Marco Polo

Lily woke up to a very beautiful Saturday. She yawned, stretched and looked over towards the empty bed of her friend Alice Edwards. Lily remembered Alice telling her the previous night about her plans with her longtime boy friend, Frank Longbottom.

Sighing, she swung her legs over her bed and reached for her clothes and bathing suit. It was very sticky, so Lily decided to visit her favorite swimming spot. It was a little pond surrounded by a small sand bank and trees. It really was beautiful.

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The Marauders woke up to the same thoughts.

"Oi! Sirius, wake up! WAKE UP! Uhhhh, you leave me no other choice…" James grabbed his wand from his bedside table and pointed it at Sirius' head. When water spurred from the tip Sirius fell off his bed and stuttered.

"W-what was that for?!" He asked. "That water was freezing!"

"Come on, we need to leave quickly. I checked the map, you're idiot girlfriend is eating with her friends so we have to leave now to avoid her."

When they were all were dressed, Sirius with a piece of toast hanging out of his mouth, they made a run for it.

When they reached the Quidditch field there were some first years there pathetically trying to play the sport. They ducked inside the lockers rooms and grabbed their four brooms. Remus and Peter were using school brooms, but Sirius and James, being on the Gryffindor team, had Nimbus One thousands.

Running, once again, outside they were pelted with hot air.

"It's too sticky!"

"I'm sorry, Padfoot, what would you like me to do about that? Go have a nice chat with Mother Nature?" James replied sarcastically.

"Yes! That would be great, thanks!" Seeming pleased, James snorted at his friend.

"Relax you two." Remus said, yawning.

"I'm not good without food in my stomach!" Sirius complained.

"You know, it's your own fault, if you'd just break up with that moron we could have eaten." James pleaded with his friend.

"Yeah, your ri-right," Sirius said yawning, too "but I'm gonna do it tonight, don't worry."

"You better." James muttered under his breathe.

"Let's go," finally reaching the shore of the Black Lake "Last one there is a screaming mandrake!" And with that, Sirius kicked off, shortly followed by James, then Remus with Peter behind him.

(Author's note: Just too clear things up, their flying over the lake to the place their going.)

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Lily had rushed through breakfast because of the heat. Sitting on the benched surrounded by talking people was like sitting in a fire. You could easily become stuck to the bench by your own sweat.

So, as fast as she could, Lily dashed out the Great Hall running by a Ravenclaw girl talking about how 'Siri-poo' was meeting her there. Lily laughed to herself. She sounded exactly like the girl she had over heard Sirius describing to the Marauders the other night. 'Clingy, clingy, clingy,' as Sirius said.

But she had little time to contemplate the thought of how some girls are so gaga for boys when she reached the waters edge. If she had turned around at that moment she would have seen four boys running towards the Quidditch pitch, but she didn't.

She was to busy dipping her toes into the wonderfully cool water. She quickly took off her clothes and levitated them over the trees on her left and further down the river bank where she knew a small bay was hidden.

Carefully dropping her clothes in an unknown spot, she wadded down a few meters until the water was up to her stomach. Then she took a deep breathe and dove under the satisfying water.

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James stopped short, causing Sirius to hit him slightly from behind.

"What's the problem, Prongs?" James held a finger up to his mouth to show Sirius to be quiet.

What? He mouthed.

James pointed down to the water about twenty feet below them. Sirius followed his finger and saw the back of a girl swimming below the surface of the water.

He raised his eyebrows. James shrugged, but motioned for Sirius to follow him, both wearing an evil smirk they set off once again.

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Lily opened her eyes above water, Just a little more to go she thought, and plunged once more under the water.

She recognized the water get shallower and the sand become a pleasant tan. Knowing she was at her destination she closed her eyes and raised her head above the surface, smoothing out her hair. But when she opened her eyes she let out a scream. There was James Potter, his face inches away from her own, lying flat on his broomstick, parallel to the water.

"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING?!?!" she screamed.

"Nice to see you too, Lily." They had been on first name terms since they had called a truce at the beginning of the year when they were named Heads.

Lily started to back up and when she was poked in the back, she spun around facing a smirking Sirius Black, and screamed again.

"Mornin' Lily."

"Remus, thank god! What are dumb and dumber doing here?" The three looked at the other two boys who had just joined them.

"Sorry, Lily, I didn't see you, we were to far behind them. They came here to swim."

"No." She stated.

"No?" James repeated, slightly amused.

"Yes. No. You are not going to swim here, because I was here first."

"No you weren't."

"Yes, I was. And anyways, I don't see your names here."

"Yes, because their not here, their over there." James pointed at a large rock that had a clear inscription written on it:

THE MARAUDERS SWIMMING SPOT

FOR PRIVATE USE OF

MOONY, WORMTAIL, PADFOOT, AND PRONGS

AND ANYONE ELSE SHOULD THEY BE DEEMED WORTHY

"Bit of a long title, don't you think?" Lily scoffed.

"We can put it in simpler words if you like, how bout, ours?" Peter tried to smirk but it came off as more of a grimace.

"Now Wormtail, I'm surprised at you. Another part of the title is 'anyone else should they be deemed worthy', and I say Lily can swim here-"

"Good."

"-but we're not leaving." James finished.

Lily was dumbfounded. On one hand she really liked this spot, but share it with them? She had a big decision to make.

"Fine." She muttered.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Sirius said as he flew over to the bank, dropped his broom and did a cannonball right next to Lily, spraying water everywhere.

"SIRIUS!" Sirius laughed and tried to swim away but Lily was to fast for him. She easily caught up to him in three seconds. The other Marauders laughed at the scene as they landed on the shore. Lily was pelting Sirius with small rocks from the bottom of the pool.

"Help…Help!" Sirius cried between defending himself from the rocks.

Remus eventually pulled Lily off, as the only Marauder she wouldn't massacre for touching her.

"I'm bored." Sirius stated.

"Good for you." Remus replied.

"