SNAP! Chapter 1: The Golden Days

AN: I (CA) agree that this is a bit rough and choppy. It was meant to be a bunch of short scenes, as individual chapters, but some of them are shorter than others… and it didn't work out like that. Don't flame, this was mainly written for fun… and I am avoiding helping CC with Five Date Rule. *Hehe*

There is a second chapter as well. Reading is nice, but reviews are love.

Disclaimer: We don't own anything HP related. Sadly. But on the bright side, we own the plot of this story. Wow. If our stuff was on one side of a scale, and JKR's was on the other, we'd be about 3000 feet in the air and she'd be at the center of the earth. Wow.

"Lily, what the bloody hell is that peace of junk?" Lily's friend Alice Conroy asked.

"It's a muggle device called a camera. A Polaroid, I believe. It takes pictures, and with the spell I put on it, they move too. I am going to be the unofficial documenter of our last year at Hogwarts."

BANG! The door to the compartment flew open. As the train made a sharp turn, the four Marauders standing in the doorway went flying into a heap on the floor as the door snapped shut behind them.

"Ow! Wormtail, that's my hand..."

"Geez, Moony, your killing my arm!"

"Padfoot! Get your butt off of my face!!!"

"Prongs that was my nose, you wanker!" The girls laughed as the boys struggled to detangle themselves. Suddenly the third girl in the compartment, Marlene McKinnon, giggled to Lily, "Photo Op Numero Uno..."

"The Marauders in the heap of no return!" Lily agreed. SNAP!

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At breakfast the next day the Marauders, (James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew) sauntered (or in Peter's case, tripped) over to where the girls sat laughing over something.

"OY! EVANS! What are you laughing at?" Sirius shouted before worming his way in between Alice and Lily.

"N-N-Nothing..." Lily burst into laughter again. James suddenly plopped down on her other side and grabbed the camera out of her hands to start fiddling with it. "What's this then? Ooooo! Is it one of those kamar-has? We learned about these in Muggle Stud..." SNAP! James' shocked face caused the group to burst into laughter again, as Lily snatched for the photo coming out of the camera. "It's a camera James... It takes pictures."

The girls laughed and walked out to their first class.

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"A little to the left... No, my left, stupid!" Lily shouted as Sirius went the wrong way again. "Okay now wait for it..." She climbed to the top of the people-pyramid that the girls and Marauders had made instead of doing their homework. She levitated the camera. SNAP!

"Glad that's over! Merlin, my shoulders hurt!" Sirius tried to stand up, forgetting that he was in the center bottom spot. With a shriek Lily toppled, the rest of the pyramid collapsing on her way down. Lying in a great big heap, they all laughed as they tried to figure out whose arm was whose. SNAP!

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"MR. POTTER! MR. BLACK! WHAT is the meaning of this?!" Professor McGonagall waved her arms around, gesturing towards the foam and bubbles filling up the corridor and Transfiguration classroom. Sirius and James had their hands stuffed in their pockets, and their heads hanging low. They were the perfect picture of remorse… Except for the fact that they were trying not to laugh at the bubble-covered professor. Sirius sported a foam turban, James had a mustache and a goatee, and the Head of Gryffindor House didn't look too much better. All of the seventh year Slytherins were huddled in a corner, muttering to themselves, while the Gryffindors pranced around laughing. Lily aimed for the guilty party and eccentric professor. SNAP!

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"I can't believe you guys got US in detention for something we didn't even DO!" Lily complained, scrubbing another trophy, while kneeling in-between Remus and Alice, with the other Marauders and Marlene also working nearby.

CRASH! They all looked over to see a mortified Peter standing in front of a destroyed trophy case.

"Forgot that was the bad shelf, eh Wormtail?" Sirius asked, laughing.

The boys walked over to try and fix it, with the girls following closely behind.

After five minutes filled with many unsuccessful tries at fixing the shelves, and the girls in stitches from laughing so hard, Alice finally grinned and wheezed, "How many Marauders does it take to fix a broken shelf?" This set the girls off again.

"Oh come off it! We are trying as hard as we can..." CRASH! The shelf fell again, effectively ruining James's half-hearted defense of their work and causing the girls to laugh even harder. They tried propping it up with Wormtail's back... and groaned as they watched it fall again. SNAP!

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"Give me back my camera you prick! YOU BERK! YOU... NO, NOT IN A MINUTE! NOW!!!" Lily panted as she chased Sirius through the courtyard and out by the lake. She froze as she saw James, next to the beach tree, levitating Snape by his ankle. She forgot all about the camera until... SNAP!

"Last time EVER! I SWEAR!!!" James said, begging for forgiveness.

"We just needed one for the books," Sirius explained, passing over the picture and camera. "If you don't want it to happen again, then just use it."

Grumbling, Lily snatched up her things and muttered, "Hurry up or we'll be late to class."

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"Lils, pass the firewhisky!" Alice yelled, already half drunk. The three girls had warned their other two roommates, so Laurie Shacklebolt and Andrea Corrigan were gone. Marlene, completely wasted, was doing handstands. While Alice and Lily were jumping on the beds, Alice fell and pulled her curtains down with her. SNAP!

The door burst open. "Having a party without inviting ME... US?!" Sirius stood in the doorway pretending to frown. "I'm hurt. Now, where is the firewhisky?" Laughing, Alice finally rolled out from her curtains with several bottles. Lily levitated the camera as they clinked bottles in the destroyed dorm room. SNAP!

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"Too bad mate. I double Marauder dared you." Sirius said shrugging off James's protests.

"She'll just say no like she always does!"

"Maybe you should be more romantic. " Remus said as the boys lay in a circle under 'their' beech tree by the edge of the lake. Peter flipped over onto his stomach.

"Yeah try flowers and chocolates. And go down on one knee!"

"Fine." James grumbled. They talked about a bunch of things for a while before they looked over to see Lily walking towards them. SNAP!

"Needed a picture of 'your' tree," she said.

Later, in the common room, James walked over to Lily and bent down onto one knee, pulling out the flowers and chocolate. "Lily, will you go out with me?" He held his breath.

"I'd love to!" she answered, grinning. James was about to stand up beaming when Marlene pushed him back down, pulling out the camera.

"Oh no, you don't! We need a picture of the proposal stance!" SNAP!

Impatient, James leapt up as soon as the picture was done, and swept Lily into a kiss. The common room erupted into clapping, wolf whistling, "awwwws", and even a few "Finally"s from the older students, who had waited about three years for this moment. SNAP!

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A few months later, the group was sitting under the tree; the scrapbook materials lay out in front of them.

"I really don't want to. This is stupid. Pointless. I have final exams to study for, final pranks to pull, worries about my future to come up with!" The rest of the students stared at Sirius. "What? I know what studying is... it's when you look cross-eyed at a book for long hours to try and get your brain to hurt... because apparently that helps your brain get in shape for exams...".

The others all laughed and he scowled. "Fine. I'll paste stupid-looking pictures of me in a book. Jeez...you guys could have waited to let me style my hair before some of these..."

Lily stealthily levitated the camera away. Sirius continued, "It always looks like this in these pictures." He mussed up his hair. SNAP! "GIVE ME THAT CAMERA, WOMAN!!!" Sirius chased Lily around trying to reach for the camera.

For the rest of the afternoon the seven students pasted, cut, and designed.

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The last day of school was a joyous yet tear-filled event. The girls had made sure to wear waterproof mascara and the boys had practiced being macho enough not to cry. Still, this had been their homes away from home, or in some cases really their home, for seven years. The students around them they had watched grow up, seen them laugh, seen them cry, seen them wasted, and now, they might never see each other again. After the professors had each said a little something, and Dumbledore had given his final speech to the group of seventh years, they all went into the courtyard to mill around. Masked under the sound of noisy tears, cries of farewell, promises to keep in touch, and addresses being exchanged, Lily managed to catch the eye of her boyfriend, James Potter. Waving him and the four other Marauders over, she and the girls joined them in walking down to the beech tree by the lake. Flopping down, the boys loosened their ties and ruffled their hair, as the girls shook out their hair and took off their heels. For a moment they sat in silence, gazing out over the grounds, at the castle, at all of their teachers and classmates hugging each other a while away, and then back to the grounds. "Merlin, I'll miss this place." Sirius muttered, suddenly passionate. "This is where I grew up." The others slowly turned their faces to him, showing their skeptical looks.

"With that remark, we had better look at this old thing." Lily summoned the scrapbook. They all gathered in a circle around it, laughing and fooling around. From over by the castle, Professor Dumbledore faced them with a small smile. He knew that not many of them, if any, would survive this war. He shook his head to clear the horrible thought. And, pulling an ancient something from his pocket, he aimed at the laughing group of closest friends, and... SNAP!

A/N: Reviews???? Another chapter is waiting….