"IT'S HALLOWEEN! WAKE UP!" was the first thing Claudia heard on the Saturday morning of Halloween 1977.

"Be quiet, Inez," Claudia groaned. "It's too early for this."

"Yeah? Well, it's also to early for James' owl to terrorise us with a letter telling us to come down to breakfast, but here we are."

Claudia sighed, finally opening her eyes and immediately being met by the sight of a grinning Inez who was leaning over her face.

"What time is it?"

"Eight."

Claudia groaned again, "On a Saturday?!"

"It's Halloween," Inez shrugged, pulling the comforter off of Claudia. "Come on!"

Despite her wishes to stay in the warm and comfortable bed, Claudia followed along and headed down to the Great Hall alongside Inez. However, as they arrived, they failed entirely to spot the Marauders by the Gryffindor table. It seemed as if they weren't there. So, instead, the two girls sat down by Lily and Marlene who were up bright and early due to Gryffindor having quidditch practice that day.

"Hey," said Inez, kissing Marlene quickly on the temple before sitting down next to her, Claudia sitting down next to Lily on the other side.

"Wherever are the boys?" Claudia asked curiously as she surrendered to herself and stacked up a plate of pancakes.

It was, after all, Halloween, and a treat wouldn't hurt.

"No idea," said Lily.

"Huh. They asked us to come here and meet them," said Inez. "Well, they mainly asked Claudia, but still."

"They're probably on their way," Lily smiled. "So, where's the rest of you?"

Claudia chuckled, "Betty and Pandora you mean?"

"Yeah," Lily nodded.

"Betty's off helping this third year with Care of Magical Creatures revision and Pandora pulled an all nighter to find these weird creatures by the lake so we probably won't be seeing her anytime soon."

"Oh, that seems...fun," Marlene said.

"Tell me about it," Inez chuckled as Claudia found her pancakes suddenly less tasty.

The girls around her all fell into immediately worried stages as Claudia began coughing like a maniac, and nearly choking on whatever it was that she had accidentally tried to swallow.

"What's going on?!" Inez questioned as Claudia motioned for something they couldn't understand in her flushed and unsettled state.

Claudia eventually managed to get ahold of herself, and then she showed them the thing that had made her choke in the first place.

It was a chicken feather.

"That's disgusting," Marlene said with her nose scrunched up to prove it. "Like, actually disgusting."

"I'm never going to eat pancakes again," Claudia said with a grimace.

Inez snorted, "Fattest lie I've heard all year."

Claudia glared at her as Lily frowned.

"How did it even get here?" The red headed girl asked.

"I don't even wanna know," Claudia murmured.

However, her wish was not granted as she - and the rest of the Great Hall - were met by hundreds of chicken feathers swirling in the air and landing in people's breakfasts.

"What the fuck," Claudia said quietly with an extremely confused look on her face as Inez and Marlene immediately went to protect the food. "Oh, Merlin, it's probably them-"

And she was right. It really was the Marauders that had caused all of it.

Yet, she didn't find that out in a very nice way. No, she found it out as her sentence was interrupted by the person who was standing behind her, who was wearing a chicken costume and making chicken noises.

Now, one might remember that Claudia Maple had a strange fear of chickens. No, she wouldn't even call it a fear herself.

She would say that chickens were the scariest fucking things she knew.

So, naturally, she screamed once she faced the person in the chicken costume. However, she knew that it was embarrassing to do so due to the looks she was receiving, so the moment didn't last long.

And the moment also ended because she heard Sirius Black's laughter.

"Oh, you completely arse!" The girl exclaimed, immediately jumping to her feet and then chasing Sirius - who by now was a bit afraid - out of the hall.

The chasing went on for a while, and it amused plenty of students considering how there was a girl running after someone in a chicken costume.

But, the fun ended immediately as Sirius turned a corner and found himself nearly knocking Margaret, who was standing here, over.

"My goodness," the old woman said, holding a hand over her heart as she looked completely bewildered at the person in front of her. "What is the meaning of this?"

Sirius stood frozen in his place as Claudia too appeared. However, as she took in the fact that Sirius was bound to be scolded by her grandmother, the girl smirked to herself and walked away before any of them got the chance to speak to her, causing Sirius to make a small little noise of complaint.

The girl continued to smirk as she turned yet another corner, only to find the rest of the boys standing there. And, immediately as they saw her, they started making chicken sounds to mess with her.

"Oh, you're really doing this?" Claudia questioned with a glare and a weirdly amused smile. "Really? So mature, it's crazy."

Despite her words, however, the boys didn't stop. So, Claudia simply rolled her eyes and turned on her heels again with the plan to return to the Great Hall and actually eat something and ignore them at the same time.

However, just as she had expected, Remus jogged up to her immediately and walked by her side with an amused grin on her face, all whilst she ignored him and pretended as if he wasn't there.

"So, wanna come to my dorm later and listen to the new Billy Idol record? Mia sent it to James, and it's incredible," said Remus, immediately frowning as he realised that Claudia was acting as if he wasn't there. "Claudia?"

"No," the girl mumbled.

"Ah, come on, love!" Remus exclaimed, stopping his walk and grabbing her shoulders gently so that she would too. "It was just a joke. We thought that you'd find it a bit funny."

"I'm scared of chickens."

Remus grimaced, "I know."

"Then why'd you do it?"

"I...didn't think it was that bad," Remus spoke, realising his mistake as those words left his mouth. "I'm so sorry!"

Claudia then laughed, which only told him that she was messing with him, "Bold of you to assume that I would be scared of Sirius in a chicken costume. I mean, that wasn't even half as scary as actual chickens."

And was she lying about not being afraid? She didn't know. But she wanted them to think that she was.

Remus chuckled, immediately seeming far more relieved as she continued to make fun of them for believing that they really affected her so much, and then he leaned down closer to her as if he was about to kiss her, only to whisper against her lips, "Why are you even scared of them?"

"That's a story for a different time," she smiled, placing her hand on the back of his neck to pull him down to meet her lips for just a few seconds, before frowning slightly.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she said. "Just...were the chicken feathers real?"

"Yes."

"What?!"

Remus laughed, "I'm just messing with you, love. They were fake. Made out of magic, if you've ever heard of that-"

"Oh, what is that?" Claudia asked sarcastically. "Haven't heard of it before."

"Oh, really? Then you're in for a surprise, my love."

"Is that so?" Claudia smiled as the rest of the boys arrived by their sides, one of which looked very pale as he held onto the mask of the chicken costume.

"You alright, Pads?"

"Never better," Sirius said, gulping slightly nervously. "Merlin, Clauds, your grandmother is terrifying."

Claudia shared a weary glance with James, "So she is. What did she say to you?"

"I'd rather not talk about it...ever," Sirius said as he began to walk.

"Did she give you detention?"

"No," he said quietly. "I wish she had, though."

James shrugged, "Well, have you spoken to Lily, Claude? Is she ready for tonight?"

Claudia smirked, "Oh, she's as ready as one can be. What about you?"

•••

Hours later, Claudia found herself at the not-so-unusual Halloween party the Gryffindors were holding. She was, in that moment, chatting with people she barely knew about the prank the Marauders had just pulled.

And, well, let's state the obvious. It was a prank to remember.

You see, they had for some reason come up with the brilliant idea of ruining the Halloween feast by turning all the lights off and scaring everyone to death by putting on a little performance.

And the song they sang? Well, it was Queen of bloody course.

Behind everything, Claudia and Lily stood and helped with the music as Sirius belted "Somebody To Love" in place of Freddie Mercury as the rest of the Marauders played their interesting versions of the rest of the band members; all of them in costume.

And, finally, it all was wrapped up by fireworks.

It may not have been the most Halloween-like prank, but it was something none of them would ever forget for years to come. It was something no one in the Great Hall would forget; not even McGonagall or Dumbledore or Regulus or even Snape.

And, well, the plan had been made sort of last minute due to the group spending all their time to plan doing stupid and useless things such as building card houses, sarcastically fighting about the silliest of things and walking around the school with the intention to find James and Lily wherever they were hiding. Which they, for the record, always failed with doing.

Claudia laughed at something a random lad said that she couldn't even hear, and then she felt someone wrap their arms around her from where she sat on the couch in the Gryffindor common room.

"I'm tired," Remus whispered in her ear, hugging her close. "Come to bed with me?"

"Let's stay a little longer," Claudia said, yawning nonetheless.

"You're tired too," Remus noted.

"Mhm," Claudia nodded, burying her face in the croak of his neck and closing her eyes. "Too tired to move. So let's just sleep right here."

Remus chuckled, "I don't think napping during a party is an acceptable thing to do."

"Well, it should be," Claudia retorted, shushing him with her index finger and closing her eyes again.

Remus rolled his eyes, for there was no way he was going to just let her sleep right there and then, so he scooped her up into his arms and ignored her complaints as he headed towards his dorm, only to be stopped by James.

"What?!" Remus asked in a shout, due to James screaming something that he couldn't hear because Sirius was performing yet another Queen song.

"She said yes!" James yelled.

"What?!"

"Lily! I asked her!"

"What?!"

"I asked her on a proper date and she said yes!"

Remus immediately laughed and smiled, feeling incredibly happy for his best friend yet feeling confused because he never would've thought that the day would've come, and also because he was pretty sure that the two had already had a proper date.

Which they sort of had. But, however, this was the first time they both knew that it was one for sure.

And, well, Claudia heard it all. So next thing Remus knew, the girl was on her feet jumping up and down in front of James before stopping and then taking off elsewhere.

"Where are you going?!" Remus called after her.

The girl turned around with a big smile on her face that made him feel all warm inside, "I've got places to be and people to see! I'll catch you later, loverboys!"

And then, as you'd expect, the girl headed to find Lily so that she could question her like a true friend.

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a/n: booooring filler but merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate ily so so much!!!! <33333