Chapter 1: Don't Say I Didn't Warn You

"Alright! Alright! Are you guys done?" Lily's impatient voice wafted over to the couple kissing under the floating mistletoe. They instantly broke apart and stared wide-eyed at her. She had her arms crossed and her face was fighting to keep straight and passive.

Lily huffed a little and turned her head. A small patch of pink appeared on her cheeks before she spoke, "You've been at it since the last time I checked these halls. I thought you guys would've been gone by now. So could you please go to bed before I have to drag you both back?"

The two fifth years gave a slight nod before scrambling off into the dark. When they were clearly gone, Lily shook her head and smiled. It was just too cute for her to catch couples after dark kissing under the mistletoes. But lately, it was getting unnerving as she's caught more than half a dozen in one night.

Turning around to finish her rounds, an unnatural breeze of wind whooshed by her face. "I'd love to take you to bed, Tiger. How 'bout it?"

Lily gasped and turned around. Nobody was there. A small chuckle caught her attention. She squinted and her ears perked up. She could hear the soft laughter but she couldn't tell which direction it was coming from. Her eyes strained for any sign of movement, but there was none. She looked over all the shadowed places, but there was nothing. The empty, dark hall was, in fact, empty.

Suddenly, invisible hands grasped her arms from behind and she felt herself sink against the body of another person. She twisted and tried to pull away. "That better not be you, James," she said dangerously. Lily didn't have the right attitude to deal with this right now. She was tired, it was late, and she was definitely not in the mood for one of his pranks.

Since December rolled in, James had been trying to catch Lily under the little traditional flower. It had been quite a shock when she was kissed by air one night while doing her rounds. She found out about his Invisible Cloak and now she knew better than to walk near any mistletoe so long as he had it.

A chuckled escaped from her captor.

"I'm hurt, Lil. How can you not tell this body apart from James's?" The voice now had a face as it appeared out of nowhere. It was like a head floating in the middle of the air. The effect was quite scary.

"Holy-! Sirius!" Lily elbowed him in the ribs from sheer reflex.

"Geez! Ow!!" The rest of the Invisibility Cloak left him as he doubled over. No one else seemed to be there, but Lily was sure that she had heard James as well. She looked around then eyed him suspiciously. 

"Where's…"

"Right here, Lily flower," a bodiless voice had whispered in her ear. A shiver ran up her spine and she tried to recollect herself from the soft sensation. Slightly irritated, Lily flung an arm out only to have it caught in midair. She looked mildly surprised when her face came within inches of James's. "There's always one way you can tell it's me, love." He closed the gap between them and took all liberties to explore her mouth. It took Lily all the will power she had to keep from losing herself.

Lily pulled away slightly dizzy and her breath was erratic. She gave him an incredulous look as if to ask what he was doing. To the world and all around it was only a few seconds of a fiery kiss, but to her it seemed to last forever and it was like nothing he had ever done to her before. She didn't know whether to be blissful or enraged.

It only took Lily a while to make a decision as Sirius and James tore down the hall laughing under the Invisibility Cloak with limbs suddenly appearing every so often. She stood dumbly for a second before racing after them, wanting to scream and hex them for catching her off guard and playing dirty. Her face was flushed from embarrassment and was growing pinker as she ran. "You're gonna get it!"

Lily rounded a corner and she was sure they had come this way, but she couldn't hear a thing. Not even the faintest breathing noise or shuffling of clothing. That's odd, she thought, I could've sworn they came this way. She looked around and frowned. There was nothing but portraits on the wall and a couple of doors which Lily knew were locked. Scratching her head, her confused expressions shifted into her face. She caught sight of mistletoe and backed away a few steps. Then she shrugged and walked away, fully intending to finish her rounds and getting to bed.

"Whoa, haha, I thought she was going to catch us for sure! Imagine what her hexes could do!" Sirius leaned against the back of a portrait they had just slipped through.

"Yea, I know," James laughed. He licked his lips and his smile grew wider. He could still taste her and felt the light tingle lingering there. Then he groaned, "She's going to kill me tomorrow."

"Wasn't it worth it, though? Aw, don't say it wasn't. I saw how much you liked it," Sirius teased and grinned. He took out a pouch from his robes and held it up in front of his face. "Let's get going. I want to see if this stuff we bought works. Heh, Filch'll be perfect. C'mon."

James took the pouch and proceeded to lead the way to Filch's office. This is going to be good, he thought.

Lily twiddled with the funny gold string in her hands. She had confiscated them from some boys who were torturing a cat with it. "Vary String," she mumbled absently. She knew how it worked; she had a silver one herself. The string could turn into whatever length and whatever strength one desired. She could manipulate it to do whatever she wanted. It was like an extension of her mind.

She looked at the string and thought. She didn't need it and she didn't need it to fall into the hands of nasty little children like those boys back there either. She shrugged and started to walk to Filch's office. He'd be happy to see it.

"Okay, shut up, Padfoot and hide. I think he's coming." James stood by the door with a Static Yo-Yo in his hands. He planned to give it to Filch and make him go into his office where Sirius would make sure the powder would hit him full force.

Everything was in place, but the person that came walking down the hall wasn't Filch. It was Lily. James jumped and looked around for a hiding place. Before he could properly turn around and run, strings shot out and held him.

"Where're you going?" Lily stood a few feet away from him, string wounded around her fingers on her right hand. She gave a tug and James came stumbling towards her. He stopped just enough to keep from crashing in. He grinned uneasily and tried to speak, but Lily got there first.

"Oh, is that a Static Yo-Yo? For Filch, right? That's great, I've got these Vary Strings here," she waved her hand and James tumbled into her. She pushed him away and continued to speak, "C'mon. I'm dropping this off. You should too. And then I'll hex you into oblivion." She dragged him to Filch's door despite all his protests and reasoning. She just thought he was acting weird again.

Lily heard a noise from behind the door. Thinking it was Filch, she rapped the door twice to announce her arrival. She swung the door open. Surprisingly, she received a face full of sparkly powder. Coughing, she tried desperately to wave it away, strings completely forgotten. From behind her, she could hear James urgently telling her not to breathe it in. But the powder was getting into her eyes, blinding her. She breathed it in against her will and it choked her.

Sirius bolted with a lungful of air, hoisted Lily over his shoulder, and darted out the door. When he reached the safety of fresh air, he stopped short and kneeled on the stone floor. He breathed in deeply. Looking down, he became aware of a slight squirming in his arms. Eyes disbelieving, he looked from the small bundle and up to James. James looked equally surprised and motioned for him to find out what was there.

Sirius carefully took aside the layers of robes and when he came close to taking off the last piece of fabric obscuring their view, a hand reached out and yanked his hair.

"ARGH!" Sirius dropped the bundle and rubbed his head. Peaking out from under the layers of black, a petite little redhead blinked at him. He reached out, wanting to grab her, but she pulled back. "Come here, kid."

She looked fearfully at him and took a few steps back.  "Mo-mommy said not to talk to s-strangers." James came up behind her and scooped her into his arms. Making her look at him he asked, "Lily??" Lily's bottom lip quivered then she bit hard into his hand. James yelped and dropped her. She gave a final kick to Sirius's shin before dashing down the hall with her oversized robes trailing after her.

It took Sirius and James some time before administrating what had happened. They weren't quite sure if they were dreaming or not. Sirius had enough nerve to grin and say the powder worked. James had given him a withering look before running after the little girl.

They followed the sound of little pants and they were sure they were about to reach her. They turned a corner and WHAM!

James saw stars. He took a closer look and what he saw wasn't nearly as pretty as stars. It was Filch's snarling face glaring at him. James thought fast and thrust the Cloak at Sirius before turning back to face the gangly man.

"What are you doing 'ere?" Filch said in his croaky, flat voice.

"Er…" James thought hard and stuffed his hand into his pocket. The Static Yo-Yo! "I was doing Head Boy duty and ah…Here! to add to your collection of confiscated material. Oh, and also…Vary String! I know you don't have that – I mean, I'm sure you'd like this." Filch was too busy admiring his new items to notice James's ill-picked words. He gave a slight grunt of thanks before limping off in the direction of his office.

James let out a sigh of relief. Sirius threw off the Cloak and rubbed his cheek. "Take better aim next time, will ya? First my ribs, and then the hair and now my face; I'd like to keep these gorgeous features for a while, okay? Now, where's that brat?"

James strained for any noise of panting or tiny pitters of her footsteps. He shook his head. "I think we lost her, Padfoot."

Sirius grunted. "I don't think so." He transformed and sniffed the ground. Taking a few steps in one direction, he bounded for the other in a split moment. James ran after him and they slipped through rooms and corridors. They finally halted at the mouth of a hall lined with suits of armour. A little figure was walking towards the other end of the hall. She looked at the armour with every step. She seems a bit frightened.

The two walked cautiously up to her. Just when they thought they had her, she whirled around to face them. Lily gave a little squeak. She turned to run, but collided into a knight's leg. It tipped over and fell like dominos to the next one. Lily skidded and kept on running with Sirius and James at her tail, avoiding falling pieces of armour along the way.

A battle axe headed straight for Lily's head. She looked up in time to scream. Not being able to do anything else, she looked away and squeezed her eyes shut.

Hey guys, thanks for reading. My writing skills are sort of at the brink of average, but I hoped you liked it anyway. Now, be a nice reader and review for me, k? I like all sorts, so be it good or be it bad, give me your comments and opinions!