All eyes stared at Lily in wonder. Peter's mouth hung open, Remus just looked confused, a mischievous smile was starting to form on Sirius's face and then there was James. He was the only one who looked cautious.
"Why?" James asked, staring at Lily. She met his eyes and they looked at each other, neither one wanting to be the first to look away.
"Because that's twice that they have tried to hex me," Lily said. James inwardly smiled. She's so innocent he thought. She thinks that they would just hex her, but they would do so much more. Then he started worrying about Lily scenarios, he almost missed what she said next. "And," Lily said quietly, "Sev was there, right behind Mulciber and he didn't do anything. He wouldn't even look at me." She was staring at the ground so she didn't see the regret in James's eyes.
"Lily," James started.
"And anyway," Lily cut him off, "you owe me." This caught them off guard.
"We owe you?" Sirius asked, shaking his head.
"Yes," Lily replied, "For reading my letter." With that she turned on her heel, effectively hitting Sirius in the face with her hair and walking towards the door. She took the spells off it and walked out. She turned around and said, "You coming?"
The Marauders all shrugged at each other and ran out after her.
"So Lily," James said, walking next to her, "What do you have in mind for our dear slytherin friends?" At this Lily froze, she hadn't thought that far ahead. James saw the look in her eyes and laughed. "It's ok. We are the Marauders you know. The most famous pranksters, and we already had an idea." James winked at her and ran down the hall. Lily followed, laughing.
They reached the dungeon in no time.
"Ok," Lily said, looking at each of the Marauders, "How do we get in?"
Sirius put his hand to his heart and feigned hurt, "My dear Lily flower, we are the marauders, which means that we know the password."
"Caput Draconis," Remus said. The door opened and they stepped inside. Lily looked around at the green and silver decorations. The common room was cold and looked like it hadn't been used in a long time. She entered further into the room and spun around taking it all in. "Come on Lily," Remus said walking towards a set of stairs. Lily guessed they went up to the boy's dormitory. She followed Remus and James up the stairs as Sirius and Peter took the rear. They crept along until they stopped at a door. James cast a silencing spell and opened the door. They crept inside and Lily froze. There about 8 feet from her was a sleeping Severus.
James and Sirius started casting spells all over the room turning each of the slytherin boy's hair into gold and scarlet stripes. Remus was casting spells at their possessions. The possessions flew to the ceiling. Peter cast a spell on the blankets, which tightened a little and Lily suspected that the slytherins would have trouble getting out of them. Lily stared at Sev and knew that she had to do her own thing. She cast a spell and a bird appeared. She then whispered one word to it, Mudblood.
They then crept out and made their way to the room next door. They cast a silencing spell again and crept inside. Lily looked to see who was in this room and saw Avery and Mulciber. She made two more birds and whispered two words to them, Coward and filth. Smiling to herself she walked out of the room and headed to the common room. She was sick of the slytherins thinking that they were the best things that had happened to Hogwarts. She stood there staring at the furniture, waiting for the Marauders to get done.
All of a sudden Lily got and idea and cast a charm on the couches and chairs to buck off anyone who sat on them and the bookshelves to throw books at anyone who got near. Seconds later James and the others came down the stairs. He motioned to the door and they headed to the hallway.
"What was with those birds?" asked James.
"Well, I don't know how good of a prank they will be, but they will repeat the maker tells them. I cast them so that they would follow Snape, Avery and Mulciber around all day," Lily said, "Oh, and they're very good a dodging spells, so they may have trouble getting rid of them." Lily glanced at the Marauders and saw that they were smiling.
"That's brilliant," James said, smiling at Lily.
Lily smiled back and James almost melted. He saw the hint of sadness in her eyes, but chose to ignore it. Lily also told them about the furniture that she had charmed, on their way back to their tower.
At points they had to hide in more classrooms and they ended up sprinting to the tower. Sirius was laughing so loudly that James had to cover his mouth. When he got done laughing, Sirius stood there staring at Lily. "Who knew our little flower could be devious," Sirius said appraising Lily.
They were in their common room now. "Well Black," Lily said heading up her stairs, "You don't know everything about me." Lily made it into her room and collapsed on her bed, smiling and thoroughly exhausted. She had learned so much tonight about the marauders and she was impressed. As Lily drifted off to sleep she kept thinking of James and the way he had stood up for Peter and his friends. Her last thoughts before drifting off to sleep were about the fluffiness of James hair.
Lily started dreaming about James playing Quidditch. In her dream they were friends. They could talk and laugh without either of them fighting. She could be normal around him and not worry about anything. A smile formed on the sleeping Lily's lips and stayed there throughout the night.
Back in the common room James sat in one of the chairs thinking about how much Lily had learned about them and how she had helped them. She had spent time with them and gotten to know a part of him that no one besides Padfoot, Wormtail and Moony knew. His thoughts kept drifting to how well she fit in with them. James headed up to bed and fell into dreams about Lily going off on adventures with the marauders.