I was running through the castle with my hair, untidy, waving behind me like a fire. I was late. As of I was 30 minutes late to my very first class of the third week into term. It was with Professor McGonnagal. I was so screwed.

"I see you're 30 minutes late. Detention with me, after school." Was the greeting she gave me when I entered the classroom entirely out of breath. "I thought you'd be responsible this year seeing as you've been promoted to Head Girl." She continued. I stared at her. No way was she giving me that speech. She adored me! Or she had all years previously. Perhaps being late to my Prefect meeting and her class wasn't giving her a good first impression of me as a Head Girl.

Why are you late? James passed me a note.
Why do you care? I wrote back. I didn't get an answer to that thankfully. Because the truth was that none of the alarm-clocks in my dorm had gone off. Which was weird that five alarm-clocks just randomly decided to malfunction on the same night. We'd all smelled a prank in the air. Naturally I'd suspect James. However, because he's a guy he can't get up the stairs to the girls' tower. So our theory was trashed before tested and now we had no clue what had happened.

After my first class I ran back to my dorm to straighten out my hair. It was so tangled I couldn't even put it into a braid so I left it loose all day. Which earned me a lot of admiring looks from the opposite sex.

"You should leave your hair loose all the time Lilly, period." Marlene stated during lunch, when she'd noticed all the boys eating me alive with their eyes, as she descried it.
"If it's going to be like this I'd rather dye it black or just shave it all off." I confessed.
"No really, even your crush from last year, Amos Diggory, is looking at you with new eyes. I mean they all knew you were an amazing person and all that, just not exactly how beautiful you really can be. Not that you even tried ..." Marlene finished after scrutinizing my hair. She picked out her wand and did a spell that tidied it out. I could hear the boys gasp. Seriously? Is this a joke?

I looked down onto my plate as I thought and then I heard a voice I knew all too well.
"Why did you leave your hair out? It's too pretty for everyone to see!" Severus said with his nasal voice.
"It's not your hair, it's mine. The hair was never yours and it never will be. I never belonged to you, nor will I ever. We're not even friends anymore Severus so get out of here before I do something to your existence that I'll enjoy now and regret later when I'm in detention for it." I hissed back at him. I was glad no professor was present and that everyone else seemed to be busy with their own things, at last, to notice my little fight with Severus.

Marlene giggled next to me. I could always count on her to make situations more awkward than they already were. Snape shot her a nasty look and stalked off with his cloak flying behind him, making him look like a bat.

When I went back to Professor McGonnagal's office for my detention she wasn't done with her classes yet. So she made my detention to teach the students in her class about the history of transfiguration. It was a class filled with first-graders, which made it so much easier. At the parts where there were specific examples present I preformed the spells to "ooh" and "ahh" from the class. It was, by far, the best detention I'd ever had. McGonnagal was very pleased with me so she let me go after that.

Marlene looked at me with a devious glint in her blue eyes when I entered the Gryffindor common room.
"What have you done?" I asked cautiously.
"Not 'what have I done' it's 'what are you about to do'?" She answered with a smile that was widening as time progressed.
"So tell me then!" I exclaimed after several seconds of silence.
"I overheard Sirius Black bragging about his fantastic prank during dinner. A prank involving us and our alarm-clocks. I figure it's payback time. Let's do that exact thing to them, and something additional." She stated.
"Well, no matter how they got in to our dorm or did that prank, we have to give back. Screw the rules; I've already been in a lot of trouble today. What could some more hurt?" I was smiling right back at her now. This could turn out great.

We were plotting all evening, actually we were plotting for ten minutes then laughing at the imaginary images of the panicked boys in the morning when they discovered how late they were.

The pranks we decided on had been inspired from my outburst during lunch about dyeing my hair. We were going to turn Peter's hair pink, James' hair be as not to make Professor McGonnagal suspect anything, Lupin's orange and let Sirius go, momentarily, bald. Not to talk about the fact that we'd transform their door into a wall and make them be late for class. The fight was on.

When Marlene and I were sure the boys were sleeping we put an invisibility spell on us and one that made us completely silent for one hour. Then we snuck into the Marauders' dorm. First we attacked their alarm-clocks. Then we took their hair, and last, we made sure to disguise the door entirely to a wall, spun their room around so that the door wouldn't be where they'd expect it to be. Then we tip-toed back to our dorm, giggling silently and crashed onto our beds. The morning to follow would be 100% hilarious.

Indeed we were right. It was our third week at Hogwarts, two and a half pranks had already been conducted by Gryffindors. It was a glorious start. The Marauders were late for their first class. And they came in running, because, let's face it, not even they will miss a class. The entire room went quiet at their arrival. Then Marlene and I burst out laughing and soon the entire room joined in. Including professor McGonnagal, giggling slightly.

"I swear I didn't do it!" I heard James exclaim as Sirius, Lupin and Peter yelled at him for being the culprit behind it all. Marlene and I laughed even harder. Our prank was brilliant. They didn't know it was us who did it, nor would they ever figure it out.

As the day progressed Sirius got more and more worried about his hair never growing back and it was thoroughly hilarious to watch. James was just confused. His whole face seemed to scream "what is going on?!"

James walked up to me where I was sitting and reading by the fireplace in the common room.
"I know you did it. Why?" He demanded.
"What?" I asked, feigning innocence.
"Come on. The whole room smelled like vanilla when I woke up. You're the only one I know who uses perfume that smells like vanilla Lilly. So why did you do it?" He looked at me with his hazel eye. There was a glint of something hidden in there that I couldn't figure out.
"Well, you guys screwed my entire dorm up yesterday, so we thought that some payback would be accurate. Besides, for the first time ever the Marauders has been given a taste of their own medicine. I think it was fair." I said back. I was only slightly disappointed that he'd figured it out but it didn't matter too much, the prank had still been carried out.
"SIRIUS YOU OWE ME 30 GALLEONS. I TOLD YOU SHE'D GET BACK ON US!" James yelled up the stairs. A vulgar cuss-word could be heard from the top of the boys' stairs. "Anyway, glad to see you're pranking now. Even if it took you a while." James said with a wink.
"I'm not entirely sure it's a good thing but, then again, it's only harmless pranking, no one got hurt. Except maybe Sirius' pride." I smiled towards James. I could actually understand why he'd been pranking throughout his years at Hogwarts. It was fun.
"Well, they kept blaming me for this until they realized I was Head Boy so being mean to me would result in severe unpleasantness. Then they started looking for another culprit and Peter was the one who smelled the vanilla in our room. Then I figured out the rest." James said with a shrug.

To be honest I was surprised when he left me on the couch around an hour later. We'd talked about all things, ranging from classes, to pranks to the war going on outside the walls. However, not once had he asked me out. I was thrown back a little. It was a pleasant surprise. I went to bed that night with a smile on my face. If even James Potter can change enough to become Head Boy and stop asking me out every time we have a conversation then we can probably become friends. Which, at the current time, with the war and everything, I wouldn't turn down.