AN: The Potter universe belongs to J.K. The story however is mine.
Lily groaned as she looked at the clock. Tomorrow at this time all of them would be returning home and she would be attending Petunia's wedding much to Petunia's displeasure. Mary Evans was a force to reckon with when she got going, none of Lily's arguments were heard, in fact she threatened to write to Dumbledore and ask him to excuse her from her extra classes. Lily had sullenly given in and had been dreading this day since then. However, she cheered up reasonably at the thought of spending the entire afternoon with Severus.
Sirius Black smiled at Lily in greeting as she sat down for breakfast. "Evans." Black said in his usual bored voice. "Why so serious?" He grinned at her cockily; Lily rolled her eyes and smacked him upside on his head, before reaching out for some toast and settling next to Alice, who was sitting across from Sirius. "I am so glad we have this break, I thought I would break under the stress." Marlene chirped from Lily's other side. The rest of the table grunted in agreement. Lily watched the others talk about their plans for the Easter holidays as she thought about hers morosely. Black nudged Lily's foot under the table as he tapped his wand on her plate so that the bread crumbs arranged themselves to say. "Want us to gatecrash the wedding and add some charm? James would be more than eager to help." Lily looked at Black sitting right across her and shook her head. In the short time that she had really come to know Sirius Black, she knew that his idea of rebelling was creating a show for the others. While he was insanely loyal to the people he cared for and would do anything for them, sometimes his idea of anything literally meant anything. A quality Lily appreciated and feared at the same time, she was quite sure that should Remus, Potter or Pettigrew come to any harm due to someone else's fault, Black would go to Azkaban for murdering that idiot.
Just as Lily was about to get up from the table, the doors of the great hall burst open and a stag cantered in. It was the most beautiful stag Lily had ever seen, jet black with hazel eyes and majestic antlers. It walked gracefully to the high table and bowed its head in front of Dumbledore; a scroll was tied to one of its antlers. Dumbledore took the scroll but before he could touch the stag, the stag turned and cantered out of the great hall. Lily watched in amazement as big, fat, colourfully wrapped chocolate eggs started falling from the ceiling as soon as Dumbledore unrolled the scroll. Everyone cheered before eagerly unwrapping the chocolate eggs and taking a bite. That's when all hell broke loose.
Remus choked on his egg, as his hair started turning bright pink. Lily looked up to see Professor Dumbledore sporting an electric blue beard. The letter in his hand burst into flames as the message appeared.
The Marauders wish everyone Happy Easter. We decided it would be a lot more fun if each of us could resemble a decorative chocolate egg for a day. The colour of your hair and skin really represent your dominant traits. Let's see what each of us is made of. Help yourselves to some more chocolate then. Regards M.
Lily laughed at this; no one would voluntarily eat these chocolates now, but was quite shocked when she saw Dumbledore finish his chocolate as his skin turned golden. Marlene looked like she was in a trance as she took another bite of her chocolate and her skin turned a pale pink to match her bright purple hair. Lily snatched the egg from Alice who was going for a third bite and immediately realized that something was wrong. She felt compelled to eat the chocolate egg, that's when she realized that there was a very strong compulsion charm placed on the eggs. Who would be talented enough to successfully place such strong compulsion charms on all these eggs? Lily thought as she finished off the chocolate egg. She now sported dark blue hair and striped skin, the colours of the stripes being yellow, green, pink, white and black. Remus had brown and blue skin to go with his pink hair. Sirius black had white hair and yellow and black skin, James Potter was sporting flaming red hair and black and purple skin. All around Lily, people had really started resembling colourfully wrapped Easter eggs.
"Bloody brilliant." She swore as she looked around the hall.
"Evans!" Potter said suddenly, "I didn't know you could swear!"
"Well Potter, what you don't know about me could fill a book."
"You really think so? I know a lot about you flower."
"How many times do I have to say this! Don't call me flower."
"But you are a flower." Potter protested, "A colourful one at that."
"Potter!"
"Evans!"
"I really don't like you." Lily huffed.
"Of course you don't. You lo-" Potter broke off mid sentence. "I mean I don't really give you a lot of reasons to like me, do I?"
Lily narrowed her eyes, why was Potter acting all considerate and nice all of a sudden? Why wasn't he being cocky?
"True you don't." Lily responded as the owl post started coming in. A handsome eagle owl dropped a letter at Potter's plate before nibbling at his toast and flying off. Potter checked the letters and passed one to Frank Longbottom. "Finally the git got time to write to us." Frank commented as he took his letter from Potter. "He is a busy guy." Potter replied. "Circe's is not an easy school to be in."
"Circe's?" Lily asked aloud. "Are you talking about Circe's Island?"
Frank nodded as Potter stared at her before asking "How do you know about Circe's?"
"Oh, I just read about it. I figured there would be other wizarding schools in the world." Lily replied shrugging.
"There are." Potter said nodding.
"You know someone who studies at Circe's?" Lily asked curiously.
"Their cousin, Perseus goes to Circe's." Remus replied as Potter and Frank were too busy reading their letters.
"They have another cousin? I didn't know that."
"What you don't know about me can fill a book, Evans." Potter said with a smirk as he looked up from his letter. His eyes conveying that he knew something Lily didn't. "Gentlemen, I shall take your leave now. And Sirius, I think Percy sent this for you." Potter handed out another envelope to Sirius before walking away. Lily huffed as she watched him leave, the nerve of that boy! Black looked at her, shook his head and smiled. He knew, under the surface James Potter had caught Lily Evans' attention.
Severus ran a hand through his now yellow hair as he waited for Lily to appear at their fountain. He looked at his Red, Blue, Orange, Violet, Grey and Black checked hands and wondered what these colours would signify about him. He smiled as he saw an equally colourful Lily walk up to him.
"Severus." She said nodding formally as she sat next to him.
"Lily." He shot back just as formally, barely able to contain his grin. She laughed, Severus watched her hungrily, letting her laughter wash him over. His Lily. "So, what have you been up to these few weeks? Are you staying away from Mulciber and Avery? I would after what they did to Mary; that was horrible, she still has the scars." Severus flinched internally. Avery and Mulciber had tried one of his untested spells on Mary McDonald. Not that Severus cared, but he was glad he hadn't perfected the spell, but it opened a lot of small gashes all over her body, like wounds from a small knife.
Lily had been livid and no amount of convincing her that they had found the spell accidentally and didn't know of the effects or that they really thought it was just a laugh till they saw what it did, were not enough to convince her. It had taken Severus a lot of time to convince her that he wasn't a part of that act. He however flinched at the idea of Lily getting in harm's way. "Yes. I am staying away from them but really Lils, they feel horrible. They had no idea that the results would be this."
"I don't believe them, Sev." Lily argued back. "They give me the creeps. Especially Avery, the way he looks at me. I feel dirty. Like I am some piece of meat he wants to hog on to."
Severus gripped the edge of the fountain tightly. He knew from Avery's drunken exclamations that Avery fancied Lily. No, he did not fancy Lily, Avery fantasised about becoming a death eater and then kidnapping and raping Lily before killing her. Avery had more often than not gotten up with several curses on him. Had it not been for the fact that they supported the same side, Avery might as well have been Severus' guinea pig. "Don't worry. I won't let him harm you." Severus said lightly.
Lily smiled slightly before pushing him away with a laugh. Severus grinned. The two friends lapsed into comfortable silence. Lily put her head on Severus' shoulder and sighed contentedly. As happens with the best of friends, sometimes you don't need words. After half an hour, Lily rose from her position and checked the loose brick. She grinned broadly. There was a letter from Prongs. Severus looked at her curiously. "Prongs replied."Lily chirped happily. Severus frowned. "You haven't even met him Lily. How do you know he is not someone creepy? Why are you still talking to him?"
"Because it helps. There are times when I know how the rest of you would react, and I need an unbiased perspective. Prongs gives me that. He helps a lot. He is like my guardian angel or fairy godmother. He is just there."
"Are the rest of us not enough for you? Am I not enough for you? I will be whatever you need me to be, you know that."
"I know that, Sev. You will always be my best friend. You will always be the first person I would turn to during a crisis or a happy moment. You would always be my safe place, my harbour. But you are biased; you never see a fault in me. Prongs or rather writing to Prongs helps me introspect."
"You still don't want to know who he is?"
"Not yet."
"What if he is someone you weren't expecting? What if he is someone you hate? You might have given your enemy all your weak points."
"I don't think Prongs would do anything to harm me. Even if he turns out to be someone I hate, I doubt that he would use anything against me. I trust him that much."
"Just don't get hurt Lily." Lily smiled and pulled Severus in a tight hug.
"I won't. I promise." She said with a smile. "And even if I do hurt myself, you would always be there to help me pick myself up. Of all the people around me, you know me the best and I trust you with my life. Sev, you will always be my best friend."
Severus showered Lily with one of his rare smiles. A smile that lit his entire face and made him look like the almost 16 year old that he was.
"You used to smile like this before." Lily remarked. "You should smile a lot more, you know."
"I am smiling now."
Lily grinned, gave Severus a quick hug, before strapping her back on her shoulder and walking back to the Gryffindor tower. Had she looked back, she would have seen Severus do a rare jig; something that a rat saw and then scampered off to relate this hilarious tale to its friends.
AN: Here it is, another chapter. Happy reading guys. Do read and review.
Love,
The Fishes
