A/N-Lalalaaa! Oh yeah, anyway, here is the next chapter! Sorry it wasn't up sooner, I've been so busy. Grr…I hate English essays and math tests and math homework and math in general. Grr…Math should burn…The people who came up with all of this math junk when we were just fine making tick marks on stone tablets are probably up in heaven or down in hell just watching me and laughing their heads off and congratulating themselves on their ability to send me into mass confusion…Anyway, that's beside the point now. This chapter is pretty much full of Marauders-and-Lily-becoming-friends stuff.
Thank you all of my reviewers! I don't have the time to do individual thank yous right now so I'll try to do that in the next chapter.
Disclaimer-I don't own this. J.K. Rowling does. No really, I don't own this! I'm serious! Fine then, don't believe me, that's not my problem…
*
Later that night, James was just walking out of the boys' dormitories when he spotted Lily in one of the squashy armchairs in the common room, reminding him that he had neglected to ask Sirius how their meeting earlier today went without him their. James groaned. He hoped Sirius didn't do anything stupid. At least if he did, James wouldn't have to keep helping him. This mess was getting really tangled up and James kind of wanted out of it really. James couldn't see Sirius so he decided to ask Lily about it.
"Hey Lils," He said, plopping down in an armchair beside her.
"Hi James," Lily said, barely glancing up from the book she was reading.
"Hello James," two girls said flirtatiously and giggling.
"Ladies," he said smoothly, nodding in their direction, which caused them to bat their eyelashes and giggle even more.
"So Lily…" James said slowly. "How did your meeting with Sirius go earlier?"
The girls walked off, looking a bit dejected that he didn't want to flirt with them some more and was more interested in Lily.
This time Lily glanced up. "Well it was cut a bit short. He hurried off when Remus told Sirius that he needed a blank piece of parchment because you were gone and they thought you were wearing your special…sweater," she said, saying it exactly as Remus had, emphasizing the same words he had, and peering at James expectantly.
James glanced up at her, startled. "Oh?"
"Do you solemnly swear that you are up to no good James?" she asked, returning to her book.
"You heard?"
"Yes, so what is it? The blank piece of parchment that has lines and moving dots on it when you say those words?" Lily asked him.
James grabbed the piece of blank parchment from his robe pocket. He spread it on the table in front of them, and, after first making sure no one was nearby, said, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
The lines and the moving dots appeared. This time, she noticed the names above the dots and she also noticed that the lines were hallways and corridors and rooms. Lily gasped.
"It's a map," Lily stated absently.
"Yes it is. It has all of the secret passageways that we've found thus far. It also has where everyone is and especially where all of the teachers are," James said, and, pointing to some dots on the map, said, "See? There's Filth and there's Dumbledore. And Professor Spring is out in greenhouse three."
"Why are some dots colored?" Lily asked, seeing that the Prongs, Padfoot, Wormtail, Moony, and Lily dots were in color.
"Anyone who knows about this map, how it works and everything are in color. You know about the map now, so you are colored. You're green," James pointed out, glancing up and looking at her emerald green eyes.
When their eyes locked, Lily felt a shiver run through her, not the kind you get when you're cold, more like the kind you get when you just faintly begin to realize something and new emotions are welling up inside you. Of course she wasn't aware of what these emotions were, just that he had such deep blue eyes…(A/N-I'm not sure if they're blue or not. I don't think it ever says. Some people gave him blue eyes and some gave him brown so I just picked blue because I felt like it…) Soon though, he was looking at the map again.
"So there's where Sirius got to," James said, tapping the map where a dot marked Padfoot was.
"Who's Wormtail?" Lily asked. She knew that Sirius was Padfoot, Remus was Moony, and that James was Prongs because every once in awhile they would call each other that, but she had never heard them use Wormtail.
"That's Peter," James answered.
Ahh, of course, Lily thought. She had forgotten about him. Now that she had the chance to ask though…
"Why does Peter hang out with you guys? You guys are popular and charming and handsome," Lily said, blushing slightly, "but Peter is none of those things.
"He's a friend of my family. His mom works with my mom. He hangs out with us as a favor for a friend of the family I suppose," James said, shrugging. "It's not too bad. He doesn't say or do much anyway." (A/N-I'm not sure if that's the reason they hang out with him, but I had to make up something. Sounds good enough anyway…)
"So which have you guys decided on? A cow, a pig, a donkey, or a horse?" Lily asked, smiling when James gave her a surprised look.
Then his look changed to that of an accusation and his eyes narrowed. "You followed them. You know about my Invisibility Cloak as well then."
Lily nodded.
James smiled. "We haven't decided yet. I like the idea of a cow."
"I would like to see him acting like a chicken perhaps, or a monkey," Lily said thoughtfully. Then she grinned mischievously. "How about Lucius a cat and Snape a mouse?"
James imagined that idea for a moment and then broke into a grin. "I like the way you think, Lily." With that he said good-bye and went looking for Sirius and Remus to tell them the new plan.
Lily smiled, imagining Snape and Malfoy and reminded herself to be sure to bring a camera to breakfast tomorrow.
*
"Morning Rissa," Lily said, taking a seat beside her friend in the Great Hall. Marissa was sitting beside her new boyfriend. Lily didn't even know his name. It was breakfast time and Lily had remembered to bring a camera. It was a wizarding camera too, so the picture would move when it was developed. Rissa glanced at the camera questioningly.
"Is there some reason you're going to be needing that?" Rissa asked, arching an eyebrow.
"It's a surprise. You'll see soon enough," Lily assured her, grabbing a waffle.
"Oh, this is Bobbie Michaels," Marissa said, indicating the boy sitting on the other side of her. "You remember him right? He's a Ravenclaw."
Yes, Lily recognized him now. He was a chaser on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team.
It wasn't five seconds later when Lucius came slinking into the Great Hall on all fours, as graceful and fluid-like as any cat. He slinked over to a group of standing girls nearby and rubbed up against their legs, purring. Lily snapped a picture. Rissa sat beside her, eyes wide and shoulders shaking with silent laughter.
"How do you like your idea put into action so far?" James asked Lily quietly as he and the rest of the Marauders sat around her.
Lily was barely containing her laughter. The girls ran off shrieking "Eww ewww!"
"Where's Snape?" Lily whispered to James, who nodded towards the doors. Lily looked over there. Snape was just scurrying in through the doors after the girls had opened them, making squeaking noises. Still scurrying on all fours, he climbed up to a table, grabbing a piece of cheese. Lily took this opportunity to snap another picture. When Lucius saw him, he arched his back, hissing. And then he stealthily made towards Snape, crawling close to the ground. Lily snapped another photo. Everyone else in the Great Hall was pointing and laughing. Lily glanced over at the Marauders. They were all laughing so hard there were tears in their eyes and Remus was pounding on the table.
Lucius was right behind Snape now. Snape, hearing Lucius behind him, pricked up his ears and paused with the consumption of his cheese. Lucius took this opportunity to grab the back of Snape's neck in his teeth. Lily snapped photos like crazy as Snape made pitiful squeaking and squealing noises while Lucius dragged him towards the doors. The Potions Master, Professor Meeny showed up to see what was going on then. His eyes narrowed as he saw Snape and Malfoy and then he looked around the room, his eyes resting on the Marauders.
"Potter! Black! Lupin! In my office, NOW!!" Professor Meeny yelled, looking extremely angry. Indeed, his face was so red it looked near explosion.
As Lily watched the Marauders head over to the doors, Lily felt a twinge of guilt. It was her idea to make Severus a mouse and Lucius a cat. She knew that they were going to change at least Lucius into something anyway, but it wouldn't have been as disastrous if they had just turned him into a cow or a donkey like they had originally planned, so it was partially her fault that Lucius was now dragging Snape away by the nape of his neck.
Stuffing her camera back into her bookbag, she got up and headed towards the Meeny. "Professor," Lily said. "It was my idea. It was my fault."
Some of the students who had been laughing fell silent at this. Lily hadn't ever gotten into much trouble. Every once in a while she was late to class or was found running in the halls, but never this much trouble.
"Evans?" Professor Meeny said, apparently surprised.
"No, she didn't do anything Professor," James told him. (A/N-Awww, isn't that sweet? He's trying to get her out of it! I thought it was sweet anyway…)
"Yeah, she really had nothing to do with it," Sirius said.
"It was all our idea," Remus added.
"It was my idea Professor," Lily repeated.
"Well then. Evans in my office as well," the Professor said, turning to head towards his office.
"No, it was my idea so they shouldn't be-" Lily began to protest.
"Shh. Don't get him angrier, he'll just make our punishment worse," James whispered.
Lily sighed in resignation. She had tried anyway.
They all took seats in Professor Meeny's office as he sat in the chair behind the desk.
"I suppose you all thought that was funny hmm?" Meeny said.
"Well actually-" James began but Lily stepped on his foot. "Ow."
"Now you're just making it worse," Lily whispered.
"Professor," Remus said. "Aside from Lily, who has already confessed her part in this scheme, you have no proof whatsoever that we were involved in this at all."
"Your well-known reputation is proof enough," Meeny said, writing some things down on a piece of parchment in front of him.
"But if-" Lily began to protest, but this time James stepped on her foot.
When Lily looked over at him, he smiled. "Now you're just making it worse," he pointed out.
"Detentions for a week for all of you," Meeny said (A/N-Don't ya love the name? Meeny! I thought that was great.). "Polishing the trophies in the trophy room, starting today after classes are over."
"Ahh well. It was worth it just to hear Snape squeak like that," Sirius said, sighing wistfully after they left Meeny's office and were heading for their first class.
"Ooh, ooh!" Lily said, squealing a bit. She reached into her bookbag and pulled out her camera. "I got pictures!"
The Marauders' faces broke into huge grins.
"If we are the kings of pranks and jokes, then you are the queen," James said, laughing.
"I pledge my allegiance to you, your highness," Remus said, bowing.
"You are so getting a double copies of those pictures," Sirius said. And then wistfully, "Ahh, just imagine the blackmail possibilities…"
They entered the herbology classroom to find that class had already started.
"Is there a reason you boys," Professor Spring began, and then, seeing Lily, added, "and girl are late?"
"Yes there's a reason. It might not be a good one, but it's a reason," James said, taking a seat. The class chuckled.
*
"Do you want to go to the library with me? I have an essay to do and I need to do some research," Marissa asked Lily. Lily and Marissa sat in the Gryffindor common room. Classes just got over for the day.
"Sorry. I'd love to, but I can't," Lily said. When Marissa arched an eyebrow, Lily reminded her about the detention she had.
"You are so lucky," Marissa sighed.
"What?" Lily asked incredulously. "I said detention! Did you hear me correctly? Because I seriously think you heard me wrong."
"Yes I did, but just think about who you have detention with!" Rissa said.
"The Marauders? They are really great. They're very fun to be with," Lily said.
"They are also the most popular boys in school and they are so hot. Besides Peter, but he doesn't really count anyway," Marissa said. (A/N-Ha ha! Die Peter, die!! Sorry for interrupting…)
Lily rolled her eyes. "Is that all you think about? They're my friends. That's all."
"Except maybe Sirius…" Marissa said slyly, causing Lily to blush a deep scarlet.
"I have to go to my detention," Lily muttered, getting up and leaving the common room. When she got there, the Marauders weren't there yet. Meeny wasn't even there yet, so she took this opportunity to look at all of the trophies. Most of them were all for Quidditch, which reminded her that the Quidditch season started in three weeks.
She jumped when someone slipped their arms around her waist, but relaxed when she recognized the voice.
"Hello Lily," Sirius whispered, kissing her cheek.
"Come on now Sirius. This is detention, not a snog fest," Remus said good-naturedly.
"Now, you will polish all of these trophies over this week," Meeny said, walking in briskly. "If you get done polishing all of these to my satisfaction before the week is over, which I highly doubt, I shall find something else for you to do. Now get to work. I shall be back to check up on you soon." With that, he left, his black robes swishing behind him.
They each grabbed a wet polishing cloth and got to work. Meeny was right, Lily saw. There were so man trophies that she wondered what Meeny would do if they didn't get all of the trophies polished by the end of their detention. He'd probably make them have detention until they were all sparkling like new.
"You didn't have to say anything you know," James said suddenly.
"Hmm? Yes I did," Lily said. "It was my idea after all."
"But we had the original plan anyway," James said.
"But you have to admit, it wouldn't have been half as disastrous if you had just turned Lucius into a cow or a donkey like you had planned originally. But I gave you the idea of having Lucius act as a cat and Snape a mouse," Lily pointed out.
"But still…And are you saying our plan wasn't disastrous in the first place?" James asked.
"Maybe," Lily said slyly. "Besides, I couldn't just let you guys take the credit for my brilliant idea," Lily said.
Remus and Sirius chuckled.
"Touché (A/N-Grrrr…At first I couldn't figure out how to put the little accent thingy on touché because the first time it didn't show up. It was beginning to make me mad really.)," James said, chuckling as well.
"We are going to be here forever," Remus said, looking around the room.
"It could be worse," Sirius said cheerfully.
"How?" Remus asked.
"Umm…We could have detention with Malfoy or Snape," Sirius told Remus.
"That would be worse? I think it would be kind of fun," Remus said. "We could always use a few laughs. We could change him into a monkey or something. That would make this better, not worse."
"Okay then…we could be outside and it could be raining," Sirius said.
"That would be worse," Remus agreed.
"No, you know what would be worse?" Lily asked them.
"No, what?" the Marauders all said together.
"It would be worse if Meeny had decided to stay," Lily told them.
They all thought about that for a moment. If Meeny had stayed, he'd sit there and snap at them all to polish the trophy this way, not that way. Or he'd just snap that they were doing it wrong and just let them figure out what they were doing wrong. It would be a nightmare if he had decided to say.
"Thank God he almost has a life and has to go do something," Remus said, sighing.
"You mean thank God he thinks he has a life," Lily corrected him.
"If he was here, we'd really be here forever," James said, polishing a trophy for what seemed like the millionth time. He then turned to whisper to Remus, who started laughing.
Lily glanced over at them and they both started coughing, though Lily heard the laughs behind the coughs. James nudged Sirius, who turned to look and tried to frown when he saw Lily but the frown twitched on the sides like he was keeping laughter in. Lily raised an eyebrow and turned back to the trophy she had been polishing. She looked at it to see if it was polished well enough but then yelped when she saw her reflection. She steadied herself to keep from falling off of the stool she was standing on. She glanced at her reflection again. Yup, she had seen right the first time. She had hair that looked exactly like Meeny's. She had frizzy gray hair, just like Meeny.
She turned around to see them all cracking up. Lily smiled. "I think it's rather becoming," she said primly, fluffing her new Meeny hair.
"You look great Lily," James said, still laughing.
"Which is more than I can say for the three of you," Lily said, turning her hair back to her normal auburn color, while shooting a spell at their hair.
The Marauders looked at each other, eyebrows arched quizzically. When they looked at each other though, they jumped.
"Sirius, you're hair looks really nasty and greasy. Oh man, that's just disgusting," James said, wrinkling his nose.
"My hair? What about yours?" Sirius asked, looking at James's hair.
"Both of you have nasty hair," Remus said.
"Us? What about you?" Sirius asked, pointing to his hair.
Lily laughed as all three boys turned to look at their reflections in a trophy. All three jumped back, agreeing that their hair was nasty.
"You guys really need to stop sharing shampoo with Snape, you know," Lily said, finally done polishing one trophy. She leaned back to examine her work. Detention wasn't as bad as she first believed it would be. It would've probably been really bad if she had had detention with anyone but the Marauders, but they made detention fun. Maybe that's why they were always getting into trouble.
"Let's get her," James said, and they all lunged for Lily and tackled her, all of them ending up in a great heap, Lily on the bottom.
"Students are not supposed to enjoy detention you know," a friendly voice remarked from the doorway.
Everyone quickly stood up.
"Sorry Professor Dumbledore, we were just…umm…" Remus began. "Well, what were we doing guys?"
Sirius and James shrugged.
"I was just walking by this room and I was hearing a lot of noise and laughter and then I remembered that the Marauders and Lily had detention in here. I decided to come and see for myself what could possibly so fun about detention," Dumbledore said, turning to leave. "By the way, I like what you boys did with your hair." He then left, chuckling to himself.
Sirius, James, and Remus looked at each other curiously. They had already returned their hair back to normal. But when they looked at each other, they all jumped and yelped.
"Whoa, Moony, you got a long white beard and matching hair!" James pointed out absently.
"You do too," Remus told him.
They all looked over at Lily who was laughing again.
"Well I like it," James said, tugging on his beard.
Just then Meeny walked back in to see everyone laughing and Sirius, James, and Remus with long white beards.
"What is going on in here?!" he shouted.
Everyone straightened and turned towards him, Remus, James, and Sirius still with long white beards.
"Umm, well Professor. We were umm…We just decided that long white beards would help us clean the trophies better," James said, grinning.
"Yes, it helps us concentrate better," Sirius put in, as if on cue.
"Call it a fetish of sorts if you will," Remus said, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly as if resisting the urge to laugh.
"Get back to work," Meeny said, turning and sweeping out of the room.
They all looked to the door for a few more moments as if to make sure he was really gone and then once again turned to the trophies.
"That was the lamest excuse I've ever heard in my life," Lily stated.
"How about the beards fell through a whole in the ceiling," James said.
"Okay, I take that back," Lily said. (A/N-Hee hee, I got that last bit from a cartoon show my sister was watching yesterday. I thought it was funny so I had to put it in here.)
**************
A/N-That was a very nice Lily-and-the-Marauders-becoming-friends chapter. I have to go do my English essay now…Click that little thing that says review the story okay? And then leave a review!
