"Lillers! Hogsmeade visit in just seven hours!" Clara bounced on Lily's bed. She groaned, her mouth still had that morning icky taste; and when she opened her eyes, the bright sunlight nearly blinded her.

Glancing at the magical clock on their vanity table, Lily moaned pitifully and dove under the safety chambers of her covers again, ready to sleep for another half hour or so. "Clara, the others aren't awake yet, and it's only half past five in the morning! How'd you get in here? What's the sun doing up so early?"

Her blonde friend grinned, "Oh, your "sunlight" was just my very bright "Lumos" spell! I suppose we could go back to sleep for a little while and-"

But Lily was out of sight already, she had seized her chance and had taken refuge in her comfy bed.

Clara returned to her room and went to sleep. ~*~

1 hour later.

Dana Summers looked around her dorm. Two beds had their curtains drawn (Alice and Hazel) while the other one (Clara's) had hers slightly open. 'Hmm.what would be a good day to wake them up? Better ask Sirius.' She made her way to the boy's dorm.

Back at the boy's dorm at the same time.

Sirius Black yawned and stretched his arms out. His three friends' beds were filled with snores, Peter's being the loudest. Their last dorm mate, Frank Longbottom, was eating breakfast early, as usual. He wanted to wake them up with a bang; Sirius was so excited for all the fun they'd have later on in Hogsmeade. 'I'll consult Dana if she has some good ideas.' He picked thorugh the dirty clothes littering their floor.

At the common room, Christian and Satine meet.(hehe!)

"Ow, Dana!"

"Shut up, Siri, you'll wake up the whole Gryffindor Tower!"

The two mischief-makers bumped into each other. They eyed each other suspiciously and Dana asked Sirius, "Say, what're you doing up so early this morning?"

He shot back, "I could ask you the same question."

"I'll tell you if you tell me. I was going to the boy's room-"

Sirius had a glint in his eye. "What for?"

She sighed exasperatedly, "Sirius, you have such a sick imagination. I do nothing of the sort, I was going there to ask you something."

Sirius decided to keep on playing, just to get under Dana's skin. "Couldn't wait until tonight, could you, lovey?"

She slapped him, HARD. Of all the things Dana Summers hated, it was a person who was perverted and green-minded. "Shut up already. I want to know if you have any good ideas to wake up the whole Tower."

Sirius rubbed his cheek, a pout playing on his nicely-toned face. "You needn't've done that. Never mind, I wanted to do the same thing. Why don't we-"

He told her the plan. She nodded gleefully.

"And so we-"

"Then we-"

"And finally they-"

"PERFECT!" They finished together, laughing at the future looks-to-be on their friends' faces.

~*~

A large bell rang out through the Tower loudly, for about three minutes. Lily woke up with the sunlight (real sunlight this time) streaming through her room's window. She sniffed the air and anticipated the sweet smell of honey that the house-elves sprayed the rooms with and instead, smelled.ants?

As a child, Lily was an outdoors person. She would go camping with her father, even after Petunia refused to go out and get her "perfectly manicured nails" dirty. She always played with frogs, butterflies, beetles, and all other insects, and spent her days around anthills, thus becoming prone to their distinctive smells.

She looked around and gasped. Her fellow fifth years' beds hangings were open and she could see them clearly. They were covered in whipped cream and there were large sacks on top and Lily felt smug; she was going to warn her friends.

"Mantra, Jamian, Cassie, Paige! Wake up!" She called from her bed, not daring to move.

Her friends were roused awake and Lily warned them to stop. "The Marauders have been visiting. Don't move."

It was too late. Jamian (who hadn't noticed the whipped cream) had stood up to brush her hair (which she cared a lot about), and having no idea of what as going on, she slipped on some goo on the floor. Her screams woke up the other three who Lily desperately tried to signal to stop. They rushed over to Jamian and slipped as well. While flailing her arms around wildly, Cassie managed to drag Lily down somehow.

The inevitable happened, pandemonium rose in all the dorms (apparently, Dana and Sirius decided to wake them up, too, the unfortunate souls) and Paige tripped over some string (that triggered the big tub of honey magically levitating bout nine feet in the air) while trying to stand up. In less than a second, the five girls were covered in honey.

Someone muttered a few well-chosen words and they were covered in feathers. Suddenly, the whole mess cleared up and their room was back to normal, but they still looked like chickens.

The five girls looked at each other angrily, and stomped out of their dorm, down the stairs, down the short hall and into the Common Room, where some students looked like them, too, attention centered on the hysterical Sirius and Dana.

"Ahem!" A seventh year's hands were on her hips and she looked mad, not that the others didn't.

Alice was wailing. "Oh, this is gonna be so hard to get out. You'll pay Sirius Black, you too, Dana Summers! Seriously, Hazel, I can't imagine why you'd like him!"

Hazel looked mortified but covered it up. "As of now, I don't!"

Paige was trying to clear her face; Jamian, her hair; Cassie and Mantra, as much of their body as they could. Chaos broke out and suddenly the Marauders came out, looking perfectly normal.

"What's the noise abou- What the hell?"

Sirius couldn't stop laughing and Dana managed to sputter out, "Gotcha!" while weakly clutching her stomach and pointing at everyone who was covered.

Lily marched forward, grabbed Dana's pajamas' collar, dragged her to a side, with everyone watching them, and whispered in her ear.

Dana motioned to Sirius and with a disapproving looks thrown upon them, they undid the spell. Now, only the sweet smell of honey remained.

People, satisfied, went back to their dorm rooms to change for Hogsmeade. James, Remus and Peter still looked confused.

"What the heck did you do, Padfoot, Dana?"

Sirius and Dana glanced at each other again and burst out laughing.

The others who'd remained rolled their eyes.

~*~

Lily carefully counted her money in her money sack, being cautious not to spill any Galleons, Sickles or Knuts. Her parents weren't rich enough to but a broom but they were pretty well off. They'd given her some cash to but a new set of dress robes and about 25 Galleons for jewelry.

"So, where d'you lot want to go first?" James asked. They were already in Hogsmeade, it had been repaired, and all traces of Voldemort and his gang of Death Eaters were gone. True, the villagers were a little more subdued and less merrier than usual, but a Hogsmeade visit was a Hogsmeade visit, and the students had to buy dress robes for the Yule Ball.

The girls gave each other knowing looks and giggled. "Well, I don't know about you four, but Lily, Dana and I are going to Gladrag's, the after some Butterbeer and finally, a make-over in the newly opened shop over there, Stephanie Stanley's Salon for Students."

The guys looked disgusted. "What the heck are you girls doing, ruining a perfectly fine afternoon in Hogsmeade at a salon?" Sirius grumbled.

The girls ignored them and left the boys quickly, talking about who was going with who in the Yule Ball. After a bit of walking, they arrived at Gladrag's, where a witch clad in the latest styles hurried to them. Lily saw some of her classmates from Hogwarts and waved.

"Good afternoon, girls! I bet you're here to shop for dress robes, aren't you? I'm Natasha Stanley and I'll be helping you today. What are your names?" The pretty, young woman shook each of their hands in turn as each of the three girls introduced themselves. Lily decided she liked Natasha, albeit the perky appearance.

Tasha, as she insisted they called her, studied Lily, Clara and Dana. After a while she turned to Dana first.

"Clara, Lily, you don't mind if I go to Dana first, do you?" After a quick shake of their heads, she dragged Dana by her upper arm to a stack of bright pink robes. Dana looked horrified and begged silently to her friends, who were shaking with suppressed laughter.

"Oh no, dear, you must think these are for you! Well, I'm not that bad in picking out robes for you. This is the reject row, I was just looking for my measuring tape and my wand," Tasha laughed.

The older girl pushed Dana into a private room and after a while, both had triumphant and pleased looks on their faces.

"Well?" Clara asked impatiently.

"Well what?" Dana countered.

Lily asked, "Where's your dress robes?"

Tasha said, "Dana thought it'd be a nice surprise if you girls would just show each other your dress robes on the day of the Ball."

Lily wanted to see them now but agreed; she wanted a surprise a little. Clara's turn came and went and soon, it was Lily's turn. She had to admit, Tasha was a very good designer; she had a great fashion sense. She couldn't wait for the Yule Ball.

'I'm gonna knock James' socks off.Wait a minute,' her thoughts as she twirled around in all elegance of her dress robes came to halt. 'Why should I care about knocking James' socks off? I'm over him already, I'm over him already.'

They (Lily, Clara, Dana and Tasha) looked for some shoes and jewelry to go with their dresses. IN the end, Dana ended up with ecru open heels, and bought a gold bracelet with a heart for a charm and a simple necklace to match with it, Clara's shoes were heels with complicated strings that looked elegant around her thin ankles, and her jewelry was similar to Dana's except the charm was a bird (she loved them).

Lily loved her choices. Her shoes were green and the straps were even more complicated, which brought out her ankles, too. They were very high-cut, the heels, and therefore, Tasha pronounced them to be "stilettos". Her necklace was a gold lace, with a small but large enough to be seen emerald stone set in the center. Her bracelet, however, were designed with lilies entwining each other.

"Very chic," Clara commented, eyeing their new pairs of shoes eagerly.

Dana nodded, and asked, "Lils, so who're you going with?"

Lily shrugged this off, "I don't know. I'll think I'll go alone. I could even dance with Severus.."

The two cousins looked abashed. "Lily. Snape? Lily, this is Snape we're talking about. The Severus Snape you've hated for years. The Severus Snape who makes your life miserable. The Severus Snape who you turned down!" shrieked Dana.

Lily shook her head. "Sorry, Dana, none of these accusations are correct. First, I haven't hated him I like him, he's my friend, I was just afraid you'd shun me since you lot really hate him. Second, he only makes your lives miserable; he always spares me from the humiliation. And third, I did turn him down, but I said I'd dance with him."

Clara said, "Don't try changing her mind, Dana. She's a redhead and you know how they are."

Lily pretended to look hurt. "You say that like it's a bad thing."

Dana grinned. "It is."

Just before Lily could say something else to defend redheads, Tasha came bustling along with their own separate bags, and they looked quite small.

Lily eyed her bag doubtingly and said, "Er, Tasha?"

"Yes, Lily? Anything wrong?" the salesgirl asked.

Lily held out her bag. "Aren't our dress robes going to get crumpled with our shoes? These bags are kind of small."

To her surprise and slight annoyance, Tasha laughed. "Oh no, Lily. Girls, these are magically enlarged bags. Inside, your dress robes are in a box, your shoes in another and your jewelry with our complimentary velvet jewelry sack. You can take a look!"

Indeed, their bags were large enough to put a standing lamp in and still have room for another, but on the outside, it was the normal shopping bag. Thanking Tasha for her help and paying the clerk, the trio left and headed for the Three Broomsticks.

~*~

After an eventful drink in the Three Broomsticks, in which the Marauders were wreaking havoc as usual, this time setting off some large Dungbombs in some of the students' Butterbeers, causing their drinks to explode in their faces and leaving a very disgusting stench, the three girls (who, thank the heavens, were spared from the four boys' trick) went to Stephanie Stanley's Salon for Students.

Just like at Gladrag's, a girl who looked suspiciously like Tasha bustled over to them. She even wore almost the same clothes as Tasha.

"Good afternoon, girls! I bet you're here to get ready for next week's ball, aren't you? I'm Stephanie Stanley and I'll be helping you today. What are your names?" And like Tasha, Stephanie shook each of their hands in turn as they introduced themselves again.

Lily asked, "Excuse me, Stephanie-"

"Um, please call me Steph," she cut in.

Lily continued, "All right, then, Steph, are you related to Natasha Stanley at Gladrag's down the street?"

She gave a tinkling laugh and said, "Yes, in fact, she's my twin sister. Have you met her?"

"Yes, we've. So, what are your courses?" Clara asked.

Steph handed them her menu.

Stephanie Stanley's Salon for Students 1. Nail Treatment:
Includes: Manicure, Pedicure and a Free Nail Polish Set of your own
choice Price: 1 Galleon 2. Hair Treatment
Includes: Massaging, Moisturizing and a Free Hair Care Set Price: 2 Galleons 3. Face Treatment
Includes: Moisturizing Cream, Cold Cream, Toner, Hydrating Mask and Free
Face
Care Set Price: 2 Galleons Hair Cuts: Layering: 1 Galleon Straight: 10 Sickles

Lily mulled this over with her friends. "Should we get everything?"

Clara said, "Well, I'm getting the whole lot except I like my hair the way it is now. So, no cut for me."

Dana agreed, "Me, too."

Lily looked at the nearby mirror, and saw that her hair was wavy and quite uncontrolled. "I'll get my hair cut, layered. So, I'll take all the treatments and a hair cut, and you two'll just take the treatments. Are we ok?"

They told Steph what they were going to take and were whisked off into a room with seven separate tables. A girl named Ira Buendia took care of Lily, Steph went to Clara and surprisingly, Tasha arrived and helped Dana. The six girls had a fun time gossiping and talking about boys, what's hot and new in the wizarding world and everything an anything under the sun.

Soon, it was time for Lily's hair cut. Her auburn hair tumbled until her lower back and it was quite messy.

Steph asked her, a pair of scissors in hand, "So, Lily, how short do you want me to cut it?"

Lily said, "The shoulder."

They rinsed her hair first, and soon, Steph was cutting away, telling Lily the story of her second cousin's girlfriend's brother's godmother's friend's sister who studied at Beauxbatons and right now, had seven boyfriends, and they all planned to take her to Beauxbaton's Winter Solstice Ball.

Lily's hair was done and soon, after drying she turned to look at herself. All the girls crowded around them, oohing and aahing. It was a great piece of handiwork, as Steph put it, with the wavy curls still visible but only to make it appear soft, the sides were curvy and the bottom part flew out nicely.

"Wow, Lils! You look great!"

Lily touched her newly-cut hair self-consciously. "Really, now?"

Clara exclaimed, "It's so pretty! The next time there's a Hogsmeade weekend, I'm coming back here to get my hair cut!"

They paid Stephanie, and with many goodbyes to their new friends, Clara, Dana, and Lily looked for the Marauders. They spotted the four boys near the village circle at the fountain and made their way over. When the boys saw Lily, they stood speechless and Peter fell in the water. (a/n: haha!)

"Wow! Better make sure Snape doesn't get you at the dance!"

"Lily, you look nice!"

"Your hair- it's- Lily Flower, whoa!"

"Eek!"

They laughed at Peter who was sopping wet, his blonde hair sticking to his forehead and his clothes dripping with water.

Professor McGonagall announced, "Students, time to go back to Hogwarts, com with me please to the carriages."

Lily and her friends shared a carriage and talked about their day (apparently, the Marauders hit not only the Three Broomsticks but Zonko's and the post office, too).

As Lily sank into her bed, exhausted, she sat up, as if she had sat on some fir-hot coal and realized there were Ice Mice everywhere on her bed.

Her dorm mates, too, were up, confused, with their night gowns wet at the back. They looked at each other angrily (de ja vu) and stomped down to the Common Room, were there sat, laughing-

"Dana! Sirius!"