Authors Note:
Oh My Goodness I've just been looking back through my story for help with this chapter when I find out I called James Harry at one point – oh how completely stupid oh me. I also called Percy their second son – thank you to Arkell26 for pointing that out – so please excuse my stupid little mistakes! My favourite was probably a brush spreading across Kara's face instead of a blush :L
50
"Pads, what on earth are you doing?" James asked whilst looking worriedly over at his friend as he attempted to get up to the ceiling by wedging himself between the fireplace and the bookcase.
"Isn't it obvious" He grunted through the effort.
"Um, no?"
"I'm trying to hang up my Christmas countdown, duh" between Sirius' teeth was a massive silver piece of card with massive bold gold letters saying '50' on it as a Lion ran around it. "The Common Room is nothing without it at Christmas!"
"And you do know you're a wizard?" James often questioned the sanity of Sirius.
"Ahh" Was all he said as he looked around properly for the first time and saw what a mess he was in, just before he could come up with a sensible, well as sensible as Sirius got, plan to get down there was a shriek on the other side of the room.
"A RAT!" Lily squealed leaping up onto a chair, the shock of the noise sent Sirius soaring to the floor and landing flat on his face "OH MY GOODNESS A RAT, JAMES HELP!"
"You didn't tell her?" Sasha mouthed at James as Peter was attempting to scurry past Lily and get to Honeydukes before he started to get sugar withdrawal symptoms. After 'that night' the Marauders had tried to forget about everything that had happened, so the whole illegal animegus thing had never really come about in conversations with Lily.
"Don't mind me guys" Sirius announced sarcastically as he dragged himself off the floor.
"Oh a rat, yeah, cute aren't they" James tried to get around the chair to pick up Peter "Hey little guy, how are you doing?" He said in a fake cute voice, and mouthed sorry to Peter, God this was awkward.
"I HATE RATS, GET RID OF IT" Lily had her head buried in her lap.
"No!" James said slightly too enthusiastically "I mean, uh, oh for goodness sake follow me" James ran up the stairs to their dorm.
"James why are we here, with a rat?" Lily winced, sticking to the other side of the room to James.
"Because, well, you see, forget it, Wormers take over" James gave up and put Peter in the middle of the floor before he morphed back into the shape that Lily recognised him in.
"What on earth?" Lily asked in complete shock, rubbing her eyes.
"Ta Dah?" Peter just stood there awkwardly, his hands stuck to his sides.
"Explain" Lily demanded, looking James in the eye.
"Well it's a funny story really" Lily raised her eyebrow "Because we might of sort of become illegal animegus'" He smiled fakely trying to lighten the subject.
"YOU WHAT?"
"Do you think he told her?" Remus said sarcastically as Lily's shouts echoed down the staircase
"I'm guessing she's angry" Sirius attempted to hid behind the couch as Lily came storming down the stairs.
"You alright Lil?" Sasha asked innocently.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Her eyes scrutinised the group.
"Lily, it was for the best, I mean look at you now you actually know!" Sirius had a point, but Lily was definitely never going to admit that Sirius Black was right.
"Why rats then?" Lily looked at the four Marauders now James had meekly joined the group, her voice now slightly hushed as a crowd was starting to gather around this 'almost argument'
"They're not rats, just Peter" Remus explained calmly "And they did it for me Lils, not just for the fun of it"
"Why?" Lily wanted to know everything.
"Look, this isn't the best time, meet us by the lake at eight and we'll explain" That calmed Lily down so she could return to her book.
Lily was finding it terribly difficult to listen to a word that was said in the Transfiguration lesson, it hurt knowing why James and Sirius could spend the whole lesson not listening, then be asked a question then answer it perfectly while she was sat there struggling to turn a table into an alpaca –
"Who even wants an alpaca? You can't even put your coke on it." She thought to herself through the frustration of it all.
Lily had rushed through the day, trying to get to that evening as fast as possible, a chance to finally find out the Marauder secret that they've been hiding from everyone? It couldn't be missed.
She found the Marauders all stood in a circle muttering about what they were going to do, it needed to be simple, yet explain everything.
"Ah Lilypop" Sirius greeted her uncertainly.
"No need to make an effort Sirius, just tell me what it is" Because the Marauders words and excuses never worked on Lily they burst into a role play where Remus was sat cross legged on the floor jumping about.
"What on…" She started but Peter shushed her before she could say anymore. They went on to act out the remaining three Marauders trying to help Remus but he quickly slashed them and they lay on the floor still. They went back to normal, but before her eyes they went on to turn into animals before going and nuzzling Remus.
Lily just stood there staring at the rat, dog, and stag that stood boldly before her.
"So?" Remus asked her just as Sirius began sniffing around a tree, Peter tried to run away from a nearing cat, and James sniffed at a nearby clump of grass.
"Cool magic trick" She managed to squeeze out whilst staring open mouthed. Before Peter got eaten they all turned back into their human selves.
"They did it to be there for me Lils, they couldn't be hurt if they were animals. I didn't want them to, but they did it behind my back"
"Only because you didn't let us" Sirius butted in.
"Exactly, they've always been there. Please don't blame James for not telling you, he's the best friend a guy could have" James blushed and turned away.
"Is that true?" Lily's eyes scrutinised him.
"Yeah" He muttered waiting for the yelling to start, but Lily just walked up to him and hugged him.
"That's the sweetest thing I've ever heard" She beamed.
"Ok?" He said uncertainly.
"But if you ever get hurt I'll kill you" she went serious but James laughed awkwardly "James I'm being serious, you're not torturing me for five years then leaving me because of one of your stupid plans"
"Believe me, you're not getting rid of me that easily"
45
"WHY!" Sirius called out in the middle of a divination lesson.
"Sirius shut up" James elbowed him in the ribs.
"WHY SHOULD I?" most of the class had started to turn around and watch the scene unfold.
"Because you look like an idiot" He muttered whilst fake smiling at everyone else.
"Well I'm sorry James but my entire faith in the female race has been shot down. I hate them all" He growled, tears brimming in his eyes. Kara was sat in the corner of the classroom with Eradenus Thomas beaming up at him.
"I saved her life" Sirius uttered whilst glaring at the happy couple "I saved her life, kept her safe, and she kissed me."
"Pads, you've known Kara since we were all three, you should have known she would do this" James and Sirius had watched Kara go around breaking heart after heart from the day they'd met.
"That's the point prongs, I've known her longer than that git, I practically bagsied her"
"Now you're just getting immature, now drink your tea so I can tell you your future"
"I can already see it, I'm going to have a womanless life and stay alone" he grumbled slamming his head down on the table.
"Of course not, Pads" James patted him on the back awkwardly.
"Prongs, no offence, but you're a clueless idiot, I only told you about how I felt about Kara last year, but it started way before that. You can't just get over something like that" He moaned, gazing longingly over at Kara.
"Ok, offense taken! And anyway I'm sure there will be another girl, I heard that that Brown girl has taken quite a fancy to you"
"Oh God no. Anyway are you, James Potter, seriously trying to tell me to get over a girl?" That one left James stumped and unable to stop him as Sirius got up from his chair and marched over to where Kara sat sat.
"Why?" he shouted at her "Why did you have to take my heart and kick it across the quidditch pitch and into the lake? Kara you knew how I felt, and you took advantage. Now your with this, this git!" Kara looked up at him totally shocked, the great Sirius Black had been hurt by a girl. "I will never get over you, do you realise!" He knocked over the cups of tea on their table and ran out of the room.
"I should probably, sort of, go" James got up and ran after him whilst Sasha and Lily gave Kara confused looks, they had set Kara up with Eradenus and it apparently wasn't the best idea.
40:
"Who's leaving for the Christmas break then?" Lily asked everyone as they sat around the roaring fire.
"I don't think anyone out of us is this year" Sirius looked around the group and everyone nodded.
"Why?"
"Well, James' parents are busy in France until Christmas day for a rest so we can't go back home while they're not there" Sirius explained.
"My parents have declared it too dangerous for me to go home because my Aunt's house was set on fire by some dark wizards" Kara explained morbidly.
"Ditto, my parents think it's safer here" Remus agreed.
"I'm just staying because I heard you lot where here" Sasha smiled, hiding the fact it was really because she was unsure her mom would let her go back if she did leave.
"I think Peter's parents are just worried he'll eat them out of house and home if they let him back" Sirius laughed whilst pinching Peter's cheeks mockingly.
"Cool then, Christmas with the idiots" Lily laughed before six pillows flew at her.
30:
"Sirius, I…" Kara started as Sirius brushed past her on his way to the Great Hall. He had spent the first day in his room, and ever since he had emerged he had been ignoring Kara completely.
"Ah, Miss Evans!" Slughorn strolled up to the place on the table where the gang were gathered. "I trust you'll be coming to my 'Slug Club Christmas Party'?" He beamed.
"Of course, I look forward to it" She smiled.
"You too, Remus my lad, I can't wait to meet your dates" And with that he walked over to the group of Ravenclaws on the next table and repeated the same question.
"Oh God" Remus had no idea who he was going to take.
"Let me guess, girl problems?" Sirius knew his friend inside out.
"Sirius who on earth can I take?" Remus was convinced the girls were all after James and Sirius.
"For Goodness sake Moony, look around" Remus turned to the end of the Gryfindoor table and a group of girls turned away giggling, the same happened with the Hufflepuff and the Raveclaw table.
"You're a Marauder, man!" James slapped him in the arm "Go get 'em!"
25:
"On the count of three, yeah?" James confirmed with the group who were crouching in the rafters above the entrance to the Slytherin common room.
"I don't know…" Lily moved about uncomfortably "should we really be doing this?"
"Lily, this is the first official Marauder prank we're letting you in on, no interfering" Sirius took his pranks seriously "Anyway, it's the first of December, we haven't pranked anyone in like a week. If this doesn't happen I shall die of boredom" He answered dramatically as he clutched a thin piece of string in his hands.
"There's someone coming!" James looked down the corridor "It's Black, and Snape"
"Bingo" Sirius grinned and slowly edged along the beam, the three of them reached the door "Now, I mean, 3!" he hissed.
Just as Severus and Regulus reached the door Sirius yanked the string he was holding and mass of glue fell from the roof and landed on their heads.
"What the hell?" Regulus growled looking around in fury, before they saw the Marauders James, Remus, and Peter jumped off the rafter tightening the rope around the Slytherin's legs and they got lifted up in the air. To finish it off Lily nimbly leapt down and shoved cream pies in their faces, and with that they charged off down the hall out of sight.
"Dicks!" They heard Severus scream after them. They carried on running until they had got back up the stairs and into the main entrance where they collapsed in fits of laughter.
"Oh my gosh" Lily gasped "their faces! That was great, what are we doing next?" The Marauders just looked at each other in shock.
"Lilypop I think we're a bad influence on you!" Sirius laughed.
20:
"And it's another goal for Gryffindor!" Emma Baxter screamed in delight down the microphone.
"Pads what are you doing by the goals?" James shouted down at Sirius who had just whacked the quaffle through the hoops with his beater bat.
"They were annoying me so I did it myself!" He shouted back whilst whacking a bludgers in the direction of Rodolphus Lestrange, hitting him square in the jaw. "Now go back to looking for the snitch you idiot!" Always hating being told what to do James flew down to Sirius, grabbed his beater bat, whacked him in the arm with it before turning and hitting the bludgers at the Slytherin seeker whilst receiving a mass of cheers from the stands.
Just before Sirius could retaliated the snitch glided past their faces.
"See what you did now?" James moaned before he took off to follow the snitch, the Slytherin chaser was a brooms length in front of him, determined for revenge after being hit with a bludgers.
"What's the matter Potter? Too slow?" He laughed as they followed the snitch into the stands and up and over to the castle, James was getting closer.
Just before James could overtake him they flew around the astronomy tower where the Slytherin rammed into him and knocked him off his broom.
"WHERE'S JAMES?" Sirius yelled over at the keeper.
"I DUNNO?" she shouted back, the game was getting nasty.
James was hanging on by one hand as the broom shakily sped back to the quidditch pitch; he was now miles behind the other chaser. In desperation he flew to the side of a stand and tried to lever himself onto his broom using the stand to hold himself steady but a Slytherin beater saw him.
"Over there!" He gestured as the other one saw a nearby bludgers. He whacked it towards James, it was going to hit him straight in the face.
Just before it could hit Sirius appeared out of no-where and flew in front of it, taking the bludger to his leg before heaving James onto his broom. Before James could thank him the whistle hand been blown.
"Slytherin wins the match!" The voice rang through the Stadium, a smug Penelope Gursham stood holding the snitch in the middle of the grass smiling smugly.
"Bitch" James muttered to himself before flying down to the ground in shame.
15:
"Now Moony, Remember, confidence and cockiness are key" Sirius fired him up as they stood by the entrance to the common room.
"I'm going to be honest, being on the other side of this is explaining a lot" Lily sighed "Look, Rem, you just need to be your cute self"
"I don't want to be a 'cute self" He moaned "Cute in girl talk means shy and undesirable, James?"
"Don't look to me for help you've seen where my methods get me" James backed away with his hands in the air.
"Look, you're a Marauder for heavens sake, that equals being famous in this school!" Sirius ignored the evils Lily was giving him "What you need to do, is strut over to the group, rake your hand through your hair..."
"Totally my move" James grinned.
"Shut it Prongs, you need to smile up at her and say 'You wanna go to Slughorn's party thing?' and she'll be eating out of the palm of your hand" Nodding nervously, Remus accepted the pats on the back James and Sirius gave him and entered the common room, James, Sirius, and Lily ran to a sofa in the corner to observe.
He found where Dorcas Meadowes was sat with Marlene and a huge group of girls, and started his attempt of a strut up to them.
"Prongs did you tell him to do his best impression of a pirate with a peg leg?" Sirius cringed as Remus hobbled over to the window.
"Hey" He accidentally squeaked at them, immediately they all turned around and started giggling. Forgetting the hair rake Remus through his hand up to his head and missed his hair completely, slapping himself in the forehead and pinning his hand down to his side in embarrassment.
"Are you alright Remus?" Dorcas stood up and put her hand on his shoulder looking pityingly up at him.
"Yes! I was just wondering if you wanta go to Partyhorn's slug thing"
"Who's Partyhorn? And why's he got a slug?" Dorcas lowered her hand in confusion.
"DAMMIT, Slughorn's party thing" Remus resisted he urge to facepalm, he'd already accidentally done it once.
Dorcas laughed "You're cute Rem, of course I will"
"Yay!" He beamed, realising what he said as Dorcas chuckled "I mean, cool, cool, see you there"
He walked straight past Sirius' laughter and James' imitations and ran up to their dorm.
10:
"L-L-Lily, hey" James stuttered when Lily came floating down the stairs wearing a pure white floor length dress speckled with diamonds that glittered in the light with her hair curled and gripped to the side with a silver bow tied in her hair with white. "You look…"
"Like a little snowflake" Sasha teased as she admired Lily in the dress she'd helped her pick out the day before "perfect for winter" She beamed at her amazing skills.
"You look stunning" James smiled as he linked his arm through her elbow and kissed her cheek. That's when Remus came running down the stairs looking flustered in a tuxedo.
"How do I look?" He asked as he panicked.
"You look great! Stop panicking"Lily could hear his worrying from the girls' dorm.
The three of them then walked up to Slughorn's office to where the party was being held. Delayed only when Remus met up with Hestia and he made a mess out of complimenting her, ending with "So what I mean to say is that on this particular night you look very nice, even though you do look very nice most of the time anyway..."
"Lily! James! My favourite students!" Slughorn beamed at them when they finally turned up "How about a picture?" He asked, and a second after the two of them awkwardly agreed a camera flashed at he had disappeared.
"Ever think there's something wrong with that dude?" James looked questioningly back at Slughorn "I mean, 'slug club'? Sounds lame"
"Shut up James, Slughorn's a great teacher and he does this to show his appreciation of us" Lily argued.
"Right, if you say so" James backed down completely unconvinced.
As the party went on James noticed a lot of the boys in the room looking over at Lily and smiling at her, and at one point a cocky fifth year waltzed over and put his hand on her shoulder.
"Why let one guy hog you when you could have me?" he smiled creepily down at Lily.
5:
"CHRISTMAS TIME, MISTLETOE AND WINE, OGRES BINGING, TROLLS GETTING DRUNK, WITH A WHISKEY AND FIRE, A CHOCOLATE DESIRE, TIME TO EAT FOOD AND HAUL IN THE JUNK " Sirius shout-sang from the shower that morning.
"Uh, is that how it goes?" Lily asked James as they sat wrapping family presents on James' bed.
"It's how Sirius' version goes" He sighed as he stared at the bathroom door willing him to shut up.
They decided it was best to leave the dorm just as Sirius belted out 'IT'S CHRIIISTTMAAAS' they knew where that was leading.
0:
"GUYS WAKE UP NOW, DO YOU KNOW WHAT DAY IT IS?"
"Easter?" James guessed sleepily as he got up and stretched.
"NO you idiot, it's CHRISTMAS!" Sirius ran around doing cartwheels around the common room laughing.
"Hey Sirius, you know what you should do?" Remus asked in an attempt to shut Sirius up.
"What?" Sirius jumped up and down.
"Wake up the girls, I'm sure they're as excited as you!" and with that Sirius charged down the stairs. The sound of a person rolling clumsily down a slide and hitting their head confirmed that Sirius had tried to wake up the girls. That shut him up slightly.
"Come on then, we have to open presents!" He ripped the cover of Peter excitedly to reveal Peter strewn across the bed wearing a Rudolph onesie with a light up nose, after the three of them laughed for ages at Peter the four of them skipped down the stairs in their pyjamas to welcome the four mounds of presents in their spot underneath four massive sparkly signs with their names on them. The girls practically crawled into the common room with simple jeans and matching Christmas jumpers on.
"Let the present unwrapping begin!" Sirius shouted and he, Remus, Peter and James all attacked their presents, ripping them open and discarding the paper.
"Why on earth are we friends with them again?" Lily rubbed her eyes as her, Sasha and Kara sat cross legged in a circle and began the tradition of taking it in turns to open a present, carefully unfolding the paper so it could be used again, and discussing in detail the present they had got.
"Oh my goodness you've killed Christmas!" Sirius called over to them and Lily unwrapped a little reindeer wearing a jumper and they all squealed at its cuteness, the paper was laid neatly in the pile with the rest.
After an hour James sat surrounded by masses of expensive gifts: new wizard gadgets, a pile of clothes, a broomstick cleaner and modifier from Lily, and a massive bar of chocolate from the Marauders with 'Prongs' written on it in scruffy handwriting; Sirius had an almost identical pile apart from the hex in a box that Regulus had sent him that left him stuck to the floor for five minutes before James managed to peel him off; Remus had piles and piles of books; and Peter was surrounded by sweets and chocolate: whereas the girls had neat little piles surrounding them with more to go.
"Hey, want to finish before I die of old age over here?" Sirius yawned. There was a loud knocking at the door before Dumbledore strolled in.
"Greetings everyone, and merry Christmas!" He beamed whilst pushing his half-moon spectacles further up his nose "I expect you're all having a wonderful day?" The group nodded in shock at this totally informal encounter "I just popped in to drop off something for James, it came from your father" he said as he passed James a delicately wrapped parcel, and when he looked up from the present Dumbledore had gone.
Everyone dropped what they were doing and surrounded James as he carefully peeled back the tape and unfolded the corners of the paper. A shimmering cloak slipped out of the paper and landed on his lap. As he picked it up it glistened in the light shining through the window.
"Cool it's a cloak, lemme try it on!" Sirius made a grab at it but James instinctively pulled it away in time.
"No way, me first" James stood up and draped the cloak over his shoulders. "Well?" He asked the group who were just sat there completely open mouthed "Is it that bad? I'll have to ask for the receipt…" He started.
"James if you ever get rid of that I'll kill you" Sirius gestured down at James' body, as he looked down he gasped in complete shock.
"I'm, I'm invisible!" He exclaimed, throwing it over his head and running around "How cool is this?" they heard empty space shout from the fireplace.
"Oh the tricks we could pull with this!" Sirius stared into space as his mind exploded with possibility.
"Do you smell turkey?" Peter looked up for the first time from his chocolate.
I just realised that I've never done a disclaimer, so: I don't own these characters, I'm not JK Rowling or Cliff Richard, I'm also not a member of Slade, if it's also of interest I don't have a beard or own a monkey. Sorry to dissapoint.
This was definitely more of a jigsaw chapter with less serious stuff in it, it was nice to have a break from the war death and pain route I went down last time. If I was in English right now I would say "the contrast in mood through the two chapters reflects the relationship that James and Lily have, and could be foreshadow for the events that are to come – as Lily and James are safe (positive) when tragedy happens (negative) so it's preparing the reader because they can see how quickly the tone can change" but it would be complete and utter rubbish because I just got bored with writing sad stuff this is also officially the longest chapter – can't tell if that's good or bad though, so that's
Mischief Managed