Disclaimer: Oddly enough, I still don't own it. JKR refuses to sell to a middle class A level student….wonder why.

Thanks to the following reviewers: Fairy-GYAKUTENNO-MEGAMI, sigrunb, iluvgerardbutler, WhiteCamellia, Raining Sliver, Jazzmataz, blvd, sugar-huny-bun (Ashley!), maneatingbananas, Tai Greywing, MoonylovesFlo, and Never. Forgotten.

A/N: Wow! Twelve reviewers! I love all you guys! I now have the rest of this story planned out and it should, if I stick to my plan, be thirty six chapters (give or take depending on how detailed I make each one). Hope you're all having a fantastic summer!

Chapter 17

With a slightly heavy heart, Lily packed her belongings and said goodbye to her parents. She and Tash were meeting Jen and the Marauders on the Knight Bus.

"Have a good term Lily and be good," her mother kissed her on the cheek. "You too Natasha."

"Thanks for letting me stay Mrs Evans," Tash said.

"Nonsense dear it was our pleasure," Lily's mother waved her hand dismissivly as Tash waved goodbye and dragged her trunk outside.

"Don't forget to write," Lily's mother waved to her daughter as she dragged her trunk after her friend.

"I won't forget," Lily promised before picking up Apollo and placing him in his basket. "Bye!"

She joined Tash outside the house in the middle of the snow-covered pavement. Lily stuck her right arm out into the road and with a bang, the triple decker purple bus appeared down the road. Lily jumped on dragging her trunk on behind her. Tash followed cursing as she slipped on a patch of ice on the road. Lily glanced down the bus and saw Jenny sitting at the back. Her mad friend waved at her with a maniacal grin on her face.

"Hey Lils," Jenny smiled. "How were your last few days?"

"Good, except for Petunia flitting in and out of the house with wedding plans," Lily sighed sitting down next to her in one of the squishy armchairs. Tash was still upfront paying the conductor. "God, how many times can we look over centrepieces in one day?"

"I know," Jenny sympathised as the bus gave a loud bang and Apollo shrieked in his basket. Lily was thrown backwards and Jenny was almost catapulted through the window. Tash staggered down the bus towards the seats.

"I'll never get used to this bus," Lily muttered. Jenny nodded in agreement.

"Are you kidding?" Tash asked, doing her best kid-in-candy-store look. "I love this thing!"

Lily and Jen rolled their eyes as the bus jolted to a stop and James and Sirius jumped on. James gave Lily a kiss on the cheek and sat down beside her. Lily noticed instantly that both their faces were grim.

"What?" she asked.

"There was another attack," Sirius said, sitting down next to them. "This time it was a family of Aurors."

Lily felt sick. Tash gasped and Jenny sighed in recognition.

"That's why mum got called in to work this morning," she placed her face in her hands as the bus took off again. James and Sirius were thrown out of their seats onto the floor. Jenny chuckled at their misfortune as the bus stopped somewhere outside Manchester.

"Looking forward to school?" Sirius asked getting up off the floor and back into his seat.

"Yeah," Lily nodded. "I don't care if there are Slytherins there, at least I'm away from Petunia."

"I had my aunt, uncle and cousins over last week," Jenny said. "It was a madhouse in my family. Alaska didn't help either. She ran off with the roast dinner and we had to have Chinese last night!"

Lily laughed at the thought of Jenny's husky dog running around with a turkey in her mouth. Tash, James and Sirius all seemed to think this was funny too.

"Mum was furious," Jenny said. "I was in a bit of trouble too since she is my dog."

"What did you do?" Tash asked.

"What I always do when I'm in trouble," Jenny smiled. "I suck up like it's my last day on earth!"

James and Sirius grinned as the bus arrived at its next destination. Jenny squeaked as Remus joined them at the back.

"Everyone miss me?" he asked.

"No," Sirius said and got several elbows stuck in his waist, one from Jenny, one from James and one from Tash.

"Only kidding!" Sirius tried to redeem himself. Remus grinned and sat down beside them.

"Right now that we're all here I say we start planning another prank," James said.

"Um Peter's not here," Tash reminded him.

"We can fill him in when we get to school," Sirius said dismissively. Lily sat back and chatted with her friends for the next five minutes. Finally the bus rolled into Hogsmeade and all six students jumped off the bus. Lily grinned at the sight of the castle.

"Home sweet home," Tash said. And Lily couldn't agree more.

OOO

The next morning Lily was woken up to…you guessed it…Tash singing in the shower. Crystel was already up and sorting through her books trying to find the ones she would need for lessons.

"Good morning Gryffindor!" Jenny said, jumping out of bed and bouncing around the dorm in her green pyjamas.

"Jenny Louise Tailby how the hell do you have so much energy at seven in the morning?" Crystel asked.

"I'm just lucky I guess," Jenny smiled.

"Why do you build me up, build me up, buttercup baby, just to let me down, let me down…"

"Okay Tash we're awake!" Lily shouted.

Tash emerged from the steamy bathroom fully clothed, her hair up in a high ponytail.

"Sorry did I wake you?" she asked innocently. Everyone bombarded her with pillows.

OOO

"Good to be back," Lily grinned as they went down the stairs towards the Great Hall. She and James were holding hand as they walked. Peter was wandering near the back of the group quietly. Remus and Jenny were also holding hands. Sirius and Tash probably would have been were it not for the fact that Tash was already at the bottom of the stairs yelling at them to hurry up.

"Come on! Food!" she groaned.

"We know Tash," said Jenny. Sirius grinned and slid down the banister coming to a stop beside the hungry Tash.

"I'm with my girlfriend!" he called up to them. "Hurry up! I'm hungry."

"Sirius is having a bad effect on Tash," Lily muttered to James, who nodded. They were about to start down the next flight of steps, when they were blocked by several dark figures. And it didn't take twelve OWLs to work out who it was.

"Um it's hard for us to walk down the stairs when you're standing there Bellatrix," James said patiently.

"Shut up!" Bellatrix snapped pulling out her wand. Behind her, Lily said Snape, Avery and Rudolphus doing the same. James, Sirius and Remus were pulling out their wand too. Glancing behind her, Lily saw Peter shifting uncomfortably at the back. She put it out of her mind as she noticed Tash yanking her wand out of her pocket and striding up to Bellatrix. Lily could sense World War Three about to break out and grabbed her arm.

"Why are you stopping me!" Tash cried. "They put my brother in hospital!"

"Ah yes how is the mudblood doing?" Bellatrix sneered. "Is he still out of it or have they carted him off to the loony bin?" The rest of her group chuckled. Jenny followed Lily's lead and grabbed Tash's other arm.

"You pathetic excuse for a human being!" Tash screamed struggling to break free. Lily shot James a glare and he and Remus decided to restrain Sirius. However diverting her attention meant Bellatrix had a chance to fire a spell.

Lily felt something hard slam into her stomach, knocking the wind out of her. She fell to her knees gasping. James gave a cry of anger and started towards the Slytherins. Tash however, beat him to it.

"Cestor Morandum!" she yelled. Bellatrix and her friends were blasted backwards down the stairs. Tash sprinted down the stairs intent on doing some more damage. Sirius, Jenny and Remus followed.

"Lily are you okay?" James asked, helping her up.

"Fine," Lily winced. In actual fact her stomach was killing her. But the peace in the school was being threatened downstairs and she got up quickly and grabbed her wand again.

"Come on," she nodded at the stairs and they both shot down to the entrance hall. When however they arrived they found that order was not needed. Half the school was gathered in the hall and were laughing at the pile of Slytherins at the bottom of the stairs. Standing halfway down the staircase were Tash, Sirius, Jenny and Remus, all of who were holding their sides at the sight.

"What is going on here!" An extremely irritated looking Professor Ramton entered the hall and scowled at the pile of students in the middle of the floor.

"Why are you all lying in the middle of the floor?" he demanded as Bellatrix and co got up of the floor. Lily glanced at Tash nervously knowing if anyone found out about this she would be in serious trouble. James on the other hand was grinning from ear to ear.

"What's so funny?" she whispered.

"It'll embarrass them if they have to admit that they were knocked down a flight of stairs by a single Gryffindor," he chuckled. Lily felt a grin slide onto her face.

"Um," Bellatrix looked around for a plausible excuse. "We…tripped Professor."

"All of you?" Ramton asked flicking one eye over the other three Slytherins as well as her.

"Yes," Snape seconded. Lily winced as she saw Ramton's eye flicker up to them, but all he did was take another look at the Slytherins and walk off in disgust. Red faced, Bellatrix, Snape, Avery and Rudolphus marched into the hall.

"Did you see them?" Tash giggled, sinking to the floor. "My god that felt good!"

"I haven't laughed that hard since we levitated Snape and flew him around the Whomping Willow!" Sirius gave a bark like laugh.

"Don't do that again Tash," Lily warned.

"Lily I wasn't going to sit by and watch while she insulted my brother!" Tash flared up again.

"I'm not saying that," Lily said gently. "I'm just saying you don't have to descend to their level."

"I'm not, I'm sticking up for myself," Tash retorted.

"Guys stop this," Jenny interrupted firmly. "Let's just go and eat something."

As they walked into the hall, more than one of the Gryffindors smiled at them. They seemed to have guessed that it was one of them who had knocked the Slytherins down the stairs.

"Well that's one nice thing about this whole incident," James muttered, sitting next to Lily. On the other side of the table, Tash paid for the paper and disappeared behind it. Sirius joined her. Lily couldn't decide whether they were actually reading it or weather they were doing something else that she didn't want to think about.

"Guys," James got everyone's attention. "Weren't we going to discuss the latest prank in detail?"

"Ah so we were Prongs," Sirius got up and hurried round to the other side of the table so he could sit by the rest of the Marauders. Lily suddenly felt very alone on her side of the table and, deciding that she didn't want to know what they were doing, she crawled under the table to sit by her friends.

"Any plans for this week?" Lily asked helping herself to pumpkin juice.

"Well it's the full moon on Wednesday," Jenny dropped her voice. "So if no one's doing anything I guess we can meet up in the common room again and stay up late."

Lily and Tash nodded in agreement. It had become a tradition. When the boys were out on full moons Lily and her friends would stay up late in the common room and talk, whilst consuming much sugar.

"We can go over our outfits for the ball," Tash perked up. This got the boys attention.

"I thought you'd already brought your outfits?" James asked incredulously.

"We still have to plan make up and hair," Jenny rolled her eyes. "And what better time when you're not around?"

"Wednesday?" Remus asked, looking very dispirited about the prospect. The three girls nodded solemnly before going back to their discussion. James rolled his eyes at them. There were some things about girls he would never understand.

OOO

"The Slytherins are shooting us dirty glares again," Jenny said monotonously in History of Magic.

"What else is new?" Lily asked scribbling notes. Tash had fallen asleep and Jenny was doodling on the side of her parchment. The four boys were passing notes to each other, obviously still discussing the practicalities, if any of their upcoming prank. Lily was in two minds to stop them but decided that it would probably be pointless and in any case, she felt anything that they did to the Slytherins right now would be justified after what they had said to Tash that morning.

Something hit Tash in the head and she sat bolt up right and reached for her wand instinctively.

"What hit me?" she hissed. Lily picked up a ball of parchment, which had been thrown at the table. Unfolding it she read the message.

'You won't get away with what happened this morning Mudblood.'

Turning around, Lily said the Slytherins on the back row, shooting them evil glares. Snarling, Tash mouthed very forcibly, 'watch me!' Another note landed on their table knocking Lily's ink bottle over onto her notes. Tash picked up the paper and read it.

'None of you will get out of this school alive.'

"Right they want a paper war, I'll give them a paper war!" Tash snarled and grabbed a piece of parchment. Reaching into her bag she pulled out her water bottle and sloshed it all over the paper ball. Checking that Professor Binns had not noticed anything she leaned over and threw the ball at the Slytherins. Lily chuckled as the wet parchment his Bellatrix square on the forehead.

"Nice shot Tash," Sirius complimented her.

"Well who says we can't be juvenile once in a while!" Tash grinned. By now the rest of the class had noticed what had happened. Professor Binns however was continuing to drone.

Several paper aeroplanes flew at the group. One got stuck in Lily's hair. Another hit Jenny in the back of the head. One landed in front of Peter who was still taking notes oblivious to what was going on. He shrieked in surprise and fell off his chair.

"Right that is it," James said, reading the message on one of them. He grabbed another sheet of parchment and crushed it. "Padfoot, give me one of your dungbombs to wrap in this."

"Um James…" Lily said. James looked at her, wondering how she could possibly justify not retaliating. To his surprise however Lily was smiling.

"Make sure you hit Bellatrix in the face when you throw that thing."

James grinned and wrapped the dungbomb in the parchment. He took careful aim and threw it to the back of the room. The dungbomb exploded in Bellatrix's face and all of the Slytherins on the back row got up and ran from the room. The rest of the class howled with laughter. Hearing something, Professor Binns looked up.

"Did somebody say something?" he asked in a wheezy voice.

A/N: Hello everyone. My name is Fred and I'm a muse. I'm currently helping Mei write this fic. This is a request to the person or persons who kidnapped Mei last week. We've updated now so can we please have her back? It's boring without her and there's no one to give us chocolate (in background, Helen the muse bounces around singing 'I love chocolate! I love chocolate!). It's a madhouse round here!

Review ladies and gentlemen and escaped criminals of all ages! Otherwise Mei may not come back…eh who am I kidding she'd never abandon this fic!

Next Chapter: Full moon part one (be afraid!)

May Stardust fall in your dreams!