Ch. 4

At the other end of the table, the Marauders were eating breakfast. Or rather, Sirius was moodily eating breakfast while the others watched in amazement. Sirius actually eating? As in taking a bite and chewing? They had never seen the likes of it! Sirius always inhaled food- they weren't sure he even knew how to chew… Well, they did now, but…

Finally, Sirius looked up at them. "What?" he complained. He had no sleep and his muscles were all sore. After an hour of talking about Lily, James had recast another Tickling Charm on him, albeit a much more mild one, but it was enough to have him bucking around on the bed for the rest of the night. He shot a dark look in James's direction before brightening up a bit.

"Let's play Hangman!" Sirius has a strange obsession with muggle word games- language was one of the few things he saw as a connection between the muggle world and the magical.

The other Marauders exchanged glances. They had learned about it in second year, but never played it at the table. It was because of Sirius actually. Sirius had always insisted that food was for more important than words. So they had always played it in the dorm or the common room. But how could they refuse? Even if it was from (justified) punishment, Sirius did look rather horrible…

At the head table, Dumbledore watched amusedly. He nudged McGonagall, and gestured at the boys. They watched together as the boys set up.

"Um… Okay.." Remus looked slightly concerned, but agreed reluctantly.

James and Peter merely nodded their agreement.

"Fantastic!"Sirius suddenly looked a whole lot less pitiful, and the three couldn't help but wonder if he was playing his puppy eyes trick on them. It was too late to go back though. Sirius had already pulled a thin stack of parchment, several quills, and a bottle of ink out of his bag, and was quickly sketching in the noose and the blank lines where the letters would go.

"Okay- it's a phrase," he said gleefully.

James and Remus gave him a suspicious look, and Remus started shooting out letters.

"J."

"A."

"M."

"E."

"S."

"Wait- that's my name! Remus…" James said questioningly.

"I have a theory." is all Remus said before he touched his wand to the parchment. Ink seeped up to the surface of the parchment, filling in the rest of the blanks. It read,

J A M E S I S W H I P P E D

James narrowed his eyes, and then all eyes snapped to Sirius. There was what appeared to a bottomless bucket floating over Sirius's head, pouring water on his head.

Sirius spluttered, spitting up water.

"You know you are, Ja- a- a," Sirius choked out. A fish slid out of the bucket and plopped on his head.

Lily and the girls were staring, visibly surprised.

"James Potter!"

James looked up to see a Lily Evans standing up on the bench, shocked and borderline furious.

"Lily!" Alice, doubly shocked now, tugged at Lily's pant leg. "What are you doing?!"

Lily looked down, just realizing exactly what she had done. James, on the other hand, was recovering from his own shock.

"Yes, Lily?" he replied cheekily.

Eyes glued to the action before him, Dumbledore absentmindedly conjured up a bucket of popcorn. He offered some to McGonagall, which she politely declined.

Lily blinked. Struggling to maintain her calm, she said whatever came to mind, "Do you realize that with the rate the water's going at, Sirius is pretty much drowning?!?!" She waved her wand at the falling water, which promptly froze in mid air. Sirius, not quite sure if he could move, wriggled in place, trying to shake off as much water as he could.

"And all that for a game of hangman? Honestly!" She continued to (fake) rant.

James opened his mouth to respond, but paused before any sound came out. "How did you know we were playing hangman?"

Lily froze. How did she know?

She waved her hand at James. "Um… It just seemed to be floating through your head…" she said casually. A few snickers could be heard around the room.

James immediately turned around. Floating just out of reach was the image of their hangman game. Fiery letters were appearing on each blank. Quickly, he waved his wand at the flaming lines above his head. They burst into an amazing array of fireworks just as the first 'P' appeared.

There was a silence. Only the Mauraders and Lily saw the 'P' before it disappeared among the sparks. Lily was thinking furiously over what all this meant, James was just plain furious, and the other three were trying to make a quick getaway, shoving each other as the backed away. The rest of the Hall was watching them, silent, until they heard one person clapping.

Dumbledore was leading the applause heartily, throwing whatever popcorn kernels he had left over in his bucket in the air. Sirius, Remus, and Peter bowed and waved before running out of the Great Hall. James quickly bowed as well before running out behind them, his eyes never leaving them. When all eyes turned to Lily, she made a flustered curtsy, before also quickly excusing herself.

At dinner, the Marauders made a small prank to get everyone to stop talking about happened that morning. Remus told Lily about it in Transfiguration, and her confusion only increased when Remus told her that it all James's idea. Why would he tell her that? But it was a gesture she appreciated, and if James came up with it, she was thankful to him as well.

She noticed that James was missing at dinner, but didn't think much of it. She wasn't hungry though, and left dinner early. She turned the corner to Gryffindor tower, when she bumped into James. They smiled awkwardly at each other and tried to continue on their way. They kept moving the same way though, until James finally gave up and walked with Lily to the dorms. They spoke at the same time.

"Lily-"

"James-"

They stopped at the same time. James, continued somewhat sheepishly. "I just wanted to say sorry about earlier. It's kind of bad attention, so I just wanted to apologize about that."

"Oh," said Lily, surprised. "Well, thank you. It's fine, really. Remus told me about the prank- he said you came up with it to take everyone's attention off of what happened this morning. So thank you for that too, I guess"

"What? He wasn't supposed to tell you that. I mean, not the part about me coming up with-"

Lily cut him off, "James-"

He stopped talking.

"Do you… like me?"