Disclaimer: I'm still not the owner of anything.
Chapter 7
The Marauders had decided, most rightly, that it had been far too long since they had played a really good prank. James had been so busy with trying to keep Lily's spirits up, Quidditch and keeping an eye on Remus every full moon that he had almost forgotten the Marauders most solemn oath, to cause as much mischief as possible.
So they had spent the night in their dormitory until one in the morning planning the next day. It was already the second month of term and none of them had managed to receive a single detention. Of course, Remus did have a brilliant knack of talking his way out of detentions, with those golden eyes and that innocent Remus 'I'd never break a rule' Lupin expression. Even Professor McGonagal had been fooled more than once.
Sirius of course, had already received two detentions. His target was one for each month, and any more he could get were just a bonus. His first had been in the last week of September when the Head Girl Felicity Jones had caught him and Meganne Kipling snogging in the third floor broom closet after hours.
His second had been only a week ago, when Professor Flitwick had caught him dragging Mrs Norris around the corridors on a lead. James wasn't sure which was more impressive, the fact he had gotten away with only one detention or the fact that he had managed to catch the damn cat in the first place.
So Sirius had pronounced the rest of them to be wimps that were not fit for their Marauder names, and so they had sat up until the early hours of the morning and planned a prank war that would last the entire day. Remus had noticed that Lily was not the only person in the castle who was down at the moment; several muggleborns had lost relatives during Voldemort's rise to power and those who hadn't still suffered at the hands of the pureblood maniacs that inhabited the school.
Peter, in a fit of unexpected genius, had decided those should be the first targets of an all-out prank war.
Their next challenge would be to try and bring a bit more fun and joy back into the castle again, which was beginning to look distinctly gloomy as the weather worsened. James' mother had always taught him that any moment might be his last and he needed to live that way, after his father had died fighting he had really begun to live that philosophy.
So with that in mind, and the thought of the way Lily would look at him when she saw him hexing first years again, he had spent a good hour convincing Sirius that their pranks should be fun rather than vindictive.
Phase one would begin at breakfast and they were all feeling slightly giddy as they sat down beside Lily and Mary at the Gryffindor table that morning. Lily was spreading liberal amounts of marmalade onto her toast and turned to smile at James as he sat down beside her.
"Good morning, ladies" Sirius grinning charmingly while pouring himself a glass of orange juice.
"What are you looking so smug about?" Lily asked, raising her eyebrows.
"I just have a good feeling about today" Sirius replied, unable to hide his huge grin as he reached for a plate of sausages, "Don't you agree, Mr Prongs?"
"Indeed, Mr Padfoot" James agreed, nodding enthusiastically as he spooned honey onto his porridge, "Today may be the best day of term so far."
Mary snorted and shook her head, "You're kidding right?" she demanded, "We have double Muggle Studies last thing today."
"Ah, but lessons are not everything, Mary" said Remus in a tone that suggested he was trying to sound wise.
"They are when you have Transfiguration first thing" Lily muttered bitterly, dropping her crust onto her now empty plate. "I've been practising all night and I'm still rubbish at human transfiguration."
"Sit next to me, Evans" James said easily, knocking his shoulder against hers. "It'll give me an excuse to turn your eyebrows blue this time."
Lily ducked her head into her plate as she smiled but said softly, "Alright Potter."
Any further conversation was interrupted by an explosion at the Slytherin table, in which several fifth, sixth and seventh years had dropped their goblets and gasped.
Lily turned and raised an eyebrow in James' direction but he was staring resolutely away from her, he knew the moment he looked into her eyes his guilty face would give him away. They'd been getting along so well lately and he just prayed what was about to happen wouldn't knock their progress. He really didn't want to have to choose between Lily and being a Marauder.
Suddenly Evan Mulciber stood up and yelled, "Muggleborns are Wizards too!"
A stunned silence swept over the hall before Amycus Carrow, a fifth year Slytherin known for torturing muggleborns stood up and yelled, "Down with blood purity!"
Then the entire hall erupted into chaos.
All students, bar those on the Slytherin table, burst into a fit of hysterical laughter. The Slytherin table descended into further anarchy, almost every sixth and seventh year known for bullying muggleborns or preaching about blood purity was stood up and shouting about the equality of wizards.
Just as several of the teachers began to descend from the top table to restore order Remus said, "I suggest we get to class, don't you say lads?"
Sirius jumped up, "What a brilliant idea, Mr Moony!" he exclaimed before following Remus, "Catch you later, Pete!"
James reached out to grab Lily's hand and pull her along with them, he heard her giggling as she called goodbye to Mary.
They didn't stop until they were in the Transfiguration corridor and all of them were slightly breathless. "What are you lot like?" Lily demanded, still giggling slightly and her cheeks pink from running.
"I don't know what you mean, Lily" said Remus, turning the full force of his eyes on her. Remus Lupin was the only Marauder who had fully mastered the knack of looking innocent. Either he was a really good liar, or James and Sirius just looked a hell of a lot more guilty than he did. Whatever it was, those golden eyes had gotten Remus out of detention more times than James could count.
Lily rolled her eyes, "Come on" she snorted, "What happened in the Great Hall had your names written all over it."
"You're not mad are you, Evans?" James asked.
"I thought it was brilliant!"
The three of them all stood stock silent for a second before Sirius reached out and pinched her arm.
"Ow!" Lily exclaimed, "What did you do that for?"
"Just checking you were real" Sirius said, narrowing his black eyes at her. "Now, who are you and what have you done with Lily Evans?"
"Oh, shove off Black" she said, snorting.
"Lily Evans laughing at one of our jokes?" Remus said suspiciously.
"Lily Evans not telling us we're childish?" James demanded, eyebrows raised.
"Lily Evans not threatening to put us in detention?" Sirius said, his face still inches from hers.
"Come on, I'm not that bad!"
They all simply stared at her.
"It should be me asking you lot what's gotten into you, not the other way around!" she defended, "Since when do you play such a harmless prank on Slytherins, and since when do you segregate only those who deserve it?"
"Oh, well that was Prong's idea" Sirius said easily as he turned around to walk towards their classroom. "I was all for getting the entire table, but James didn't think it was fair to curse the ikkle firsties."
"Our Prongs is growing up" said Remus, smiling knowingly before he turned to follow Sirius.
Lily turned to grin at him, "Well, I thought it was brilliant" she told him, before following the other two to Transfiguration.
James didn't think his smile could get any bigger.
The day continued much like that, and there wasn't much chance for the students to catch their breath before another prank started up.
James was walking with Lily to Charms after their morning break was over, which acted as a perfect distraction as both Sirius and Remus had disappeared to being Phase Two.
A suit of armour stepped out of the corridor, looked right at her and said, "If I may say, you look lovely today."
Lily looked so shocked she obviously wasn't sure what to do. She glanced up at the suit of armour, then over to James, then back to the armour. James almost laughed at her obvious confusion when a clattering noise came from behind them.
They turned to see Nicholas Avery sprawled on the floor, his books and quills lying haphazardly around him and his robes tangled around his legs. Just behind him a suit of armour could be seen with its foot sticking slightly out, which James had to bet was what Avery had tripped over not moments before.
He slung his arm around Lily's shoulders to pull her away from the scene and she hid her giggle in his chest as they escaped to Charms together, both trying desperately not to burst into hysterical laughter. She moved to sit by Remus in the classroom but every time she caught his eye he could see she was fighting laughter.
As they left the Charms classroom the corridors became hectic, soon to be made worse by several students spontaneously being hoisted up by their ankle and dangling in the air for a few seconds before falling back to the ground. Completely chaos ensued as people pushed past each other in an attempt to reach their next classroom unscathed.
Lily was stood in the corridor beside James, she turned to glance at him before looking down at the skirt she was wearing and taking off to her third period History of Magic class without looking back.
James chuckled to himself as he made his way up to the common room for this free period with the rest of the Marauders. If any of the others had even thought about hexing Lily, including Sirius, he would have strangled them himself.
Not that she needed his protection; she was perfectly capable of doing her own strangling.
"Well gentlemen" he said, grinning to himself as they all walked through the portrait hole together. "I think today has been rather a success."
"Indeed" Sirius agreed, settling himself down in one of the armchairs by the fire. "All the Slytherin's are still in the hospital wing, I heard that new healer Pomfrey only managed to get them to stop yelling during second period."
"I still don't understand why we couldn't get all the Slytherin's" Peter complained, sitting down on the rug by the fire and crossing his legs.
"It's called growing up, Wormtail" Remus said mildly, "Hexing people who deserve it not just because we can."
"Yeah" Sirius agreed, rolling his eyes. "Prongs has gone soft in his old age."
"Shove it, Padfoot" James said, sticking his tongue out. "Big finale at lunch?"
"Of course" Sirius grinned, "Got all the beans, Wormtail?"
"My school bag weighs a ton" Peter complained.
"The pain of a prankster" Sirius sighed in a mournful sort of way before pulling a deck of cards out of his back pocket, "Exploding snap, gentlemen?"
They played for the next hour before they had to go down to lunch and as they reached the Great Hall James immediately spotted Lily's flaming red hair in the middle of the table. Mary and Marlene must have been delayed because she was sat alone and Sirius made a beeline straight for her.
Perhaps her friendship with Sirius did have its advantages, James thought as he sat down at the bench across from her. He didn't have to keep making up excuses to spend time with her.
"Hello boys" she said warily as she spooned ham and chicken pie onto her plate.
"Alright Evans" Sirius grinned, "Enjoy History of Magic?"
"It was as scintillating as ever" she said, rolling her eyes. "Did you four manage to stay out of trouble while I was gone?"
"Do we ever do anything else?" Remus admonished, smiling at her.
"I see all the Slytherin's made it out of the Hospital Wing" she said conversationally, gesturing to where Severus Snape and Evan Mulciber were sat together.
"For the time being" James said lightly.
Lily speared a broccoli with her fork but didn't say anything, which was completely fine because James was trying to communicate with Sirius without saying a word. The final prank was about to happen and it was made ten times harder by the fact they were sat with dozens of people around them.
As the food melted away from the golden plates and was slowly replaced by desert James nodded at Remus and all at once the tables in the Great Hall, minus the Slytherin table, all exploded in a shower of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. Sweets rained down on everyone's heads and James glanced at Lily to catch her laughing as she held her arms over her head to protect herself.
As the sweets shower ended another explosion occurred and four sets of fireworks exploded into the air. Students turned to look up in awe as showers of sparks flew over their heads and slowly spelled out Courtesy of the Marauders.
The entire hall exploded in cheers and a wave of applause as James and his three friends stood on their benches and bowed to the crowds.
"You four!" Professor McGonagall's voice echoed over the cheers and the hall fell silent. Her lips were pressed together in silent fury as she glared at them, an image only made more hilarious by Dumbledore sat beside her looking thoroughly amused and reaching for a stray Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Bean, "I will not tolerate this kind of idiocy!"
"Right you are, Minny!" Sirius called from the top of the bench, "Is there a specific type of idiocy you will tolerate?"
As another wave of laughter overtook the hall Professor McGonagall looked as though steam might erupt from her ears at any moment.
"Detention in my office this Saturday" she bellowed over the crowd, "For all four of you."
"May I say you look simply radiant this afternoon" Sirius called back over the crowd.
"Get to your Common Room, Black!" she yelled over more shouts of laughter, the sides of her lips twitching.
"If you insist!" Sirius called, jumping down from the bench and making his way to the exit, pulling Lily along with him. The other three followed and were chased out of the hall by shouts of laughter and occasional applause. This was only made louder when the Slytherin table began to realise they couldn't get up from their seats because every single one of them was stuck to their benches.
The five of them exited the hall as further chaos erupted.
"What you did to the Slytherin's was a bit mean" Lily chastised as they began to climb the stairs together.
"Lighten up, Evans" Sirius rebuked, "It was just a laugh."
"But they didn't all deserve it, just because they're Slytherin" Lily pressed, reaching to pull a stray sweet out of her hair.
"They think we deserve to be hexed just because we're Gryffindor" Peter pointed out.
Lily pressed her lips together and glanced around them all of them, visibly torn. James guessed she really had thought it was funny and didn't want to ruin their elation, but she was Lily Evans, and she would never agree with hexing people for the hell of it.
It was one of the reasons she had James had never gotten along before now.
"It's okay, Lil" Remus said, reaching out to touch her shoulder, "It was harmless."
James sighed as the bell rang overhead, "I better go to Muggle Studies" he said grumpily.
"Aw, don't look so downtrodden Potter" Lily said, grinning. "I thought today was supposed to be the best day of term so far."
"Yeah" Sirius agreed jovially, "Enjoying learning about Jellytones."
Lily rolled her eyes, "It's called a telephone" she corrected, "Honestly Snuffles, maybe you should take Muggle Studies next year."
Sirius laughed as he threw his arm around her shoulder, "Why would I need to do that when I have you?"
They both walked towards the Gryffindor common room arm in arm and James sighed as he turned to make his way to his last period Muggle Studies class, wishing more than anything that he could be heading back to the tower with the others.