AN: Sorry for the late update. I had so much to do the past week. :D

Disclaimer: You know the drill

Chapter 14: On the Line

"Ssh!" James hissed. "We don't want my parents to wake up now, do we?" The door to his room clicked shut behind him.

It was a few minutes before midnight. The three Marauders and Lily were preparing to Apparate to Lily's house. They'd spent the afternoon planning their fun for the night, and they were quite ready.

"Oof!" Sirius muttered as Remus tripped over a step and stumbled into him. "Watch it!"

"Sorry," was the reply.

They managed to get all the way downstairs. Then Mr. Potter appeared. He was yawning.

"James? What are you doing down here?"

"We're just looking for some food," James said brightly.

"You can get quite hungry reading," Sirius added very seriously.

Mr. Potter blinked. Sirius read?

"You have so many fascinating books," Lily commented.

"Oh." Mr. Potter smiled. "Go on then. Good night."

"Good night!" the four teenagers chorused.

When Mr. Potter's footsteps had faded, they breathed.

"That was close," Remus muttered.

"Can we go get some biscuits?" Sirius asked cheerfully.

"Here we are," Lily whispered.

"Show time!" Sirius crowed. He pulled out his wand in anticipation.

Remus was having second thoughts. "What if the Ministry catches us?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," James replied. "Besides, how do they expel the Head Boy, the Head Girl, and two of the most brilliant students in Hogwarts?"

"Nice point."

"She's asleep," Lily informed the boys. "Get your wands up and ready."

The boys readied their wands as Lily instructed.

"3, 2, 1."

James conjured a howling wind. The gust beat against a closed downstairs window.

"Great aim," Remus commented dryly.

"Oh, be quiet and let me concentrate." James tried again. This time, the wind slipped through Petunia's window.

A loud snort.

"OK, that is absolutely disgusting. Are you sure she's a human?" Sirius asked.

"At times, I'm not very sure," Lily replied. "Your turn."

As James sent out more winds to rouse Petunia, Sirius let a silvery mist seep from the end of his wand.

"She's awake," Lily hissed. She had climbed up a tree for her role in the joke. "But not quite scared...yet."

Sirius's mist flowed into the room and materialized into the form of...

"The Bloody Baron!" Remus exclaimed softly from his spot up in the tree with Lily, facing the closet for his trick. "Nice touch, Padfoot."

Sirius grinned. "You haven't seen anything yet."

They heard a choked sound coming from the room.

Remus aimed his wand at the closet. It began to glow with a sickly green light.

"Lily?" they heard Petunia squeak. "This isn't funny, freak!"

"Oh, really? I find it rather enjoyable," Lily sneered.

Sirius had let out another mist. This time, it became Nearly Headless Nick. The figure let out a cackle.

"Sir Nick cackles?" James said in surprise.

The Bloody Baron let out a very zombie-like groan.

Remus allowed the glowing closet door to slowly creak open.

"Oh, that was rich!" Lily laughed the moment they shut the door to James's room. "Petunia will never sleep again after that!"

"That was an excellent charm you used, Padfoot," James commented. "How'd you capture the Bloody Baron's and Sir Nick's images like that?"

Sirius grinned. "Secret."

"This guy could write a book with the amount of spells he's invented," Remus quipped. "'The Book of Spells for Future Marauders' or something of the sort. Then maybe we'd find out how he's doing all this."

"My lips are sealed, Moony—unless I find me a good publisher."

"No no no, Moony, that's not the way to go about it," James interjected. "Just find hima girl. He'll spill like an open faucet."

Sirius snorted. "Yeah, right."

"Try him, Lily," James joked.

Lily threw a pillow at him.

The four teenagers ambled downstairs, yawning widely.

"Good morning," Mrs. Potter called. "Come and have breakfast."

Sirius moved a little faster at the prospect of food, but it wasn't that fast.

"How were the books?" Mr. Potter asked as he stood to pour them so tea.

The four stared blankly back at him. "What books?"

"The books you were reading last night."

Remus was the first to comprehend. "Oh! They—they were quite good."

Lily decided to just nod. James and Sirius followed suit.

"Which books did you read?" Mrs. Potter asked conversationally.

"Oh, um, one of those medical journals," James stuttered.

Mr. Potter blinked "Didn't you find that boring?"

James swallowed. "Um, no. I—developed a new appreciation for it."

"That's wonderful, then. We must have a nice discussion about that one later."

James turned green as his friends snickered into their plates.

AN: This chappie is longer—hope you like it! And just a heads up: It might a take a longer time for me to update. I still have college entrance exams and periodic tests to worry about. I will try to update as soon as I can, though.

Thanks to lil'doxy, Titou Moony :-p, kitty, Laughing Fountain, Alcapacien, Lupinlover99, Carmel March, mickey8701, and Miss Lady Padfoot for reviewing! I really appreciate all your comments a lot. Wanted to thanks each of you one by one, but too tired... :D Pls. continue to r and r! :) Thanks again!