*14 days left*
All of the Gryffindors had gone to bed, so the Marauders and the girl's had grabbed a hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows from the kitchens and were sat in a circle around the fireplace talking about life. Sirius was lying flat on the floor with his arms stretched out, James and Lily were curled up on a sofa, Kara and Sasha were lying feet to feet, and Remus and Peter had their feet up on stools next to each other.
"I need to do things guys" Kara said thoughtfully staring into the fire "
"We've had fun times" James chuckled
"Yeah, remember that time Sirius dyed Lily blue?" Remus cracked up but was promptly hit in the head with a pillow by Lily.
"Too soon" She pouted.
"But Lilypop, that was two years ago!" Sirius rolled over to continue arguing but from the look in Lily's eyes and the amount of pillows next to her he decided to stop. "Ok then, what about the great and almighty donut dash?"
"Oh gosh yeah" Lily giggled remembering how she'd annihilated Sirius that day "Have you built your ego back up yet?"
"Yeah, yeah, not my fault we've been banned from doing it since that first year almost drowned"
"Pads, do you remember your greatest day ever? Thestral sledging is one of the best things I've ever done" Sirius sat up and bowed at his amazing idea.
"That was pretty damn brilliant" Sirius agreed, stretching out and throwing a marshmallow into his mouth "Until somebody decided to drop water bombs on us…" Sirius glanced up at the girls.
"Ha, yeah, I suppose I have done a lot of stuff. There was the ball as well" Kara remembered what had happened and immediately regretted it but luckily no-one brought up her and Sirius' 'moment'.
"What makes you want to do more anyway?" Sasha poked her in the shoulder with her foot "Have we not been good enough for you?"
"God no! The opposite" Kara slurped the hot chocolate to compose herself "You've been the best friends I could ask for, I want to have even more of these great memories"
"Let's do it then!" Lily pulled a piece of parchment out of her pocket with a spare quill.
"Let's do what?"
"I'm making you a bucket list" Lily explained, writing the title at the top.
"It's not like she's dying!" Sasha argued, grabbing the quill off her and writing 'living list' instead.
"Right then! Let's get started on Kara's living list"
*13 days left*
"Sirius you might feel better if you weren't slamming your head on the table" James sighed trying to get Sirius to stay upright on the bench.
"It's Tuesday James. I've already had Monday showing me how terrible the rest of the week is going to be, and I don't have the memories of the weekend fresh in my mind. Tuesday is underrated in the league of bad days" Sirius banged his head one more time and left it on the table, leaving enough room for eating bacon.
"I know, I know, I've heard this a million times, but we've got to get to class in five minutes" James persisted, sliding away the plate of bacon to try and make him get up.
"Prongs. I'm tired. Leave me to my food" he curled up on the bench and put his head in his hands.
"Why do I get the feeling this is about more than tiredness?" James nudge him and raised his eyebrows "Is little Paddy in loooove" he grinned.
"What on earth would you give you that idea" Sirius blushed shoving him away.
"Because you had exactly the same mopey look on your face in first year just before you ran up to Fran Winterspell with roses made out of Stupidly Strawberry Gummy Strips" James shivered.
"Shut up, the Pads doesn't lo…" Before he could finish Lily, Sasha, and Kara jumped into the seats next to them and he quickly shut up.
"Guys, I need help finishing my list" Kara babbled excitedly, throwing it down on the table and getting out a quill. James and Sirius were never ones to stop someone doing stupid things so they jumped right in.
"Ok read out what you've got so far" James swiveled round to face her in anticipation.
"Here it is: Kara's Krazy Living List…"
"That may be the worst name I've ever heard" Remus mocked, snatching the list off her and raising his eyebrows at the K in 'krazy'.
"Leaving forever pass" Kara argued, grabbing it back "I'll start again:
Kara's Krazy Living List
1) Picnic on Hogwarts' roof
2) Riding the Whomping willow
3) Pranking Filch
4) Ice skating on the Black Lake
5) Snog a stranger
6) Play a game of Quidditch
7) Spend a night in the Forbidden forest
8) Go somewhere dangerous in Hogwarts
And this is where I'm stuck" Kara chewed the end of her quill in thought.
"Easy" Sirius cracked his knuckled and breathed in before reeling off a massive list of stupid and impossible ideas.
"Hang on, you want to dance with a what?" Lily tried keeping up "And I doubt you'd be able to do that with a spoon"
"Well what about abseiling down the astronomy tower?" Remus suggested and Kara cheered in delight.
"Ok now I need a super mega awesome impossible challenge" Kara pointed out, her last spot had to be saved for something mind blowing. Finally she clapped and added the last two things to the list.
9) Abseil down the side of the astronomy tower
10) Turn the staircases into an obstacle course
"It's going to be a fun couple of weeks" Sasha bounced up and down.
"Don't you think this is a bit much?" Lily bit her lip wondering how on earth they were going to do all of it.
"God Lils, it's 1977, if a girl can't have a meal precariously balanced on a roof or sleep in an immensely dangerous place, what can I do?" Kara laughed, rolling the list up, putting it carefully in her pocket, patting it for safety "Now haven't we got lessons to get to?"
"Amortentia" Slughorn announced from the front of the classroom "The most powerful love spell known to wizards. However, we can't use it for making love, that's impossible, it merely creates an undying obsession in the drinker for the person who made the potion. It is one of the hardest potions to create, and what we will be attempting today"
"Sounds easy" Sirius remarked, looking at the mass of ingredients in front of Slughorn.
"I really have to get this right Pads. Slughorn's started ignoring me and if I'm not at the next Slug Club meeting I'll be devastated"
"James you hate those things!" Remus pointed out.
"Well yeah, it's just nice to be appreciated!" James huffed before going off to grab a bag of pearls, lavender, cinnamon, rose oil, honey, butterscotch, haliwinkles, flitterbies, morning dew, mint, and a wobbling box that worried him.
"How on earth do you 'simmer rose oil and lavender whilst flicking flakes of cinnamon and also stir it with a bundle mint leaves?" Remus asked, staring in horror at the book.
"Meh, it's not that hard" Bragged James as he set flitterbies in honey and swirled them into the mixture. Remus juts stared in awe as James delicately poured the mixture through the bag of pearls where it ran through the bag coming out a beautiful pearly pink.
James was about to bring over Slughorn to show him how well it was going when he heard a gasp of delight from across the table.
"Miss Evans your work is divine, your haliwinkles are perfectly charmed and a fabulous touch with the cherry seeds" Slughorn stood smelling Lily's mixture in delight "Remember class, when you're up to the final stage make sure you know what you're doing before starting on your box"
"I'm surrounded by geniuses. It's horrible. Remus sighed as he watched James and Lily smelling each other's potions and comparing notes.
"It's alright Mooners, I have a plan for how we can crush their potions into the ground" Sirius winked as he held up his box.
"I don't like where this is going" Remus sighed as Sirius opened his box way too confidently and a mass of Billywigs flew out and swarmed around him "REMUS, REMUS HELP" he squealed whilst running around the classroom.
Remus looked around to Slughorn who was just stood watching, chuckling, and Remus soon found out why. The Billywigs stung Sirius and he quickly floated up into the air and got trapped on the ceiling.
"The Billywig sting" Slughorn explained as he walked to beneath where Sirius was floating "Has the ability to make a person float, or in the case of amortentia, gives the floaty feeling of being in love"
"How was I supposed to know?" Sirius moaned as he repeatedly hit his head on the ceiling.
"I'm guessing you didn't read the instructions" Lily laughed as she stunned the Billywigs, removed their stingers, and then added them to the potion.
After Sirius had completed the float of shame Slughorn got the class to gather around James and Lily's cauldrons.
"An unusual characteristic of this potion is that different people can smell totally different scents. What you smell reminds you of what you find most attractive. Now, who wants a smell?" Slughorn beckoned everyone forwards.
"I smell…"James inhaled deeply "Fresh morning air, Rose and Grapefruit, and freshly cut flowers" James thought back to the many vases of flowers his mom always kept around the house, and the early quidditch practices where the wind snapped you awake. Trying to figure out the last smell he quickly hugged Lily and breathed in her sweet rose scented hair and grapefruit perfume.
"What about you Sirius?" James shoved Sirius to the cauldron, even though he knew what he'd smell.
"Pumpkin pasties" He said happily, thinking back to the Marauder's Hogsmeade traditional pasty spree and their pasty eating competitions in the kitchens "and I think that's… smoke?" Everyone looked at him confused apart from James, who thought to his house where the fire was always lit.
Lily was next to step forwards. "Wet hair…" Lily said thoughtfully "The smell of old books, and lavender" James smiled as he remembered all of the times he'd come into their common room soaking wet from Quidditch practise.
When everyone had gone, smelling everything from chocolate to sea salt, Slughorn wrapped up the class and they went off, James bragging about his first totally successful potion.
"Ok then, number two on your list. Riding the Whomping Willow, seriously?" James stared and Kara hoping she'd see what a stupid idea it was and back out.
"Of course! Come on guys it'll be a laugh" Kara insisted, dragging everyone down to the tree.
"We're dead if anyone sees this. Actually never mind we'll be dead if we try this anyway" Lily muttered, glancing around anxiously for McGonagall or Dumbledore.
"Oh loosen up Lilypop" Sirius patted her on the shoulder enthusiastically "When else are you going to be able to ride an animated, murderous tree?"
"My life's goal." Lily replied sarcastically just as they arrived.
"Now has anyone actually got a plan for how to do this?" Remus looked around hoping they weren't just going to be trying to jump of arms of a maniac tree.
"Actually I do" James grinned proudly, gesturing for everyone to gather round "Ok, Wormtail turns into a rat and taps the knot at the base of the tree to make it stop. From there we can easily position ourselves and wait to it to reanimate, then Peter freezes it again and Bob's you uncle!" Everyone clapped apart from Peter.
"Leave me out again then why don't you" Peter said angrily to himself before turning into a rat and squeaking abuse at all of them.
"No Wormy you can't have food" Sirius laughed, not knowing Peter had just insulted his hair. When he'd finally got to the base and frozen the tree everyone ran forwards.
"Right we haven't got much time, James give everyone leg ups into the tree" Sirius instructed before swinging himself up into onto a branch with ease.
"This had got to be one of your worst ideas ever" Lily's voice shook as she wobbled along a branch and wedged herself in a large gap made from entwined branches so the Willow couldn't crush her against the floor.
"I think you're getting worst confused with best" Kara laughed wildly as she did the same on another branch.
When everyone was finally in position they tied themselves into place using their wands before throwing them to Peter who was crouching in the secret entrance. They sat listening to Lily shouting in protest for a bit before the tree jumped into life, immediately swinging them around.
"WOOOHOOOO" Kara screamed as she did a double loop the loop before being swung around the tree in circles repeatedly.
James, Sirius, and Remus were loving it. After years of having the tree being a symbol of a night of pain and hard work they were riding it like a fairground ride. Lily was screaming her head off but Sirius kept shouting for it to go faster.
"Guys I think I'm going to throw up" Sasha called out after a while.
"That only means you're having a good time" Sirius yelled back as their branches passed each other.
Finally, after what seemed like forever for Lily, the tree cottoned on to what they were doing and started new tactics, smashing the branched that they were in together.
"WORMTAIL, STOP IT" James shouted desperately, curling up to avoid kicking Sirius in the face as he collided with his branch.
"If I left them there and just ran away they'd be crushed and would never taunt me again" Peter thought to himself as he watched the chaos unfold "The Dark Lord would love me if I killed a load of Gryffindors" Peter let the smashing go on for seconds longer before realizing he still had to use them and stopped the tree.
Slowly everyone flopped down from the tree and fell over from dizziness.
"That… Was…" Kara started to mumble as she crawled up off the floor.
"Kara it was you're idea…." Lily began to argue but suddenly Kara leapt in the air cheering.
"ONLY THE BEST THING I'VE EVER DONE!" She began spinning in circles before stopping in front of Peter giving him a funny look "Why did it take you so long to just touch a bit of a tree?"
"I… Uh… just couldn't hear you properly" Peter stumbled, stepping back and rubbing his arm. Before he could be questioned any further James had thrown up and Sirius was repeatedly standing up and falling over onto his head.
"Light weights" Kara laughed, dragging them onto the side just before the tree started swinging again.
"Since when did Hogwarts spin around so quickly?" Lily groaned from the floor "And I didn't know you had a twin Kara!"
"Someone stop Lily from fainting so we can move onto the next thing!" Kara encouraged everyone to get up but they just shooed her away and stumbled back up to the common room before falling asleep on the sofas.