Disclaimer: Not JK Rowling. Not my series. Only my version.

Summery: Start of sixth year.

A/N:

1. Sorry how long it's been since I put up the first chapter- I just came back from vacation. So from here on out I'll try to have it come up every Wednesday, Saturday, and Monday. I might miss a couple of days, so sorry in advance, but hey, nobody's perfect.

2. Yea, so I decided to skip from first year to sixth, unlike what I first said in Chapter 1's A/N. Sixth year isn't going to have full detail, just a couple of chapters, and then go to a full thing starting seventh year.

Chapter 2: A Warning and a Prank

James grinned widely at Sirius, before turning his head toward the front of the Grand Hall. It was the start of sixth year, and he couldn't wait for the first years to be sorted and ol' Dumbledore to start the feast. He, Sirius, Remus, and Peter had worked (surprisingly) the whole train ride and during several visits to each other over the summer on a prank for today.

Sirius grinned back at him in his usual over excited I-must-have-eaten-way-to-much-sugar way. Even Remus started to smile, and Peter laughed. Then, the doors creaked open and Professor McGonagall lead the nervous eleven year olds in. They immediately quieted when they walked into the hall, all heads rotating upwards toward the ceiling, some gasping, transfixed. Then they started whispering to each other in tense tones, worrying over what house they would be in and what the school itself would be like.

James laughed, remembering his first year, and how sure he was about being in Gryffindor, and his delight in finding that his newly found friends, even Sirius, were also Gryffindors. McGonagall lead the new students up towards the front of the hall and the Sorting Hat. Once they were all gathered and the older students were watching, the hat slowly started to sing.

"Again, the time has come

It's the start of a new year

The sorting of the students

Just wait- you soon can cheer

A thousand years or more

I've been working on this task

To sort the new comer scholars

So come! And see what's behind your mask!

Brave Gryffindor of the strong,

The fearless and the brave,

Takes those who show some courage,

A noble path comes your way

Smart Ravenclaw of the witty

The bright and the wise

Takes those who are so clever

And as knowing as an eagle that flies

Kind Hufflepuff of the loyal

The thoughtful and the rest

Takes those who show no bitterness

And are up for any test

Shrewd Slytherin of the cunning

The wily and the tricky

Takes those who have great ambition

And are known for being crafty

So put me on your head,

As now my song's been sung,

Let me peruse your ways,

And find out where you belong!"

And with that, the sorting began. The first years were still staring, shocked, at the hat, not believing that it could have just spoken. Ah well, what other hats could sing and create their own songs? Their trance soon was broken, as McGonagall cleared her throat, opened up a scroll, and called the first name.

"Acton, Henry!" A small boy shuffled his feet up to the Sorting Hat. He sat on the stool and put the patched, scuffed up hat sitting there onto his head. It sat still for a moment, before shouting- "HUFFLEPUFF!"

As he walked towards the table, his entire new house cheered. Sirius began drumming his fingers in agitation as the sorting went on, only stopping when he was cheering for new Gryffindors, but then continued, the perfect picture of agitation. James glanced down the table. Close to where he and the other Marauders were sitting, Lily Evens and her group were cheering for the new students. She tossed her beautiful red hair over her shoulder and began quietly whispering to her friends, laughing occasionally. He wondered to himself how Lily would take the prank that he had planned. Furiously probably. As he stared, awe struck, James thought her to be the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. Too bad she practically hated him. Maybe this would be the year…

"James, James!" Sirius whispered, snapping his fingers in front of James's face. "Snap out of it! The Sorting's done, it's nearly time!" Shaking his head, James grinned at his fellow Marauders. Quietly slipping their wands from their sleeves and hiding them in their hands in the folds of their robes, they looked up along with the rest of the school to the front of the hall. Dumbledore stood up, and with a smile, began to speak.

"Welcome students! Welcome all of you, young and old, to a new year at Hogwarts! I know you must be starving, so I will just say a few quick words before you eat. Nitwit, oddment, blubber, tweak!" And with that, James and his friends flicked their wands, murmuring quick incantations.

As people started to look away from the Headmaster, there was a huge bang and words were appearing- and sort of looked like they were being written- in the air above Dumbledore's head.

Welcome one, welcome all!

Welcome you witches and wizards to Hogwarts this fall!

Heed this warning as it appears in this hall!

Mischief and Magic, they do reign at this school,

To those who disagree, well, you're a fool!

Many tricks and pranks you'll see before Yule!

As a start to the year, here's a great jest!

We thought you might want to remember this amazing fest!

So remember these years, as they're the best!

The Marauders are us!

We do no harm! (Though it may seem so at times)

We are merely trying to have fun, relax, and give laughter to our school!

As the last lines disappeared, there was another bang and confetti burst from the center of the hall, landing on everyone. Another wave of the Marauders wands, and those who the confetti landed on (which was the whole room, excluding the teachers) had their hair and clothes turned into neon versions of their house colors- for example Ravenclaws colors were now electric blue with shiny new bronze- with their houses animal on the back of their cloaks and foreheads. Most of the teachers, especially McGonagall, looked scandalized. Dumbledore on the other hand was smiling and chuckling as he looked around. The students were staring at each other and gasping, some pulling at their hair, and started to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. James grinned at his friends and started to laugh, before biting his lip to stop it. They had meant the prank to only be active on the other students, but their clothes, hair, and foreheads had changed as well.

"Who did this?!" McGonagall yelled furiously, beside herself, before turning towards James. "Potter, Black, Lupin, Pettigrew! Detention! Fifty points from Gryffindor!"

Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling as he quieted the school. "As we now know who caused this, may I ask you something? How long will this last?"

"It'll last a week Professor," said James, still laughing.

"Ah well, as I can see there is nothing else to do about it, I think we shall now start the feast, as I am sure your stomachs are rumbling from all of this excitement." Dumbledore smiles at the boys before sitting down once again, as food appeared on the platters on the tables. James glanced at Lily, who, like McGonagall, was beside herself in fury and glaring at James, before turning away and filling his plate. Ah well, James thought, nothing I can do about it. He would work on getting Lily to like him after the feast. And with that, he quickly began talking to Remus, laughing at the outcome of their prank.

* * *

"Give it up Lils, it's no use," said a voice coming from the door to the sixth year girls dormitory. "You've been trying to get the right spell since I left here twenty minutes ago."

Lily, who had been trying to find a counter spell to put her hair, clothes, and forehead back to normal, turned to face her friend.

"I know Tori. I just really don't want to give Potter the satisfaction of knowing they actually did quite a good job on the spell. If I can just … find …the right …one." Lily said to Victoria, tapping her hair with her wand and muttering a counter curse in between words. "Ha! There!" Lily had just restored her hair to its normal fiery red color. Now if she could just fix the robes…

"Ok, you're coming with me," said Tori, walking over to the bed and pulling Lily up.

"Wait, why? Where are we going?"

"We are going to go find Connie and Brooke and go welcome all of the little firsties and Rose. Then we are going to go outside and find something to do, so that you won't come back up here and let Potter ruin your first day back at Hogwarts. Over the summer you were so excited to be coming back here and yet here you are, brooding here in our room like a – a – oh I don't know what like but you know what I mean. I don't even understand why you're so mad about this. Now come." stated Tori, dragging Lily out of the room with her.

Lily and Tori walked down to the common room, looking for their friends, only to be crushed immediately by a pair of arms.

"Lily! Tori! What have you been doing?" squealed Brooke. Connie, who was on the other side of the room, ran over and joined in the hug.

"Oi! Where have you been? We just got here and you're already holing yourselves up in that room," Connie scolded.

"Sorry, I was just unpacking. Oh, and before I forget," Lily tapped all three of her friend's heads with her wand, muttering the counter curse once again, "I figured out how to get our hair back to normal."

"Why? I liked Connie's hair that way," asked Brooke.

"Do you want it to go back to the way it was?"

"No."

Lily smiled at her friends, looking them over to see how much they had changed over the summer. Brooke had an amazing tan, as per usual coming back from the States. Her parents were British, but had moved to Florida before Brooke and her little brother, Matt, were born. The summer before the girls first year at Hogwarts, Brooke's family had moved back to Britain so she and Matt could go to Hogwarts. Every summer though, they went back to Florida, where they kept a summer home.

Connie was also tan, probably from spending so much time out in her parent's orchard, and had grown several more inches over the summer. Her parent's owned a fruit orchard, and for reasons Connie had no idea why, seemed to be fruit fanatics. They thought the modern age didn't have enough fruit in it, and sought to fix that. They even had their five daughters first or middle names be a fruit. For example, Connie's full name was Constance Clementine Smith, and her little sister was named Rose Apple.

"So how does Rose like Hogwarts?" Lily asked.

"Like? I think she's in love. With the school that is. Speak of the devil, hey Rose." Connie replied, greeting her little sister, who had just started as a first year.

"Hey Clementine."

"Stupid arse headed parents." Muttered Connie, hating for not the first time the name her parents gave her, as Lily covered up Rose's ears.

"Listen, Rose. Gotta go, bye," said Connie, giving her friends meaningful looks and dodging out the portrait hole. They ran out into the corridor, laughing as they went.

"Con, you shouldn't be so mean," reproached Lily as she covered up her laughter.

"Sorry, she's just been such a pest lately, asking what Hogwarts is like and saying how much she loves Hogwarts, and telling me how excited she is now that she's finally here. It gets annoying," Connie replied. The girls started giggling again before turning a corner and running into a group of boys, Connie and Lily falling over.

"Hello ladies, how are we today? No need to fall all over us, you can just tell us how you really feel, right love?" Sirius Black questioned, smirking at Connie, who was it the process of untangling herself from his arms, standing up, and trying to slap Sirius. Lily, who was in a similar predicament with James, turned and asked Tori to help her. Tori and Brooke quickly pulled their friends out, and said friends promptly slapped James and Sirius on the face.

"Ouch love that hurt, that really hurt," said Sirius dramatically, clutching his hands to his heart, as Remus and Peter laughed at them. "Where are the thanks we get for saving you from falling over?"

"That was the thanks," Lily replied, glaring at the two boys.

"Lily, see you girls managed to get rid of our prank. I must say, good work." James said, smiling at Lily. Lily continued to glare at him, wondering what in the world she did to deserve this. "He's such an arrogant toerag!" she thought.

"Say, would you all like to go outside with us, maybe a midnight stroll?" asked James, pointedly looking at Lily.

"No." Lily sharply replied.

"Why not?"

"Cause we'll get in trouble on the very first day, and I don't want that to happen."

"Where's the fun in that?"

"We can have just as much fun in the common room."

"We? Is that an invitation?"

"Ugh. I meant we girls."

"So that's a no."

"Yes."

"Yes?"

"No."

"No to not inviting us? That means yes!" said James gleefully.

"No!"

"Yes!"

"Nov!"

"Si!"

"No." And with that, Connie grabbed Lily's arm and dragged her away, as she had just slapped James for the second time that hour, and was followed by Brooke and Tori. They walked back to the common room, Lily fuming.

"Who does he think he is!?" She growled.

"Well, I think he thinks that he's handsome, smart, funny, a jokester, prefect, Quidditch captain, and did I mention handsome?" Brooke quipped up. "And that's exactly what he is."

"Well – he – uh – ugh – he doesn't need to show off because of it." Lily replied, looking flustered. "I mean, really. He acts like he owns the whole school."

"Uh Lils? How did you get that from that one confrontation we just had?" Connie said ("the all so sensible one" Lily called her)

"It's not just that, it's how he is all the time, especially last year. Remember when he was mocking Snape, hanging him upside down and pulling down his pants, all just for fun? And he thought there was nothing wrong with that! Who does that?" ranted Lily.

"Well, he did call you a Mudblood. Remember that Tori wanted to do just the same thing?" continued Connie, unfazed.

"Its fine Lily, I get it," said Tori, putting an arm around her friend, "He's arrogant, annoying, and getting on your last nerve."

"Exactly." Finally, Lily felt that someone else understood her hatred of James Potter.

"But still, calm down. No need to let the ignorant slug get to you on your first day. Leave it till later," continued Tori.

"I still think he's cute," commented Brooke.

"Yea he sort of is…" Connie agreed.

"Traitors." Lily said to her friends while starting to smile, taking Tori's hand and turning and walking away. Laughing, Connie and Brooke caught up and continued walking back to the common room with their friends, tickling Lily until she forgave them.

'What is going on in that boy's head?' Lily wondered. 'How could he possibly think I would ever like him? He's an arrogant git!' She sighed and figured that she might as well listen to her friends and forget him. Lily started laughing as Brooke started singing "Sweet Home Alabama", a song she had learned back in the States, loudly in the corridor. Tori soon joined in, and other students started staring at the four girls, two of which were singing at the top of their lungs, and two were laughing so hard they almost couldn't walk.

Lily hopped through the portrait hole along with her friends and quickly shut it, then soon collapsed onto a couch accidentally brought Brooke, who had been heavily leaning on Lily so that she wouldn't fall over from laughing, down with her. This started a whole new round of laughing as Brooke yelped as she landed and lay on the ground, unable to get back up. By the time the laughing stopped, Lily wiped away tears of mirth and thought of how great it was to have such amazing friends, how much she hoped Potter would get over her and start being mature, and how excited she was for the year. Oh, and how she had to start prefect rounds in a couple of minutes.