Males have this way about them, no words needed to spoken for forgiveness to be achieved. It is better for them this way, they can return to the way things were without betraying their 'cool' exterior and displaying emotions. With a simple look all things that have happened are forgotten and things return to the way they were.

Girls though, are a completely different matter. They have to confront the problem head-on and discuss their feelings in order to return to normal. This isn't necessarily the only route they take. There is also the stubborn option; the one where both parties refuse to apologize, instead trading catty comments behind the others backs, spreading secrets and finding new friends. In these circumstances it is hard for the friendship to be returned to its former glory.

And so, by following these rules, it is of no surprise that the day Remus returned him and James were friends once more. There was no mention of the time they had not spoke, though the topic of Remus' wolfishness was all James could talk about. By November 9th James interest in the topic had dwindled and the four friends were back on form, planning their next prank.

The same could not be said for Lily and Alex who were still not talking. Alex had started to hang around with Narcissa, in lessons she ignored Lily and in the Common Room she would say something to Narcissa whilst looking pointedly at Lily. The two would laugh loudly and though Lily tried to ignore it, it was hurting her in ways she couldn't describe. With Remus back talking to James he spent less time with her and with Alex not talking to her, Lily was alone.

Well, alone wasn't strictly true, she was friends with almost everyone in her year, but she wasn't close to any of them. For someone to sit with or have a conversation with these were fine, but when what she really wanted to do was pour her heart out to her best friends, she had no one. Another notice on the Gryffindor message board about the Exchange Trip made her concentrate her efforts on that. Applications had to be in by the end of the month and, with the way things were for her at the moment, Lily felt like going to Beauxbatons for a year was her only choice.

As well as this she was still trying to think of a perfect punishment for James. True, when she had mentioned it she had seemed like she knew exactly what to do, but in truth she didn't have a clue. She was a planner, and as such needed to come up with the perfect idea and plan it to the last detail, only every time she got an idea the plan didn't go too well. Hundreds of ideas were floating around her head but she knew they wouldn't work. Maybe she was going about this the wrong way.

"Think Lily," she murmured to herself.

She was sat in the common room bent over a piece of parchment, books spread around her. To a passer-by it looked like she was doing homework, every-so-often she would remember to let a spark out of her wand to make it seem even more like that. In truth she had "borrowed" some books from the restricted section (Sometimes it was good to be on friendly terms with the librarian), and was looking through them to find what she wanted. She was getting nowhere though, and the constant noise wasn't helping her. Once more the portrait opened, she was about to snap at whoever it was when she heard the voice.

"That was a great one, one of the best." James Potter said loudly to his laughing friends.

"Yeah, who'd have thought that the Slytherins looked so good covered in feathers?" Sirius asked in agreement.

This set off another wave of laughter, not just from the Marauders but those around them.

Even Lily smiled, though for different reasons. Hers was a wicked smile as all that she'd been trying to work out came to her in a sudden wave. Standing up she took her parchment and quill and headed for her dormitory, leaving the restricted books on the table in the hope that the boys would see them.

"Prepare yourself Potter," she whispered as she walked past them.

--------

Lily sat in the Great Hall eating a slice of toast. She had no plans for what was going to happen, only a list of the things she wanted to happen. She would cross them off as she did them, starting with the letter that was due to arrive any minute. Oh, there it was, the Owl Post.

She had written it last night, a simple little riddle to get him thinking:

For seven days and seven nights be on you guard,

What you'll get is what's occurred.

In 168 hours you'll be free of me,

But if you'll change, we'll have to see.

She was proud of it, even more so as she watched James' face frown in confusion and then hand the note to his friends. She was sure Remus' eyes flicked at hers, but they were gone so quickly she wasn't certain. Poor Peter looked even more confused than James while Sirius seemed to be laughing. Sirius screwed up the note, throwing it casually on the floor. "Load of rubbish," she heard him say loudly. Smiling to herself Lily set off to her first lesson, silently anticipating what was to come.

--------

Potions, so much had happened there, where to start first? They were doing Vanishing Potions, turning inanimate objects invisible. When used on a living creature the least it could do was bring out boils, the worst…well, that was probably best not to be considered.

"Hey, Evans, lend me a vial." Lily heard James beg.

She turned to look at him. "Where is…Sure, Potter." She said with a small smile.

Carefully she dipped a spare vial into the potion; luckily the vial was the same shade as the potion or this wouldn't work. Holding the top, the only bit that wasn't covered, she handed it over, knowing he would have to touch the potion. She flashed him one more smile then turned around to bottle her own. To her dismay the screams she was waiting for never came. Five minutes they sounded, she turned around but they weren't coming from James. They weren't even coming from a boy; Alex was stood at the back of the room waving her hand around in agony. Lily turned around guiltily as Professor Jenkruss swept past to go and inspect the hand.

"Silly girl, I warned you not to touch the potion."

"But I didn't," Alex cried. "I only touched this vial."

Jenkruss picked it up cautiously; her trained eyes saw bits of potion along the bottom rim. "Whose is this?" she asked Alexia who shrugged.

"I picked it off the table," she said.

"Whose is this," she asked again. Louder this time and to the whole room.

Everyone, including Lily, was looking and shrugging or shaking their head.

James interrupted the silence. "I got it off Lily Evans," he said smugly.

Jenkruss stormed over to where Lily was stood. "Miss Evans, does this vial belong to you?"

"Yes, but-"

"50 points from Gryffindor and a detention next week," Jenkruss interrupted. "I have little patience for people who consider it fun to hurt others, especially those who hurt their friends."

She apparently didn't hear the "ex-friends" uttered by Alex, Lily did though. With tears in her eyes, she welcomed the sound of the bell as she was dismissed from lessons and Alex told to go to the Hospital Wing. She wasn't seen again that day.

--------

Sat at breakfast the day, Lily tried to avoid the looks she was being given. James was smiling at her, apparently impressed by her attempt to poison him the day before. Alex was staring at her venomously, not happy that her hand was bandaged and that Lily had tried to poison her while Remus was frowning at her.

"Lily," he said sitting beside her. "That was a dangerous stunt you pulled."

Lily rolled her eyes. "You know what? I really don't care. You only care because I nearly hurt your precious little friends."

Remus looked at her strangely. "You know that's not true. You could have hurt yourself doing it, and don't you even care that you hurt Alex?"

Lily shrugged, trying with all her might to fake not caring. "Why should I? It's not as though she's never hurt me."

"So this whole thing is just a little payback?" he asked. "The point wasn't to get James; you planned on it going to Alex?"

"Sure, if you like." She said half-heartedly as she stood up and walked away, not even bothering to wait to see James' face at his new letter.

James looked up as an owl hooted above him before dropping a letter on his lap. Tearing it open James read:

The first day didn't go to plan,

But that doesn't mean there'll be a ban.

Six days left to make you see,

I wonder what todays will be.

James frowned as he read this. "Remus, I've got another note." He said as his friend came back over.

Remus scanned it and, James noticed, gave a quick glance to the doorway of the Great Hall. When James looked there was no one there though.

"Well be careful," was Remus' answer. "You don't know for sure that it's Lily who's doing this. What happened yesterday might have just been her trying to teach you to bring your own stuff to lessons."

"But there were no other 'incidents'," Peter pointed out to the group.

"Actually, there was." James admitted.

Remus didn't ask what because of the red face on James, though he couldn't help but continue. "Well then, it can't have been Lily, can it? She wasn't seen all day yesterday after Potions."

"The boy has a point," Sirius said between mouthfuls of food. "If Evans was locked up in her dorm all night she can't have been the one who-"

"Yes, thank you Sir," James interrupted before he could tell them what happened.

Sirius nodded in a 'no problem' way making James roll his eyes.

"Ok, so if it's not Evans who else can it be?" Peter asked.

The bell rang and the Marauders stood up. "I don't know, but we'll find out," James said confidently.
Sirius nodded. "Yes, you want to get them back after yesterday don't you?"
James grimaced and nodded, Remus couldn't contain his curiosity any longer.

"What happened?" he asked.

James shook his head, no way was he going to tell his friends that he'd somehow lost his way walking down the corridors and when he'd finally found his way again he was half-dressed and not even in his own clothes. He was wearing a torn shirt and a grey skirt with laddered tights. He didn't need to tell them, Sirius already was, making everyone but him laugh loudly.

---------

History of Magic, what could she do now? The list was in front of her as she tried to select one. She didn't care that she'd got into trouble for yesterday; it was worth it just to see Alex's face. She didn't mean that, not really, and she would have preferred it to have been James she'd got but she wasn't perfect, she didn't know he would somehow manage to avoid touching it. But todays would be better; today there would be no mistakes.

"What's that?" a voice beside her asked. Lily turned and saw it was Alice.

"Just a list of stuff I want to do before the weeks over. I'm tying to think of one to do now."
Alice stifled a gasp, Lily could tell. "You mean you're not taking notes?" She asked in her cheery voice.

"Well, no, but I've read this in the text book." Lily said uncomfortably. "I can make them from there later."

Alice nodded, smiling. "Well, okay. I better go back over there. I'd do number 7 by the way."
With that said she was back sitting and chatting quietly to Marie. Lily looked down at number 7 and grinned. 'Alright Potter, I hope you're ready.'

Lily waved her wand discreetly under the table and a large white ball appeared on her lap. Picking it up, she began bouncing it on the table. Each time it hit the table it would make a hollow sound and bounce up higher. The higher it got the louder the sound, luckily Professor Binns didn't seem to notice, apparently not much could distract him. She noticed James looking down at her curiously and smiled secretly as she bounced it towards him. She watched as he put out his hands to catch it and it passed right through them. She watched as it bounced off his forehead lightly and came back to her perfectly. Giggling, she did it once more, once again it passed through his hands and bounced off his forehead. He looked in amusement, nodding as she made a motion to do it once more. She did so, watching in glee as again it passed through his hands and flew towards his stomach. She waited for it to hit it with as much force as it could but it never came. It passed through his stomach as well, hitting the wall with super-force and breaking. Its pieces fell to the floor and a vine appeared, spreading its way across the wall. Lily's face became one of pure shock.

'That wasn't meant to happen,' she thought angrily.

She spent the rest of the lesson staring at the parchment, wondering what was going wrong.

--------

Those tricks gone wrong and five days left,

It's no wonder you're sat in jest.

You will not escape what I have for today,

But it all depends on what you say.

"These things get weirder and weirder," James commented as he and his friends made their way into Transfiguration. "I mean honestly, 'it all depends on what you say', such a pathetic attempt at making that rhyme."

Lily scowled as she heard him; he said a nasty thing, so he would get a nasty punishment. Yesterday's trick had failed, so had the one she had tried that night too. She'd hoped to make him fall off his broom as he'd been trying out for the Quidditch team, unfortunately he'd moved quickly and the shot had got a third year instead (they hadn't been more than two metres off the ground at the time). Todays should be easy though, she knew what she'd be doing and she'd spent last night practicing it.

She sat quietly waiting for the lesson to start. About half way through the lesson she made her eyes take on a glazed appearance and stood up.

"Miss Evans, do you have something to say?" McGonagall asked.

Lily ignored her as she walked towards the back of the room; towards James. Wand in hand, arm outstretched she pointed it just millimetres away from his neck. She could see him gulping in fear and smiled mentally. She could stop now, she only wanted to see him afraid, but she was having too much fun.

Ignoring McGonagall's cries to sit down and stop it, Lily cast a spell. A Tickling Charm. James' body began to shake in laughter. He squirmed in his chair as the tickling became stronger and stronger. Satisfied, she carried on the act by shaking her head gently, as though clearing it and blinking a few times, when she stopped her eyes were back to normal. People were looking at her and she shifted uncomfortably. "What's going on?" she asked as her eyes drifted to the squirming James.

"Just what I was going to ask you," McGonagall said behind her, making her jump. She'd almost forgotten they were in a lesson.

Lily frowned, continuing to act like she didn't know what was happening. "What do you mean professor?"

"You did this, and I want to know why."

Lily looked back at James. "I did that?" She asked in a bewildered tone. "Are you sure?"

"Quite sure," McGonagall said, losing her patience.

"But…I don't remember doing that."
Now McGonagall frowned, James laughed loudly so McGonagall waved her wand, making him stop squirming and laughing but his face had a permanent smile on.

"Well you did, and memory or no memory, you should be punished."

"But, professor…" Lily said.

"Professor, wait," James interrupted. Lily watched as McGonagall faced him and he answered her unspoken question. "It wasn't Lily," he said.

"Mr Potter, I think I can trust my eyes, thank you very much."

"No, I mean it was Lily, but it wasn't her. Her eyes, they weren't her eyes. They were all glazed over, as though someone were controlling her."
McGonagall looked at him disbelievingly but slowly nodded her head. "Alright, fine. You'd better be on the lookout Miss Evans." McGonagall warned before dismissing the class early.

--------

We're three days down and four left to get through,

What happens now is up to you.

For one thing just smile, for the other frown,

And before I forget…Look Down.

James looked down and saw his plate was covered in leeches, screaming he jumped up, pointing wildly at his plate. People sat staring at him while his friends looked bewildered, as far as they could see his plate was a normal plate of pancakes.

"James, what's up with you?"

"Plate…Look…Leeches…Look!"

The three friends looked at each other before facing James. "There's nothing there," they assured him, but he wasn't listening.

It took them ten minutes to get him calmed down, by this time the bell had gone for first lesson and they were late. They had Herbology and their teacher was always late himself so they didn't get in any trouble. As they began working on re-potting the Mandrake Roots, James became pale.

"James, what's up?" Sirius asked him after a few moments.

James pointed at his plant which, to him, was not a plant. It was a giant worm, with teeth bared at him. With all the noise and distractions he was making, James received a detention.

Every lesson was like this, he would be doing something and then a slimy insect was sat before him, and he would start gibbering like an idiot. Five detentions he received that day, and he lost 247 points. People weren't happy with him, and his friends were starting to worry. Lily sat in her dormitory that night smirking to herself.

--------

Seven minus four, three left to go,

But for today, this isn't so.

A day to regroup, to stay hidden from you,

You're getting close. Hey what do you know?

James really did think these messages were becoming less easy to understand, but it was a Saturday so he didn't complain that there was nothing around to ruin it. He stayed away from the common room (deciding it must be someone in there to get him at night), and got his food directly from the kitchens. His day was spent outside by the lake, his friends thought he was crazy, "It's the middle of November, why are you going outside?!", but he knew he was safe there. His night was spent in the dormitory doing, and this really was the scary thing, homework. Lily was quite pleased with herself really.

"Congratulations," a voice spoke to her.

She looked up from her book to find Remus stood in front of her.

"For what?" she asked confused.

"Oh, come now little flower, you're a good actress but you're not great."
Lily looked startled. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Of course not," Remus said in his unconvinced, sarcastic tone. "And I suppose this is all just a coincidence that you're around or have something to do with every little thing that's happened to James this week?"

"I wasn't a couple of nights ago when he was swearing a skirt," she pointed out. When she said it she knew she'd just admitted guilt.

Remus smirked. "Here, let me give you a bit of advice…"

--------

Two days left, aren't you glad?

Few tricks left to make you sad.

But don't forget…

You're not free yet.

Speaking to Remus last night made Lily realise she was using the wrong kind of tricks; they were basic, things James had probably used at primary school. She needed something big, something he would never think of, and then it hit her. Now, all she needed was the right time.

--------

"Hey James, watch out!" Sirius called to his friend.

They were in potions detention for the 17th time that year, Jenkruss was running out of things for them to do and so was making them reorganise her potions cupboard. They were to take each bottle off the shelves and then restack them in alphabetical order. When they were on opposite sides of the cupboard the easiest way to pass them to one another was by throwing them, hence the 'watch out'.

James caught it expertly and placed it on the fourth shelf down.

"Can you think of a more boring detention?" James asked as he put another away.

"Well," Sirius said. "There was the cleaning of the trophy room or the letter writing to parents for McGonagall. Now that was boring."

"Oh yeah, I'd forgot about that one. Here, catch."

Sirius caught the potion and threw one back while James was still looking at him. James put his hands out to catch it but the potion bottle flew over them, hitting his chest squarely and breaking.

"Sorry mate," Sirius said by way of apology. He was going to say more until he saw James collapse to the floor. "Jay…James!"

James didn't answer, though he could hear Sirius' cries. Coloured sparks rose from his body and hovered there for a few moments before settling back in. James' eyes opened and the first thing saw was Sirius' shocked face hovering above him.

"James?" It asked.

James sat up tiredly and nodded. "No, I'm the tooth fairy." His voice didn't sound like his voice, in fact it sounded quite feminine. "What the-"

Sirius began chuckling quietly, James stare at him as though to say 'what?!' Sirius' hand went into his pocket and came back with a mirror in response. "You make quite an attractive girl."

James snatched the mirror and looked at himself. "Sir…" he said quietly, nearly dropping the mirror. His hair was longer, just past shoulder-length, it also had highlights in. His eyes looked brighter, the introduction of more eyelashes added to this effect. His lips were thinner and appeared to have lipstick on. His body looked different too, thinner and more girly with small lumps forming on his chest. "What did you do to me?" he asked angrily.

Sirius shrugged. "I didn't do anything, you did it all yourself."

"Why would I want to turn myself into a girl?"

Sirius shrugged again. "How am I supposed to know? Who knows what goes on you twisted little mind." Laughter was in his voice, James wasn't happy that he was finding this so amusing.

"Sirius, you turn me back right now or I swear…"
"Mr Potter, do you have some kind of complaint?" James turned around to see Professor Jenkruss looking at him with shock. "Sorry Miss Potter."

James scowled at her while Sirius began laughing loudly. Both stopped when Jenkruss looked at them sharply.

"Mr Potter, I suggest you head up to the Hospital Wing and see if Doctor Nedalski can reverse your transformation. Mr Black, please continue with your detention."

Both boys did as they were told, knowing better than to argue with the woman.

Doctor Nedalski had never seen anything like it before; he had no idea how to reverse it. He did tell James that it probably temporary and would go when the potion had run its course, until then he would just have to deal with it. It was the next day now and he had to eat, down in the Great Hall, in front of people. 'Can this day get any worse?' he thought miserably as people stared at him as though he were a crazy man or began laughing openly at his appearance. Ignoring them he sat down, just as he did so the owl post came. A letter dropped in front him, he recognized the writing immediately. Groaning he opened it and read.

--------

Lily smirked as she saw James the girl enter the Great Hall. Laughing quietly she saw the owl post flying in and looked over as he read the note she'd written the night before.

It'll all be over by light of the dying sun,

But make sure you don't forget this fun.

Today will be the worst of all,

With every prank, large or small.

This was the final day of her 7 Day Payback Plan, and she needed to make sure it was a good one. On top of walking around like a girl, James Potter would be on the receiving end of a few pranks. Every one of his major pranks would come back on him, very publicly and very harshly. Starting now.

--------

James was helping himself to some bacon when he had the sudden urge to get up and dance around. He did just that, from jumping on the table, to hurried twirls and even the splits, James Potter danced his heart out without even wanting to. He ended by working his way up to the staff table and grabbing hold of Professor McGonagall. A Tango later, James stopped what he was doing and stood in the middle of the Hall rooted to the spot, afraid to move in case the urge to dance came over him once more. It didn't come, but the need to kiss McGonagall did. When he did she stared at him as though she wanted to kill him, she settled for a detention.

In Herbology all the plants were transformed, turning into Albanian Pixies, identical to those he made from the chess pieces. Instead of causing chaos around the room they targeted James and only James. By the end of the lesson his clothes were torn, his long hair tatted and a mess and he was starting to fear for his life.

His next lesson was Transfiguration; he'd tried to skip lessons for the rest of the day but his friends wouldn't let him and McGonagall warned him that if he didn't turn up for any of them that day he'd have more than a detention to deal with. He wasn't sure if he was happy or not that nothing had happened in the first half of the lesson. What relief he did feel vanished as the second half of the lesson drew to a close and the animal he'd been transforming into a chalice refused to change back.

"Professor," he called.

"What, Potter?"

"This mouse, it's not turning back."

"Don't be silly Potter, of course it will." McGonagall waved her wand at the chalice but it didn't change. She tried once more, this time James tried at the same time, the chalice exploded in a mixture of metal shards and mouse fur.

"Potter!" McGonagall shouted angrily.

"It wasn't me," he protested as he wiped some fur off his shoulder.

"Funny, because I seem to remember you doing something similar to Miss Glover just last week."

James smiled as he remembered this. "I did but I didn't do it this…time." His eyes widened as he realised something. "Professor I think you should be looking at-"

Before he could point the blame the bell rang signalling the end of Transfiguration. McGonagall didn't seem to care about whom he thought as being the one to do it, all she knew was that he had been involved in a similar incident and been the culprit.

"Class is dismissed," she said over him. "And Potter, report to me tonight at 7 pm promptly."

After their break came Care of Magical Creatures. James felt pretty sure he would be safe here, but that was proved wrong when the creature they were examining, a Flobberworm of all things, bit him. Now, under normal circumstances he wouldn't have thought anything of it, but this being an herbivore creature, and given the record of mishaps today, he couldn't ignore it. His Professor dismissed his complaint that his finger was hurting, saying it was impossible that the Flobberworm had bit him, but now that James was sat in Defence Against the Dark Arts and his hand was turning a violent shade of purple, he knew he hadn't imagined it.

"Professor, I really need to go to the Hospital Wing."
Professor Sheldon looked at him. "Mr Potter, please. I am trying to teach you about vampires here."
"Yes professor, but you don't understand. Look," he held his hand up so she could see and the whole class turned too. "Eww," came the chorus of cries. Sighing, Sheldon let him go.

--------

Lily was sat in the Great Hall eating her lunch when Remus came over.

"Are you not done with this?" he asked her.

"What do you mean?" she asked a little surprised, so far she hadn't done anything James hadn't done himself.

"Lily, this is dangerous."

"Remus, please. Think about what I've done. Have I done anything precious Potter hasn't?"
Remus looked at her. "No…" he said slowly.

"Well then, why is it that what I'm doing is dangerous but when he does it, it isn't?"

Remus sighed. "Because he doesn't target one person, and he's used to the spells. He practices them before he does them."

"And so have I, so it's all ok isn't it?" She stood up angrily but he pulled her back down.

"No, it isn't. Look at yourself Lily. You're living to get even with James because of something he did over a year ago that he doesn't even realise he did."

"That is not the only reason," she argued, but she knew he was right. "I'm just trying to teach him to think before he does things. To make him see that his pranks hurt."

"And that's fine Lils, but one prank would have done. Not a week dedicated to payback." He stood up himself then and went back to sit with his friends leaving Lily to fume and think. He was right, and she was feeling guilty that James was getting so hurt, but she needed to do this. Besides, there was only one thing left for her to do, surely Remus wouldn't mind if she did that and then stopped.

--------

Potions, the last lesson of the day. True, James had escaped anything happening to him by staying in the Hospital Wing for the last couple of hours, but he wasn't expecting nothing to happen to him during this hour too. And yet, nothing did. He was starting to relax as dinner time rolled around and still nothing had happened.

He entered the Great Hall and took his usual seat, not two minutes later he found himself covered in syrup. Looking around wide-eyed he heard hooting. The evening owl post that came on Monday evenings had arrived. A swarm of owls flew in, shedding feathers and dropping letters. James, disguised as a girl and now covered in feathers so that he looked like an over-grown bird, stared at the letter in front of him, afraid to open it in case it was some kind of cursed mail. He told Sirius to open it for him and read out the message.

"It says:

The sun's passing over,

Our weeks now over.

Make sure you've learnt your lesson,

Or prepare for a whole lot more messin'

You know mate, I think you've found yourself a secret admirer."

James wasn't listening to him though as he fell to the floor for the second time in twenty-four hours. More sparks rose from his body, when these went back in again James opened his eyes, this time there was a crowd of people around him.

"Are you alright?" several asked.

James sat up and nodded. "Never better," he said, happy to find his voice back to normal. He took his own mirror out as he surveyed his appearance, finding everything back to normal, well, except for the syrup and feathers. 'It really is over,' he thought happily. "Never better," he repeated.

A/N: Ok, long chapter, I know, but I wanted to get it all fit into one. I'm not really sure where I'm going with it, because there won't be any mention of it in the next, and if it sounds rushed or there's loads of errors I'm sorry. I was doing a hundred and one things as I wrote this and it's all off the top of my head instead of copied like usual so, yeah, my apologies.

Marauders-Wzrd and Away With The Fairies Wow, I hope this was fast enough for you, and if it wasn't sorry, but it was a lot to write!