The morning was warm, the first signs of a good summer dawned across the grounds of Hogwarts. The many towers and turrets, bridges and balustrades, fine carved gargoyles and paned windows basked in the warmth of the sun, its warm rays tickling the mountain peaks, the rays of light dancing off of the shimmering surface of the lake. A couple of wagtails danced a merry flight across the waters surface, chirping happily, to be hastily chased by a territorial raven. It would have been a quiet day in fact if it hadn't been for the fact that it was a Saturday and every resident of Hogwarts was determined to indulge themselves in a smidgeon of sunshine, even those who had exams to be preparing for.

A motley crew of students sat beneath a beech tree near the water's edge, the regular hang out spot for the quartet, some of the most respected students in Hogwarts, though not necessarily for the right reasons. The tallest was named Sirius Black, lounging against the tree trunk his eyes closed in rest, his arms cushioning the back of his head. He had a handsome elegance about him, sharply defined features and dark hair that kept many of the girls entranced. He had a small smile upon his thin mouth, the origins only known to himself though one could safely hazard a guess at the formations of a childish prank. His best friend sat near him, he was slightly shorter than Sirius and a lot scrawnier with a slightly thin face and sharp nose. He had a mass of messy black hair that had never yet been fully tamed, his hand often wandering and messing it up even more. His name was James Potter and he was gazing longingly at a group of girls at the water's edge. The third was deeply immersed in a book, he had a slightly unhealthy pallor about him and scratches up his exposed arms which were self inflicted under the extremities of the full moon. His name was Remus Lupin, a werewolf, an extremely lucky one at that and he flicked agitatedly at his floppy hair that managed to get in his line of sight every time his arm moved to turn a page of his battered book. He had hazel eyes alike the colour of James', which weren't quite following the words of the book as though it were a chore he would rather not be doing. The fourth of their company was Peter Pettigrew, he was often overshadowed by Sirius and James, a little like Remus and was in constant awe of the three of them, it was only their support that had meant he could become an animagus. He was a lot smaller then them all, sandy hair sat on his head and alike James' never seemed to know where it wanted to go. His face was slightly rounder, but thinner since his first years now that the puppy fat had disappeared at last, he had blue, watery eyes and a slightly pointed nose, the distinguishing feature between him and his animagus form, the rat. He had a large bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans in his hands and was lazily flicking them into his mouth, a few of them missing and bouncing off into the grounds. To each other they were known as Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, to the rest of the school they were known as the Marauders.

It was the nearing the end of their sixth year at Hogwarts, in the next year they would be facing their NEWTS and hopes of future employment. At that moment they were simply relieved to be sitting back and relaxing after taking their apparition tests. The woman who had tested them had been seriously annoying; her simpering voice was almost unbearable.

"Stupid woman," muttered James, turning away from the girls at the lake, his hand finally leaving bird's nest of a head alone. "Her bloody voice, how was I ever supposed to concentrate?" He looked indignant crossing his arms across his chest, his eyes wandered over the bag of Bertie Bott's Beans. "Pass us a bean Wormtail," he said lazily.

Peter obliged, throwing a blue coloured bean to James. "What flavour is blue?" he asked plucking a gruesome yellow coloured one and popping it in his mouth. The others laughed as he gagged and spat it onto the floor, a look of disgust upon his face.

"Looks can be deceiving," commented Sirius, plucking one from the bag and giving it a good sniff.
"There is honey flavour yet it's green, it's not into distinguishing between the colours," he said popping it into his mouth and apparently relishing in the taste. "It's all in the smell," he lied with a smile before leaning back against the tree, flicking the hair out of his eyes.

Peter picked up a black coloured bean, his pointed nose twitching ever so slightly as he sniffed it with a worried look upon his face. "Smells like strawberry," he commented still looking quite suspicious. He glanced across at Sirius. "Are you sure it's in the smell, strawberries are red."

"Sure I'm sure," said Sirius loudly, his eyes still closed. "Anyone would think that you'd never heard of magic before Wormtail."

Peter popped the bean into his mouth slightly reluctantly even though he had happily popped any old one into his mouth before. He chewed on it slowly, his eyebrows raised warily in a comical expression which made him look as though he were searching his brain for a long forgotten memory.

"It's bloody earwax again!" he suddenly cried, spitting the bean out, before watching it bounce down the hill and make a convincing plop when meeting the water.

"Your sense of smell can't be that good," commented Remus from behind his book, which was still stuck on the same page that had been open for the last thirty minutes. He reached out a hand for a handful of beans and shoved them in his mouth chewing heartily; at least four of them in one go. "Caramel, Chocolate, Sushi and Blood," he said, screwing his nose up slightly at the taste of the concoction. "Bearable one at a time but not something I would put in a cookery book." He returned to his 'reading' this time working on staring at the subtitle of page two.

"Lily was just staring at me."

"What?" snorted Sirius opening one eye, "We're not even doing anything", he cast an appraising eye over James who looked ready to serenade one of them, his face alight with glee at the possible revelation.

"Lily Evans was staring at me," James stated again, his hand immediately ruffling up his hair until he looked as though he had come off worse in a brawl with a hurricane.

"She's probably scared of any more wedding propositions," commented Remus dryly. "I know that you've never gone that far before," he added when James sent him a death glare. "But you do go a bit over the top sometimes."

It was very true, James had been bothering Lily ever since first year, at the time it was just pranks and innocent jibes, but when he started asking her out in fourth year there it seemed that she could not bring herself to speak civilly to him for more than five minutes at a time.

"But it was more like a dreamy stare, more a gaze," he insisted looking at them all fervently. "You know, like um ... Agnes Mildred!" he cried.

When the others looked at him blankly he carried on all flustered, his hands whirring viciously as he tried to get his point across while keeping an eye on the girls by the lakeside.

"Oh you know, like when she was in the exam hall, staring at the back of Padfoot's head all starry eyed, I wonder how she ever managed to pass any exams sitting near you Padfoot." James grinned wryly at the fleeting look of despair that flitted across Sirius' face.

"I bet she'll slap you one if you ask her out though," he remarked, trying to act like he had never heard his best friend's comment of his current fervent admirer.

"Not this time Padfoot," James said with a touch of arrogance in his voice. "She has fallen for my roguish charm at last. All I need is the right circumstance and setting, she is putty in my hands."

"I really wouldn't bet on that," remarked Remus, putting his book down and closing it on page two. "How many times have you asked her out?"

"How am I supposed to remember the exact number of times?"

"Too many, that is how many. I honestly think that if she had fallen for you, she may have said yes long ago. Even if it was just to humour you," he said with a sigh. "Poor girl must be sick of the heartbroken look upon your face," he added as an afterthought, shoving his book unceremoniously into his bag.

"I am not heartbroken Moony, it is a mere momentary loss of confidence," replied James, trying to pull back some dignity from somewhere, dragging his eyes from the lake side, turning instead to a staring contest with a blade of grass. "No heartbreak for me."

"Yeah well, I'll tell you that next time she rejects you and you can't bear to show us your face all evening," muttered Remus turning his attentions to the Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. "Keeping you awake are we Padfoot?" he commented, poking Sirius harshly in the stomach so he spluttered ever so slightly.

"Nah," mumbled Sirius sitting up slightly. "Just plotting."

"What?" asked James.

"A prank of course," replied Sirius stating the obvious.

There had never been a stretch of time longer than three weeks in which they hadn't played a prank, however minor. Their longest was two and a half weeks and that was at the time of their OWL weeks. When they weren't stressed about exams you could generally find them mischief making, despite their supposed increase in maturity levels in recent years. They had a few regular targets and sometimes it was as simple as throwing all manner of objects down the moving staircases and seeing who it could have hit. Some of them involved night time wanderings under James' invisibility cloak in which they could set up a trap, stink pellets under the Slytherin table and suchlike. Often enough they charmed one of the suits of armour to follow a victim around singing a rude song about them. In general they were mischief makers, specifically James and Sirius. They had been inseparable for years, closer to one another than brothers.

"Yes but what do you have in mind," prompted Remus. Peter watched them all, waiting for the finale, the unveiling of the prank. He had a bean halfway to his mouth in anticipation; it had been at least two weeks since they had pulled a prank on anybody.

"I was thinking of giving our good old friend Snivellus a call," commented Sirius, pulling out his wand and twirling it in between his fingers before continueing, "He's in the hospital wing you know, I kicked over his cauldron by 'accident' the other day in potions. It seems that nobody apart from your charming Lily has been to see him, "he carried on glancing at them momentarily to make sure they were listening properly. "Well I was thinking how wonderful it would be for him to find a box of chocolates when he wakes up one morning."

"Not one of your better ones Padfoot my friend," remarked James. "I was under the impression that we were to prank him, not send him chocolates. Stupid of me I know."

Sirius rolled his eyes despairingly. "Well funnily enough I managed to get myself an interesting potions book perfect for pranksters such as ourselves over the holidays, you may remember it Prongs." He reached into his book bag that, alike himself, was propped up against the tree trunk. "Peculiar Potions," his voice carried the title of the book to them all. "Brought it in Dervish and Banges, you know the new shop in Hogsmeade. Full of interesting potions that include some peculiar affects with no harm of poisoning."

"Don't you think that he'd smell something in them," interjected Peter, popping a bean into his mouth. "Strawberry!"

"Way ahead of you Wormtail, some of these babies are odourless, I know that dear Snivellus is fond of his potions, but he shouldn't manage to pick up on these," he remarked, flicking through the pages. "They're not something that you really pick up in a text book after all; they're more in the form of inventions. I'm pretty sure that he'll take the bait."

The others still looked a little dubious, each of them passing the book around and having a quick sift through, sneering their noses at some of the potions and chuckling at others. Sirius watched them all; arms crossed a smug grin across his face, obviously very happy with the plan. The fact that millions of things could go wrong surpassed his mind, or he simply brushed away. Making them quickly would be a problem, as would be slipping them to him unnoticed, not to mention being caught out along the way.

"One big problem," pointed out Remus, shaking a finger at Sirius with a wry grin. "Who actually gives Snivellus chocolates?"

"I told you Moony, this is a prank, not a nicety," retorted Sirius looking a little agitated.

Remus rolled his eyes and explained. "What I mean is ... nobody at Hogwarts would send him chocolates in the first place. It's not like he has any secret admirers and I've heard that even Lily doesn't talk to him as often as she used to after the last year. The Slytherin scumbags are barely people to care whether one of their number is having their leg dissolved in the hospital wing. What is our alibi? I mean there has to be a reason for him to be receiving chocolates at all, so we have something to hide behind. He would be suspicious unless he thinks that someone may have felt sorry for him."

Sirius was stumped at this remark, still flicking idly through the book that had managed to circulate back to him at last. "That could be a problem," he admitted bowing his head slightly in defeat.

As they all wracked their normally sharp brains for a suitable, believable alibi they were interrupted by a tall girl with waist length blonde hair, going by the name Eva Goshawk.

"Morning all," she said airily. "James, Sirius, old Terry's gone and organised a surprise Quidditch practice for tomorrow's game."

It was only at the words that her Quidditch robes and broom were noticed, a bat hung from her wrist swinging against her leg. She was a Gryffindor beater, alongside Sirius. James was a Gryffindor Chaser.

"Not again," groaned James, rising to his feet with much groaning and grunting. "Come on Padfoot we need to go and get our robes." Sirius remained motionless, his eyes closed once more. The book lay open in his lap; it seemed that he was pretending to be asleep.

"No need," interjected Eva, throwing them their robes. "Your brooms are down at the pitch waiting for you." She looked at Sirius and grinned wryly. "Come on you great lummox, or I'll throw me bat at ye," she brandished her beater's bat before her, leaning down to jab Sirius in the stomach sharply.

"I'm awake, I'm awake," moaned Sirius getting to his feet and standing beside the two agitatedly, leaning on elbow on Eva's shoulder as she rolled her eyes exasperatedly. "I will come only if you, little sparrow hawk, will kindly stop poking me." He poked her in the arm as she shrugged his off of her shoulders, smacking him around the head playfully.

The three of them departed, heading towards the Quidditch pitch, Sirius and James leaving orders to Peter and Remus to find a suitable potion which they could brew when they returned in the boys' dormitory. So they obediently packed up their bags and Bertie Bott's, before heading into the castle. Slowly meandering their way up to the Gryffindor tower, where they could plot in the solitude of the dormitory.

A good couple of hours later James and Sirius marched into the boys' dormitory where Remus and Peter were already residing. Peter was making some last minute touches to his charms essay on elemental spells and Remus was still busy poring over the book that Sirius had produced. It seemed that they had not quite decided on which potion to use in the time that had been allocated. James and Sirius were extremely windswept their clothes were dishevelled and dirtied as they threw each of their brooms at their beds, luckily Sirius kept his beater's bat down at the Quidditch pitch.

"Eva said that she'd help," remarked Sirius as he pulled off his Quidditch robes, slipping into a set of plain ones.

"Do we really need her help in this?" asked Remus.

"You know as well as we do Remus that she's been a good help to us, even if she doesn't always agree to what we are doing," replied James as he too slipped into some plain robes to. "She doesn't agree with this one either, but she's willing to plant them there for us, and get any ingredients that we can't. She said that we're kicking old Snivellus when he's down, by our own hand originally."

"But she changed her mind when I told her some of the funnier things that the potions in mind can do," interjected Sirius, looking worried at there the conversation was headed. "That's why she'll help us. She says that it should cheer him up when sitting in the dull hospital wing. Anyway, she'll be here in a minute."

"For a girl so smart she really does take a lot of what you say to heart doesn't she?" remarked Remus with raised eyebrows. "Oh come on, it's not going to cheer Snape up! Nothing cheers him up, apart from the opportunity to hex each and every one of us with his own little inventions."

"You just don't like it that Eva has managed to outsmart you on several occasions Moony," simpered Sirius, wrenching the book from his grasp. "Lighten up, full moons isn't for four nights, you're not going to miss any of it. And may I remind you, if it wasn't for Eva's help we would never have managed the magic needed to join you every month." He wagged a sever finger at Remus who opened his mouth like a goldfish, before shutting it tightly and looking away. His eyes met a little sparrow on the windowsill. "She's here."

Peter swung off of his bed, kicking the parchment off of the duvet in doing so and wrenched open the little paned window. A sparrow with an abnormally long tail hopped into the room and before their eyes, transformed to her human form.

"Why do you do that when you could walk up here?" asked Peter, settling back to his charms essay, still keeping an ear out for the others.

"Because any time I ever used to come and visit you guys for a prank, there used to be nasty rumours afterwards if you could so kindly remember," she stated coolly, a look of pure hatred coming across her face. "I'd rather not have the whispers in the corridor and I am sure that neither would you Peter, Sirius," she nodded at each of them in turn. "Or indeed you Remus." The back of Remus' neck went bright red; he was never allowed to forget his tiny crush on Eva in second year.

"What about me?" asked James indignantly.

"They never needed an excuse to poke fun at you," laughed Eva back to her normal self. "What with your pride being kicked by Lily every time you said something stupid in public, there was no need for more reasons to laugh at you. Now forget the old rumours, what am I needed for besides being a delivery sparrow?"

"Not sure yet," said Sirius, striding over to her and handing her the book. "As good old Peter and Remus obviously have not come to a decision in which potion we could use. Care to choose one?" His voice was low and pleasant, as though trying to make her do something which he had no desire to do himself.

"No I don't care for that," she said pushing the book roughly into his chest. "I said I would help, not do the whole prank myself. If I choose, get the ingredients and probably wind up making it and delivering them, you could quite easily stand away and point the finger at me."

"Would we ever do that little sparrow hawk?" coaxed Sirius.

"It'd be in your best interests not to Mr. Black," she replied coolly before lying down on his bed. "Now can someone wake me up when you've made your mind? I do actually have a lot of homework to be getting on with." They all knew that she was lying; they hadn't received that much homework at all recently as it was the time of the NEWTS and their Professors were busy with the hyper and distressed seventh years.

Sirius sniffed indignantly and sat on the floor, knowing full well that Eva would kick him off his own bed if he sat on her. "I say that we do the bubblegum sneeze affect one," he remarked, opening it up to the page. It had a rather extraordinary illustration of a man with a pink bubble out of each nostril upon it which Sirius seemed to find rather amusing. He dumped the book before Eva expectantly.

"D'you reckon we could brew that one?" he asked, hands on hips, daring her to say otherwise.

"You need to ask Lily that," muttered Eva, chucking the book back. "You know how much old Slughorn hates me for my inability with the cauldron."

She was speaking the truth. Her ability had never really lay in the realms of potions, she was more inclined towards charms and transfiguration, hence helping them become animagi, between her and James they just about managed it without any harmful side effects. Professor Slughorn always managed to pick up upon her lacking potions skills, he was determined not to take her onto NEWT level before being overpowered by Professor McGonagall, who had fallen prey to a heated debate with Eva herself. She had powered on through sixth year, every spare moment of her time put to improving her grades high enough to allow her to do whatever she wanted when she left Hogwarts. It was never the sheer number of NEWTs that the students achieved, more the specific subjects.

"We'll manage," said Remus, standing up and retrieving the book, which was originally in his grasp. "As long as we can get the ingredients." He cast a significant eye over Peter and Eva.

It was generally down to Peter to go down to the dungeon store cupboards in rat form and manage to whisk them away. If anything every needed to be gathered from the grounds, Eva would take the form of a sparrow and fetch it from the grounds. It had only been in the past couple of years that she helped them so regularly; she wasn't one of the famous marauders. But in having worked with them for a good few years to get around the werewolf problem upon which she had stumbled across by chance, they had come to some form of allegiance. She helped them when they needed it, and she got their respect and friendship in return. She was rarely ever pranked and often foresaw it coming, used to their schemes and the way that their minds often worked. She leant over and managed to grab hold of the book, her sharp eyes scanning the list of ingredients.

"These will take many trips," she commented at the vast amounts of substances. "I would suggest that you guys find somewhere to hang around downstairs where you won't be suspected of anything, or you could simply go and raid the kitchens. Then poor old Peter won't have to lug them all of the way up here. Meanwhile if you leave that window open," she said, nodding her head towards the window she had entered. "I will go and scour the grounds for what you need, I may have to go and raid the greenhouses. Your last ingredient will be a little tricky to get, so when you guys get back start without me and I'll get it to you as soon as possible."

"We'll go and camp out in the kitchens," butted in Remus. "That way we can get the ingredients off of wormtail and some chocolates from the house elves. If we do it at dinner time then they will be too busy to notice us being there longer than usual."

"You mean we're going to miss dinner!" exclaimed Sirius looking heartbroken, "But I'm starving!"

"We're going to the kitchens you twit," laughed James, smacking the back of Sirius' head. "I hear it is one of the few places on earth that manages to supply a meagre amount of the holy stuff." He smirked at Sirius before stepping over the book now on the floor to his trunk. "I'll be taking the invisibility cloak, just in case. I would give it to you Eva, for the greenhouse, but I doubt even a strong little sparrow hawk would manage to fly with a cloak."

She nodded with a small smile, before getting off of Sirius' bed and striding over to the window, obviously keen to get her work done and dusted so she could get on with her work, and presumably get her hands on some food. She stood at the open window, her features distorting and morphing as she underwent her transformation, the four boys looking on. As she took flight from the window they too, left the room, safe in the knowledge that she would not be discovered in her actions, for they were the only occupants of the dormitory.