A/N: I AM SO SORRY. I swear I didn't realise how uneventful and boring last chapter was! I thought there was a part in it that was actually in the chapter before… blame Christmas for fuddling up my brain. Tell me what I can do to make it up to you… oneshots, virtual chocolate cakes, never writing again, real chocolate cakes…;) Thanks to GraceyLou-Freebush101, WhenPicklesFly, Raekitty13, GiddyGirlie, PremzaWitchOfWeirdos, webling-girl05, writerchick13 and palomapotter for their kind words in spite of it!

Disclaimer: Say "Honka honka" to J. K. Rowling. If she doesn't laugh, you'll know it isn't me.

"It was a nice jinx, though. I mean, I didn't even know you knew a jinx!" said Peter. "Well, of course you do, you used to jinx Prongs all the time, but–" Lily glared at him, and he stopped talking.

"Did you even see how much trouble we got in to?" she replied, and banged her head against her forearm a couple of times.

"Yep." said Sirius. He put on a face that was scarily similar to the one McGonagall had put on a few minutes ago. "Disgusting! In a room full of students! You should be setting a good example!"

Lily groaned in despair. She was so busy wallowing in self pity that she didn't notice Remus and Kim walk up to her, Sirius and Peter until Kim's voice said;

"Is it true? Did you really jinx Snape's butt off?"

Sirius laughed. "Like he had any butt to begin with."

"No I did not jinx Snape's butt off!" Lily snapped. "I just tried Tarantallegra at the same time as James did Punicorbus… and as a result he was trying to swat away attacking, purple blobs whilst tap dancing… and, well, his butt was just… gone."

"Not a bad combination at all." muttered Sirius, smirking.

"Oh, glad someone's getting amusement out of this." said Lily to him irritably. He grinned in reply.

"So… what," said Remus. "Did you get house points taken off?"

Lily nodded. "And detention." She added.

"Oh. With Prongs?"

"Dunno. He's just gone to find out." She said, and made a half-sobbing noise of despair. She'd only ever had a detention twice before – and they'd both been from harming James in some way, shape or form. Neither had been pleasant experiences, but both had been memorable. She'd been cleaning out the library for detention when her first boyfriend, Dyllan, had asked her out. And the other time accidentally inhaling the gas off of a plant in greenhouse three had almost killed her.

James came in looking annoyed. He turned and faced Lily. "Good news or bad news first?" he asked.

"Good." said Lily.

"OK, well, we are doing the detention together, tonight, six o'clock…"

"But?" said Kim.

"But we're cleaning out the Owlery – no magic." James finished.

Sirius inhaled sharply and grimaced sympathetically. Kim pulled a face. Lily imagined wiping the grimy, smelly, owl dropping covered floor of the Owlery with a tablecloth and gagged.

"No magic?" she repeated disbelievingly.

"Nope." said James. "Not even Magical Mess–Remover."

Lily gave a half-sob again.

"What Snape did to make you two curse his butt off is what I want to know." said Kim.

"It's a mystery for the ages." shrugged Remus to Kim, after ten seconds of no-one answering.

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Lily and James faced the Owlery in despair. Never had it seemed quite so large, or so dirty, or so full of owls. Rustling of feathers and the general squawking, screeching, hooting noises owls make filled the air.

"Why don't they just call them all Russell?" said James. Lily stared at him blankly, and he chuckled. "Get it, 'cause they rustle?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "I had a friend called Russell when I was little." she said quietly, more to herself than James. "I think he moved to Thailand."

James was looking thoughtful. He looked at Lily through narrowed eyes. "D'you think we can just… leave?" said James. "I mean, it's not like there's anyone here supervising us…"

Lily watched as he tried to open the door and found that the handle had disappeared. He cursed.

"I suppose it'll be back when we're done?" said Lily. James shrugged.

"Maybe we should just get started." He said, apparently coming to terms with the fact that they did have to clean. "We can go at eight, right? And it's…" he checked his watch. "Three past six. So if we start now, we'll at least have some done, and then they'll know we did some, even if we just hang out for the rest of the time."

"You have an evil mind." said Lily, but agreed anyway.

As she bent down, the putrid smell of Merlin-knew-what was so overwhelming, she stood up again almost straight away, her eyes watering. James cursed.

"How horrible." He choked.

"It doesn't make sense that we both do the floor." said Lily.

"You're right. I'll do it." said James.

"Nah, I will." said Lily, hit with a sudden urge to clean the disgusting floor. She wondered if it was the same feeling her mother had always had when the kitchen sink was dirty.

"Okay…" said James. "I'll do the window ledges then."

Lily squatted back down, breathing only through her mouth and her nose tucked down the neck of her t-shirt as a precaution, and began to rub the cloth back and forth over the stone. Luckily, it came off quite easily, the droppings were almost slippery. She scanned the Owlery with newfound optimism. It didn't seem as big now she knew how easy it was to clean, no matter how gross. She wiped the dirt off into the wooden pail.

"Ew! Come look at this!" said James. He was by the window, surrounded by owls and looking at something Lily couldn't see with a half-amused, half-disgusted expression, his head cocked to the side.

Lily went over to him, and made a vague expression of surprise. Feathers were flying everywhere. Lily tilted her head to the side, too.

"I think that's Moony's owl." said James.

"He'd better be careful, or there'll be little Moony's owls flying all over the place."

"Mmm."

Lily shrugged and turned back around, only to face a large, hooting barn owl. She stumbled backwards in surprise, tripped and fell onto her face.

"You OK?" James asked. Lily groaned and rolled over to face him.

"Covered in owl business, but yeah, fine." She grinned, as he extended a hand to help her up. She looked down at her shirt. "Bet this looks really lovely." She sighed, and wished she'd brought her wand to at least vanish the white blobs varying in moistness clinging to her clothing.

"You know what?" said James. "You're covered in owl crap, stink like a dung bomb, have a feather in your hair–" he raised a hand and plucked it out. "And there's a small egg beginning to well up on your forehead." Lily went up to touch her head, and winced as she felt a bump where she'd hit herself. "But yeah, you do look lovely."

"Thanks." Lily smiled, but raised her eyebrows as James kissed her swiftly. "C'mon, let's get back to it."

As James whined softly, she smirked and continued back down on the floor, with quiet thankfulness that she hadn't worn her favourite clothes.

I mean really, what do these owls eat to have this smell so foul? she wondered, sniffing the air around her softly and almost choking.

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"Three, two, one!"

The handle appeared on the door leading to the half-cleaned Owlery. Lily suspected it would have been almost entirely spotless, had the owls not been constantly adding to the mess as she and James had been cleaning.

"Yes!" James pounced out the door and danced stupidly around the hall.

"James, stop. You'll get hurt." said Lily, rolling her eyes.

"Nah, don't worry," said James, still dancing. "There's nothing I can hit!"

"But I'll hurt you if you don't stop." said Lily.

James laughed nervously, as if not sure if she meant it or not. He'd been hurt by her to many times it the past not to take it fairly seriously.

"Let's go." said Lily wearily. They walked (or, in James' case at one point, fell) down the stairs, walked down to the Entrance Hall and made their way slowly to Gryffindor Tower. Once at the portrait hole, James told the Fat Lady "Vulnero Magister Protinus", and entered the Common Room.

Once they found Sirius, Remus, Peter and Kim, had been greeted and sat down, Sirius said; "Merlin, who on God's green and purple earth did that? Wormtail?"

"I didn't do it!" said Peter, and put his hand up to his nose. Remus and Kim followed almost immediately.

"I can't smell anything." said Lily, and James nodded his agreement. Kim leaned her head over toward them and sniffed apprehensively. She coughed loudly, in obvious disgust.

"You guys smell like a Zonko's Double Dungbomb!" She exclaimed.

"Is that them?" said Sirius increludously.

"Have a shower." said Remus shortly.

"And stay in there for days," Peter added.

"OK, fine." said Lily, sulky, weary, aching and – apparently – smelly. "And no James, not together."

James sighed and shook his head. "You know me too well."

A/N: And with this chapter, not only do you get an apology at the beginning, but one at the end as well! See, I know the update took longer that I said it would on my profile etc, but I was away camping… and around where I was it was FLOODING. In AUSTRALIA. IN SUMMER FOR FREAKS SAKE! So I've been a bit preoccupied lately. Okay, now to normal Author's Notes. Well, I tried to make this chapter a little more… plotline-less, whether that's good or bad, I'm not sure, but it's a bit more fun for me…lol. Now review... or don't... do whatever you want... don't review just coz I told you to! Make up your own mind. Oh dear. This isn't coming out right. Let's just say "I hope you review".