A/N: Alright, starting off, I know I have updated in a while but I believe I gave my excuses beforehand. Speaking of excuses, I'm a sorry one when it comes to editing. I really wanted a good cover for this fic. If any of you have mind-blowing Photoshop skills and loads of free time, please make me an edit for this story. Don't worry I will give credit where it is due. check my id for more contact details.

On a somber note, Cory Monteith died. I could never make out the Glee timeline but I watched a couple of episodes and I particularly liked him.

To the Reviewers:

Stefan Lee Salvatore: You say you liked the last chapter because 'it' was there. What the hell is 'it'? Also, you're the best goddamned Reviewer I have come across. Every single chapter, you are always there to review. God, I love you. Thanks a lot.

Reader: I swear a lot and some of it rubs off in my writing. So every time I want any of the characters to say 'Jesus', I make them say Merlin (give it a wizarding touch or something). I never really realized how much they use the word Merlin.

Previously: Lily agrees to go out with Caradoc. Mary is dating Richard. Sirius is dating Emily. And oh yeah, Lily was attacked. James and Alissa agree on being just friends. Peter is dating Elladora Guffy, a 4th year hufflepuff.

11. Beginnings

How do I put this? 'Glee' is like 'High School Musical' if 'High School Musical' had its stomach punched and its lunch money stolen.-Cory Monteith (R.I.P)

Chizpurfles are a type of very small parasites; crab like in appearance but smaller, most often found in the hair of other magical creatures. For the lack of better analogy, one can say they're the fleas in a dog's fur. They are not particularly violent and their sole purpose it appears is to attack inanimate objects with the likes of wands and cauldrons or in this one case, cigarettes.

In the first week on November, Lily had recovered well from her attack. The shock had worn off and so had the fear. Instead, it was replaced by an urge to defend herself and stay strong. Now she walked in the empty corridors with her wand first and so well had she mastered the bat bogey hex that she could be sleeping and still beat you.

If you ever get a chance to ask Alissa what she thought of Chizpurfles, though you will never get it, but if you do, you will find her grinning from ear to ear. She will laugh out loud and profess her undying love for them.

November also marked the beginning of Quidditch season. The first game, Gryffindors versus Ravenclaw was to take place on the last Saturday of the month. So appropriately enough, the Gryffindor Quidditch captain could be found on the Quidditch pitch at ungodly hours in the morning followed by his disgruntled team and mutters of 'bloody obsessed' and 'he's lost his head' and 'it's hardly sunrise.' But James potter remained, much to the dismay of his team, undeterred.

Mary Macdonald positively hated charms. And the essays she wrote for the subject managed to give Professor Flitwick nightmares. But there was one time when she wrote a really good essay, almost as well as Lily's.

November meant several things for sixth year gryffindors. November meant new friends for Alissa. November marked the birthday of Sirius black. November was the month when Mary met the love of her life, though she didn't know it then. November also was the month Lily was saddest. November was the month Severus Snape finally realized that there was no going back for him and Lily. November was to put it in simple words, an interesting month.

"Hey Ella, how was your day?" beamed Peter sitting down on the grass besides her, near the lake, where he asked her out for the first time.

"Oh, hi pete. Usual I suppose. It's been a bit dull and you marauders have stopped with your pranks." She said brushing it off with a shrug.

"I know, but with Lily was attacked just last week and it just seems inconsiderate you know." said Peter, frowning slightly.

"But, no offense, she's not even your friend or anything." said Elladora for the sake of argument.

"Yeah, but Evan's attack, it made this war going in the outside world even more real and Prongs, that's James has this theory that we should grow up from these childish antics, especially in the face of this war."

"But then you would be letting this war succeed. That's what it wants, to take away our happiness, to make us grow up." said Ella as she struggled to find the correct words.

"But still, wouldn't a prank be inconsiderate?" asked Peter, his mind wavering.

"I think we need more laughs and pranks to keep us happy in these times, don't you?" she said, her blue eyes piercing his grey ones.

"Yeah, I guess..." he trailed of uncertainly, thinking about what she just said. Shaking himself out of his reverie, he smiled at her said, "Why are we discussing this morose topic? I just came up to check on my girlfriend."

"Your girlfriend is doing just fine but she will be late for her history of magic class, although Binns will, no doubt, have no idea who I am." She said getting up. However before she could rush off, he caught hold of her wrist and stuck out his cheek. She rolled her eyes in a shy smile but all the same, pecked him on the cheek.

(Yesterday once more)

"Hey guys," said Peter as he took a seat besides James, Sirius and Remus for dinner.

"I veto against having Wormy as a marauder." declared Sirius, ignoring his hey.

Peter rolled his eyes and regretted it as soon as the words left his mouth but he said it anyways, "What did I do now, Pads."

"You got yourself a girlfriend." said Sirius like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"And wormy, how could you forget getting a girl is the most horrible crime a marauder can make?" interjected James sarcastically.

"Don't appreciate the sarcasm Prongs. We may throw you out too." said Sirius in a teasing huff.

"Padfoot, you have a girlfriend too." Remus pointed out slightly amused.

"Stop being logical moony or you will not be a marauder anymore."

"Right then me, prongs and wormy will get together and marauder or not, you will be the one left out." said Remus his lips twitching.

"I said stop being logical moony. Must you ruin everything for me?" said Sirius pouting slightly before turning accusingly towards Peter.

"Like I was saying before, ever since this prat has got himself a girl, he's been ignoring us. What happened to Bros before Hoes?"

"What happened to Girls before….. Well, the library?" Alissa practically whined as Mary and Lily rolled their eyes.

"This is Lily we are talking about, there was never girls before the library." snickered Saffi from her bed.

"Oh shut up Saffi, you're being hypocritical. You were the one to spend a Hogsmeade weekend in the library not me."

"Ouch."

Once again Lily rolled her eyes as she collected her notes and prepared to go to the library.

"Coming mare?" she asked.

"No, you go on; I need to look for my charms notes."

"Alright."

"Alright, alright. Your girlfriend is not a dark arts supporter even though she clearly uses imperious to control you." said Sirius as he held up his hands in surrender. How the conversation escalated from Elladora Guffy a fourth year Hufflepuff being a hoe to a dark arts supporter, only Sirius knew, for the other three had just gaped at him.

"Sirius" Peter growled, defending his girlfriend once more.

"Alright, confundus then?" he replied cheekily. Sirius ducked under the table as Peter flung a spoonful of his shepherd's pie at him.

"I didn't think I'll ever say this but he's right wormy. You were with her all day." said Remus thoughtfully.

"My notes were with me all day. How did they just disappear?" grumbled Mary as she walked, while simultaneously shuffling her things inside her bag. As she took out her standard book of spells and flipped through the pages, hoping that the slim chance of finding her charms notes would work out in her favor, she turned around the corner and crashed into someone.

"Bloody hell, watch where you're going." She cried, her book lying on floor amidst a few parchments and two really heavy books.

"Oh I'm so sorry." cringed boy who had bumped into her.

Mary opened her mouth; all set on scolding him, forgetting momentarily that she had crashed into the poor boy and not him. However, as she took in his small mousy, brown haired appearance, she found her anger dissipating steadily. Instead, she offered her hand to him and pulled him up.

"It's my fault really." She smiled sweetly, "I was looking for charms notes and didn't realize you were headed my way."

"Oh, I may have something to do with that." The boy muttered blushing furiously. "I was reading ancient runes and I…" he trailed off and started collecting his books, handing Mary hers.

"Err… um… I was headed to the library." He said when Mary interrupted him, suppressing a smile at his hesitating behavior.

"Me too. So, what's your name?" asked Mary in an attempt to make small talk.

"Reginald Cattermole." He said.

"Oh," she looked startled for a moment before putting up a vibrant smile, "I'm Mary Macdonald, Reg."

"I know. You're pretty much a stand out girl in our year." He said solemnly not even realizing he had complimented her.

"Our year…. Hang on, you're in sixth year?" asked Mary in surprise. Not wanting to come across as rude, she quickly continued, "I …. I pegged you to be a fifth year. Oh shit, I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry if I don't want to be involved in your silly … whatever it is you're planning to do." Said Saffi crossly, wanting to get back to her book.

"I know what we could do." declared Alissa, completely ignoring Saffi's complaints. "This week as been pretty dull and"

"And I'd rather it remained that way as opposed to our close friends being hexed and cursed." Interrupted Saffi, a tad bit annoyed with Alissa.

"This week has been pretty down and Elly reckons we should play more pranks. That's what we were discussing today." said Peter.

At his friends' skeptical expressions, he added, "I never thought the day would come when you three would say no to pranks. You do realize that if we stop being immature and if we stop having fun, we really do lose this fucking war."

His friends gaped at him in shock. An outburst from him was the last thing they expected. Peter gulped slightly, wondering if he had said they wrong thing, if he was being callous when Remus offered him a small smile.

"I reckon we need the fun to balance the grief." He said, looking at Peter in a whole new light.

Sirius laughed aloud and shook a finger in Remus' direction, "Is ickle Prefect moony suggesting something?"

James and Peter laughed at him dismissing whatever little tension that had crept up in the room while Remus shrugged and said simply, "I believe the marauders are overdue. Let's plan a prank."

"Let's plan a prank." announced Alissa.

"I thought we decided that dull is happening." said Saffi dryly.

"No you decided that." Alissa replied grinning cheekily.

"Clearly.", muttered Saffi under her breath.

"Jeez, what's got your wand in a knot?" asked Melina frowning at her.

"Nothing, it's nothing." She said hastily. Under Mel's skeptical look she faltered slightly, shrugged and said, "I was just thinking about what did the death eaters want. We've been too worried about Lils and Dearborn; we completely forgot why they came here in the first place."

It was clear from her expression that she had put a lot of thought behind it and was more bothered by it than she let on. Melina and Alissa fell silent pondering over it and Saffi returned to her book. She had spent enough time on that particular line of thought to know that nothing good came out of it. Finally Alissa broke the silence by saying loudly, "This is exactly why we need a freaking prank. The mood is too serious. It's like Durmstrang and Grindelwald all over again."

As Melina and Saffi looked at her with startled expressions, she grinned and said in a theatric whisper, "So what's the plan."

"So err… What are you planning to do?" asked Reginald.

"Wha… oh, err…. I don't really want to work for the ministry or the daily prophet or st. mungos for that matter. I want to start my own shop and I want to do something different from the usual career options that everyone seems to be picking. I haven't really decided but I…..What?" Mary broke off at Reginald's expression.

"I meant, what are you planning to do about your charms notes? You mentioned you lost them." He explained.

"Oh, I don't know. I guess I will have to borrow Lily's, though they are not quite as detailed as mine." She said, biting her bottom lip as she thought.

"Lily Evans? I thought her notes are really detailed." asked Reginald, tilting in head in confusion.

"You may be under that impression because Black and Potter tease her all the time for taking notes in history." Mary replied with a hint of a smile.

"She takes notes in history of magic." Reginald asked incredulously.

"Yeah" Mary laughed. "And then, a week before the exams, everyone begs her and because she has such a huge heart, she lets people borrow them; even Potter. How do you think Gryffindor scores the best in history of magic?"

"Damn, I thought you lot were naturally smart." He replied with a slight grin. "So, why aren't her charms notes detailed?" he asked further.

"Because she is superb in charms, just like every other subject. She doesn't feel the need to write down every bloody detail that Flitwick says while me, a.k.a, the charms handicapped, needs to write it all down." She said pouting angelically as she thought about the charms essay that she was yet to finish.

"You could borrow my notes. They aren't much detailed but I think they might help." offered Reginald.

"Thanks Reg, I don't have any other choice, not if I want to finish the essay on 'oppugno'" she smiled at him.

"That's it, you both are useless." said Alissa stretching her hands and throwing her quill down.

"We could've told you that; wait, we did tell you." smirked Saffi.

Alissa rolled her eyes and scowled as Mel defended herself, "We have never planned a prank. What did you expect?"

"I shouldn't have expected anything." Alissa muttered to herself while saying aloud, "I'll think of something by myself."

"Good, because I officially hate prank planning."

"I officially hate charms." said Mary loudly, flinging her quill on the table and crossing her hands across her chest, while glaring at the parchment, nearly upsetting an ink bottle in the process.

Reginald Cattermole was sitting beside her, doing his own work when he sighed and looked up at her, smiling at her expression.

"You think it's funny, do you?" she barked at him. This made him smile even a bit more but it disappeared instantly under her glare.

"I think it's funny that my charms essay is still left. How about we finish it together?" he said, closing his 'a thousand herbs and fungi' and pulling out some fresh parchment. He pulled over his notes and began explaining the basics to Mary while writing his own essay.

Finally, a good two hours later, they were thrown out of the library as the curfew set in. As the two of them parted ways, Mary sighed happily. All her work was done. As she turned around the corner, a hand darted out and grabbed her.

"I know what we can do." said Sirius for the fifteenth time of their two hour brainstorming session.

"You said the same thing before Padfoot" Peter pointed out.

"And we could have done that if you three hadn't shot down the idea."

"You wanted us to paint Dumbledore's beard Purple, what did you expect." retorted Remus, rolling his eyes.

"Well, that would have been better than flooding the slytherin common room." Sirius scowled.

Peter, James and Remus looked at each other with their eyes wide and the mischievous trademark marauder smile on their faces.

"Do you think it's possible?" Peter asked Remus.

"Well, it is underneath the lake, so if we can somehow divert the water flow in that direction, it could work.

"What could work?" asked Sirius not realizing they were taking his idea seriously.

"Flooding the Slytherin common room, pads." Grinned James thrilled by the mere idea. In this season, it would take several vanishing spells to clear the water and even after that, the place would remain damp. Oh, the Slytherins were in for a bad year.

"Oh, we are doing that, Awesome. So Wormy will sneak down and find out there password and during dinner, when it will be mostly empty, we can sneak in under the cloak. Now, we just need to figure out how to get the water."

"I figured it out!" cried Alissa suddenly causing Emily to nearly fall off her bed. Lily sat up straight, banging her head with the head board of her bed. Melina gave out a startled shriek and Saffi opened her curtains. As Alissa glanced at their reactions sheepishly, Melina spoke for all of them.

"What the fuck. Why would you scare us like that?"

"I am sorry, I…. I figured out the prank." She beamed and getting up, she did a small sort of victory dance.

Others smiled at her behavior and finally Saffi spoke up, "So what's the plan."

"No ways; I'm not telling." said Alissa with a teasing grin. "You'll find out soon enough."

"Come on! You scared us, you owe us that much." said Melina pouting slightly.

"I didn't scare you. You shouldn't be scared. Constant Vigilance."

"Aliss- Mary, where were you?" Melina broke of mid sentence as Mary entered the room. It had been an hour past curfew.

"Library, studying." She replied automatically, a hint of red creeping up on the back of her neck.

"It has been an hour past curfew." stated Melina, raising an eyebrow.

"Fine, I was coming back from the library when Richard grabbed me out of nowhere and we were at the astronomy tower." She gushed.

"Oohh, details please."

And Mary and Melina disappeared beneath their four posters.

The next day, with some help from Hagrid, Alissa finally got her hands what she needed. Humming and grinning to herself, she skipped lunch and arrived at the defense classroom before everyone else. Praying that no one would walk in that moment, she snuck to the teacher's table and looked around through the top drawer when she found what she wanted. Smirking to herself she set off to work.

Skipping the lunch break was another group of students. Though most of the students were at lunch, Peter and Remus were keeping guard, while James and Sirius, being better at the spell, flooded the slytherin common room with water. Grinning to themselves and high fiving each other, they arrived in the defense classroom, barely in time. As the defense lecture began, Professor Lankburn, their defense teacher for that year, arrived and began teaching about Dark creatures. Their topic for the week was Inferi. As the professor droned about the said magical creatures, James passed a note to Sirius.

Pads, how long do you think till they find out about it?

Sirius, who had busied himself into looking out of the window, looked up in surprise when he received the note. Smirking to himself, he replied

5 galleons they don't discover it till the afternoon lectures are over.

I think they'll figure it out by the end of this lecture.

You have a bet my dear prongsie.

What followed were an extremely restless Sirius and a certain James Potter, equally distracted in his thoughts. Professor Lankburn had a habit of smoking his frustrations away. While he made no obvious attempts at disguising it, hardly a few students knew about it. Alissa had noticed his habit when she had once caught him. James and Sirius's restlessness and eager anticipation added to their inbuilt easily distracted nature was, at the moment, frustrating him to no ends. The mischievous smirks all the marauders wore were getting on his nerves. Finally, he asked them to read the text and make notes while he went out fully intending on a catching a quick smoke.

Sadly, he was in for a surprise. As the class went to their work, he fumbled around the drawers in his desk and pulled out his pack and opened it and gave out a shrill scream. The class looked up in surprise and slowly realization dawned on them, and instantaneously they all laughed. Professor Lankburn had a nasty cut on his finger and a chizpurfle in his hand. In his other hand, he clutched a packet of cigarettes, except that they were destroyed by the creatures. He stopped shrieking and looked up at the class with narrowed his eyes. All at once, the class fell silent. Sirius however was rocking his chair in his laughter and thus his chair fell back on the ground with a thud.

Professor Lankburn's eyes focused in direction and he barked, "20 points from Gryffindor. Black, Potter, Pettigrew and Lupin, detention!" Having said this, he rushed to what everyone assumed the hospital wing for a calming drought and to check on the chizpurfle cut. He left no room for argument on the marauder's part and finally the class shuffled out.

"Bloody hell, how dare he? I didn't even do it."

Outside the class, Sirius was raving about professor Lankburn. The rest of the marauders were trying to get him to calm down but failing, for they weren't giving their best efforts. They themselves were a bit lost and confused. And as Sirius's rant turned more profane, Professor Mcgonagall arrived behind him.

"Language Mr. Black." She said, her eyes flashing and her lips forming a thin line. Sirius gulped slightly and the four boys turned around to face her.

"Detention and a 100 points from Gryffindor." She said tightly.

"For abusing professor? Isn't that too much." Remus dared to ask, which was stupid, considering the dark look on her face.

"No, for flooding the Slytherins common room; four of you have disappointed me greatly. Never once in the history of Hogwarts have I come across such an incident. How could you? Do you have any idea how much time and energy it required on the professors behalf to clear out the corridor? Yes, the corridor too was flooded because of you blithering idiots. A first year nearly drowned. Do you realize consequences of your actions?"

Her voice grew louder and louder with every passing statement. The few people milling around the corridor stood rooted to the spot. The marauders themselves were shocked for at first, they had forgotten their own prank and secondly, because they had never expected McGonagall to be so angry.

And at last McGonagall scolded them and threw in an extra detention for Sirius (for the profanity) and left, leaving her a gaping silence in the tide. For a few seconds, no one spoke and once it was clear that she wasn't going to come back and shout some more, James broke the silence.

"You owe me 5 galleons padfoot."

It had been two days since the marauders had flooded the slytherin common room and James was whistling slightly as he walked through the corridors for his detention for the same. As he turned around the corner, he came across a sight which burned in his memory. A sight he wished he had never ever come across. It's not like he didn't knew about it but Merlin knows he didn't need a visual. As he turned around the corner, he saw a glimpse of red hair behind sandy blonde ones. Caradoc had his hands on her waist and her hands were wrapped around his neck and that was it. Not even kissing or talking. They were just staring into each other's eyes, unaware of any other company present. And yet the intimacy of moment left James with pang in his chest. He turned around and walked away, taking a longer route to Professor McGonagall's office.

"Where have you been mate? Mcgonagall assigned us the usual shit; cleaning up her office. Do you think I will be able to slip my essay? I didn't submit it on time." said Sirius grinning.

Peter shook his head knowing that Sirius was just joking but he played along all the same. "Sorry mate but she already took off points, no use writing one now."

"You have a point Wormy. But what if I say that I finished the essay later on?"

"Then I would say you shouldn't lie Padfoot." replied Peter cheekily.

And throughout this entire exchange, James was silent. He didn't utter a word, his mind still on Lily, and so he was startled when Sirius shook him roughly.

"Whoa, mate you blacked out for a second there? What happened? And why were you late?"

"I, I just saw Lily with Dearborn." Said James matter-of-factly and his expression spoke the rest of his thoughts.

"Oh, that sucks buddy." said Peter, pulling a sympathetic face.

Sirius on the other hand clapped James on the back and said, "Don't worry prongs. It will work out. One of these days, she will realize how amazing you are."

"I assume Lily is the topic of your conversation." came a voice from behind.

The three boys whirled around to find Alissa leaning on the door frame. "McGonagall's not here."

"I know. Trust me, I can see." She replied with a slight smile. The confusion was evident on the three boys' faces.

"If you were looking for Slughorn, he's not here either." Sirius said slowly. Everyone let out a snort and Alissa decided to clear up the matter. "I'm here to tell you that your detention for Lankburn's cancelled."

"Yeah, we know. Apparently, the person who came up with the ingenious Chizpurfle prank confessed to get us out of trouble. True Gryffindor, this fellow. But it must've been someone smaller or older. The only other boy in our year is Paul and he is hardly the one to play pranks." said Peter thoughtfully.

"Well, aren't you lot sexist? It could've been a girl."

"Well, can you imagine Mary Mcdonald get her hands near a chizpurfle or the horror, my girlfriend Emily." said Sirius with a snort. "A girl indeed"

"Well, do you really think the prank was ingenious?" asked Alissa hopefully, a smile creeping up on her face.

"Yes why do you ask?" said Sirius, still trying to figure out the prankster.

James, who had noticed the mischievous grin on Alissa's face caught on. "Oh Dear, it was you wasn't it?"

Alissa simply nodded and grinned as James let out a soft whistle. "That was indeed something."

"I'm glad to be of entertainment. And now I need to do my detention, you lot are free to go." She replied, shrugging James off modestly.

"Haven't you heard? We're in detention because we flooded the slytherin common room the same day." said Sirius with a loud laugh.

"I heard about that, I mean everyone heard about it but I didn't know you lot were responsible." Alissa said in awe.

"Well, who else could've done it but us." said Sirius with a lack of modesty that surprised no one.

And then Peter told her to clear out the right side of the desk and they got to work.

"So where lupin?" she asked finally, gazing out of the window towards the full moon. It looked so white and shiny, like the one to provide light in all the darkness. Evan managing to put all the others stars to shame in its full glory. Little did she realize that this full moon was the reason Remus hadn't joined them.

"He... err, he went to visit his mother this week. She's seriously ill."

Alissa nodded, a look of concern on her face. In order to change the topic, Peter asked the first question he could think off.

"So chizpurfles, where did you think that up?"

And the whole lot of them exchanged stories and the little inside details on their pranks. And that is why if you ever get the chance to ask Alissa what she thought of chizpurfles, she will grin from ear to ear. She will laugh out loud and profess her undying love for them. Because chizpurfles are reason she ended up becoming friends with the marauders.

Author's note:I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Once again i apologize for the late update and i am sorry to say i can't promise when the next update will be. Things have been really busy please don't give up on it because i haven't. I am going to see this story to the end, i promise. On that cheerful note, goodnight.

Reviews are better than sleep.

Writer.