So , let's fast forward again , to the second year of Lily and the Gryffindors. It was November, and life at Hogwarts was going on in the same steady beat it always did. James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter had now become a well-known foursome within the school, a group of pranksters that everyone liked. Nearly headless Nick had named them the Marauders, which he said was Latin for troublemakers. Lily was still in a dorm by herself, but sometimes when some of the older girls had a fight, one of them might come down to sleep in a spare bed to get away from the other girls. Lily herself was well-liked, too, but it was hard for her to make very close friends among the other students.
Lily climbed through the portrait hole, coming back from a walk around the grounds. She had been with Hagrid, but came in when she couldn't stand the early November cold anymore. She spotted the marauders sitting around the fire in the couches, and went to sit down by them.
" Hi, boys, what's up?"She said, sitting down and pulling off her mittens.
"We just got back from the library." Said James. ", and while we were there, we ran into the Slytherin's."
Lily could tell by the looks on there faces that there had been some sort of confrontation. The Slytherins they talked about was probably the usual crowd.; Severus Snape, Ella Molloy, Marcus Knot, Beatrice Lestrange, and Mercutio Mulcibur. They were a nasty bunch of kids, and they clashed with the marauders often. No one more so, than James and Severus themselves. It arrived for easily understandable reasons; Severus was rather jealous of James's popularity and talent at sports, while James considered Severus an easy target for pranks and teasing.
" What happened?" Asked Lily with a sense of foreboding.
" Oh, the usual," Replied James. ", insults, taunts, Lestrange and Mulciber gave Sirius a hard time about being a Gryffindor again. They said that perhaps his brother next year won't be a disgrace to his family and his heritage like he is."
" I wanted to rip those little slime balls limb from limb." Sirius fumed.
" and he almost did." Said Remus. ", he did, indeed, start a small duel right there in the library. We had to cut it short because Madame Pince walked in and nearly saw us. We narrowly avoided a detention, but we left off the fight with the Slytherin's swaering that we'd finich the fight later, and they would figure out a way to settle it."
" That's what worries me, a little." Interrupted James. " You know whatever they come up with is going to be sinister, and it's going to be rigged too. There not a very honorable lot, and consider themselves above fair-play."
" As they have demonstrated time and time again." Concluded Remus. " I think your right. The both of you. I think if something is going to happen, our best chance is if it is our idea. Maybe we could lay down some sort of challenge?"
"Yeah, but what?" Said James.
No one answered . Peter, who had been there the whole time, just stared off in to space. It seemed that he was content just to stay quiet and just let his friends do all the clever talking. Lily thought about it for a minute, and then came up with an idea. She hesitated for a minute, though, because she knew how risky it would be to do what she was planning.
" I have an idea." Said Lily.
" What?" Asked James eagerly.
" Well, how about a game of...hide and seek?" Suggested Lily timidly.
" What's that?" Asked Sirius.
So Lily launched into an explanation of the rules of hide and seek, and how muggles played it at parties.
" Except this time ," explained Lily ", the hiders would be you four and the Slytherins and the seekers... would be the teachers."
The boys "ooh" ed, suddenly understanding.
" So, we all go out in the castle after dark, and have a contest to see who get's caught and who doesn't." Comprehended James. " I like it."
" Me too." Said Sirius, rubbing his hands together. This was perfect for causing a little mischief.
" I like it as well." Conceded Remus. " but it is awfully risky. What if we get caught? What if we get expelled?"
" Trust me, I have a way-," James glanced over at Lily.", I have a way we will never get caught. I'll show you guys later."
Lily was a little confused about what James was talking about, but decided that it was probably none of her business.
" Well, whatever that way is, it had better be good, because if any of you boys get caught ,it'll be on my conscience."
" Oh, don't worry Lily, flower," Said James smoothly. ", we know exactly what we're getting into when we do the things we do. We wouldn't be the marauders if wh didn't consider the risks, weigh all the pros and cons-"
" And do it anyway." Cut in Sirius.
All the kids laughed, and James slapped hands with Sirius.
" Well, good luck then, I'll just leave you guys to do figure everything out." lily got up from her chair and walked over to one of the tables to start her transfiguration homework. As exciting a prospect as the challenge was, Lily couldn't help but have a sense of foreboding that her idea was going to open of the boys to a lot of trouble. Then Lily thought of something else.
"Lily Flower?"
The rest of the week past, and it looked like the challenge was on. The Slytherins had agreed to it, and the day before they had all had a sort of "war council" on the front steps of the school, and worked everything out. It would start on Friday night ,at midnight, and go until three in the morning. They would meet in the great hall at midnight and converge, and then split off in their own groups for the next three hours. Then when time was up, they would meet up in the library, because their were enough secret passages around it for a quick escape to both of the house common rooms.
To make sure that no one just blew the whole thing and went back to their dorm until the three hours ended, Remus furnished some bracelets with coordinates of both the Gryffindor and Slytherin dorms for everyone to where. They's sound off when someone entered into a common room.
" Wait a minute. " Said Severus. ", how do you know the location of the Slytherin common room?"
" Wouldn't you like to know." Grinned Sirius.
Now, it was Friday afternoon, and Lily was studying in the library. Or, at least she was supposed to be, but she couldn't get her mind off what was supposed to happen later that night. She was so lost in thought that she didn't hear when someone came up from behind her.
" Penny for your thoughts?" Asked a low voice from behind her.
Lily jumped, startled. She turned around and saw standing there none other than Severus Snape.
" Oh, hello, Severus." Said Lily. ", would you like to sit down?"
" Don't mind if I do." Said Severus, the soul of civility and politeness.
Lily and Severus had a strange relationship, at least where Gryffindors and Slytherins were concerned. They could never be real friend; his friends didn't get along with the boys in her year, especially with Severus and James, and The Slytherins certainly didn't approve of Lily, smartest in her year, and a muggle-born of all things! And yet, Lily and Severus were both very scholarly students, shared an aptitude for potions, and ever since that first night on the boat across the lake, had shared a mutual respect for each other. The could never be real friends, but lily had an idea that if she was in real trouble, then she could go to him for help if she really needed it.
" So, word is, that you are doing this midnight challenge thing tonight." Said Lily.
" Yes, it's true." Said Severus. ", I heard that the whole thing was your idea. Is that true?"
" Yes, it's true, but now..."
"But, now, you are not sure if it is such a good idea as it originally sounded?" Finished Severus for her.
" Exactly." Said Lily. ", What if somebody gets hurt, hogwarts isn't perfectly safe, especially at night. Or worse than that, what if some gets expelled?"
Severus couldn't help but laugh at the terrified expression on Lily's face.
" It'll be fine, lily, I promise. I'm sure the Marauders. " Severus spat out the word, as if it were a curse. " will have pumped the Weasley's for all the information they can get on the secret passages around the school, and we've consulted Lucius Malfoy on the subject, and he knows a lot, so I'm sure it's evenly matched."
Lily gagged a little. She didn't like Lucius Malfoy. He was the reason she knew what the word mudblood meant, and for once in her life, it was something she wished she had never learned.
" I know, I know, he wasn't very nice to you, but I still like him and value his opinion. But I didn't come here to express views on the people we hang out with. Lily, I think the others are planning something." Severus had taken a low tone of voice, as if he was afraid of being overheard.
" Planning something? What sort of something?" Asked Lily Anxiously.
" I don't know, they haven't said anything to me about it, but I can tell by the way they act, conspiratorially, secretive, that they are up to something. If I didn't know you were involved, I wouldn't have said anything at all. But I want us to win because we're better than the Marauders ( which we are), and not because we are better cheaters than them."
"Thanks, Sev, I'll warn the boys." Said Lily. She smiled , it was really nice of him to do this, especially for guys he didn't even like.
"If I didn't know you were involved, I wouldn't have said anything at all."
His voice echoed in her head all the way as she headed back to the Gryffindor common room.
That night, at ten till midnight, the four marauders met up in the common room to head down to the great hall together. Lily came along too, feeling it her duty as the creator of the midnight challenge, as everyone was calling it, to at least see the boys off. They were all wearing black clothes, with the gryffindor emblem on their shirts in dark red. They were each wearing small red plastic bracelets, with all the numbers one through nine on them. One for each player of the challenge. If someone went back to their dorm before the three hours were up, then their number would glow. Remus had made them, with Lily's help, and she was quite proud of them.
When Lily told the boys about Severus's warning, they unfortunately just waved it off, and told her that they could handle it.
"We're big boys, Lily, they can't dish out anything we can't give back tenfold." Said Sirius.
Peter gave a whoop, but was quickly shut up by the boys before he could wake anyone. The boys reviewed their plan one more time, and with a chivalrous bow towards Lily James led Sirius, Remus, and Peter out of the portrait hole, and down the stairs to the great hall.
Lily went back upstairs to her room, her ever-empty room. She had no one to wake, so she didn't have to be to careful about being quiet. She climbed into her bed, and drew the curtains. She tried to go into an uneasy sleep, unsure how things would go, and very afraid of what might happen under the cover of night.
Meanwhile, several floors below, the midnight challenge was about to begin...
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