The next week at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry was practically normal. The Marauders and Marauderesses were besieged with tons of homework and (as Gracie said) were going to be inhaling it if they didn't get some of it done. The only one out of the boys who seemed to be worried about homework was Remus, but even James and Sirius were bothering to do a bit of light reading just so they wouldn't fall behind on their NEWT classes.
It was Friday morning and the fours girls woke up. One in her Head's dormitory, the others in their normal dormitories.
"Good morning." Said Emma cheerily, pulling open the curtains with a big smile and digging into her suitcase for shampoo and stifling a yawn.
"Go to hell, demons of the wide awake!" Groaned Gracie as she tumbled to the ground, tangled in her sheets.
"Another glorious day being the friend of James Potter!" Said Lily, walking to the shower in her bathroom and humming 'What a wonderful world' rather out of tune.
She stepped under shower head and turned the water on, enjoying the cool feeling of the water on her skin, washing away her thoughts and troubles. Closing her eyes, she put shampoo in her hair and continued singing at the top of her lungs, "And I think to myself! What a wonderful world!"
Gracie and Emma stepped into their showers on the floor below, Gracie drowsily bumping into walls, and Emma reciting her Charms notes over and over.
Lily continued scrubbing her head, but began to notice a tingling sensation that covered her arms and legs. It was not unlike the feeling she got when James touched her but the thing was (to her hidden disappointment) he was not in the stall with her. So she looked down to see if she was getting a rash or something...
And screamed.
At almost the same time, two other screams erupted from below her, coming from the 7th Years girl's lavatories.
Also at that moment, four boys woke up with enormous grins on their faces.
"Another day of flirting with Gracie Harlow and staring at both her back and front side, lovely." Said Sirius, stretching and getting up happily (despite his usual grumpiness).
"Waking up to the screams of wimpy girls can be so fulfilling." Said James, his black hair messier than normal as he bounced around his Head's room.
"Sirius, why must you be so sex-crazed at this hour?" Grumbled Remus.
Meanwhile, the rest of the school began screaming while in the shower. There were those who didn't take showers, but they still screamed when they saw what had befallen their friends.
"Peter? Where did you put my cologne?" Shouted Sirius, through his bathroom door.
"It should be in your bathroom cabinet!" Came the reply.
"Well, good morning Gents, how are you this morning!" Said James, who entered the dorm in his (oddly enough) periwinkle bathrobe.
"Splendid, Comrade Potter." Said Sirius, peaking out from under his bed as he looked for his homework.
"Well," said Remus, pulling the essay out from under the his pillow, "We should probably head down to the Great Hall, seeing as I rather look forward to seeing everyone except us drenched in purple dye."
"Fine." They all agreed as they continued to dress, James joining them.
Fifteen minutes later, the entire school was in the Great Hall, though it looked as if the hall had been flooded with purple kool-aid.
"Purple. I hate purple." Said Lily miserably as she looked all over her vibrant violet body.
"Those... Marauders, " Spat Gracie, glaring at her, plate, "When they walk into the hallway I'm going to walk right over to them and--."
"Just be normal so they don't know it's us," Said Lily darkly, "Besides, we don't know it was them. It could be someone else."
"Oh really?" Said Emma, glaring furiously at the four figures that had just entered the Great Hall, waving like princesses.
Lily was blushing under her purple epidermis, though thankfully, neither of her friends noticed her. She reached up quickly and tried to fix her bangs, though to no avail.
"Gracie!" Shouted Sirius, running towards her seat.
"Sit here and those kids you've been dreaming about will never even get a chance to exist, Black." Gracie said icily, purposely putting her books on the spot he wished to sit at.
"But Gracie, they'll be your kids too, why ruin our happy future?" Said Sirius, putting his arm around her shoulders and batting his eyes at her.
"If that's what my life is gonna end up at, then kill me now." Said Gracie, glaring up at him as she stood, though he towered over her petite figure.
"Awww, Lils," said James sympathetically, "I'm sorry you took a shower, we should have warned you, but we wanted it to be a surprise. Plus, you look good in purple. Except that it doesn't match your hair at all."
At this, Lily punched him in the arm, Emma flung egg at him, and Gracie kicked both him and Sirius.
"Good morning Ladies, I see you are very awake today." Said Remus, sitting down next to Emma.
"Don't you start or you'll be getting a bruised shin as well." Gracie spat, plopping down back in her seat, ignoring Sirius who was clutching his leg.
"Why didn't you just get the Marauderesses instead of the rest of the school?" Lily asked through a mouthful of oatmeal.
"We don't know who they are." Piped up Peter.
"Wow, they must be pretty smart women to evade the eyes of the infamous Marauders." Said Gracie with a wink at her friends that was not spotted by the four boys, thankfully.
"Obviously not that smart to avoid our prank." Said Sirius pompously, settling next to Remus and digging into pancakes.
"Whatever." Came the cold reply from Gracie.
"So how is this gonna help you figure out who they are, James?" Said Lily, hiding a smile at her best friend and Sirius, who were glaring at each other in an endless staring contest.
"That wasn't the point of this prank. No, the mysterious opponent hunt will begin tomorrow, before the tally board reveals the first set of judges marks of the Prankwar."
"Yes, it does seem to be the talk of the school, this prankwar," said Emma gesturing around the Great Hall airily with a purple hand, "How do you plan to catch the Marauderesses?"
"We're gonna put up WANTED posters everywhere and offer a reward for the return of them." James said, puffing his chest out proudly at this so called 'brilliant' plan.
"What's the reward for the booty?" Lily asked non-challantly, half wondering if the reward might be worth it.
"A night in bed with the Marauder of their choice." Said Sirius.
The three girls promptly spit out their Pumpkin juice all over the boys.
"Ewww...Lily! C'mon, why did you have to destroy my new shirt?" James whined.
"Oh get over yourself, you baby. Girls, we umm, need to go to the Library." Said Lily with a meaningful look.
"But why would we need to do that! We just went last night!" Said Gracie as Emma grabbed her arm and dragged her off with Lily's help.
The boys stared off as their female friends left, trying to silence Gracie's feeble cries of 'I want to finish my grapefruit!'
"Padfoot, how are the WANTED posters coming?" Asked Remus casually, going over his homework to look for spelling errors.
"Fine, so far I've got pink and purple colored posters with naked girls on them with information, but I'm working on some chartreuse colored ones," said Sirius.
James winced at his friend," I sometimes wonder if your mother dropped you on your head when you were a baby, Pads."
With a sigh, Remus stood and said, "Well, we should probably get them up soon so we can find the girls."
"I hate girls." Said Sirius, standing up.
"You lie, Sirius. You adore girls; they are like, your hobby." Said James, stretching and taking an apple with him.
"Yeah, they've got boobs and nice smiles, but they are just a waste of space."
"Well, before you become homosexual my friend, consider the fact that most girls think the same about you."
"When you say most, do you mean that in a general sense or are you talking about our dear lovely red head and friends?" Said Sirius, looking over at James suspiciously.
"I mean mostly girls named Gracie Harlow."
"Oh." Sirius pouted.
"But don't count her;" said James encouragingly, "She hardly could be considered part of the female population."
Sirius' face brightened and he bounced off down the corridor.
"Nice Save." Laughed Remus, shaking his head in the direction that his friend had walked off in.
"Do you think that any ditz is actually gonna apply for that stupid wanted add?" Asked Gracie, leafing through a nook that read "The Magical World of Pranks".
"Maybe a blonde would, seeing as Angelina White is the leader of all dumb blondes." Said Emma, as the just mentioned ice-queen flounced by with her posse of admirers.
"Disgusting." Gracie spat, glaring at the victims of society.
"Never mind that, we have other problems." Said Lily, looking worriedly at her friends.
"Like what, Lils?"
"The fact that no girl is immune to the Marauder charm except us."
"What does that have to do with anything?" Emma asked, pulling her hair up into an even higher bun.
"Think about it, James said he knows the real Marauderesses won't show up. So whoever doesn't show up-."
"Will be the Marauderesses," finished Gracie, "Well that's easy, we'll report ourselves."
"But then we have to kiss the Marauders." Emma grumbled.
"And personally, I'd rather be found out than have to kiss a Marauder." Said Lily, cringing at the thought.
"So, what do we do?" Gracie said, bending down over a chair and giggling at her awkward position.
"Well, I had an idea but it's rather stupid." Said Emma, casting her eyes down and narrowing them at her oddly colored skin.
"What? You know you'll tell us or we'll kill you!" Gracie cried.
"No screaming in the library!" Screeched Madame Pince, her hollow eyes squinting and her yellow teeth barring down as she swooped to and from the girls.
"Stupid bat. You know, that's the only person that I would ever say needs to settle down and get married." Growled Gracie.
"So Em, what was your idea?" Lily pressed, smiling at herself and her friend's' purple hues.
"Well, we could help them find those little mischief makers. We could...how you say...go under cover. Just think, we'd be working to help them, and they would never even get a hint that it was us all along. Plus, the closer we get, they might let us into their secrets. We could learn to infiltrate their pranks before they are carried out successfully. We could win!"
"That's perfect, but we have to be careful. We can't try to just jump in and find their plans. We have to win their trust, feed them information that sounds false. If we are not cautious of what move to make, the results could be disastrous."
"Disaster is my middle name." Gracie crowed, earning another angry outburst from Madame Pince.
Lily sat for a moment, day dreaming about getting to spend even more time with her favorite guy in the world. She loved being with him, as much as she hated admitted it. There were moments when her guard was up and she refused to say or even think anything romantic on the subject of James Potter, but there were other times where every single thought in her red-head was involving the bloody boy! She half the time questioned her sanity, but could always blame it on something, like Gracie's preachings on how she and James were meant to be together or allergies.
As she fingered the corner of an old book, several letters popped up on her lap reading To the Marauderesses.
"FEEDBACK!!" Gracie bellowed as loud as she could.
"That's it! I've had it! Out you little vagabonds! OOUUTTT!!!!" Screamed the beside herself librarian, beating the Marauderesses over the head with a duster as they scampered out, gripping the letters and rented books.
Ten minutes later, Lily, Gracie and Emma sat in the Head's Dorm, separating open the five letters. Their purple skins clashed horribly with the gold and scarlet of the Gryffindor colors.
"I wanna read this one first!" Emma squealed, jumping up and down on the couch in excitement.
"Then do it before we die form anticipation!" Lily squealed back.
"Okay," Emma said, straightening the letter and clearing throat, "Dear Marauderesses, you guys rock! I cannot believe the Marauders think they can beat you! Nice prank last week! My friends and I are totally voting for you! Sincerely, Arleen Whipple (Hufflepuff House)."
"Me next!" Cried Gracie, viciously ripping up the next one, "Dear Midnight Freckles and Frown, I love your nicknames. I love your prank. I love you. Saturday night at the Astronomy Tower? Like, a date? I'm yours forever. With love, Vincent Morgana."
"Isn't he a Slytherin?" Asked Emma.
"Oh, I think I'm gonna be sick." Said Lily pretending to hurl over the side of the couch.
"Lily, you read one." Gracie prodded, throwing an envelope at Lily, whacking her friend square in the head.
"Dear Miss Evans, Miss Harlow and Miss Vance," Lily said confidently, though stopping and staring at the parchment in horror.
"What?" Asked Emma in a whisper.
"Someone knows who we are. They said our names. Our real names!" Lily said faintly as her hands began to shake.
"Well read the rest of the letter! Find out if they mean us harm!" Gracie said tensely, her nails digging into her palms as she clenched her fists in anguish.
"Dear Miss Evans, Miss Harlow and Miss Vance," began Lily again in a frightened tone, "I know who you are, but fear not, I will not tell a single soul in and out of the castle. I warn you though, the Marauders are hard to compete with and they do prank rather well. I know this for they have been my students for seven years now, as have you. But I don't doubt your inexplicable talent and wit. I wish you the best of luck with the prankwar. Sincerely, Albus Dumbledore (Headmaster)."
Lily laid the letter down as her friends stared down thoughtfully.
"How the bloody hell did he figure us out?!" Gracie asked exasperatedly, throwing her callused hands in the air.
"The same way the Sorting Hat picks what house students are in. He just...knows."
"He must've seen a sign, some small gesture from us that let him know it was us. From now on, we have to be extra careful who we are around and what we do when around them." Said Lily, her dark brows aligning in deep concentration.
"I'll read the next." Emma offered, taking another letter and sliding it open with a flick of her wand.
"Dear Marauderesses, I think you guys don't stand a chance against the Marauders. Not only are they the ultimateprankers, but they are also really hot. You are probably a bunch or nerdy nobodies who are just pining after amazing guys who you will never be worthy of. Peace and Love! Sincerely, Angelina White."
"Yep, its official. She is definitely number one on the Who's Being Pranked Next List." Gracie said, nodding decidedly.
"What a bitch." Emma drawled, as if it was old news.
"Alright," said Lily, already sliding open the envelope to the next letter, "Dear Moonlight, Freckles and Frown, Just thought we'd inquire if you enjoyed this morning's prank. We hope you did and we hope you are reading this with the appearance of three purple grapes. Can't wait till the judgment day. Sincerely, Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs. P.S.- you might want to check the bulletin board for an important advertisement on Monday."
"I wonder what they would say if they new it was us they were bashing?" Gracie said, handing the letters to Lily.
"I'll write some nice replies tonight to everyone, especially the Marauders, and send them tomorrow." Said Lily, checking her watch.
"Oh, crap." Lily said, grabbing her bag and standing up.
"What?" Her friends asked.
"Class started a half an hour ago!" Lily shouted, nearly pulling her red hair out in stress.
"CRAP!" Shouted Emma, who was already half-way to the portrait hole.
"Crap is right," said Gracie, "we forgot to finish our essay questions last night."
Needless to say, the room was filled with multiple curses and swears.
Lily, I'm not usually a punctual person, but, where the hell were you?
The library. And it's none of your concern what I was doing there, so don't ask James.
Did you find a way to get the dye off?
If I had, don't you think it would be off by now?
Well maybe you feel entitled to honor the Marauder's prank seeing as you happen to be friends with one of them.
So you know how to get it off?
What, the dye?
Yes!
Ummmmmm...
JAMES!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay! Use the fuchsia colored soap in the prefect's bathroom while taking your next bath, but let it soak in for a moment.
Well that's great, what about the non-prefects? How will they get rid of the purple?
It goes away after twenty four hours Lils. Calm down. Oh, and we have a Head's meeting tonight.
Library at 6:00?
It's a date!
Ha Ha.
I'm glad you think I'm funny Lily.
Whatever, hey I need a distraction; can you and Sirius make Binns busy for a moment while I slip out to take a bath?
What will you give me in return?
My finished potions notes for you to copy for tomorrow's test, and don't tell me you've been taking notes yourself James.
Okay, Sirius and I have got a plan. WAIT FOR THE SIGNAL.
What's the signal?" Lily mouthed silently to James, but she didn't even have to ask, cause the next moment, an odd thing happened.
Sirius spontaneously combusted.
As in, randomly caught on fire.
"Oh it burns!" He screamed, though she didn't miss the wink he gave her when he turned in her direction.
Fake fire, I should have known. She thought, slipping unnoticed out of the classroom, laughing as James tried to beat the fire off of Sirius using a giant textbook.
Being the best friend of a Marauder definitely had its quirks.
A/N: Please review. I'd really like more than ten reviews, if that is possible. You are the syrup on my waffles, all you guys!