Disclaimer: I own none of the recognizable characters in this story, but I own everyone else, and I own the plots.

Chapter 3: The Day of the Pretty Colours

The ice cream contained little bits of everything, and had a rather odd taste. This was the first thing their super-nervous nerves picked up. And it was the only thing they picked up for about five minutes. Not surprisingly, Sirius got bored. "Nothing's happening!" he complained. "Lets go!" shooting crestfallen Marvellous Mark annoyed glares, they left his transcendent ice cream parlour.

Maybe it was the movement, or maybe the magically enhanced drugs just needed that amount of time to work, but as soon as the four stepped into Diagon Alley, their senses were assaulted by a riot of unusual colours. The cloaks of stuffy-looking wizards suddenly blazed bright green, shop signs flashed merrily, and everyone seemed to be happy. Or maybe it was just them: they all knew that everything had never seemed so simple; it had never been so easy to be happy.

At first, Peter didn't notice the change in his friends. "Come on you guys, let's go to the trick shop," he said. As soon as he finished speaking, his friends started to giggle. Actually giggle. He looked quickly at them, alarmed. Their eyes seemed, to his frightened imagination, to be slightly wider, but apart from that they seemed normal. "What the…" he said.

"Oh, leave it, Pete," Lily said slowly.

"Ish not worth it," Sirius said.

"Why is that elephant yellow?" James asked. Peter hurriedly looked around for any sign of elephants.

"What elephant, Jamsie?" Remus asked slowly, "All I can see are pink lions." At this Peter visibly jumped.

"Over there, Reem, but look, its not just yellow, it's flashin'," said Lily.

"I want to sit down," said Sirius, and he did, right in the middle of Diagon Alley. James giggled at him. "It's funny, isn't it?" Sirius asked. James sat down too.

"Yes!" he said. The two boys started laughing. #Remus and Lily sat down next to them and started to laugh too. Pretty soon, all four were hysterical.

Peter was at his wit's end. His friends were sitting in the middle of the street, oblivious to anything he said, and were starting to get some very weird looks. Even wizards find some things just too weird. If only he could just get them inside…

"Come on, up you get!" Peter said brightly, trying to lift Remus to his feet. "No, no, nice lion, I want to stay here. Leave me be." Completely baffled by this, Peter moved on to Lily.

"You know I love you guys," Lily was saying, "I love you lots and lots and lots and – no! Leave me alone!" Peter had tried to pull her up.

The other two boys remained ignorant of this. "We love you too, Sinead!" they chorused. Sinead? Sinead? Who the hell was Sinead? Peter thought. In that very moment, he gave up, and sank to the ground beside them.

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That was how Orion Black found them two hours later. He nearly walked straight into Remus, then noticed that the five of them were actually sitting on the ground. Sirius and Lily had fallen asleep on each other's shoulders, James and Remus were still giggling, and Peter looked exhausted.

"James," Orion said loudly.

James looked up vaguely. "Oh hello, 'Rion," he said, then went back to giggling.

"They had that Flower Power ice cream," Peter said resignedly, from somewhere near Orion's feet. Orion looked shocked and worried. "Oh God," he said, "We cant let the parents find them like this." Peter just threw his hands up in the air and walked off. He had had enough.

"You owe me for this, little bro'," Orion muttered, as he walked towards Marvellous Mark's. Minutes later, he came back out, holding two large jugs of water. Without pausing, he poured the cold water over the very slightly high teenagers.

Sirius and Lily spluttered awake. Remus and James just spluttered. "Orion!" Sirius yelled. Orion was pleased to note that they were as back to normal as they ever were. Thank God for magical drugs, no bad after effects, he thought.

"Don't look at me like that, Sirius," he said coldly. "I just saved your life. Imagine if mum had found you like that."

Sirius paled.

"But all the pretty colours…" Lily said wistfully.

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However much Orion had saved them all from that particular argument, Lily still had a rather large one to face when she got back. They all trekked into the Leaky Cauldron at ten past one, having been given no choice by their hungry stomachs not to come back.

"Lily Madeleine Evans!" Lily's mother shrieked as she came through the door. Her friends winced. "What do you think you were playing at, running off like that?"

"Well it's not fair!" Lily burst out. "I didn't say that to 'Nia, she made it all up!"

"I'll have no more of these cock and bull tales, Lily. I'm sick of it. But you'll get your punishment after lunch." Despite her best attempt to look threatening, Violet Evans didn't seem to have much of an effect on Lily.

The Lupins, Blacks and Evans, plus James and Peter, had lunch together. It started off by being rather strained, but no one could keep James and Sirius quiet for long, especially when they hadn't seen each other for two months, and soon everyone was laughing. This didn't distract Lily's mother though; as soon as the meal was over, she grabbed Lily and marched her outside and then all the way down Diagon Alley. The boys, who were curious, followed, and their parents tagged along to give Mrs Evans moral support.

To the surprise of the children, Mrs Evans marched Lily straight into Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. Madam Malkin came out to meet them. "Her dress robes," Violet Evans said roughly, pushing Lily forward. "Pink please."

Madam Malkin took one look at Lily's flaming red hair and began to protest. "But her hair –"

"I don't care. This is her punishment. And I want them to be charmed so the colour is not changeable."

"Very well," Madam Malkin sighed, beginning to measure Lily and Sirius, whose mother had decided to take advantage of the situation. Lily spent the entire time glaring at her mother, because this really wasn't fair. The one piece of advice unselfconscious Mrs Evans had ever given her daughter was never, ever to wear pink, because it would clash terribly. It was a horrible punishment.

After Lily and Sirius had been measured, it was the turn of James and Peter, then Remus, before Madam Malkin magically made their robes. James and Sirius had to have new school robes as well, because they had grown so much. When she had finished, they all had to try on their new robes.

Lily's face burned with embarrassment and anger as she put the robes on. It was a shame: they were beautifully cut and well made. But when she showed everyone, even the boys (including Orion and Steve) knew there was something wrong, and they nearly collapsed trying to stifle their laughter. She clashed all the way down, and her blush didn't help anything.

"Enfixio," Madam Malkin said, tapping Lily's robes with her wand. "They're completely colour fast."

"Thank you," all the mothers said, and paid up before leaving. The rest of the day was spent in stony silence on Lily's part, as they visited the bookshop and potions shop, and nothing her friends could do could snap her out of it. She maintained her silence all the way back to her house, before yelling "I HATE YOU!" at her mother, and locking herself into her room.