall. So their relationship improved, and they helped each other in Transfiguration homework.
However, their relationship went no further than that of study buddies. James didn't consider Lily a friend, as they didn't talk much after McGonagall's classes. If they did talk at all, it was about homework and nothing else.
Sirius had seen Lily talk to Snape several times, plus he saw the two of them on the Hogwarts Express together, and they seemed like friends since before they entered Hogwarts. That's why he suspected that James didn't want to play a prank on Lily's friend.
"Of course not. We're talking about pulling the last big prank of the year, and you want to pull the prank on an unpopular, shady guy? You should think bigger, gentlemen," James said, standing up and speaking with an air of grandeur.
If he wanted them to stop targeting Snape he had to convince them with a good speech.
"What's on your mind?" asked Sirius, who no longer sounded annoyed and was very attentive to what James was saying as were the others.
"What do we call ourselves?" asked James without answering Sirius' question directly.
"The Marauders," replied Lupin, not understanding where James was going.
"We did two big pranks where the whole castle talked about it for days. We even have a fan club, but no one knows who pulled such pranks," said James.
Sirius the more James talked the more excited he got. He seemed to understand what his friend was getting at.
"We must make everyone know our name, and every time there is a really good prank, they think of that name," said James.
"That's right! We must sign our work!" exclaimed Sirius excitedly. He even seemed more excited than James.
Sirius had chosen the name of the group and even had a journal with the name where the process of all the pranks was described. The fan club didn't even have a name, as no one knew the identity of the group or if it was just one person.
If everyone knew the name the marauders would become like an urban legend within Hogwarts similar to the Joker, or surpassing him.
"The name should be cast in the grass and be impossible to remove!" added Sirius, getting more and more excited.
The next prank was decided. Although no one was the target, if the next morning 'The Marauders' appeared written on the lawn everyone would be talking about them.
"It's a good idea, but besides writing the name of the group we should put something related to the two previous pranks. So that people would notice," said Lupin, who had liked the prank. It would be a good farewell to the first year at Hogwarts. And they wouldn't hurt anyone.
Peter looked a little annoyed, as he wouldn't get his revenge, but quickly joined in the heated conversation.
"Underneath the name, we can draw in smaller size flowers and stink bombs," suggested Peter. That way everyone would know that the previous pranks were the work of the marauders.
"I like that," said Sirius, writing everything down in the journal.
"It's going to be hard to draw on the grass," commented Lupin. It would be one thing to write in giant letters that would already take hard work add to that drawing it would complicate the prank even more.
"I'll take care of the drawings," said James, who knew how to draw. Besides, drawing a couple of flowers and a sphere won't be too complicated. Hearing this the others nodded.
"Where on the lawn will we write? It should be eye-catching. I want when everyone wakes up to see it," asked Sirius, and everyone was left thinking.
"On the quidditch pitch," suggested Toby, and James looked at him with a frown to him the quidditch pitch was sacred.
"I know you love quidditch, but I have a reason!" said Toby quickly as he noticed the look on James' face.
"What is it?"
"We can write the name a day before the quidditch match between Slytherin versus Ravenclaw. That way, the whole school will see it during the match" replied Toby scratching his cheek.
"You're a genius, Toby!" exclaimed Sirius with a big grin, as he grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him roughly.
"That's a great idea. Since Slytherin will come out champions at least we can sour them a bit with the message," said Lupin.
Already everyone at Hogwarts was tipping Slytherin as quidditch champions, even James. It would take a miracle for Slytherin to lose to the worst Ravenclaw in history.
William the Gryffindor team captain wanted to be positive, but he knew it was a near-impossible feat. First of all, they would have to win by many points and depend on Slytherin losing by a landslide.
"What do you say, James?" asked Sirius.
"I agree," replied James. Even though he believed the pitch was sacred, he would rather spoil Slytherin's celebration, even if only a little. Plus this way the prank will be highly visible since everyone in the school attends the matches.
"In addition to the name of the group, we could put up a message that says Slytherin sucks! Imagine their faces as they fly, and they have to see that throughout the match!" said Sirius with an evil grin.
"Maybe it'll break their concentration, and they'll end up losing," said James, agreeing with Sirius.
"When is the date of the match?" asked Sirius, looking at James.
"Gryffindor will play their match the second weekend in May. Slytherin will play it the following weekend," replied James.
"Good. We have a month to plan everything," said Sirius, nodding his head and noting the date in the diary.
They then continued to talk about the prank for several hours, leaving the scouting for another day. The first way they came up with to write on the lawn was to use Incendio. This way they would burn the grass, and after the fire was extinguished it would be black, contrasting with the green grass.
After thinking about this, they discarded the idea of using Incendio. It was too dangerous since they would be setting the grass on fire, and it would be very difficult to control it and put it out instantly.
If they did it wrong they could cause the whole Quidditch pitch to catch fire and be in serious trouble. In addition, they would have to cast a lot of Incedio charms.
The safest and most effective way they could come up with is to use magic herb seeds. Then they could use a charm or potion to make them grow and make the signature look big.
The problem was that they needed a lot of seeds. They would have to steal a large quantity from the greenhouses. They decided that the next day they would visit the greenhouses and see if this plan was feasible. If not, they would have to find another way to write on the lawn.