"To success!" James declared raising his fizzing whizzbee.

A small token of triumph for their successful undetected escape of Honeydukes. James had left two galleons on the counter and on the way out each boy had grabbed a sweet of some kind. James' was a fizzing whizzbee, Sirius' a chocolate frog, Remus had a simple sugar quill and Peter a toffee broom.

"Success?" Remus asked in awe. "We were lucky to get out of there unnoticed."

"But we did, so stop being such a woman."

Though they were laughing and joking about it, the truth was that they all knew Remus was right.

They were unsure who came up with the idea first and, their minds being so in tune with each others, it is possible the idea came simultaneously to all of them. Whichever, the four boys hid behind piles of boxes at the same time. Just in time too, because at that moment a man entered the room and began stacking boxes onto a trolley. He was working his way around the room, taking a box of each product and slowly heading towards the Marauders when a shrill voice was heard.

"Arn, jus' bring what ya got, it'll have to do. I can' stay up 'ere alone."

The man flinched but obliged his wife, turning the trolley and heading back up the stairs, kicking them twice to turn them into a ramp for easy access of the trolley. When he was half-way up the ramp he turned back, shaking his head and continued back up. He had thought he heard a noise, but when he had turned back he saw no one, so decided he was hearing things in his old age. What he had heard was Sirius kicking boxes in his eagerness to stand up. Luckily, Remus had dragged him down before the man turned around and James had delivered a sound warning blow to his friends arm for his blatant stupidity.

They waited another five minutes before they moved again, and even when no one else came down they were cautious as they left.

"Whatever," Remus said, standing up. "We've done it now, shall we look around?"

And so the Marauders set off to look around Hogsmeade, a town they would come to know better than their own house.

--------

Left, right, turn and breathe. Left, right, turn and breathe. Left, right, turn and breathe. The words pounded in Lily's head with each stroke. Left arm, right arm, turn head and take a breath. She repeated this mantra, no longer noticing the icy briskness of the water that had shocked her at first. She loved to swim, that was no lie what she had written to Tae. The truth was she just didn't get out to do it very much anymore. A combination of the bitter cold Hogwarts winters and the mounting homework made her unable to get out very often. Sometimes she just needed to get out, go for a swim and escape. This was one of those times. And the time was over.

She grabbed at the grass and pulled herself onto the bank, slipping slightly but feeling a hand wrap around her wrist and dragging her up. Her eyes met two wide hazel ones and an embarrassed smile crossed her face.

"Jacob, hi," she said suddenly aware of the wet costume clinging to her skin. Embarrassment made her pick up the towel she had brought outside with her. "How have you been? We don't get to talk much anymore." ((A/N: Only one, I promise, I just need to say; Ok, so you're thinking one of two things. You're either thinking 'Who is Jacob?' or 'I thought it was James'. And if you're thinking the latter then "HE HE HE HE!!" And look below for the Jacob thing.))

"No, we don't" he agreed with a smile. Ever since Lily and Alex had their fight, Lily had little contact with her ex-best friend's boyfriend. "But I'm good, how about you?"

She smiled. "I'm good, just cold." Her teeth chattered together as she said this and he offered her his robes, which she gratefully took. "Thanks. Yeah, I'm good. It gets easier to hate a person when they take every available opportunity to make your life hell." She commented wryly.

To her surprise a escaped Jacob's mouth. "Don't I know it? Look, that's kind of what I'm out here to talk to you about." He paused then repeated, "Kind of."

Lily froze for a moment, not really surprised (what else would he want to talk to her about). No, it wasn't surprise that made her freeze, it was mild curiosity mixed with a hint of fear. What if Alex had sent him to trick her in some way? Could she take one more disappointment?

"Go on," she said. Her face was so calm and interested, but this cool demeanour was threatened by a cracking voice.

Jacob sat, waiting for her to join him before he spoke. Lily, however, busied herself in picking up her clothes as a distraction to what he had to say. Sighing, he spoke.

"Well, you see, I'm worried. Well, not worried, not really…and I don't know why I'm telling you, you don't care about her anymore, right? But…she's changed, don't you think? The girl I started going out with, she was cheery and funny, a little moody at times, but she was so caring that it didn't matter. But she's not like that anymore, you have to have noticed? She's like some kind of clone of 'Cissy…" He looked at her hopefully, pleading for her help.

Lily shivered, she really needed to dry off and get into warm clothes. That's what she put it down to anyway, that involuntary shiver. She refused to let the fact that she knew what he was saying was true, or that she was about to lie to a friend, even enter her mind.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I haven't noticed she seems the same to me. Maybe she's just trying to subtly tell you something? I'm sorry, I have to go," she concluded as another shiver ran through her.

Making sure she had her belongings she all but ran to the castle, ignoring the "Lily! Wait!" coming from behind her. As her feet pounded on the rough stone and then the cool polished floors of Hogwarts, Lily was left with one thought; why lie?

--------

The particulars were worked out, had been for a few days now, they were just waiting for the opportune moment. This was it. James was asleep, Peter was keeping watch to warn them if Frank came (they couldn't have him ruin all their hard work) and Sirius and Remus were ready with a razor and shaving cream. They had done a test a few nights previously, on a small patch of hair on James leg. How he hadn't noticed since then they weren't sure, they were just thankful he hadn't or tonight's surprise would be ruined.

Sirius shook the can, as its instructions told him to, but when it came to squeezing the foam out he was a little trouble.

"Remus, it's not working," he hissed. His hand was wrapped around the can, knuckles white from trying to squeeze it that way.

Remus had to stifle laughter when he saw Sirius' face creased in concentration, he now had two hands around the can, trying with all his might to squeeze it and retrieve the glorious foam.

"Sirius, you flobberworm-for-a-brain. Try pushing the nozzle on the top." Just to make sure Sirius was certain of what he were doing Remus did a quick demonstration.

Sirius' face changed to one of understanding then fell again.

"I don't have a pushy-thingy."

Remus rolled his eyes. "Take the lid off," he instructed slowly.

"Oh," Sirius breathed as he pulled of the lid and then pushed the nozzle. Giving a small cheer, he remarked that muggles were "quite strange creatures. Fancy creating such a complicated item just to get some foam."

"Shh!" Remus warned as James stirred in his sleep.

Putting lots of the shaving cream onto James' head, the boys set to work. It was a long job, they had to get him to roll over half-way through so they could get to the back of his head and on more than one occasion James nearly woke to find a razor in his face. But, fortunately for the boys, unfortunately for James, he slept through it and the three boys, quite tired after their hard work, went to sleep themselves.

They work to an ear-piercing scream.

--------

The very next morning Alex woke early but found it impossible to get back to sleep. She stumbled blindly to the bathroom in the dark of the room. Showered and dressed, she went downstairs and found a figure sat on a chair. A malicious smile crossed her face. She stepped closer, preparing to get her wand out.

"Before you do whatever it is you're about to do can I talk to you first?" A voice came from the figure.

Alex, a little surprised that she was noticed when the figure had their back to her, nodded without realising. "Sure, Lillers. Two minutes."

Alex could hear Lily take in a sharp calming breath before words filled the room.

"I was talking to Jacob yesterday and I feel I should warn you now, so you can change and stop it," Lily said.

Her words made no sense to Alex.

"And, well, he doesn't like the way you're acting. In fact, he said that unless you change, and fast, he won't be going out with you for much longer."

Alex snorted. "Yeah, right. And why would he tell you that? We're not even friends anymore; you have no influence over me."

Lily shrugged. "Who knows, maybe he thought I would be able to help you remember how you used to be. Or maybe he was trying to gauge my reaction, to see how I would take the news of the possibility he would be single."

Alex's eyes narrowed. "And why would he do that?"

To her annoyance Lily shrugged and smiled a smirk of someone who more than they're sharing. "How should I know? He's your boyfriend. But he did help me out and he gave me his robes." With that she got up and left the common room and left the irate Alex to figure out her secret meaning.

'He wouldn't dump me. He wouldn't. I wouldn't let him, and why would he want to anyway? I've been the perfect girlfriend to him, always done what he wanted me to. No, he wouldn't dump me, unless…Oh. That's not possible is it? She can't really have been telling me he wants to dump me for her. Eww! She's lying; she's got to be…"

Still, as much as her thoughts told her it wasn't possible, she couldn't get rid of the nagging feeling. She charged upstairs, looking for the robes Lily had mentioned.

Lily walked down to the Great Hall, a small smile on her face. She knew she had got Alex paranoid and Jacob's robe lying on her bed, ready for Alex to find wouldn't help. But whatever triumph she should have felt was countered by one word screaming in her head; "LIAR!"

A/N: Wicked Lily. Wicked. But it's important in this chapter. You need to see the lies so we remember she's not perfect, and you need to see the guilt she feels at lying to someone she's not even friends with because later, much later, she's going to lie to someone who's a lot closer to her. Imagine how that's going to tear her apart.

And about Jacob, he's never been a proper character before I don't think. He's been mentioned though, if you don't remember, Chapter 7, Chapter 10 and Chapter 13.

How is everyone? I'm thinking about doing something, I don't know what. Maybe have like a little quiz or something. Ask you all questions and the first person to get it right gets the next chapter dedicated to them. What do you think?

Oh, and thanks for getting me to 50 Reviews :D

Rae