The corridors stood empty and silent. Not a sound, save for the flickering crackles of the torches along the walls, and..

The padding of feet?

"Shut up Padfoot! If someone were writing a story about us, your big feet would be the first thing they mention."

"My b-e-a-utiful feet may be the first thing they mention, but you'd be the first to talk."

"How about we all stop talking, as to not attract Prefect/professor attention?"

"..Shut up, Moony."

The four crept around another corner, moving along the long hallways like shadows or- in Sirius's case- elephants. James pressed a reassuring hand to his pocket. Sure enough, the enchanted mistletoe was still there. Step one of magnificent plan was beginning.

Peter stopped, looking out a large window. The grounds below were lit by the soft light of the crescent moon and the glow of the castle, illuminating a small moving figure.

"Who is that?" said Peter, half to himself. The others stopped, gazing out the window.

Remus frowned, squinting slightly. "It's hard to tell. Whoever it is has their hood up."
Beside him, Sirius fidgeted, digging through his robe. He finally pulled out a small pair of omnioculars.

"..Padfoot?" James asked, lifting an eyebrow. "Why do you have omnioculars in your pocket?"

"Because, if you stand at the bottom of the staircases and look upwards at the girls in skirts-"

"Perhaps you can share another time?" said Remus, not much in the mood for theories of how to look up skirts. Not that he ever was, really. Taking the omnioculars from Sirius, he raised them to his eyes, zooming in on the mysterious figure by the lake.

"Who is it?"

"Still trying to guess, Padfoot."

"..How about-"

"No, Sirius."

"..C-"

"No, I cannot see them!" Remus handed the omnioculars to Sirius. "Try."

With a sigh, Sirius looked through the omnioculars. "You've got to be joking," he murmured, watching the figure with awe.

"What?" asked Peter. "You know who it is?"

"My god.."

"Sirius?" James poked his friend on the shoulder. "Padfoot, who is it!"

"That person.."

"WHAT!"

"..has Nike's."

The other three blinked. "Has what?" asked James, the word 'Nike' absolutely meaningless to him.

"Nike's. And pretty nice ones, too."

Remus frowned. "You build up all that excitement in Prongs, because of shoes?"

"They're nice shoes-"

"You pansy," James said as he grabbed the omnioculars from Sirius. "Come on. We have plots to put into action." Putting the device in his other pocket, he continued down the hall, the others following with last looks at the stranger.

"Why are you taking my omnioculars?"

"I want to try out that theory of yours."

"Ready?"

"To be perfectly frank, no. I still don't see why I, out of all of you, have to be on the
bottom."

"Perfectly Longbottom? What the ruddy hell, Moony?"

"It's an expression, Sirius."

James crossed his arms and glared at the other three. "Are we doing this or not? There's a prefect on duty here in twenty minutes."

With a sigh, Remus kneeled onto the ground, spreading his hands infront of his shoulders like a human table. This is ridiculous, of course, as werewolves do not fit well as tables.

"Ready yourself, Moony! Here comes the truckload!"
Remus groaned as Sirius stepped on top of him, feet pressing hard onto his back.

"Hurry," Remus urged, limbs shaking under Sirius' weight.

"What? Are you implying that I'm fat?"

"You have been taking an awful lot of second helpings," Peter piped up.

"I knew you were the one who stole my Shepard's pie!" cried James.

"Hurry," Remus said again. Sirius plus second helpings, plus Shepard's pie equals one very crushed Moony.

"Alright, alright." Sirius now kneeled on top of Remus in the same position. We now have, if you see it that way, two tables stacked upon each other.

"Wormtail!" Sirius called cheerily. "Gee up here!"

Biting his lip, Peter stepped in top of Sirius, who was on top of Remus. And mounted the same position. The three Marauder tables.

"Again, I can't say how much this hurts," said Remus quickly, "but I suggest you get on soon, James, before I bring the other two down with me."

Sirius gasped. "You wouldn't!"

"I'll bet you two Galleons he would," said James, climbing on top of the other three. With an unsteady wobble, James pulled the mistletoe from his pocket, attaching a small piece of spellotape around the top. He reached upwards, the mistletoe just inches from the ceiling..

James pulled out his wand, and with a well-rehearsed 'Wingardium Leviosa', levitated the mistletoe upwards until it stuck to the ceiling.

"James.. How could you have not done that on the ground?" asked Remus. "..Never mind, Prongs, you'd better get off quickly-"

"Hey!" cried Sirius. "A Knut!" Raising a hand, Sirius bent low towards Remus, stretching towards a bronze Knut on the ground..

"Sirius! Stop-"

And so came the end of the Marauder tables, due to Sirius' need for money. To be perfectly Longbottom- er, frank- the Knut was indeed fake, and absolutely worthless.
And so the other three angry Marauders glared at Padfoot the entire long walk back to the common room, who received the look with a confused stare and a toss of his new fake Knut.

--------

Hogwarts was a school of chaos the next day. Girls giggled as they passed through the corridors, batting their long eyelashes at nearby boys- often Sirius- who returned the gesture by later looking up their skirts with his omnioculars. James often joined him in this.

Mistletoe had been hanging in nearly very corner of the school, for a very unlucky Filch to removed. Even more unlucky for him was the fact that they could not be removed.

To increase teacher stress, it seemed that everyone knew who put up the early decorations- the Marauders, of course (a no-brainer)- but had no proof so suggest they were the culprits.

"I've snogged four girls today," declared Sirius during lunch that day. "And I still have some good hours of daylight to continue. What about you, Prongs?"
James poked his sausages lazily. "I've been trying to catch Lily the entire day, but I she insists that we wait until it's actually Christmas. Something about ruining the spirit.."

"I'm not surprised," mumbled Sirius.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Remus looked up from the Daily Prophet. "If you're still interested in catching her, she's on her way."

James turned around, his eyes brightening at the sight of Lily Evans walking between the tables. Alone.

Without her friends.

Perfect for talking to.

And snogging with.

ALONE.

James sprang from his seat, standing in front of Lily. She stopped, folding her arms across her chest and giving him that I-don't-want-to-snog-you-yet-so-you-shouldn't-stand-infront-of-me-or-I'll-curse-your-arse-to-Timbuktoo kind of look. Or something like that.

"How are you today, Lily?" James asked, standing on the balls of his toes. He sent her that kind of I-swear-I'm-innocent-and-I-have-nothing-to-do-with-the-mistletoe-incident-but-I-entirely-agree-with-whatever-you-have-to-say-about-it-but-right-now-I-really-just-want-to-know-how-you-are-feeling-today-so-then-I-can-snog-you look.

"I'm fine," she replied oddly, looking him up and down. He was abnormally happy today. She noticed Sirius, Remus and Peter watching the two of them from the table. They hurriedly turned around, whistling innocently under her stare. "Is something wrong, James?"

James almost exploded with joy. She responded in a not-so-blaming manner. LILY RESPONDED in a CALM and COLLECTIVE manner.. And she probably knew he was the mistletoe culprit.

If joy felt like nausea, he was very joyous indeed.

"Only to bid you good day," he replied in as cool a voice as he could muster.

It seemed he was not very good at 'mustering'.

"Are you sure alright?" asked Lily. "You don't look- let alone sound- well."

Wordlessly, James pulled a long box from his pocket and handed it to Lily. It was wrapped in gold paper.

Looking confusedly from James to the box, she slowly peeled off the wrapping paper. Beneath lay a leather case.

She gasped at what lay inside.

A long necklace fill the box, a sterling silver chain neatly tied to a soft cushion. Upon the chain sat a lily, green stones lacing through its' leaves.

James, at the moment, was sweating to the point of drowning the Great Hall in salt water.

"It's beautiful," Lily whispered, running a finger along the lily.

"You like it?" James squeaked.

Lily smiled and looked at James, green eyes warm and bright. "I love it."

"Would you care to take a walk along the grounds?" James asked. The hot, stuffy hall was choking him to the point of suffocation on happiness.

"Sure. Around the mistletoes, if you don't mind." Lily smiled. The necklace was stunning; she would think about what 'reward' the Marauder could get. If no ideas came to mind.. there were plenty of mistletoe.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Since they're going out," he mumbled to Remus, "you, Moony, must help me with my pranks. They practice snogging too much."

Remus sighed.

James grinned, linking arms with Lily and leading her out of the castle.

If joy was a drug, James was so high.