Tuesday 3rd January 1977

Auror Academy, 19:00

Frank covered his head with his pillow in an effort to dull the ringing in his ears. He thought he had been smart, writing constantly to Kingsley and getting him to explain all that would happen. You know, to be prepared and all that. And, to give credit where it's due, Kingsley (ever the reluctant letter writer) had actually outlined what would be happening to him. He thought he was ahead of the game.

No. He was very much not ahead of the game.

You see, what Kingsley had failed to mention just how loud everything was. Instructors were loud, orders were loud, the movement of many recruits, all loud. So loud. And this was only the end of the first day. They hadn't really done anything today. It was more than likely going to get louder. Fantastic. Frank honestly was having a hard time wrapping his head around that concept.

Despite going to a boarding school where you basically got no privacy and was never silent, it was still too loud for Frank. He would just have to hope that he would get used to it. He had to. This was something that je genuinely wanted to do.

'Knock knock'

Frank rolled over so he was somewhat sitting up.

"Come in."

He was currently the only one in in this very small Dorm he had been assigned to. It wasn't even really a Dorm. Just a room that fit three beds. Just about. The other two occupants, Ranworth and Billingham, were in the showers and in the limited library respectively.

A familiar face entered the room. One with far too large a grin considering where they were.

"Kingsley," Frank said happily, jumping out of bed and regretting it as his head throbbed.

They shook hands and grinned at each other. This was the first time Frank had seen Kingsley since, well, they left school. Had it really been that long? Wow.

"How are you?" Frank asked.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that? How are you finding things?"

"I only just started two days ago."

"I know that. But what do you think so far?"

Frank thought for a moment before answering.

"There's an awful lot to it."

Kingsley nodded knowingly. "There really is. And since training's been compressed, it looks like an awful lot more."

More intimidating, more like but Frank didn't want to say that out loud. He'd already seen the looks people gave him - instructors and fellow trainees alike - when he'd introduced himself. No one thought very highly of the abilities of an upper-class, pureblood heir to a noble family. Well, he'd show them. He'd show all of them. He, Frank Longbottom, could do just as well as them. He was going to shine. Who cared if training was now more intense and condensed? Who cared if it was going to be hard work? He was going to do this.

Oh, wait, Kingsley was still speaking. Whoops. Better get off his high horse there.

"Did you get the whole speech?"

"You mean the one about how everyone isn't suited for this, it isn't for wimps and you better work hard if you want this," Frank summarised.

"Yep."

"Then yes, yes we did."

That was yet another thing that was all but bellowed at them. Absolutely no one spoke in a normal volume in here.

"What do you think?" Kingsley asked eagerly.

"It's 9nly been a day and a half."

He hadn't been able to process anything yet. There was so much to take in that his mind was in a complete whirl. He had had no clue just how much there was to becoming an Auror. It was an awful lot.

Don't get him wrong, he still wanted to do it. He really wanted to do it. But that didn't mean that he couldn't feel overwhelmed by all the expectations that had suddenly been put on them. It was a lot.

Kingsley gave him a look that was almost sympathetic. Almost because there was an amused curl to his lips.

"Come on," Kingsley said, jerking his head at the door. "Let's get a bite to eat."

"But we've already had dinner." Frank said in confusion.

And it had been made very clear to them that they weren't allowed to leave the Academy grounds without a pass. That wouldn't even be considered being granted to them until they were six weeks in.

That was an awful long time without seeing or talking to a young else except those you trained with. That couldn't be a good thing, could it? At least he could still write letters, even if they were going to be proofread by more senior Aurors to check that they gave nothing sensitive away. They took security seriously around here. But at least he could still write to Alice. And maybe he could surprise her with a Hogsmeade visit in March sometime. Unfortunately, he was going to miss Valentine's Day - his six weeks wouldn't be up by then.

He was taken out of his thoughts by a nudge from Kingsley.

"Having second thoughts already?"

"Not on your life."

Saturday 7th January 1978

Head Boy and Girl Suite, 01:15

James slipped down the Valentine's Day stairs, grateful that he no longer had to keep an eye or ear out for someone being in the Common Room in the early hours of the morning. There was always someone. But he didn't need to do that anymore because he was in a Suite of his own. That thought still made him smile. The fact that he was Head Boy was still so weird, in a good way, to him.

Still, he tried to keep quiet. Being sneaky for six years meant that he automatically tried to anyway. All that was for naught as all the lights were suddenly lit, temporarily blinding him.

"Argh!" He exclaimed, shielding his eyes.

Why did that have to hurt so much?

"James?"

"Ow!"

"What are you doing?" Lily demanded, making a very striking silhouette with her hands on her hips like that.

"Um..."

What was the best answer to that? Any be could think of would just get him into more trouble.

"Sneaking out," he admitted truthfully.

What else could he say? It was pretty obvious what he had been doing. Or trying to do, rather.

"Sneaking out?" she repeated.

He nodded. "Yes."

"For what?"

He shifted from one foot to the other. "Um, please don't make me answer that."

James didn't want to give the prank away, even to Lily. It was always much better if people were surprised by it. He liked the look of awe on their faces. Especially Lily's.

Thankfully, Lily just rolled her eyes at him and didn't press for more details. Phew. But he spoke too soon.

"You can't go around sneaking about at night," Lily scolded. "Think of the example you're setting the other students."

"Evans, I'm a Marauder, pretty sure that the example I've been setting has been lower than simply sneaking about at night."

You couldn't pull off a decent prank, never mind a brilliant one without some sneaking around. Or a lot of it. And this, as usual, was going to be a brilliant prank. Did the Marauders do any other type of prank? No, no they did not. Hence the very necessary sneaking around.

"That doesn't mean you should."

"Of course, it does!"

The door to the corridor suddenly creaked open, making them both jump and James to raise his wand.

A familiar head of long, dark hair poked itself into the room.

"Sirius!" Both of them hissed.

Though, James breathed a sigh of relief, it was only Sirius. Though who else would be trying to get into the room, James didn't know. It was after midnight, after all.

"James, Lily," Sirius said in surprise. "You're both awake?"

A scuffling noise came from behind him.

"Both of them?"

"Yes, both of them," Sirius turned around to needlessly hiss.

James resisted the urge to bury his face in his hands. These people were supposed to be the Marauders. The best people at being sneaky. Yet, here they were, not being subtle at all. Maybe Snape was right, Gryffindors really couldn't do subtle.

"Black, what are you doing here?"

"Not just me," he said defensively. Moony and Wormtail are here too."

Two more sheepishly looking heads poked around the door. James didn't blame them. He was scared of an annoyed Lily, never mind an angry one and he still wasn't sure which one he was dealing with here.

"Did Prongs wake you up?" Sirius asked.

Oh, that would make sense why she was annoyed with him. Who liked getting woken up in the middle of the night? Nobody, that's who.

"Get in here!" Lily hissed in a tone that was definitely not to be disobeyed.

Was she taking lessons from McGonagall or something? They even formed a ragged sort of line in front of her. It took a pointed glare from Lily for James to quickly join them.

Yep, definitely taking lessons from McGonagall. Now he was feeling like a naughty schoolboy, which, he supposed he was.

"Are we in trouble?" Peter asked hesitantly, looking terrified.

Which was a good call when Lily was looking at you like that but really? Was it necessary to ask that? Sometimes James wondered about Peter.

"Now, just what do you think you four are doing?" She demanded. "At this hour, too?"

"Do you really want the answer to that?" James asked, causing Remus to smack his hand on his forehead.

What? It was a good question! He was giving her the opportunity to have plausible deniability and all that.

"We're planning a prank," Remus said tiredly.

"In the middle of the night?"

They all looked at each other before nodding as one.

"Of course."

"Yes."

"Obviously."

"Y-yes."

Lily took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of her nose. Huh, she must have picked that up from Remus - he did that a lot.

"Look, there's no loophole in the rule. It says quite clearly that 'No students should get out of bed at night'."

"Doesn't that mean that you can't go to the bathroom in the middle of the night?" James pointed out. "And what if there's an emergency?"

"You know you can break rules like that if there's an emergency."

"I hope you can break any rules if there's an emergency."

Lily made an exasperated noise and glared at him. "That doesn't mean you can go sneaking around at night!"

"How do you think we set up our pranks?"

"Actually," Remus spoke up from where the other Marauders were standing (they weren't going to get in between an argument between these two, no way). "We just do some set up overnight. Most of the work is the research which we do during the day."

"Instead of homework," Peter said unhelpfully.

"Who am I hurting by sneaking around at night?" James coaxed.

Lily didn't have a response for that so she just huffed and crossed her arms. Why was she hung up on this rule anyway?

"Why, out of all the rules we break, are you upset over this one?" Sirius asked for him. "I didn't take you to be so uptight about rules."

"I'm not uptight about rules and you know it, Sirius Black."

Sirius winced at her tone and backed himself into Peter and Remus again, not wanting any of her attention on him. And it was successful. Somewhat. She was not longer glaring just at him. No, she was now glaring at all of them. Again. Was it just him or was it getting scarier? James thought he should really rank her glares. Just so he knew how much trouble he was in.

And there he was, getting distracted. Definitely not the best thing to do right now.

"Then what's your deal, Evans, if you don't mind us breaking the rules?" Sirius asked.

That was a very good point. Not that James thought Lily cared about them breaking the rules. Too much anyway. She wouldn't have asked him out if she did, surely?

Now Lily was worrying her lower lip, looking more than a bit unsure of herself. Just when James was going to ask her to explain, she opened her mouth.

"What if, what if one of you get hurt and no one knows about it until morning? Or they can't find you?"

That, that was something he had not considered. And it was actually quite obvious of you thought about it. If you weren't the Marauders, that is.

"We're never alone on our escapades," James told her.

"Until we split up to get things done quicker," Remus said.

Did he really have to say that out loud? It would only worry her and she didn't need to get worried like that. It was just unnecessary. As was the unimpressed look she was giving them all now. Hadn't they survived so far? They were pretty much experts at night-time shenanigans. One could even say that it was their specialty.

"I'm not going to be able to stop you, am I?" she said with a sigh.

"Nope." Sirius said far too happily, popping the 'p'.

Lily rolled her eyes at them and waved her hand at the door.

"Oh, go on then."

"Yes!" James and Sirius cheered, exchanging high fives.

"Just don't get caught!" she called after them as they left.

"We haven't yet!"

Tuesday 10th January 1978

Potions Lab, 20:00

"Presents, they got me presents, Lily."

Lily sighed and didn't answer for a moment as she stirred her potion. Satisfied that the steam had turned the correct colour (a rather fetching shade of blue), she looked up at her friend.

"That's what people tend to get their friends on their birthdays, Sev."

"But me? From the Marauders?"

She set her knife down and gave him a look.

"Why is this bothering you, Sev?"

Surely getting presents from your friends on your birthday was a good thing? She didn't think that that could ever be bad.

"I just don't understand."

"What don't you understand?"

"That they gave me presents! Nice ones, not brank ones! Did you see this stirring rod that Potter got me? It's reinforced with special resin that won't degrade as quickly and cuts through Potions a lot smoother. And Black got me these amazing books on curses and how to defend yourself against them!"

"Huh, I would have thought Remus would be the one who got you books."

"He did," Severus reassured her. "On Potions. And an unholy amount of chocolate."

That made Lily grin. Of course, Remus gave people chocolate. He was always confused why other people weren't as in love with it as he was.

"I'm not seeing a problem here, Sev."

"Seriously, Lily?"

"They just sound like they're being good friends."

Severus recoiled at that word. "Friends?"

"Yes, friends."

This shouldn't be such an odd concept to him. Of course, the Marauders were his friends now. Lily knew for a fact that he now hung out with them when she wasn't there. Which was something she was really, really happy with but knew better than to bring up with him. She didn't want Sev to become self-conscious about it and go all standoffish with them. No. She wanted him to enjoy their company. The Marauders were good people, even if they were annoying sometimes.

"Huh."

At least he looked thoughtful and not disgusted by the idea. It was a step in the right direction. She decided to give him a good shove about it as well. You know, for good measure.

"You know, you can call them by their names, Sev."

Severus scrunched up his nose. Call the Marauders by their names? Like they were closer than mere acquaintances? Like they were friends? No, surely Lily could see the problem there.

"I don't think so."

"Sev."

"What?"

She gave him a look that said she was more than done with him.

"I pretty sure that friends call each other by their first names."

"You still call Black by his," Severus pointed out.

It was very hypocritical of her to call him out on this in his opinion.

"Because he calls me Evans," Lily dismissed easily. "It's kind of our thing. I call Remus and Peter by their first names."

Severus crossed his arms (he wasn't pouting - he didn't pout). "Why can't me calling them by their surnames be my thing?"

"Severus."

Why was that tone so scary and intimidating? Merlin help any of her children.

"Okay, fine," he grumbled unwillingly. "I'll try, happy?"

She beamed at him. "Very."

Of course, she was, she had got her way. Severus supposed that their first names shouldn't be that hard to say. But, then again, be had also spent the better part of six years referring them by their surnames. Lupin, no, Remus, included and he had always somewhat gotten along with Lu-Remus.

He sighed again. This was going to take some work, wasn't it?

Friday 13th January 1978

Head Girl and Boy Suite, 16:00

Severus watched in amazement at Pott-no, James' antics. He seemed to be the only one that was doing so as Lily and the other Marauders were all just sitting around, occupied by homework and the like. Even McKinnon saw nothing out of the ordinary about James hanging what looked to be an onion over every doorway.

"Not over mine, James," Lily said without looking up.

"But-"

"No."

With a sigh, James walked away from Lily's bedroom, onion thing in hand. Though, Severus did notice that he shrunk it. It probably would end up over Lily's door.

"He's been like this all day," Peter confided in him.

"He has?"

How had he not noticed this? Though, to be fair, he tended to ignore the odder things the Marauders did. It wasn't normally worth his sanity to think too much about some of their antics."

"He's like this every time," Remus complained. "Don't, Padfoot," he said warningly.

Sirius hastily put his wand down, one of the onion things falling to the floor with a 'thump'.

"Oh, Moony-"

"No. He's bad enough without you antagonising him."

Sirius pouted but refrained from doing anything further.

"Can someone please explain to me what is going on?" Severus demanded.

It was like they were all in the know, leaving him out. He didn't like being left out.

"James is being stupid," Sirius said loudly.

"Am not!" James replied, voice muffled by the rope that was in his mouth.

What did he need rope for?

"You are," Sirius turned to him to assure him. "He is."

"None of this is explaining what in Merlin's name is going on."

"I told you, James is being stupid."

"That's not an answer."

"It really is."

"See? Severus doesn't think I'm stupid!" James shouted.

"I never said that," Severus corrected him. "I don't know what's going on so I can't pass judgement. I could still find you stupid."

That got a pout from James and sniggers from everyone else.

"It's the thirteenth," Peter explained, though Severus didn't really think it was much of an explanation.

"I am aware of what date it is."

"It's Friday the thirteenth," Remus added.

"So?" Severus scoffed and then looked at James, who had now finished hanging those weird onion looking things and was now conjuring what looked like four-leaf clovers.

"Those are duplicates of his good luck charm," Peter said, nodding at the hanging onion things.

"Good luck charm?"

"Yeah, he always says he needs as much good luck that he can get on this day."

"I do," James confirmed.

Something clicked in Severus' head. "Don't tell me you're one of those ridiculous people who believe that Friday the throwers is always going to be bad?"

"So, what if I am?"

"Because, like I said, it's ridiculous."

"Yeah, Prongs, nothing bad has ever happened to you on this day."

"Because of the protection from my good luck charms!"

Severus watched this exchange in amazement. What had he just let himself in for?

Wednesday 18th January 1978

Head Boy and Girl Suite, 19:00

"I've been thinking," James announced, making them look up from their homework from their spread-out positions in front of the fire.

Yes, they all gathered in the Suite to do their homework, most of the time lying on the floor in front of the fire to do so. So, sue him, it was comfortable. And homework got done. Most of the time. Not that it was this evening. Except for maybe by Remus but that was Remus for you.

"Oh no," Peter joked.

Remus grabbed Sirius' arm and dragged him under the table with him.

"Oh! Moony!" Sirius complained, giving him a shove.

"Okay, it's safe for you to continue," said Remus.

James rolled his eyes. "Oh, ha, ha, ha. You're all hilarious."

"We do try," Sirius said with false modestly.

"That's kind of the point," Peter quipped.

Clowns. He was friends with complete clowns. Clowns that had high opinions for themselves too.

"Like I was saying, I've been thinking about the map," James said.

"You left out that last bit originally," Sirius interrupted.

"Can I please talk?"

He really did have something interesting to say. Or to ask. Both, really. And it was important. Far more important than this banter that was going on.

"Of course, Mr Head Boy."

James shook his head in fond exasperation. They were never going to get tired of teasing him like that, were they?

"I say we should finish off the map," James announced. "Do the tracking thing and the passageways."

"Haven't we already drawn those?" Sirius asked.

"Yes, but we could maybe put the passwords on the map? That way it would be more secure?"

"That's a good idea," Remus agreed. "The map would be much more efficient that way."

"But we never found out how to do the tracking on the map," Peter reminded them.

"Well, we're going to have to," James said decisively.

The map just wasn't done without it in his opinion. And James didn't want to leave this undone.

"What map?"

The sudden addition of a fifth voice made them all jump.

"Snape! What are you doing sneaking around?" James gasped.

He hadn't heard him come in at all! Had he been there in the shadows all this time?

"Did you not hear the loud creak of the door?"

It did have rather a loud creak. Something that should probably get looked at but that wasn't the point here!

"What's this about a map?" Severus repeated.

"Nothing, it's nothing," James said quickly.

"Yeah, what map?" Peter asked, making them all groan. "What?"

"So, there's a map?" Severus said slowly.

They all kind of just stared at him. James didn't know what to say. Should he share it with him? That was the sort of thing he'd have to ask the others; not just assume he would know. Would they want to?

"Maybe we should tell him," Sirius said suddenly.

The three of them turned and gave him varying incredulous looks. Did Sirius really just say that? The one who used to hate Snape the most?

"I'm right here, you know."

They ignored him in favour of the startling revelation that Sirius wanted to share something with Snape.

"But this is an us thing," James told him. "You know, a Marauder thing."

Something they had been working on for so long. Years.

Sirius shrugged again, not offering anything else.

"Can we trust him?" Peter asked.

"Lily does," Remus reminded them. "And he's been decent to us."

Yeah, he hadn't been antagonistic at all, despite being almost constantly in close quarters with each other. Who would have thought? Certainly not James.

"Still here."

"Shh, we're talking about you," Peter said with an amused glint in his eye.

Snape huffed and rolled his eyes. Hey, at least he didn't walk away! Or maybe that would be better considering they were talking about him... No, he looked interested.

"Maybe he'll have some ideas?" James said, always happy to explore new things like that.

"Yeah, or maybe he'll think it's awesome. And we're awesome," Sirius said.

Ah, there it was. Sirius just wanted to show off. Now his suggestion made sense. Though, doubted that Severus would be overly impressed. He just didn't seem to be the type to do so.

James looked around the Marauders and noted that no one was saying that they shouldn't. Actually, there was a lot of nodding of heads. Well, that looked like a pretty unanimous vote to him.

"Okay, let's show him," James said with a shrug.

If they were all okay with it then he didn't see why he shouldn't be.

"Does this mean I get to see this map?" Severus asked.

Wednesday 25th January 1978

Gryffindor Common Room, 21:00

Lily giggled at Marlene's rundown of what her older brother and been up to the past few months. It was kind of hilarious. Who would hide a girlfriend from their parents when they weren't even a teenager anymore? Surely you wouldn't be ashamed of having a girlfriend? Though, Lily supposed that the girl having kids already complicated things a bit but the McKinnons were apparently the sort not to care about that. Which was sweet.

"Is she nice?" Lily asked.

Marlene shrugged. "I don't know. Didn't get to really see her."

"But I thought she went into your house?"

"She did. The pair of them talked to mum and dad for a bit and then she left. Mum asked her to stay for dinner but she said they couldn't."

"They being her children?"

"Well, of course Kevin wasn't going to leave!"

Lily just rolled her eyes but she was glad things were working out for Marlene's family. They were good people.

"Pity. You didn't get talking to her at all then?"

Marlene shook her head. "Nothing beyond 'hi', really."

"Well, I'm sure you'll see her again."

"Not sure Kevin wants that," Marlene said with a grin. "He said that he'd never make her face us all."

"I don't blame him," Lily teased.

Marlene's family was a bit much sometimes. And loud. Good-hearted and kind and welcoming but also loud and in your face.

That earned her a playful shove from her friend.

"Brute," she teased.

"Of course. Someone needs to unbalance you every now and then."

Lily smiled as the two of them lapsed into comfortable silence. The old saying was true, there was no awkward silence when you were with friends. It was nice to just hang out with Marlene like this and chat about things not relating to school. They hadn't had as much time together this year, what, with their different classes and responsibilities. What with Marlene and Quidditch and Lily with Head Girl responsibilities and extracurricular Potions and Charms. Not to mention the fact that Lily just didn't spend a lot of time in Gryffindor Tower now that she was positioned in the Head Boy and Girl Suite. It wasn't near Gryffindor Tower at all. It was supposed to be in a central location for easy access depending on where she was - her duties brought her all over the school.

Which was all well and good but it meant that she didn't have much free time. Which she had to split between James and her friends. She never wanted to be that type of person who dropped her friends for a boy of all things.

"So, have you been up to much?" Marlene said after a few minutes of silence.

"Just trying to get used to the Marauders every evening after two weeks free of them," Lily replied.

"Don't lie, I know you enjoy their company."

"Yes, but they are all very loud."

Exuberant. Cheerful. Excitable. All those things. But good fun as well and Lily couldn't help but get drawn somewhat into their antics.

"You do realise how hilarious it is when you hang out with the Marauders, don't you?" Marlene asked, sounding amused.

Lily gave her a confused look. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that you look like some sort of Princess with your servants with the way they all fawn over you."

"The Marauders don't fawn over me. And you spend time with them too!"

Fawn over her. As if. They treated her as an equal, which was refreshing. Other boy's tended to dismiss her because she was a girl or were intimidated by her because of her temper. The Marauders did neither.

"Yeah, but I'm on the Quidditch Team," Marlene dismissed.

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"I'm not necessarily seen as a girl."

"Well, that's pretty stupid."

It really was. You could be sporty and also be feminine. Not that Marlene was what you would call feminine but her point still stood!

Marlene shrugged. "I'm not the one saying these things but it is how things are seen."

"Still stupid."

Princess was the last way she wanted to be thought as. Definitely not. She was not helpless or waiting for her Prince to come. She was her own woman. Could fight her own battles. No matter how chivalrous certain boys were.