Life Back to Normal . . . AS IF!

The Marauders and Lily and Teri had detention for the nest ten nights with the cranky potions professor, disposing of hazardous expired potions, and creating new ones to replace them.

But like everything in the world there was an upside, though the work was hard, the professor didn't seem to care whether or not they talked, only that the work got done.

On their last night of detention the six of them walked down to the dungeons to find the professor sitting at her desk grading papers.

When they walked through the door, she said to hem, "Get to work, there are only a few potions left; I have talked to Dumbledore, and when you finish the last few you may go."

Just as she had said, there were only five potions left, it would only take them about forty minutes.

Lily and James got started on brewing the Argali Potion, used to subdue large, raging animals.

Teri and Sirius began taking down the names of ingredients needed for the other potions and disposing of them as they went along.

And Remus and Peter began to brew new potions; or rather Remus brewed; and Peter, determined not to get anyone sent to the Hospital Wing, carried ingredients and made labels for the new potions.

When the night was over, everyone was relieved; well, except for Sirius who was already planning on how to get another detention; that detention was over.

"You guys hungry?" asked Sirius already heading down to the kitchens.

"Sure, why not," said Remus turning to follow him.

They all went down to the kitchens and had a mini feast of swiss rolls (A/N: if you've never had one, do), butterbeer, éclairs, and various chocolates.

~***********~

Lily and James sat in the Prefects' meeting room waiting for the stragglers to come in for the first prefects meeting of the year.

When the last prefect got to the meeting Lily began, "Now that we're all here, it's time to start planning the first event of the year. We need ideas for the Halloween Event."

One of the new fifth year prefects slowly raised her had, "I have an idea," she said quietly.

"Yes?" responded James.

"We could have a Trick or Treat during the day, where everyone dresses up, and the teachers will be in their classrooms, and when a person comes to them they'll give them a number of tickets based on their costume, and at the end of the day we could have a carnival where you could use the tickets to play games, and stuff."

Lily and James smiled at each other, "It's brilliant," said Lily. "Now, we have to decide who's doing what."

They got down to serious planning after deciding who was in charge of what.

The Ravenclaws were in charge of the decorations in the east corridors, Slytherins of the west corridors, Hufflepuffs of the south, and Gryffindors of the north; each prefect would also be responsible for their common room. They would all pitch in to help with the Great Hall, and the Entrance Hall. Dumbledore had agreed that the teachers would be responsible for their classrooms.

Several hours later, they were finished with their plans and would begin preparations at the next meeting.

~***********~

"Tell me you have good news," said the harsh voice of Voldemort.

"Yes master," said another voice.

"Well what is it," said Voldemort, grabbing the small figure by the neck, causing the figure to gag.

"She'll be at the carnival, on Halloween."

"Good," said Voldemort dropping the small person. "Just excellent, that girl really is a fool," he said to no one in particular.

~***********~

The gang walked to Charms together, Lily had decided to forgo the use of her wand during class for the practice, and would only use it when necessary.

They all sat down in the front and pulled out their quills, they had a test and it would begin as soon as the professor got to class.

The professor walked through the door of his office and the test appeared on their desks.

Twenty minutes later, they all lined up in the middle aisle and cast the charms they had learned that month.

Unsurprisingly, all but Peter and one of the Hufflepuffs they had charms with completed the charms with relative ease, and everyone managed to get a passing grade.

Then, the two houses went their separate ways, the Hufflepuffs to their free period, and the Gryffindors to Transfiguration with the Ravenclaws.

Transfiguration was a blast; they were working on morphing a person into an inanimate object, Peter, as usual, managed to biff it up and turned this one Ravenclaw into a raging hippogriff.

Scared the Ravenclaws half to death, and made most of the girls faint, it took four of the boys, and Professor McGonagall to turn the poor girl back and wake up the rest of the class.

Then, the girl attacked Peter when she was back to normal, and made his nose bleed when he fell into the table, and by the time they got her to stop Peter was about two pints of blood lighter.

The whole thing was funny to everyone, except for Peter, but it all turned out okay.

Peter of course earned about three hours more tutoring from his professors, just to top his nearly six hours of tutoring.

It was kind of sad; Peter now had enough time to go to the bathroom, and sleep, when he wasn't studying. The sad thing was the *everyone* felt sorry for him, even the Slytherins who never felt sorry for anybody.

~**********~

Lily started down the corridor, it was time for History of Magic; easily the most boring class in the history of classes. (pardon the pun)

Lily sat down next to James and curled up by his side, quickly falling asleep.

One of the second years walked in about half way through the lesson that no one was listening to and handed James the only half awake person in the room a note from Dumbledore.

"Please inform everyone that all students are to be sent to their common rooms. When everyone is in their common room please have yourself, Ms. Evans, and the rest of the prefects meet in the prefects meeting room.

Professor Dumbledore"

James stood up, woke up Lily, showed her the note, and went to speak with Professor Binns. . .