DISCLAIMER: No, I still own nothing except whatever characters didn't come from the Harry Potter books.

All 100 percent of the blame for the chaos fell solely on the Marauders' perfect shoulders.
-On the Marauders (whenever things went wrong)

CHAPTER THREE
(almost drowning)

A huge gray owl with feathers that gleamed faintly silver swooped into the Great Hall. It soared thrice around the tables, every students' eyes following it, before it finally landed.

In front of Lily.

For a moment, even as the other students gasped and gaped, Lily didn't react. What was Sirius Black's owl doing? She was certain there had been a mistake.

That happy delusion vanished as soon as the midnight black envelope, stark against the owl's golden beak, registered in her brain. Lily froze. It was only when the owl dropped the envelope onto her food that she snapped back to reality, whipping her head around so fast that she felt a crick in her neck.

Emerald eyes met hazel ones, and despite everything, despite how much she had always despised James, Lily felt betrayed.

He stared stonily back at her. Neither he nor the other Marauders were smirking.

Finally, James spoke.

"Ah, Evans, I didn't want to do this," he said earnestly.

Lily reached out to open the envelope, trying to hide the trembling of her fingers. A blood-red note fell out. It had a silver claw emblazoned on it. And unable to help it, she looked at James again. Waiting for something horrible to happen. Waiting for her fingers to turn into sausages, or some other such thing.

But nothing happened.

Lily was still trying to figure it out when the snickers started. Then someone laughed outright, and soon, everyone was laughing. But the laughter was mingled with puzzlement -- mutters of, "But doesn't Potter like Evans?"

Next to Lily, Mara stood up and grabbed her friend by the arm. "Come on, let's get out of here."

"Why? What did they do to me?" Lily hissed, looking down at herself. Was she naked? Was there something on her clothes?

Mara paused, and spoke softly. "Your... your head, Lily."

Lily's hands flew to her head. And she had to bite back a screech as she felt a long pointed snout, tiny eyes, and velvety fur...

A shrew.

The Marauders had turned Lily's head into that of a shrew.

And now Lily was no longer pained and shocked, but furious. Rage such as she had never felt before was coursing through her veins, a welcome replacement to the hurt she felt at being betrayed, and she turned it all on James. Her movements jerky with anger, she pulled out her wand and pointed it at herself. Her voice shook as she shouted out a spell.

By then no one was laughing.

Mara looked awed as she whispered, "Your head's back to normal." She paused. "Lily, that's a hard spell... I didn't know you could do that."

Lily touched her head and felt the smoothness of her skin, her straight nose, her soft wavy hair. Satisfied that the head of a shrew was no longer upon her shoulders, she picked up the blood-red note.

She had never been one for theatrics, but she knew this was something she had to do if she wanted everyone to know that she was capable of standing up to the Marauders. Of conquering their arrogance with the sheer strength of her will.

Looking directly at James, Lily gripped the note tightly. And tore it into pieces.

Before they could flutter down onto the table, she was striding out of the Great Hall.

-----------------------

The school was still abuzz with the melodrama of the Marauders' envelopes when Severus cornered Lily.

"Can you take it?" he asked bluntly.

Lily didn't have to ask what he was talking about. Everything was going wrong for her.

The other students, upon seeing that the Marauders were serious about the black envelope thing - even to the point of sending one to a person they generally liked - had enthusiastically made it known to the Marauders that they were on their side. By picking on Lily. The only ones who didn't participate were the Slytherins, but that was only because they didn't want to support any Gryffindors in any way.

And pick on Lily they did. She found herself being hexed randomly - she had to be taken to the hospital wing at least thrice in three days. Feet stuck out everywhere she went, and she tripped more than a few times before she learned to watch very carefully where she stepped. Whenever she left anything she owned unguarded, even for the briefest of instants, she returned to find her things sabotaged.

Though she knew that there was no way the Marauders were responsible for all of that, that many of the students were acting on their own, she still directed all her anger almost exclusively at them. All 100 percent of the blame for the chaos fell solely on the Marauders' perfect shoulders.

But the worst part was the friends she lost. Mara stayed loyally with her, but many of her former friends began avoiding her - as if she was contagious. No one wanted to risk getting a black envelope by consorting with the enemy. Even Terri and Diana, who had idolized her, began keeping their distance.

Still, she had her pride. So she controlled her feelings, met Severus' gaze, and said coolly, "I think I can."

He regarded her with an unreadable expression. "It was worse for me, Lily."

She didn't doubt it. As it was, she was one of the most popular girls in the school, and yet everyone was picking on her. She could only imagine how it must have been for Severus. And she was touched that he called her 'Lily' for once, instead of 'Mudblood.' Their shared animosity towards the Marauders made her feel a kinship with him.

She said softly, "I know." And she placed her hand on his arm, giving it a light squeeze. Although the assault on him had cooled off, the students distracted by the black envelope Lily had received, he was still the target of too many pranks.

For a moment, they were both silent. Then Severus reached out, grasped Lily by the shoulders and fixed his gaze on hers. "We can get back at them, Lily," he said. "We can make them pay for what they're putting us through."

Taken aback by the intensity in the depths of those fathomless black eyes, she could say nothing.

"I have a plan." He continued to hold her stare. "We can make their lives miserable."

After a moment, Lily dropped her eyes and gently extricated herself from his hold. "I don't want to make their lives miserable, Severus. I just want them to stop what they're doing. To see that they're wrong."

Silence. Unease prickled in Lily. Something about the way Severus said I have a plan made her worry about the Marauders. Whatever his plan was, she sensed it was worse than a horde of little pranks.

Finally, Severus turned away. "Tell me if you change your mind."

Before Lily could answer, Severus was gone.

-----------------------

The Marauders were leaning against a tree next to the lake. Sunlight slanted warmly down on them.

But James' mood was far from sunny. Toying with the snitch he had nicked, he released it, then caught it. He released the snitch, then caught it. He released the snitch, then caught it. He released the snitch, then caught it. He released the snitch, then caught it.

His movements were tense, lacking his usual easy grace. He couldn't get the image of Lily's stricken face out of his mind. Those huge green eyes, filled with hurt and betrayal...

But the past week had been an exercise in patience. Every effort James had made to find out what she and Lucius Malfoy had talked about, she responded to with either sarcastic ripostes or passionate tirades about what an egotistical arse he was. Shrewish was what her behavior had been. No other word to describe it. And he was upset by that, at how she didn't get that no one went against the Marauders... so he had thought of sending her a black envelope.

Peter had been easily convinced, though initially Remus had balked. Sirius had said nothing, only regarded him with concerned dark eyes and said, "You sure that's what you want, Prongs?"

"Yes," he had said, more firmly than he felt.

Sirius had tried not to betray his concern. "If you do this, she'll probably never go out with you, mate."

James, not knowing what to say, had simply shrugged.

And that was it. Remus had known that there was no talking him out of it, so he went along.

Loyalty was perhaps the emotion the Marauders felt most strongly towards each other. It was all for one and one for all. Always. If James felt he needed to do this, then his friends were going to back him up, regardless of their own feelings.

Now, seated next to James, Sirius' hand lashed out, and he snatched the snitch before James could. "Stop it, Prongs. You're driving me mad."

James, moody, opened his mouth to make a retort. But whatever he was going to say never came out.

Lily and Mara appeared in his line of vision on the other side of the lake. They were chatting. But when Lily began to sit down at the edge of the lake, a spell flashed, grazing Mara and slicing into Lily. She gasped soundlessly before shooting backwards and toppling into the middle of the lake.

The students who had also chosen to spend their weekend hanging out by the lake burst into laughter as Lily flopped up, gasping. A Leg-binding Charm. She could flail around with her arms, but she couldn't move her feet. On the shore, Mara was trying to help, but as she could barely move her feet, she couldn't do much.

At first Lily was just annoyed. She had gotten used to those random, sudden hexes. But as she managed to get herself into deeper water, she began to get nervous. She was drowning. The thought ignited her brain. She was drowning! Unable to move her feet, the flailing of her arms wasn't nearly enough to keep her afloat. She began to choke, tried to shout for help. But the words emerged as unintelligible sputters from her mouth.

Then Lily swallowed a mouthful of water. She gasped. She inhaled, and water shot straight into her nose. She felt pain, and blackness blurred her mind. Her flailing grew weaker.

Then she felt a strong arm clamp around her waist, lifting her up. She coughed. The first breath was hell, the second was like heaven flowing into her lungs. Still weak, she felt herself being taken to shore, felt dimly the strength in the muscles propelling her to safety.

Then she was on dry land. She heard someone cast a spell, felt her legs come unglued. She was shivering. And she began to cough violently, until her throat felt raw.

When her vision cleared, she looked up. And found James Potter staring down at her, his wet hair plastered to his head, his robes soaked and dripping.

The first emotion Lily felt was gratitude. Then -

"You fucking arse!" She drew back her arm and slapped him as hard as she could.

James jumped back in shock. A livid red mark appeared on his cheek,and his eyes began to blaze with an anger of his own. "I just saved your life!"

"Ask yourself why my life needed saving!" she shouted back. "I could have died, you moron! What kind of joke was that?"

"I had nothing to do wth this," James said stiffly.

Lily almost slapped him again. "You had everything to do with this!"

"I didn't plan on you almost drowning. I swear, I had nothing to do with this."

Lily glared at him. "You can keep saying that, you git, but it will never be true."

James said nothing. Lily eyed him with disgust, then walked over to Mara. For some reason, some idiot had hexed Mara with a Stunning charm, and she was completely unconscious.

Lily was struggling to get her friend to the Infirmary when she felt Mara's weight being lifted. She turned, and saw that Remus had quite easily lifted Mara into his arms. Her head lolled against his chest.

"I apologize," he said quietly to Lily, his eyes sincere. "We never meant for it to go this far."

Lily ignored him. She started to walk, only to find that Peter had appeared to assist her. He drew her arm over his shoulders, and despite herself, unable to fight her exhaustion, she sagged against him. He was sturdier than he looked.

She tried and failed to resist the temptation to look back. But James and Sirius were gone.

"For what it's worth..." Remus paused. "James really didn't order anyone to try to drown you." He studied her. "And when Peter and I left, he was interrogating the people around the lake. He'll tear apart the person who did this to you."

Lily's voice, when she spoke, was harsh. "He shouldn't punish someone for going along with what he set in motion."

Peter looked like he wanted to say something, but Remus silenced him with a look.

No one said another word until they reached the Infirmary.

A/N: Please review!