Chapter 11

30th January 1972

Lily Evans woke up with a smile on her face, which was quite unusual, as she wasn't a morning person. But who wouldn't smile on their birthday. Lily walked into the bathroom after a chorus of 'happy birthday's from her room mates. When she walked out, she was met by a beautiful little owl, who seemed a bit overenthusiastic. She reached out and grabbed the letter that came with it while the owl settled on her shoulder. Lily opened the letter and it read

Dear Lily Evans,

I wish you a very happy birthday and hope you have a good year. I remember from our last conversation that you don't have an owl. Now, we can't have you not sending me any letters during the break, can we? So yeah, this owl is yours. It is a magical owl so you can name it only once and it only answers to that name. I wanted you to name him but honestly, I couldn't let you go without a prank so I named it for you. Just so you never forget the owl, his name is James. Apologies in advance.

Yours annoying,

Potter the prat.

Lily couldn't help but chuckle at the letter and called to the owl, "hi James." Her room mates looked at her oddly before noticing the owl.

In the first year boys' dorm, James was pacing, thinking if Lily would snap at him or not. His doubts were answered when, in the great hall, Lily came up to him and thanked him for the gift before saying "He has a nice name as well."

This had the desired effect on James. "Well, I know someone with the same name." James said while the other two marauders looked confused and Remus was nowhere to be seen. Lily looked at him in a mischievous way and asked "oh really, who?"

But before James could answer, Marlene came over to their table and grabbed the seat beside James and said "looks like I will be at your place over the summer. I hate this you-know-who creep. And the ministry for using aurors to fight him. Mum and dad are going on a mission." And handed a letter to James.

James replied "Oh Sirius will love that. He's coming over as well." When Marlene looked at Sirius, Sirius winked at her and received a grin from her.

'Why can't Lily be like this?' James thought to himself.

James was brought out of his wonderings when Lily asked "But what about our plans, Marlene?"

"Oh James, would you mind if Lily came over for a week?" Marlene asked.

"Oh James would love that, wouldn't he?" Sirius asked with a suggestive grin.

James replied with a glare saying 'shut up' and "yeah sure, mum would love to hear complains about me, I once caught her writing a letter to Minnie about me."

"I have a feeling that Euphemia and Lily would love each other." Marlene said.

The conversation continued with a distracted James and a smirking Sirius. The classes went on as usual, except of course, potions. Dear old Sluggy sang a birthday song for Lily and handed her a new potions kit.

.

When James was going out for a midnight snack with Sirius under the invisibility cloak, they came across Avery and Mulciber holding a ravenclaw firstie and Snape and Malfoy pointing their wands towards her. James recognized the girl to be a muggleborn. It turned out that the older slytherins were trying to teach new spells to Snape and the 'claw was their training dummy. Sirius did the first thing that came to his mind, he set free a packet of filibuster's wet start fireworks with an aguamenti charm.

Sure enough, the snakes escaped and James and Sirius went to help the girl, whose name was Claire. They took her to the hospital wing and told the healer the whole story. By the time Dumbledore reached the hospital wing, the fireworks were extinguished and Flitwick was standing by Claire who had earned a stay in the hospital wing for three days. Flitwick had awarded 20 points to Gryffindor for helping a girl in need but McGonagall deducted ten points for breaking curfew. Dumbledore using his grandfatherly approach and silenced the two marauders about the people involved, he had plans for the Snape boy and he couldn't let him be punished.

This of course did not stop the story from spreading.

.

By the next morning, everyone knew that James and Sirius fought Snape, Malfoy, Avery and Mulciber and won. To say that Lily Evans was furious could get you an understatement of the year award. She marched up to James and glared at him with a sneering snivellus in tail.

"POTTER, YOU- UGH I HATE YOU. I THOUGHT YOU WERE ACTUALLY NICE AND THEN YOU DO THI-"

"Lily, what are you talking about?" Mary McDonald asked from behind her.

"THIS- THIS PRAT FRAMED SEV BECAUSE HE WAS CAUGHT OUT OF CURFEW. HE'S SPREADING RUMORS ABOUT SEV BECAUSE HE HATES HIM." Lily Rambled on.

"That's enough Evans. I won't be talked to like this when you don't have the full facts. If you don't believe me, go ask Claire if it's true. After all, she was the one this git was attacking." James said in a warning tone.

"I DON'T KNOW A CLAIRE, I AM SURE THERE'S NO CLAIRE HERE." Lily started but James pointed behind her, where Claire was coming from.

Snape panicked and did the first thing he could think of. He sent a stinging hex towards James. But James wasn't a prankster because he was slow. He immediately raised a shield. Because of his anger, the shield was overpowered and the stinging hex was reflected and it hit Snape right in the face who fell down clutching his face and moaning. He had tears in his eyes.

Lily saw him on the floor and bursted on James again.

"YOU ATTACKED HIM!" She screamed.

"That's enough Lily. We all saw Snape send the first hex." Marlene, who joined them halfway through the fight, spoke.

"Well then, he was provoked by Potter here. Stop taking his side, whose friend are you?" Lily asked

Before anybody could speak, Lily took Snape to the hospital wing.