Chapter 13: The Halloween Party

"Lily, have you heard the great news?" James asked, hugging me from behind. I sighed. I was concentrating very hard on the Transfiguration essay McGonagall gave us. I HATED to be distracted while I was working. I put my quill down and sighed again as James took a seat next to me, giving me a peck on the lips. His eyes were bright and his smile was wide. He was definitely excited about something, and so happy that he couldn't wait. Otherwise, he would've known better than to interrupt me while I was working. I smiled at him.

"No James, I don't believe I've heard this 'great news'"

"Well they're having a Halloween party next Saturday, on Halloween!" He said excitedly. Oh, that. I'd known about it for weeks. As a prefect, I do get to know what new events are being planned and when.

"Well obviously on Halloween, when else would the plan a Halloween Party? On Thanksgiving?"

"Thanksgiving…?" He asked, confused.

"It's an American muggle holiday." I explained. "Anyway, I already knew about it. As a prefect I helped plan this weeks ago."

"What? Why didn't you tell me?" He whined.

"Prefect's secrecy. That's why Remus didn't tell you either." I replied.

"Oh…So you'll be my date, right?" He asked. I smiled. This was my chance to get back at him for interrupting me.

"Oh no, I'm going with Stewart Rosen, you know, the Ravenclaw prefect?" I told him, smiling. Stewart Rosen asked me out back in third year and he broke out into boils, thanks to James. They've hated each other ever since. Rosen was pretty good looking, but not as good looking as James, of course, and he was pretty nice and smart, too, being a Ravenclaw.

"You…are?" He asked. His face fell, but his eyes were confused and searching mine. I honestly would not get tired of pushing his buttons. I smiled wider.

"Of course not, you big gullible prat! Who else would I being going with besides my boyfriend?" I laughed, slapping his chest. He took my hand and brought me closer to him, holding me by the waist. He brought his lips to mine and I tasted the familiar sweetness of James. It was a taste I couldn't really describe. It was just…James. I did recognize it, though. I smelled it in the Amortentia Slughorn showed us last week. James pulled away but kept his face close to mine.

"You, Lily Marie Evans, are the devil. But you're my devil." He said. "Now, ditch your homework and we'll go eat dinner." He said, pulling me too my feet.

October 27th

"Exactly. And then you pull the roots. Do you remember what to do next?" I asked. I was helping James with his Herbology. He was absolutely horrible, I have no idea how he passed his O.W.L.

"Evans, Prongs! Come join us." Sirius said from the boys' dorms. I was really pleased with Sirius. He hasn't pulled a single prank since "The Incident" as we're referring to it now. All the teachers were of course, ecstatic when they realized he'd stopped and Gryffindor was now ahead with House Points since the Marauders first stepped in the school. We were all really proud of him, that so far he's kept the two things that he'd sworn off: Girls, and pranking.

"Alright, Lily, you coming?" James asked. I made a face.

"Up there? It's probably a pigsty!" I exclaimed.

"Nah, Remus and James are neater than you think." Sirius assured me.

"Come on!" James said, pulling me by the arm.

"Honestly, sometimes I think I'm dating a six-year-old!" I muttered to myself but James heard.

"I could act like a sixteen-year-old boy, if you want…you know, making those rude and sexist comments you hate so much…" He reminded me with a smirk.

"Six year old it is." He led me up several flights of stairs. Of course they would've fought for the top most one. I entered the room, which was an exact copy of the girls' dorm, with less mirrors and closets. It was indeed, very neat. Sirius, Remus and Peter were already there, sitting in a circle. They widened it so we could join. I sat right in between James and Remus. James put his hand on my waist and I put my head on his shoulder.

"So I have called this Marauder-plus-one meeting here today for a very important matter." He started dramatically. "What are we going to dress up as for the Halloween Party? It's three days away." Sirius said.

"This is what we're here for? We have HOMEWORK, have you forgotten? And especially you, Sirius, you don't have all the time we have, with your detentions!" I reminded him.

"Lily, I learned to play along at this point. Less questions you ask, sooner they finish, sooner we can get back to homework." Remus advised. I pouted but stayed silent.

"Does anyone have any ideas?" Sirius asked.

"He does this all the time-asking us for ideas, but he already has one." Remus whispered to me.

"Nope." James said, bored.

"None." Peter quipped.

"Great, I have one!" Sirius said, clapping his hands together. Remus gave me a "told-you" look. "We should all dress up as each other!" He exclaimed.

"That's…not a bad idea, Padfoot." Remus said after a few moments of silence.

"Yeah, it's actually kind of good." James added.

"So we'll do that then!" Sirius confirmed. We nodded.

"Just one thing, can Lily and I go as each other? Because I don't want to lean to kiss her while she looks like one of you. I'd rather her look like me." James said. I laughed.

"He does have a point." I said

"Okay, Prongs and Evans go as each other. We'll figure out who's who then." Sirius said, looking at Remus and Peter

"I call Wormtail!" Remus yelled.

"Aww…I wanted Wormtail! I guess I have to be you then." Sirius whined.

"That leaves me with Sirius then." Peter said, looking quite pleased, presumably because both Remus and Sirius wanted to be him and that he gets to dress up as the second best looking Marauder.

"Sirius, you need to eat dinner now, it's almost time for your detention." I reminded him.

"Oh yeah, thanks." He said, getting up and exiting the room, with all of us in tow.

October 31st

"Wow Lily, you look like a green-eyed feminine version of James!" Marissa gasped. Marissa was my roommate and we've only been acquaintances, nothing more. However, since it became apparent that my only friends now were the marauders, most of my dorm mates have been nicer to me, and talking to me more often. On the other hand, the bints have been glaring at me, probably because I'm dating James and I think they may think that I have something to do with Sirius not dating anymore.

"You think so?" I asked, and stood in front of the mirror. She was right. My lips, nose and face was shaped more like James'. We all agreed to keep our eyes exactly the same and our hair the same length, so my hair was charmed black but still mid-back length. I also had a duplicate of his glasses, but the glass was just plastic. I was wearing one of James' old t-shirts, but it was way to long so I cut it so it was waist length. I had skinny jeans under. I looked back a t Marissa. She was dressed as a vampire. Her skin was already very pale and she just charmed her hair black like I did, wore extra red lipstick, and found some fangs to use.

"Your costume looks pretty good, too." I told her.

"Thanks. Hey Helena, let's see yours!" Marissa said to Helena through the bathroom door. Helena was a nice, quiet, pretty brunette who usually kept to herself. She didn't really have any close friends, only a few acquaintances that she was friendly enough to eat and walk to class with.

"Okay." Her hesitant voice came through the door. The lock clicked and she stepped out in a werewolf costume. I bit my tongue to stop from laughing. Wait till Remus sees this! Her entire body except her face was completely covered in hair. I was pretty sure it was one of those muggle costumes, and it would make sense, her father was a muggle.

"Thanks," She said, blushing. "My father got it for me, it's a muggle costume, it's got a zip in the back." She told us, turning around. "But the head, I decided to put a little magic in my costume so the head is just mine, charmed so there's hair around it." She told us, going to stand in front of the mirror.

"Wow." Marissa and I said in unison. So I was right.

"Shall we go down together, then?" Marissa asked. I nodded. We left our dorm and descended the stairs. Their dates were already there and ready to go.

"We'll see you later, Lily." Marissa said with a wave. I waved back and took a seat on the couch. I had no idea how long I'd be here. They were all so crazy. Peter and his lack of ability to do charm work. James would have problems getting his look right. And Sirius was going to be, well, Sirius. He was overjoyed because Dumbledore gave him permission to skip his detention for tonight to attend the party. Apparently, Dumbledore and the teachers were pleased that he hadn't been pulling any pranks recently, so Dumbledore probably realized that Sirius had learned his lesson.

Luckily, they didn't keep me waiting too long. Only a few minutes had passed when I finally heard their voices.

"Padfoot, you stepped on my foot! Watch where you're going!" James said angrily.

"No, I'm Peter." Peter replied.

"Oh, yeah." He said, his voice coming closer. "Lily, you're already here!" I turned around. James looked kind of like me. Well, as much as he would've been able to look like me with out Polyjuice Potion. His hair was now charmed "Evans-red" as he dubbed the unusually vibrant color. His nose, mouth and face shape was altered, like I had altered mine. He was wearing an enlarged old shirt of mine, the green one I'd worn on our first date. His chest and in-the-making six pack was profound against it, I couldn't help but stare for a while. The jeans were his because he blatantly refused to wear skinny jeans. Remus, who was dressed as Peter, made his face rounder, his hair a dirty blond, and somehow sprouted acne. Peter darkened his hair only, since neither his charm nor transfiguration work was the best. Sirius as Remus was definitely the best. He managed to shorten his hair length and change his eye color along with the features the rest of us changed. He actually kind of looked like Remus, especially since both were the same height.

"I wanted to use Polyjuice Potion, but these three wouldn't let me." Sirius told me with a shrug. I laughed. I looked towards James and noticed something.

"You managed to get rid of your glasses?" I asked him.

"Oh yeah, Madame Pomfrey gave me a potion. He replied. "So, let's see how you look as me!" He said enthusiastically. I fully got up so they could see what I was wearing and Sirius' eyes widened.

"Mate, she makes you look pretty hot." Sirius said to James. I felt my face turned red. He could be so awkward sometimes.

"Yeah. She does." James agreed, still looking at me. "Hey! Get your own girlfriend!" He told Sirius, smacking him on the back of the head. I felt myself turn redder. Remus sighed impatiently.

"How about we get going? At this rate, the party will already be finished." Remus said. I was glad I wasn't the only sane one here.

"Yeah we should." Peter agreed. I bet he just wanted the food. That boy snuck down to the kitchens at every chance he got. I walked over to them and James put his arms around my waist.

"AH! It looks all opposite! It's so CONFUSING!" Sirius whined. He ran out of the common room not looking back at us.

I gasped at the sight of the Great Hall. Dumbledore and the teachers really went out of their way this time. The four House tables were gone and in the middle was a dance floor. There were many round tables with orange and black tablecloths. The seats at the tables were actually couches. The Staff Table had the food and Peter ran off to it the second he saw it. Looking around more, I realized that almost every ghost in the castle seemed to be there. The students didn't seem as many as there were in the entire school. Then of course, there would be people who wouldn't attend. In fact, I'd be one of them, if I wasn't a prefect and James would've begged me to go until I lost my sanity. When we actually entered, we did turn a few heads. Actually, it was mostly Sirius. I wasn't surprised. At first glance, I would've thought he was Remus, too.

"Mr. Black, is that you?" McGongall asked, approaching us in her usual black and emerald green robes. If she was such a Gryffindor, why in Merlin's name does she wear Slytherin colors all the time?

"Yeah, it is." Remus confirmed from behind him.

"My, what wonderful Transfiguration work, all of you! 5 points to Gryffindor for the each of you!" She said happily.

"Thank you, Professor." James replied.

"And we were worried that Sirius was going to dress up as You-Know-Who!" She revealed.

"'We', Professor?" I asked.

"Oh yes, the entire staff. Horace, I mean Professor Slughorn, was trying to place bets!" She told us. It wasn't surprising. Slughorn would do something like that. "Well, I must get going! Have fun!" She said as she left.

"Why's she so…happy?" Remus asked.

"Maybe she and Dumbledore finally got together!" Sirius joyfully suggested.

"Sirius, that's gross! Dumbledore taught McGongall!" I reminded him.

"Maybe she's just glad we haven't pulled any pranks. We just got 20 points for the house, and it's been a while since a teacher awarded us any points, let alone that many." James said.

"Sounds more likely." Remus agreed.

"Hey," I said, realizing something. "Did you notice, almost none of the Slytherins from our year are here?" I asked them.

"No, only you, Lily." Sirius told me. "Hey! I just called you LILY! And it didn't sound weird!" He said, grinning. I rolled my eyes as he left, probably to join Peter and get food. His stomach was a bottomless pit, like Peter's. It was too bad he couldn't just conjure it. Food was one of the exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration.

"You know Lily, he's right. Only you would notice that." He told me. "Where could they all be? Most of the other year Slytherins are here." Remus stated thoughtfully.

"Guys, It's Halloween. Why don't we have some fun and think about all of that later?" James suggested impatiently. I nodded. We moved through the crowd and sat down at one of the tables in the corner. Looking around, I saw that the girls were dressed mostly as devils, angels, or pixies. Halloween was an excuse for most of them to dress like a slut and the boys to stare hopelessly at them. The boys were dressed mostly as dementors, vampires, werewolves and a few centaurs. I looked at Remus. He was muttering to himself about how inaccurate the werewolf costumes were. He saw me look at him and I rolled eyes and looked away. Looking back at the crowd, there were also a good amount of people dressed as other people. Dumbledore was a popular one. Most had a long beard and half-moon spectacles. One third year was even wearing a shirt that said "My Eyes Twinkle"

"Lily, Lily, look!" Remus said, pointing to the entrance. It was the Junior Death Eaters. I suppose they just wanted to be fashionably late? James instinctively pulled me closer, so rested my head on his chest and watched them. The front of the group was Bellatrix, followed by Lestrange, Avery, Mucliber, Snape, Crabbe, Goyle, Black, and it looked like someone else new was there with them.

"Remus, do you have any idea who that is?" I asked, pointing to the new addition to their group.

"I think that's a fifth year, I know his last name's Nott. I saw McGonagall give him detention for hurting some fifth year Gryffindor a while ago." He told me. I hated how they quickly got so many followers because they could just threaten to kill someone if they didn't follow them. There were so many cowards out there that would follow them just because of fear. I was pretty sure that Narcissa Black, who was betrothed to Malfoy, was only a death eater because of fear. She would've turned out like her sister, Andromeda, had she stuck with her instead of following Bellatrix. Andromeda was Head back in my fourth year along with Ted Tonks, a muggleborn, and they apparently fell in love. It really didn't make sense to me, why Andromeda was sorted in Slytherin. I met her once and she was very nice, sweet and pretty. It didn't seem like there was an ounce of Slytherin in her. Sirius was her cousin and he did mention, whenever he saw Bellatrix, that Andromeda was the only 'acceptable' person in his family.

"Lily, I think Snape's staring at you." Remus whispered. My eyes widened.

"Where is he?" I asked.

"Look right." I turned my head, and sure enough Snape was staring at me. I shifted uncomfortably. James looked towards him and his arms tightened around my waist. Snape started glaring, but finally looked away.

"You wanna dance?" James asked after a slow song started playing.

"Sure." I replied. The last time we'd danced was in fifth year, after I finally accepted going to Hogsmeade with him. We walked over to the dance floor and I put my arms on his chest because I couldn't reach his shoulders. His hands were placed delicately on my waist and he was looking down at me, while swaying.

"You know, it's a lot more comfortable without my glasses, but, it feels really weird. I've had them for too long to not wear them." He said.

"How long have you had them?"

"As long as I can remember, but my parents say since I was five."

"Oh." I said. "You know, we kinda left Remus all alone there. You think he'll be alright?" I asked.

"Yeah, Peter and Sirius came back." He told me without looking there. I wanted to look over, but I couldn't break eye contact with him. We leaned into each other and our lips met, initiating a kiss. I could tell he wanted to deepen it, and that he was holding back, but no way were we going to do that, especially in a hall full of students and teachers. He pulled back and his eyes were filled with longing and restraint. It was easier to tell what he was thinking without the glasses in front of them, even if they were just glass.

"You want to go back?" He whispered. I looked around. We seemed to be attracting a crowd.

"Yeah, we should." I whispered back. Hand in hand, we walked to our table, and sure enough, Sirius and Peter were eating like it was their last meal and Remus was looking at them in disgust. We took our old seats.

"Came back so quickly?" Remus asked.

"We missed you too much, Moony." James said, pulling me into his chest and wrapping his arms around my waist. I rolled my eyes.

"We were attracting a crowd." I explained. Remus laughed.

"That is expected."

"Oh, look, Bella, it's the mudblood, the blood-traitors and the pig!" Lestrange said. I looked up and sighed. In front of us stood Bellatrix, Lestrange, Avery, Mucliber, Snape, Black, Crabbe, Goyle, and Nott.

"Lestrange, feeling lost without Malfoy, your king?" James sneered, pulling me closer to him.

"No, Bella makes a wonderful replacement. She's better than Malfoy ever was." Lestrange replied with a hint of pride in his voice. I rolled my eyes.

"Don't you guys have anything better to do?" Sirius asked irately, looking up from his plate. Bellatrix glared at him. If looks could kill, Sirius would be ashes right now.

"That fool Dumbledore's here now. We should leave." Goyle said uncertainly. They all looked at him, but left.

"They honestly have nothing better to do, walking around in their posse like they're going to turn the corner and kill someone! None of them have the guts to do it, none of them ever will! They're all cowards, that's what they are!" Sirius vented. Remus sympathetically patted his back. I wasn't surprised that he was the one most affected by this. None of us were as closely related to any of the Junior Death Eaters as he was. Narcissa and Bellatrix were his cousins, and Regulus was his own brother. He was distantly related to the rest of them, as all pureblood families were related to each other. He was even pretty distantly related to James. Of course Sirius wouldn't admit any of this; I found a copy of the family tree in the library.

"She disgusts me!" I heard a high-pitched girly voice say. I turned my head to the left. It was Mary and her new 'friends'. "Look at her, all over him! I should be there!" The girl continued, glaring at me. I narrowed my eyes. Did I even know her? Their outfits were as skimpy as you could get without actually walking around in your bra and underwear.

"I know, what does he see in her? She's not even that pretty!" Another one said in a nasally voice. They all laughed, including Mary. This time James heard, and turned his head towards them.

"How dare they?" He muttered under his breath.

"It's okay. Don't do anything rash." I warned him. He hmph-ed under his breath and looked away.

"Actually, Lisa, she's ugly, absolutely ugly and a slut." Another girl said louder than the rest of them as she glared at me in disgust. If I hadn't faced Bellatrix's glare multiple times, I would've cowered under this girl's.

"That's it." He whispered under his breath. "If you have a problem with me or Lily," He told the girls loudly, "Then I suggest you keep it to yourselves. She's a much better person than any of you, and smarter than all of you combined. And, she's nicer, and not to mention, a hell lot more beautiful than any of you will ever be, regardless of the lack of clothes you wear. She could cover herself head to toe and still be more beautiful than anyone. So I kindly suggest you leave, and not to bother us ever again." He told them sternly. They glared a little more, but left. I looked at him, thankful for defending me, and absolutely touched his sweetness.

"Thanks." I told him softly.

"I was just telling the truth." He said, shrugging. I laughed. "I love you." He told me.

"I love you, too." I whispered back.

"Guys, do you mind, I'm eating!" Sirius whined.

A/N: I felt kind of weird, writing a chapter about Halloween, knowing that a few years later, they'd meet their death on this day.

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SAM :)