Okay, so the boys started to go into research about animagus. (If you read the author note at the end closely, you would have noted that I said I might write that, but wasn't surely going into it because I don't really plan ahead with my chapters, I just go along as it comes into my head) and Lily was researching and making plans for the ball.

I still think that this is dragging a bit, and have come to the conclusion that maybe by trying to write from the character's POV instead of just by an outsider's view, it'll go faster. That and then I can go to like Sirius's POV and jump to someone else later on in the chapter and it'll just hopefully make things more interesting. I'm gunna give it a try this chapter and hopefully you guys'll let me know if it works, or if it just confuses you more than before.

Disclaimer: You know the drill, having seen it in many other fanfics... nothing belongs to me, except for a few characters and the plot; the rest belongs to JKR, one of the people who reviewed, or a singer/band that I decided to 'borrow' the music from. (Though the music factor will be decided on how brain dead I manage to get while writing this chapter.) Or rather, from what my cousin told me to put in here; my name is Kira, it has a K and an R, but no J, and so I can't be mistaken for J.K. Rowling. I am not a professional writer, and do not get paid for anything I write (cuz I'm not professional.) Now, going on to my own stupidity, and not borrowing from my cousin. I may sing, but I am not a singer, so any songs I use are not my own (unless otherwise noted, which probably won't happen). So umm yea, that's the disclaimer.

Sorry if the language in the songs offends anyone, but that's how I pulled them offline, and it would have taken too long to check all the lyrics.

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Thorns by Faerielights

Chapter 18: Pranks and a Secret

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Last Chapter:

Lily absorbed all that she had read (A/N: there was more information on how the story related to wizarding and explaining it's ties, but I'm not feeling that creative… sorry guys, use your imagination.) she figured that the muggle version was a bit more pleasant, although she didn't know why everyone always said that the Grimm Brother's were considered to have such horrible scenes in there stories. She shrugged and thought that those people probably just had really weak stomachs or something.

'Maybe we should stick to the Disney version of Cinderella for the Inaugural Ball. Knowing Malfoy and Snape, they'll try to get the birds to try and peck out the eyes of all the muggleborns…' Lily thought to herself. She wrote up a few notes, trying to plan out all the parts of the ball, hoping that everyone would cooperate and agree with her ideas. She gathered her things, and brought the book to Madame Pince to check out so that she could continue to make some preparations on her own.

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This Chapter:

Sirius's POV

I had a song stuck in my head. It was something that I had heard while at Lily's house over the summer. It had a very catchy tune, and was about fires getting started. And people trying to stop it or something like that. It didn't make much sense, but like I said, it was very catchy. Speaking of fires getting started, Snivellus was long overdue for a nice prank. Maybe we could set his hair on fire... it would certainly go up quickly with all the grease that was in his hair... maybe James'll have a good thought or two to contribute to the fire. Maybe we can get it to flash Gryffindor colors or something. Then I realized that since James had become a prefect he was too busy working on some stupid top secret plan. And he wouldn't even tell me about it. Not to mention the fact that he was trying to be nice with Lilerz. I think he likes her.

'49 Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray/South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio/'50 Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television/North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe/'51 Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom/Brando, "The King and I" and "The Catcher in the Rye"/'52 Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new Queen/Marciano, Liberace, Santayana good bye

He headed to the boy's dorm room, to see if he could find the book that had fires in it. Maybe he wouldn't burn off Snape's hair, but he could still start a fire on it. He did like that idea. Make it a fire that'll give off just enough heat to freak out Snape and everyone around him. And make it flash Gryffindor colors. Sure, he'd earn a detention, but this year he was far behind his usual amount of detentions, albeit he was still serving detentions from last year, but those counted for last year, not this year, very big difference.

We didn't start the fire/It was always burning since the world's been turning./We didn't start the fire/No we didn't light it but we tried to fight it./'53 Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev/Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc/'54 Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, dacron/Dien Bien Phu falls, "Rock Around the Clock"

I checked Remus's bed first, as Remus was normally the one who held the books for pranking. He did the best research out of all of them, taking care to make sure that the prank they were going to pull wouldn't kill anyone or get them expelled. I pulled out each book, looked through the table of contents for fire spells, but found nothing that would help me out on my quest to prank Snape.

'55 Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team/Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland/'56 Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Krushchev/Princess Grace, "Peyton Place", trouble in the Suez/We didn't start the fire/It was always burning since the world's been turning./We didn't start the fire/No we didn't light it but we tried to fight it.

Next I moved onto James's bed. Sometimes James hides things from me, something about getting ideas... I didn't find a book I could use, but I found a lot of letters hidden in the cupboard over his bed. Hmm... that's weird... who's this Tiger that wrote all these letters? Maybe James has a secret love that he's been hiding. He glimpsed through a letter that read:

Dear Jimmie,

It's really unfortunate that you happen to have the same name as my worst enemy, do you think you could possibly change it to something more pleasant? Anyway, how are you? It has been about a month or so since I last heard from you. Luckily for both of us, you're a wizard so I can use our type of mailing to send you letters.

I just had the worst encounter with that… prat for a lack of a better word. He infuriates me to no end, and I relish in the day when I can either decapitate him without anyone finding out it was me, or graduate. I think that the former would be more fun for me, but then again, who wants to have murderer on their resume?

Remember when I wrote to you, and told you about Mark, and how much I'd liked him and all that? Well… I realized today that he actually reminds of the utter idiot. I shudder to think that I accidentally dated someone as dense as that idiot. But what can I do about that? Not like I can go back in time and change the past. Anyway, I have some homework to work on, but hurry up and write me back so I can have something to take a break for (despite what all my friends think, I am not always studying).

Till Later,

Tiger

Other than the letters, nothing good was in James's cupboard and trunk.

'57 Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac/Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, "Bridge on the River Kwai"/'58 Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball/Starkweather, homicide, children of Thalidomide/'59 Buddy Holly, "Ben Hur", space monkey, Mafia/Hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go/'60 U-2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy/Chubby Checker, "Psycho", Belgians in the Congo

Next on Sirius's list was Peter's bed. Sometimes Peter read up on things for pranks so he could be useful to them. He was the new kid in the school, and for some reason Remus felt bad for him, so they tried to bring him into things.

Too bad he's not much help to us. He's not even that great with girls, I mean... he scared away the Gryffindor girls in our year. I guess Remus is right in trying to help out the loser a little. Maybe he'll become the bookworm of our group and help us out. Good thing he didn't catch on to our animagus plan. He'd totally slow us down, and we're almost done, now all we have to do is brew the potion and take the test to find out what kind of animal we should be. It should only take us another month or two, and then we'll be able to help Remus out with nights like tonight. But with him it might take us another year. Too bad we couldn't get Lily to help us with the charms and such.

We didn't start the fire/It was always burning since the world's been turning./We didn't start the fire/No we didn't light it but we tried to fight it./ '61 Hemingway, Eichmann, "Stranger in a Strange Land"/Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion/'62 "Lawrence of Arabia", British Beatlemania/Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson

Peter had nothing, so I moved onto my own bed, doubting that I'd be able to help myself out with this. I might have to ask Lily for help with this, and then I'll have to come up with a story for why I want to do this particular type of charm. Although she doesn't like the Slytherins, she definitely isn't going to help me torture Snape unless he did something to me first.

It was hard enough trying to make myself look like they did something to me last time I wanted to pull a prank on them. Lily's too paranoid that I'm good to ruin her and James's top secret thing. Ooh, what's this book? I don't remember having it there. The book's title was (ironically) The standard book of spells (Grade 1) By Miranda Goshawk. (A/N: yes, it is the first year's book for spells and such). Interesting, I didn't realize that I still had this. I don't think I ever actually read through it either. Maybe I should check the table of contents...

'63 Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British politician sex/JFK blown away, what else do I have to say/ We didn't start the fire/It was always burning since the world's been turning./We didn't start the fire/No we didn't light it but we tried to fight it.

I read the table of contents and saw a chapter at the end on magical fires. Surprisingly enough, this book had the type of charm I wanted to use on Snape. And imagine, any first year would have to read the en of the book. We never got to the end, cuz James and I were too busy playing pranks, almost a shame, but it helped us get ahead in our quest to receive the most detentions. I found the spell I was looking for and tried to figure out what I needed to do to make everything work properly.

'64 - '89 Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again/Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock/Begin, Reagan, Palestine, terror on the airline/Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan/"Wheel of Fortune", Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide/Foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, crack, Bernie Goetz/Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law/Rock and Roller cola wars, I can't TAKE it anymore!

It was going to take a bit of work, and I had to figure out what I could practice on to make sure it worked the right way. I didn't want it to end up not working out at all, after all. What would the fun be in that? I worked on it for about an hour, and luckily no one came into the room to see me "studying."

We didn't start the fire/It was always burning since the world's been turning./We didn't start the fire/But when we are gone/It will still burn on, and on, and on, and on.../ We didn't start the fire/It was always burning since the world's been turning./We didn't start the fire/No we didn't light it but we tried to fight it.

I smiled to myself when I finished working. This was going to be a seriously great prank, and I had thought it up, researched it all by myself. I would be executing it myself too.

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Peter's POV (A/N: I know, I hate him too, but I have a theory for why he starts to turn against them, which will be explained later on, so don't accuse me of being a rat lover)

I woke up it was 7/I waited til 11/Just to figure out that no one would call/I think I've got alot of friends/But I don't hear from them/What's another night all alone/When you're spending every day on your own/And here it goes

Hogwarts sucked, I already decided, I just reconfirmed my feelings as I walked around the lake. All these people, and no one would acknowledge me. Except for maybe the teachers, but I was too nervous to do anything right, and would just end up losing points for this house. Maybe the hat was right, and I would have been better off in a different house, but my family that came here ended up in Gryffindor.

I'm just a kid/And life is a nightmare/I'm just a kid/I know that it's not fair/Nobody cares cuz I'm alone and the world is having more fun than me

Maybe if I wasn't so quiet and shy I would be more noticed. Sometimes the guys in my dorm would include me in their pranks. It was pity though, I know it was. They could care less if I helped them or not. More often than not I would end up messing up the pranks. They tried to be patient, but I could just tell that no one really wanted or needed my opinion. When I did help, I'd just get stuck being the lookout. Once in a while I would be able to help with the researching.

And maybe when the night is dead /I'll crawl into my bed staring at these 4 walls again /I'll try to think about the last time I had a good time /Everyone's got somewhere to go & they're gonna leave me here on my own /And here it goes/I'm just a kid /And life is a nightmare /I'm just a kid /I know that it's not fair /Nobody cares cuz I'm alone and the world is having more fun than me

I wish that I could somehow help. Maybe if their pranks needed potions instead of just spells. I stink at just about every subject. Potions though, that's something that I can do, even if I am not the best. Out of all of them though, I'd be the best at brewing a potion. They're all failing potions. But I can't bring that up. Touchy subject and I don't wanna lose the only friends that I have.

What the fuck is wrong with me /Don't fit in with anybody /How did this happen to me/Wide awake I'm bored & I can't fall asleep /And every night is the worst night ever/I'm just a kid /I'm just a kid /I'm just a kid /I'm just a kid /I'm just a kid

Maybe I could bring up that I know about their plans. They'd have to include me if they knew that I know they plan on becoming animagus. Illegally. They need someone to help them brew the potion anyway. I could do that. And then I could become one with them. They'd have to be my friends if I knew something like that, didn't they?

I'm just a kid /And life is a nightmare /I'm just a kid /I know that it's not fair /Nobody cares cuz I'm alone and the world is /Nobody wants to be alone in the world/I'm just a kid /And life is a nightmare /I'm just a kid /I know that it's not fair /Nobody cares cuz I'm alone and the world is /Nobody wants to be alone in the world /Nobody cares cuz I'm alone and the world is having more fun than me tonight /I'm all alone tonight /Nobody cares tonight /Cuz I'm just a kid tonight

I decided to confront them. Or maybe writing a letter would be a better idea. Yea, that would work. Send each of them a letter. I can do that. I better head off to the owlery then, and get the letters written and sent out! I hurried back into the school and ran up the stairs, only to get caught by the rotten caretaker and given a detention for running in the halls.

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Remus's POV

Im steady tryna find a motive/Why do what i do/Freedom aint gettin no closer/No matter how far i go/My car is stolen, no registration/Cops patrolin, and now they done stop me/And i get locked up/ They won't let me out, they won't let me out, (im locked up)/They won't let me out no, they wont let me out, (im locked up) They won't let me out, they won't let me out, (im locked up)/They won't let me out no, they won't let me out

I sat in the shrieking shack, unhappy. I was probably missing out on a lot. Like one of Sirius's latest schemes. Maybe I'd get back in time to see the finished results. I'm glad I have friends like these, just the thought that they didn't turn me away when they found out what I was made the transformations easier.

Headin up town to re-up/Back with a couple keys/Corner blocks on fire/Under covers dressed as fiends/Makin so much money/Products movin' fast/Put away the stash/And as i sold the last bag fucked around and got locked up/They won't let me out, they won't let me out, (my nigga im locked up)/They won't let me out no, they wont let me out, (i got locked up)/They won't let me out, they won't let me out, (baby girl im locked up)/They won't let me out no, they won't let me out

Hopefully James and Sirius would be successful in their plans to become animagus. I don't know what I did to deserve friends like this. Now if I could only tell my girlfriend, so I can stop lying to her about where I go every month. But no, I don't really want to get rejected for something that I can't help. Maybe I will tell her though. She was starting to get suspicious last month.

Cuz visitation no longer comes by/Seems like they forgot about me/Commissary is getting empty/My cell mates getting food without me/Can't wait to get out and move forward with my life/Got a family that loves me and wants me to do right/But instead Im here locked up/ They won't let me out, they won't let me out/(ohhh im locked up)/They won't let me out no, they wont let me out/(my nigga im locked up)/They won't let me out, they won't let me out, (im locked up)/They won't let me out no, they won't let me out

I'm pretty sure that she'd be okay with it. Or at least I hope so. As long as she doesn't get the idea to become an animagus like James and Sirius. I hope that nothing goes wrong when they try the transformations for the first time. I know that they are researching it and plan on getting it done within the next month or two. But what if Dumbledore finds out? They'll e expelled and it will be all my fault. I have to talk them out of it.

Maybe a visit (they won't let me out)/Send me some magazines (they won't let me out)/Send me some money orders (they won't let me out, no)/Maybe a visit baby (they won't let me out)/Cuz im locked up, they won't let me out./Wheres my lawyer? (they won't let me out)/Im locked up, they won't let me out, no./Get me outta here (they won't let me out)/Im locked up, they won't let me out, they won't let me out./Baby Im locked up they won't let me out, no/Where's my niggaz/On the lock-down./Damn, im locked up, they won't let me out./Im locked up, they won't let me out./Ohhh... they won't let me out./Can you please accept my phone calls/Cuz Im locked up, locked up, locked up.

what am I saying? They'd never be talked out of this. The danger of getting caught only adds to it for them. I guess the only thing I can do is let them go through with it, oversee everything to make sure nothing goes wrong. Take the blame if they do get caught. And I can always look forward to having company every month.

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James's POV

It's been one week since you looked at me/Cocked your head to the side and said "I'm angry"/Five days since you laughed at me saying/"Get that together come back and see me"/Three days since the living room/I realized it's all my fault, but couldn't tell you/Yesterday you'd forgiven me/but it'll still be two days till I say I'm sorry/Hold it now and watch the hoodwink/As I make you stop, think/You'll think you're looking at Aquaman/I summon fish to the dish, although I like the Chalet Swiss/I like the sushi/'cause it's never touched a frying pan/Hot like wasabe when I bust rhymes/Big like LeAnn Rimes/Because I'm all about value

Is it possible I went to far trying to demand that she be friends with me, and then when she said no, pranked her to make her hair turn green. I guess she's mad cuz she can't magic it out. Maybe I shouldn't have used muggle dye. But it was only the kind that stays in for a month, less if she washes it a lot.

Bert Kaempfert's got the mad hits/You try to match wits, you try to hold me but I bust through/Gonna make a break and take a fake/I'd like a stinkin achin shake/I like vanilla, it's the finest of the flavours/Gotta see the show, cause then you'll know/The vertigo is gonna grow/Cause it's so dangerous/you'll have to sign a waiver

It's a relentless cycle. We both know it by now. I piss off Lily, and she screams at me, then I retaliate by pranking her. She screams some more, plans her prank for me, pulls it off, then we wait a week to apologize and it happens all over again within a week. Why exactly do I torture her so much? Aside from the fact that it's something for me to do so I don't lose my touch when I'm not pranking the Slytherins.

How can I help it if I think you're funny when you're mad/Trying hard not to smile though I feel bad/I'm the kind of guy who laughs at a funeral/Can't understand what I mean/Well, you soon will/I have a tendency to wear my mind on my sleeve/I have a history of taking off my shirt

I hafta admit, it's also very amusing. She's pretty cute when she starts yelling at me. The way her green eyes sparkle with anger. (A/N: dunno if that's the right example, but go with it...) and I even kinda like seeing what she comes up with to get back at me. I thought about all this while I flew around the Quidditch field.

It's been one week since you looked at me/Threw your arms in the air
and said "You're crazy"/Five days since you tackled me/I've still got the rug burns on both my knees/It's been three days since the afternoon/You realized it's not my fault/not a moment too soon/Yesterday you'd forgiven me/And now I sit back and wait til you say you're sorry

As I flew my fourth lap, I thought back a little to the summer. We had to resort to muggle pranks, because magic isn't allowed during school holidays (thanks to something Sirius and I pulled in our second year during summer holidays) you had to get special permission if you wanted to use magic while away from school. Her family didn't like me because of something that had happened first year, but unfortunately Petunia decided she liked me as I was pranking her sister a lot.

Chickity China the Chinese chicken/You have a drumstick and your brain stops tickin'/Watchin' X-Files with no lights on/We're dans la maison/I hope the Smoking Man's in this one/Like Harrison Ford I'm getting frantic/Like Sting I'm tantric/Like Snickers, guaranteed to satisfy/Like Kurasawa I make mad films/Okay, I don't make films/But if I did they'd have a Samurai/Gonna get a set a' better clubs/Gonna find the kind with tiny nubs/Just so my irons aren't always flying off the back-swing/Gotta get in tune with Sailor Moon/'Cause the cartoon has got the boom anime babes/That make me think the wrong thing

He grimaced at that thought. It had not been all that great, especially with Petunia constantly following me around. Lily didn't even bother with a comeback prank because she thought it was amusing enough watching Petunia follow him around like a lovesick puppy.

How can I help it if I think you're funny when you're mad/Tryin' hard not to smile though I feel bad/I'm the kind of guy who laughs at a funeral/Can't understand what I mean/Well, you soon will/I have a tendency to wear my mind on my sleeve/I have a history of losing my shirt

He decided that she was very pretty. Oh my god, I do not like Lily Evans! Crap! How could this happen to me? I just wanted to break into the friends barrier... how can I expect her to like me back as an actual guy when she can't even like me as a friend?

It's been one week since you looked at me/Dropped your arms to your sides/and said "I'm sorry"/Five days since I laughed at you and said/"You just did just what I thought you were gonna do"/Three days since the living room/We realized we're both to blame/but what could we do/Yesterday you just smiled at me/Cause it'll still be two days till we say we're sorry/It'll still be two days till we say we're sorry/It'll still be two days till we say we're sorry/Birchmount Stadium, home of the Robbie

Deciding he was done flying for now, he flew down to the grass and jumped off of his broom. He ran inside to write a letter to Tiger, his friend since childhood, seeing if she would be able to help him out with his tiny dilemma. He decided that, yes, he did like Lily, but it was a tiny crush, so it wasn't anything to let Tiger know about. She could just know about how he wanted to be friends and the fact that Lily wouldn't even consider it.

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A/N: don't worry, Lily and James will not be jumping into love anytime soon. They have to hate each other until they're done with at least 5th year. I'm not about to jump from hate to like, like some people do. It will be a gradual affair.

okay, so that's the next chapter, told you I'd be getting it up soon as possible. Next Chapter: hmmm dunno yet.

So, tell me what you think! I promise to try and get the next chapter out soon.

Oh, by the way, the songs mentioned were (A/N: I bet you thought I'd forget to mention them...):

Billy Joel – We Didn't Start the Fire

Simple Plan – I'm Just a Kid

Akon – Locked Up

Barenaked Ladies – One Week