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The next day was a bad one for Lily. For starters, the charm that usually woke her up didn't go off. As she rushed to get ready she just knew it wouldn't be a good day. She ran into the Great Hall to quickly grab some breakfast, when she slipped on something and fell right on her bum. Every head in the room turned to focus on her. She doubted that even McGonagall doing the hula dance in a grass skirt could tear their prying eyes from her. Flushing with embarrassment, she stood up and had to refrain from opening her mouth wide in shock. In each of the four corners of the Great Hall was a levitating ice statue of one of the Marauders. They were slowly melting, leaving a pool of water below them. Lily noticed that she had slipped under James' statue. She made her way over to the Gryffindor table, still followed by hundreds of eyes, only to have the food disappear right before she could grab any. Clearly agitated, she rushed to her first class without talking to anyone.
In Transfiguration, after a long lecture from McGonagall, they were allowed to do a simple human transfiguration spell that turned your skin the color of your choice. Not only did James achieve this spell on the first try, but also ever other spell McGonagall gave him, he finished the homework, (a 2ft essay on the dangers of human transfiguration) and went through all the spells again non-verbally all with ten minutes of class to spare. This made Lily fume. She hated the fact that James was better than her in something, especially something school related. She mentally started planning to spend more time each night practicing Transfiguration. She was brought out of her reverie by Professor McGonagall dismissing them.
"At least Charms is next," thought Lily, trying to be optimistic. She stepped out of the classroom, and into purple goo. She inwardly cursed the Marauders. She saw others making their way through the substance, experimentally lifted a foot, and found that the goo seemed to actually be a huge batch of muggle jell-o. Struggling through the hallway, she managed to make it to the door of the classroom just in time to fall flat on her face in the jell-o. Thankfully, only a handful of students saw her fall. Lily was faced with a split-second decision: go into class now covered in goo, or clean up a bit and risk being late. Lily wasn't vain, but figured she looked horrendous right now, so she went with the latter. She entered the classroom, obviously late, and took the only open seat: in the front row.
"Miss Evans," started Professor Flitwick, "it is not like you to be late to my class. I trust that ten points from Gryffindor will help you remember that." Lily nodded and kept her head down. Professor Flitwick continued, explaining that they would be working on stronger scouring charms and how to make them leave the scent of your choice. He told them to pair up. Lily must not have reacted fast enough, because the next thing she knew, James was asking her if she wanted to be his partner. Lily was about to refuse, when she noticed that everyone else already had a partner.
"Fine," she said shortly. She really hoped James had forgotten about last night, or at least had the decency not to mention it. "He is really muscular though," she thought, "And tan, and… No! I can't be thinking this! He's Potter! He's an arrogant toe rag, he's best friends with that player, Sirius Black, he's…"
James interrupted her thoughts by saying, "Evans?"
Lily mentally shook herself, "Yeah?"
"Do you want to start?"
"Oh, yeah!"
Flitwick had given them each a tray filled with different messes. They decided to each take a half.
"Do you want to make it into a competition?" said Lily with a glint in her eyes.
"Sure! If I win, you have to go with me to the next Hogsmeade weekend with me," said James his cool demeanor hiding his excitement. Lily hesitated for a second, but then remembered that she was better than James at Charms, and became confident that she would win.
"Deal!" she said. "And if I win, you and the Marauders have to stop playing pranks for two weeks!" James hesitated a bit longer than Lily.
"Two whole weeks!" he thought. "But if I win I practically get a date with Evans…"
"Deal!" James said aloud. "We'll start in 3… 2… 1…"
Charms was Lily's favorite subject. It was what she was best at. It just came naturally to her. Which is why it made her have a sudden urge to hex something (or, rather, someone) when James finished his side much before her.
James let out a whoop of excitement while Lily fumed. Flitwick dismissed the class and Lily stormed angrily out of the room, while James ran over to his friends and told them about his victory.
Lily, since she had missed breakfast, was greatly looking forward to lunch. However, as she was rushing through the halls, she ran right into none other than Professor Slughorn.
"Oh, I'm terribly sorry, Professor! Are you alright?" cried Lily.
"Yes, I'm fine, Lily! In fact I was just looking for you!" replied Slughorn happily. He ushered Lily into his classroom. He rambled on and on about what he was planning for his next Slug Club party. Lily mostly paid attention, but her mind often travelled to the ample amount of food she knew to be in the Great Hall.
By the time Slughorn was done with his rambling, it was almost time for Lily's next class. She slid into her seat in Arithmancy next to Mary just as Professor Vector started talking. Mary presented Lily with a croissant.
"I thought you might be hungry," Mary whispered careful to not let the professor see them chatting. Lily scarfed down the croissant faster than you could say 'Quidditch'. Mary was amused, but made no comment. Lily was then called up to the board to try to solve a tricky problem. Much to her ire, she was unable to do it. As she sat down with a huff, she saw a flash of red that caught her eye. Actually, that was an understatement; every person in the classroom now had red hair. A chorus of laughter rose as other students also noticed. This left Lily as an obvious culprit. Lily looked at a strand of her own hair and saw that it was not her typical red, but pink. She huffed in irritation as the other students laughed and congratulated her 'for a good prank'. She, however, knew who was really responsible for these pranks, and vowed to tell them off later.
Somehow, she managed to make it through class without more embarrassment. However, on a Marauder's pranking day, that can never last long. Lily stormed out of the class, ignoring Mary's attempts to comfort her. Lily suddenly felt something on her leg. Looking down, she saw what looked like a small replica of the giant squid: but it was alive. Lily shrieked, jumped around on her non-squid possessed leg while trying to shake off said squid from her other leg. Mary, being a kind friend, managed to curse it off with minimal laughter on her part. The rest of the school, on the other hand, was not so polite. They roared with laughter and some even went to seek out the Marauders to congratulate them.
Lily decided that what she needed was a long, hot, bath before dinner. She went to the bathroom, thankfully did not see James (it was probably safer for him this way), and cringed when she spotted her pink hair in the mirror. After the bath had filled, she noticed with dismay that a small inflatable replica of the squid had appeared in the tub. Her face contorting with anger, she cursed the offending squid away. Nevertheless, another one just appeared in its place. No matter what spell she tried, the inflatable would not go away. Eventually, she admitted defeat and tentatively soaked in the tub with the squid. She finished, glanced at her clock, and realised that she had spent a lot more time than she had thought on the squid problem; there were only ten minutes left of dinner.
Lily sped down the halls, past a professor who yelled at her to slow down and took ten points, and into the Great Hall. She slid into a seat next to Alice. Her friends gave her questioning looks, but Lily ignored them. Lily quickly decided that she wanted something sweet; she took a pastry that she didn't know the name of. She took a bite, and felt something change. She heard laughter and quickly realised that she had turned into some sort of an animal. She heard something about a porcupine pastry and assumed that she had become a porcupine. She was irate; this meant she was unable to eat any dinner. However, Lily was clever and soon remembered that porcupines possessed the capabilities to shoot quills. She quickly shot a few in James' direction. They all stuck in his arm. The laughter increased, and Lily thought she saw James wince in pain for a second. Lily didn't care though; she had gotten a small form of revenge. She was unable to join in on the laughter when she turned back. She was embarrassed and extremely angry: a dangerous combination in a redhead. She half heartedly listened to her friends' chatter as she walked back with them to their dorm. When they arrived at the portrait of the Fat Lady, her friends each gave her a hug, comforted her, and told her that tomorrow would be better. Lily immediately felt badly; her friends were trying to be nice and she had ignored them the whole day.
As she walked back to her dorm, alone, her anger at James boiled. He was about to get an earful from her for ruining her day. She walked into their common room and saw the offending boy lounging on the couch, reading a Quidditch book. "Hello Evans," he said casually, a smile on his face, with no idea of the tornado that was quickly approaching.
This made Lily even more mad. She started her rant, shouting at James, "I cannot believe you James Potter! I am sick and tired of your stupid, childish, pranks! They my whole bloody day! I was late to Charms and lost 20 house points! I was humiliated time and time again! I was attacked by a small giant squid! And all I've had to eat today is a croissant and a bite of your stupid pastry! And all you give me when I walk in is a bloody 'hello'?!
James looked slightly shocked, and for a moment, Lily thought she saw guilt on his face. But it soon left and Lily convinced herself that it was never there.
"You said you've hardly eaten all day?" James said casually.
"Yes," Lily answered cautiously, "Why would you care?"
James' face suddenly became very serious. "Because I care about you," he told her as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. And to anyone but Lily Evans, it was. The serious look on James' face slipped away and was replaced with a face full of excitement. "I'll be right back" he said before running up the stairs to his room. He returned quickly, holding something behind his back.
"I know how to get into the kitchens," James told her.
"Really? Isn't it against school rules to go there? And it's after curfew, what if someone sees us?"
"There is no rule that says students can't go to the kitchens. I'm guessing they figured no student would be able to find it. And as for the second part, can you keep a secret?" he asked Lily.
Curious to see what he was holding, Lily answered with a cautious, "Yes…" James showed Lily a piece of silvery cloth. Lily immediately recognized it as an invisibility cloak, and her jaw dropped.
"Judging from your reaction, I'm guessing you know what this is." James said, smiling.
Lily gasped. "I've read about these but I've never seen one before! They're incredibly rare!" She tentatively ran her hands over the smooth, silky cloak. "Did you steal it?"
James laughed, "Nope, inherited it. This is how we're going to get to the kitchens without being seen."
Lily contemplated her options in her head. On one hand, she was worried about getting caught. But she was terribly hungry, and slightly excited to use an invisibility cloak, even if it was with James. So after a moment's hesitation, unable to keep her excitement out of her voice, she said "Okay. Let's go!"
James slipped the invisibility cloak over them and they headed to the kitchens.
A/N: A thousand apologies for a very late chapter! I hope you enjoy it though! I (hopefully) will be updating much more frequently now, because I'm on summer break. I hope you like my porcupine pastries; I thought that Fred and George could've gotten the inspiration for the canary creams from something that the Marauders did, so that's what I came up with! For any of my readers that are Doctor Who fans, I have a plan for a Jack/OC fanfiction, so I might be publishing that. For those of you who aren't fans, don't worry, I'll still be putting a lot of work into this story! Reviews are greatly appreciated!