A/N: Well…it improved a bit in this chapter and then died away again…bah!

Disclaimer I do not own Harry Potter

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James muttered some very vivid curses, kicking the bedpost. "I can't believe we forgot about our detentions!" he yelled. Lily sat uncomfortably on Remus's bed safe from James's wrath.

"There's nothing we can do," she shrugged, nonchalant at the fact that they had 50 points taken from Gryffindor and three Saturdays of detentions.

"Merlin! How can you not care?" he asked.

"Because it's better not to regret. Life moves on, whether we're ready or not. It won't wait for us to get over something before it throws something else at us."

Remus smiled at Lily. "She's deep, that one."

"Why BELLATRIX?" Sirius whined again.

"Oh shove off, Sirius," Lily groaned. "She's not BAD."

"She's not BAD," Sirius mimicked. "Only if you look beyond the muggle-hating, cousin-cursing, selfish twit she is. She'll probably become a Death Eater!"

"Sirius!" Lily exclaimed. "Bellatrix is perfectly NICE. She wouldn't DREAM of doing something like that!"

James burst out laughing. "You don't know anything about the Black's, do you?" he asked.

Lily carefully chose not to respond, but watched the sky slowly darken outside. "I promised Alice and Amelia that I'd help them with our Herbology homework," she said, not waiting for a good-bye.

"She can be very rude sometimes," Peter said, watching the door slowly close behind her.

"She's got a fiery personality is all," James retorted in defense for Lily. "It's not a bad thing to have."

'It is if you're a girl," Sirius glared. There was a pause the he broke by saying, "Why Bellatrix?"

Three pillows went flying at his head.

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Amelia yawned widely and noticeably, seeing that it was nearing midnight.

"Please can we just not BOTHER?" she begged Lily, who continued searching through her book for the uses of a rhododendron bush, but to no avail. Bellatrix was already asleep on the floor and Alice was nowhere to be found. "Alice was the only one who needed help and she's not even here!"
"Where is she anyway?" Lily asked, finally giving up and putting the book down.

"Probably off with Frank." A disgusted look crossed Amelia's face. "I caught them KISSING once. I'll never be the same again."

"Oh ha-ha," Alice's voice came from the doorway. "That's very funny, Amelia. Rather hilarious." She came over by them and whimpered slightly.

"What's wrong?" Lily asked her worriedly.

"Frank's uncle just passed away, and Frank won't be able to be my date for that ball they're holding for St. Valentine's Day."

"What ball?" Lily and Amelia asked at the same time.

Alice whispered a little oops and said no more, not even when Amelia began shaking her thoroughly, attempting to force information out of her.

"Frank's a prefect, isn't he?" Lily asked, putting one and one together, "and being a prefect, he'd know if there were any social events, oh, such as a ball. And he wouldn't DREAM of keeping that information from his lovely girlfriend."

Alice frowned. "You're just a little too smart for your own good," she whined.

"There's going to be a ball?" Amelia asked, raising an eyebrow at Alice.

"I'm not saying anything," she stubbornly replied.

Amelia sighed with defeat, poking Bellatrix in the stomach. The half-asleep girl growled angrily and shuffled to her bed, threatening horrible things to anyone who disturbed her.

Too bad the Marauders didn't hear these threats.

Almost the instant Bellatrix's head hit the pillow, the door banged open. Sirius and James (followed by red-eyed Remus and Peter) trudged in.

"This IS the girl's dormitory, you realize," Lily scowled, not at all pleased by this sudden appearance.

Bellatrix obviously wasn't either. She pounced on Sirius's back and began whamming his head with a clock. As funny as it looked, Lily pitied Sirius for not having better judgment on the female population. Meaning, of course, they liked sleep.

"STUPID, ILL-FAVORED, DAMNED COUSIN OF MINE!" she shrieked when Alice pried her off.

"Merlin, Bella!" Sirius exclaimed, holding his head protectively. "That's going to hurt in the morning."

"What do you WANT?" Lily growled, suddenly feeling very tired.

James, who had kept quiet up to this point, grabbed her arms and pulled her up towards the door. "We want to show you something."

"WE?" Remus croaked. "You and Sirius were the ones who couldn't wait until morning." He let out a wide yawn to prove that he wasn't enjoying the situation any more than the girls were. Sirius merely stuck his tongue out.

"Come on, Lillers!" he smiled. "We need your help anyway."

Lily's temper flared. She was tired, cranky, and annoyed to the point where she might have blown Sirius up.

Bella would love that.

"No," was her answer. "By the sounds of it, this can wait until AFTER I'm well-rested and in the proper condition to face you."

"Fine then," James smiled cockishly. "We refuse to leave until you come with us."

At this, Amelia, Alice, and Bellatrix roared at Lily to leave.

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"You made this all by yourselves?" Lily gaped.

"Yup," James proudly replied. "And, since you're the greatest at charms, we were hoping you would charm it so that only certain people can…unravel its mystery."

"Who would those certain people be?"

"Well," Sirius chimed in, "us Marauders, future Marauders, and anyone else who wants to create havoc upon this world. Well, at least upon Hogwarts."

Lily stared at Sirius with an expression that clearly stated she disapproved.

"Please, Evans?" James pleaded. "Lovely Evans? Wonderful Evans? Merciful Evans? Do you want me to get down on my knees and begin kissing your feet and worshipping the ground you walk on?"

"You already do that, Potter." Lily looked at the map she was holding, a perfect one of Hogwarts with dots labeling each and every individual there was within school grounds.

"We made it years ago," Remus said, "but recently someone found it and almost turned it in. We'd rather not have to explain it to McGonagall, you understand."

All four boys stared at her with begging eyes. Lily signed in defeat.

"What do you want the…uh…'password' to be?"

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Monday, January 10

Dear Mother and Father,

The reason I am writing this letter is to ask a favor of you. Every year during spring holidays, the two of you visit another country, leaving me to stay at Hogwarts.

However, this year a friend of mine has invited me (and three of his closest friends) to stay with him at his parent's manor.

Now, your first reaction at this will be NO, since he is a boy and, as parents, you would never allow your daughter to remain at a boy's home for a week. But take it into consideration that I can take care of myself and will be careful around him.

"What would you do if I told them you were some horny bastard whose levels of testosterone were soaring?" Lily asked, stopping her writing to look at James (innocently) in the eyes.

"Take you to my manor and live up to those standards," he smiled, just as innocently. "Besides, I'm not a bastard. I have a father."

"Right, mental note to never repeat with I just said…" She turned back to the letter, finding she had nothing more to write. "Might as well send it," she sulked. They'll most likely say no."

"They're muggles, right?" James asked rhetorically. "Well we could just charm the letter so that it seems as if they said yes instead, and then you'd show them it. They can't say that you were told no when it's in writing that they said it was quite fine."

"Pathetic," Lily mumbled.

"What?" James exclaimed.

"I meant that it's pathetic that someone with a much lower level of intelligence than me thought that up."

She regretted those words.