SEPTEMBER 9, 1977

It was late at night on a Friday when she found him.

She'd swapped with the Hufflepuff prefect, Brady Hiddleston, who wanted the Friday off because it was a friend's birthday. She didn't mind, she quite liked Joyce Jefferson, a Ravenclaw seventh-year prefect and good friend of Remus's ex-girlfriend, Veronica Beezley. She was tall and quiet, her dark eyebrows giving her a look of intensity that complemented her general air of solemnity. Even when she laughed, it was a calming act.

They'd had an uneventful patrol, spending their time strolling around and chatting about unimportant things. Lily didn't expect that state of affairs to change as drastically as it ended up changing.

"We're learning non-verbals in Defense right now," Jefferson explained. "It's rough, since we have Defense with the Slytherins. I mean, only two major injuries so far and Dilton got sent to the Hospital Wing for vomiting feathers, but all in all we're not in bad shape."

"We had pretty severe injuries," Lily said as they turned the corner, recalling her sixth year. "Peter Pettigrew grew whiskers and a tail though, it was kind of funny."

Lily paused, and a dark cloud seemed to flitter over her face. "Although now that I think about it, Potter and Black may have been pulling a prank. Honestly, I can never tell which mishaps over the years they were responsible for. Nothing else, though. A few cuts and bruises."

"I don't know how I feel about non-verbals," Joyce said slowly, weighing her words. "On one hand they're dead useful to know. On the other, it just makes the Slytherins that much better at dueling."

"Dueling?"

Joyce looked sheepish, suddenly, and glanced carefully about her before she leaned in, eyes sparkling with the secret she was about the divulge. "Well, so. A couple of us have started a dueling club. It's not really a club, it's only about five or six of us right now, but it's still hush hush."

"Why is it hush hush?" Lily asked.

"So that the Slytherins don't know, of course. They're not invited. Primarily because they're sort of, well, the targets," Joyce explained matter-of-factly.

Lily wasn't sure what to say, so she didn't say anything. She supported it, it's not that she didn't. It made sense, learning how to fight, teaching themselves defensive spells that would erect a barrier of safety between them and their attackers, even if it wasn't impenetrable, even if it was just an illusion. It all was very rational. Perhaps she didn't want to admit that it had come to the point, where secret dueling clubs were necessary, and students had to wonder whether the latest class lesson was going to be used against them the next day in the corridors. Or perhaps she didn't like the rule-breaking aspect of it, because she was trying so hard to make sure she left Hogwarts with an impeccable record since she knew that the places she sought employment at would hire a less-qualified pureblood instead of her in a heartbeat. Or perhaps it was just that she knew no amount of learning defensive spells was going to stem the tide of zealous attacks from Voldemort supporters. They were an unstoppable, ever-growing force.

It was at this moment, when she was turning this very thought over in her mind, that they heard the bone-chilling scream.

They looked at each other, frozen for a second, before they were jolted into action, footsteps echoing loudly and erratically as they sprinted down the hallway in a mad rush to find the source of the agonized noise. At one point, Joyce stumbled, tripping over an uneven stone on the floor, and Lily caught her automatically without even breaking her pace, grabbing the girl's upper arm and pulling her forward until she fell back into stride. When Lily let go of Joyce's arm, she realized her palms were sweaty.

"Over here!"

Lily had just kept running in blind panic, the adrenaline that coursed through her blood fueling her steady sprint. She practically skidded to a stop when she heard Joyce's voice, whirling around as Joyce beckoned frantically from where she was kneeling right by a statue of a large ogre on the second floor, around the corner from the bathrooms. By the time Lily got there, Joyce had managed to coax the wailing student out from behind the stone pedestal.

Lily kneeled beside Joyce, taking a deep breath to even her voice. "Are you … are you alright?"

"What's your name?" Joyce asked.

The student had stopped screaming but his limbs were still shaking, his haphazardly cut bangs plastered to his sweaty forehead. His eyes darted back and forth between Joyce and Lily, but he looked more like he was in shock rather than fearful.

He licked his lips and croaked, "Jose."

"Jose," Lily repeated, shuffling closer. "Are you alright? Can you tell us what happened?"

Jose looked balefully up at Lily, as if it was difficult to find the right words.

"Lily," Joyce gasped, her eyes glued to the boy's arm. Lily saw the blood instantly, no longer hidden in the stone ogre's shadow. It looked like his forearm had been slashed, red splotches across the sleeve of his Oxford shirt like a splatter of paint.

"Who did this?" Lily asked, but she already knew the answer.

The boy was fine. They took Jose to the Hospital Wing, where Madam Pomfrey ushered them inside and had him lay in one of the empty beds, fluttering about him with practiced skill. The cuts on his arm weren't so bad, the shirt made it all look a lot worse than it was. They were cuts, nevertheless, and it looked like they were deliberately made to create a pattern.

"A word," Joyce said darkly. "They were trying to spell something on his arm."

All Lily could make out was an "M". She didn't try to guess what it was supposed to be, but Jose seemed to understand too. He looked at Lily with fear and humiliation in his eyes, and all she could do was grip his shoulder to let him know he was not alone. He seemed to appreciate that, and given that he was more shaken than hurt, he drifted off to sleep once all the excitement had worn off and Madam Pomfrey begun quietly shooing them away.

Joyce and Lily didn't speak to one another as they made their way back to the main part of the castle. There wasn't much to say, except perhaps, Lily thought, to tell Joyce that she and her dueling friends at the very least had a reason to be sneaking around together.

"We should tell Dumbledore first thing tomorrow," Lily said presently, as soon as the thought entered her mind. Joyce nodded.

"We should also talk to Jose when he's awake—he can tell us who did it," Joyce said, her voice cold, pursing her lips.

Lily sighed, and as her breath left her and her body relaxed, she realized she had been clenching her fists so hard that there were crescent nail marks on her palms.

Lily dropped off Joyce at the Ravenclaw dormitory entrance before she went back to Gryffindor's. She wasn't expecting anybody to be awake given that it was nearly 11 at night, but she wasn't surprised when she walked in to see the fire kindling and Kat and Marlene draped lazily over the upholstery, chatting. They perked up when they saw Lily walk over and throw herself onto one of the sofas.

Kat raised an eyebrow. "Rough night?"

Lily just groaned.

"Well it's over now, isn't it," Marlene pointed out sagely, her feet propped up on the coffee table. She yawned, stretching out slowly like a cat. "So, what was it? Kid puke on you? Did you run into Peeves?"

Lily looked from Kat to Marlene. "A student was attached."

They both shot up in their seats, suddenly alert. "What?"

"Who?" Marlene demanded.

Lily shrugged. "Some Hufflepuff first-year."

"Do you know who did it?"

"What happened, is he okay?"

Lily looked blearily from one person to another. "His arm was cut, but he's fine. Think they were trying to mark him or something. Dunno who did it, but I'm sure we can all take an educated guess."

Kat lowered herself back into her seat, contemplative. Marlene's expression had darkened, and she stared into the fire with an odd intensity. Lily picked at a stray thread on her skirt. They sat like that in silence, each immersed in her own thoughts.

"We have to do something," Marlene said, breaking the silence, her voice hardly above a murmur. She was shaking her head.

"What?" Lily asked warily.

"We have to do something," this time, Marlene spoke with more conviction. Kat exchanged a look with Lily over Marlene's head. She had an idea, as she always did, a plan of action.

"Like what?" Kat asked.

Marlene stood up, crossing her arms and finally looking up at them. "We should start a club."

"Excuse me?"

Lily didn't say anything but she vehemently shared Kat's confusion.

"A club," Marlene repeated, her eyes gleaming. "An anti-Death Eater club. A club where we can rally, strategize, fight back."

Kat and Lily exchanged another knowing look, and Marlene caught it, frowning in irritation. "What? You don't agree?"

Lily shrugged, muttering "I suppose" as Kat hummed vaguely in agreement.

Marlene's frown deepened, and she crossed her arms. "What's wrong with you two?"

"Nothing's wrong with us," Lily said, her eyebrows dipping. "I mean, okay. Sure. We can start a club."

"You don't sound thrilled," Marlene commented dryly.

Lily shrugged again and got up, rubbing her shoulder where a phantom pain had sprung up since she'd return to Hogwarts. She hypothesized that it was stress, but she couldn't quite be sure. It felt like something was pressing down on her shoulders, an oppressive weight that made her body ache. "I'm not. Look, let's talk about this later, I'm beat."

"I don't get it," Marlene said with mounting irritation, her voice correspondingly getting louder. "I thought you of all people would want a club like this."

"Because I'm a muggleborn?" Lily shot back dryly, starting to lose her patience. Kat didn't say a word, her gaze drifting thoughtfully back and forth between Marlene and Lily.

"Well, yes," Marlene said.

"Sorry to disappoint," Lily said flatly.

"Look, Mar, we get that you care," Kat started, her voice soothing.

"You've been like this since summer," Marlene ploughed on, addressing Lily with accusation in her tone. "Afraid. Resigned. Like nothing can be done. What's your problem? The Lily I know wouldn't back down from a threat. The Lily I know would fight back."

"Cor, Mar," Lily said, running a hand over her face in frustration, her voice wavering with anger. "Stop pretending like you know. You don't know, okay? It's easy for you to stand there and tell us 'Oh, just, fight back, lalala' when you have nothing to lose. You don't know what any of us have to lose, so just … take a seat, alright?"

Marlene's eyebrows had risen up her forehead with Lily's each word, but her stance remained defiant. "You're the one who said you wanted to stay and fight."

"I did, I do," Lily snapped. "But not on your terms. This isn't even your fight, so why do you think you know how best to fight it? I mean Jesus, Mar, what do you want, a medal for being a good pureblood? Well you can have it. You've made it clear that you're one of the good ones."

Marlene jutted out her chin, her voice suddenly an octave lower. "That's not what I wanted. Never."

Lily didn't trust herself to say anything more without hurting her friend. She glanced at Kat, who looked sympathetically back at her, but that didn't make Lily feel any better. She was exhausted, and she needed sleep.

Lily looked at Marlene and sighed. "Just … let it go, okay? I'm going to bed."

She trusted that Kat would tend to Marlene and help her lick her wounds, so she left them in the common room without another word. Her bones were aching more with every step that took her closer to her bed and her head hardly touched the pillow before she was embraced by the sweet release of sleep.

SEPTEMBER 10-16, 1977

She could see why James and Marlene were friends, and the similarities in their upbringing that made them two peas of a pod in many ways. Lily had more patience for Marlene, naturally, since they were friends. With James, however, she didn't give a flying fuck, wearing her irritation on her sleeve without regard.

"If I'd have been there, I'd have hunted down the Slytherin who did it," James declared, stabbing at his eggs. Lily figured the Head Boy should know what was happening but regretted telling him almost immediately.

"The student is fine, by the way," Lily replied. "I checked earlier. He was released from the Hospital Wing."

"That's not the point," James insisted. "Whoever did it should be brought to justice."

Lily ignored Marlene's enthusiastic hum from across the table that was cut off when Kat jabbed her surreptitiously in the leg, or so Lily assumed. They hadn't spoken since last night, coming down to breakfast together as usual like nothing had happened.

Lily responded dryly, "Oh I'm sorry, the victim's well-being is not the point of this?"

"You said yourself he was fine," James shrugged. "But those Slytherins will do it again, mark my words. They're up to something."

"Meaning what?" Lily asked.

But James merely winked at her. Lily narrowed her eyes at him. He seemed to know something, and if that something had to do with what they overheard in Diagon Alley, she wanted to know.

"Meaning what, Potter?"

"Perhaps they need a little shaking up," Sirius said suddenly from James's other side. A slow smile was unfurling across his face as he gazed out into the distance.

Remus, who had also been quiet as he sat across from Sirius and James, looked up sharply at this. "Are you talking about …"

"I am indeed, Mr. Moony."

Peter gasped audibly. "You don't mean …"

"Oh," James said, catching on, his eyes widening like he was in a trance as he dropped his fork dramatically on his plate with a clatter. "Oh, Padfoot, you goddess, you exquisite genius."

Lily, seemingly the only sane one left on the Gryffindor table, looked nettled and just about fed up with everybody else. "Right. You all are off your rockers. I'm going to go to the library and get a head start on homework."

"I'll join you in a bit," Kat called after her cheerily.

The four boys seemed to be having an entire conversation through expressions alone, and Lily huffed, muttering "weird" under her breath as she left them at the table, not bothering to look at Marlene, who was smirking into her porridge.

She would find out later that week what the Marauders were on about, and she would remind herself that she had smelled something fishy from the moment Sirius Black opened his mouth at the breakfast table. She would tell herself later that she really ought to trust her instincts more, because that odd feeling in her gut that told her they were up to no good had been right. But unfortunately, that morning, she decided not to heed it, opting instead to fill the rest of her day with decidedly unexciting, un-infuriating activities.

A lot of that involved avoiding Marlene, which didn't seem to be too difficult given that Marlene was committed to the same philosophy of avoidance. Besides, it was a beautiful day out, meaning the Gryffindor team was practicing Quidditch and Lily had the entire castle and grounds to herself to amble around without worrying about running into Marlene or the Marauders. That would be a great band name, she thought to herself as she walked about the grounds, enjoying that she had the time to have such ridiculous thoughts. She read outside under a tree for a couple hours, had early lunch by herself, took a short nap in the afternoon, and was feeling rather good by the time she walked into the library to meet Kat for a study session.

It was almost time for dinner when they finally decided to call it a day, most of their readings for the week's classes done and their essay outlines squared away.

"Oof. I'm so glad Flitwick is out sick next week and we don't have to worry about that Charms essay," Kat said, throwing down her quill and stretching.

Lily rolled up the remaining parchments, packing her book bag. "Only means he's going to be draconian the week after. What a sweet, small, terrifying man."

But Kat was staring at something behind Lily, her eyes widening. She lowered her head and whispered. "Don't look now, but MacMillan and Nicholson are getting real cozy right behind you."

Lily expertly did not swivel her head to look, instead turning as if to put something into her bag that was slung across the back of her chair and glancing at them from the corner of her eyes. Evie's giggles carried across the library, and Garrett seemed to have his hand placed squarely and unambiguously on her thigh as they sat next to each other at one of the tables tucked away in the corner of the library furthest from Madam Pince. Lily turned back to Kat, eyebrow raised.

"Yup, they're together alright," Lily confirmed, slightly amused .

Kat shook her head, incredulous. "I thought Mar was acting funny all week. Think she saw them together?"

Lily suddenly felt guilty, not having picked up on her best friend's distress. "I don't know. She would've told us, though?"

"I don't think she feels like she can," Kat said. "She broke up with him, after all. What can she say?"

"She's allowed to have feelings about it," Lily said. "They were together for ages."

Kat shrugged. "She made her choice."

"I don't think it's as simple as that," Lily said gently.

Kat was smiling at her. "You cut her too much slack."

Lily looked at Kat appraisingly.

"Well," Kat said, leaning back in her seat. "She was being a git the other night, and you told her off. Rightfully."

It was strange to hear Kat taking Lily's side. Kat and Marlene had been friends since the first day of school—before that, even, since they'd met on the Hogwarts Express. They'd had two years on her, since she'd spent her first and second year at Hogwarts with Mary. She and Kat always had Marlene to tie them together—Kat had only agreed to take Lily in once Marlene had taken a liking to her. But Marlene was always going to be Kat's first friend.

"She'll come around," Kat said confidently. "She's just pouting right now, but she'll come around."

Kat looked at her watch, one of the few muggle items she kept with her, a relic of her brother, who had always been more avid about the muggle side of their family than Kat ever had. He had gifted her the watch when she'd turned 16 last year—a beautiful, rose-gold watch with a brown leather strap and dials for the month, day, and even lunar cycles.

"It's time for dinner," Kat said, lowering her hand, the watch catching and reflecting the remnants of rapidly receding sunlight from the library windows. "Shall we?"

It started with dinner on Saturday night. Straining her memory, Lily could remember one of the Slytherins—a second-year student Lily didn't know—choking on his pumpkin juice. In fact, he choked so bad that he had to be carried out by his peers, whisked away to the Hospital Wing as he gagged and wheezed and turned slightly blue. Lily didn't think much of it when it happened, not even when James and Sirius exchanged a knowing look at the table.

That was Saturday night.

Sunday was not particularly eventful, and Lily racked her brain for any signs that things were about to go awry. All she could think of was that evening in the common room, when she spotted the Marauders huddling together on the corner table, whispering enthusiastically to one another.

"What do you think they're up to?" Lily asked, her book open in her lap but her eyes surreptitiously fixed on the Marauders.

"Oh, leave them be you nosy cow," Marlene said airily, moving her rook forward. Kat huffed as it took her bishop by violently jumping on it, smashing it to pieces. "All this paranoia—it'll turn your hair white."

Lily sighed heavily—a noise so tired and worn that it paired nicely with Marlene's accusation of senescence. "They're up to something, I can feel it in my bones."

"Okay, weirdo," Marlene grumbled.

Monday was the day the cascade of strange incidents began, the day she could pinpoint knowing, for sure, that Something was Up.

It started right before Potions, which they had with the Slytherins. Lily was standing outside the classroom with Marlene and Kat a few minutes before class, waiting for Slughorn to call them all in along with a handful of other Gryffindor and Slytherin students that had also arrived early.

"We have a good shot at winning," Marlene was saying confidently, talking about Quidditch prospects that Lily cared little about but Kat was eager enough to listen to. "If we can find ourselves a decent beater, I think we could really smash … smash …"

Lily looked up from the piece of parchment she was doodling on as she leaned against the wall in response to Marlene inexplicably trailing off mid-sentence, her eyes wide and confused as she stared at Kat. It only took another second or two for Lily to identify the source of Marlene's consternation—Petra Prukiss, a seventh-year Slytherin with an upturned nose, was hovering next to Kat's elbow like she was in a trance, staring at Kat's arm.

"Oi," Marlene called sharply, still wide-eyed.

Purkiss did not seem to have heard Marlene, her eyes still fixed on Kat's arm. She raised a spindly hand and started reaching toward Kat.

"Er," Kat backed away a little in alarm.

"Hey!" Lily exclaimed, pushing herself off the wall, at the same time Marlene demanded, "What's the idea, eh?"

This seemed to snap Purkiss out of her trance and she stumbled back, blinking rapidly. She finally registered the three pairs of hostile eyes trailed on her and she backed away, her cheeks coloring up.

"Nice … watch," she choked out as if someone was compelling her to say it and then, mortified at her forthrightness, she scurried away back to where the other Slytherins were standing, staring in equal confusion.

Kat instinctively clutched her watch and turned back to Marlene and Lily, both their mouths hanging slightly open.

"Are you okay?" Lily asked.

"Yeah," Kat said uncertainly, still absently rubbing her wrist.

"What the bloody fuck?" Marlene blurted.

Lily wasn't sure what compelled her to, but at that moment she looked sharply in the direction of the Marauders, standing across the hall. They too were staring at Kat and Purkiss, along with the rest of the people outside the classroom. But Lily caught Sirius Black's tight-lipped smile, as if hiding a chuckle, and the gleam in Potter's eyes.

She should have trusted her instinct in that moment that was screaming at her that they were Up to Something.

The week just kept getting weirder and weirder.

On Tuesday, during patrol, Lily and Remus caught two Slytherin third-years in a broom closet playing with a battery-operated flashlight. It sounded more scandalous than it was—or not—but if nothing, it was plain weird. Lily and Remus found them out when they saw light flickering through the cracks of the broom cupboard door, opening it to find the two students huddled on the floor of the closet, both of them clutching the flashlight.

"What the bloody devil are you two doing?" Lily asked as two pairs of wide eyes stared back at her.

"Sorry," one of them, a boy, mumbled, quickly shoving the flashlight in his bag. The girl looked guilt-stricken but didn't contribute any sort of explanation.

"Oh no," Lily said, sidestepping to block the boy and holding out her hand, "Hand it over."

The boy avoided looking at Lily and practically threw the flashlight at her as if it were a hot potato.

"Go on, then," Remus advised the two students. They did not need to be told twice, scuttling away without looking over their shoulders.

"Where did they even get this?" Lily asked, staring down at the flashlight. "Were they just … turning it on and off? By themselves? In the middle of the night?"

"There's a supply closet of muggle artifacts on the first floor in front of the Muggle Studies classroom," Remus observed. "That's probably where they got it."

Lily was suspicious that Remus did not seem nearly as concerned as she was about this bizarre situation, but she let it slide, shaking her head as she pocketed the flashlight.

The strange incidents did not stop there. On Wednesday, Lily found out from Professor McGonagall that the muggle artefacts closet on the first floor had indeed been stolen from, raided, in fact, overnight, and many of the items were missing. Why anybody would raid the muggle artefacts closet, Lily had no idea, and neither did Professor McGonagall, who looked equally dumbstruck as she informed Lily and James. James suggested in amusement that perhaps someone was just really that concerned about failing their Muggle Studies N.E.W.T.S. McGonagall did not even tell him off, too mystified to rule out any hypotheses of who did it, however ludicrous.

But things only escalated from there: On Thursday, Marlene reported back to the common room after class in stitches. Lily could hardly understand a word she was saying through all the giggling as she informed her and Kat that a number of Slytherins had tried to sneak their way into her Muggle Studies class and the Professor had to admonish them in front of everyone—'Really, how utterly ludicrous, I've never seen anything quite like this!' were the Professor's exact, spluttering words—and kick them all out. One girl, Marlene said, bursting into fresh peals of laughter, was quite literally sobbing as her house mates dragged her out of class.

"Oh," Marlene said, trying to catch her breath, clutching at her sides, "Oh, you should've seen her face. She was devastated, kept talking about how she just had to stay for the television demonstration, or she'd die."

Marlene could not continue with her story as she threw her head back and laughed some more, falling onto the sofa.

"What is going on?" Kat said, bewildered, but laughing a little at how gleeful Marlene was. "First the raid, now this—why are all the Slytherins obsessed with Muggle Studies all of a sudden?"

"Not Muggle Studies," Lily said, realization striking. "Muggle things. Your watch, remember?"

"Well what the actual fuck, was that supposed to help this make sense?"

The straw that broke the camel's back was Friday dinner, which was also the day Dumbledore finally decided to intervene in this debacle. The food had arrived and gone, and everyone was diving into dessert, the air filling with chatter and mirth that always seemed to follow confectionery.

"Things seemed to have calmed down," Kat muttered, eyeing the Slytherin table at the other end of the Great Hall. "Finally. How weird."

Marlene hummed in agreement, shaking her foot impatiently as she waited for another student two seats down to finish cutting up a piece of the chocolate cake she wanted.

Lily was about to comment on what Professor McGonagall's working theory was but before she could, a sudden hush fell over the Great Hall. She whirled around and saw that the Slytherin table had gone completely silent, all of them staring straight at her.

"What the …?"

"Oh," Marlene breathed, grabbing Lily' arm. Lily followed her petrified gaze, which was fixed on Sirius Black, who in turn was looking guiltily from one blank Gryffindor face to another. In his hand, he was holding what took Lily a few seconds to identity because of the sheer preposterousness of it—a rubber duck. The silence was deafening now, the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables also having caught on to the fact that something utterly bizarre was going on.

Sirius blinked innocently a few times and then gave the duck a deliberate squeeze.

What followed could only be described as utter pandemonium of apocalyptic proportions. There was a sudden and massive stampede of frenzied students coming from the direction of the Slytherins. Lily could not believe her eyes: They seemed to be in an awful rush to get to the Gryffindor table, students yelling and jostling one another in their attempt to do so. The older Slytherins were shouting and pushing the younger ones aside, shoving them under the table and toppling them over like dominos. Two students were in tears, screaming as they crawled between the legs of the taller ones.

"Must … have … it," one of them gasped, squirming on the floor.

The students at the rest of the house tables had jumped to their feet in alarm like a swarm of rats had been released onto the floor, the Great Hall exploding in total chaos. Lily had gotten to her feet too, looking about wildly for some inkling of what was happening. Sirius had shoved the rubber duck out of sight, his eyes wide. James had begun signaling at the teacher's table to do something, while also trying very hard to contain his laughter.

Even Marlene and Kat were laughing at the sheer ludicrousness of the entire situation, and Lily wondered wildly if they'd finally broken. She looked back at the Slytherins and caught Snape's eye, plastered as he was against the wall, looking like he was going to be sick. She realized his was resisting whatever spell the rest of his housemates were under, fighting back the powerful magic that was pulling him toward the Gryffindor table along with the other Slytherins.

Lily had to admit, watching him struggle in that one, sweet, moment, gave her an intense sense of satisfaction.

"ENOUGH."

Dumbledore was standing up at the front of the hall, his wand out as he surveyed the chaos before him. The Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws, and Gryffindors quieted down, but the Slytherins continued to struggle. Professor Slughorn hurried over to them, waving his arms frantically, casting spells one after the other in an attempt to contain the hysteria. Slowly as the spells took effect, students started drop like flies, slumping against walls or leaning against tables, exhausted. A few of the smaller ones continued to struggle and cry but were held back by the older students who had come to their senses. The seventh-year Slytherins, still disoriented, had gathered their wits enough to glare daggers periodically at the Gryffindors.

"It seems," Dumbledore said calmly, "That mischief has been afoot. Someone has bewitched their fellow students out of—ah—a misguided sense of humor, I would imagine."

Here, Dumbledore looked straight at the Marauders with a gaze so discerning that the four boys immediately ducked their heads. Dumbledore looked at them for a few seconds longer, appraising, before he continued to address the Great Hall.

"All those not in Slytherin House must return to their respective dormitories immediately. Prefects, please see to it that students exit in an orderly fashion. Madam Pomfrey will need to take a look at the remaining students before they can leave."

Lily jumped into action, signaling to house prefects to take over for their own houses.

"Damn it, that cost us dessert," Lily overheard a Hufflepuff student complain as he walked by.

"Worth it," his friend quipped back.

"POTTER."

James shot up in his seat, still smiling giddily, albeit now with a tinge of guilt. Sirius continued dancing manically on the table, grabbing the hand of some star-struck fifth-year girl and pulling her onto the table to dance with him. Peter was gleefully shooting sparks out of the tip of his wand. People were still chuckling about the events of the night, the collective morale of Gryffindor House raised substantially by the Slytherins' humiliation. Spirits high, the common room had become an impromptu party, students dancing and singing off-key, passing around butterbeer that Sirius had inexplicably "found" and brought out for everyone to share. There was laughter and merriment aplenty to go around, detracted only by the furious 17-year-old Head Girl storming their way.

On the sofa, Remus sucked in his breath next to James, trying to will himself into sobriety and preparing for the worst. James took another swig of butterbeer, unruffled.

Sure enough, she was stalking over, hair flying out behind her, eyes glinting.

"You're in for it," Remus hiccupped, but he was grinning in response to James's infection grin, both still abuzz from the leftover adrenaline of having pulled of an epic prank. James waived away his concern.

"I'm sure she'll be a sport about it."

Lily did not break stride for even a second until she was face to face with James, dodging stray limbs, confetti, and empty bottles before finally standing in front of him with her hands clenched in fists beside her. He looked up at her, his party hat sliding off the top of his messy hair, and grinned obnoxiously.

"Hallo, love."

Remus shrunk in his seat, smile disappearing.

"You," she said, pulling out her wand and jabbing it right into James's chest, making him cough and jump. "You. You did this, didn't you?"

"Dunno what you're talking about," James said with convincing innocence.

Lily just growled, burrowing her wand further into his chest.

"Ow," James protested.

"Tell me the truth," Lily said with scary calm. "You spiked the Slytherins' drinks. You and your friends."

"I don't know what you're talking about," James repeated easily.

Lily glared at him. She lowered her wand, her expression becoming colder, and crossed her arms. "You think you're clever, don't you?"

James looked thoughtful for a second. "Yeah, a little."

Lily continued staring coldly at him. "You could've really hurt somebody."

"But I didn't," James pointed out. Remus started inching away, sensing the beginnings of a feud. The rest of the common room quieted down a little, also sensing the tension.

"And what was the point of all of that? To be funny?"

"It was funny," James said pointedly. "You know, because they hate muggles. I'm sorry—was the joke not clear enough …?"

"The joke was clear, alright," Lily snapped. "But it wasn't funny. You think it's something to laugh about? You think muggles are a joke, a tool to humiliate people? Slytherins liking muggles, hilarious, right, let's all have a great big laugh about it."

James let out a frustrated sigh. "That's clearly not what I meant."

"Sure."

"See," James continued, his anger starting to show, "I'm just starting to think you always assume the worst about me, and you know, I'm fine with that, but I'd like if you didn't yell at me every time it tickled your fancy."

Lily just snorted. "Way to make it about you. Is it that difficult for you to wrap your thick skull around the idea that you're just wrong?"

"Hard to believe that, everyone here seems to have found it funny except for you," James retorted. "Watch—Oi, Marlene. That was funny, wasn't it?"

Marlene, who was chortling next to Peter, looked up at hearing her name. Sirius and the girl stopped dancing on the table, the last of the merriment dying down. Marlene looked from James to Lily, assessing the situation.

"What now?" She asked warily.

James got to his feet, crossing his arms as well as he glared down at Lily. "The prank. It was funny, wasn't it? Because Evans doesn't think so. She thinks, as always, that I'm an ass and this was all some sort of a self-congratulatory scheme."

Marlene stood up, frowning slight. Lily caught her eye, and Marlene held her gaze for a few seconds. Then she turned to James.

"Sure, but, I have to agree with Lily," Marlene said calmly. "It was sort of tacky."

Lily smirked to herself, grateful that even though she and Marlene were fighting, she could count on her best friend to have her back.

James snorted in disbelief. "And yet, everyone else seems to have enjoyed themselves. Whatever, Evans. At least I'm doing something about the Death Eaters instead of sitting on my hands like a fucking coward."

"Excuse me?" Lily asked incredulously, raising her voice.

"Hey," Marlene said sharply, stepping in between them. "James, get off your high horse and go take a walk. You can't speak to Lily like that."

"But she can call me whatever she damn well pleases whenever it suits her fancy, is that right?" James replied coldly. "Like I said, whatever. Party's over anyway. Hope you're happy, Evans."

"Fuck off," Lily spat at him, but he had already turned away and was storming to the boy's dormitory, throwing his ridiculous party hat across the hall as he went. Lily started forward angrily as if to give him a piece of her mind, but Marlene grabbed her arm warningly, and she backed down. A wave of murmurs rippled across the common room as people began to wrap up the festivities.

"Figures," Sirius muttered, jumping off the table. "Leave it to Evans and Prongs to ruin a perfectly pleasant evening."

Remus sighed, which was followed by a hiccup. "It'll get worse before it gets better."

"If it gets better," Peter observed, watching Marlene and Lily walk to the girl's dormitory, heads bowed as Marlene spoke to Lily in soothing tones. "Which, I mean. It's been a downward spiral ever since fourth year, so."

"This row was sort of our fault though," Remus winced. "Maybe we took the Amortentia prank a little too far?"

"Nonsense," Peter said easily, his conscience clearly not as clamorous as Remus's.

"Eh, maybe. But it was worth it," Sirius grinned, pulling out the rubber duck from his pocket and giving it a squeeze. He burst out into his signature bark-like laughter.