1 September 1977
II
When the train arrived at the school and the students made their way to the castle, Lily was much calmer than she had been previously. Maybe because the initial shock of the whole Potter situation was over, or maybe it was because the feast is coming up. Either way Lily became more and more level headed as time went by.
The girls sat by each other when they reached the Gryffindor table and waited for the food to appear on the plates in front of them. James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter, who called themselves the Marauders, didn't go straight to the Great Hall. Where they went was a mystery to everyone, no one was really surprised that they didn't show up right away, they were usually off planning something big and extravagant for the welcoming feast. Lily kept her mind off of Potter and his friends and just focused on the present and the incoming food that everyone knew was coming, but wasn't here yet.
Dumbledore cleared his throat and stood up. All the conversations in the room stopped as they all turned their eyes to the Headmaster.
"Welcome everyone back to Hogwarts! Welcome all of you to school! I would like to introduce our new Defence Against the Dark Arts Teacher, Professor Walker." and after that Lily got distracted by movement in the corner of her eye. The Marauders had appeared out of nowhere, it made Lily do a double take. They were standing in the corner of the room like they had always been there, but Lily could have sworn that they weren't there earlier.
Lily tugged on Marlene's sleeve. "What?" she asked, turning away from the book she was reading.
"Where did they come from?"
Marlene looked where Lily was looking. "Who?"
A sigh came from the red head. "The Marauders of course. They just appeared out of nowhere." Marlene looked at Lily like she was crazy.
"They probably just snuck in late, that's all Lils," Marlene dismissed her and went back to her book.
That did nothing to soothe Lily's suspicions. It never really did, but Marlene still had to try, and who can blame her. It was always 'Potter this' and 'Potter that', after a while Marlene—and the other girls—learned how to block out her rants.
Lily continued to rant as the other girls ignored her. She ended her rant when food appeared in front of everyone—for a second. Exactly one second. All the food vanished, then appeared above everyone, floating. Of course, Lily looked over at Potter. He was smiling, along with the other three.
She leaned over to Marlene, who was sitting next to her, and said, "I told you they were up to something!"
"Lils!" Marlene spoke. "Our food is up in the air and I haven't eaten in hours. I'm starving and if you keep going on about how everything is Potter's fault I will end up eating your arm. Now, I'm going to get my food, you can either help or bother someone else." Marlene gave her a glare that made Lily think that she would eat her arm if she wasn't fed soon.
Without a word Lily turned away from her and stared at the Marauders. "I know they're up to something…" she muttered to herself.
As if that were the cue the four Marauders they all shared a look before the food exploded into confetti and it rained down on all of us. Then the fireworks started. They fireworks were red and gold, Gryffindor colours, they also flew in circles around everyone, most of the people found shelter underneath the tables. So, of course the fireworks started going under the table and attacking the shrieking students. It wasn't as bad with Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw, but with Slytherin the Marauders kicked it up a notch.
The robes of the Slytherins started to float all around them revealing 'I heart Gryffindor' shorts underneath all of their robes. Plates and silverware returned back to their table and started chasing them around, hitting them on top of the head and everywhere they can. Red and gold banners appeared out of thin air and swam through the air aggravating the Slytherins.
It kept getting worse and worse for the Slytherins as the banners started tying them up tight enough to where they couldn't move an inch . Some of the shorter Slytherins were probably being smothered by bigger students and the banners. The other houses turned and started laughing at the Slytherins's troubles.
With a bang most of everything went back to normal. McGonagall had her wand up and was glaring at the Marauders at the Gryffindor table. Dumbledore on the other hand looked amused.
It was Dumbledore who spoke first. "Thank you, whoever did that wonderful show of magic." His eyes glanced over to the Gryffindor table with a twinkle in them. "But now I believe that we should eat." The food appeared on the table like it was supposed to before the madness.
The four Marauders shared a smile before digging into the food like a pack of hungry animals, Lily on the other hand elbowed Marlene. "I told you so," she muttered before starting to get up.
Before she was fully standing Marlene grabbed Lily's arm and pulled her back down. "Choose your battles, Lil. Here, eat." She handed the angry red-head a slab of meat.
Glaring at her friend Lily gave in to her stomach and starting devouring the food in front of her.
Once everyone was halfway through the feast McGonagall appeared behind the Marauders.
"Mr Potter, Mr Black, Mr Lupin, and Mr Pettigrew," she said sternly. The four of them turned towards her, James and Sirius with a smirk on their faces, Remus bit his lip wondering why he decided to be a part of this prank, and Peter just looked like he wanted to turn into a rat and disappear.
James spoke before McGonagall could continue. "Minnie, what brings you over to this fine table?"
He received a glare that would make a statue crumble in response. "Mr Potter, do not refer to me as that and you know why. I want to say that you four have detention every day for the next week with me." The four feigned shock. "And don't give me the 'I don't know what you're talking about' speech, I know it was you."
Sirius raised an eyebrow. "What does Ol'Dumby think?"
McGonagall looked annoyed. "That is none of your concern. Seven o'clock sharp boys." She turned and walked swiftly away from the table back up to the teacher's table.
Peter let out a sigh. "I knew we would get caught."
Sirius patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry, Petey, we'll survive, we've been through worse." He started to continue, but when he looked over at James he was staring all glossy eyed at Evans. "Hey, mate!" There was no response.
Remus shook his head. "There's no getting him back now, he's long gone in 'Evans land'." Sirius snorted.
With a gleam in his eye Sirius picked up a mostly full pie at winked at the other two before slamming the pie into James's face.
"What the HELL?!" James shouted, standing up abruptly.
The other three roared with laughter, they were even joined by some of the surrounding people who see James's face. Lily on the other end of the table even smiled at the look on James's face. While he was sitting back down he whipped out his wand and cleared off his face.
"Damn it Padfoot! Why did you do that?" There's anger etched into his face. Sirius didn't respond, instead he just smirked and continued eating. "What did I do to deserve that?"
With a mouthful Sirius responded. "You weren't listening to me." He didn't have time to dodge the fist that hit him. "Ow!"
Remus chuckled. "You did ask for it, Pads." Sirius sent him a glare as he went back to eating his food. "And Prongs, you were staring at Lily and drooling again." James sent him a glare too. Before James and Sirius could attack Remus Dumbledore stood up to release them to their dorms.
As they got up to go to Gryffindor tower they heard a voice from behind them. "Potter!" All four of them turned to see who was calling. Lily was walking up towards them.
"Evans?" James asked, running a hand through his hair, his face lit up when he saw her walking toward him.
She glared at him. "Yeah, we're supposed to go over the patrol schedule sometime soon."
If it were possible James's face got even brighter. "Yeah, sure. Uh, how about tomorrow at lunch?"
"Fine." With that Lily walked away from them with James's eyes still clinging to her. A smile took over his entire face as the four of them continued walking over to their dorms.
Sirius threw an arm over James's shoulders. "You've got it bad, Prongsy."