Chapter 4:

The last day at Hogwarts was exciting. The seventh years were running around reminiscing their years as well as playing pranks on all the younger students. Professor McGonagall got annoyed quickly however as Peeves had decided to join in but make things a lot worse. Lily, Marlene, Alice and Frank sat by the lake enjoying the sunshine. The Marauders were however nowhere to be seen.

"They are probably off preparing for their usual 'prank' at the feast tonight," Alice mused.

"Probably," Marlene said excitedly, "I love them! Every year they get better!"

"I'm just curious of where they get all the spells to do them. The magic they perform is great," Lily joined into the conversation.

"Wow did everybody just hear that?! Lily Evans giving the Marauders a compliment! I think everybody is going to die of shock!" Marlene joked around.

"Ohhh haha Mar. Everyone can see how impressive the magic they use is. Just because I'm not fangirling all over them and instead can see how annoying they actually are," Lily stubbornly remarked

"Are we talking about all the marauders or just a certain one? Since I'm pretty sure you get along with at least one,"

"Okay fine other than Remus, they are all stuck up,"

Alice and Frank sat their silently listening to Lily and Marlene with smiles on their faces.

"Hey don't think we haven't noticed this changed attitude to James!" Marlene was saying.

"Mar, I don't know what you are talking about."

"Sure you don't Lils. We were actually able to sit with them, since it didn't result in you two having an argument of some sort. Plus I may have been mucking around but Alice told me that she noticed what happen when James had helped you off the ground."

"Well, she obviously imagining things," Lily tried to say convincingly but her friends didn't believe her.

"Are you saying that I'm lying Lils?" Alice asked finally deciding to join in.

"Well, it didn't happen.."

"What didn't happen? Mar didn't say anything about what I exactly saw,"

"Whatever you think you saw didn't happen. He helped me to my feet that's all!"

Then why are you in so much denial?" Marlene asked her, "Alice would you care to tell Lily what you saw?"

"Well... After Remus pulled me up, I looked across and saw James offering to help Lils. You took his hand and stood, except you were wayyy too close. Like your bodies were literally touching. Anyway you kinda just stood there, until all of a sudden you pulled back. Plus I saw your cheeks, you were blushing!"

"No I wasn't!" Lily quickly denied.

" Haha Al! Look at her she's blushing now! Come on Lils! What's going on?"

Lily knew that there was no point in arguing. She knew she had been caught out.

"I dont know!" she finally admitted, "I don't even know why I blushed or anything. It's like I was so close and I just couldn't think. And no before you two, or well actually three," she said looking at Frank, "get any ideas, I don't like him or anything. It's been a weird week."

After that, they remained in silence. Lily lied along the ground using a jumper as a pillow, while Marlene used Lily's stomach as a pillow. Alice was leaning on Frank, wrapped in his arms.

In the Great Hall that evening, James was jumpy. "Calm down Prongs. It will work," Sirius said.

"But what of it doesn't?"

"It will. Every time we practiced it worked," Remus told him.

"So what's the big show tonight?" Marlene asked the marauders as she sat herself next to James. With her was Lily, Alice and Frank.

"That you are just going to have to wait for," Peter told her.

"Shhh Wormtail!" Sirius shushed him.

"Seriously? Everybody knows you're going to do something it's like they are all waiting for it!" Marlene complained.

That was true, looking around the Great Hall there were people glancing across at the group, even the professors.

"Well, fine," Sirius grumbled, "but we have to make sure everyone is here."

They waited about 10 minutes more. James was as nervous as anything to make

sure they pulled it off properly. "Okay, now," he mumbled under his breath.

Marlene hearing this smiled in anticipation and nudged the others to start paying attention. Under the table, the marauders pulled out their wands and started mumbling incantations.

The food on the plates along the four tables began to move. Jelly started wobbling, while different sweets and foods started joining together. Many of the first years were in shock as they watch the food move in the dishes. "What on earth is going on?" a tiny blonde first year on the Hufflepuff table said. The older kids were giving the Marauder's strange looks, knowing it was them who made it happen.

The food started transfiguring into the shapes of many different animals. Miniature otters, dogs, horses, lions and birds covered all the tables.

"Ew gross!" someone from the Slytherin table screamed. The majority of the Slytherin table was covered in maggots. They were crawling all over the place, moving close to people and falling onto their laps. There were however some animals on the table, but not many. The most notable animals were perhaps a duck, labrador dog and a doe.

Lily was absolutely mesmerized by the tiny animals covering the tables. Looking, she noticed that nearly every single animal was different. She laughed at them all running around, and people actually start playing with them. Even on the professor's table, Lily noticed Dumbledore paying close to a phoenix that remained near him and that professor McGonagall had a tabby cat prowling around her hand.

Feeling a nudge on her hand, which was resting on the table, she looked down. Nudging her hand was a beautiful doe. "Awww look at it!" she cooed, "its adorable! Hey Mar, Al, check this out!" The doe kept skipping around Lily's hand playing with it.

"This is amazing!" Marlene said excitedly, "Oh that doe is adorable Lils, but look at this unicorn!"

In front of Marlene was a stunning unicorn. Looking around the group, Lily saw each of her friends were fascinated by the animals in front of them. Alice was holding a fox, Frank was teasing a hound, Sirius was patting a black dog, James was watching a majestic stag in front of him, Remus had a werewolf wandering back and forth in front of him and crawling slowly in front of Peter was a maggot, similar to those on the Slytherin table.

Still playing with the doe in front of her she watched as it moved away from her towards the stag in front of James. Moving with a grace, Lily watched as the doe glided itself next to the stag. The stag lifted its head up high and moved it across the top of the doe's head in an affectionate manner.

"Looks like our little friends like each other," James said.

Looking up at him, Lily saw his hazel eyes looking across at her, bright with the smile on his face. She gave him a smiled back, "yeah."

After about 10 minutes, the animals began to move away from people and back onto the plates where they returned to their original state.

"WOAH THAT WAS FREAKING AMAZING!" Marlene couldn't help but not say, "Easily the best thing by far."
"Glad you enjoyed it," Peter replied smiling.

"Yeah," James agreed though he seemed a bit puzzled. Turning to Sirius and Remus he mumbled under his breath, "Uh guys? We planned on that, but did it seem a bit different this time, or was that just me?"
"Yeah I see what you mean Prongs. Moony? What do you think?"
Remus sat there thoughtfully, "I'm honestly not sure. I mean it turned out well, but maybe with all the people it changed? Let's just leave it. It's exactly what we wanted."

Professor Dumbledore watched as the animals that crawled over all the tables transfigured back into the food. He smiled as he saw all the looks of amazement, particularly on the younger students faces. Whispers filled the room as many of the students complimented the magic. Looking at a group of certain boys on the Gryffindor table, he filled with pride. To know and teach students like the Marauder's gave Dumbledore a great pleasure and it was the reason he remained at Hogwarts. While watching these boys, he saw the confused looks on their faces as they spoke to one another. It had been what they wanted, the idea of the animals on the tables, but he could tell it was not what they were expecting. That something was different this time, and Dumbledore knew exactly what it was…

So here are the first four chapters, which I decided to put up at the same time :) Thoughts?

Black-Lightningrunes-13 xx