Chapter five: Five years is a long time to hate someone

James, Lily, Sirius, and Remus made their way up to Dumbledore's office. Lily suddenly grabbed James arm, causing him to stop.

"Wait. Are you guys sure you want to talk to Dumbledore about this? I mean, maybe you should try talking to Peter first before we go and make theories about something we don't know much about." Lily said, looking up at him. There was something different though, her eyes weren't filled with hate. They were filled with concern. Or maybe she was just scared.

"What do you mean? Did you not just hear them? The mentioned You-Know-Who, that's something big Lily." James argued.

"I know. But can't you guys at least TALK to Peter about it? Please? Just before we go charging into Dumbledore's office, we need to be sure the facts. And anyways, how do you even know it's Peter? It really didn't sound like him to me." Lily said, trying to reason with him. She knew Dumbledore was one of the strongest Wizards, she was sure that he would notice anything before a couple of 16 year old kids did.

James sighed. "Fine, we'll talk to him about it."

Lily smiled. Something was bothering her. For some reason, James wasn't getting on her nerves or anything. Maybe it was the seriousness of what had just happened, or maybe he was actually maturing. Sirius and Remus, who were standing there the whole time, not wanting to interrupt, finally spoke.

"Hey, if were not going to go to Dumbledore's we should probably get back to McGonagall's office, James and Sirius still have detention." Remus told them.

"There's a problem. Snape just ran off to his Common Room."Sirius said, a little annoyed that Snape had gotten away with not having to serve detention.

Lily smiled at them. "Don't worry. I'll take care of it."

The three of them stared at her in shock.

"Wow," Sirius said, looking thoroughly shocked, "Lily Evans doing something nice for the Marauders? Your supposed to hate us and turn us in, remember?"

"Yeah, well, it took awhile, but I guess you guys aren't that bad. So I'm giving you a break for once. Now get back to the common room before a change my mind!" Lily said. And with that, she turned around and began to head toward McGonagall's office.

The three Marauders began walking toward the common rooms. This was definitely an interesting night. "So you think we did the right thing?" Remus asked quietly, "Not going to Dumbledore, I mean."

"Yeah," James nodded, "we should just ask Wormtail about it anyways."

"Hey," Sirius said, a bit loudly, then after dropping his voice down, he said, "We never did give our annual Slytherin welcome prank, remember?"

James and Remus faces lit up. James grinned. "And I have the perfect idea, too."

"Knew you would, Prongs old pal." Sirius said happily, thumping his friend on the back.

James looked out the window. The sky was getting a bit darker, but he could still see a trace of light. "Were going to need the Invisibility Cloak though." He said. Sirius was being so enthusiastic about this, he reminded James of a little kid. "Come on. We should probably wait until after hours." James whispered, as they made their way toward the common room.

Lily Evans had just finished talking to McGonagall and was heading back to the common room herself. She wasn't really paying attention to where she was going, she was just lost in her own thoughts. She didn't exactly understand why she was being nice to James and his friends. Well, Remus was actually kind and sweet; she actually had a bit of a crush on him. Sirius may have been a player but he was still fun to talk to. So, when it got down to it, she figured that the only Marauder she didn't like was James Potter.

She noticed he was acting a little different too. She had thought that all the times he had asked her out was because she was probably the only girl that would refuse to go out with him. Lily didn't think he actually cared. But now, well, she was starting to think otherwise. Maybe there was a slight possibility that he, James Potter, actually cared for her. But then her mind wandered back to Remus, and she could feel herself blushing.

"What's a little Mudblood like you doing out here all by herself?" She heard someone drawl behind her. She quickly whipped out her wand and turned around. She found herself face to face with a hooded figure.

"Who are you?" She breathed, and was pleased to hear that her voice sounded strong.

"You'll find out in time." He said, then he let out a laugh, turned on his heel, and ran. Lily quickly took off after him.

"Get back here!" she yelled after him.

James, Sirius, and Remus walked into their dormitory to find Peter there, sitting on his bed. The three looked at eachother, then walked over to him.

"Hey, Peter," James greeted, walking up to him, "you haven't noticed anything weird going on in the castle lately, right? And where have you been this whole time?"

Peter looked a little confused, then replied, "No, I haven't noticed anything weird going on. I've also been up here this whole time, waiting for you guys. Whatever happened to that prank we were going to do?"

James looked at Peter, then chuckled. Who was he kidding? Peter obviously wasn't lieing, he knew his friend. He then began to explain that he had a prank in mind, and they were about to put it into action. James then walked over, grabbed his Invisibility Cloak, and the four of them got under it and headed out. They Common Room was pretty empty, except for Emma, who was dozing in an armchair near the fire.

"What do you think she's doing?" Remus asked quietly, pointing to Emma.

"Probably waiting for Lily." James whispered back.

"Come on! Let's hurry up! I've been waiting all summer for this!" Sirius said, looking very exciting. The three on them chuckled at Sirius, opened the portrait, and started toward the Potions dungeon.
Lily didn't even see it coming, she had no time to defend herself. She turned a corner, and to her horror, the cloaked figure turned around, whipped out his wand, and muttered a spell. Lily had her wand in front of her, but her mind hadn't registered what had happened. The last thing she saw a a blue flashing light, she screamed, then her world turned black.
The Marauders had turned the corner, and saw Lily running the opposite way.

"What's Evans doing?" Sirius asked aloud.

James took out his wand, something wasn't right. His friends gave him curious looks. Lily turned the corner and they heard her scream. They heard a thump that sounded an awful lot like a body falling to the ground. Whipping off the cloak, James ran toward Lily's voice with his wand held high in font of him. He stuffed the cloak in his bag and heard his friends running right behind them.

They quickly turned a corner. Neither James or his friends were able to defend themselves, everything happened so fast. The last thing James saw was Lily on the floor, a cloaked figure with his wand out. The person muttered something, there was a huge blue light, and James knew no more...
Lily slowly opened her eyes. Her head hurt so bad. She looked around her surroundings, and saw that she wasn't in her own bed. The room was filled with tons of beds all lined up on the walls. She looked around and to her surprise, she saw all four Marauders laying in the beds across. None of them were awake.

"Lily!" she heard someone shriek. Lily turned her head only to be greeted by Emma giving her a big hug.

"I'm so happy your okay!" Emma cried, her voice a but muffled.

"Yeah..me too. Do you have any idea what happened?" Lily asked curiously.

"I was hoping you could tell me that. I was waiting for you in the common room, it was around midnight and you still weren't back from you prefect duties. I went out to look for you, I turned a corner near the Potion dungeons, and I saw you and the Marauders laying there. I ran to the Hospital Wing, and Madam Pomfrey took it over from there." Emma explained.

Lily tried to remember what had happened. "Emma, the only thing I remember is being in detention with James, Sirius, Snape, and Remus. Then Remus and Snape got in a fight. I can't remember everything, but after that, me and the Marauders were supposed to go tell someone something, but thought better of it. I can't remember anything else." She said.

"Well, I know the Marauders didn't attack you, because their out cold to. Oh man, Amy Kimbrell isn't going to be happy. She's the Quidditch captain, remember? We were supposed to have practice today." Emma told Lily, starting to look a bit worried.

"We wouldn't ever miss a Quidditch practice!" said a cheery voice behind them. Emma and Lily turned around to see a very giddy Sirius grinning at them. James, Remus, and Peter were also coming around.

"Aw, my head hurts." James moaned, holding his head.

"I'm not surprised. With that big head of yours and your big ego. I guess it finally hit the max." Lily said coldly.

"Not now, Evans." James groaned, falling back on the pillow.

"Hey," Remus said loudly, not wanting to hear another row from Lily and James, "Do you guys remember anything that happened?"

His three friends shook their heads.

"That's odd.." Lily muttered.

"Hey! I forgot. We still have a prank to play on the Slytherins!" Sirius said, getting all excited again.

"Calm down, Padfoot. I don't think we'll make it down to breakfast, and who knows if Madam Pomfrey is going to let us out by lunch, but if we are, we'll be sure to let the Slytherins know how much we missed them." James said smirking.

Lily sighed. Nothing could stop them from playing pranks on the Slytherins. Emma giggled. Madam Pomfrey walked into the room. She looked around at her patients.

"Well," she said, "let's have a look at all of you."

"Madam Pomfrey, are we going to be out of here soon?" Lily asked politely. This was one of her first times in the Hospital Wing.

"We'll see." She said.
Lily and Emma were headed towards their Divination class. The two of them climbed up the ladders and made themselves comfortable at a table. There was a crystal ball in front of them, tell them they were obviously starting crystal ball gazing.

"Good afternoon," their teacher, Professor Gilham, greeted them, "we will be starting on crystal-gazing. Please have a look in your crystal, concentrate, and See what you can."

Lily looked in it. After a minute or two though, she was starting to get bored. She looked around the room and saw the Marauders in deep conversation. No doubt planning their prank on the Slytherins.

'James is so immature,' Lily caught herself thinking, 'even if he is cute, really cute, really really cute.'

"Lily, why are you grinning so much?" Emma asked, looking a bit concerned.

Lily quickly jumped out of her thoughts, disgusted for even thinking of that. "Nothing." She muttered. She got through five years without having a single crush on him, why was it all of a sudden becoming so hard? Lily then thought of Remus, and could feel herself blushing.

Emma looked over at her friend. 'What's Lily doing?' Emma thought. She then decided to forget about it and tried hard to keep her concentration up while staring at the crystal ball.
Instead of even trying to stare into that stupid ball, James and his friends decided to talk about the prank they were planning.

"—got the ingredient and everything." Sirius was muttering.

"Good. Now all we have to do is slip it into their marmalade during dinner. By the way, do you have any idea what those do?" Remus asked.

"No," Sirius said grinning, "I just grabbed a whole bunch of potions from the dungeons."

"Make sure you don't poison them." Remus said seriously. Sirius smirked.

James looked over and Lily and noticed her blushing. 'She's so perfect.' He thought. 'How can she hate me so much? I've been trying so hard to get her to like me, and I don't even get a special glance.'

At that moment, Lily did take a glance over at his table. Only it wasn't at him she was looking at. James turned around to see who she was looking at, but only saw Remus. James turned back to Lily and noticed her going even more red now.

'No way.' He thought, his throat seemed to close up, 'Lily likes MOONY?? This can't be possible..no..I'm just imagining it.' James thought desperately.

"Hello??" Someone was waving their hand in his face. He turned around to Remus again.

"Earth to Prongs. Are you in on this or not?" Remus was saying.

James then smiled, even though his heart felt like it was breaking. "You bet." He said, pushing the thought of Lily and James in the back of his head.

A/N. Hi, SweetMimi here. I'm hoping you liked this Chapter. Okay, in all the beginning chapters, I know it was hard to tell if scenes were changing and everything. I just want to apologize for that.

But I'm learning as I'm going! Trying my best. So, til next chapter, see you and review please!