You're Only Supposed To Blow The Bloody Ball Balls Off!

Lily tucked a stray lock of hair back behind her ear. When she looked back in the mirror at herself she smiled. It wasn't often that she got the chance to dress up but she liked it. Amelia had kindly offered to shape her hair into a high bun. Whilst Margo had offered one of her nicer dresses. Unlike Lily, Margo had packed for every situation that Hogwarts could throw at her.

'I can't believe you're both going.' Margo sighed as she looked up at Lily and Amelia getting ready. She was stretched out on her bed with a Witch Weekly in front of her.

Lily looked back at Margo apologetically. 'I heard once you're properly in the Slug Club you can bring plus ones to the parties.' Lily offered.

'That's true, you are forgiven.' Margo laughed as she turned her attention back to her magazine.

'Lily, we better get going if we don't want to be late.' Amelia spoke as she attached a silver earring on her ear.

The two girls said their final goodbyes before making their way down the steps. The common room was now filled with considerably less students. The majority of the students had vacated for their own dinner in the great hall. However, there were two boys standing around one very angry looking boy.

'James, I swear. You touch my tie one more time I'll stick it where the sun doesn't shine.' Sirius growled.

'Sirius, I know you like to go for the rolled out of bed look, but this is important. You have to look like you want to be there and that means dressing up!' James retorted as he adjusted the tie once more.

'Here, Sirius.' Peter smiled as he tried to shove a pocket square into the front of Sirius's robe.

'No! Absolutely not! You take that thing and burn it!' Sirius snapped and unlike James, Peter ceased his efforts to smarten Sirius up. 'Man, Remus owes me big time!'

'There, all done. Now don't you look smart!' James grinned as he stepped back and placed his hand on his hips. 'Go on, give us a twirl.'

'James, if you're not careful, I'm going to take that ruddy pocket square and shove-' Sirius broke off as he caught Lily and Amelia staring at them. 'Well, hello ladies!'

'Hello Sirius.' Lily said unenthusiastically. 'Didn't know you were going.'

'Well what can I say Evans? Slughorn just loves me.' Sirius smirked. 'And I'm not one to miss a party.'

Lily's face contorted into a frown. She narrowed her eyes at the boys and looked at them, they looked back at her with grins. Lily's alarm bells where ringing in her mind but she was far too tired to try and coax out their plans. All she wanted to do was have a nice evening. Something to take her mind off all her school work.

Lily sighed and shook her head slightly. Amelia had taken it upon herself to pick up on the silence as she and Sirius continued to talk. Lily smiled along but found her eyes catch James's. They stared at one another for a few second before hastily looking away. It was almost as if they didn't know how to act around one another without Quidditch.

'Where is Remus?' Lily spoke quickly trying to diffuse the air that was slowly thickening.

'Right here.' A voice called. Everybody turned to look at Remus who was making his way down the steps towards them. He had a book in one hand and a bunch of tissues in the other. Before he could approach the group, he stopped and sneezed.

'Remus, are you sick?' Lily said worryingly. She made to step closer to him but Remus put his hands up.

'No, Lily please, I'm fine. Just a cold. I was going to sit by the fire for a while, you should be getting to the party.' Remus smiled weakly but genuinely.

'Ok, but I'll bring you back something. Slughorn's throwing a party, I doubt he's one to be stingy with the food.' Lily smiled. 'Any requests?'

'Thanks Lily.' Remus smiled back at her. 'Maybe something with Chocola-'

'Have you all gone completely mad?! Do you not see what he's wearing?! Remus, we talked about this! You said you wouldn't wear it out!' Sirius snapped loudly as he looked at Remus in horror. When the rest of the group looked back at him quizzically, Sirius slapped his hand to his face.

'What's the matter with him?' Amelia asked.

'It's because-' James stared.

'I said I wouldn't wear it outside of the Gryffindor tower. I'm perfectly within my rights to wear it now.' Remus retorted as he smirked.

'But-but-.' Sirius stumbled. 'I can't even take you seriously right now Remus!'

'I wear this monkey suit for you and this is how you repay me?' Sirius mumbled under his breath as he turned away from Remus and towards the door.

'Sirius hates Remus's jumper.' James supplied quickly.

Lily's frown increased as she turned back to Remus. His jumper was indeed hideous. Its electric orange colour hurt to look at and it was two sizes too big for Remus. But there was no way Lily was going to miss an opportunity to wind Sirius up.

'I don't know what you're getting upset about Sirius, it's lovely.' Lily cooed as she reached for the sleeves of the jumper. 'And it's so soft!'

'You if you weren't so proud Sirius, I would let you borrow it.' Remus laughed much to the aggravation of Sirius.

'Oooh, I bet you would look good in it Sirius. You'd look like a big squishy pumpkin!' Lily added.

'The only thing that's worse than these robes is that monstrosity!' Sirius finally snapped. 'I will never, and I mean ever, put that thing on. Now come on, we have to get going.'

The group laughed at Sirius as they split off. Half stayed safely in the warm Gryffindor common room. The other half made their way towards Slughorn's party in the dungeons.

xxx

Lily, Sirius and Amelia made their way down the corridors towards the Slytherin dungeons. Christmas decoration lined the walls and they could see the snow begin to fall as they passed the windows.

'Look at that!' Lily practically shrieked as she bounced over to the window. 'I knew it would snow today.'

'We should have a snowball fight soon.' Sirius spoke off handily as he stood for a moment watching the snow fall.

Lily felt an odd sensation pass over her at Sirius's words. She felt herself remember the last time there was going to be a snowball fight and how James and Severus had ended up in a fight. That seemed to be most of Lily's memories nowadays, all ending in fights or disagreements. She thought of Severus briefly as she continued down the corridor.

Severus had said that he wasn't feeling very well. He had told Lily to go to the party without him and tell Slughorn that he couldn't make it. Lily knew he was lying, it was as plain as day. Severus's usual complexion had always been on the paler side but he was without doubt, not sick.

Once again Lily found herself in her usual position of wanting to know what was going on inside his head and wanting to be as far away from it as possible.

'How long are you going to pretend to not notice?' Lily whispered to herself. 'How long can you pretend that his secrets aren't hurting you?'

There it was again. The dark spiral of thoughts that seemed to completely swamp Lily's thoughts. She shook her head quickly, she had promised to give herself a break and that break was a nice Christmas party.

'No thinking about all that stuff, ok Lily? Just enjoys yourself. Have a nice relaxing time at the party.' Lily scolded.

xxx

James looked at the clock on the mantel piece above the fire place in Gryffindor tower. His eyes darted to Peter who looked back at him anxiously.

'You getting tired Remus? You know, if you're sick you should really get as much rest as you can.' James spoke. He needed Remus gone if they were going to make their own way to Slughorn's party. In twenty minutes that party should be in full swing.

'I'm just going to finish this chapter.' Remus spoke without looking up from his book.

'That's what you said last time.' Peter chipped in.

Remus bookmarked his page and closed his book. 'Ok what's up? Sounds like your trying to get rid of me.'

'Get rid of you? That's crazy talk!' James said quickly. Remus continued to narrow his eyes at James as James looked for Peter for help. However, Peter also looked at a loss of what to say. James looked at the clock once more, his time was running out.

'Kitchens!' James yelped as he jumped out of his chair. 'I have to find them! We've been putting off too long! Perseverance is the key!'

'That's right! We should go find them now.' Peter chimed in as he reached out of his chair.

'Well, I'll go with you then.' Remus sighed as he put his book to one side. He hadn't the faintest idea what had got into James's head but a walk would do him some good.

'No!' James and Peter said at the same time.

Remus looked at the two boys again. They were practically sweating under his gaze. They wouldn't look him in the eye and it was clear as day that they didn't what him around them. But he couldn't figure out what had changed. Remus knew he had complete faith in Sirius, James and Peter. They were more than his friends, they were his brothers. But that dark little voice was once again alive in the depths of his mind. It was the same voice that had convinced him that nobody wanted anything to do with him. That he was a hindrance on society.

All at once, Remus's mind told him to retreat, to get away. Remus knew perfectly well that he was running from his problems. Just like his father had always done. He had sworn to himself that he would always take whatever was thrown at him face on. But saying something and doing something were two completely different things.

Remus's desire to close his eyes and avoid a truth that would hurt him was too much. If James, Peter, and Sirius wanted nothing to do with him, he would accept that. If it had only taken a year for them to realise that he was nothing but a hindrance on their lives and this was all the friendship he would get, he would take it.

But for now, he wanted the dream to go on a little longer. No matter how cowardly Remus thought he was. He was not quite ready to face the rejection.

'O-ok.' Remus spoke catching his words. He turned to pick up his book and shuffle towards the boys' dormitory. 'I am quite tired. I'll see you later.'

With a final wave, Remus started his trek up the stairs to his room. He didn't miss the sigh of relief at his exit from James and Peter.

xxx

'He didn't suspect a thing.' James grinned triumphantly as they heard the closing of the boys' dormitory. 'Come on, we gotta get moving.'

The two boys rushed out the common room and down toward the dungeons. They could hear the party as they approached the potions classroom. There was loud laughter and sounds of a cello and violins being played. James and Peter briefly felt a pang of jealously that they weren't in the party. But soon enough, nobody would want to be in that room.

'Five more minutes. Once we get to eight thirty, we set off the detonators.' James whispered.

xxx 8:21 p.m. xxx

Sirius tried his best to look interested in the conversation between himself, Slughorn, and two other sixth years, but his eyes were darting from his watch to the door to Slughorn's store cupboard. By James's reckoning, he would only have about five minutes to get everything they needed and get out.

But the pressure was getting to him. If he messed this up, who knew when they would get another opportunity like this.

'What do you think Sirius?' Slughorn chortled. Sirius looked back at him with a blank stare having not the slightest idea what Slughorn had asked him. The two older students looked at him as well for an answer.

'Oh, yeah, I agree with you Sir.' Sirius said lamely. It seemed to have done the trick as Slughorn's enormous belly bounced up and down in laugher and his smile grew.

'Ha ha! I see you have excellent taste!' Slughorn smiled happily at him before turning to the two older students. Sirius looked back at his watch and counted down the minutes.

'I didn't know you liked Celestina Warbeck, Sirius.' Lily smiled ruefully making Sirius jump at her sudden presence.

Sirius snapped out of his daze and frowned at her. Celestial was a very famous singer, but she was primarily catered to older women who loved soppy love song. 'What are you talking about, I don't like her at all.'

'Well, you just told Slughorn that you loved her and thought she was the best artist of our time.' Lily giggled.

'I-I what!?' Sirius exclaimed outraged. Lily's laughter only increased at his outraged face. Sirius was about to turn back to the group when his watch started to vibrate. 'Oh, forget it. I don't have time for this.' Sirius spoke hurriedly as he pushed his way through the crowd and towards the store cupboard.

'Sirius? What are you doing?' Lily called after him as she pushed through the crowd as well.

'Go away, Lily.' Sirius said quickly. One more minute until chaos would erupt. 'I can't have you messing anything up.'

'Messing up what? Oh no. No, no, no! You're pulling a prank, aren't you?!' Lily accused, her hands flying to her hips. 'I can't go one sodding night without something going wrong.'

'Will you be quiet?!' Sirius hissed as he looked back at his watch. Thirty seconds to go.

'I can't believe you!' Lily hissed, but this time he was quieter. 'What's going to happen? What have you planned?'

Sirius looked up from his watch and grinned. 'Something that nobody's going to forget in a long time.' Sirius grabbed her wrist and yanked her towards the store cupboard. He made quick work of the latch and closed the door behind him. Before Lily could open her mouth, loud bangs burst out and sounds of 'Eww' and coughing filled the dungeons.

xxx 8:42 xxx

'W-what was that?!' James yelled at Peter who was shrinking away from him. They had ran with the rest of the party goers out of the dungeons and were now panting and catching their breath on the third floor corridor.

'Y-you t-told me to do it James!' Peter whined as he rubbed his hands together worriedly.

James looked back at him half amused by the whole charade. His elegant plan to have six decoy detonators go off around the room had been changed to completely obliterating the room in clouds and clouds of green stinky smoke.

'How many did you put in there?!' James asked.

'I-I though you said you wanted as many decorators in there as we could get!' Peter yelped. 'I-I know you got some from Michael, but we had some left over from bonfire night. So, I took them and planted them in there as well.'

James couldn't help it any longer, he felt his laughter bubble up and spill everywhere. Soon the worried and panicky stricken Peter joined in.

'Come on, we better get back to the common room. Can't let any teachers see us.' James grinned as he swung his arm around Peter. James silently prayed to Merlin that they wouldn't get caught for this prank. As funny as it was to watch a bunch of snooty students rush out of Slughorn's party and reek of rotten eggs, the punishment for this prank would be catastrophic.

'Hopefully, Sirius will be back when we get there.' James hoped.

xxx 8:32 xxx

'W-what was that!' Lily yelped as she reached for the door.

'Wait!' Sirius aid quickly as he grabbed her hand. 'We can't leave yet, you need to help me get some stuff for here.'

Lily looked at him for a moment before yanking her hand away from him. 'What makes you think I'm going to help you with anything!'

'Lily, I don't know what any of this stuff looks like!' Sirius pouted as he pulled out his list of ingredients. 'And if you go out there now, you'll be smelling like rotten eggs for a week.'

'Rotten eggs?' Lily frowned, as she stepped away from the door.

'James, Peter, and me put decoy detonators in the Christmas ornaments so we could sneak in here and steal some stuff. Now, I'll tell you everything we are doing if you help me, but we haven't got a lot of time. Plus, if they catch you with me, you'll probably get blamed for this as well.'

Lily's mouth opened as she stared at him. Seeing no other option, she snatched the list from Sirius and started hunting around the cupboards, thankfully she was well educated in the potions cupboard that it didn't take too long to locate the items. 'I can't believe your blackmailing me into this.' She mumbled under her breath.

'What in Merlin's name do you need Mandrake leaves for-Never mind.' Lily mumbled again as she climbed the ladder and reached for a small vile at the back of the shelf.

'Come on Evans.' Sirius said quietly. They were really running out of time now.

'Got it!' Lily said triumphantly as her hand clasped around the vile and extracted three leaves. She threw them into her purse and climbed down the ladder and stood next to Sirius. 'I assume you have a plan to get us out of here?'

'You bet ya!' Sirius grinned as he reached for her purse.

'No, No way. You get your stuff when you get me out of here.' Lily scowled. Sirius huffed but made no argument. He looked at his watch once more and counted down the seconds before slowly opening the door. Thankfully, the room was now completely empty and the smoke had evaporated. But any minute now an angry horde of teachers would come to swarm the crime scene.

'Come on, this way.' Sirius whispered as they made their way through the classroom and towards the door. Sirius open it slowly before slipping out into the corridor with Lily hot on his heels. They started to quietly make their way out of the dungeon before loud footsteps were making their way towards them.

Panicking, Sirius felt himself freeze. They were busted, they had spent too much time getting the ingredients. Sirius looked around the corridor, but there was nowhere to run or hide. It would be bad enough that he was discovered at the scene of the crime, but even worse, there would be no way he could talk himself out of trouble with a bag full of stolen ingredients.

'Sirius!' Lily panicked as Sirius stood still, frozen in the middle of the corridor. 'Oh, for Merlin's sake!'

Lily grabbed hold of Sirius's arms and dragged him towards a suit of armour that stood by the side of the wall. 'Phoenix feather.' Lily hissed.

The suit of armour rattled but did not move. The sounds of the teachers were getting closer as their footsteps echoed along the walls.

'Oh no, I don't remember the password. Um...Unicorn tail hair?' Lily tried again. The Suit of armour once again rattled but didn't move. 'It was one of the wand cores...but there are so many! Sirius, quickly! What's your wand core?'

'Wand core? It's...Theastral tail hair.' Sirius said quickly.

The suit of armour sprung to life and stepped aside. The bricks behind it magically started to disappear and reveal a hidden passage. Without another word, the two scrambled towards it and disappeared.

When they finally made it to the other side. The both tumbled out and collapsed on the floor. Their hearts were racing and they both sighed in relief.

'How did you know that was there?' Sirius asked as he ran a hand through his hair.

'Alice, the head girl. She told me about a bunch of them around the school.' Lily replied as she felt herself rest on the cold stone wall.

'Gotta tell James about that one, add it to our map.' Sirius spoke.

'You have a map?' Lily asked as she regained herself and walked towards Sirius. They needed to keep moving and get back to the common room. They could still get discovered out here in the hallway.

'Yeah, we started it when we heard about the kitchens, we've found some great passageways but still no kitchens.' Sirius answered.

Lily grinned to herself as she gestured for Sirius to follow her. They made their way down the corridors slowly making sure not to cross paths with any teachers or prefects. But it was likely that they were all in the dungeons by now.

'Don't suppose you feel like sharing?' Sirius asked hopefully.

'After what you just made me do? Not a chance in hell.' Lily scowled at him. She was angry at Sirius, but she was still in shock at what she had done.

They made their way back to the common room quickly and opened the door. As soon as they stepped into the warm and inviting room, proper relief washed over the two. The immediate danger was now over. But tomorrow would be an ordeal in its self. But that was for future Lily to deal with.

Right now, Present Lily was demanding answers she deserved.

'Did you get it all?' James jumped up at their presence. Sirius grinned at boys and they all hugged and jumped around leaving Lily to watch them. She coughed and brought their attention to her.

'Oh, yeah...I kinda told Evans that we would tell her what we were doing if she helped me. I have to be honest James, we wouldn't have gotten the stuff without her and she saved us from being caught.' Sirius spoke.

James's face returned to a panic, he was about to speak when Lily cut in.

'You know what. I don't want to know.' Lily said, surprising even herself. 'Take all this stuff and do whatever you're going to do with it. But I'll be damned if I'm going to get caught up in all of this.'

Lily fished in her bag for everything they had taken out of the store cupboard and handed it over to the boys who all looked back at her sceptically.

'Don't look at me like that, I'm not trying to trick you. I'm just done with all this drama.' Lily spoke.

That was it, she didn't want to be caught up in any of this anymore. Lily thought that she must be maturing. She didn't need to know what the boys were doing. She had more than enough problems of her own.

Lily was about to say goodnight when her attention was brought back to the boys' dormitory. Remus had stepped out and was making his way down to the common room. It was as if he had the plague; James, Sirius, and Peter scrambled away from Remus and hid the ingredients behind their backs.

'Hi Remus, what are you doing up?' James tried to speak nonchalantly.

'I thought I heard you guys.' Remus replied, he too was acting shyly and unlike himself. 'Sirius, did the party go well?'

'Brilliant! I loved it. But Remus you should go back to bed. You look tired.' Sirius said quickly in a squeaky voice.

'Yeah Remus, just go back to bed and rest. We don't want you getting even more sick.' James added on.

Remus's face saddened as he nodded and turned around once more. When the door made a light bang. James, Sirius, and Peter all sighed with relief.

'That was a close one.' Peter spoke as Lily looked at the three boys, her jaw tightening.

'You don't need to ask them! Just go to your dorm. For once in your life, take your own advice! Don't get involved.' Her logical side of her mind screamed to her.

'But this is about Remus. Why are they hiding whatever they are doing from him?' Lily's curious side spoke to herself.

'Just. Go. Up. Stairs!' Lily logical side tried to convince herself.

'What was that?!' Lily tumbled out.

'You're useless, so much for being mature...' Lily logical side chastised herself.

The three boys looked at one another and smiled sheepishly. 'I'm getting tired, aren't you tired Sirius?' James spoke.

'Yeah, I'm pretty tired. How about you Peter?' Sirius asked.

'Could really use the sleep.' Peter spoke quickly as the three boys stuffed the ingredients in their pockets and rushed to their dorms leaving Lily in the common room by herself.

'Hey! Get back here and tell me wha-' Lily began before the door was closed and she was left to herself.

A small fire ignited in Lily. She would find out what was going on. She cursed herself for handing over the ingredients to them. Now she had no leverage.

She might someday be mature enough to not get herself involved in the inner workings of James, Sirius, and Peter. But that day was not today and she would find out what the boys were up to!

A/N: Thanks for reading please review and tell me what you think! And a big thanks to my Beta reader AsMomma!