She got up and said, 'good day, Professor' and left for the door. As she closed it, she caught a glimpse of Professor Dumbledore at a large basin with a silvery substance inside. It looked like a light, made liquid, or wind made solid. Lily couldn't decide which. But what made the scene even more eerie, was that Professor Dumbledore had put the tip of his wand to his temple and was pulling out, from his head, that same silvery substance. Lily clicked the door shut and descended down the spiral staircase.

'Peeves did what?'

'James,' said Lily, irritated, 'you're starting to irritate me. I told you what Peeves did a hundred times already!'

'You mean thirteen times.'

'Yes! Same thing, alright? No-one was harmed. I wasn't hurt, no students were hurt, and Nearly Headless Nick – well, I suppose he can't die again! Jeez James, it's no big deal.'

'Are you sure that you aren't hurt?'

Lily rolled her eyes again, and sighed. She put down her book. 'Yes, I am perfectly okay, now if you don't mind, I need to finish reading this. I've been reading the same page over and over again because of you.'

James watched her pick up her book again. He watched the soft features of her face – however annoyed and frustrated she looked – for a moment, then backed out of the room, and into his own.

-----

'And, once again, I do apologise about the confusion Peeves has caused. Peeves has been given a warning not to use the Dark Arts. Strangely, the poltergeist says that someone made him do this. Anyone with information, please step forward.

Professor Dumbledore sat down in his golden chair. James watched as everyone left the Great Hall. Professor Dumbledore had called all houses to the Great Hall to explain what had happened the day before.

Yesterday, the Dark Mark had appeared where Lily Evans was. She was probably one of the last people in the wizarding world to conjure it, but probably one of the many to be affected. She was a Muggle-born witch.

'Oi! Coming?'

James looked up to see that he was the only one left at the Gryffindor table.

'C'mon, James, pump those chicken legs!'

James rolled his eyes and got up. 'I do pump my stubby chicken legs when I play Quidditch. Did you know that? I bet you didn't.'

'Yes, whatever.'

Lily was already inside the Common Room when James and his friends arrived.

'Yallo, Evans.'

'Hi Black,' said Lily. She got up to leave the common room to her own so she wouldn't be distracted by the yellings and bangs that were sure to come from the Marauders.

The group of four pushed and shoved their way to James' room.

'Ow,' said James as he rubbed his arm, 'what's with the pushing?'

Remus snapped the door shut and muttered a charm to make the room sound-proof. 'Sirius Black has something to tell you.' Remus glared in his direction.

He scowled. 'What?' said he, 'I did it so Prongs would get offa our backs.'

'What did I do?' asked James, confusedly.

Remus cleared his throat. 'You didn't do … much…' Remus added. 'Hurry up and tell, Black.'

James noticed that Remus used Sirius' surname … this was rarely done since Sirius did not like his family, and his surname showed the blood connection. 'Fine!'

-----

Lily sat in front of the Head Boy's door, with her ear straining to hear what the boys were up to.

She had made her way to her room, ready to take on the shouts and noises, but it didn't come. She wondered what was going on. She had expected what everyone would expect from the Marauders … but strangely, there was silence. So, with curiosity, she crept passed the Common Room and knelt down, with her ear pressing hard on the door.

'Okay,' Lily heard Sirius say, 'one night, only a couple of months ago. A man-'

'Get on with it!' Said a gruff voice. Lily suspected that it was Remus'.

'Fine, fine, fine. The Ball. Everyone excited. James Potter. Lily Evans. Lily was asked to it already by Kredule. James gets all soppy-' (there was a 'hey!' from James) '- about not taking her there. He doesn't want to go alone. Too chicken.' (there was another 'hey!') 'Goes and tells White that he can go with her.'

There was a pause from Sirius. Lily watched the dust dance in the sunlight by the window, waiting to hear what was coming next. 'Sonorus minimus transia' She whispered at the door. She wanted to sit comfortably, but be able to hear what was going on from the other side of the door without straining her ears. The charm she had just cast maximised the volume of the boys' voices, but not too much.

'Go on,' said Remus' voice magically magnified, but only a bit.

Lily suspected that Sirius had rolled his eyes at his friend because Remus said, 'c'mon.'

'So, everything-according-to-Prongs-was-not-right. He-'

About to sneeze, about to sneeze! Lily had her chin up and her mouth open.

'-just-kept-saying-how-everything-was-not-suppose-to-be-this-way-and-so-'

Lily closed her eyes. No, no, no no! Lily wanted to hear what was going to happen next! She didn't want to sneeze because of the dust! She took in a breath.

'-I-just-'

'ACHOOOOOOOO!'

No! Lily was meant to hear what was suppose to happen next! This was all wrong! Sirius Black was just about to confess something! Quick! Lift the charm!

-----

'HOLY HELL! WHAT WAS THAT?' Yelled James. He quickly flung open the door, expecting to see something. He did see something, Lily being flung back onto the ground due to some unknown force.

'Are you alright Lily?' said James.

'I'm fine,' said Lily, as she dusted herself.

'What happened? I heard a loud noise.'

Lily's face turned red. 'Oh, I sneezed,' she said.

The Marauders howled with laughter.

'You – what?' Sirius managed to grunt through his snorts.

'I said I sneezed,' said an irritated, yet embarrassed Lily. 'Is there a problem with that?'

'There is – a problem – with that – Evans! So loud!'

'Fine!' said Lily. 'Fine! Laugh at me! See if I care!' and she stormed off into her room, slamming the door behind her.

'Fine!' The Marauders heard Lily huff from behind her door. 'fine! If they want to laugh, let them laugh. I don't care. Why should I care?'

James laughed at Peter who was laughing at Remus who was laughing at Sirius who was laughing at Lily.

'Okay, okay, back to the explaining,' said Remus, breathing heavily.

'What explaining?' asked Sirius.

'Well, I'm pretty sure no one has modified my memory…and I think we were getting a confession out of Sirius Black before we were…ah…interrupted by the Big Bang.'

Sirius' humoured face fell, and he grumbled. 'Seriously, I don't see how this is gonna do anything.'

'Make it nice and simple,' said Remus.

Sirius grunted. 'Okay. James Potter wanted to go with Lily Evans to the Ball, but she was already going with Drey Kredule. James Potter and Lily Evans were starting to get along well – for once. To get them together I locked Drey Kredule into a broom cupboard. There, happy?'

'Are you out of your mind?' James cried.

'Yes, why?' said Sirius airily.

'How do you think Lily will act if she found out that you devised this ingen – plan?'

'I 'unno.'

'She'll kill me!'

'Lucky it ain't me.'

'Well, I suppose it did work…' James said slyly.

'Ah, see? Knew you wouldn't mind!" said Sirius.

'But she would have suspected something…' James said.

'At least she doesn't know that you provoked Malfoy and Snivillus-'

BANG!

'Another sneeze?' choked Sirius.

'No, Black. Not a sneeze.' Lily Evans had just flung her door open; her face was red with anger.

'What is it this time? A far-'

'A plank of wood that fits into a vent that opens and closes, leading to a room, being forcibly flung opened because someone just found out that she had made a fool of herself twice because it was someone else's fault!'

'Ah, dear me, that temper needs the Muggle treatment: anger management,' sniggered Sirius.

Another bang issued from Lily's wand, and sent Sirius sailing backwards.

'See what I mean about anger management?'

'Sirius Black! For your information, I shouted at the Hufflepuff, and thought that it was his fault that he was late for the Ball. And he was just there trying to explain to me what had happened, but I didn't let him. Why? Because of you stupid Marauders!' She raged.

Remus and Peter took a step back.

'And then, I find out that you' here she jabbed her index finger at Sirius' chest, forcing him to step back with every poke 'and "Prongsie" boy provoked Snape and Malfoy to use stupid crucio – or whatever he used – on him. And all this time I thought that it was all the Slytherins' faults!'

'Ah, Even the best of us makes mistakes…'

'Don't let her temper rise,' James warned Sirius in a joking manner, 'she's a dragon.'

'And you Potter!' Lily cried as she flung around.

'Potter! When have you started calling me Potter, now? I thought that we were on first name terms! What made us change to formal greetings now?'

'Why don't you ever tell your friends to leave me alone? Especially him!' Lily pointed a shaking finger at Sirius. 'You two troublemakers! Catastrophe isn't even enough to describe you two! Always teasing everyone! Causing trouble!'

Lily launched into the worst – or best, whoever's point it was taken from – practical jokes that the Marauders had preformed each year.

'First year! Bringing the Giant Squid up to the Great Hall at the Halloween feast! The Squid frightened everyone, and all the food was covered in slime and salt water from the lake! The Squid practically destroyed the Great Hall!

'Second year! Swapping everyone's wands with someone else's! Do you know how much damage this caused? Do you remember? Do you remember how long it took for everyone to get their own wands back?

'Third year! Covering the floors, tables and desks, seats and ceilings of the castle with honey! We could hardly move! And every now and then a glob of honey would plonk onto our heads! Everyone was sticky for a month!

'Fourth Year! Stealing everyone's clothes to make a huge banner with "The Marauders" on it! Mind you boys, this was in winter! We have snow here, thank-you-very-much! It was freezing! We had to conjure up hot water bottles, small fires to keep our selves warm! We only had pyjamas to wear!

'Fifth year! Using that spell to hang people up by their ankles, on the first years at the Sorting! How embarrassed do you think they were? Very! But you weren't a bit sorry! And they were all looking forward to learning magic, but you ruined what should have been the best day of their childhoods!

'Sixth year! Inviting Peeves to the Welcoming feast! Do you know how much food we wasted? Add that up with the time the Squid came up to the castle, and you wasted millions of tonnes most likely!'

Lily stopped to catch her breath, while the boys looked at her, taking a few minutes to digest what had just been said.

Remus opened his mouth. 'Uh – Lily – those times were the past. And you can't change the past, but you can make your future-'

'And you Remus. You, the one with sense. You were mature. Why couldn't you try and stop your friends' behaviours? I believe that might have been why you were made a prefect.'

'But - '

'Pettigrew, you don't recall them doing the dirty work with you? With all you nutcases put together, who knows,' she finished in a cold whisper, 'who knows what will happen this year.'

She stormed out of the portrait hole.

A/N I am such a bad person ... it's November and it took me ages to upload .. well, flame me, yell at me, pinch me, do whatever you want ... I think i'm rather used to it by now ...