Chapter 4: Every Year

Months passed and September was approaching. Lily had been confiding in Claire and Mariah all summer about how horrible Petunia and Vernon were. Vernon had come over every single night that summer, Lily didn't know how much more of this she could endure, she couldn't wait until September 1st when she would finally get to leave for Hogwarts and she wouldn't have to see her sister or Vernon until the next summer. The only thing Lily wasn't looking forward to was seeing James every day; the few hours she did spend with him that summer were horrible. Although seeing James every day still beat seeing both Petunia and Vernon every day. Lily was nervous though, it seemed that every year in Lily's first week the Marauders would pull a huge prank on her, and she wasn't looking forward to it. The previous year James had put a spell on her that made walk bowlegged the nurse, Ms. Dougherty, couldn't figure out how to fix it for a whole week.

Lily wondered what the boys would do to her this year, change her hair color, or make her break out so her whole face looked like one big pimple, Lily just hoped that whatever they did wouldn't be too dreadful.

This year however Lily felt she should have a plan in store for when she would get back at them for it. The idea came to her right away. Lily had memorized how to make an engorgement potion. She would whip some up when she got to school and she would put some in their food, their shampoo, in their liquid soap or whatever she could get it into. Lily laughed at the though of James's lips the size of two bananas. Lily was just glad she wouldn't have any difficulties getting a hold of all the ingredients she would need.

Professor Slughorn was the potions master and the head of Slytherin. He was a good teacher but he always would pick favorites of the incoming first year, and they would always be treated special for their seven years at Hogwarts. Professor Slughorn did not care weather the student was from his house or not, he favored certain students for a different reason…fame and skill. All of Professor Slughorn's favorites would either be very good at potions, be famous, be related to someone famous, or know someone famous. Lily was excellent at potions, and therefore Lily was one of Professor Slughorn's favorites. Lily did not necessarily like how he was so biased, but there were advantages…he will get you anything you want, or tell you anything you want to know. It would be easy for Lily to get all of the ingredients for the engorgement potion. Although there could be many advantages of being one of Professor Slughorn's favorites there was one disadvantage: The Slug Club. The Slug Club was a club Professor Slughorn created, the members were Professor Slughorn (of course) and all of his favorites. He held little club meetings and "parties" about once a month, sometimes more often, and no one usually enjoyed these meetings very much, although the "parties" weren't always that bad, because they got to stay out of their common room later at night.

Lily was happy once she had her plan set, she may have to endure whatever the Marauders did to her, but she knew she would get them back good this time.

Lily sat there for a little while, proud of her wonderful idea when she saw a tawny owl flying towards her bedroom window. Lily opened her window and let the owl fly in. Lily saw her Hogwarts letter tied to the owl's leg. Lily untied the letter and the owl flew away instantly.

Lily opened the letter, excited to see what she got on her owls she looked through it and she got all O's and E's, she would be taking all the same classes. She needed nine more books, some potion ingredients and she needed to get a new cauldron.

Lily went downstairs and her parents agreed to bring her to Diagon alley the next day so she could get her supplies. She then went back upstairs to her bedroom (Petunia and Vernon were sitting in the living room together).

Looking around her and Petunia's room, Lily realized she needed to clean up her half of the room. Petunia's half of the room was perfectly clean. There was only a desk lamp on her desk; her bed was neatly made with her tan bedspread folded over and all her pillows fluffed. Lily's half was a mess. Her desk had tons of junk and random things she owned all over it, her pink bedspread with water lilies on it that her mom got her was almost all the way off the bed, and she had stuff all over the floor. Most of the people who knew Lily would think that she would be a neat freak, being so organized with all her school work, but no, Lily was a downright slob.

First Lily got started on her bed, she pulled up the sheets untidily and then the same with her comforter. At that point she gave up and decided Petunia was just going to have to get used to her mess or clean it up herself. Right then Petunia walked in and surprise, surprise, Petunia looked around and said, "Ew clean up your mess."

"Well you know what I like it better this way, but if you want it clean, clean it yourself," lily said, sitting comfortably on her bed.

"Fine maybe I should just bring a large dumpster up here and throw all your crap in it," Petunia said.

"You are not throwing away anything of mine, if you do I will curse you to hell," Lily said dramatically.

Vernon was standing in the door cracking up, "What are you one of those creeps that think they're magical. Ha ha ha! Your sister is a total freak Petunia!"

"I know she is," Petunia said. Petunia did look a little nervous though, just hoping that Lily didn't do anything to her.

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James and Sirius were sitting in Sirius's room that used to be one of the Potter's guest bedrooms tossing a quaffle back and forth.

"This summer has gone way too fast," James said when he caught the quaffle.

"Yeah, this is one of the fist summers I've ever had that I wasn't ready for school to start up again," Sirius agreed, "I'm finally both away from my mum and I don't have to learn."

"Well at least we get to use magic," James said.

"So, we still on for our little prank on Lily," Sirius asked.

"Course, what the hell do you think, I'd chicken out?" James said looking surprised that Sirius wasn't sure that James was going to pull a little prank.

"Well I thought you might not want to, considering it kind of makes your chances with Lily even worse, if possible," Sirius said.

"Aw eventually she'll realize she adores me and all my pranks," James said, believing what he said one hundred and ten percent.

"I Siriulsy think you have a mental problem James," Sirius said rolling his eyes.

The boys heard Mrs. Potter knocking on the door, "Come in mum."

Mrs. Potter walked in and held out two letters and said, "Your Hogwarts letters came."

"Thanks Mrs. Potter," Sirius said taking the letter addressed to him.

James unfolded his letter and read that he got and O in defense against the dark arts, an O in transfiguration, an A in potions and history of magic and E's in everything else. He looked at the supply list and saw he needed three new books.

"I'll drop you off tomorrow for your books, okay?" Mrs. Potter asked, looking at the supply list.

"Okay," James said and his grandmother left.

"Eh, Sirius, what did you get?" James asked.

"I got an O in DADA and transfigs, E in magical creatures and charms and A in everything else, you?" Sirius answered.

James told Sirius his OWL results and then asked, "So what classes are you going to take?"

"All of them except history of magic. And you?"

"Same. I don't want to have to listen to Binns lecture us on goblin wars ever again. I guess I'll take potions, it's interesting enough even when your not one of Slughorn's favorites," James said.

"Exactly what I was thinking," Sirius agreed.

"It's amazing we only have two years left at Hogwarts, it feels like just yesterday we were being sorted," James said, wishing that all the fun at Hogwarts would last for longer than just two more years.

"Yeah, then we wont get to pull pranks, I mean you can't do that kind of stuff at work," Sirius said, wishing that he could always have fun and kid around, and never have to be too serious.

"Maybe we should work at the school, you know teach there, I could teach DADA and you could teach transfigs," James said, not serious about what he said, he really wanted to be an auror, he wanted to fight Voldemort, he wanted to kill him for killing his parents when he was a third year at Hogwarts.

"Do you Siriusly think that McGonigall is going to give up her job so I can teach, and Professor Apollo is pretty fond of his position?" Sirius said.

"I know, I was kidding, and plus we've got to become aurors together," James said.

"Yeah."

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Lily buckled up in the front seat of her mom's car. She was excited to go get her school supplies, she always loved shopping for books and anything like that; Lily loved school.

"Do you have the right kind of money, dear?" Lily's mother asked her.

"Yes mum, it's in my pocket," Lily rolled her eyes; her mom knew perfectly well that Lily hated leaving the house without some money, Lily loved shopping.

About half an hour later Lily and her mother had finally reached the Leaky Cauldron. Lily's mother had gone to Diagon Alley before, but every time she was amazed by everything and everyone at the pub. They walked into the Leaky Cauldron together. Lily felt at home seeing all the witches and wizards sitting in the pub, but Mrs. Evans thought that they all looked very strange. Mrs. Evans jumped when a young bartender with a bald head named Tom tapped her on the shoulder and asked her if she wanted anything to drink.

Lily answered for her mother, "No thank you, we're just on our way to Diagon Alley."

When they left through the back door in the pub they met a brick wall. Lily tapped a few of the bricks with her wand and a large gateway opened up to Diagon Alley.

Lily led the way to all the stores she needed to go to and to many other stores. Lily convinced he mom to buy her three extra books that weren't on her list and five new quills, one would provide it's own in ant wrote in a different color for every letter you wrote, another had a spell on it to fix any spelling mistakes that you make. She also convinced her mother to buy her a new pair of dress robes and two new scarves.

Lily was on her way to the joke shop, to see if she would find anything she could set on James and the other Marauders. When she was just outside the joke shop she ran (literally) James and Sirius.

"Lily! Nice to see you again," James said, trying to sound pleasant.

"You need to watch where you're going," Sirius said, getting of the ground and dusting himself off.

"Lily, don't be rude, introduce your mother," Mrs. Evans said.

"This is James and Sirius, and this is my mum," Lily said.

James bent over and kissed Lily's mother on the hand and said, "May I have permission to marry your lovely daughter Mrs. Evans?"

"James! Do you always have to be so annoying, why can't you just leave me alone?" Lily said, angry at James's childish behavior.

"Oh Lily, he was only joking around, be nice to your friends," Mrs. Evans said, she obviously thought James's little proposal was very cute.

"First of all he ever does is joke, and second of all he is not my friend," Lily said angrily.

"Lily, don't be rude," Mrs. Evans said sternly.

"Once James stops torturing me at school," Lily said. She didn't care how mad her mom got at her; she was never going to be nice to James after everything he had ever done to her.

"Apologize."

"No way am I going to apologize!"

"Honey, you need to be more polite, we aren't leaving until you apologize."

At that point Lily just walked away back to the pub. She sat down at one of the empty tables and a few minutes later her mother came back.

"Honey you need to work on your manners, you are grounded until school starts," Mrs. Evans said, angry at her daughter for being so rude to James.

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James and Sirius walked back to the Leaky Cauldron. "Wow you pissed her off James, you know you have absolutely no chance of her liking you, you always just make it worse," Sirius said.

"Oh she'll like me soon," James said.

"And what makes you say that?" Sirius asked.

"She has to come around sooner or later."

"I'd say later, well actually I'd say never, but if I only have the two to choose from…"

"She'll come around sooner then."

"Oh just keep telling yourself that then."

They reached the Leaky Cauldron and first James grabbed a pinch of floo powder, tossed it into the fireplace in the pub and said, "The Potter manor." He was then sent spinning through many fireplaces and landed in the fireplace in his living room. Sirius followed suit and was soon standing next to James.

"Well only a few weeks left until we get to pull our little prank on Lily," James said happily.

"Yeah and that's really going to help your chances with her," Sirius said sarcastically.

"Oh shut up when we leave Hogwarts she'll come to miss all of our pranks," James said.

"I think we're just going to miss the pranks," Sirius said.

"Well she pulls pranks on us too," James argued.

"That's only because she's pissed off at "us, but Siriusly I'm getting sick of all this Lily talk," Sirius said.

"Well only two weeks until the prank," James said.

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It was the day before she would leave to Hogwarts and Lily was miserable. She hadn't seen any of her friends for weeks all because of James. Lily had never been angrier at James in her life, all thanks to him the only company she had was her parents, her sister and Vernon Dursley. When she got back to school she would get started on the enlargement potion right away.

Lily walked downstairs for breakfast and Vernon Dursley had already arrived. Usually Vernon did not come over until a little after lunch. That meant that Lily would have to spend her whole last day home with Vernon and Petunia…what fun.

Lily gobbled down her waffles as fast as she could and ran upstairs to watch T.V. She wished she could write one of her friends, but her parents locked up Einstein so Lily couldn't talk to her friends while she was grounded.

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Hours passed very slowly. It seemed like it took days for it to finally become 10:00. Lily started packing up her stuff for Hogwarts and then went to bed. She didn't normally go to bed until about midnight, but Lily couldn't wait for the next day to come.

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James and Sirius watched the clock anxiously waiting for midnight to come. The second when the hour hand moved to the 12 James jumped up and said, "Let's go!"

James and Sirius left quietly through the front door of James's house. It took the boys about five minutes to reach Lily's house. The boys walked around the house trying to find Lily's bedroom, but it obviously wasn't any of the rooms on the bottom level that had a window.

"Shit, we're going to have to go inside," James said.

James looked in the windows and found one leading into the kitchen, deciding this was the best one to enter James pried open the window and climbed in, shortly followed by Sirius.

James led the way through the house; he looked around and tried the stairs. All the doors in the hallway were closed. James slowly opened the first door in the hallway. He saw Lily's mother and father sleeping in a large bed, James closed the door. Sirius opened the second and saw a fat boy sleeping on the floor, a girl with blonde hair in one of the beds and Lily in the other. Sirius motioned James in.

James started walking over to Lily's bed and tripped over the fat boy lying on the floor.

Vernon woke up with a scream, "OW!" Vernon looked up to see who had tripped over him and when he saw James he yelled, "BURGLER!" Vernon then got up and punched James in the stomach.

James realized he needed to get Lily as fast as he could, before he got kicked out of the house. Just as Lily sat up James whispered a spell and blasted Lily in the face.

"What the HELL do you think you are doing James?" Lily screamed.

"He is your friend?" Petunia said angrily.

"He just blasted make up at your sister's face with a stick!" Vernon said with his mouth open.

"He is not my friend, and what did he do?" Lily said.

"You're right Petunia, your sister is a freak, and I am never coming here again!" Vernon then left the room dramatically.

"Vernon, no, don't leave! I can explain, I'm nothing like my sister, please don't go," Petunia glared at her sister and then left the room quickly.

"Thanks for getting rid of Vernon!" Lily said, forgetting that she had just been hit in the face with a spell.

"You won't be thanking him for much longer," Sirius said laughing.

"What did you do to me James," Lily said, expression turning from happy to angry in a split second.

"Look in the mirror," Sirius suggested.

Lily walked into the bathroom and looked in the mirror and saw the ugliest makeup she had ever seen. She had a green-brown eye shadow that went up to her eyebrows, very thick, black eyeliner, bright purple lipstick and dark orange blush. "Come on, I though you could do better than that," Lily laughed, grabbing a washcloth and put some face wash on it. Lily scrubbed at her face, but the makeup just wouldn't come off. She spent ten minutes of scrubbing before she gave up.

"Take it off James," Lily said very angrily.

"I can't I'll get expelled if I do magic again," James said innocently.

"Like I would care, but fine, then Sirius, you take it off," Lily said in a pleading way.

"I can't, I don't know how," Sirius said simply.

"Why you have to do this to me every year?" Lily said, near tears.

James felt guilty at this point, she was starting to cry, "I'm sorry, I didn't think it would make you cry."

"GET OUT!" Lily yelled, "GET OUT OF MY HOUSE! GET OUT OF MY LIFE!"

After that James left the house feeling bad, but Sirius just thought it was hilarious, "She's going to have a fun first day!"

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hey just to let you know, i suck at titles so please dont critisize them, but please reveiw!