Lily Evans was a third year Gryffindor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was Halloween night of her third year at school when the young witch was observing her decorations on canvases with magical paint hanging for the Halloween feast.
Professor McGonagall, head of Gryffindor House, had noticed Lily's keen eye for art and asked her to help decorate the castle for one of Hogwarts' most celebrated holidays. Flattered, Lily sketched out many ideas between classes and finally decided what to paint- Hagrid's pumpkin patch, the owlery, and a skeleton dance party. Lily painted the canvases her favorite way- muggle style, but the magical paint allowed the creatures in the art work to move! The pictures were hung in the foyer outside the great hall. She ran to the foyer after her last class of the day, potions with Professor Slughorn, head of Slytherin House and Lily's favorite teacher. When she arrived at the foyer she stopped to see Headmaster Dumbledore admiring her paintings! What a warm feeling for Lily. She loved the headmaster and felt safe under his care and guidance. "What excellent work, Miss Evans!" the headmaster exclaimed, "Professor McGonagall tells me she's always spotting you painting some landscape on the grounds or in the castle. What brilliant creations." "Oh thank you, sir!" said Lily, "now that I'm a third year I can enjoy art class along with my academics and music lessons." "How are those going by the way?" asked the headmaster, "Do you love the piano?" "Oh yes sir, I do. And I hope I have room in my schedule next term to take muggle music and magical musical instruments. Both of those classes sound perfect for me." "I think so too, Lily! Music is the greatest of all magical arts." The headmaster nodded and walked into the great hall to prepare for the festivities.
Lily heard a loud crack coming from the dungeons. She was curious to know what the sound was, so she tip toed her way down the dungeon corridor. She heard echoes of a boy's voice in the hallway. As she came upon a corner, she peeked behind the wall to see who was there. She instantly recognized her fellow Gryffindors Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and James Potter. All of their robes were dirty and their hair messy. It looked like they were setting up some kind of trap. "What are you boys doing down here?" asked Lily in a loud whisper. "We're cursin' the corridor for the two Slytherin beaters!" exclaimed James like there weren't any professors for acres and acres of land. "You see Lily," he continued, "both of the beaters for Slytherin are also the house prefects. They'll be coming up to the great hall soon to help set up for tonight." Then Sirius spoke- "They'll be hurt for Saturday's match, the first of the season, which is against Gryffindor. That gives James a better chance to score hoops for our team! They'll have no protection from bludgers." On the ground beside Remus' feet, Lily spotted a book which Remus appeared to be hiding. "What's that book you've got there Lupin?" she asked. Remus nervously handed her the book. It was "Fruhe Dark Magik" by Bjorn Schadlich. "You're using the dark arts!" shouted Lily, triggering a look of panic among the boys' faces. "Lily please" pleaded Sirius. "It's not that harmful. Please don't tell." "But I must! This stuff is illegal. And you learned about it from a book in the restricted section. How did you get in there?" "We have ways" chuckled James. Lily gave the boys a stern look and they just stared back. Finally Remus spoke, "Lily please don't tell. This won't ever happen again. I will make sure." Lily hesitated and scanned them all again with her eyes before eventually nodding in agreement. "But still, you guys, your nonsense has to stop. You pick on innocent people and cause damage to the castle with your silly magic. Gryffindor's losing the house race partly because of the so called 'Marauders'" said Lily. "Our crimes harm nobody" said James, "we just do it for the fun and for the practice. You can't protect yourself if you don't know about the black magic that's out there."
The four students suddenly heard footsteps coming from lower in the dungeons. They ran upstairs and through the long hallway that leads to the front foyer of the castle. The boys skipped towards the main staircase and Gryffindor tower, but Lily stopped Remus and asked his to see her paintings for a minute. As they walked over to the embellished wall, Lily started to lecture, "You shouldn't do that stuff, Remus. You're a really good wizard. You don't want to go to the dark side." "They're my friends, Lily," he replied. "We have fun together. Like James said, it's harmless." "How can you say that when two prefects are at risk and so are you of getting caught! They're gonna figure out who it was! You shouldn't spend so much time with them. Your Ravenclaw friends are very nice; you should stick with them, and me, of course." Remus laughed and smiled as he gazed into lovely Lily's eyes. "See you at the feast tonight, Lily," said Remus before he slowly turned and walked towards the stairs to find his friends. Lily sighed and turned to glance into the great hall. The large room was decorated with Hagrid's jack-o-lanterns, ghosts dancing and dueling, bats flying across the bewitched ceiling, and at the high table stood Professors Dumbledore, dressed as a dragon, and Slughorn, dressed like a vampire. Lily herself wanted to take a short nap before the fun party tonight. After the feast, some third years plotted to sneak out and fly around the grounds and hopefully trek into the forbidden forest. A few fifth year students promised to help the third and fourth years by guiding them into the forest that night. It was her first act of rebellion and Lily Evans was excited. She strolled across the foyer and up the stairs headed for Gryffindor tower. On the way she spotted Sir Nicholas, the house ghost, and bellowed "Happy Halloween, Nick!"