I don't own JK Rowling's Harry Potter, but I own this fanfiction. ;-)

Chapter 4: The Operation Begins

James stomped up the staircase leading to the Gryffindor Common Room after dinner had ended. "What did you do to me, Padfoot?" he demanded.

Sirius frowned. "What did I do to you?" he asked, confused.

"Was it a spell? Charm? Potion? Did you slip something into my pumpkin juice?" James asked.

"What are you talking about, Prongs?"

James turned around looking furious and exasperated. "There must have been some sort of spell you used on me to make me sing that song. I sure as hell didn't sing it myself!"

Sirius looked befuddled. "That wasn't you? I didn't put anything in your pumpkin juice, mate. I thought that you were just trying out another way to ask Evans out, so I went along with it to get everyone's attention. I thought the song was brilliant."

Remus cleared his throat. He said, "The song was…erm…unique." Peter snickered.

James swore out loud. "I didn't that song on my own! I mean, it was like: One minute I'm eating dessert and the next, I can't help but getting on top of the table and singing as loud as I possibly can. I didn't even know that song until I sang it! And Evans didn't look at all pleased." He paused. "Although, I must say, the song was truly excellent." Remus rolled his eyes, but no one saw him, thankfully. Sirius grinned, and Peter nodded. James implored, "So none of you put any sort of spell or charm on me at dinner just now?"

The other three Marauders shook their heads. "Fine!" said James grumpily. He knew that his best friends wouldn't lie to him, but it was equally frustrating to know that someone had put a spell on him. He didn't know who did it. If this was someone's idea of a prank, it was pretty useless, wasn't it? After all, most of Gryffindor House had cheered James on! Forget Evans, he was still one of the most popular boys at school, and this gave James much more satisfaction than it should have.

James went on, "Just forget it, then. I'm sure that Evans is ticked at me, but what's new? There are more important things to worry about. Like our plans for Halloween. Fiddlesticks." This was the Gryffindor password.

The Fat Lady replied to the four boys. "Fiddlesticks, indeed!" The giant portrait swung open and the Marauders climbed into the portrait hole. James looked around to see if Lily was in the circular Common Room and was relieved to see that she was not. Many students were dispersed in the room, but it was fairly quiet there with only a buzz of whispers.

Remus said, "Let me get my books, and we'll talk about Halloween while we do our Potions essay."

Sirius gaped at him. "That's due next week…After Halloween, mate."

Remus looked around cautiously. No one was close enough to hear him. He whispered, "Yes but, Halloween is Saturday, and I'm very busy that day."

Both James and Sirius realized instantly that Remus was talking about the full moon, and they jumped up with their fists in the air and whooped. Remus instantly regretted mentioning it, because people were beginning to stare at them.

A dark haired girl with blue eyes actually dropped her books because of James' and Sirius' sudden outburst. James recognized her as the petite fourth-year girl who supposedly was head-over-heals in love with Sirius Black. James smirked at Sirius.

Sirius, who was now very uncomfortable because he figured that the girl had probably been staring at him since the moment he stepped inside the room, turned back to Remus and said, "Right, I totally forgot!"

Remus gave him a dangerous look. "Shh!"

Peter said, "Right, so, let's get our books now." The boys retrieved their books and quills from their dormitory and found an empty table in the Common Room to work together. Remus convinced them that it would be wise for them to start their Veritaserum essay, too. As they worked, they discussed their plans for Halloween.

A few hours later, at around 8:45, Remus closed his books and informed the other boys that he had to patrol the corridors for a bit. "Oh, and Wormtail and Padfoot, Professor McGonagall wants to see you at 9 O'clock in her office."

Sirius asked, "Why?"

Remus shrugged. "I don't know, but I'm betting it has something to do with the Babbling Curse you two put on for Walu Walibunga today in class!"

Sirius, Peter, and James laughed. "Wormtail's right, though. She had it coming. She never stops gossiping. It's quite annoying."

James said indignantly, "I don't remember you guys doing that. Where was I?"

"Dunno.You were probably late to class." answered Peter.

Remus said. "I was supposed to send the message, but I'm patrolling the same corridor that leads to her office. We could go together if you wanted."

Sirius closed his books. "Sure."

The three boys said goodbye to James and walked out of the Common Room. As they began walking, Remus said quietly, "McGonagall didn't call for you."

Sirius grinned. "I knew that. There's no way Walu would've told on us. She had no idea that we cursed her."

Peter added in, "I was wondering about that!"

Remus looked at his two friends gravely. "I heard you singing in the shower this morning, Padfoot."

Sirius said sheepishly, "Now, Moony. Don't you think it's a bit inappropriate to watch me in shower, mate?"

Remus smiled but went on, "I said I heard you. I wasn't watching you. To be quite honest, I think that images that you imprinted into all of our minds by streaking through the dormitory in our third year are enough to last a lifetime. I never want to see you naked again."

Sirius looked outraged. "I wasn't streaking. I had gotten shampoo in my eyes and James had Vanished my towel!" Peter and Remus both burst out into laughter.

Sirius was wide-eyed with disbelief. "I was not streaking! I swear!"

Peter joked, "Sure, sure. That's your story and you're sticking to it."

Remus, wiping a tear from his eyes, said, "It's quite strange, Sirius, but the song that you were singing this morning sounded just like the one that our dear friend James was singing at dinner."

Sirius smirked. "Ohhh. That's what you were getting at."

Peter said, "Sirius didn't tell you about that?"

Remus said, "No, he didn't." He turned to Sirius. "I figured it was you, though. You're still going to trying to make Lily go out with James, aren't you?"

Sirius exclaimed, "Of course I am, mate!"

Remus sighed, giving up on trying convincing Sirius out of this. "So what did you do?"

Sirius grinned devilishly. He pulled a small vial of blue liquid from within his black robe. "I did put something in James' pumpkin juice tonight. It's Singing Potion. I bought it from Zonko's a few months ago. I charmed it today to sing the song, but I was actually creating the song this morning when you overheard me. After I charmed it, I slipped some in Prongs' juice. And the next thing you know, he's serenading everybody in the Great Hall – including Ev- I mean, Lily."

Remus snapped at Sirius, "But it didn't really do the right thing, did it? Lily looked repulsed by the song!"

Peter said, "Yeah, she really didn't look too happy about it, Padfoot." Then Peter turned to Remus. "I created the diversion at dinner so Padfoot could put the potion in Prong's drink. Remember when I dropped my mashed potatoes?"

Remus answered, "Oh yeah."

Sirius said regretfully, "It didn't work though. I thought that she'd love being sung to!"

Remus shook his head. "Sirius Black, I sometimes wonder how you can be so thick and still have such a long list of girlfriends!"

"What?" Sirius asked loudly. "What's wrong with me?"

Remus sighed. "If you two are going to help James win over Lily, you're going to have to go about it the right way."

Sirius cut in and said impatiently, "That's why we wanted you help, Moony!"

Remus replied, "Well, I'm helping now, aren't I?"

Sirius grinned, and teased. "I knew you'd come around eventually."

Remus rolled his eyes and retaliated, "Well, if I didn't, who knows what brilliant ideas you two would come up with."

Peter scowled. Sirius stuck his chin up. "Actually, I have a new plan for Operation Emerald Arrogance. It's fool-proof, and even you will like it Moony. It's –"

Remus cut him off. "Operation what?"

Peter answered. "Operation Emerald Arrogance. Sirius told me all about it today before lunch."

Sirius smiled. "Do you like it? I thought of the name all by myself!"

Remus paused. "Emerald because Lily has green eyes, and Arrogance because James is -"

"No, no, no! It has nothing to do with James. Lily's the arrogant one for refusing to go out with him. Thus, we have Emerald Arrogance."

Remus bit his tongue. He loved his best friend James like a brother, but he knew that both James and Sirius could be very vain at times. Of course, they themselves didn't realize it, but Remus appreciated his friends all too well to point it out. He replied. "All right, Sirius, count me in on this Operation. But just remember – this stays between the three of us. No one else knows about it, and we all have to approve of the plans for this operation!"

Sirius raised his right hand and stated, "Maruauder's honor." Peter and Remus followed suit.

Sirius rubbed his hands together while muttering, "This is great. We've got Moony on our side now! Excellent! All right, boys. Here's my new plan..."

That night, before going to bed, Sirius opened James' bed curtains. He shook James to get him to wake up. "Prongs! Prongs!"

James did not stir. "Prongs! James!" Sirius shook him even harder, causing the whole bed to shake. "James Potter, wake up!" Still, James did not so much as twitch.

Sirius thought for a moment. Then, he leaned down and spoke loudly into James' right ear. "Would you look at that! Lily Evans is standing naked in Common Room downstairs right now!"

It worked. In a split second, James Potter shot up out of bed, pulled his curtains open, and ran for his dormitory door. Regretting he had ever said that, Sirius barely caught the back of James' shirt to pull him back. "I was kidding! She's not there!"

James, half-awake and half-deranged, pushed Sirius away, "Getawayfrome!"

Sirius held on tighter to James and whispered. "I was lying, James! Wake up! Lily is not downstairs! I repeat LILY IS NOT NOT STANDING NAKED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE COMMON ROOM!"

Finally James focused his eyes on Sirius, but his mouth was still hanging open. There was a dim lamp lit in the far end of the room, but it gave enough illumination to show that James was very angry. Luckily, Sirius was about two inches taller than James and he stared down at James and said, "Well, what do you expect me to do? You sleep like a bear!"

James snapped, "Well, you don't have to go yelling about naked girls to make me wake up!"

Sirius correct, with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. "Girl. One girl, mate. This is second time you've reacted like that. I'm beginning to think that you have a slight infatuation for Ev- I mean, Lily."

James' face turned tomato red. "Shut it, Sirius. What did you wake me up for?"

Sirius shrugged. "Well, I was just looking under my bed and I found all these candies from Honeydukes that we stole two weeks. I thought I had left them in the passageway."

"And?"

"And I was going to suggest that you give them to Lily as a present when you apologize for the song you sang at dinner," Sirius said cautiously.

"Padfoot, I already told you, that I didn't sing that on purpose. There's no way I'm going to apologize for that!" James cried.

Sirius pleaded, "But there's no way that Lily knows, she'll never believe that you didn't do that. Just pretend like you're sorry. If you act sincere, she may like that."

"But I'm not going to be sincere if I apologize about something that wasn't my fault!" James said through gritted teeth.

Sirius went on, "But I'm sure she'll think it was really nice that you thought of her enough to apologize. And a gift basket of sweets would definitely help."

James sat on the edge of his bed and thought about the idea. "It might work. She might even if go out with me if I'm nice to her and I buy her things."

"So you'll do it?"

James looked up at his best friend regretted ever snapping at him. "Yeah, I think I will. First thing tomorrow morning. Thanks for the idea, mate."

Sirius grinned. "That's what friends are for!"

The next morning, James was sitting and waiting for Lily in an armchair by the fireplace. He had showered, dressed, and put his gift basket together for Lily early so he could catch her in the morning.

Groggy students came down from their dormitories in ones and twos, and James sat there waiting impatiently for Lily. Finally, he saw her coming down the stairs on her own. Upon seeing her, he grinned.

When she noticed James standing up to talk to her, Lily just glared and gave him the I-dare-you-to-talk-to-me look.

James overlooked that. "Hey Evans. How are you?"

Lily turned to him and narrowed her green eyes. "Leave me alone, Potter."

James went on quickly. "I just wanted to apologize for the stunt I pulled last night." He forced his expression to look very solemn.

Lily, who was walking away, turned around with a look of surprise on her face.

James, noticing that this apologizing stuff was working, went on. Staring willfully at his shoes, he said in a faltering voice, "Yeah, I..er..didn't mean to embarrass you in front of the whole school and it was pretty obnoxious to sing that song."

He had rehearsed what he was going to say to her many times with Sirius the night before, so he was especially pleased to see that his work had paid off. He looked up to see that Lily didn't look angry or upset anymore. He finished, "I'm really sorry."

Lily said with a half-smile. "It's all right, I guess. Thank you for the apology."

James grinned. "No problem. Oh, and here. I got this for you. To make up for the singing." He handed the large, extravagant, and beautiful basket of Honeydukes chocolates over to Lily, who accepted it with a look of surprise.

"Oh, thank you." She said. "You, uh, shouldn't have."

James waved the basket away. "It was nothing, you know." He gave her his winning smile.

She smiled back, but still looked like she was at a loss for words. There was an awkward silence.

James figured that this was a perfect time to ask her. "So, I was wondering what you were doing on Halloween. I mean, maybe you'd like to go to Hogsmeade with me."

Before Lily could reply (for she had opened her mouth to speak), James went on. "I could, you know, buy you new robes. I messed up those with the Exploding Snap cards, so I really should buy you new robes. I owe you."

Lily replied instantly, "No it's fine. I don't need you to buy me new robes. Kids at Hogwarts burn and mess up their robes all the time. I can get them on my own, thanks."

James said, "No it's fine." He added in a deeper voice, "I am rich, you know. Robes are nothing. I get new ones all the time. Just let me buy you new ones." He smiled flirtatiously, and said arrogantly, "I can buy you anything you want. Just go out with me."

Lily wasn't smiling anymore. In fact, she wasn't thinking anymore either. In a flash of seconds, the entire contents of her gift basket were poured over James' head. Lily then shoved the basket violently into James' chest, knocking the wind out of him, "No thank you, Potter! I don't need you or your stupid money!"