AN: J.K. Rowling owns the characters
Lily Evans was not ready to be woken up on the first morning of her fifth year with a bang and that's exactly how she woke up. There was a loud bang somewhere in the castle, Lily sat bolt upright, Alice fell off her bed in shock. Marlene banged her head on her headboard and Mary who was an early riser fell off the bed laughing at their reactions. Cursing Potter and Black because Lily was sure it was them, she stormed out of the dormitory and ran down the stairs to the common room.
"POTTER" she screeched, "What the hell-" She stopped short when she saw him, looking blearily at her, leaning against Black who was dozing off against the banister of the stairs of the boy's dormitory. Lupin was rubbing his eyes sleepily and Pettigrew was nowhere to be found. At the sound of his name, Potter jerked awake and saw her "Hey Evans" he yawned. "Mind telling me what did I do this time?"
"What do you mean what have you done this time? Didn't you hear the loud bang? It was enough to wake the entire castle up and it's not even 5:00 in the morning yet." She huffed.
He rubbed his eyes and shook his head, "I had nothing to with it, Evans. I was sleeping in my dorm; we woke up when we heard the noise and came down to check. Peter never got out of bed it seems. If you don't believe me ask Remus. Now if you don't mind, I am off to bed. C'mon Sirius, let's go." He nudged Black who jerked awake slapping his knee away. "You coming?" Potter asked Remus.
"In a minute. You go ahead; it looks like Sirius would pass out here, if you keep him standing any longer." Remus said before turning to Lily.
"Well looks like our common room is safe, everybody get to bed. It's too early to gossip." Remus said. Lily watched as the crowd dispersed then turned to Remus, eyes narrowed. "Well, sweet dreams." Remus said turning to the stairs leading to the boy's dormitory.
"Now, wait just a minute Remus." Lily waited till Remus turned to face her. "Are you telling me that Potter and Black had nothing to do with this?"
Remus gave her an exasperated look, "Merlin Lily! They are really not that bad." Lily snorted. "And no, this time it wasn't them. Both of them love their beauty sleep a bit too much to destroy it for a prank no matter how funny it seems." Lily frowned before nodding. "Well, I will see you at breakfast then." She said as she turned to the Girl's dormitory stairs.
"Sure" Remus called back. Lily trudged all the way to the Fifth year girl's dormitory feeling cheated. Why would Potter lie? He was so arrogant, he would probably boast about it, but he didn't, damn! I didn't get a chance to shout at him. That toerag deserves all the shouting in the world. Lost in her thoughts of James Potter, Lily walked up to her bed and sank in it.
"So, what did James do this time?" Alice asked conversationally as Marlene snickered and Mary rolled her eyes. Alice Prewett and Marlene McKinnon had known James Potter all their lives, as they belonged to the same pureblood circles and maintained that he was a fun person to be with. Lily Evans felt otherwise, but they did not allow their differing opinions on James Potter to affect their friendship. Contemplating on her friendship with Alice and Alice's friendship with Potter Lily drifted off to sleep to wake up two hours later to get ready for breakfast.
8:00 a.m. was probably the peak time for breakfast crowd at Hogwarts. As Lily settled in her seat beside Alice and across from Marlene and Mary at the Gryffindor table, blue-green confetti started falling from the enchanted ceiling. The entire hall looked up to see an emblem shimmer which resembled the Hogwarts symbol but without any animals or any other symbols on the corners; a huge M in the middle and a motto which said "Crede latronem semper Prank". A message followed the now fading emblem, "Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs welcome everyone to a new term full of classes starting this morning. Also, Good luck with your breakfast." As soon as the message faded, all the tables in the Great hall including the high table of the teachers exploded, with food flying in every direction. A large bowl of porridge was dunked on Professor McGonagall's head, the other teachers and students weren't faring any better apart from professor Dumbledore, who had a shield charm up with his wand arm and was calmly eating breakfast with his other hand. After ten minutes of utter chaos, the food stopped flying, and Professor McGonagall strode to the Gryffindor table, looking for four boys who were emerging from under the table covered in pasties, eggs, porridge and pumpkin juice.
McGonagall stopped short at the perplexed expressions of the resident trouble makers of the school. "Potter, Black" she called in a crisp voice, "Explain yourselves."
"We did nothing Professor. Trust me this time it wasn't us." James said sincerely while Sirius clasped his hands on his heart feigning a hurt look. "Minnie!" he said reproachfully, "Had we pulled this brilliant prank off, would my flawless hair be covered in scrambled eggs? Everyone knows I would do nothing to jeopardise my hair."
McGonagall deflated slightly, it was true; everyone at Hogwarts knew, that Sirius Black was obsessed with his beautiful hair and that he would do nothing to harm it. She sighed, "If not you, then who would do this?"
"How would we know Professor?" Remus asked politely. "But might I suggest, once you find them, please introduce us, we would like to congratulate them on this brilliant prank" James added smiling charmingly. She looked at James and Sirius sternly, before turning on her heel and marching to Professor Dumbledore who was holding a meeting of some sort with the other teachers. After a few moments McGonagall announced that classes for the morning were cancelled as everyone needed to clean up and any form of magical cleaning proved ineffective; students were instructed to return to their common rooms where breakfast would be served to them and their schedules would be sorted by the heads of their houses later that morning. The students cheered before getting to their feet and walking out talking excitedly about the prank and guessing who these Marauders could possibly be.
As far as Lily Evans was concerned, as she tried to wash out the sticky pumpkin juice from her hair, the prank was brilliant but she knew that someone would catch the Marauders sooner or later. She had to admit, she was curious to meet these Marauders, they had managed to win the awe and respect of Black and Potter with just one prank, they had to be phenomenal.
Sadly months passed, the Marauders formed a pattern, one prank per month. The pranks were so out of the box that the school kept talking about them for days. Like during Halloween, the Marauders charmed the Suits of Armours to grab unsuspecting students and teachers and either start singing in a haunted tone or start dancing with them, the suits of armour then marched into the great hall during the feast and tap danced for five minutes before bowing and walking out to their positions. Lily loved that prank, even when no less than four suits of armour had grabbed her and danced with her, she loved the idea.
In November the Marauders had blocked all the passages leading to the great hall from the four common rooms with everlasting snow. As the teachers tried to banish the snow it started increasing, now spilling in various other corridors. It was Filch who ultimately started shovelling the snow and discovered that the snow would disappear almost instantly if it was removed manually. Classes were cancelled for the day as Filch, Hagrid and the other teachers shovelled the snow out to clear the passages. Breakfast again was served in the common room. Lily had laughed gleefully at this prank, like the rest of the school she waited eagerly for the next prank.
But apart from this Lily's life was pretty much the same, Potter still annoyed her and asked her out, Severus still told her that Mulciber and Avery's treatment of muggleborns is just harmless fun, she was doing well in her classes and Alice and Marlene still insisted on dragging Lily and Mary out on Saturday mornings to practice Quidditch. Alice was a chaser with Potter while Marlene was a beater with Black. Though she insisted that Black and she were just team mates, pretty much everyone could see that there was more to them than just team mates, well, everybody apart from maybe Marlene and Black. Patrolling the corridors with Remus was fun, but he missed patrolling every few weeks because his poor health wouldn't allow him to cope with the work load for more than a few weeks. He would spend at least a couple of days in the hospital wing and about a week recovering from whatever was making him sick. Lily had always felt sorry for Remus, but now that she had grown close to him as a friend, regarding him as the brother she never had, Lily felt sick with worry. It was unfair that he had to suffer so much at such a young age but Remus never complained, not once had Lily seen Remus be sad about not being able to do things that normal teenage boys did, he was happy with what he had.
It was the last Hogsmeade weekend before the Christmas break, Lily was really excited about finishing her shopping. In her excitement of reaching the entrance hall she rushed through the portrait hole and bumped into a tall figure.
"Ow! Watch where- Oh! Hey Evans" James Potter said as Black, Lupin and Pettigrew turned to look at them.
"Hey Potter, sorry about that." Lily said moving to the side, "Oh! Hey, Black, Pettigrew, Remus." Lily said nodding at them before trying to walk away; to her surprise she couldn't move. She guessed Potter faced the same problem because he was cussing under his breath. Lily heard Pettigrew snigger, looking up she saw Black smirk and Lupin shaking his head in disbelief.
"Sirius, get me out; right now, please!" Potter said politely, but to Lily it sounded like a threat.
"No can do mate." Sirius relied smirking.
"Remus, can you please give me a hand." Lily asked politely.
"Umm… I am sorry Lily, but no matter what I do, the two of you won't be able to move till you kiss each other." Remus replied.
"I am not kissing him." Lily replied, crossing her arms and jutting her chin out.
"Hey, I protest. I will have you know, I am an amazing kisser."
"I don't care Potter. I am not kissing you. Now get me out before I hex you."
"In case you didn't hear Remus, we can't get out till we kiss."
"So, this was your grand plan? Get me stuck here, till I kiss you. Let me tell you I am not going to kiss you."
"You think I planned it? Excuse me, Evans, but as far as I remember, you bumped into me. How do I know that you didn't plan this?"
"Why would I plan this Potter? I have not been asking you out like crazy every freaking day for the past one year. No that has most definitely been you. You have more motive than I do."
Potter scoffed, "You love me flower; you just don't know it yet. You will though once you kiss me."
"Don't. Call. Me. Flower." She said poking him with every word.
"Oh but you are a flower, my Lily flower. Now what do you say to coming to Hogsmeade with me? I can ditch the boys for you."
"Get away from me Potter. I am not going anywhere with you. Now get me out of here, you sick, twisted-"
"HEY!" Marlene shouted making them both jump; looking around Lily noticed that the three boys were now joined by Marlene, Mary, Alice and Frank Longbottom, Alice's boyfriend and Headboy.
"You might want to look up." Alice said, barely hiding her amusement.
Lily and James looked up, ignoring their friends' snickers. Right above them was mistletoe hanging from what looked like a golden ring, a message flickering on the ring's borders. Welcome to the pre-holidays snogfest. The mistletoe would be moving all over the school for the next two days, just grab whoever you want to snog and pull them under the mistletoe. The two of you won't be able to move till you kiss. Thank us later Ladies and Gents. Merry Christmas. M
For the first time in her life Lily hated the Marauders, who would be stupid enough to come up with such an idea? A tiny part of her however, was imagining stopping Gale wood captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, under one such mistletoe with her. She had to admit, it was ingenious the major drawback being that she was now stuck under this stupid plant with James bloody Potter who was smirking at her.
"Oh look! This was a prank by your precious Marauders." James said smirking; it was no secret to the Gryffindors that the perfect prefect Lily Evans was a fan of the Marauders. "Always think the worse of me don't you, Evans." He smirked smugly, crossing his arms across his chest. Lily followed the movement and realized with a jolt that Potter had an amazing body, to prevent her drooling, Lily looked into his eyes. Bad move. His hazel eyes, today looked like molten gold, they were on fire. Potter stared at her for a while before throwing his hands up; muttering "Oh! Screw this." and grabbing Lily's shoulders he pulled her to himself. Lily closed her eyes in anticipation as his face grew nearer, but the kiss never came, Potter held her against his chest engulfing her in a hug and resting his cheek in her hair, "I would never kiss you without your permission Evans and I would wait for the day, when you would kiss me without needing the mistletoe." He muttered before kissing her hair and stepping back.
Lily stood rooted to the spot, as she watched James Potter walk off with Black, Pettigrew and Remus. Maybe Potter was really not as bad as she had come to believe. "Earth to Lily" Marlene said waving her arm in front of Lily, "Will you quit drooling after Potter and move? We have some shopping to do." Lily nodded absentmindedly, allowing Marlene and Mary to steer her away.
AN: crede latronem semper Prank is latin for Trust a marauder to always prank. This is my first Jily fic. Please do read and review. Happy reading.