UNPRANKABLE

Chapter 7- Back To the Beginning Again

As Lily followed the four boys around yet another corner, her apprehension grew. She knew something was wrong - maybe because of the way Remus was hunched over and being supported by Peter, as if walking was extremely difficult and painful, or maybe because of the way none of the boys were joking. There was also the fact that Sirius seemed to be the only one smiling, which meant he knew something more than the others.

Suddenly, James whirled around, his eyes darting around the hallway suspiciously. Lily dodged behind a large statue of the famous witch Melinda Aberfondzle, who was fortunately a rather big-boned lady. Lily could almost feel his hazel eyes burning through the statue and staring at her. He squinted, but apparently saw nothing.

"Something's weird, guys," he whispered, his voice anxious. "Hurry up!" The four boys picked up their pace, running out of the door, Remus limping slightly and moaning softly in pain. Lily's heart went out to him – what was wrong?

She peered around the corner of the statue, and – seeing that the boys were gone – crept softly out from behind the large statue. 'That was close,' she thought as she put a hand to her chest in attempt to steady her staggered breath. A question popped into her head suddenly. 'How does James know I'm here?'

She shook off this thought and pushed through the revolving door as quietly as possible. A sudden downpour of rain met her outside, and she cursed as her hair rapidly became wet and stiflingly cold. She shivered as her eyes slowly adjusted to the sudden darkness, and she squinted into the blindingly black grounds. "Where did they go?" she whispered, confused as she saw nothing.

A sudden movement caught her eye. She stared at the cause of the movement - a large, doglike figure that was skulking around the Whomping Willow, careful not to get too close to its lethal branches. Lily gasped as a pure white stag appeared from behind a row of bushes that separated the school grounds from the forbidden forest. It's bright color stood out in the pitch black that enveloped everything else in the area. She squinted, trying to see better. The dog seemed to be carrying a boy, who was twitching rather oddly and becoming very pale. They were near the Whomping Willow, and the boy seemed to be shaking. She looked up at the sky.

A full moon.

Lily gasped as the boy fell off of the dog and began to transform, letting out an earsplitting, unmistakable howl. "Oh my gosh..." Lily's heart began to race. Lily put a hand to her mouth and hid behind a nearby tree as a fully grown werewolf stood where the boy had a few seconds before. Lily's eyes were wide and fearful. What if the boys were attacked by the werewolf? She knew James was a decent wizard, but not THAT good.

She caught sight of a small rat scurrying through the tall grass towards the willow. Her mind was churning, trying to comprehend all this information.

Four animals…four marauders…She gasped and clapped a hand to her forehead in horrible realization.

Moony.

Wormtail.

Padfoot.

Prongs.

It all made sense now - and frankly, she wouldn't have expected less of the infamous Marauders. They had way too many secrets for her to be too surprised by this one, even though being an animagus was quite a secret to keep. She was sure they weren't registered...Oh boy, were they in a mess.

She watched closely as the rat scurried to the tree trunk of the willow, dodging its limbs easily and touching a huge knot at the base of the tree. Suddenly, the whole tree stopped moving, as if frozen. She couldn't help but smile - they had all of this worked out pretty well…but then again, they would have to do this every month. The werewolf howled again, and tried to run towards the forest, its bloodshot eyes wild and uncharacteristic. However, the huge black dog - "Sirius," Lily whispered softly – jumped in front of him and shoved the humongous creature down a hole near the trunk. Lily heard a small yelp, and then Remus was gone. The dog entered the hole in the ground, the stag quickly following. Lily scrambled out from behind the tree and sprinted towards the tree, afraid that the tree would unfreeze and harm her.

A soft crunching of leaves froze Lily in her tracks. Lily whipped her head around and saw a tall figure running across the lawn to the same destination that she had. Lily strained her eyes, trying to see who the mysterious person was. Suddenly the man came into a small patch of light, and Lily recognized a familiar, greasy face - Snape. Snape nervously took a small scrap of parchment out of his cloak pocket and read over it, his long, yellow fingers trembling and smoothing out the wrinkles in the letter. He dropped it, and, with a new sort of confidence, strode towards the hole in the tree and slid down it.

Lily rushed over to where Snape had been standing just a few seconds beforehand and picked up the thinning parchment, peering at it closely.

Severus – Meet me through the hole in the Whomping Willow at midnight tonight. The tree will be frozen when you get there. Lily Evans

It was written in Sirius' writing - that she knew. And she had a little feeling something really bad was going to happen... Lily's hands trembled with rage as she too dropped the letter and practically flew through the gap that Snape had a few seconds before, fury burning through her like a rapidly burning fire. She was quite aware of what they were planning to do now; a horribly dangerous, possibly fatal prank on Snape.

She clutched her wand and got up from the dirt slide that led to a long passageway. Her clothes wet and covered in mud, she ran ahead, panicking slightly.

It was time to crash the party.

She came to the end of the hall.

She saw only one open door, and sprinted towards it, her mouth itching to tell the four boys off already. She entered a small room filled by a rather large four-post bed. No one was there, but she heard noises coming from the floor below, and saw a set of ripped, torn stairs in the far right corner from where she was standing. Tearing down the stairs, she entered a huge room, all torn up as if a wild animal had been in it. She heard a very high-pitched scream, and knew it was Snape. She frantically ran through a huge door, and ended up in a small room that she recognized seeing through the outside.

'I'm in the Shrieking Shack,' she realized, her eyes still searching around for Snape and the others.

Silence.

Suddenly, Lily caught sight of a skeletal figure standing on the other far other side of the room. However, before she could warn him, two yellow eyes appeared in their midst, peering at Snape with a malicious glint.

"SNAPE!" she shrieked, horrified. "DON'T MOVE!" He turned his head towards her, his face contorted with fright and his hands shaking now more than ever. "L-Lily," he whispered.

Lily watched, almost in slow motion, as Snape tried to run away from the monstrous werewolf to reach her; his hands outstretched and his eyes wide and darting around for an escape.

She couldn't make a noise; her throat seemed to be paralyzed, and tears streamed down her face as she searched for her wand. "Oh no…" she whispered, horrified as she realized she had left her wand in the common room. Lily let out a sob, and ran her hands through her mud streaked hair and sank down on her knees as the werewolf snarled at Snape, who seemed to be paralyzed as well, one of his hands fumbling inside his pocket for his wand. However, he was too late – the werewolf lunged at him, his mouth open to reveal several sharp, deadly teeth. And just when Lily thought all was lost –

A beautiful white stag appeared.

Lily gasped as she realized who the stag was.

"James," she whispered as the stag flung itself between Snape and the werewolf.

The werewolf snarled at James, who stood unmoving in front of Snape, who was glancing fearfully at Lily, as if asking what was going on.

The werewolf sunk his claws deep into the stag's side…

Lily shouted to Snape fearfully, who was now rooted to the ground in shock. "Go, RUN!" she yelled, pointing to the door urgently. "Get to Hogwarts!" Snape looked at her, horrified, but he began to run towards the door. He looked back at her suddenly, his face contorted with fright.

"But what about you?" he yelled as the werewolf turned to her.

Lily gestured towards the door. "Don't worry, I can handle it! Just...just go!" she cried, her voice desperate. "Go!" Snape looked at her fearfully, but disappeared through the door. Lily turned to the werewolf, who was staring at her spitefully. She panicked, all previous courage gone, but the black dog jumped on it, wrestling it to the ground. Lily knelt on the floor in relief, suddenly realizing how cold she was and shivering. The stag was staring at her, as if in awe. A slow trickle of blood was dripping down its side and onto the floor slowly, but James did not seem to notice. Lily, however, stared at it.

"Oh James," she said weakly, crawling over to her. "You're – you're hurt…" she ripped her sleeve off her sopping wet cloak and pressing it to his wound. The stag jumped, but did not resist. She ripped off her other sleeve and tied the two together to make a bandage, and wrapped it around his middle carefully.

As she was pressing the fabric to his injury, she suddenly felt extremely tired, as if someone had just hit her over the head with a mallet. "J – James…" she murmured, her arms falling around the head of the stag. "I feel…so…weak…" she mumbled as unconsciousness overtook her. She had only enough time to feel the stag transform into James, his soft, warm arms holding her, and hear his whisper.

"Lily…"

"Lily…."

Lily opened her eyes heavily, her surroundings blearily coming into focus. She was in the Gryffindor common room…the soft, warm heat of the fire was hitting her face, and it felt nice compared to the coldness of her outfit.

"Lily," said James, sounding relieved, his face swimming above her dizzily. "You're awake…I was so worried…" Lily heard a shout from behind James, and Sirius' face appeared over James' shoulder, smiling broadly. Remus soon followed, his face still pale and sickly from his earlier transformation, and Peter after him.

"Lily," Remus said sadly. "I'm so sorry, this is all my fault…"

"Are you ok?" said Sirius eagerly.

"I'm fine," she answered coldly. "But you, however - you are not going to be when I'm through with you!" She tried to sit up, and gasped, her head pounding.

"Shhh," said James, pushing her back down. "You need rest, Lily," he said quietly.

"What? But - ?" Sirius cried, shocked and confused.

"I can't believe what you guys did - setting Snape up like that!" Lily interrupted, her voice as furious as ever. "He could have died!" she cried, tears forming in her eyes. Sirius' face softened at the look on her face.

"Look, Evans, it's - " began Sirius, ashen-faced.

"No! you let me talk!" interrupted Lily heatedly. "This was so not funny, so out of control! I can't believe you guys! I'm really, frankly, completely disgusted! To think that for a few moments there I actually thought you guys were alright! I actually thought I was wrong, that I hadn't given you a chance! And you," she said turning to James, her voice breaking with emotion. "You I'm really disappointed in. You were so nice to me that I actually thought you were sincere. So from now on, consider the truce over."

"But-" protested James, his face horrified.

"But NOTHING!" yelled Lily, her face determined and tear-stained. "You have ruined everything we had, James Potter, and the trust I put in you will not return for a long time…if at all..." Her voice trailed off, and her eyes stared into James' heartbroken ones with sincerity. "Could someone please get me a pillow? You can't carry me to my dorm, for the stairs will not accept that…and its better that no one else knows about this…are we clear?" she said darkly. The four boys nodded, and Peter carefully walked up the stairs to get Lily a pillow and a comforter. He returned a minute later with the desired items, and he, Sirius, and Remus walked sadly up the stairs to the boys dormitories. James, however, waited a bit longer, just staring at Lily.

"I'm sorry, Lily," he whispered, so softly that Lily could barely pick it up. Her eyes became glassy, but she turned away from him so he could not see. She heard his sigh, and when she turned around again, he was gone.

"What happened Lily?" Lea said as she joined her red-headed friend in the Great Hall for breakfast.

"Do I look that bad?" asked Lily grumpily. Lea and Justine looked at each other, then back at their friend.

"Yes," they answered in unison.

"Thank you," she answered sarcastically, dumping some eggs on her plate moodily.

"Did something really bad happen?" asked Justine. "Or are you just in a really crappy mood?"

"Let's just say it was bad enough that I won't be talking to Potter or Black any time soon," answered Lily furiously. Her eyes closed for a moment, and when she opened them they were glistening with tears.

"I was surprised that you lasted this long, actually" muttered Lea, but Justine grabbed Lily's arm. "They're looking at us…" she whispered urgently, jerking her head to James, who was staring sadly at Lily. She and Justine escorted their friend to the bathroom, ignoring James' pathetic gaze.

"Back to the beginning again!" James muttered, sticking his fork sullenly into his sausage.

A/N: I'm so sorry! I know I promised I would update by Thursday... But hey! Just blame it on my beta... It's all her fault! Lol, jk... Thanks to those who reviewed!

Chapter 8 comes when reviews do! I'd feel extra special if I made it to 40 reviews... I'll even give each reviewer a cupcake! How does that sound?