By: Prickles (me)

"Who’s she?" a young Remus Lupin asked his friend Sirius Black. It seemed that the whole class of third-year students were looking at the new girl, who had dark auburn hair and rectangular glasses. The rest of the students all knew each other from the years before, so the new arrival particularly stood out, especially with the odd Canadian accent she spoke with.

"I dunno, mate," Sirius replied.

"I do," their friend James Potter interrupted, turning around in his seat to adress them. "She’s sharing rooms with Evans. Her name’s Ingrid Garner."

"Maybe we should give her a little traditional Hogwarts welcome," Sirius suggested, a malicious smile spreading across his face. An identical grin spread across James’s face too. Peter Pettigrew, the final Marauder, who sat beside James, began to shake with excitement.

"Hoo boy," Remus sighed, rolling his eyes. His friends were simply incorrigible.

Sirius’s first prank took place right after class. He took all of his friends’ books and piled them in his arms. Then he "accidentally" dropped a piece of paper as Ingrid walked by.

"’Scuze me, could you…?" Sirius asked her, acting innocent as he attempted to gesture at the paper, nearly avalanching all the books on her.

"Sure." Ingrid picked up the paper and suddenly she had a sneezing fit. Sirius hurried away, snickering, as Ingrid kept sneezing. She tried to let go of the paper but it stuck to her hand, and she kept sneezing. Finally her nose started bleeding, and Lily Evans took her to the hospital ward.

"Who was that boy, anyways?" Ingrid asked Lily later, once the sneezing and bleeding had stopped.

"Sirius Black." Lily rolled her eyes. "He and that idiot James Potter are always at it. I suppose that was their way of welcoming you to Hogwarts."

"Making my nose bleed? Great welcome," Ingrid pouted. I’ll ignore them, and they’ll go away, Ingrid decided.

The next few days brought even more pranking from Sirius –Dungbombs, misleading information about exactly which steps on the staircases would get your leg stuck, the works. Finally Ingrid had had enough.

"I don’t care if I’m new – I’m going to get that pathetic jerk back!" Ingrid pledged to Lily one night as they were sitting around talking.

"You could get in big trouble," Lily warned, "not to mention retaliation! Starting a prank war with Sirius and James can be potentially harmful."

"Ah, but I’m not starting it," Ingrid grinned maliciously. "They already started it." Lily rolled her eyes. So Ingrid began plotting her revenge.

The next day in Herbology, it seemed that a rogue Knarl had pulled Sirius’s chicory plant out of its pot, causing the ruined roots to shrivel up. And in Care of Magical Creatures, the Aethonian Winged Horse got along splendidly with everyone in the class… except Sirius.

"I swear, she told that thing to attack me!" Sirius bellyached during lunch. "Did you see her talking to it?"

"Maybe she was just trying to make good contact with it," Remus suggested.

"No way," Sirius abolished stubbornly. "She was telling it to kill me. Why would she do something like that?"

"Um, Sirius, a lot of people want to kill you," Peter pointed out.

"Yeah, but they’re all Slytherins."

"True," James piped up, recalling the great pranks they’d pulled on Severus Snape, their favourite target.

"You did pull all those pranks on her," Remus reminded him. "I told you one day you’d get a taste of your own medicine."

"Yeah, but not from her!" Sirius pouted, laying his head on top of his folded arms. "I’ll get her for this."

So the prank war ensued. Nose-Biting Teacups, Acid Pops, charms, hexes, curses, a highly annoying Fwooper that sang Greased Lightning, and more came from both sides.

"I don’t know how much longer I can take this!" James whined as he put another Silencing Charm on the Fwooper.

"Why don’t you just admit you’re sorry?" Remus suggested, looking up from his book.

"Yeah, it would make life much easier for all of us," Peter added.

"No way! She’s trespassing on my turf, and I’m not gonna stop till she gets off!" Sirius declared obstinately. His friends sighed resignedly.

"Ingrid, aren’t you tired of this yet?" Lily was trying to convince her new friend to stop the prank war in the opposite dorm.

"No," Ingrid said, lying upside-down with her auburn hair cascading down the side of the bed.

"This is so pointless. They’re not worth your time," Lily tried again.

"Yeah, I know," Ingrid admitted. Lily’s face brightened at a sign of acceptance to stopping. Ingrid grinned malevolently. "But I’m not about to give up first."

"Um, Evans?" James approached Lily in the library.

"What do you want?" Lily asked coldly. What an idiot.

"We need to do something about Sirius and Garner," James began.

"And exactly what do you suggest?"

"Well… uh…" James was tongue-tied in front of his crush. He cracked an embarrassed smile. "Er…"

"We’ve tried talking to him," Remus said, slipping smoothly in. "He won’t truce."

"I tried convincing her, too," Lily sighed, losing some of her icy demeanour. "They’re pretty stubborn."

"What we need to do is lock them in a room together without wands or something," Remus pondered.

"The Room of Requirements, obviously," James declared, having regained his voice.

"Of course!" Remus high-fived James. Madam Pince glared at them and they lowered their voices.

"What’s the Room of Requirement?" Lily asked in a hushed tone.

"It’s a room behind a tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy being clubbed by trolls," James explained. "Whatever kind of room you need, it becomes, just like that. It’s perfect."

"So we’ll get them to the tapestry tonight at 7:00, okay?" Lily asked.

"Okay," James and Remus agreed.

"Where are you taking me?" Sirius asked as he was marched down the hall by his three friends, who had also confiscated his wand.

"It’s a surprise," James said.

"Yeah, you wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise," Peter echoed.

"Oh, yes, I would," Sirius snarled as soon as he saw Ingrid and Lily down the hall. "You!"

"You!" Ingrid glowered.

"Shut up, you two," Lily commanded. James pulled aside the tapestry and the other three shoved Ingrid and Sirius in. Then they locked the door.

"Shall we head off to the kitchens to get a snack?" Peter asked eagerly. They laughed and departed.

Inside the locked room, Ingrid was mostly trying to ignore Sirius.

"Bloody hell! This is all your fault!" Sirius carped, scowling at her.

"MY fault?!" Ingrid yelled. "You’re the one who pranked me in the first place!!"

"Yeah but you didn’t need to prank me back!" Sirius hollered.

"Ever heard of revenge?!" Ingrid hollered back.

"Many times!"

"You started it!"

"I did not!"

"You DID!"

"Did not!"

"Did!"

"Didn’t!"

They fell silent for a moment, which turned into a minute. Sirius and Ingrid just sat in silence for fifteen minutes.

"You’re pretty good at hexes and stuff, you know," Ingrid said quietly.

"You too," Sirius admitted, coming closer to her. "How did you get the Fwooper to sing Greased Lightning?"

"A simple charm – Imperia Chanson." Ingrid grinned. "I’d do it on you, but Lily took my wand."

"Yeah, James took mine, too," Sirius pouted. "I don’t know why – it’s not like we would have actually killed each other."

"Oh?" Ingrid looked surprised, but when Sirius glanced at her she laughed. "So where did you get that Nose-Biting Teacup? That was hilarious! Or, it would’ve been, if it wasn’t me."

"Zonko’s Joke Shop. It’s in Hogsmeade. We’ll be going there on weekends in a few weeks, once all the permission forms are in."

"Oh, yeah, I remember that one. My parents almost didn’t sign it. ‘Oh, I don’t know, we’ve never been there, we don’t know what kind of supervising they have…’" Ingrid chuckled. "My parents are so overprotective."

Sirius gave a cynical laugh. "That’s nothing compared to my parents, let me tell you…"

Fifteen minutes later, when Remus, Peter, James, and Lily opened the door again, they found Ingrid and Sirius sitting on throw-pillows on the floor, discussing anything and everything under the wizarding sun. And from that day on, they were friends. Of course, that’s not to say that they never pranked each other again…

"Won’t that Fwooper SHUT UP????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Aw, come on Siri, don’t you like Greased Lightning?"

"NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"