Author's Note: I would like to thank spring cleaning and a pandemic for helping me to find a project that I started a few years ago that seemingly never made it here. Additionally, I would like to thank USA channel for playing an Easter Harry Potter marathon of all the uncut versions of the movies. If ever a distraction was needed from the reality of the world, now is it.

Marauders & Co.

Chapter One: An Arrogant Bullying Toerag

"Sod off." Lily grunted at her roommate. Her day had started out perfectly fine and gone from bad to worse to absolute worst day of her life.

"Lily, please come out! We just want to make sure you're okay!" Alice sounded suitably exasperated for someone who had been trying to get her friend to uncharm her bed curtains for the better part of an hour. "We need to talk about it. You know it's true! Neither Marlene nor I think that about you and certainly not Ja-"

It sounded like a gun had gone off in the room. The curtains snapped back from the bed and a furious Lily glared daggers at her both girls. "DO NOT TALK ABOUT THAT ARROGANT TOERAG IN FRONT OF ME EVER AGAIN!"

Marlene grabbed Lily's arm before she could close the curtains again. With little effort, the tall blonde dragged the redhead out of bed and onto the floor of the dormitory. They went down in a heap. The taller girl managing to get the upper hand on the way down. Marlene was sitting on Lily's stomach and had her arms pinned at her sides so that the smaller girl couldn't swat at her anymore.

"While I have never understood your friendship with Sn- Severus," Marlene caught herself, "and I don't think what James did was right. You have to admit that Severus should not have called you a you-know-what. No. Lily, listen to me. Potter can be an absolute arse. And yes, he is a bullying toerag sometimes. But…I dunno Lily, staying angry like this is just not healthy. Right, Alice?"

The brunette had sat down on the floor and was leaning up against the bed. "I agree with Marlene, Lily. You've had a pretty rotten day. I'd say both boys are tossers and you should just spend the next few days avoiding them. Then you can spend the whole summer forgetting about them."

Lily glared at her friends. Sure, just get over her awful day. Not like it was going to be an awful summer now too. She was certain that the summer was going to be spent with Petunia being more unpleasant than usual on account of her new 'beau'. Potter was sure to write multiple times a day in attempt to get her to go out with him. She would be effectively cut off from the magical world. And to put the fucking cherry on top, her father had been diagnosed with cancer. It felt like the whole world was crashing down around her ears. How she had made it through the Charms exam today was beyond her. She could feel the tears welling in her eyes, both from anger and sadness.

"Oh, Lily please don't cry! Everything will be alright. I'll steal James's owl from him this summer if that's what you need!" Alice motioned for Marlene to let Lily up. The three girls sat on the floor, the two hugging the one.

Lily swiped furiously at the tears. "Please do. At least for the first week." Marlene and Alice laughed and helped pull her up from the floor. Alice affirmed that she would steal the owl and that she would keep the boy from writing her every hour of the day.

"I'll steal Black's so that James can't borrow his." Marlene beamed, she was always prepared to do something that annoyed Sirius. From hexes to pranks to petty theft, Marlene knew how to get under the boy's skin. "Maybe I'll even teach the owl to bite him when he delivers mail. Wouldn't that be brilliant?"

Lily couldn't help but grin. Marlene disliked Sirius almost as much as Lily hated James. It was all too often that Alice was pulling one of her friends out of a heated argument with a black-haired boy.

"Why don't we go down to dinner?" Alice suggested, quickly adding, "We'll sit far, far away from the Marauders."

"Can we go to the library after to study for Transfiguration? I feel like my brain has gone to mush after today." Marlene rolled her eyes at Lily but the three agreed to take their Transfiguration notes with them to dinner to finish cramming before their final exam tomorrow.

James watched as the three Gryffindor girls entered the Great Hall. He was halfway to standing when an arm on either side of him yanked him back into his seat. Across the table from him Sirius flicked his wand, effectively silencing James. Remus glanced from Sirius to James and grinned.

"Thank you, Padfoot. We can't have Prongs here making an even bigger arse of himself today, now can we?" James was clutching at his throat while opening and closing his mouth. No sound was coming out. Despite this, you could tell he wasn't singing praise to Sirius.

"Exactly, Moony. Now Prongs, as much as I enjoy dangling Snivellus upside down, I don't think Evans had much of a taste for it. Moony, Wormtail?"

Both boys looked at James and nodded. They had these sad, pitiful looks on. "Now, Moony, Wormtail, what do you propose we do? Prongsie here can do one of two things. One, he can continue to torture dear old Snivelly for the next four days and spend all summer thinking of new ways to do so. Or two, he can lay low and stay out Evans's sight and try to gain back some of the respect he never had in the first place. Boys?"

Remus and Peter chose option two at exactly the same time Sirius chose option one. Remus and Sirius scowled at each other. "Honestly, Padfoot, it's time James grows up a little bit. And not just so he can have any chance with Lily, though I'm sure he's almost completely destroyed it."

"Moony, you can't be serious! Because I'm Sirius." The boy snickered to himself while the other three glared at him. "Give up tormenting Snivelly for a girl?"

James slammed his fist down on the table. A few students around them looked at the Marauders skeptically, most likely considering moving to other seats because one never knew what these four boys were up to. Sirius threw his hands up in surrender and flicked his wand again at James. "Happy?"

"No." James glared at Sirius. "Moony, what do I do? I think I've really mucked the whole thing up this time."

"Owl her every day over the summer until she agrees to go out with you." Sirius said as he grabbed another drumstick off the platter. Remus tossed a roll at his head and turned to James.

"Honestly, James? I don't know. You really did muck this up. Maybe just keep your head down for the next few days? Avoid Lily and Snape? Don't put yourself in a position where you'll do something stupid?"

"Wormtail, they're not being any fun. Make them stop." Sirius whined and dodged two rolls.

Peter shrugged and grabbed another roll from the basket. "Moony, pass the butter, would you?"

"Et tu, Brute?" Sirius threw a hand up to his forehead and collapsed sideways on the bench. Not one of the other boys said a thing. When he popped his head up above the table he was pelted with dinner rolls. Sirius huffed as he sat up. James threw one more roll which Sirius caught and took a voracious bite out of. "Ooo muys arr mot Maroffers enymorr."

"I'm sorry, we don't speak gibberish. Maybe try that again when your mouth isn't full of bread, Padfoot." Remus collected his books and stood up. "If any of you would like to study for Transfiguration, I'll be in the library."

Sirius made it quite clear that none of them would be studying for the exam tomorrow. Peter looked terrified at the idea of not studying. James seemed to be lost in his own world as he peered down the table at a certain redhead. Remus's words might have actually stuck this time. As much as James wanted to walk down to the end of the table and ask Evans to go out with him something inside him made him stop. Maybe he should lay off. Give her the summer, let her have a break from him. He tried really hard not to stare at her. Alice caught him and gave a very subtle shake of her head before turning back to her conversation. That settled it. He would wait until the three girls left before he went back up to the Common room. He didn't think he needed to study per se but at least a quick glance over his notes.

Lily, Alice, and Marlene were quizzing each other at a table in the very back of the library. The library was full of fifth, sixth, and seventh years trying to cram for the last exam of the term. Curfew was closing in. Madam Pince told the students that they needed to start heading back to their dormitories. Poor Emmeline Vance, a fellow fifth-year, had fallen asleep on top of her notes and was woken by Madam Pince rapped a long wooden stick on the desk to wake her up. The students began trudging back to their Common rooms where they would continue to study into the wee hours of the morning.

Remus made sure to give the three Gryffindor girls some space ahead of him. He knew that he should have done more to stop James and Sirius earlier in the day but he hadn't. He was also painstakingly aware that anyone associated with James was surely not in Lily's good books right now and he didn't fancy having her turn her infamous temper on him at just this moment. When the older students returned to the Common room they kicked all the younger students that were still milling about off of every surface so that studying could continue. Remus was slightly surprised to see that James was sitting at a table in the corner of the room with notes spread out in front of him. Even more surprising was that James hadn't even acknowledged Lily had entered the common room. She and her friends had taken the table as far away from James as possible with little acknowledgment of either Marauder.

"Thought you weren't going to study?" Remus sat down across from James.

"You're mistaking me with Sirius, at no point did I say I wasn't going to study." James didn't even look up. He flipped over the piece of parchment he was reading. Transfiguration was his best subject and yet it was the exam he was feeling most nervous for.

"Where is Padfoot?" Remus glanced around the room suspiciously. James and Sirius weren't often separated. Peter was also missing from the Common room. "James. Where are Sirius and Peter?"

James shrugged and continued reading his notes. Remus snatched the notes out of James's hand. "I'm not kidding. You know that Sirius has no ability to reign himself in, and Peter only encourages him."

"Re-lax Moony. Pete and I just went to get some snacks for our fellow classmates." Remus and James turned to see Sirius and Peter setting up a mini feast on a conjured table in the middle of the Common room. "My fellow Gryffindors, I know that you are all studying furiously for your exam tomorrow. The Marauders proudly present you with a midnight snack from the kitchens. Enjoy."

Sirius dragged a chair over to James and Remus and plopped down beside them. "Always think the worst of me, don't you Moony. I was only trying to provide for my fellow students. Help them stay awake while they cram for tomorrow. Here, have a sandwich, you're not you when you're hungry."

Remus looked at the sandwich skeptically. "I didn't poison it, Moony. Honestly. The food has not been tampered with in any way. Peter was moaning about how hungry he was and I figured he probably wasn't the only one."

Peter had a sandwich in one hand and an apple in the other. He nodded in agreement as he chewed. Remus picked up the sandwich and examined it a little closer. It looked perfectly fine but it wasn't a stretch to think that Sirius had tampered with it. He gingerly took a bite out of it and swallowed. Just a plain old roast beef sandwich. Maybe he needed to trust Sirius a little more often. James noticed that Lily, Marlene, and Alice had glanced at the table of food as a few other students began to take some snacks back to their study spots. He watched Lily shake her head but Alice stood up a grabbed a bowl of grapes off the table. The brunette pretended to choke when she popped one in her mouth and laughed as her friends' eyes bulged. Marlene swatted her with a rolled-up piece of parchment and Lily put her grumpy-don't-do-that face on. Lily always looked so cute when she scrunched her nose up like that.

"Earth to Prongs. Stop staring at her. She's bound to notice and hex your eyes right out of your head." Sirius was snapping his fingers in front James's face. "Moony, he's hopeless."

Lily woke up in cold sweat. A pair of dark eyes had haunted her dreams that night. A pre-dawn glow was streaming through the window next to her four-poster bed. She felt like her dream was an omen for the summer to come. She had never enjoyed leaving Hogwarts at the end of the year. She loved the castle and being part of the magical world. But she had never dreaded going home before. Something felt different today. She couldn't put her finger on what it was but there was a heaviness hanging in the air around her. Lily knew that things were going to change over the summer and it wasn't going to be for the better.