Lily Luna Potter stood, hands on hips, glaring across the room at her unsuspecting brother. In the centre of the dance floor, she had an interrupted view of her brother's bent head discussing something with her cousin Fred. She swung her head from side to side, attempting to get a better view of him between the crowds of dancing people surrounding her. Her snooping was interrupted by a well wisher touching her shoulder and thanking her and her family for coming to the event, she forced a smile at the ministry official she was sure she was supposed to recognise, and by the time she turned her attention back to her brother, he was gone. Sighing in annoyance, Lily made her way towards to drinks table where she could see Teddy stood surveying the variety of chocolate cakes with an interest that was better placed combating a difficult crossword.
"You haven't spotted James plotting have you?" Lily glanced to her left to see Teddy smirk before consuming an eclair in one bite. He swallowed before looking at her directly.
"You know I want nothing to do with this ridiculous feud the two of you have started right? I stated that from the beginning."
Despite his statement to the contrary, Teddy has actually been directly involved in the prank war that the Potter siblings had started since Lily had arrived home Hogwarts for the Christmas holidays four months ago. James had decided to continue the feud with increasing escalation with every passing incident that didn't leave Lily humiliated to a level that satisfied James' mischievous streak. This increasing escalation meant Lily was constantly on high alert, knowing her brother's whereabouts within three feat at all times.
Realising Teddy was going to be no use, traitor, she filled her cup with punch and walked to the entrance of the Great Hall. Tonight was the annual victory ball for the Battle of Hogwarts, meaning that the Great Hall was filled to the brim with students, ministry officials, old Order of the Phoenix members and DA members. The theme this year was "unity" and attendees had been encouraged to be clad in the colours of another Hogwarts house that was not their own.
Smoothing her knee length emerald green dress, she spotted her father, dressed in navy, surrounded by a number of stuffy looking ministry officials. Harry caught her eye and winked at his daughter, pulling a face that made Lily giggle. Her mum was nowhere to be found, but this wasn't surprising, if anyone hated these functions more than her father it was her mother. Both Potter parents supported the cause more than anyone, having the highest stakes in the outcome for the victory the ball celebrated. However, Lily had listened to her parents complain on numerous occasions that events such as these were not to celebrate the victory over Voldemort, but to kiss her father's arse and gain political power. Therefore, it was unsurprising that after showing her face, Ginny Potter tended to disguise herself into the sea of Weasley redheads.
At 15 years old, Lily had experienced many of these balls. They were insufferable, everyone felt like just because her surname was Potter it meant that they could know the ins and outs of her life, private and otherwise. Tonight alone she had had three elderly women ask after her betrothal status, stating that their dashing grandson was looking for a beautiful young woman such as herself to have on their arm. These suggestions had started shortly after her thirteenth birthday, the first instance had caught her so off guard she had laughed in the ministry woman's face so hard that her dad had to apologise so profusely when the woman started shouting about her indecent behaviour. However, Harry had later learnt the nature of the conversation and had congratulated Lily on not pulling her wand instantly. The requests had continued despite her father's general aura of disapproval whenever an older woman approached her, however Lily's ability to tolerate these encounters had surprisingly increased. Well, Lily mused, not completely unsurprising since Rose had informed her of her method of dealing with these types of awkward encounters. Seeing another elderly woman making a direct line for her, Lily turned her back and tipped a healthy portion of her "method of dealing" also known as Firewhiskey into her glass of pumpkin juice for the fourth time that evening.
Lily looked around her, and short of darting directly out the doors behind her, she had minimal escape routes, she also didn't trust her tipsy legs in the heels she was currently wearing to hold her up reliably as she ran. So she forced a smile as the woman approached her with a look of determination. Before the woman reached her, however, Lily felt two strong sets of arms loop around each of her arms and drag her back through the Great Hall doors. In a moment of panic, she started kicking out and before she could scream a hand grabbed her around the mouth. She was dragged out the entrance doors and into the chilling summer air, coming face to face with her two grinning brothers. Damn. Focusing on the approaching woman had left her vulnerable to her brother's antics.
James Sirius Potter stood, head to two in a set of deep midnight blue dress robes to match their father's, grinning like an idiot for having panicked his little sister to point of losing her composure. Lily glared causing him to only grin wider. Her glare darted to her left, eyeing her other brother with betrayal. Albus had not been involved in the prank war that was raging in their household, but tonight he had clearly picked a side. The traitor looked dashing in his deep maroon muggle suit. He still had his arms locked around hers forcing her to look into James' eyes.
Lily rolled her eyes. "Has this not gone a bit far Jamie? If dad saw me getting dragged from the hall, we know for a fact he'd go into full Auror mode before you could blink."
"You're only saying that because you're about to lose this war, oh little Lilykins! Besides, I made sure dad was thoroughly distracted before I grabbed you, I'm not stupid!"
Lily snorted, "Oh yes, James not stupid, how silly of me! Come on Al, you know you've picked the wrong side in this, let me go and we can get a thoroughly good prank on good old Jamie here."
"Oi! Find your own ally! Now, onto the master plan!" James produced a small vial from his pocket and shook it in Lily's face. "Do you know what this is my darling sister? This right here is an de-ageing potion, you thought you were so funny trapping my naked on the roof last week, well, let's see how funny it is when little toddler Lily Luna goes running into that ball crying for her mummy and daddy!"
James was cackling, and lily had to admit that it was pretty funny if the person being pranked didn't happen to be her. She was going to have to think of something amazingly embarrassing after this, he would rue the day!
"So open up Lilykins!" Lily rolled her eyes and accepted her fate, knowing they would not release her without taking the potion. With a sigh opened her mouth and allowed her brother to pour the contents into her mouth.
No sooner did the liquid touch her, did she experience the most painful burning of her life, coughing and spluttering.
"Shit James what was in there? Grab her some water!" Al let go of her arms and spun to face her, standing next to James.
"There's some pumpkin juice in a flask in her pocket there. Open up Lil!"
Lily thankfully accepted the juice, to only realise it was her secret stash of Firewhiskey. The combination of the burning potion still in her mouth alongside the burning of the Firewhiseky, Lily spit the contents of her mouth, completely covering herself and both her brothers. She would have laughed if she wasn't convinced her whole body was being set on fire.
The last coherent thought running through her mind, was how strange her brothers looked coated in a bright blue light.