By the end of the first week of fifth year, I already had a mountain of homework to complete, so I spent the entirety of the first weekend doing it.
James was already making plans for the Quidditch tryouts, which he was hoping to run the next weekend.
Every night, I had a bath in the prefects' bathroom rather than having to wait around for the other marauders to have a shower in our dormitory bathroom, and I spent way longer than I should in the bath, some nights even staying in there for several hours. I was completely abusing the privilege I had, and I knew it, but who wouldn't use that bathroom all the time?
I wasn't sure whether I wanted to share it with the other marauders or not. It made the teasing they gave me for becoming a prefect so worth it, and it was nice to have a place where I could just have some time to myself, surrounded by the warm, colourful water.
On the first Saturday night of the term, when I went to open the door to the bathroom, it was locked, meaning someone else was using the bathroom. I stood and waited, and thankfully, they came out not long after. It was Snape.
I bit the inside of my gum, then walked past him, keeping my head down.
"Doesn't it sting?" he asked as I passed him.
"What?" I said, not turning around to face him.
"When you go into the bath, with the water and the soap... doesn't it sting?"
"What do you mean?" I asked, finally turning around.
"Your cuts," he said. "Wouldn't the water sting them? Like, when you get them wet."
"I dunno..." I said, turning away.
"How do you even get them, though?" Snape asked.
"I dunno, I'm just clumsy," I said. "I'm going to go have a bath now."
"Why are you like this?" Snape asked. "Everyone in the school wants to know why you have them. Why don't you just say it instead of being all secretive? You're being more attention-seeking by not saying."
"It's my business," I said, closing the door in his face. Before I could lock it, he opened the door again, now with his wand drawn.
"Leviocorpus!" he cried. Suddenly, an invisible force pulled me up by my ankle, then flipped me so I was hanging upside down by my ankle, but not from my ankle because nothing was actually holding onto my ankle.
"What the hell!?" I cried, looking down at Snape. I had no idea what that spell even was.
"D'you want to tell me?" he said.
"It's none of your business," I said. "Get your greasy nose out of it and put me down."
Snape just laughed. "Tell me, Lupin."
I drew my own wand and pointed it at him. "Expelliarmus!"
Snape's wand flew to my hand, and I fell to the floor, and quickly got up, pointing my own wand and his wand at him.
"Get out, please," I said.
"Fine. Give me my wand back," said Snape.
And have you use that spell on me again? I thought. No way.
I just used my own wand to push him out of the bathroom and lock the door. I then let out an exhausted sigh and pointed my wand at the taps of the bath.
I heard Snape knocking loudly on the door, but I ignored him, stripped off, and climbed into the bath, and the only thought that ran through my head was: What was that spell?
First the sectumsempra spell, now this? Did Snape somehow know spells no one else knew? Or was he creating those spells himself?
How could a teenager manage to create a spell, though? How did anyone create a spell?
It was getting harder to even think about that when I couldn't hear my own thoughts over Snape's loud bangs on the door. After a while, I gave in, climbed out of the tub, got dressed into my pyjamas, then swung the door open. Snape was standing there, waiting.
I shoved his wand into his hand, then walked off without saying another word to him. Fortunately, he didn't follow me or use one of his weird spells on me again.
I spent the entirety of the next day in the library, looking through every spell book I could find, but there was no sign of Leviocorpus. He had to have learned it from his wannabe Death Eater friends.
When I was in the dormitory that night, I wanted to try the spell Snape had used, just to see if I was able to do it, or if it was something only Snape knew how to use.
So I said, "Hey, guys" just as we were all getting ready to go to bed. "Can I try a spell on one of you?"
"What kind of spell?" Peter asked nervously.
"I volunteer!" Sirius cried, running over to me.
"Alright... I don't know if it will work, but..." I pointed my wand at him. "Leviocorpus!"
Before I knew it, Sirius was hanging upside down by his ankle, just like I had been the previous night in the prefect bathroom. I was very surprised that it had worked, and I used the levitation spell to flip him around and slowly lower him to his feet.
"What was that spell?" James asked, he and Peter walking over to me.
"I dunno," I said. "Snape did it to me, and I couldn't find the spell in any spell book, so it may be a spell that only wannabe death eaters know... but then again, it's almost completely harmless... you'd think death eater spells would be evil."
"Well, that other spell he used that we didn't know was pretty evil," said Peter. "The one that made me bleed."
"It doesn't make sense," said James. "How does he know spells that aren't even in the spell books?"
"And there was that spell that Evans did a while back," said Sirius. "Muffliato. She said she'd learned it from Snape, and that's not in any spell books either..."
"It seems like he's somehow invented spells, but I just don't see how he managed to do it," I said.
"Well surely if Snivellus can invent spells, we can make something even better," said James.
"Aren't we already–" Peter started, but Sirius shook his head.
"No, something bigger. Something we create," he said. "But... what?"
"I say instead of sitting here staring at the wall, trying to come up with something, how about we wait for an idea to strike us, then we all have a meeting about it," I suggested. The others just murmured their agreement, and we all went to bed.
The next day, I was woken by an invisible force dragging me up and upside down by my ankle. I let out a cry, thinking maybe somehow Snape had come into the dormitory, but let out a long sigh of relief when I saw that it was just Sirius.
"I've got to hand it to Snivellus, this spell is pretty cool," he said.
I looked around the dormitory. "Where are the others?"
"Great Hall," said Sirius. "I asked them to save us seats."
"OK," I said, reaching out my arms to him and giving him an upside-down kiss. Sirius then lowered me to the ground, grinning.
"Hungry?"
"Starving," I said. "Let's get breakfast."
"This spell, we need to use it more," said Sirius as we walked down the stairs to the common room, then out and into the halls.
"Yeah, we should go round under the invisibility cloak and hit Slytherins with it," I said.
"That's exactly what James said!" Sirius cried.
"Tonight, then," I said. "During dinner."
Sirius smiled even wider. "Yes. It'll be crazy."
"A marauders mission at its finest."
That night, Sirius, James, Peter, and I didn't turn up to dinner normally. Instead, we all slipped underneath the invisibility cloak while still in the dormitory and grabbed our wands.
"Ugh, look, we can see our feet," said James. "I don't think we all fit..."
"We can fit," I said firmly. "Crouch down."
We all crouched down, further, and further, until eventually, however sore our backs were, we were all completely covered by the cloak.
"Let's go," Peter whispered.
"You know you don't have to whisper here," said Sirius.
"I know, but it adds a dramatic effect," Peter whispered.
"OK, let's go," James cried, and we began to uncomfortably make our way to the Great Hall.
"God, I feel like an old man, all hunched like this," said Peter.
"Guys, we need to be completely silent now," I whispered as we walked into the Great Hall. We walked over to the Slytherin table and got our wands ready.
James held his fingers up in a three, two, one movement, and then we all murmured, "Leviocorpus!", pointing our wands at different Slytherin students.
The whole school noticed the Slytherins being pulled up by their ankles immediately, and everyone let out a gasp or stood up to get a better look at what was happening.
I looked over at the teacher's table, but they all just looked bored, as if they were simply done with the chaos caused by their students.
My friends and I all caused a few different students to be yanked into the air before Professor McGonagall stood up and addressed the entire school.
"Mr. Potter, Mr. Black, Mr. Lupin, and Mr. Pettigrew!" she said. Her tone wasn't even angry, she just sounded tired. "Everyone knows it's you four that are causing this scene. Please lower your classmates to the ground, take that stupid thing off, and sit down. I'm taking fifty points from Gryffindor already, don't make me take more."
My friends and I laughed to each other, then lowered the Slytherin students back to their seats, took off the invisibility cloak, and sat down at the Gryffindor table. James looked across the table and Lily and winked at her, but she just rolled her eyes and looked down at her dinner.
Lily and my second patrol was on the second Friday night of the term. On that night, we decided to go to the Astronomy tower, as we knew that was the prime place for people to go in the middle of the night, especially couples.
As expected, we bumped into a couple up there. It was Ada, who I hadn't seen since that one bumping into on the train last September. She was in the middle of an intense making-out session with some seventh-year Slytherin boy I didn't recognise.
Lily cleared her throat the moment she saw them. They both jumped, pulled apart, turning to face Lily and I.
"You should both be in your common room," said Lily, crossing her arms. "It's ten-thirty. I believe your curfew as seventh years is ten. Ten points each from Slytherin."
Ada and the boy exchanged a look, and the boy burst out into laughter.
"Are these kids really getting us in twubble?" he said, in a mock baby voice. "You two should be in your common rooms. Isn't the curfew nine o'clock for you?"
I wanted to just leave them to it, but Lily wouldn't have that. She just lifted her chin and stood taller.
"We happen to be prefects," she said. "And we'll take more points from you if you don't go to your common room right now."
"And give us a detention?" the boy sniggered. Ada rolled her eyes.
"Dave, let's just go," she said. "It's not worth arguing with kids."
She locked eyes with me for a second, and then looked back at the boy, Dave.
"Oh, come on Ades, let's have some fun..." said Dave, walking over to us. He was the same height as me, but he towered over Lily, who could barely be five foot two.
Dave drew his wand, but Lily already had hers ready and cast a shielding spell before he could do anything.
"Twenty points from Slytherin!" Lily cried. "Get out of here. I don't care if you go to your common room or not but stay away from us!"
I drew my wand. "Or I'll use that ankle lifting spell on you."
Dave and Ada looked at each other, then left, leaving Lily and me standing there on the Astronomy tower.
We walked down the stairs in silence, then patrolled the entire castle for a few hours before Lily finally broke the silence by asking me a question.
"Does Potter – James, whatever... does he actually like me?" she asked. "I know it's a stupid question, just, well, you're his friend, I thought you'd know, and I mean, we're going to be spending a lot of time together over the next two years, we may as well open up to each other...
"Anyway, I... I'm really not sure if he genuinely likes me or if it's just a joke. Like, boys are strange, I don't understand you guys at all... and it's not like I fancy Potter or anything, I don't really like him at all, he's an arrogant toerag, but I just feel bad sometimes when I reject him, because I always feel like he's joking, but then, what if he wasn't joking? And I'm actually really hurting him? Do you know if it's a joke or not?"
"Um... I think you might need to ask James yourself," I said. "But if he's asking you out this often, it may be a sign. And he doesn't ask any other girls out as a 'joke'..."
"Oh, I hope it's a joke," said Lily. "As annoying as him joking about it is, I don't want to be hurting him."
"Maybe you should talk to him about it," I suggested.
"Yeah, maybe..." said Lily. "I guess I'm just confused because when I was in primary school, there were a few boys who would ask all the girls out as a joke, and one of the boys who did it, I thought he actually liked me, and I liked him, and... well, it ended in an eight-year-old Lily Evans heartbreak."
"So, you like James and you're scared he'll break your heart?" I asked, finding myself very invested in a girl's perspective on love.
"What!? No! I don't like Potter," said Lily. "I mean, he's matured, but, like... no. He's not for me. Like, I could see why a girl would like him... he can be nice, and he's really good at Quidditch, and a fairly attractive guy, but he's not for me."
"Oh yeah," I said. "Could you see why a girl would like Snape?"
"Oh, uh... well, he can be nice," said Lily. "Definitely not my sort of guy. I'm not interested in any guys at the moment, but I'd probably go for a more athletic kind of guy."
"Like James?" I said, feeling like I was the host of one of those love shows.
"God, I don't like Potter!" Lily cried, rolling her eyes. "Whatever, I'm going to use these bathrooms. I'll see you in a minute."
She walked into the girls' bathroom, leaving me feeling extremely confused. Why weren't girls just straightforward?