Lily's POV

'Ciara and Sirius are with James in the library. I'm under a disillusion charm by the door, keeping a look out, and Ciara has eyes on all other exits; we're good to go,' Kelsey said to me.

I nodded to myself, looking down from a wall I was perched on near the east side of the courtyard. Not many people were around in this area and the Salem group were sitting underneath one of the large trees in the courtyard area. I hopped down quickly and walked straight over to them, fixing a stern look of warning to my face. All of them were sitting down casually as I walked up but Annabelle stood immediately when I got there.

"Ms Evans, how can we help you on this wonderful day?" she asked, sending me a huge smile. I swear, if we hadn't have known what we already did about them, no one would have guessed that there was anything untoward about any of them.

"You can start by backing off from James," I said forcefully. I smirked a little on the inside when I saw her façade crack slightly, just enough for me to see her mouth curl into an almost grimace, before her face relaxed again.

"I don't think I know what you mean," she replied, the rest of the girls now getting up to stand behind her. "We've become good friends with James recently."

I raised one eyebrow, crossing my arms as I continued to frown at her. "You see, that's cute, because I've heard from various sources that your intentions towards James aren't friendly at all. In fact, I think that your intentions are as far from friendly as they can be."

The false undertones of cordiality had now chilled to frosty hostility. The slight smiles on their faces were nowhere to be seen and they were all glaring at me, their stares saying that they meant business. "What are you trying to say, Lily?" Annabelle asked.

"I'm not trying to say anything, I'm warning the four of you," I said, uncrossing my arms and straightening my posture, letting my lip curl in an obvious sneer. "We're watching you, all the time, 24/7. Do not try and pull anything that would harm James, because we will be there to stop you."

"I think you're bluffing," Adeline said, rolling her eyes in a mocking way. "If, and that's a big if, we were guilty of any of what you're assuming, do you honestly think we'd be stupid enough to give ourselves away to the likes of you?"

I laughed, long and hard, making sure to let my head fall back a little as I held my stomach. I pretended to wipe a tear from the corner of my eye as I tilted my head to look at the four, more than slightly irritated, girls. "It's really, really funny that you think that's enough to insult me," I said, smirking at them. "Truly, it is. And you know what? I'm quite happy to let you think that for as long as you want. Think I'm weak, that I'm incapable. Go right ahead. It only makes my job easier."

With that I walk away, deliberately turning my back on them. Kelsey and I had argued about this move, but I thought consciously turning my back on them would make it seem like I had nothing to worry about. I made sure to have my mind open, reading their thoughts so that I would know if they decided to attack. But judging from the fact that they'd gone to great lengths to remain anonymous, attacking me in public for no apparent reason wouldn't help their cause. Annabelle's thoughts confirmed my overall suspicions.

'She knows something. Don't know what, but she knows something. This isn't good, we need to re-group.'

"They're going to 're-group'?!" Kelsey exclaimed in our dorm room later that day as we all talked about what had happened that day. "That's not a good thing guys."

"But at least now we know they're startled," Ciara pointed out. "And perhaps if they're worried enough to change their plans, they'll be thinking about it more often which might make it easier for you guys to read them and figure out their plan."

"Which we need and still do not have," I added. "Getting the jump on them today will be for nothing if we can't use it to our advantage."

"We can do this," Ciara said. "We just need to be on top of our games."

"We need to tell someone is what we need to do," Kelsey grumbled. "This is getting bigger by the day and I don't want to be the one to point it out but we are only twelve."

"If it gets too serious for us we'll tell somebody," I said to them both. "But we need proof. We can't just go claiming that something is up when we don't have proof."

"What do we do until then?" Kelsey asked.

"I think a prank on the Ravenclaws in honor of your birthday sounds like the appropriate next step," I joked, attempting to change the subject to something a little lighter. Thankfully Kelsey and Ciara went with it.

"Oh, this I can get behind," Kelsey said eagerly, rubbing her hands together. "What're we thinking?"

"What about our Joint Action Class Scheme?" Ciara asked.

"I'm down for it," I said. "Who should we involve?"

"We can get everyone in on it," Ciara said. "If we can organize for the house elves to drop an invite in each dorm from Gryffindor, Slytherin and Hufflepuff, we might be able to get a large enough group doing it."

"Should we do it in two days' time? I figure that gives us tonight to work on our prank invites and then we'll get the elves in on it tomorrow," I said.

"Sometimes I really love your brain, Ciara," Kelsey said, grinning. "This has got to be my favourite prank idea that you've come up with, ever. So simple, yet so wonderfully effective."

"Sure, if you don't mind the House stereotyping," Ciara said, chuckling as she lay back on her bed.

-AOAR 2-

The day of Kelsey's birthday and our prank arrived. Ciara and I eagerly jumped on Kelsey's bed in the morning, yelling gleefully at our friend. "Kelsey, Kelsey, Kelsey! Wake up, wake up!"

"I'm awake," we heard her grumble from where she'd hid under her covers. "I don't want to be, but I am."

"What was that Lily?" Ciara asked rhetorically. "She wants us to yell louder?"

"I think that's what she said Ciara," I said, beginning to jump up and down again, yelling even louder. "Kelsey! Happy birthday! Happy birthday Kelsey!"

We leaned back suddenly as Kels wrenched the covers off her head and sat up, glaring at the two of us. "Just so you know, you two are being doubly cruel. Not only are you interrupting the sacred rituals of sleep but, in doing so, you are going directly against the wishes of the birthday girl, breaking the time honoured tradition of giving the birthday individual whatever they want."

Ciara and I didn't say anything for a moment, Kelsey eyeing the two of us distrustfully. As she went to open her mouth again, we grinned simultaneously and lunged forward to hug her, pushing her back into a lying down position once more. "Happy birthday Kels," we chorused.

We heard her give a long-suffering sigh before she uttered a quiet 'thank you'. We got off her bed and laughed, going about our dorm and getting ready for the day, but not before we saw a little grin appear on our friend's face.

We made our way down to the Great Hall for breakfast early that morning, keeping a watchful eye on the other houses to see if they did anything suspicious to give away the plan. The Gryffindors seemed to be very relaxed, like nothing was going on whatsoever. I almost thought they mightn't have gotten their notifications, but my worries were eased when the twins and Edgar came to sit beside the three of us. They were shortly followed by Sirius and James, ensuring the whole gang was together.

"So did you lot get those notes too?" Edgar asked quietly as he leaned forward to fill his plate.

Everyone nodded, Ciara, Kelsey and I playing along. "Are we really going to do it?" Ciara asked, pretending to be unsure of what was going on. "And is it only us or is it Hufflepuff and Slytherin too?"

"We think it's all three houses," Fabian said. "I mean, why would it only be the Gryffindors? It's not like we're pranking Slytherin, who we have a longstanding rivalry with."

"There'd be no reason to single us out in a prank against Ravenclaw," Gideon concurred.

"I'm just annoyed that we didn't think of this," Sirius whispered, a small smirk breaking through his serious countenance and giving away how excited he really was. "This will be golden."

"If it works," I reminded them. "What happens if no one does anything?"

"Then the eight of us will look very strange," Kelsey said with a shrug, putting butter on her toast.

I didn't respond and the group fell into a brief silence, eating their own meals. I observed the Hufflepuff and Slytherin students. The latter seemed slightly more excitable than usual, seeming more energized and joyful (was it the thought of the prank?). The latter wasn't giving anything away, so I had no idea what was going on in their heads. I just mentally crossed my fingers that everything would work out.

One hour later in the middle of Charms, I was surprised by just how well this was working out. It seemed that individual students had taken it upon themselves to not raise their hands, prompting the unaware Ravenclaw students to do so instead. The first time it happened Professor Flitwick didn't quite know what to do, I think.

It was James that got the first high five in. When Gemma Stanwick raised her hand in regards to a question about the correct wand motion for a particular spell, James turned around from his desk directly in front of her and high fived the now very surprised student. No one reacted straight away, silence filling the room, and in the end the Professor ended up moving on and taking Gemma's answer without comment.

Nothing happened until a short while later, when another question was posed to the class. Once again, a Ravenclaw student proffered an answer and this time Kelsey stood from her desk one place behind and one over, walked over to the boy whose name I didn't know, and high fived his outstretched pal. At his look of confusion, she just grinned and shrugged. "Good on you mate!" she enthused, heading back to her chair.

"Ms Stevens, what on Earth is going on?" the Professor asked, eyes wide as he looked between Kelsey and James.

"Just congratulating a fellow student Professor," Kelsey said with a shrug, "on their eagerness to contribute to our class."

"And you, Mr Potter?" he asked James.

James just sent him a cheerful grin. "Stretching my hand Professor, I got a cramp. Our high five was total coincidence." Flitwick seemed, rightfully, suspicious of what was happening but didn't say anything further. There was no opportunity to continue the prank because it was at that point that we broke off individually to work on the charm. Professor Flitwick didn't ask another question and so no one had the opportunity to high five a Ravenclaw.

"We've got three more classes before lunch," James reminded us softly as we walked out of the classroom a short time later.

"God, this is such a good prank," Kelsey whispered excitedly, grinning from ear to ear as we made our way to Defence. "Best one yet I think, no offence boys."

"None taken," Sirius grinned. "To get everyone in on it is brilliant."

By the time we made it to lunch just under three hours later, everyone in the group had had multiple high fives in the two other classes we had had with the Ravenclaws. The Professors were fuming, the fact that no one was giving up what was going on infuriating them even more. The Ravenclaw students by all accounts were having the time of their lives. In fact, in our last class together Gemma Stanwick had even run a mock bidding war for who got to high five her hand when she raised it to answer the Professor's question. Now we'd get to see how the rest of the school had fared.

It turned out that the prank had been a larger success than even we had anticipated. The entire student populace was buzzing with different stories, each funnier than the last. Benjy Fenwick swore he swan dove over a table to get to a Ravenclaw student.

"Was that what that was?" Edgar asked sarcastically. "I was wondering what you were attempting to do when you began floundering on the table like a fish out of water."

Before Benjy could respond Dumbledore, making a rare appearance at the midday meal, stood up from his chair and held his hands up in the air, asking for silence.

"Well," he said, lowering his hands when everyone had stopped talking. "I'm almost surprised that I did not receive a high five just then." This caused a ripple of laughter amongst the students and a murmur of unhappiness amongst the staff sitting at the table.

"Whatever the case, I would just like to say that though it's been a pleasure to partake in some tom foolery, the prank will be coming to an end as of now. However, all due kudos to the group responsible. Mr Potter, is this the work of yourself and Mr Black?" he called out to the boys.

"Can't claim this one sir, I'm afraid," James shouted back with Sirius looking down and shaking his head.

"Then congratulations to the Scarlett Letters for a schoolwide prank that got everybody working together. Enjoy the rest of your lessons today everybody."

And just like that our prank was at an end. However, after sharing a small and secretive smile with Ciara and Kelsey, I knew it had been a success that even we couldn't imagine.

Got some exciting things in the works guys, get ready. Have a good one!