The Gryffindor common room was empty except for the four marauders, Lily and Maggie Moon. Although there were plenty of empty seats, they six of them were scrunched around a table in the middle of the room. James, Sirius, Remus and Peter all worked together and conjured up what they thought was the perfect table. The table stood one foot off the ground and was the shape of a crescent moon. Papers, elbows, quills, wands, and open books were scattered across the table.
"Umm this could be an odd question but is someone tickling my feet?" Sirius flashed a white, toothy grin to the other five. They all looked around with puzzled looks plastered across their faces. Finally James crouched down until his face almost touched the floor.
"Oh sorry, that's one of the feather quills I bewitched during Potions." James winked at Lily. The group burst out laughing.
"Thanks, we needed that to lighten up this oh so sad and wasted evening. I can't believe we have to spend one of the last remaining summer evenings in here doing homework. I think teachers who assign homework on a day like this should be sent to Azkaban." Remus said returning to his Divination predictions.
"That's a little harsh isn't it?" Maggie asked
"No, Can you believe Professor Auryl. I can't believe she assigned three weeks of predictions for Divination class. Isn't that all we do in Divination? What are we going to do for the rest of the semester?" Peter got so excited as he spoke, that he accidentally elbowed Maggie who spilled emerald green ink all over her robe.
"I'm so sorry. Here let me help you with that. Ummm what's that bloody spell?" Peter's cheeks turned a funny shade of purple.
"I believe it was Risidio." With a flick of his wand, Sirius caused the ink to disappear.
"You always have the right spells when it comes to the ladies." Remus nudged Sirius under the table.
Sirius was tall, with a thin muscular build. He had black hair just like James, except his was less messy. His skin was perfectly tan. Lily always wondered how he kept a perfect tan. She just assumed he spent his summers on some vacation island. "Must be nice." She thought to herself. To most of the girls at Hogwarts, James, Remus and Sirius were perfect. James with his untamed hair and glasses, Sirius with his beautiful pale blue eyes and Remus with his traditionally dazzling brown hair, brown eyes look.
Peter on the other hand was average. He had pale blonde hair and blue eyes. His face had a boyish look to it. Peter didn't look like he would fit in with the rest of the marauders. He was average and the others could make the girls melt with a simple smile or wink.
"Of course I have the right spells when it comes to the ladies- I have to impress Lily if I want her to do my homework for me." He grinned.
"You don't need any help with your homework and you definitely don't need to impress Lily. I think someone else has done that already." Remus and the other boys had caught on to Lily and James and now enjoyed teasing them about it.
"By the way boys, thanks for the table you conjured up. Am I the only one who is tired of doing predictions?" Lily gave an over exaggerated sigh and continued to scribble predictions for the next three weeks.
"Yeah why don't we say that in the next three weeks, Voldemor-" Remus, Sirius, Peter and Maggie all flinched at the sound of the dark lord's name. "I mean You-know-who will come to school in the form of a female student." By the way James' eyes flickered, the rest of the group knew he was up to something.
"Ooh yeah, and then we can say that Severus Snape will fall under a deep love spell for the new girl." Remus joined in and soon the whole group had created three weeks of Snape playing love slave to the mysterious girl/Voldemort incarnate.
A few minutes later, the six had all scribbled down their predictions of Snape aka He-who-must-not-be-named's lover.
"Thank goodness that's over. I'm going to bed. Goodnight guys." Maggie turned to leave and Peter quickly stood up.
"Um I'll walk you."
"Okay but its just up the stairs." Peter looked embarrassed at his suggestion but decided to walk her anyway.
"I'm going to bed also, so we can just walk together." Peter tried to recover from his embarrassment.
With Peter and Maggie gone to bed, the other four packed up their things and got rid of the table.
"Its only ten-thirty. What do you guys want to do?" James stood up and stretched.
"You know, we haven't played any jokes on the Slytherins yet. And I've got one in mind." Remus gave a sly grin to the other three.
"You two go ahead. I'll grab my invisibility cloak and we'll meet you in the dungeons right outside the Slytherin House." James said.
Remus and Sirius slid the portrait of the fat lady open and stepped outside. To avoid being caught by Filch the caretaker they transformed into Animagi. Remus a wolf and Sirius a big, jet black dog.
"Wait here while I run up to the boy's dorm room and grab my cloak." James grabbed Lily's hand, gave it a squeeze and quickly ran up the steps to the boy's dorm room.
Lily turned around and finished packing up her things. She slipped her wand into an inside pocket of her robes and stuffed her things under a chair. She heard soft steps coming down the stairs towards the common room and she quickly turned around.
Lily was surprised to see Venus coming down the stairs. Venus had her long brown hair brushed straight down her back. She wore a nightgown in the deepest blue that draped down to her ankles, showing her bare feet.
"Waiting for someone Lily?" Venus circled the red-head and then took a few steps back, placing her arm behind her back.
"Isn't it past your bedtime Venus?" Lily looked past Venus hoping to see James coming down the stairs.
"Lily, why do you speak to me with such venom? I see the way you look at James. And I don't blame you. For a girl like you, any attention from a boy is appreciated. Especially if its from the most popular guy in school. But are you sure he's not just trying to be nice. I mean. maybe he feels sorry for you." Even as she spoke it, Venus knew she was wrong. Lily had no trouble attracting boys. If Lily had a problem, it was because her beauty intimidated them.
Lily's face flushed with anger. Hot surges of fury raced through her. Lily grabbed her wand out of her robe and aimed it at Venus. But she was too late. Venus had her wand pointed at Lily at the same time. Lily looked around, "Where is James? What is taking him so long?" she thought.
"So is that what you're going to do? Put a spell on me so you can have James all to yourself?" Venus threw a fake smile.
Just as she opened her mouth to answer Venus, Lily felt a hand sweep across the back of her neck, rustling her hair. Her eyes widened and she almost shouted but she felt the hand again, running down her shoulder, across her forearm enveloping her fingers. Her hand magically raised a few inches and then she felt a familiar sensation. James had lifter her hand and kissed it. Lily wished he would show himself and stand up for her, but she knew he wouldn't.
James knew Lily didn't need his help. Lily knew exactly how James felt about her and nothing Venus could say would change that. James didn't want to see Venus and Lily in a spell-throwing contest so he silently grabbed both girls' wands and tucked them into his cloak.
Venus stood confused. "What the-? Where did my wand go? Oh I guess that was one of your little tricks. You knew you couldn't beat me, so you had to make my wand disappear. Good job Lily."
Lily smiled, she knew what James had intended to do. But nothing would shut Venus up. Without wands, most wizards were helpless. But not Lily, she was powerful enough to not need a wand. Lily raised her hand towards Venus.
"So you think you can hurt me without your wand? You really are stupid." Venus backed up as she spoke. Her voice trembled.
Lily stood with her palm facing the ceiling. Her eyes flashed a bright green and she swiftly raised her hand. As her hand went up, so did Venus. Lily dropped Venus into a chair, turned her hand to face Venus and shouted, "Expelliarmus!" The spell was a disarming spell used to disarm a wizard of his wand. Since neither of the girls had a wand, it stunned Venus, knocking the chair over, leaving Venus hanging unconscious in mid-air.
James slipped his cloak off and smiled at Lily. "I had no idea you were that potent. That was bloody brilliant." He circled Venus one last time.
Lily quickly said, "You didn't think you were the only one who can do spells without a wand did you? Venus will be fine. I'll let her down when we get back."
The two wrapped in James' cloak and crept down to the Slytherin house. Lily loved being pressed up against James' strong chest. She took in the smell of his hair and felt his hand on her back, helping to support her as they walked.
"Shh- did you hear something?" James halted and slid them both up against the nearest wall.
Filch walked by them and stopped. "Do you smell something Mrs. Norris?" Filch spoke to his cat as if she were human.
Neither of them breathed. Finally Filch gave up and rounded the next corner. Lily and James let out a sigh of relief and hurried down to the Dungeons.
"What took you two so long. Remus grew a beard waiting for you two." Sirius joked.
"You'll see when we get back to the common room." James replied.
The four found the portrait that led into the Slytherin common room and said, "Pixie Dust."
"Gee that's an original password. You would think the slimy gits would think of something a bit more manly." James, Lily and Remus all glanced at Sirius. He always kept them laughing.
It took the four of them a total of ten minutes to find the right beds and place the spells. When they were all finished, they crept back to the Gryffindor common room undetected.
Remus woke the fat lady in the portrait that led to the Gryffindor room and said, "Bludger". She sleepily let them pass, but not before muttering insults about them being rude and inconsiderate of other's sleep needs.
The common room was exactly as James and Lily had left it. The chair overturned, Venus floating in the air with her wand placed on the floor under her.
"And who, might I ask, is the artist of this magnificent picture?" Sirius inquired.
"She annoyed me." Lily smiled.
"Do you think if I woke her up that she would go to the Yule ball with me?"
"No way, if you go with her I am not going to talk to you for the rest of the year." Lily exclaimed.
"Yeah, but it will get her out of James' hair." James blushed. He hated it that Venus was always coming up with a way to be around him.
Remus and James turned the chair right side up and Lily reluctantly whispered, "Relaximus." Venus slowly slid into the chair.
"She is going to have one heck of a headache tomorrow morning." James laughed.
"Well, goodnight boys." Lily glanced at James who gave her an affectionate wink and then climbed the stairs to her bed.
"You are one lucky guy. I'd give anything to have such a powerful and not to mention gorgeous witch for a girlfriend." Remus said.
"There not officially boyfriend and girlfriend yet. You better watch out Potter, I might just steal her away." Sirius said as James threw him a punch in the arm.
It was the next afternoon and Lily, James, Remus, Snape, Sirius, Peter, Maggie, Piper Tryst and Torrence Clay were all squeezed into Professor McGonagall's office. Piper Tryst (a Slytherin 5th year), Torrence Clay (Torn for short a Slytherin 5th year) and Snape were all called to McGonagall's office for some unexplained explosions and rearranged furniture in the Slytherin Common room and dormitories. James, Remus, Sirius, Peter and Maggie were there because of their predictions in Divination. And Lily was in the office because of her "assault" on Venus.
"It's the first week of school and you have all disappointed me. I would expect nothing like this from the prefects, James Potter, Lily Evans and Severus Snape. You will all serve detention this Tuesday with Mr. Filch and Hagrid. Now Professor Auryl says that you all" Professor McGonagall pointed to Remus, Peter, Sirius and Maggie, "came up with the same predictions involving Snape. Unless these predictions are true, which I highly doubt, this means that you collaborated on your homework. You have detention on Tuesday also." Professor McGonagall eased back into her chair.
"But Professor McGonagall, the Slytherins would never purposely set off dung bombs and hang beds on the ceilings in their own dorm room." Snape contested.
"Do you expect me to believe that someone broke into the Slytherin common room? Twenty points from Slytherin, along with the other thirty I have chosen to take off for your behavior. I suggest that you say no more Severus. Sixty Points from Gryffindor, ten for each of you. That will be all."
The nine of them all stepped out of McGonagall's office. "I know it was you who broke into our house. You'll pay for this Potter." Snape's black eyes glared at James.
"No please, spare us." He laughed. " I hope you do get us back at least I won't feel so bad the next time we get you in trouble." James turned and walked towards Herbology the rest of the Gryffindor's followed.