Disclaimer: The only thing I own is the glasses that I use to type this, and the typing equipment… which is technically my dad's considering he bought it.

Once Upon a Nightmare's Eve

By: Faerielights

Chapter 2

Patrolling

For the first ten minutes of patrolling the train corridors, Lily and Remus didn't experience anything unusual, as a matter of fact, it was pretty boring.

"I guess everyone is settling in for a bit before they start on the mass mayhem," Lily said. Remus just looked up and smiled at her.

"Yea, Sirius and James wanted to wait till I got there before they did any pranking or prank planning. Said it wouldn't be very responsible of them to leave me out of it, just because I'm a prefect now."

"How nice of them," she couldn't help but be sarcastic. Honestly, did those two not have any sense? They could cost Remus his badge. They frustrated her so much with their inconsideration, and they thought it was responsible of them to do it. As if guessing her thoughts, Remus laughed.

"They're really not that bad, Lily. You just have to give them a chance." She rolled her eyes at this. "Seriously! Just an honest chance."

"They're just too immature for me. And they always cost us points."

"Well, if you remember correctly, I am a part of that point-losing group." He said to her, all too seriously.

"You really want me to give Potter and Black a chance. Why?" this thought seemed to be all too ridiculous for her to even begin to comprehend. Were they really that bad? She thought to herself. The immediate response was yes. But maybe she wasn't giving them enough credit? Nah… they're too immature, they just need to grow up.

"Because they're good guys, and it confuses them as to why you can't see that. And because they're going to drive me nuts when they see that you are nice to me, but mean to them. If not for them, do it for me. Just give them a chance. You might actually find yourself some good friends." As much as Lily hated to admit to it, he did have a point. And how could she allow herself to be held accountable for Remus to be driven to insanity by his friends.

"Well, I guess I can give it a try, but of they do anything unforgivable, which I am certain they will, they are worse off then they are now." Remus laughed at her look of seriousness.

"Understood by me, but I'm not sure if I can get them to understand that. I mean, to most of the girls at Hogwarts they are gods, though I hate to have to admit to it. It's a fact though. They unfortunately know that they're almost irresistible. Except for to you and Mackenzie."

Lily stopped dead in her tracks. What made them think that Bella liked either one of them? She thought they were obnoxious twits and couldn't stand them almost as much as Lily and she told him just that. Except, she did have a bit more tolerance for them, but then, Potter and Black just knew how to push the buttons on Lily.

Remus just laughed.

"I told you it was just one of their dog-brained theories. Mainly the idea of Sirius. Then again, that's only because James likes someone else and doesn't really care about other girls. He just won't tell us who, he's afraid we'll take the mickey out on him, or that we will tell her. Speaking on Sirius's behalf, he'd do both." Remus informed Lily.

She had to think about it, potter just didn't seem to be as big a man-whore lately. Maybe he was changing his ways. Just a little though, he was still annoying as hell.

They continued on down the train corridor, about three quarters done. Slowly but surely making their way to the back of the train where all the trouble would be. Needless to say, that's where both sets of friends would probably be found. Lily chewed on the information Remus had just given her about her arch nemesis while Remus wondered about what Lily'd said.

"So you say Bella has a better tolerance for our group? Why is that? And why can't you tolerate us? I mean, sure we play pranks, but we're not that bad."

"Well, the twenty questions is part of the reason, but mainly it's Potter that I really can't stomach. I mean –" Up ahead a series of explosions interrupted their conversation. Lily groaned, knowing the implications of the smoke and noise.

"I am going to kill them. Slowly but surely. Even if it means that I have to chase them down, I'll take a lot of pleasure out of wringing their necks for ruining our first patrol ever. I mean they couldn't even hold true to their promise to you to not start anything till you were able to join them. They promised you. Now, normally I'd hate that kind of thing, but not when it means that they made my first patrol as a prefect into something that I'm sure will resemble a horror move. Damnit!" Lily swore with a vengeance.

Out of the smoke a few people emerged, laughing at others and giving each other high fives. Suddenly one looked right at them, ran forward and grabbed Remus up into a big bear hug.

"Oy, Remus! It was great mate. Snape came into our compartment and tried frightening Bella and Mackenzie with some insane crap about how they are doomed to be targeted by this supposed dark lord. Well that part wasn't that great, but what happened next was!" Sirius broke down into hysterical laughter, at this point James decided it might be better if he took over the story telling.

"To make a long story short, he pissed off Mackenzie and she slipped some kind of firework into the back of his robes when he was trying to make us duel him. As if we would bother, we know he had nothing better to do than to think up new hexes over his summer. Nerd that he is. Anyway, when he was walking out of the compartment, she pointed her wand at him and mumbled some spell. You should see the end result, it was unreal!"

To demonstrate his point, someone else emerged from the smoke. That person held himself upon one normal leg and one flamingo leg. He had green feathers around his middle and t-rex style arms. Four eyes and two noses adorned his face along with a mouth where his hair should have been. Freakish definitely would not have been descriptive enough to depict what Severus Snape looked like.

"I hate you. You and your miserable friends, mudblood." At this revelation, both Potter and Black obtained looks of outrage and began hissing in anger, trying to draw their wands out.

"How dare you!" Sirius was red. He saw red, and practically tasted red. The worst insult you could lay at a muggle born. He was outraged that purebloods could act this way and what pissed him off worse was that most people would let them.

Bella and Mackenzie made an appearance, quieting whatever it was that Snape thought that he would be saying to lily normally. He paled quite considerably taking into account that he was already as colorless as a cadaver. It appeared that he was terrified of Mackenzie.

Instead of starting something up, Snape just stopped in his tracks and turned around and marched towards the other Slytherin compartments.

Considering it was at the end of Lily and Remus's patrolling time they found Frank and Alice and reminded them that it was their time to go patrolling. They then joined their friends in the compartments and said goodbye to their first chance at patrolling the train compartments, as well as their first go at being prefects and "enjoying their responsibilities" as Lily would have put it.