The Almost Prank

Chapter 5

a/n: Sorry about the long wait. I hope this chapter will make up for it.

Outside the Gryffindor seventh year boys dormitory

Lily had reached the boys dorm room and knocked on the door, "James, let me in," Lily exclaimed. "We need to talk."

"Leave me a lone," James screamed from the bed. "Just leave me a lone. I don't want to talk to anyone."

"I'm sorry I can't do that," Lily murmured. "You have to come out and talk to us. You can not keep yourself locked in there like this. We are worried about you. If you won't come out and talk to us I will have Professor McGonigall call your parents."

"You wouldn't," James whispered. "She wouldn't call my parents even if you asked her to."

"Yes she would," Lily responded. "She has already told Sirius that she would. Please, James you have to talk to us. We want to help you. We care about you."

James gets up off his four poster bed and wove through the cluttered room to unlock the door. "What do you want to talk about?" James asks shortly. "It is obvious that you are not going to leave me a lone. So talk."

"You didn't go flying today," Lily muttered. "I wasn't the only one that noticed. I have spent the whole morning telling everyone that asked what was wrong with you that you just didn't feel well. I have lied to almost all of our house mates."

"I am sorry that you had to lie to them. Why did you do it?"

"The same reason I silenced Snape in front of Professor Slughorn yesterday. I didn't think you wanted the fact that you had a child getting around the school."

"You did what? You can not be serious, you used magic against another student in front of a teacher."

"Yes I did. I even have the detention to prove it. I was surprised that I had done it at first. You should have seen their faces. It was kind of funny. Snape kept moving his mouth like he was still trying to talk, but no sound was coming out. Slugghorn just stood there for a while then gave me two hours of detention."

"I wish I had been there to see it," James muttered taking Lily by the hand and leading her down to the Common Room. "So when do you have to serve this detention anyway?"

"After lunch," Lily responded smiling. At least she had gotten James out of the room and he was smiling. Now all they had to do was get him to eat a little bit. "So do you want to play a game of Wizard Chest."

"I suppose," James muttered going over to the chest table. "Where are the guys? I thought they would be down here." James was looking at the nearly empty Common Room."

"They went to get cleaned up," Lily replied. "The Professor told them to use the Prefect bath. They should be back in a little while though. They have been gone for a while. They did bring some food up if you want any."

"What is there?" James asked only half paying attention to Lily while he set up the chest game.

"The normal breakfast food. Although there is this neat little desert that the house-elves made. IT has peanut butter and pumpkin in. It is quiet good, you should try it."

"Sounds interesting," James responded reflectively. "I wouldn't want to hurt their feelings by not trying it. Where is this food any way?"

"I'll go get it," Lily said getting up to go and retrieve the food that the other three Marauders had brought from the kitchen.

As Lily was picking up the tray of food she noticed that Remus was walking in to the Common Room. When Remus looked up and saw that James was at the chest table he smiled and walked over to him. "Hey, Prongs good to see you up and about," Remus muttered sitting in a chair nearby. "Did you sleep well?"

"Not really," James muttered. He really did not want to have this conversation. "Moony, did you know that Lily got detention?"

"Yeah, she mentioned it to me," Remus responded.

"How come one of you didn't go with her?" James pleaded. "You shouldn't have let her go a lone."

"She wouldn't let any of us," Remus muttered. "Lily insisted that she be the one to get Slughorn. She said that if one of us did it would look funny. Plus she didn't want us to get in trouble for something we didn't do."

"So she took the fall."

"Yeah, you could say that."

"Hey you two," Lily interrupted. "I brought some of the food. Peter and Sirius are coming over with some more. Here you go." As she handed a plate full of food to James she sat opposite him to play. The two of them played for about an hour. Lily ended up beating James in both games that they played, as usual. It wasn't that James was bad at chest it was just the fact that Lily was the best Wizard Chest player in Gryffindor not to mention the school.

"You almost beat her the last game, Prongs," Sirius said in awe. "It is so entertaining to watch the two of you. You get so involved in the game. Like I said before, James you have finally meet your match." James Potter just happened to be the second best Wizard Chest player in the school.

"Padfoot, that will be a seven galleon charge for the entertainment if you don't mind," James joked. "The rest of you have received free admission." James called to the crowd that had gathered around the group during the two games. Whenever Lily played Wizard Chest she drew a crowd, most of the onlookers just wanted to she who the poor sucker was that was playing against her. Others thought that maybe they would learn something from her. And there were always the ones that liked to watch the pieces destroy themselves.

"Look at the time," Lily muttered looking at her watch. "We better get down for lunch so I can get to detention. It would not look good for me to be late."

"Ever the good one," Sirius muttered just loud enough for Lily and the Marauders to hear him. "Gets detention and worries about being late."

"Shut up, Padfoot," James whispered back grabbing Lily's hand and heading for the portrait hole. "Are you guys coming or not?" James called over his shoulder.

"Lil, you didn't have to do it," James said walking with Lily down to the dungeons. James wanted to have a few minutes a lone with Lily before she had to serve her detention. "The Marauders and I would have taken care of him. Slughorn can be pretty harsh with his detentions."

"Yes I did," Lily replied. "I was the one that was there with you. Remus was going to, but I told him I would. If one of us didn't go and get the Professor then both of us would have been serving detention instead of just me. What are you going to be doing until I get done?"

"I figured I'd go flying for a while," James replied. "No one is using the Pitch right now so I thought it would be a good time to get some extra playing time in. Sirius wants to see if he can get a few others and play a quick game. I'll try and make sure that we are done by the time you are done." By this time they had reached the Potion Masters room so James bent down and gave Lily a kiss. "I'll see you later. Don't worry it won't be to bad."

"I know," Lily replied staring up into James eyes. "I'll be fine. Have fun flying." With that Lily walked into the Potion Masters room.

"Well, Miss Evans," Professor Slughorn murmured. "As you can see I have several potions that need to be made. Madam Pomfrey needs this list completed before the next full moon , you will get started on them. Most you will have done by the end of the two hours. It was so nice of you to volunteer to help me. Now the work will get done twice as fast."

For the next two hours Lily sat and added ingredients and stirred potions getting toughly nauseated by the mixture of fumes that were being emitted from the potions. She was glad that she had decided to be a healer instead of a potion maker. True potions was one of her favorite subjects but still she could not stand this smell every day. She was never happier to get out off a room then she was to be out of the Potions room that day.

"Lily, James sent me to get you," Remus called from the side of the corridor. "He is still flying. I wanted to thank you for the change in him. I did not relish the thought of having to face his parents. Mr. and Mrs. Potter mean well but when they get upset everyone knows it."

"Don't mention it, Remus," Lily responded. "Thank you for coming to get me. I'll just go find James. Are you coming?"

"No. I don't particularly fancy Quiditch. I'll see you later tonight," Remus said as they reached the entrance hall and went their separate ways.

Even though it was getting dark the Quiditch players didn't seem to mind nor pay attention to the lateness of the hour. Lily noticed the darkness and then the cloaked figures that had walked onto the grounds. True Hogwarts had many defenses that protected the castle and the grounds against attacks but these cloaked figures did not seem affected by the words. Even though she was sure that they did not belong there. Lily was torn between going to the castle for help and staying where she was to fight the attackers until the Quiditch players noticed them. Surveying the situation she realized that she did not have time to go and get help. With resolve she stood and walked to ground level and prepared to fight off the attackers hoping that one of the fourteen Quiditch players would see the intruders and fly to the castle to get help.

James and Sirius were the first to notice what was about to take place on the ground. They also realized that there was no escape for Lily. "Sirius go to the castle and get help," James yelled to his best friend. "I am going to help Lily."

At these words the rest of the players finally realized what was happening around them and retreated to the safety of the castle. Noticing this Sirius called to one of the retreating flying figures to go and get help as he started to land to stand and fight with his friends. The three Gryffindor Lions stood side by side facing the on coming black cloaked figures, knowing that there were to many for them to fight a lone. However they were determined to at least buy some time for help to arrive. The three frightened friends were not going to be the ones to cast the first spell. In fact they were hoping against hope that no spells would be cast. This however as they knew it would be was a fatal hope.

Presently a beam of red light wiped past Lily barely missing her. With the first spell cast the three students answered with shields and counter curses and disarming spells. After a few minutes the three Lions were joined by several teachers and other wizards many of which were Aurours.

The battle continued for several more minutes. Lighting the sky with many colors as spells and curses and counter curses were cast. One of the death eaters hit Lily with the Cruciatis curse and her screams could be heard by James over the noise of the battle. As he turned to help her he summoned all of his strength and cast a spell which caused the death eater to be in gulfed in flames, but not be burned and loss his focus. Sirius taking the advantage that James had offered by distracting the Death eater cast a containment field around the death eater so he could not flee. After this the three friends stood back to back making a circle each protecting the other two as they continued to fight. During the fight a stray bludger came flying at James who was only able to get out of the way due to his quickness acquired from the four years as the Gryffindor seeker. After several more minutes of fighting another bludger went right for one of the death eaters knocking him out. Lily cast yet another containment field around this death eater.

Lily who was very weak from the fight and the remaining effects of the Criciatis curse was starting to lean on the boys using all of her strength to cast spells. She was however determined to keep fighting. She was determined that if she was going down she would go down with a fight. "I hope this doesn't go on much longer," Lily yelled to James and Sirius. "I don't think I can last much longer."

"I have an idea," James called to his friends. "Sirius cast a shield around Lily. I'll continue to cast spells around it. We have to get her to the dressing room."

"You bloody well will not," Lily screamed seeing the stray bludger making yet another dive at the group she raised her wand to destroy it. "I will not hide while the rest of you fight." With the resolve that these words brought the friends found new strength and continued the fight. The three friends were able to take out another three death eaters before the battle was over.

"I think we won," Sirius said seeing the retreating black cloaked wizards. "James take Lily while I put up a containment field around these gits." At this James picked Lily up in his arms from where she had finally fallen from pure exhaustions and the three very tired Gryffindors headed to the group of teachers.

The Aurous though happy that they had driven the dark wizards off were disappointed by the amount of prisoners they had captured. They had only captured one and killed two, they were as of yet unaware of the five the Gryffindor students had captured. "Do not worry," Dumbledore told the arours. "We will get them in the end. We can be thankful that we were able to keep it under control. Thank you for the help. Now I must go and talk to the students."

"Headmaster, look," McGonagall yelled pointing to the two figures coming towards them from the Quiditch Field. "They are alright. Anyway I think they are. At least two of them are still able to walk. Although from this distance I am not sure which one is being carried."

"Professor," James puffed as he came up to the group of concerned adults. "There are five more in a containment field down by the Pitch. I must get Lily up to the tower to rest." Hearing this five aurours went to retrieve the five death eaters.

"Nonsense Mr. Potter," Professor McGonagall exclaimed. "The three of you will go and wait for the Headmaster in the hospital wing. I will hear no excuses. Now, can I trust the two of you to get Miss Evans safely to the hospital wing or must I come with you."

"We can do it just fine," Sirius muttered angrely. "James, put Lily down so I can help you. It will be easier on all of us if I help." As James set Lily down Sirius put her left arm around his shoulder as James did the same with her right.

"You should be proud of those Lions, Minerva," one of the wizards said watching the trio limp up to the castle. "Had it not been for them I fear the Order members would not have been able to get here."

"I agree," another wizard commented. "And taking five death eaters down is nothing to be ashamed of."

"Yes, I think we can expect great things from them," Headmaster Dumbledore said. "Now if you all will excuse me I need to make sure the students at the castle are alright." With that the Headmaster walked towards the castle. He was deep in concentration as he walked to the castle. Hogwarts was one of the safest places to be, yet it seemed that Voldemort could attack here. He simple must get more protection for the school. At the next meeting with the Order he would brooch this subject. Or was this just a scheme Voldemort had set up to deter the actions of the Order so he could attack elsewhere.

Lily laid on the bed with James and Sirius sitting at the foot of her bed leani g against eachother. James was holding Lily's wand as well as the two of the five wands of the camptured death eaters. Sirius was holding the other three death eaters wands. They were very weak and tired from the battle but none of them wanted to let the others out of their sight for fear of what would happen once the headmaster appeared. They were all sure they would be facing at least a month worth of detention for not returning to the school at the first sign of danger if not expulsion from school and they only had a few months left before graduation. "You two should really give the wands to Dumbledore," Lily murmured from the bed. "I do not think he would be to happy to see you two playing with them. Although you are making a very interesting light show." After a short while Dumbledore entered the hospital wing. "So Poppy how are they," Dumbledore asked the medi-wizard.

"They are weak, Headmaster," the medi-witch answered saddly. "They are weak and frightened. Although I cannot blame them. Other then that they are fine. It seems however that Mrs. Black and Potter still are able to make jokes. This is a good sign that they have not lost their sense of humor."

"I would expect them to be both weak and frightened," Dumbledore replied. "I will go talk to them. They did a very brave thing tonight. Maybe I can get the wands back too."

As the three Gryffindors looked at each other they could not believe the words coming from the headmasters mouth. They had had no other choice then to stand and fight. It was not bravery that had made them do what they did it was fear. They had fought out of fear. Fear for themselves and fear for others.

"Professor," Lily began. "I did not fight out of bravery, but out of fear. I do not deserve your compliment."

"Miss Evans, what you did was brave," Dumbledore responded. "Even though you were frightened you chose to stand and fight instead of hiding. That was a very brave decision. I would have been worried if the three of you had not been frightened. Fear is the first measure of bravery. For if you do not have fear you can not have bravery. Fear will always be the ruler we use to measure bravery."

"I had no where to run to," Lily muttered. "And because of me both James and Sirius were put in great danger."
"We came to your rescue because it was the right thing to do," Sirius told Lily. "Someone had to buy the others time to get help."

"Which is the seacond ruler we must use to measure bravery," Dumbledore said. "Loyalty to ones friends is just as important to bravery as fear. For without one you can not have the other. And the three of you did a great job at buying us time. Without your help we would not have been able to mobilize as many as we did. You were even able to take five death eaters out. Which is more then all of the teachers and others combined. 300 points will be added to Gryffindor house for your bravery in the face of unmatched terror and loyalty in the defense of our school. An additional 500 points will be added for each death eater the three of you took out. You have fought a battle that many older more experienced witches and wizards refuse to fight. Tonight you have chosen which side you want to be on. And proven your selfs up to the task."

"Thank you, Professor," Lily murmured. Instead of the punishment they had all thought they would receive they had gotten rewarded. "Can we go? I do not fancy staying here and I for one would feel more comfortable in the tower. It provides a sense of comfort for me that no where else does"

"You all may go," Dumbledore answered. "Go find the rest of your friends. They have much to be thankful for because of the three of you. The Order will be graetful to have you three in their ranks if that is what you chose when the time is right."

"What Order?" James asked with a puzzled look on his face.

"Why the Order of the Phoenix," Dumbledore replied. "We are an organization that is determined to fight against Lord Voldemort. The dark times have come and everybody must chose what they believe and be willing to fight for it."

"So those wizards were Death Eaters then," Lily stated.

"Yes, Miss Evans, they were," Dumbledore nodded. "Thanks to the three of you we were able to turn them back before they infiltrated the castle. The students owe you much as do the teachers. You three fought like wizards many years older then you. The chose you made tonight speaks highly of your characters. Now, if you will excuse me I would like to get some rest. Before I leave please give me the wands that you wo are playing with. It is never wise to play with another wizards wand. I would suggest the three of you do the same." As Dumbledore turned to leave the room the three friends got off the bed to go to the Gryffindore tower. Still weak but all knowing that what they needed more then anything was the company of friends.

As they entered the Gryffindore Common Room they were assaulted with questions and hugs. News certainly traveled fast in the school. Faster in fact then in most schools. The three friends were not ready to tell their tale yet so they went up to the boys dormitory to relax. As much as they knew it was against the rules Lily, James and Sirius did not want to be separated yet not even for a moment.

"You know it is after hours," Remus muttered coming in. "If someone says something you could get in a lot of trouble."

"Sod off, Moony," James replied holding Lily close. "She has just experienced the Cruciatis Curse. If it is comfort that she needs it is comfort that she will get."

"I didn't mean anything by it," Remus replied. "I was just making conversation. Please just be careful. Peter and I were worried about you three. Then when we heard that the castle was under attack and you three weren't back yet we thought for sure that the three of you were dyeing some where."

"No not dyeing," Sirius said. "Close to it but not dyeing. In the end I think Lily wishes she was dead though. Until tonight none of us have had the privilege to experience that particular spell. However I have heard that it is very painful."

As Sirius was talking Lily had slowly drawn closer into the protection of James. She hurt all over and she was scared. She did not want to have this conversation anymore then the other two. "I think I should probably go to my room," Lily muttered after another hour. "I will see you guys in the morning."

Read and review. Also you can find my other stories from my bio.

moonys-witch : Thank you for the review. I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much.

Lily and James Love 4 ever : He finally ate. But will he keep eating. Parents are always a wonderful threat. Thanks for the review.

harry-an-ginny : Thanks for the review. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

a/n: The next chapter should be uplifting to this sad story. It will be up in the next few days. It promises to bring with it a lot of fun and laughter. If that is not your style skip it, your missing out on a good prank. As always thank you for reading and those of you that review thank you so much. I love your feedback.