Preamble
There it was again. That screeching sound. It was coming from the other side of the wall. It sounded like somebody was rearranging furniture. Lily looked at her watch. It was 3 in the morning. Lily hesitated but decided that she should have a look at what was going on.
So she got out of bed and slowly walked out the door and to the next room. The light was shining out of the other room and she could see people moving around. She crept closer to the door until she could hear the muffled voice of Sirius Black: "Quiet! Do you want to wake up everybody? We have to find it but you know what Dumbledore said! We have to make sure nobody hears us!" Just as Lily decided to leave them and go back to bed the door opened and James Potter exited the room. Her harsh intake of breath made him aware of her presence and he turned around.
"What are you doing here Evans?" he asked furiously.
"I…I..just heard some noises and wanted to make sure…nobody was doing anything unallowed!" With those last words she put her arms to her hips and assumed a pose that she hoped looked confident.
"Well you have to come with me and we have to decide what to do with you now that you know!" and with those words he grabbed her and dragged her into the room. Inside the room he put her into a chair. And there all four Marauders where looking at her suspiciously.
"What are we going to do with her?", Peter Pettigrew asked eyeing her.
"We could make sure she forgets what she heard and saw." Black proposed.
"No, that's too dangerous since none of us knows how to correctly do the spell and we don't want to harm her.", Remus Lupin said.
"Maybe we should tell Dumbledore! She could be the spy." Pettigrew suddenly said while the others where thinking about a way to deal with the situation. All four of them gave her suspicious looks again.
"What spy? I'm no spy! What are you talking about? And what are you doing in the middle of the night in here anyways?" Lily asked suddenly alarmed by their words.
"Great Peter! Why don't you tell her the whole story while you're at it." Black mumbled while looking at Peter murderously.
"I don't think we should tell Dumbledore. He has enough on his mind. We should deal with this ourselves.", Potter said looking at the others.
"But how do you want to make sure she tells the truth and really doesn't know anything about a spy!" Black asked.
"The verita serum we made in Potions yesterday!", Lupin said.
"Ok, that's what we'll do. Go get the potion Remus.", Potter said springing into action.
So they gave her the verita serum and then started shooting questions at her so fast that she barely knew which one to answer first.
"I'm no spy…" she said looking at Black.
"I just woke up because of the noise…" in Lupins direction.
"I don't know anything about hiding places…." To Pettigrew.
"Do you know anything about the secret hallways in the castle?" James Potter asked her looking at her with a stern, unforgiving face.
"There are secret hallways in the castle?" Lily asked instead of answering the question.
"I think she's clean." Lupin concluded.
"You just think so because you like her.", Pettigrew said looking disgusted.
"No, I think so too." Potter said and Black nodded when he looked at him.
"What are you doing here? What spy are you talking about? I swear I'll tell your secret if you don't tell me what's going on!" Lily said, seeing her chance.
"If we tell you, you have to promise not to tell anybody." Sirius Black said.
"And you have to help us." Came from Potter.
"Ok. I promise. So what's going on? And how can I help?"
"Peter, go outside and make sure nobody listens!" Potter directed
"Muffliato" Lupin added.
"You have heard about Voldemort trying to rise to absolute power and taking over the magical world?" James Potter said turning his back to her and walking a path in front of her.
"And he's recruiting members." Lily said looking at the three remaining Marauders suspiciously "But I won't work in his favour." She announced thrusting out her chin.
"That's good since we're actually working against him. We have probable reason to believe that the Dark Lord has a spy in the castle who tells him who would make a good member of his gang. Dumbledore believes us and allowed us to search the castle for clues. We found out that there is a list with all the secret hallways, where they are and how to get into them somewhere in the Gryffindor area. We are trying to find it to make sure that Voldemort won't get it." James concluded.
"But the school year will be over in three days." Lily exclaimed.
"That's the reason why we can't go around looking at places during the daytime. First of all we're starting to draw attention and Second of all we don't have that much time anymore. So will you help us?" Lupin said.
"Of course" Lily said.
"The sun will come up in a couple of hours. I think we should stop looking for tonight and get some rest. Just have a good look around, Evans. And tell us if you find something." Potter said looking down at her in the chair.
"And remember, you will regret it if you spill our secret!" Black said leaning down to look into her eyes intimidating.
And with those words the Marauders left Lily alone and went into their dorm.
Lily shook her head upon this weird situation and also went back to bed.
The next three days Lily kept looking around for hiding places and for the secret hallways she had never suspected in Hogwarts. But she couldn't find anything until the last day. Everybody else had already left the Gryffindor tower but Lily had to get back up because she had forgotten to take her "Defence against the dark arts" book from underneath her bed. On the way back out she decided to have a last look into the room where she had the weird conversation with the Marauders. She went into the room and suddenly heard a creaking noise coming from underneath her feet. She crouched down and found a small hiding place right next to her right foot. And there she found it. A little piece of parchment that had nothing written on it. But Lily's gut still told her that something might be hidden on the parchment. She put it into the back pocket of her Jeans and got back up. Preoccupied with her thoughts she hadn't noticed that somebody else had returned into the tower and she ran directly into Peter Pettigrew on her way out the door.
"What are you doing here?" they said in unison.
"I forgot my book and decided to have another look in this room before leaving. And you?" Lily said looking at Pettigrew suspiciously.
"I .. forgot my clock and was on the way to get it when I heard noises in this room." Pettigrew said.
"You are wearing your clock, Pettigrew!" Lily said looking pointedly onto his left arm.
"Oh, so I am. Did you find anything?" Pettigrew asked.
"Maybe. I found this piece of parchment but there's nothing written on it.", Lily said.
"Oh. Interesting! Let me take it. I will show it to the other." He said trying to grab the parchment.
"No, I will take it. I will come to you in the train and we can have a look at it together." Lily said putting the parchment back into her jeans pocket.
On the train Lily excused herself from her friends to go to the bathroom. On the way there she scanned every cabin for the Marauders. Once she found them she slipped in and swiftly closed the curtains.
"I found something!" she said breathless.
"What did you find?" Potter asked.
"This parchment."
"But it's empty!" Sirius complained having looked at it.
"There might be something hidden on it." Lupin said what Lily had just wanted to proclaim.
"But we can't try to find that out now. Here is not the right place." Potter answered.
"Yes, of course. Where is Pettigrew?"
"He went to the bathroom." Lupin answered her question.
"Because I met him when I exited the room. He was the only one except for me who went back up after the others had left. It was kind of suspicious. He said something about having forgotten his clock but he was wearing it around his wrist. He also tried to take the parchment away from me."
"That's weird. Maybe we should do this without him. You should keep the Parchment. We will come to your house during the holidays and try to work something out then. If that's okay for you Evans?" Potter looked at her.
Lily told them that she would be okay with that and gave them the address. Then she quickly went back to her friends.