04/03/02

1 Title goes here

James looked down at the Maurder's Map and saw the whole school of Hogwarts Witchcraft and Wizardry. Nothing really seemed to be going on there. He saw his friends, Sirius, Remus and Peter in the hall just a couple of feet away from the Gryffindor entrance, but where was Lily? This was their fifth year at Hogwarts and they had all been friends since the very beginning. They had also explored just about all the possibilities of the map that could been seen. James and his friends had made the map so that they could see others coming, and to know where they were going. It make things a lot easier when they were trying to sneak around in the middle of the night doing pranks.

James scanned the map again and finally spotted her. Lily was coming out of one of the secret passageways. He felt a surge of warmth fill his body as he thought of her. He had always had a thing for her. Sirius and Remus knew, but never Peter. He was a bit of a loud mouth.

James looked down the hall and headed towards the entrance of the secret passage that Lily was coming out of. Just then, he spotted her. "God, she is really beautiful," James thought to himself. Lily wasn't very tall, just a little shorter than James. She had a mane of red hair that seemed to flow down her shoulders. But it was the electric green eyes and light complexion that set it all off. It was what James like most about her. Those eyes seemed to peer right into his soul and read him.

"Hey Lily!" James snapping out of his trance. Lily had just closed the passageway door.

Lily jumped, dropping the packages in her arms, "Damn it James! You scared the crap out of me!" She said laughing. She bent down to puck up her things and James helped her. His hand grazed her and he took a sharp intake of breath. He then, trying to cover it up, sighed really loudly. "Good thing it was me instead of Filch or Snape," James said trying to cover up his embarrassment. Lily just laughed and nodded her head and she pick up the last of her packages. *WHEW* thought James. "Well, thanks for scaring me, and helping me pick these up." She said smiling. "Where are the other two?" Lily asked.

"Oh, they are probably in the Common Room doing something stupid as usual." James said with a smirk.

They headed back to the Common Room together when James remembered why he had intercepted her in the first place. "So, what were you doing? You gotta secret admirer or something?" James said playfully, but deep down, he really wanted to know what she was doing.

"No," said Lily, " I wanted to puck up some things for future pranks. As well as some other things…."She said giving James a mystery smile.

He smiled back and was getting ready to tease her about the "other things" when they ran into Sirius and Remus. They were both rolling on the floor laughing so hard, one of them was snorting loudly and the other wheezing. "What's going on?" James said getting caught up with the laughter.

"We just—HAHAHA—we just—look --snort—down the hall." Sirius said snorting again and pointing to the hall around the corner.

Lily and James give each other a quick comical look and go poke their heads around the corner. Immediately, the both burst into laughter. It was Snape and Malfoy trying to make their way to the hospital wing. It seemed that their Slytherin enemies had been stuck together wherever they touched. Snape had his hand on Malfoy's shoulder and the other on his chest. Malfoy had his hand on Snape's arm and his left leg to Snape's middle. James keeled over, he was laughing so hard. Lily leaned over his back and starting to cry she was laughing so hard. James' legs gave out and they landed in a heap on the ground. Snape and Malfoy turned around so quickly to see who else was laughing at them, they also fell to the ground. Snape's face was a deep shade of red, it was probably a mixture of being pissed and embarrassed. Malfoy was muttering under his breath as he tried to pull himself and Snape up. Through all of the confusion, Snape's right foot was no attached to Malfoy's left foot and when they stood up, it looked like a human Celtic knot. Lily glanced at the tangled Slytherin's and snorted loudly enough to start James, Sirius and Remus back into a laughing fit. Snape straightened up and stared at the four on the floor. He muttered something under his breath and yelled at Malfoy as they started to make their way, slowly, to the hospital wing.

Lily, James, Sirius and Remus watched the pair go down the hall until they were out of sight. Not once, did they stop laughing. "Oh my…" Lily said still giggling. "How did you guys do that?" Sirius and Remus were struggling to get up off the floor still laughing a bit. "We did the "Glue Charm" gone wrong." Remus said as he slipped and fell back to the floor. Sirius leaned against the wall, his loud laughs ringing out into the hall. They all burst out laughing again.

"You should have seen their faces when Snape patted Malfoy's shoulder and it wouldn't budge." Said Sirius. "Oh, I didn't know that their faces could turn so many colors." Sirius said laughing tiredly. The all finally got up off the floor, but couldn't manage to keep a few giggles from bursting out on the way to the Common Room.

As they entered the Common Room, Lily noticed that it was very quite for a school night. "Man, my stomach hurts! That's the best laugh I've had in a long time." Lily said rubbing her stomach. Just then, Peter popped off the couch nearest to the entrance and looked a bit upset. "Where were you guys?" He said impatiently. "I've been waiting here for a half an hour for you guys. You said you'd straight up from dinner!" Peter whined.

"Oh, Peter, you should have been there," Lily said hiding a laugh behind her hand. They recounted the whole story for Peter and bust into laughter all the way through. "I miss everything." Peter pouted and he plopped back down on the couch. James, Remus and Sirius sat down on another couch.

"Oh," Lily said suddenly as she remembered the packages in her arms. "I'll be right back. I gotta put this away." She threw one of the packages at Sirius. "Those were for the next prank, bur I guess we won't need them for awhile." She said snorting again. The boys laughed as she sprinted out of the room to her dorm.

Lily ran up the stairs, laughing the whole way as she remembered the scene of Malfoy and Snape. She got to her room, unlocked the door and went to her bed. She unwrapped the package from its dull brown wrappings and set it on the bed next to her. It was an Invisibility Cloak. She had looked all over for the last three years to find one worth buying. Lily picked up the silvery material and ran her hands through it. "James is going to love this." She thought aloud. His birthday was in two weeks and she was really excited to give it to him. He had mentioned an Invisibility Cloak to her during one of their many conversations they'd had. He had always wanted one. This one she had found through a wizard who used to work at the Ministry of Magic. After reassuring him that it wouldn't be used for dark reasons, he sold it to her. She was pretty sure that the old wizard had checked her background to make sure. Lily had nothing to worry about. She was the first witch in her family, and probably the only one. Her parents were just muggles and her sister was the biggest one of all. She hated anything to do with magic. "Just a non believer" Lily thought to herself and frowned. Lily shook her head, " I don't want to think about her right now." She put the cloak into a colorful bag that she had bewitched to say "Happy Birthday James" when opened. The front had also been bewitched to have a fireworks display start as soon as it was opened. After giving the gift one last look, she put the birthday present in her trunk for safekeeping. She then ran back down stairs to see what the boys were up to.

*~*~*~Meanwhile*~*~*~

"…that was so funny! I wish that I could have seen the whole prank!" James said chuckling.

"Yeah," said Remus, "Where were you anyway?"

"Oh, I had to talk to Professor McGonagall about the Qudditch match in two weeks. Then I ran into Lily coming out of the Hogsmeade passageway." James said. Sirius looked at Remus and then to Peter and whispered, "Or, were you just waiting for Lily?" Sirius gave a big smile to James.

James looked over to Sirius and Remus, "Well…that too." He said and smiled sheepishly.

"I knew it, but I just wanted conformation," said Remus smiling at James too. Peter noticed then that he wasn't included in the conversation. He ran over and sat on the floor into front of them. "Whatcha talking about? More pranks?" He said with a stupid smile.

"He is always trying too hard," James thought to himself. "No, actually we were talking about my birthday in two weeks," He said, blushing a bit at his lie.

"Yeah, what are we going to do for you birthday?" Sirius said giving James the evil eye.

"Well, I don't know. We have a Qudditch match that Saturday against Slytherin," Remus paused thinking, " maybe throw a part in here?" Remus suggested.

"I won't be able to come until later. I have to serve detention for that night I turned Snape half way into a goat." Sirius said way too seriously, that it made James and Remus laugh.

"Don't worry, we will figure something out." Said James. "What did Lily bring you from Hogsmeade?" He said changing the subject.

"Oh, you know, the usual. Dung Bombs, Ice Mice, Chocolate Frogs, Butterbeer and other pranking devices." Sirius said matter-of-factly. At the words of "Chocolate Frogs," Peter perked up. "Yeah, you can have some Peter." Sirius said knowing he loved those.

"You're not going to share with me?" Lily said, almost scaring the boys out of their seats. "You know, I should start charging you for making those trips." She smiled casually. "Lucky for you this time, I had other things to get."

"Oh yeah?" James said listening intently to her, "Like what else?"

"Oh no you don't. None of you will find out until later." Lily said, "Even you Remus." Who was pretending to pout. She laughed out loud and then sat down between Remus and James on the already crowed couch.

They all stayed up for a couple of more hours, never moving off the small couch. They talked about random things such as Malfoy and Snape stuck together, the next prank and Qudditch. Nothing was really mentioned about James' birthday, which was good, they might have asked her what she had gotten him. It would be way to obvious when she would have probably blushed at her own excitement. Peter was never much into the conversations, so he left and headed for the showers and then to bed.

It seemed that the boys were talking all about Qudditch. Lily loved Qudditch, but she wasn't very good on a broomstick, but she loved to watch them all play. It was very thrilling to watch the team work together to win. She turned to listen to the boys talking, but instead she listened to her thoughts.

Sirius was good looking with a dark complexion and black hair. He was quite tall too. He seemed to have the girls in troves around him, but he wasn't really interested. The other girls in her dorm were always asking about him, "What is he like? Is he sweet? Do you like him? Blah, blah…" Lily never really answered them, she just knew Sirius well enough that he wouldn't have gone for those girls. Sirius just wanted to mess around and have fun with his buddies, not be committed to some girl who would get mad at every prank. "He is really a big softie and a clown. Though, serious enough when he needs to be." Lily thought to herself. Just then, Remus interjected loudly in the conversation. Lily turned her attention to him. He was a very handsome guy. He had sandy blonde hair and soft grey eyes. He was always the gentleman of the bunch. Lily also knew the truth about him. The truth about how he disappeared for a couple of days when there was a full moon. He was a werewolf. (Peter is the only one who didn't know) She had seen Remus transform as he went under the Whomping Willow with his friends. She couldn't stand to hear him in pain, but he was Lily's first real friend there at Hogwarts. "He was the polite one, for the most part…"She thought to herself smiling. She decided that she better see what the boys were talking about now. She listened for a few minutes, nodding her head to something and then starting looking at James.

James was talking very animatedly about the last Qudditch game against Ravenclaw. The muscles in his arms were flexing as he explained a flight pattern he'd used that match. James was skinny, but had some muscle. Lily could always pick him out of a crowd because of that messy black hair on his head. It didn't matter what he did to his hair, it would always looked like he just got out of bed. He had brown eyes that seem to melt into hers when she looked into them. She tired not to stare at them, but it was too late. "He has always been the nice one. Making sure the people in pranks don't get hurt or making sure his friends are okay in bad times." Lily thought warmly to herself. James' friends and family were so important to them, and he told them all the time just how important they were. For Lily, it actually made her feel important. Lily drifted in her thoughts about James. About what he would say to her at his birthday, about his gift, about her….she sighed loudly as she continued to stare at James.

"What's the matter Lily?" James said, making a mental note that she had been staring at him for the last 4 and a half minutes. "Are we boring you?" he said smiling broadly at her.

"What? Oh!" she flushed, "No, I'm just thinking about the Charms homework (breathing a breath of relief that she thought of an excuse) due in a couple of days." Lily said, trying to cover up the awkwardness.

"Yes, but why smile about it? It's homework?" Remus said mockingly and giving her a little jab with his elbow.

"Well, I like Charms. This week we have to charm an inanimate object to move. It'll be fun. I've been waiting for this lesson." Lily said quicker than she meant to, turning red. She also managed to give Remus a dirty glare for not elbowing her earlier.

Remus, Sirius and James all look at each other mockingly and pretended to fall asleep at Lily's last comment. All of them were pretending to snore rather obnoxiously. "Well, I do like charms! It's my best class…it's so easy!" Lily yelled in protest. The boys woke up from their pretend slumber, looked at one another and fell into another mock sleep mode. Lily laughed and gave them a playful slap. They all woke up and laughed. Lily glanced at her watch, It read 12:30AM.

"Oh wow." Lily said quietly shocked. "I'm going to bed. It's half past midnight." Lily yawned and stretched. She brushed James neck as she stretched. She didn't notice this, but James did. He seemed to freeze on the spot and all the hair on the back of his neck rose. The color in his checks also rose. Sirius spotted James and his reaction and hide a laugh in a yawn. James gave him a look that said, "Don't do it…I don't need an audience to make an ass out of myself."

"Well boys, goodnight." She said half-smiling, half-yawning. She gave them all a hug. Going down the line, Remus first, then Sirius, and last, but not least, James. When she hugged him, she took in a deep breath. "God, he smells good. Just like, well, just like the wind." Lily thought as she pulled away from him. Embarrassed, she quickly said goodnight again and headed to her dorm. She better be more careful, she thought to herself. She got into her pajamas and jumped into bed. She remembered the hug that she gave James. He had hugged her back, and he seemed to be a bit reluctant to let her go. Or was that just her imagination?