AN: "COMC" is the Maurauders' nickname for Care of Magical Creatures. They say com-ke, not C-O-M-C. Also, the only reviewer for the past two chapters was mgirl13!! I miss my reviewers!! So, I have prepared this wonderfully long chapter for you. Hope you enjoy it.

Chapter 15: Mmmm, Pie

James' POV:

"Hey Padfoot?"

"Yeah?"

We were sitting in the common room, finishing up our Care of Magical Creatures essays during the break between Transfiguration and Care of Magical Creatures.

"D'you mind getting detention tonight?" I asked.

"Nope, you've got Quidditch tomorrow though, so we can't do anything too serious," he said, without looking up, "Why?"

I paused. I had forgotten about Quidditch in the rush of things, and was surprised that Padfoot would remember. "I want- I want to talk to you about something."

"Okay," he said, knowing that I wouldn't say anything more now.

"When should we do it? Herbology?"

Looking up, he shook his head. "Nah, let's get it over with soon. COMC?"

"Sure. Actually, that's perfect for my plan."

He raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"

"Here."

I passed him a piece of paper, on which I had scribbled my plan. His eyes widened with glee.

"C'mon," he said, "If we hurry we can get a lot."

Lily's POV:

I started when I saw Sirius and James gather up their stuff and rush out of the common room. Were they already late? Was I late? A glance at the clock soothed me, however. We still had 15 minutes before we had to be in class.

Instantly this made me curious. Why would two well known troublemakers be arriving early, unless they were setting up a prank? I made a mental note to be aware on my way down to the grounds.

A sigh came from the armchair beside me. Peter was still struggling with our essay on unicorns, which I had finished half an hour ago.

"What is it this time, Wormy?" Remus asked, helpful as usual.

"I need another inch and I have no more information to use!" Peter whined. I sighed. How could Remus put up with the constant whining? He amazed me sometimes.

"Here, let me see it," Remus replied, taking the parchment from Peter's outstretched hand. Quickly glancing over it, he said, "I don't see anything about the magical properties of their blood in here. That could easily give you at least another three inches."

He handed the parchment back, and Peter flipped to the page in our textbooks about unicorn blood.

I sighed again, and turned back to my book, a muggle romance novel. As cheesy as they were, they always made me feel better and I was still a little shaky from the event four days previous. A few minutes later, the clock came to life.

"Sixth years! You have five minutes to get down to the grounds!" the clock said in a singsongy voice, "Finish up or you'll be late!"

I slipped my book into my bag, grabbed a hat and scarf, and walked over to the portrait of the Fat Lady. She swung open, allowing the crowd of sixth years that had gathered through.

I walked down towards the entrance hall, on full alert just in case Sirius or James decided to jump out at us.

The walk was uneventful, however, and as we walked slowly down towards the edge of the Forbidden Forest I let my guard down a little. There were fewer places to hide out here. Still, it was cold out, and I shivered despite my coat.

"Good afternoon, class!" said Professor Tygela, "Please put your essays up here and take a seat." There was a collective groan. No one wanted to sit on the cold ground, snowless as it was.

I walked up to where we were to place our essays, looking around for Sirius and James. Where were they?

Instantly, my guard was up again. I set my essay down, walking past Remus and Peter, the latter scribbling a few more things onto his essay.

"Hey, Remus?" I said. He looked up.

"Yes, Lily?"

"D'you know where Sirius and James are? They left early and they're not here yet…" I trailed off.

He shrugged. "I might have heard one of them mentioning something about a prank, but I can't be sure what that would entail."

"Would it be likely to be directed at me?" I asked, grimacing at the possible answer.

Remus smiled. "Probably not. I mean, you're Sirius' girlfriend and James is still in lo-" he stopped, realizing too late that he had said too much. I felt my cheeks grow hot as the tips of his ears went bright red.

There was an awkward pause until Peter spoke up. "Moony, how does this paragraph sound? A unicorn's blood has many magical properties, including the ability to heal. Unicorns are mainly hunted for this aspect, though…"

Still blushing, I hurried to sit down while the two boys walked towards Professor Tygela, Peter continuing to read his essay.

Once everyone's essay was handed in, Tygela turned to the seated, and partially grumbling, class. "Well, I see everyone seems to be accounted for, except, of course, our usual latecomers."

Everyone laughed. I noticed Remus glancing around nervously, and I copied him. Who would be the object of "our usual latecomers'" prank?

I looked up towards the school entrance, but no one was there. Huh.

Tygela began to speak and I turned back to the front.

"Today we will be learning about-"

Splat.

A great big cream pie had landed right on Professor Tygela's head.

Some people began laughing, and some looked up nervously. Those who looked up received a pie in their face.

I backed away, grabbing Remus' wrist and not glancing up until we were a few feet from the crowd.

Surprise, surprise, it was James flying around on a broomstick, Sirius sending up pies from the ground using his wand.

I rolled my eyes and started fixing the mess. Remus quickly caught on and took his wand out.

"Tergeo hominum. Obliviate. Tergeo. Obliviate," I muttered, cleaning up the other Gryffindors and getting rid of the remaining pies. When Tygela recovered she glared at Sirius and James in turn.

"Potter! Black! Come here this instant!"

James dismounted and walked over with Sirius, both looking sheepish but with grins in their eyes.

"What is the meaning of these- these pies?!" she said, almost shrieking but managing to keep her voice relatively low.

James answered. "Well, Professor, we haven't had pie since the Halloween feast and we figured that everyone would appreciate some pie," turning to me, he added, "Why'd you have to obliviate them all? We were saving a few for a treat!"

I glared at him jokingly.

A few people laughed, but Tygela's expression hadn't changed.

"Detention tonight. I'd have you cleaning the trophies, but seeing as you've already done that in the past week, I would say that the Owlery is in need of a cleaning. So, Owlery, 8 o'clock. Filch will explain the specifics."

After that, the class continued normally enough.

Later, James' POV:

After Filch had confiscated our wands, explained our task, and left us, we scrubbed in silence for a while. I didn't know where to begin, and Padfoot waited patiently for what I was going to say.

Finally, I decided that if I started, I could figure out the rest as I went along.

"So, Sirius? I wanted to talk to you about something, and, well…" I trailed off, still at a loss for the right words.

He looked at me, expectantly.

I cleared my throat, and then continued. "It's about why Lily finally decided to stand up to you about, er, talking to me."

Padfoot continued to look at me, still silent, his expression changing slightly, surprised at what I had said.

"It was something that happened during her rounds, when she was walking back up to the common room."

Now the words were coming easily, scrambling to get out.

"She was taking the shortcut through the tapestry that's one floor below here, you know, the one with the picture of a wizard duel?" He nodded. "Well, see, someone was hiding behind it and cursed her with something, not sure what it was. But it knocked her out and she looked dead when I came to see what had happened."

Padfoot finally spoke. "What? Weren't you there in the first place?"

"No, I was just looking at the map and I saw Lily's dot go up that way and then stop. Then I saw someone rushing off."

"Did you see who it was? I'll curse them into oblivion!"

"Y-yeah," I stammered. I wasn't sure that I wanted to tell Padfoot that his brother was the one hiding behind the tapestry. I tried stalling. "First let me tell you the rest of the story."

Unfortunately, unless I wanted to tell him I had kissed Lily (which I didn't), there wasn't much more to tell.

"So, er, I got down there, and Lily was really cold and I thought she had died 'till I felt her pulse. I carried her up to the common room to see if the fire would help, which it did. She seemed really tired."

"Is that all?"

"Er, yeah, that's about it."

"So, who was it? They must prepare to die!" Padfoot said, jokingly. But I could tell that some parts of the threats were true. Padfoot would curse, and possibly (try to) kill, depending on the person. I thought that he might try to kill his brother, so I tried breaking the news as gently as possible.

"It-" I stammered, "it was Regulus."

His eyes widened. "Oh. No." I grimaced. I guess I wasn't very good at breaking news gently.

But then, unexpectedly, Padfoot began to cry.

AN: Awww, pour wittle Padfoot… Actually, though, this is bad news. Very bad. Remember, reviews equal love. Actually, entering my competition equals me very happy equals more updates. But still. Reviews from my (missed) reviewers are first and foremost.