Disclaimer: My name's not J.K.Rowling, so how can I own all these wonderful characters and places?
"What's this about you and Potter, Lily?" Alice asked casually.
Lily nearly choked on her own saliva.
"What do you mean me and Potter?"
"I think you know what we mean, Lils." Marlene answered.
"Don't call me that," Lily said automatically. "It reminds me of Potter!"
Alice and Marlene raised their eyebrows as Lily blushed, realising what she had just said.
"Potter on the brain! Potter on the brain!" Alice chanted.
Marlene burst into laughter and Lily frowned.
"I do not think about Potter all the time, Alice!" she interrupted, smiling at her best friend's singing.
"He's actually not staring at you for once Lily!" Marlene exclaimed, staring down the table to where James and his friends were sitting, discussing something earnestly.
"What!" Alice said, craning her neck to see. "This is some kind of miracle!"
"Shut up Alice!" Lily said loudly. "Well maybe he finally got the hint!"
Why are my eyes trying to look at Potter to see whether Marlene is telling the truth and why is my brain resisting? Lily thought to herself.
Giving in, Lily glanced over to James and saw that he actually (for once in his life) was not staring at her, open-mouthed like he usually did. She knew she should be feeling grateful, but for some reason, she wasn't. Struggling with herself, Lily suddenly whispered, "What's wrong with me?"
Marlene and Alice glanced at each other before looking back at Lily. This wasn't what either of them had been expecting.
"Lily?" Alice asked gently.
"I get annoyed when he stares at me and then when he finally doesn't I feel like – like I don't know! I just feel something!"
Marlene and Alice smiled.
"I think Lily, that you are finally having feelings for a certain Potter…" Marlene said.
Lily looked up, her eyes quite bright.
"Lily, come on. He has been good this year hasn't he? He doesn't go around hexing people anymore right? As for the pranks, well…what's school without a few pranks anyway?" Alice said quietly, smiling.
Lily giggled softly. "I guess you're right guys. Thanks. But the actual idea of me actually falling for THE James Potter kind of creeps me out!"
"Don't worry Lils. It creeps us out too!" Alice and Marlene said together.
Lily swatted both of them and all three girls started laughing.
"When's Peeves going to do it again?" Sirius asked.
The four boys were sitting at the Gryffindor table, waiting for the food to appear.
"He should be in the kitchens right now. I wonder how those house-elves are managing him." James answered.
"Probably causing all the mayhem he can," Remus said, grinning.
"So the plan is for him to put the potion in the pumpkin juice and…?" Peter said confusedly.
James sighed.
"Peter, we were just discussing it before McGonagall interrupted us! Weren't you listening?"
"Yeah, but if he puts the potion in the pumpkin juice won't the whole of Gryffindor table be able to drink it? I mean, not only Lily drinks the pumpkin juice!"
James, Sirius and Remus stared at him, open-mouthed.
"We've raised him well," Sirius said finally, failing to grasp the enormity of the situation.
"Sirius, don't you get it!" Remus said frantically. "When the food appears, the WHOLE of Gryffindor will be able to drink some of the potion through the pumpkin juice!"
James was looking half amused, half annoyed.
"Why didn't we think of that? I mean, after all those pranks we've done and we go and mess this up! It must have been because McGonagall interrupted…Do you think she suspects us?"
"Of course she doesn't! Why would she suspect innocent, rule-abiding students like us?" Sirius smirked.
James laughed.
"We have to stop Peeves!" Remus said loudly.
"How? We can't just storm into the kitchens and make sure the house-elves don't send up any pumpkin juice…" Sirius trailed off.
"There they go again, Albus." Professor McGonagall said to Dumbledore. "They haven't eaten yet and they're leaving the Great Hall! Have you ever seen Potter, Black, Lupin or even Pettigrew miss a meal before?"
"I wouldn't know, Minerva," Dumbledore answered, his eyes twinkling. "I don't studytheir eating habits during lunch."
Minerva blushed.
"I don't study them. I just watch them to make sure they don't make any trouble during meals and I think after watching them like the many times I have, you're sure to pick up some things! They're up to something, Albus! I can tell. I haven't been their Head of House for the past six years for nothing!"
"If you insist, my dear," Dumbledore said, smiling slightly.
Minerva snorted and looked back at the four boys who were running out of the Great Hall as fast as they could.
Meanwhile, Peeves was doing his end of the bargain…
"Goody goody house-elves let Peevsie do something with the pumpkin juice!"
"No," squeaked one house-elf. "You is wanting to do bad things!"
"I shan't do bad things! You can trusting me." Peeves said innocently.
"We is never trusting you!" said another house-elf, shaking his small head.
Peeves frowned a ghostly frown.
"Alrighty then, Peeves will be bad!" he said, suddenly knocking over a table of pots and pans.
The house-elves wailed and half of them started to clean up the mess straight away.
"You is being very naughty!" trilled a house-elf with abnormally large ears.
Peeves opened a few taps and knocked down cups and plates. More house-elves started shouting.
Taking advantage of their distraction, Peeves floated along leisurely towards the table laden with food for the Gryffindor students and tipped some of the potion from the small bottle into the pumpkin juice. Then he looked around. The house-elves were still running around blindly, trying to clean up all of the mess. None of them were paying any attention to Peeves anymore.
A thought suddenly came into Peeves' head. It wasn't what the boys had told him to do, but it was just more fun this way. He grinned wickedly and floated around the other House tables and poured the remainder of the potion into the other three jugs of pumpkin and just for good measure the jug of pumpkin juice that would go to the teacher's table.
Grinning wickedly, he floated back over the heads of the house-elves and blew a huge raspberry. All the house-elves looked up at him, annoyance all over their small faces.
"You is making us get into trouble! I is making sure the food will go up before you is doing anything to it!" one house-elf said in a shrill voice.
Peeves grinned. It was all going to his plan. He watched the house-elf send up the food and then started choking on his laughter. The house-elves stared at him warily.
"I can't believe we didn't think of this before!" Remus moaned, running with the other three boys towards the kitchens.
"Lighten up Moony. It will probably be funny to watch everyone –" Sirius started.
"No it won't!"
"I bet they haven't even sent up the food yet, so stop arguing you two!" James said loudly.
All four of them burst into the kitchen and looked around.
Peeves was laughing loudly up in the air and all the house-elves were staring at him.
"Don't send up the food!" Sirius yelled.
The house-elves swivelled around and glanced weirdly at Sirius, who flushed.
"It has already been sended up," the house-elf with the large ears said.
"What! No!" Remus cried.
"Yes!" the house-elves said.
"No!" Sirius shouted.
"Yes!"
"No!" Sirius shouted again.
"PADFOOT! Stop it!" James yelled. "Peeves, why the hell are you laughing like that?"
"Because I put the potion in all the juices!" Peeves cackled.
James, Sirius, Remus and Peter stood still, hardly breathing.
Finally Remus spoke. "All the juices? All the tables? Even the teachers' table?"
"Yes!" Peeves choked out.
All four boys stared at each other, lost for words. Then Sirius said, "No…"
"SIRIUS!" Remus and James shouted.
A/N: Hey again guys! I decided to be a nice person and update sooner than I expected before school starts! It helped that I suddenly had what I call a 'writing phase' where I just can't do anything but write. LOL. Also, I tried to get the accent of Peeves and the house-elves right, but I'm not very sure about it. sigh So, I hope you liked it. Don't worry. You'll find out what the potion is in the next chapter! I won't keep you hanging for that long! Please leave a review!