By the time I had come back down the stairs, I had clean hair, nice smelling skin, and a cleared out head. Suddenly, I was feeling a lot more optimistic about the whole thing. After all, that wasn't any innocent cat I had stunned last night. That had been Mrs Norris, as in, Mrs Norris, the cat almost every rule breaker there is longs to give a good kicking. And I had done what they had never dared to do. Feeling slightly heady at the thought, I grinned confidently at Marlene as I strutted my way to breakfast. I was a rebel. Watch out, world, and lock up your cats, Lily Evans has come to town.

So wrapped up as I was in my own thoughts I didn't see Professor McGonagall until I nearly walked into her. Ready to spread the love, I called out to her cheerily, "Morning, Miss!"

"Tuck your shirt in," she snapped back, striding straight past.

Which is what you get for trying to be friendly once in a while. "What's up her arse?" I muttered to Marlene, who only shrugged. Raising my eyebrows and deciding to shrug it off, I continued to step my merry way to breakfast, chatting happily all the way. I didn't even notice everyone laughing and whispering excitedly to each other on the way there. I only gave Black the merest glance when I spotted him and Potter high-fiving each other. In fact, I only realised something was up when I saw several teachers outside the Great Hall doors with their wands drawn, turning people away.

"What the hell?" I muttered, as me and Marlene sped up to get a closer look. A small group of people were gathered before the teachers, who were all shaking their heads and looking severely stressed out. Professor Flitwick, standing on a stool and pointing his wand threateningly at a bunch of indignant second years, caught sight of us.

"Miss Evans!" he called out shrilly, bouncing on the balls of his feet to gain attention, "Miss Evans, over here immediately!"

The bottom dropped out of my stomach. Marlene was looking at me with her mouth open. "Oh my Gawd, Lily, what have you done?" she hissed, as we both pushed our way through the twelve year olds. I couldn't even answer. My heart had left my chest and was thumping its way somewhere around my ankles. Ohhhhhhhmiiiiiiiiiigoddddddddd…

Professor Flitwick was able to look me in the eye so high was his stool when I approached him. Brilliant. "Yes, Professor?" I squeaked, sounding like a female version of him.

Flitwick jabbed his thumb over his shoulder. "All Prefects are to go in there!" he said shortly, firing off a stream of sparks at an eleven year old boy. "Yes, well, you shouldn't have tried to get through, should you?" he snapped as the boy burst into tears and ran off, howling.

"Professor, what…?"

"Miss Evans, I have no time to talk to you about it!" Flitwick practically shrieked, looking almost hysterical. "Just go into the Great Hall! Alone!" He added to last part threateningly to Marlene, who immediately backed away, looking terrified. Feeling pretty damn intimidated myself, I edged around Professor Sinistra, who was looking close to tears as well, and slipped around the huge doors, careful to close them after me.

The Great Hall stretched out before me, looking strangely much larger and emptier than I remembered it to be. Frowning, I took a step forwards, then made the mistake of looking upwards. I vaguely felt my jaw drop. Somehow, incredibly, all four gigantic house tables were stuck, legs first, to the dome-like ceiling overhead. And that was only the beginning. As I strained my eyes and walked zombie-like forwards, I could see there were words painted over each table. In flashing colours.

"Cheese is for life, not just for Christmas!" proclaimed the one which looked like it could have been the Ravenclaw table, while another cheerfully had, in screaming pink, three foot wide letters: "Take it from us: snorting Floo Powder will ruin your life." Each table was packed with the stupidest sayings I had ever come across in my life, and each individual letter was eye-watering orange, neon yellow, flashing red, gold, silver, indigo…

The overall effect? Was giving me a headache.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed someone approach me. Dragging my jaw off up the ground, I managed to tear my eyes away from the sad travesty of our old Great Hall ceiling, and looked round at the person.

It was Moony.

"Hi, Lily," he said, not quite looking me in the eye and shifting from one foot to the other.

I could only blink at him for a full minute, before my brain finally caught up with my mouth. "Oh, hi, er, er…" Dang and blast, what was his real name again? Something beginning with R, wasn't it? Robert? Russell? Richard? Oh, for God's sake. "Hi!" I compromised, hoping he wouldn't ask me if I remembered his name. "You alright?" Don't be so stupid, Lily. He won't suddenly demand: "What's my name?" We are fellow Prefects. Obviously I know these things.

He looked stunned. "Fine, thanks."

We looked at each other in silence for a moment. Finally I gestured up at the ceiling. "This is pretty wild, isn't it?"

He looked, if it were possible, even more gobsmacked. "Yeah…pretty…" he swallowed. "Wild. Yeah."

What was the matter with him?

"I mean," I twittered lamely on, "Who could possibly have done this?"

"Uh," he replied intelligently. "Not sure."

Is it any wonder I didn't know his name until last night? I opened my mouth to say something witty and interesting, but then suddenly, something hit me. Last night. I got his name from last night.

Last night!

"You!" I cried, my eyes pinging wide open and bugging out of their sockets (mmm, attractive) "You did this!"

He glanced around nervously. Damn right he should look nervous! I had caught him red handed! "Lily, please, keep your voice down!"

"AND WHY SHOULD I DO THAT?" I screamed at him, and he took a step backwards, looking shocked. He pulled himself back together pretty damn quickly, unfortunately.

"Because you can't tell on us," he replied quietly, "Otherwise you'll get yourself into trouble. You know that, don't you?"

"Excuse me?" I said incredulously, "But I'm not the one who spent all of last night gluing our house tables to the ceiling!"

"No," he agreed, those stupid eyes sparkling creepily again, "But you were out after hours last night, as well. Who's to say you didn't take part in this, other than yourself?"

I stared at him, unable to believe it. "But I didn't!"

"You know that. I know that. But Professor McGonagall wouldn't, if you took the matter to her. Face it, Lily; we were all doing something against the rules last night."

Don't you just hate cryptic people? "So what are you trying to say?" I snapped, suddenly wishing I had never caught sight of them last night.

"Just a simple 'you don't tell on us, we won't tell on you' theory."

I stood there looking at him, my mind working overtime. Suddenly I felt furious. Bloody hell! He was right! I couldn't tell on them without them telling on me. So I had to keep my trap shut and he knew it as well, judging by the wide smile he was giving me.

"Deal?" he asked softly. I didn't even bother with a reply. I simply turned on my heel and stormed off to a teacher to see what I could do to help.

Oh, Moony might think he was all big and clever now. But he should just wait. He had just added himself, along with Potter, to my personal hit-list, and being on the hit-list of Lily Evans is a dangerous thing. A very dangerous thing indeed.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Sweet fluffy muffins. Have you any idea how much I smiled in delight when I recieved all of your kind reviews? No? Well, let me give you an idea. My grin was about THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS wide. I LOVE ALL OF YOU! Even those of you who lurk mysteriously below the surface, reading but never reviewing. I was very happy to get your appreciative psychic vibes (sarcastic cough) to let me know how much you liked my story.

Love to all of you reading this,

Bubbles xxx