Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters that are mentioned within the books, movies or otherwise. I do however own any of the characters I create, and therefore you do no have my permission to use them.

Potter & Evans

Lunch hour came after Herbology with the Hufflepuffs. James swiftly took the closest seat to Lily Evans that he could manage – which much to her dismay was right beside her.

"Afternoon Evans," James said with a broad grin.

Lily glared, "What do you want Potter?"

James pretended to be no less than offended, "Can't a chap say hello to his house Prefect without having another motive?"

"Sure, but you're a bigheaded idiot. You always want something, so get your daily request to date me out and I'll give you my daily rejection."

"Oh lighten up Evans! What bloke asks a lady out on the first day of school?"

Lily's face dropped even more in disgust, "You do Potter, for the past three years!"

Without warning Sirius appeared, shot a pile of lily-of-the-valley petals from the tip of his wand over top Lily's head and skipped away merrily while James grinned.

"Would you do me the honour of accompanying me on a trip to Hogsmeade?"

Lily, now bright red with rage, stood abruptly and dumped her goblet full of pumpkin juice over James' head.

"For the millionth time Potter, I wouldn't date you if you were the last person on Earth!"

"That went better than expected," Sirius said as he sat down across from James, "I daresay you're wearing her down!"

James nodded, quite oblivious that he was soaking wet, as he dug into a large marinated chicken breast, potatoes and peas for lunch.

"I'll have her before graduation at this rate."

"What did the two of you do to Lily this time?" Remus asked with a hint of amusement in his blue eyes.

Sirius shrugged as he piled several spoonfuls of mashed potatoes on to his plate, "Nothing out of the ordinary."

There were a few people in Hogwarts that were almost always targeted for any of the pranks that the Marauders were pulling. Any of the first years were easy targets, Slytherin House as a whole and finally, Severus Snape. Snape was a tall lanky boy of sixteen. He had shoulder length, greasy black hair and equally black eyes with a long hooked nose that was too big for his face.

There had been a time when Snape was Lily Evans best friend, but after their fourth year Snape had become immensely interested in the Dark Arts. After he'd called Lily a 'Mudblood' one afternoon by the Black Lake, the Marauders hadn't been as lenient with their 'pranks'. Bullying was a more appropriate term for what they put Snape through, but in their opinion he deserved it after calling his so called best friend a Mudblood to her face. Lily however, had an entirely different opinion on the matter.

It was the first Friday of term, and the sixth year Slytherins and Gryffindors had their free hour together. It was a beautiful day for early September in the northern region of the country and the students were taking full advantage of it. It'd taken all of five minutes for the Marauders to track Snape down and hang him upside down by his ankles six feet in the air.

"Put him down this instant!" Lily's shrill voice said as she stomped over to the scene, her Prefect's badge gleaming in the sunlight.

"Oh lighten up Evans, just a bit of fun," James said.

"Put him down Potter," Lily repeated her green eyes a blaze with anger.

James sighed in an irritated manner and with a flick of his wand; Severus Snape was lying crumpled on the grass. Snape swore loudly upon his landing before standing begrudgingly and starting to collect his school supplies that had dropped from his bag. Lily bent down to assist him, moving to grab a scroll of parchment.

"Don't touch my belongings, Mudblood! Who asked for your help anyways?" Snape yelled before he grabbed the parchment and stormed off.

"And you helped him. Good call Evans," James said glaring at Snape's back as he retreated back into the castle.

Lily didn't say anything but ran off – Remus sighed and pointedly shook his head in James' direction.

"You're clueless you know that?" Remus asked before he took off after Lily's retreating form.

The full moon was due to arrive the first Sunday back at Hogwarts. The Marauders were already buzzing about how the four of them would spend Sunday night. Most of the time, they just ran around the Forbidden Forest, but there were times when they also wandered Hogsmeade during the full moons. Sirius and James' Animagus forms were large enough that they could control Remus' werewolf form without any issue, although there had been a few close calls that the four of them laughed about after the fact.

"Snape's been skulking around all afternoon," Sirius said irritably as three of the Marauders sat at a secluded desk in the corner of the library.

It was Sunday, and given that Remus was extremely dangerous even the day before the full moon he kept himself secluded in the Shrieking Shack the entire day as well.

"Ignore it Padfoot," James said as he scribbled down another paragraph to his essay for Potions class.

"He's been trying to get one of us expelled since First Year. How can I ignore him being a prat?" Sirius asked.

"Just don't do anything stupid," James sighed, "Get your mind off it. Go pester Benoit or something."

Sirius shook his head, "Nah, I've already 'accidentally' ran into her four times today. She's already right irritated with me."

Peter and James snorted, both shaking their heads as they returned to their school work. Sirius on the other hand skulked off into the book shelves to search for a book for his History of Magic essay. Snape was lingering in the book shelves, pretending to look for a book. But Sirius knew better, Snape would've been done all his assignments the day they were given.

"Snivellus, quit snooping around where your overly large nose doesn't belong," Sirius snapped as he pushed past the boy to get to the books on sixteenth century goblin wars.

"Where's your friend Lupin today Black?" Snape asked a taunting tone in his voice.

Irritated, Sirius turned to look at Snape.

"Why don't you find out for yourself? He's at the Shrieking Shack, there's a passage under the Whomping Willow. Just press the knot at the base of the tree and it'll stop swinging," Sirius replied in the same tone before he left.

Sirius didn't think twice about the statement, figuring that Snape would think he was just being a prat. But for the first time in his life, Snape actually took Sirius Black literally and did just that.