Disclaimer: Don't own it.

Author's Note: At the bottom

Chapter 29: Evening

When James and Lily finally decided to call it quits, it was an hour until dinnertime. The sun was leaving and even though they'd been a little hot and sweaty, they were starting to get cold instead. Lily put her shirt back on and the two of them walked back to the school, with an arm over each other's shoulder.

They made their quiet way up to Gryffindor tower in companionable silence, not noticing anyone around them or being noticed.

When they reached the tower, they went their separate ways to get cleaned up for dinner, Lily taking both brooms back up to the male dormitories.

Lily pulled out a decent pair of looking slacks, a belt, and a button down shirt. After she showered all the sweat off and magically dried her hair, she got dressed. She'd look presentable at dinner; that should please James. Less than half of the school (mostly Purebloods) wore robes all the time. Muggle-borns and half bloods tended to relax in Muggle clothing on the weekends. James, while still a Pureblood, had discovered long ago that it was easier to scramble up and down walls, trees, and run away from trouble in pants rather than in a heavy set of robes. Therefore he kept a few sets of Muggle clothing with him at school.

She met him down in the common room and was pleasantly surprised at how he was dressed. He had gone more modest in keeping with her usual tastes though perhaps not as "frumpy" as she often looked. He'd done her hair lovely; it was brushed out and put up halfway. He'd refrained from using any makeup as far as she could tell. This was definite progress; they were starting to understand each other and compromise. It was a shame it'd taken them so long to get to this point. It was their last year of Hogwarts and Halloween had already come and gone. Eight months and they'd be out of Hogwarts forever. And they were only just becoming friends.

She mentally shook her head and offered an arm to James. Together, they strolled down through the castle and into the Great Hall.

Remus, Alice, Peter, and Sirius stared at their friends as they entered. Frank ignored them. Alice was sitting between Remus and Frank. Remus leaned over and whispered to her, "You think something is going on?"

"Something other than what we already know, you mean?" she asked, referring to the body switch.

"Exactly."

"I think so too. This week was a good idea for them."

"I haven't seen either of them happier before," Remus said. "At least, not that I can remember."

"Neither have I," Alice said, smiling.

"They're both looking oddly sharp tonight," he pointed out.

"Maybe they wanted to celebrate the end of their inside-out-upside-down week," offered Alice.

"Maybe. But I Think they wanted to look sharp for each other."

Laughing quietly together and talking, they ate their dinner.

Down the table from them, Peter and Sirius were making their own observations of the situation. Or rather, the situations.

"What're Moony and her so chummy about?" Peter asked, pointing at Remus and Alice.

"Beats me, Pete. Might explain why Longbottom is looking so sour though."

"Yeah, he sure doesn't look happy. That still doesn't explain Remus and her though."

"They must be up to som—look at James and Evans!"

Peter gave a low whistle. "Evans looks classy. James is cleaned up better now than he's been all week."

"This has been an off week for him. What do you think is going on with the two of them?"

"I dunno. Wish I did."

"We'll find out sooner or later," Sirius said confidently. "For right now, we should keep our strength up. Agreed?"

"Agreed."

And with those ever so wise words, Sirius and Peter both began to dig into their dinners with renewed vigor, snatching glances at Lily and James every once in a while.

Lily and James didn't talk much, but they sat next to each other and smiled a lot, while talking about the boring things of life; the things that they'd been shirking off and would have to return to again.

"I'm probably behind in my homework. I'm sure we both are." She felt a little guilty. She should have been keeping up on James's homework. She was sure she'd done most of it but there were one or two assignments she couldn't remember exactly and she hadn't gotten him ahead on any work.

"Everything that, you-Lily, had due this week was turned in. You just aren't ahead in any classes," James assured her.

Lily was relieved. "It's weird though," she said thoughtfully.

"What is?"

"Our handwriting. When I've done any writing this week, it looks like your handwriting. The only difference is I don't dot my i's with little x's like you do."

"I noticed the same thing. My overall writing looks like yours, except that you've got a couple of letters that you make uniquely that just don't happen when I'm writing. I wonder why our handwriting didn't stay with us."

"I think it's our hands. It's like our voices; different lungs and vocal cords so we sound according to those. My writing is usually kind of spidery, so if you've got my hands, your writing is going to look kind of spidery," she reasoned.

"I suppose that makes sense."

Dumbledore watched the Gryffindor table out of the corner of his eye, only half-hearing what exactly Minerva was saying to him. Lily and James were sitting close and talking pleasantly. He smiled. Ah, to be young and in love again.

"Albus, Albus, are you listening to me?" McGonagall asked irately.

"Not at all."

She sighed and followed his gaze to where it rested on the Gryffindor table. She grumbled quietly, "I still say we should have done something about that, Albus."

"I think that when all this is through, things will have worked themselves out for the best. Always have faith in the universe, Minerva. If they can find a little happiness in these dark times, then we should let them."

"What happiness? They've broken the rules. They fight..." Watching them, her face softened. "I suppose there are exceptions to the rules. You always seem to think so at any rate, and I trust you. They do seem to be getting along." If friendship could come from hate, then maybe there was hope in the world after all.

After dinner Lily and James went to the common room with the intent of getting some homework finally done. However when they reached it, someone else had another idea. In fact, two someones. The moment they saw them enter, Nikki and Alex pounced on them.

"Lily, Professor Turpin told us we could make up our test in potions—"

"And he said you promised that you'd help us study—"

"And you haven't been around all weekend—"

"We looked everywhere for you. The common room and—"

"The library, but—"

"But nobody knew where you were," Alex finished sadly.

"Mum'll send a howler if our grades slip too much," Nikki added.

They looked pleadingly at the redheaded "girl."

Lily shot James a look. James started speaking to the twins and it seemed he knew just what to say. "I know I haven't been around this week, I had Head Girl things to do, but you have my undivided attention for the rest of the evening. If you still need more help on Monday I'll be glad to give it."

"Really?"
"Of course. Now, would I say something I don't mean?" James asked.

"No."

"Good, then run upstairs and get your books and things and meet me back here." He ruffled the boys' hair and they ran off. James turned back to Lily. "This being your last night as me, you should go out and do something fun with the boys. Just be back before midnight."

"Yes, fairy godmother," Lily said, trying not to laugh. The Cinderella analogy was completely lost on him.

"What? Never mind. I probably don't want to know." He looked around and spotted Remus. He beckoned him over.

Remus put down his book and came.

"Moony, in the past week, Lily hasn't played any pranks. Really, that's one more thing she should do before midnight. Why don't you rustle up Peter and Sirius and all do something?" James asked.

Remus pretended to consider it. It really was the last experience Lily needed to complete this week. "Done."

"But have her home beforemidnight. That's when the switchback is."

"Do I get a say in any of this?" asked Lily.

"Not really."

"Okay, just wanted to make sure," she said sarcastically. "I'll do it, but only if I get to see your Animagus form tonight," Lily said quietly to James.

"Done." They shook on it and James sent Lily and Remus off to Peter and Sirius just as Nikki and Alex were coming back. James led the two younger boys to a set of out of the way tables and chairs where they could work in peace. "Dissolving potions, isn't it? I'm particularly good at those…"

Lily and Remus found Sirius and Peter playing a game of Exploding Snap by the fireplace.

"Are you fellas as bored as I am?" asked Sirius, throwing down his cards.

"Yeah, James here was just saying that we ought to go prank somebody, anybody," Remus said casually.

"How about Flint? He was trying to cheat off of me in potions this week," Sirius suggested.
"Not bad, but what do we do to him?" Remus asked. "I promised Lily I'd be back by midnight so we could have a quick meeting. Her, James, and I."

"What about?" Peter asked suspiciously.

"Head and Prefect stuff. You know how it is. There's always a meeting for something or another." He hoped they'd just buy the story and move on.

Lily chewed her lip. The Slytherins wouldn't be asleep this early. Maybe there was something else they could do. Something at the window caught her attention. "Quidditch."

"What?"

"The Slytherin team is practicing right now. We could sneak into the Slytherin locker room and…" She tried to think quickly. "Replace their shampoo with superglue."

Sirius got a scary glint in his eye. "Yeah! Do you think the House-elves would have any sort of red dye in the kitchens?"

"Probably food coloring, but I don't see…" Lily started.

"I do. Padfoot wants to put the red dye in with the superglue," Peter said.

"Right, Wormy." Sirius then had another brilliant idea. "Do you have any itching powder left, Prongs?"

"I don't know, can't remember." I don't know what itching powder looks like! "Why?"

"To sprinkle over their soap of course," Sirius said deviously. "I'll go get the superglue, itching powder, cloak, mirrors, and map," Sirius volunteered standing and pulling Peter with him. He pointed to Remus and James. "You two get that food coloring and we'll meet you in the kitchen."

Sirius and Peter went up the stairs and started to gather the supplies. The cloak, mirrors, and map were easy enough to find and he knew where the superglue was. However the itching powder was going to take some finding.

Sirius began to dig through James's trunk, assisted by Peter. They found that there was a very small bag of itching powder left (not much, but they could still have some fun with it). They also found a library book

Sirius, ever curious, picked it up. "I wonder what Prongsie has been reading." He checked the book over.

"It's got the Restricted stamp on it."

"I see that. It's a book on human transformations." Sirius started thumbing through it. "We'll look through this later. We've got Slytherins to torment." Sirius dropped the book.

Peter put the cloak on and carried the supplies, walking behind Sirius as they went back to the common room and out to the hallway.

When they reached the kitchen, Remus and Lily had already gotten the food coloring. The four of them proceeded to the entrance of the castle and stood just outside it.

"Okay, Wormy, Moon, you two stand lookout?"

"Of course. If anybody sees us I hand Peter a detention," Remus said. More often than not the two of them did get stuck as the lookouts, but that was typically fine with him.

"Good. Me and Prongs will proceed as planned."

Peter handed the cloak to Sirius, and Sirius pulled it around his and Lily's shoulders. Next came the powder, the glue, and the food coloring. The Map would stay with the lookouts.

"Are we clear?" Sirius asked impatiently.

"You're clear, they're all still in the air," Remus confirmed.

With that, Sirius pulled the hood up and he and Lily were on their way to locker rooms.

Lily began to feel a little of the adrenaline she'd felt when sneaking out to Hogsmeade. If they were caught they'd be in trouble, but that didn't seem to matter at the moment. As much as she hated to admit it, she was having fun. Besides, how many of the boys up on those brooms had called her names and insulted her? More than enough of them.

Before she realized it, they were inside. They slipped the cloak off. And hung it on a hook. "I'll dump out half the shampoo, you replace it with the glue, got it?" Sirius asked.

"Got it."

"Don't forget a couple of drops of food coloring."

They worked swiftly and silently, completing the task in a little over ten minutes. Then they started putting pinches of itching powder on the bars of soap.

They'd just finished and were putting the cloak back on when Lily heard a voice coming from Sirius's pocket.

Pulling the cloak tight around them and pulling the hood down, Sirius took a hand mirror out of his pocket. "Our mischief is managed, what's wrong?"

"The Slytherins are headed your way. If you leave now, they'll see the door open. Your best shot is to wait by the door and slip out as the last one is coming in."

"Thanks, Wormtail."

Lily was amazed. Sirius had been talking to Peter through a mirror. She'd never seen anything like that for sale.

"I know you don't like it when Wormtail uses your mirror, he always leaves fingerprints on it. I should have handed it to Moony. Ssh, here they come. When I give the signal we've got to leg it."

Lily nodded. Her mirror? Rather, James's mirror. Was this one of their creations? Like the map? She had severely underestimated their intelligence.

It wasn't long before the team started to come in. As the last member passed through, Sirius caught the door and they tiptoed out, running once they were outside. Sirius stopped dead in his tracks. "I forgot! Why didn't you remind me?"

"What?"

"We forgot to tell them who to thank."

Lily felt completely lost.

Sirius turned back and she had no choice but to go with him. He took out his wand and wrote on the door: TEAM MAKEOVERS COURTESY OF THE MARAUDERS. "Ha!"

Then, they made their way back to Remus and Peter.

"It'll take some scrubbing to get that off of the door," Sirius said. "Stupid Slytherins. I think they suspect us, but they still don't know who we are. Ah well, the most famous people in school and nobody knows it. We are so unappreciated."

Lily said nothing.

"Did you do it?" Peter asked.

"Of course we did," Sirius said, hitting him on the back of the head.

"Let's get inside," Remus said.

"It's barely nine! You said you had until midnight."

"Well, it's cold out here and it'll be nine-thirty by the time we get back to Gryffindor Tower. Besides that, we've still got to return that food coloring. We only asked to borrow it."

Sirius and Peter grumbling the whole way, they returned the food coloring. To help make up for their hurt feelings, they all stayed in the kitchen for a bit, having some delicious chocolate cake.

By ten o'clock, all four of them were back in the common room. Sirius and Peter went to investigate the mysterious book they found in James's trunk and Remus returned to the book he'd been reading. Lily joined James and helped proofread Nikki and Alex's essays.

Author's Note: I know it's been a while for all of my fics, but I'm trying, really I am. There are probably only four or five chapters left of this. I'm proud of myself. I actually have a somewhat coherent outline of what's life. A written outline!Not just one in my head. I'll answer questions next time. For now I just want to say thanks for your support everybody. And I did have one thing to say about Frank, since a lot of people imagined him to be more like Neville:

Frank Longbottom NOT Neville Longbottom

Just like Harry is NOT James, Neville is NOT Frank. However, I do think I gave them enough similiarities.

1. Loner--As far as we know, Neville has no best friend or group of buddies; hey look, Frank's been isolated by the Marauders.

2. Bravery/Anger--Neville gets angry or reacts strongly occasionally; Frank's a little more strong minded than Neville, but I think I matched them pretty similiarly.

3. Embarassment--I think that if say, Hermione, was up in the boys' dormitory and saw Neville in just a towel, he'd be embarassed; I think Frank's embarassed/angry reaction was more than deserved after finding out that Lily was there and saw him like that.

Review, por favor.