Chapter 2: The Prank War

The first breakfast after Christmas break was no ordinary breakfast.

It started out that way. The candles floated overhead and cast a gentle glow against the tables, but they were deemed unnecessary by the sunlight that streamed through the windows behind the head table.

The students of Hogwarts had a satisfied air about them. After spending time with their families or celebrating Christmas with their school friends, they were ready to get back to work and study hard so that- please.

Who are we trying to kid? The students of Hogwarts ate as if consumed by a hangover, not from drinking but from the feeling one gets after a night, or couple of weeks, of freedom and enjoyment, but with the knowledge that the party is over, and that they have to work, to go back to normal, and fall into the pattern of routine.

Lily, coat slid around her bunched up shoulders and leaning forward as if she could hide herself from the eyes of her fellow students, walked into the great hall with a heavy heart. She'd enjoyed spending the Christmas with her best friend, Marlene, at Hogwarts, but she'd had to respond to no less than four angry letters from her family.
One from her father, who wanted her around.
Two from her mother, who desperately wanted her to reconcile with her sister petunia so that they could be a most perfect family without division.
And the last letter was from petunia, which just upset her. Her sister's attitude had not changed during the school year. Lily was still a freak in her eyes. But all in all, it had been a good break and she didn't want to go back to classes.

Breakfast started out ordinarily.

Lily and Marlene sat down to eat, normally, but they'd barely loaded up their plates with steaming bacon and eggs when a loud boom echoed through the dining hall as the food on their plates exploded into glitter and flew into the air, sparkling ethereally amongst the candles, and making the shape of the familiar words that marked all mischief.

Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs

The students cheered, but there was more. The words evaporated, showering golden glitter upon everyone in the great hall. The glitter stuck there, giving students and teachers alike a shiny golden sheen. There was a great whooping and shouting throughout the hall as everyone laughed and stared at their now shiny gold tinged friends. At the head table, Dumbledore gave a small smile, his blue eyes twinkling behind his half-moon spectacles, now laced with gold dust. Even McGonagall broke a smile, and the Messrs.' in question knew they were off the hook. Only Lily scowled, irritated by the interruption and hungry now that she had to reload her plate with food. Was a nice, peaceful breakfast too much to ask for on her first day back?

She exchanged a glance with Marlene, who was trying to hide a grin as Lily glared at her through eyelashes sprinkled with gold.
Marlene burst out laughing.
"Lighten up, Lils!" she shook her golden blonde hair and punched her gently in the arm.

"Somebody's got to teach those marauders a lesson." The red and gold Lily grumbled against her breakfast.

5am Saturday, fifth year Gryffindor boys' dormitories.

One week, three whispered plans, forty galleons and two cups of coffee after the initial glitter incident in the great hall, Lily and Marlene snuck into the Marauders' room, carrying their purchases.

"And you're sure this isn't against any rules?" Marlene whispered, her breath raising the hairs on Lily's neck.

"Of course I'm sure! I'm a prefect! It's not against rules for girls to enter the boys' dormitories, and not against the rules for a prefect to confiscate a wand." Lily whispered rapidly; her heartbeat was racing in nervousness. Marlene just giggled.

"Calm down Lily, I was kidding. It's me you're talking to, remember?"

Lily nodded in response. That didn't make her any less nervous.

"Remember, it's just a quick swap. I'll take Black and Lupin, you take Pettigrew and Potter." Marlene's voice was the quietest Lily had ever heard.

Lily gave a quick nod in reply and the two spread out to opposite sides of the room. Pettigrew's wand was easy to find, lying on his bedside table. Lily didn't even have to open the curtains around his bed to switch the wand she had in her hand for his.
Potter's wand, on the other hand, was harder to find. She searched his desk, his drawers, and his bedside table but to no avail. There was only one option left, no matter how much she didn't like it. Lily cast a quiet opening charm on his curtains and found Potter fast asleep. He slept on his back, his wand clutched tightly in his hand, underneath his pillow. His hair fanned out on his pillow and there was a look of extreme peace on his face. A line of saliva dribbled along his cheek. She let out a silent groan and wrinkled her nose, not looking forward to touching something that Potter's dribbled on. Holding up his pillow with one hand, she pulled the wand out of his hand quickly, and he gave a stir. Lily held her breath and placed the other wand in his hand.
All of a sudden, Potter gave a snort and a groan, reaching towards his curtains and his glasses on his bedside table.

Lily, heart pounding against her chest, ducked under his arm and rolled under his bed, letting out a quick meow to warn Marlene. She heard a quiet rustle and -was that a squeak? From across the room.

Lily kept her breathing quiet as Potter's feet appeared inches away from her face. She bit back a curse and tried not to breathe the foul air in the space she was sharing with old, dirty Quidditch gear.

James Potter, you are disgusting.

James Potter whistled to a tune Lily couldn't pick out. Eventually, the feet plodded away towards the bathroom and another meow sounded. Lily rolled out from under the bed, nearly coughing from the air, and raced out, Marlene wildly sliding on the floor behind her, towards the common room.

The two took one look at each other, red and blonde hair a mess against their red faces, and burst out laughing.

"Merlin, the air beneath Potter's bed is foul." Lily croaked. "He's just… disgusting!"

"Just you wait, Lily Evans." Marlene panted. Green eyes met brown, and the two friends burst out laughing.

9am Saturday, East Charms corridor

"Gentlemen! Look what I've found!" Sirius Black's drawl echoed through the corridor as he and his three friends wandered leisurely along the corridor. Sunlight streamed through the window as the four marauders swaggered along the passage. It was empty, other than a few other students walking quickly past, a greasy haired boy leaning against the wall and two girls, a blonde and a ginger, conversing in hushed tones near a window.

"Snivellus! So good to see you." James Potter cried, turning to the dark haired boy.

"I dearly hope you've been thinking about your words and actions." Remus Lupin reprimanded, wagging his finger up and down.

"Just to make sure, let's teach you why you shouldn't call people mudbloods." Sirius Black growled.

"Expelliarmus"

"Levicorpus"

Potter screamed as a chicken burst from the end of his wand.

Black gasped when his wand grew flowers from the tip.

Lupin tried fixing them, fighting back laughter, when his wand transformed into a feather.

Pettigrew concentrated hard on a spell, only half certain his wand was safe, but stepped back in shock as his wand drifted away, turning to dust that spelled:

Courtesy of L&M

"Oh no, they did not." James growled.

"Who's L&M?" Remus wondered.

As one, all four boys' eyes turned from Snape, who was shamelessly laughing as he walked quickly away, to the two girls standing by the window, howling with laughter.

Lily

Marlene.

Potter turned to the other Marauders, a glint in his eyes.

"Gentlemen, this means war."

Three mischievous grins grew across the three faces in front of him.

9pm Sunday, Gryffindor fifth year girls' dormitories

Two heads, a red and a blonde, bobbed gently up the stairs together towards their dormitory, chattering quietly as they walked towards their room.

Lily and Marlene were discussing the laughing thanks they'd gotten from a group of Slytherins that they assumed were Snape's friends.
"It was obviously sarcastic. Did you see the look on Avery's face? It wasn't exactly friendly!" Lily's voice was a high-pitched squeal.

"Chill, Lils. They're not that bad really. They just don't like…" Marlene trailed off as she glanced toward Lily's emerald glare.

"Muggle-borns." Lily finished. The two girls shared an irritated sigh.

"Yes, I suppose you're right." Marlene acknowledged, rolling her eyes.

"But honestly, Lily, it doesn't matter. It's not like you have to talk to them again, ever."

Lily nodded thoughtfully. The steel gaze of Mulciber and the haughty sneer upon Avery's mouth would forever be burned into her memory. The only people she hated more than bullies were blood-supremacists. Bullies picked on people because they could, or because they themselves had problems. Blood supremacists thought that some people were better than others because of something beyond their control. People like that made her want to tear her hair out. Instead, she had learned to concentrate her energy on proving those bigots wrong.

Marlene was right, though. Lily might have classes with the Slytherins, but she didn't have to talk to them ever again. Besides, their little prank was over now.

Or so they thought.

"Ouch!" Lily cried as she bumped her head on her bed. Lost in her thoughts, she hadn't noticed that there was something very different about their dorm.
The floor was bare of everything. Furniture, books, and clothes: everything. Instead, the whole dorm had flipped itself upside down, so that everything was on the roof. Lily and Marlene, tired after a long day, groaned as the golden brown locks and tanned skin of Mary MacDonald and the silky black braid and dark face of Joan Thomas peeped down from their beds, racked by peals of laughter.

"I'm sorry Lils, Marlene, but the looks on your faces-" Mary howled with laughter, lighting up her silvery blue eyes.

"James Potter paid us to flip everything." Joan giggled, a coy look in her eye, while the girls flipped everything right way up with a wave of their wands.

"In galleons or in snogs?" Marlene drawled. Joan looked away and hid a grin.

Marlene rolled her eyes.
Lily raised her eyebrows.
"That git." She growled.

"Lily!" Joan whined. "I think he actually meant it! It was so… Passionate!" She sighed.

Lily groaned, exchanging a look with Marlene.

"Marlene, I think it's time we stepped it up a notch."

The glint in Marlene's eyes could have stopped Lord Voldemort himself in his tracks.

9am Monday, charms class

Professor Flitwick's shrill voice pierced through the classroom from his pile of books. Wax dripped slowly off the candles that were lit around the classroom as he called the roll. Lily breathed in the smell of old books as she twirled her soft quill around her fingers.

"Evans, Lily?"

"Present"

Lily tuned out after hearing her name. She hadn't seen the marauders all day. Ordinarily that would be a cause for joy but today wasn't an ordinary day. Oh, no. Lily and Marlene had finally gotten their revenge, and it was going to be sweet.

Suddenly, there was a stirring outside the classroom. The crack of feet against the castle's stone floor echoed through the corridor and into the classroom. With it came indistinguishable voices and an odd clanging, scraping sound.

Lily hid her smile behind her quill. She knew what was coming.

Four faces, flushed and a little wild, burst into the classroom, panting out an apology for being late. Flitwick just raised his eyebrows at the marauders and opened his mouth to continue taking attendance.

"Oh honey, don't be shy!" A deep, womanly voice, sweet as honey and rich as dark chocolate, swept through the room. Flitwick's squeaked and shut his wide-open mouth. The marauders went white and rushed towards the door, trying to pull it shut. But the full-length mirror forced its way in, reflecting thirty students' astonished, open-mouthed faces. The glass was clear as the freshest of water, thanks to the self-cleaning charm placed on it, and it was edged in a heavy gold trim. In the bottom right hand corner of the glass was written in red lipstick:

L&M

The mirror scraped its way along the ground until it was facing Marlene.

"Darling, let me tell you, you look gorgeous today! Love the top, and that skirt is VERY you." Marlene put a hand on her chest and gave a warm smile.

"Thank you dear." She replied, grinning.

The mirror turned to James potter.

"Now here is someone who could use my help! Look at that HAIR! And those shoes? With that tie? Forget it, sugarplum!" As the voice rang out through the room, James's face grew to resemble a tomato. A big one. He liked his red and gold trainers, even if they were a few years old. The charms class laughed, while Lily grinned to herself. Now THIS was going to be an interesting day.

James, on the other hand, fumed. They'd have to step it up a notch. His mind was already whirring with possibilities.

3pm Tuesday, Hogwarts grounds

Lily breathed a sigh of relief as she collected her things after a brutal class of care of magical creatures. Professor Kettleburn had brought in a baby dragon, which had singed her skirt and burnt half of her charms book to ashes. As she walked towards the castle, her shoes squelching in a layer of remaining sludge, she enjoyed the crisp air and quiet of the grounds.

All of a sudden, she heard a noise; building like a wave that one can feel coming. Then they appeared. Running down the hill on webbed feet were about thirty brightly coloured and oddly familiarly patterned ducks. Marlene, standing a few metres behind Lily, shrieked.

"Lily!" She cried, motioning to the ducks.

Lily rolled her eyes.

"Yes Marlene, I noticed."

"No, lily, look at them."

Lily glanced back at the ducks. A red one with an odd, lacy pattern adorning its back rushed past lily, a white duck with blue stripes close behind it.

Where had she seen that pattern before?

Realisation dawned on her as she saw a red duck with gold edges and a Gryffindor lion printed on its back.

She'd bought that pair of knickers the week before. She gasped.

"Marlene! Get to our dorms quickly and make sure our... drawers are still in our drawers!" Lily yelled, her blood rushing hotly through her veins. She could feel her face go red.

Marlene nodded, and charged through the sea of brightly coloured ducks.

"Professor! We need a cage!" Lily screamed at a curious Professor Kettleburn, running towards him.

He fumbled around with his one hand for a moment, before enlarging one of his smaller cages. Lily rounded up the ducks inside the cage. She had just picked up what she thought was the last one when five white ducks with black words scrawled on top came running towards her. They read:

Messrs.

Moony

Wormtail

Padfoot

Prongs

Lily let out a frustrated scream.

At that moment, Marlene came back, white faced.

"Our underwear is gone! They've transfigured our panties! They actually transfigured them!"

Lily looked back at the cage of ducks, then towards Marlene's face.

They stared at each other, white and red faced, for a minute before bursting out in laughter. As they did, they noticed another laugh, the laugh of four boys coming from the edges of the forest.

But Lily had an idea, which she whispered to Marlene. Those four boys had no idea what was coming for them.

7am Monday, breakfast, Great hall

Lily and Marlene exchanged a look over their plates of hot porridge. Lily's fingers clutched her wand under the table. They'd practiced silent charms for hours and it was time to put their magic to the test. Their moment arrived as the four marauders rocked up to the table, swagger in their step.

However, their swagger was taken away as all four of them fell flat on their faces, arms and legs flailing, as if they had tripped on an invisible string. As the students in the great hall craned their necks to see the mess of limbs, Lily waved her wand surreptitiously under the table. Everyone gasped, as the books that surrounded the boys began to float, slowly, gently, upwards, their pages flapping like wings.

Next was Marlene's part. With a smirk and a silent wave of her wand, the great hall collapsed into a sea of noise. It was not the students that were talking, however, but the books. The voices bounced around each other, spinning and dancing together as each book read aloud all that was written inside: what was printed and what had been added by the marauders in their handwriting. It was hard to follow a single book, as all were flying quickly in untraceable patterns. Lily however heard this.

"A single man with a large fortune"

"Lily Potter"

"My love"

"How could I ever love such a man?"

"Damn Potter you know you have no chance"

"He is unlikely to ever take a wife"

"Like you could get a bird as pretty as her padfoot"

"She wasn't an easy girl to meet, but the best there was."

"Joan? Easy."

"Only a man such as I could want a man such as you"

As the students caught onto what was happening, laughter grew increasingly in the hall. It was a wave of sound that grew so quickly, from tiny to mountainous proportions.

James Potter went red, an angry blush working its way up his cheekbones into the roots of his hair. He suddenly leapt up off the floor into action, jumping, reaching for the books that he didn't remember ever putting in his bags but had just flown out of them. Sirius followed his lead. Remus, on the other hand, had a thoughtful look on his face. He whispered something to Peter, and gestured to their two friends running around after books like headless chickens. Eventually, all four of them gathered together, and Potter waved his wand quickly; Remus's swishing behind him. The books rearranged themselves to say: "You win".

Lily and Marlene let out a large whoop and jump upon the table, dancing together, their feet barely missing the food they had already eaten as the great hall gave them a standing ovation. The teachers at the head table looked at the ruckus in front of them. Marlene flashed them an innocent grin. Dumbledore stood up; staring at them all with twinkling blue eyes, and joined in the clapping.

Lily had never felt more part of something in her life.

Author's note: Yes I plan on continuing this story, and aim to finish, but we'll see :)