I am so sorry this is so short, I've been writing this consistently, but I've only really had time for 5-10 min writing sessions, school is just that hectic. I realised it was going to take me a really long time to finish this chapter to the length I wanted, so I decided just to post what I have written.
It's the holidays in a week, so hopefully I'll get one or two longer chapters in then.
Thanks to everyone who has favourited and followed, and again, I'm sorry that is has taken so long for a really short chapter.
Happy reading!
xox Alice
3
'I cannot believe you,' fumed Lily, watching the chaos in the Great Hall.
'Lily, I have no idea what you mean,' answered James from beside her, with a smirk on his face. Lily turned and punched him in the shoulder.
'Ow,' she said, rubbing her hand. James grinned, and flexed his bicep. Lily glared at the side of his head for a while, before realising that James was paying her no attention whatsoever. He was watching hysteria that surrounded them. Lily felt as if she was standing in a bubble of calm, outside of which anarchy reigned. She sighed. She had expected it really. It had been too much to hope that the Marauders would refrain from pranking. But the waiting had been excruciating. Lily knew that they were cutting back on pranks this year, due to James being Head Boy, but every morning she had tensed, waiting for everyone's soup to start levitating, or their pumpkin juice to be upended on her head, or Gryffindor streamers to fall from the ceiling (dousing everyone in a healthy red and gold Gryffindor tan). But it had been a whole month. Lily supposed this was a new tactic Remus had thought of. Lull everyone into a false sense of security, and then conceal twenty Cornish pixies in every shepherd's pie. Lily glanced up briefly to see a shrieking Amos Diggory being lifted up past the floating candles and disappear into the clouds scattered across the enchanted ceiling. Suddenly, he dropped, screaming girlishly. Lily sighed, and lifted her wand.
'Arresto Momentum.'
The cushioning charm took affect, and a surprised Amos was rescued from death by Cornish pixie. Lily watched as a harassed McGonagall was trying to calm a first year whose pie was now inedible. Surely someone had tried to stop this madness?
Lily sighed and, raising her wand, murmured, 'Immobulus.'
She felt a great jerk around her navel, much like the pull of a portkey. She gave a shriek, and squeezed her eyes tight. When the feeling stopped, she tentatively opened her eyes, hoping she wouldn't find herself hanging upside down.
Dammit. She was hanging upside down, her face level with James'.
Ignoring the blood rushing to her head, she glared at James, who sank to the floor, completely silent with laughter.
'JAMES POTTER!' Lily shrieked, struggling to keep her robes from falling into her face.
'I'm sorry, Evans,' James choked out between gasps of mirth, 'but… your face! Priceless!' Unable to finish the rest of the sentence, he clutched his stomach and sank to the floor.
'Get,' Lily set through her teeth, 'me down. Right. Now.'
James, recognising her tone after years of her verbally abusing him, gathered himself. He murmured a counterspell, and Lily found herself floating slowly to the floor. Fighting the urge to punch Potter in the face, assumingly correctly that it would hurt her more than it would hurt him, Lily glared at him (which he pretended not to see), and then turned to the staff table. Professor Slughorn was struggling to lift his massive weight out of his chair to save a poor second year who was pinned to the ground by several pixies. The young astronomy professor, Professor Vector, was attempting to hit some away with a plate. Only Dumbledore seemed calm. He sat watching the scene with a slight smile on his regal visage. He turned to look at James, ignoring the blue creature that was pulling at his long, silvery beard. James grinned wickedly at Dumbledore, who gave him a small frown.
'You're going to get expelled,' said Lily confidently, turning to James.
'Who me?' he asked, glaring at her in mock indignation.
'Yes you! You think you're going to get away with this?'
'Evans, I have absolutely no idea what you are on about. I simply sat down at dinner tonight, and sliced myself some shepherd's pie. Imagine my consternation when I found it was completely inedible.'
'Inedible because of you,' Lily hissed, reaching into her bag and pulling out her potions text-book in time to batter away a wayward pixie.
'Evidence, Evans. You need evidence,' James grinned, and clapped a passing Sirius around the shoulders.
Lily was beginning to wonder when the mayhem would end, when Dumbledore got out of his seat, evidently under the impression that the prank had gone far enough. He always allowed the pranks the Marauders pulled to continue on for more than necessary, at least in Lily's opinion. She assumed it was because Dumbledore recognised the amount of work that had gone into making the prank possible. Lily wondered herself how they had managed to smuggle in several nests of Cornish pixies, and then bribe the house elves into concealing them within the pies. She decided that she would rather not know, and instead looked at Dumbledore. Lily hoped he realised that the freezing charm would not be beneficial – it would be a tad undignified for the Headmaster to hang upside down in front of his students. But perhaps she was underestimating his skill. Without appearing to form the words, or even raise his wand, Dumbledore cast a freezing charm that went into effect immediately, and then a cushioning charm for the students who fell from the ceiling as a result. Lily watched the perplexed pixies as they floated around the room, and sighed, Will they never grow up?
oOo
James grinned from ear to ear as he made his way to the Heads dormitory. As his last prank, he thought he had done pretty well. Of course, there was the slight drawback of Peter being hung by the collar in the entrance hall, and may have been slightly forgotten about. Just slightly. Peter had been all forgiveness, of course. He was always all forgiveness. James did like Peter though. James could talk to Remus, but he always tried to give advice, or make him feel bad. Sirius was a laugh, but you couldn't really hold a serious conversation with him. Peter though, Peter listened. And that, James thought, is sometimes really hard to find.
