Chapter 5 Halloween nightmare

Two days after the incident in the Dungeons, Lily Evans walked into the Great Hall with her friend Emma. She couldn't help but look over at the Marauders, and noticed that they looked oddly happy. She had barely sat down, and just as she was pulling her plate toward her, there was a laughter coming from all around the Hall. She turned around toward the Slytherin table. Random students were yelling out embarrassing information. Lucious Malfoy admitted that he was afraid of the dark, a Slytherin girl admitted that she was in love with Sirius Black, which shocked Lily, since most Slytherins hated the Marauders. Severus Snape also stood up, only Lily wished she wasn't there to hear it.

"I am in love with Lily Evans!" Snape shouted, a second later looking shocked at himself. The Hall went quiet for a moment, then broke into laughter. Lily could see the Marauders laughing their stupid fat heads off. She could feel her face burning, so she quickly got and practically sprinted out of the Great Hall, with Emma at her heels.

"Lily!" Emma called after her.

Lily began ranting very loudly while walking down the corridors. "How could the Marauders play such a trick? I mean, okay, fine! It was funny to hear what Lucious had to say, but why did they have to make Snape yell that out? I don't know about you, but that's disgusting! Yes, I stick up for him, but only because i feel sorry for him! I'm going to hurt those bloody Marauders!"

"Hey, I was just as surprised as you, Evans." Said a voice that Lily hated. She quickly turned around.

"What do you want, Potter?" she asked angrily.

"No need to be rude. You said yourself you found it amusing." James said, grinning.

"Your such a prat!!" Lily screamed, "That was not funny! I'm going to get you back, whether you like it or not, Potter!"

James looked shocked for a second, but quickly recovered. He let out a laugh. "YOU?" he said, trying to control his laughter, "Little Miss Evans the Prefect? What are you playing at?"

"Oh, Potter, I'm going to have the last laugh." She said, smiling at the thought of getting him back. With that, she turned on her heel and stalked away.

The next month seemed to past abnormally fast for James and Lily. Probably because of the constant pranks they were playing on eachother. Lily had managed to turn his hair bright orange during breakfast. He had gotten her back by putting 'I love Severus Snape' on the back of her robes. She managed to put him in detention two times, but it didn't really help much. Sirius and Remus just sat back in amusement.

During that month, Sirius managed to get his Potions project done without cursing Snape. They had mange to get an 'O'. Time was going by so quickly, that before they knew it, Halloween was coming up. The day of Halloween, however, James was waken up most unpleasanltly.

"JAMES!! Wake up!" Sirius yelled happily, trying to wake his friend. James just moaned while stuffing his pillow on top of his head.

"Didn't want to do this." Sirius sighed. He jumped on James and began tickling him.

"PADFOOT!" James yelled out, while laughing. He began laughing so hard his sides were seriously hurting. After three minutes of this, James grabbed his pillow and threw it at Sirius, making him fall on to the floor. James got up and rubbed his eyes.

"I think a couple of first years down in the common room didn't hear you prats screaming. You must've woken up most everyone in the Gryffindor Tower." Remus said sleepily, but looking amused all the same.

James got out of bed, but after looking at the clock, he let out a yelp.

"Sirius! It's only five in the morning!" James yelled, looking at his friend.

Sirius grinned up at him. "Aw, dear Prongs, did you forgot our little prank on the Slytherins? It's due to play out in fifteen mintues."

James smirked. "Almost forgot, Padfoot. Moony, Wormtail, come on."

Still in their pajamas, James grabbed his invisibility clak, and all four of them hid under it. They slowly made their way toward the Slytherin Tower. They had just gotten their, when they heard e explosions all inside the Slytherin Common room. Sirius began giggling like a little girl.

"Sirius! Did you use all of our Dungbombs?" James said in mock concern.

"Yup! It was well worth it thought!" Sirius replied.

After standing out there for five minutes, they slowly made their way back.

"Every Slytherin probably woke up in there!" James said, happily. They were all talking excitingly about their newest prank, that by the time they got to their dormitories and had dressed, it was all ready time for breakfast.

They entered the Great Hall, and after taking their seats, they looked over at the Slytherin table. Most of them still looked very tired and were grumbling to themselves. This put the Marauders in new fits of laughter. Since it was a Saturday, the Marauders walked out onto the grounds and settled themselves under a tree. Remus was reading the Daily Prophet while James, Sirius, and Wormtail just joked around.

"Oy, Moony, anything interesting in there?" Sirius asked, indicating the newspaper.

"Yeah, there was another attack." Remus said darkly. James sat up.

"On who?" James asked.

"A Muggle family. One of them was killed. Two Aurors were hurt and were transmitted to St. Mungo's." Remus replied shortly.

James suddenly felt cold.

"Hey, Prongs, were parents are Aurors, right?" Peter asked. James nodded. His parents were well-respected Aurors, and he was often scared for them.

"Don't worry, Prongs. Your parents are fine. It's Frank's Longbottom's father that was hurt." Remus said.

"Oh, man. "Sirius mumbled. James felt a bit relieved, but his out still went out to the Longbottom family.

They sat there for a few hours, talking about how terrible this whole
war was becoming, when Remus suggested that they get inside since the
feast would be starting soon.They were about to walk in, when James
turned his head, and his stomach clenched painfully at the sight he
saw.

He had stopped walking, and so did Sirius and Remus. Both looked angry
at what they saw. A group of Slytherins were in a circle, and by the
way they were laughing, they were taunting someone. As the Marauders
made their way over, they realize it was Lily.

"Little Mudblood, you had better show me some respect." Bellatrix
Black snarled.

"So respect to an ugly thing like you? I don't think I will." Lily
retorted. Malfoy took a step closer to Lily.

"Oh, trying to be brave now, are we?" Malfoy drawled.

"It's not that hard to stick up to bloody snobs like-"Lily never got
to finish her sentence, it was at that moment that Malfoy had slapped.

"Don't EVER talk to me like that again!" he told her.

That did it for James. He roughly made his way into the circle and
tackled Malfoy to the ground.

"Don't EVER touch her, you slimy git!" James yelled, while hitting
Malfoy repeatedly in the face. From the corner of his eye, he saw
Snape whip out his wand and point it at James.

"Expelliarmus!" Sirius shouted. Snape's wand quickly flew out of his
hand.

"Impedimenta!" this voice James didn't recognize. He was thrown of
Malfoy and landed painfully on his back,

"What's going on here?" McGonnagall asked, looking reproachfully at
the group. The Slytherins murmured something and quickly made their
way to the Great Hall. The Tansfiguration teacher looked at the
Gryffindors questionly.

"Um..well.." Remus stutterd, obviously not able to think of an excuse.
"Nothing." Sirius cut in, "just a little talk between Slytherins and
Gryffindors."

And with that, the Marauders and Lily made their way up to the castle.
It was when they were inside the Great Hall that Lily finally spoke.

"Well..you guys..listen..I guess I just wanted to say..thanks.
Really." Lily said while smiling at them.

"No problem." Remus said. Lily smiled even wider then ran off to join
Emma.

The Marauders sat down and began eating with everyone else. The food
was delicious.

"Stupid gits. Stupid, bloody-"Sirius muttered furiously.

"Sirius, "Remus said tiredly, putting a hand up to his head, "Not now,
okay?"

Sirius shut up after that. The mood seemed to have lightened a lot
more, since the food was so delicious, that James soon forgot about
what had happened. After it was over, the Marauders made their way
tiredly to their dormitories.

"Potter!" a stern voice yelled over the cloud.

James turned around and saw McGonagall walk toward him. "Potter," she
said sternly, though sounding a bit concerned, "Professor Dumbledore
needs you in his office right away. I need you to come with me."

She began to lead him to opposite way, up to Dumbledore's office.
James looked back at his friends. They all looked confused. James
followed McGonagall, but could occasionally hear Remus telling Sirius
to keep quiet so they wouldn't get caught. James smiled to himself.
Most likely his friends would try to overhear what Dumbledore had to
say to him. Curiosity overwhelmed James. He couldn't be in trouble,
right? Otherwise Sirius would be here to.

They came to the two gargoyles."Chocolate frogs." McGonagall said
quickly. The gargoyles jumped aside, and James walked into the office.
He saw Dumbledore, and to his shock-

"Mom? Dad?" James asked, totally bewildered. His mom, Amanda Potter,
walked over to his and hugged him tightly. Her son looked at her,
obviously confused.

"Aw, Mr. Potter. Glad you could join us. Please take a seat."
Dumbledore said kindly. James said down in a chair between his
parents.

"What's going on?" he asked. McGonagall was standing by Dumbledore's
desk, looking very serious.

"James, as you know, your parents here are very respectable Aurors.
Very powerful also. You may be shocked to hear that your parents have
been threatened by Voldemort-"Dumbledore started.

James looked at his parents in shock. "Which is why," Dumbledore
continued, "Your parents will have to go into hiding. You will stay
here of course, but you wont be aloud to owl them. We are putting the
Fidelous Charm on your house so you and Mr. Black may return there
when the holidays come."

After that, Dumbedore excused James and his parents to let them talk
outside the office. He had also wished the Potters good luck before
the exited the office. Outside, you could hear footsteps running the
opposite way, which James figured was his friends running so they
wouldn't get caught. Once outside, James turned toward his parentds.

"He threatened you?" James said, a little too loudly.

"Sh," his father, Justin Potter continued, "James, son, we were
threatened, yes. But it's not a big deal-"

"He wants to kill you, Dad!" James said despairingly, "you can't let
that happen!"

"James," his mother whispered, "we'll be fine, we promise. We had to
let you know so wouldn't owl us. We will still be at the King's Cross
Station to pick you up when the holidays come."

James looked at his parents. How were they taking this so lightly? Ten
mintues later, however, James bid his parents good-bye, and turned the
corner, only to see Sirius, Remus, and Peter standing there at a loss
for words.

"Prongs.."Sirius said quietly.

James smiled. "It's fine you guys,really." But deep down, James knew these weren't fine anymore.

A/N. Here's another chapter. Hope you liked it! Don't forget to review!

Please!