Plot: The infamous Marauders weren't alone in their love for pranking. In fact, they often had their butts kicked by a bunch of girls. Now, this is it. Seventh year. Four girls, four boys. Two opposing pranking teams. One hell of a battle to be won.

Disclaimer: Sad as it may be, I am not J.K. Rowling in disguise, and therefore I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters or themes involved. (I do, however, own Jamie, Hannah and Regan and most elements of this specific plot—so I'd appreciate it if no poaching occurred. Thanks.)

WARNING (please read): This is the unedited version, meaning I wrote it a few years ago when my skill level sucked and I had no idea how to properly structure a story. So if you'll please ignore the terrible grammar, dodgy sentence structure, OOC-ness, plot holes, canonical inconsistencies and general immaturity of this whole chapter while I plough my way through all this editing work, that would be greatly appreciated. :) I'm in the process of fixing up all the chapters right now, but you'll have to be patient, because (as you can probably tell just by reading a couple of sentences below) fixing this stuff up takes a lot of time and effort.


Chapter 11 - Stirring Things Up

"Sirius, you twerp!" Lily snapped, glaring daggers at the eye she could see through the hole in the wall. Sirius – who Lily had assumed to be the owner of this eye – narrowed it with what looked like self-satisfaction. Deep, rumbling laughter that Lily could hear quite clearly tugged up at the corner of his eye.

"Don't let me interrupt!" Sirius said, his voice even louder than usual. "Go on with your... confessions, or whatever."

At this, Jamie gasped sharply, Hannah's mouth dropped open in shock, and Regan stormed over to the wall where Lily stood. Even Lily blushed a little, although she had already been able to guess as much; the Marauders had, most likely, heard every word that the abnormally honest girls had said after taking the Veritaserum. It was a great relief that Lily's turn had not come before they had discovered the eavesdroppers in the other room – who knew what she would have admitted to under such an influence?

"Let me through," Regan growled, and Lily willingly stepped aside to let her friend take her place in front of the peephole. "You." Regan's snarl was strong and menacing. "You and your buddies. Get your sorry arses down to Common Room NOW! We have a LOT of talking to do!"

"Is that a threat, Tain?" Sirius chuckled.

Hannah took over, putting her head right next to Regan's. "You bet it is," her voice was sharp and rather terrifying. "And for the sake of being threatening, I'll add to it. If you don't meet us in the Common Room in thirty seconds, you'll be hit with a thousand hexes before you can say dungbomb. What the heck, you'll be hit by a thousand dungbombs before you can say dungbomb!"

Lily heard Sirius laugh again, but not quite so confidently as before – he was obviously stung by her words to some extent.

"Fine, Roguies," he said, some of the edge gone from his deep voice. "It's a date. In thirty seconds. See you there."

But they didn't need thirty seconds – after only about ten, eight teenagers were assembled in the Heads' Common Room. Four of them were tense, glowering with much severity at the others, who were silent but continued to exchange puckish glances. Lily, although infuriated by the Marauders, was beginning to feel a little exposed, in nothing but a too-short singlet and a skimpy pair of light green pyjama shorts. She tactfully avoided James's eyes, and turned instead to Sirius – judging by the energetic look to his face and the fact that he was jumping from side to side while the others were standing completely still, he had consumed a higher quota of sugar than the others, and would therefore be less intuitive, and would probably remember little of this come morning.

"Have you ever heard of privacy?" she spat at him.

"Dunno. Mighta read it once or twice in a book... what does it mean?"

"You twit!" Hannah shouted. "Don't play stupid! We already know you're the dumbest thing on the planet."

"Are you an alien then? From outer space?" Sirius seemed to thrive off of Hannah's fury. "I always thought you were a little strange..."

"ARGH!" Hannah grabbed a pillow from the couch, and, with surprising force and accuracy, flung it at Sirius's head. Despite her valiant effort, it didn't seem to bother him. He only laughed.

"Now now," Sirius said with a smirk. "Play nice, Hanniekins,"

"What? And just let you go along with your malicious attacks? As if!"

"Malicious?" Sirius put on a fake pout, earning a hard scowl from Hannah. "We're not being meanies, are we?"

Hannah's hand snapped to her pocket, but Jamie leapt to her side and grasped her friend's elbow – gasping and whispering a harsh "No!" into her ear – before she could pull out her wand and curse Sirius into oblivion as Lily suspected she had wanted to. Hannah's eyes were ablaze with anger, and Lily stepped forward in attempt to calm things down.

"Listen," she said, trying to keep her voice as even as possible. "We're not here to argue. We just want an explanation from the four of you."

"Alright," said James, and Lily's stopped breathing when he answered. "What do you want to know?"

She could tell that he was trying to remain mature, but because of the grin on his face it was also quite obvious that he was enjoying himself at as the Rogues became angrier and angrier. Ugh. Lily thought with disgust. One minute he's nice, the next minute he's pure evil. Why can't he just pick one and stick to it?

When she replied to him, she didn't look him directly in the eyes. She felt that if she did, and found that he, too, was looking at her, she might blush or do something else embarrassing.

"Why were you listening in on our conversation?" Lily spat at the four of them, unable to contain her aggravation at this point. "Do you have no sense of confidentiality?"

Sirius snickered, and then a wide, false smile spread across his face. "Not when it comes to our favouritest girls in the world!"

"I'm glad you're so fond of us," Hannah growled.

"Oh, I didn't mean you, Milton. Who would be fond of somebody as hideous as you?"

Lily could have sworn she saw a flicker of hurt cross her friend's face, but even if she did, it quickly disappeared. Hannah's expression became solid and fierce.

"Cut it out, Black." she glowered at him. "Or I'll shove your head in Myrtle's toilet."

"A little cranky today, aren't you? I wonder what might be the cause of that..."

"I don't know," Hannah was shouting now. "Maybe... YOU?"

"Thank you for acknowledging me, Hanniekins, but I think somebody's suffering from a good old case of jealousy."

"You think I'm jealous of you?"

"Why wouldn't you be?"

"Why would I?"

"Maybe because I'm devilishly handsome, and you're butt ugly?"

Sirius had gone too far; everybody seemed to know it. Even he pulled back a little after he shouted these words at Hannah. Lily winced; she knew Hannah well, and she knew that her usually optimistic friend would not take this lightly. Ever since second year, Sirius had, it seemed, been trying to make a point of firing insults at Hannah at every possible opportunity. In the beginning, they had been relatively harmless, but now things were getting out of hand. The moment Sirius had started abusing her with appearance-related comments, it had been clear that they were beginning to affect Hannah more than usual. Of course, she did return clever, offensive comebacks, but Sirius's ego didn't seem to be quite as fragile as hers.

At the moment, Hannah's face was hard to read. Her eyes contained a number of emotions, and Lily recognized pain and fury as the most prominent of them. The girl's lower lip trembled a little, but it was difficult to tell whether she was shaking with anger or fighting back tears. Suddenly, Hannah burst out, enraged.

"I know you think I'm hideous, Black! And I know you hate me! Hell, I hate you too! But do you think you could just cool it for once? I don't need you insulting me twenty four seven." Tears were rolling freely down her face now, and she bit her lip. Her voice was horribly shaky as she practically whispered her concluding words. "I don't want to hear it."

With that, Hannah was gone. She turned and headed for the staircase with her head down. Lily heard a few quiet sobs as her friend was walking up the stairs, and this pained her. She had never seen Hannah so upset about anything – even Sirius's cruel remarks.

She looked towards the culprit himself and glared. "I suppose you're satisfied now?"

Sirius didn't reply at first. His brow was furrowed, and his eyes downcast. There was a trace of guilt on his face, but he was obviously trying to conceal it with a straight expression. He mumbled incoherently, and Lily picked out something like: "She deserved it."

"Mate, that was going way too far," James said sternly as he pulled his friend back, as if to restrain him from inflicting emotional damage on any of the other girls. Sirius was completely silent.

"Don't try and pretend you care!" Lily shouted at James. "You're the ones who got us into this argument in the first place!"

"Come off it, Lily," James said, a small, pleading smile on the corners of his lips. "It was just a bit of fun."

"Fun?" Lily exclaimed, incredulous. "You call eavesdropping on completely personal conversations a bit of fun? You are unbelievable!"

"Well, it is pretty funny hearing who you all have crushes..." Sirius started, but trailed off when James shot him a harsh glance.

"You've said enough, Padfoot."

"Sorry."

Lily rolled her eyes and looked at Remus and Peter. Both of them – just like Jamie and Regan – had not said a word throughout the entire conversation. Peter was looking rather glum, and his face was looking a little pink. Lily was hit with a pang of guilt when she remembered what Regan had said about him under the effects of the truth potion: "Pathetic git. Suck up. Stupid, useless follower.", she had said before expressing her pity for him. Of course these words would upset him – Lily had always had a supposition that Peter had feelings for Regan, and if this was true, then it would be all the more reason for him to be down.

Remus didn't look incredibly happy either, but he did not look quite so miserable as his stout friend. He appeared very uncomfortable – that was for sure – and even a little guilty. He also kept on glancing in Jamie's direction, his cheeks just the slightest bit flushed.

Lily sighed. Jamie admitting to liking Remus had been an enormous relief at the time – it meant that she wasn't alone, if she was correct in thinking that she might have a thing for James. But now that the Marauders knew, it was going to make things so much more difficult.

Then Lily gulped. All this time that they had been arguing with the Marauders, she had continually thanked goodness that her turn had never come in their game of truth or dare. She had been ever so grateful that she hadn't said anything embarrassing while they were all oblivious to the boys listening in on them. But now she realized that she had given something away (in actual fact, it was Hannah that said the words, but it was still going to have the same result). "Lily and James... and now Jamie and Remus? This is definitely not normal."

Without anybody noticing, Lily's entire confession had leaked out to the Marauders, and therefore, to James. What was she thinking? If she had just kept her mouth shut about her feelings in the first place, none of the information would have any chance of escaping. But now... now things were going to be a mess. She didn't know if she could cope with working next to James in Defense Against the Dark Arts, or in their next scheduled meeting, or for that matter, living in such close quarters. But maybe he hadn't heard that part. Maybe the Marauders had all been too busy laughing at some of the hilarious things Jamie and Regan had disclosed, and for that reason, had missed the part where Hannah mentioned 'Lily and James'...

She glanced quickly up at him, and noticed that he was grinning ever so slightly at her, almost sheepishly. She quickly turned away from him, blushing. Of course he knew. The Marauders – particularly James – were skilled eavesdroppers. They wouldn't miss a bit of information, even if it meant that they had to refrain from roaring with laughter. There was no doubt he had heard that part – in fact, there was no doubt that each and every one of them heard that part. Lily shuddered. How embarrassing.

Now was the time to escape, she decided. Although she still had much anger welled up inside her and she would very much like to lash out at the Marauders to free herself of it, she followed her better judgement and decided that the best option at this point would be to return to her dormitory and gather their bearings before things got even more out of hand. Another reason to do this, of course, was to escape the severe embarrassment that hadn't hit until Lily's terrible realization.

"Look," Lily said, folding her arms and trying to replace the humiliated tone she knew would be in her voice with an annoyed one. "We're not saying that we forgive you, but we don't feel like arguing right now. So if you'll excuse us, we're going to fix Hannah and then we're going to bed." She strategically spoke in a plural sense, so as not to draw attention to her own need for a quick escape. As soon as she said it, the four who had been completely silent perked up a little, eager to leave.

James sighed. "We're sorry, Lily," he said solemnly. She expected him to go on and say something that would send her over the edge, but much to her surprise, he didn't. Lily only nodded briefly and walked away with Jamie and Regan following silently behind her.

At the top of the stairs, they found the dormitory door closed. Lily knocked lightly three times on the wood. "Hannah," she said gently. "It's us."

They heard a weak "Mmm" in response, but nothing more. Assuming that this was their cue to enter, Lily turned the door knob the three girls walked into the room.

The sight that met their eyes was such a contrast to what was normal that it was almost devastating to see. Hannah lay curled up on her side on one of the mattresses on the ground. Her face was turned away from them, but the sobs that shook the girl's body were clear evidence of the tears they couldn't see.

"Oh, Hannah..." Lily said with sympathy as she hurried to her friend's side. The others followed quickly, Regan pausing to shut the door behind them and Jamie stopping to put a locking charm on it.

As predicted, when Lily approached Hannah, there were tears rolling down her cheeks and her eyes were very red. She wiped her face on a pillow when they came near her.

"I'm sorry," she said quickly. "I shouldn't have left you guys like that. I shouldn't have been such a baby about it."

"No, don't think like that!" Lily sat down next to Hannah and pulled her up into a hug. "You don't need to apologize. He had no right to say that to you."

Hannah let out a sob into Lily's shoulder. "Yes, he does. I do the same thing to him, but he doesn't go off crying like this."

Regan stepped in. "Yeah, well you don't go around telling people that they look like the rear end of a skrewt, do you?"

"Regan," Lily hissed, worrying that these words might upset Hannah even more yet.

"What?" Regan replied indifferently, with an edge of fury on her morose voice. "I have a right to be mad at him. Where does he get off destroying her self esteem like this? It isn't fair!"

Hannah let out a heavy sob at this point, and Lily hugged her tighter.

"It never used to be like this," Hannah said quietly, her words muffled by Lily's shoulder. "I don't know if I... if I can take it... anymore."

"Forget about him, Hannah," Regan said, with a firmness in her voice that they could tell was aimed at Sirius, not Hannah. "He's a jerk. He doesn't actually mean any of it - he's just trying to get on your nerves."

"I doubt that," Hannah said. "He hates me. He always has. He thinks I'm ugly. Maybe it's true."

"Hannah, don't say that," pleaded Lily, pulling gently out of the hug.

"Why not?" Her voice was rigid with anger.

"Because it's not true! Why would anybody hate somebody like you? You're beautiful, Hannah, and you're one of the kindest people I've ever known."

"Yeah, well why don't you tell that to Black?"

Lily sighed in defeat. At that moment, she had a dangerously strong urge to run downstairs and strangle Sirius. She was furious with him – anybody who had influence enough to break cheerful Hannah down to tears was definitely toying with their power, and Lily wanted to put a stop to it. The trouble was, she didn't know what it was about Sirius that made Hannah so vulnerable to his insults, or what it was that made Sirius want to continually put her down in the first place. Sure, the war between the Marauders and the Rogues was raging, but Sirius's acidic comments were as inappropriate as they could possibly get.

Lily and Regan continued to comfort Hannah for the next half hour, until she fell asleep with fresh tears still rolling down her cheeks. Jamie sat nearby, but didn't contribute at all to the conversation. As she stared with stunned eyes at the wall, she looked, Lily noticed, like she had just swallowed a pile of flobberworms. When Hannah was breathing evenly, Lily left her to sleep and approached her other upset friend.

"Jamie?" she said quietly, putting a hand on the girl's shoulder.

"Yeah?" Jamie answered softly after a bit of a delay. Her voice sounded thoughtful and strangled.

"Are you okay?"

Jamie sighed, sounding as though she was trying to break through a lump in her throat. "Sure," she said, unconvincingly. "Don't worry about me, it's Hannah we need to be concerned about."

"She's asleep." Lily smiled gently. "So what's on your mind?"

Another sigh escaped Jamie's mouth before she spoke. "Remus knows," she forced out.

"James knows," Lily pointed out.

"Yeah, but I think he likes you. Remus is going to think I'm such a freak! I'm skipping DADA tomorrow."

"No, you're not." Lily was adamant. "I think James has made it pretty clear where he stands in terms of our rivalry." She sighed, thoroughly convinced by her own words. "But Remus has always been pretty nice to you, considering how things are between us and them."

"Maybe you're right about Remus," was Jamie's response, but then she added dismissively, "I don't really want to think about it right now."

"Neither do I," Lily admitted with a tiny smile. The pair sat in silence for a while, obviously doing exactly as they had stated they didn't want to. Lily contemplated James's behaviour tonight, and the more she thought about it, the more her facts were solidified. He was just as engrossed in the war as Sirius, no doubt. She wondered how long it would be before he cut out this 'nice' act and started offending her like his mate was so rudely doing to Hannah.

"I think I'll go to bed," Jamie decided after a while.

"Okay," Lily smiled and hugged her friend. "Sweet dreams."

Leaving yet another friend to their peaceful slumber, Lily traipsed over to her bed and lay down on one of her pillows with no intention of sleeping herself. Regan was standing over by the window, looking absently out into the night. When she glanced at Lily, she tore herself away from the view and lounged out next to her on the comforter with a heavy sigh.

"We sure made a mess of things tonight," she said with a miserable half-grin.

"We sure did."

"Hannah's a mess," Regan said, a crease in her brow.

"So's Jamie."

"I murdered Pettigrew's self-esteem."

"I ruined any chance I had with James."

They both lay there without speaking for some time. When they exhaled at exactly the same time, they both gave a small laugh.

"Come morning," Lily whispered. "Maybe everything will be alright."

"Maybe," Regan shrugged, and then rolled off the bed. "But we'll have to wait and see."


I know it was kind of all over the place, but it was a difficult chapter to write. I'm not very good with mushy, emotional stuff in my writing. I would like to know how well I did with it though, so some reviews would be helpful... (Wink wink, nudge nudge) :)