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The first night they realised that Remus and Peter were master prankers was during the first week of school.
They found them in a cuddle pile outside of the Gryffindor tower, having apparently forgotten the password after a night of streaking in the halls.
The portraits had been horrified, gossiping all day long about the two boys frolicking naked through the halls of Hogwarts, switching portraits, hanging portraits upside down.
They were a couple of geniuses, and James and Sirius had been furious to have not been included.
But they refused to admit to it, and James and Sirius agreed that as long as they were all getting credit for being master pranksters, that it was fine.
It came to pass though after that incident, that a password was required to leave at certain times.
For a while following the first prank, very little happened.
A couple of vases were turned upside down, some lamps were broken. Nothing incredibly noteworthy. But the precautions that the faculty had taken against a repeat of the first had lead to their second big prank.
Gryffindor tower woke up to find their things had been rummaged, their rooms turned upside down. Peter and Remus were nowhere to be found, just a trail of clothes from their beds, and no one had been able to figure out what they had been looking for. Eventually, the students ventured outside and saw the long rope of sheets from the tower to the ground below.
The boys had stolen everyone’s [frankly, useless] top sheets, and devised their escape from the tower, somehow making it down unharmed, only to fall asleep in the excess sheets that were piled on the floor.
They had lost Gryffindor 200 points that day. James and Sirius were very proud, and very jealous.
Their jealousy came about in a scolding about keeping their clothes on.
“We really must work on your execution,” James had said,
“I truly don’t understand why you have to do this naked,” Sirius had pitched in.
They had been dubbed the naked marauders.
Peter and Remus had no idea what was going on. James and Sirius didn't believe them.
Tired of being left out of their shenanigans, James and Sirius decided to stay awake, and wait for the duo to get to business.
They hid beneath James’ invisibility cloak, but they needn’t have bothered, for when the boys rose, they were still, quite obviously asleep.
They tossed and turned, and itched and grumbled, before getting up and tossing off their clothes. James and Sirius raised their brows in surprise.
They rushed forward to pick up the discarded clothes, touching them curiously. They were standard issue Hogwarts pyjamas. Apparently, rather than wearing them, their roommates would prefer to wear nothing, and terrorise the castle for their discomfort.
They conjured a garbage bag and began collecting the pyjamas from the draws, chasing after Remus and Peter with a pair of their own silk versions.
The sleeping boys put them on, and apparently appeased, were willing to do whatever the other boys asked of them.
So the marauders ransacked the drawers of Gryffindor tower once more but as four, and removed all of the cheap nasty pyjamas. They worked all night to sew them together, and create a giant fabric that they then pained on,
“We’d rather be naked than wear your scratchy Pyjamas!”
The large banner was hung from over the staircases near the great hall for all the school to see, while they chanted, toss your scratchy pyjamas! Piles and piles of Pyjamas being tossed out the window before the end of the day.
They continued to protest until the standard issue pyjamas were improved, and not scratchy.
Remus and Peter never night walked again. But they didn’t pull any pranks either, much to Sirius and James’ chargrain.