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 3

Hidden Prankster

Lily was a little peeved at her friend's shenanigans, but decided that maybe she need not pursue it. Instead, she looked at Remus, asking him if he thought they should find Frank and Alice to take over. He agreed and the two walked back to the middle of the train, hoping to find them quickly.

Luck was on their side, allowing them to quickly locate Frank and Alice. They were in there with the other Gryffindor sixth years, talking about their summer vacations. Alice looked up when they entered the compartment.

"Done with your rounds already?" she questioned, smiling knowingly. Snape had already passed through with his new look, screaming bloody murder. "How was it?"

"It was just splendid," Lily smiled innocently in response. "Big-nose boy got hexed by one of my friends with something I hope he doesn't try Finite Incantatum with because that just adds to the effects of the lovely spell, and as of right now, unless she was able to work out the final kinks of the spell during this past week, there is no actual reversal."

The other occupants of the compartment just stared with shock. Was the Lily Evans really admitting to dabbling into the pranking world with her two straight laced friends? Normally their trio was yelling at the Marauders to stop teasing in addition to bullying other students. Could it really be possible that they would stoop to the same level as James and Company? It was just too surreal.

"Yes, well, I guess you guys should get going on your rounds, otherwise Jenny might get on your case about being irresponsible and delaying duties," Remus put into the conversation.

That seemed to snap everyone out of their trances. Frank as well as Alice jumped up and headed out the door to start on their rounds while Lily and Remus said goodbye to everyone there and headed back to their friends. By this time the smoke had cleared out from Snape's misadventure, and the five friends could be seen sharing a compartment.

"So," James said when she entered the compartment, "I hear you're the mastermind behind that globe thing." Lily wasn't too sure if she liked where this was going. "Maybe we could join forces or something."

Instead of responding, Lily turned to glare at Bella and Mackenzie. She knew they had something to do with this. First of all, he was being nice, second of all, he wanted to form some kind of alliance after his high and mighty 'we don't need help from anyone ever' attitude that made them enemies in the first place. This whole idea just reeked of her friends.

They tried to look innocently back at her, but it wasn't working and they knew it. The two girls couldn't have been couldn't have been worse off if they'd been dipped into a vat of oil boiling over an open fire. Bella gulped nervously while Mackenzie tried backing out of the window. Needless to say that the plan didn't work too well considering the window only opened four, maybe five inches.

"Lily?" Sirius waved his hand in front of her face. She snapped out of it and angrily asked "what?"

"Don't do that, you were freaking me out!" Sirius exclaimed. "That look is supposed to be reserved for Jamsie-poo or me. And sometimes Snivellus." The last part being something of an after thought. James smacked Sirius in the back of the head.

"Ow! The point being that you should be nice to your friends and mean to James, he likes the negative attention. Ow! Would you quit hitting me? Oh yeah… and you could team up with us this year for pranking and all that fun stuff. After all you get to spend time with me!"

"Why would I pair up with you? I'm a prefect and the O.W.L.s are coming up this year. I don't want to throw away all that time in detention if I can help it, and I'll have bundles of homework in addition to prefect duties. If I partake in your tomfoolery my badge might get taken away. I do not want that to happen, so your answer is no." Bella and Mackenzie looked disappointed at this revelation. They'd looked forward to joining forces and wreak havoc on the Slytherins, especially after the incident with Snape that had transpired earlier.

"Aww, come on, Evans," Potter tried. "We'll keep your name out of it so you don't get in trouble."

"No," Lily was firm. Sirius however, simply does not know when to stop and kept trying to change her mind. A good portion of the train ride passed in this way, with Sirius irritating Lily and everyone trying to keep him from continuing to irk her. The only actual respite came when the food trolley appeared around lunchtime.

At about ten minutes away from Hogsmeade Amos knocked on the door to inform them that they'd soon be arriving, and to get ready. The three girls grabbed their robes and pulled them on over their clothes. The guys had changed at the beginning of the trip.

The train came to a stop and the seven teen-aged witches and wizards headed out and towards the carriages. The girls split up with them at this point. There was no way that all seven would fir into just one stagecoach, and there was no way they could get Lily to share a coach with the Marauders after a long train ride with them.

"Farewell fair maidens," Peter said comically, his blue eyes twinkling. "We shall meet you at the castle, after a short voyage."

The girls just rolled their eyes and climbed into an unoccupied carriage. No one else joined them and they soon were bustling up the hill towards the castle where the sorting and a feast were awaiting all students to attend.

It took about twenty minutes before all the second years and above were seated in the Great Hall at their respective tables. To Lily's dismay, the Marauders sat across from them. It might not have bothered her on any other night, but on the first night James and Sirius, along with Peter, always had to see who could eat more in the time span on the feast. Luckily though, the sorting was to be done, so it could give her some time to prepare to yank a little food from the vice grips they had when it came to vittles. She'd had little to eat at lunch because the boys inhaled near everything to broaden their stomachs for the upcoming consummation contest.

While the first years got sorted, Lily and her friends talked, remembering to clap when someone was named a Gryffindor. The boys were chatting about some kind of prank, not caring who heard them because no one was paying attention to them anyway.

"I just can't believe you used that. It's still in the examination period. There's no official reversal of the full enchantment, it has to be taken off in portions and you are fully aware of that. Finite Incantatum does not work on the hex. It makes it worse. We can get into a lot of trouble. Not to mention the fact that you used it in front of them," Lily scolded, pointing at the Marauders, Peter of which was cross-eyed while Potter was pig-nosed and the other two were hysterical. Bella and Mackenzie had to snicker at them, how could they not? The four guys were the class clowns through and through.

"The fact that you laugh at their juvenile behavior does not help any either. As a matter of fact --"

"Oh lighten up Lily," Bella interrupted her lecture. "You act as though you've never eaten done anything even moderately childish."

"Yeah," Mackenzie added her two cents in. "as a matter of fact, I seem to recall you playing pranks on Petunia just two weeks ago."

"Lily did what?" Sirius interrupted, attention now focused on the three girls.

"Nothing," Lily tensely replied. "Butt out of it."

"Not ashamed, are you, Lady Lily? Tell us what you did," James added into the conversation. He ignored the glowering that he received in response and turned to her friends. "What did Lily do?"

Bella chose to ignore the red-hot daggers that Lily sent her, as well as the sharp kick to the shin.

"Well, Lily has a darling sister named Petunia. And petunia had met this charming man."

"If you can call him a man, he looks more like a living meatball," Lily mumbled, interrupting her. Before Bella could continue her story of how lily torture petunia, Dumbledore stood up to have the start of the year speech before the feast.

"Well, I know what a long trip it's been, so I'll save my old-man drivel for a later time. Now then, Ess gezunterhait." He sat back down and three of the four marauders looked at each other with joy before grabbing everything in site. The girls looked at each other in disgust and carefully yanked some food from the vice grips that James, Sirius, and Peter had.

To be continued…

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