Disclaimer: Most of it's not mine, and if it's yours I apologise for stealing it... unless you're J K Rowling, the theft was completely unintentional. If you are her... um, I'm sorry?

Chapter Thirteen

"Did you have anything specific in mind?" Lily asked, after thinking to herself for a while.

"Yes, actually, but how much you'll like it I don't know. I was thinking more of a show than a prank… but it will scare the Slytherins witless, of course."

"Tell me?" Lily asked, grinning in anticipation.

"What if, oh, say, a dragon were to appear at the very end of dinner on your birthday? And it breathed fire on our beloved Slytherins?"

"Oh, I wish!" Lily said, a wild gleam in her eyes. Then she shook her head regretfully, "But no, it's way too dangerous. Besides which, where could we get the dragon from?"

"We could make it!"

"Make a dragon?! James, you're crazy! Nobody can just make a dragon!"

"Not a real one! But we could make a damn good replica… look, find a picture of a dragon, yeah? Easy enough, right? Making a model of it from the photo will be hard, but manageable. If worst comes to worst, I'll invent a spell for it… but I'm sure there's one somewhere. Then you come in. You can use some sort of charm to make it breathe flames, but those cool ones, not the hot ones. Enchant it to swish its tail around and flap its wings. Then all we have to do is levititate it in the hall, and wait for the right moment. When that comes, we'll enlarge it, and set it loose on the hall! We can direct it with wands first, to come flying right over the Slytherin table and scare them witless, make it blow flame onto Snape, and then it can soar around the ceiling for a while."

"I guess…" Lily said doubtfully. "I mean, it'll be cool if we can pull it off, sure, but…"

"We can do it! It will work! Besides, didn't you want to go out with a bang?"

"Yeah, I guess. Hey!" Lily's eyes suddenly took on a dangerous gleam. "Once it's soared around the ceiling for a while, and the food is cleared off the tables, we can make it land on the teachers' table!"

"Right in front of Dumbledore!"

"Yeah!"

James and Lily grinned at each other, each anticipating and imagining the havoc a dragon in the dining hall would wreak amongst the students. Then Lily said, "So when to start work on it?"

"We'll start Saturday, if all's good for you. It will take a lot of work and research, though."

"Since when have I been afraid of work? Especially for such a good cause! Let's do it!"

The project did take a lot of work, and it meant a lot of time spent in the library. But by Sunday evening, they had found a really good picture of an 'Antipodean Opaleye Dragon,' a spell to convert objects in a picture into stationary separate models (from book entitled Useful Spells to Confuse the Unwary). So on Monday after lessons were finished, Lily and James were sitting on the floor of Lily's bathroom, concentrating on the photo in front of them. From then on, it was only a matter of applying the charms and the spells so that one did not affect the other.

By Tuesday, the dragon was looking realistic. Charms were in place for making its eyes glow properly, its tail to move back and forth, and for its wings to flap. On Wednesday, they figured out how to make it breathe its famous scarlet-coloured flame. And on Thursday, the day before Lily's birthday, they added the charm that would allow them to control the dragon, by moving a stick that they had found in the Hogwarts grounds. Horizontal meant go forward, vertical meant backwards. To the right meant to turn right, and to the left a turn left. Moving the whole stick down or up would make the dragon go down or up, and a complete stop could be achieved by tapping the stick twice with a wand. On Friday, they were waiting eagerly for dinner, their friends having no idea of what was about to happen. At breakfast, they all sang Happy Birthday to Lily, and did so in every class, break, and in lunch that day until Lily was ready to scream. They had also all given her small presents- the one from James being a note, telling her he hadnt forgotten her, and that she would receive his present for her that evening, after the 'dinner thing.'

Finally, all of the plates were cleared, and Dumbledore stood up, about to, no doubt, give the school his customary well wishes for the weekend, and a dismissal. At a nod from Lily, James flicked his wand at the dragon, hidden in his napkin, and muttered a few well-chosen words. The miniature dragon began to rise, unnoticed as everyone's attention was on Dumbledore. At a second nod from Lily, James increased its size, and then Lily muttered the spell for all the Charms placed on it to go into action. The school suddenly became aware of the huge Opaleye dragon, hovering above them.

James had the stick, and he controlled the dragon, making it do a loop around the Great Hall, and then swooping low over the Slytherin table, breathing bright red fire. A few of the Slytherins screamed, and Snape had turned even paler than he usually looked. Lucius looked terrified; his mouth hung open in a petrified 'o'. James made the dragon turn, swoop down once more onto the table, and then back up into the roof of the Great Hall, circling around and around. Suddenly there was whispered commotion, everyone in the Hall staring wide-eyed at the dragon and wondered aloud where it had come from, whether it was real, and if it was dangerous. Sensing that they were beginning to lose their up-until-now-captivated audience, James decided to let the show end. With a quick glance at Lily, who nodded approval, he put the finishing touches of his plan into action.

The dragon swept down, flying low between the House tables, causing a few shrieks from some of the first- and second-years at the house tables, the ones who hadn't realised that noise would probably make the dragon be more likely to go for them. The dragon swept up, along the sides of the teachers' table, up above it, and then zoomed down and landed right on top of the empty plates on the table, its glittering, multi-coloured eyes staring straight at Dumbledore. The headmaster grinned for a moment, and then began to clap.

Soon, the whole school joined in, Lily and James included. Their friends were all looking at them suspiciously, and Dumbledore was shaking his head at them, a small smile playing on his lips. The other teaches were looking bewildered, the students awed and still somewhat frightened, and Hagrid was examining the dragon that had settled on the head table with a look of fascination.

As the clapping died down, Dumbledore cleared his throat. When there was once again silence, he said, "An excellent job! I must congratulate the students who did this, and announce that, amusing as it has been, they will of course get detentions if their identity comes to light. I also want to wish our present Head Girl, Lily Evans, a very happy birthday. Have a good weekend, all of you!"

As soon as he had finished speaking, Mia, Kate, Lisa, Trinity, Sirius, Remus, and James all began singing Happy Birthday once more. Lily glared furiously at them. Her glare tripled in intensity when the rest of the school, excluding many of the Slytherins but including Professor Dumbledore, joined in. When they had finished, though, she couldn't stop the grin from spreading across her face. As embarrassing as her friends could sometimes be, she loved them. And James had yet to give her his present!

Later on that evening, James and Lily finally managed to sneak away from their congratulating friends for a walk around the Hogwarts grounds.

"Was it worth it?" James asked her.

"Definitely. We really did go out with a bang! And Dumbledore as good as said he knew it was us, but wouldn't blame us unless someone gave him proof!"

"His birthday present to you, perhaps?"

"Maybe he just thought it was funny? Snape's face… that was something I won't forget for a while! I thought the dragon looked good, though, life-sized. Didn't you?"

"Yeah. It looked real… did you see the way Hagrid was looking at it? That was funny!"

"A success all round, I'd say. It's a pity about the NEWTs coming up, though. More study, less messing around."

"And you do well in all of them! Besides, think of everything we can do once they're over… and after graduation, too! What do you want to be?"

"I don't know. I haven't thought much about it… an Auror maybe. I want to do something active against Voldemort, for what he's done to the whole wizarding world, not just to us."

"Yeah, but there are so many things you can do and still be against Voldemort. Teaching at Hogwarts, being a journalist for the Daily Prophet or some magazine- they'd all help a lot in the effort. Then you could start up a volunteer group, aid for the people affected, etc. There's just so much we could do!"

"You're right. But you know, I still think I like the idea of Auror. I mean, it's hard work and all, but you get to be out there, doing things. If I had to help actively, or help indirectly, I know I'd prefer to be out there doing it, rather than encouraging others to do it, or stuff like that. You know?"

"Yes, me too. I'm thinking of Auror as a profession, too, actually. You know they're recruiting now?"

"No? They are? How'd you find out?" The Aurory, a training school for would-be Aurors, was a difficult place to get into; most only often got in through invitation, or through a series of tests and trials.

"They owled me this morning, asking if I'd like to join. They also said that they were recruiting now, and that if I knew anyone else interested, that I should say so. But they sent you an owl, too. It seems word of our recent escape from that hut has got around."

"Really? They owled me? I haven't got anything!"

"Maybe it'll come tomorrow."

"Yeah, maybe," James said. Lily grinned at him in the dark.

"Probably, if not definitely, and you know it! Stop feeling sorry for yourself!"

"All right then! I'll feel sorry for you!"

"Why?" Lily asked.

"Why not? There's got to be something in your life I should feel sorry for you for."

"Have you been drinking again?" Lily asked in mock suspicion. How he could change his mood so often was beyond her, but he made her laugh through doing it.

"Yeah, yeah. Speaking of feeling sorry, I've been meaning to give you your birthday present all day, but there always seemed to be interruptions. Maybe it had something to do with that dragon… anyway, here it is. I know it's cliché and traditional, but I liked it, and I thought you would too, so…" He shrugged and handed Lily a box.

She grinned at him, and sat down at the foot of a tree overlooking the lake to open it. James sat next to her.

Under a layer of wrapping paper, Lily found a card. The front cover had 'Happy Birthday' in curly silver letters on it. Inside, though, James had written:

Lily,

I'll agree with the front of the card, hope your birthdays a great one! I also hope you like the present. Speaking of which, why are you reading this card?!?! Get to opening the present!

Love,

James

Lily grinned at him before looking at the present itself that she had unwrapped. It was a black lacquer box, with the letters J and L intertwined in silver on the lid. Inside, Lily found a silver chain, with a stone at the end. In the darkness, she couldn't see what colour it was, but James lit the end of his wand, and Lily held up the necklace in the light to admire it.

"It's called a wizard's opal," James told her quietly. "Its usual colour is that of a normal opal, but if you want to, you can change its colour, just by wanting it to be that colour as you hold it."

Lily carefully put the necklace back into the box before she turned on James, and kissed him. When she withdrew, she softly said, "Thankyou. They're both beautiful. Will you put the necklace on for me?"

James decided not to spoil the moment by saying that it would suit her better. Instead, he took it out of the box, and did the clasp at the back of her neck. Fingering the stone, she again said, "Thank you. I love it."

"I'd hoped so," James said, before pulling her towards him for another kiss.

A/N Well, like it? Its fluffy, its got pranks, its got L/J, its got revenge on Snape, its got talk of Voldemort… it has everything apart from reviews! And that's all that remains of my old A/N here… wow, was I hyper when I wrote the old one. Please review!