Well here it is folks, chapter 2 and the plot thickens…. I'd like to thank Pinocchio for Beta-ing this for me and also thank those who reviewed chapter 1 (all two of them). Please send me your commentary and constructive criticism, I promise I don't get offended—I always like to improve my writing!

Enjoy…

The Best Laid Plans

Not since fourth year had Lily had such a peaceful breakfast, there was no owl post, no notes suddenly writing themselves in her porridge in brown sugar, no strange parcels, and no James Potter.

Some girls would be bored with this turn of events, some would be pleased that the annoyances seemed to have ceased, but Lily knew better, Lily was suspicious. However, as it was impossible to predict irrational male behaviour she did her best to savour the limited calmness by reviewing her notes about poisonous plants and their medicinal uses and chatting amiably with Alice and Audrey, Cecily was running terribly late as usual.

Just down the table she could see the Marauders as boisterous as usual, they were probably plotting something terrible, she made brief eye contact with Remus and he shrugged as if to say, 'there's no stopping them and I'm sorry for whatever it is they are about to do.'

James had decided that since Sirius claimed to know the most about wooing women, he was the go to source for information on seducing Lily. Sirius pondered the challenge resting his chin on his pointed fingers, 'Evans is a tough case Prongs, you've gone and roughed everything up by driving her barmy for two and a half years.'

At James' scowl Sirius patted his shoulder condescendingly, 'now if you had brought this case to anyone else they might throw in the towel entirely, but I am much more talented than that!'

Remus quirked a brow at Sirius, 'and what, pray tell, is your plan to help Prongs convince Lily he isn't a bullying git?'

Shooing Remus aside Sirius continued, 'all you have to do is show her how sweet and stupidly in love with her you are and she'll forget all about the bigheaded toe rag bit.'

Looking surprised at the intelligent statement made by his boisterous friend Remus began nodding before Sirius continued, 'so all we'll need is a few charms, a volunteer to transfigure into a giant spider, and a couple hundred flowers.'

Remus' plaintive cries that 'this will never work!' and Peter's worried expression at the maniacal gleam in Sirius' eyes when he said transfigure someone didn't daunt James in the slightest. As they headed off to class Peter could be heard complaining, 'why is it always me who gets transfigured?'

Herbology was the calm before the storm. Lily was completely aware that the tranquility could not last much longer—because after all, she wasn't stupid. At least she got to write the test in peace, and she was reasonably sure she had done well. 'Alice, what did you get for that question about Wolfsbane?' she asked as they walked out into the corridor. Cecily covered her ears and made a loud humming sound, 'we wrote the test already, we are not going to discuss it, not now or ever,' and let out an undignified shriek as Sirius grabbed her and Audrey's elbows and steered them in the opposite direction.

'Just need to borrow them for a moment Evans, I'll return them intact…hopefully.' Lily cocked her head and looked for the other Marauders, whenever there was only one, something was usually afoot. She turned to find Alice and Remus deeply involved in a discussion about some obscure plant and she headed towards Transfiguration when she saw Alice shoo her along. 'Well that's two of them accounted for,' she said softly to herself pulling her wand out and walking cautiously down the flagstone hallway.

She walked for a long time and she felt sillier and sillier with each step. Nothing was jumping out of the woodwork aside from ghosts who waved cheerily at the Gryffindor prefect. Just as she had given up on expecting James and Peter to jump out at her unexpectedly she heard a loud clapping sound behind her. Turing to find an empty expanse of passageway she realized how bizarre a deserted corridor was in the middle of a school day.

When she turned once more towards McGonagall's class there was a large, many-fanged spider dripping poisonous looking saliva onto the floor. For such an intimidating creature he looked rather awkward, for lack of a better word. Lily tutted at him and grimaced, 'Peter,' she said evenly, 'you really should stop letting Sirius transfigure you, he might mess up one day. How would you like to be stuck as a giant hideous spider?' The beast lunged forward slightly in an attempt to look menacing, and it almost worked until two of his legs tripped up the other 6 and he flopped over onto his back.

If it is possible for a 8 legged many eyed spider to look sheepish, this one did before scuttling aside to let Lily pass just as James leaped out to defend her from one of his closest friends. Just as he made his entrance to slay the beast, flowers of all varieties began raining down on Lily in some sort of bizarre Faerie shield.

Lily tapped her foot impatiently, 'Potter, cease play fighting with Pettigrew and stop these flowers falling, I'm going to be late for class!' James smiled engagingly, and said good naturedly, 'well that didn't work as planned, you were supposed to leap into my arms and thank me for saving you from the terrifying spider.' He stopped the flowers and yelled for Sirius to change the spider-ling back. The only sign that he was disappointed was that he didn't ruffle his hair for the entire Transfiguration class, but once he had turned towards the class from Lily he didn't even notice as she picked up one of the stray flowers that had rained on her and put it discreetly into her robe pocket.

Thanks for reading! Please Review if you have a moment.