Chapter 8- The Invitation

"So you guys all got that?" Arthur asked. He had snuck off one more time to help these guys in the situation they had gotten themselves into.

"Yeah," Sirius said. He still couldn't believe their luck of having the opportunity to work with Arthur Weasley. Peter was going to be kicking himself after he heard about this.

"Good," Arthur said.

"Arthur?" Remus said.

"Yes Moony?" the Marauders had taken to giving Arthur their code names, something reserved for those closest to them.

"Did anyone ever prank you?" Remus asked. He had had this question on his mind the whole afternoon while Arthur had been helping them clean, but was too afraid that it might offend him to ask.

"Nope," Arthur said, shaking his head and grinning. "And do you know why?"

"Why?" Sirius asked, already enthralled with whatever would come out of this man's mouth.

"Before I ever did pranks, I mastered the art of not falling for them," he said. "Pay attention to everything that's going on and see if it matches what you'd expect. Don't get ahead of yourselves, and don't expect it will be easy."

Michael liked being able to watch this little pow wow, though he thought he could have given the same advice, Michael knew the importance of it coming out of Arthur's mouth. "Good advice, there," he added in. "I've got to get some fire wood before it gets too late. I'll be back in time to hammer out the details boys."

"All right dad," James responded. Michael left and Arthur was about to leave when he turned around like he remembered something.

"Oh boys! You want to get the Goofster back?"

"Hell yeah!" Sirius spoke for all of them.

"First you have to swear you won't tell my wife where you got this idea. Molly tends to think my ideas can have bad influence," Arthur said.

"We promise," the three boys said in unison.

"All right, come here," he motioned for them to get into a huddle. "This is what you do…"

July20, 1979

Dear Diary,

It's been nearly a week since the cabin trashing incident, and so far it seems that they aren't planning anything else. Maybe they've given up. I'm going to ask Kyla if we should give their shoes back. I think they've suffered enough with it all. I have to admit this pranking stuff is more fun than I thought it would be. I don't know why I've never tried it before. I just got two owls this morning. One was a letter from Hogwarts. They've appointed me Head Girl That's right… I never got into the pranking because I was always following the rules for this, though that logic doesn't make sense since they made James Head Boy. Everyone was shocked about that.

The second was from my family. They said they're having fun on the cruise and that they wish I was there with them. I don't. I'd be giving the fish something to compare vomit flavored Bertie Botts to. I wonder if fish throw up… I'll have to look that up some time. Would you believe I'm actually starting to like James Potter? And not just as friends, I think I might actually want to go on a date with him some time. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to swoon like the other pathetic girls, but there's more to him than I knew. We went on another walk (don't worry, I made sure everything was clear) and he was really sweet.

Kyla and I are going horse back riding tomorrow. None of the boys wanted to go and Kyla always wanted to try it. I haven't been on a horse in ages, so I hope this goes well.

"Hey Lily," James said, looking in the window. Lily was just finishing up in her diary, and putting it away when he said this from the window.

"What?"

"Did my mum tell you about her and dad going on a moonlit boat ride?"

"No," Lily said. "He's not going to do something is he?"

"No, they have some sort of a pact that neither of them will do anything when it's supposed to be romantic or whatever," James said.

"Oh, alright, I guess I'll catch up on some reading," Lily said, shrugging.

"Actually, I was wondering if you wanted to play poker with us tonight?"

"I don't really know how to play," she said.

"Don't worry, we'll teach you," James said.

"Okay, I guess, as long as we aren't exchanging money."

"We won't, I promise," James smiled at Lily, for more reasons than she knew about.

"All right, count me in," Lily said decisively.

"Good, I'll go tell the others," he said.

Kyla came back in the room half an hour later, having just finished getting more wood. They had been switching off for this chore. "Hey, Lily, how did things go here? No trouble with the boys right?"

"I'm not quite sure," Lily confessed, closing the copy of Witch Weekly that Kyla had gotten with the owls that morning. "They want me to play poker with them while you and your husband are out tonight."

"They betting? I've told James he isn't to bet money," Kyla said.

"No, he promised me it wouldn't be money," Lily said.

"Do you know how to play?"

"A bit; Dad showed me once," Lily said. "I didn't tell him that though."

"Good," Kyla said. "I think I have an idea. They probably have something they want out of you, so let's turn it back on them."

"How?"

Kyla rummaged through her things. "Are you okay with things being put in your eye?"

"Uh, I guess so," Lily said, wondering what on earth Kyla was up to.

Kyla extracted her wand, a deck of cards and two little lenses. She tapped on the deck and muttered something Lily couldn't make out. "Put these into your eyes," Kyla said. "Carefully, though."

Lily looked in her small hand mirror and put the lenses in. She blinked a couple of times before her eyes adjusted. "Okay," she said, "I think I have it."

"Good, now look at the deck," Kyla told her.

Lily looked over to the deck, and instead of seeing the red backing, she saw the ace of diamonds and the 8 of spades, and a few other she could make out. Kyla fanned them out, and she could now see all the cards rather clearly. "Do you get it?" Kyla asked.

"Yes, perfectly," Lily said, smiling.

A/N: Okay, I'm ending it there, and you'll see the poker game tomorrow, if I have time to write it. I love Arthur… he deserves kids like Fred and George though. I hope you all caught the drift with what he said about why he's never been caught: it's because he doesn't think he's invincible with it. He stays level headed and such. Anyway, that's just a side note because a lot of people think that it would be impossible for anyone to get the Marauders, which is hopeful thinking since the Marauders are just human. Please Review and enjoy!

Thank you: (sorry I don't have time to respond to you all right now, but I love you just the same!)

Dafalcon
space-pirate10
mell minamoto
Kaci
JamieBell

One more general comment: A lot of you said the last one was particularly cruel… it's something that someone I actually know did once at camp. Yes I think it's cruel and I probably wouldn't have the guts to do it, but you have to admit it's really funny! Don't worry, the guys will get their revenge. (Then the girls will get theirs and then the boys will get theirs, then the girls….)