Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Harry Potter or Harry Potter related copyrights.
"Good morning class," said McGonagall with surprise in her voice as she found all of her N.E.W.T. students in her classroom in their seats before the bell rang first thing on a Monday morning after a Quidditch game and party.
"Morning professor," chorused the students.
"Well, I'll just take attendance and then we can begin," she said.
"Don't bother Professor. I already checked and we're all here, so we can just begin right away. So what's the spell?" asked one student.
"Well I have to collect your essays…"
"They are already stacked neatly on your desk," said another student. "So can we begin now?"
"I suppose," said the teacher with a rare smile. "First I'm going to separate you into partners, Black and Evans, Lupin and Cardinal, Green and Lawrence, McKinnon and Querty, Potter and Fini, Philips and Narde, and George and Tenner."
Within seconds the eager students had rearranged the seating pattern to suit the assigned partners.
"You will cast the spell, "Reveilitus Animaginus," upon your partner and the form that their animagus would take will show up in a misty form in front of them. Use the flick, swish and wave form," instructed Professor McGonagall.
"So Lily, you want to go first or do you want me to?" Sirius asked his partner.
"I'll do the spell on you first," Lily replied.
"Why?" asked Sirius, still determined to get to the bottom of Lily's reaction at the Quidditch game.
"Well it's going to take me longer to get it right so I might as well start now," reasoned Lily.
"Okay," said Sirius.
After a few tries and some helpful advice from Sirius, Lily seemed to be getting it right, yet the misty form that was supposed to appear wasn't. Then Sirius realized that Lily was stalling on purpose; she was using her left hand to try the spell and he knew that she was right handed.
"So when did you become ambidextrous?" he asked conversationally.
"I haven't yet," responded Lily. "But I'm giving it a try because when I broke my arm I realized how inconvenient it is to be able to do magic with only one hand."
"Well why don't you try it with the other hand so we can get on with this," suggested Sirius.
Lily nodded and switched her wand to her other hand. Within two more tries she was successful; a big shaggy dog appeared in front of Sirius and started running circles around the pair of them.
"Surprise, surprise," muttered Lily. "Not exactly a tiger," she said audibly.
"Your turn," said Sirius. "I wonder what it will be, a horse, Phoenix, rabbit, otter, or bird?"
"Let's find out," said Lily evenly. "Shall we?"
Within a few tries Sirius had it right and a peregrine falcon soared out from Lily. It immediately flew over the heads of all her classmates with a loud cry and then settled on her outstretched arm. She stroked its smoky head before it disappeared.
"I was right," commented Sirius.
"I guess so," said Lily quietly.
"Lily, what's going on? I don't understand."
"Nothing, nothing's going on. I'm just a bit tired; I stayed up late last night finishing an essay for Ancient Runes," lied Lily.
"Right."
Meanwhile James was partnered up with Sandra Fini, Lily's rival.
"So do you want to try first?" asked James, trying to be gentlemanly.
"We all know that you think that your girlfriend walks on water but don't let that reflect badly on the rest of us; I will go first and I will succeed first," snapped Sandra nonsensically as she took out her wand and tried the spell.
After several tries Sandra still wasn't succeeding, so James tried to help.
"I noticed that you are waving…" began James.
"I can do this on my own; I don't need help from the likes of you," she uttered lowly.
"But really, if you just adjust…"
"Shut up. Just shut up. Don't even try to help me because I'm sure you'll just make it worse. I'm still wondering how you pass any class really; is there a brain under all that hair or just empty space where the words "Evans" and "Quidditch" echo constantly?"
Frustrated James closed the short distance between him and the proud Ravenclaw, stood behind her and grabbed her wand arm gently. Then he took her through the proper motions of the spell. What he didn't see was the blush that crept into Sandra's cheeks as soon as he touched her.
"Now you try," said James as he released her and stepped back to his original position.
Sandra hesitated for just a moment. "Could you show me that again?" she asked timidly.
James completely missed the coy look in Sandra's eye as he went to help her again. As soon as he was behind her and had taken her wand arm in his hand she whirled around and, catching him by surprise, kissed him.
Not far away Sirius' jaw dropped. Unlike Lily he had been facing the right direction to see his best mate be kissed by Sandra Fini. Covering for his best friend, Sirius distracted Lily so that she wouldn't suddenly turn around, "So when did you become ambidextrous?"
Reacting immediately, James shoved Sandra away and spluttering, asked her in a quiet, yet angry voice, "What the hell was that? I thought you hated me!"
Sandra furrowed her brow and said, "You thought that Evans hated you too and look how that turned out."
"But, you had her kicked out of your club for associating with me and the other Marauders."
"Pay attention Potter! The bylaws of the club included associating with any of you 'Marauders' but isn't it funny that I didn't bring that up until she was dating one of you, but not just any one of you; I wouldn't have brought it up if she was dating Lupin or Black. I didn't like her hanging with you guys and I discouraged it, but it only became a problem when she stopped playing hard to get," hissed Sandra.
"I'm sorry Sandra," said James slowly. "But you're not my type and I'm seeing someone right now."
"Don't you think I know that?" she asked scornfully. "I'm not just book smart you know."
Luckily James was saved from anymore awkward conversation with Sandra when McGonagall made an announcement. However, he knew he had an interesting chat with Sirius coming up.
"Now I want everyone to present their animagus forms in front of the class. Come up here with your partners; you will do the spell on each other, and then tell the class what forms you had anticipated and why and what surprised you about the results of the spell," said McGonagall. "Sirius and Lily, you two first please."
One by one the pairs went up and made their presentations. There were quite a few surprises. Instead of a fox, Marlene's form was a cheetah, and Remus' was a cougar. Alice's animagus took the form of a turtle. The other Marauders' shapes, of course, took the form of their actual animagus forms.
All-in-all, it was one of the best and most memorable Transfiguration classes most of the class had ever had.
After class Sirius held James back; he told everyone else to go on ahead because he and James had to talk about a prank they were planning.
"So Prongs," began Sirius calmly. "What the hell?!"
"Hold up a second; you saw what happened…"
Sirius interrupted, "I saw you kiss another girl while your girlfriend was in the room!"
"No," said James, fighting to remain calm. "You saw a crazy girl jump me and kiss me while my girlfriend just happened to be within a few meters."
When Sirius' face still like doubtful, James continued, "Come on mate; you know me and you know that I wouldn't cheat on Lily, especially with someone I don't even like."
Sirius relaxed and said, "Yeah you're right. Sorry 'bout that mate, it's just that dating has been really rough on Lily. I was there one time over the summer when she caught her date kissing some other girl."
"I understand Padfoot; you're not just my friend, you're hers too."
"Yup, I get to be that guy who threatens you if you hurt her," said Sirius as he threw an arm over his best mate's shoulder. Then he continued, "So really, you hurt her and I will castrate you."
Both boys laughed their way to Potions.
--
Later in February the full moon came around again. Unlike what James and the others had expected, Lily was not even more tense than the previous month; in fact she seemed totally calm about the boys going out with Remus.
"Be careful out there," said Lily quietly as she hugged James good-bye.
"Actually I was thinking I would be completely reckless and get myself nearly killed," said James just to be contradictory.
Lily smiled a little at James' huge grin.
"We'll be careful," he said. "We decided that we'd go out into the Forest since with all of the open space there is less of a chance for accidents."
"Well then don't get eaten by anything," joked Lily as she let James go.
"Aye aye Captain," said James as he saluted her and went up to his dormitory to meet his friends and then sneak out under his invisibility cloak.
Lily smiled to herself as she went back to her essay.
--
Moony howled in excitement as he chased Padfoot out of the confining house and into the large forest with lots of interesting sights and smells. Prongs, sporting Wormtail on his antlers, leaped behind them, just as happy as the wolf not to be in the cramped Shrieking Shack where he was always hitting things with his antlers.
The four boys were playing their version of hide and seek when Padfoot smelled something out of the ordinary. He couldn't quite place the scent, but it wasn't part of the forest and it certainly wasn't the smell of one of his friends. However, it smelled sort of like Prongs; lately his smell had changed slightly. Sirius attributed it to the fact that he was always hugging and touching Lily and that her smell had rubbed off on him.
Then it hit Sirius; the smell was Lily! As he lay crouched in the bush where he was hiding from Moony, he tried to look around to find his mate's foolish girlfriend. He couldn't believe that she had followed them into the woods. She knew the danger, having been attacked by Moony months earlier.
Unfortunately Sirius' search was interrupted when he heard the howl of Moony close by. He bounded out of the bush and away from the howl so quickly that he startled a bird and a squirrel out of a near-by tree.
For the rest of the night Sirius tried to catch the smell again, but it seemed to have disappeared.
The following afternoon Sirius sent a note to Lily:
Were you in the Forbidden Forest last night?
Skillfully avoiding Flitwick's notice, Lily sent back the note with the reply:
Of course not; that would be stupid. Why do you ask?
As Sirius read her reply he furrowed his brow; he knew that he smelled her last night and his nose didn't lie. He quickly wrote a response and sent it back to her:
Padfoot thought he smelled something funny last night, something like you.
Lily laughed silently when she read the message. She wrote her reply and then put a spell on the parchment so that no one else could read it.
Are you insinuating that I smell funny?
Sirius snorted and then had to cover it with a cough when Flitwick glanced over in his direction. James also stirred next to him in his sleep. Once he was sure that Flitwick was busy with his lesson and James was still asleep, Sirius sent his reply:
Yes. Just kidding, you know what I mean; it was a smell that didn't belong and it stuck out.
Lily quickly wrote her reply, eager to get Sirius off of the topic:
I hugged James before he left last night; my "funny" smell probably rubbed off on him.
Sirius received her message and was troubled. At first he had thought that was the answer as well, but James hadn't been anywhere near him at that time and he had smelled the James-Lily combo smell before. The smell in question was clearly just Lily. He wrote a quick reply:
I don't think so. This wasn't like that.
Lily was starting to get a bit defensive now:
I'm not foolish enough to go out into the Forest to spend some "quality time" with Moony. I'm perfectly aware of what happens when a human tries to "play" with him.
Sirius crumpled up the note and put it in his pocket to burn later. He was even more confused than when he started.
--
The rest of February and most of March passed without a hitch (especially since Lily was never told about the Sandra incident). Lily and James continued to conduct their Head duties admirably, although there was much speculation about how much patrolling they actually got done during their shifts. It remained speculation however, because they were never caught in the act of shirking their responsibilities in favor of couple activities.
Sirius and Marlene also got closer to the point where they were nauseously affectionate.
"Are they at it again?" groaned Peter as he and Remus sat down at the Gryffindor table for dinner on the last Saturday in March.
"Yup," said Alice. "Thank Morgana the two of you arrived; I've been stuck between watching Sirius and Marlene suck each other's faces off and James and Lily trying to pretend that they aren't totally in love with each other. It's been torture."
Remus looked sympathetically at the girl sitting next to him and said, "Personally I prefer James and Lily. At least they attempt to not make us all want to vomit."
"I'm sure it's a lot easier for them since they have their own private room to go to whenever they want to do whatever they want," said Sirius as he paused in his activities.
"It's not my fault," James pointed out. "It just so happens to be one of the perks of the stressful and demanding job of being Head Boy."
"Another perk being the ability to go off and snog your girlfriend at all hours of the night without fear of getting caught because you are supposed to be the ones doing the catching?" asked Sirius teasingly.
James looked pensive as he played along, "I do believe that that would qualify as a perk."
Lily swatted him playfully.
"I think it's a good idea. Then we don't have to see them snogging at the dinner table," Alice added pointedly looking at Marlene and Sirius.
Just then Peter caught a snippet of a conversation two first years were having a little farther down the table and spit out his food all over the table, effectively ending the bickering about the two couples in their midst.
"Yes Peter? Would you like to contribute something to this conversation?" asked Marlene sarcastically as she grabbed a clean plate to replaced the one that was now covered in Peter cooties.
"April first," he stated.
"What about it?" asked Alice sharply, whose dinner had also been spoiled.
"It's only three days away and we haven't planned out any pranks and these first years were just saying that they were scared to even get out of bed on April first because they had heard stories about what kind of crazy things happen that day," rambled Peter.
"Merlin he's right," said Sirius in shock.
"How could we have almost missed this?" asked Remus, equally surprised.
"We've never missed the Marauder Christmas; it's when we first became friends," stated James.
"And got our name from Minnie McG," added Sirius.
"You know, I can't even remember a time when you guys weren't friends," said Alice thoughtfully.
Marlene scoffed at this. "I can. When we were little all three of us used to go to fancy parties together and it was always clear that Potters and McKinnons did not mix with Blacks and Malfoys. Our families acted civilly towards each other on the surface, but we were always told not to befriend them. But, yet again, James felt the need to do the exact opposite of whatever his dad told him, so he became friends with this guy," she finished, pointing to her boyfriend.
"At least I'm not dating him," James shot back.
"I should hope not," joked Lily.
Then Marlene turned to Sirius and said with a pouty look, "Baby, you would tell me if you were secretly dating a guy behind my back right?"
"Of course," said Sirius, playing along. "I would never date a guy behind your back, especially the guy that turned your hair purple and put snails in your soup and spiders down the back of your dress and tied your shoelaces together; I would definitely tell you and then do it right in front of you."
Alice laughed and then said, "I remember hearing about all those things James did to poor Marlene. I still think it's amazing that you've forgiven him Marly."
"You're a Pureblood Alice, weren't you at those parties too?" asked Peter.
Alice blushed and said, "My family isn't quite as wealthy and influential as James' and Marlene's, so we don't really run in the same social circles. But I did meet Marlene when we were five and were tutored together at Marlene's house. And then we became fast friends."
"Making it extremely hard for me to make any friends when I got here," said Lily. "Everyone in my dorm already knew each other and no one was looking for another friend."
"But luckily, James acted like his usual pratish self and dipped your pigtail braids in his ink one day when he was sitting behind you in Charms," reminisced Alice. "And Marlene, having seen this, immediately jumped to your defense by levitating him out of his seat and shooting him around the room until he apologized. Then the three of us were excused to go to the bathroom to help you wash out your hair and we became fast friends."
Marlene smiled, "I couldn't let him get away with doing crap like that; not after I had suffered for so many years and now I could finally take my revenge. That was the first in many detentions I got because of you Potter."
"Glad I could help," said James with a large grin.
"Funny, we all became friends because of James' belief that pranking people was the best way to make friends," said Remus.
"He needed help to set up a prank, for Sirius coincidentally, and he asked me to help him by keeping watch, and we've been mates ever since," said Peter.
"Then the two of them started pranking me too," said Remus. "Stupid stuff like putting worms under my blanket and hiding my shoes. So naturally I retaliated."
James snorted. "Retaliated? All you did was prank Sirius and then frame me for it."
"Yeah and then it was on," said Sirius with a smile as he remembered his first year. "None of James' previous pranks had actually ever gotten me because I was never the first one to walk into them, so I wasn't bothered by him. But then Remus' pranks actually worked, so I decided I had to put that uppity Potter kid in his place and initiated a prank war."
"It went on for months and eventually involved Peter and I until on April first, we had driven McGonagall to her wits end because our pranks were not only on each other, but by that time on the entire school because we were all trying to outdo each other to prove we were the best, and she just so happened to say to Flitwick, while we were all within earshot, that she didn't know what she would do if we all teamed up and stopped attacking each other to just focus on pranking the school," explained Remus.
"And she called us a whole bunch of names, but the one that stuck was "Marauders"," said Sirius.
"We looked at each other and a legacy was born," said James dramatically.
"So on April Fool's day, we always celebrate what we call the "Marauders' Christmas," explained Remus.
"Like we didn't notice that every year on April Fool's Day the four of you go wild and crazy," said Lily sarcastically.
"I just can't believe that you guys almost forgot," said Alice.
"We had better start planning," said Sirius and then he shoveled as much food as he could fit into his mouth.
"Do you mind if we use our study to plan?" James asked Lily as he grabbed a napkin and started putting chicken wings in it.
"How ironic, the Head Boy breaking school rules in the room he was given as a reward for being an upstanding and rule-abiding student," commented Lily.
"You and I both know that you've broken loads of rules over the last couple of months," said James with a smirk.
Lily blushed and laughed and then said, "Go ahead and use it; I won't tell."
"Awesome," said James as he pecked her on the lips and left with his friends, carrying his unfinished meal with him.
Lily watched him go and when she turned back to her friends they had identical mischievous grins on their faces.
"So Miss Responsible, what rules have you been breaking with that stud of a boyfriend you have?" asked Marlene suggestively.
"I'll tell you in our dorm after dinner since clearly I won't be breaking those rules tonight," said Lily with a grin.
"Ooh, a girls' night! I say we invite the rest of the girls and do this up right with food and games and make-overs and gossip," said Alice excitedly. "Lots and lots of gossip!"
"Sounds great Alice," said Lily with a laugh.
Meanwhile the great planning session of the Marauders was about to commence.
"I can't believe we haven't played any pranks in months," said Peter, dumbstruck.
"Life got in the way," shrugged Remus. "You and Sirius were gone for the exchange thing and by the time you got back James and Lily were dating and then there was planning his birthday and then Sirius and Marlene started dating and besides all that James is Head Boy and I'm a prefect and we're all taking really hard classes and NEWTs are coming up…"
"You forgot the part about you dating Crazy spiky-headed rainbow-haired weird American chick," said James.
Remus clenched his fists and mumbled, "We were and still are just friends; friends that haven't written to each other since January."
Sensing Remus' discomfort because he had been present in the stands at the Quidditch game when Vicky was brought up, Sirius sought to change the topic quickly. He found his opportunity sitting on Lily's desk. He picked up the same painting James had a little more than a month ago and turned towards James with and inquisitive smile and a look that said he was about to burst out laughing.
James groaned and leaped to try and take it out of Sirius' hands, but Sirius jumped out of the way and ran around the study taunting James.
"Oh look at ickle Prongsie and his girlfriend going at it like rabbits! The wet look isn't too bad on you Prongs, but man does it do something great for your snogging partner and her scrumptious looking curves," said Sirius as he jumped over the couch to escape the wrath of his friend.
After the last comment, James had enough adrenaline to tackle Sirius and wrestle the picture out of his hand.
Then James jumped up, put the picture back on Lily's desk, dusted himself off and said, "Now that that's settled; let's get down to business."
James settled himself on the couch next to Remus and Peter occupied a chair but Sirius remained standing, looking around the room indecisively.
"Is there a problem Padfoot?" asked Remus.
"Well I'm just trying to decide which surface in this room is the most likely place that James and Lily haven't snogged each other senseless and done dirty things," explained Sirius with a grin.
James looked around the room and an even bigger smile was on his face as he said, "If you refuse to sit on any surface that Lily and I have snogged on, I'm afraid you're going to have to stay standing."
Sirius just shrugged and sat on the floor. James just smirked, so Sirius jumped up quickly.
"Why are you refusing to sit anywhere that James and Lily have done… whatever it is they've done?" asked Peter.
"Because I don't want to catch James' "snogging cooties"; Lily is a fabulous kisser, and I wouldn't mind getting her cooties, but I have heard from some reliable sources that James just isn't any good at snogging and so I wouldn't want his lack of skill to somehow rub off on me," Sirius explained.
"What?!" James said his mouth open in surprise. "You have got to be kidding me!"
With a serious look on his face, Sirius shook his head slowly and said, "Sorry, Prongs, but it's true; I am the superior kisser and everyone knows it. You could even ask Lily if you wanted."
"I don't think so," snorted James.
"Sadly for you mate, it's true. I'm not only taller than you, but also a better kisser," said Sirius mockingly.
"One, you are only a centimeter taller than me and two, there is no way in hell that you are a better kisser."
When Sirius opened his mouth to rephrase his past statements for the third time, Remus said, "How about we take a poll and find out once and for all?"
"We could make the poll part of some prank somehow," suggested Peter.
"Hmmm… I like it!" said James and Sirius in unison.
Remus grabbed a quill and piece of parchment from James' desk and wrote their decision down. "What other prank ideas do we have?"
And so part one of the frenzied planning began. On the other side of the castle, Minerva McGonagall shuddered as she caught sight of her calendar and saw that April first was rapidly approaching.