A/n: Hi, me again! Just here to apologise for any possible spelling/grammar mistakes in all chapters posted this far. Let's make a deal and not mention it to anyone, yes? I'm pretty sure there's a rule about proper grammar use and spelling on this website that I once agreed upon not breaking… oh well.
I published the first chapter for this fanfic a year ago today! As to celebrate I give you a really long chapter. It took a very long time to write but I think it was worth it. It was really fun to write, though, and I hope you will like it. Thank you for reading 'You're so dead Potter!'. Every favourite, follow and review really means a lot to me.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter universe and all that blah blah blah… On with the story!
21. Apologies, deals and rule breaking
The next couple of days Lily and James completely ignored each other. The more James thought about it, the more he came sure with the fact that Lily had, indeed, overreacted. He didn't do anything wrong. He and Sirius had just had a bit of fun. Certainly it wasn't against the rules to mess a little with the first years, was it?
He knew he should just shrug it off like he always did, but he had really tired this time. Being 'mature' and all that. He really did think he could do it, too. If only Lily hadn't been so blind. He never wanted to see her again! 'Yeah right.' A voice in his head said. 'Good luck with that.' But for now all he knew was that he was angry and he would not let her get away with this.
As for Lily, she'd beaten herself up about the things she'd said over and over again. She knew she shouldn't have said all those things. After leaving the scene she'd flunked out on her bed covering her face with a pillow. Alice, who sat in her own bed writing a letter to her boyfriend, Frank Longbottom, looked at her confused. "Lily? What's wrong?"
Lily hadn't answered, but Marry told her the whole story.
"Oh, Lily…" Alice said. "You really shouldn't have done that. You should have just told them to stop. I'm sure they had listened if you did."
"I know…" Lily said in a tired voice, sitting up in her bed and crossing her legs. "He's just so – I mean – it's like… Ugh! I don't know." She looked from Alice to Marry who stood firmly leaning against the door. "This isn't his fault, is it?"
"Nope." Marry answered simply. She walked over to Lily's bed and put her arms around her for comfort. "As much as I agree with you on the fact that he shouldn't scare the first years like that and he really should know better, you really shouldn't have yelled at him like that."
"It's not like I want to yell at him all the time. He just has this way of making me do it. Ugh! Why can't he just… act more his age?"
"I know you don't think so, but he really has changed, Lily. If you just weren't so hung up on the old James, maybe you'd see it, too." Alice left her own bed and sat down next Lily instead.
"She's right." Marry backed up. "James hasn't hexed a single student since the year started. That has to be some kind of record, right?" She added with a tiny laugh.
Lily didn't know why but she felt really bad for yelling at James. She could've just told him to stop in a calm and gathered way, but no! Of course she couldn't do that, could she? So she'd spent the next days figuring out what to do.
It wasn't until Sunday night she found a way to rid herself from the bad feeling. They had not talked for about five days and Lily had no idea what James usually did on a Sunday evening. She'd searched everywhere for him or one of his friends, without luck. The only place left was the boy's dorm room. She'd purposely avoided that place seeing the last time she was up there she'd almost broken James' nose. It didn't exactly seem like the best place to apologise, but she had no choice.
She walked up the stairs slowly. Outside the door she could hear someone laughing on the inside. She took a deep breath and knocked. The laughter stopped. Seconds later Remus opened the door. He took one glance at Lily before saying, "He don't want to talk to you." He was about to close the door again. His voice was so cold it sent shivers down Lily's spine.
"Please!" Lily pleaded. "I'm here to apologise. Please let me in." She said in a defeated tone. Deep down she knew it'd been too much to hope for. To her surprise, though, the door got opened up even more to reveal a puzzled looking Sirius.
"What is this I hear?" He said. "The great Lily Evans? Here to apologise to a Marauder?"
"Yes, I am, Black." Lily said with a little more confidence. "Can I please talk to Potter?"
Remus and Sirius exchanged looks. "Fine." Sirius said just a tad reluctantly.
He moved out of the way and let her in. She spotted James right away. He stood leaning against the wall next to his bed, about the same place he'd been when she punched him. Lily swallowed hard. His face was as if made of stone. And it didn't exactly look as if he was happy to see her.
"Evans." He said coolly, giving her a nod.
"Eh… Hi…" 'Here goes nothing', she thought. "Look, Potter, I'm really sorry about what happened. I really am. You didn't deserve it."
"You're right, I didn't."
"Right. Um… Is there any chance you can forgive me? I promise I'll try not to yell at you anymore. Please, forgive me. I'm really, really sorry!"
James lifted an eyebrow and looked – if Lily was not completely mistaken – a little surprised. "You're not gonna yell at me? Ever?"
"Unless you really deserve it." Lily said after thinking for a second with an attempt on a smile. "Do you except my apology then?"
"No." He said shrugging. She felt as though someone had hit her in the stomach with a bludger. "But," James continued. "I have a proposal for you. I'll except your apology on these conditions; one, no more yelling unless it's really necessary – as you said. Two, you have to write my potions essay. It's due tomorrow and has yet to be started."
"Okay, sure, I can do that."
"I wasn't done, Evans. Three, I also want a written apology by tomorrow with at least five reasons, approved by me, why you shouldn't have done what you did." Lily had to resist the urge to roll her eyes. A written apology? But as it was, she was prepared to do anything to make him forgive her. "And four, you have to join a day of pranking with the Marauders." He finished with a mischievous twinkle in the eyes.
"What?!" Lily exclaimed. "No, I can't do that! What if we get caught? We'll get in so much trouble." She shook her head.
"Relax, Evans." Sirius put an arm around her shoulder. "We'll watch out for you. You won't get caught."
"We have a deal?" James asked holding out a hand to Lily. She sighed in defeat and shook the hand.
"Deal."
"Wow, you must really feel bad about this." James said with a smirk as he sat down on his bed. "You can go now. See you tomorrow. Oh, and don't forget to write my potions essay… and the apology!"
Lily sighed again before walking to her own dorm. 'What have I gotten myself into?'
Xxxx
When Lily got down to the common room the next morning she was greeted by the Marauders, all with identical smiles of innocence on their faces. She told Alice and Marry to go on ahead before she walked over to the boys.
"Morning, Evans." Sirius said gleefully. "Ready for the best day of your life?"
Lily groaned. "Lets just get this over with. What's the plan for today?"
"Well, first," Remus started. "We eat breakfast. Then –"
"Then we go to Transfiguration." James continued. "That is, after all, the only subject I'm better than you in."
"After that we go to Potions." Peter said. "To hand in our essays."
"And then the real fun begins." Sirius said rubbing his hands together with a mischievous grin.
Lily sighed. She wanted to ask what exactly Sirius meant, but then again she really didn't want to know. She figured she'd found out soon enough. So she just nodded and followed them down for breakfast.
When they'd sat down Lily sent a glance down the table to her friends. She'd told them what happened the night before and what she'd agreed to do. Alice had felt sorry for Lily. Marry on the other hand had thought it was rather funny. So when Lily looked at them now Alice sent her a compassionate look back while Marry sent her a big grin.
She turned back to see James reading the apology she'd written to him. A small smile played on his lips while he read. She waited 'til he was finished before she asked. "Approved?"
He looked at her quickly before putting away the parchment. "Yeah." He said with tiny a chuckle. "Yeah, it's approved. You really feel bad about yelling at me, don't you?"
Lily shrugged, trying not to let her feelings show too much. "A little. It was really unfair of me, you know."
James nodded and stood up. Most students had left the Great Hall by now. The others followed James' lead. Lily reluctantly made her way to Transfiguration with the Marauders. As expected, James spent the whole time until they were outside the Potions classroom to brag about how much better in Transfiguration than Lily he was.
He finally shut up on Sirius command when they sat down in Potions. Professor Slughorn entered and the class went silent. "Very well, class. Time to hand in your Essays." He said with a smile. He waived his wand and the essays flew through the room and landed in a pile on his desk. "For the potion you'll brew today you'll have to split in groups." He looked at them with a big smile. Everyone sat still, uncertain of what to do. "Well, go on. Choose your groups! 3 to 5 people should be fine." Then he began listing ingredients and instructions for today's potion.
Lily felt kind of bad for Alice and Marry for not being allowed to be on their group. Her attention, however, was drawn back to her own group when Sirius and Peter came back with the ingredients. Many of which did not belong in this potion. She raised an eyebrow when Remus started by putting four lizard tails in the cauldron instead of leech juice.
"What are you doing?" She asked somewhat nervous.
"Making a potion." He said.
"But we don't need lizard tails for this potion."
"Oh, we're not making that potion."
Lily watched the boys as they surrounded the cauldron putting various ingredients into it. The potion had gotten a rather gross yellowish colour. And the smell wasn't exactly pleasant. They worked in the potion for about 15 minutes.
"Almost done." Sirius announced. "The last ingredient now. Everyone ready?" He held a handful of salt above the cauldron. They boys nodded. James grabbed Lily's arm and pulled her back.
"You might want to take a step back." He whispered.
"Why?" Was all Lily had time to say before Sirius had opened his hand and the salt fell into the cauldron.
The moment the salt hit the surface of the potion it exploded. Everyone screamed and ducked away from the spills that flew around the room. Where the potion hit it seemed to grow. Just a drop would be a puddle within a minute.
Slughorn quickly got everyone out of the classroom. There was no doubt in who had done it. He immediately looked at the Marauders for an explanation. Remus stepped up and gave him an excuse. Lily couldn't hear what they said but they ended up discussing for a good five minutes.
"What was that?" Lily asked James who just shrugged.
"A way to get out of class early."
"Slughorn will probably make us clean up the mess. Not the best plan you've had."
"Oh, he won't make us clean it up."
"How can you be so sure?"
Just then Remus came back with a grin on his face. "It's done. We are free to go."
"No punishment?" Lily asked a little confused to be honest. "How did you do that?"
"Remus can talk himself out of detention and punishment any time." Sirius said with a laugh. "Old Slughorn is no task for him." Remus gave Lily a sheepish smile before they made their way out of the dungeons.
"You seem a little nervous, Lily." Peter said as they walked through the halls of Hogwarts. Lily, however, didn't answer him, merely looked over her shoulder as if the police was after her or something.
Sirius laughed. "Relax, Evans. We'll start with something simple, yes?" He and the other Marauders exchanged looks and he shrugged. "Dungbombs?"
"Okay, let's go for Dungbombs." James said in a light voice. "But where?"
"Somewhere with people..." Sirius said trying to think of a place.
"Somewhere it'll be noticed…" James nodded, deep in thought.
"Gentlemen," Remus announced drawing the attention to himself. He had a mischievous grin on his face, and Lily had only seen him like this a handful of times. "You must not forget we have more than one Dungbomb." James and Sirius smirked.
"Well, I know one place." Peter said. He received questioning/intrigued looks from the other boys (and a worried look from Lily). "The library." He continued while shrugging as if it was no big deal.
"The library." James and Sirius repeated thoughtfully.
Xxxx
Twenty minutes later Lily found herself pinching her nose in the hallway outside the Library. Sirius grabbed her arm and dragged her with him, rounding corners, running away from the stench. People were running out of the big room, screaming and holding their jumpers over their mouths and noses. He finally let go of her arm when they were one floor up. The boys were laughing so much they had trouble standing.
"D–did… you see… their… faces?" Sirius said between laughs. He leaned against the wall for support.
"Priceless!" Peter agreed.
"I can't believe you dropped three, three Dungbombs in there!" Lily exclaimed, shaking her head in disbelief. Honestly it wasn't that funny, Lily thought. She took the opportunity to take a deep breath of non-toxic air.
"Well, then." Remus rubbed his hands together. "What's next?"
James and Sirius exchanged looks and a smirk formed on James' lips. "Lets do something even Lily Evans can manage." Lily got a bad feeling creeping to her stomach. "How about a little painting? Come on, Evans, no need to look so scared." He teased. Lily didn't feel the need of not looking scared, however. They were going to make her break the rules. She gulped as James pulled his wand. "Pull your wand, Evans." She reluctantly did as she was told.
"Now, turn around." Sirius walked over to her side and pointed at a couple suits of armour standing against the wall. "Nothing big for your first time. The armour should be good practise." Lily looked at him with a confused look, not understanding what he meant. "Seriously, Evans, it's not that hard. Point your wand at the armour and paint it the colour of your liking." He said this while steering her wanded hand towards one of the armours. "Think you can do that?" He asked as if she was nothing more than a child.
She huffed and waived her wand. She needn't even say the words of the spell. The armour quickly turned a bright pink. The boys cheered and laughed as the armour actually looked quite shocked, raising its hand threatening towards Lily, though it didn't move from its spot. She smiled satisfied with the perfectly preformed spell as she turned to the boys. "Did you mean something like that?" She said gleefully.
"Well done!"
"Why, thank you, Peter." Lily gave a tiny bow.
"Do the other one, too." Sirius insisted.
"What? No!" She shook her head. "I already did one! You said I only had to do one!"
"I never said anything of the sort!"
"Just do it again, Lily." Remus chuckled. "What's the worst that could happen?"
Lily sighed in defeat. She concentrated on the spell on hand and pointed at the other armour. It, too, turned the same bright shade of pink. She was about to put her wand away when James' voice stopped her.
"You can't paint it in the same colour. That's no fun!" Lily then heard him mutter the spell and the armour she'd just painted turned a dark purple colour.
"Hey!" She turned to James. "I liked the pink." She said before painting the armour pink again with a flick of her wand.
"But it's boring. Why not add some new colour?" James turned it orange this time. Lily changed it back to pink and James to a completely different colour. It went back and forth and the other Marauders only stood around them sniggering.
Lily didn't really like pink as much as it might seem at this point. And she hated to admit it, but it was actually quite fun arguing with James about the colour of the suit of armour. She had started with pink, so pink was the colour it should be!
"Pink!" She said, waving her wand at the armour yet again.
"Let's try a darker blue this time."
"I said pink!" She turned around with a grin on her face and pointed her wand James. Next thing he knew he was covered in dripping, pink coloured paint. Sirius buckled over with laughter. Peter, too, for that matter. Even Remus struggled to keep from laughing at the sight of a pink James Potter.
James on the other hand was in shock. He looked open-mouthed at himself to Lily and back at himself. He shook his head slightly and then, to Lily's surprise, he shrugged as if nothing really had happened.
"Fine." He said. "If you like pink so much." He pointed his wand at Lily so fast she barely had time to get out of the way. However, she didn't get completely out of the way. Her left arm was now covered in pink paint. She would have said something about it if it weren't for the big amount of paint that landed on the floor behind her.
She gasped and pointed her wand at James. "You are cleaning that up!"
"No I'm not." He shrugged, still pink all over.
"Yes you are."
"Make me!" James quickly realised that was a bad choice of words seeing their current situation. Lily waved her wand, but he managed to duck. Instead the spell hit Sirius who'd been standing behind him.
Sirius wiped away as much yellow paint from his face he could manage before looking at Lily with his most mischievous smirk. Then he said calmly: "You're so dead, Evans."
She gulped and took a few steps back, only to slip on the paint James had spilt. Luckily for her, Remus grabbed her before she fell. Unluckily for her, Sirius' spell hit both of them and they had now turned crimson. Once hit by the spell, Lily lost her balance again and dragged Remus down with her with a loud thump.
James, Sirius and Peter were again laughing, none of them offering to help Lily or Remus. Remus wiped out his own wand and pointed it at Sirius from the floor. "Oh shut up, will you?" He said, though he couldn't help but smile. "Locomotor Mortis!" Sirius' legs stuck together and he fell to the ground, only just managing to stop the fall with his hands. This didn't exactly stop the laughter coming from James and Peter.
By now had Lily and Remus managed to stand up without losing their balance. Sirius, too, tried standing up but failed miserably, causing another round of laughter from his friends. He cursed under his breath and demanded to get free from the curse. Lily had to hold herself from laughing with the boys. She had to admit it was a little humorous. She took a deep breath before freeing Sirius from the leg-locker curse, seeing none of his friends seemed to bother helping.
Once free, Sirius jumped to his feet, wand ready, pointing at Remus who stopped laughing immediately. He looked at Sirius apologetic expression.
Sirius raised his wand ready to throw a hex at Remus, but Remus ducked, grabbed his own wand and began running. "You better run!" Sirius yelled as he ran after him, sending hexes and curses in his direction. Most of which missed, and the rest where blocked by Remus.
James, Peter and Lily ran after them. James and Peter quite amused, Lily, not so much.
They rounded a corner and where met by a group of girls in fourth year. It must have been an odd sight; all of them covered in paint, except Peter who miraculously had managed to not get a single drop of paint on him.
"Excuse me!" Remus pushed through the group of girls. They looked disgusted as he did because of the paint.
"You can't run forever, Lupin!" Sirius yelled, him, too, pressing through the group of girls.
"I can try!" Remus yelled back over his shoulder. He ran down a flight of stairs and took to the right, but for some reason he stopped only seconds later, wand ready.
Sirius reached the bottom of the stairs, panting. "Giving up?" He asked, a little too dramatic if you asked Lily.
"Leave it be, Black. You don't know what powers you're playing with."
"I could say the same for you, my friend."
Lily, who currently stood watching the scene with James and Peter from behind Sirius, thought all this were overly dramatic. What were they doing? Sirius would have had plenty of time taking revenge by now.
"What is going on?" She asked James who were watching with a giant grin on his face. Obviously he didn't think it was weird at all.
"They're duelling." He shrugged.
"But why are they talking so… so… different." She finished lamely.
"Relax, Evans. They're not actually duelling. It's just for fun. Harmless spells and hexes and dramatic speeches."
Just then, Remus cast the first hex, but Sirius blocked. Remus tried again. This time Sirius was hit and he stated dancing uncontrollably, much to the amusement of his friends. He quickly made it stop, however, and pointed his wand at Remus. "Obscuro!"
A blindfold appeared over Remus' eyes. In a moment of complete confusion, he pointed his wand towards what he thought was Sirius. "Rictusempra!" Unfortunately the tickling charm missed and hit James instead. He fell to the floor from laughing. Remus got the blindfold off and saw James lying on the floor and couldn't help but laughing himself. After that it wasn't long until all the Marauders were laughing together once again. James didn't need help from the tickling charm to laugh with his friends. Lily just watched them curiously. They really had an amazing friendship, she thought.
"I think we can safely say this was a successful prank." Sirius said.
"Almost." Peter nodded.
The others looked at him confused. "Almost?"
Peter nodded again. "You're leaving a trail." He said pointing behind them. He was right. A trail of pink, yellow and red footsteps followed them. Remus shook his head slightly before pointing his wand at all of them in turn, cleaning off the paint.
"There." He said. "Nobody will know–" He was cut off by the sounds of footsteps, very familiar footsteps to the Marauders, belonging to no other than the caretaker Argus Filch.
"We meet with Bartholomew." Said James, and before Lily could ask what he meant she was pushed into a dark room with a low ceiling.
"Where are we?" She asked Remus who was walking some distance in front of her.
"One of Hogwarts' many secret passages." He answered. "Come one, we need to move."
Lily looked behind her and saw only Peter. He motioned for her to follow Remus, so she did. "Where's Potter and Black?" she asked.
"They have their own way of hiding."
Lily thought about it for a moment before she remembered. "The invisibility cloak."
"That's the one." Remus confirmed.
They exited the secret passage. They'd ended up one floor down Lily noticed. Walking down the hall and rounding a corner when suddenly Remus stopped. Lily looked around. There were portraits covering the walls. One, Lily noticed was bigger than the others. She read the golden tag under it: 'Sir Bartholomew Alberstein'. The portrait, however, was empty.
The three of them waited in silence for a couple of minutes before they heard footsteps coming running towards them.
"We just checked." Said Sirius as he came closer. "By the looks of it he's following our tracks back to the painted armours."
"What's that?" Lily pointed at the thing Sirius held in his hand. It looked like parchment, but knowing the Marauders she knew that probably wasn't the case.
"This?" Sirius asked innocently. "Why, dear Evans. It is simply a piece of old parchment."
"Right…" Lily said doubtful and narrowed her eyes.
"Anyone hungry?" James changed the subject. "It's lunch soon."
Before Lily could bring the conversation back on the parchment, something ripped it out of Sirius' hand just as he was to put it away. He twirled around and looked up. "Peeves! What are you doing!?" He jumped for it but Peeves, the schools poltergeist, held it out of his reach. Peeves watched Sirius jump and fail and let out a loud cackling laugh.
"Give it back, Peeves!" James demanded.
"Oooh! Potty Potter is angry!" Peeves laughed.
"Yes, I bloody am! Give it back!"
"Hmm… No! Give it to Mr. Filch, I should do!"
"Peeves! Don't do this. Give me the m – eh… the parchment!" Remus said reaching out a hand.
"What is looney, loopy Lupin gonna do if I don't?"
"Don't call me that!"
"Looney, loopy Lupin!Looney, loopy Lupin!" Peeves was ready to leave at this point, but Lily got an idea.
She took a step forward and straightened up in her full Head Girl authority. "Peeves, give the boys the parchment back right now or I'll tell the Bloody Baron you stole from a student."
Peeves screamed loudly before cackling madly and he threw the parchment at Sirius, who quickly put it away, and he disappeared.
"That was brilliant, Evans!" Said Sirius and gave her a quick hug. Lily stuttered a rather confused 'you're welcome'. He turned to an annoyed looking James. "So, lunch?"
"No, wait!" The boys had begun walking towards the stairs. They all turned to look at her. "What's the deal with the parchment? There is no way anyone would react that way if someone took a normal piece of parchment form them."
"You think too much, Lily." Remus sent her an apologetic look.
"Agreed." James put an arm around Lily's shoulders and led her to the stairs. "You should relax more. But first we eat."
Xxxx
Lily watched the four Marauders stuff their faces with food. She wondered how they managed to eat that much. They never seemed to get full. Personally, Lily had finished ages ago. She sighed and looked down the table at her friends. Marry and Alice where laughing and getting ready to leave for their next class. Thinking about it, her and the Marauders should get ready to leave, too, unless they wanted to be in a hurry.
"We should leave for 'History of Magic'." Lily told the four of them.
Sirius sighed loudly. "Evans, are you familiar with the concept of cutting class?"
Lily nodded. "Yes, but we can cut class! We have broken so many rules already today."
"Of course we can!" Sirius countered.
"Besides, it's not like you usually pay attention in History of Magic." Peter added. Lily had to agree with him. She struggled to even keep awake in that class. She didn't answer, however, simply shrugged and kept quiet.
"So what are we going to do then?" Lily asked, changing the subject.
"I feel like Quidditch." James said.
Sirius agreed. "I haven't flown in ages! What do you say, Peter?"
"Sounds great!" Peter said.
"Do I have to join you in that?" Lily asked hoping they would say no.
"Of course." James said. "Your day isn't over yet, Evans." He winked at her.
Lily groaned loudly. She looked up at the enchanted ceiling. The sky was covered with dark clouds. It looked cold, she thought. "But it's raining." She whined.
"Aww, she thinks we're going outside." James said to the other boys. They all smiled as if they knew some big secret that Lily didn't. It made her uneasy in a way.
Only 15 minutes later Lily found herself standing under the moving stairs watching James, Sirius and Peter play on their broomsticks. They didn't play Quidditch, exactly. They didn't have the equipment to do so. However, they had the Snitch James stole a few years back.
Lily sighed as she watched Sirius almost being hit by a moving staircase he didn't see. She looked over to Remus who was sitting on the floor behind her, leaning his back against the wall eating chocolate. She shook her head slightly at the sight.
"Tell me again," She started. Remus looked up at her. "Why aren't you up there flying with them?"
He simply shrugged. "I like my feet planted on the ground. Chocolate?" She thanked him no to the offer and turned to look at the ones in the air.
"They are breaking so many rules by doing this." She watched as James, who was the best flyer of the three, tried to stand on his hands on the broom. "Does he really have to show off like that?"
"Absolutely." Remus chuckled. "Especially since you are watching."
"That's just stupid." She said turning back to Remus, smiling. "What if he fell off? That wouldn't be half as impressive, now, would it?"
"Are you worried about me, Evans?" James voice came from right behind her. She jumped and turned to look at the smug looking James Potter. She had not expected him being there.
"No. No I'm not." She answered quickly.
"Great! Then you wouldn't mind flying with me."
"What?"
"Come on, Evans. It's not dangerous." He reached out a hand for her to take.
"No thank you. I like it better on the ground if you don't mind."
"You like Quidditch."
"I like watching Quidditch! That does not mean I'm going to sit on that broom with you."
Lily didn't know how, but somehow James and Remus managed to persuade her to get on the broom. It was more fun that she thought it would be. That is, after she got over the fear of falling off and dying.
The rest of the day went off fast. They ran through the castle doing one prank after the other. More Dungbombs, doors leading to the other end of the castle, they even had a reunion with the potion balls from the year before – now new and improved. When Lily asked Sirius what improved meant he answered that this time he'd actually taken note of what he put in the cauldron. This didn't reassure her, or anyone for that matter.
It wasn't until the evening around nine o'clock, Lily finally got a break to relax. The five of them toppled into the Gryffindor common room, laughing and somewhat out of breath. Marry and Alice sat in one of the couches, watching them as they came in. They caught Lily's eye. They gave her questioning looks but she merely shrugged and turned back to the Marauders.
"Okay, I guess we're done for today." James said smiling. "You're free to go."
"Thank you." Lily answered. "I got to admit, though, it was kinda fun today. Well, some of it at least." She added. "So… truce?" She held out her hand.
For a while James only looked at it with a serious look upon his face. Lily almost thought he wouldn't take it. But then his face cracked up in a big smile and he took her hand. "Truce." He said. "Do I get a hug?" He said hopefully after they had shaken hands.
"Don't push it, Potter." She laughed and went to sit with her friends. She had a lot to tell them about.
"It was worth a try." James called after her.