Chapter 4

. . . And Punishment

As Lily walked into the Great Hall for supper she spent a little bit of time reflecting on the day she'd had. After she and the Marauders had received detentions she had ignored her friends and went straight to the Ravenclaw Common Room to get her books. Then she ran all the way to potions and got there extra early. However, despite her efforts, her friends had gotten there before her.

"Lily," they told her in no nonsense tones, "we want you to stop hanging out with those Gryffindor trouble makers. We can't have you hanging out with both us and them, it would ruin our reputation." Lily had simply stared at them and then went to sit down. The rest of the day passed uneventfully and Lily ignored both her so-called Ravenclaw friends and the Marauders. Now, however, she couldn't ignore them anymore. Taking a deep breath, she bravely opened the door and entered the Great Hall.

Ignoring everyone's looks, she walked quickly to the Ravenclaw table. She did, however, notice that Sirius waved at her. Not wanting to risk waving back, she smiled at him and winked. Sitting down at the table, she became aware of her friends watching her closely. They had obviously seen Sirius' wave and she hoped that they hadn't seen her wink in return.

"The rest of my Hogwarts career would be miserable if they kick me out of their group," she thought, "if only I was brave enough to-" she shook her head, quickly erasing that thought. She wasn't brave enough. Had she had bravery, she would have been in Gryffindor instead of Ravenclaw.

"What was it the Sorting Hat had said?" she wondered, "Oh, right. 'Although you lack bravery my dear, you may be surprised at what one can acquire throughout life.' " At the time she'd had no idea what the Sorting Hat had meant. Lily, having gone through life being beaten by her sister and, on occasion, her father, had never been brave. Instead, she clung to others in hopes of protection. Perhaps the Sorting Hat had meant that she must be brave and stay friends with the Marauders? Or had it meant that she would gain bravery at a later time in life?

"I wish I knew what to do," she thought furiously. Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted as the owls came in to deliver mail. Lily rarely got anything but today a small barn owl flew over and dropped a letter on her plate. Picking it up she wondered who it was from. She had, rather brilliantly she thought, decided not to mention her first ever detention, which meant that the letter couldn't be from her parents. Curiously she opened it up and found that it was merely a notice that her detention would be held in the library right after dinner.

Deciding that she couldn't stand another minute of the stares, Lily got up and quickly walked out of the Great Hall. Once there she headed into a nearby corridor and sank down to her knees. Once there, she pulled out a book and a quill. Opening the book she started to write.

"Dear Diary,

You wouldn't believe what happened to me today. I got my first ever detention and-"

"Do you always write in your diary in deserted corridors?" an amused voice interrupted. Looking up sharply she saw that the Marauders had followed her. Relaxing slightly she asked, "How did you know I was writing in my diary?" James smiled at her and pointed to the cover of the book. Blushing slightly, Lily remembered that the words "Lily's Diary" were printed on the cover.

"Come on," Remus said gently helping her up, "It's time for our detention." Nodding, she smiled gratefully at Remus and mutely followed the Marauders to the library.

Upon entering the library, Madame Pince, the librarian, frowned at them and pointed to a table at the back of the room. The table had several piles of books and a note telling them to shelf the books. They got started and Lily was surprised at how quiet the Marauders were. Then she realized that Peter, while handing them books, was watching the librarian very closely. She also saw that Remus, Sirius, and James were all winking at each other.

"Looks like detention isn't going to be all that boring after all," she thought with a grin.

Madame Pince soon decided that they weren't out to get her precious books and burn down, or possibly even blow up, her library. Muttering something being forced to baby-sit, she gave them strict instructions to finish up and be gone by curfew before leaving to, as Sirius whispered, "get absorbed in her romance novel."  As soon as she was gone the boys pulled out their wands, thoroughly confusing Lily.

"I thought detentions were supposed to be done without magic!" she exclaimed, and then looked guiltily at the door like she expected Madame Pince to come raging in at any minute.

"Relax," Sirius grinned, "She'll be out for at least two hours absorbed in how Lorenzo is wooing Sylvia."

"Besides," James added, "it wouldn't be a Marauder's detention if we didn't leave a token of our, err, appreciation behind."

"Wait a minute, rewind!  You're going to a prank in the detention you got for playing a prank?!" Lily asked, now more confused then ever.

"Yup, that's our plan," James said, "We always do it."

"And you have to remember that it's a Marauder's ambition to pull the best pranks ever and get more detentions then anyone in the history of Hogwarts," Sirius said putting an arm around James and Lily, "Right Remus?"  Remus just nodded absently absorbed in levitating all the books to their proper places on the shelves.

"Well," she thought, "at least the detention work is getting done."  Resigned, she shrugged off Sirius' arm, put her hands on her hips, and asked "Alright then, what did you have in mind?"  Sirius and James grinned at each other while Remus finished levitating the last book and Peter, who Lily hadn't even seen leave, came back with a bag full of something.

"We had a little redecorating in mind . . ."

************************************* 1 HOUR LATER ******************************************************

Lily had to admit that the library looked incredibly different.  They had charmed the rug to be bright orange and black checkerboard pattern while the bookcases alternated between neon green and electric blue.  The chairs had a "Multi-Colour Spell" on them, which basically meant that they changed colour every five minutes.  They would be bright pink one moment and, after five minutes had gone by, be sporting purple polka dots on top of the pink.  On top of these colour changes, the boys added dung bombs from the bag Peter had brought.

"Aren't dung bombs a little, well, overused?" Lily asked hesitatingly.

"Probably, but they are our typical calling card," James answered.

"What's really cool about these particular dung bombs," Sirius added," is that they have a timer spell on them.  We can set the timer to any time we want."

"In this case," James interrupted, "it will be just after breakfast."

"Since everyone's coming out of the Great Hall they have to pass by the library1 and smell the dung bombs," Remus added.  Sirius swung an arm around Remus and James, who swung an around Peter, as they all grinned at her.

Lily shook her head, "I don't know whether you are insane or just very smart."

"Ah," Sirius said knowingly, "there's a fine line between genius and insanity Tiger Lily," he joked as Lily tried to stop the amused smile that was threatening to break through.  Try as she might, she couldn't get angry with them: Exasperated, yes; angry, no.  Although she couldn't help the feeling of excitement she felt at being included in yet another prank played by the infamous Marauders.

"I just hope it doesn't all blow up in my face tomorrow," she thought as she said goodnight to the boys and headed towards the Ravenclaw Common Room.  Luckily, none Lily's friends had waited for her, although she had mixed feelings about that.  While she was relieved that she wouldn't have to explain her detention that very night, part of her insisted that, as her friends, they should have waited up for her.  However, as she was sure she would get grilled the next morning, she decided to just be relieved and gratefully fell on her bed falling asleep almost instantly.

A/N: 1,422 words not including author note.  My longest chapter ever in the history of my writing I think.  I'm kind of proud of this chapter since it's my first one in a long time for this story and I wasn't sure I still knew how to write Lily.  I think she came off ok though, as did Sirius (who I was a little nervous about).  I hope everyone enjoyed it and hopefully I can keep up the writing.  Thanks for reading and please remember to review.  It would make my summer stuck at home so much better.