Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter series or characters.
Lily
"James Potter! What the hell did you do to us?!" Lily's voice screeched across the Common Room. The Marauder's gulped visibly.
"Oh, fuck." James mumbled.
"Well, have fun James. I have stuff to do. See you later." Sirius stood up and made to sneak out of the room. Lily grabbed the back of his shirt.
"Sit. Down. Black." She snarled. Sirius gulped, forcing a smile.
"What's up, Lily?" He asked, guiltily. Lily's face was blood red. Everyone's faces shone a different color.
"Now. Let's try this again. What the hell did you do?" Lily screamed, glaring at the four boys, who were literally cowering into the couches.
"It's just a spell. It'll go away in a few days." Remus answered the calmest of the group. He knew that he was much safer than James or Sirius. From the looks of things they would probably wake up tomorrow without their manhood.
"What kind of spell?" Lily bit out in a voice of deadly calm.
"It shows the emotion you're experiencing through colors in your face. Blood red for angry, white for scared, pink or magenta for love and/or liking, blue for sad, sunshine yellow for happy, green for jealously, orange for frustrated, pale yellow for interested and purple for satisfied or content." Remus recited.
"You found a spell that did all that? I mean, put the pigments in your skin and everything?" Lily asked, temporarily distracted. Remus nodded.
"Well… there were some points were I had to improvise and just mess around with a pigmentation charm. It was difficult to decide things for frustrated, interested and satisfied since no color is usually related to them. That took some experimentation and it explains why Snape's face was a different color each day this week." He explained, smiling.
"Whoa. You'll have to show me how you did that." Lily's face was now a pale yellow.
"I wrote it all down in case anyone ever wanted to do it again. I'm thinking about making a book from all the things that can be used for improvising in spells." Remus grinned.
"That's amazing. Can I see it?" Lily asked.
"Of course. Hold on a second. It's in my trunk." He stood up and headed for the Boy's Dormitory.
"Wait, Rem. I borrowed it, remember? I think I put it back in my trunk." Sirius lied quickly. He stood up and hurried after his friend, grateful to get away from Lily.
"Coward." James mumbled. Lily glared slightly at him and sat down. They quickly fell into an awkward silence.
"I don't remember you borrowing my notebook." Remus commented once they were in the safety of the Boy's Dormitory.
"Lily terrifies me. We're lucky that you thought of shielding only the four of us from the spell. It wouldn't do for anyone to know that Sirius Black gets scared." Sirius grinned.
"Oh, of course. Only we're allowed to know that and that's only because we know your weakness." Remus smirked slightly.
"And you've been sworn to silence." Sirius glared at him.
"I will never tell a soul that Sirius Black is terrified of snakes." Remus laughed as Sirius swung a pillow at his head.
"Come on. Find that notebook or we'll return to the Common Room to find James dead or worse, castrated." Sirius' grin returned.
"Only you would think that castration is worse then death." Remus rolled his eyes and pulled a battered notebook out of his trunk.
"And only you would think that academic ruin is worse then death." Sirius returned quickly. Remus rolled his eyes again and they started down the stairs. They found James and Lily still staring at each other.
"I hope we're not interrupting something." Remus tried not to laugh at the wistful expression on James' face and the angry one on Lily's.
"What took you so long?" Lily demanded, shooting up from her chair.
"Sorry. Sirius had it buried at the bottom of his trunk. It's nearly impossible to find anything in there." Remus continued Sirius' lie without flinching and handed Lily the notebook.
"Thanks. I'll return this as soon as I'm done." Lily promised and hurried off. James stared after her with a look of pure longing on his face.
"Let her go, Prongs. You'll get another chance." Remus clapped his friend on the back.
"Says you. This is my last year to snag her. If I screw it up this year, I'll never get another chance." James signed and turned to glare at the fire.
"Can I offer you a piece of advice?" Remus asked, tentatively.
"What?" James muttered.
"Try deflating your ego just a tad and refraining from cursing random Slytherin's without being provoked." Remus picked up the book he'd been reading before Lily had shown up.
"That couldn't work," James scoffed. Then he turned to Sirius, "Could it?"
The next day at breakfast, Dumbledore stood and addressed the Great Hall. James and Sirius looked up eagerly, waiting to be recognized for their work. Remus groaned and hid his face behind his hands. Peter snored into his plate of eggs.
"As you all know, a prank was played on us last night. Also due to the many red faces out there, I am guessing that many of you are quite angry because of this fact. Now, most of you would speculate that we have found the culprit already or at least we have a vague idea of who it was," Dumbledore shot an amused look at the Gryffindor table though the color of his face did not change, "We have a good idea however we have no proof. The prank was performed so that there is no way to trace it to its source.
"However, be warned. There are ways to punish these culprits without knowing their exact identity. If anyone has any… proof of wrongdoings, he or she should come forward immediately. Good day." Dumbledore shot another look at the Marauders and turned to Professor McGonagall.
"He knows." Remus muttered.
"Yeah but he thinks it was a good prank. Did you see the way he tried not to smile and how he told everyone about how he couldn't trace it?" James grinned.
"I bet Lily's going to sell us out the first chance she gets." Sirius commented returning to his food.
"She won't." Remus told him simply, beginning to eat again as well.
"What makes you so sure?" James asked, raising his eyebrows at Remus' confident tone.
"No matter how much Lily hates you, she has some House loyalty. That loyalty assures her silence in matters such as these. She has no problem castrating you but selling out all of us? No, that's much too underhanded. Much too Slytherin. Lily is too nice to be underhanded." Remus assured them.
"She's not nice to me." James grumbled.
"That's because she hates you." Sirius clapped his friend on the back. James turned to glare at him while Remus tried to wake Peter so he could eat.
"Come on, Pete! Wake up!" Remus finally pushed the boy backwards off the bench. Peter woke as he hit the ground and began to swear loudly.
"Mr. Pettigrew! Language!" Professor McGonagall snapped, appearing behind him out of nowhere. James and Sirius looked shocked. A boy sitting nearby choked on his food. His friend began hitting him on the back.
"Sorry Professor." Peter apologized, untangling himself from his robes and getting back on the bench before glaring at Remus.
"I was just trying to wake you." Remus told him without a trace of shame. Sirius sniggered.
Next Chapter: Slughorn
Excerpt: The Marauders didn't prank anyone again until lunch time, thinking that the teachers would be on their guard. At lunch however, Sirius broke and turned Severus Snape into a giant chicken across the Great Hall.
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